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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	find_v	great_a	know_v	2,951	5	3.3432	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

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

the Church contained in good nurture and Ecclesiastical censures will much more prevail to muzzle Popery than any fresh devices whatsoever Neither do I think it blame-worthy to affirm that our Cause hath taken harm by relying more on the Temporal than the Spiritual Arms for while we trusted that Capital punishments should strike the stroak we have neglected the means which would for the most part have discharged the need of such severity The Oath of Allegiance is not offered generally to Servants and mean people who if they had taken the Oath by Absolution of a Priest might recoyl from it or change their opinion at leisure without any ready means to discover their Legerdemain That Oath I fear will not be often pressed and to them that shift from place to place how can it be tendered The principal Papists now cover themselves in the crowd of the multitude but if we can discover the affection of the multitude they easily will be unmasked and being singled out rest ashamed of their nakedness which under correction of better judgment may be effected if every new comer to inhabit in a Town and servants newly entertained within a week or fourteen days be caused to repair to the Minister there in presence of the Churchwardens and other honest men to subscribe unto such brief and substantial Articles concerning Faith and Allegiance as shall be according to Gods Word and Justice ordained to distinguish the Sheep from the Goats In Forreign Countries every Host is bound to bring his Guest before an Officer there to certifie his name with the occasion of his coming and intended time of his abode in those parts and in case he stay longer he must again renew his Licence So curious and vigilant also are they to keep their Cities from Infection that without a Certificate witnessing their coming from wholsome places they may not escape the Lazeretto No less ought we to be watchful to prevent the contagion of our Souls than other Nations are of their Bodies Every thing is hard and scarcely pleasing in the beginning but with time some such course may be readily put in execution which I propound rather as matter for better heads to work on than peremptorily to be insisted on in the same Terms But lest any charge me with temerity that when I desire to know the multitudes inclination by the means aforesaid I satisfie my self with their Parrots Language pronouncing it knows not what I think it not impertinent to put them in mind that heretofore I have required instructions both precedent and subsequent and am ever of the mind That although all this cannot be done at once yet it is necessary always to be doing our best knowing that not to go forwards in Religion is the ready way to go backwards It is not the outward obedience of coming to Church that discovers the inward thought of the Heart it is the confession of the Tongue that must utter these secrets And where the Curates are insufficient or the Parish great I wish they had Catechists to assist them maintained by the Purses of the Recusants which Pension being collected for Gods Cause will free us of scandal though it grieve them to pay the Spiritual Army waged against their own Stratagems Surely by giving them way in petty matters they are grown to be very masterful in their Party Plato affirmeth That the Popular State proceeded from the Licence which the people took to make immoderate applauses in the Theaters when as by arrogating that immunity without controlement in place of their Governours and perceiving the Nobility to joyn with them in the same passions they thought their Heads as worthy to Govern as any of those that were made out of the self-same mould In like manner while we suffer ignorance openly to maintain such petty glimpses of Popery as are thought to be scarce worthy to be look't at and in small matters run an indifferent course which neither make sure Friends nor feeble Foes unawares they take the bridle from us and eat out Religion as it were by an insensible Gangrena Principiis obsta serò medicina paratur Cum mala per longas convaluere moras For by sufferance of breaking smaller Laws People are emboldned to set the greater at nought To comprehend all things in a Law which are necessary to the Reformation I neither hold it profitable nor expedient yet it is discretion to provide for the most important smaller matters whereof the Laws speak not are to be commended to the discretion of Parents Masters and other reverend persons who by example and advice may prepare younglings by Education and Custom to obey the Laws especially such as are in high place ought in this behalf to be like Caesars Wife Non solum crimine sed etiam criminis suspitione vacare and with circumspection to behave themselves that the world may conceive in requiring obedience to God and their Soveraign that they hold the multitude rather for companions than slaves if great men take another way they may seduce many by example though by words they express not their concealed opinions Tace loquere said God to Moses it is the speech of the heart that utters more than words and syllables and in our Common Laws it is held Maintenance when a great Personage onely by his presence countenanceth a Cause Neither let us secure our selves with this Argument The Papists are plyable in small matters ergo they will yield in greater and because they took no Arms in 88. therefore it were needless curiosity to suspect them now for who knows not that small baits are used to take the greatest Fish Vt cum esca una etiam hamus devoretur Wariness is the sinews of wisdom and nothing is more dangerous than to be secure in matters of State therefore for the Laws already made I wish that the most effectual of them which least concerns life may be executed for better it were not to make them than by neglect to set them at liberty seeing many offences there are which men would abstain from if they were forbidden but when a strict commandment is avoided without punishment thereout springs an unbridled Licence hardly to be reformed by any rigour To conclude I say freely that whoso endeth his days by a natural death he shall be subject to receive many mens dooms for every particular offence but when for Religions sake a man triumpheth over the sword that one eminent vertue razeth out the memory of other errours and placeth him that so dyeth in Paradice if common opinion may be lawfully vouched which glory having many followers and admirers awaketh even dull spirits to affect their footsteps and to sell their lives for the maintainance of the same Cause I need not envy the name of a Martyr to the Jesuit for his Cause if it be rightly weighed will blanch that Title but I desire to have all those lineaments defaced which may compound that counterfeit Image in prosecuting of which purpose if I have failed in my advice and by confused handling intricated the question I humbly request that a wise mans verdict may mitigate the heaviness of that censure It is neither good to praise bad Counsels because of their good success nor to condemn good Counsels if the Events prove not fortunate lest many be animated to advise rashly and others disheartned to counsel gravely Illi mors gravis incubat Qui notus nimis omnibus Ignotus moritur sibi Senec. Trag. His death deserveth more than common blame Whom all men knew too well and yet alone Alas he dyes unto himself unknown FINIS