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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	part_n	see_v	2,658	5	3.2246	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31526	A certain way to prevent popery in England and effectually suppress all Jesuits & popish priests without giving them the vain-glory of pretending to be martyrs : publisht on occasion of some reprieves lately granted to condemned Romish priests : humbly offered to the consideration of the approaching Parliament at Oxford.	Person of quality.	1681 (1681)	Wing C1763; ESTC R36297	19,464	16

that these Libellers may be disswaded from spitting out their Venome maliciously against us when they shall see their Priests mewed up without further process of Law for either they will attribute this calm dealing to the Justice of their Cause the strength of their Party or Patience or that tract of time hath discovered our Laws importing over-much sharpness in good Policy to be thought fitter for abrogation by non-usance than repealed by a publick decree 11. Moreover it is fore-thought by some that if these Seminaries be onely restrained that they may prove hereafter like a Snake kept in the bosome such as Bonner Gardiner and others of the same Livery shewed themselves to be after Liberty obtained in Queen Mary's days and if the loss of their Ghostly Fathers agrieve them it is probable that they will take Arms sooner and with more courage to free the Living than to set up a Trophy to the Dead 12. Howsoever the Jesuits Band is known in their Native Soyl to be defective in many respects which makes them Underlings to the Protestants as in Authority Arms and the protection of the Laws which is all in all Nevertheless they insinuate themselves to Forraign Princes favouring their Party with promises of strange assistance at home if they may be well backed from abroad To which purpose they were wont to divide the Inhabitants of this Realm into four Sects whereof ranking their Troops in the first place as due to the pretended Catholicks they assumed a full fourth part to their property and of that part again they made a Subdivision into two portions namely of those that openly renounced the established Church of England and others whose certain number could not be assigned because they frequented our Service our Sacraments reserving their hearts to their Lord God the Pope The second Party they alot to the Protestants who retain yet as they say some Reliques of their Church The third Rank and largest was left unto the Puritans whom they hate deadly in respect that they will hold no indifferent quarter with Papistry The fourth and last Maniple they assigne to the Politicians Huomini say they Senza Dio Senz Anima Men without fear of God or regard of their Souls who busying themselves onely with matters of State retain no sense of Religion Without doubt if the Authors of this Partition have cast their Account aright we must confess the latter Brood is to be ascribed properly unto them For if the undermining of the Parliament-house the scandalizing of the King in Print who is Gods Anointed and the refusal of natural Obedience be works of those that neither stand in awe of God or Conscience well may the Papists boast that they are assured of the first number and may presume likewise of the lasts friendship when occasion shall be offered For the preventing of which Combination it is a sure way to cut off the Heads that should tye the Knot or at least to brand them with a mark in the Forehead before they be dismissed or after the opinion of others and custome of Sweden to make them unwelcome to the feminine Sex which now with great fervency embraceth them These are for the most part Arguments vented in ordinary discourse by many who suppose a Priest's breath to be contagious in our English Air. Others there are who maintain the second part of the Question with Reasons not unworthy of observance Death is the end of Temporal Woes but it may in no wise be accounted the Grave of memory Therefore howsoever it is in the power of Justice to suppress the person of a man the Opinion for which he suffered conceived truly or untruly in the hearts of a Multitude is not subject to the edge of any Sword how sharp or keen soever I confess that the Teeth are soon blunted that bite onely out of the malice of a singular Faction but where Poyson is diffused through the veins of a Common-wealth with intermixture of Bloud good and bad Separation is to be made rather by Evacuation than by present Incision The greatest biter of a State is Envie joyned with thirst of Revenge which seldom declares it self in plain Colours until a Jealousie conceived of personal dangers breaketh out into desperate Resolutions Here comes it to pass that when one male-contented Member is grieved the rest of the body is sensible thereof neither can a Priest or Jesuit be cut off without a general murmur of their Secretaries which being confident in their number secretly arm for opposition or confirmed with their Martyrs bloud as they are perswaded resolve by patience and sufferance to glorifie their Cause and to merit Heaven Do we not daily see that it is easier to confront a private Enemy than a Society or Corporation and that the hatred of a State is more immortal than the spleen of a Monarchy Therefore except it be demonstrated that the whole Roman City which consists not of one brood but of a succession of persons may be cut off at the first stroak as one entire Head I see no cause to think our State secured by sitting on the skirts of some few Seminaries leaving in the mean time a multitude of Snarlers abroad who already shew their Teeth and onely wait opportunity to bite fiercely I will not deny that whom we fear we commonly hate provided always that no merit hath interceded a Reconciliation for there is great difference between hatred conceived against him that will take away the life and him that may justly do it and yet in Clemency forbears to put it in effect for the latter breedeth reverent awe whereas the former subjecteth to servile fear always accompanied with desire of Innovations And although it hath been affirmed of the Church of Rome Quod Pontificium genus semper crudele nevertheless out of Charity let us hope that all Devils are not so black as they are painted Some or perhaps many of them there are whom Conscience or in default thereof pure shame of the world will constrain to confess That his Majesty most graciously distinguisheth the Theory of Popery from the Active part thereof as being naturally inclined Parvis peccatis veniam magnis severitatem commodare nee poenâ semper sed saepius poenitentiâ contentus esse 2. Mistaking of punishments legally inflicted commonly proceeds from fond pity or the interest which we have in the same Cause both which beget blinde partiality Admit then that the Papal side affecting merit by compassion may be neerly touched with the restraint of their Seminaries that cannot be denied I hope except they had the hearts of Tygers that in humanity they will prefer their ease of durance before the rigor of death And albeit that Parsons Bellarmine and the Pope himself constrain their spiritual Children to thrust their fingers into the fire by refusing the Oath of Allegiance yet we have many Testimonies in Judicial Courts and printed Books that the greater part of them are of that Theban Hunters minde

