A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE DAYS OF PURIM and that of the Powder treason for the better Continuance of the memory of it, and the stirring up of men's affections to a more Zealous observati. on there of.  
Written by G. H. D. D.  
OXFORD  
Printed by JOHN LICHFIELD & WILLIAM TURNER Printers to the Famous University  
Ann. Dom. 1626.   

I said, I would scatter them into Corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men, were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of Counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.  Deut. 32. 26. 27. 28.  

A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE DAYS OF PURIM AND THAT OF THE POWDER TREASON etc.  
THese days of Purim or of Lots mentioned in the ninth chapter of the book of Ester were the fourteenth and the fifteenth days of the month Adar answering in part to our February enjoined to be kept Festival of the jews, first by Mordecayes letter, and then by Queen ester's decree in remembrance of there wonderful deliverance from Hamans' bloody design for their utter extirpation at that time.  
These days (the like being scarcely to be found again in holy Scripture) I purpose to compare with our day of the Powder plot, together with the Authority, the Causes and Reasons of the institution of both, that from thence it may appear that the mercy of God was more clearly manifested in our Deliverance then in theirs, and that consequently we have greater cause religiously & with thankful acknowledgement to observe our day than they theirs. In the opening whereof I will compare plot with plot, persons with persons, motive with motive, assurance With assurance, prevention with prevention, issue with issue, month with month, day with day.  
First then for Hamans' plot upon the jews, it 
Plot.  was undoubtedly a very cruel one, thinking it too little, too small a satisfaction to hishonor & revenge, to lay hands upon Mordecai, he purposed in one day to have put them all to the sword (as the Sicilians did the French in one night) young and old, women and children, without distinction of age or sex, throughout all the large dominions of Ahafhuerosh, reaching from India to Ethiopia, and comprising an hundred & 7 & twenty Provinces; yet putting to the sword is not so cruel as blowing up with powder, in as much as in the former some hope is left by tears or prayers, or gifts to stay the executioners hand; but in the latter none at all. For as men are presumed to have more mercy than beasts, and beasts then insensible Creatures, Which are altogether inexorable: so among them all, the two elements of fire and water have the least mercy, and of the two, fire (specially if it be enraged with store of powder) lest of all.  
Again Hamans' project upon the jews was not so suddenly to be acted but that they had leisure given them to appease the fury of their Adversary, or to procure the King's favour, as afterwards they did; they had opportunity to stand for their lives, or to save themselves by flight, or if it came to the worst, they had respite to cast up their accounts and make all things level between God and their own Consciences: But this project of our conspirators should have been acted in a moment, in the turn of an hand, in the twinkling of an eye, the parties aimed at should neither have had time to fly nor to fight, to entreat nor to threaten, to let fall a tear or castup a sigh for their sins, or so much as to say or to think in manus tuas Domine. The cruelty of Haman then extended only to men's bodies, but this of our Conspirators to their souls, they held the main body of that assembly to be heretical, and that for an heretic so departing this life there is no possibility of salvation, and consequently they could not but make account to send all so affected quick to hell. And for the bodies of the jews though after the shedding of their blood & the losing of their lives they could not have promised to themselves any decent kind of burial, yet was their case better than to be torn in a thousand pieces, and to have the shivers of their bones, the sprinkling of their blood, and gobbets of their flesh (if any such remained) to be cast into far distant places, and exposed as a prey to dogs and ravens. Besides, the cruelty of Haman extended not to insensible creatures, as this did, to the utter demolishing of that famous Senate house, in which the Ancestors of the Conspirators themselves had often met to consult about the making of wholesome laws for the suppressing of vice and the advancing of the honour of the English name. We count it but madness in a dog to snarl at a stone, and can we count it less in men to fight with stones and timber? Surely if we should have held our peace, these very beams & stones would have cried for vengeance, and the rather being to have been stained with the blood of so many right noble and worthy personages, which is the second point of Comparison.  
