Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	believe_v	confess_v	jesus_n	3,311	5	6.3881	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04923	The appellation of Iohn Knoxe from the cruell and most iniust sentence pronounced against him by the false bishoppes and clergie of Scotland, with his supplication and exhortation to the nobilitie, estates, and co[m]munaltie of the same realme.	Knox, John, ca. 1514-1572.; Gilby, Anthony, ca. 1510-1585. An admonition to England and Scotland.; Kethe, William, d. 1608?	1558 (1558)	STC 15063; ESTC S106719	70,824	162

and disdainefully cōtemne the meanes which he hath appointed to obtaine the same to witt his blessed Euangile which now he offereth vnto you to the end that ye may be saued For the Ghospell and gladtidinges of the kīgdome truelie preached is the power of God to the saluation of euerie beleuer which to credit and receaue you the communaltie are no lesse addetted then be your rulers and princes For albeit God hath put and ordened distinction ād differēce betwixt the king and subiectes betwixt the rulers and the commune people in the regiment and administration of ciuile policies yet in the hope of the life to comme he hath made all equall For as in Christ Iesus the Iew hath no greater prerogatiue then hath the Gentile the man then hath the woman the learned then the vnlearned the Lord then the seruante but all are one in him so is there but one way and meanes to attaine to the participation of his benefites and spirituall graces which is a liuelie faith wurking by charitie And therefore I say that it doth no lesse appertaine to you beloued Brethren to be assured that your faith and religion be grounded and established vpon the true and vndoubted worde of God then to your princes or rulers For as your bodies can not escape corporal death if with your princes ye eat or drink deadlie poison althoghe it be by ignorance or negligence so shall ye not escape the death euerlasting if with them ye professe a corrupt religion Yea except in heart ye beleue and with mouth ye confesse the Lord Iesus to be the onlie Saluiour of the world which ye can not do except ye embrace his Euangile offered ye can not escape death and damnatiō For as the iust liueth by his own faith so doth the vnfaithfull perishe by his infidelitie And as true faith is engendred norished and mentained in the heartes of goddes elect by Christes Euāgile truelie preached so is infidelitie and vnbelefe fostered by concealing and repressing the same And thus if ye loke for the life euerlasting ye must trie if ye stand in faith and if ye would be assured of a true ād liuelie faith ye must nedes haue Christ Iesus truely preached vnto you And this is the cause dear Brethren that so oft I repeat and so constantly I affirm that to you it doth no lesse appertaine then to your kinge or princes ▪ to prouide that Christ Iesus be truely preached amongest you seing that without his true knolledge can neither of you both attaine to saluation And this is the poynt wherein I say al man is a equal That as all be descended from Adam by whose syn and inobedience did death enter into the world so it behoued all that shall obtaine life to be ingrafted in one that is in the Lord Iesus who being the iust seruant doth by his knolledge iustifie many to wit all that vnfeanedly beleue in hym Of this equalitie and that God requireth no lesse of the subiect be he neuer so poore then of the prince and riche man in matters of religion he hath geuen an euident declaration in the law of Moses For when the tabernacle was buy lded erected and set in order God did prouide how it and the thinges appertaining to the same should be sustained so that they should not fall in decay And this prouision albeit heauē ād earth obey his empire would he not take from the secrete and hid treasures which lie dispersed ī the vaines of the earthe neither yet would he take it frō the riche and potent of his people but he did commaund that euerie man of the sonnes of Israel were he rich or were he poore that came in compt from twentie yeares and vpward should yearely pay half a sicle for an oblation to the Lorde in the remembrance of their redemption and for an expiation or clensing to their soules which money God cōmaunded should be bestowed vpon the ornamentes and necessaries of the tabernacle of testimonie He furthermore added a precept that the riche should giue no more for that vse and in that behalf then should the poore neither yet that the poore should giue any lesse then should the riche in that consideration This law to mannes reason and iudgement may appear verie vnreasonable For somme riche man might haue geuen a thousand sicles with lesse hurt of his substāce then sōme poore man might haue payed the half sicle And yet God maketh all equall and will that the one shall pay no more then the other neither yet the poore any lesse then the riche This law I say may appeare verie vnequall But if the cause which God addeth be obserued we shall fynde in the same the great mercie and inestimable wisdome of God to appear which cause is expressed in these wordes This money receaued from the children of Israel thou shalt geue in the seruice of the tabernacle that it may be to the children of Israel for a remembrance before the Lord that he may be mercifull to your soules This cause I say doth euidently declare that as the hole multitude was