to give a Caveat to all future Ages Beware look not back And thus stands Demas registred in Gods Book a warning for the wretched Worldlings Take heed look not back Value not those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Dirt and Dung of this World at so high a Rate There 's pain in the getting care in the keeping grief in the loosing And besides all this there 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 4.19 Riches are a slippery and deceitful thing They have wings as Solomon said Eagles wings and oft-times quickly gone and gone for ever I could remind you of Bajazets Cage Sesostris Chariot Chraesus Pile Cyrus Tub Marcus Crassus among the Parthians and Baldivia among the Americans drinking down Ladles full of melted Gold I could fetch Sejanus from his Closet Seneca from his Orchards Bassianus from his Fish-ponds Tigillinus Plautian Atabaliba Metezuma These and millions more as well as these have from Darlings of Fortune been quickly turned into Foot-balls and nothing left of all their Greatness but their Name A warning piece for future times I was nothing I am nothing I shall return to nothing or in the words of Solomon Vanity of Vanities All is Vanity saith the Preacher Honores mundi Tumores Mundi Adams Apple or Sodoms Esau's Pottage Jonathan's Hony-comb All dulcia in aspectu laethalia in gustu as said Arnobius These all do but fill our mouths with Gravel and we shall never be satisfied till Gods glory do appear Satiabor cum apparuerit Gloria Tua The King of Spains Motto was Non sufficit orbis And I believe the greatest part of the World approve it The World cannot content a worldly minded man He hath the Dropsie the more he drinks the more he thirsts You have heard of Lysamachus and Saleucus two of Great Alexanders greatest Commanders Cum orbem Terrarum Duo soli tenerent augustiis sibimet inclusi videbantur Vt Justin lib. 17. And only Death could put an end to their Ambition All I shall say to shut up all is Optimum est insania frui aliena Seeing so many men are mad with Demas let us be wiser and reap some benefit by their madness Let us learn to make Treacle of Vipers and by the fall of other men to beware And come Life come Death let it never be said that for the embracing of a bad World we should make shipwrack of a good Conscience Let us never forsake God and Gods Word our Courage Calling and Profession Let us beware how we do Idolize the Covenant which binds Kings in Chains and giveth stop to the Subject to demurr upon Oaths And for the Hierarchy and Government of the Church Let those who seek Nodum in scirpo take heed of Crysippus's Pride and Palaemon's Arrogancy Let us lay before our eyes the harmony of the two Testaments the general practise of Antiquity The Consent of Fathers Councils all the World till those worst of Times And for those who are otherwise minded God reveal it to them and make us all of one mind that we may unanimously with one mouth glorifie God THIS SERMON Was Preached at St. HILIAR Before the KING In his Exile Sept. 23. 1649. PSAL. CV 12 13 14. When they were a few men in number yea a very few and Strangers in the Land When they went from one Nation to another from one Kingdom to another People He suffered no man to do them wrong SET Service in the Church is out of date Church-musick is an Irreligious Ragg of Popery And for our Solemn Feasts the very Name must be expunged and the People must forsake detest and forget all Thus he who said I am wiser then my Teachers must if now alive be set to School again turn a new Leaf or be shut out of the Synagogue of these Saints David kept his Festivals had Set-service blessed God with Musick Church-musick Vocal and Instrumental both And on that day a great Festival-day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph the Precentor and his Brethren 1 Chron. 16 7. So that if you fear God this Psalm was made to thank him If you honour Kings a King made it If you approve Festivals at a great Feast 't was first given and sung When the Ark after so many tossings and tumblings was with much solemnity brought home and setled in Jerusalem So that without straining the Text may prove tuneable and though Asaphs mouth be stopt and his Cymbal broken yet this may be the dawning of that day when we shall all sing Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus c. make it our Festival Solemn and Annual and for such warrantable by the practise of the Jewish Church and Primitive Christians But we must travel awhile with Abraham before we can sit down in David's Quire and with the poor Israelites hang up our Harps upon the Willows ere we can frame our selves to sing those Songs of