Mirabilia Dei. An essay on the very seasonable & remarkable interpositions of the divine…

There having been, by a Probable & Moderate Computation, at least a Million of Sermons Preached on this Day, since the First ⟨p. 20⟩Act of Parliament for the Anniversary Commemoration, I may be Excused, from any Amplifications upon it. But, tho' we come not into a Religious Observation of Stated Days, not appointed of GOD, yet I am not willing to let THIS DAY pass, without making at least this One Remark upon it; That the Bloody Destruction intended by the more Immediate Plotters to be brought at once upon the King, Lords and Commons of our Nation, was all to bring in a Popish Pretender. And how any can think to Set a Popish Pretender on the British Throne, without Shedding of more Blood, yea, and this with the more open Explosions of Gunpowder too, than the Fifth of November would have shed, if it had gone on, an hundred and fourteen Years ago,—it appears an Unintelligible Mystery!

How the Old Plotters came to think of Gunpowder, as the most agreeable Tool for them to work withal, Some have wondered, who forgot the Fate of him who had been a Father to the King then designed for a Sacrifice. This however may be said upon it: It is very Surprising, that a Spanish Writer, whose Name was Del Rio, Publishing a Book of Magical Disquisitions, and the Powers of Evil Spirits, Two or Three Years before our Celebrated Fifth of November, puts there the very Case of the Gun-Powder-Plot, and ⟨p. 21⟩his Decision of the Case, is That a Father-Confessor made Privy to such a Plot in a Confession, ought by no means to discover it. And now, whatever Hidden works of Darkness relating to that Hellish Plot may remain Undiscovered, until the Day of our SAVIOURS Revelation, we may without any Scruple say, The Evil Spirits which Del Rio treated of, used their Instigation to push on the Conspirators to their infandous Enterprise. Could my Sermon reach to any of those, who are at this Day hoping to Blow up, whole Kingdoms, and more than Three Nations, that so they may see what their Fathers, Garnet and Company, missed of, I would Entreat these New Plotters, to Examine seriously, Whose Instigation it is, that they are Moved withal, when they have so little Fear of GOD before their Eyes; And they should hear me saying, Surely, Thou wilt slay the wicked, O GOD; and therefore, ye Bloody men, Depart from me! I would Expostulate with such Unhappy People. When the Just and Necessary Oaths, are by the Best of Governors, from a Tender Concern for the Public Safety proposed unto you, with what loud Vociferations do you Complain & Exclaim, That your Conscience is imposed upon? May Conscience then be hearkened to. To Swallow Oaths, against a Dissatisfied Conscience is what no