VITULI LABIORUM. OR, A THANKSGIVING SERMON, IN Commemoration of our Great Deliverance From the HORRID Powder-Plot, 1605. And also of God's Merciful Discovery of a Bloody Conspiracy against His Majesty's Person, and the Protestant Religion, 1678. Both intended by the Papists. Preached at St. Peter's, Exon, Nou. 5. 1678. In Prosecution whereof the Church's Persecutions, Foreign and Domestic, by the hands of Popish Votaries, ever since the Reformation, are briefly recapitulated. Their charge of Novelty on our Church and Religion is retorted. The absurdity of many of their Doctrines and Principles, and how destructive unto Civil Government, is detected.  
By JOHN REYNOLDS, M. A.  
London, Printed for Tho. Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultry: And Walter Dight Bookseller in Exeter, 1678.   

To the Right Worshipful Sir THOMAS CAREW, Knight, Judge of the Sessions for the County of Devon, and Recorder of the City of Exeter.  
Honoured Sir,  
NO sooner could I make my thoughts to comply with the motion of publishing this Sermon, (which I presume for its seasonableness unto the present juncture of affairs, more than from any intrinsic worth therein, some that heard it were pleased favourably to estimate) but it presently became the matter of a deliberation with myself, what could discourage me from hoping but that your worthy Name might prove auspicious unto it, by lending it something of a credit to pass out into the world? I foresaw nothing that could check my pleasing aims herein, but might arise either from the subject treated of in this Discourse; or from the person whose it was, and doth now present it unto your candid acceptance; or from the defectiveness of the management and handling of it.  
As to the first of these, I did the more easily persuade myself, that it could not offend you to see and read in this Sermon the deformities of a false Religion in any degree exposed, who have yourself zealously espoused, and are so good a friend unto the true and best Religion in the world. A Religion never sufficiently to be praised and commended for the certainty of its Rule, which are those Books of Canonical Scripture, of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church: for the compactedness of her Fundamentals, determined and summed up in the Apostles Creed, explained in those others which are called the Nicene and Athanasian: for the simplicity of her Sacraments, and all her Administrations managed, in a language, and performed with that decent plainness as may be understood by all that are concerned in them: for the gravity and soundness of her Ordination and Ministry; for the peaceableness of her Tenets, in obedience to the Magistrate; for her conformity to the Apostolic and Primitive pattern in all things, so far as the looseness of this Age will bear: for the undoubted assurance of finding Salvation by its Rules and Precepts, if we continue in them and do them. These and the like are the lineaments of our and your Religion, which cannot be displeasing unto you to assert, and therefore neither to oppugn the contrary.  
But neither, in the second place, could I suppose any disrespect unto the person, submitting those Papers unto your candour, that should be able to create unto you any ill resentment of the Sermon itself. In that what never had been, I could easily hope, must have a greater occasion than this to beget it. For indeed it is a pleasure to me to let the world to know, that under Him who is the giver of every good and perfect gift, 
Jam. 1. 17.  next unto the memory of my exeellent and worthy Patron deceased, I owe most unto your care and providence, for the comfort and bene esse of my being and Ministry in the place where I am: whereby you have buoyed me up above the necessity of depending upon the precarious benevolence of a people; which I wish no good or honest Minister were ever put to trust to. A good part of my Books deservedly bear your honoured name upon them for their Donor: The first and the most seasonable News-years gift I could possibly have received for the encouragement and assistance of my first studies in this your own Dwelling-parish. You never yet denied me any request (which notwithstanding have been very many) that in consistency with your Honour and Power I durst move unto you: nor ever spared to take any pains (which yet have been very great) whereof the success in prospect hath promised fairly on my behalf. So sure hath been my happy interest in your ever valued respects, that I never found it hitherto checked with the least change of countenance or carriage. So noble and generous, that whereas another's kindnesses would have necessitated a man to the study of an Answerable Gratification; you have always taken my Relation to you as your Minister for so sufficient a Supersedeas to such designs, that I have never apprehended any adventure more hazardous of yours, than only to attempt it. I cannot really admit any diminutive account of your goodness to myself, otherwise than by considering you in that larger sphere which God hath placed you in, as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a common good to your Country; of which for me to say any thing, would be altogether unnecessary, forasmuch as there are every day so many mouths open to acknowledge it. There being therefore no room for the scruple of a personal prejudice: It remains in the third place, that only the defectiveness and blemishes of my speaking unto this subject, can render it unworthy of your acceptance: and as to this, I confess the charge; and rely upon your known and experienced candour to excuse and lay your finger on the naevi of this Discourse. Indeed it is a small and a slight thing in itself, to have your Name prefixed unto; but yet it is not unusual for Maps in single sheets to carry their Dedication on their forehead. And as for the failances in the manner of handling it; forasmuch as it is a time for every one of us to show his zeal for his Religion, the fear of smaller miscarriages that are frequently incident to zealous actings, will no more dispense with their total neglect, than it can warrantably prescind or supersede any other Moral or Religious duty, in that we cannot acquit ourselves therein with an absolute perfection. Hoping therefore that upon the removal of those bars first supposed, my way of access unto your favourable reception of these few Pages is plain and open, I shall in gratitude for (what I presume of) your pleasing countenance reflecting on them, and all other signal pledges of your kindness, think myself now and ever obliged to pray, That the father of mercies would still make good the multiplied effects of his infinite love and goodness, for your temporal and eternal welfare. That the generation rising may by an hundred-fold recompense unto the hopeful branches of your Family, all the good that yourself have been the instrument of unto the generation shining; and that he who is now your humble Orator at the Throne of Grace, may never want the opportunity or power of approving himself to the last day of his life.  
