A SERMON Preached before the KING ON St Stephen's-day By SY PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Printed By His Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell for R. Royston Bookseller to His Most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-corner 1676. A SERMON Preached before the KING On St. Stephen's day 1675. ACT. VII 59. And they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit O How beautiful is a Succession of Good things as St. Gregory Nyssen cries out in a Sermon on this Festival How sweet is it when one Pleasure transmits us to another and the end of the present is the beginning of a new Satisfaction Behold here that which we all so much desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feast after Feast and Grace upon Grace Yesterday the Lord of all entertained us to day we are invited by the noble Imitator of our Lord. The one feasted us by putting on the Man for us the other by putting off the Man for him the one by coming down into the Dungeon of this Life as he calls it for our sake the other by going out of it for his O happy life of Christians whom their Lord would have to rejoyce alway and in every thing to give thanks first for him and then for those Worthies that followed him For next to the most Blessed Redeemer of Mankind the great Captain of our Salvation those blessed Saints who were the great Champions of his holy Truth challenge our solemn and devout Commemoration The Christian Religion which comforts us with such a blessed Hope was propagated by their means especially by their Sufferings Col. 1.24 which filled up as St. Paul speaks that which was behind or wanting of the afflictions of Christ in their flesh There were no Sufferings wanting indeed to complete Christ's Satisfaction but there did some remain to complete the Testimony which he had begun to give by Blood to the Truth of God These the Apostles and other Great persons filled up and finished in those parts of the World where he had not himself in Person appeared There they published the same Truth for which he died and testified and confirmed it in the same manner that he had done by laying down their Life for it so that in them he still lived and preached and wrought wonders and was persecuted and despised Death and subdued the Nations under his feet He that overcame death once for us says one of these Martyrs overcomes it always in us In us he fights and in us he conquers In these combats which we constantly endure coronat pariter coronatur he both crowns and is likewise crowned They are the words of S. Cyprian Epist VIII Now among all those Triumphant Souls who so honourably witnessed to our Saviour the most Eminent was this Glorious Martyr S. Stephen whose Memory is this day celebrated because he was the first who subscribed the Christian Doctrine and sealed it with his Blood becoming thereby Primicerius Martyrum as S. Aug. calls him the Chief the Prince and Captain of the Martyrs as Christ is the Prince and Captain of their and our Salvation Before he had seen any mere Man leading him the way when there were no footsteps but those of our Saviours wherein to tread he led the way himself in a Bloody path and arrived to the Honour of being the First-born of all those whose Nativities that is Martyrdoms the Church commemorates with her Praises and Thanksgivings And this he did in the very first year as it is most probable after our Lord's Ascension to the Throne of his Glory and when he had but newly received Imposition of Hands Lib. 11. Hist Eccles c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius speaks as if he had been Ordained only for this Ministry to sacrifice his Life for the Testimony of Jesus It is an easie thing as S. Gregory Nazianzen speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a Christian when there is no danger and when there is all sufferings are the easier when we have many Companions or glorious Examples to encourage us But it is the singular priviledg and peculiar glory of this Saint that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He was the first that opened the passage to the quire of Martyrs Greg. Nyss Eusebius the first that resisted unto blood striving against sin the first that was adorned agreeable to his Name with the crown and diadem of confession It is not my intention nor will the time permit me to relate the whole story of this great mans sufferings together with the occasion of them how he over-powered his Adversaries with the Wisdom and Spirit wherewith he proved Jesus to be the Son of God how he astonished them with the Wonders and Miracles he did among the people how he stopt the mouths of those that disputed with him and how False Witnesses were thereupon suborned to bring in an Accusation against him but shall only note the Invincible Resolution and the Pious Patience of this Blessed Martyr under all that he endured For they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit Stoning was the heaviest Punishment that the Law of Moses enacted against the most grievous Crimes If a man had blasphemed God or made his Children pass through the fire to Moloch or committed villany with a Beast or cursed his Parents to name none of the rest of those XVIII sorts of sinners who were to be thus used they could do no more to shew their detestation of his wickedness than to dash him against the stones and if that did not dispatch him to throw stones at him till he died Now when a whole showre of these came pouring down on this Good-mans head when the blind Multitude ran upon him with such a rage as if he had been the vilest creature on Gods earth it did not move his spirit in the least to any unchristian passion nor extort from him one angry one revengeful one unseemly word He only commended himself to God and prayed for his Persecutors and expressed his hope in Jesus that when they had beaten his Soul out of his Body he would receive it unto himself And great reason he had for such Hope being already advanced by the Faith of Christ to such an Heavenly and God-like nature as to express the greatest love to those who hated him so bitterly and to expose himself to the greatest danger for the sake of Christian Piety which he desired by these means to propagate even among its most deadly enemies And if we rightly consider it we shall not easily find any thing that so much declares the Greatness the Excellency and as I may call it the Divineness of any mans spirit or tends so effectually to promote the Christian Faith as truly pious Patience under the greatest Sufferings upon its account I. First I say it is an argument of a great and noble Spirit it declares