The jews though at that time the Church 
Persons  of God was in a manner impaled within their nation, yet lived they but as strangers; nay as vassals & Captives among the Persians, as at this day for the greatest part they do, aswell among the Turks as the Christians. It was true, though by Haman maliciously urged, that their laws were diverse from all people, neither did they observe the King's laws. Haman himself the chief plotter against them was not only an Infidel, but an Amalakite a mortal enemy to their religion, and moreover being of great place and command, he had gotten both the King and the whole state to countenance his design against them. But in this of our Conspirators the case was contrary; There, Pagans and Infidels, Persians & Amalakites conspired against the Israelites: here native English & professed Christians, (though in truth most unworthy the name of either) conspired against their own Countrymen baptised, and rejoicing in the glorious name of Jesus Christ, nay I make no doubt but that some of their own near kinsmen, and of their own romish profession at leastwise in heart and affection should for company have perished by that blow: There, superiors & those of Eminent note and rank conspired against their inferiors and those of the lowest and meanest degree in that state: Here inferiors against their superiors, subjects against their liege Lord and lawful Sovereign, servants against their masters, for so was one of them at least, and that in honourable place, and as if it had been too little to lay hands upon the King alone, they all conspired against that venerable Court, the highest in the Land, consisting of their lawful and competent judges, the murdering of the least of which in that place being legally called thither by his Majesty's writ, judicially there to sit, had been treason, which is the highest offence the law takes notice of: What then could we have called that act, by which they should have been all murdered and mangled at one clap? Surely as we want an example to parallel it, so do we a name to express it. Touch not mine anointed saith God: but these intended to have blown up at one blast the King & Queen, both anointed with sacred oil, together with their eldest son the Prince then living, and with them the great Officers of the kingdom, the prudent Counselors of Estate, the Honourable Peers of the Realm, the Reverend Bishops, the Grave judges and Sages of the law, the choice Knights and Burgesses being indeed the very flower of the land, all the Clerks of the Crown, Counsel, Signet, and Seals, the greatest part of the learned Lawyers, together With a number of the Kings and Queens & Princes nearest and dearest servants. I will do a thing in Israel saith God, that whosoever shall hear, it shall make both his ears to tingle: but surely the very relation of this, had it taken effect, had been enough not only to make a man's hair stand an end, & his ears to tingle, but his very heart to quake and tremble: and I am persuaded as no Historian ever wrote, or Poet feigned, or Painter counterfeited, or Tragedian acted the like: so if all the damned Spirits of hell, and the damned Crew on the earth should join in council, and set the utmost of their wits a-work, they could never find out the like cursed device again. It was the utmost point of all villainy, beyond which is Terra incognita, no man can divise what should be between hell and it, and look by how much the more devilish was the invention, by so much more divine, was the Preservation. It were then worth the enquiring what should move these men to so brutish and barbarous a plot which is my third point of Comparison. The Motives.  
That which Haman pretended against the 
Motives.  jews was that they were not subject to the King's Laws, neither was it for the King's honour or profit to suffer them in his dominions: but intruth that which stuck in his stomach was Mordecai's stiffness, he would not creep and crouch unto him as others did, and as the King had commanded, they should, he would not prostrate himself before that Idol of Court, and give him divine adoration, the thing as it seems which Haman in the pride of his heart expected, and Mordecai denied, for I cannot believe that he denied civil reverence; and was not this the motive of our Conspirators that we would not bow to their Idols, their triple crowned Idol of Rome and their breadden Idol in the consecrated host, pretending that it was not for the profit nor the honour of the Catholic Church any longer to suffer us: but was this the means by which Christ founded and his Apostles reared up, & their successors enlarged & repaired his Church? no, no, they founded and built, and enlarged and repaired it with the pouring out of their own blood not with the shedding of others.  
Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?  