St. Thomas Novemb. 13. 16●8. Sir, Your most faithful and affectionate Servant JOHN REYNOLDS.   

A Thanksgiving Sermon in Commemoration of our Deliverance from the Powder-Plot, and of the discovery of the late Bloody Conspiracy of the Papists.  Psal. CXXIX. 1, 2. 
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say.  
2. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.  
BAronius the great Annalist for the Church of Rome, 
Baron. Annal. Tom. 1. Ann. 34. Art. 275. Ann. 57 Art. 39  hath indeed made a very proud and lofty claim on the Pope's behalf, viz. That Christ after his Resurrection translated upon the Pope's both Priesthood and Kingdom. But by what a thin and faint argument doth he grasp at so large a Jurisdiction? namely, That this was signified, 
Act. 5. 15.  by that shadow of St. Peter, whereby the sick were healed; that the Popes should always have the same power, which Christ himself had, though never so far different from him in good life and manners; because they should ever at least retain the shadow. But I pray what consequence is there from the shadow of St. Peter, unto the shadow, and from thence unto the power of Christ? and that power likewise that should not serve to heal the sick as did St. Peter's shadow, but to destroy Kings and Kingdoms? for what other miraculous power have they made proof of this thousand years? A cruel instance thereof we had in the Conspiracy plotted against us this day Seventy-three years ago, wherein the Pope and his Agents taking counsel with the Prince of Darkness, were agreed and sworn together, yea and approached within a few hours of accomplishing their Hellish design, To blow up the King and Royal Family, the Clergy, Nobles, Knights and Burgesses in Parliament; the very confluence of all the Glory, Piety, Learning, Prudence and Authority in the Land, with one sulphureous blast.  
But because age and length of time generally brings with it the oblivion and forgetfulness of the most notable occurrences; and that we experimentally find our irreligious age to be grown so remiss and negligent in the recognition and celebration of this once renowned Deliverance: God is pleased from time to time to awaken and rub us up by suffering this bloody brood of the Papacy to engage upon such like attempts afresh; though (to his only praise be it ascribed) hitherto without accomplishing their wicked aims and purposes. Such was the traitorous design wherewith we have been alarmed this last month; the consequents whereof, had it taken effect, I dread to think! In respect of both which, and manifold other repeated occasions, our merciful God having so often preserved and shielded our Princes and their Kingdoms, our Church and Religion, from their implacable rage and fury; good reason have we to make our hearts and spirits thankfully to accord with this Psalm of praise, part of which you have heard read in the words of our Text. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say; many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.  
This is one of the fifteen Psalms that is entitled a Song of Degrees, a Song of Ascensions or of Heights, either to note the excellency of the Song; and without doubt much more sweet and captivating would these Psalms appear unto us, if the nature and reason of the Hebrew Music and Poesy were better known unto us than it is: Or a Song of degrees, with respect unto the stairs or steps which by degrees went up into the House of the Lord, whereon the Singers should stand; or in reference to the several Stages of their coming from Babylon.  
The design of the Psalm is to recount the Churches past troubles and deliverances, occasioned by some good success of Affairs, in evading the hands of their enemies, then fresh in memory, Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say.  
From my youth] from the time of my being in Egypt, from whence I came forth, when I grew up to be a Church, or from my first Constitution.  
The words do afford us three principal heads of Discourse.  
First, Here are the Persecuting attempts of the Enemies of Religion against the Israel of God, or against God's Church, which we have twice delivered, either by way of Poetical elegancy, or out of a zealous affection to the praise and glory of God in reciting it, or the better to express the malignity and spite of the Enemies themselves: Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, etc.  
Secondly, Here is the frustration of those mischievous attempts against the Church: Yet they have not prevailed against me.  
Thirdly, Here is the Churches bounden and thankful reflection on her afflictions, and the happy issue of them, suggested by the Psalmist: May Israel now say; which stands in the middle between the Church's Persecutions and Deliverances as respecting both; the misery and the malice of the one excellently serving to enhanse the mercy and the value of the other.  
I. In the first of these Generals we have again three Branches.  
1. Here is the Church's Affliction or Persecution by the hands of her Enemies: They have afflicted me.  
2. Here is the frequency of the Enemies inflicting trouble and persecution on the Church: Many a time have they afflicted me.  
3. Here is the earliness of the Enemy's spite and malice against the Church of God, attempting to blast it in the bud: Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth.  
1. The first branch of this Division shows us the ordinary case and state of the Church of God, to be a state of affliction; being to grapple with enemies, and that at first seeming with very great odds and disparity; for thus you find the enemies of the Church to be expressed in the Plural Number, they; whereas the Church itself is simply spoken of in the singular Number, they have afflicted ME. The jews while they inhabited Canaan, the land of Promise, how vastly were they out-numbred by their enemies that surrounded and compassed them on every side? On the East they had the Moabites, Ammonites, Assyrians, and Chaldeans; on the West the Philistines; on the North the Syrians; on the South the Arabians and Egyptians; and these were all alike maliciously bend against them. Compare but the Popish and the Protestant interest in the world, how few are the Protestant Kingdoms and Territories in comparison of those large Dominions which do strike sail to the See of Rome? and even amongst those who sculk under the name of Protestants, how few are there who would adventure any thing in a critical time upon that Profession, which in a calmer state of things they are ready to protest unto? now from these their numerous enemies what can the Church of God expect but affliction and trouble? Either,  
1. By open force; as Cain did furiously imbrue his hands in his brother's blood, and so Christened the Church with her first Martydom. Or as Pagans and Infidels in the Primitives times of Christianity, when they could not tell where else to lay the charge of their public calamities; that which was presently uppermost with them, was Christianos ad Leones, away with the Christians, let them be thrown to the Lions. And 'tis hard to say in those first Ten Persecutions, which had less remorse or more barbarity with them, either the beasts themselves unto which the Christians were frequently condemned; or their unjust Persecutors, who did sentence them unto such kind of violent torments. 
