GOD THE PROTECTOR OF ISRAEL: A Commemoration Sermon, for Our gracious Deliverance, from that Monster of Treacheries, The Gunpowder Treason: Preached on Friday the fifth of November, at the Parish Church of S. Leonards Foster-lane; Anno Domini, 1641. By H. M. in Artibus Magister. Inquire now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon earth, and ask from the one end of Heaven to the other, if there came to pass such a great thing as this, or whether any such like thing hath been heard. Deut. 4. 32. LONDON Printed by A. N. for Thomas Warren, and are to be sold at the White Horse in PAVLES Church-yard. 1641. TO THE RIGHT honourable Sir Richard Gurnay, Knight, Lord mayor of the city of London, with his virtuous Lady, present felicity, and everlasting Peace. Right honourable, THis Sermon was intended only for my private Auditory, but( ex malis minimum) to avoid a greater inconvenience, I am constrained, to present it to a public view, and have presumed, to dedicate it to your Honour▪ Be pleased( I humbly entreat) to afford it your favourable protection, that under your honoured name, it may find the more free entertainment. And accept it, as a testimony of my gratitude, for those immerited favours, I have received from yourself, with your virtuous Lady, who hath been a great encouragement to me in my ministry, since my coming to this place. I must ingenuously aclowledge my inability of repayment, but by my daily vote to Heaven, for your felicities, here, and hereafter, and ever rest Your Honours to be commanded, Henry Miller. To the worthy Citizens, and his Christianly affencted Auditors, of the Parish of Saint Leonards Foster-lane, Mercy, Love, and Peace be multiplied. Courteous Friends, THe debt I owe you, exceeds my ability, not willingness of payment, whereof I here tender you earnest; Let your goodness deal with me, as with bad Debtors, Take this, till more comes. I aclowledge, you may justly claim your interest in this Sermon, It was purposely prepared for your audience; Yet was it not then in my thoughts, it should appear upon the stage, to receive its public censure; But to prevent the intent of some, who were resolved to commit their own imperfect notes to the press, I was constrained to deliver my own copy. May it in your perusal, obtain as charitable an eye, as you( were pleased) in the delivery to afford it an attentive ear, and to receive it from him, as one that unfeignedly desires the salvation of your souls, The author hath his desire, whose daily petition is for your sanctification on earth, glorification in Heaven: Yours in all Christian duties, HENRY MILLER. PSAL. 124. 1, 2, 3, 4. If the Lord had not been on our side( now may Israel say) If the Lord had not been on our side, when men rose up against us. They had then swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. Then the waters had drowned us, and the stream had gone over our soul, then had the swelling waters gone over our soul. praised be the Lord which hath not given us as a prey unto their teeth. WHen King Ahashuerosh had granted Queen Hesters petition for recalling of Hamans Letters,( which were sent forth throughout all the Provinces, for the destruction of the jews) whereby the jews were delivered from Hamans bloody design, It was immediately commanded that the days of their intended sorrow should thereafter be kept Festivals, throughout every generation, every family, and every City, that the memorial of that deliverance might not perish from them or their posterity. Hester 9. 28. which feast they called the feast Purim which is the feast of lots, for Haman had cast lots, and the lot was fallen in the month Adar, and on the thirteenth day of the said month, to have rooted out, and destroyed the Jews throughout all the Kings Provinces, Hester 3. 13. In remembrance of which great deliverance, this Feast is had in observation among the jews unto this day. Our present occasion is not much unlike, the cause of this our evening assembly, is the commemoration of our gracious deliverance, from that Monster of Treasons, which no age can parallel, conceived in our own Precincts, and should have brought forth ruin in our own eyes, when no other voice should have been heard in our streets, then weeping, mourning, and exceeding great lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they were not. The louder then the cry of our sorrow should have been, the louder ought the shouts of our joy now to be, God himself hath given the cause, that our hearts should be filled with joy, and our mouths with laughter. It is accounted a part of wisdom to perform, opus diei, in die suo, the work of this day hath been, and of this evening now is, to repeat our gratitude, lest the revolution of time, should eat out of memory this our miraculous deliverance. It is the endeavour of our adversaries, to raze this Feast out of our calendar, not ashamed to affirm, that this dayes devotion, was our fiction to scandalise them, no Conspira●ie of theirs to ruin our kingdom, or at the best so far excuse it,( that no blemish may remain on their Religion) That they confine it to the act of some few malcontent and unfortunate Gentlemen, Indeed they were malcontent, in that their hopes were frustrated, and therein unfortunate, in which to this day wee are and( I hope to the end of the World) ever shall remain fortunate, so that the success is blamed, not the Treason condemned. But let them wish of this day as Job in his agony of his birth day, job 3. 