GREAT BRITAIN'S, Great Deliverance, from the great danger of Popish Powder By way of Meditation, upon the late intended Treason against the Kings most excellent Majesty, the Queen, the Prince, and all their Royal issue: With the high Court of Parliament at Westminster, there to have been Blown up by the Popish Faction, the fifth of November, 1605. If God of his great mercy had not prevented the mischief. Psal. 5. vers. 11. Destroy thou them, O God, Let them perish through their own imaginations: Cast them out in the multitude of their ungodliness, for they have Rebelled against thee. LONDON Printed for Arthur johnson, at the Sign of the white Horse, over against the great North door of Paul's. 1606. TO THE HIGH AND Mighty Prince, Henry: by the grace of God, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester: and Heir apparent of the Crown and Diadem, of this Kingdom of Great Britain, France, and Ireland. PArdon me (my gracious good Lord, and dear Prince) if out of a loyal heart I present unto your Princely view, what I conceived upon these late intended Treasons, in solace of my soul, after the Lord had made the land so glorious by deliverance: I say Deliverance out of the hands of cruel enemies, who struck at our fairest tree, to have cut it down: both root, bowl, and branches, if the Lord had not been propitious. And because your excellency is the highest strain in all expectance, and Heir apparent to that Crown and dignity, whose undoubted right, they have so wronged by sinister thought, word, and work, as in former ages the like was never devised in any Nation, nor (by the grace of God) ever shall. I have made bold in these few leaves, and lines, to lay open the danger, with the deliverance; and the rather to your Highness: for that in feeling sort, you may justly say, Quorum pars magna fui; I have had my part of both: for man hath endangered me, but God hath delivered me. If in the delivery and project of this my speech, your Highness shall find less Method, than Matter, I hope your clemency will bear with my passionate heart, more affected to grieve for them, who devised the mischief, & to joy for ourselves that miss it, than I can well express without a troubled style. One saith well, Vt luctus sic laetia, loquntur leaves, ingentes stupent. As are our sorrows, so is our-solace, in their mediocrities: they speak, but in their extremities they are silent, and say nothing. What marvel then: if this our ravishment of so great joy for the delivery, and deep grief of horror because of the danger: either enjoin me silence, or if I speak, make me to utter my thoughts with such passion as little passeth of the Method, so it meet with matter, to express the meaning of a melting heart, Nescit ordinem amor, Love is lawless: and a love thus boiling, how can it but shed over, & keep no current, other then in your Royal acceptance, ever seasoned with such heavenly sufferance, as is gracious both to God & man: Digna prorsus & rara virtus, humilitas honorata; It is a rare virtue when humility is honoured, and honour is humbled: the blaze whereof I saw in your Princely countenance, when at your highness Court at Saint james, it pleased your excellency to lick ●p the dust of the Sanctuary there, (upon the Lord's day:) and after the Sermon ended, to yield such grace in public to the Preacher, as that he might kiss your Princely hand: which ever sithence hath struck so great an impression of exceeding love, and loyalty in my poor heart, as by the grace of God, I shall never leave to pray for your Highness, as I am most bounden: and also by all means, study, how either my love, or life, may express the service and duty I owe for so gracious an aspect. Gold and silver I have none: such as I have, I give: in the name of jesus Christ of Nazareth, be you established. Yet if it please your good grace to receive this simple newyears gift, with the least acceptance, and as the first fruit of my labours in your highness service: It may be I shall with janus, look backward to the old year, & out of my small store, offer a pearl of an higher price. Till when, and ever, I pray God safely to keep your Royal person, to his glory, your own comfort▪ and England's joy. Your Grace's Chaplain, most humble at command: W. Leigh. Great Britons, Great Deliverance, from the great danger of Popish Powder THe Papists of these our days, falsely called Catholics (unless it be in this, that they be universally evil) have ever since the first year of Elizabeth, our late Queen of famous memory, even to this day, endeavoured the subversion of their dear Country, to set up their Babel of all confusion: And have sought by all possible and potent means to make this Church & Country, (the noblest of Nations) an Akeldema, or field of blood. Witness all their Rebellions that have been raised since that time, either in England, Ireland, or Scotland, ever fed with the gross Viands of Popish Bull, and Indulgence, fetched from Rome, by Saunders, Morton, Felton, Edmond Campion, and Robert Parsons, most or all factious Priests & Jesuits, and since spread and divulged by the poisoned breath of thousands of their Seminaries, vermin of the Church, and bane of Christendom. These have done much, and devised more against the state then ever was thought upon in elder times, and not so much by open hostility, as secret treasons, excommunications, & confiscations, against the lives, souls and goods, both of Prince & people, who were not pleasing to their devotions. But of all that ever were, this last devise of Gunpowder to blow up all, was most detestable, devilish, & damnable, as wherein hell was shaken, with all it furies, to have effected their thrice bloody practice, with this fiery resolution, of their angry Goddess juno. Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta movebo. If God will not, 2. King. 8. 11. 