Fifth in the Reign of King James and thence as a good Author notes as it 's natural consequence this Black Conspiracy came for seldom was the Thunder of Excommunication discharged but a Showre of Blood followed When Adrian the Fourth shall chide Frederick Barbarossa the Emperour for holdin the Stirrup wrong and tread upon his Neck adding Profaneness to his Insolency in applying the Prophecy belonging to Christ a Psalm 9 Thou shalt go upon the Lion and Adder the youg Lion and the Dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet b Fowlis Hist 252. When they shall read how Callistus the Second had William the Great Duke of Apulia as his Foot Boy how Celestime the Third put on and kick'd off again in Disdain the Emperour Henry the Sixth his Crown When the Pagan Princes shall read of King John resigning his Crown upon his knees to Pandulphus the Pope's Legate and of the Canonizing of Thomas a Becket that Insolent Sawcy and Rebellious Saint and invoking of his Blood as meritorious and the whipping his Prince and Master Henry the Second by the Monks of Canterbury and that Champian and Garnet for Rebellion and Treason should justly forfeit their Lives here in England and yet be reputed Martyrs and have Glories about their Heads at Rome that these can be the Methods to make Kings the Nursing Fathers and Queens the Nursing Mothers of the Church Will it not make them believe that Christianity spread and became Victorious not by Patience Goodness and Martyrdome but by Falshood and Invasions Murthers and Powerful Armies No Sect of Christians have made True Religion more give ground than those of the Romish Communion who engross Christianity and all the World are Hereticks and Pagans but themselves Their Adoration of Images are a Scandal and Offence unto the Jew whose Law is so rigorous and strait against them and their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is made up of so many Contradictions and Blasphemies that it made the Arabian Philosopher Averroes say Terrarum Orbem peragrando nullam Religionem Christianâ deteriorem inveni quae ipsum Deum quem tollit devorat in all my travels I have found no sort of Religion worse than the Christians which Devoures that God it pretends to adore and their many other soft and delicious Doctrines have caused the Christian World to degenerate into Atheistical and Vicious Lives and to conclude Christianity is nothing else but a Politick Maxim to reduce Fools and Madmen and credulous Subjects into awe Thus was this Church and State struck at but Christianity felt the Blow and while St. Peter's Sucessor draws his Sword pretending to defend his Saviour and propagate his Religion his Master receives the Wound and he Crucifies the Lord of Life again and puts Religion to an open shame Lastly the opportunity God took for this Deliverance Just when the Snare and these Conspirators were ready just when these proud Waves our Enemies in a violent Torrent were all coming and this horrid Monster was begotten grown and thriven in the teeming Womb and ready to be brought forch Divine Providence interposeth strangleth it in its Birch to the raine of its Parent the Deity permits the Designs of Satan and his black Confederates to blossom and to grow and through all the Intrigues and mysterious turnings of State and Policy to arrive at their full maturity then the Invincible Hand is stretched out and crops them to display his Omnipotent Arm more to make his Presence and his Wisdome more sought for and reverenc'd and to be stronger Arguments for a grateful Mind When the Trains and Methods of Tyrants and malicious Men are so well contriv'd and laid that their Passions begin to swell and their hopes are brisk and smiling and nothing but Victories and Praise Triumphs and Success do-rove with-within their Fancy an unexpected Providence stops them in their full Cariere blasts their hopeful Spring and all ends in a Dream The Tyrant waxes pale and mourns curses his Confederates perhaps that Machiavel below that he and they are not Stronger than Omnipotence and more Politick than the All-wise When wicked Designs are in the Egg they may be crush'd and prevented by the slow and dull Methods of Humane Wisdom an easie hand but when they hatch into a Serpent or Basilisk breathing out nothing but Death and Poyson and Despair and Paleness sits on every Brow this Danger calls for an Infallible Eye and Omnipotent Arm for its Deliverer Extremity and the utmost minute of Cure are the Seasons for Divine Mercy When Hezekiab's wound is become Incurable when St. Peter and his Church begin to sink when Sennacherib's Regiments encompass and shut up Ferusalem when Counsels and Armies fail and the Secular Arm doth shrink and nothing but a Wonder can prevent Despair a Provident Eye looks down from above Defeats the Enemy and Crowns the Day with Victory and Success Thus did Englands Church and State both lye like Isaak upon the pyle the Flame and Conspirators are ready for the Bloody Sacrifice but an Angel thrusts his hand through the Cloud a Bird of the Air tells the matter and a Ram is caught by his Horns in the Thicket the