This is the second Instance of my Service made publick upon an Occasion of this Nature. As none can be more pleased with the double Blessing of the Day, than your selves, being the best Subjects to Her Majesty, as well as the nearest Neighbours to Her Court: So I have this farther Accession to the general Joy, viz. As I have a small Opportunity of shewing, at your own Request, how much I am,
Your most obliged Servant,
Nath. Hough.
Psalm cxxiv. v. 2. and part of the 3 d . 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 .
Whoever compares this Psalm and this Solemnity together, will find the main Lines of the one, and the chief Circumstances of the other exactly agreeable. Had We Who live since the Deliverance of this Day was wrought, been endued with the Divine Author’s Inspiration, we could scarce have pitch’d upon more apposite Words to express the surprizing Manner of it. Swallowing up quick, the Kindling of our Enemies Wrath, the Torrents being like to go over our Soul, our Escaping like a Bird out of the Fowler’s Snare: All these are Expressions so pat for the present Season, that whilst We sing an Hymn, we seem likewise to read a Prophecy. Our Enemies have took effectual Care that the ill Character in this Psalm should not pass unfulfill’d: And I hope we, for our parts, shall not be wanting to make good the pious Acknowledgments of it, saying, Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a Prey to their Teeth.
But perhaps We are got so deep into a Vein of Thanksgiving for Modern Mercies: Our Streets are so full of Triumph, and our Churches of Praise for the Victories of the past Year, that either no Place is left for the Recollection of any former Blessings, or at least little or no Taste. The present Solemnity finds our Gratitude to such a degree exhausted, that tho’ at the utmost ’tis but an insufficient Return, yet at this Juncture it must needs be more so, considering how our late Successes have already drain’d our very best Acknowledgments. Thus the Blessings of one Age do a seeming Injury to Those of the foregoing; And immediate Deliverances bear down so strongly, as to make distant ones shrink out of Notice.
Happy We, who have such an agreeable Excuse for being imperfectly thankful: I mean, when Modern Favours are so great, as necessarily to impair the Memory of the Antient. Tho’ upon second Thoughts this Excuse cannot hold, since the Favours lately received, and Those at this Time recollected, are so much of a Piece, that unless we break the Chain of Providence, we cannot well pretend to acknowledge the one, and yet wholly to overlook the other.
’Tis the same Cause, the same Interest this Year so gloriously promoted, which upon this Occasion we congratulate, as twice wonderfully preserved. The Reign of our gracious Sovereign directly perpetuates the double Blessing which this Day boasts of; And (God be praised) We obey a good Queen, who nobly maintains the Reform’d Religion, which Heaven so signally rescued under Her first Royal Ancestor.
We cannot then let one Thanksgiving justle out another, when the Blessings which occasion them hang, as it were, upon one Link, level at the same End, and are so many successive Proofs of the same kind and watchful Providence. Those Enemies of our Faith, who formerly fought to undermine us at Home, now forcibly attack us from Abroad: So that whilst We are remembring the successful Repulse of their open Assaults, it cannot be unseasonable to reflect too upon the happy Defeat of their private Conspiracies. Nor can Distance of Time be any just Reason, why the One should be forgot, when the Other are celebrated, seeing the Interval cannot seem long from the very first Reformation, or betwixt the Reigns of two Glorious Queens, whose Characters come so near each other, and do so happily resemble.
Easie then it is in the general to vindicate the Honour and Justice of celebrating this Day; but ’tis as difficult to determine in what particular Manner it may best be done. To attempt an Historical Account, wou’d be to trespass upon this judicious Audience, so well acquainted with the known Matter of Fact: To aim at an Elegant Representation, wou’d be only to fall short of those many Excellent Pens which have set the Fifth of November in the best Light it can bear. For ’tis well known, that this Festival fixes not more Calumny upon the Romish Clergy, than it has serv’d to shew the Oratory, and advance the Credit of our Own: And those Designs which rais’d Horrour in the Enterprize, have since produced much Beauty in the Description.
To these Admirable Discourses upon the Subject, I do pleasingly remit You; And shall presume only to offer a few plain Reflections upon the following Words, If it had not been, &c.
The main Observation directly flowing from the Text, and properly suiting the Solemnity is This: viz. That the Defeat of such desperate Enterprizes as proceed from a devilish Intention, and are not by any Humane Means to be prevented in the Execution, argues the unquestionable Interposal of Divine Providence.
