hopes of that Royal Family to murder a whole Nation together in their Representative then met in Parliament All was struck at together as if they had been but one person as if according to Caligula's wish they had but one neck They were for blowing them up for swallowing them up at once for overwhelming all that was Venerable and Sacred in this Nation for burying both our State and our Religion in one heap of destruction and ruine Good God! If thou hadst not been on our side what had become of us when men rose up against us to swallow us up quick Men Who would ever suspect men of such a wickedness We ought not to think that men were capable of it we ought not to entertain so hard an opinion of Humane Nature It was something else that put them upon it It was something which they mis-call Religion that made them put off their Humanity It was this which transformed men into such monsters that brought them not only to think of this but to design it For their part it was actually done I do not charge all of that Religion with this Action Religion do I call it I unwillingly use so good a word on so ill an occasion But since they call it so let it pass I say then that all the Authors were only of that Religion and they acted according to their own Principles those Principles which they received from their Spiritual Governors Their Counsellors were of the Governing Party They were Jesuites who had their Superior in the Plot. I need not tell you of the malice the closeness the subtilty the rage and cruelty of that Faction that hath sufficently appeared in a hundred other things in other Exploits they have out-done all other men but they out-did themselves in this unhumane this Devilish Conspiracy It was contrived with such foresight it was managed with such policy it was carried on with that closeness and secresie as not once to gather wind in some years till they had brought all their business to perfection There was but a short time but one night but half a night between the Plot and the Execution if God had not miraculously interposed The Vault was dug the Magazine was laid in the Iron-bars were laid over the Engineer was at hand the Match was laid it was sized for an hour a fatal hour of this morning of the Fifth of November In a minute of which in a moment all the governing part of this Nation and God knows who more all that came within reach were to have been swallowed up quick Lord What a thunderclap had it been to this Nation to this Church to this Kingdom What an Earthquake it would have been What a Chaos it would have made What a Tragical day to every thing but Popery Nay to Papists themselves I doubt not many would have abhorr'd it I am persuaded they would many would have abhorr'd their very Popery But they could not have remedied what was past nor have prevented the following miseries Then this day had stood in red Letters in their Almanacks though some are pleased to leave it out of ours Then they must have kept this a Holy-day that cannot now afford it a Thanksgiving Then they must have gone to Mass for it that will not joyn with us now in our Prayers and some that will not now give a Faggot must then have lighted one 'T is not in my power nor words nor in the wit of man to enumerate all the evils and miseries that would have come upon this Nation It could not have been otherwise if the Lord had not been on our side If the Lord had not been on our side we had been gone we had never been born or had cause to have wished we had never been Oh! how are we bound to thank God that he was on our side on this day How are we bound to praise his name for preserving us so many times since I need not reckon up to you the particulars I know of no great danger we have been in but hath more or less been occasion'd by the same sort of men or if they did not begin it they have struck in with it and contributed to carry it on all they could And shall we tempt God by doing nothing to secure our selves against them It is plain that this were contrary to Gratitude But what shall we do towards our safety there is nothing more worth our consideration But do I ask that when I know what this August Assembly hath judged And if your judgment be seconded as I hope it will be there is no doubt his Majesty will assent to it Then we shall have no occasion for any more such Miracle there will be an ordinary way to keep us out of this danger First they will be obliged all the Papists that stay in England at least for their own ease if not for the common security to consider whether they are bound in Conscience to be still of that Faction That is more than we have been able to bring them to for many years They would rarely endure any of our Clergy to speak to them They had their ears stopt against us for fear of better information If you can but bring them to hear Truth I am persuaded they cannot continue Papists I know they cannot if they have so much sense in them as to consider how little reason they have for it And for them that will not hear nor consider neither of themselves nor when Authority requires it what can be more reasonable than what you have judged I think none will judge otherwise that will consider the present case This I take it is the present case between them and us our main difference is in a plain point of practice whose Subjects they and we must be They will needs be subject to one that lives in Italy If they will be so who can help it Nay that will not content them but we must