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
A70803	A decad of caveats to the people of England of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our Protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2176; Wing P2196; ESTC R18054	221,635	492

Governours That human Laws where e're the matter of them is lawfull are the Laws of God too And that for this cogent irresistible reason which I have several times urged and think I can never urge it enough because commanded by that Authority which God has commanded us to obey § 7. Shall I exemplifie and illustrate what I say by plain Scripture on either side God forbids us by Moses to worship Idols And He bids us by S. Peter submit our selves to every Ordinance of man Again He bids us by S. Paul Obey them that have the Rule over us Now is not God's Law as binding in what he bids as in what he forbids his peculiar People I know the former binds Semper and the later ad Semper But when they Both bind they cannot but bind with an Aequality Or is not his peremptory Command as obliging under the Gospel as it was under the Law Is not the Message of God as good when dispatch'd to us Christians by S. Peter and S. Paul and by Christ himself as when sent unto the Jews by a single Moses Is not God the same Jehova to Them and Vs and his Word as authentick in these last Times as in the First Why then do not Christians make it a matter of as much Conscience to obey the Laws of Men whom God has commanded them to obey as not to worship a graven Image which God has commanded them not to worship That Each is equally God's Command was never deny'd by any Christian nor ever can be And is not His Command that we do a Good thing as valid as his Command that we abstain from what is evil Yea 't is as much a Christian's Duty to obey his lawfull Governours and by consequence their Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil as it is not to worship a graven Image The first is as conducible to our Salvation as the second And Damnation is as much threatened to the Breach of the one as the other Precept § 8. Now in my slender judgement and such as it is 't is the best I have there can be no likelier way whereby to win over our weak and dissenting Brethren from the ways of Separation they have espous'd than that of labouring to convince them by all good means from the Pulpit and from the Pew and in the privacy of the Closet by publick Preaching and Catechizing and private Conferences especially which we shall find to be ever the most effectual that saving the Dignity and Priority of the first and great Commandment as the Ground and Foundation of all the rest our Obedience to our Governours and human Laws in force amongst us is as really an essential or Fundamental of Christianity and of as absolute Necessity to our Salvation as the Belief of one God or any other that can be nam'd It being as rigidly commanded by God in Scripture under the very same Promises of Reward if we obey and under the very same Threats of endless Punishment if we rebel 'T is not enough that This Doctrine be like the Homily of the Church against Rebellion which is commanded by Law and Canon to be read once a year in every Parish nor is it enough that it be preached up of course upon the Thirtieth of January and the Fifth of November But 't is of absolute necessity to be riveted and ingrain'd first of all into the Heads and after That into the Hearts of People committed to our charge that they must needs be Subject that is Obedient to human Magistrates and Laws not onely for fear of the Magistrates Wrath or for hope of worldly Profit no nor onely for fear of Hell or for hope of Heaven but as S. Paul goes on to tell us for Conscience sake I say for Conscience towards God and for Conscience towards our selves because 't is part of the Law of Nature and simply Good in it self not consequentially as every positive Law is but antecedently obliging and without any the least relation to God's particular written Law so often repeated in the Scriptures though This does make our Disobedience to be the more unexcusable and the Person disobeying fit for the greater Condemnation I know the Custom of Disobedience and the great Numbers of the Refractary and their Impunity thereupon and the seemingly-good morals of some Dissenters and their giving out themselves for the Godly Party These five Fallacies put together have bred an opinion in many weak and unwary Christians that they need not be subject to the Higher Powers upon Earth though S. Paul says they Need Rom. 13. 5. That the Powers spoken of are not the Ordinance of God though S. Paul says they are v. 1 2. That they may not submit to every Ordinance of Man though S. Peter says they must 1 Pet. 2. 13. And so they imagin that it consists with a Godly life to slight the Authority of their Governours and scorn their Laws unless when their Governours and their Laws are to protect Them and Theirs both in their Livelihoods and their Lives from fraud and violence in which one case they will readily submit to every Ordinance of man though not for the Lord's sake as S. Peter would have it yet for their own In a word they think it lawfull to live in Schism if not in Sacrilege still in Sacrilege where they are able and so to tear in pieces not the Seamless Coat onely but the Body of Christ crucified in a mystical sense § 9. To frame an Amulet in proportion to the Contagion of this Disease wherewith a world of easie Souls of catching Complexions have been infected I humbly conceive it may be made of these Six Ingredients First that no Form of Godliness can be other than Pharisaical which is not attended with common Honesty Next that none can be truly honest who do not render to All their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour Rom. 13. 7. Thirdly that nothing can be more due from any one to any other than from the Subject to the Soveraign and all in Authority under Him To wit the Tribute of Obedience as well as Money the active Custom of Conformity as well as passive Subjection to Laws in force and as well to Those Laws which tend to the publick Peace and Safety as those others which maintain us in the private injoyment of our Estates The Fear of offending as well as of suffering for our Offences lastly the Honour of inward Reverence as well as of outward Complaisance Not as Men-pleasers but as the Servants of Christ Fourthly that a Dishonest man is ipso facto and eo ipso an ungodly man and Disobedience to the Fifth Precept as bad as Rebellion against the seventh or the eighth or rather worse And so a Common Nonconformist to Laws establish'd is to speak within compass as Scandalous in his life as a Common Drunkard Fifthly that such a Subject as will no longer allow the

