1800. 
various denominations of its profeffors ; 
for his language amounts to this, that the 
reafon why there are fo many feStaries (as 
he is pleafsd to call them) or denomina- 
tions different from that eftablifhed by 
law, is becaufe they are deprived of a fit- 
ting in the church, on account of the num- 
ber of the inhabitants being more than 
the places can contain; which certainly is 
a prefumption againft truth itfelf, and a 
reflection upon the moft refpectable cha- 
racte's of our country. 
It is a prefumption againft truth, for 
where is that place where every eftatithed 
church is fo filled, to the exclufion of many 
of its inhabitants? Many, it is true, at- 
tend at the churches of Plymouth and 
Dock; but are they all filled? are all of 
them fo well attended as to leave no room 
for them who call themfelves difflenters ? 
If the affertion were well founded, that 
the churches in fome places cannot hold 
the inhabitants, A. A. would then have 
to prove that the exiftence of different de- 
nominations is the natural confequence ; 
and in doing which, I think, he would 
meet with an infuperable difficulty ; for 
how many towns and cities are there where 
the eftablifhed churches are more than fuf- 
ficient to contain their inhabitants? And 
yet in fuch cities and towns diffenters are 
very numerous; therefore there muft be 
fome reafons more fubftantial, than what 
he has mentioned to induce fuch a number 
of people to withdraw their attendance 
from the church of England; and induce 
them to alter the form of its worfhip 
agreeably to their own views and inclina- 
tions; orelfe inevery place where churches 
are numerous, and fuficient to contain its 
inhabitants, there would not be one dif- 
fenter ; and in places where the contrary 
happens, thofe who could not procure 
fittings at the church, would, with the 
fame money as is expended in building 
meeting-houfes, erect churches or chapels, 
to be confecrated by the bifhop after the 
order of that eftablifhment, to which he 
fuppofes they have no particular objec- 
tion, 
Not only is A. A.’s fentiment a pre- 
fumption againft truth, but a reflection 
upon men of integrity and refpeétability 
of charaéter. If what he has mentioned 
be the only reafon for differing from the 
church of England, how inconfiftenc mutt 
difflenters be, in omitting the liturgy, 
which is her ditlinguifhing characteriftic ; 
and in writing and preaching againft the 
principles upon which eltablifhments are 
founded? Will he for a moment be fo il- 
liberal as to entertain fuch an opinion of 
MaonTHLY Mac, No, 62, 
Account of Plymouth, 
17 
the many felpetbahle diffenters at Ply- 
mouth, &c.? Is there no other reafon to 
make them diffenters than the eftablithed 
churches there being well attended? To 
fuppofe fuch a thing is at once fuppofing 
them to be men of no principle, and to be 
actuated (in differing fo widely from what 
he fuppofes they can freely fubfcribe) by 
a reafon unworthy any man who thinks 
and aétsin a rational manner.’ I with 
A. A. toconfider that part of his en- 
tertaining fketch over again, and fee to 
what a length of illiberality fuch an opi- 
nion would lead him. Were it not tor 
enlarging my piece to a length inadmifi- 
ble in your Magaz ne, I would endeavour 
to convince him that diffenters differ from 
the eftablifhment from principles of the 
greateft rationality, and not in any in- 
ftance becaufe the churches of any place 
are fo well filled as not to afford room for 
the inhabitants who choofe to attend: but 
I mutt confine my(elf to the mere ftatement 
of two or three principal reafons which 
induce them to diffent from an eftablifh- 
ment. 
I. They conceive that the civil magif- 
trate has no right to interfere in matters 
of religion: becaufe the kingdom of 
Chrilt is not of this world, and becaufe he 
himfelf has enjoined on us to learn of him, 
and to call no man matter on earth, as one 
is our matter, even Chrift ; therefore they 
judge that to acknowledge any man as 
head of the church, is to depart from di- 
vine appointment, and derogatory to/ the 
honour of the Son of God. 
If. ‘They confider every man to have 
an undoubted right to think and act for 
himfelf, and not to fuffer any rel gious 
principles, or modes of worfhip, to be im-. 
pofed upon him; that each congregation 
has a right to choofe its own minifter, 
and to ufe what mode of worfhip it thinks 
fit; and that the minifter ought to be fup- 
poried by the voluntary contributions of 
thofe who choofe him. 
Ill. They might obje& to the multi- 
plicity of officers in the efiablifhed church, 
and the conftant mode of worfhip that is 
ufed. Diffenters confider archbifhops, 
bifhops, deans, &c. to be without a Scrip- 
ture precedent, as they read of no o'her 
officers in the primitive church but bifhops 
or paftors, and deacons to manage the 
temporal affairs of their own particular 
churches, and to attend to the poor of the 
flock. They might object alfo to the Li- 
turgy, as containing much tautology, as 
being in parts unconneéted, and by its 
perpetual ufe not calculated to keep 
up the attention of the audience. They 
D might 
