A SERMON PREACHED Upon the Fifth of November, 1678. AT St. CLEMENTS Danes.  
By GREGORY HASCARD, D. D. Rector of the said Church and one of his Majesty's Chaplains in ordinary.  

IMPRIMATUR  
Jan. 22.1678. Guil. Jane.   
LONDON, Printed by S. and B. G. for William Crook at the Sign of the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar, 1679.   

To the Right Honourable JOHN Earl of Exeter, my Noble Lord and Patron.  
MY LORD,  
I Am very sensible how much unworthy this following Discourse is of your Lordship's judgement, which nature made quick and solid; and Books and studies have advanced: yet however, being earnestly importuned, by some Friends of considerable Rank and Quality, to expose it to common view, and thinking this might be a fit opportunity publicly to acknowledge that mighty favour, which your Lordship was pleased so generously to give, I have ventured to inscribe it to your Lordship's name, choosing rather to undergo many censures upon it than miss one occasion to evidence to the world how much I stand obliged to your Lordship's goodness, for what I there enjoy, where this was preached, I own to your Lordship's Tule and undoubted Patronage, and my obligation swells the higher, being involved in that common debt, which the whole Nation owes to your Lordship's Family, one of which was so happy an instrument in discovering this bloody Plot, and 'twould be hard for your Great and Noble Family to bear the brand, that some bot headed Romanists have set, calling this Plot only Cecils contrivance, and for those that reaped the benefit not to acknowledge the loyalty and good service of a Cecil done to Church and State, and therefore upon these and many more accounts with all gratitude and honour I shall ever indeavonr to express myself,  
Your Lordship's most Humble and most obliged Servant. GREGORY HASCARD.   

A SERMON PREACHED Upon the Fifth of November.  Psal. 124. Ver. 7. The Snare is broken and we are escaped. 
WHether this Psalm is only Prophetical, and respects the future Calamities of the Jewish Church, and her Deliverances by Divine Providence, as the Babylonish Captivity, and the Persecution of Antiochus: Or whether it is only Gratulatory and expressive, of the Delivery and escape from the intended Bondage and Misery threatened by the Philistin and Idumean Armies, and other neighbouring Nations; which often made their invasions into the Jewish Kingdom: Or whether the Royal Psalmist sings in his public or private Captivity, for Mercies conferred upon his single self, or else his People, or Government. Or whether it be a mixed Song, Divine Writ frequently carrying a double force and sense; looking back upon things or favours past and gone, and forwards, as Types and Precedents, to prefigurate things to come. I find the Learned divided among themselves, and 'tis not very material to determine, who hath the exactest truth on his side: It serving the Interest of the Christian Church, that it is a lively description of a raging Enemy under the shape and figure of a ravenous and devouring Beast. Ver. 3. His number, force, and violence is pointed out under the Emblem of a torrent, deluge, or inundation. Ver. 4. The danger, subtlety contrived and laid, undiscovered as yet; and slyly carried on, set down, Ver. 7. in the former part. But the unsuccessefulness and defeat of all these approaching dangers and calamities, by the vigilant and tender eye of Providence, in the later part, The Snare is broken, and we are escaped.  
Two things are considerable in these words.  