be his Subjects too That is hard when we can see no reason for it Nay we must or we shall never be quiet otherwise No Cannot we intreat them Cannot be oblige them to be quiet We have endeavoured to do it with all possible Civility and yet we cannot be quiet without being what we will never be Then it is time to part if we cannot live together that 's plain But now the question is Who shall go that would I with all my soul if Popery were the Religion of England I protest I would not stay in it And yet I have done nothing to make my Country afraid of me and I have nothing but my Religion to provoke any of them I hate the person of no Papist or man in the world I would have no man punished for his Religion no not them that destroy men for Religion I would not punish them but I would not live with them if I could help it I know no Sect among Christians that I would not live under rather than Popery But what matter is it for such a one as me I expect from them no regard to what I say But methinks they should have some regard for their Country I would tell them if they were present your Country is afraid of you She does as it were beg you to be gone For a hundred years she hath been in danger of you She hath not suffered but some way or other on your account The Spanish Invasion was for Popery The Gunpowder-Treason was for Popery One Civil War was in a great measure occasioned by Popery She is in danger of another Civil War by Popery I will not say what she hath suffered abroad for your sakes She hath suffered more than she can well bear and must she suffer still must she still be in fear for your sakes Why should you not be gone and free her from her fears If they are true that she may not be destroyed and if false that she may not be always in fear of you But perhaps we cannot expect so much favour at their hands and therefore we should be the more careful for our selves Let us do what we can do if we will without them We need not fear them so much if it were not for our Divisions That is the thing which makes us most in danger of them We divide and subdivide We take the way to make our selves weak and little and indefensible We promote their design by it to swallow us up We should not go down so easily whole as we may do in small pieces We cannot but see this Oh! that we had hearts to consider it that we would do what we can to unite our selves Surely we can if we will we could if we had but a real mind to it We will and must very speedily do it or else if we do not unite do what we will otherwise we shall let in Popery even by the ways that we take to keep out Popery Well! nothing can be too bad for us to suffer upon the account of our sins yet nothing can be too good to expect from that God who hath preserved us and will preserve us if we are not wanting to our selves If we Reform our lives according to our Religion if we eschew evil and do good if we seek peace and ensue it then we shall see good days then God will delight to dwell among us he will build us like Ierusalem a City at unity within it self that shall stand fast for ever The Lord grant it for his Mercy sake Amen FINIS * That is in the Booksellers style 1677. * Aug. 30. 1675. †p. 17. o◠the Collection of Letter◠set out by order of the House of Commons * March 1676. Ibid p. 82. * Bernard super Cant. Serm. 67. †Caesar. ab Heist dist 3. c. 16 17. * Dr. Burnet's Hist. of Reform Part. 2. The Bill against Popery that has pass'd in the House of Lords
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us There are five things to be considered in these words which when they are explained will all be found applicable to our case Here is first The wrath and malice of the enemies of Gods people and that against Israel as being the people of God 'T is exprest in the last words of my Text They were wrathfully displeased at us Gods enemies are so at all times never otherwise but at some times they shew it more than at other and that is when they are ready to put their malice in execution which is the second thing in my Text. Secondly Their Conspiracy their attempt to execute their malice express'd in these words When they rose up against us Thirdly The extreme danger of Gods People at the time of such an attempt which was so great in the Israelites case that they acknowledged if it had not been for God they had been swallowed up quick The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used is either whole or raw or alive and it is interpreted all these ways by the Jewish writers They had eaten us whole without chewing saith Solomon-Melech They had devoured us raw saith David-Kinchi They had swallowed us up alive saith Aben-Ezra as the Earth swallowed up Corah Dathan and Abiram that went down alive into the Pit This phrase as it signifies the greatness and nearness of that danger that comes sometimes on Gods Church so it signifies also the eager passionate hopes of their enemies They had swallowed us up quick saith Israel in my Text They were in great haste to have us in their bellies that they could not forbear us till we were dead as one of them renders it that they fell upon us raw they could not stay the dressing of us saith another that they were for swallowing us up whole they had not patience for chewing saith a third Surely great was their haste when their wrath was thus kindled against us and great was our danger If God had not been on our side That is the fourth thing to be considered in these words Fourthly It