12. etc. the devil shall. Whereupon when I do think, it is with me, as it was with Elisha, when he looked upon Hazael his person, and saw in his countenance his intended cruelty toward the Israel of God, he looked upon him steadfastly, till Hazael was ashamed, and the man of God wept, & Hazael said; Why weary my Lord? Whereunto the Prophet answered, Because I know the evil that thou shalt do to the children of Israel: for their strong Cities shalt thou set on fire, and their young men shalt thou slay with the sword, and shalt dash their Infants against the stones, and rend in pieces their women with child. Then Hazael said; What is thy servant a dog, that I should do this great thing? And Elisha answered; The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be King of Aram. We have steadfastly looked upon you, O ye Romish Aramites, more cruel than Hazael, and less compassionate than he, we have wept over your tyranny as Elisha did, and ye are not ashamed, as Hazael was, the prints of your former cruelties have pierced our hearts, but this last impression hath even wounded our souls, wherein we see nothing but traces of blood, and (as it were) the black face, and countenance of confused desolation. King, Queen, Prince, with all their Royal issue, the only remain of our religious hope, Council, Peers, and Prophets, the next support of our happy estate, grave judges, and learned at Laws, with the Knights of the Parliament, and Commons there assembled, a third pillar bearing up the kingdom, all these our honours had gone in a day. Woe unto us that ever we sinned, to deserve the hazard of so great a judgement. Which once accomplished to their full, then had we felt (to our woeful experience) how speedily, the mischief would have spread itself into the body & bowels of all the kingdom, wherein nothing should have been heard, but rumbling of shot, and chrashing of armour, outcries of mothers, and yelling of children: nothing seen but sacking of cities, burning of towns, racing of towers, & wasting of the land, with destruction of parts, and desolation of the whole: Quorum animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit. And yet as all this were nothing, or not enough, we should have seen these miscreants, never sated with the blood of the Saints, till they had changed our religion for superstition, our knowledge for ignorance, our preaching for massiing, our subjects for Rebels, our Councillors for conspirators, and so have brought upon us, and ours: A most woeful Sabaoth, when both the laws of God & man (which are the sinews of a sanctified state) had been dissolved, and silent. Now if any shall say as Hazael did, Am I a dog, that I shall do this great evil? I answer with Elisha, though in differing terms, yet in equal sense, The Lord hath told me, & experience hath made it good, that where Romish Hazael is King, there is cruelty. Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri. The first walls of Rome were laid in blood, and ever since they have been symonted with such mortar, as is evident, by the ten cruel persecutions of Emperors, in the first 300. years after Christ, and by the cruelty of Popes ever sithence, wherein Emperors have been Dogs to bite, but Popes have been devils to devour, and make havoc of God's Saints, nay worse than devils, and more audacious, according to that, Non audet stigius Pluto tentare, quod audet effranis Monachus, plenaque fraudis Anus. Unbridled Monk dare undergo, what devil himself he dare not do. And here might I seasonably tax the perpetual hatred, and intolerable cruelty of that Roman Antichrist, toward the professors of God's truth and Religion, of whom I may truly say, as the Prophet did of the Babylonians, that they are and ever have been a people vile in name, and sore in affliction. Graves are pregnant, and would bring forth their dead to plead their just cause against their cruelties, and Abel's innocent blood crieth vengeance out of the earth against these cursed Canites, & from under the Altar, me think I hear the souls of them that are killed for the word of God, and for the testimony which they maintained, cry with a loud voice, saying; How long Lord, which art holy and true, dost not thou judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth. Of many, take these few for all, Et leonem ex unguibus, Nor will I calendar any but modern cruelties, and such as are yet fresh bleeding in the memories of men living, of this age and climate. Mariana tempora, Anglicana stigmata. Mary's times are English stains, and who gave the dye, but that Romish red Dragon, bloody beast, and whore of Babylon? not sated with the blood of the Martyrs then living, but ransacked the bones of their dead, and burned them, to glut up their cruelty. Witnesseth the buried bones of Paulus Fagius, and Martin Bucer. Andwarpe and Naples, can witness like cruelty upon a mother Queen, and Prince of great hope, whose Funerals as some say, were solemnized both in one month. At Naples with joy, and at Andwarpe with grief, done by that Sanguinary Inquisition of Spain, Revel. 9 17. Romish red Dragon, and bloody beast of Babylon, whose Horses mouths fume nothing but fire, smoke, and brimstone. Paris and France, do yer stream with the blood of the innocent, murdered and slain in that cruel massacre on Bartholomew day, 1572. wherein the Shatilian was slain, and divers others, noble & excellent men, with all the flower of the Gentry, and Protestants in France, to the number as is thought of 100 thousand, all done & devised by the two Cardinals of Lorraine, See the Mutability of France, for the number. and Peluey, conntenanced by the Queen mother of France, aided with her Guisian faction, & executed by Mandolet, with such cruelty, that out of the Court of the gail called the archbishops prison, the blood was seen in the broad daylight, to the great abhorring and fear, of many that beheld it, run warm, and smoking into the streets of the Town, and so down into the River of Scene. So great a dishonour, and so great an infamy to that nation, as the most part of them are ashamed at this day of their own Country, defiled with two most filthy spots of Popery, falsehood, and cruelty, of the which, whether hath been the greater in that religion, it is hard to say. I pass, to speak of the Butchery of Henry, late King of France, by two jacobin Friars, with poisoned knives in their hands, and Popish Bull in their bosoms, which Guignard the jesuit was not ashamed to call an heroical act, and a gift of the holy