1 Cor. 15. 32.  'Tis most probable that St. Paul's fight with beasts at Ephesus is to be understood de hominibus ferinis, concerning those who had the nature of savage beasts in the shape of men. And we frequently find up and down the Scripture, 
Psal. 22. 12.  such kind of unrelenting blood-thirty persons metaphorically called strong Bulls of Bashan, 
Dan. 7. 6.  Leopards, 
Rev. 13. 2.  Leviathans, 
Isa. 27. 1.  and what not? 
Psal. 74. 14.  The Papists in their intended Powder-plot had conspired to act such a part, that would have convicted them to have been more unnatural than the very wild beasts of the desert. For to make this work of darkness sure, they were content to have blown up some of their own Friends, which they must have done to bring it to pass. 
Baron. out of Philo.  Like cursed Herod, who is said to have murdered his own Son among the Infants of Bethlehem, because he would be sure not to miss of the newborn King of the jews.  
2. But if the Enemies of God's Church cannot bring to pass their spiteful purposes against it by open force, than they fall to work by subtle close undermining practices; sometimes by their sophistical insinuations perverting the Church in point of sound Doctrine, or soiling the Church's purity; and surely this is enmity destructive enough. Thus the first Council of Nice had an Arrius to find work for then; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the first Council of Constantinople had a Macedonius, if possible, to instill poison into them. The Council of Chalcedon had an Eutiches to go about to deprave them. chrysostom had the Manichees, and St. Augustine had a Pelagius his 
* Dempsterus ex Walfilda refert eodem die quo ille in Angliâ natus, tenebras errorum toti mundo effudit, summum Ecclesiae lumen Augustinum in Africâ emicuisse.  Cotemporary to deal with them.  
Sometimes the Enemies of God's Church subtly compact the loose pieces of some pernicious enterprise against her, by matching great relations and interests with those that are of principal note and renown in the Church; Facile is exambit filiam qui matrem habet propitiam. Thus our Ecclesiastical History telleth us of Valens the Emperor, when he, first took upon him the Empire he was an Orthodox professor, a man well-furnished and accomplished with the Principles of Apostolical Doctrine; but being once married to an Arrian Lady, she soon acted the part towards him, that Eve did unto Adam, ensnaring and captivating him to the same heresy; insomuch that he afterward became a most bloody Persecuter of the Orthodox Church of Christ. But besides this of making affinity with some of the Churches worthy Patriots, 
Theodor. Hist. Eccles. lib. 4. cap. 12.  they can otherwise slily pretend themselves her friends for a time; hanging out false colours till they see their own opportunity to change the Scene. After this manner came many of the Scribes and Pharisees, and Lawyers to our Saviour, like so many Devils in Samuel's mantle, silvering their viperous tongues with fair language; but in the mean time the odious device of their hearts was how to entrap him in his words. Such there were who crept into the Church under the benign aspect of Constantine the Great, 
Luk. 20. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Eus●o. de vitâ Constantini, lib. 4. cap. 54.  hypocritically putting on the Christian name, though they were nothing such. Another such race of these two-faced men we have Ezra 4. who delighted in the ruins of the Temple, and fretted with indignation of heart against Zerubabels' endeavours to rebuild it; and to the end that they might effectually hinder the work, 
Ezra 4. 2. Hoc consilio ut illis intermixti personas inter se committerent, & ita opus interverterent.  they subdolously offer their service to promote it, Let us build with you, for we seek your God as ye do. Thus as in the building of Solomon's Temple, all things were before hand so framed and fitted in Mount Lebanon, that not so much as the sound of an Axe or Hammer was heard in jerusalem, 
jun. in loc.  when it came to be erected: So on the other hand, 
Nehem. 4. 11.  those desperate destroyers of the Temples of the living God, have their hidden ways of executing their purposes, without being obstreperous to an open discovery till the blow be given. They work in the fire with Erostratus, but it is a fire like that of Hell, that yields no light before it blow up and consume. Neither is it to be wondered that our Popish Incendiaries are so expert this way, forasmuch as they dare wholly mancipate and sell themselves to the Devil, 
Prideaùx his Introduct. to Hist. in the fifth rank of Egyptian Magicians.  for the compassing of their horrid ends. Even of the Popes themselves some have reckoned up a Catalogue of twenty four, others more, who have been practitioners or Masters rather of the Black Art; as if they had resolved upon this for their principle, 
●lectere si nequeo superos, etc.  that if God will not help, the Devil shall. How much of the Devil was in the Conspiracy of this Fifth of November! as if from the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, this Master of the damned crew had opened a running spring of fire and brimstone in the hearts of those Traitors. And as for the Jesuitical Conspiracy which is the matter of our present heart-aking, and which deservedly checks our rejoicings with trembling, what the just depth and extent thereof was, and might have proved, must be the business of many Months further search and discovery, if as yet through the great mercy of our God, it may be happily frustrated.  
