THE QUEEN AND THE QUAKERS; OR, A VOICE FROM EXETER For the Altar, the Throne, and the Constitution of Great Britain, WITH SCRIPTURE PROOF, FROM GENESIS TO THE REVELATIONS OF ST. JOHN ; SHOWING THAT THE UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE Is of Divine Origin and Appointment, and of Perpetual Obligation, AND THAT THE NATIONAL ESTABLISHMENT AND SUPPORT OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH BY SAMUEL CAREY RICHARDS. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO THE LORD BISHOP OF EXETER, AND TO THE MAYOR OF EXETER. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, LETTERS IN DEFENCE OF CHURCH-RATES. LONDON: WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, 342, STRAND; AND HANNAFORD, EXETER. MDCCCXLI. 627. "SEMPER FIDELIS." TO THE RIGHT REV. FATHER IN GOD, HENRY, LORD BISHOP OF EXETER, HEAD AND REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CHURCH IN THIS DIOCESE; AND TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL JOHN CAREW, Esq. MAYOR OF EXETER, CHIEF LIEUTENANT OF THE QUEEN, AND REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STATE IN THIS ANCIENT AND LOYAL CITY; THIS WORK IS, BY PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTION. IN accordance with the wishes of those whose opinion I cannot but value, and in the hope that it may tend to do the State some service, I have been induced to publish "The Queen and the Quakers." The work is the result of much labour and thought, anxiously pursued at various times, as opportunity would permit, and under many disadvantages, with the view of determining, as far as possible, the real merits, upon scriptural evidence, of the much disputed question of Church and State, or national religious establishments; and I present it to the consideration of all denominations of my fellowcountrymen, under the firm conviction that the incorporation of ecclesiastical with civil institutions, in Christian countries, is in strict accordance with the revelation of the divine will, as declared in the sacred canon of holy Scripture, and from a persuasion that the maintenance of the Protestant Established Church of these realms, as an essential part of the British Constitution, is the only sure guarantee for the safety of the monarchy, and the preservation of |