Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	think_v	time_n	4,367	5	3.6997	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48004	A letter from a gentleman in the countrey to some of his friends at London shewing from the principles of the Jesuits that their protestations at their death is no argument of their innocency.	N. N., Gentleman in the countrey.	1679 (1679)	Wing L1395; ESTC R9615	6,710	9

command of their Superiors yea as on the one hand it were madness to think the Jesuits such fools as not to use this knack to preserve their Religion in general and their Profession in particular from so great a scandal which was of that consequence that the doing otherwise would have frustrated the whole endeavours and end of that Society those that have read the Casuists among the Romanists will find them dispense with greater Evils than a lye sometimes to save a mans life or a house from being burned What may be then done to keep the Religion from Ruine So on the other hand it is most rational to judge that these Jesuits would rather esteem themselves favoured than wronged by their Superiors in imposing upon them a necessity thus to assert their Innocency for since as is above shewn their Principles did engage them to believe themselves safe as to God and Heavenward by their Obedience surely it could not but be far more acceptable for them to dye as Innocent Men and Martyrs than as Traitors and Murderers If it be thought strange that men at their Death should hold such Principles it may be also thought strange men should dye believing Transubstantiation Purgatory c. Did not Papists dye rather than renounce the Popes Supremacy in Henry the 8ths days so this will not seem strange to any who consider the power and influence of once receiving or believing any Opinion in matters Religious for its being placed upon that foot overcomes all reasoning untill the mind be overpowred by something that can more fully perswade it Did not Christ put this thing out of doubt when he said In killing you they shall think they do God good Service and we read that a certain Indian made a pile of Wood and burned himself before Alexander the Great and another afterwards did the like at Athens hence that Proverb of the Ancients Tantum Religio potuit If it be then no wonder to see a Papist dye believing Transubstantiation it is no wonder to see a Jesuit dye obeying and answering the Rules of his Order yea less since men are usually more Zealous for the performance of those extraordinary Tyes than for the common Rules of their Religion As for example no understanding Papist that will be ingenuous can deny but it is esteemed by them a greater sin for a Priest to marry than to commit Adultery with another mans Wife although the one be to sin against the positive Law of God and the other only to transgress a human Constitution So that if we will suppose these Jesuits to have been true honest and sincere in their own Profession we may with great charity suppose yea we cannot without breach of charity think otherwise than that albeit they were guilty of the things charged upon them yet they both might and ought to have denied them and that in such manner as they did and that they could not have done otherwise unless they had been false and dishonest to their own Principles and have utterly forsaken them which we know and on all hands is confessed they did not This I shall evince by one or two Syllogisms deduced from the Maxims abovementioned Whoever ought in Obedience to his Superior become blind renounce all his own right Judgment and Will subject himself unto the Conduct of the same Superior as to the Providence of God do all that he Commands Will all that he Wills Judge as he Judges and perswade himself with the same disposition that the Articles of Faith are believed or that Abraham believed God that all his Commandments are the Commandments of God himself ought to obey without exception and cannot without renouncing his Religion do otherwise And again whoever swears to obey his Superior without making any disquisition or search of his Commandments whatever they are and without calling in question whether he commands right or not ought to obey without reserve or exception and cannot do otherwise And again whoever ought to suffer himself as if he were a Cadaver or a Staff to be transported where and to what use the Superior pleaseth and hold certainly that whatever he commands is jast ought to obey simply and without any respect of the thing commanded This is so plain that nothing can be said more evident so that the only question is Whether the Jesuits Superiors would or did so command the probability whereof I leave to your Judgment and I would desire herein to be understood only to shew how these dying Jesuits might have so done according to their own Principles to take away from such as understand not all occasion of wondering at that or questioning the truth of the Plot upon that head not that I determine these did so defacto That I leave every one to judge as they shall see most cause supposing other evidence sufficient the manner of their dying need not stagger any Much more might be enlarged upon these things I have hinted but I resolve not to exceed the limits of a Post Letter hoping hitherto I have not been tedious unto you and that you will let me know your kindly acceptance of this by transmitting to me some of those daily Essays whereof this Season seems to be very fruitful in doing whereof you will oblige your real Friend to serve you N. N. From my Closet the 6 th of October 1679. FINIS

