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 3d.
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.
2ndly, 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.
