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.