only because wee are more sensible of such things by the event give mee leave in a Sciagraphie to set before your eyes the events that were likely to have ensued upon this horrible treason by which the treason may be if not fully deciphered yet in some â—ort at leaâ—t shadowed and represented Suppose the King and Queene with all the Nobles Bishops and Iudges were assembled together in the house of Parliament to consult and deliberate touching the weighty affaires of this Kingdome as indeed it was appointed And suppose then under this house in a Vault there were laid thirty Barrels and foure Hogsheads of Gunpowder with Faggots and iron Barres upon them as there were indeed But now goe on and imagine the traine to be laid the powder fired the terrible blow given and on a sudden imagine the whole building to cracke asunder the plankes all on a flame the beams and stones flying in the ayre the joynts and members of all the worthies of our Land rent and torne and scattered one from another the walls of the streete bedawbed with mens braines the waies bedewed with mens blood scarcely so much as one bone left of a great many for buriall Then imagine you see the Church adjoyning as with an earthquake dejected the Monuments of the dead defaced the Hall of Iustice demolished the Records and Charters of the Kingdome perished the whole circuit thereabouts turned into smoake and rubbish Then imagine you see the City in an uprore the Country in perplexity the Papists every where up in armes the Spaniard with his forces landing upon your coasts ready to joyne with them your houses rifled your goods spoyled your Maidens ravished your Wives abused your Children slaughtered Gods Temple profaned the Kings authority debased the Popes power advanced the pure preaching of the Word abolished the Idolatrous superstition of the Masse established Truely all these consequents and farre worse if I were able to expresse them would have followed upon that vile and transcendent treason if it had taken effect The face of all things would have been quite altered and the whole Kingdome turn'd topsy turvy Caligula wished that all the people of Rome had had but one necke that hee might have smit it asunder at one blow Truely in this Treason the necke of our whole State both of Church and Common-wealth the glory of this famous and flourishing Kingdome the hope of posterity was laid as it were upon the block The instrument of death was lifted up by the damned instrumeÌ„ts of the Pope of Rome and was ready to give us all the mortall stroke or as they call'd it the deadly blow had not the Angell of GOD stepped in in the very nicke had not our mercifull God by his most miraculous and immediate providence put to his helping hand and awarded the blow and turned the edge of the Axe upon the necke of our Adversaries themselves The net was spread and the snare was laid and the pit was digged and the Hunters were gone out to drive us into their gins and they had the game faire before them but the net was broken by the finger of God and the snare was discovered by the eye of God and the pit that they had digged for us they fell into it themselves and were taken with their owne mischiefe If the Lord himselfe had not been on our side now may Israel say if the Lord himselfe had not beene on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quicke when they were so wrathfully displeased with us the waters had drowned us and the streames had gone over our soules the deepe waters of the proud had gone even over our soule But praised be God which hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeâ—h Our soule is escaped even as the Bird out of the snare of the Fowler the snare is broken and our soule is delivered and our helpe standeth in the Name of the LORD which made Heaven and earth Psal. 124. a most sit Psalme to be sung at this solemnity So now having prepared your hearts and possessed your mindes with the proper businesse of this day I will with your favour descend to the handling of this place of Scripture which I have read for my Text sutable as I take it for the time The summe whereof is nothing else but a prayer of the Church against her malicious and implacable enemies Remember the Children of Edom ô Lord c. This Psalme is very patheticall full of passions and affectionate passages I may reduce them all not unfitly to these two â—eads in â—espect of their severall objects for either they respect the Church her selfe for they respect the enemies of the Church In the verses going before my Text you have laid downe those passions and passages which respect the Church and that both in her misery which is deplored and in her prosperity which is desired but of these wee have not now to speake In the seventh verse and the rest of the Psalme there are laid downe these passions and passages which respect the enemies of the Church where yee have first an imprecation of evill 