Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	key_n	loose_v	2,596	5	9.8092	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46364	The last efforts of afflicted innocence being an account of the persecution of the Protestants of France, and a vindication of the reformed religion from the aspersions of disloyalty and rebellion, charg'd on it by the papists / translated out of French.; Derniers efforts de l'innocence affligée. English	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.; Vaughan, Walter.	1682 (1682)	Wing J1205; ESTC R2582	121,934	296

two Witnesses in who heard all the Prisoners said and gave so exact an Account of their Discourse that they confest all But would you know the cause they keep their Secrets so well 'T is the horrible Oath they impose on all those who enter into such Conspiracies Read Mezeray where I have left him open The last of January eight of the principal Conspirators were executed at London for High-Treason not one of them accus'd the Priests or the Monks for they were oblig'd to Secrecy by terrible Oaths To satisfy you fully in this particular I will let you see the form of the Oath administred to all those who entred into this last Plot. There is a Copy of it The Oath for the Plot in England I Whose Name is underwritten do in the presence of Almighty God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Blessed Arch-Angel Michael the Blessed St. John the Baptist the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and all other the Saints in Heaven and of you my Ghostly Father declare from the bottom of my heart that I believe the Pope the Vicar-General of Iesus Christ to be the sole and only Head of the Church upon Earth and that by vertue of the Keys and the power of binding and looseing given to his Holiness by our Lord Jesus Christ he hath power to Depose all Heretick Kings and Princes to put them out of their Office or kill them And therefore I will from the bottom of my heart defend this Doctrine and the Rights of his Holiness against all sorts of Vsurpers especially against him who pretends to be King of England because he hath falsified his Oath made to the Agents of his Holiness by not keeping his promise to Establish the Holy Roman Catholick Religion in England I Renounce and Disavow all manner of Promise and Submission to the said present King of England and all obedience to his Officers and inferiour Magistrates and I believe that the Protestant Doctrine is Heretical and Damnable and that all those who do not forsake it shall be damned I will assist with all my power the Agents of his Holiness here in England to extirpate and root out the said Protestant Doctrine and to destroy the said pretended King of England and all those his Subjects who will not adhere to the Holy See of Rome and the Religion there profest Moreover I promise and declare that I will keep Secret and not divulge directly or indirectly by word or by writing or other Circumstance whatsoever what you my Spiritual Father or any other engag'd in the advancement of this Holy and Pious Design shall propose and give me in charge and that I will diligently and constantly promote it and that neither hope of Reward nor fear of Punishment shall make me discover any thing relating thereto and that if I be discover'd I will never confess any Circumstance of it All these things I swear by the most Holy Trinity and by the Blessed Body of God which I intend to receive presently and that I will accomplish and inviolably perform them all and I call to Witness all the Angels and Saints of Heaven that such is my true intention In Witness whereof I receive the most holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist Hug. Law Well Sir and what say you of this This comes from good hands from a great house allyed to that of England But had it fallen from the Clouds we might have known it by the Character had it been a forg'd piece it must needs have been made by a Roman Catholick and one deeply vers'd in the Cabal of these blind Zealots for there is not a Protestant and but few Roman Catholicks who understand the style and conduct of this Cabal with so much perfection as he must have done who should invent this form of an Oath And now Sir you may if you can draw from the silence of the Conspirators an Argument against the truth of the Plot. Par. Since you are so much for answering I should be very glad Sir to hear what you have to say to the business of my Lord Howard and the Earl of Shaftsbury This last will be shortly convicted of having suborn'd Witnesses against the Queen of England and the Duke of York to make them Complices in the Plot. May not he who would have suborn'd Witnesses against the Queen and first Prince of the Bloud be rationally presum'd to have suborn'd Witnesses against five or six pitiful Priests Hug. Law We hope Sir the innocence of the Earl of Shaftsbury will save him Perhaps it will be objected he may be more for a Republican Government than may befit the Subject of a Monarchy but we cannot believe him capable of the base actions he is charg'd with If he miscarry he will not be the first innocent person hath perish'd by the malice of false Witnesses Can any thing be clearer than that this Charge against him is a Counter-battery raised by your Catholicks Nothing can be more proper to make men suspect that all hath been said of the Plot is meerly fictitious than to produce men to testify Endeavours have been us'd to suborn them For if Endeavours have been us'd to suborn them why not to suborn others I wonder only this act of the Tragedy began so late 'T is true we may see something of it in Wakeman's Tryal and in Dugdale's Depositions For this Witness tells us he had seen a Letter sent from Paris to St. Omers from St. Omers to London from London to Tixal wherein it was advis'd That the Presbyterians should be accus'd of a Design against the King's Life which would oblige those of the Church of England to joyn with the Catholicks to destroy the Presbyterians Observe now the Event of this Counsel The Earl of Shaftsbury is look'd upon as the head of the Presbyterians the Presbyterians are the great Enemies of the Conspirators and labour with most Zeal the Discovery of the Plot. We must destroy their Credit say you and charge them with the blackest of Crimes and who are the Witnesses made use of against the Earl of Shaftsbury They are all Roman Catholicks Can you think it a hard matter in a business where the safety of a whole Party and of the Roman Religion is at stake to find five or six persons who will Sacrifice themselves to save the honour of their Religion and the Life of their Patriarchs And how do they Sacrifice themselves Their Ghostly Fathers perswade them that to bear false Witness against Shaftsbury the great Enemy of the Roman Church is so far from being an offence to God that they do him very considerable Service in it So that instead of one or two I believe they may find a hundred false Witnesses in this affair and this is the cause honest men are so much in fear for the Life of that Lord. But let us suppose things to be as you would have them let us put the Case that Shaftsbury is the most

