Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	christian_a	empire_n	great_a	55	3	2.1083	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64424	Tertullians apology, or, Defence of the Christians against the accusations of the gentiles now made English by H.B. Esq.; Apologeticum. English	Tertullian, ca. 160-ca. 230.; H. B. (Henry Brown)	1655 (1655)	Wing T785; ESTC R18180	106,345	228

themselves with him in the faith of Iesus Christ Heerupon it was he so powerfully resisted the vanity of Philosophy which he formerly so delighted in and knew to be the principall ground of Superstition So that the same things hee heertofore studied to adorn his mind withall and bring it to the knowledge of false Gods whilest hee lived under the servitude of Idolatry by an admirable working of divine providence served him since his conversion as strong instruments to destroy the worship of Idols Now it is very reasonable that hee who so earnestly desired the salvation of his enemies should have a particular care of his brethren groaning under the weight of persecutions which Pagans made them suffer As therefore he piously laboured to open the eyes of the Gentiles and make them worship his Master so he happily imployed himself likewise to represent to him the holinesse of those who most unjustly were charged with such strange crimes Two principall things hee equally endeavoured to set forth namely the falsenesse of the Gods of the Gentiles and the truth of one only God and joyning together the defence of doctrine and manners proved by one same work the faith and innocence of Christians Hee came into the Church neer the end of the second Age about the time when Severus came to the Empire The faithfull then enjoyed a profound peace after a furious war The Hmp rour Marcus Aurelius a wise Prince for the world but too much addicted to the opinions of Philosophers suffered the fourth Persecution to bee kindled which being stirred up in the year of our Lord 164. by the fury of the people and injustice of the Magistrates who governed the Provinces swept away an infinite number of the servants of GOD Neverthelesse although some rest they had in the year of our salvation 176. by the authority of that Prince his forbidding upon pain of death to accuse the Christians for their Religion by a●ust acknowledgement of the service hee had of their affection When by the prayers of Christian souldiers which were in his troops heaven poured down a favourable showr that refresht in extream necessity the Army bee commanded in Germany Yet this calm lasted not long the quiet of this unconstant sea brought in with it an horrible tempest especially on this side the Alps where the City of Vienna and Lions saw the Rhos● dyed with the first bloud the members of Iesus Christ spilt in Gaule The people that durst not directly resist the will of the Emperour transported with extreame rage against so many good people began againe to trouble their rest in the year 179 on othre pretences than that of Religion They accused them of supposed crimes the borror whereof made their names odious and by this detestable subtiloy dragd them unjustly before the Courts of Iustice whereby they cluded the punishment established by the Emperour against those who accused the Christians and boldly glutted their cruelty on these innocents whom they exposed to all kind of tortures and in the end in humanely put them to death for confessing the name of God only This Persecution ended with the life of Marcus Aurelius The faithfull after so many suffering had rest under the Emperour Commodus who transported with a bloudy outrage against all Orders of his State by a secret judgement of God spared none but Christians And certainly it was by a visible miracle that this Prince an enemy of all honesty was not also an enemy of those in like maner that made profession of godlinesse that this Prince who shed with so much tyranny the bloud of his people should close the wounds by which came out that of the Christians and that these Idolaters who before had no spectacle so agreeable to their madnesse as the punishments of the Faithfull should cease to afflict them in a time when heir hands were so accustomed to slaughter Wee must acknowledge God who inspires such motions as please him in the hearts of men the author of this so strange wonder Hee procured this peace to the Church to the end hee might fortifie it against the assaults it was to endure soon after It s certaine during this tranquility it was much increased the Gentiles moved to see such excellency in the Christians the innocent carriage of their lives could not consider therof without astonishment They admired the purity they saw shine in their actions From thence sprang desire in them of discovering the cause of such perfection and employed were they in the search of its originall which is truth And after they had broken downe the vail which hindred them from knowing the same they embraced it with as much affection as ever they strove against it So not only the people but those also whose birth and merit raysed them to great dignities followed the Crosse of Jesus Christ They renounced their Idols to consecraete themselves to the service of the true God and abandoned the Temples of the false Gods that they might serve no other but that one God that created them By this means Towns wrer peopled with Christians Armies made up of them and the Senate of Rome from whence flowed the Governours of all the World filled with them every day These are the fruits which peace had produced which the Church injoied since the Empire of Commodus Severus having found the Empire in this happy condition left it not so The Sovereigne power fell in his hands in the yeare of our Lord 195. At the beginning hee shewed no sign of any aversion against the Christians but contrarily made great esteem of them witnessed their probity and openly opposed the violence of the people when hee saw them most incensed to the Christians destruction He had still before his eyes the benefit wherwith he was obliged to a Christian named Proculus Torpacion who heertofore restored him to his health and by the remembrance of such a recovery was so dear to him that he alwayes kept this man neer him so long as he lived he durst not use violence to the Religion of him to whom he owed his life so long as he was in the world and his presence ready to reproove him of such ingratitude The death of this Christian time and the revolution of affairs changed his mind unhappily to indignation Hee had two Competitors in the Empire Piscenius Niger who held Syria and declared himselfe Emperour in the City of Antioch and Claudius Albinius who was Master of Gaule and Britain Severus accommodated himselfe to this man and associated him with himselfe in the Empire to defeat the other and after overcomming Niger who died of akurt hee received in fighting turned his thoughts unto procuring the ruin of Albinius whom he had honored for no other purpose then to destroy him Albinius being dead he came back from Gaule victorious and entring Rome he was there received with publick acclamations rejoycings and such solemnities as Superstition had brought in and which thwarted the holinesse of the