1. The imminent danger and misery the Church was in, by the plots and machinations of Wicked men,  
2. Her miraculous and providential deliverance.   
What was then the condition of the Jewish, as though it was a type or prediction, is now the State of a Christian Church; the Danger and the Enemy, the Providence and Deliverance very much alike in Features and Complexion: The truth and certainty of this bloody Treason is so well known and confirmed, that none besides a Romish Zealot, that hath pawned all his Faith upon the pretended infallible Chair, or which is as good, the doting Legends of their Saints, can have the brow and confidence to call it in question. This traitorous Design being evidenced from the judgement of Great and Impartial Men, who from an obscure Light, a dark Letter to my Lord Mounteagle, made it as clear as the Noon Sun, to the satisfaction of King, Lords, and Commons, which caused the consequent Acts of Parliament to call it an Hellish Conspiracy, not only of the Jesuits, but Seminary Priests, from the Confession of the Principal Actors, the Evidences product, at their Arraignment, the acknowledgement of Romanists themselves; one whereof, the judicious and sincere Historian Thuanus, hath wrote the History of it, that we may safely say, 'tis more fairly proved, than many Articles of faith in the Church of Rome, 'tis the art and cunning of that Church to keep their bloody Principles of assassinating Kings, and murdering their heretical Subjects, secret and close, till some fair opportunity calls them out for public use, and condemns the design and attempt, if not prosperous; and disavows it to the ignorant Vulgar, and the unsanctified ears of Heretics, though she applauds it in conclaves and Cloisters. But when 
⋆ Leo 10. to Cardinal Bembo his secretary.  one of their infallible Bishops called the Gospel, that Fable of Christ, And Luther and Beza by them must be affirmed to have died Roman Catholics; and that 
⋆ Dr. Prideauxes Praelection devisibilitate Ecclesia.  Junius was cloven footed like an Ox, Providence having set mark of Schism upon him: And 
⋆ Sir Edw. Sands Spec. Europe.  that all English men, by the excommunication that they are under, had contracted Atrorem Diabolicum, an hellish Balckness, and have contrived such fine Stories for the sake of their Vulgar, and more ignorant Proselytes; who must know no more than their wise Guides will give them leave: We may allow them to call this Conspiracy a Puritan Plot, the State-craft of Cecil, or what they please. 'Tis not our business now to prove there is such a place as Rome, or the truth of this barbarous attempt, we shall only consider it in such circumstances, as may advance the Providence and Goodness of God, and tune our praises and gratitude for it: the end of this days celebration.  
1. The cruelty of the designed Fact. Haddit the British Church been Heretical or Schismatical, had she swered from the Christian Faith into the Mahometan, or renounced her baptismal Vows, and degenerated into the Pagan superstition or idolatry; is this the way to cement the breach and difference? are these proper methods to confute Errors? is this the only wholesome counsel and reason to renew our repentance, and make us Christians once again? is to murder and kill, to convert? is to be baptised in blood, to destroy our bodies, to bring our souls to Christ? Such ways for Conversion were utterly unknown, and never thought of by Saint Peter, and the first Planters of the Christian Faith, and are highly unsuitable to, and unworthy of Christ and his Religion, which became victorious, and spread over the World, not by frauds or cruelty, but by miracles and argument, by patience, susferings, and the innocency of its Teachers and Disciples: And therefore its Author, Jesus, though solicited by his Disciples, to call down, like Elias, fire from heaven (according to his mighty power) to destroy his fiercest Adversaries, the greatest obstacle to the propagation of his Religion, rebukes and corrects them, and tells them, They knew not of what Spirit they were of, and that this temper was Ignorance and Fury, and not true Zeal and Faith; and therefore he would never in his greatest straits and miseries, call down the Angels from above to his guard and assistance, or like his Type Moses, turn the Rivers into streams of blood, but still continued delivering his Father's Will, in safe and gentle methods, with prayers for, and compassion upon his Persecuters, resigning up his Soul into the hands of him that judgeth right: For the sake of Christianity and the peace of Christendom, all good men wish, that his pretended Successor at Rome was heir to, and possessed this gentle and easy temper, as well as aimed at his power and jurisdiction. But alas! to the scandal of Christianity, if we search into the Records of Time, and turn over the History of all Ages, and read the barbarous usages of the Pagan World, we can either equal or over act them in the butcheries and Massacres of the Romish Church, that pretended mild and holy Mother: so numerous are the files of Martyrs, that have died under their bloody hands, that we can reckon them by as large numbers as St. John doth his Catalogue of sealed Saints, 
Rev. 7.5.  of the Tribe of Judah twelve housand. For so the Historians tell us, that in the French Massacre in the space of three Months, an hundred thousand were slain, by the instigation of the tender Vicar of Christ, 
Dr. More in his Divine Dialogues out of Vigerius and Peyonius.  and the most Christian King of France. Murdered of the Albigenses and Waldenses ten hundred thousand. Killed in the Duke of Alva's persecution thirty six thousand: and in the holy Inquisition in the space of thirty years, an hundred and fifty thousand, and what should I tell you of the times of Pope Julius, and our own Marian days; of the Spanish cruelty to the poor Americans, or the bloody persecution in Ireland, wherein an hundred thousand Protestants were murdered by Papish hands. What Kingdom or People have not felt their slaughtering principles, either by open violence, or secret poisoning, or stabbing? and this days brave attempt surpasses all the great exploits of all their bloody Predecessors: and every where so many have been, and are their cruelties, that that good Author, Mr. Mede, observes, that Papal persecutions do equalise or exceed the ten famous persecutions of the Pagan Emperors: Here's the literal Successer of Saint Peter, and out writes the Copy, arise Peter kill and eat; and when they have spoke the Prologue by the murder of a worthy Person in order to as deep a Tragedy as this, our indignation must assign the Roman Bishops another Predecessor, his great Sire Romulus, 
* Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri.  who laid the Walls of Rome in his Brother's blood; as though Rome Pagans cruelties were all entailed, and ran in the blood of Rome Christian, and are now become so natural to her, being established by her Canons and Constitutions, that we must sooner expect an instrument out of a Cutler's Shop, than arguments out of a Jesuits College for our conversion, giving us no other effect of her power of Miracles, but that she would this day have turned our Rivers into blood; not remembering the wise mercy of that God, they say they adore, who when he revenged the sins of Sodom in showers of fire and brimstone, was careful lest the Righteous should be swept away in the deluge: But here Prince and People, good and bad. 