who would rather have seen his Dogs cruel acts than have felt them to his own cost Garnet himself also in one of his secret Letters lamented that after his death he should not be enroled amongst the Martyrs because that no matter of Religion was objected against him yet it plainly appears in his demeanour that he would gladly have survived the possibility of that glory if any such hope had remained neither is it to be presumed that being in Prison he would ever have conceived that we durst not touch his Reverence or that the Law was remiss which had justly condemned him and left his life to the Kings mercy It was the distance of the place and not persons that interpreted the sending over Seas of the Priests to be a greater Argument of their innocency than of his Majesties forbearance for had Father Parsons himself been Coram nobis his song would rather have been of Mercy than Justice It is truely said that we are all instructed better by Examples than Precepts Therefore if the Laws printed and Indictments recorded cannot controul the Calumnies of those that wilfully will mistake Treason for Religion by the execution of two or three of that backbiting number I doubt not but the Question may readily be decided Namque immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum est ne pars sincera trahatur To dally with pragmatical Papists especially with those that by their Example and Counsel pervert his Majesties Subjects I hold it a point of meer Injustice for what comfort may the good expect when the bad are by connivance freed to speak and emboldened to put their disloyal thoughts in execution For explaining therefore of my meaning it is necessary to have a regard unto the nature of the Kings Liege-people that are to be reformed by example of Justice and other Forraigners who will we nill we must be Censurers of our Actions It hath been truely observed that the Nations of Europe which are most remote from Rome are more superstitiously enclined to the dregs of that place than the near Neighbours of Italy Whether that humour proceed from the complexion of the Northern bodies which is naturally more retentive of old Customs than hotter Regions or that the vices of the City seated on seven Hills are by crafty Ministers of that See concealed from the vulgar sort I list not now to discuss but most certain it is that the people of this Isle exceed the Romans in zeal of their Profession insomuch that in Rome it self I have heard the English Fugitives taxed by the name of Pichiapetti Inglesi Now as our Country-men take surer holdfast of Papal Traditions than others so are they naturally better fortified with a Courage to endure Death for the maintainance of that Cause for this Climate is of that temperature out of which Vegetius holdeth it fittest to chuse a valiant Souldier where the heart finding it self provided of plenty of Bloud to sustain sudden defects is not so soon apprehensive of death or dangers as where the Store-house of Bloud being small every hazard maketh pale cheeks and trembling hands Angli say antient Writers bello intrepidi nec mortis sensu deterrentur And thereunto Botero the Italian beareth witness in his Relations of many Strangers Therefore coming out of Forraign parts among the Rarities of England desired to see whether Report hath not been too lavish in affirming that our condemned persons yield their bodies to Death with cheerfulness And were it not that by dayly experience we can call our selves to witness of this truth I could produce the Reverend Judge Fortescue who in commendation of our English Laws made suitable as he well observeth to the inbred conditions of the Inhabitants of this Soyl avoweth that the English people in tryal for Criminal Causes are not compelled by Tortures to confess as in other Nations it is used for as much as the quality of the English is known to be less fearful of Death than of Torments For which cause if the Torments of the Civil Law were offered to an innocent person in England he would rather yield himself guilty and suffer death than endure the horrour of lingring Pains Insulani plerumque fures saith one and so true it is that this Country is stained with that imputation notwithstanding that many are put to death to the end that others by their fall might learn in time to beware If then it doth appear that Terrour prevails not to keep men from Offences which are condemned by Law and Conscience what assurance can there be to scare those who pretend to be satisfied in their minds that their Sufferings are either expresly or by implication for matter of Religion and health of their Souls In such a case to threaten death to English men Quibus nihil interest humive sublimive putrescant is a matter of small consequence Purpuratis Gallis Italis aut Hispanis ista minitari To a setled resolution of death menaces to prolong a wearisome life prevail much more in such cases Rightly did Clement the Eighth consider that by burning two English men in Rome for supposed Heresie he rather impaired his Cause than bettered it insomuch that many present at the resolute death of Mr. Marsh who was brought to dust in Campo di Santa Fiore spared not to proclaim him for a Martyr carried away of his Ashes for a Relique and wished their Souls in the same place with his which News brought to the Popes ear caused him as it was bruted about in Rome solemnly to protest That none of the English Nation should publickly from that time forward be consumed with Fire On the other side if we read the Volumes written of their Priests Constancy their Martyrologie or Kalendar or Martyrs and Path-way of Salvation as it were chalked out unto the Papists by sacrificing their lives for the Pope we shall finde that by taking away of one we have confirmed and invited many whereof I could give particular instances if I thought any scruple were made in that point As for forraign parts which hold with the Papal Supremacy it is cleer that they will be severe and partial Judges in this cause For albeit that here in England it is well known to all true and loyal Subjects that for matter of Roman Doctrine no mans life is directly called into question but that their disobedience in reason of State is the onely motive of their prosecution nevertheless where a great Canton of Christendom is rooted in a contrary opinion and things in this world are for the most part esteemed by outward appearance this Land cannot escape malicious scandals neither shall there be want of Colledges to supply their Faction with Seminaries Therefore again and again I say That if the state of the Question were so set that it were possible by a general execution of the Priests and their Adherents to end the Controversie I could in some sort with better will subscribe thereunto but seeing I finde little hope