The Observation, I think, is self-evident; and shines by its own Light: For if we own the Existence of a Good Being who loves and preserves Us, and of an Evil One, who hates and would destroy Us, where should the One declare his Providence, but where the Other discovers his Malice? And in what Cases can devilish Malice be more visibly discover’d, than in Those, where the General Ruin of great Numbers of People is design’d, without any Provocation, and beyond all Prevention? Or where can Divine Providence more worthily appear, than in baffling those black and barbarous Attempts, which at once overcome Force, and escapes Foresight. Here, if ever, is an important Necessity of having the Lord on our side, when an Insurrection is so cruel as not to be resisted, and Destruction swallows so quick as not to be remedied: Two ugly Characters these, which sit close upon the design’d Tragedy of this Day: Insomuch that ’tis hard to say whether the Intention of it was more inhuman, or the Execution in all Appearance more unavoidable.
First the Conspiracy was cruel and inhumane. And where can we find any thing like it either under Heathen Tyrants, or amidst the ten Christian Persecutions? A compendious kind of Martyrdom This, such as our Church-Historians say nothing of. Without the Formality of Fire and a Stake for every single Sufferer, here an entire Nation was to be sent up for a Burnt-Offering, and the Body of a People to be sacrificed at once in their Representatives. This was a noble Dispatch of Heresy, compar’d to the dull Proceedings of Queen Mary’s Reign; and the Reformation now was like to vanish in a Cloud of Smoke in one instant. The King and Princes of the Blood, the Lords and Commons of England were at the same Minute to find both Death and a Grave; And upon the Ruins of one Pile was to be rear’d the Tomb of a whole Kingdom. Glorious Mischief! and what might actually compleat (that which a certain Emperor only ineffectually wish’d) the cutting off a Common-wealth at one Blow.
Must not this barbarous Scene, tho’ at a hundred Years distance, move every Heart entirely English? How does even the imaginary Slaughter of our worthy Ancestors come cold over our Breasts, and the Blood which we draw from them runs chill upon the Reflection. Had they indeed met with a fair Enemy, and heard any Warning of their Danger, then, no doubt, their native Courage would have left Us as little Cause of Concern, as their Adversaries or Boasting: But for Valour and Bravery to be blown up by a scandalous Stratagem, for Nobility and Honour to be blasted by an underground Attempt, the Thought raises Indignation and Compassion at once. A Prince and the Peers of a Realm to fall by the Hands of a vile Incendiary; Senators and wise Counsellors, when studying the common Safety, to sink into sudden Ruin; Persons of the best Quality and Rank to be swallow’d up in ignominious and undistinguish’d Dust! Who can hear the bare Mention without a Mixture of Grief and Horror? A Parliament in this dreadful manner dissolv’d could forebode no less than Universal Confusion, and the entire Overthrow of Church and State.
Let not a Popish Inquisition, or a Parisian Massacre be any more talk’d of: Puny Cruelties these, not worthy to vie with the Wholesale Execution of a Community: Course and common Villanies, much below the refin’d and exquisite Methods of slaying Numbers in a Moment. Here that Order of Men, which is ingenious in all the Arts of Ruin, did many degrees outwit it self, and learnt a new way of consecrating that sulphurous Composition which an Age or two before they had invented. Wo unto us: For had the Design taken, We had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorra: Each Destruction, as to the Materials of it, was very much the same: Theirs only was rain’d from Heaven; Ours was to rise from the Bowels of the Earth. Perhaps it might have, in the Conclusion, been more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorra than for Us: Just so much, as ’tis better to fall into the Hands of a merciful God, than into Those of Bigotted and Blood-thirsty Men.
Moreover, What upon the Principles of the Romish Church must add the finishing Stroke to the cruel Fact, was, the downright sending so many guilty Souls into Hell without any Room for Repentance, or Possibility of Redemption. There could be no Purgatory to cleanse Them, unless the Flames they were immediately to pass thro’ could attain that Effect. No Masses to be said for Hereticks: Those were more worthily reserv’d for the Chief Promoters of this Catholick Cause, supposing they should by any means miscarry in it. The Actors in this horrid Scene had pardon and Indulgence ready, if not the Promise of being Canoniz’d; But the poor Sufferers were to perish under a Curse, and, as if Death was not enough to expiate their Heresie, an Anathema too must attend them into the other World. Hard Fate! when the Errors of unhappy Protestants are not to be dispersed with their Ashes, but Excommunications and Interdicts must still pursue them into a miserable Eternity.
