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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A50342 A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall on January the 30th, 1681 by Henry Maurice ... Maurice, Henry, 1648-1691. 1682 (1682) Wing M1370; ESTC R3724 13,058 37

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A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL ON JANUARY the 30th 1681. By HENRY MAURICE B. D. Chaplain to His Grace the Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Published by His Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed by Samuel Roycroft for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in S. Pauls Church-yard 1682. ISAIAH XXXVII 3. This is a day of Trouble of Rebuke and Blasphemy IT was the manner of the Ancient Christians to observe the Anniversaries of their Martyrs not with the mournful Rites of a Funeral nor the dejectedness of Fasting and Humiliation but as the days of their Birth and Coronation with the highest expressions of Joy and Thanksgiving with the same chearfulness and serenity that they had suffer'd Nor could it be conceiv'd proper to remember them with Tears whose happy condition was rais'd above the assistance and charity of the Church's Prayers for those glorious Spirits take sanctuary under the Heavenly Altar where no Persecution no Sacriledge can invade them Those as the Fellow-sufferers of Christ have the special priviledge of immediate admission into Paradise and tho the passage be rough and boysterous yet the speed and the dispatch is proportionable and the Fire as it hastens to destroy becomes at the same time a swift and rapid Chariot to transport the Martyrs into glory What wonder then if when one Member be so eminently honour'd the whole body take occasion to rejoyce with it But besides this recompence of the Sufferers which the Church was wont to congratulate with a joyful Remembrance the honour done to Religion by those who own'd it with their dying Confessions and subscrib'd it with their Blood requir'd yet a farther Acknowledgment and Thanksgiving For what were the Passions of the Martyrs but so many Victories of the Christian Faith that proclaimed it to be stronger than Principalities and Powers stronger than the Counsel and Indignation of Men stronger than the desires of Life or Terrors of Death By these Conquests was the Kingdom of Christ enlarged by these Invincible Sufferings was the perversness of the Nations reduc'd When Christians knew how to die better than to dispute but none understood yet how to rebel for their Religion What then can the Commemoration of these Victories be but the common Triumph of Christianity How then are we departed from this ancient and reasonable Practice How comes this black and melancholy appearance to obscure and as it were eclipse this Day of our Royal Martyr Is the Crown of Martyrdom now become less glorious or is it not at least an equal recompence for the loss of Earthly Kingdoms or the Cause for which he suffer'd the Cause of God and of his People was it not sufficient to entitle him to the dignity of Martyrdom This part admits of no suspicion for the Title of the Martyr as it is more honourable so it is no less clear and undoubted than that of the King Nay the Malice of his Enemies prophetick as that of Caiaphas foretold this his heavenly Inauguration and accomplished their own prediction by making him a glorious Prince indeed We bewail not him therefore at this time but weep for our selves and for our Country stain'd with this Innocent and Royal Blood which was shed not by the hands of a Pagan Invader for so some of our Kings became Martyrs in the defence of their Religion and their People but by a new and unhear'd of Treason of his own Subjects And had the Conspiracy of a few desperate Wretches prevail'd against him the suddenness and secresie of the stroke might have been our Excuse and cover'd the Nation from the guilt and infamy of the Fact But this Treason usurp'd the name of the Senate and People of the Land and as if the Fears and Astonishment of the Nation had been taken for their consent and approbation Murder was drest up in the form of Publick Execution and the Coronation of the King was not more solemn had hardly more Spectators than that of the Martyr Had he fallen in the day of Battel by the blind and undiscerning fury of Rebellion or afterwards in the dark recesses of his Prison the reproach had been common to us with many other Nations But this was the first time that Treason affected to make it self a Spectacle and grew Impudent and desperate enough to undergo the horrour and envy of a Publick Regicide And not content to trample all Earthly Majesty under foot the name of God and of Religion and what is our more peculiar disgrace of Reform'd and Protestant Religion were brought to suffer together with our late Sovereign while they were abus'd into a pretence to carry on and to justifie the Wickedness of this day These are the sad Reasons of our present affliction that render the remembrance of this Martyrdom so bitter These are the Clouds that overcast the day and give it so different an appearance from the Feasts of the Ancient Martyrs 'T is this in fine which renders it so exactly agreeable to the description of the day in the Text A day of Trouble of Rebuke and Blasphemy The Trouble as St. Jerom explains these words belongs to us whose was the loss whose was the sin The Rebuke proceeds from God whose Judgment this was The Blasphemy is the part of our Enemies who are glad of this occasion to insult us and our Religion It is the Echo and repercussion of that execrable stroke return'd upon us with the censures and reproaches of the World Of these I shall speak severally according to the order of the Text and begin with the Trouble of the day 1. Of all the Blessings God is pleased to bestow upon a Nation there is none either more beneficial or more magnificent than a good King who represents not only the Authority of the Universal Monarch but the affection and tenderness of our Heavenly Father and is the Image of the love and goodness no less than of the Power and Majesty of God What happiness may not a People enjoy under a Prince after Gods own heart How must Religion flourish under his protection how must Vertue reign in his Laws and triumph in his Example what Peace and Prosperity must adorn his Reign what Security and Content must possess his Subjects whose Power is sufficient to secure them against foreign depredations and whose Justice and Clemency interpose between them and the Terrours of his own Power This Condition of all things seems to approach nearest to that of Gods Heavenly Kingdom where the Saints do not Obey so much as Reign together with their King But when it shall please God to recall this great Instrument of Humane Welfare when this mighty Vessel that contained so many and such variety of Blessings shall be drawn up again into Heaven and this Earthly God comes to die like other Men the Joy and Delights of the People expire with him and it is not an ordinary Affliction and Mourning that he leaves behind him nor is any Loss lamented with more sincere or