deliuered from the bondage of Egypt by the mightie power of God alone so was euerie mēbre of the same without respect of person sāctified by his grace the riche in that behalf nothing preferred to the poorest For by no merit nor worthynes of mā was he moued to chose ād to establishe his habitation and dwellinge amongest them But their felicitie prerogatiue ād honour which they had aboue all other natiōs proceded only frō the fontaine of his eternal goodnes who loued thē freely as that he freely had chosen them to be his preestlie kingdome ād holie people from all natiōs of the earth Thus to honour them that he would dwell in the middest of them he neither was moued I say by the wisdome of the wise by the riches of the potent neither yet by the vertue and holynes of any estate amongest them but of mere goodnes did he loue them and with his presence did he honour that hole people ād therefore to paynt owt the same his cōmune loue to the hole multitude and to cutt of occasions of contention and doubtes of conscience he would receaue no more from the riche then from the poore for the maintenāce of that his tabernacle by the which was represented his presence and habitation amongest them Yf the riche had bene preferred to the poore then as the one should haue bene puffed vp with pride as that he had bene more acceptable to God by reason of his greater gift so should the cōscience of the other haue bene troubled and woūded thinking that his pouertie was an impedimēt that he could not stand in so perfecte fauour with God as did the other because he was not able to geue somuch as did the rich to the mentenance of his tabernacle But he who of mercie as said is did

chose his habitation amongest them and also that best knoweth what lieth within man did prouide the remedie for the one and for the other making them equal in that behalfe who in other thinges were most vnequal Yf the poore should haue founde hym selfe greued by reason of that taxe and that asmuch was imposed vpon hym as vpon the riche yet had he no small cause of ioy that God him selfe would please to cōpare hym and to make hym equal in the mentenāce of his tabernacle to the most riche and potent in Israel Yf this equalitie was commaunded by God for mentenāce of that transitorie tabernacle which was but a shadoe of a better to cōme is not the same required of vs who now hath the veritie which is Christ Iesus who being clad with our nature is made Immanuel that is God with vs. Whose natural bodie albeit it be receaued in the heauens where he must abyde till all be complete that is forespoken by the Prophetes yet hath he promised to be presēt with vs to the ēd of the world And for that purpose and for the more assurance of his promisse he hath erected amongest vs here in earthe the signes of his owne presence with vs his spiritual tabernacle the true preaching of his worde and right administration of his sacramentes To the mentenance whereof is no lesse bounde the subiect then the prince the poore then the riche For as the price which was geuē for mannes redēption is one so requireth God of all that shalbe partakers of the benefites of the same a like duetie which is a plaine confession that by Christ Iesus alone we haue receaued what soeuer was lost in Adam Of the prince doth God require that he refuse hym selfe and that he folow Christ Iesus of the subiect he requireth the same Of the kinges and iudges it is required that they kysse the sonne that is giue honour subiection and obedience to hym And from such reuerēce doth not God exempt the subiect that shalbe saued And this is that aequalitie which is betwixt the kinges and subiectes the most riche or noble and betwixt the poorest and men of lowest estate to wit that as the one is oblished to beleue in heart and with mouth to cōfesse the Lord Iesus to be the onlie sauiour of the world so also is the other Neither is there anie of goddes childrē who hath attained to the yeares of discretion so poore but that he hath thus much to bestow vpon the ornamentes and maintenance of their spiritual tabernacle when necessitie requireth neither yet is there anie so riche of whose hande God requireth any more For albeit that Dauid gathered greate substāce for the buylding of the temple that Salomon with earnest diligence and incredible expenses erected and finished the same that Ezechias and Iosias purged the religion which before was corrupted yet to them was God no further dettour in that respect then he was to the most simple of the faithfull posteritie of faithfull Abraham For theyr diligence zeal and workes gaue rather testimonie and confession before men what honour they did bear to God what loue to his worde and reuerēce to his religiō then that any worke proceading from them did either establishe or yet encrease goddes fauoure towardes thē who freely did loue thē in Christ his sonne before the foundation of the world was laied So that these forenamed by theyr notable workes gaue testimonie of theyr vnfained faith and the same doth the poorest that vnfeanedly and openly professeth Christ Iesus that doth embrase his gladtydinges offred that doth abhorre superstition and flie from idolatrie The poorest I say and most simple that this day in earth in the daies of this cruel persecution fermely beleueth in Christ and boldly doth confesse hym before this wicked generation is no lesse acceptable before God neither