through fear some through flattery some for worldly gain some by example and some through custom and education fall away and multitudes by one means or other turn about presently though to their own destruction And therefore let me insert here my earnest request and exhortation in the Lord that all Protestants pray for our Protestant Governors and Government Now considering all this the secrecy of the Plot and the rage and malice and power and bloodiness of our enemies and their abominable doctrins and worship and the near approach of the execution of their intended villany we cannot but be sensible that our Danger was exceeding great Reflecting upon what hath been said I cannot but demand your judgment in one particular before I proceed and that is this whether these men that are so conversant in plots and conspiracies that plot and conspire the death and ruin of others that plot and conspire against their Prince and the supream Council of the land that plot and conspire after such a bloody and devilish manner that kill and destroy and exercise such barbarous and inhuman cruelties and all this against peaceable and quiet people and such as are more sound in the faith and more holy in their lives than themselves whether I say these men have the spirit of God and the power of holiness in their hearts whether they are Ministers of Iesus Christ Priests of God Priests of Righteousness whether their Head and Father the Pope that abets them in these practices and stirs them up to them be the Successor of Saint Peter whether Christ's Holy Vicar It seems to me and it is altogether true without contradiction that they are like the Beast in the Apocalyps that kills those that will not receive his mark in their foreheads nor worship his Image And that they are like that Babylon if not the very same the great Whore whom St. Iohn seeing things to follow afterward in the Church saw drunken with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus For I see them not so cruel to any as to Saints as to those that fear God and worship him purely according to his plain truth as it is recorded in the Scriptures I demand again whether these men like good Christians do according to St. Paul's admonition Study to be quiet and as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all And whether they observe his other like injunction Endeavour to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And whether they are like our Saviour that came not to destroy mens lives but to save them and that rebuked his Disciples for desiring him that they might Command fire to come down from Heaven and consume the Samaritans because they did not receive him And in a word whether Bloody Iesuits and merciful Iesus are alike II. The Deliverance which we have set down in these words Our Soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped Alass the strength of a bird is as nothing to the breaking of the fowlers net so that if she get out thence and fly away it is a strange accident And no more was our strength to the extricating of our selves out of the net and gin and trap all the subtil devices and complicated intanglements and killing instruments of our enemies That we escaped then was a wonder and that the snare was broken whereby we did escape was the work of Gods own hand and is it not his doing when according as it is said again proud waves did not swallow us up when waters and a stream coming upon us did not overwhelm and drown us when kindled wrath did not consume us And in these words also we are shewed our Deliverance and whence it was The Lord did not give us as a prey to their teeth For he could have delivered us up into their hands and he might have done so with justice enough because of our sins and therefore as it was his Power so it was his Goodness that saved us And seeing that the combination was secret and the plot carried on with all subtilty we discern again that it was his Eye to which nothing is hid that discovered it And add we that the Deliverance was from death and murther from war and confusion from Popery which is stuffed with all that is naught with pride and avarice and luxury with lies and feigned miracles with wicked craft and treachery and dissimulation with rebellion and horrid cruelty with superstitions innumerable and abominable Idolatry And that the deliverance was of King and Parliament and a whole Realm and of those that deserved no such thing at their hands as they intended And finally that it was the deliverance of Gods own people that have abandoned the corruption of his Religion and that have embraced the truth as it was delivered to the World by his Servants the Prophets and Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ and that desire to live in his fear and to serve him acceptably with pure worship according to his own will not mans that their Souls may be saved Considering all this I say the deliverance was wonderful and a good work and from God it came So that upon the whole we may justly say with the Psalmist If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us if it had not been the Lord who was on our side they had swallowed us up quick Our help was in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth And therefore unto him is due Praise and Blessing and Glory and Thanksgiving which is our next particular But before I enter upon it let me put in here one thing which is worthy of the Observation both of us and our adversaries and that is that as God hath delivered us so he will deliver us still if we still hold his Truth without corruption and keep our selves in innocence renounce error and false worship and live soberly righteously and godly For he will maintain his own Doctrine and defend them that profess it and that withal fear his Name and he will punish his Enemies and bring to nought their devices and dissolve the attempts of deceivers and bloody-minded men He is the Tower and strong Castle and the Rock and Mount of Israel he is their shield and defence We have seen by long experience that God hath defended his Saints and true worshippers every Age from the beginning of the world affording numerous instances hereof And not only so but we have his promise written down and an hundred times repeated in his Book that he will defend them Read a little Prov. xi 3 The integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them V. 6. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness V. 20 21. They that are
