Dialogues, English -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- History -- Charles II, 1660-1685 -- Pamphlets
_Citt._ They are your _Will-worship-men_, your _Prelates Brats_: Take
the whole Litter of 'um, and you'l finde _never a barrel better
Herring_. Let me tell thee in Love _Bumpkin, these Curs_ are forty times
worse to _Us_ then the _Jesuits themselves_; for the _One_ is an _Open
Enemy_, the _Other_ lies gnawing like a Canker in our _Bowells_. And
then being train'd up to _Latin_ and _Greek_, there's no opposing of the
_Power of Godlinesse_ to the _Sophistry_ of _Human Reason_: Beside that,
the _Law_ is _For_ us in the _One_ Case, and _Against_ us in the
_Other_.
Bum. _Which way shall we go to work then, to deal with this Generation
of Men?_
_Citt._ We must joyn the _Wisdom_ of the _Serpent_, to the _Innocence_
of the _Dove_; and endeavour to compass that by _stratagem_, which we
cannot gain by _Argument_. But now am I going to open a _Mistery_ to
thee, that's _worth_----
Bum. _Prethee the_ Worth _on't_ Citt: _For talk is but talk, the_ Worth
_is the_ Main point.
_Citt._ Why then let me tell thee _Bumpkin_, the _Mistery_ that I am
about to disclose to thee, was _worth_ to our Predecessours not long
since, no less then _Three Kingdoms_, and _a better penny_. But I'le
seal your Lips up, before I stir one step further.
Bum. _Why look ye_ Citt, may this Drink never go thorough me, if ever
blab one Syllable of any thing thou tell'st me as a Secret.
_Citt._ Hold, hold, _Bumkin_, and _may it never come up again if thou
do'st_; for we'l have no shifting.
Bum. And may it never come up again neither if I do.
The strange agreement of Dissenters.
_Citt._ Well, I'm satisfy'd, and now give attention; thou seest how
unanimously fierce all the several Parties of the _Protestant
Dissenters_ are against the _Papists_. Whence comes this _Conjunction_,
I prethee, of so many _separate Congregations_, that are many of them
worse then _Papists, One_ to _Another_? There must be in it, either
_Conscience_, or _Interest_: If it were _Conscience_, we should fall
foul _One_ upon _Another_, and for matter of _Interest_; when the
_Papists_ are _destroy'd_, we are but still where we were.
Bum. _This is a crotchet_, Citt, _that did not fall under my Night-Cap._
The scope of that Agreement.
_Citt._ Be enlighten'd then. It is not the Destruction of those that are
_Really Papists_, that will do our Work; for there's nothing to be got
by't. But it must be our business to make _those people_ pass for
_Papists_, that are _not_ so, but only have _Places_ to Lose: such as we
our selves, by the removal of them, may be the better for; and _This,
Bumpkin_ must be _our Master-piece_.
Bum. _I had this very phansy my self_, Citt; _but it stuck betwixt my
Teeth, and would not out._
_Citt._ You hear now in General, what is to be done; You must be next
instructed in the Acts of _Raising_, _Cherishing_, and _Fomenting_ such
_Opinions_; in what Cases to _Improve_ them, and where to _apply_ them.
Who are Popishly affected in the first place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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