What is it possible that Catholics the best Christians nay the only Christians should conceive such a savage enterprise? Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum? Is it credible that matter of religion should induce men to so damnable an attempt? It was the speech of Lucretius the Epicure touching Agamemnon enduring and assisting at his daughter's sacrifice▪ but what if he had known the Massacre of France, or the powder plot of England? Surely it would have made him tentimes more Epicure & Atheist than he was: There is not such a sin against the person of the Holy Ghost, to take it literally, as instead of the likeness of a dove, to bring him down in the shape of a raven or a vulture nor such a scandal against their Church as out of the bark of S Peter to set forth a flag of Pirates & Assasines: even those of Calicutt who adore the Devil, never held it lawful for quarrel of religion to enter into such mischievous consultations; and although particular men of all professions have been some thieves, some murderers, some traitors, yet ever when they come to their end and just punishment, they confessed their fault to be in their own corrupt nature, and not in their profession, these Romish Catholics only excepted. But if this be religion then let hell be heaven, and let the depth of villainy be the height of piety, if this be holiness let Nero who set Rome on fire to see how Troy burned, and Caligula who wished all the men imit had had but one neck that so he might strike it off at one blow, let them I say be set in the Callander of Saints, let murderers be registered for martyrs, Conspirators for confessors, & treason march in the rank of Christian virtues, and be counted the fairest and shortest cut to a crown of immortality. Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, and their rage for it was cruel: & the more fierce no doubt because it took not hold of fancy but of conscience: the former being like a fire in straw which though it cause a great blaze at the first kindling, yet is it quickly spent, & only the smoke remains, but the latter like fire in steel quód tardè acquisivit, diu retinet, though it be long before it conceive fire, yet having once conceived it, it retains it long, and the marks of it are lasting monuments, specially if to conscience in religion be added confidence in execution which is my next point of Comparison, Assurance with assurance,  
Hamans' assurance was great, he relied 
Assurance.  much upon the strength of his own wit & his wealth, two powerful means for the effectuating of great attempts. His wit he used in setting a fair pretence upon the business before the King▪ his wealth in offering to pay to the King's coffers ten thousand talents of silver, he was so deeply rooted in the King's favour, that his offer was returned, and yet his request passed, his wizards were consulted with, the Lott by them was cast befor● him, and by it a lucky day found out for the acting of the Tragedy. Letters were written in the King's name and sealed with the King's ring, which kind of mandates were held as irrevocable as laws, by the Medes and Persians. They were delivered to the Posts or Curriers, and by them to the governors of the several Province, and after this Haman was so familiar with the King, as they two were seen drinking hand to hand. Here were all things now so fast, so sure, as a man would have thought there had been no means possible left to undo them, there seemed to want nothing but the very execution of the plot. The like assurance, if not greater, was there in our Powder plotters, they relied too upon their wit, and upon the wealth and strength of their faction both at home and abroad. Some of them offering horses and armour, others to contribute money, to the sum of two thousand or three thousand pound a piece. near about the time when the deadly blow should have been given, were their prayers and processions made throw Christendom by these of that profession for the prospering of some great enterprise then a foot, for the good of the Catholic cause. Their side here at home was at the same time very daring & insolent, as looking out for the near approach, of some sudden and great change in the state, and I can never believe that they entered upon such a business without the benediction of the Balaam of Rome. Once we are sure they had consulted with their Wizards the Jesuits, well practised in figure flinging too, if they be not belied. These by their skill had allotted out a day for the fortunate delivery of that monstrous birth, by these were the actors born in hand, that the fact was not only lawful but religious and meritorious: And as Haman got the King's letters for the destruction of the jews▪ so had one of them gotten his holiness' Briefs, though at last, supposing they would come to an ill market, he made no use of them, but sacrificed them to Vulcan. Besides these our Conspirators had bound themselves with a strict and solemn oath by the sacred Trinity and the Sacrament (to them the strongest obligation) not to disclose the project by word or Circumstance, directly or indirectly, nor to desist from the prosecution of it till they had effected it, or leave were granted them from their Confederates. Lastly, they had Wrought the Mine, and when that would not serve the turn they had hired a cellar, the powder was laid in to the quantity of thirty six barrels, great bars of iron and massy stones, and billets being laid on the top of the barrels, thereby to make the noise more hideous, and the breachthe more dangerous, the day of execution was now come, the hour approached, the match was ready, so that nothing was wanting but the presence of that Venerable assembly, and the setting of fire to the powder. But then, even then, that great God of heaven and earth, who commands all things therein & they obey, who sets bounds and bars to the raging waves of the Sea, & saith unto them; hitherto shall ye go and no farther stopped the course of these bloody projectors, and stayed their hands, as he did the hand of Ahraham, when it was now lifted up for the sacrificing of his son; Which that it was his doing, and his alone, will manifestly appear in the discovery and prevention of the plot, which is my next point of Comparison.  