of a froward heart are an abomination to the Lord but such as are upright in their way are his delight Though hand join in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered And Chap. xii 3 A man shall not be established by wickedness but the root of the righteous shall not be moved V. 7. The wicked are overthrown and are not but the house of the righteous shall stand V. 13. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips but the just shall come out of trouble And seeing that this is so it is without cause that we fear what evil men can do whilst we do not make our selves like unto them turning aside from God into crooked paths and provoking him by the like offences against our selves and it is also but a vain thing meer folly and madness for our adversaries to attempt any thing against us and to think to establish themselves by wicked enterprises though carried on with the greatest subtilty and adjutant power For do they think to kill and so to flourish to rebel against the Lords Anointed and the Higher Powers which he hath ordained and so to prosper to drink the blood of Saints and so to grow fat Blood hath a cry and a loud cry and it will be heard and right dear to God is the blood of his Saints And Iezebel such an one that had little sense of holy things and indeed little knowledge of Gods ways and works could ask the question Had Zimri peace who slew his Master As having observed this that such slayers are slain themselves are pursued with troubles and commonly come to a fearful end as there are many instances of this nature recorded in the History of the Iudges and Kings of Israel and Iudah And this woman might have reflected upon her own action and have said to her self in like manner Shall Jezebel have peace who slew Naboth And the same indeed was verified in her for as soon almost as she had spoken the word she was cast out of the window of her Chamber and dashed upon the ground and trodden to pieces by Iehu's horses Wherefore the only way for our Adversaries to prosper is to keep themselves in the ways of Righteousness and let them do so as much as they please and effect against us what they can for we know that then they will not have the heart to hurt us and not only will forbear to lay axes and fagots and such tormenting things upon us but will not so much as press us with an heavy hand But as for Iniquity they will never establish themselves by that and their unrighteous machinations and actions are but like making ropes of sand to pull down a Tower and like the Thief 's twisting of Cords to hang himself For David hath told us from his experience and observation that the wicked are snared in the works of their own hands And not only so but he hath delivered it unto us from the mouth of the Lord as an established truth that so it shall be that their mischief shall return upon their own heads and their violent dealing shall come down upon their own pates and that their swords which they have drawn out to slay the upright shall enter into their own hearts and their bows which they have bent against the poor shall be broken Only in this one thing may our adversaries be feared namely in their enticing of us to sin as Balaam taught Balak to draw Israel to fornication and Idolatry for which cause they yielding thereunto the wrath of God fell upon them and they were destroyed by a Plague And therefore in this matter let us take good heed to our selves for their temptation and this kind of smooth and soft dealing is more to be feared than their plots and menaces and murthering instruments their Fornication and Idolatry if we hearken to their charms and betake our selves to these abominations will do us more injury than their gun-powder and knives and bills and swords But yet though by this means they may bring down judgments from Heaven upon us yet shall they not hereby establish themselves but shall be punished with us for the same wickedness and for their Temptation And so it fell out both to the Midianites that tempted and defiled Israel and to Balaam that gave the Counsel For God said thus Vex the Midianites and smite them for they vex you with their wiles wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor Num. xxxv 17.18 And so it was done as we read Chap xxxi 7 c. They warred against the Midianites as the Lord commanded Moses and they slew all the males and they slew the Kings of Midian Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword And the Children of Israel took all the women of Midian Captives and their little ones And Moses said unto them have ye saved all the women alive Behold these caused the Children of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor and there was a Plague among the Congregation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him So that by no wicked way neither by temptation nor by conspiracy can our adversaries prosper Flourish they may for a time but then they shall wither as the grass and lay their hands and rods upon our backs they may but they shall not alwaies abide there for the Lord will deliver his people out of the hand of the oppressor and the unrighteous man And so speaks David with whose eminent and comfortable words I conclude this matter Psalm xxxvii 24 to the end The good man though he fall shall not utterly be cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his Saints they are preserved for ever but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him The Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself c. III. The Thanksgiving We have it in these words Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth And considering that if we had fallen into the power of Romanists they would have used us as hungry and ravenous beasts do their prey tearing it in pieces and devouring we must acknowledge that the blessing which we render unto the Lord for our deliverance must not be a faint breath but all the affections of our Souls the most hearty praise And what is due to him that hath saved us from the fowler from the lions teeth from the stream and proud waves from the wrath of enemies and that wrath kindled of hell and boiling-hot for truly we cannot reasonably believe that