is iudged in his presence to haue done any lesse in promoting Christ his cause then is the king that by the sworde and power which he hath receaued of God wrooteth owt idolatrie and so aduanceth Christes glorie But to return to our former purpose it is no lesse required I say of the subiect to beleu● in Christ and to professe his true religion then of the prince and king And therefore I affirme that in goddes presence it shall not excuse you to alledge that ye were no chefe rulers and therefore that the care and reformation of religion did not appertaine vnto you Ye dear Brethren as before is said are the creatures of God created to his owne image and similitude to whome it is commaunded to hear the voyce of your heauenlie Father to embrase his sonne Christ Iesus to flie from all doctrine and religion which he hath not approued by his own will reuealed to vs in his moste blessed worde To which preceptes and charges if ye be founde inobedient ye shall perish in your iniquitie as rebelles and stubborn seruantes that haue no pleasure to obey the good will of their soueraigne Lord who most louingly doth call for your obedience And therefore Brethren in this behalf it is your part to be carefull and diligent For the question is not of thinges temporall which allthoghe they be endaungered yet by diligēce and processe of tyme may after be redressed but it is of the dānation of your bodies and soules and of the losse of the life euerlasting which once lost can neuer be recouered And therefore I say that it behoueth you to be careful and diligēt in this so weghtie a matter lest that ye contemnyng this occasion which God now offereth fynd not the like althoghe that after with gronyng and sobbes ye lāguyshe for the same And that ye be not ignorant of what occasion I mean in few words I shall expresse it Not only I but with me also diuers other godlie and learned men do offer vnto you our labours faithfully to instruct you in the waies of the Eternal our God and in the synceritie of Christes Euangil which this day by the pestilent generatiō of Antichrist I mean by the pope and by his most vngodlie clergie are almost hyd from the eies of men We offer to ieopard our liues for the saluation of your soules and by manifest scriptures to proue that religion which amongest you is mentained by fier and sworde to be vaine fals ād diabolical We require nothing of you but that paciently ye will heare our doctrine which is not oures but is the doctrine of saluation reuealed to the world by the onlie sonne of God ād that ye will examine our reasons by the which we offer to proue the papistical religion to be abominable before God And last we require that by your power the tyrannie of those cruel beastes I mean of preests and freers may be brideled till we haue vttered our mindes in all matters this day debateable in religion Yf these thinges in the fear of God ye

and against the libertie of their owne natiue realme they haue cōmitted The same plages shall fall vpon you be you assured if ye refuse the defence of his seruantes that call for your support My words are sharpe but cōsider my Lords that they are not mine but that they are the threatnynges of the omnipotent who assuredly will perfurme the voices of his Prophetes how that euer carnall men despise his admonitions The sworde of Goddes wrath is alredie drawē which of necessitie must nedes stryke when grace offred is obstinatly refused You haue bene long in bondage of the Deuil blyndnes errour and idolatrie preuailing against the simple trueth of God in that your realme in which God hath made you princes and rulers But now doth God of his great mercie call you to repentance before he power furth the vttermost of his vengeance he crieth to your eares that your religiō is nothing but idolatrie he accuseth you of the blood of his saincts which hath bene shed by your permission assistance and powers For the tyrannie of those raging beastes should haue no force if by your strength they were not mentained Of those horrible crimes doth now God accuse you not of purpose to condemne you but mercifully to absolue and pardō you as somtyme he did those whom Peter accused to haue killed the sonne of God so that ye be not of mind nor purpose to iustifie your former iniquitie Iniquitie I call not only the crimes and offenses which haue bene and yet remaine in your maners and liues but that also which appeareth before men most holie with hassard of my life I offre to proue abomination before God that is your hole religion to be so corrupt and vaine that no true seruante of God can communicate with it because that in so doing he should manifestly denie Christ Iesus and his eternal veritie I know that your byshoppes accompained with the swarme of the papistical vermine shal crie A damned heretik oght not to be hard But remembre my Lords what in the beginning I haue protested vpō which groūnd I cōtinually stād to witt that I am no heretike nor deceauable teacher but the seruante of Christ Iesus a preacher of his īfallible veritie innocent in all that they can lay to my charge cōcerning my doctrine and that therefore by them being ennemies to Christ I am iniustly damned From which cruell sentence I haue appealed and do appeal as before mention is made in the mean tyme most hūbly requiring your Honours to take me in your protection to be auditours of my iust defēses graūting vnto me the same