6. that it may not be joined with the dayes of the year, nor come into the count of the moneths, yet let us keep it in his season from year to year, as an eternal president of Gods care for his Church, and a never dying testimony of the hideous truelty of bloodthirsty catholics. That when our children shall inquire, what this our joy and triumph means, wee may relate the miraculous deliverance the Lord hath wrought for this his Israel: For had not the Lord been on our side when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quick. This psalm, with some precedent and consequent Psames from the 120 to the 134 psalm, are called psalms or Songs of degrees, and the reason as some affirm is, because of the ceremony the Priest used in singing of them, which was upon the stairs as they marched up into the House of the Lord, others suppose this title give them, because they were sung by the Jews in their coming up from Babylon into their own Country, and this carries some probability with it, because some of these Songs speak expressly, of their return from captivity, and most of them of Gods deliverance of his people from manifold dangers. This psalm is Israels grateful acknowledgement, that her deliverance from those imminent dangers, was through the power and providence of God, and by demonstration of the greatness of her peril, she magnifies Gods favour in her mighty deliverance. In the words observe these particulars, 1 Mans intention for Israels misery. 2 Gods prevention in the discovery. 3 Israels gratitude for her delivery. In the intention observe 1 Their malicious insurrection, Men rose up. 2 The celerity of their destruction, swallowed up quick. 3 There fury in execution and this is deciphered by two elements 1 By fire, their wrath kindled, 2 Water, the streams are gone over our souls. I shall gently strike these several Aints, each of them will afford a spark, to lighten my Text: and First, of the general. Mans intention for Israels misery. Gods Israel hath always enemies rising up against her. David a type of the Church confesseth Psal. 25. 19. That his enemies were mighty,& those that hated him without a cause were many in number. I need not spend time in confirmation of this truth, I would to God that daly experience did not subscribe a probatum est unto it; and what can Israell expect, since the God of Israell was made obnoxious to all the miseries, that cruelty could invent, or tyranny inflict upon him? Si hoc fit de virido, quid fiet de arido, if this be done to the green three what shall become of the dry& withered branches? if the head be crwoned with thorns, shall not the members bee sensible of the same torment? If the master drink vinegar and gull, the servants must taste of the same bitter potion; If he be vir dolorum, a man of sorrow, she must be uxor lathrimarum, a wife of tears; this our Saviour bid his Disciples expect, 15. John 20, The servant is not greater then the Lord, if they have persecuted me they will persecute you also. As Christ was crwoned with thorns, so his Church hath lain in the briars, as he bare his cross to Golgotha, so hath shee born hers in all ages of the World, this is res mira, non nova; For it hath been so from the beginning: wee find her butchered in Abell, captivated in Egypt, flying and hiding herself in the time of Idolatrous Kings, after Christs coming into the flesh, cruelly persecuted first by Heathen, after by Arrian and heretical Emporors, and last of all by Antichrist and his adherents, who under pretence of being the Church, persocute the Church of God, and so glutted herself with the Church her Massacres, that the prophetic Apostle tells us Reve. 17. 6.. shee hath made herself drunk with the blood of the Saints. Shee is rightly entitled the militant Church, exposed to all the conflicts which the malice of Satan and his complices can raise up against her. Shee is resembled by the ship into which Christ entred; Mat. 8. 23. tossed to and fro. with many violent waves of troubles& afflictions. This is the cause of her complaint, Cant. 1. 4. That though inwardly shee was as beautiful as the Curtains of Solomon, yet outwardly, by reason of the heat of her persecutions, shee was become as black as the tents of Kedar. Shee is styled Lilium inter Spinas, Cant. 2. 