sent have each, as establishments, been tried, and "found wanting," in our country-and that the inevitable consequences of madly separating the Protestant Church Establishment from the State would be the re-ascendancy of Popery, or the total destruction of the monarchy. Of this there is moral certainty; for the monarchy never did exist, it never could long exist, in this country without an Established Church; and Dissent is far too divided to amalgamate with the sovereignty, or to stand against Rome. Those who seek to destroy the Protestant Church Esta-blishment are therefore seeking to dethrone Queen Victoria and her Protestant line; they are seeking to destroy the Protestant monarchy and constitution of England, as settled in 1688, on "the principles which seated the House of Brunswick on the throne." They are seeking either to re-establish Popery and a Popish sovereign, or to effect a democratic revolution, which would lead to anarchy and a republic. At any rate, such would be the result of the carrying out of their principles and objects. I would charge the Quakers, then, and all other anti-church-rate Dissenters, to ponder on these things, considered even on the low ground of human policy, or their own self-interest; and, as there must be a Church Establishment or no monarchy, if they desire to preserve toleration and religious liberty, to let that

Establishment, by all means, remain in its present hands." But I press upon all objectors the higher and more awful considerations I have maintained; and I do hope that no Quaker or Dissenter, who may happen to read this work, will again appeal to holy Scripture as forbidding the union of Church and State-as affirming that Christian sovereigns, civil rulers, or magistrates, have nothing to do with religion-as declaring against the national establishment and support of the Gospel worship and service of Almighty God--or as encouraging agitation against,

or resistance to, the payment of the endowments and dues belonging to the churches and clergy by law established in these realms. I urge upon all those who hold the principles against which I contend, the duty of examining well, and re-examining, their opinions, and of testing them by those standards of Christian loyalty and "attachment to the Queen's Government" which are found in the word of divine inspiration-"Fear God: honour the king." "Render, therefore, to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour." "Ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake." "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are His."

Having, then-as I humbly submit that I havethe spirit and the letter of the holy Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelations, in my favour; having the eternal principle of truth, justice, and equity, with the right of property and the laws of England, with me; having Moses and the prophets, our SAVIOUR and his apostles, as attesting witnesses to the validity of the propositions I have undertaken to substantiate, I close my labours, and abide the issue-with the most entire confidence, and in the humble hope that my efforts to maintain our glorious Constitution, in Church and State, may tend to advance the wellbeing of my country, and to hand down to the latest generation the blessings which emanate from "the Protestant religion and liberties of England."

LETTERS

IN

DEFENCE OF CHURCH-RATE,

IN

REPLY TO THE SPEECHES

OF THE

LEADERS OF THE ANTI-CHURCH-RATE MOVEMENT,

DELIVERED

AT A PUBLIC MEETING, HELD AT THE GUILDHALL, EXETER, ON THE 6TH OF APRIL, 1837:

TOGETHER WITH

Extracts from the Charge of the Venerable Archdeacon Moore Stevens; the valuable Correspondence of the Rev. E. C. Harington, Incumbent of St. David's, Exeter, with the Rev. H. Acton, Unitarian Minister, in reference to the Introduction of Christianity into Britain, and the existence of Church Property before the time of St. Austin.-Also Answers to the AttorneyGeneral's Anti-Church-Rate Pamphlet; and to the Misstatement of Objectors-" If church-rate is property, then it belongs to the Church of Rome, and not to the Church of England," &c. &c.

TO THE READER.

A DESIRE having been expressed, by many clergymen and lay members of the Church of England, at the time the following articles appeared in Woolmer's Exeter Gazette, that they should be republished in a separate form, I have been induced to add them to this volume, in the hope that they may be found useful.

As to proposed alterations in the law of churchrate, I may state that, after the most deliberate consideration, I feel satisfied that no change can be safely made in the general principle of this sacred provision for keeping up the fabrics of our parochial churches, and providing all things necessary for a decent celebration of divine worship. The rate is the undoubted inheritance of the Established Church, or national religion, set apart not for any particular period or age, but for all posterity; and the three estates of the realm-Queen, Lords, and Commons

are solemnly bound to protect the National Altar in the collection of this PROPERTY-RIGHT. To destroy this rate, as a property-right, or a COMMON LAW OBLIGATION, by taking the management of the parochial churches out of the hands of the ratepayers and their local officers, the churchwardens, in order to place the churches under the management of a central board, or commission, sitting in London, who would depend for their supplies upon an annual grant from the House of Commons-which may be voted or withheld, as circumstances might occurwould be a most unjustifiable and sacrilegious destruction of the rights of the Church, and the privi