is the providence of God that watches over his people that takes part with them against their implacable enemies that delivers them from danger even when things are come to extremity Lastly Here is a due return to God of Thankfulness from his people which as they have cause for at all times so especially upon such a deliverance on every thought or mention of it Now may Israel say with mouth and heart privately and in the Congregation If the Lord had not been on our side what would have become of us And Now what shall we render to him for being thus on our side Saying is put for Doing in Scripture-language all Gods words are actions and he expects something like this from us He expects that our actions should answer our words that what we say in our Thanksgivings we should do like it in all the course of our lives and that we glorifie God not only by offering praise but by ordering our conversation aright Here are five things observed First the malice of wicked men they are always wrathfully displeased at us Secondly Their endeavours to execute it when they rise up against us Thirdly The danger of Gods people that they shall be swallowed up quick Fourthly Gods providence over them in appearing on their side And lastly Their thankfulness to God in their grateful acknowledgment of it Of all these there are two things chiefly to be considered which I have made choice of for my subject at this time The first is The malicious designs of Gods enemies for the destruction of his people The second is The providence of God watching over his people to deliver them from his and their enemies Both these I shall consider First in other instances and then in the Gunpowder-Treason 'T is that which perhaps of all others is the greatest that ever was 't is that which particularly concerns us this day I shall shew therefore First how great a danger it was how near the point of execution how then God appeared for our deliverance how wonderful a deliverance it was and then how we ought to shew our sense of it in our zeal for that Religion which God was so concerned for and in adorning it by a life that may be exemplary to all other Christians The first thing that I observe is the malice and spitefulness of wicked men the enemies of God their proneness to hurt and to destroy his Church and all true Members of it This as soon as I name it is confest on all hands For all parties take themselves to be the Church of God and the worst Sects among Christians in my opinion are they that take themselves to be the only true Church Grant but this that they are the only true Church and they will not stick with us for my Doctrine They will acknowledge it and tell us we are instances of it that the enemies of God hate his Church and endeavour to destroy it But because this will signifie nothing till it appear who are the Church of God or at least who are the enemies of it I shall determine that by bringing it to this issue That they who are most given to hate and to destroy others especially those others who differ from them in Religion they are not the Church of God or at least they are so far corrupt in that particular I might say this of Men without any relation to the Church the worse they are in other respects the more prone they are generally to hate those that are better than themselves and to shew it by doing them all the mischief they are able Whereas on the other hand Good men are of gracious dispositions They may be displeased but not wrathfully as it is in my Text They are not prone to do mischief but are ready to do good even to enemies And the better they are the more they excell in these dispositions A good man is the only true Image of God who is good and does good to all his Creatures even to Sinners who is so far from willing the death of a Sinner that he does not willingly grieve the children of men Whereas on the other hand it is the property of the Devil to hate and to hurt and to destroy all that come in his way He is therefore called Abaddon and Apollyon in the Revelations He is truly so He was a Murderer from the beginning and will be so even to the end of the world And by these Characters of God and the Devil by their proneness to do good on the one hand by their proneness to do mischief on the other by these we are to distinguish men as the Apostle tells us 1 John 3. 10. By this the children of God are manifested and the children of
the Devil It holds we see in particular persons but it is much more visible in Societies And to this I come next that of Societies of men Christians of all other are most averse from ways of violence and blood especially from using any such ways upon the account of Religion And among Christian Churches where they differ among themselves if either of them use those ways upon the account of Religion they give a strong presumption against themselves that they are not truly Christians There is Reason for this because we know that Christ gave Love for the character by which his Disciples were to be known John 13. 35. By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another And left men should unchristen others first that they may hate them and destroy them afterwards Christ enlarged his Precept of Love and extended it even to enemies and not only to ours but to the enemies of our Religion Matth. 5. 