2. As a lily among the thorns, so is my Beloved among the daughters. A Dove whose note is mourning, Cant. 2. 14. My Dove that mourn'st in the cliffs of the Rock, let me see thy face. A Vine spoiled with little Foxes, Cant. 2. 15. Take us the Foxes, and the little Foxes which spoil our vine. deciphered by a childe-bearing woman pursued by a Dragon: Revel. 12. 13. For the better demonstration of the malice of the ungodly against Gods Israell, we will briefly touch the particulars expressed in the Text. First their insurrection: rose up against us. This phrase of rising against is first used of Cain, when his brother Abell and he were walking together in the field, it is said, Gen. 4. 8. he rose up against him, under which is observed the secrecy and covert of Cains malice. When enmity is sheltered under the cloak of amity, the intended mischief is more inevitable, therfore saith the sweet singer of Israel, Psal. 55. 12. Had it been mine enemy, J could have born it, neither did mine adversary exalt himself against me, for J would have hide me from him, but it was my companion and my familiar: and such enemies as these cannot Israel escape, whilst a sheepskin can be got for a wolf to mask in: these like Judas come with a kiss in their mouths, hail Master, and yet carry Treason in their hearts, to deliver him up into the hands of his enemies, these with Herod will command the Wisemen to seek diligently for Christ under pretence of worship, whose intent is to murder him: with Herodias will salute him with many goodly titles, Master, we know that thou art true, but of purpose to tempt him: and with Dalilah, pretend all love to Sampsom, that she might betray him: And these are great troublers of the peace of our Israel. Secondly, The celerity of their intended destruction. Swallowed us up quick. We shall find the like phrase used in the Numbers 16. 30. where the sudden destruction of konrah, Dathan and Abiram is set down The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, that they went down quick into the pit. So this phrase in the text sets forth the suddenness of their intended destruction, and this is a great aggravation of their malice, because there is small hopes of prevention, of a sudden intended desolation. The Prophet Esay describes them in Esay 59. 7. Their feet run to evil, and they make hast to shed innocent blood. They cannot rest until they have accomplished their greedy and malicious desires, they bind themselves as those Conspirators against Paul, Acts 23. 12. Neither to eat or drink until they have embrued their hands in blood. Of such a ravenous disposition are these Cormorants, that we may complain as God doth by his Prophet, They have eaten up my people, as a man would have eaten bread. Thirdly, their furious inclination described by those Elements of Fire and Water: Their wrath kindled, and the waters gone over our souls. It is observed that these two Elements are excellent Servants, but most merciless Masters, when once they get the mastery, there is no pity or compassion, they reverence not the aged, or pity the sucking infant, if brought into their power, they cannot escape the flames of the one, or avoid the waves of the other▪ such is the fury of the il-wishers to Gods Israel, nothing but wasting& desolation is in their paths: Esay 59. 7. Their very breath is ruin, the language of their lips like that which Babylon spake concerning Jerusalem, Psal. 137. 7. Rase it, rase it, to the foundation thereof, every print of their foot, vastation, all their plots& devices for the destruction of▪ Gods Israel. Here may you survey the state of Gods Church on earth, subject to the malice of tyrannicall Enemies, encompassed with such thorns and briars, that with Job, shee scarce hath a breathing space left to case her heart with articulate lamentation. Indeed, it was the patrimony Christ bequeathed her: for temporal possessions Christ had none, The Foxes have holes, the Birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not whereon to lay his head; at his death he bequeathed his soul into the hands of his Father, his body was begged by Joseph of Arimathea, for his vesture the Souldiers cast lots, there was nothing now remaining but his cross and crown of thorns, and this hath he left her in lieu of an Herriot. And if this be her state in the general, we may with facility perceive our particular conditions, if this be the estate of the whole body, each member most sympathise, and bear some part of the misery. There is no coming to Canaan, before we first wander through the wilderness, no reaping in joy, before wee have sown in tears, wee must first fight, and then receive the crown, Non potest esse victoria, nisi praecesserit pugna: we must first expect, compati, to suffer, and then conregnare, to reign, for thus it behoved the true Sun of righteousness first to suffer, and then to enter into his Fathers kingdom, he first ascended Golgotha with his