A COMMEMORATION, OR A calling to mind of the great and Eminent DELIVERANCE From the Powder-Plot. A Mercy never to be forgotten by the People of God, who have been, still are, and ever will be, the greatest sharers in it, and the best Improvers of it.  Gen. 22. 14. In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Esay 54. 17. No weapon that is form against thee shall prosper. Psal. 124. 6, 7. Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth: our soul is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the fowler, the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Psal. 9 16 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. 
LONDON: Printed by J. B. and are to be sold by John Collins dwelling in Little-Britain over against S. Buttolph's Church. 1654.   

To the READER.  

REader, let not my plainness thee offend.  
Your Charity be pleased to extend:  
Unto your serious thoughts I do commend  
A Mercy great, this was and is my End.  
Though all that's said should want both wit and sense,  
Yet much of goodness you may read from hence.  
If you consider well to whom, and whence  
It was; to us unmeet, from God's expense.   
JOHN TURNER.   

A Commemoration or a calling to mind of the great and eminent Deliverance from the POWDER-PLOT, etc.  

ENgland alas almost hath quite forgot  
The great deliverance from the Powder-plot;  
Great mercies are, when that they're past and gone,  
Laid aside, and buried in oblivion.  
Although the fruits of them are still enjoyed,  
They are not owned as though they were conveyed  
From that which first of all in womb did bear,  
And afterwards to all men did appear.  
The mercies all that now we do enjoy  
We own unto the mercy of that day;  
That day the which the Lord himself did make  
A day of joy, when we were brought tostake,  
And certainly had burned there, if he  
Had not with haste stepped in to set us free.  
Our foes with their most cruel Powder-plot,  
Would have no less than Religion for their shot:  
Yea ancient Records of the Civil Law  
Must serve their hellish fire instead of straw.  
How strangely did our Foes with one consent  
Combine to ruin King and Parliament!  
They did so close their Enterprise conceal,  
That none but God himself could it reveal;  
Their actings all indeed were wrought so low,  
That none but King of kings the same did know.  
The way was strange, by which he made it known,  
Yet excellent, because it was his own.  
These men of blood, for so I may them call,  
In taking us, themselves did catch the fall.  
For he that did strictly observe their way,  
With their own Coin did he in justice pay.  
Into their hands he put the bitter Cup,  
And he the dregs of it did make them sup.  
The God that's just, doth evermore delight  
To give to men according to their right;  
For he the works of men doth search and try,  
He'll pay them while they live, or when they die.  
Unto his own he bear's such great good will,  
He loves them here, and so will love them still:  
His works for them, doth every day declare  
How lovely in his sight his people are.  
England hath cause to stand still and admire,  
That such a Brand should be kept from the fire.  
Still have we cause from age to age to say,  
The Lord alone hath been our strength and stay:  
For had not he pleaded his people's cause,  
And delivered them from the cruel jaws  
Of them who did upon one day intent  
To make their Religion with their lives to end.  
But now may sing, because the snare is broke,  
For we neither felt the fire, nor saw the smoke.  
Now have we cause to say, and cry aloud,  
The Lord is good, who kept us from a cloud,  
Which if it had once on high ascended,  
Sure light should have been with darkness ended.  
This smoke with the smoke of the bottomless pit,  
Would have blinded men's eyes, and have put them in it.  
What did our adversaries think to find,  
That they so long and low did undermine?  
How did they with the instruments of death,  
Devise to take away the life and breath  
Of those that were and are to God most dear?  
And he did show himself not far, but near.  
What shall we think of this contrivance then?  
Sure Devils were their counsellors, not men.  
This did in many things of weight excel,  
Not any plot of men can parallel;  
With this indeed the like was never heard,  
All things considered well, how they were barred:  
For in the Mount the Lord himself was seen,  
Betwixt us and fire he was the screen;  
And so delivered us from the heat and flame,  
For the great glory of his holy Name,  
And for the sakes of them whom he doth prize,  
Therefore he did defeat their enemies;  
When they were most secure and void of fear,  
Then he their treason made for to appear.  