Sion Meditate a while upon our miseries and afterwards come in with a Psalm of Thanksgiving for Gods Mercies And this is the Order of my Text a Text Historical it relates to a Story and the Story of no small Antiquity it goes as high as to the Father of the Faithful His and his Sons troubles present themselves in the two first Verses Gods mercy and deliverance in the third These are the two General Parts of which I am to speak Vtinam pro dignitate Roscius would feign himself that Party whom he was to personate and the Oratour would have his Pleader make the Case his own the better to express his Clyents passions We shall need none of those helps We sure in some sort we are the men we are to speak of In eadem Navi embarqued in the same Ship and therefore sharers in the same Fortunes Non tam Ovum Ovo simile I am sure 't is so for the first part that of Troubles And I hope it will prove so in the second also that of Protection and Deliverance But we are the Children and 't is fit the Father should have the precedency we shall therefore first begin with Abraham Abraham and his Family When they were but a few men in number yea very few and Strangers in the Land When they went from one Nation to another c. I may well call it the Pilgrimage of the Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob for so ' t is The old Proverb or Epistichium was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And here are three PPP's Peregrini Pauci Pauperes all miserable but the misery ends not here In 2 Cor. 4.17 there 's excellenti excellentius a super-superlative Glory So here a super-superlative Misery One much worse then the rest 1. Pilgrims Strangers that went from one Nation to another 2. Their Paucity They were few in number yea very few 3. Their Poverty A Rolling stone they say gathers no Moss They went from one Kingdom to another People 4. That super-superlative that worse then worst The People to whom
XIII SERMONS Most of them Preached before His MAJESTY King CHARLES the II. IN HIS EXILE By the late Reverend HENRY BYAM D.D. Rector of Luckham Canon of Exeter and one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary TOGETHER With the Testimony given of him at his Funeral by Hamnet Ward M. D. Vicar of Sturminster-Newton-Castle and one of the Prebendaries of the Cathedral Church at Wells LONDON Printed by T. R. for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in St. Pauls Churchyard 1675. TO THE Right Honourable HENEAGE Lord FINCH Baron of Daventry Lord Keeper of the Great SEAL of ENGLAND AND Of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel My Lord THese Sermons having been many of them preach'd before his Majesty in the Isles of Scilley and Jarsey and much approved and accepted of by him I cannot think to whom they may be more welcome under that qualification than to Your Lordship Your Goodness likewise giving me a confidence of Your Acceptance Your Greatness of their protection That is not only known but admired too by all that indeed know you This as I long since had the good fortune luckily to foretel so I do now most heartily congratulate Nor had I need to erect any other scheme for this prognostick than that of Your own Countenance vultus portendebat honores When You were yet young the traits of Honour were there fairly visible to any discerning Eye which now by the accession of His Majesties favour are grown so eminent that he that runs may read Your yet increasing Grandeur and Felicity May Heaven add its blessing to all your Enjoyments here and prepare for You hereafter such as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive These My Lord as they are my earnest wishes so they are my real hopes for the accomplishment whereof his Prayers shall uncessantly be poured forth who humbly begs leave to subscribe himself My Lord Your Lordships daily Votary and most obedient Servant Hamnet Ward TO THE READER I Shall not commend these Sermons to such as had the happiness to be acquainted with the Author 'T is sufficient I know to them to be assured that they are his And to such as were strangers to him I shall need say but little only what was once spoken to a Holy man in a Vision concerning the Scripture Tolle Lege Take up and read take up and read Whoever doth but diligently peruse them cannot but both like and admire them And sure if a work may receive a real addition to its worth from the reputation of its Author this may challenge as great an advantage as any since I can boldly say that for Learning Piety Charity and Loyalty the Age he lived in scarce afforded his equal He that desires to be yet farther acquainted with the transactions both of his