2. An intermination of judgement The imprecation in this the interminatioÌ„ in the next In the imprecation which wee have chosen for our theme wee are to consider these 2. things 1. How the Psalmist in the person of Gods seruants devoves the enemies of the Church to destruction and 2. how he describes and most lively depaints out unto us their conditioÌ„ Of these in order 1. how they are devoved 2. How they are described For the first hee prayes God to remember them Remember the Children of Edom O Lord. Remember them that is when thou powrest out thy judgements upon sinners let the vials of thy wrath fall full upon them remember them that is repay them as they have rewarded us requite their extreme malice with extreame punishment and for their spite against the Church let them feel the weight of thy displeasure this is meant by Remember them Thus wee see the Psalmist prayeth in divers Psalmes as Psal. 69. 22. Let their Table be a snare unto them and let their prosperity bee their ruine Let their eyes bee darke and powre out them agen c. and so in the 54. Psal. 5. He shall reward evill unto mine enemies destroy thou them in thy truth and so in many other Psalmes you have the like direfull imprecations Whereupon there falleth in here a question to bee answered What we are to thinke of these imprecations and execrations used by the Saints against their enemies and whether it bee lawfull for us to imitate them in this The question hath two branches I will answer to both distinctly To the first what are we to thinke of these imprecations which are frequent in the mouthes of Gods servants against their enemies they 〈◊〉 seeme to argue a very strange and not well tempered affection contrary
that the very streets ranne with the blood that was shed on that dismall Bartholomewes Even and the two last Kings of France that were stabbed both of them the one by Clement which deed was commended by the Pope for heroicke and little in feriour to Christs incarnation in a solemne panegyricke at Rome made in his praise the other by Ravilliacke that forlorne wretch can testifie unto the world how fruitfull their doctrine is in stabbing and killing yea even of kings themselves Thirdly by pistoll witnesse that pistoll that was provided to make Queene Elizabeth away and though the traytor fail'd in the performance yet the malice of the adversary was never the lesse witnesse that bloody Minerius that set a yong man of Merindol against a tree and made him be shot through with harquebushes Witnesse that pistoll that was discharged in the brest of that worthy Admirall of France of who it was said BARTH O L O MEVS FLET Q VIA GALLICV S O CCVBAT AT LAS the numerall letters of which verse make up the number of 1572. the yeere of the bloody massacre of Protestants in France Lastly witnesâ—e that late attempt at the court upon the Minister of Tichfield a French man borne and an able Scholar who was shot at as hee was walking in his garden with a pistoll but was preserved by GODS most mercifull and immediate providence All these shew since the blacke Monke invented this deadly instrument that they have beene very much delighted with his invention to worke their bloody feates Fourthly by powder witnesse that barbarous and bloody intended massacre in the Gunpowder Treason a Treason that cannot be named without horrour nor thought upon without astonishment no age in the world affording a paralell and like example of such savage cruelty Let some rotten-hearted runnagates from us score us up in their bookes for Schismaticke and puritanPreachers for exaggerating and setting out the heinousnesse of that divellish Treason yet wee will not leave to speake against it yea to cry and thunder against it being as his sacred Majesty that last lived hath rightly observed not onely a crying sinne of blood but a roaring and a thundring sinne of fire and brimstone And as wee will not cease to exaggerate their villâ—ny so neither will we cease to extoll Gods mercy who is the keeper of our Israel and never slumbers nor sleepes but is alwaies ready at hand to shend and defend his people whom â—ee hath set his love upon even for his owne mercy and goodnesse sake howsoever wee by reason of our rebellions against him have desâ—rved the contrary And therefore let us ever confesse and say as our Church â—â—th taught us From this unnatâ—rall conspiracy O Lord not our merit but thy mercy not our foresight but thy providence hath delivered us not our love to thee but thy love to thine annointed servant and thy poore Church with whom thou hast promised to be present to the end of the world And therefore not unto us ô Lord not unto us but to thy name be ascribed all honour and glory in all the Churches of the Saints througâ—out all generations And ever loved and blessed be Gods mercifull patience and providence that hath not given us over as a prey unto their teeth Our soule is escaped even as a Bird