Here is great cause indeed why we should wonder,  
Being saved from such a clap of thunder,  
Which would have obstructed the airs light,  
And brought in a darkness more dark than night,  
A darkness to involve men in their sin  
By bringing of their Superstition in,  
And so make men to grope, but never find,  
Saving light to come into the mind.  
Egyptian darkness nothing was to this,  
This makes men eternal life to miss.  
If that the mercy in itself be weighed,  
How that the Lord came in unto our aid,  
It cannot but affect the hardest heart,  
Considering how foes did play their part:  
They acted in a cruel work apace,  
Like fierce and furious runners of a race.  
They did not doubt but that they should effect  
The thing to which their actings did direct.  
For they, like thiefs, a time did prosper well,  
Whilst that the power and policy of hell  
Can hid them in their actings, they went on,  
But when they came unto the top, the stone  
Which they had lifted long, began to role,  
And fell upon them from a written scroll,  
Which they had written to a friend, but he  
Being appointed to keep others free  
By him who order all things as he please,  
He caused such hands on th' Letter for to seize,  
That so they might it read, and then present  
The same to him, who knew well what it meant.  
Though it was dark, it pieased God the thing  
For to reveal and show it to the King.  
And he unto the Nobles did declare,  
The danger they were in, and what great care  
They were to have in searching under ground,  
For there the powder was for to be found.  
This search being made, directed they were,  
And at the length found him for to appear  
With a darklanthorn standing at the door,  
While darkness did hid, he thought himself sure;  
Thinking no eye was able to behold  
The heat intended before it was cold.  
What did these wicked men intent, that they  
Would burn so much fuel upon one day?  
Sure they thought for to change the course o'th' year,  
Making Winter like Summer to appear.  
Yea much more hotter by reason of heat,  
By hot persecution to make men sweat,  
Not water for health, but nearest blood,  
Would serve bloody Hunters, or do them good.  
Faux, who designed was to light the Match,  
For to give wings unto a cruel hatch,  
Which flying up unto, and through the sky,  
Might make the stars to fall, and so to lie  
Upon and in the ground, while they do boast,  
Making great fires their flesh for to roast.  
But he that did the cry of Sodom hear,  
And made their fins with fire to appear,  
And leading Lot his faithful Servant thence,  
He kept him from the fire's violence.  
So dealt our good and gracious God with us;  
But he may say, Do you requite me thus?  
Was the mercy I shown you worth no more?  
That you by it do set no greater store?  
Sure we have cause for ever to remember  
The mercy showed the fifth day of November:  
More cause than they who lived in hester's time,  
Who had a Gallows built for them to climb.  
The people of the Jews could fast and pray,  
But we had not the use of such a key;  
They being warned before, had time and space  
To seek the presence of that loving face,  
The face of whom its life for to enjoy,  
When once enjoyed, what can the soul annoy?  
Their Adversary unto them was known,  
Who would (if that he could) have overthrown,  
Not only Mordecai the Jew, but all  
Must by the plot of wicked Haman fall.  
The Gallows which he did in wrath prepare  
For Mardecai, was his allotted share,  
The wicked works which he did once intent,  
Together with the Actor's life did end.  
God's people now, being by him made free,  
Do spend and end their days in liberty,  
Rejoicing in the work of him who wrought  
Their deliverance; but brought to naught  
Their enemies, who did against them rise,  
They beware with praise, what they had gained by cries.  
This mercy did engage both them and theirs,  
Being set free from all their grief and fears,  
Now they resolve, and ever do intent,  
To praise the Lord who did them succour send.  
What shall the people of the Jews of old  
Remember long with joy, how they were sold  
By their foe, who did their death devise,  
Thinking to make their blood a Sacrifice?  
Shall they their freedom ever call to mind,  
And shall we to the Lord be so unkind,  
As not with thankfulness from year to year,  
With thoughts admiring God, this mercy were,  
This is the only thing indeed which we,  
Being alive, and from a snare set free,  
Should ever speak and sing unto his praise,  
And live to God, and walk in all his ways.  
This will declare our joy for to be right,  
When we walk as the children of the light.  
Than Christians do indeed Mercies record,  
When by their lives they praise their bounteons' Lord.   
FINIS.