the wrath of any enemies is hotter than that of ours Papists who have all along exercised the sharpest severities Now a man looking back upon the dangers which he hath escaped and remembring how he walked over a deep well slenderly covered and did not fall into it and how he passed through a company of wolves and bears and lions and was not devoured Oh how will he rejoyce how will he thank the Lord and what a lively sense of the mercy will he carry in his heart all the days of his life And may the remembrance of this mercy which this day we received from the Lord never be defaced so long as time shall endure nor the quick sense of it abate neither in us nor in our Children after us till we shall be free from the cruelties and malice and conspiracies of Popish Enemies Which will be when they shall be converted from their Errors and changed from their savage nature and the mystical Babylon shall be destroyed or when we shall be removed from Earth to Heaven If we owe God praises for our life health and food for preservation in time of war famine and pestilence for recovery out of desperate sickness what greater praises do we owe him for the enjoyment of our Protestant Religion and for our deliverance from slaughter from confusion from strange tortures from cruel deaths from Popery which is a mass of evils for I put you in remembrance again that not only evil to our Bodies was designed but a worse mischief to our Souls Blessed be God then that our Religion which is spiritual substantial and lively is not turned into idle and dead Ceremony shews and gazings crosses beads and reliques that the Holy Scriptures are not kept from our people and that we have not Prayers in a language which they understand not whereby the affection which alone makes the service acceptable to God is quite deadned and killed that we are not taught to pray to Angels and dead Saints and to ask of them protection grace pardon saying O Blessed Peter to whom power is given to open and shut Heaven loose by thy word the bonds of our sins O ye Apostles who shut and open Heaven heal our sick minds increase our vertues O Mother of God establish us in peace loose the bonds of the guilty bring light to the blind drive away our evils procure for us all good things Make us free from sins and mild and chast And blessed be God that we do not creep and kneel to an Image and say Tree on which Christ did hang. O Cross hail or peace or happiness to thee our only hope increase the righteousness of the righteous blot out or abolish the sins of the guilty O Cross which alone wast worthy to bear the talent or price of the world sweet wood bearing the sweet nails the sweet weights save the present company gathered this day together to praise thee And blessed be God that we are not taught nor incouraged nor tempted to rely upon the penances and satisfactions masses and sacrifices absolutions pardons and indulgences of others as if they could hereby prevent our falling into Hell-torment and being fallen into Purgatory-torment could deliver us out of it And blessed be God that we call not Sacramental Bread and Wine our Lord and Saviour falling down and adoring them with divine worship And blessed be God that we see not his faithful servants imprisoned and tortured and burned for refusing to submit to these abominations All which evils we might have seen if our Adversaries had prevailed Blessed be God for our King and Parliament our wholsom Laws our peace and safety and our lives Blessed be God for our ministers and for sound doctrin and the pure truth of the Gospel Blessed be God for the salvation of our Souls all which we might have lost some of which we should certainly have lost if Romes design now and at many other times had succeeded Blessed be God from our whole heart for his manifold mercy to us both now and evermore IV. The Confidence in God which these words describe Our help in the name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth That is our help was is and shall be in the Lord of Heaven They had found that God had saved them and they were resolved to trust in him ever after And well may we do so who have had the same help and favour from him in like eminent danger and as his goodness invites us to trust in him so doth his power he being the Almighty and only Supreme that made Heaven and Earth and therefore can do what he pleaseth dissolve the forces of the mighty and blow away the devices of the cunning fetter all the Devils of Hell that rise up against us and by his Command turn them back in their furious rage And we are again to remember his Eye that seeth in the dark and secret places where wicked men plot mischief and his Providence that is over all his works even to a small Sparrow and his Promise that he will defend his people and oppose his enemies And now as we trust in him there remains nothing else for us to do but to keep his Laws diligently and to walk before him with an upright heart for then shall we surely find his help They work wickedness and can they trust in him If they do it will be in vain the impudence indeed they have as to look up to Heaven when they are as deep as Hell in their wicked consultations and to say masses and make prayers to the God of righteousness for the cutting of innocent mens throats and for the accomplishing of such unrighteousness as the Devil only puts into the hearts of his slaves and which only he and his children would rejoyce to see accomplished But do they indeed trust in God It is rather in the Devil in their invented visions and feigned miracles in their plots and perverse deeds in their dissimulation and treachery in their rebellion and murthers for I see that to these they betake themselves continually as those that have no hope otherwise to prevail And no wonder for a false Religion must have indirect means to help it up and a bloody Faith will make bloody work they devise a cunning device and gather together the powers of the Earth and now say they we shall prevail we will fall upon them before they be aware and will destroy we will terrifie with torments and we will take away their chief men by death and as for the rest they will not dare to speak But alas all this is as weak as a feather and as vain as that which is most so because he is against them that made Heaven and Earth For the Lord hateth the workers of iniquity as the Psalmist speaks and abhorreth bloody and deceitful men He loveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth proud doers The righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his