43 44. And to enable us to live according to this Precept he hath given us his Spirit whereof this is one of the Fruits For among the Fruits of the Spirit is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only the love of the Brethren but the love of strangers even of enemies as the Apostle shews 2 Pet. 1. 5. On the contrary Hatred is one of the works of the flesh and they that have not the Spirit of Christ to subdue it are said to be hateful and hating one another Tit. 3. 3. Especially to his Disciples Christ saith The world hates you John 15. 19. You particularly as being Christians And even among Christians He that saith he is in the light and hates his Brother his fellow Christian he is in darkness still saith the Apostle 1 Iohn 2. 9. He hath a great want of that light which belongeth to a Christian. To see the use of this Character let any one consider how the Christians were treated by the enemies of their Religion and then let him consider how they used their enemies when they were in power he shall find that darkness differs not more from light than the persecuting genius of those enemies from the calm gentle spirit of Christians I say when they were in power for there is the tryal 'T is not much to be heeded what men do when they are under Authority When the Jews had the power to wreak their malice upon Christians they both killed the Lord Iesus and his Apostles and all Christians where they durst for fear of the Romans they never ceased till wrath come upon them to the uttermost nor even then for their malice lasts still it burns inward and they are not able to keep it from breaking out sometimes as it did here very lately upon an occasion of which I shall say no more in this place The Heathens likewise shewed their malice against Christians in divers cruel bloody Persecutions in the very infancy of our Religion and when the Blood of Martyrs being the seed of the Church it grew up so wonderfully and was so vastly numerous that it seemed an endless work to destroy it yet there were those Heathen Princes that despaired not of it even then especially Diocletan and his Colleague who killed many thousands of Christians only upon the account of Religion When the Government changed as it did in few years after the last Persecution and when Christianity was come to be the Established Religion there was no Heathen put to death nor no Jew upon the account of Religion till Popery prevailed which was as bloody as Judaism or Heathenism This calm gentle temper of the Primitive Christians which so gloriously shined forth when they came to be in Power was that which lay hid in them all the times of Persecution Then they could not shew it but in their Profession and so indeed they always did as appears by Tertullian and others who used to fay and glory in it Christianus nullius hostis a Christian is no mans enemy a Christian can be no mans enemy do what you will to him injure him slander him strip and torture him kill all others of his Religion before his eyes and then let him loose and give him power place him in your circumstances he cannot revenge himself upon you What! that humane nature could bear such things without any resentment it was not credible their enemies could not believe this none could believe it that did not feel it in himself till they came to see it and then all men believed it and acknowledged it to be the singular excellency of the Christian Religion But as our holy Religion excels all others in this admirable temper so by this we may usually judge who they are that excel among Christian Churches when there happens any difference between them whether touching the Faith or the terms of Communion They that were the more fierce they generally had the worst Cause As when the difference was about the keeping of Easter it was chiefly between the Roman and the Asian Churches The Asians were content that every Church should keep it at what time they pleas'd so themselves might be allowed to keep it as they had always done for they held the precise time to be as truly it was an indifferent thing The Romans would not allow that they were for imposing on other Churches and for breaking Communion with them that would not receive their Impositions Which as it argued in them a proud and wrathful disposition so even by that it appeared they had the worst of the Cause In like manner in that heat between Cyprian and Stephen where neither of them was right in the Cause for as it commonly happens when men contend the Truth lay between them yet sure St. Cyprian was in the right in this in holding that this cause was not sufficient to break Communion between Churches And there Pope Stephen was in the wrong for he did break Communion about it he denied jus hospitii he would not receive a message he would not hear of an Accommodation I forbear to repeat the ill terms he gave St. Cyprian you may read them in the end of Firmilian's Epistle We all allow that Cyprian was truly a Saint 'T is well they own him such in the Roman Church But how they can make that Pope so too I do not understand for it is plain that to his death he would not allow that Saint to be a Christian. The great power of Error in moving mens Passions and enraging them against the Professors of Truth and the power of true Religion in composing mens Passions on the other hand both these did appear as soon as ever a Heresie came to have Publick Authority on its side It was the Arian Heresie that was newly broke forth before the Council of Nice and that Council was called to suppress it which they did by no other force but putting Arians out of their Bishopricks They