The ground of all those troubles and afflictions under which the Church of God labours by the hands of her Enemies is the contrariety of temper and spirit between them, 
Gen. 3. 15.  the antipathy sown in the natures of the seed of the Woman, and of the seed of the Serpent towards each other; in respect of which they can no more be reconciled than light and darkness. And this is very much fomented and stirred up on the one hand by the Devil, in order to the enlargement of his Kingdom: and yet on the other hand doth God see fit to permit it as most congruously suiting with the Militant state of his Church here on Earth; unalterably forewarning us to expect that through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God, 
Act. 14. 22.  Act. 14. 22. This hath been the common lot of the Church Militant from time to time, Elijah-like to be always ascending to God in its own flames; taking up her Cross to follow Christ, and to become conformable to her head; hereby also approving her integrity unto God and the world: for the real Saint would not be distinguishable from the false and rotten Hypocrite, at least unto the eye of the world, did not a tempest of Persecution sometimes arise and blow off the Hypocrites Mask. Besides, the Church of God never gains more assured proofs of God's Power and Providence over her, than when the exigency and necessity of her condition drives her to lay hold on him. As the Stars shine brightest in the night, so in the blackest night of the Church's troubles and adversities kind Heaven opens so many the more eyes to watch over her and guard her.  
In respect of those Spiritual and blessed ends and advantage of the griefs and troubles of the Church we may well say with St. Augustine, Infaelix Ecclesiae faelicitas, the outward felicity and prosperity of the Church would be one of her greatest infelicities, as that which would rob her of much of her best interest.  
And yet this will not in the least excuse or extenuate the crying guilt of those who are the Instruments of the Church's Persecution and bloodshed. No, let them look to it, if the fire of Persecution be permitted to try the Gold, surely the fire of Hell itself shall burn up the dross. If the green tree that hath both his sap and fruit may sometimes be roughly shaken with a violent storm, 
Luk. 23. 31.  what shall be done in the dry? If the Saints must drink of the bitter cup of affliction, 
Psal. 75. 8.  surely the unjust torments of the Saints may expect a cup of the Wine of astonishment, 
1 Pet. 4. 17.  and that they should have the dregs thereof wrung out unto them: yea that this Cup should be compounded with so many the more bitter Ingredients of wrath, by how much the oftener they have afflicted Gods Israel. Which brings us to the second Branch.  
2. And that is the frequency of the Enemies inflicting trouble and persecution on the Church: Many a time have they afflicted me. We are to look for afflictions and troubles as familiarly as for our bread: for as we are taught to pray for our daily bread, so we are taught to buckle to our daily Cross too, 
Luk. 9 23.  Luk. 9 23. Had our Reformed Church of England no other Enemies in Hell, or upon Earth besides the Papacy, their incessant rage, like a fiery Aetna continually belching out new flames, and smothering exhalations out of its bowels against us, were enough to warrant our ingeminated moans and complaints unto God and man with a MANY, MANY a time have they afflicted me. Did they ever forbear to strike when they had their opportunity? Not to trace their bloody footsteps in foreign Countries, in their Butcheries committed upon the poor Waldenses, whom they so hotly pursued for many years together with Fire and Sword, and all kinds of Hostility, 
Mat. 8. 20.  as that they reduced them to their Master's own forelorn case, not to have any corner or hole in the whole world granted them where to lay their heads. Not to mention how many thousands have been swallowed up in that gulf of cruelty, that Hell upon Earth, the INQUISITION. To say nothing of the outrageous Inhumanity of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands. Nor with what prodigious Massacres the Protestants have been surprised in Germany, Paris, Lions, Piedmont, and many other places; what criticisms of Cruelty have been invented and exercised, and all upon the quarrel of the Reformed Religion. I say, not to lead you any farther by the way of this Red Sea; let us a little consider what Tragedies have been acted, and what Desolations threatened and endeavoured by the same sort of men nearer home in our own Israel.  
No sooner had King Henry the Eighth allowed the Bible to be read in English, and enjoined the Lords Prayer, the Decalogue, and the Articles of the Christian Faith to be Translated into English, and taught the People; but as if those things had had the force and power of a Conjuration to raise evil spirits by, presently hereupon the Monks in Lincolnshire blow the Trumpet to Rebellion. Insurrections are made in divers other parts of the Nation, to the number of Twenty thousand, and Forty thousand in bodies; no less than six or seven such swelling waves of the multitude fell in, one upon the neck of another, enough to have utterly ingulphed and swallowed up the little Ark of God's Church amongst us, had not the Heavenly Pilot lent it his Steerage.  
In the Reign of King Edward the Sixth, the Religious josiah of our Israel, besides the Rebellion that broke out in several other Counties, instigated by Popish Priests and Friars, for the setting up of their fond Idol of the Mass again; This very City hath a Reckoning with the Papists not yet fully satisfied for, 
Sir Rich. Baker in K. Edward 6.  for the long distress of Siege and Famine by Arundel and his Confederates, wherein besides the eating of Horseflesh, the Inhabitants were forced to make bread of coarse Bran moulded in rags or clothes, because it would not otherwise knead together, as our Chronicles report.  
The Reign of Queen Mary was such a continued Bonfire, not of dead men's bones as were the Bonfires of old, but of living Saints and Protestants, that one would think the memory of her flames should still enkindle and heat our spirits with indignation against the name of Popery. For in her short reign (the shortest of any since William the Conqueror, 
K. Rich. 3.  except that of Richard the Tyrant) no less than two hundred seventy-seven, suffered Martyrdom upon the cause of Religion.  