For Hamans' plot, there needed no discovery, 
Prevention.  it was not carried so close, but that Mordecay had gotten a copy of the King's letters, and sent them to Ester, which in truth was no hard matter to do, considering the decree was publicly made known by proclamation through the Provinces: but in the prevention of it, and the working of their peace by turning the King's heart towards them and against Haman, therein the finger of God clearly appeared. For howbeit in the effecting thereof much was to be ascribed to the watchfulness and wisdom of Mordecai, and no less to the care and industry of Ester, yet if we duly observe the admirable concurrence of Causes ordained & falling in together for the composing of it we shall find, that undoubtedly God was therein the principal agent. As first in Vashtays removal, and ester's succeeding in her room, when she poor wench of obscure parentage and a jewish by nation had small reason to dream of a Crown: Then in Mordecai's discovery of a foul conspiracy against the person of the King: Then in the Kings calling for the Chronicles when he wanted sleep and in falling upon that place wherein Mordecai's discovery was recorded, and lastly in making Haman, who was then coming in to beg Mordecai's life, a chief instrument in his reward and advancement for that service; & by this means were the King's letters reversed and contrary written, The same hand which had signed a decree in the opinion both of them that granted, and of them that procured it irrevocable, became the buckler of their preservation, that no one hair of their heads might be touched. All which considered, might they not justly cry out with Pharaohs magicicians, digitus Dei est hic, the finger of God is here; yet surely was Gods special providence more apparently manifested in the discovery and prevention of our powder plot.  
Curse not the King, saith Salòmon, no not in thy thought, for that which hath wings shall declare the matter. It was a quill, a piece of a wing that revealed it, till when not a feather sprang to give any suspicion A quill set a work no doubt by one of those that had bound themselves to secrecy by the oath before mentioned, one, who had he presumed it would have taken that effect, would rather have bitten off those fingers that used it: but he was persuaded (no doubt) that either the letter should never come to light, or if it did, it was so darkly penned that the reader should gather nothing but confused generalities from it. And herein was the construction thereof made by his Majesty not a little strange, as himself to the honour of God openly confessed, that holding suspicion to be the sickness of a tyrant, and being for the most so bend upon the other extreme, as he rather contemned all other advertisements and apprehensions of practices then any way entertained them, he at this time was so far contrary to himself, as upon the first view of the letter he did presently interpret some obscure phrases therein, contrary to the ordinary Grammar construction of them, to be meant of that horrible form of blowing up that sacred assembly with powder; whereas had he construed those ambiguous words to any other danger, no earthly provision could have prevented their utter destruction. Now lay all these together, and then tell me, whether we have not as great reason as those jews, to confess and profess, digitus Dei est hic, the finger of God is here: And yet is there one very remarkable Circumstance behind, to note out God's miraculous prevention of the mischief, and deliverance of us from the danger which hung over our heads above and beyond that of the jews. God untwisted as it were the thread of mischief spun against them when they were humbled by captivity, and had also cast themselves down by fasting and prayer, & sackcloth and ashes, as the Ninivites did at the preaching of jonas: Queen Ester herself even in the King's palace with her waiting ladies fasted and prayed three whole days for the turning of the King's heart unto them, & the turning away of that imminent peril (which was threatened) from them. Their humiliation