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
Bishop Bonner's butchers hands You boast of your Loyalty to our present King and his Father But what you have done like Loyal Subjects did it proceed out of a Loyal Principle or out of Necessity Was it Faith that acted you or Fate What you have done well was it not for want of opportunity to do worse or for want of a Popes Bull which tolerates and commands Rebellion If Loyalty to an Heretick Prince especially when he is declared Excommunicate be your Conscience and Faith and Principle then abhor and renounce your Pope and Church which teach you another Lesson For says your Lateran Council under Pope Innocent the Third thus Si Dominus temporalis requisitus monitus ab Ecclesia terram suam purgare neglexerit ab haeretica pravitate per Metropolitanum caeteros comprovinciales Episcopos Excommunicationi vinculo innodetur si satisfacere contempserit infra annum significetur hoc summo pontifici ut ex tunc ipse vasallos ab ejus fidelitate denuntiet absolutos terram exponat Catholicis occupandam qui eam exterminatis haereticis sine ulla contradictione possideant That is If a Temporal Lord being admonished by the Church neglects to purge his Dominion of Heresie let him be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and the other comprovincial Bishops and if he refuseth to satisfie within a year let this be signified to the Pope that thence he may declare his Subjects free from Allegiance to him and expose his Dominion to be possessed by the Catholicks who expelling the Hereticks may justly possess it And thus thundred Pope Paul the Third in his Bull against our King Henry the Eighth Because he hath cast off obedience to the Church he is therefore deprived of his Kingdom and his fautors of all their goods honors and fortunes his Subjects commanded not to obey him Foreigners to have no Commerce with him and all to take up Arms against him and his People and to take unto them his Kingdom and Fortune for a Prey and Reward and to keep his People in servitude And thus says Pope Pius the Fifth in his Bull against our Queen Elizabeth Regnans in excelsis hunc unum super omnes gentes omnia Regna Principem constituit qui evellat destruat dissipet disperdat plantet aedificet Illius auctoritate suffulti qui nos in hoc supremo Iustitiae Throno voluit collocare de Apostolicae potestatis plenitudine declaramus praedictam Elizabetham haereticam haereticorum fautricem eique adhaerentes in praedictis anathematis sententiam incurrisse Quinetiam ipsam praetenso Regni praedicti jure necnon omni quocunque dominio dignitate privilegioque privatam Et item proceres subditos populos dicti Regni ac caeteros omnes qui illi quomodocunque juraverunt à juramento hujusmodi ac omni prorsus dominii fidelitatis obsequii debito perpetuò absolutos prout nos illos praesentium auctoritate absolvimus privamus eandem Elizabetham praetenso jure Regni aliisque omnibus supradictis Praecipimusque interdicimus universis singulis proceribus subditis populis aliis praedictis ne illi ejusve monitis mandatis legibus audeant obedire Qui secus egerint eos simili Anathematis sententiâ innodamus That is Christ hath wade Peter and his Successor Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build By his Authority who hath placed us in this supreme Throne of Iustice We out of the plenitude of our Apostolick power declare Elizabeth as being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her Adherents to have incurred the sentence of Excommunication and moreover to be deprived of her pretended right to the Kingdom and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever and also the Nobility Subjects and People of the Kingdom and all others who have sworn unto her in any sort to be absolved for ever from the said Oath and from all duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience and by these presents we do absolve them and deprive Elizabeth of her pretended right to the Kingdom and of all other things before named And we command all the Nobles Subjects and People that they presume not to obey her or her Orders Mandates and Laws And those that shall do the contrary we bind with the same Anathema We swear in the Oath of Allegiance to bear true Allegiance to our King and to defend him against all Conspiracies and Attempts which shall be made against his Person and Crown to the uttermost of our Power and to do our best endeavour to discover all treasons and traiterous Conspiracies which we shall know or hear of to be against him And is this an unlawful Oath And may we break it And can any one absolve us from it Would you plot Treason and attempt the Death of your present King and the ruin of his Crown And them that do so will you not disclose if you know them And we that have sworn to disclose such persons if we can ought we not in your judgment so to do You see what your Pope and Council teach you and in Mr. Fowlis's History of Romish Treasons you may see an hundred or two hundred more Popes and Doctors of your Church which teach the same traiterous and rebellious Doctrin but I hope some of you are of a better mind And I desire you to read again the former citations and then with the words of St. Peter and St. Paul that you may see how contrary to the Apostles your men teach you For says the one Apostle thus Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men Honour the King And says the other Apostle Let every Soul be subject to the Higher powers For there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Render tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour And is this plucking up destroying scattering and consuming Is this absolving subjects from their Allegiance and commanding them to take the Kingdom from their King Is this depriving Kings and Temporal Lords of their Dominions And remember that Nero an heathen and monstrous wicked man and a persecutor of the Christians was at this time King of the Roman Empire And yet says the Apostle Whosoever resisteth the power be he Peter then be he Pope he shall receive to himself damnation Forbear Bold Actors for it is not now night that you should play your wicked pranks among us and not be discerned Nor are our hearts so bad though bad enough as to love or favour or comply with your gross