In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Pope Pius the Fifth Excommunicated the Queen, absolved her Subjects from their Allegiance, and Oath of Fidelity, and gave away her Kingdoms unto the Spaniard. In pursuance of which Highway title, that which they called the Invincible Armada was set out with the Pope's Benediction to invade this poor Nation. At which time they boasted that they would carry away our Land in Turfs; an arrogant flaunt! Much like that of Benhadad, and followed with much alike success and event, 
1 King. 20. 10.  who swore (1 King. 20. 10.) that the dust of Samaria should not suffice for handfuls for all the people that were to follow him. Almost innumerable other were the Plots attempted against her state and person by Popish Votaries and Adherents.  
In King james his Reign the Conspiracy of the Gunpowder Villainy will be enough to brand the damned principles of this kind of men with everlasting odium and infamy, in the account of all true Gospelers. If Religion can produce or hollow such hideous projects, one may certainly expect Religion among Devils.  
In the Reign of King Charles the First, who but this miscreant brood contrived and acted the Massacre in Ireland, wherein about Three hundred thousand were starved, pined, and murdered. And without doubt although men of other Professions too shamefully imbrued their hands in the execrable murder of King Charles the First, yet the jesuits and other Papists also needed more than a sprinkling to clear them from being partakers in that crying guilt. Neither do I question but that the unhappy Toleration was an Egg of their laying; and that these Furies spit forth the sparks that fired the famous City of London; and turned it into a kind of dismal Coal-pit. Although but one French Papist were at that time executed upon that tremendous occasion, yet perhaps more of them may be raked out of their dark Cells by the search that is and will be made after the Complotters of this new grand Treason and Massacre; which is yet but in the dawn of a perfect and full discovery. And here we have matter of horror and astonishment unto every soul amongst us! Who can tell what an universal sweeping calamity the forcing open of one principal Sluice would have let in upon us? What, more murdering of Kings yet! 
In Poem styled Church-music.  Nay then pray we with pious Mr. Herbert, GOD HELP POOR KINGS. We this day find new Argument to excite us to pray for the life of the King, as the Primitive Christians were wont in their ordinary Liturgy to pray pro morâ finis; 
Tertul. lib. Apolog. advers. Gentes. cap. 32.  namely, that it would please God to defer the end or fall of the Roman Empire, thereby to put off the lamentable times of Antichrist from their days, very well apprehending the Apostles meaning in 2 Thess. 2. 
2 Thes. 2. 6, 7.  That that wicked one could not be revealed until the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that which withholdeth or letteth were taken out of the way: and what that was which letted, the Apostle durst not speak out, for fear of incurring the rage of the Romans on their new planted Churches; but the thing that letted was the Roman Empire, the decay of which the Apostle foresaw, and that Antichrist would build up himself upon the ruins of it. Accordingly, when the Empire came to be broken into various Kingdoms, by the coming down of the Northern Nations, and by other intestine occasions; then did the Pope with all his Creatures invade the vacant seat of the Empire. Now whether or no we have not a like parity of reason, earnestly to pray pro vitâ Regis, that they had to stir them up to pray pro morâ finis, I leave to yourselves to judge.  
And thus having showed you the frequency of Babylon's troubling or afflicting Zion; I am sensible that I have herein somewhat anticipated myself in the third Branch.  
3. Branch of this part of my Text, and that is the earliness of the Enemy's spite and malice against the Church or Israel of God: Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. Yea, this is their sagacity and wicked policy to take the first advantages, and if it were possible, not to suffer the Church to grow up to strength and stature, but to oppress and crush it betimes, while it is tender and least able to resist. This was the merciless policy of Pharaoh and the Egyptians to drown the Hebrew Children as soon as the tender Midwife's hand had received them into the world: To doom them to die in Water as soon as they began to breath in Air. This was the bloody subtlety of Herod, to cut off him that was born King of the jews (if he could) as soon as the very name of him began to be noised. And this was the vigilant policy of the grand Professor of all such destructive arts, Revel. 12. 4. The Dragon stood before the Woman which was ready to be delivered, 
Rev. 12. 4.  for to devour her child as soon as it was born. Oh, how implacable is the malice of the Church's enemies! that although the Church could not be supposed to do any thing to exasperate and provoke them in its early minority and youth, yet unprovoked they have afflicted me from my youth. What, could nothing of her youthful prettinesses and beauties charm their pitiless Adamantine hearts to spare the Church in this her so pleasant age? no, not infancy or tenderness, not innocency or causelesness; nor all her insinuating excellencies besides are able to make an Oratory persuasive enough unto the Enemies of the Church for one drop of compassion, but notwithstanding all this, have they many times afflicted me from my youth. What meekness so great that can forbear at least to chide with this kind of Ruffian Adversaries? 
Psal. 137. 9  O Daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones, Psal. 137. 8, 9  
Object. But what, shall we yield our Popish Enemies so great an advantage to acknowledge that our Church is so young and so late a thing? that our Protestant Religion is but of yesterday? our supposed Novelty is that which they do incessantly charge us with: Sarcastically demanding of us, Where was your Religion before Luther.  
