Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A57285
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A dialogue betwixt Jack and Will, concerning the Lord Mayor's going to meeting-houses with the sword carried before him, &c.
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Ridpath, George, d. 1726.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing R1461; ESTC R5776
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6,767
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16
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A DIALOGUE BETWIXT Iack and VVill Concerning the Lord Mayor's Going to Meeting-Houses WITH THE SWORD Carried before Him c. LONDON Printed in the Year 1697. A DIALOGUE BETWIXT Iack and Will Concerning The Lord Mayor's going to Meeting-houses with the Sword before him c. Iack. HOW d' ye Friend Will have you heard the News Will. What News d' ye mean Iack We have little cause to fear ill News now we have Peace Iack. No I 'm sure I have a piece of ill News to tell you Did not you hear that my Lord Mayor went to Salters-Hall on Sunday last with the Sword carried before him Will. To Salters-Hall what to do to a Play or a Ball there Iack. Pox on ye for a nump-skull'd Fellow to a Play or a Ball on Sundays Will. Why all this Fury Iack I 'm sure I have read a Play that was acted at Whitehall on a Sunday in the Blessed Martyr's time present King Queen Prince and God knows how many Stars and Garters but indeed I don't know whether the Sword was carried thither in State or no. Iack. Come come Will you love to play the Rogue you know the Lord Mayor went thither on no such Account Will. Why so how sho'd I know d' ye think I am a Conjurer What did he go thither for then was it to hear Archbishop Laud's Book of Sports I hear my Lord Mayor is a brisk Man perhaps he loves Sport and Pastime and is a good Gamester for you know we use to say of such that they play a Sundays Iack. Plague on ye leave off your Banter I tell you he went thither to a Conventicle Will. Pish what is that your ill News I was afraid you 'd have told me that he had gone to treat the Pope's Nuncio at Dinner at Guildhall or that you had had some such frightful Story to tell me as that the Town was on fire again and we should have been forc'd to be at the Expence of a new Monument which would have ruin'd the Orphans to all Intents and Purposes Iack. Well well Friend Will tho the Town be not a fire I am sure the Church is Will. Nay then Friend Iack my Lord Mayor did very well to carry the wooden Sword away from it for that would have added Fewel to the Flames Iack. Prethee leave off thy fooling and let 's discourse the Point in good earnest thou always pretendedst to be a true Church-of England-man and don 't ye think that the Lord Mayor's going to a Conventicle with the Sword is an Injury to the Church of England Will. Why truly Iack whether thou believest it or not I am as much for the Church of England as any Man alive and for my part I think that my Lord Mayor's going to Meetings with the Sword is a very noble Act for it seems to me that by carrying the Sword thither he designs to make a Conquest of 'em for the Church of England Iack. Well I see you love to banter but you know that by going thither with the Sword he makes a Surrender of the Church of England's Authority to a pitiful little Conventicle Will. Why prethee Man if the Sword be all no matter if it had been burnt a dozen Years ago Thou knowest very well that in the late Blessed Reigns it was the peculiar Doctrine of the Pulpits that the Church had no other Weapons but Prayers and Tears and why dost make all this pother about a wooden Sword Sure thou art not afraid it will produce as strange Effects as the old rusty Sword in Westminster Abbey with which they say the Norman Duke conquer'd England Iack. Thou talkst like a mad Man it 's not the very individual Sword that I mean but it 's the Badg and Ensign of Authority that is carried away from the Church to a nasty lowzy Conventicle a Pox on 'em damn 'em I hope to see 'em fast in the Pinfold yet once more before I die and then we 'll make 'em pay for their Insolence and Contempt of the Church Will. Prethee don't rage so thou hast been so out of Humour ever since Lewis XIV was necessitated to resign his new Conquests and abjure King Iames that thou art fitter for Bedlam than any Place else Come I tell thee that my Lord Mayor's carrying the Sword thither neither adds to the Authority of the Meetings nor derogates from the Authority of the Church of England but rather enlarges her Pale But after all the doâ— and stirâ— you make about the Church I believe I may say to you as the little Boy said to his Mother Mother what need you talk so much of the Church you don't go so often to it Iack. That 's nothing to you Will do you make out your Assertion and then I 'll say something to thee Will. Have but Patience and I will Thou knowest that the Dissenters are allowed their Meetings by Act of Parliament which I hope is another kind of Authority than my Lord Mayor's Sword and most honest Men think it but reasonable they should have that Liberty notwithstanding the threatning Words of the D n of C. that if King William did not take away the damn'd Act of Toleration they 'd send him back again to the Bogs of Holland Iack. Prethee let your Stories alone and come to the matter I own that an Act of Parliament is a better Authority than my Lord Mayor's Sword Will. Thou knowest also that that Liberty is allow'd them on condition that they subscribe to the Doctrine of the Church of England Iack. I do Will. Why then it 's certain that my Lord Mayor could not go thither with nor without his Sword if the Dissenters did not qualify themselves according to the Terms of the Act. Iack. No he could not Will. Is it not plain then that if my Lord Mayor's Sword signify any thing it comes to defend the Doctrine of the Church of England at the Meeting as well as in the Church And is not his Presence there with the Ensigns of Authority an Evidence that the Doctrine of our Church is preach'd there whereas in former times the Meetings were look'd upon to be quite another thing than the Church of England So that I think it is plain to any Man's Understanding that his being there is only a Declaration that the Pale of the Church is enlarg'd and that we now own them for Brethren that by the heat of some ill Men were formerly accounted our Enemies Iack. Nay but you mistake the Matter The Meetings have only a Liberty but ours is the Church establish'd by Law their Meetings must not be accounted the Church because they have neither Bishops nor Ceremonies nor Benefices Will. Prethee Iack don't talk such Nonsense The Meetings are as much establish'd by Law as the Church of England if an Act of Parliament be a Law and you know that it 's only the Acts of Parliament that defend you in the practice of those things wherein you differ from