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.