Transcribed from the William Edward Painter edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Cover of pamphlet] THE CHURCH RATE A DIALOGUE * * * * * BETWEEN A CHURCHMAN AND A DISSENTER. * * * * * [_Reprinted from_ “_The Village Churchman_.”] * * * * * “SUBMIT YOURSELVES TO EVERY ORDINANCE OF MAN FOR THE LORD’S SAKE.”—1 _Pet._ ii. 13. * * * * * LONDON: WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, 342, STRAND; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS. * * * * * _Price One Penny_, _or Seven Shillings per Hundred_. PREFACE. 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. THE CHURCH RATE. _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. Mr. C.—I respect conscientious scruples; but if Dissent signifies Religion with _you_, it does not with _me_. Mr. S.—What! Do you mean to say that Dissenters have no religion? Mr. C.—No. But I say, that what Dissenters have of late years gained by their noisy and political strife, they have more than lost in real piety, and in the esteem of the wise and good. Mr. S.—But how many great and good men have been Dissenters?