out of the snaâ—e of the Fowler the snare is broken and wee are delivered Our helpe standeth in the name of the Lord which made heaven and earth from this time forth for evermore Now that I have named the Powder-plot the top of all treason and quinteâ—sence of all cruelty mee thinkes I should need to say no more of the cruelty of these â—â—umaeans but because I have promised to make you acquainted with other bloody cruell malicious and violent practises of the Popish faction I must be as good as my word and I thinke indeed I owe this service both to Christ and his Church to discover as much as in mee lyeth the tyranny of Antichrist and the malice of the malignant Church which hath terribly â—aged in this Land and doth yet fearefully reigne in divers quarters of the world But here where shall I begin abroad or at home with forreine or domesticke examples with the Pope or popelings the head or his members If you will with the Pope himselfe because hee loves to have the preheminence hee shall have it in pride and cruelty To give you â— taste of the spirit that ruleth in this holy father what shall wee say of him that made the noble Prince Dandalus to be tyed by the â—eck with a chain and to lye flat under his taâ—le there to gnaw bones like a dogge such a â—yrant was Pope Clement the sixth as Sabelâ—icus writeth inclemens Clemens in name gentle in nature cruell Clement by an antiâ—â—rasis what shall wee say of him that â—roudly and contemptuously trode Frederick the Emperour under his feet applying that â—erse of the Psalme to himselfe Thou shalt go â—pon the Lion and the Dragon the young Liâ—â— and the Dragon shalt thou tread under thy â—et such a tyrant was Alexander the third what shall we say of him that armed and aniâ—ated the sonne against the father causing him to be taken and to be cruelly famished to death contrary to the law of God and of nature too Such a tyrant was Pope Paschalis the second what shall wee say of him that made Henry the emperour with his wife and child stand at his gates in the rough winter bare foot and bare legge eating nothing from morning to night and that for three dayes together Such a tyrant was Pope Hildebrand that brand of hell if wee shall so terme him as hee hath best deserved what shall wee say of him that having his enemy delivered into his hands caused him first to be stripped starke naked his beard to be shaven in disgrace and to be hanged up by the haire of his head then to be set upon an asse with his face backward to the tayle to be carried round about the city in despite to be miserably beaten with rods and at last to be thrust and banished out of his country for ever Such a tyrant was Pope Iohn the foureteenth of that name To come from the head of the faction to his members was not that a bloody practise of Minerius against the poore Merindolians about the beginning of the reformation when hee made a number of their innocent infants to be muâ—hered like another Herod and cut off the paps or nipples of women that had sucking children by that means to destroy both the women the fruit of their wombe as you shall read in the history of the Waldenses the poore men of Lions In which story I read likewise of another blood-hound one Iohannes de Roma a Monk whose coÌ„mon and ordinary practise was to take the profeâ—sors of the Gospell and fill bootes full of boyling grease and put in the feet and legâ— of Gods Saints in
terrible blow given saying no doubt in their hearts not Downe with it Downe with it even to the ground but Blow them up up with them even to the clouds Nay and when Guido Faux the party appointed to give fire to the powder was apprehended and examined and asked if hee was not sorry and repented himselfe of his bloody designe answered with a bold heart and brazen face that hee was sorry for nothing more in all his life than for that the designe tooke so ill effect and repented himselfe that hee had not set fire on the powder when hee was caught that he might have done some mischiefe at least upon himselfe and his apprehenders By all which it is more then plaine to be seene how the Popish faction jumpe directly with the children of Edom in all points of carnality and cruelty and especially in this their rejoicing in evill Here is onely the difference betwixt them The Edomites saw the ruine and desolation of jerusalem and rejoyced over it but the Papists did not see the ruine and desolation of our Church but onely in hope and expectation that they might have rejoiced over us But their hopes were dasht and their expectation frustrate and their joy was turned into shame and confusion of face as appeareth this day and all by the mercifull patience and providence of the Lord the keeper of our Israel who never slumbers nor sleeps but watcheth overus for our good to save our King and defend our state to direct his Church and deliver his poore servants from all the divelish machination of