Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	know_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	74	3	8.9087	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00659	Golden epistles contayning varietie of discourse both morall, philosophicall, and diuine: gathered as well out of the remaynder of Gueuaraes workes, as other authors, Latine, French, and Italian. By Geffray Fenton.	Fenton, Geoffrey, Sir, 1539?-1608.; Guevara, Antonio de, Bp., d. 1545?	1575 (1575)	STC 10794; ESTC S101911	297,956	420

preached and receyued by the greatest part of the world by which the wisedome and goodnes of God disclosed manifestly that that which floated and florished in despite of the industrie crueltie and power of the worlde was come from Heauen from whence was ministred vnto it all fauour succour and ayde The Originall of tirrannie and Idolattie together with the punishments of tirantes and Idolators how Abraham was chosen chéefe of the Hebrewes YOur letter no lesse full of modestie and swéetenesse then replenished with doctrine and iudgement bringes no small delight to me for that to your déepe science already in thinges I finde remeyning a zealous desier yet to know more wherin I can not but accompt it to belong to my office to adde to your zeale and trauell my faith and diligence though not able to teach you further yet as touching the request of your letter to shew my opinion leauing it to be controlled by that fauour and wisedome where with you are wonte to measure and iudge the errours of your frendes But touching the matter as you haue to remember that out of the race of Cain issued Nembroth the great tirant Who by his ambition and pride subdued all men and Nations of his time enforcing them to liue vnder his tribute and customes So there is no doubt but these tirranous spirittes are most hurtfull to the world and by the Scriptue reputed as ennemies of God For their desier to heare rule makes them breake all order of iustice bearing no regarde to lawes nor ordinaunces Yea in respect to encrease maintaine their principallitie they giue suffrāce to all men to be insolent with liberty to committe disordered actions In the time of Nembroth were many possessed with this wicked spirit of pride and ambition who assemblinge together conspired to builde a tower of incomparable rate of height and measure to the ende to perpetuat their name and reputation amongst men But God beholding their arrogant intentions and willing to manifest the wickednesse of that tyrannye and presumption of that pryde bréeding so many miseries and euils let fall his anger vpon them confounding in such sort the Tongs of the builders and workmen that one vnderstoode not an other since they all spake vnknowne and straunge Languages Afore the foundation of the Tower of Babilon there was but one language in all the world God then inflicting vpon the earth a wonderfull punishment by the confusion and diuersitie of speaches But thus it happened that the first men hauing lyued but vnder the vse knowledge of one tongue and now béeing in confused deuided into many dispersed themselues thorow the worlde by whose posterities haue bene continued all those diuersities of languages that now reigne This diuision of tongues was the cause that the Tower of Babilon was not ended by which occasion also the Princes of the earth leauing their tyranie were driuen to search new coūtreyes to inhabite euery one following his language as an ensigne sunder the which they might plant and multiply By this diuision of men and Countreys people fell into so great erors that forgetting the doctrine of God together wyth the promises he had made to men the most part of the world became Idolators declining to such superstitions as the deuill inuented dayly to aduaunce his purposes So that Idolatry toke his beginning of infidelitie and the wicked inclinations of men deliting leaue the right way to folow that that leades to perdition To this was much helping the forgetfulnesse of the trueth and the negligence of men caring not to folow religion and doctrine and much lesse to teach it to others An other originall or fountaine springes of the loue of our selues called Selfeloue together wyth an insaciable will which men haue to put themselues in libertie inducing them faythfully to searche a thousand waies for their satisfaction and by some meane to inuent abhominable Superstitions whervnto the deuill is so readie to minister assistance wythall the art and fauor he can that poore sinners to make them the more hardened and desperate fixing vpon certaine faulse and deceitfull experiences attribute in the ende dignitie to any thing of the which according to their coniecture they had receiued ayd or answere In other places they haue a certaine feare in their consciences which restraines them to demaund of God the things which themselues estéeme to be wicked dishonest By that it comes to passe that they are pleased with the seruice of these faulse gods who care not but only to be serued as gods wythout regarding whether the men be iust or vnrightful For seing these dissembled Gods be deuils in déed passible to all actions councels of deuils they are of cōmon congruency enemies of iustice frends to wickednes those be the preparations that the deuil finds in the harts of such as he hath enchaunted abusing them with perswasion that there is a god of battels another of robberies a God of drunkenes