libertie which Achab a wicked king and Israel at that tyme a blynded people grāted to Helias in the like case That is that your byshoppes and the hole rabble of your clergie may be called before you and before that people whome they haue deceaued that I be not condemned by multitude by custome by auctoritie or law diuised by man but that God hym self may be iudge betwixt me and my aduersaries Let God I say speak by his law by his prophetes by Christ Iesus or by his Apostles and so let hym pronounce what religion he approueth and then be my ennemies neuer so manie and appeare they neuer so stronge and so learned no more do I feare victorie then did Helias being but one man against the multitude of Baales preestes And if they think to haue aduantage by theyre councils and doctours this I further offer to admitt the one and the other as witnesses in all matters debateable three thinges which iustly can not be denied being granted vnto me First that the most auncient Councils nighest to the primitiue Church in which the learned and godlie fathers did examine all matters by goddes word may be holden of most auctoritie Secondarely that no determination of Councils nor man be admitted against the plaine veritie of goddes word nor against the determination of those foure chefe Councils whose auctoritie hath bene and is holden by them equal with the auctoritie of the foure Euangelistes And last that to no doctour be geuen greater auctoritie then Augustine requireth to be geuen to his writinges to witt if he plainely proue not his affirmation by Gods infallible worde that then his sentence be reiected and imputed to the errour of a mā These thinges graunted and admitted I shall no more refuse the testimonies of Councils and doctours then shall my aduersaries But and if they will iustifie those Councils which mentaine theyr pride ād vsurped auctoritie and will reiect those which plainly haue condemned all such tyrannie negligence and wicked life as byshoppes now do vse and if further they will snatche a doubtfull sentence of a doctour and refuse his mynd when he speaketh plainly then will I say that all man is a lyer that credit oght not to be geuen to an vnconstant witnes and that no Coūcils oght to preuaile nor be admitted against the sentence which God hath pronounced And thus my Lordes in few wordes to cōclude I haue offred vnto you a triall of mie innocencie I haue declared vnto you what God requireth of you being placed aboue his people as rulers and princes I haue offred vnto you and to the inhabitātes of the realme the veritie of Christ Iesus and with the hasard of my life I presently offer to proue the religion which amongest you is mentained by fier and sworde to be fals dānable and diabolicall Which thinges if ye refuse defending tyrantes in their tyrānie then dar I not flatter but as it was commaunded to Ezechiel boldly to proclaime so must I crie to you that you shall perishe in your iniquitie that the Lord Iesus shall refuse so manie of you as maliciously withstand his eternall veritie and in the day of his apparition when all flesh shall appear before hym that he shall repell you from his compagnie and shall commaund you to the fier whiche neuer shalbe quēched and then neither shall the multitude be able to resist neither yet the counsils of man be able to preuaile against that sentence which he shall pronounce God the father of our Lord Iesus Christ by the power of his holie spirit so rule and dispose your hearts that with simplicitie ye may cōsider the thinges that be offred ād that ye may take such order in the same as God in you may be glorified and Christes flock by you may be edified and comforted to the praise ād glorie of our Lord Iesus Christ whose omnipotent spirit rule your hearts in his true feare to the end Amen TO HIS BELOVED BRETHREN THE communaltie of Scotland Iohn Knoxe wisheth grace mercie and peace with the spirit of righteous iudgement VVhat I haue required of the Quene Regēt estates ād nobilitie as of the chife heades for this present of the realme I can not cease to require of you dearli beloued Brethrē which be the cōmunaltie and bodie of

the same To wit that it notwithstanding that fals and cruel sentence which your disgised byshoppes haue pronounced against me would please you to be so fauorable vnto me as to be indifferēt auditours of my iust purgation Which to do if God earnestly moue your heartes as I nothīg doubt but that your entreprise shall redounde to the praise of his holie name so am I assured that ye and your posteritie shall by that meanes receaue most singular comfort edificatiō ād profit For when ye shall heare the matter debated ye shall easelie perceaue and vnderstand vpon what grounde ād foundation is builded that religion which amongest you is this day defended by fier and sword As for my own conscience I am most assuredly persuaded that what soeuer is vsed in the papistical Churche is al togither repugning to Christes blessed ordināce and is nothing but mortal venem of which whosoeuer drinketh I am assuredly persuaded that therewith he drīketh death and damnation except by true conuersion vnto God he be purged from the same But because that long silence of goddes worde hath begotten ignorance almost in al sortes of men and ignorance ioyned with long custome hath cōfirmed superstition in the heartes of many I therefore in the name of the Lord Iesus desire