A LETTER From a GENTLEMAN in the COUNTREY To some of his Familiar Friends AT LONDON Shewing from the PRINCIPLES of the JESUITS That their Protestations at their Death Is no Argument of their INNOCENCY LONDON Printed in the Year 1679. A LETTER From a Gentleman in the Countrey to some of his Familiar Friends at London c. My worthy Friends AMong the manifold Occurrences which this time doth fruitfully minister for exercising of mens thoughts and which gave me with you while at London plentiful occasion of Discoursing together That concerning the Plot may justly challenge a chief place The pleasant entertainment your friendly and kind Converse did afford me while I was among you doth easily engage me to adventure to transmit unto you my more serious and retired thoughts upon that Subject being more able both composedly to perpend and sedately to digest them when I am removed from the hurry and confused and contradictory noises of that place which labour of mine however Impolite yet as being plain and from your Friend I hope will not prove troublesom but rather acceptable unto You. You need not my Information to know that there hath scarce any thing faln out in this Age of Matter of Fact concerning which the Judgments of Men do more vastly differ than about this Plot for many do look upon it as a thing so plain and evident that it is to do manifest violence to our understandings and sense to make the least question of it besides That they judge it to be a most abusive accusing of the Justice of our English Nation to make any doubt thereof since not only the Common Juries have found the Evidences sufficient but the Great Council of the Nation always commended for their Solidity and Sobriety have as with one Voice declared their full Convincement thereof Others there are who scruple not to affirm that there never was any such thing as a Plot and that there is as yet no sufficient Evidence produced to convince any impartial unprejudiced man thereof in respect there is little or nothing for Proof save the meer Affirmation of the Witnesses who being Persons under such Circumstances until the very time they pretend to make this Discovery as ought not by their bare Testimony to have such weight in a matter of this Consequence especially being flatly contradicted by other Witnesses To this is objected as Evidences of Fact Colemans Letters that of Pedre and the Death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey To which they make Answer That as for Colemans Letters they have nothing relating to the Kings Murther which was the great Hinge upon which the success of the Plot depended That of Pedre is only suspicious by reason of other concurring Circumstances for of it self it could not have proved a sufficient Evidence And as to Godfrey's Death it is Answered That although that Matter of Fact be undeniable that he was Murthered yet it is not so manifest by whom since the chief Witness did once solemnly deny what he before and since has affirmed and there have been no improbable insinuations published attributing it to the Contrivance of the Earl of Danby These things I thought meet only to mention and not to insist upon leaving to every one to judge of the weight of the respective Reasons as they shall see most cause and because I do not find that in any of these such as seek to disprove the Plot place the greatest weight but chiefly in the Speeches and Protestations of the Five Jesuits at their Death therefore that is the matter I purpose chiefly to consider which as I have seriously weighed in my self so I will commit the same to writing with that candor as I may avoid the least occasion of deceiving either my self or others I love not to force my self unto the belief of a lie out of prejudice to any nor yet refrain to believe a Truth however it may prove to the disadvantage of those I may love as I would not have blind charity to my greatest Friends so I would not deny true charity to my greatest Enemies knowing the one to be no less hurtful than the other Abstracting then from the probability or not probability of the Plot upon the nature of the Evidence or other concurring Circumstances or how far it may be made manifest to be a very natural consequence of Popish Principles of which much and well hath been said by others The great Question here to be enquired into is Whether it be probable that if such a thing had been true and these Persons guilty of it they would or could have denyed it in such positive express and solemn terms as they did at the very instant of their Death or what temptation could be strong enough to perswade men to do that which themseves declared they did abhor to wit all Equivocation or formal Prolocution whatsoever in ipso mortis articulo Since whatever may be the absurdities of their Religion otherwise it is known they believe a God a Heaven and a Hell and the Immortality of the Soul and rewards and punishments for mens actions especially the men being confessed to have been of sober and serious Conversations according to their own Principles and in Morals supposed far to have exceeded some men of the Reformed Religion I hope now I have as fully and advantageously expressed the matter as any Roman Catholick could desire in so few words and I must also ingenuously acknowledge that I cannot agree to their sentiment who endeavour to get over this difficulty by apprehending there was some secret falacy in the Prisoners Expressions at their Execution for I cannot judge the men would place their Eternal happiness upon so mean a quibble nor do I incline to the judgment of such as are apt to believe that either with respect to Absolution before received they did affirm themselves to be as innocent as the Child unborn or that they trusted to the Absolution they might have or did receive from one another after they ended their Speeches as reckoning thereby all guilt they might by such denying have incurred would be cleansed and removed from them for that seemeth to me improbable for the former Reason in respect it is a received Doctrine of the Church of Rome That no Absolution can prove effectual but where the Party confessing doth truly repent of and detest the evil committed resolving to amend which could not be in this Case And yet nevertheless I think it no hard matter to conceive that these men might in such solemn manner affirm themselves to be innocent though really guilty and that not only to preserve and advance the Interest of their Cause but as seriously and deliberately believing that to do so was the way to please God and to advantage their own Souls and this seemeth to me not at all strange but easily imaginable and that without the least breach of Charity or injury to those dying men for making which appear let it be considered That