* History of the Powder Plot. pag. 9  Some Romanists and the Reformed, must all promiscuously fall by one common blow, to be Pattern and Precedent hereafter of learned Cruelty, that they dared to act what others seared to think.  
2. The Policy by which this Conspiracy was carried on, 'Twas called a snare in the Psalmists time, and so it may be justly now: Naked Truth and Integrity are powerful and successful by their native arguments and internal virtue; his villiany and baseness, which call for stratagems and deceits, and live and thrive by political frauds. When Rome herself was to be baptised into Christianity, only the reason and Miracles of her great Apostles, their plainness and integrity, their constancy and resolution under persecution made the way, and caused the mighty Change and Conversion; but when she herself is to reclaim only the errors of a dissenting Sister, Conclaves and Cabals, the State-craft of all their Fraternities and Orders, the subtlety of all their Emissaries must combine together to carry on this black design: How strangely is Primitive Christianity among them that pretend to be its greatest Champions and Admirers, degenerated from its first simplicity and open innocency into fraud and violence, inquisitions and disguises; cunning and artifice is their faith and piety, and the Court and Ceremony their Church, and their Bishop instead of universal Pastor merits better the title of Stateholder; their Discipline and Cannons, their Articles of faith and Rules of manners, are coined and framed to serve their power and Interest; and Mysteries of Christianity are changed and become only secrets of the Papal Empire; the design of their counsels and determinations are not to better and amend the lives of men, but to sway and govern Christendom. Good old Laws are relaxt, and new ones, called fundamental, cast, to raise a portion for a Niece, or to enrich a Cardinal Patron, and their Exchequer brought into the Temple, and called the holy of holies; that, what their Predecessors got by fraud, they might still keep by the same method; the dreams and visions, the ecstasies and raptures, the miracles, and revelations, and other pious frauds, used and countenanced by the Church of Rome (who calls herself the only spouse of Christ) to drive on their secular interest, makes the Atheistical world conclude, that Jesus himself was only a great imposter, and joined with his Privy Council, the twelve Apostles, only designed to set up a new government, or only to lay us down some rules to trade by, and the chief factory should be at Rome, a good School to teach men only policy and cunning; and for an instance of their policy, which they call the Spirit of God, take the time for the election of Rome's Highpriest, when they pretend the Spirit of God, is as familiarly presiding, and as fully operating, as upon the day of Pentecost, or baptism of the blessed Jesus, yet so wide are their differences, so clamorous their factions, their buying of voices, their setting up stales, their tearing of scrutinies, their long disagreement (as from the death of Clement the fourth, two years and more) and other sly methods, that you may say of them, as an old Cardinal did, you must uncover the roof of the house (so little room is left among them) for the holy Ghost to come upon them. And their famous Tridentine Council, was a better demonstration of their cunning than their faith, and integerity, wherein they fancy the Spirit of God guided their pens, influenced their heads, and moved their hearts, he being totus in toto, & inqualibet parte, and sent every day (
* Hist. of the Counc. of Trent. pag. 497.  as some then merrily said) from Rome in a cloak-bag thither; yet beside the lewdness of their definitions and decrees, so many were their wily methods, and their laborious arts, that the Recorder of Florence, or Caesar Borgia, seemed rather to keep the Chair than the Spirit of God, and little of good Saint Peter among them, beside his Nets to draw some less discerning men into the fashion of their Religion, and therefore more eminent was Divine Providence, that discovered all these sly and subtle Serpents, that took them in their crafty wilyness, defeated their Counsels, and made them perish by their own designs.  
