thereby an opportunity of diving into the hearts and drawing out the secrets of others of understanding the tempers of persons the state of Families Towns and Kingdoms These are very dangerous persons wherever they do reside It 's such as these that will not suffer Princes or People to be quiet where they are admitted and indulged but are perpetually instigating them and putting them forward upon dangerous enterprizes These that pretend to be under an Obligation not to divulge the secrets of Confession although a Prince and Parliament and thousands of People suffer by the concealment of it as it had likely to have proved in the Gunpowder-Treason make their advantage of these to breed ill blood to foster and promote jealousies and contentions betwixt Prince and people betwixt Nation and Nation that their Cause may be promoted by it and by this means others may be made unable to hurt them or defend themselves It 's but fit therefore since such have chosen the life of a Cloyster that they should be confined to it or else they are enough to set all the World on fire and to draw men into perpetual quarrels and contentions These are they that keep the Church from being quiet and Christians from the practice of those duties that tend to the peace the order and the security of it 3. It proceeds from the interest of wicked men as it is Vers 3. They have consulted against thy hidden ones or as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Psalm 17. 14. Thy treasures So Vers 12. They say let us take to our selves the houses or ornaments of God in possession The riches of the Temple amongst other things did it seems invite their avarice And this is frequently a reason of the enmity of such The Church may either have somewhat which they want or else if it should prevail deprive them of somewhat which they have and so gives therefore sufficient ground of a quarrel The Apostle tells us of some men whose God is their belly and that mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. and of others whose gain is godliness 1 Tim. 6. 5 that are no further for Religion than Religion is for them and make use of that Sacred Name to obtain or secure their secular interest and if this be opposed Hell it self shall be moved and all that power and policy can do imployed to protect it Religion it self shall be abandoned and the Church of God harassed and persecuted if they make against it This is one great reason of the quarrel betwixt us and the Church of Rome and of all those attemps made upon us by a Foreign Power England is a fruitful Country and the people of their own temper inclined to devotion and it was a plentiful harvest which some men reaped here in former times from Peter-pence and first-Fruits and Pensions and Appeals and Dispensations and Indulgences and Jubilees and Pilgrimages they were goodly days when there were frequent returns in these kinds from hence to Rome but now that there is a great Gulph fixed by Laws and Statutes and Penalties betwixt us and them so that they which would pass from hence to them cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence about such affairs without danger whilst those Laws are in being and are put in execution their bank is sunk and they would fain be returning to their old quarter There are Abbies and Monastries Frieries and Nunneries with noble Mannors and large Demesnes there are Benefices and Colledges which they thirst after These are the Souls that they so dearly prize and venture so hard to rescue out of the fire these are the Proselytes which they above all labour to gain and because they are still kept out what broils and stirs do they make what do they not threaten and endeavour And besides there is danger lest if they invade not us that we should grow upon them and other people begin to be wise as well as ours Such also may come to see that Religion consists not in the visiting of a Church or looking devoutly upon a Relique or kissing a piece of wood or bowing to an Image or crossing the breast or in singring of Beads or saying Prayers by tale or being clad with the Robe of St. Francis or walking barefoot or in being all night locked up in a Cloyster or in fasting by eating of Fish or in lighting up of Tapers and making processions and a thousand of the like apish and fantastical Ceremonies nay they might come to understand that the Pope is not Christs Vicar nor his Holiness Infallible nor that he hath power to deliver Souls out of Purgatory and what is more that there is no such place as Purgatory and so no need of praying for the dead nor of Money to purchase those prayers This is a great reason why our Religion in the Church of England which is a Reformation of those corrupt errors and practices that are crept into the Church of Rome is so much disliked and inveighed against by the Popish faction For what would Rome signify if it had no supremacy over other Churches what appeals would be made thither what directions commands and grants would be expected thence if each had as much authority within it self as that now claims over all If the rest of the Apostles had authority equal with St. Peter if all their successours in the several parts of the World were of the same degree and none had superiority over the rest if the Church of Ephesus where St. John was or that of Jerusalem where St. James did preside had as much priviledge as that of Rome then she might sit as a widow in respect of what for these last ages she hath been and be bereaved of all that Pomp and Greatness that Wealth and Magnificence that she hath abounded in Again if there be no infallibility amongst them if their Popes have mistaken in point of faith and their decrees have been erroneous if their Councils have miscarried in their determinations if Tradition hath failed in what they pretend to be conveighed down by it if their Church that is be no better than others and whatever it pretends to can really claim no better infallibility Then what need will there be of being solicitous and inquisitive about what she shall require or determine what need any one take a long journey thither when he may with greater ease and as much certainty have his case resolved at home Could that Church do no more than others and had it no such thing as a treasure of Merits and Superarogaions no publick and general stock from whence such may be relieved as having made little conscience of Religion whilst they lived have no other claim to the priviledges of it when they come to dye where would be the profit that doth daily accrue to it by the issuing out of Indulgences Were there nothing in the Reliques that are shewed by them and no more in that Blood of Christ