and tears God beheld and accepted, their prayers and supplications he heard and granted: and yet herein it must be acknowledged that mercy was showed them. But alas that mercy towards us far exceeded this, For the Lord wrought our deliverance when we were so far from sackcloth and ashes, as we dreamt not of any danger approaching; but were rather puffed in pride and wantonness, promising to ourselves by the entrance of his majesty and his royal issue a settled continuance of peace, plenty, and prosperity: Even then when we were lulled a sleep in the depth of security, and yet our enormous sins were crying aloud in his ears for vengeance, and urging his justice to pour down the full viols of his wrath upon us, even than did the eye of his special providence and mercy watch over us, and for us, and delivered us from the very brink of the grave, from the jaws of death, which had opened her mouth wide to have swallowed us up quick. Herein God setteth out his love towards us, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, saith the Apostle; & surely herein if ever God showed the riches of his mercy towards us, that when we were in the height of our sins he so wondrously delivered us when we had no will to desire, much less means to deserve it: And for our enemies, their own tongues, as the Psalmist speaks, or rather their own penns made them fall: insomuch as who so considereth ●t shall laugh them to scorn, and all men that see it shall say, this hath God done; for they shall 〈◊〉 that it is his work: But yet much more if we consider the issue which is the next point of Comparison; the issue I mean as well in regard of the end of the Conspirators, as the consequences of the Conspiracies, had they taken effect.  
Touching the end of the Conspirators, 
End of the conspirators.  for Haman himself we know he 〈◊〉 on the same gibbet that he provided for Mordecai, as Catesby the first inventor of the powder treason was scorched and 〈◊〉 and likely to have been slain by 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 about the time that they intended the acting of their plot▪ Hamans' sons went the same way that their Father did before them, & Garnet the ghostly Father of these powder men went the same way his sons had gone before him: The end of them all being a like. Upon the same day that the innocent blood of the jews should have been poured out by their Enemies and the friends of Haman, the jews slew of them throughout Assuerus his dominions, and in Susan the Imperial City seventy six thousand; And I have often wondered that the people of this land upon the first discovery of this damnable Conspiracy, being known to be undertaken wholly by Romish Catholics, and for the advancement of the Catholic cause, had not violently run upon the known professors of that religion. But that God restrained both their hearts & their hands that our mercy might remain as an argument of the goodness of our religion, as their Cruelty shall to the World's end of the badness of theirs. It was a short but a sufficient answer returned by a Professor of ours to one of theirs, demanding what reason he had not to be of their religion, why, quoth he, because you eat your God and kill your King, And as their cruelty is a sufficient reason to keep us from them: so me thinks, it should work somewhat, specially this most bloody and barbarous conspiracy, to bring them to us. We read in the last verse of the eight chapter of this book of Ester, that when the people of the land saw the unexpected downfall of Haman and his adherents, and the wonderful deliverance of the jews, many of them became jews, that is, made themselves Proselytes, conforming themselves to the jewish religion. And I have many times not a little marvelled that the manifest detection and knowledge of this foul Conspiracy had not turned the hearts of many Romish Catholics to our profession: But again when I call to mind that 
2 Thes. 2. 10 11.  of our Apostle: Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe lies: I cannot but therein acknowledge the just judgement of God in their Wilful obstinacy.  
