October 30, 2015
“Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind by country or language or customs. . . . This doctrine has not been discovered by them through any inventive faculty or the careful thought of pretentious men; they are not champions of a man-made principle, as some are. While they live in cities both Greek and oriental, as falls to the lot of each, and follow the customs of the country in dress, food, and general manner of life, they display the remarkable and confessedly surprising status of their citizenship. They live in countries of their own, but as sojourners. They share all things as citizens; they suffer all things as foreigners. Every foreign land is their native place, every native place is foreign…They pass their life on earth; but they are citizens in heaven. They obey the established laws, but they out-do the laws in their own lives. They love all men;3 and are persecuted by all. They are not understood, and condemned. They are put to death, and yet made alive.”
(Dognetus)