their Counterfeits The one were meek the other angry and furious The one humble the other haughty The one ready to do good to those by whom they suffer'd the other desirous of revenge The one loved their Enemies the other only contemn'd them The one were forward to excuse their folly the other to aggravate and upbraid them with it The one smiled upon their persecutors and blessed them the other look'd as if they would pour out Anathema's and excommunicate them from all their charitable thoughts Nothing was more peaceable and quiet than the one while the other were tumultuous and violent The Martyrs were submissive and easily govern'd but the other were boisterous and violent It was proper to the former to appear with a modest chearfulness and a humble confidence but the other seemed to be surly rather than well satisfied bold rather than well assured And therefore no wonder that these Holy Souls so mightily prevailed over all the powers of darkness in what shape soever they appeared and that they overcame as St. John writes the Dragon that old Serpent the Devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony not loving their lives unto the death And no wonder also they had such a lively hope in God and could look up so stedfastly to Jesus as this blessed Martyr did expecting that he would receive their Spirits with the kindest affection unto himself For they had attained to the Baptism wherewith he the King of glory was Baptized A Baptism as St. Cyprian calls Martyrdom In gratia majus De Exhort Martyrii in potestate sublimius c. In grace greater in power more sublime in honour more precious A Baptism in which the Angels baptize in which God and his Christ rejoyce A baptism after which no man sins which consummates the encrease of our faith and parting us from the world straight-way unites us to God In the baptism of water is received remission of sins but in this of blood the Crown of Virtues And a very noble Crown sure it was that such faithful followers might hope to receive from the hands of so gracious a Master For being so much advanced above the world while they were in it and having done him such eminent Service they could not doubt of his favour in lifting them up to live with himself in exceeding great bliss when his Enemies would not permit them to live here any longer If there were any thrones higher than other in those heavenly places where St. Stephen saw our Saviour they might very well expect to be promoted to them to reign with him there in endless glory and to be honoured here on earth with perpetual praises I. For from all this you cannot but see how sit and just it is that we should make most solemn commemorations of those to whom the Christian world stands so deeply obliged and that the Church should give a kind of first-fruits of them unto this glorious Martyr Orat. XXII whom St. Gregory Naz. calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first fruits of those who suffered after Christ This the ancient Christians did with so great affection that their Enemies calumniated it and said they worshipped them No says St. Cyril in his VI Book against Julian where he justifies this practice excellently and therefore give me leave to contract a long discourse he hath about it There is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man-worship among Christians For we have not made a God of a Man nor adore one that is not by nature God when we worship Christ himself But acknowledging that man who appeared to be the Word of God by whom all things were made we go to him as God for so he is As for the Martyrs we neither call them Gods nor give them any Divine Worship Yet we cannot but honour them or rather we crown them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the highest honours As those who have generously contended for the truth and resolutely preserved the purity of our Faith and propounded themselves as certain Images of that so much admired fortitude and gallantry to all the world There can be no absurdity in it but rather it is necessary that they who excelled in such famous deeds should be crowned with endless honour Did not common reason teach the ancient Greeks as much For those that hazarded their lives at Marathon for the safety of their Country and those that stoutly opposed the Army of Xerxes in after-times the Athenians were wont meeting together every year at their Graves to crown with their Encomiums and high commendations as men that dyed a glorious death And your Plato says That they who live excellently and dye bravely should be honoured as more than men and their Tombs become venerable It is no wonder then that we account the Holy Martyrs worthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all respect and reverence and that we honour their very Monuments making a perpetual never-fading commemoration of them serve in stead of a small recompence of such illustrious vertue Thus He. And it is very well known how in those days their names were solemnly rehearsed in the Publick Liturgies of the Church Which custom though it be not still continued yet their memory is ever precious we honour them with due praise we make mention of their noble deeds with hearty thanksgivings to God for them Laudamus glorificamus admiramur c. to speak in the words of St. Austin or whoever he was that wrote the Book de excidio urbis we praise we glorifie we admire the holy Martyrs we celebrate their days with a pious solemnity we venerate their worth and as far as we can we imitate them and endeavour to do as they did For by their zealous labours and sufferings Infidels were converted lapsed Christians recovered the doubtful confirmed the luke-warm inflamed the fervour of the pious doubled and all Posterity excited both to adore the power of the Divine Grace in them and also to hope in God for the like Grace to help in time of need Those are the two reasons St. Basil gives why those that loved the Martyrs were so unwearied in their commemoration of them In XL. Martyres Because the honour which is given to our pious fellow-servants is a demonstration of our affection to our common Master And he that entertains brave men with due respect will not fail to imitate them on the like occasion II. And that I must needs say is the greatest honour we can do them to propound them always to our selves as our patterns and to follow them in their constant love to God to Religion and to all Mankind whatsoever we suffer for it True Christian Piety and Vertue if we will allow the Martyrs to have had any judgment is the most valuable thing in the whole world for they preferred it before their lives And therefore all Infidelity is a direct reproach to those blessed Souls representing them as a company of rash
