Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A41513
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A just and sober vindication of the observations upon the thirtieth of January, and twenty ninth of May by J.G.G.
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Gailhard, J. (Jean)
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1694
(1694)
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Wing G122; ESTC R24345
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52,426
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80
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of them And all things saith Paul are naked and opened unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do And there is not saith David a word in my Tongue but thou knowest it altogether In answer to these words of mine After Acts of Oblivion for such things are passed the Memory thereof ought to be forgotten He saith P. 21. Is he assured that that Act is Ingrossed in the Book of Life Or that an Omniscient Mercy hath Recorded our Indemnity By what Angel Yea Sir I am assured of God's Infinite Mercy He is slow to Anger ready to Forgive and plentious in Mercy and if we doubt of it we are Unbelievers he is a God Forgiving Sins and passing by Transgressions and when he hath given us Repentance unto Life whereby we are delivered from Eternal Death and Damnation surely if he thinks it good for us he will also deliver from Temporal Punishments But the ready way to have the Act Ingrossed and the Indemnity Recorded is to put on Bowels of Charity and leave off Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife and other Works of the Flesh We have an Instance of God's Mercy in a case of Murther infinitely more Abominable than yours I mean the Death of his Son the Lord Jesus who is God Blessed for ever God ingrossed in the Book of Life the Act of Pardon and his Omniscient Mercy Recorded the Indemnity of many of those who had Crucified the Prince of Life This God hath declared but with much Assurance I can say That if you continue in your Hatred and desire of Vengeance there is no Pardon for you and if you ask me by what Angel I came to know so much my answer is ready By the Angel of the Covenant who hath declared in the case of the Servant who would shew his Fellow no Mercy wherefore he was delivered to the Tormentors So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your Hearts forgive not every one his Brother their Trespasses Let us but have a care to forgive those by whom we think our selves to have been offended and trust God's Mercy provided you do not become unworthy of it for your Pardon for God is not Angry for ever he visits the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children but unto the Third and Fourth Generation But have a care not to take any Pretence to continue in your Animosity or do any thing tending to Superstition You would require of Men more than God doth namely to repent of a Sin which they have not committed I already said those who put King Charles to Death are dead themselves they that now are had no hand in it if in some things they differ from you know your Carriage towards them is in part the cause of it but have a care not to attribute to the Work of that day any thing whereat God may be offended Repentance ought to be daily and continually and not Anniversary of the first we have a Command and we have Sins enough of our own and National to Mourn for but of an Anniversary Repentance we have no President in the Word of God which in such things ought to be our Rule He asks P. 2. Is the Sin expiated Is the Crime attoned for I suppose he meaneth of the Guilty for God never punisheth the Innocent for the Gullty for the Soul that sinneth it shall die It were contrary to his Justice to think otherwise so they that are Innocent are in no Danger as to that they need no Expiation nor Attonement but for the Guilty either they now have or shall never have it a Temporal Judgment hath been executed upon several of them how after this Life God hath dealt with them we are not to inquire after nor concerned But Must future Ages have no nobler Tradition of his Goodness and Justice than what Execution can convey P. 22. Why raise Monuments and Mausolees write his History get his Statues in Brass and Marble Medals of him in Gold and Silver his Head ingraved on Precious Stones several of his Pictures copied and dispersed abroad by that means the Memory of Alexander and of the Cesars hath been transmitted to Posterity I suppose what he seems most to Lament is his loss and not for the Sin of those who condemned him to Death if it be his loss he might have been killed in a Battel died in his Bed of Sickness or of Age he was not Immortal we ought in that case as we must in this have submitted to the Will of God he is Happy better in Heaven than upon Earth why so much and so long to Fret and Vex and be Ingenious to Torment our selves and others and be Angry with those that will not Weep as long or as much as we Parents Relations and Friends must be content with the Loss of any thing near and dear when it pleaseth God it should be so St. Paul would not have the Thessalonians to Sorrow for those that are asleep as others which have no Hope I think that after all these Considerations to continue such an Anniversary is to retain Occasion of Trouble and Matter of Division I find something I said makes him uneasie for he repeats it more than once 't is this To Mourn for King Charles 's Death once had been enough He saith His Tongue tyed Malice would not let him speak out to have celebrated the Martyrdom with a Devotional Remembrance I thank God I am thus far able to command my Tongue as not to let it speak against my Mind 't is not out of Malice for I speak of him and his Memory as reasonably as may be expected from one who is not doting upon a Dead Man but for me to have said Celebrated the Martyrdom c. it had been a Lye and contrary to my Thoughts I own no Martyrdom much less with a Devotional Remembrance my Devotion is only wholly and directly for my God he is graciously pleased to allow me coming to him at any time without any Introductor or Master of Ceremonies I declared I thought his Death unlawful I approved once Mourning for it and one Humiliation-day but not for ever But Why not twice saith he Nay for once or twice more I would not stand out with him if only occasionally but once every Year at a certain fixed day turneth it into Abuse once is no Custom one Act may be Harmless when an Habit makes it a Sin and of all Sins the Customary ought to be avoided But why once for all saith he My answer is Once because our Nature may be allowed to vent out her Sorrow 't is an Infirmity of Humane Nature to be grieved for Losses and Crosses and it easeth one to unload himself of that Affliction whereby the Heart is affected Thus a Father or a Friend may express a Trouble for the loss of a dear Son or of another Relation as I instanced in the case of Jacob and Joseph