Ghost. I say nothing of Parry his stab of death, & Lopas his Pill of poison, intended against Queen Eliza: of famous memory, by their own confession, the best natured and qualified Queen, that ever lived in England: yet this may I say, that the dagger was sharpened, and the Pill was poisoned with the venom of Popery, else Benedetto Palmio, and Hannibal Codrotto, two factious Jesuits, had never been traduced as bellows to blow the fire, and kindle the coals of so great a mischief, with this warranty, to inflame their hellish hearts, that the fact was lawful and meritorious. But if all these were clapped in one, they may not balance with the weight & woe, of our late entented dismal day, if God of his great mercy and wont clemency had not put by the deadly blow. For a day of death, like that of doom, in Ictu oculi, had put out the light of England, King, Queen, Prince, Peer, and people; All had perished, and all at once. Servants had ruled over us: Lamen. 5. 8. etc. & none could have delivered us, out of their hands: our inheritance had been turned to the strangers, and our houses, to the Aliens: our Fathers had been childless, and our children fatherless: In our English Rama, had been a voice heard mourning & weeping, and great howling: Mothers weeping for their children, and children for their mothers; and neither had been comforted, because they were not. We should ere this, Lamen. 5. 4. etc. have drunken our water by measure, and eaten our bread by weight, our skin had been black as an Oven, because of the terrible famine, they had defiled our women in Zion, and our maids in the Cities of juda, our necks ere this had been under such persecution, as we should have been weary of our lives, & never have had rest when our souls had been put into the hands of so viperous a generation, who would have shut up our lives in the dungeon, Lamen. 3. 5. 3. & cast a stone up us: I say so general a judgement, so speedy and so bloody, had never been in any kingdom. Nay more, that deadly blow at once, and in Ictu oculi, ere this, had taken the elder from the gate, & the young men from their songs, it had silenced the Prophets, and dissolved the laws, both of God and the Nation, I say still, as formerly I have said, so general a judgement, so speedy, and so bloody, had never been seen in any kingdom. The Royal Palace of Westminster, City, and Sanctuary there, built by the Noble Kings of this Land, and now honoured with the presence of as mighty a Monarch as ever went before, with as wise a Council as ever England had, with as full a Senate of Nobles as ever sat there, with Bishops for learning, gifts, and graces, equalling (if not above) the reach of former times, and with Knights and Commons of the lower House of Parliament, in all respects suitable, this Royal Place and Presence, with all the Honour, Puissance, & Piety thereof, to have been blown up at once, and in Ictu oculi, I say still, so general a judgement, so speedy & so bloody, had never been seen in any kingdom. O unnatural and degenerate Englishmen, how could you ever endure, to thirst after the destruction of so sacred a Senate, and sweet an assembly? how could you find in your hearts to seek the destruction of so benign a Prince, and so Royal an issue, with the utter subversion of so glorious a state● by bringing into the bowels thereof that Romish Apolion, mentioned in the Revelation, who where he is victorious, Reu. 9 11. staineth the earth with blood, the air with blasphemy, and the heavens with his abominable, and luxurious incontinences. The old worthy Romans the two Deccis, thought it the most heroical thing that might be, to vow themselves to death for their Country, and even to spend their lives in defence of their Altars, Temples, and Monuments, of their Elders, but you seek to see your Country bathing in the blood of your Prince, Peers, and Prophets, in the blood of your parents, kindred, and friends, to see the cities, graves, and temples, of your predecessors, consumed with fire: to see your Records burned, your Actuaries destroyed, your virgins deflowered, your women ravished, and finally, to bring the noblest of Nations to a perpetual slavery, and servitude, by as deadly and dolorous a blow, as ever was devised, or done, in any kingdom, except in that kingdom of darkness, where is nothing else but hell, horror, and all confusion. Surely, surely, for this your intended mischief, and your former murders, the worm that never dieth, will gnaw your rebellious hearts, and the furies of hell which never give rest, will haunt you in your habitations: where ever ye go, they will speak in the voice of those Kings, Queens, and Princes, with whose blood you have imbrued your traitorous hearts, and hands, as it is said Caesar's ghost did to Brutus and Cassius, whom in the Senate they murdered with such cruelty. O unkind Countrymen, and cruel Caitiffs, I have been your bliss, but you are now my bane: I have been your mirth, and you are now my moan: I have been your wealth and shadow in a flourishing Empire, but you are now my want and woe: in a decaying estate, I have preserved your wives to your comfort, and your children to your great joy, but ye have made my wife husbandless, and my children fatherless, to their unspeakable grief, I clothed you with scarlet, and hanged ornaments of gold upon your apparel, spotted with the purest Ermins, but you have covered my dead corpses with a Carpet of green grass, diaperd with my dearest blood. Finally, I have kept your Daggers within your sheaths, and you have sheathed them within my heart: Fie, fie: Flee, flee: And whither can you flee, but the Hag will ever haunt you? nor can you ever fare well, till the Fury, find you faultless. Interim nos ad sepulchra vadimus. We sleep in peace. The Lord deliver our Church & Country from all such Brutish & Cassian cruelties, so as never they be able either to touch the Lords anointed, or do his Prophets any harm, and praised be the Lord which hath not now given us a pray unto their teeth, for our soul is escaped, even as a bird out of the snare of the Fowler, the snare is broken, & we are delivered. Let this suffice for the danger devised by men, but undone by God, and