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A30424 A sermon preached at the Chappel of the Rolls on the fifth of November, 1684 being Gun-Powder-Treason day / by Gilbert Burnet. Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1684 (1684) Wing B5880; ESTC R27240 8,805 30

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places lay naked took pitie on us and laid this open to the preservation of King and Queen and Prince the Clergy and Nobility the Commons and all others whom that great solemnity of the meeting of a Parliament commonly brings together besides the crouds round about the place who would very probably have had a large share of so devouring an Earthquake as so much Gunpowder must have produced It is true some humanity was left but it was only to their own Party warning was given to so many that there were not above Three worth Saving in their account in all that vast Assembly who were not advertised to absent themselves as Sir Everard Digby writ out of Prison to a Friend One of these Advertisements being conveyed very odly to a Lord of that Religion gave him the happy opportunity of being the instrument that brought out all this secret provision for so many deaths that was laid up in store The bold Incendiary that undertook the thing was taken and all broke out but then though a great many of those who had not learnt the depths of Satan were so far overcome by the Discovery as to confess all yet as one of these was prevailed with to retract that afterwards but a few minutes before his death in prison which prevented his suffering by the hand of Justice so the Jesuites shewed on this occasion how they can steel their Consciences both in undertaking the blackest Crimes and in throwing off that guilt with the most impudent denials Garnet their Provincial did this to a degree of assurance that astonished those who took his Examinations Sir Everard Digby one of the Conspirators in his Letters of which I have seen the Originals calls that Conspiracy A Cause dearer to him than his Life and so powerfully had the poyson of that Religion corrupted his thoughts that in all his Letters writ during his imprisonment even in his last Advices to his Children there is not the least hint of Repentance for his engagement in so vile a design though in all other respects he appeared to be a man that was both Vertuously and Religiously inclined such an influence has that Religion even on the best natures If after all this these had been only the execrable practices of some Assassinates though it would have left some Imputation on a Church for having such Members in her bosome yet it might be well enough put by with this that there will be still cockle among the Wheat and that there was a Traitor among the Twelve Apostles But if these things were done pursuant to the Doctrines of that Church that makes it lawful to Kill Hereticks to Depose Princes to dissolve the Bonds of Allegiance and to give their Dominions to other then we may more justly charge the guilt of this day upon the Church it self It gives very just grounds of suspicion that the Pope never made any Declaration of his detestation of that Crime though as I have been credibly informed it was much desired on the contrary two Priests that had engaged in it getting beyond-sea were well received and provided for by the Pope even in Rome it self And the Jesuites have made Prints and Pictures for Garnet as a Saint and fables of straws that wrought miracles by virtue of some drops of Blood that fell on them which afterwards were converted into little pictures have been proposed to the World as evidences of his Saintship In a word it is plain that these who engaged in this Conspiracy were carried into it by the Principles of their Religion and that they were so far from being condemned for it that they were supported and justified both living and dead for what they did in it And that Learned King though by the goodness of God he never felt the effects of the bloudy rage of that cruel Religion yet he knew it well and therefore upon a solemn occasion he protested to his Councellours That he would never so much as grant a Toleration of that Religion but would spend the last drop of bloud in his body before he would do it and pray'd that before any of his Issue should maintain any other Religion than what he truly professed and maintained that God would take them out of the world Since then notwithstanding the close management as well as the secret contrivance of this cursed Plot which was so near its execution that the whole State both of this Church and Nation was in a danger not unfitly expressed by their being on the horns of the Vnicorns God yet heard our Fathers and delivered them who have handed down to us the remembrance of that great Salvation that he wrought for them on this blessed day then all the Royal Family descended from that King all the Nobility and Gentry whose Ancestours were markt for destruction all the Clergy to whose burning that fire was the forerunner unless they resolved to save themselves by Apostacy and the whole English Nation that was then like to have seen so black a day and have fallen under so dark a night ought all to joyn together and say