mines of the Emperours inheritance and if all these temples depend not absolutely on his will There are many gods have had experience of Caesa●s anger and this is an advantage to us that the Prince being favourable to them hath used his liberality and accorded some priviledges to them Now how is it possible that they that are subjects to the Emperour to whom all the world is subject should have the welfare of their Emperour in their power there is more likely-hood they have their welfare from Caesar then Caesar from them What offend we the majesty of the Prince because we cast him not under the things appertaining to him because we turne not into derision the prayers which should be raysed up to Heaven for his preservation and believe not that it is in the hands of the leaden statues of your gods Truely you appeare very pious to your Prince being you seeke his welfare where it is not and demand it of them who can do nothing forgetting him that hath the power to give it and seeing you persecute men who can demand it and knowing how to aske it know also how to obtaine it CHAP. XXX As for us in the prayers wee make for the Emperous wee call upon the eternall God the true God the living God this God to whom the Emperours prefer their assistance before that of other gods they know very well who gave them the empire they possesse and men as they are know who gave them the spirit wherewith they are animated They acknowledge there is no other then this onely God through whose power alone they subsist to whom they are inferiour one degree onely after whom they are next in place before and above all other that are called gods Why should they not be greater then these gods seeing they are masters of all the living which are more worth then the dead they consider how farr their authority goes and apprehend the essence of God in proving they can do nothing against him also seeing God greater and of more power then themselves they are forced to acknowledge they can doe nothing but by him Let the Princes of the earth makes as many designes as they please to subdue Heaven undertake to carry Heaven in triumph as a captive command courts of guard to be kept in Heaven strive to make Heaven tributary they labour in vaine hee is great because not altogether so great as heaven To him heaven and all creatures appertaine the Emperour drawes his originall from the same place whence man drew before hee was Emperour the author of his soule is the author of his power It is to him to whom wee Christians addresse our prayers make them with hands opened and lifted up because innocent the head bare because no cause to bee ashamed when wee pray to God There are none declares to us the words we are to say because it is our heart that acteth rather then our tongue Wee pray for all the Emperours and aske of God that he would give them along life that their Empire enjoy a profound peace their house a happy concord their armies be invincible themselves assisted with good counsells the people remaine in their duties no trouble arise in the world against their authority In the end we forget nothing the Prince can wish for either as a man or as an Emperour Neverthelesse we cannot aske these things but of him of whom wee know wee shall obtaine them as hee is the onely one that must grant them wee are they alone that must pray for them because we and none but we are his true subjects for of all men hee is worshipped of none but us let them put us to death because wee follow his doctrine and offer this rich and fat sacrifice which hee will have us consecrate unto him to wit a prayer conceaved and produced from a chast body an innocent soule a spirit filled with holinesse and not with the graines of incense of little value the teares of that tree of Arabia two drops of wine the blood of an Oxe ready to die of old age and for that reason even to bee rejected in true sacrifices finally after all sort of uncleanesse with a contaminated conscience In effect there is where withall to wonder that among you the Priests vicious as they are exactly consider it the sacrifices are pure and intire they examine rather the inwards of the sacrifices then the insides of them that offer them then whilst we implore the grace of God for the Emperours with our hands lifted up and stretched toward heaven let irons pierce us gibbets put us on crosses fires consume us knives cut our throats beasts devoure us A Christian while in prayer lifting up his hands to God is in a condition fit to receave all sorts of punishments and therefore continue O magistrates so affected to justice ravish our soules whilst they are in prayers for the welfare of the Emperours and make a crime of truth and the service of God CHAP. XXXI BUT it may bee you imagine our hearts belie our words that what we come from saying of the vowes wee make for the welfare of our Emperours is but flattery by which wee thinke to shelter our selves from the torments prepared for us But if wee use faigning this faigning is not unprofitable seeing you admit us to prove what we alleadg for our justification wee entreat them who believe our Religion takes no care of the preservation of the Emperours to examine the lawes of our God to read our bookes which wee hide not and which by divers accidents fall into other hands then ours They will learne there that it is commanded us by a superabundant charity to pray to God for our enemies and to wish good to them that persecute us Now have wee greater enemies and ruder persecuters then those who make offended majesty the ground of the crime they impute unto us Holy Scriptures content not themselves with this commandement they have another more precise and clearer pray say they for Kings Princes and powers that you may live in peace in the midst of publicke tranquilitie for if the Empire be shaken all its members suffer a generall shaking it is impossible we should not feel it because although people take us for strangers yet seeing wee occupie certaine places as well as they wee make a part of the state as well as they and together with them participate of its good and evill fortune CHAP. XXXII VVEE have yet an obligation greater then that of praying to God for the Emperours all estates of the Empire and prosperity of the Roman affaires Wee are assured that the generall dissolution that threatens the Universe and this consummation of ages which must bring such fearefull confusions in the world is retarded so long as the glorious majesty and triumphant Roman Empire shall last We desire not to bee present at the subversion of all nature and when wee pray to God to deferr it we pray