Sol. No, no, with respect to our Adversaries of Rome, we say, Many a time have they afflicted us from our youth; not meaning the youth of our Church, but only from the youth of our Reformation. And in answer to the Question, Where our Religion was before Luther? we boldly affirm, wherever the Christian Religion was embraced, and the holy Scriptures were received, there was our Religion. And as it bears the Denomination of the Reformed Religion, although Luther were a very happy Instrument in the Reformation (the meanness of the Person so much the more commending the power of God that accompanied the work) yet there were clouds of Witnesses in all ages of the lapsed state of Rome that bare Testimony against that spreading canker of her corruptions, 
Vid. Philip. Mornayi mysterium iniquitatis, in oppositionibus per totum lib.  before Luther was in being. Our own King Edward the first, four hundred years ago in Session of Parliament, under the subscription of the Peers, utterly renounced the Pope's supreme Authority. No less man than Lewis the Twelfth of France, in defiance of the Pope, coined money with this Inscription, Perdam Babylonem, I will destroy Babylon; several years before Luther began to stir. But suppose we date the beginning of the Reformation from the rise of Luther's name in the Christian World, which was in 1517, may we not retort their question, Where was your Religion before Luther, with another more significant? Where was your Popish Religion before the Council of Trent? which commenced not till at least six or seven and twenty years after Luther entered upon the Reformation: until which Council there was never such a body of Popish Doctrines or Heresies entirely and professedly owned and received in the world, as now there is. For that Council of Trent decreeing many things to be Points of Faith which were not so accounted before, hath made no small distraction among the Papists themselves. Before this time we can calculate unto them out of the best Historians, when and how their several Heretical Innovations and Idolatrous abuses crept in.  
The Popes Usurped Supremacy took place in Boniface the third, 
Spondani Epit. Baron. An. 606. Art. III.  which was above Six hundred years after Christ, though Gregory the next immediate Pope save one before him, earnestly declared against john of Constantinople, that whosoever should claim to himself the title of Universal Bishop was the immediate forerunner of Antichrist: 
Ego fidenter dico, quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari desiderat, in elatione suâ Antichristum praecurrit, quia superbiendo caeteris se preponit. Greg. I. 6. Epist. 30. So Constantine saluted Miltiades Bishop of Rome, as also Chrestus Bishop of Syracuse. Euseb. l. 10. c. 5.  and urgeth this good argument against it, If there be one called Universal Bishop, then must the Universal Church go to the ground, if he which is Universal happen to fall. Before these times, instead of the Blasphemous titles of your Holiness in the abstract; The most great and excellent God on earth; The invincible Monarch of the Christian Commonwealth, etc. The Popes were then content with the sober stile of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Your Gravity.  
The setting up of unwritten Traditions in equality with the Sacred Oracles, as it were the bringing of another Trojan Horse into the place of our Palladium, the Word of God, came to be ratified in the Seventh Age.  
The use of Images in Churches grew up into an occasion of Idolatry about the same time; 
De Progressu hujusce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vid. Morney. p. 292, 293. lat. Edit.  although the first suggestion thereunto was only by a pictured table of some of the chief of the Fathers that assisted in the sixth General Council, hung up in the Porch of St. Sophia in Constantinople.  
Both the name and Doctrine of Transubstantiation was no earlier broached than in that Lateran Council that convened in the year 1215. 
Carranzae summa Concil. in Concil. primo Later. cap. 1.  And how well (think you) did Bernard the Dominican believe this Doctrine of Transubstantiation (and the Pope's Legate that instigated him thereunto) who about the year 1309 poisoned the Emperor Henry the seventh with the consecrated Host? or the sub-Deacon that poisoned Victor the third in the Chalice? or Hildebrand, alias Gregory the seventh, that threw the Consecrated Host into the fire, because it answered not his demands (as the Heathen gods did) concerning his success against the Emperor? I could further open this pack, and show you much more of the same stuff: but these are instances enough without an induction of more particulars, to warrant our inference from thence, that the Popish charge of Novelty on us is justly to be recriminated upon themselves. And as for the Antiquity of our Religion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we appeal unto the holy Gospel, 
Nicaenum, Constantinopolitanum, Ephesinum, Chalcedonense.  and the four first General Councils. But so much for the prejudice and the spite of Israel's enemies against her, even from her youth. I must forthwith betake myself unto the second principal part of the Division of my Text: And that is,  
II. The frustration of the Church's Enemies in their mischievous attempts against her: yet they have not prevailed against me. Whatsoever probability of success may appear for a while on the Adversaries part, there shall be no final or total prevailing against the Church. Haman for a while seemed to be in a fair way to have prevailed against all the jews, 
Esih. 7. 9, 10.  when he had the Letters of Execution sealed with the Broad-seal, and Posts sent forth; whereas in the mean time he was but twining a Rope for his own neck. The Enemy's confidences and insultings may grow high, but such kind of heights can serve for no other purpose, than like the silver and golden Precipices, which the Emperor Heliogabalus devised and would have prepared for himself, to make his ruin to be the more observed and taken notice of. Sennacherib may boast that with the sole of his feet he would dry up the rivers of the besieged places; 
2 King. 19 24.  but God was able to make the hearts of his Soldiers as water to fill up the Channels. God disappointed the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, 
Job 5. 12, 13.  and infatuates their counsels when they are carried headlong in a bad cause: he makes them to lose themselves in the Labyrinths of their own wily brains; and their crafty policies so intricately woven, serve oftentimes but as a key of many Wards to open the Chambers of Death unto themselves: as is famous in his rendering this days Conspiracy fatal unto its own Authors. On the other hand, on the behalf of those whom God undertakes to protect and shield; he hath infinitely more ways and methods in the course of his wise Providence to secure and preserve them, than their most deadly lurking enemies can find how to hurt and injure them. 