O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious for his mercy endureth for ever Amen and Amen And because his mercy endureth for ever therefore we ought still to pray to him to preserve us and to say to him Save me from the Lions mouth which is the third thing in my Text. We believe there is a secret providence that governs the World and that discriminates between the good and the bad and therefore we ought to address our selves to that Providence as well as to depend on it and submit to it and since the Religion that we profess is the Cause of God and the dearest of all other things to him who delivered it to the world who sealed it with his own Blood and in whose hands the government of all things in Heaven and in Earth was put by his Father we may well quiet our minds amidst all the fears and apprehensions which melancholy thoughts may suggest to us God will not abandon his own work nor will Christ forget that which was the purchase of his own Blood We may indeed make our selves unworthy of it and the cry of our sins may go up so loud to Heaven as to drown these softer whispers of our Prayers and Thanksgivings It is our contempt of God and Religion our unreformed Lives amidst all the noise we make of the Reformation our forgetting past Mercies and our insensibility to all the Methods of Divine Providence that ought to make us fear the Lion's Mouth and every thing else that is dismal and frightful and therefore if we would have our Prayers to be effectual we must take care that our Lives may not defeat our cold and slender Devotions But as we desire to have our Prayers to be heard so we must take a particular care to join no Endeavours with them that may argue a distrust of God or of our Religion and
while we have a zeal against Popery as a bloody a rebellious and a cruel Religion we must do nothing to shew that we are acted by the Spirit of Popery even while we seem to oppose it All Malice to Mens Persons all desire of Revenge the thirst of Blood fierce Zeal and indecent Rage are the Characters of the Persecuting Spirit that reigns there We must not think ill of every particular Man among them because of their Corruptions which perhaps he does not know and if he did know them would disown them We must think as charitably of men as we can for tho' there is very little Charity due to the complicated Body and the governing Part of that Church yet we owe a great deal to many particular men in it who are still in it because they have not known the Depths of Satan and would very probably forsake it if they saw so well as to discern them But above all these we must never forget the Station in which God has put us as we are Subjects under a lawful Prince to whom we are tied both by Divine and Humane Laws and even the Lion's Mouth it self opening to devour us can never excuse us from our Obligation to submit and suffer if God had so ordered it by his Providence that we had not the blessing of being born under a Prince that is the Defender of the Faith but were born under one that would deliver us up to the LION Much less ought Jealousies to be so blown into our minds by ill-disposed men as to make us forget our Duty to God and the King Suffer me here to speak this freely that the late Rebellion as it was managed with a Popish that is a Bloody Spirit so many of the Arguments that were used to defend it were taken from Popish Authors When we go out of the way of Patience and Submission of Obedience and of bearing the Cross when we give scope to Passion and Rage to Jealousy and Mistrust and upon this Fermentation in our Minds we break out into Wars and Rebellion we forget that the God whom we serve is Almighty and can save us either from a devouring Fire or a Lion's Mouth and either will save us from these or reward us infinitely for them We forget that the Saviour whom we follow was made perfect by Sufferings and that we become then truly his Disciples when we bear his Cross even tho' we should be crushed under it We forget that our Religion ought to inspire us with a contempt of Life and the World and with meekness and lowliness of Mind We forget that we are the Followers of that glorious Cloud of Witnesses who have by Faith and Patience inherited the Promises and have gone to take possession of the Kingdom that was prepared for them through Fire and through Blood but it was their own Blood And to sum up all we forget that our Reformation was the shaking off of Popery that is a bloody Conspiracy against the Souls and Bodies of men against the Souls of the Weak and against the Bodies of the Firm but Innocent Professors of this Holy Religion We are not to share with them in their Cruelty nor imitate them in their Rebellion But on the other hand If we will live so suitably to our Religion that we may be thereby entitled to the blessing of enjoying it and of being secure in it and if our melancholy apprehensions make us pray more earnestly to the Great Author of it then we may lie down in quiet for God will either make us to dwell in safety and deliver us from the Lion's Mouth or if he gives us up as a Prey yet at least we shall even in Death overcome and obtain the Crown of Life FINIS Delrio Dis. Mag. lib. 6. c. 1. Crooks Reports Term. Trin. 2. Iac.