Now for the consequences of these conspiracies, had that of Haman taken effect, it would doubtless have been very grievious to behold, but worse to feel; the children should have been slain in their Parent's sight, & the poor infants have been drawn from their mother's breasts and dashed against the stones. It must needs have given a great blow and a deep wound to the Church of God; yet not so deep, but the body of the jewish nation and the life of their religion, & the state of their government would still have been preserved: there being at that time a great number of that people living in their own country of judea. But if this of ours had taken effect, Lord, what a marvelous confusion must needs have suddenly followed through out the whole kingdom, both in religion and civil government, as well in Church as state affairs, what bitter outcries and lamentation, what sheeding of tears and wring of hands in every quarter of the land? son's and daughters mourning for their slaughtered fathers; fathers and mothers for their sons, brothers and sisters for their brothers, wives for their husbands, and servants for their masters: & that such masters, such husbands, such brothers, such sons, such fathers as were both for nobility in blood, ability in estate, and sufficiency in wisdom the picked choice men of the land, of whom they could neither take their leaves alive, nor inter their bodies being dead. It is precisely noted in the ●●ve. of the eighteenth and ninteenth chapters of the book of judges, that in those days there was no King in Israel, and thereupon follow those abominable outrages there after recorded. What then was our case like to have been when we should have had neither King, nor Queen, neither Prince (for this present King they intended presently upon the blow to have made away) nor great officer of the Kingdom, nor Counsellor of state, nor Bishop nor judge, what public exercise of religion, what administration of justice could any where have taken place? what cutting of throats what rifling, what ravishing should we have seen in every corner by rogues & ruffians without any check or control? We should neither have lain quietly in our beds, nor have sat quietly at our tables, nor have walked quietly in our streets, nor have traveled quietly in our ways, much less have met quietly in our temples but every place would have been full of fear and danger and horror and blood; and surely I am persuaded that in such a general confusion of all things, the Conspirators themselves could not have promised security to their own goods and houses, to their own sons and daughters, to their own wives and persons, and if this should have been our case in the country, what would have been the face of the Court and City whereas the blow should have been given? How would they have looked, what could they have said or done but stood amazed & at their wits ends. By the hideous thunder and roaring of the blow, by the trembling of the air & earth, by the flashing of the fire and the thick clouds and smoke, by the fall of those ancient goodly buildings, by the sight of the dismembered, and the woeful cry of the bruised & wounded, who by the casting of beams & iron and stones afar of, must needs have been many: besides those infinite▪ troops who waiting there about the return of that assembly would have been either torn or crushed in pieces: nay all the courts of justice the Church used for the Coronation of our Kings, the monuments of former Princes, the Crown and sceptre and other marks of Royalty, all the records as well of Parliament as of particular men's right with a great number of charters & such like should have been snatched away in that stormy tempest that furious deluge of fire so as not only we but the memory of us and ours should have been thus extinguished in an instant, worse than if we had been invaded or vanquished by the Turk or Scythian. I remember that the heathen Emperor when he beheld the temple of jerusalem on fire, he could not hold but let fall tears at the sight thereof: and truly I am of opinion that the Conspirators themselves had they beheld this monstrous birth of their most unnatural device, if they were men and not incarnate Devils or savage beasts in the shape of men, they would have sent forth many a sigh and let fall many a tear at that woeful▪ spectacle, and for mine own part I think that no true English heart can seriously think, or tongue speak, or hand write of it without some kind of horror & astonishment, and lest my thoughts should be swallowed up in this dreadful meditation I hasten to the last comparison, of the month and the day.  
Their month was Adar, answering in 
The month  part to our February and in part to March; It was a month famous among them for the finishing of the second temple and the discomfiting 
Ezra. 6.  of Nicanor: but above all for this their admirable deliverance from the Conspiracy of Haman: And is not this month of November 
2 Macc. 15  crowned with as many & great blessings in it brought unto us. In this month it was `that that renowned Lady, that heroical Ester of incomparable virtue made her entranceto the Crown and wore it as long with as much honour as ever Prince did. She brought with her the sun's shine of peace & prosperity, and above all of the Gospel after almost five years continual showers of tears and blood during her sister's reign. In this month his sacred majesty now living and by God's grace long to live, the joy of our hearts, the staff of our hopes, made his entrance into the world, borne I hope in a happy hour for the good of Christendom, and from my heart I pray it may so prove. And lastly, in this month God Almighty wrought for us this wonderful deliverance from the most damnable conspiracy that ever the sun saw, which I may the more boldly aver for that it being a work of darkness was wrought so near hell as the eye of the sun could not pierce through to discern it. yet as S. Paul had the messenger of of Satan sent to buffet him, lest he should be puffed up with abundance of revelations: so is the sixth of this month as an yearly messenger sent us to put us in mind of that heavy loss which upon that day for our sins we received, lest we should be puffed up with abundance of blessings. 
The day.   