cross, before he ascended Mount Olivet to Heaven: so must we first taste of his bitter cup, and then desire to be with him in Heaven. Let not this dishearten us, or make us faint under the burden of our Enemies, remember in all thy miseries God is the principal agent, and this will be as balm of Gilead, to cure the former Ulcer. In trouble look higher then the instrument, and behold the Agent, whether Tertullus persecute the Church with his tongue, or Elymas with his hand, remember God hath the command of both. It is true, the wicked are mediare causes of our troubles, but God he ordereth and appointeth what strokes shall be given us, who hath not onely a glass to keep every drop of blood which distills from our veins, but also a bottle to preserve every tear which falls from our eyes, Psal. 56. 8. Job could discern Gods arrows in the hand of Satan, and his hand though on the arms of the Sabeans, and therefore he saith, not Satan, or Sabeans, but Deus abstulit, howsoever they be wicked instruments, yet the just hand is the Lords. Ungodly men have a will of themselves, to vex and persecute the children of God, yet power they can have none, so much as to take a hair from our head, except it be given them from above, who can execute his just judgments by unjust Ministers, For though they intend evil against his servants, yet he will turn it unto good to them as Joseph told his brethren, Gen. 50. 20. When ye thought evil against me, God disposed it to good. Second general, God's prevention. In the former part, you have men rising up against Israel, in this you have God fighting for Israel, and there can be no doubt of the conquest, where God is a party, and becomes a Combatant, Thus the Lord upbraids his people in Esay 31. 3. and give this a Reason of their future ruin, For the Egyptians, they are men and not God, their horse, flesh and not spirit, therefore when the holy One of Israel shall come, the helper and he that is holpen shall both perish together. Gods Israel though not invulnerable, yet invincible. The read Dragon may spout forth floods of venom, yet hath the Church-wings to fly for safety, Let Jezabel fret her heart out, and swear by all her gods, to take away the life of the Prophet, yet Eliah( though in a Cave) shall be preserved. Let bloody Herod murder all the male-children in Bethlehem, from two yeers old and under, yet shall the Babe escape his cruelty, though it be by flight into Egypt: God may for a time, absent himself from Israel, yet will not utterly forsake Israel, For a little space have I hide my face from thee, but with everlasting mercies, will I receive thee; His hiding it is ad modicum, for a little, ad momentum, for a small space, but his mercy will he never wholly remove from them. he may hid his face, but not turn away his heart. Calamities in the text are presented to us in the name of waters, and deep waters, yet are they neither boundless nor bottomless, God provides a remedy against the deepest waters, he becomes our strength, and what inundation of waters can over-flow those banks? The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was grounded on a rock, Math. 7. 25. Wh●t a violent storm is this? as if Heaven, Earth, and Sea, had conspired against one poor Cottage, take them all not severally, but with their united forces, yet the foundation stands. The Apostle propounds the question, Rom. 8. 35. What shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? what voluminous waves are here, for number, for power, for terror? yet in all these are wee more then conquerors through him that loved us. I grant it is a Sea too deep for us, yet this is our comfort, Gods ark draws four Cubits above the waters, when they were 15 Cubits above the Mount●ins: Israels safeguard, is the God of Israel: This is the burden of every Song of our heavenly Orpheus, not a string in Davids harp, but sounds forth this tune. Thou Lord onely makest me dwell in safey, is the confession of the King of Israel: Psal. 488. and in the 18 Psal. 2. he seems to run division. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God and my strength: in him will I trust, my shield, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge. All the forces in the World are of no force without him, no magazine of treasure or of armor, no Ships by Seas, no strength by Land can secure us, without his protection, Except the Lord build the house, the builder buildeth but in vain, except he watch the City, the Watchman watcheth but in vain, Psal. 127. 1. It is worth our observation, The time of Israels deliverance, then when they were in extremity of danger: ready to be swallowed up: The more grievous the exigent, the more glorious the advancement. Mans greatest extremity, is Gods fittest opportunity. When the fire was a kindling and the monstrous deluge prepared in the clouds for Sodoms combustion, then is Lot snatched out of sodom, Look on Moses horn in the time of Pharaohs bloody Decree, that every man-child should be cast into the River, Exodus 1. 