said to bring Nebuchadnezzar against them Jer. 25. 9. So that a Church and people may come thus to suffer through Gods wise and powerful ordination as they by their sins have provoked him to anger and when it hath done this work and served this end and that by it they are brought to repentance the same hand that brought it on will carry it off 2. I shall proceed to the second general which is to observe the ways in which they shew this enmity or the course which they take for the destruction of the Church and that is deep consultation and joynt endeavour They take crafty counsel and are confederate And this is the most likely way to accomplish a design when it is cunningly contrived and closely prosecuted For all the action in the world without good consultation may be baffled and disappointed and the shrewdest consultation without vigorous action will come to nothing but when both these do meet it hath the fairest hopes of success And this the Adversaries of the Church are not wanting in who do too often surmount in both those that have the best cause and whose greatest interest it is to defend it But there are particular ways which such do take As 1. Slandering their adversaries and raising false reports of them They are then dealt with as the primitive Christians were by their persecutors who were dressed up in the skins of such Creatures as would the more exasperate and invite the wild beasts to which they were exposed to tear and devour them they shall be represented as Hypocrites and Deceivers as Hereticks and Infidels as pernicious and dangerous So it was with the Christians of old who were said to be Atheists and contemners of all Religion and guilty of the foulest crimes as Sacriledge Sedition Incest and Murder and it is no wonder when thus represented that some of the best of the Heathenish Emperers made Laws and Edicts against them and followed them with severe persecutions as Trajan Adrian and Antoninus till they were made to understand better by their Apologists And so it happens often in the World that Religion for want of being understood and the Religious for want of being truly known are evil intreated by them that mean well But as such by mistake and misreport may become Enemies to what is good thinking it to be evil so bad men are willing to have it so and do therefore take all occasions to asperse Religion that they may expose that and those that are better than themselves to obloquy and reproach for by how much the more they can cast dirt upon them by so much the more do they think themselves vindicated And this is no small artifice of the Church of Rome in the foul dealing which they shew to those that will not own its authority and submit to its unlimited Jurisdiction they will take Hell it self for calumnies and say any thing that will serve to disgrace them They will dress them up as the poor people that are condemned for Heresie by the Inquisition in Sanbenito's and Coats painted over with Owls and Devils to make them ridiculous or worse and to take the people off from condoling their misfortune they will describe their adversaries in Characters of blood and soot and what not to set the people on with fury and render them implacable Thus we find they did by Luther whom they will needs have to dye just when he had entertained his Friends with merry conceits and had been entertained at a plentiful Supper and that immediately his Soul was carried away by Devils when the truth is that after he had been long troubled with a pain in his breast and was brought by it under great weakness he was in continual expectation of death though he ceased not to Preach as he had any intermission and the night that he died though weak yet set down with his Friends discoursing about the state in Heaven and whether we shall then know one another and then retiring according to his custom to private Prayer he found that his pain increased and perceiving after some hours that his end drew near he exhorted his Friends and declared his perseverance in the Faith and praying with great fervency concluded that and his life together with Father into thy hands I commit my spirit thou hast redeemed me O God of truth So they tell us that Calvin was given to gluttony and Epicurism and was branded for Sodomy at Noviodunum where he was born whereas he was a man of great abstinence never eating any thing for Ten years before his death till evening and is cleared of the latter by Jacob le Vasseur Dean of Noviodunum in his Book which he published of the Annals of that Church in 1633. Thus would they make our Religion and all that profess it look miscreantly in the eyes of the world that they might fall on us without mercy and worry us with some reputation 2. By dividing the Church and setting one part of it against the other It 's the policy of the Church of Rome that though they have more and greater divisions amongst them as about the seat of infallibility it self which is a fundamental principle with them than we yet that there is a superiour power to crush them and though they cannot be reconciled and put to an end yet that that puts them to silence and so they are kept from doing mischief But where persons have a free liberty and few or no restraints laid upon them they are tempted to break into parties and those parties are apt to break one against the other by which means they are often made a prey to the common Adversary And I pray God this be not the event of this state with us I am sure there hath not been wanting endeavour on their part to effect it endeavour I say to make and aggravate and perpetuate differences that so all might lie at their mercy How do they sort with all persons strike into all Societies take upon themselves the guise of all parties that they may bring each to war against other and fight the battels of Rome whilst they fight one with the other and all may fall a Sacrifice to its fury 3. By downright force that when other means do fail or that they are weary of expecting what will be the issue of them they do without more ado run to their Arms and bring the Cause to a decision in open Field In open Field say I I wish that were all nay they will assassinate and massacre blow up or burn or do any thing that either treachery or cruelty can teach them This is too true a Character of the Church of Rome That ever since it first drew the sword in the time of Hildebrand never knew what it was to sheath it again but that hath prosecuted it's Cause by force of Arms to this day It 's that which hath claimed a Jurisdiction over Princes and a power to depose and