3. The Loss that would have followed had this design taken effect: Which is twofold.  

1. Of the Lives and Blood of so many.  
2. Of Religion.   
1. Of the Lives and Blood of so many. To secure the peace and quiet of this Nation, and to fix Religion safe from its underminers, the Great Assembly meets, a learned and wise King (the Prince also, by them in the beginning of their Plot, concluded to be present) Nobility and Commons with their large Train and Attendants, the Flower and strength of the Nation, the Church and State engrossed, and enhoused together, with their good design, stately buildings, and a Race of Kings sleeping in their Tombs, must by these Conspirators, be made an whole  Sacrifice, and offered up to Rome ambition, and by one blow surpass, what ever Plague or Pamine, War or common Mortality, in many years could bring to pass; and these would not have fallen alone, but Laws and Liberties, Charters and Privileges would have died together, and have been buried in one common ruin: and all our peaceand freedom would have ended in Gibbets and Inquisitions, Torments and heavy Burdens, and betrayed into a Papal Bondage: And this Land, that was never completely overcome by all the Legions and Armies of their Pagan Emperors in the space of so many years, in a moment's time, might have been conquered by Rome's High Priest. 
* History of the Powder Plot out of Thuanus, pag. 5.  For so Catesby (as my Historian tells me) thought it not enough, that this, or that, or any single Person, should be aimed at, but that all together, and at the same time should be comprehended in this Conspiracy. For so he reasoned with himself, The King himself might many ways be taken away, but this would be nothing as long as the Prince and the Duke of York were alive: Again, if they were removed, yet this would advantage nothing, so long as there remained a Parliament, so vigilant, so circumspect to whatever might happen: Or if the Parliament, or the Chief Members of it, could be destroyed, there would remain still the Peers of the Realm, so many prudent Persons, so many powerful Earls, addicted to that Party, whom they would hardly resist, and who by their Authority, Wealth, and Dependants would be able, if occasion should be, to restore things to their former state; therefore not by delays but at one blow, all were to be swallowed up, and so laudable an achievement was to be brought to effect altogether and at once. Thus did the Roman Eagle stoop to her prey, and the whole Land was got within her pounces, but, thanks be to God, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.  
2. The Loss of Religion.  
1. What might have been, had this Treason been successful. Had this Train of Powder and Designs been prosperous, what a dismal choice had been proposed, to change you Religion, or to embrace a Stake, to violate your Faith and Consciscience for the Romish Creed, or else Lives and Liberties, Fortunes and all the Endowments of Life must be sacrificed; to Recant your Vows and sacred Oaths, or else to expect a perpetual Prison or a Flame, to suffer or comply, to have a Wrack either in Body or in Mind. Such hard proposals should have been the conditions of your Peace, and a severe contract it would have been to change the Religion of our Church, which we have Arguments and Reasons sufficient to confirm us, is pure, Primitive and Apostolical, into a Faith, that is but a Modern Contrivance and Innovation, begun by interest, made up of Fopperies and Falsehood, and carried on by Fraud and Violence. Such a Religion you must have had, which makes absurdities, Blasphemies and Contradictions Articles of Faith, teaching you how by virtue of Transubstantiation, you may admire the glorified Body of your Saviour above, yet mangle it, adore, and devour it, at the same time here below, you should have been taught to make your Prayers and Addresses unto God in an unknown Tongue, whereby the dead, that sleep in the Tombs and Monuments of the Church, might have as good Devotion as the living in it, or if they understood any part of their Devotion, the work barely done, the nimbleness of their Lips and Fingers must satisfy for Zeal and intention of mind: you should have been taught, that, though you die with a load of sins, not thoroughly repent of and satisfied for, yet your kind Mother of Rome hath provided an intermediate place between Hell and you, a second venture from whence, by a Deputy Friend, a good Purse, and a kind Priest, you may be discharged, and be Crowned a Saint in that Church. You must be content only to Communicate in one kind, and be glad of the bread alone, for