if any would know by what men, and of what Religion) I answer, by Englishmen, and of the Popish Religion: Nor will I say that all of that faction were privy to the practice, yet may I say, that none (for aught I yet hear) were of the conspiracy, but the popishly affected, & so branded, which when God hath the glory, and the truth is known, then will it appear how far the humour hath spread itself into the body of all the kingdom, too much (God wot) decayed with that deadly malady. Yet I hope well in time, if such be the fruits of popish Religion, that few will gather Apples of that blasted tree, a tree of Sodom▪ fair in sight: but in truth, and touch, nothing but Cinders, and rottenness, and of all the stains that ever Popery had, I am persuaded that this is of the deepest dye. For in stead of blowing up us, they have blown up themselves, & their Religion, with such a wound to their Cause, as will never be cured by any craft, being blotted with one of the horriblest Treasons, that ever was contrived, and such as God & Nature could never brook to be amongst the cruelest Cannibals, Turks, or Scythians, that ever were. No marvel then▪ if Civil states abhor it, Christian Nations detest it; Religious Kings spit at it; and the Chronicles of all times record it: for such an Antichristian stratagem, Romish Monster, and Popish prodigy, as never might endure the sight of any Sun, but was strangled in the birth, ere it could be borne, and killed in the blade, ere it came to any growth. Strangled (I say) and killed, by no other hand then the hand of God, and even then when the devisers deemed it done, for the Vault was ready, the Powder was laid, the trains were made, the match was prepared; Percy was busy, & Faukes was bloody in resolution to give the charge▪ with a Crucifix about his neck, and hair about his loins, to tell you of what Tribe he was, yet even then, and in the rage of all this fury, the Lord said, Stay thy bloody hand, the sacrifice is not pleasing. For what hath England done, to deserve so heavy a judgement? I am their God, they are my people, and for my great name sake, I will be propitious, and make them glorious by deliverance: The Sunshine is theirs, and the gloomy day is yours: your designs are upon your own heads, your Daggers are turned upon yourselves, and sheathed in your own bowels, ye have been fighters against God, ye will not be warned, Acts 5. 39 that ye might be armed: Wherefore now Discite justitiam moviti non temere divos. Your own Letters shall discover the treason, and the writing of your own hands shall betray the mischief of your own hearts, I will fight against you with your own weapons, and I will weary you in your own ways. The old Florentines had a Bell, which they called their Martynella, and they rung it ever before the siege of any City, to warn the besieged, either to yield, or die; It was a mercy, to prevent a misery. But your Martynella hath given no such warning to us: and therein were you less merciful than the Florentines; How be it, so it is, that your Bell hath rung your passing Peal, and the Lord hath turned your own writings, to be death to you, and life to us, blessed be his name therefore. One saith well, Vbicun que fuerit providentia, frustrantur universa contraria, Where the Lord hath a providence, all other encounters are defeated; If his providence be upon the fire, it burneth not: If upon the seas, they swell not: If upon the winds, they blow not: josua. 10. 12. etc. If upon the air, it infecteth not: If upon the Lions, they devour not: If upon the Sun, it goeth not, but standeth still in Gibeon, and the Moon in the valley of Agelon: If I say, his providence be upon the graves, they detain not, but yield to deliver their dead, and Lazarus must come forth. How then should any creature stir to the subversion of so blessed a state, whilst the providence of God hovered over it, like the wings of the Cherubims over the mercy seat: yea his providence it was, to prevent us with mercy and loving kindness, and ere ever we prayed to be propitious, to think upon us, ere we thought upon him, to deliver us from the blow, before we saw the danger. And to conclude, it was his merciful providence to turn your prayers into our bosom, a cross to that you meant it, ominous to you, but giorious to us. I hope (saith the Writer) God will give you the grace to make good use of it, and what better use could ever have been made, either to God's glory, the good of his Church, the safety of the King, Queen, and Prince, with all their Royal issue (I say) what better use could ever the receiver have made to show his loyalty to his Prince, and love to his Country, then by dealing as he did? Eccle. 44. 8. etc. for which he shall be honourable in this generation, well reported of in his time, and be of them that have left their name behind them, so as his praise shall be spoken of. I may conclude with Zachary, and make good the Lords providence over this English Nation, to the great comfort of all the godly, and the astonishment of the wicked elsewhere in the world: Cease your attempts against the Truth, Zach. 4. 9 etc. for the hands of Zorobabel have laid the foundation of this house, his hands shall also finish it: & who seeing the stone of Tin in the hands of Zorobabel, shall despise the day of the small thing? The house is the church of God here in England, Zorobabel is our Christ here in England, he hath laid the foundation in England, he will also finish it in England: And who seeing the line in his hand to▪ build by, which is his word, in England, & the stone of Tin to build up, which is his people of England, dares ever despise the ●ay of the small things? small to the ●e●ly and sensual eye of flesh and blood, despicable to the worldly monarchies, & of small beginnings, Psal. 149. 4 yet precious to God, and now made glorious by deliverance. Zach. 4. 10. 