another of whordome all these Gods béeing most delyted with such as most are giuen to dishonest acts infidelity also the root of al sinnes was one cause why those miserable people were ignorant of the greatnes power of god yea they could not be brought to beléeue that one God was sufficient to furnish perticulerly al things necessary to the vse of men seruice of the world of this came the plurality of gods men belieuing that they were restrained to precinct and limit that euery god had his perticuler estate to gouerne Of which sprang the first Idolatry for some worshipped the Sunne with many other triffling and dishonest things others did worship to deuilles which abused them by illusions oracles yea somtimes by certaine aparances of remedies tending notwithstanding to their ruine This blindnes was suffered by the iustice of god to punish such as leauing the light run after darknesse making themselues iudges of their proper affections ruled their hartes according to the same how good or euil so euer they were in which respect god willing to punish those vices excesses suffered the deuill to raise faulse signes miracles euen to aduance the destruction of such as fell into spoyle by their infidelitie and multitude of their transgressions And albeit Idolatrie was great before the flud and that the worlde pursued alwayes his first corruption béeing stirred vp by the Deuill who induced men to a forgetfulnesse of God Yet the mercie of God who had not forgotten his Promises made to mankinde so prouyded for the effect of his Promise that he chused a People particular to reestablish wyth him the trueth of his Promises and alliaunces To them he gaue a perfecte lyght to guyde them agaynst those Darkenesse and obstinacies which the Deuil raysed agaynst them he established lawes and ordinaunces touching the Seruice of Religion wyth expresse Commaundement that they obserue them and bée attentiue to the worde of God the better to arme

to his creatures of the world but it is measured with his iustice and paysed with his wisedome and mercie And so following eftsones our first matter if it be true as it is most cleare from error or falshode that the Lord is iust and in his iudgements righteous and doth all things by waight and measure how can this be w tut apparance of contradiction when hee gaue heauen to the théefe without deseruing it and led him with him into Paradise hauing done to him no seruice For sinnai for sinner wicked for wicked vnthākful for vnthankful théefe for théefe it séemes to the aduise reason of man that God might aswel haue employed his kingdome in Judas that had followed him thrée yeres as vpon the théefe that accompanied him on the crosse but thrée houres fur erat loculos habebat it was written of Judas he was a théefe and had the bagge and of the other it is also written that he was a théefe and a robber wherein if in the maner and fashion of robbing they were different much lesse were they like of name and fact So that if Iesus Christ had taken his kingdome from a wicked man to haue giuen it to a good man that had bene to do iustice vprightly but to take it from one théefe to bestowe it on an other robber séemes a thing very straite and hard for that in the world there can be nothing worse employed then that which is geuen to a person vnworthy God the creator tooke the right of inheritance from Cain to bestowe it on Abell he depriued Jsmaell to giue it to Jsaac and Esau to transferre it to Jacob he tooke it from Ruben too bestow it on Juda he deposed Saule to the end to rayse Dauid to the Empire depriued Holy to aduaunce ▪ Samuell al which he did for that in the one fort of them he found great merites and in the other plentie of wickednes and abhominable crimes But in these two théeues the world discerned little apparance of merit and lesse expectation of any good thing in a life so euill disposed as theirs where being detected iudicially the very testimony of their faultes proued in them sufficient matter to bée reprehended and corrected But since GOD is of a power to pearse into the thoughtes hartes and intencions of men and to him selfe he hath reserued the solucion and triall of thinges that hée doth I say that in this nor in any other case what so euer there is nothing wherein it is lawfull for man to argue with GOD For in this did hée iustly send Judas into hell and wyth the same equitie translate the théefe into Paradise●… for that the one was worthy of glory for confessing his trespasse and the other deserued to loase it for that hée was a Treator to the lyfe of his Mayster Let vs not marueile at the thinges that GOD doth and much lesse rise into thought and wonder at the thinges which the almightie in his eternall counsell foreséeeth one man findes out an other by the habitte that they beare but GOD iudgeth euery one by the harte that hée hath yea hée leadeth the actions and effectes of their lyfe not according to their worldly appetite or wisedome but as hée hath preordeined in his eternall presence whereby it followeth that in the soueraigne and high tribunall of Iesus Christ the trueth of his iustice neuer was corrupted nor the measure of his mercie falsefied Therefore if Iesus Christ communicated the kyngdome of heauen to the théefe he did it in these good reasons and considerations first because hée confessed him to bée Lord hée accompanied him on the Crosse hée rebuked his other companion acknowledged