Heb. 2. 10.  God's Israel have the Captain of Salvation on their side, the Lord Jesus Christ who so leads on the army of Saints against their enemies, as that you may be sure he will bring them honourably off again. We have in him not only the virtue of his Death and Resurrection, but also the benefit of his Intercession, supplying us with invincible strength to overcome our enemies; we have with him also legions of powerful Angels to fence and guard us, one of whom in one night smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand. So that whatsoever enemies think effectually to prevail against the Israel or Church of God, must first make account to cancel all the Promises that are given for Israel's security; he must first overcome God himself, his Power, his Wisdom, and all his other Attributes concerned for his People; he must subdue the Captain of our Salvation, storm Heaven, and put all the glorious Host of those Guardians of the Saints there to the rout, before he can perfectly and fully prevail against God's Israel. Bravely therefore doth the Prophet in an Ironical Apostrophe upbraid the enemies of jerusalem upon this very consideration, Isa. 8. 9, 10. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; 
Isa. 8. 9 10.  and give car all ye of far Countries, gird yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves and you shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is with us.  
Yet here I must caution you, That you do not imagine by what hath been said, that you have any absolute security given unto any particular Churches but that they may be prevailed against. This attestation of God's Providence for Israel's safety in the Text, and that other promise of our Saviour in Mat. 16. 18. 
Mat. 6. 18. Grot. in loc. See also Dr. Hammond.  Upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; are to be understood to speak of the Church universim, and not partitim, any farther than particular Churches do still stand firm upon the rock of sound Faith, and a good Christian life, on which Christ hath founded the whole. We know particular Churches have been broken off, as that of jerusalem, Corinth, the Seven Churches of Asia, etc. and yet Christ hath still his Church in the World, and will have till time shall have an end. As for the Church of Rome it self, it was long since forewarned (though she take but little notice of it) that she should not be highminded but fear, lest she herself were cut off after the severe Example of the jews before her, Rom. 11. 20, 21, 22. 
Rom. 11. 20, 21, 22.  Nay, the words sound like a clap of Thunder, Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. Undoubtedly God might have cut off this Church of England with the cursed Powder-Plot, or with the dreadful stroke which was intended us in this new forged Conspiracy, and yet have been justified in so doing: especially considering how highly we have provoked him thereunto, by the profane and customary neglect of most of the duties of Religion, and Divine Worship among the general sort of men; by the uncharitable factions and divisions of others, by the loose Drunkenness and the loud Swearing; 
Jer. 5. 7, 8, 9  by the gross Whoredoms and Uncleanness; 
Rev. 3. 16.  by the universal lukewarmness that is amongst us. But perhaps God foresaw that our ruin had been a mortal wound to the Protestant Religion throughout Christendom, or might have set the whole true Church of God in the world a-bleeding, in such an hopeless manner, as would not have been easily staunched again: and so considering his Church amongst us as so main a part of the true Catholic body, perhaps God hath spared and delivered us who were a part in faithfulness to the whole.  
III. And now let me obtain a little of your Patience for the third thing remarked in my Text, and that is the Churches thankful Reflection on her afflictions and the happy issue of them, suggested by the Psalmist, Let Israel NOW say. Just the same triumphing Epenthesis in the midst of a sense, that we find Psal. 124. 1, 2. 
Psal. 124. 1, 2.  If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say: If it had not been the Lord, who was on our side, when men rose up against us: Then they had swallowed us up quick, etc. Let Israel NOW especially say and glory hereof, in that the Lord hath been pleased to warm our hearts anew, with the fresh sense of a discovery, perhaps of little less moment than that which this day commemorates unto us. Let Israel now say, yea and as our Psalmist descants upon it, Let us say it over again and again, MANY, MANY a time have they afflicted me, yet they have not prevailed against me. You come home to the very heart of God by a grateful acknowledgement of his mercies; you set him up a new Pearl in his Crown; for thus we sometimes find God himself, as it were, decking his name with new Titles, taken from the Mercies and Deliverances which he hath wrought for his People, I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, 
Exod. 20. 2.  out of the house of bondage; 
Psal. 81. 10.  and the Lord which brought up, 
Jerem. 23. 8.  and which led the seed of the house of Israel, out of the North-country, and the like. In Psal. 22. 3. 
Psal. 22. 3.  he is elegantly said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhabiting the praises of Israel, that is either dwelling in and among the Tribes of Israel who celebrated his praises, or inhabiting the place, the Tabernacle, the Ark, whither they brought and rendered his praises to him. But why inhabiting the Praises of Israel? Were there not many other sorts of offerings which the Devotion of Israel prescribed him besides Praises? yes, but praises carry the garland from them all, because he should not so soon be dislodged out of them, but should longer inhabit Praises than any legal services whatsoever: 
Buxtorf. Lexicon Rabbin, in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  according to that saying amongst their jewish Writers, that every Corban or Sacrifice should cease, but that the Sacrifice of Praise.  
Therefore with all the most signal Praises, let Israel now say, and say aloud too, that, if possible, the echo of our rejoicings might carry terror and trouble over all their Papal Monarchy, that although they have many times afflicted us, yet they have not prevailed against us. Can you do less in zeal for your Religion, than celebrate the praises of God for the preservation of it? especially when the safety of your persons, your lives, and all that is near and dear unto you is concerned equally with your Religion? But unto you that are in Authority above others, 
An Advertisement to Magistrates.  I humbly remonstrate, Doth not the blood of that Worthy Knight, and Justice of the Peace, Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, unto whose Title we may now superadd the Martyr (a thousand times more deservedly than the Romish Party do Canonize for Martyrs, Garnet, Winter, Digby, and other instruments of the Powder-plot), I say, Doth not his blood cry loud enough, to rouse and awaken all your Zeal, Care, and Courage against those Catholic Murderers? Are not his wounds so many mouths to bespeak you plain enough, that he hath but acted that part which you all must do, if you ever come to lie at their mercy? 