Life and Death I refer him to what was delivered as a Testimony to him in a Sermon at his Funeral by him who highly honoured his person when living and doth now reverence his Memory being dead H. WARD A SERMON Preached before His MAJESTY King CHARLES the II. In the ISLE of JERSEY DEUT. XXXIII 7. Hear Lord the voyce of Judah and bring him unto his people let his hands be sufficient for him and be thou an help to him from his Enemies YOu expect a Sermon and I am come with a Prayer But so the fitter for the place Domus Orationis this is the House of Prayer And so the fitter for the Times Molesta tempora perilous times as the Apostle spake of them And so the fitter for the Persons Orate pro Regibus One of our chiefest Duties is to pray for Kings and all that are or should be in Authority Sermons offer themselves to the Ears and perchance find thence some further passage to the Heart But Prayers pierce the Heavens yea Coelos Aereos when they are Brass Oratio Justi a good mans prayer finds a good and speedy passage through those obstructed passages and walls of Brass James 5.16 Deut. 28.23 Now here you have not only a Prayer but a Good mans prayer the Meekest man upon the Earth Numb 12.3 and he a King too but two verses before the Text A King in Jesurun that is amongst all good and godly men a King and so esteemed or Rex apud Rectissimum as the Vulgar hath it God and all Good men acknowledge him for such And so you have the Prayer of a King for a King or rather for a Race of Kings Though a Benjamite the Son of Belial blow the Trumpet and say We have no part in David David of the Tribe of Judah yet Non non auferetur Sceptrum de Judah the Prayer is for the Sion of Judah and that Royal Race Again 'T is the Prayer of a Dying man which commonly doth most affect The lasâ— Words leave the deepest impression behind them Extremum morientis munus non extremum munus And we would willingly preserve a Legacy especially a rich one as this is and which like the River of Paradise doth part it â—f into four heads First Hear Lord the voyce of Judah Secondly Bring him back unto his people Thirdly Let his hands be sufficient for him Fourthly And be thou an help to him from his Enemies Every one of these doth properly subdivide it self into four parts also that so we may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way a Cube full of it self able to subsist upon his own Basis Audi Domine vocem Judae c. Or you have here First A Prayer in general a Two-mens-Prayer Moses and Judah which like the stem of a Tree breaks forth and parts it self into three Branches Secondly The Prayer speciallized or those special Branches First for Reduction Bring him back Secondly for Sufficiency Self-sufficiency Let his own hands do it Thirdly for Assistance Heavenly-assistance the prime Branch upon this Tree And be thou an help to him from his Enemies I shall handle the Words in their order and with what brevity I may Hear Lord the voyce of Judah O now for some Moses who might fully express the drift of Moses He would tell you We are not born for our selves alone King Country Friends every one requires some special duty at our hands He would tell you The Care of Governours doth extend it self in Nondum Natos 'T was a wretched wish of his who with himself would have the World dissolved that they might perish together But Moses knowing his day of Dissolution to approach prays for a perpetuity of happiness on his Country especially on Judah who was to sway the Scepter Hear Lord the voyce of Judah You may call it a Legacy a Prayer and a Prophecy for 't is all these and what is here given prayed for and foretold in Earth was all ratified and confirmed in Heaven And this Blessing is conveyed to Judah in a Prayer because Oratio is Clavis Gratiarum the Key which opens a door to all our happiness And
Kings to their Dignities but still they pared away somewhat of their Kingdoms Modicis Regni terminis Vterentur or if they honoured them to be their Socii that sweet word enslaved them to assist in all offensive and defensive Wars Lodowick's Force lost his own Dukedom by calling in the French into Italy Quae Regio in Terris Where 's that Country that cannot afford us Examples in this kind I shall add but one and that of no great Antiquity An. Dom. 1534. Two Brothers contended for the Kingdom of Algiers One of them craves Aid of one Horuc at that time a famous Pirate on the Seas Horuc comes accordingly with two thousand Men. They joyn Battle The Enemy Competitor was slain Then falls Horuc upon the other Brother which called him in and having likewise cut him off and the Country being quite wearied and spent with their