The Warmth of this Resentment can want no Apology, when we consider farther that no ill Usage before-hand gave the least Colour to this unnatural Conspiracy. Subjects they were, who thus undutifully aim’d at the Life of their Sovereign; And Subjects too very tenderly treated, who quietly enjoyed their Liberties and Estates, and had no Occasion to make them uneasie, but the clearing of the same Faith from additional Superstitions, which in Substance we jointly believe. Was it fair to destroy their lawful Prince, because they were rid of a Supremacy which made them meer Slaves? Was it just to overturn the antient Constitution, because rescued from a Discipline, which, if blindly followed, treats them like Fools? Or if they were still so much in Love with the Usurpations of the Popedom, could not they be content to bear the galling Yoke themselves, without compelling others into the same Bondage? And compelling them too in such a savage manner, that the Best of the Kingdom must be kill’d outright, in Order to enthral the Rest. Their Consciences were full in their own keeping, or in that of their Confessors; and their usual Violences were not practis’d, tho’ to bring them over to a purer Communion: Sure then ’twas better for them to enjoy their Religion in private, and be peaceable, than to let it come abroad to the Ruin of the Publick. We do not find the Romish Missionaries are generally so forward as to propagate their Faith Abroad, where there is a Hazard of dying for it: But at Home, where They may profess it without Disturbance, the Death of their own Countrymen is not stuck at to make way for its general Reception.
To advance only one Step farther: Let us grant Popery for once to be as pure and Primitive, as its most zealous Votaries contend, and as Catholick too as they could wish to have it; yet it makes the Argument still more guiltily recoil, to carry on a holy Cause by impious Projects, and to promote a merciful Religion by inhumane Practices. Lord! how did it ever enter into the Hearts of Christians, that a kind Religion which heaps Coals of Fire upon the Heads of Enemies, should do This not in a moral Sense to melt and soften, but in a natural One to burn and consume. The Spirit of Jesus is distinguishable by its ingenuous Simplicity: Greater Shame, that Those who emphatically stile themselves His Order, should be famous for pernicious Subtlety, and fatal Intrigue! How comes the Propagation of the Gospel to be a perfect Contradiction to its Precepts, the latter enjoining whatever is good and benign, the former authorising whatever is cruel and destructive? A strange Way of converting either Infidels or Hereticks, when the Doctrine of Christ is directly overturn’d in the manner of the Publication. Upon all these Accounts, and under all these Views such a complicated Cruelty is not to be met with in Story; and to dwell longer upon it would be apt only to raise too much Heat, and run us upon the Hazard of losing Temper.
2 ndly, The Conspiracy was to all appearance as certain in Execution as in Intention, cruel. The Seat of this clandestine Wickedness was dark and obscure, as far remov’d from any mortal Eye, as one would have thought the Mischief it self was from Humane Invention. The Situation of the Place, as well as Nature of the Fact, shew’d that it came too near the Dominions of the Prince of Darkness: And He sure was too well pleased with the Infernal Plot ever to give us the least Intimation. More likely it was the Evil Angels should be Ministers and Accomplices, than Betrayers and Divulgers of the Hellish Deed, too bad sure ever to be begun without their Instigation, or to be accomplish’d without their Assistance. In one Sense truly this Pit which They had digg’d for Us was unlike the Bottomless One: The Access to it was difficult, the Avenue narrow, and hard it was to find the Way down to these Chambers of Death: But, in another Respect it resembled it too much, namely, that being once sunk into the sad Abyss, there could be no Hope of Return. How then must the secret Villany but needs succeed, which no prying Sagacity could discover, and from which no appearing Strength deliver Us? What Arbitrary Power above a Parliament was ever so dangerous, as this insidious Design which in another Sense lay beneath It?
The immediate Agents were not more cunning in the Contrivance, than obstinate in the Concealment. For apprehending (as truly they had Cause enough) that Nature would shrink at the forbidding Fact, and Humanity not be able to hold out, they thought no Course so sure as fulfilling this Morning’s second Lesson, and binding themselves (like the Way-layers of St. Paul ) under Oath and Imprecation. Religion was speciously call’d in to back the accurs’d Confederacy, to stifle the faint Motions of Compassion or Conscience, and to gloss over a Crime too gross to go down, if not superficially sanctified: And (what is Ill beyond all Epithets) the Holy Sacrament was made the Test of the Treason, and the sacred Seal of the New Covenant of Grace made to confirm One of Treachery and Malice. If we count it so bad to prostitute this Institution, even for a temporal Preferment; What must it be to make it jointly the Cement, and the Cover of such an Infernal Machination? No Thought then but the fatal Train must take, when the Mouths of the wicked Associates were as cautiously stopp’d, as the very Passages tending down into the dark Apartment it self. So far were the Conspirators from any Fear of Detection, that they hugg’d themselves over it, as a finish’d Work: So far from any Purpose of Confession, that they bless’d themselves for it, as a brave Achievement. The Sense of Punishment, even when the Affair had miscarried, could extort no Discovery; much less could Pity, or any other Principle do it, whilst it was in Agitation. To this Day We do not find They are asham’d of the Thing, or afflicted at any Part of it, bating the Disappointment. The Picture of an English Jesuit, who was principally concern’d in it, is now shown at Rome among the Rarities of the Place, and preserved there as a venerable Relique: This looks like recommending the Crime to Posterity, and facing the present Solemnity out of Countenance. This tells us that if more such Champions for the Romish See are to be met with, their Merits shall not go unrewarded: And consequently, what Cause We have to be still upon our Guard, and to keep up the Anniversary Memorial, not only by way of Thankfulness for what is past, but of Warning too for the future.