11. etc. His providence is over all: And as the Prophet saith, these seven are the eyes of the Lord, that go through the whole world, his graces still abound, and are a continual current in his Church, like the two Olive branches, emptying themselves through the golden pipes into the gold. Golden Prince, golden Peer, golden Prophet, golden people, fined from the dross of sin, & superstition, to be pure metal, and as it were spangles of gold in the holy Sanctuary of your God: Empty, o empty your praises, pipe by pipe, from the highest Majesty, even to the lowest of the people, and give God the glory. And thou virgin daughter London, write upon thy walls Peniel, Gen. 32. 3●. and say the face of God was towards me: Thou Princely Palace Westminster, write upon thy seats of justice, and high Court of Parliament, write upon thy Vaults, Cells, and sepulchres, write upon thy doors, Gen. 1●. 14 posts, and passages, Beer-lahai-roy●, and say, Thou God lookest on me, thou Imperial seat of great Britain, fragrant for thy flowers, and for thy collar of Myrtles twisted with the Roses of both houses, dignified with the Diadem of Rubies, wreathed with the Arms and supporters of both kingdoms, (I say) thou great Britain, famous as at the first for thy old name, honourable now for thy new birth, and ever blessed for thy happy and so desired an union, whereby our former ruins are repaired, streams of blood are stopped, old malice is worn out, and deadly feud is forgotten: for all which abundant great mercy, as also for this thy late deliverance, Hose. 2. 1. write Ruhamah, Ruhamah, Mercy, mercy. Write upon thy Ports, Holds, & Castles, Mercy. Write upon thy Towers, Towns, & Temples, Mercy. Write upon thy fields, ways, & wastes, Mercy. Write upon thy Corn, Coin, and Cattle. Mercy. Say the Lord hath had mercy upon us, he hath had pleasure in his people, Psal. 149. 4 and hath made the meek glorious by deliverance. For all which Mercies, Psal. 74. 13 say God is my King of old, the help that is done upon the earth, he doth it himself. Say with Elephus job his friend, job. 22. 29. 30. but Great Britain's Prophet, when others are cast down, then shalt thou say, I am lifted up, and God shall save the humble person, for the innocent shall deliver the Island, and it shall be preserved by the pureness of thine hands. Innocent King, Gen. 18. 23. etc. innocent Queen, innocent Prince, Peer, Prophet, and people, If not for fifty sake, yet for forty: If not for forty, yet for thirty: If not for thirty, yet for twenty: If not for twenty, yet for ten just persons, the Lord hath put by this terrible blow of these wicked Sheba's: For should not the God of all the world do according to right? Plead thou our cause (O Lord) with them that strive with us, Psal. 35. 1. 25. and fight thou against them that fight against us: Let them not say in their hearts, there, there, so would we have it: Neither let them say, We have devoured them. Which and if they had, then might we have said with the Prophet, Esay 24. 11. 12. There is a crying in the streets, all our joy is darkened, the mirth of the world is gone away, in the City is left desolation, the gate is strucken with destruction. Then might we have sung with David, that mournful Lamentation he uttered of his King to his Country; 2. Sam. 1. 19 etc. O noble Israel, he is slain upon thy high places, how are thy mighty overthrown, Saul and jonathan, were lovely in their lives, and at their deaths they were not divided. Then might we have said, that upon the fifth day of November, we should never have kept merry feast, the day of the dissolution of so blessed an estate. We might have said indeed, that this year 1605. had been a year of Revolution, and that Tuesday were our dismal day Critical in Scotland, the fifth of August, for Gowry his treason. And dismal in England, the fifth of November, for Faukes his design, plotted by bloody Papists, the bane of Christendom: and dolman's dogs now warranted by a new doctrine, to bark at Kings, and bite the Lords anointed, if they be not pleasing to their devotions. Thus endangered, and yet thus delivered; endangered by men, but delivered by God: Now let us jointly give him the glory. Dread Sovereign, dear Queen, sweet Prince and progeny, cast down your Crowns at the feet of your Saviour, and say, We have been saved by thee. Earls, Nobles, & Barons, lay by your Robes of state, with your ensigns of honour, praise him who hath preserved you, and say, We have been saved by thee. You Officers in Court, resign up your staves into the hands of God, and say, We have been supported by thee. Ye learned Bishops, and Fathers of the Church, slide from your Consistories, and say to the great Bishop of your souls, We have been kept by thee. Ye Knights, squires, and Gentry of the Land, unarm yourselves, and with your Crests lay your Laurel in the lap of Christ, and say, We have conquered through thee. Thou high Court of Parliament, dissolve for a time, and say, O Angel of the great Council, We will consult with thee. And lastly, Thou Lord God of Gods, and preserver of men, let there be silence in heaven, for the space of half an hour, reve. 8. 1, etc. till these Saints praises and prayers be offered up. So shall we sing with a godly ovation, and a grace in our hearts, Kings of the earth, & all people, Princes, and all judges of the world, young men, & maids, old men, Psal. 148. 11. etc. and babes, praise the name of the Lord, for his name only is excellent, and his praise above heaven and earth: he hath exalted the horn of his people, and his Saints shall praise him, even the children of England, whom he loveth, and hath made so glorious by deliverance. Praise the Lord, o virgin daughter London, Praise thy God o England, the Glory of Kingdoms, and beauty of all Europe's honour, Psal. 147. 12. etc. for he hath made fast the bars of thy gates, and hath blessed thy children within thee, he hath set peace in thy borders, and satisfied thee with the flower of wheat, Let the praise of God therefore be ever in thy mouth, and a sharp two edged sword in thy hands, to be avenged of the heathenish Atheist, Psal. 149. 6 etc. and to rebuke the bloody Papist, such honour have all Saints. And now to speak to you Authors, and Abetters, of these desperate Treasons, Cease your Rebellions, lay by your bloody designs, recount which yourselves; your former, both faithless, and fruitless attempts, against the Lord, and against his anointed; Reckon with yourselves your former losses, in the year 1588. when the winds, the Seas, Rocks, & Shelves, fought for us, judg. 5. 