Imprimatur Feb. 1. 1678. Guil. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã sacris domesticis A SERMON ON THE Gunpowder Treason WITH REFLECTIONS ON THE LATE PLOT BY THOMAS WILSON Rector of Arrow in Warwickshire LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXIX A SERMON ON PSALM cxxiv If it had not been the Lord who was on our side now may Israel say c. to the end NO notice is given what was the particular occasion of the penning of this Psalm but we see in general it was some eminent deliverance which the Psalmist commemorates acknowledging God to be the Author of it and exciting Israel to bless his holy name for it The whole is sutable to our present business of celebrating our deliverance from Popish Conspiracy The which I wish we may do with the devotion and hearty affection of this holy man for this will be acceptable to God who delights to hear his People speaking of his mercies and shewing forth his power and wonderful acts and singing of his righteousness cordially and reverently And it will be obligatory to him to follow us still with his goodness and to heap more benefits upon us and pleasant will it be to our Souls when in a sensible manner we remember how the God of Heaven owned and favoured us and mightily wrought for our deliverance And finally it will be profitable to us our hearts upon the due consideration of his love and bounty and power and marvelous doing being excited both to serve and trust in him the more at all times and to the end In the Psalm there are these things to be observed every one sutable to our present Solemnity which therefore I shall accordingly apply viz. I. A Danger II. A Deliverance III. A Thanksgiving IV. A Confidence in God I. The Danger It is variously expressed and with great emphasis First it is said Men rose up against us Which I judge rather means an open insurrection than a secret combination and herein indeed there is some difference betwixt Israels case and ours But yet our danger was not the less for this but rather the greater For open enemies we may either hide our selves from or else make preparation against whereas there is no defence neither escape unless heaven assist when men work under Ground and lay in Barrels of Powder which kindles in a moment and as suddenly destroys And there is something in the Psalm sutable to this It is this expression which again shews the Danger If the Lord had not been on our side they had swallowed us up quick Like as when the Earth opened and swallowed up Korah and his Company or like as when Fire fell down from Heaven suddenly upon Sodom and consumed the Inhabitants or like as when an hungry Lion tears his prey or rather when a Whale swallows a Man alive or like as when a Deluge overflows or a violent Torrent snatches us away or the raging Waves of the Sea involve us And so is it said Then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our Soul then the proud waves had gone over our Soul And no more mercy in our Adversaries than in those Creatures either the Lion or the Whale or Fire or Water or the Earth when it cleaves asunder and sinks under our Feet and I may add no more mercy than in the Devil For his Children they were acted by his Spirit and his work they undertook which is to destroy we have had experience of their bloody hands and cruel nature who have slain thousands of those they call Hereticks and have racked and tortured and mangled their bodies burned them alive at the stake bored out their eyes ripped up their bellies held their hands in the flames of candles and their feet in boyling oil and in such cruel manner have tormented and killed as only infernal furies could invent and there is something in the Psalm that signifies this which we are further to take notice of as that which expresses the Danger for it is said Their wrath were kindled against us And truly not a little did our Enemies rage but even like the fire of a furnace or like the fire of hell it self and they rage so still for they have been long vexed that they have lost their precious things and are spoiled of their glory that their wealth is departed from them and masses and indulgences and their trumpery of beads and girdles candles and oil and such like stuff is undervalued and will not sell at the old rate and that which hath vexed them as much as any thing is that light is broken forth which reproves their deeds of darkness and discovers their shame and nakedness and that holiness is advanced which troubles their sore and evil eyes For Cain hated his Brother for no other reason but because his own works were evil and his Brothers righteous And the wicked ever since the beginning of the world have persecuted the just out of meer enmity of nature And then as our Romish Adversaries have been long vexed so have they as long hoped for a day of vengeance wherein they might satiate their fury And no question it would be like hungry dogs or like lions that have been long tied up without meat by devouring as they have often made it manifest enough by shewing their teeth and barking by houling and roaring by their hellish conspiracies and bloody attempts And remember we again as it is here said that if the Lord had not been on our side we had been swallowed up As we were near perishing so we had perished if he the Almighty and Gracious God had not stretched out his hand and saved For as for us we knew not the matter till he by his Providence discovered it and therefore could do nothing for our delivery There is yet something more in the Psalm which expresses the Danger and that is the saying Our Soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers And as Israel was like a bird in the snare so were we the net was cast about us and there wanted only the drawing of it which a small force could do and the fowlers were hastning to the slaughter the train was laid and instruments of death prepared and there remained nothing but putting the lighted match to the powder so near were we unto death And the expression Our Soul is escaped invites me to observe that our Souls as well as our Bodies were in this eminent danger For their design was to introduce their abominable doctrines and idolatrous worship which are as dangerous as poison it self and of a worse consequence than their fire and fagots tending to kill eternally the Soul in the other world as their cruel hands kill the body in this and let me tell you when Government is altered and a false Worship commanded and established and upheld by supream Authority then alass poor Souls are easily seduced and some