Intestine Wars He and his Brother after him invade enjoy that Kingdom So dangerous is it to call in those Forraign Succours which men cannot Master and drive out again And therefore 't is a good Prayer Let Judahs own hands be sufficient for him But may we not lawfully crave Forraign Aid in such tempestuous times Sure Yes 'T is sometimes necessary commendable and successful too What were to be wished and What is to be done are two things Here that saying Father'd upon Luther is true Vxor si nolit Veniat Ancilla And the King is the Common-wealths Husband If your hands will not cannot Veniant Conductitiae We must drive the Nail where 't will go The Bulgarians restore Justinian Our Black-Prince another in Spain The Assyrian as he was Virga Furoris the Rod of Gods Anger and carryed his People into Captivity Isai 10. So was Cyrus Christus Domini who restored them to their homes again Isai 45. And sure ours is Communis omnium Regum Causa as Darius said of his own All Kings are nearly Interessed in this Business The striking off of the Head of One hath wounded All. And therefore while they do revenge the wrong done us they do in that secure their own Estate and punishing Rebellion abroad they do suppress the growth of that Evil weed at home O! but where are our Hands and Hearts the while Our Hands have been Tenaces rapaces languidae remissae Manus Our Hands have been Tenaces Miserable Wretches We lost All while we were loath to part with Any We who cryed We were All for the King were loath to part with a small part for the Kings Service And how many have paid thousands for their Compositions who would not lend some Hundreds to advance the Common and that Rigbteous Cause Our Hands have been Rapaces too Though it be true in those days what Elisha said of his This is no time to take Bribes Yet our Hands were full of Bribes selling Offices Towns Castles Every thing Captain-Collectors and Plunderers were the bravest Fellows Last of all Our Hands have been Languidae remissae Manus we have shewed our selves Cowardly and faint-hearted Creatures No strength no Courage but oft-times stricken with a Panick-fear We were afraid where no fear was as the Psalmist said In pedibus spes non in lacertis fuit Our feet oft-times served us better than our hands We have forgotten our selves our Gracious God our Injured Soveraign the Goodness of the Cause All is forgotten We do despair and despair binds Gods hands We do forget how many Victories have been atchieved beyond hope and belief Even Restauration hath sometime made way where it could find none We have forgotten That with GOD 't is all one to save with Many or Few And that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. God hath chosen the weak things in the world to confound the mighty I pass by Vasques Numes and Hernando Cortes The Venetians will tell you of one Marke a Shooe-maker the Preserver of their State The Romans cry up their Coeles that kept a Bridge against Porsenna and his whole Army One Man one day one hour hath made incredible Alterations Our Times will tell of all Portugal lost in one Month and regained in less Lodowick's Force lost his Cities Castles Country in eight Days One Night put an end to the Danish slavery in our Land The Bruit of Henry the Eighth his coming into Lincoln-shire drave twenty Thousand Rebels out of the Field A Word mistaken hath rent the Victory out of the Conquerours hands You know what was said of Sisera Judges 5. The Stars fought against Sisera And King Philip said as much of his Armado in 88. But Seven years before that an Army of Mice destroyed a whole Country Mice were too hard for the Philistins Lice for the Aegyptians And Frogs forced the Abderites a People of Thrace to leave their Country In a word No Creature but if God say the word will plead our Cause and fight our Quarrel against the Mighty And therefore the Fourth part makes all Cock-sure And be thou his help against his Enemy Mark Our Hands and then Gods help Not Lord help and no more That 's a good word but it must not be misplaced First Do we our parts and then Succurre Domine Thus David undertakes the Quarrel against Goliah Armatus non tam ferro quam fide as St. Augustine said Takes his Sling but trusts in God Qui confidit in Homine Confidit in Vmbra transeunte saith the same Father That Rule is General Without me ye can do nothing Our Saviours words John 18. Except the Lord keep the City Psal 127. Except the Lord go out with our Armies Psal 60. which if He do how easily shall Gideon prevail against the Midianites and with an handful of Men overcome a numerous Army He breaks the Counsel of Achitophel He frees Samaria from the Syrians