20. 21. when the River Kishon swept them away, from our English Coast, to Dingle Cush in Ireland, with a Besom of such destruction to their great Armado, & frighting to our English Fugitives abroad, and of their favourites at home, as by the grace of God hath brought them out of all heart, out of all ability, and possibility ever to attempt the like. Learn what it is to fight with God, We must increase, you must decrease, for Babylon is fallen, so told you by the Angel, Io. 3. 30. as a thing already past and done, reve. 18. 2. etc. and doubled in speech like Fangs dream, to tell you of the certainty and expedition thereof. Cease, Gene. 41. 32. O cease to provoke the Lord any longer, and end your malice against his Saints, ere malice end you, lest he say unto you, as he did unto Mount Seir, Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, Ezec. 35. 56. and hast put the Israel of God to flight by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, when their iniquity had an end: Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood: and blood shall pursue thee: except thou hate blood, even blood shall pursue thee. God is witness, before whom I stand in the sight of men and Angels, that I speak not this to seek the blood of any, their blood be upon themselves, and theirs, till they have dried it up by unfeigned repentance: I wish the conversion of all (vijs & modis) by all good means. I wish our Laws may still be written in milk, and that his majesties Royal heart, may continue a depth of rare mercy. I wish our preaching may savour peace, and that the Magistrate may still strike with a trembling hand. Yet give me leave to pray withal, that the rage of the enemy never grow so sour as to turn our milk into blood, mercy into judgement, peace into war, scythes into swords, and them to be hallowed in the blood one of another, which I fear, both must and will ensue, if they grow so great in the contempt of God, so grievous to their Sovereign, and so intolerable to the state: which if they do, then be wise o ye Kings, Psal. 2. 10. etc. be learned, ye that be judges of the earth: Let mercy and truth meet together in you: Psal. 45. 10 Let righteousness and peace kiss each other. judg. 8. 20. 21. Take the sword into your own hands, and strike, o ye Worthies of Israel, for Zeba and Zalmana will never be killed by the weak hands of jethro: for as the man is, so is his strength: the Minister may speak, and the inferior Magistrate may strike: and both with a trembling heart and hand, like the child jethro: but assure yourselves, that Romish Zeba, and Popish Zalmana, will never die till you rise up, and with your own hands fall upon them, as Gedeon did: for as the man is, so is his strength. Sat in vobis materna pietas, & paterna severitas: exhibit vos matres fovendo, patres corripiendo: extendite ubera, sed producite verbera. That is, Let there be in you a motherly pity, and a fatherly severity; show yourselves Mothers in cherishing, but Fathers in correcting: Lay out your breasts, but withal draw forth your rods, and ever so, Vt nec vigour, sit rigour, nec mansuetudo dissoluta, as neither your force be rigorous, nor your forbearing reckless, but say with the Orator in the temper of both, Nature a me clementem fecit, Respub: severum postulat. sed neque natura, nequeresp: me crudelem, efficiet: Nature hath made me mild, the commonweal requires I should be severe: yet neither Nature, nor the commonweal, shall ever make me cruel. And if any man shall scandilize thee of cruelty in thy just severity, & say, o where is love! I answer: Ne timeas contra charitatem esse, siunius scandalum multorūpace conpensaveris. Melius est ut pereat unus, quam unitas, Never fear the breach of Charity, where with the scandal of one, ye may recompense the peace of many; for better it is that one die of many, then that the unity of all should be dissolved. He was wise that said it, Prou. 25. 4. and I hope the wisdom of this age will approve it, take the dross from the silver, and there shall proceed a vessel for the Finer: take away the wicked from the King, and his throne shall be established in righteousness: but beware of delays, for they are dangerous: & in the execution of justice they are deadly dangerous: according to that; Eccl. 8. 11. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil. Witnesseth Ely, his impunity towards his children, which lost him the Priesthood with his life, 1. Sam. 4. 21. 22. and brought upon him and all Israel so heavy a judgement, as Phinchas wife dying, left the memory thereof for all succeeding ages, when she bore a son, and called him juabod: that is, the glory is gone from Israel. Happily Ely spared them, for that they were his children, and out of his love and fatherly affection towards them. He deemed it less sin to show some indulgence, but one saith well; justitia non novit patrem, non novit maetrem, non novit seipsum, Respond mihi juditium dixit Nathan, & sic david dedit inditium contra seipsum. David gave judgement against himself in a Plea of faith, 2. Sam. 12. 5. etc. and fact: How then may Princes spare others, if they be found guilty in either of both. Hierome is more peremptory in a case of like importance, When he saith; Licet paruulus excollo pendeat nepos, licet sparso crine, & scissis vestibus Vbera (quibus tenutrivit) matter ostendit, licet inlimine pater iaciat, percucatum perge patrem, & sivis oculis ad vexillum crucis evola, solum pietatis genus est in hacre esse crudelem, gladium tenet hostis, ut me perimat, & ego de matris lacrimis cogitabo? propter Patrem: Christi militiam deseram? cui etiam sepulturam christi cause non debeo, which I may English thus; Although thy little Grandchild cling about thy neck, and say spare father; Although the mother come forth, with spread hair, and torn raiment, and show thee the paps: where once thou-sucked thy life, with her love, and say; spare son: Although the father cast himself down upon thy threshold to keep them, tread upon thy father, and with dry cheeks fly to the execution of thy profession. It is an only point of godliness in this case to be cruel, and a