22. the mothers fears that the executioners hands would succeed the Midwives, makes her second throws more violent then the first, still she expects when some cruel egyptian should snatch her tender Infant from her breast▪ at length the fearful parent adventures the Childs life to save their own, Exod. 2. 3. she puts him in a reeden ark by the rivers brink, what could now be expected but inevitable death, what hope the babe should escape being committed to the unmerciful waves, yet there's a God that beholds him, and takes this very pinch, the time for his deliverance. The Lord he so disposeth, that at this time the Tyrants Daughter comes to bath her self, the Ark offers itself to her eye, the cry of the infant to her ear, compassion leaps into her heart, and now( ignorantly) she provides the mother to become the nurse, she that could not keep him before without danger, now receives him by authority, here was a deliverance and that in season: See the extremity of Israel, betwixt the Egyptians and the read Sea; the Egyptians promise themselves the victory, and the Israelites are talking of their Graves, Exod. 14. 11. then comes the God of Israel, and makes the deep their protection, and the Sea a Gallery, or through▪ fare for them. ubi dost humanum consilium, ibi adest divinum auxilium. Let this consideration be our supporter in the Churches greatest miseries. I confess, it may be with the Church, as it was with the city wherein the Prophet Elisha was, encompassed about with Horses and Chariots,& a mighty host, and we like the Prophets man, ready to cry out, Alas, what shall wee do? Let me answer thee in the words of the Prophet, 2 Kings 6. 16. fear not, they that be with us are more, then they with them. The Ship in the 24 of Matthew, may be ready to be over-whelmed with waves, and the Disciples despair of safety: yet then will Christ arise, and rebuk the winds and the waves, and there shal be a great calm. Remember the Lord is with his Israel, his wisdom to direct her, his power to protect her▪ his strength to support her, his goodness to maintain her, his bounty to reward her, his word to encourage her, and if any of his members perish in the skirmage, his Angels are in readiness to transport their souls into his heavenly Mansions. When the Angel saluted Gideon, Jud. 6. 13. God be with thee, He replied, If God be with us, how is all this evil befallen us, Why do the Midianites vex us? Yes, God may be with us, and the Midianites against us, yea, therefore are they against us, because God is with us, and God tells him in the fourteenth Verse, go on in thy might, for thou shalt save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites: Though the enemies of Gods Church and people may for a time insult, yet in the end his people shall bee as mighty men, treading down their enemies in the mire of the streets, and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them: Zach. 10. 5. The Church of God it is that tower of David, Cant. 4. 4. not so many darts on the one side, for to wound, but as many shields on the other to defend. Jovem& Junonem à juvando, dictos esse ait Cicero, said hoc in Deum, quoth Lactantius, optimè quadrat: this well agrees with God, qui juvat, servat,& salvat. He is in our sickness a restorer, in our imprisonment a deliverer, in our sail a master, in our Cities a Watchman, in our battles a soldier, in our life a Keeper, in our death a Reviver. This truth is like Davids Harp to Saul, in his melancholy, like the Dove to Noah in his Deluge; what though( like the ship in the Sea) we are beaten with wind, tossed with waves, yet whilst Christ is in the ship, it cannot sink. Weep not Hagar, a well shall spring up in the wilderness; fear not Samson, a jawbone shall slay many thousand philistines; despair not Elias, the Ravens shall bring thee food; be not discomfited O widow of Sarepta, the meal in the barrel, and the oil in the cruse shall not wast: Assure yourselves, he that commanded the Whale to cast up Jonas on the dry Land, turned the Rock into a River, Flintstone to a springing Well, he that saved Paul in the depth of the Sea, will perform the like for you, Speramus,& superamus, A glorious day shall attend your cloudy morn. The extremity of thy misery, shall be the opportunity for Gods delivery. God doth not only deliver his people, but sometimes int●ngles their enemies in their own snare, Psal. 7. 15. 16. He hath made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the pit that he made, His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his cruelty shall fall on his own pate. It is just with God to meet the wicked, their own measure, as he did to the accusers of the three children, Dan. 3. 