audience aswell of you the communaltie my Brethrē as of the estates and nobilitie of the realme that in publike preaching I may haue place amongest you at large to vtter my mind in all matters of cōtrouersie this day in religion And further I desire that ye cōcurring with your nobilitie would compell your byshoppes and clergie to cease their tyrannie and also that for the better assurance and instruction of your consciēce ye would compell your said bishoppes and fals teachers to answer by the scriptures of God to such obiectiōs ād crimes as shalbe laid against their vaine religion fals doctrine wicked life and sclanderous conuersation Here I know that it shalbe obiected that I require of you a thing most vnreasonable To witt that ye should call your religion in doubt which hath bene approued and established by so long continuance and by the consent of so manie men before you But I shortly answer that neither is the lōg processe of tyme neither yet the multitude of men a sufficiēt approbation which God will alow for our religiō For as somme of the most aunncient writers do witnesse neither can long processe of tyme iustifie an errour neither can the multitude of such as folow it chaūg the nature of the same But if it was an errour in the begynnyng so is it in the end and the longer that it be folowed and the mo that do receaue it it is the more pestilent and more to be auoided For if antiquitie or multitude of mē could iustifie any religion then was the idolatrie of the Gentiles and now is the abomination of the Turkes good religiō For antiquitie approued the one and a multitude hath receaued and doth defende the other But otherwise to answer godlie men may wonder from what fontaine such a sentēce doth flow that no man oght to trie his faith and religion by goddes worde but that he safely may beleue and folow euerie thing which antiquitie and a multitude haue approued The spirit of God doth otherwise teach vs. For the wisdone of God Christ Iesus hym selfe remitted his aduersaries to Moses and the scriptures to trie by them whether his doctrine was of God or not The Apostles Paule and Peter commaunde men to trie the religion which they professe by goddes plaine scriptures and do praise men for so doing S. Iohn straytly commaundeth that we beleue not euerie spirit but willeth vs to trie the spirits whether they be of God or not Now seyng that these euident testimonies of the holie Ghoste will vs to trie our faith and religion by the plaine worde of God wonder it is that the papistes will not be content that theyr religion and doctrine comme vnder the triall of the same If this sentēce of Christ be true as it is most true seing it springeth from the veritie it self who so euill doeth hateth the light neither will he cōme to the light lest that his euill workes be manifested and rebuked then do our papistes by their own sentence condemne them selues and theyr religion For in so far as they refuse examination and trial they declare that they know somme fault which the light will vtter which is a cause of theyr feare ▪ ād why they claime to that priuiledge that no man dispute of theyr religion The veritie and trueth being of the nature of fyne purified gold doth not fear the trial of the fornace but the stuble and chaf of mannes inuentions such is theyr religion may not abyde the flame of the fier True it is that Mahomet pronounced this sentence that no man should in paine of death dispute or reason of the grounde of his religion Which law to this day by the art of Satā is yet obserued amōgest the Turkes to theyr mortal blindnes and horrible blasphemyng of Christ Iesus and of his true religion And from Mahomet or rather from Satan father of all lies hath the Pope and his rabble learned this former lesson To witt that theyr religion should not be disputed vpon but what the fathers haue beleued that oght and must the childrē approue And in so diuising Satan lacked not his foresight For no one thing hath more established the kingdome of that Romane Antichrist then this most wicked decrie To witt that no man was permitted to reason of his power or to call his lawes in doubt This thing is most assured that whensoeuer the papisticall religion shall comme to examination it shalbe founde to haue no other grounde then hath the religion of Mahomet To witt mannes inuention deuise and dreames ouershadowed with somme colour of goddes worde And therefore Brethren seing that the religion is as the stomake to the bodie which if it be corrupted doth infect the hole membres it is necessarie that the same be examined and if it be founde replenished with pestilent humors I mean with the fantasies of men then of necessitie it is that those be purged els shal your bodies and soules perishe for euer For of this I would ye were most certaīly persuaded that a corrupt religion defileth the hole life of man appear it neuer so holie Neither would I that ye should esteme the reformation and care of religion lesse to appertaī to you because ye are no kinges rulers iudges nobils nor in auctoritie Beloued Brethren ye are goddes creatures created and formed to his own image and similitude for whose redemption was shed the most pretious blood of the onlie beloued sonne of God to whome he hath commaunded his Ghospell and gladtidinges to be preached ād for whome he hath prepared the heauenlie inheritance so that ye will not obstinately refuse