Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bind_v	church_n	key_n	4,545	5	10.1263	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60497	No faith or credit to be given to Papists being a discourse occasioned by the late conspirators dying in the denyal of their guilt : with particular reflections on the perjury of VVill. Viscount Stafford, both at his tryal, and in his speech on the scaffold in relation to Mr. Stephen Dugdale and Mr. Edward Turbervill / by John Smith Gentleman ...	Smith, John, of Walworth.	1681 (1681)	Wing S4128; ESTC R12871	58,333	38

confirmed and established upon the Authority of Expiring and dying persons who as they felt and saw themselves out of all hopes of enjoying the pleasures of Life any longer or compassing riches or advancement to their friends or posterity so they ought to be judged delivered from the Impression of all sublunary Allurements in what they said and no man can suppose that any thing else should influence them to speak falsly Accordingly Mr. Bedlo in the view and approach of Death affirmed both upon the Faith of a Christian and as he hoped for Salvation that he had wronged no man by his Testimony but that whatsoever he had testified concerning the Plot was true Shall the Advocates for the Conspirators account themselves mightily advantaged in weakning the Credit of the King's Witnesses from this that there is not that Faith to be given to men not only in the possession of Health but having all Legal security of their Lives as there is to persons who both know that they must immediately die and that they are to appear before the great and righteous God who hath threatned to punish all Falshood and Perjury with unconceivable torments And shall not we esteem our selves mightily confirmed as to the truth of the whole Evidence concerning the Plot by finding that so considerable a Witness both in detecting the parts and degrees of it as well as those that were engaged in its contrivarce and prosecution should so solemnly seal what he had before deposed with his last and dying Breath Here is one that hath declared their Guilt in the same Circumstances wherein the advocats for Rome glory so much that the condemned affirmed their Innocency So that all their Harangues concerning the Credit that is due to the Asseverations of dying persons are much more applicable to our Belief of the Plot on the dying Testimony of Mr. Bedlo than it is possible they should be to the weakening our Faith about it upon their affirming themselves Guiltless who were so Legally Convicted and Condemned for it For their Concernment to Preserve the Reputation of their Religion Secure the Libertïes of many of their Party and the Hopes which they might flatter themselves with to save their own together with a Desire of Recommending their memories to the favorable Opinion of future Generations may be conceived Sufficient Grounds and Inducements to influence them to a Denial Whereas Mr. Bedlo had no Concernment of his own no Expectations of advantage to accrue to his Friends or Relations no hopes of avoiding approaching Death which might be conceived to prevail upon him to breath out his last words in the Affirmation of their Guilt Besides the Principles of their Religion are such as do both countenance their Denial and Justifie them in it whereas the Principles of the Protestant Religion wherein this Gentleman Dyed do both prohibit and condemn the asserting every thing that is false let the Motives be never so great and important The disparity between the Asseverations of the one and of the other is so considerable upon this single and alone Account that should it be admitted that their Circumstances were the same in all other things as well as in that of Death immediately in their view yet there can be no just Competition between the weight and Authority of what they said in the Attestation of their Innocency and what he affirmed in the Confirmation of their Guilt And it is remarkable that he not only Dyed in the profession of the Protestant Religion which precludeth all hopes of pardon to any that shall persevere in malice hatred lying and slandering but that during his whole Sickness he was in the Exercise of all seeming contrition and remorse and so far as any one could judge in the practice of sincere and unseigned Repentance for all the sins whereby he had offended God or injured Men. So that upon all that can rationally sway or determine our belief entire credit ought to be given to Mr. Bedlo upon the Declaration he made of their Guilt in the Juncture and Circumstance of Dying whereas there is nothing that can be justly or rationally alledged which without abandoning our selves to weakness and easie Credulity can obtain from us the giving the least Faith to them notwithstanding their affirming their Innocency in expiring Circumstances And therefore though the Publick hath sustained great loss by the removal of a Witness that could have not only testified against so many of the Conspirators but so particularly and with so many corroborating Circumstances yet the Deposition which he made in his last Sickness whereby in the prospect of approaching Death and in the belief and sense of his speedy appearing at the Tribunal of God he confirmed and ratified upon Oath all that he had declared before hath done more to establish the Credit of the Plot and ruine the Reputation of the Papal Party in the minds of all unbiassed men than ever he could have effected by never so many reiterated Testimonies against them at Bars and in Courts of Judicature § 4. Nor in the next place ought any man to be surprized that such of the Traitors as nave been convicted and condemned for this Hellish and Damnable Plot should Die professing their Innocency as to what they were condemned for seeing they bound and obliged themselves by such Oaths which they account most solemn and vowed by whatsoever according to the Principles of their Religion is esteemed more sacred than other that they would never discover the Conspiracy which they were engaged in For all those to whom this Bloody Design was communicated and especially such who were to be assisting in it had taken an Oath of Secrecy and the Sacrament upon it as all the Witnesses do inform us never to reveal or disclose what they were either engaged in or acquainted with And the tenor of this holy and Catholick Oath by which they most sacredly and indispensibly bound themselves was this as it was found very happily amongst Mr. Rusten's Papers a Priest in Sir Thomas Gascoyne's House I A. B. being in the presence of Almighty God the Blessed Mary Ever Virgin the Blessed Michael the Archangel the Blessed St. John Baptist the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and all the Saints in Heaven and to you my Ghostly Father do declare and in my heart believe the Pope Christ's Vicar General to be the true and only Head of Christ's Church here on Earth and that by virtue of the Keys of binding and loosing given his Holiness by our Saviour Christ he hath power to Depose all Heretical Kings and Princes and cause them to be killed Therefore to the utmost of my power I will defend this Doctrine and his Holinesses Rights against all Usurpers whatsoever especially against the now pretended King of England in regard that he hath broke his Vows with his Holinesses Agents beyond Seas and not performed his promises in bringing into England the holy Roman Catholick Religion I do