22. slain with the fire, they prepared for Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego: and to the traducers of Daniel, who were cast to the Lions, whom they had kept fasting to devour the Prophet, Dan. 6. 24. Haman hanged on the same gallows, he prepared for Mordecai, easter 7. 10. There can be no juster law then that the devisers of mans ruin, should rue their own devices: Thirdly, Israels gratitude for her delivery. Gods mercies are motives to Christian praises. Beneficium postulat officium, the thankfulness of the receiver, ought to answer the bounty of the bestower, as the echo answers the Voice, we receiving the one, are bound to return the other. The Israelites after their deliverance from the read Sea, as if they were baptized in a sacred Helicon, became Poets, singing their triumphant Song to the Lord. Exod. 15. 1. Moses bringing water out of the Rock, as if they had washed their mouths in Hippocreane, their voices were tuned to a high strain, Numb. 21. 17. Sancti sunt, insignes Dei citharaedi, They are excellent Harpers unto God, the strings of this harp are our affections, and then is our heart a ten-stringed instrument, when the affections are set to the pleasant strain of thankfulness. God having first by afflictions taught us to know ourselves, doth afterward by deliverance, teach us to know him: The man sick of the palsy no sooner receives his cure, but he pays his Physician, he departs home to his house, pray sing God, Luke 5. 25. This debt man owes, and God expects, we forfeit many of his favours, for default of payment of this rent. It is a ready rent, never to seek, had we but willing hearts to discharge it. Since we cannot requited his benesits, let us return a grateful acknowledgement. he is content to share his works betwixt himself and us, if wee receive the good, let us ascribe to him the glory; If he sand us health, let us sing him hymns; if he give us deliverance, let us return him thankfulness, and sing with David, Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his holy Name. Psal. 103. 1. God, for this end, hath given man two privileges above his fellow creatures, reason and speech, that by the one he might conceive of the great works of God, which the rest cannot, so by the other, he may express what he conceives to the honour of his Creator, which the other do not. Should we escape a dangerous sickness, and not bless God for our recovery, we rise, from our beds and owe for our physic; hath his angel forbore to sheathe his sword in our bowels, when others have fallen under his impartial hand, be humbly thankful, otherwise fear a worse plague left behind for us. I grant God receives not any benefit by this, nec melior si laudaveris, nec deterior si vituperaveris, our magnifying him, is not magnum facere, but only magnum dicere, his glory by our praises, is not mayor, but notior. The felicity of it is ours, that he permits us to take his glorious name into our mouths, is a great honour, but that he will t●ke his name any ways dignified by our mouths, and put the promulgation of his honour into our polluted lips, is a greater; Resolve therefore with David, Psal. 146. 1. 2. I will praise the Lord during my life, as long as I have any being, I will sing praises unto my God. The Application of the text, to this present occasion. If in this I may have liberty to deal with this text, as Eliah did with the Shunamites child, and join each particular, to the cause of this our Evening assembly, I am certain we shall find that, Mutato nomine de nobis narratur fabula. And may England truly say, Had not God been on our side, when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quick. This day subscribes a probatum est to the Text, this Scripture, is this dayfulfilled in your ears, this day presents a fresh to our memories a prodigious design of Satans malice, with a strange example of a divine providence; And first of the fi●st gener●ll: Their Intention for our misery. The Antichristian enemies of Gods Church and Truth, after the inf●tuation of so many treacherous Conspiracies, foun● out at the last a speeding one, such as from the fall of reprobate Angels, never came into the thought of any devil, to put into the head of any man, or if a Dev●ll could device it, yet to find a heart to receive, or a hand to act, would have been thought impossible. First, For their secrecy, they tied themselves to that by a trouble band, Religion, Oath, Sacrament; ●ou sh●ll swear by the blessed trinity and holy Sacrament, not to r●veale it, thus they eat their god on a bargain of blood; monstrous impiety! Religion a cloak for Treason, what a Church is this, whose foundation is laid in blood, whose Doctrine is massacres of Kings, ruin of kingdoms? where this is taught as truth, surely the devil must be expected in the Pulpit. Secondly, Sudden: Hamans plot was sufficiently damnable, the intended ruin of Israel, yet had they time of preparation, this far more detestable, with suddenness it would have prevented