THE Last Efforts OF AFFLICTED INNOCENCE Being an account of the PERSECUTION OF THE Protestants of FRANCE AND A Vindication of the Reformed Religion from the Aspersions of Disloyalty and Rebellion charg'd on it by the Papists Translated out of French LONDON Printed for M. Magnes and R. Bentley in Russel-street near the Piazza in Covent-Garden 1682. TO The Right Honourable WILLIAM EARL of BEDFORD Lord Russel Baron Russel of THORNHAUGH Knight of the most Noble Order of the GARTER My Lord 'T IS a strange Question ask'd by St. Peter Who will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good a Question that intimates Innocence an effectual Protection against wrong and violence But he had been taught the Doctrine of the Cross he had seen his divine Master the Arche-type of Immaculate Purity and Innocence basely betray'd by an Apostle of his own contumeliously abused by a Rabble he had infinitely oblig'd Blasphem'd by an Impious Souldiery scoff'd and laugh'd at by prophane Governors and under a colour of Justice by the cursed Arts of his malicious Enemies formally Arraign'd Condemn'd and Executed as a Traytor to Caesar This was an instance so clear it was impossible not to be convinc'd by it that Innocence and Goodness instead of protecting men from injury expose them to it And lest those he writ to might by the Question he had ask'd mistake themselves into a confidence that Innocence would secure them from Persecution the inspir'd Penman obviates the Error by applying himself immediately to instruct them in their conduct when opprest with Calumnies and Wrongs That Golden Age is long since past when an Universal Innocence secur'd every one from injury The World hath since been in a State of War Inoffensiveness is no longer a sufficient Guard and by the Law of Nature the weaker yields to the more powerful The Innocence of the Lamb cannot secure him from the Violence of Wolves or Subtilty of Foxes The greater Fish devour the less The harmless Dove is the daily food of the Birds of Prey and Man not content to have the Fish of the Sea the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air a Sacrifice to his pleasure is so maliciously bent to worry his own kind as if he thought himself created for the ruine of his fellow-Creatures particularly of Man Craft and Malice raise themselves Trophies on the Ruins of Innocence and the Nimrods of the Earth triumph in the Spoils of their Inferiors and place their Glory in Oppression and Violence This State of War being very uneasy reason had recourse to the Expedient of Laws and Constitution of Governments to retrieve in some measure by Religion and Justice the irreparable loss of Primitive Innocence and Natural Goodness But those ill Inclinations that made Laws necessary to restrain their Malignity from breaking into act no sooner found the Hand ty'd up by Laws from violent Attempts but the Head was imploy'd to elude those Laws by subtilty and artifice to render that which was design'd the protection of the Innocent a Snare to catch them in to make Law an instrument of Oppression and Justice it self a Minister of injury A State no less dangerous to man in his civil Capacity than that ill habit of body that turns the most wholesom food into poyson is dangerous to his nature consuming and ruining it by that very aliment that should have repaired and preserved it Such is the State of that Government where a prevalent Faction doth by colour of Law and pretence of Religion destroy the Religion and Rights of their Adversaries who are therefore the more miserable because they suffer unjustly under a form of Justice Such My Lord is the State the Protestants in France complain of at this day The Enemies of their Religion had vow'd it's Extirpation They had try'd the force of Inhumane Cruelties and unheard of Butcheries to destroy the Professors of it Finding it impregnable by open assault they apply themselves to effect by art and subtilty what they had in vain attempted by force and violence and to destroy by Law what they had found proof against Fire and Sword Torture and Massacre They procure Edicts for demolishing their Churches rasing their Oratories and shutting up their Schools or converting them to other uses the very method us'd with so much success by Julian the Apostate for rooting out Christianity The Protestants alarm'd at the Proceedings of their Enemies arm'd with authority and vigorously using it to their ruin apply themselves by Petition to their King for redress of their Grievances and preservation of the Priviledges granted them by the Edicts and Arrests of his Illustrious Ancestors That great Prince mov'd with the justice of their demands grants an Edict That no violence be done his Protestant Subjects on the account of Religion Their Enemies not discourag'd resolve to pursue their point and under specious pretences of Piety obtain authority to labour the Conversion of Protestants to visit their Sick to examine their Children and to receive their Declaration at seven years old what Religion the Reformed or Roman they would choose to be instructed in They improve this Authority so effectually and scandalously to the destruction of the Protestants that laying aside the antiquated means of instruction and argument they took a new method for Conversion making use only of Threats to frighten of Promises to seduce of Money and Immunities to bribe and where these means failed of force to compel Men Women and Children into that Catholick Church which turns all into Fish that come into its Net and ensures all who go to Mass a safe Arrival in Heaven The Protestants sensible of the abuse of the Authority of their King contrary to his intentions prepare a second Address for relief but coming to present it found all Avenues blocked up no access to his Majesty no redress in his Courts the Ministers of State prepossess'd to their prejudice and themselves look'd upon as Enemies to the State My Lord It was the artifice of their Enemies to represent them such to that ambitious Monarch too generous and compassionate to persecute good Subjects but extreamly jealous of his Authority So the Jewish Priests finding Pilate convinc'd of our Saviour's Innocence and inclin'd to acquit him suggest he had spoken against Caesar c. and prevail'd with that Judge to Condemn him for Treason the greatest of Crimes who upon a solemn hearing declar'd he had found no fault in him The greatest Affliction to an innocent Sufferer is aspersion of Guilt Tortures may crack his Sinews mangle his Limbs and destroy his Body but false Aspersions wound the Heart distract the Spirits and rend and tear the Soul in pieces His Innocence may support him against the pains of Racks and Gibbets but the torture of Calumny is intolerable This My Lord is the Case of the Afflicted Protestants They have for their Religion patiently submitted to the Persecution of their Enemies But they not content to have strip'd them