the dainty reason of the Lay man's beards, and the nice distinction of concomitance, yet point blank against your Saviour's institution. you must have been in that Church (notwithstanding the Thunder and Lightning upon Mount Sinai, to show their indispensible nature, when the Ten Commandments were delivered) will afford you Nine only; or at least, use Art to conceal the Second, because it Glares too much upon their Adoration of Images, and Invocation of Saints; and the Curious Distinctions of their Schools and Casuists have eluded the force of all the rest. Such Priests, such Temples, such Devotions you must have had, so gay, so foppish, so full of Antic Postures, Scenes and Ceremonies, that you will find little difference between Old Rome's Theatres, and New Rome's Churches. Such a Religion is the Romish, which Magnifies Christ in Hymns and Songs, Gestures, and other lighter Services; yet Rivals him in his particular Power and Prerogative, in Adoring and Invoking Saints, some of which, while on Earth, were Vicious, and now we know not where they dwell; and others justly suspected, if ever they were in Being. The jolly Sinner in that Church needs not despair of his Salvation for want of Sincere Repentance, while Artificial Sighs and Customary Confessions, Pilgrimages and gentle Whip, Pardons and Indulgences so easily obtained by privileged Altars, Agnus Dei's, hallowed Swords, Roses, Hats, Churchyards, and other pretty Knacks and Devices; while a little Dole to the Poor, and more to the Priests, for a lusty Absolution upon Attrition, and other faint Compositions with God, and Bribes for Divine Justice will serve the turn. Such a Church you should have been in, who, notwithstanding her Pretences to Infallibility, can give her Members no sufficient Assurance to judge by, whether they shall be saved or no; not only from their known way of Arguing, called Circle, proving the Scriptures from their Church, and their Church again from the Scriptures, but from the Doctrine of Intention 
a Dianae Compend. p. 36. , (which is an Article of Faith at Rome) that if the Priest do not really Intent to do, what he outwardly pretends to do, all his Performance is Ineffectual; and this perverse Intention of the Priest is not to be supplied by God himself, 
b Ibid.  saith one of their Casuists, and that the Priest may be so perverse as not to Intent. 
c Escobar Tract. 7. Examine. 6. Num. 41. p. 867.  Another of their Doctors doth suppose, and states the Case where it may be allowed; so that though you be Baptised, Communicated, and Absolved, (things absolutely necessary to Salvation by their Confession,) yet you cannot certainly judge whether you shall be saved, except you have the privilege of God, and know the Heart and Intentions of your Priest. Such a Religion you must have professed, whose chiefest Doctors and Guides of Conscience teach men to break all the Ties and Ligaments of Humane Society and Conversation, telling their Disciples that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics; directing them how to Lie Artificially, to Equivocate and Forswear, to Cheat in Bargaining, to baffle Contracts, to exempt their Priests, though Guilty of Treason, from the Secular Judge; and before an Ecclesiastical one 'tis very difficult to Convict them, their 
a For a Cardinal 72. for a Bishop 64. See Diana Compend. p. 85.  Witnesses must be so many. These Guides teach Subjects to Rebel and Murder, Children to be Disobedient, Servants Unfaithful; by which, and many other lewder Doctrines, Skinned over by nice Distinctions, by which they instruct their Proselytes only more Learnedly to sin; they would make the World only a greater Robery, and reduce it to its Ancient 
b For these and much more of the same nature, see the Casuistical Writers of the Church of Rome, as Sanchez, Azorius, Lessius, etc.  Chaos. In short, such a Religion the Bishops of Rome would have forced you into, whose Faith is False and Erroneous; the Rules of Manners laid down by many of her Penitentiaries and great Doctors persuading and countenancing Vice and Debauchery; her Devotions Childish and gay, and propagated by Fraud and Cruelty. Taking therefore this short view of the Romish Way, and being fully persuaded that we are Baptised into this Church of England, whose Faith is Primitive, Pure, and Apostolical, her Rules for Manners only leading to Virtue and Goodness, her Discipline wholesome and proper, and her Devotions decent and Manly; let us stick fast unto her, 
Prov. 24.21.  and take Solomon's Advice, My Son, Fear thou the Lord and the King, but meddle not with them that are given to change.  
