believern.

?a1425 (a1415) Lanterne of Liȝt (Harl.) (1917) 5 (MED) Þe feiþ of trewe bileuars.

?1520 R. Pynson tr. Frère Hayton Lytell Cronycle f. xxx/2 Nowe is tyme couenable to gyue helpe to the holy lande the which hath ben longe in y^e euyll beleuers handes.

c1531 G. Joye Lett. Ashwell to Lyncolne sig. B^v Christe came not as a lawyer like Moses but he was the very redemer and reconcyler of the beleuers thorow his bloude into his fathers fauour and grace.

1549 Bk. Common Prayer (STC 16267) Mattyns f. ii^v Thou diddest open the kyngdome of heauen to all beleuers.

1561 J. Daus tr. H. Bullinger Hundred Serm. vpon Apocalips vi. 42 The iii. daye [he] rose againe from the dead, and repared life for all beleuers.

1611 Bible (King James) 1 Tim. iv. 12 Be thou an example of the beleeuers . View more context for this quotation

a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1959) IV. 351 The understanding beleever, he [sc. the adversary] must chaw, and pick bones, before he come to assimilate him, and make him like himself.

1675 T. Brooks Word in Season 107 in Paradice Opened All the Devils in hell shall never wrangle a Believer out of his heavenly inheritance.

1704 R. Nelson Compan. Festivals & Fasts i. xiv. 144 They who first embraced the Faith were stiled Disciples or Believers.

1734 G. Sale tr. Koran xxiii. 281 Now are the true believers happy.

1742 L. Brown tr. J. B. Bossuet Hist. Variations Protestant Churches II. xi. 156 The multitude of the rest of the Sect, namely, of simple Believers, was then infinite.

1779 J. Newton in J. Newton & W. Cowper Olney Hymns i. 72 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer's ear.

1804 Literary Mag. Jan. 317/1 On Wednesday morning 23 waggons arrived in this city from New-Lebanon, loaded with provisions, &c. with three hundred dollars in specie, as a donation from the small company of Believers, (vulgarly called Shakers) of New-Lebanon and Hancock, to the corporation of New-York, for the relief of the poor of that city.

1826 in tr. J.-C.-L. S. de Sismondi Hist. Crusades against Albigenses Introd. Ess. p. xvii They were divided into two classes, the perfect and the believers.

1855 H. H. Milman Hist. Lat. Christianity IV. ix. viii. 168 The erring believer was as declared an enemy to God as the Pagan or the Islamite.

1888 C. H. Spurgeon in Brit. Weekly 3 Feb. 275 Here is an inner core of Evangelism in which all true believers are at one.

1922 D. G. Hogarth Arabia iv. 66 Omar..would confirm to all Believers of whatever race a common social status, markedly superior to that of all Unbelievers.

1937 E. D. Andrews & F. Andrews Shaker Furnit. i. 12 In the theology of the Believers, however, the ideal of separateness was traced to the Genesitic account of the fall of man.

1943 M. Samuel tr. S. Asch Apostle iii. iii. 662 Yesterday the new believers met for the first time with the Jewish Christians.

1991 Tear Times (Tear Fund) No. 52. 10/2 Because of the ten year incubation period of the disease, believers are falling sick with AIDS, even though they have lived godly lives since becoming Christians.

2000 Independent on Sunday 29 Oct. (Review Suppl.) 69/4 He is also extremely helpful in his quotations from the ‘Cathar Code’... ‘A Good Deed’ is the consolamentum, the sacrament during which the believer was baptised in his own spirit and became a perfect.

1530 G. Joye in tr. M. Bucer Psalter of Dauid f. 215 He promysethe his helpe to y^e belevers in him.

1571 J. Bridges Serm. Paules Crosse 159 Surely if they were true beleuers on Iesus Christ, they could not mainteine and defend suche wickednesse.

a1641 R. Montagu Acts & Monuments (1642) iii. 204 [transl. Tertullian] He baptizeth somewhere some, such as be his Beleevers and Affiers in him.

1692 B. Keach Rector Rectified & Corrected iii. 118 That which is holy in use that is granted to Believers of God.

1735 B. Hoadly Plain Acct. Lord's-supper 148 The Nature of the Thing supposes them Faithfull, (that is, Believers in Jesus Christ).

1792 M. Hemmenway Disc. conc. Church 70 Christ who knew the hearts of men, admitted some into the number of his disciples who were not true believers on him.

1840 J. Smith tr. Bk. of Mormon (ed. 3) 342 He prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren so long as there should a band of christians remain to possess the land; for thus were all the true believers of Christ..called.

