Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
honour_n	custom_n	fear_v	tribute_n	4,452	5	11.2078	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30625	A treatise of church-government occasion'd by some letters lately printed concerning the same subject / by Robert Burscough ...	Burscough, Robert, 1651-1709.	1692 (1692)	Wing B6137; ESTC R2297	142,067	330

time was in your judgment fit to be extirpated by Magistrates and Rulers in their own vindication Because as you tell me the permission of such a Power over their Subjects as would not only possess an interest in their Consciences but be strengthned as a Secular Empire by a close connection of all the parts of it and an exact dependance and subordination would render their own precarious How unfit this was to fall from the Pen of a Person that makes profession of Christianity your self may better be able to judge if you suppose that you had stood before Decius or Dioclesian to give your advice concerning the state of Christians and the manner how they were to be treated For had you then spoken your mind freely as you have now expressed it it would have been to this effect Amongst the Christians O Emperor there hath generally obtain'd a Form of External Government which is very useful indeed to them but to you as dangerous For it possesses an interest in the Consciences of your Subjects it is strengthned by a close Connection and an exact Dependance and Subordination of its parts and being so it renders your own Power precarious I therefore think that it is necessary for you to oppose it if you will be safe upon the Throne and not weakly abandon the defence of your own inherent Prerogatives But to this the Christians might have reply'd That what you had suggested was false and injurious That no danger arriv'd to the Emperor from the Form or Administration of that Government which obtain'd amongst them or from the Exercise of their Religion in their Assemblies but much advantage rather to himself and his Dominions For example By their Discipline they did not usurp his Prerogatives but put greater restraints upon Vice than he did by his Laws By their solemn Prayers they endeavour'd not to engage Heaven against him but to draw down Blessings on him and by hearing the Doctrine of the Gospel they were not instructed in the Arts of Sedition but to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to pay Tribute and Custom Fear and Honor to whom they were due By their Sacramental Engagements they did not carry on any wicked design but bound themselves not to commit any Thefts or Robberies not to break their Faith or Promise nor to conceal or keep back a pledge And they that so carefully avoided all Injustice were far enough from invading the Rights of Princes and could not but be useful Members of Humane Society 'T is true the Heathen Emperors were sometimes under apprehensions of danger from their Assemblies But Plinius Secundus could discover nothing in them that might give any just occasion to such fears or create disturbance to the Empire Tertullian who knew them better speaks with great assurance of their Innocence He professes that if they were not unlike the Seditious Societies or Factions which are unlawful they ought both to be involv'd in the same condemnation But says he We are the same being assembled as when we were dispers'd We are the same all together as when we are taken singly and apart hurting no man grieving no man The union of Persons so inoffensive and so ready to render to all their due could not be pernicious to any especially not to the Magistrate The Government which was establish'd amongst them could not be inconsistent with that of the State for however they were distinguished from one another yet were they both preserv'd together The Authority of Spiritual Rulers did subsist without Injury to the Secular Power which flow'd in another Channel and without help or assistance from it And in this Condition was Church-Government in the Days of the Apostles and afterwards under the Reigns of the Heathen persecuting Tyrants The variation of Circumstances which it met with under the Influence of Christian Princes comes not under my present Enquiry but it will be consider'd in the Second Part of this Treatise CHAP. II. The Apostles stood related amongst themselves as Equals but to other Ecclesiastical Officers particularly to the Seventy Disciples and to Presbyters as Superiors they were Bishops both in Title and Authority I Have shew'd what Authority the Apostles had not and what they had I shall in the next place consider how they stood related amongst themselves and to other Ecclesiastical Officers I shall digress from you in handling the former of these but it will not belong before I come to the last in which our present Controversie is chiefly concern'd First I observe That the Apostles stood related amongst themselves as Equals in their Office and Authority They were all sent by our Lord as he was by the Father They had all alike Power to pardon and retain sins And nothing of Jurisdiction can be mention'd that was peculiar to one of them and not common to the rest Yet the Zealots of the Roman Communion ascribe to S. Peter a Sovereignty over the rest and for this they passionately contend not caring what they say if they think it may advance the Glory of that Apostle One may conjecture what is to be expected in this kind from their lesser Writers when so great a Man as Leo Allatius so much passes the bounds of Modesty Peter on earth says Allatius is Christ in Dignity and Authority What things soever therefore were under the Administration of Christ are subject also to Peter who after him is truly Christ So that he hath Authority over all the Churches in the World over all the Sheep and over all the Shepherds He tells us in another place That as the Earth was divided amongst the Sons of Noah so that Shem had Asia Cham had Africa and Japhet Europe thus was the Christian Common-wealth divided by S. Peter into three Patriarchates which were the Alexandrian the Antiochian and the Roman But as for the Roman it hath Dominion he says in the other Patriarchates So that the Pope is subject to none He judges all men but is not judged by any He gives Laws to others but receives none He changes Laws at his pleasure He creates Magistrates He decrees what is to be receiv'd as matter of faith and as he thinks fit determines the weightier affairs of the Church Although he would yet he cannot err for a bar is put upon falshood that it may have no access to him He cannot be impos'd on by delusions and although an Angel should declare otherwise yet being fortified by the Authority of Christ 't is impossible he should be changed This is very lofty and the Author hath furnished us in this Harangue with a notable train of thoughts He was Keeper of the Vatican Library to three Popes successively and he shews what sordid flattery he had at the service of his Masters It were easie to make large Collections of such Extravagancies but I hasten to more useful matter I shall only produce an instance or two out of Xavier's History of Christ