A68306:41
The copy of an epistle sentThe copie of an epistle sent
The copy of an epistle sent by John Knox one of the ministers of the English Church at Geneva unto the inhabitants of Newcastle, & Berwick. In the end whereof is added a brief exhortation to England for the speedy embracing of Christs gospel heretofore suppressed & banished.The copie of an epistle sent by Iohn Knox one of the ministers of the Englishe Church at Geneua vnto the inhabitants of Newcastle, & Barwike. In the end wherof is added a briefe exhortation to England for the spedie imbrasing of Christes gospel hertofore suppressed & banished.
At Geneva : s.n., M.D.LIX. 1559
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The same order I see doth God keep with thee ô thou happy and most unhappy England. happy, not only because thy God by his own hand hath oft delivered thee from corporal bondage of divers and strange nations, as of ⟨p. 63⟩Saxons, Romans, Goths & Danes,1 but especially for that that by the power of his eternal verity (& that of his free grace with out ••y deserving) he did of late years break & destroy the intolerable yoke of thy spiritual captivity, and brought the forth as it had been from the bottom of hell & from the thraldom of Satan, in which thou wast holden blinded by Idolatry and superstition, to the fellowship of his Angels and to the possession of that rich inheritance prepared to his dearest children with Christ Jesus his Son.2 But ô unhappy and more then unhappy, that hast declared thy self so unthankful and rebellious to so loving and so merciful a father, who fy•st gave thee life, when thou diddest lye polluted in blood, and dead in thy sin and now doth offer him self to be thy God,3 governor and ⟨p. 64⟩father,4 after that thou most traitorously conspiring with Satan by solemn oath haste renounced his verity. O unhappy and more then unhappy art thou (I say) if that this thy treasonable defection, and Gods loving kindness, yet calling the to his favours, doth not pierce thy hart with unfeigned repentance. For as this mercy and love of th• God far surmoū •eth the• each of all men • understanding▪ so can not his just judgements long delay to power forth those horrible vengeances, which thy monstrous unthankfulness hath long deserved, if thou as God forbid) now shut up thine ears, blind thine eyes, & so harden thy hat, that nether thou wilt hear, see nor understand the gravity of thy fall, & that unestimable goodness of thy God thus lovingly calling the to thy ancient honours & dignity