him selfe to bée wicked died with Iesus Christ and to him recommended himselfe Oh infinite bountie and secret iudgements of God séeing that in recompence of a fewe transitory yeares wherein the théefe was a sinner in the world the Lord was content to be satisfied wyth the thrée houres wherein hée became a good man on the Crosse Yea those thrée houres onely wherein hée accompanied Iesus in his Passion serued him more then the thrée yeares of the Apostleshippe of Judas And these houres béeing the last and extréeme seasons and respite of his temporall lyfe hée employed so well that the more hée had sinned at leasure wyth so much more deuoute diligence hée repented and so much the more soddenly aspired to his conuersion But let vs nowe ioyne to the example of this théefe his singular excellencies and withall let it bée a chiefe office in our Christian dutie to knowe that the foundation of our health and heauenly felicitie consistes in the true fayth wée haue in Iesus Christ by meanes whereof as wée ought to doe our dutie and thereby stand in grace to obtaine that wée would or desire so without this meane wée can not be saued nor yet deserue to bée called Christians For to be a Christian is no other thing then to beléeue in Iesus Christ our GOD and serue him as our redéemer And that this good théefe was made a Christian it is a good argument to holde that he would not haue aunswered for Iesus Christ if hée had not bene a friend to Iesus Christ neither would hée haue recommended him selfe to him as to God had hée not beléeued him to bée god That this théefe was baptized we make no doubt but the maner and place of his baptizing is to vs vnknowne onely we may say that if there were want of water to performe the ceremonie there wanted no teares of the mother nor bloud of the sonne to regenerate him At the baptisme of Christ was onely S. Iohn but at the conuersion of this théefe was Iesus himselfe his mother S. John Mary Maudlen Nicodemus Joseph together with the inhabitants of Jerusalē vpon which we may inferre the in the house of God more honour is reserued to good théeues then to wicked Emperours This theefe was so good a christian and beleued with so great zeale in Iesus Christ that in faith he surmounted all those that till then were dead and withall was no lesse equall to all such as then liued For publikely and without feare he confessed Iesus Christ to bée God where all the others either denied him or doubted of him So much the more merit hath the fayth of a Christian sayth S. Gregory by how much lesse the reason of man hath force or vigor of it So that the merit of our catholique faith consistes not so much in thinges that the eye séeth as in that the hart beleueth But let vs conferre a little the simple beléefe of this théefe with the faith of those that were dead long afore him and such also as liued at the instant with him and we shall find that by how much they excelled him in good life and conuersation by so much did he requite it in the recompence of his faith and beliefe Abraham had faith but

the magistrate offendes the multitude bréedes disease in the braine and brings decay to the purse For to buy a payre of gloues of ten crownes is more for curiositie then necessitie Yea there bee many vaine and light men that will not sticke to bestow a dozen crownes vppon a payre of swéete gloues for their Lady that haue not the hart to bestowe a poore gowne vppon a student nor in smaller things to minister to the necessities of their near parents such men spend their portions more by opinion then in reason and against such men is pronounced the threate of the Prophet The time will come sayth he that the perfumed men shall suffer great paynes and in place of precious oyntments they shall féele most horrible stinckes Yea such men are abhominable afore God infamous to a common weale and their qualitie daungerous to their conscience and chargeable to their purses In which respects let all gentlemen practise more to liue vertuously then to studie to be perfumed since vnder heauen there is nothing that carieth a swéeter smell then a good renowme nor any thing that sauoreth more horribly then the fume and incense of wicked life To be a good Christian is a swéete oyntment to haue a cleare conscience smelles better then Ciuit and to be innocent in life and vertuous in example is of farre greater merit and dignitie then all the perfumed Pomanders we can weare A letter to a perticuler friend rebuking all such as offer outrage or iniurie to any that are newly conuerted to the fayth of Christ calling them infidels or miscreants or by any other name of reproch SIr before the children of Israell issued out of Egypt they had a Kyng and no Law but long time after their departure they liued vnder lawes and were subiect to no kinges Only there commō weales were administred by iudges and their soules instructed by sacrificators of whom the last sauing one was Hely A man very zealous to his countrey but most negligent in the institution of his house and posteritie For his children were so giuē ouer to disorders so subiect to their perticuler willes and so farre estraunged from vertue that the scripture in the first Booke of the Kinges detecteth them in this sort peccatum puerorum erat grāde nimis coram domino quia detrahebant homines a sacrificio the sinnes of the sonnes of Hely were too great in the sight of the Lord For not content to be wicked