1880 Pop. Sci. Monthly May 39 Clerk Maxwell..was no atheist, but a devout believer in God.

1935 Crisis July 198/3 As Mohammedans, they wanted Mutesa to become a believer in Allah.

1974 P. A. H. de Boer Fatherhood & Motherhood in Israelite & Judean Piety 52 It was no matter of surprise to find epithets of God borrowed from the relationship in the kinship group. For God is for his believers the utmost condition for life.

2001 R. Joshi Last Jet Engine Laugh (2002) 187 The occasion was the wedding of the daughter of..one of the richest traders in the city and a great believer of the Srinathji Krishna.

1596 T. Nashe Haue with you to Saffron-Walden To Rdr. sig. C4^v I protest I doo not write against him [sc. Harvey] because I hate him, but that I would confirme and plainly shew to a number of weake beleeuers in my sufficiencie, that I am able to answere him.

1675 J. Smith Christian Relig. Appeal ii. 23 Let us think that both Thief and Recetter, the Reporter and Believer of such Stories are grievous offenders.

1675 T. Thompson Quakers Quibbles iii. 81 I do believe, and declare to all the World I am a Believer, that the Apostles Peter and Paul, and the true Apostles and Ministers of Christ, had Divine Inspiration.

1676 M. Nedham Pacquet Advices 22 But if then you find no cause to believe all the other Outcries which were at the time of Clifford's Fall, hold on still, if you can, the humour of believing all the other Devices of his little Lordship; till he at length serve you, as he hath served all the rest of his Believers.

1761 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IV. xxvvii. 184 The inventor, the propagator and believer of an illiberal report alike so injurious to him.

1786 J. Ferriar in Manch. Mem. (1790) III. 50 Baptista Porta was not only a demonologist, but a signaturist, that is, a believer in the conformity of the virtues of plants to certain external appearances, supposed to be impressed by guardian angels.

1811 Parl. Deb. (1812) 1st Ser. 20 i. 237 A believer that the Old and New Testaments contained the revealed will of God.

a1816 R. B. Sheridan School for Scandal iii. iii, in Wks. (1821) II. 77 What man can pretend to be a believer in love, who is an abjurer of wine?

1860 C. Darwin Let. 23 Feb. (1993) VIII. 105 I look at every geological believer of the mutation of species as a most important gain.

1876 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People viii. §2. 470 James was a fanatical believer in the rights and power of his crown.

1921 T. J. MacSwiney Princ. Freedom vii. 103 That justification must be found in the virtue of the philosophy that gives its believer vision and grasp of life as a whole.

1942 Rotarian Apr. 34/3 I had always been a believer that Nature is the great healer.

1969 B. Justice Violence in City iii. 116 She would not hear of the boy not going to school. She was a big believer in education.

1995 D. Wilsford Polit. Leaders Contemp. Western Europe 167 [Einar] Gerhardsen was never a ‘true believer’ of socialism in the typical radical, nondemocratic sense.

2007 K. D. Wriston in W. B. Wriston Bits, Bytes, & Balance Sheets 136 He was a believer in teamwork and in giving credit where and to whom it was due.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 115 That a Brock or Badger hath his legs of one side shorter then of the other,..an opinion..received not only by theorists and unexperienced beleevers, but assented unto by most who..behold and hunt them dayly. View more context for this quotation

1688 W. Mountfort Injur'd Lovers iii. 36 Come hard Believer, if I do not prove Rheusanes false, I'l quit my claim to Love.

1735 J. Swift Let. to Middleton in Wks. IV. 206 I could get but few Believers, when I attempted to justify you.

1776 Ld. Kames Gentleman Farmer 338 The boasted effects of the Abbé de Valemont's prolific liquor, found many believers.

1881 L. M. Alcott Let. 12 Feb. in E. D. Cheney L. M. Alcott (1889) xi. 341 Wendell Phillips wrote..begging me to write a preface for..‘History of the Suffrage Movement’... All the believers will buy the book.

1907 A. Bennett Ghost (1911) ii. 24 At my reception there will be a spiritualism room. I'm a believer, you know.

1962 G. Vidal Rocking Boat 17 In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize.

1990 N. Blei Chi Town 68 I'm belly-up in chocolate and a true believer. Chocolate for breakfast is a first for me.

2004 A. Gaeddert Healing Digestive Disorders (ed. 2) p. xiii There are two types of people requesting help. Those I call the believers and the visitors. Believers are willing to do whatever it takes.