Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35904
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A Dialogue between Tom and Dick over a dish of coffee concerning matters of religion and government.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing D1337; ESTC R27858
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17,023
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35
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Rate to invent Lyes and forge false Reports and in fine to bring all into a Flame and Combustion Dick. Then you dare not Dispute with us Tom. No No he 's affraid you 'l be too hard for him Goodm What is your Argument Dick. First That 't is better to obey God than Man Goodm I say so too 't is literally true and if it were not absurd to name the Scriptures to such as scoff at them I might tell you that God has said it in them Though you would from this draw a false Inference and set up an Infallible Spirit like the Quakers Light within you and that should be accounted the Commands of God which should be dictated by this Spirit though contrary to those he has already laid down in his Written Word for a Rule of our Faith and Life But Sir this I am sure is not your true Belief though it be Citts Argument and you look on it as a two Edg'd Sword that cuts every way for let me tell you that you hold it better and more lawful to obey Man than God or your Earthly God as some of you call him than the heavenly God Don't you hold the Pope Infallible and that he cannot Err and therefore what ever he commands though it be against the very Letter of the Sriptures tho' against the Ten Commandements tho' against the Express Commands of Christ and the Doctrine of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church of Christ for several Centuries immediately following Nay though against Nature Reason and Sense it self you do and are so bound to both Believe and Act And therefore I think you may let Citts Argument alone and hold your own Tom. Why this is shamming he runs from the point To him with another of Citts Arguments Dick. Well what say you to the Sovereign Power being in the people Goodm I say to you I am no Commonwealths-man and I know there was a King and Sovereign power before there was a people Those are not Arguments for either you or me to meddle with We are happy in our Monarch who cannot wrong us But such as you by your Evil Councels and bad Designs may when you try by all evil ways to turn the Soevereignty to Tyranny and the Imperial Crown to a Despotical which will never be For the King loves his People too well to desire it and as long as he has the Love and Hearts of his People which only such as you strive to rob him of he is a most absolute Prince and may command both their Lives and their Fortunes without Force or Compulsion We may cry out O Fortunate English-men if truly sensible of their own Happiness Dick. But is not the King one of the Three Estates Goodm Yes sure he is or else there were not Three Estates but he is as the Head of the Body and if the Hands should not administer Food to the Head I am of the Opinion that the Body would soon become a Skeliton I say again of all the Nations of the World we are the most happy in the Constitution of our Government where the King and his People are so united and incorporated as the Head and Body of a Living Creature that one cannot do Injury to the other without making both suffer and endangering the ruine of the whole And therefore they ill advise to break the Ancient Constitutions Customs Priviledges and known Rights and Liberties of the people and they as wickedly endeavour who would any way go about Sacrilegiously to rob the King of the least Ray of Prerogative which is the Halus or Glory that surrounds the Head of Majesty Tom. Methinks the Gentleman speaks Reason Goodm As on the one side no Laws can be imposed on us but by the Consent of the people in their Representatives and the Nobility and Clergy in theirs So on the other side none can be made that shall prejudice the Sovereignty or infringe the King's Prerogative without his Consent and Sanction which Kings are wise enough not to grant in prejudice to themselves as the People likewise are careful not to frame any to their own Hurt so that we certainly have a most happy Constitution of Government and a better cannot be desired when the King cannot do Injury to his People nor they any ways hurt him without Rebellion on the one side and Tyranny on the other Tom. But is not a Commonwealth a better Government Goodm We are a Commonwealth though not in your Sense and it is my Opinion that no better Government can be found in the Essence or Being than what we have though as to the outward Branches they may be better prun'd perhaps and we se them in every Age rectified by new and wholesome Laws for some like decayed Limbs become obsolete and without Life such are cut off and new spring up in their Places with new Sap and Vigour I judge it much against the Humour and Constitution of this People to become such a Commonwealth as you mean for it will not be possible but that in a little Time he that can get Power will be our Tyrant as we saw by Example in the late Tryal was made thereof And therefore you wicked Emissaries leave off creating these Jealousies and Fears of a Commonwealth for the only way that I know to make one is that which you now take to bring us out of Love with Monarchy so into Rebellion Confusion and Anarchy and to raise up the like Combustion this Land too lately felt which I pray God of his Mercy avert and so I 'le leave you Tom. This is a pestilent Fellow Dick. Ay Ay Let him prate don't you be afraid of his East-Wind of Providence go about your Business and observe my Rules and Maxims Let Good men talk as long as they will Words are but Win̄d but if the Turn comes we two shall be Rich And so Farewel FINIS