themselues they laboured to drawe others from well doing Of which sinne they were most of all other conuinced as perswading al others to do no sacrifice by meane whereof and for punishment of their faultes the olde man perished sodainely his children were slaine and their wiues died of child So that the punishment of the sinne of ill doing and the Cryme of drawinge others from dooinge well fell not onely vppon those that dyd it but also vppon such as consented thereunto I haue drawne this auncient historie into these perticulers not so much to reproch you as to wish you to well waigh and note it but chiefely to introduce occasion to aunswere certaine late spéeches of youres which ought to haue bene as farre from your conscience as they deserue no way to bée familiar wyth your nobilitie Plato entertayning an olde man as his speciall frende ministred to him no small trauell to reforme his vices and being oftentimes perswaded by his followers to loase no more time to take away such desperate and hardened faultes Sure sayth Plato I had reason to be wearie to warne him if I boare no more regard to the office of a frende then to the hope I haue to doe good by my trauell For so delicate is the law of frendship that a frende ought rather to loase his paines then leaue any scrupull in his loyaltie This example serues aswel to our purpose as the figure of the great Priest Hely and so to our matter Not to doe ill I saye is the office of an innocent euen so to geue ouer to doe well belonges to a man negligent To be holde to be wicked is the office of an euill man But to be desperate and defende the ill is the worke of a man wholie gouerned by the deuill For that no man can be reformed of his sinne if first he acknowledge not his fault according to the which Sir I haue to charge you that in that you disputed yesterday you neyther shewed your selfe a knight a Christian nor a courtier For a Christian ought to estéeme his Conscience the knight is tyed to his modestie and the Courtier aboue all others ought to expresse affabilitie And therefore séeing that the honorable moare in the Court is alreadie baptized and reconciled to the fayth of Iesus Christ and that by my trauell and agaynst the wil of all the Moarishsect you dyd agaynst the Charitie of a Christian abused the profession of a Knight and steyned the reputation of a ciuill Courtier when you called him Infidell Miscreant and infamous Moare Are you that God whereof the Prophet speaketh Scrutans corda et renes Taking vpon you to know whether this Moare be a Miscreant or a Christian It may be that you haue measured your merittes with his and weyghed in one Balance his fayth and youres or perhaps you haue Gods at commaundement to acquite your sinnes and giue you place amongest the iust séeing you condemne others and iustifye your selfe Wherein it séemes you remember not that to God onely is reserued the trueth of the secret of such as are ordeyned to be saued and appoynted to be damned So that if this Moare beleue in God as well as you if he be Baptized as lawfully as you if he go to the Church with as good deuotion as you and if we sée him doe no act but of a Christian and in you is found no miracle I sée not how you haue any authoritie to call him Infidell no more then he hath reason to doubt you to be a Christian They be wordes of great rashenesse one man to vpbreade an other wyth such iniuries Séeing that to be a good Christian we are not onely bounde to doe good déedes but also to vse modestie and my lonesse in our speach otherways if a Christian call his neighbour Foole he shall be guiltie of Hell. And as there is no great difference of the iniurie for one man to call an other Foole and to call him Dogge So to a man receyued into the fayth there can not be a greater reproche then to be called an euill Christian For that to be tearmed Foole tendes but to the preiudice of the reputation of wisedome but to be called a wicked Christian toucheth a mans soule and defaceth his renoume So that if Christ forbyd vs Christians to call one an other Foole much lesse can he brooke the outrage of greater iniuries Since by the Schole and rule of his Law we are taught to imbrase one an other wyth such sinceritie as neyther

the posteritie generation of his house this being an infallible rule in the reuenge of God that when he deferreth he striketh with more vehemencie redoubling the blow according to the time he spareth to strike I pray you tell m● if it be ill done to hurt an other why is it your practise and if it be a vertue to make restitution why forbeare you to satisfie the wronges you haue done For my part I can not accompt it either to honour or valiancie for a man to put him selfe in necessitie for the safetie of his person eschewing the face of iustice no more is it wisedome in any man to offer his life to perill in hope of remedie I doubt whether at this instant you stand in greater necessitie of counsell then of reliefe for that they bée two miseries that goe ioyntly with afflictions Amongest all your other friends debating of your fortune I pray you think that to giue you counsell I am very yong to minister to your wants I am a religious man And yet by the vertue of our friēdship I cā not but send to you though not to satisfie you yet to shew my self careful hoping that séeing my facultie stretcheth no further you wil accept my good wil since that who giueth what he hath can shew no