sovereign Pity, to be pitiless: Shall the enemy hold up his hand to Wound the Church? and shall I think upon the tears of my mother? shall I because of my father, cease to fight for my Christ? to whom I owe no burial, for the cause of my Christ, but am to leave the dead, to bury the dead: whilst I follow him. Whereupon I may well say, that mercy may have it excess, and pity may be great cruelty: especially then, when it overflow ●●to the good man's danger: mistake me not, I like of love, but when it is tempered with fear, I like it better: I know it may do much with the better sort, but not with the greater: according to that of Augustine, Meliores sunt quos dirigit Amor, sed plures sunt quos corrigit timor. They be better whom love directeth, but they be more, whom fear correcteth: and therefore the temper of both is melodious in the ear of a sanctified & settled estate. And so to draw towards an end, and at last to conclude, out of that which hath been spoken, both of former Popish cruelties, and out of our happy deliverance from their last intended treasons, powdered with so many mischiefs: (I say) in caution of future peril by men of that generation; Take heed of Popery, take heed of Papists, and tolerate neither their cause nor person: for if you tolerate the cause, it will infect the person: if you tolerate the person, it will credit the cause: therefore to tolerate neither of both, in a state so sanctified as ours is, I hold it safest. What then is to be done, will some say, away with both head, and tail: for Popery kept under, will practise treason: if it get aloft, it will play the tyrant: therefore no way to have it, is safest, and with least danger. Further my advise is, that you trust them as little as you may, & never converse with them but for their conversion, & if after once or twice admonition they grow refractory Devita, knowing that he that is such is perverted and sinneth, being damned of his own self: I say trust them not, for they are faithless, and hold it for a doctrine, that fides non ●st seruanda-cum Hereticis, of which number, they reckon all the Protestants of this land to be. Again, take heed of them, for they are busy bodies, and walk inordinately amongst you: they are impatient of our profession, great peace, and much plenty, Mat. 23. 15. they compass Sea and land, to make one of their own profession, and when he is made, he becomes twofold more the child of hell, than he was before. reve. 14. 11. These busy bodies take no rest, and to have no rest day nor night, is proper to such as worship the beast and his Image, and to whomsoever receiveth the print of his name. Beware of their blind guides, jesuits, Seminaries, and Seedsmen, who to betray the truth, sow the tars of all treasons, at all times, and in all places; they are the Frogs of Egypt, that leap into king's chambers, & busily possess the Courts of Princes, & mighty men, either to poison their hearts with the enchanted Cup of Romish superstition, or to bereave them of their lives: if they fashion not to their devotions, they leave the Pulpits, they fly from the horns of the Altar, they disclaim the Oratories, and they become men of estate, managing the Empire, and marshalling the commonweal of Princes: so as I may well say of these new Novices, as was said of the Monks of old. Quicquid agit Mundus, Monachus vult esse secundus; Where ever the world is one, the Romish Clergy will be another. Lastly, beware of mixture, and shun the sins of Samaria, who were a mixed people, and of a confused Religion, tolerating both the persons and causes of Idolatry: As you may read in the 2. of Kings. 17. vers. 24. for the persons. And vers. 23. for the cause. And the jews in the days of Christ, thought it as grievous an imputation as they could devise, joel. 8. 48. to lay upon him, when they said, Say we not well, that thou arta Samaritan, and hast a devil? And surely so it is, for to be of two religions, is to be of no religion: and to tolerate both, is to confound all, either in a kingdom, or in a conscience. It is memorable, and it may go for a Caution to all Christian Kings and Princes, what is recorded in this case, of the unconscionable offer, of great Chan, the Tartarian Prince, of whom Lipsius reporteth, that when Stephanus, that mighty King of Poland was dead; he amongst others, sent his Legate to the assembly where the new Creation was, with these three motives, to move them to make him King. 1. First, that he was mighty, and could bring myriads of horsemen out of his own lands, either for the defence or enlarging of their kingdom of Poland. 2 Secondly, Lipsijs monita & Exemp. that he was frugal, & could live in time of famine, only with horse flesh. 3. Thirdly, for the Religion, whereof he heard there was much dispute among them, Polit. 3. lib. 20. 11. that he was indifferent, saying; Tuus pontefex meus pontefex esto: tuus Lutherus meus Lutherus esto. Your Pope, shall be my Pope: and your Luther, shall be my Luther: It was the Tartarians sin, to be so indifferent, and so readily to offer a tolerance: and it was the Polonians sin, so long to suffer a mixture of many or more religions than one in a kingdom. And yet how ever, either fear or folly, moved the Polonians for the time to endure it, and to stain their kingdom and conscience, with so great a brand of wickedness, (notwithstanding the emperors large offers otherwise) yet that of Religion was thought so idle, as they rejected it with laughter, saying; Ecce hominem paratum, omnia sacra & deos deserere regnandi causa. But good Lord, how inestimably are we beholding to thee our good God, for so great a mercy, as to give us a King in thy love, when we were a people not to be beloved: whose Princely relish savouring true piety: did so much distaste either an alteration of the religion we have: or a toleration of any other, as in public he did contest against both, in these words. I do protest before God and his Angels, that I am so constant for the maintenance of the Religion publicly professed in England, as that I would spend my dearest blood in defence thereof, Rather than the truth should be over thrown: And if I had ten times as many more Kingdoms as I have, I would dispend them all, for the safety and protection thereof: And likewise, if I had any children, that should yield either to the Popish faith or faction, I desire of God, that I may rather see them brought to their graves before me, that their shame may be buried in my life time, never to be spoken of in future ages. By the Law of GOD, Deut. 22. 