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	confession_n	faith_n	3,345	5	5.8249	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00249	A consolatory letter to all the afflicted Catholikes in England	H. B., fl. 1588.	1588 (1588)	STC 1032; ESTC S116626	41,844	112

lyght so shyne before men Let the confession of your fayth and your good conuersation be so manifeste that they maye see your good woorkes and gloryfie your father which is in heauen Thirdly therfore it is to be considdered that the Church for maintayning of her visible vnitye hath certaine outwarde signes wherin her children do participat one with a nother wherby she is knowen and distinguished frō other companies For as S. Augustine sayth Into no name of religion either true or false can men be firmely compacted excepte they be tyed together by some fellowship of visible signes or sacraments And these outward signes are esspeciallye the blessed Scacrifice the holy sacramentes of the same publike prayers and seruice of God which are not in the protestants churches And therfore whosoeuer resorteth thither doth manifestly fayle in these tokens of his profession and so diuideth himselfe frō the visible vnity Fourthly this vnitye requireth not onlye that a man participate in sacramentes and prayers but also that he be obediente to his lawfull pastours And now it is euident that the whole churche in the Councel of Trent by condemning the heresies of this time hath also forbidden vs to haue felowship with the folowers of those heresies in diuine thinges Neither was it needful by expresse wordes to prohibit the comming to their churches seing that it was forbidden expresly to pray with heretikes euen by the Cannons of the Apostles and in diuers ages by sundry Councels whiche wee shal haue occasion to cite herafter And who knoweth not that the meaning will and commaūdement of all Catholike pastors at this daye is that we shold abstaine from the a foresayd churches vnder no lesse payne thē to be cast out of the true church Fiftly the practice of our country is most manifest wherby those that only haue bin presēt at the scismatical seruice are holden for very scismatikes accordingly are dealt withal in their rising vp from their ruine and they in the mean time in their owne consciences do acknowledge them-selues to be debarred from the vse of al holye Sacraments Sixtly al this is grounded vpon great reason for like as the protestants are heretikes in respect of their false doctrine so are the scismatikes in their different manner of seruing God And therfore who soeuer doth but seeme to concurr with them in that outward acte of seruice the Churche being not able to searche his harte and minde but iudging him acording to that which he sheweth outwardly must needs cēsure him as a scismatike Which censure is more greeuous terrible then if a man were adiudged to be striken with a sworde to be consumed with fire or to be deuoured with wilde beastes And more bitterly and vnhappily is a man bound by the keyes of the church after such iudgment then by any other most greuous and harde bondes albeit they were of yron or Adamant stone Neither let anye man thinke to be acquite from the crime of scisme or from this heauy cēsure because his acte of going to the protestants churche is constrayned by feare of worldlye losse and not altogether voluntarie For although he wold not doe this acte if the feare were remoued yet according to the condition of this presente time he choseth it as most expedient for him And therfore al circumstances considdered and as thinges goe now it is more voluntary then against his wil and simpliciter as it is termed as the case now standeth it is voluntarie For if feare might haue excused the Churche had done greate wrong not onlye to those who had denyed their fayth by doing sacrifice or casting of incence into the fyre before Idoles through constraint of torment but euen to those who had geuen vp their names among thē that sacrificed al which sortes of offenders were long time with-holden from the Sacramēts and caused to doe harde penance yea manye of them were not admitted to the company of the faithful vntil that eyther the persecution ceased or that the extreme poynt of death ouertoke them or if such faynt hartes might be holden blamelesse where should become the glorye of martirs or the inuincible perseuerance of constant Confessors And therfore great cause haue you rather to suffer your selues to be condemned to the payment of twenty poūdes by the moneth then to be subiecte to this so iust and withal so heuye damnation LIkewise you refuse to dissemble in matters belonging to God your conscience which kind of dissimulatiō S. Augustine reckeneth for the first and worst kind of detestable lying Therfore in one place speaking or Seneca who in his harte knew the Idols of the gentils to be most false and vayne and yet by his outward behauiour seemed to honour them the same doctor pronounceth this sentence in this sorte that he dyd more damnablye worship those false gods for-somuch as those thinges which he did faynedly he did them in suche sorte that the people thought him to doe them truely and in deede from his harte and in a treatis of purpose writtē against the Priscillianists who defended it as a thing lawful for a man to counterfayt a contrarye religion for aduantage and also against certain Catholikes who forsoth as they sayd to espye and finde out heretiks would put on a visard of heresy He determineth that dissimulation in no wise to be vsed shewing that if they shold cōuert any of those heretikes by going among thē in that sort yet shold they as muche confirme their disciples in that errour of thinking it lawful to lye dissēble as they shold edify them in other poynts of doctrine So that neither the catholiks shold know whether an heretike were in other things cōuerted or no so long as he remained in that doctrine of lying Nether shold the new conuert knowe when or wherin to beleue his maister whom he had found in many thinges here to fore haue bin a dissembler a lyar In the same treatis he reciteth the example of Iehu who fained to cōmit Idolatrye therby to entrape the priestes of Baal as wicked and sacriligious and by no meanes to be folowed For neuer did the Apostles who were in deed right holye and true martyrs any such thing for the sauing of their owne lyues as this King did vppon indiscreete zeale to take away the liues of others And wherfore because that with the harte we beleue to Iustice but with the mouth confession is made to saluation Which confession is of dutye and necessity when soeuer a man by his silence should be thought to haue forsaken his faythe or that the religiō should be the worse lyked of or that others should be induced to wauer in their fayth thorough dissimulation All whiche conditions may doe concurr in this case of yelding to heretikes to resorte to theyr churches and seruice And here it is to be noted that the Priscillianists were not the first that would warrant