No Danger could insensibly be nearer the very Act and Minute of Accomplishment. The whole Scheme was laid; The gloomy Theatre prepar’d; The fatal Materials ready; The Undertakers resolute; The nick of Time at Hand, and nothing but a thin Partition betwixt the Regions of Light and Darkness, of Life and Death. Upon firm Ground we seemingly stood, not dreaming that without a Parable, There was a great Gulf fixed, and We inevitably to perish in it, unless some kind Messenger from the other World would inform us of the Hazard. The granting of that deny’d Petition seem’d now the only Expedient of our Rescue. How slender a Support at that Minute had the Fate and Felicity of England? Upon how slight a Bottom was our Hope and Happiness founded? A small Surface of Earth, the Space of a few Hours was all that Mediated betwixt us and Ruin: Then by a Fate not unlike to Corah and his Company, was the Earth to open and devour Us, tho’ (thank God) for no Fault of the same Nature. If to every Nation there be, as some have thought, its adverse, and its tutelary Angel, we cannot doubt but the utmost Contest was betwixt Them at this critical Period; The One eager to push on our impending Overthrow, the Other as Industrious to prevent it.
No: What do we talk of Tutelary Angels? If the Lord Himself had not been on our side, They had swallowed Us up quick: To frustrate an Intention so cruel, and an Execution so certain, was something sure which wanted immediate Providence, and worthy of it also. To save a whole Community, when upon the Brink of Peril, as little appriz’d of it, as they gave their Enemies Occasion to design it: To catch Conspirators in the Snares of their own Policy, and to plunge them into the Pit which they had prepar’d for Others: To guide inconsiderable Causes to the producing of wondrous good Effects, and to make accidental Hints the Means of mighty Preservations: All these, and many more Particulars of this Day, are plain Instances of Divine Interposal. Strange it was that such a Relenting Message should be sent at all, when the Conspirators were so hardened in Bigotry, and bandied together upon Principle! Stranger still that it should be so fortunately misconvey’d and come to a Person for whom it was not meant! Strangest of all, that being writ in such blind and ambiguous Terms, it should be so speedily and seasonably explained!
So many concurring Circumstances, when meeting in such a Momentous Point, cannot fairly be resolved into Chance, one of which had no manner of Coherence with the Other. How should the King, without some Glance of extraordinary Light, pierce into the horrid Vault, the hidden Store-house of Destruction? How without some Touch of a Prophetick Spirit should He ever think of that fatal One that was to blow up both the Houses of Parliament. The Conjecture at first Hearing must appear as ridiculous, as the Fact it self was barbarous; And the Wit of Man seem’d as incapable of hitting upon the One, as his Malice of committing the Other. But the less the natural Likelihood was, the greater was the Providential Appearance; And what might be laught at under the Notion of a Humane Guess, upon the Proof of the Thing we adore the more as Divine Discovery.
Never sure shall we cease to Adore the Great Author of our unexpected Safety, who rescued us at once from the Fiery Furnace, and from the devouring Den: Those Punishments which Old Babylon distinctly inflicted, the New had join’d together, as it were in One. How unwillingly were the base Workers of Iniquity expos’d to open Day, unable to bear it, because their Deeds were reproved? How happily did We escape the perpetual Night in which they sought to overwhelm Us? Loth were They to quit their private Cell wherein they labour’d for our Overthrow, as the Miner for his Oar, and counted our Ruin their Riches. But Heaven sent a sudden Damp upon their Designs, and the Weapons which they had formed in this Hellish Forge would not prosper.
So far was God from giving us up unto Destruction, that he suffer’d us not so much as to fear It, but scatter’d both the Fear and Destruction at once. No Peril was ever more imminent, and yet our Deliverance scarce put Us to the Expence of a Fright; And without Time for being troubled, We saw our Danger, and gave our Thanks. The Plot was just perfected to the clear Conviction and Condemnation of our Enemies; And yet conceal’d from Us, till ’twas prevented, that We might labour under no Confusion. Astonishing Wisdom! which knows how to let the Wicked prosper for a while, and yet at the same Time not to perplex the Good: So that in the Event the One may be more justly punish’d, the Other more surprisingly saved.