doomsday, and sent up bodies before the Resurrection. Haman first caused a Proclamation to be published, that on such a day the Jews should be put to death, so that they which could might secretly escape, and they that could not, might fit themselves for death. But this our intended misery, as it was kept as secret as the powder, so as suddenly it should have been executed, to the hazard of many a soul; where there is no escaping, but we must be surprised by death, it is good to have some warning; that wee may the better prepare ourselves for God, but in this conspiracy, destruction should have seized on us, even then when peace and security was expected, the first day of a Parliament, when the State of a kingdom was assembled, then they intended that sudden death should overtake us: Monsters of men! that at one blast would have blown up King, Prince, Nobility, clergy, Commons, the Estates of a whole realm. Certainly, the Heathen could not but stand amazed, that ever the earth should bear such a brood of Miscreants. Thirdly, There cruelite: I have red that Caligula the Tyrant being dead, there was found in his Closet, dvo libelli, the one called a Sword, the other a Dagger, wherein many were by name pricked for death, and destined to it in the Emperours bloody intention, Thus in their cruelty were we appointed as sheep for the slaughter. Thus did our insulting adversaries in Eighty eight, with their( supposed) invincible: Armade, the ensign of whose Ships, were victoria, victoria, such was there implacable fury, that they brought with them strange instruments of torture, as if the land of peace had no such engines of cruelty, here were the waters ready to go over our souls. They have been as merciless with fire, The time was when the Bonners made bonfires of the bodies of Gods Saints, when they martyred the living with the dead, burnt the impotent Wife with her Husband, who is content to die with him, with whom shee may not live. When they threw the new born, or rather the scarce born infant, dropping from the mothers womb, into the mothers flames, here was a fiery zeal, set on flamme with the fire of hell, they love fire still, they were then for faggots; but now for powder: if these be catholics I never red or heard of cannibals. To murder a King is barbarous, yet a thing not unheard of, but in this manner a King blown up appareled in his royal rob, with his imperial crown on his head, the sceptre in his hand, sitting on the Throne of his kingdom, in the midst of all his State, he and they at once blown up together, Monstrum horendum. It hath been said of Africa, that every year it brings forth a new Monster, it never brought forth such a one as this, to which: Nihil nisi nomina desunt, the supereminent Colossus of all Treasons, They had devised commune rogum, a common bonfire, a general combustion, bloody pri●sts? that at once would have offered a whole burnt sacrifice, for an oblation to their Moloch of Rome. That butchery of Paris might have been pictured in the Popes Palace, by the Painters art, but what colours could express this bloody confusion, what slain could shadow the blood of such royal Princes, what read describe the gore of such noble Christians, what black the darkness of that day, what azure the terribleness of that fire, what invention imitato the noise of that infernal blow, louder then many Gannons? this was a death never to be painted to the life; no pen, nor pencil, no art nor heart can comprehend it. blushy they not to have it recorded, in such a time, was such a Treason. Such, as no Oratory can express it. Let me conclude the first particular with the words of Moses, Deut. 4. 32. Inquire now of the dayes that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one end of Heaven to the other, if there came to pass such a great thing as this, or whether any such like thing hath been heard. We leave the Invention, and come to the second, Gods prevention. The danger in our intended misery gives a glorious lustre to our delivery. God was on our side. As they had bound themselves to secrecy, so they had chosen a place as secret, they built the foundation of their design under the foundation of the Parliament House, Insidiantur in abscondito, and say to the ground cover us, they trust not the air, lest the whistling wind should bring tidings, or the fowles of the air reveile it, who should now discover these penetralia mortis, these inward chambers of death? the powder, billets, with all their instruments of death are in readiness, their catholic Doomsday is at hand, and now there wants nothing but a hand to act it; all this time God beholds, and laughs, but yet reveals not: But then whilst they said of our fowls there is no help for them in their God, even then was Gods time; nox una interposita, not a whole night neither, some few houres wee had to spend, and then he comes with Stuliè, hac nocte, fool, this night, I