Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A56694
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A sermon preached before the King, on St. Stephen's-day by Sy. Patrick ...
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing P839; ESTC R23416
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11,988
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37
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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