He makes Senacheribs huge Army an heap of Corpses And that knew well the first King of the Tribe of Judah Psal 44.6 In nomine tuo conculcabimus Not my Bow not my Sword But in thy Name shall we tread down those that rise up against us 'T was the saying of a Mad-man in Sophocles Aiax Let Cowards cry to the Heavens for help we could overcome without a Deity And you have read of Timotheus that noble Athenian Captain who in all his Enterprizes did still return Conquerour till puffed up with many Victories he looked on himself as more than a Man and cried out Hoc ego feci non fortuna but he never won Battle afterwards God will no longer help than he is magnified for his help And therefore God be Judahs help against his Enemies Nor is this the least of Gods Titles to be an Helper An helper in Need. An helper in Adversity An helper of the Poor and Fatherless Adjutor meus faith the King of Judah of the God of Judah When formidable Monsters sought after his soul The Lord is my Helper GOD worketh all in all and yet is God said to be our Helper only That we should as I said
Capital and scarlet-Sins yet were they done through Ignorance Secondly or And now what remains but that you should Repent and be Converted that you may find favour and forgiveness I begin with the Compellation Brethren I remember the Counsel a Monk of Bangor gave his Fellows who were to appear before Augustine another Monk sent from Rome by Gregory the Great Hereby saith he you shall know whether he be a Good man and sent from God If he be Affable Courteous and doth Rise-up when you come before him Affability and Gentleness get ground upon men and creep into their Affections A soft tongue breaketh the bones saith Solomon Prov. 25.15 St. Peter sheweth himself a cunning Chirurgion Though the wound were deep and might seem to require Corrosives yet applies he Lenitives withal Reproves but with the spirit of Meekness St. Stephen went another way to work You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye alwaies resist c. But what was the issue When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth Cry out stop their Ears and stone Stephen But Peter takes another course and with better success In the 2. Chapter Viri Israelitae Viri Fratres And his hearers began to melt they cry out Quid faciemus In this Chapter at the 12. verse Ye men of Israel why wonder ye and here I wot Brethren You know the Fable of the Sun and Wind and which of them made the Traveller forgoe his Cloak 'T is true the Jews violence and cruelty deserved all bitterness and they worthily hear ye have betrayed ye have denied ye have killed But here 's sweet and sharp tempered together Ye men of Israel and I wot Brethren He acknowledgeth them for Brethren and wisheth they might prove such by Grace as they were by Nature But what hear I Is not Peter a saucy Fellow that poor Fisherman that said but even now Silver and Gold have I none and by and by taxeth so bitterly and salutes so unmannerly I wot Brethren Is there not must there not be a difference amongst men In giving Honour go one before another Rom. 10.12 And Render every man his due Honour to whom Honour Rom. 13.7 There is a fourfold Nobility Mundana Philosophica Christiana Judaica The common Honour of the world consists in Ancient Riches Let a Pander an Vsurer a Traytour or a Devil be our great Gransier and leave these Monuments of his Philargury as Chrysostom calls them to his posterity though his Off-spring be scurra Cynaedus and the wine of Naples run in every vein yet this man is and must be so esteemed An Ancient Gentleman The Second is Philosophical Here Genus and Proavos quae non fecimus ipsi are out of date A Just Honest Valiant man must go for Honourable Nobilitas sola est atque unoica virtus Thus did the Romans look upon Terentius Varro his Father a Butcher and he a Consul And on M. Scaurus whose Father was Carbonarius a swarthy Collyar Each History is full of these like Examples The Third is Christian Nobility where by the way I approve that saying of His He that pays most Subsidy to the King is the best Subject And he that gives most Alms to the poor is the best Christian As for their Nobility He is best that doth best This man knows there is one God and Father of all Ephes 4.6 one Mother the Church one Livery Baptism He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 And he hath taught us all to pray Our Father which art in Heaven The Fourth is the Jewish Nobility and that wâ—nt by the Tribe whereupon Saint 〈…〉 doubted to call Joseph a Nobleman because he was of Judahs Tribe Et Faber Nobilis And St. Paul a Noble-man because he was of the Tribe of Benjamin Gloriosa