Conspirators are their own Ruine and now the cause of our Joy and Triumph which leads to the last part We are delivered which commands us these two Duties First A Faithful Remembrance of this Mercy of God Secondly a future Dependance upon Providence First A Faithful Remembrance of this Mercy of God This is all the return we can make for Divine Favours passionately to resent and commemorate them But alas Good deeds though the Condition is so cheap do dye like Men and are buried in the Grave of Oblivion and have seldome a Resurrection in the mind of the Receivers thinking it meanness to make an acknowledgment that they are obliged to God himself He therefore well foresaw how soon his Miracles and Wonders in Aegypt would be forgotten or attributed to Foreign Deities He therefore commanded Aaron's Rod a Numb 17.10 and b Exod. 16.33 Josh 4.7 the Pot of Manna to be laid up and Stones to be erected at the passing of Jordan to be constant and standing Monitors to the descending Generations of the Power and Bounty of God to their Forefathers and our Saviour had regard to the treacherous Memories of Mankind when he commanded the frequent Commemorations of his Death and Passion lest that grand Attchievement should slip out of the minds of men so difficult it is for Sinners and Ungrateful men to record a Favour The Pagans Adorn'd their Temples with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spoils of their Battels and Victories in Honour and Memory of the Assistant Deity and the Sailers having escaped a shipwrack hung up their Vestes Votivas unto Neptune to record the favour of the Sea-god We tell the long stories of our Sorrows to the Neighbourhood we proclaim our griefs like Jeremy All you that pass by is there any sorrow like
of voices their seting up stales their tearing of scrutinies their long disagreement as from the death of Clement the fourth two years and more and other slie methods that you may say of them as an old Cardinal did you must uncover the roofe of the house so little room is left among them for the holy Ghost to come upon them And their famous Tridentine Council was a better demonstration of their cunning than their faith and integerity wherein they fancy the Spirit of God guided their pens influenc'd their heads and moved their hearts he being totus in toto inqualibet parte and sent every day * Hist of the Counc of Trent pag. 497. as some then merrily said from Rome in a cloak-bag thither yet beside the lewdness of their definitions and decrees so many were their wily methods and their laborious arts that the Recorder of Florence or Caesar Borgia seem'd rather to keep the Chair than the Spirit of God and little of good Saint Peter among them beside his Nets to draw some less discerning men into the fashion of their Religion and therefore more eminent was Divine Providence that discovered all these slie and subtle Serpents that took them in their crasty wilyness defeated their Counsels and made them perish by their own designs 3. The Loss that would have follow'd had this design taken effect Which is two-fold 1. Of the Lives and Blood of so many 2. Of Religion 1. Of the Lives and Blood of so many To secure the peace and quiet of this Nation and to fix Religion safe from its underminers the Great Assembly meets a learned and wise King the Prince also by them in the beginning of their Plot concluded to be present Nobility and Commons with their large Train and Attendants the Flower and strength of the Nation the Church and State engrost and enhous'd together with their good design stately buildings and a Race of Kings sleeping in their Tombs must by these Conspirators be made an whole burnt Sacrifice and offer'd up to Rome ambition and by one blow surpass what ever Plague or Pamine War or common Mortality in many years could bring to pass and these would not have fallen alone but Laws and Liberties Charters and Priviledges would have died together and have been buried in one common ruin and all our peaceand freedome would have ended in Gibbets and Inquisitions Torments and heavy Burdens and betrayed into a Papal Bondage And this Land that was never compleatly overcome by all the Legions and Armies of their Pagan Emperors in the space of so many years in a moments time might have been conquered by Romes High Priest * History of the Powder Plot out of Thuanus pag. 5. For so Catesby as my Historian tells me thought it not enough that this or that or any single Person should be aimed at but that all together and at the same time should be comprehended in this Conspiracy For so he reasoned with himself The King himself might many wayes be taken away but this would be nothing as long as the Prince and the Duke of York were alive Again if they were remov'd yet this would advantage nothing so long as there remain'd a Parliament so vigilant so circumspect to whatever might happen Or if the Parliament or the Chief Members of it could be destroyed there would remain still the Peers of the Realm so many prudent Persons so many powerful Earls addicted to that Party whom they would hardly resist and who by their Authority Wealth