2. What Religion hath lost, though the Design was Unsuccessful, yet the Attempt makes the Crime Scandalous and Horrid, and Detestable by all Mankind. Christianity by the intended Blow lies a Bleeding: Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in Askelon. When the Uncircumcised, the Pagan Emperors and Mahometan Princes shall hear of such Barbarous Attempts upon the Persons of Princes, such Bloody Villainies and Massacres upon their Subjects, and That by her that Arrays herself with the fine Names of the only Catholic, Apostolical, Infallible, most Holy, and only Christian Church; and Perjuries and Murders, Rebellion and Disloyalty are defended by the Nice Doctrines of their Schools, will they not conclude in Disdain: Here's the Principles of a Christian, these Spring from their Bibles, these are the Doctrines and Precepts of their Commander and Master, Jesus? Are these the tame Lambs and Doves of Christianity? Are these they that fear Damnation for Rebellion? Are these the gentle Martyrs for Honesty and Peace, for Conscience and Obedience? Are these the meek Servants of the Bishop of Rome, that calls himself the Servant of Servants? Christians! Away with them to the Lions and Fires again. Let us invade their Territories, set up our Alcoran for their Bibles, and our Mahomet for their Christ, against whom we dare not Rebel, lest we forfeit that Luxurious Paradise. The Bloody Doctrines and Rebellious Practices of the Infallible Chair hath stained more the Beauty of Religion, and stopped its progress and Victories over the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Gentile World, and lost more Proselytes, than ever their busy Emissaries, their Christaviers and other zealous Planters have Converted and obtained. Will not an Indian Prince be afraid of embracing the Christian Religion, lest he lose his own Dominions, Life, and his Paternal Religion too, at the same time, which he now holds by a surer Tenure? Is it not a clear Argument and demonstration to the Chinesian Emperor to renounce his Idolatry, and be Baptised Christian, when he shall read how Henry the Fourth and Frederick the First (as one observes) fought threescore Battles more than Julius Caesar, stirred up by the Peaceable Popes of Rome? Is it not a fair persuasion for all Princes to become Christians, when they shall hear of the Deprivations and Excommunications, and that unlimited Power of the Romish Priest, in disposing Crowns and Sceptres, upon the pretence of Profuseness or Breach of Faith, for Perjury or Magic, for Sacrilege or Heresy, for Schism, or Violence to a Cardinal, and for many other Causes laid down by their flattering Casuists, or for almost any thing, when his Holiness is out of Humour? and they give us a Precedent of Childerick, who was deprived from being King of France, because he was a little easy natured, not given to Action, nor so wise as his Neighbours, whereby he was unfit for Rule; 
a Fowlis Hist, p. 113.  though Benedict the Ninth at Twelve years of Age was made Vicar of Christ, and his little Holiness was as Infallible as the best of them, and fit for the Rattles of their Devotions than any. When they shall read of that Jolly Pope Sixtus Quintus Excommunicating Elizabeth of England, and publishing a Croisada against her, and Henry the Third of France; of Gregory the Fourteenth, Excommunicating and Damning Henry the 4th, renewed by Clement the Eighth; and the turbulent carriage of Paul the Fifth, in the Reign of King James; and thence (as a good Author notes) as it's natural consequence, this Black Conspiracy came; for seldom was the Thunder of Excommunication discharged, but a Shower of Blood followed. When Adrian the Fourth shall chide Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor, for holdin the Stirrup wrong, and tread upon his Neck, adding Profaneness to his Insolency, in applying the Prophecy belonging to Christ, 
a Psalm. 9  Thou shalt go upon the Lion and Adder, the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet: 
b Fowlis Hist. 252.  When they shall read how Callistus the Second had William the Great Duke of Apulia as his Foot Boy, how Celestime the Third put on, and kicked off again in Disdain the Emperor Henry the Sixth his Crown: When the Pagan Princes shall read of King John resigning his Crown upon his knees to Pandulphus the Pope's Legate, and of the Canonising of Thomas a Becket, that Insolent, Saucy, and Rebellious Saint; and invoking of his Blood as meritorious: and the whipping his Prince and Master Henry the Second by the Monks of Canterbury; and that Champion and Garnet for Rebellion and Treason should justly forfeit their Lives here in England, and yet be reputed Martyrs, and have Glories about their Heads at Rome: that these can be the Methods to make Kings the Nursing Fathers, and Queens the Nursing Mothers of the Church? Will it not make them believe that Christianity spread, and became Victorious, not by Patience, Goodness, and Martyrdom, but by Falsehood and Invasions, Murders and Powerful Armies? No Sect of Christians have made True Religion more give ground, than those of the Romish Communion, who engross Christianity, and all the World are Heretics and Pagans but themselves. Their Adoration of Images are a Scandal and Offence unto the Jew, whose Law is so rigorous and straight against them; and their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is made up of so many Contradictions and Blasphemies, that it made the Arabian Philosopher Averro say, Terrarum Orbem peragrando nullam Religionem Christianâ deteriorem inveni, quae ipsum Deum quem tollit devorat; in all my travels I have found no sort of Religion worse than the Christians, which Devours that God it pretends to adore; and their many other soft and delicious Doctrines, have caused the Christian World to degenerate into Atheistical and Vicious Lives; and to conclude Christianity is nothing else but a Politic Maxim, to reduce Fools and Madmen and credulous Subjects into awe. Thus was this Church and State struck at, but Christianity felt the Blow; and while St. Peter's Sucessor draws his Sword, pretending to defend his Saviour, and propagate his Religion, his Master receives the Wound, and he Crucifies the Lord of Life again, and putteth Religion to an open shame.  
