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A42728
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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.
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Gilbert, John, d. 1722.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing G711; ESTC R3491
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22,764
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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
wherein the R. M. is said to be the best of Kings a strict Observer of Justice Honour and Truth a Prince that had done no harm nor committed any fault of perfect Innocence an upright Man one that feared God and eschewed Evil like Josiah a Saint that did that which was right in the sight of the Lord the Best of Men the Best of Kings the most excellent Example of Virtue and Piety that ever the World produced as Dr. Lancaster Dr. Langford and Mr. Blackall have done the last three Anniversaries we cannot but see it is still their Judgment and Opinion of K. Charles And admire at the Impudence and Falshood of those many Libels daily published to tell the Nation That so many Parliaments have vouched a pernicious Lie allow'd and confirm'd by publick Sanction such a Character of an odious Tyrant as the best of Princes have not deserved And now I would ask all sober Men of Sense to which of these ought we to adhere and submit our Judgments and Belief of this injured Monarch Where shall we find the Truth Who is most likely to be in the right the Law or the Libels Parliament or Pamphlets Surely all unprejudiced Men will believe the former before Cook Milton Goodwin Ludlow Jones Oates and all the rest of these scandalous Traytors who so falsly and impudently gain-say them and accuse Him whom they have acquitted and declared Not Guilty HAVING thus clear'd up the Royal Martyr's Innocence by the inculcated Verdict and solemn Judgment of the highest Judicature and supream Court of England which is the Sense and Judgment of the whole Kingdom it may seem needless to produce any thing else in His behalf BUT in regard many of His Enemies became convinced of His Justice and Innocency and made open confession thereof I will produce a few of them to Evidence the Truth and Justice of that Judgment our Parliament have given of this Wrong'd INNOCENT O. Cromwel who was the chiefest in Arms Council and Judgment against Him shall be the first I will produce for Him it may seem incredible that he should ever think or speak favourably of the R. M. whose Life and Throne he took from Him But we are assur'd by divers of his own Party that he not only declared his Sense of the King's Goodness and the Wrong done Him but engaged to Rescue Him out of His Enemies Hands and settle Him on His Throne Sir W. Waller's Apologetical Narrative Sir Tho. Herbert's Threnod Car. Major Huntington's Address to the Parliament See also M. Hunt Letter to Sir W. Dugdal Aug 1648 Col. George's Account of the Army's Proceedings All report the Courtship Cromwel and Ireton made to the King while he was their Prisoner 1647 and that they often confess'd him to be the best of Kings His Cause Rightful and page 270. His Enemies in the Wrong Ludlow also in his Memoirs saith Cromwel a little before His Murther promised to do all he could to Serve and Save Him And there is lately publish'd by R. Baldwin John Darby c. Memoirs of Sir John Barkley which tells us That Cromwel while the King was his Prisoner told him weeping that he had been abus'd by a wrong Opinion of the King who he now thought the most upright and the most consciencious Man in the three Kingdoms THE Conversion of this infamous Traytor may seem but a Copy of his Countenance a Feign to gain his Point and delude the King But the Crocodile said as much after he had murthered Him and got into his Throne as we are told by the Author of a Paraphrase on the King's Speech printed 1648. Cromwel saith he confess'd the Martyr'd P. 19. King was a Man of most excellent Parts great Piety as a Christian exceeding Honesty as a Man supream Wisdom as a King and of Knowledge as a Commander exceeding all his Generals but being the Son of King James 't was needful that he died Mr. P. Sterry the Sunday after Cromwel's Death 18 New Q. Print 1659. said in his Sermon at the Chappel Royal That as sure as the Word of God was in his Hand the late Protector was at the right Hand of God intercedeing for this Nation If those People think him such a deified Saint they cannot refuse credit to what he confesseth especially of an Enemy IRETON declared himself so much a Convert to Loyalty and sensible of the King's Righteousness and the Justice of his Cause that he declared as Mr. Huntington relates ut supra that if he had but six Men to joyn him he would Fight for it that he would purge and purge the House 'till all his Enemies were outed COOK the infamous Sollicitor at the High Court of Justice who Impeach'd the King used him Rudely and afterward writ a Vindication of Reg. Tryals p. 116. 134. that horrid Villany did both before and after the Murther as was proved and confessed at his Tryal declare That he believed King Charles to be as Wise and Gracious a Prince as any was in the whole World but he must die and Monarchy with him And in that scandalous Fardle of Treason he writ to defend that hellish Fact He confess'd That the Appeal p. 35. King was a great Student had more Learning and Dexterity in State Affairs undoubtedly than all the Kings in Christendom and for Parts had they been sanctified i. e. Infatuated by Enthusiasm a second Solomon H. MARTIN who commanded a Regiment C. Walker Hist Ind. vol 1. p. 171. of Horse in the Service of the L. P. and as one of the Party writes a Regiment of Whores in his own sat a Judge at the Tryal and Sentence of K. Charles and published a Vindication thereof yet afterward he declared in the H. of Commons upon H. M. Polit. and Oecon. Letters a Motion for making Cromwel King That if a King were necessary it had been better keep the last being the fittest for it of any Gentleman in England and C. Walker ubi supra p. 149. Tryal p. 249. that there was no fault in the Person but the Office and at his Tryal confessed his Trason and Repentance SURELY such true Protestant Patriots such Babes of Grace such Bulwarks of the Reformed Religion and Rights of the People as these Bloody Parricides were by some accounted would not have said this of one they thought a Tyrant or a Papist so that they were such Judges as Pontius Pilat who condemned to the Cross a King in whom he confess'd he found no Fault SIR W. Waller was a Member of the L. P. and one of their Generals a great Scholar and a great Soldier but after he had by his Sword in the Field and his Voice in the House of Commons opposed the Royal Cause and Party 'till their Overthrow and the King's Captivity at Holdenby then he became a penitent Convert and writ an Account of the Transactions of those Times wherein he Justifies and Applauds the King and abhors