will discover all. So far was this from our prevention, as it was not in our imagination. Yet then comes God, defeats their stratagems, opens the vault, or rather their hell of barbarous vill any; we may truly say, This is the Lords doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Great works become a great God, opera testantur de me, saith Christ, will you not believe except you see? let demonstration convince you, The snare is broken, and we are escaped. They were saying, where is now there God. Behold, hic est Deus, our God is here, when wee had most need of him; here was opus Deo, a work fit for the Deity to perform. We were tied with the bands of death, here then was dignus vindice nodus, a knot worthy of the finger of the Almighty to untie. Malice had doomed us to the fire, but our comfort is, Nihil potestatis in nos habui sse ignem. This was a delivery fit for God, a cure for the Almighty only to undertake. Thirdly, Our thankfulness. The Kingly Prophet tells us in the Psal. 111. 4. That the Lord hath made his wonderful works to bee had in remembrance, but some more especially, for some are more then marvelous, as this of our deliverance. It is our part now to sing unto the Lord a new Song, For with his right hand, and holy arm he hath gotten him the victory, Psal. 98. 1. ask from East to West, from one Pole to the other, Search all the Records under Heaven, if ever there were the like, their Vault, a store-house of destruction against us in their intents, against themselves in the event: ●f now we can be silent, we may truly say as the four Lepers did in the 2 Kings 7. 9. We do not well, for this day ●s a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace, If wee tarry till day light, some mischief will come upon us. Though the day be past, yet it reads a Lecture to this present Evening, that day tells news to all days, without which they had not been days to many of us. Let the memory of this day perpetually live, to their shane, and our thankfulness, Let it carry its memento with it, a benefit would not be forgotten, not mans, Gods much less, such a benefit, especially so rare, as the like was never seen. If God have made it memorable by our strange delivery, let us make it memorable by our rare acknowledgement: This is the day which the Lord hath made, wee will rejoice and be glad therein. I am sure if their plot had prevailed, it would have been a high Feast in Gath, and a day of Jubilee in Ascalon. Let us not be backward in expressing joy for our salvation, as they would have been forward for our destruction. Let us all resolve with David, Whilst wee have any being to sing praises to our God. Our gratitude it must be a thinking, a speaking, a working gratitude. 1 It must be cordial, the heart must be the Leader, and begin the Song, making melody to the Lord in your hearts, Ephes. 5. 19. This God principally requires, Prov. 23. 26. this commands all the members, as the Centurion his Souldiers, it bends the knees, it joins the hands, it opens our mouths, it disposeth of the whole man, This is that which enlivens all the rest. God judgeth us according to our inward dispositions, the life of all our works lies in the heart, for though our persons shall be judged secundum opera, yet our works shall be judged secundum corda: our thankfulness must proceed, de visceribus, from the inward reins; Our destruction should have been by fire, let some vigour igneus be in our gratitude, there may be parata cithara, parata lingua, parata manus, but if there be not paratum cor, Davids ready, prepared heart, there is no harmony. Secondly, It must be vocal, Sermo index animi, it is the hearts Midwife. My heart( saith the Prophet David) is inditing a good matter, and then follows the tongue, as a pen of a ready writer, Psal. 45. 1. thankfulness in the heart, and not uttered by the tongue, is still born, and never lives to speak. Thirdly, It must be actual, our words brought into works testify true gratitude. In our words men hear our thankfulness, in our works they see it: then indeed are we truly thankful, when our words and works are consonant. It is true, our goodness cannot extend unto the Lord, neither have we him here on earth, that we might minister unto him, as to wash his feet, and anoint his blessed body with precious ointments, therefore should our delight be upon his who are upon earth. When Jonathan was dead, David will show kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathans sake. Our Jonathan is not dead, but liveth, yet since our goodness cannot extend itself unto him, let us seek out some poor Mephibosheth, and show kindness to him for our Jonathans sake. In this appears the reality of our grateful hearts, that others seeing our good works, are brought to glorify our Father which is in Heaven; To whom, as it is most due, be ascribed all honour and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.