dethrone them It 's that which hath disposed of their Kingdoms and given Subjects authority to rebel against them It 's that which hath raised Armies and animated Princes to head them against the Laws of Nations It 's to that we are beholding for 88 when with the Popes blessing no less than a Fleet of 130 Ships with 19290 Souldiers on board besides Seamen was sent to invade England and despoil Queen Elizabeth of her Crown and Kingdom But what is all this to their bloody Conspiracies An Army cannot move without giving an Alarm it awakens others and puts them upon their guard but when the malice walks like the pestilence in darkness and is disguised either with the shews of friendship and peace or else lies out of all discovery it 's far more dangerous This makes the Church or people against whom it is designed more secure and the Enemy more confident of success Which brings to the fourth general 4. Here is the confidence that they have of success and that may proceed from the review which they take of their own policy and strength and from the observation which they make of the weakness of their adversaries weak perhaps of themselves weaker perhaps with their divisions weak because they are secure and not aware of an assault and weak because they have made no provision against it Confident again they may be of success because the design lies out of sight and what 's not easily discovered though they are never so inquisitive when it lies under ground in Vaults or Cellars as it was in the Gunpowder-Treason or what is so well banded together that it cannot be well prevented though never so watchful as that in 88. Confident again they may be of success because it is masked and disguised that it 's carried on whilst they pretend peace friendship and alliance So was the Parisian Massacre Anno 1572 when under the pretence of great friendship upon the marriage betwixt the King of Navar and Margaret sister to the King of France the Protestants in great numbers were drawn into the City and then above 30000 of them barbarously murdered So it was in 88 when a peace was propounded and Commissioners on both sides sent to treat about it with great and solemn protestations on the Prince of Parma's side that no invasion was intended and yet within a few days after this the Invincible as it was called Armado set forth from Spain So again in 1605 there were sent from the Pope orders to forbid Conspiracies against the Government whilst at the same time the Gunpowder-Treason was not without his privity in agitation Whilst these and the like arts are used it is no wonder that they promise themselves good assurance of carrying the day and that in good time they shall prevail over them that they have thus far blinded and infatuated But let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off nor talk too confidently of success till he is sure of it For in this case there is a promise of God that is surer than all the counsels and power of men which is That the gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church and as God will always have a Church in the world do men or Devils what they can so also a particular Church shall reap the benefit of that promise if they take the course pointed to in this Psalm which brings to the fourth General 4. The course by which the Church and People of God may and shall be secured intimated here vers 1 Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace and be not still O God Which is fervent prayer to God and intire dependence upon him in sum the behaving themselves as those that are his servants for then God will be their Friend and their Patron and they will be as secure notwithstanding the power of the enemy as if they had no enemy to encounter or that enemy had no power to assault them Then they shall find that verefied which is said Isa 8. 9 10 Associate your selves O ye people and ye shall be broken in pieces and give ear all ye of far countreys Gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Gird your selves and ye shall be broken in pieces Take counsel together and it shall come to naught speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Let us then betake our selves to this course and engage the Divine Protection by our importunate prayers to God and a due conformity to his commands that we make good our profession by a suitable practice and as much exceed our adversaries in the life and spirit of our Religion as we do in the Purity and Principles of it and then we shall find that though they may dig deep their counsel shall be brought to light though they combine together they shall be broken though they summon up all their force they shall be defeated and we shall then be able to say with the Psalmist Psal 118. 6 The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do unto me Thus our Ancestors were delivered Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them They cryed unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded And to encourage you hereunto I shall give you a brief account of Gods great mercy to them and this Church in the deliverance which we are this day met to commemorate and that I shall do in the order of the Text. Their design was to root out the Protestant Religion A Religion that hath the Scriptures and the practice of the Primitive Church to defend it a Religion planted amongst us with peace and by Authority that made not its way by blood and slaughter by rebellion and disobedience that was setled without any injury to the Prince or prejudice to the people and what did hugely tend to the security of both A Religion that dealt candidly and fairly with those that were against it and was never an enemy to them till they became an enemy to it First by receiving and owning the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus that meant no less than to depose the Queen and turn her out of her Throne and then practising accordingly A Religion that when in its own defence it had Laws against such yet rarely put them into execution and that notwithstanding which many of them held Offices and all their Estates unless forfeired by some particular Treason This Religion which hath so much to say for it self and God hath so much honour and we our comfort and salvation by nay this Religion which they lived so safely under did they seek to subvert And that in a way so barbarous that it wants both parallel and defence and which the boldest of that Way cannot hear of without blushing and howsoever they would have been in the success of it cannot find any thing to excuse To Murder a King in