tribus è qua primus Rex quae praestitit in sua Nobilitate c. A glorious Tribe out of which came their first King A Noble Tribe when all the rest forsook their King that Tribe stood firm and Loyal Inconcussa Nobilitas saith he no Cross-Bar or Arms reversed Alway Loyal to the Crown However All Jews acknowledged themselves for Brethren Ye are Brethren saith Moses to two in Egypt And non licuit foenerari fratribus Deut. 23.19 And Eligendus Rex è fratribus Deut. 17.15 And this were enough to free Peter from all arrogance and incivility But there is more Peter speaks to the Vulgar sort and Common People The Text is plain You and your Rulers Thirdly Peter is to be looked upon not as a private person but as an Apostle and Ambassadour for Christ 2 Cor. 5.20 And therefore must speak according to his Commission down-right in simplicity and truth No respect of Persons with God or in Gods Errand No sowing of Cushions No base Flattery No palpable Insinuations Si ita Tollet me Qui fecit me God would soon take me away that made me and put me out of Commission that sent me Elihu's words Job 32. At other times Honour Magistracy Age look for some Respect and Reverence but here Speak Exhort Rebuke with all Authority Tit. 2.15 Nathan may say to David Tu es 2 Sam. 12 Elijah to another Tu Domus tua 1 Kings 18. And the very first words in our Liturgy of the Exhortation seems to carry all men in the same Chariot to the same place our Heavenly Jerusalem Now come we to the second part the Sins laid to their charge You did it Where you have the Deed and the Doers Vos fecistis All this I have said Quantum Quantum so foul so fearful so bloody you did it all You have betrayed denyed killed And will you know whom His Son Jesus v. 13. That Holy and Just one v. 14. The Prince of Life v. 15. Prodidistis not a common Man or a Servant that were no wonder for Quem non Prophetarum Matth. 23. the Servants have all found bloudy entertainment But you betrayed the Heir himself The Son of God Abnegastis not one of the scum of the people not a base deboist Varlet but that holy and just One who went about doing good and healing all Acts 10. Trucidastis not some tumultuous Thief and Murtherer not a Barrabas but a Prince The Prince of Life Prodidistis we are wont to say of Judas when we name him Judas the Traytour But here we have many Traytours And some of them worse than Judas He went no further than Tradam vobis Matth. 26. But here 's Betraying bribing buying selling nor is there an end there but Abnegastis also And thus far Peter went Non novi hominem He returned and these go on They do it in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go and they prefer a Murtherer before Innocency it self The Judge labours for his Deliverance The giddy and bewitched Multitude they
can offer up no greater Sacrifice to our Master We can purchase no greater happiness to our selves We can leave no better example to others We can bring no greater comfort to our Friends then under the hand of the merciless Executioner undauntedly to acknowledge whose Servants we are and with a free though fading spirit to confess our Saviour First We can offer up no greater sacrifice to our Master You shall first understand who ought properly to be called a Martyr Cyprian makes two sorts The first of them who shed their bloud Cypri ep st 9. Epâ—â—t 25. c Lib. de Duplâ—ci Martyrio in ter opera Cypriani tomo tertio Zanch. tomo 6. in cap. 2. ad Philip v 30. apud Aquinam 2â— 2â— q. 124. art 4. the second of them who are ready so to do for Christs sake And to those last torments were wanting saith one they were not wanting to the Torments Zanchius a knowledgeth that the Curch did usually call this later sort Confessors yet he will have Epaphroditus a Martyr and Hierom doth somewhere call the blessed Virgin a Martyr quamvis in pace vitam finicrit and Poâ—icrates * Euseb l 3. c. 28. G. 3. calls John the Evangelist a Martyr And Chrysostome tells the people of Antioch that a man may alway be a Martyr for Job was one and suffered more then many Martyrs did saith Bernard in his Sermon of Abbot Benedict Homil. 25. pretily differenceth Martyrs from Confessors and somewhere else tells us of three kinds of Martyrdom without bloud We must first conclude with Cyprian and Augustine In Senten Gab. Prateol Flench Heâ—es lib 3. §. 