11. no man may wear a coat of linsey-woolsey: If I may not wear a garment so woven upon my back, may I wear a Religion so twisted within my heart? May Princes tolerate it in their Kingdoms? May fathers in their families? It were a grievous imputation to either of both, and that which the adversary himself would never yield us, they will neither tolerate us nor ours, and why should we endure either them or theirs? If the evil will not yield to the good, why should the good yield to the evil? Do but mention a toleration of Religion in Rome, and Rome will be ragious: do but speak of such a thing in Spain, and it will be thought prodigious. France is fearful in delivering it Edicts, and whole Italy is resolute never to yield either to our cause or persons. Why should we then endure either them or theirs in their known Idolatry? Were the Law of God on foot, Deut. 13. 9 that Idolaters should die the death, soon would the controversy be determined, and motions for tolerations in Christian commonwealths, would seldom be mentioned: but whilst we demur upon the point, and stand a disputing whether Papists be Idolaters, whether Rome be Babylon, the Pope Antichrist, his Religion antichristian, & whether his lovers & friends be enemies to the state, and dangerous to a Kingly rule, (I say) whilst we demur upon such doubts, and are a debating the Question, Popery will increase; and presume to gain, if not an alteration, yet a toleration: If not a toleration, yet a connivance: and if not that, yet such a personal respect, and favour of some, as will endanger the state of all, if we endure it any longer. By the law of God, the Idolater (I say again) must die the death. Exod. 22. 20. And if an Israelite will go in and dally with a Midianite before Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation: zealous Phinehas, with his spear in his hand, may enter the Tent, and thrust them through, that the plague may cease from Israel. Numbers. 25. 6. The Lord hath sworn that he will war with Amaleck, from generation to generation. Exod. 17. And amongst other ordinances laid down by God for his people, this was urged again to be remembered, thus. When the Lord hath given thee rest from all thine enemies, and the land for an Inheritance to possess it, then shalt thou put out the remembrance of Amaleck from under heaven, forget it not. Deut. 25. 19 And 400. years after Saul was plagued for sparing Agag of the Amalekites, 1. Sam. 15. and not executing of that law. The Lord (I can assure you) requireth a through conversion from sin: And why not a through subversion of sin? The Tabernacle of God hath it Censer, Snuffers, & Besom, to purge the Sanctuary, & sweep away the filth: & if you build, the rubbish must be removed ere you lay the foundation, be the body never so healthful, it will decay, without an evacuation: and until you take away the dross from the silver, ye can never make a vessel for the Finer. It was jeremy's moan at Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, jeremy. 6. 29. 30. the bellows are burned, the lead is consumed in the fire, the founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not taken away. As if he should say, All our labour is lost, and it is in vain, that we have wearied ourselves, with our prayer and Preaching; if the wicked be not taken away. As it is apparent this day by the base sort of these audacious Rebels, too much emboldened by his majesties most gracious and godly clemency, which they have abused, and whom if they had requited with such an unkind kiss of kill cruelty; yet might he have said with the Orator, Non vitium nostrum sed virtus nostra nos afflixit. Yea & to speak from a more powerful spirit, his Mastie and Senate, being then about a work of so great consequence, both for the good of the Church and commonweal; If that Court then had been their coffin, and they had died so doing, yet might they have said in the silence of their souls; Happy is the servant, whom when the master cometh, he shall find so doing. The Lord direct all, as may be most for his glory, though never so much to our trial; and keep us: O keep us Lord from this ill kind of men: Psal. 12. 7. Root out Popery from the hearts of this people, set up thy truth o Lord, & save thine anointed: In Sionis gaudium, & Anglo papistarum luctum. Lord save thine anointed, that he & his, Isaiah. 32. 2. etc. may be still unto us and ours, as an hiding place from the wind, and as a refuge for the tempest: as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great-Rock in a weary land. Then shall our-land take up this proverb against the King of Locusts, Isaiah. 14. 4. and all his crawling Agents: It shall say as Israel and juda did of their Luciferian tyrant. How hath the oppressor ceased, & the gold-thirty Babel rested? the Lord hath broken the rod of the wicked, and the Sceptre of the Rulers, which would have smitten this Land in anger with a continual plague, and ruled our Nation in their wrath: but thy pomp o Lucifer is brought down to the grave, & the sound of thy vials: The worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee, while England is at rest and quiet, o sing for joy, and sing to the praise of God in all your flocks and families, the Psalm. 124. Davidica sentit, qui Dauidica patitur; Sing it with David's passion, and it will be Mell in ore, in aure melos, in cord jubiseus, honey to the mouth, music to the ear, and a joy to the heart. And thou Lord God almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and preserver of men, so bless us out of Zion, as we may see still the beauty of our Church and Country, the Sovereign safety of our King, Queen, Prince, and Royal progeny, the honourable Bench of our worthy Councillors, Peers, and reverend Fathers, with the subversion of Antichrist, and peace in this our Israel. Amen, Amen. FINIS.