Rev. 9 3.  I do believe indeed that this County of▪ Devon is as clean and free of this sort of Locusts, as any one shire in England; yet had this late Conspiracy taken effect, you would have found by this time such numberless swarms of them filling the City, and the whole Country about, as if the Marian Generation had risen out of the Earth again. And had this come to pass, then instead of an opportunity to celebrate our Deliverance from the Treason of this fifth of November, it would have been accounted on the other hand, a new fifth of November's Treason, only to dare call it such. We could not have adventured here to meet together, for the offering up our sacrifice of praise to God, without the danger of the Galileans fate to have our blood mingled with our sacrifices; 
Luk. 13. 1.  and for you in special that wear the badge of Magistracy on you, to have your scarlet-Gowns dipped afresh in your own gore. Now therefore to excite you to vigilancy, against the seeding of any of those evil tares amongst us, I shall only present you with two Considerations:  
1. The Absurdity of their Doctrines (I mean their Doctrines distinctive and characteristic of Papists, as such) even to common sense and reason, and much more to become matters of Faith. For example, as to their Doctrine of Indulgences, which gave the first offence unto our Reformers, what more ridiculous than to believe what the Preachers of Pope Leo the Tenth, published out of their Pulpits; that at the sound of the money, as it was cast into the Basin, those souls whom they intended to buy out of Purgatory, skipped and leapt for joy amidst the flames, and presently mounted out of Purgatory?  
What greater violence to Reason than to believe their Doctrine of Infallibility? Place it where you will, either in their Popes or in their Councils; of both which, there have been manifold instances of their contradicting and nullifying the acts of each other, and yet both must be held infallible.  
Can you reconcile it unto any honest mind and understanding, that the common people should be able to serve God acceptably in a public worship sealed up in an unknown tongue?  
That Doctrine of Transubstantiation, what is it but an opium that stupefies all the senses of a man? For a man must belie not only his own, but the senses of all the world besides, whereby we know bread to be bread, and wine to be wine, because we see it, and taste it, and feel it, before we can receive this gross Tenet.  
What an unreasonable thing is it to have their not-written Traditions imposed upon us for a rule of faith equally with the holy Scriptures, and yet none of them in the mean time vouchsafe to inform us how many these Traditions be? or to be continually forging new Articles of Faith as indispensably necessary to Salvation, and yet never tell us when there will be an end of coining any more?  
Who that hath but well learned his Primer, or can turn to the second Commandment there, can brook their worshipping of Images? The public scandal of which is more than any one thing besides, to prejudice both jews and Turks against their embracing of the Christian Religion; 
New Survey of the Turkish Empire: Tit. of their Oratories.  neither of whom can endure the use of Images in their Oratories or places of Worship.  
As for the various measures of the Taxes of the Apostolical Chancery, as they call them, where you may have dispensations and absolutions of all kinds, and which are no less commonly used amongst the Pope's brokers, than the books of Customs and Entries among Merchants. What strange traffic is that by which the absolution of Impoysonings, Sacrilege, Simony, Fornication, Adultery, Incest, nay Sodomy, Brutality, and other the most horrible and enormous crimes are rated at a less price, than the least Dispensation of eating of flesh on days forbidden by the Pope. Now if a man can utterly abdicate natural Reason, let him give himself up to believe such strange incongruous lies.  
2. My second Consideration is the dangerousness of their Principles unto Civil Government, and unto the peace of States and Kingdoms; such as are their dispensation with Oaths, their allowance of breaking faith with those whom they are pleased falsely and abusively to call Heretics; their Excommunication of Kings and Princes, and then despoiling them of their Kingdoms, and murdering their persons by any that can first come at them, if they refuse to own fealty to the Pope, or are not obsequious to all his placita. Tell them of giving unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, 
In lib. Scripto per quendam joh. de Therano, sed jussu Urbani Pap. 6.  Pope Vrbane the sixth hath an excellent Evasion for that, viz. that those words of Christ, Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, took place only till his Ascension, but after his Ascension they were of no moment, seeing that Christ himself saith, 
Joh. 12. 32.  joh. 12. 32. If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me; that is, all Kings and Kingdoms under the Empire of the Pope: whom he therefore concludeth to be King of Kings, and Lord of Lords: thus abusing the Sacred Word of God, as if it were no better than a mere Pasquil or Burlesque.  
But may it be ever hoped that this proud Apocalyptical Beast will yield himself to be cicurated and tamed? Alas, his lofty claim of Infallibility renders him too stubborn and untractable for that. Yea, it hath long since been believed by many; that so great is the pestilent infection of this Chair of Rome, that with the contagion thereof it instantly infected him, whosoever sat in it 
* As it did Pius 2d, and Paul the 4th. who before they were made Popes were zealous Reformers, but afterward all was forgotten. Fuller in his life. .  
I conclude therefore unto you as Luther, when in a great sickness he made his Will, bequeathing his detestation of Popery to his Friends and Pastors. Or as the Reverend Dr. Holland for twenty years together Regius Professor of Divinity in Oxford, when he went any Journey, he is said to depart with this Valediction unto the Fellow of the College (which is all I have to say) Commendo vos Dilectioni Dei & odio Popatus & superstitionis: I commend you to the love of God, and to the hatred of Popery and Superstition.  
FINIS.