and that indeed is one Sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor can we say they are Possessors but onely Personators of Holiness I am not willing to be so rigid and do heartily wish it were false to say That they are really nothing else but the Apes of Satan who is Then at his worst the Prince of Darkness when he transforms himself the most into an Angel of Light So said our Saviour and so S. Paul And from both we may infer That of all the Hypocrites in the world the Devil himself is the most Demure and by being such indeed is the more a Devil Thus we see what is meant by the Relative Which in this Place and what use we are to make of its Antecedent § 13. But what may last of all be meant by seeing the Lord in this Text that our Apostle should set it down as the greatest Recompence of Reward to such as are Followers of Peace and Holiness When Moses desired to see the Lord and therefore earnestly pray'd that God would shew him his Glory The very Mercy of God's Answer did consist in the Reason of his Denial Thou canst not see my Face for there is no man shall see me and live And therefore Gideon himself although a mighty man of Valour as God himself is pleas'd to call him a man as stout as the steel with which his Proverbial Sword was temper'd was yet exceedingly afraid as soon as he perceiv'd he had seen an Angel of the Lord. And so it was with good reason that Manoah said unto his Wife We shall surely Die because we have seen God And if these things are so that we cannot see God without the danger of sudden Death It may seem a sad thing for a man to be a Follower of Peace and Holiness because by that means he shall see the Lord. But § 14. The Answer to this is extreamly obvious It being no more than to distinguish betwixt the Eyes of our vile and of our glorified Bodies If we behold him with the first we shall find him indeed a consuming Fire But when we shall see him with the second we shall find him nothing less than a quickening Light Here our Eyes are so carnal that it very much hurts us to see the Sun unless we see him in his Reflexion or at least through the veil of some Diaphanous Body And if the Brightness of the Sun is enough to strike the Beholder Blind How can we safely gaze on Him to whom the Sun is but a Shadow Yet after the Time of Restitution when what is sown in weakness shall be raised again in power Then our Life will consist in the sight of God We then shall see him as he is no longer darkly as in a Glass but face to face and that with infinite Pleasure as well as Ease And this alone is that Vision which is alluded to in the Text. Without an earnest Prosecution of Peace and Holiness in conjunction no one shall be qualified to live by seeing what here he cannot see and live None shall enter within the Veil or be made a partaker of the Beatifick Vision None shall wait on his Throne in whose presence is Life and where there are Pleasures for evermore § 15. Thus in the Suit of the Explication we have before we are aware a full Division of the Text. And not so only but also practical Reflections on all its parts First We have seen a single Act of great Moment And Secondly How 't is fixt on a double Object The double Object is Peace and Holiness which according to the Scope of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewing the Energie and the Force of the single Act are to be Prosecuted and follow'd with Zeal and Fervour Next to the Act and the Object which are sufficiently express'd we have their absolute Necessity very significantly imply'd For these are set as the Condition on which alone we arrive at Bliss It is for none to see God but the pure in heart And therefore this is a cogent Reason for the fastening of the Act on the Double Object For the Intensiveness of the one and the Extensiveness of the other § 16. But now because it is impossible that men should eagerly pursue their Christian Duties whilst they believe them to be needless or gainless Things Things which rob them of their happiness in this present World and without which they may be happy in That to come We must possess our selves more fully than we have hitherto done not onely with the Nature of Peace and Holiness but more especially and in the first place with their absolute Necessity to life aeternal whereof unless we throughly convince our selves we cannot hope with any reason to ingage our Resolutions to follow Both. § 17. First For the word Peace it is that that comprehends our whole Duty towards our Neighbour and as well to our Enemies as to our Friends For how can we follow Peace with All men in so earnest a manner as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does import unless we labour by forgiveness to overcome evil with good Rom. 12. ult much more must we render unto every man his Due Tribute to whom Tribute Custom to whom Custom Honour to whom Honour Fear to whom Fear Rom. 13. 7. and so by analogy of Proportion Service to vvhom Service Love to vvhom Love no injury to vvhom no injury is due For every Injury is breach of Peace We must owe no man any thing but to love one another Rom. 13. 8. And therefore injure him vve must not no not so much as in desire This is to follow Peace indeed when we do not onely not give a Cause but not so much as an occasion of just offence When we keep not onely our Hands but even our Heads and our Hearts from picking and stealing When we do not commit Adultery no not so much as with our Eyes When we do no Murther no not so much as in our wishes When we dishonour not our Parents whether private or publick Ecclesiastical or Civil not not so much as in our Wills This is as much as in us lies to make an eager Prosecution of Peace with all men Which comprehends our whole Obedience to the Second Table of the Law § 18. Secondly As Peace does grasp the whole Duty of Man to Man so we may say also of Holiness that 't is the whole immediate Duty of Man to God Which more especially consisteth in these three Things In preserving our Loyalty in exhibiting our Reverence and lastly in rendring our Active Service The first hath respect unto our Thoughts the second unto our Words the third unto our Actions First for Loyalty That we know is a vertue by which a Servant does acknowledge no Master but his own holds no Intelligence with his Enemies admits no Rival in his Affections but ever honours him and owns him and adheres to him alone