Lastly, the opportunity God took for this Deliverance. Just when the Snare, and these Conspirators were ready; just when these proud Waves, our Enemies, in a violent Torrent were all coming, and this horrid Monster was begotten, grown, and thriven in the teeming Womb, and ready to be brought forth; Divine Providence interposeth, strangleth it in its Birch, to the rain of its Parent. the Deity permits the Designs of Satan and his black Confederates to blossom and to grow, and through all the Intrigues and mysterious turn of State and Policy, to arrive at their full maturity; then the Invincible Hand is stretched out, and crops them, to display his Omnipotent Arm more, to make his Presence and his Wisdom more sought for and reverenced, and to be stronger Arguments for a grateful Mind. When the Trains and Methods of Tyrants and malicious Men are so well contrived and laid, that their Passions begin to swell, and their hopes are brisk and smiling, and nothing but Victories and Praise, Triumphs and Success do-rove with-within their Fancy, an unexpected Providence stops them in their full Career, blasts their hopeful Spring, and all ends in a Dream. The Tyrant waxes pale, and mourns, curses his Confederates, perhaps that Machiavelli below, that he and they are not Stronger than Omnipotence, and more Politic than the Alwise. When wicked Designs are in the Egg, they may be crushed and prevented by the slow and dull Methods of Humane Wisdom, an easy hand; but when they hatch into a Serpent or Basilisk, breathing out nothing but Death, and Poison, and Despair, and Paleness sits on every Brow, this Danger calls for an Infallible Eye, and Omnipotent Arm for its Deliverer: Extremity, and the utmost minute of Cure, are the Seasons for Divine Mercy: When Hezekiab's wound is become Incurable, when St. Peter and his Church begin to sink; when Sennacherib's Regiments encompass and shut up Ferusalem, when Counsels and Armies fail, and the Secular Arm doth shrink, and nothing but a Wonder can prevent Despair; a Provident Eye looks down from above, Defeats the Enemy, and Crowns the Day with Victory and Success. Thus did England's Church and State both lie like Isaak upon the pile, the Flame and Conspirators are ready for the Bloody Sacrifice; but an Angel thrusts his hand through the Cloud, a Bird of the Air tells the matter, and a Ram is caught by his Horns in the Thicket; the Conspirators are their own Ruin, and now the cause of our Joy and Triumph, which leads to the last, part, We are delivered: which commands us these two Duties.  
First, A Faithful Remembrance of this Mercy of God.  
Secondly a future Dependence upon Providence.  
First, A Faithful Remembrance of this Mercy of God. This is all the return we can make for Divine Favours, passionately to resent and commemorate them. But alas! Good deeds, though the Condition is so cheap, do die like Men, and are buried in the Grave of Oblivion, and have seldom a Resurrection in the mind of the Receivers, thinking it meanness to make an acknowledgement that they are obliged to God himself. He therefore well foresaw how soon his Miracles and Wonders in Egypt would be forgotten, or attributed to Foreign Deities; He therefore commanded Aaron's Rod 
a Numb. 17.10.  and 
b Exod. 16.33. Josh. 4.7.  the Pot of Manna to be laid up, and Stones to be erected at the passing of Jordan, to be constant and standing Monitors to the descending Generations, of the Power and Bounty of God to their Forefathers; and our Saviour had regard to the treacherous Memories of Mankind, when he commanded the frequent Commemorations of his Death and Passion, lest that grand Attchievement should slip out of the minds of men; so difficult it is for Sinners and Ungrateful men to record a Favour. The Pagans Adorned their Temples with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Spoils of their Battles and Victories, in Honour and Memory of the Assistant Deity: and the Sailors having escaped a shipwreck, hung up their Vestes Votivas unto Neptune, to record the favour of the Sea-god. We tell the long stories of our Sorrows to the Neighbourhood, we proclaim our griefs like Jeremy, All you that pass by, is there any sorrow like to my sorrow? or any grief like to my grief? We pen down the black days, writ the Effects of a devouring Flame, or Pestilence, Judgements upon Marble or Cedar with the Pen of a Diamond, we tell them to our Children, O passi graviora! and entail them upon Posterity; but for Mercies and Favours, we cry not with the Psalmist, Come and see what God hath done for my Soul; we hush them in Silence, we Degrade and Vilify them, to Advance, our own Wisdom and Power, and say of them as Nabuchadnezzar of his Babylon, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for my Honour and Renown? Injuries and Affronts we write down in indelible characters, the Persons, and Time, and all the aggravating Circumstances are ever fresh and green. — manet altâ ment repostum Judicium Paridis— and never laid aside but upon a Sacramental day, and taken up the next. Though our Memories for Benefirs at first may be fresh and brisk, yet the sudden Flame of Joy at length changeth its ruddy Complexion, grows pale, and endeth in Ashes, and is blown away. And this day began to lose its Solemnity, had it not been revived by the New Traitorous Designs and Contrivances of the same sort of bloody men. 