greater liberalitie Touching your businesse I wish you to withdraw your selfe from thence and be more familiar here by which meane you shal be further deuided from your aduersaries and find your iudges more fauorable the same being also a degrée to appease the mindes of your enemies if you cease to search them further that being the greatest reuenge you can giue to make small estimation of your enemies There is no loue that weareth not nor hatred that endeth not if we giue place to time and cut occasions from vs For as tract of time carieth with it a law of forgetfulnes of things past so when the louer discontinueth and the enemie is absent the loue is turned into forgetfulnes and the hatred into a mountaine of smoke Who wil be frée from blame must not only forbeare to do ill but eschew the suspicion euen so to purchase quiet it is good to doe no wrong but to keepe vs from quarrell it is necessary to cut of occasions By the importunitie of your request to solicit your cause you séeme to hold my friendship suspected Wherein your error is so much the greater by how much you know your businesse findes fauour by my diligence and industrie And your selfe can giue good testimonie that from the beginning my friendship hath bene greater then your merit and in my care and counsel haue consisted the whole course of your well doing so that I wish your condicion better tempred then to be bitter in hatred and suspicious in friendship You ought to know that in all things there is meane but in the conuersation of a friend with whom this is chiefely to bée obserued either altogether to forsake him or wholy to trust him assuring you that that mā is no friend that retayneth distrust séeing friendship requireth faith and merit Amongst true friends nothing ought to be reiected nor any thing to deserue suspicion And albeit it is not out of pollicie to stand in distrust doubt of our enemie yet so simple ought we to be towardes our friend as in his bosome to powre our secrets and not to be Ielouse of any counsell he giueth since true friendship can brooke no distrust and where is no treason there can be no possibilitie of deceite A Letter of a daintie Lady falne sicke for the death of her little dogge MAdame taking the opportunitie as it is I am bold to write to you not so much to comfort your sorow as to rebuke the occasion estéeming me so much the lesse apt to minister remedie by how much your disease is particuler light and fantastike Amongest such as are sicke it is a ready degrée to amendement to reappose hope in their Phisition euen so where the cause is more then naturall there the office of the Phisition is but vaine for that the patient languisheth more by opinion thē by infirmitie It ill becomes the Phisition to laught at the griefe of his Patient and yet the cause being found vaine and easie there is no reason he should make sorowe where the cure is neither desperate nor doubtfull and more doth it concerme the comfort of the sick that he be mery with the passion of his Patient then to dissemble a heauines in that which of it selfe is both light and friuolous It hath bene alwaies a condicion of the world that where some perished others found safetie where one receiued honour an other suffered infamie And where some find cause to smile and laugh others are followed with teares wéeping al proceding of the instabilitie and change that followeth all the thinges of the world And as in one place of the sea we sée the water calme and mylde and in an other full of tempest and storme and one part of the land disposed to diuersitie of weathers and an other quarter all cleare and resolued So it happeneth many times to the Children of men that according to their diuersitie of complexions they bring forth varietie of Passion some suffring sicknes when others enioy health many subiect to malencolly when others delite to be merie and sundrie féele the head-ach with laughing when the rest get sore eyes with teares and wéeping So that it being a thing sure that calmes succéede stormes and stormes followe fayre weather it is good that none swell and rise high in prosperitie and much lesse be doubtfull in aduersitie For that in the end there is no perplexitie which weareth not nor any pleasure which loaseth not his proper qualitie And as all thinges are to be taken in one of these thrée sortes either to lament them laugh at them or dissemble them So good Madame your Passion rising but for the losse of your litle Dogge deserueth more to be laughed at then dissembled séeing that as you loued it vainely so though you wéepe for it yet your sorrowe can not bée but light Our Moother Eue sorowed for her sonne Abell and Mary Magdalen wept for her sinnes but you bearing litle compassion to your present offences and lesse consideration to your vertues past forbeare not to shed teares for the losse of your litle Dogge A passion heretofore neuer expressed by any and much lesse conuenient to your reputation grauetie For that to great Ladies striuing to be holden modest and vertuous it ought to be a chiefe care to auoyd the imputation of vanitie lightnes And true teares being no other thing the droppes of bloud which distil from the hart by the eyes there is nothing wherein we can expresse better effect of true affection then to wéepe for the losse of our friend For that the sorowfull hart being enclosed within the intrailes hauing neither féete to goe nor handes to make