our implacable enemies And therefore not unto us not unto us but to his glorious name be ascribed the praise of our deliverance And the Lord make us truly thankefull for this most miraculous deliverance to remember it our selves and to be whetting of it upon our posterity that all true English hearted Christians may learne to praise the Lord God of Israel for ever And pray wee once more that God of his mercy and not for our merits for his owne goodnesse sake and not for any goodnesse that is in us he would be pleased to scatter our cruell enemies which delight in blood to infatuate their counsells and to root out that Babylonish and * Antichristian sect which say of Ierusalem Downe with it downe with it even to the ground And beseech wee him of his mercifull goodnesse to protect and prosper our soveraigne Lord and King in all his godly intendments to blesse the Church with the pure and incorrupt doctrine of his holy word and with faithfull Pastours after his owne heart to maintaine the whole State and realme in peace and prosperity that with our heart and moâ—th wee may praise his holy name and sing joyfully that his mercifull kindnesse is ever more and more towards us and that the truth of the Lord endureth for ever through jâ—sus Christ our only Saviour and redeâ—â—er Amen and againe I say Amen Hallelu_jah Praise â—ee the Lord and sing the 148. Psalme or Psal. 7. beginning at the 15. verse BEhold though he in travell bee of his divellish forecast And of his mischiefe once conceiv'd yet brings forth nought at last Hee diggs a ditch and delves it deepe in hope to hurt his brother But hee shall fall into the pit that he dig'd up for other Thus wrong returneth to the hurt of him in whom it bred And all the mischiefe that he wrought shall fall upon his head I will giue thankes to God therefore that judgeth righteously And with my songs will praise the name of him that is most high The 124. Psalme paraphrastically applied to the Papists Powder-plot fitted to one of the familiar tunes of Davids Psalmes for the 5. of November IF great Iehovah had not stood propitious on our side May England say most thankefully and been our guard and guide If heavens Almighty-Lord Himselfe had not our cause maintain'd When men yea most blood-thirsty men our downefall had ordain'd Then had their Antichristian rage and Hellish policy Devoured us with greedy jawes and swallowed suddainely Then like huge overflowing floods with furious inundation They all our soules o'rewhelmed had and drown'd in desolation Our royall King and Queene and Prince and princely Progeny Our prudent Counsellors of State and prime Nobility Our learned Iâ—dges Bishops grave best commons of this Land In Parliament by powder fierce had perish'd out of hand Romes raging streames with roaring noise and popish cruelty Had all at once engulft our soules in matchlesse misery But great Iehovah just and good thy name we praise and blesse Who onely sav'dst us from the power of Romish wickednesse For as a Bird out of the snare by furious Fowlers made Doth safely scape Even so our soules securely did evade Their net was broke themselves were caught our God that ne're doth sleepe In heaven did sit and see and smile and us in safety keepe This was the Lords most worthy worke this was the Lords owne â—act And 't is most wondrous to behold this great and glorious Act. This is the jâ—yfull day indeed Which God for us hath wrought Let us be glad and joy therein in Word in Deed in Thought O let us never make aâ— end to magnifie Gods name To blesse the Lord our Staffe and Stay to sound abroad his fame To tell to all Posterity what wonders God hath wrought To save us from the woes which Rome hath oft against vs sought All glory then to God on high let Men and Angels sing Let Heaven and Earth and all therein give glory to heavens King And sing and say with heart and voyce all honour laud and praise To God who makes us thus rejoyce So be it Lord alwayes I. V. FINIS a 〈…〉 b Veritas odium 〈◊〉 Terent. c Bede is an old Saxon word and signifies praying so that Bedeman in the language of our Ancestours is a Praying man or a man addicted to prayer d Nobilitas sola estatque vnica virtus Novem. Praeloqâ—â— D. D. 〈◊〉 D. D. Câ— D D. Coâ—k M. Dunster Mr. Bolt◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Interpretatio Quaestio Subjectâ—â— Fabritius Talibus nâ—minibus câ—â—venientissi mè siguraâ—tur veritaâ— inimici Idâ— mâ— ae â— quippâ— interpretaâ—tur velsaâ—â—uinei vel tâ—reni Aâ—â— in Psal. 8 And agaiâ— Interpretatur Edom sanguis 〈◊〉 pumcè Edom dicituâ— August in Psal. 136. D D. Abâ—oâ— D D. Bear II. 1. Sam. 2 18. tus homo Doecb â—genus 〈◊〉 Doech â—lugust in â—al 51. Homiliâ—s 〈…〉 â— D. Whiâ—ak â—itio â— D â—ak pretaâ— Observatio Mr. B. Probatio Ratia Appliâ— Confutatiâ— Adâ—ortatiâ— â—nstructio Interpretat Observatio Mr. B. Probatio Applic. Moâ—itio 〈◊〉 〈…〉 DD. Câ—â— ton late I shop of Chichesâ—â— Concl◠〈◊〉