We have yet taken but a Half-view of this Happy Day. ’Tis famous for a second Deliverance of later Date, tho’ very much of the same kind. The Adversaries the same, the Hazard as great, and the Escape at that Juncture not less welcom. One serves to heighten and advance the Other, tho’ each of them singly stands above Acknowledgment. They both have a like Place in the Offices of the Church, and equally adorn its Calendar. To give as particular Relation of This, as of the Former, would be both Unnecessary and Indecent: Unnecessary, as copying only what is writ in your own Memory: Indecent, as seeming to call your Gratitude into Question.
Few here present have forgot the dreadful Apprehensions of approaching Popery: Not twenty Years are turn’d, since Liberty and Religion, the two great Blessings of Humane Life, were taking their flight from this melancholy Island. Unhappy Britain was putting on Her Chains, lay sunk and dispirited, fighting for Relief, but saw it not. That Church which is the Bulwark of the Reformation, was Her self defenceless; And She to whom her Sister-Churches fled for Refuge, thought of seeking the same favour, and could no where find it. Our Ark was actually tottering, and no one could put his Hand forth to uphold it, without feeling Uzziah’s Fate: Not inflicted indeed for the same unwarrantable Cause, but equal to it in the Certainty of the Danger. We could not tell how soon our Bibles might be shut, and our Temples. It was already common with us to offer up our Prayers in an unknown Language, that I mean wherein we privately begg’d of God to defend his poor Church, but durst let none hear Us but our selves. The Fountains of Education were insensibly corrupted: What follow’d was no Knowledge at all, and Superstition in lieu of it. The Host was daily expected in our Streets, the next was Flame and Faggot for not adoring it. I appeal to the dejected Looks, and down cast Eyes of every true Protestant at that Time, if it was not Thus. No Glimpse of Assistance all this while from Heaven, or any Humane Power. The former seem’d angry; The latter was impotent, and could not help Us.
Thus was Darkness and Despair spread over the Face of the whole Kingdom, till an Invited Prince rose from the East, and rejoiced with the Sun to begin his Course. We saw Him, as upon this Day, appearing with feeble Rays, with few Forces, attended tho’ with united Wishes. His Coming was not with a killing Lustre, or with a Glory that destroys, whilst it shines; But all Folks then were refresh’d with the pleasing Sight, and felt a strange Revival. By his Presence He caus’d an Effusion of Joy, but none of Christian Blood. The farther he advanc’d, his Influence was found the more agreeable. Slavery and Idolatry instantly vanish’d, and the Shades of Superstition fled before Him. The Emissaries of Rome, those Creatures of Prey, got them away together, and laid them down in their Dens. Into Holes and Corners they retir’d, haunted by the Guilt of their ill Counsels, and as forward to desert an unhappy Prince, as formerly they had been to Mislead Him. We, in the mean Time, wrapt up in Silence and in Wonder, where wholly like to them that Dream. To us the Deliverance seem’d meer Vision, and the Surprize into which it cast Us, would scarce allow us to think it Real. Our Rescue was well nigh over, as soon as undertook, and we lifted up our Heads to see a Safety obtained, in which our Hands had no share. The only Difficulty We were then left under was how to prize and honour our Deliverer enough. We judg’d it as impossible ever to be unthankful for the seasonable Relief, as once it seem’d so, ever to obtain it; And we could repine at nothing (how much soever We have done it since) but at our own Inability, justly to acknowledge so great an Undertaking.
May this Auspicious Day ever bear a bright Figure in the English Annals, and continue, as it always has been, the Ornament of History, and Shame of Popery. May the glad Celebration of it run down to late Posterity, and so keep those Blessings upon perpetual Record, which otherwise, as at present they are too big to be own’d; so in an Age or two would seem too great to be believ’d. ’Tis but fitting the Church should observe a Festival, from which she dates her double Preservation; And we cannot fairly grudge the Day a Share in her Service, when without it the Whole had been lost. It has in former Time been thought, that the Conjunction of Stars made some Days particularly successful to Persons, or Nations: But our Faith upon this Occasion carries Us above Those, and puts us under a higher and a better Aspect; namely, that of a wise and benign Providence. Heaven will not allow us to be ungrateful, when we are thus critically and opportunely reminded, twice I mean on one Day. This confirm’d Experience gives us cause enough to conclude with the last Words of this Psalm: Our Help standeth in the Name of the Lord, who hath made Heaven and Earth.
FINIS.