countenance doth behold the upright He will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble And they that know his name will trust in him for he hath not forsaken them that seek him For who is God save the Lord or who is a rock save our God Arise O Lord and let not man prevail let the heathenish people be judged in thy sight Put them in fear O Lord that they may know themselves to be but men Destroy thou them O God let them fall by their own counsels cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions for they have rebelled against thee But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them that love thy Name be joyful in thee For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favor wilt thou compass them as with a shield Amen But let me add a few words more because of the new attempts of our Adversaries who like their Fathers have again consulted with the Devil and the grand wickedness of their hearts to kill our King subvert our Government and change our Religion But remember Dear Brethren that men cannot curse those whom God will bless except it be with their tongues which is only a brutum fulmen a Popes Bull a clap of Thunder without the bolt And be ye sure that those God will bless that love and serve him keeping themselves from sin and following peace and holiness with a pure heart as Balaam after he had attempted several times to move God against Israel for this end building seven Altars and offering upon every one a bullock and a ram and repeating this again and again confessed saying God hath blessed and I cannot reverse it He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a King is among them Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel And if the case be so that God sees not iniquity among us not such as that he will curse us for it perverseness and rebellion then may we boldly say Let the sons of Belial conspire and contrive what they can let the covetous Priests build seven Altars and add seven more to them and let them offer upon every one seventy times seven bullocks and as many rams Masses Reliques Candles Hosts and what they please let them lay their crafty heads together and call up all the Devils of Hell to their consultation let them prepare all sorts of deadly instruments and fortify themselves according to their cunning and gather together the Kings of the Earth against us Tush it is in vain and the evil which they devise they are not able to bring to pass He that sitteth in the Heavens will laugh the Lord shall have them in derision he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure We fear I see deceitful workers ungodly plotters serpentine Jesuits bloody Papists and so we do Witches Sorcerers and Conjurers But much rather may we fear our wickednesses than all the generation of this black rabble in Earth and Hell And as the presence of some of these malicious and mischievous creatures strikes some into trembling so would to God we were all as much afraid of sin and did not take this more dangerous enemy so near unto us and love its Company so dearly as to invite it to our house and put it into our bosom and let it lodge with us from day to day all the year about But Sirs what can you do you that put the Nation into fear with your evil machinations you Sons of Rome You can smite you 'l say you can torment you can burn kill and destroy us Some of us you may but all you shall not and the Devil can do as much as this and this is right well in his eyes But can you pull the Sun out of Heaven or toss about the Mountains Neither shall your Hell-gates prevail against the Church of Christ to throw it down and lay it wast utterly which is built upon the firmest Rock and which that mighty Son of man the Son of God compasseth with his Arms. For God is stronger than the Devil and will save his people from that evil Spirits rage and yours otherwise he were not what assuredly he is a loving and watchful Father You remember the voice from heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And you may thence observe that the troublers of his Church contend not with frail man only but with the Mighty Iesus who can dash you into pieces in a moment And you may conclude from the same words that he will not always suffer himself to be bruised and beaten persecuted and afflicted And do you not think that we can pray to our Father in Heaven who can send us more than twelve legions of Angels which shall vanquish the Devil and his powers of darkness your confederates in your wicked enterprises And what can we not kill you as well as you kill us Our strength is as great as yours but our will thanks be to God not so wicked You cannot say in Conscience that you fear any such thing from us as we do from you death and burning and tortures And did you fear so much as loss of Goods or Imprisonment Were you not in quietness Lived you not in peace and safety Who troubled you Did you not enjoy as much liberty in the exercise of your Religion as you could in reason expect more I dare say you had than your Religion deserves that is than your Latin-Service your Half-Communion your denial of Marriage to Priests your Masses Indulgences Purgatory and Papal-Supremacy your Image-worship your Invocation of Saints and Angels your Adoration of Sacramental Bread and Wine and such like stuff deserves All which is properly your Religion that which we call Popery wherein you differ from us and from the truth of the Gospel I think you were blind and did not understand your own happiness as you esteem this Liberty to be so or you were mad and foolish and would endeavor to deprive your selves of it by abusing your indulgent friends But God now intends you a greater happiness and that is to shame you out of your adherence to Rome and to convert you from her corrupt Religion I wish you were so wise as to embrace the opportunity and good providence when his providence namely discovers to your face your Popes and Priests and other friends unrighteous doings and raises up the spirits of all honest men against you for the same and lays upon you some restraints and penalties to curb in your insolencies and exorbitant actions and to secure us from your Swords and Daggers your Poysons and Stabs your Coleman's Confusions your Fauks's Powder your Irish Rebellion your Spanish Inquisition and Invasion your Paris Massacre your Queen Mary's Faggots and