and Dependants would be able if occasion should be to restore things to their former state therefore not by delayes but at one blow all were to be swallowed up and so laudable an atchievement was to be brought to effect altogether and at once Thus did the Roman Eagle stoop to her prey and the whole Land was got within her pounces but thanks be to God who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth 2. The Loss of Religion 1. What might have been had this Treason been successful Had this Train of Powder and Designs been prosperous what a dismall choice had been proposed to change you Religion or to embrace a Stake to violate your Faith and Consciscience for the Romish Creed or else Lives and Liberties Fortunes and all the Endowments of Life must be sacrific'd to Recant your Vows and sacred Oaths or else to expect a perpetual Prison or a Flame to suffer or comply to have a Wrack either in Body or in Mind Such hard proposals should have been the conditions of your Peace and a severe contract it would have been to change the Religion of our Church which we have Arguments and Reasons sufficient to confirm us is pure Primitive and Apostolical into a Faith that is but a Modern Contrivance and Innovation begun by interest made up of Fopperies and Falsehood and carried on by Fraud and Violence Such a Religion you must have had which makes absurdities Blasphemies and Contradictions Articles of Faith teaching you how by vertue of Transubstantiation you may admire the glorified Body of your Saviour above yet mangle it adore and devour it at the same time here below you should have been taught to make your Prayers and Addresses unto God in an unknown Tongue whereby the dead that sleep in the Tombs and Monuments of the Church might have as good Devotion as the living in it or if they understood any part of their Devotion the work barely done the nimbleness of their Lips and Fingers must satisfie for Zeal and intention of mind you should have been taught that though you die with a load of sins not thoroughly repented of and satisfy'd for yet your kind Mother of Rome hath provided an intermediate place between Hell and you a second venture from whence by a Deputy Friend a good Purse and a kind Priest you may be discharged and be Crown'd a Saint in that Church You must be content onely to Communicate in one kind and be glad of the bread alone for the dainty reason of the Lay mans beards and the nice distinction of concomitance yet point blank against your Saviours institution you must have been in that Church notwithstanding the Thunder and Lightning upon Mount Sinai to shew their indispensible nature when the Ten Commandements were deliver'd will afford you Nine only or at least use Art to conceal the Second because it Glares too much upon their Adoration of Images and Invocation of Saints and the Curious Distinctions of their Schools and Casuists have eluded the force of all the rest Such Priests such Temples such Devotions you must have had so gay so foppish so full of Antick Postures Scenes and Ceremonies that you will find little difference between Old Rome's Theatres and New Rome's Churches Such a Religion is the Romish which Magnifies Christ in Hymns and Songs Gestures and other lighter Services yet Rivals him in his particular Power and Prerogative in Adoring and Invoking Saints som
of which while on Earth were Vicious and now we know not where they dwell and others justly suspected if ever they were in Being The jolly Sinner in that Church needs not despair of his Salvation for want of Sincere Repentance while Artificial Sighs and Customary Confessions Pilgrimages and gentle Whippings Pardons and Indulgences so easily obtain'd by privileg'd Altars Agnus Dei's hallowed Swords Roses Hats Church-yards and other pretty Knacks and Devices while a little Dole to the Poor and more to the Priests for a lusty Absolution upon Attrition and other faint Compositions with God and Bribes for Divine Justice will serve the turn Such a Church you should have been in who notwithstanding her Pretences to Infallibility can give her Members no sufficient Assurance to judge by whether they shall be saved or no not only from their known way of Arguing call'd Circle proving the Scriptures from their Church and their Church again from the Scriptures but from the Doctrine of Intention a Dianae Compend p. 36. which is an Article of Faith at Rome that if the Priest do not really Intend to do what he outwardly pretends to do all his Performance is Ineffectual and this perverse Intention of the Priest is not to be supply'd by God himself b Ibid. saith one of their Casuists and that the Priest may be so perverse as not to Intend c Escobar Tract 7. Examin 6. Num. 41. p. 867. Another of their Doctors doth suppose and states the Case where it may be allow'd so that though you be Baptized Communicated and Absolved things absolutely necessary to Salvation by their Confession yet you cannot certainly judge whether you shall be sav'd except you have the privilege of God and know the Heart and Intentions of your Priest Such a Religion you must have profess'd whose