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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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
more than any thing else the force and vertue of any mans mind As Complaints continual Repinings and violent Commotions argue weakness and infirmity so silent Meekness chearful Submission and quiet composed Patience when we suffer wrongfully speak an Heart indued with strength and fortitude The World indeed thinks those most powerful who can do wrong and not be punished for it they that can irresistably overpower and oppress others have gained the Titles of Mighty Illustrious and Magnanimous but in a right estimation of things these Titles belong to such Souls as can suffer all the evil that those men do with an humble constancy and meek resignation of themselves to the Will of God These are the truly Great and Unconquerable Spirits these ought most to be admired and renowned for they remain Victorious even over their insulting Enemies they triumph over those that lead them captive Who find a stop put to the course of their Conquests when they meet with such Spirits as cannot be subdued nay are in pain and inwardly grieved to see men suffer chearfully more than they can lay upon them Jacuit inter poenas poenis suis fortior Epist XXXIV c. says S. Cyprian of Celerinus He lay tormented stronger than the torments he indured freer in prison than they that shut him in higher when flat upon the ground than they that trampled on him more at liberty in chains than they that bound him sublimer by far when condemned than they that sate on the Bench and judged him It was a sublime Spirit indeed that posssed these mens Breasts for it raised them by these means not only above the common rank of mankind and above all those who had astonished the World with their Greatness and Power but far above those gods whom the Nations worshipped Most of which had left no Records but of their Amours their Pleasures and Volupteous Enjoyments and none of which had made themselves remarkable for patient Innocence and pious Passing by injuries without any thought or desire of revenge This was a thing proper to the Christian Hero's as the Martyrs and Confessors may be justly called who became hereby more than Men and as some of the Ancients ventured to say more than Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Agonies and Conflicts they endured in their bodies excelling those Natures which have no bodies and consequently no such pains and miseries to contend withal as those Souls incumbred with Flesh overcame Which proclaimed so loudly the Power of the Ineffable Father in them as Justin one of these Martyrs speaks that they won the hearts of sober Pagans to the Service of that God who inspired his worshippers with such meek and humble but resolved and undaunted Spirits Which is the second thing II. That Christianity was hereby marvellously promoted and made a great progress in the World though this seemed to be the ready way to extinguish it Celsus himself as great an enemy as he was to Christianity was put to his shifts and forced to quit his former Principles when he came to consider the sufferings of the Martyrs Though he was an Epicuraean in his other Writings Lib. 1. contra Cels as Origen tells us yet when he set himself to dispute against Christian Religion he could not but confess that it was a Generous and Worthy thing to lay down their Lives in the Defence of it and that nothing was more base than for a Man to flinch from a true Opinion for fear of danger For he goes on to acknowledg when he was in this good mood that there is in Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something better than his earthy part which is says he of kin to God And therefore all well-bred Souls desire to be near to their Original and would willingly know more of him A worthy Confession which the power of Truth sometimes extorts from its greatest Enemies And it was eminently verified in this holy Martyr of whom we may speak truly in his words that being well bred in the School of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he desired by all means to be with his Heavenly Kindred Which he knew would not lessen the Family of Christ here on earth but rather increase it and make it more numerous For as skilful Wrestlers says S. Greg. Nyss by yielding a little and bowing their bodies under those that contend with them more easily overthrow them and lay them flat on the ground So did this grrat Stephen bruise the mighty Adversary the Devil by falling to the earth himself Then it was that the Apostles were driven away from Jerusalem and began to run throughout the World This was the occasion of the Publishing of the Word every where to the ruine of the Devil's Kingdom And besides this his wonderful Piety and compassionate Kindness even to his Persecutors we may rationally think touch'd some of their Hearts and made them relent and turn to God For at that very time when they were murdering him he like a Spiritual Priest as the fore-named Father speaks whose blood was sprinkled against their will before God interceded with great charity for them saying Lord lay not this sin to their charge When their brutish fury was a little over and they reflected on what had passed with some coolness they could not sure but some of them be melted with such ardent love as well as astonished at such rare courage For in succeeding times it is certain Christian Patience had such effect upon many hearts that it gave a great stroke to their conversion unto Christ Justin whom I mentioned before professes That the first thing that inclined him to the faith of Christ was the devout constancy which he beheld in those who suffered for it And Tertullian avows in his Apology to all the Pagan world that Cicero Seneca Pyrrho Callinicus with all the rest of their great Writers who had exhorted men to indure pain and death could never make so many Disciples by their Eloquent words as simple Christians had done by their deeds Illa ipsa obstinatio quam ex probatis Magistra est That very obstinate Resolution which you upbraid us withal is a Mistress that instructs the world Who is there that beholds it and is not moved to enquire into the cause And who is there that takes the pains to enquire into the cause and doth not become a Proselyte to this Religion and who is there that becomes a Proselyte to it and is not ready also to lose his life for it that he may obtain the favour of God with the expence of his blood And indeed it may be questioned whether the Apostles and their followers did more amaze the world by the wonder of their Miracles or by their stupendious patience under the most cruel Torments This I think is certain That the Divine manner of their suffering was a thing less controverted than their prodigious astonishing works They I mean who disputed the last could not but admire and