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	render_v	tribute_n	3,126	5	11.2636	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43670	A sermon preached before the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and citizens of London, at Bow-church on the 30th, of January, 1681/2 by George Hickes.	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1864; ESTC R12553	30,557	44

mean when we cannot escape betwixt denying and dying for the faith It would be endless to cite all the passages in the Gospel which show it to be an obedient peaceable meek and suffering doctrine and so far from being prejudicial to Caesar's autority that it makes him the Minister of God and commands its professors to give him and all that are put in autority under him their dues and rather dye than resist them by force Render unto Caesar saith Christ the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's And ye must needs be subject saith St. Paul and for this cause pay ye tribute because they are God's Ministers Therefore render to all of them their dues tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear and honour to whom honour is due Hitherto we have seen what Christianity taught as to active and passive obedience unto Caesar Let us now proceed to enquire what the primitive Christians practised and begin our enquiry at the practice of the Founder of it Jesus Christ As for him as he taught so he lived he verified his own doctrine and exemplified his own precepts both as to active and passive obedience for as Justin Martyr told the Emperor he paid tribute unto Caesar as well as other Jews of the Province and rather than resist the lawfull autority which sent to apprehend him he let himself be led as a lamb to the slaughter saying unto Peter who drew his sword Put up thy sword into his place for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword and thinkest thou if I would resist that I cannot pray to my Father and he would presently give me more than twelve legions of Angels And when he was arraigned of high treason before Pilate for calling himself a King he made his defence in these words * Joh. 18.36 My kingdome is not of this world for if my kingdome were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but I own my self to be Caesar's subject and my kingdome is not from hence Thus he set the example and the Apostles the next Promulgers of the Gospel followed his steps For the first time they were beaten by the Sanhedrin for preaching Jesus and the Resurrection they * Acts 5.41 rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for his holy Name Saint Paul in particular speaking of his stripes above measure of his frequent imprisonments and of his being so often near death I glory saith he in these things which concern mine infirmities as he calls his sufferings and persecutions and exhorts the whole Church of Corinth to endure sufferings after the example of the Apostles who as he tells them were pressed above measure and above strength and who despaired of life having the sentence of death continually in themselves Yet in all this they finned not nor never so much as thought of resisting the powers but still suffered according to the will of God committing their souls unto him as unto a faithfull Creator And therefore when Tertullus in the name of the Sanhedrin accused Paul for a mover of Sedition before Foelix he denied the charge saying They neither found me in the Temple disputing with any man nor raising up the people neither in the Synagogues nor in the City neither can they prove these things whereof they now accuse me Nay so eminent was the patience and passive obedience of the primitive Christians that St. Paul applies this Text unto them out of the Psalmist For thy sake are we killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter They followed the Lamb that was slain they overcame the Dragon by the blood of the Lamb they washed their garments in wine and their clothes in the mystical blood of grapes and if any man saith St. John have an ear to hear let him hear He that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword Here is the faith and patience of the Saints And as the Apostles followed the Lamb so their disciples and successors followed them For St. Ignatius the Disciple of St. John gloried in the bonds in which he was carried from Antioch to Rome and rejoiced to think as he speaks in his Epistle to the Romans That he was not of the tares but of the wheat which was to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts to make the pure bread of God That whole Epistle is † Such as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of divine and heroical strains of Christian patience and courage and in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna speaking of his sufferings he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is near the sword is near God and he that is in the Theatre among the wild beasts is as it were in the midst of God He suffered at a time when Christians suffered in multitudes and when they were in a condition to resist For Pliny in his Epistle to the Emperor about the Christians told him † L. 20. Ep. 97. Visa est enim mihi res digna consultatione maximè proptu periclitantium numerum multi enim omnis aetatis omnis ordinis utriusque sexûs etiam vocantur in periculum vocabuntur neque enim civitates tantum sed vicos etiam atque agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est Certe satis constat prope jam desolata templa sacra solemnia diù intermissa That the contagion of the Christian Religion had so infected the Towns Cities and Villages of Bythinia that the Temples were become desolate and the solemnities of the Gods almost quite left of And Tiberianus his President of Palestine in a Letter to his Majesty upon the same occasion told him that he was * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weary with killing the Christians who discovered themselves unsought for and multiplied the more the more they were put to death So early were the Christians in a probable capacity of defending themselves but yet rather than doe so by resisting the lawfull Powers they were led like Lambs to the slaughter and like sheep that were dumb before their shearers they opened not their mouths About Fifty years after this when the Christians were grown far more numerous Justin Martyr told the Emperor Antoninus That they were the most innocent and obedient of all his Subjects taking care above all things according to the precepts and example of their Master † 2 Apol. p. 64. to pay him all his customs and tribute and that next after God they loved and obeyed his Majesty acknowledging Emperors and Rulers to be ordained of God and praying always that together with his Imperial power he might enjoy a sound and sober mind And Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna another Disciple of St. John who suffered about this time bespoke the President who had commanded him to swear by the Emperor's-Genius in the name of the Christians thus