chiefest Doctors and Guides of Conscience teach men to break all the Ties and Ligaments of Humane Society and Conversation telling their Disciples that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks directing them how to Lye Artificially to Equivocate and Forswear to Cheat in Bargaining to baffle Contracts to exempt their Priests though Guilty of Treason from the Secular Judge and before an Ecclesiastical one 't is very difficult to Convict them their a For a Cardinal 72. for a Bishop 64. See Diana Compend p. 85. Witnesses must be so many These Guides teach Subjects to Rebell and Murther Children to be Disobedient Servants Unfaithful by which and many other lewder Doctrines Skin'd over by nice Distinctions by which they instruct their Proselytes only more Learnedly to sin they would make the World only a greater Robery and reduce it to its Ancient b For these and much more of the same nature see the Casuistical Writers of the Church of Rome as Sanchez Azorius Lessius c. Chaos In short such a Religion the Bishops of Rome would have fore'd you into whose Faith is False and Erroneous the Rules of Manners laid down by many of her Penitentiaries and great Doctors perswading and countenancing Vice and Debauchery her Devotions Childish and gay and propagated by Fraud and Cruelty Taking therefore this short view of the Romish Way and being fully perswaded that we are Baptized into this Church of England whose Faith is Primitive Pure and Apostolical her Rules for Manners only leading to Virtue and Goodness her Discipline wholsome and proper and her Devotions decent and Manly let us stick fast unto her Prov. 24.21 and take Solomon's Advice My Son Fear thou the Lord and the King but meddle not with them that are given to change 2. What Religion hath lost though the Design was Unsuccessful yet the Attempt makes the Crime Scandalous and Horrid and Detestable by all Mankind Christianity by the intended Blow lyes a Bleeding Tell it not in Gath publish it not in Askelon When the Uncircumcised the Pagan Emperours and Mahometan Princes shall hear of such Barbarous Attempts upon the Persons of Princes such Bloody Villanies and Massacres upon their Subjects and That by her that Arrays her self with the fine Names of the only Catholick Apostolical Infallible most Holy and only Christian Church and Perjuries and Murders Rebellion and Disloyalty are defended by the Nice Doctrines of their Schools will they not conclude in Disdain Here 's the Principles of a Christian these Spring from their Bibles these are the Doctrines and Precepts of their Commander and Master Jesus Are these the tame Lambs and Doves of Christianity Are these they that fear Damnation for Rebellion Are these the gentle Martyrs for Honesty and Peace for Conscience and Obedience Are these the meek Servants of the Bishop of Rome that calls himself the Servant of Servants Christians Away with them to the Lyons and Fires again Let us invade their Territories set up our Alcoran for their Bibles and our Mahomet for their Christ against whom we dare not Rebell lest we forfeit that Luxurious Paradise The Bloody Doctrines and Rebellious Practices of the Infallible Chair hath stain'd more the Beauty of Religion and stop'd its progress and Victories over the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Gentile World and lost more Proselytes than ever their busie Emissaries their Christaviers and other zealous Planters have Converted and obtained Will not an Indian Prince be afraid of embracing the Christian Religion lest he lose his own Dominions Life and his Paternal Religion too at the same time which he now holds by a surer Tenure Is it not a clear Argument and demonstration to the Chinesian Emperour to renounce his Idolatry and be Baptized Christian when he shall read how Henry the Fourth and Frederick the First as one observes fought threescore Battels more than Julius Caesar stirr'd up by the Peaceable Popes of Rome Is it not a fair perswasion for all Princes to become Christians when they shall hear of the Deprivations and Excommunications and that unlimited Power of the Romish Priest in disposing Crowns and Sceptres upon the pretence of Profuseness or Breach of Faith for Perjury or Magick for Sacrilege or Heresie for Schism or Violence to a Cardinal and for many other Causes laid down by their flattering Casuists or for almost any thing when his Holiness is out of Humour and they give us a President of Childerick who was deprived from being King of France because he was a little easie natur'd not given to Action nor so wise as his Neighbours whereby he was unfit for Rule a Fowlis Hist p. 113. though Benedict the Ninth at Twelve years of Age was made Vicar of Christ and his little Holiness was as Infallible as the best of them and fitter for the Rattles of their Devotions than any When they shall read of that Jolly Pope Sixtus Quintus Excommunicating Elizabeth of England and publishing a Croisada against her and Henry the Third of France of Gregory the Fourteenth Excommunicating and Damning Henry the 4th renewed by Clement the Eighth and the turbulent carriage of Paul the