The Church Rate: A Dialogue Between a Churchman and a Dissenter

Transcribed from the William Edward Painter edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
A DIALOGUE
BETWEEN A CHURCHMAN AND A DISSENTER.
“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the lord’s sake.”—1 Pet. ii. 13.
LONDON: WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, 342, STRAND;
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The object of the following Dialogue is to expose, in familiar language, the absurd arguments by which political Dissenters attempt to justify their deeds of hatred against the Established Church, and their union with Papists and Infidels—with every wild boar out of the forest of irreligion and error—in attempting to root up a vine, under the shadow of which they have long reposed in security and peace.
Several persons having expressed their approval of this Tract, the writer has been led to print this second and enlarged edition of it for general circulation, omitting those local allusions which were introduced to make the work more interesting in his own neighbourhood, and which succeeded in rendering its circulation extensive among those for whose information it was first printed.
He trusts that the plain arguments here brought forward, may tend, in some small degree, to remove unfounded and ignorant prejudices against the Established Church, believing it, as he does, to be the bulwark of our national Christianity, and the fortress of our civil and religious liberties.
Mr. Churchman .—Neighbour Spinwell, what in the world are you doing?
Mr. Spinwell .—I am beating up for recruits to attend the Vestry Meeting in defence of Dissenting principles, and conscientious scruples; and to make a stand against Church oppression.