But from the month if we descend a little lower to the comparison of the day, we shall find that we have better reason to observe ours than they theirs though doubtless they observed theirs much more solemnly than we do ours. We shall hardly find in holy scripture the like to these days of Purim instituted by humane authority either Ecclesiastical or civil, except it were that of the dedication enjoined in their month Caslew (answering to our November) by judas Macchabeus in memory of the restoring of the public exercise of their religion, after the freeing of the temple from the tyranny and pollution of Antiochus his garrison; to which our Saviour himself was not unwilling to afford some credit & countenance by his personal appearing in the temple at that feast. That it is then both lawful and commendable in some cases to set such a day a part for public thanksgiving and commemoration either of some great benefit or deliverance wrought, I intent not to prove, because I suppose no sober minded man makes a doubt of it The saying is Cura omnium, cura nullius, that office which is given in charge to all, no man takes charge of, and it is as true, that such as neglect the observation of this day under a pretence of being thankful at all times, are for the most part thankful at no time. Besides it is most kindly & seasonable to publish opus diei in Die suo, the work of the day upon the day itself: then a man's words if ever work a deeper impression in the hearts of the hearers, then if ever are they like apples of gold with pictures of silver, like nails fastened by the masters of the assembly, the very robes & face of the day makes our children not capable of our prayers & preaching to inquire into the reason of our meeting; & good reason have we to deliver over the keeping of this day to our posterity, since in it the sons of Beliall thought to have feathered us such an arrow as should have stricken through the heart of the child yet unborn. When your children ask you, what service is this you keep, you shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lords Passover, saith Moses Exodus 12. And when your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, what mean these stones, you shall show your chil. drens and say Israel came over this jordan on dry land saith josuah chapter 4 In like manner when our children inquire what meaneth the observation of this day it will be a fit occasion to inform them in the reason therèof, Areason never to be forgotten, but deeply to be engraven in the heart of all succeeding ages as it were in a pillar of Marble or brass with a pen of iron or the point of a diamond.  
But I return to the Comparison of our Powder day with those of Purim kept by the jews. Theirs had the name of Pu●, which in the Persian language signifieth a Lott, as in Greek it signifies fire, a name not unfit for our day too, Theirs was appointed by the authority of Mordecai and Ester, the decree for 
and hence wasit called▪ Mordocheus day.  the perpetual keeping of it aswell in the country as in the city was registered in their book of ordinances, as ours is in our book 
2 Mach. 15. 36  of statutes, made and ratified by our Sovereign then being and the body of the three Estates assembled in Parliament; whereas though Mordecai were a great man in the Persiam state, & Ester were Queen, yet had neither of them for aught we find Sovereign authority over the jews which notwithstanding they duly and cheerfully observed two whole days as festival, there being but one part of a day, nor past two hours in a manner enjoined us. They were to observe theirs in a country where they could not but provoke their enemies more powerful than themselves by putting them in mind of the slaughter committed by the jews upon their Countrymen and kindred upon that day: whereas we may (God be thanked) observe ours not only without fear and danger, but With much comfort & commendation: yea it is written by those who report the present estate of the jews, that this day is observed among them wheresoever they live: so that by computation they have kept it above two thousand years, whereas we have not observed ours above twenty, & yet I know not how it comes to pass, the keeping of it is already grown out of fashion, wearisome and tedious unto us, I know that the disciples of Rome howsoever they would have highly applauded the plot, had it taken effect, yet now, it being of the nature of those designs, quae non laudantur nisi per acta, which are never commended till they are ended, in their hearts they wish of this day, as Job did of his birth day, that it might not be joined to the days of the year, nor come in to the account of the months: But the rather must we & truly may we say of it as was said of the night in which the Isralites went out of Egypt. It is a day to be kept holy to the Lord, it is that day of the Lord which all the children of England must keep throw out their generations, as an eternal president of God's watchful eye in the preservation of our Church and state, and an everliving testimony of the never dying cruelty of jesuited Romish Catholics.  This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord. Psal. 102. 18. 
FINIS