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A42728 A sermon preached at St. Andrew's Plymouth, January 30th, 1698/9 by John Gilbert ... ; with a preface defending King Charles the martyr, and the observation of his day, against the libels, and practice of such, who are enemies to both. Gilbert, John, d. 1722. 1699 (1699) Wing G711; ESTC R3491 22,764 68

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proceed now in the 2d Place To shew how this can consist with the Justice of God's Providence a seeming Contradiction to this being the maine Objection against it We must consider with Job that God doth great Things past finding out so that his Judgments are a great Deep and our Reason Chap. 9. 10. cannot reach it St. Paul speaking of God's dealing with the Jews who were His chosen People and a long time favoured by Him above all other Nations and at last rejected and suffered the effects of His heaviest Displeasure I say the Apostle speaking of this instance of the Divine Providence acknowledgeth it above his Comprehension How unsearcahble are His Judgments and His Ways past finding out And so this Act of the Divine Providence in giving up the most Innocent to the Rage and Fury of Blood-Thirsty Men is thought somewhat obscure and unaccountable to the Reason of Men. But we ought to own the Justice and Wisdom of God in all His Proceedings and though we cannot understand how they can consist with those Perfections yet we ought firmly to believe That the Lord is Righteous in all His Ways and Holy in all His Works And yet this was not so great a Difficulty as to puzzle the reason of Philosophical and Inquisitive Men amongst the Heathens as appears by Plutarch Simplicius Cicero and Seneca But I am speaking to Christians who believe God's Holy Word by which Divine Revelation we may best be satisfied in this matter and I shall thence produce a few of those Reasons by which the Justice of God's Providence is Vindicated against this Objection 1. The Calamities of this Life which may befall the best of Men are consistant with the Justice of God's Providence because the best of Men as the Apostle saith offend God in many things And the least Sin against God justly deserveth the heaviest Calamities of this Life the Wages of Sin being Death Eternal as well as Temporal And therefore the Prophet saith Why doth a Lam. 3. 39. living Man complain a Man for the Punishment of his Sin That is no Man can reasonably complain he suffereth more than he deserveth from the Justice of God 2. These Calamities of Good Men are consistant with the Justice of God's Providence because by the Wisdome and Goodness of that Providence they receive Benefit and Advantage from them which David acknowledged saying It is good for me that I have been afflicted It would take up too much Time to shew the many Advantages Good Men receive by their Sufferings in this Life In short by this they are more fully weaned from the Love of the World and their Hearts and Affections are more firmly set upon Spiritual and Heavenly Things and thereby their Sufferings yield the Peaceable Fruit of Righteousness so that by this means their Title to the Eternal Happiness of Heaven is Strengthen'd and Confirm'd And this is not all they are hereby qualified and prepared for a sweeter relish of the Felicities of that Blissful State The Plenty of Canaan was the greater Happiness after the Bondage of Aegypt and the scarcity and miseries of the Wilderness And an Haven is not so welcome to those who have Sail'd with fair and gentle Gales as to those who have met with Storms and Tempests And that Rest which remaineth for the People of God will be received with a peculiar Joy and Satisfaction by those who have been tossed upon the Waves of a tempestuous and unquiet World And the Peace and Love the Harmony and Concord which the glorious MARTYR of this Day enjoyeth with the Saints above is the more sweet and pleasant because of the Tumults and Insurrections the Contradiction and Scorn he met with from those who assumed that Name here below 3. Great Glory redoundeth to God by the Patience the Courage and Constancy of his Servants suffering for his sake the Violence and Oppression of Bloody Men. And God's Justice cannot reasonably be questioned for those Disposals of his Providence which tend to His Glory as well as the Good of Men. God was glorify'd by Job's Patience in his Afflictions as well as by his Justice and Charity in his Prosperous State And the Royal MARTYR of this Day brought more Glory to God by his incomparable Patience Humility and Constancy than other Princes who were blessed with Victory and Triumph over their Enemies Last Above all a full and clear Vindication of God's Providence in this Matter will appear by the Retributions of the Life to come Were there no other Life but this and no other Reward for mens Vertue and Goodness but what they receive in this World then we have an Instance by the Murther mentioned in the Text and a far greater from that of this Day which will yield an unanswerable Argument against the Justice of God's Providence But since God hath appointed a Day in which he will after this Life reward the Sufferings of Holy and Innocent Men with unspeakable and eternal Happiness whatsoever they suffer in this Life maketh no Argument against His Justice towards them The Providence of God over his Servants is to be considered as one continued Work from their first Entrance into this World till they take Possession of a better And if any of them pass through an afflicted Life an unjust and a bloody Death to this blisful State they have no more reason to complain of Injustice or Severity in God than the Israelites had because God led them through the Wilderness and the Red Sea the safest Way to take Possession of the Promised Land The Gibeonites therefore in the Text could have no reason to complain if God took them from a slavish and painful to a blissful and happy Life And the same we may say of our late Soveraign this Day barbarously Murthered whom God rewarded with an incorruptible Crown for losing one for his sake that was corruptible and fading And thus having shewed that Innocence is no security against the Violence and Oppression of Bloody Men by giving some Proof of this Assertion and answering the great Objection against it the Application I promised in the Last place shall be very Brief only to make us more cautious of passing Sentence upon Men as guilty of great Crimes because they meet with great Calamities in this Life We cannot make a right Estimate of Mens Innocency or Guilt by what befals them in this World one Event happening to the Righteous and the Wicked as the wise Man saith Therefore as Prosperity is no certain Rule whereby to judge of Mens Vertue and Goodness so neither is Affliction and Misery a sure Rule to pronounce them Guilty By this Rule we must acquit Saul and his Bloody House and condemn the poor Gibeonites whose Cause God did plead and which would be a greater Error we may condemn the whole Army of Martyrs and justify that of Rebels And into what Absurdities will this way of Judging bring us For by this Rule the pretended Judges of