5 The Cause not the Suffering make a Martyr We disclaim the Campates a kind of Donatists who would have all voluntary Deaths Martyrdoms I think St. Augustine calls them Circumcelliones August de Haeres c 69. Prateol l 13. § â—6 Zanch tomo 6. in epist ad Phil cap 1. Idâ—m ib d August â—omâ— in Psal â—â— And l kewise Pelibianus who taught them to be Martyrs who slâ—w themselves in detestation of their Sins But â—o saith one Judas should have been a Martyr Secondly As Talis Causa so Talis Poena They are Martyrs who testifie the Truth Vsque ad mortem even sealing it with their 〈◊〉 The other whom the Church calls 〈◊〉 are â—eâ—â—de 〈◊〉 Martyres aequivocè Martyres so Zanchius Vbi Suprà in c. 2. v. â—0 in secundam secundae q. 124. art 4. Apud Zauch ubi supra in cap 1. Designati Martyres so Tertullian Interpretativè inchoativè secundum quâ—d mental Martyrs so Cajetan And therefore we may be bold with St. Augustine to blot out some and question other some even the holy Innocents themselves question I say not their bliss but their testimony that the dignity of Proto-Martyrship may remain unto St. Stephen The sum of all is this He is properly a Martyr who is tormented to the death for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ Revel 1.9 Of King Henry and Queen Maries Martyrs both for the honour of the dead and the peace of the Church I say nothiâ—g Academ quaest Cic 1. Officiorum Perchance the question then was or most while was for bounds as Tully speaks but now 't is for the whole possession and inheritance Nay 't is Vter esset non uter imperaret I am sure Heaven cannot hold us and Mahomet and blessed is he that shall lay down his life in so good a Cause A cup of cold Water shall not lose his reward Math 10 4â— Whosoever shall forsake Houses Mark 10 3â— or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for the Name of Christ shall receive an hundred fold more for the present and in the world to come eternal life What shall he have that forsaketh all He that offereth praise and thanksgiving honoureth God Ps◠〈◊〉 ver◠〈◊〉 He that gives his bread to the poor members of Christ feeds his Saviour but he that gives himself his life his bâ—â—â—â— doth give all and therefore more then all He that gives his life can give no more John 15.13 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen thou couldst offer no greater sacrifice to thy Master Secondly We can purchase no greater happiness to our selves I should much wrong you if I should labour to prove this If Heaven be better than Earth if the Crown of life better than the pains of death if things eternal better than temporal if to be alwaies happy better than ever in hazard in fear in trouble then he that suffereth for the Name of Christ doth to himself purchase Name Fame Heaven Happiness and with Mary hath chosen the better part which shall never be taken from him then he that loseth his life shall find it Math. 10.39 and he that dies with Christ shall live with him shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 and the momentany afflictions which he doth here endure shall cause to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more excellent weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 In a word participes passionis shall be gloriae participes as saith Chrysologus If we share with him in affliction here Chrysolog serm 40 Calvin inâ—titut lâ—b 3 â—ap 8. sect 7 he will impart to us blessedness hereafter So happy are these men whom God vouchsafeth that special honour as to die for him Write them blesâ—ed aâ— the voice said Revel 14.13 no men more no mâ—n like And therefore râ—member â—rom whence thâ—â— a t falâ—en Thou couldest purchase no greater happiness to thy self Thirdly We can leave no better Example to others St. Paul Philip. 1.12 14. tells us that his durance turned to the furtherance of the Gospel insomuch that many Brethren in the Lord were emboldned through his bands and durst more frankly speak the Word In Ecclesiastick History you shall read continually how one Martyr led the way to another and the noble resolution they shewed in their Death made hundreds then alive to take the same course yea so powerful is Example in this kind that the very Heathen not onely gave them testimony of Courage but were won to the Faith and sealed the same Testimony with their bloud Beda Hist. Angl. lib. 1. Palatina and the 3 Convers of England part 3. So did St. Alban beget his Headsman to the Faith and had him his Companion to the Kingdom of God So did the Constancy of Pope Sixtus the second strengthen St. Laurence and St. Laurence brings Romanus from a persecuting Souldier to be his fellow-Martyr Tryphon did the like and almost who did not The Phoenix-ashes some say yields another Phoenix but the Martyrs by life and death beget many Tertul. apolog c. 50. Semen est sanguis Christianorum Now if they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. How happy are those faithful Witnesses in Heaven whose holy lives and unterrified