commend the first They ascribed their Miracles sometime to the power of evil spirits But their meek and Lamb-like Patience their tender-hearted Charity to those that hated them their forgiving their Enemies their praying for their Persecutors their blessing those that cursed them and obliging those that reviled and abused them these things the Devil himself knew not how to calumniate no more than he knew how to counterfeit His Agents and Factors had not the heart to suffer any thing but loved their ease and their pleasure though they appeared with a very strange power of marvels and signs and lying wonders As Jannes and Jambres 2 Tim. 3.8 says St. Paul withstood Moses so did these also resist the Truth which was preached by the Apostles That is as those Egyptian Magicians vied a while with Moses in strange works and astonishing operations whereby they sought to impair his credit with the people So did these new Juglers contend for some time with the Apostles and hoped to gain as great admiration by imitating their Miracles But they were not more desirous all this time to shew themselves in mighty works than they were craftily careful to shun all pain and trouble for their cause For it is expresly noted as a part of their Character by the same St. Paul Philip. III. 18. that they were Enemies to the Cross of Christ in which the Apostles gloried and rejoyced II Cor. XII 9 10. And here it will not be unfit to note these two things I. First That what glory soever there was in Miracles as they did at last so outshine all Imposters that they quite eclipsed them no less than Moses did the Magicians it never appeared more illustrious than when the Apostles exercised perfect patience under the sorest distresses Then the Divine vertue in them broke out and shone most brightly When they were weak then were they strong as St. Paul speaks in the place forenamed When they were crushed by the power of their Enemies then they most amazed them by discovering this mighty power of Christ in such weak and earthen Vessels What could be more astonishing than to see those who were fast manacled and fettered unloose their own and others bands shake the foundations of Prisons open without any Key or other Instrument the Dores which were strongly lock'd and barr'd upon them Nay unchain not only fast-bound bodies but also miserably inthralled Souls Was it not a great wonder to see Jaylors come and crouch to those whom they had newly scourged desiring to be unbound and absolved by their chained Captives and yeilding themselves voluntary Prisoners to those whom they had violently kept in durance Yet this we read in the Story of the blessed St. Paul Act. XVI who then triumphed when he sate in the Stocks then appeared illustrious when he was thrust into a Dungeon for that 's the meaning of the inner Prison there mentioned then was highly honoured insomuch that they were ready to kiss his Stripes when he was treated as a man of no account Here the Apostles and their Successors left all their opposers far behind them who fled from dangers and timerously avoided all pain and trouble or endured them with a base and abject Spirit which sunk when it wanted the peoples breath to blow it up They were far from taking pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses having no hopes to win any glory by this means as St. Paul did who demonstrated his Apostleship in all patience as well as in signs and wonders and mighty deeds II Cor. XII 10.12 But true Patience is such an admirable property that the Devil hath not the power to attain so much as a shadow of it It is too beautiful for his deformed nature and crooked disposition being a composition of all those lovely virtues and graces of the Holy Spirit to which he is a perfect stranger He can sometime transform himself into an Angel of Light but when do we find him in the form of a truly resigned and contented sufferer This is the unalienable Prerogative of Christ and the great Champions of his Faith who with such a Charity as St. Paul describes I Cor. XIII 4 5 6 7. every property of which is the Character of Patience as Tertullian hath truly observed endured all the contempt hatred and cruelty of the world accounting it a great honour and gain no disparagement or damage at all to be vile and to lose all they had for the sake of their Dear Lord and Master Christ Jesus There did it is true arise in after Ages such sturdy Spirits for instance the Circumcellions a part of the Donatists Faction as would endure any thing with a barbarous resolution for the credit of those Dotages wherewith they troubled the world But they were wholly void of that ancient Spirit which had ever been in Christian sufferers They had nothing of that Modestissima Patientia as the Author of the Book de Duplici Martyrio speaks that most Modest Patience wherewith Christian Religion inspired its followers Illud placidum illud mansuetum c. That sweet that soft that gentle and tender that humbly sublime as his Phrase is and sublimely humble Spirit was no where to be found but among the Martyrs who never spake a worse word when they were condemned than Deo gratias thanks be to God which was the common form wherein they received their Sentence from the mouth of their Judges That 's the second thing I have to add II. That when some Impostors endeavoured to imitate the resolution of the Apostles and Martyrs in exposing even their lives for the sake of their vain imaginations they were not able to imitate them at all in the Divine manner of their sufferings It is excellently said by St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Funeral Oration for his Father Orat. XIX That this blessed Martyr St. Stephen offered to God a greater thing than Death viz. Long-suffering meekness and forgiving of his Enemies He opposed as the other Gregory speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. to their anger a patient spirit to their threats silence to their hatred ardent love to their malignity good will to their false accusations preaching of the Truth If the false Apostles and other pretenders could have appeared in this handsom dress their delusion had been very dangerous But here they halted and knew not how to follow the genuine Disciples of Christ Jesus Their hardiness as St. Austin speaks of the surly Sect before-mentioned many of which would kill themselves and force others to kill them was to be admired for it was very great but their patience was not to be admired for it was none at all They suffered much evil that they might do the more They cared not what others did to them but withal they cared not what they did to others This was a remarkable difference which is all the time will give me leave to mention between the Christian Martyrs and