take Advantage of my Senseless and Breathless Discourse but sometimes Men are mistaken in their Notions as of two Men fighting one having an high Opinion in handling of his Weapon is so intent upon the Ruin of his Enemy that he neglects his own Preservation and therein gives an Advantage against himself laying his Body open to his Enemies Sword or rashly running upon the point of it Let not him that girdeth on his Harness boast himself as he that puts it off let no Man sing a Triumph before he hath gotten the Victory so let none say he hath the better before the Dispute be ended Habemus fatentem reum for in your Postscript you say you leave it to some Persons more Hawk sighted than your self This Extraordinary Man I would endeavour to please but 't is a hard thing and I cannot tell how to effect it I said I believe no Anniversary should be kept for King Charles then he flies at me and would tear me to pieces if he could and when I affirm on the other side that the Fact or putting him to Death was Unlawful and Horrid Murther c. then for my Pains I hear this from him That what I say is Dissembling Innuendo's of my Charity p. 6. he doth protest I am an ugly squinting wide-mouthed Fellow how long a train of Titles he gives me well my Mouth and Face are as God pleased to make them therewith I must be content I own 't is better such as it is than I deserve at God's Hands afterwards p. 6. he doth quote my words how I believe God shewed him Mercy that the taking away of his Life was an ill thing c. This as he saith is as good as if I had called him a Rogue and a Rascal and arraigned him for a Malefactor What can we say or do to this Well as I hinted something a little before here he gives me a very great Advantage against himself which I must not lose for 't is of too high a Concernment for me he quoteth my words in Page 1 3 5. about the Fact which though they be as positive as can be yet in his Page 43. he affirmeth I say The Martyr was Guilty and that Justice was executed on him How can these two things agree the former words I own the last I never said or thought It is Matter of Fact and what would it be if it was upon Matter of my Life or Death Well I shall unriddle the business and shew where the Mistake lies Mistake I call it or Over-passionateness for I thank God I have for him more Charity than he hath for me others would call it a Rank Malice but I call it a Mistake but a very gross one for what in my Book I say of Justice executed upon the Guilty of his Death that is upon his Judges he would in his Book make me speak it of King Charles at this let him blush and be ashamed Now we may see who he or I be guilty of Imputations as Scandalous as False as he expresseth p. 43. God forgive him And to declare my Mind more in general upon such Points I say two things First When a Man suffers though never so unjustly yet in relation to God he hath nothing to complain of for as David saith God is Just in all his Ways and Holy in all his Works Secondly I say the Righteousness of God never excuseth the Wickedness of Men. After he hath as it were tired himself upon me and may be in his Opinion made me very Sore Black and Blue he leaves me for a while as it were to feel my Pains Sentiat se mori for Variety sake like a Famous Runner at Tilt having disabled one he is ready for and falls upon the next so the next turn is Mr. St ns to whom he imparts some of his Caresses in the same kind as to me But the Tender Mercies of some are Cruel He begins with taking notice of much Dust like a Cloud beat out of the Cushion at St. Mary leBow and doth not mind the Dirt and Dung of his which he is in over Head and Ears we could say more if we did but see him thoroughly that Spring must be very Corrupt whence proceed such stinking Streams the very Breath whereof is so Loathsome Pray let us hear his Rhetorick upon the Subject His Sermon 's foul and false Aspersions sound more like the Accents of Rotten Eggs What Eggs in a Sermon and Rotten too they stink away with it I think Mr. St ns will say nothing but what he can justifie but is withall too Wise to trouble himself with answering a Giddy-brain'd Fellow who would have every one else to Weep or Laugh when he doth or else will be very Angry if they will not Fast on the Thirtieth of January and Feast on the Twenty ninth of May and would upon those days Force Men to Church whether they will or not only because he goes himself We read of one who always Laughs and of another who ever Wept this Man would act both parts and be one day Democritus and on the other Heraclitus Others look for better grounds than he hath to do so he speaks unworthily of that Person when he saith I leave him to play Fast and Loose with his Function perhaps may be his Interest p. 9. This Man is very little or not at all acquainted with Wise Solomon for he breaks many of his Rules one of which is this Strive not with a Man without cause if he hath done thee no harm He is of a provoking Spirit I would have him give a good Reason why he thinks such a one is lead by Interest and not by Conscience and p. 25. he declares he is of Opinion that we might stop any of their Nonconformists Mouths with a Bishoprick I shall not say he is mistaken in all but I dare say in some he is this interested People are apt to judge of others by themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves are not Wise So against the Rules of Prudence and Charity this Man judgeth rashly of others though our Blessed Saviour said Judge not that ye be not judged Of David did his Brother Eliab judge unjustly when he said to him I know thy Pride and the Naughtiness of thine Heart That same was a Man according to God's own Heart and yet his Brother pretended to see into and be the Searcher of his Heart a Right which God hath reserved for himself when God at that time had sent him to destroy the Philistine and be an Instrument of Deliverance to Israel was not this a very hard and an unjust Censure and that from a Brother To make Application of this I leave it for those whom it may concern Si accusare sat est quis erit innocens Who can be Innocent if to accuse be enough to make one Guilty This I must say the Man hath