a Hist, of the Powder Plot. p. 7.  And if these bold Conspirators, having found the Cellar for their Design, directly under the Royal Throne, did seem to persuade themselves from that Accident, that God by a secret Conduct did favour the Attempt, we may now justly turn Providence upon them, and in this strange Deliverance acknowledge the hand of God; in a true Remembrance therefore of this great Deliverance, the Knife being taken from our Throat, the Flame quenched the Snare broken, and the Tempest calmed, and the Church and State, and every private Person riding at an Anchor in a quiet Haven, let us acknowledge our mighty Benefactor with our Psalmist, and say, Our help is in the Name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and Earth.  
Secondly, A Dependence upon future Providence. 
a 1 Sam. 7.12.  Hitherto (said the good man) hath the Lord helped us; he is god for ever, and changeth not, and his hand is stretched out still. The Familiars of Rome, which haunt the Courts and Palaces of Princes, like the Devil in the Gospel, sometimes attempted to cast us into the Water, by the Spanish Armado; sometimes into the Fire, by this Conspiracy; and sometimes by Civil Wars and Rebellion (riding another sort of Men) they rend and tore us till we foamed again. 
See the Book called the grand Design of Papists in the Reign of Charles the First.  But Providence that commands the Waves and Flames, kept us secure, dispossesed the Fiend, and we are in our Wits again, and under our own Vines of Peace and Safety. And though the ejected Spirit thinks to return again, and make our last Condition worse than our first; yet we doubt not (if our Prayers and just Zeal be not wanting) that Providence will put a stop to him, and say to him as he doth to these proud Waters, the swelling Billows of the Ocean, So far shall ye go, and no farther; for think not that your Saviour is enthroned above only to hear the Hallelujahs of Saints, and enjoy his Triumphs, and listens not to the cries and groans of his Distressed Members here. He watches still, discovers their Dangers, feels their Wounds, and sends them Aids and Supplies, Power and Counsel to make them Successul, that the gates of Hell and all its Auxiliaries might not prevail against them. Let the Times look Black and Stormy, let Predictions be never so sad and gloomy, and we hear the sound of many Waters, and the Fiend and all his Confederates sit in full Consult for the ruin of Religion, and nothing else is heard but the noise of Ravens and Eagles for the dying Corpse, yet we can stand secure, an omnipotent Arm doth wield our Sword, and our Council is Alwise, 'tis he that neither Heaven above, nor Hell below, nor Earth and the Sea between, can screen off his Divine and Allseeing Eye. The closest Dungeon and most secure Cell, neither Shade nor Night, as black as a Traitor's Soul, can conceal their Policy from him that Orders and permits, Disposes and Prohibits for the Interest and Benefit of Religion, which tells us, That all things shall conspire for their good who truly worship him; and that he that in former days did deliver us out of the paw of the Lion and the Bear, will deliver us from this Uncircumcised Philistin; and that we might not dispond and suspect his Promises, he doth further assure 
a Matth. 24.35  us, that Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away: and therefore let us not sink and despair, and cry out, Master, we perish; but see the Train of Powder, and view the Snare, all lying Innocent and Unactive, the whole Design of our Enemies Defeated; and with a grateful Mind sing the triumphal Song to God, 
Rev. 7.12.  with the Angels who stood above his. Throne and worshipped, saying Amen, Blessing, and Glory, and Thanksgiving, Honour, and Powes, and Might, be unto our God, for ever and ever. Amen.  
FINIS.