FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE, OF The Churchman and Dissenter, OF THE PROMOTERS OF STATE GRANTS &c. AND THEIR OPPONENTS. WITH AN ATTEMPT TO ANSWER THEM, CHIEFLY IN THE LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE. LONDON: WARD AND CO., 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. M DCCC XLVII. PREFACE. No one conversant with the religious public, and who, at the same time, feels interested in the cause of God and truth, can doubt the importance of the questions proposed in the title-page of this work; nor can such a one deny that Dissenters are not in the way of having their voice heard either in or out of Parliament in the present day, there not being one of them in the Ministry, or in the House of Lords, and but very few in the House of Commons. Let it not excite surprise, then, that one of this unfavoured class should moot the questions above referred to, and should answer them on his own part, and according to his own conviction. Nor can the Romanist, or the Anglican, object to the mode of putting the question; for both the Churchman and the Dissenter consider Christ as the founder of our religion, and both consider it their duty to avoid a departure from "the faith once delivered to the saints." Thus at liberty, we proceed on the part of the Dissenters, first-to state the ORIGINATION of Dissent, in order that we might no longer be charged with faction or schism in dissenting, seeing it was by a sort of moral compulsion that we thus dissented; and then, secondly-to state our MOTIVES for such conduct, which will be found-in fidelity to Christ, our "one Master and Lord"-in loyalty to God, as the "Great King," and "The Most High over all the earth "-in adherence to primitive purity—and in a reference to the first and original import of the words used in the controversy, as well as to the primary state of things in "the Church of the Living God." Can a fairer method of coming at the truth be devised? If so, let it be suggested. Upon this ground, then, we stand ready to maintain our footing, as the real friends of the cause of God and truth; and let the Great Head of the Church, who is Himself "the Truth," and has "the Spirit of Truth" in his gift, decide the interesting questions! To these three questions we have appended another, as a leading one of the day, in reference to the connexion of the Church with the State, making our appeal to the Scripture, as the only "judge to end the strife." May that earnest desire to make God's "testimonies" his "counsellors" which possesses the breast of the writer, possess, also, the breast of the reader. CONTENTS. QUESTION I. Who may best lay claim to Fidelity to Christ the "Master and Who most adheres to Primitive Purity, as to the meaning of the words "Parish"- "Diocese". "Church". "Holy Catholic |