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A45785 A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall November 23, 1684 by Gilbert Ironside ... Ironside, Gilbert, 1588-1671. 1685 (1685) Wing I1049; ESTC R5618 18,482 39

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A SERMON Preached before the KING At White-hall November 23. 1684. BY GILBERT IRONSIDE D. D. VVarden of Wadham Coll. in Oxon and Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY PUBLISHED By His Majesties special Command OXFORD Printed by Leonard Lichfield Printer to the University for James Good Bookseller near the Theatre MDCLXXXV A SERMON Preached before the KING The 23 of November 1684. 1 Peter cap. 4. ver 15. Let none of you suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief or as an Evil-doer or as a Busie-body in other mens matters Yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed FROM which words we may observe Two things 1. A Prohibition of suffering in a bad cause Let no man suffer as a Murderer c. And t is a divine Prohibition for the discharge of our consciences upon the pain of sin 'T is the divine favour the Apostle aims at not time serving He gives this injunction as an Apostle not as a States-man as an Apostle that had the care over all the Christian Churches And if there be any thing extraordinary in that 't is the very Apostle that had a special charge Three times to feed the Sheep and Lambs of Christ Let no man says St. Peter suffer c. 2. The Support and Comfort and Honour that attends the Cross of Christ But if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed Of this last I shall not speak I hope in this distracted disputing luke-warm Age if yet Christianity it self shall come to be the Controversy which God of Heaven forbid there be not many among us that profess the name of Christ will want Blood nor their Blood Spirit enough to dye for him who dy'd for them when he was the Son of God The business here is to consider well what 't is to suffer as a Christian not to be too hasty and positive in pronouncing this or that Rule or Doctrine to be Christianity If any man suffer as a Christian i.e. according to Christ's Institution not the foolish no nor the wise Fancies of men Single or in Assemblies a Divine and Apostolieal Christian We need not nay we must not look for the Image of him any where but as we find it in Christ's and his Apostles drawing Even the Church it self when it represents Religion a right falls infinitely short of what is in the Bible as to the Lording it over our Faith and is not so hardy as to equal Her Institutions with Divine Precepts And we can never be sufficiently thankful to God for the Wisdom with which he inspir'd the Church of England in this Respect the modest and humble Wisdom of the Church of England indeed all true Wisdom is such a Wisdom from above First Pure and then Peaceable I wish the Church of Rome had continued so too But how many Articles of Faith and how many Precepts of Life have they added to Religion and required the belief and practice of them as necessary to Salvation the only cause of difference betwixt us We are content with the account of a Christian as we find it in Scripture and in that we read they were called Christians first at Antioch not at Rome however if any man say Loe here is Christ or there is Christ this is a good Christian that a good Catholick either in Greek or Latine Church believe them not unless you find them such and only and meerly such as he was when St. Peter said if any man suffer as a Christian such an one even in his greatest Sufferings ought not to be ashamed 'T is but a thin Expression according to the sound but the Figure speaks great things Let him look upon it as his Honour and Glory 1. Pet. 1.4 The spirit of Glory resteth upon you Let him esteem it as an Excellency a Preferment and the special gift of God To you t is given to suffer for the name of Christ Philip. 1.29 But of this comfortable encouragement I shall not speak My time shall be spent upon the first The Prohibition of suffering in a bad cause Let no man suffer as a Murderer or as a Thief those are words easy to be understood and so is the next an Evil-doer The Apostle having mentioned Thieves and Murderers to avoid a further enumeration of the other great Immoralities concludes them all in one word of Evil-doers and then further adds to secure the State as a Busy-body in other mens matters Beza tells us that the Syriack Version does not read those words as a Busy-body and he undertakes to give a reason for it because says he the humor of medling with other mens matters does not seem to be of the number of those faults that are usually punished or are punishable unless quòd soepe in rixas incidunt qui curiosè satagunt aliena unde postea majora mala oriantur Busy-bodies naturally fall into controversies whence greater Evils may arise and surely that alone if there were no other reason is a sufficient one for the Prohibition in the Text in an Apostle that writ for the peace of Christendome even in private concerns much more in publick and State Affairs In the Prohibition it self there are two things to be observed The one supposed The other infer'd 1. T is supposed there is a Power for the suppressing of Vice and Immorality and not only so but also in limiting the several Ranks and Orders and Imployments of men and coercing of them if as Busy-bodies they transgress and the Apostle reckons even such Constitutions lawful wholesome and necessary 2. This being the Magistrates power t is manifestly the Christian Subjects duty to avoid all the things here mentioned the last as well as the first and that not only in prudence as to worldly affairs but upon pain of sin and the displeasure of the King of Kings Let no man suffer not only as a Murderer and a Thief and an Evil-doer but as a Busy-body in other mens matters i. e. 't would be monstrously shameful for Christians to be guilty of either of these things not only of gross heathen Immoralities but of the later sort also And there is an Emphasis in the words Let none of you Christians The Apostle here supposes that all these are to suffer and and the Magistrate would otherwise bear the Sword in vain I do not love to prove suppositions yet when Principles themselves are disputed or misunderstood or neglected or the Light and Evidence of them fought against and in a great measure quencht they may well be opened and the strength of them lay'd before the understandings of weak and prest upon the Consciences of corrupt men And of all principles Obedience to Magistrates the great Eye-sore and the Execution of Justice the support of the world will be alwayes necessary to be taught and prest upon the conscience I shall therefore consider from the words 1. The Power for the suppressing of Vice and Immorality Indeed a Toleration of Vice was