Mr. S.—There may appear to be some difficulty in reconciling the practice of receiving money from the State with the theory of the Voluntary principle.
Mr. C.—Do you not see, then, that if Dissenters can receive from the State two thousand pounds a year, [9] they might just as consistently receive two millions; and do you not believe, too, that they would, if they could get them?—Like the Voluntary principle, I begin to think that the Church-rate is a subject upon which you have been sadly misled.
Mr. S.—I had always been led to consider the payment of Church-rates as affecting my religious opinions; whereas, I now see that it is not so; and as for the Voluntary principle, really it seems to be, like our independence of the State, all a farce.
Mr. C.—That is my opinion. Besides your dependence upon the State, for money, protection, and liberty of conscience, your Independent Ministers are dependent on their congregations; and it is well known that they prefer a certainty to an uncertainty, and never refuse, from conscientious scruples, a good legacy, or any other sort of endowment which they can get. Indeed, when it is convenient. Dissenting Ministers can plead the uncertainty of the Voluntary principle, with all the eloquence which experience teaches.
Mr. S.—I have long suspected that you had but little respect for Dissent, and now I find that you have none at all.
Mr. C.—I think I have pretty clearly shown that none is due to it. If, however, any proof be required, look at Dissenters walking arm in arm with Papists to the political meeting, or the parish vestry. Look at Protestant Dissenters hugging Popery, that old Demon of idolatry, superstition, and wickedness—that monster of tyranny and oppression, which their forefathers utterly abhorred.
Mr. S.—I was for years a soldier in Spain, where Popery only tolerates her own idolatrous worship, not merely of images, wafers, and saints, but also those precious relics of superstition, old bones and rotten rags! and as I know what Popery is where she CAN exercise her tyranny, and that all her professions of liberalism are nothing but “lies spoken in hypocrisy,” I must acknowledge that by joining such a companion Dissent degrades herself in the respect and the esteem of all good men.
Mr. C.—Then I have a question to ask you. If, when you were beating up for recruits, the Papists had joined in your opposition to a Protestant Church, pray how did you mean to act with your new allies?
Mr. S.—I meant that they should march behind.
Mr. C.—But suppose they would march before, you could find but one way of getting out of your difficulty, and that is, by walking arm in arm together.