Ever since 1605, when James I received a sermon following his deliverance from the Gunpowder plot, sermons have been a very important part of the celebration of the plot.Sermons Provide a measure of how their authors felt about the celebrations of the time. They recording the changing religious and political views through time. Consider how you might compose a sermon today to commemorate the plot.

Sermons 1605-1616
King James I paused every Nov. 5 to hear a sermon on the subject of deliverance.
The first such sermon was preached by Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester Nov. 5 1606

“this day of ours, this fifth of November, a day of God’s making; that which was done upon it was the Lord’s doing...This day is the scripture fulfilled in our ears.” The destroyer passed over our dwellings this day. It is our Passover, it is our Purim.”-(Sermons Preached upopn the V of Novembe , in Lancelot Andrewes, XCVI Sermons, 3rd. Edition (London,1635) pp. 889,890, 900-1008

Sermons became a very popular way of celebration and commemoration of the salvation of the nation.
One such sermon was that of William Leigh in Standish, Lancashire: “Great Britaines Great Deliverance from the Great Danger of Popish Powder a meditation upon the late intended treason.
This sermon of November 5 1606 was dedicated to Prince Henry (heir apparent)
(William Leigh, Great Britaines Great Deliverance fom the Great Danger of Popish Powder (London 1606).
Some sermons were given as endowments by prominent merchants or citizens.

One such sermon was given by the will of Humphrey Walwyn, citizen and grocer in 1612 to St. Martin Orgar, London.
Another was given by Thomas Chapman to St. Pancras Soper Lane, London by way of his will in 1616.(Guildhall Library, MSSS 959, 5018/1 5020.)
“On the fifth day of November in every year to give due praise and thanks unto the divine majesty for
the wonderful and miraculous preservation and deliverance.”
This bequest was later confirmed and augmented by his son Thomas Chapman Jr.
In London the Lord Mayor and aldermen gathered each November 5 for a sermon at St. Paul’s
If the Parliament was sitting it heard Gunpowder Sermons in the afternoon and evening on the day.
These sermons were printed and became popular throughout the country at the local level

1620-30
Sermons:

Bishop George Carleton- “Thankful remembrance of God’s Mercy. (1624-1630) Showed an Iconographic image depicting the deliverance from the Armada, and the Gunpowder Plot. Elizabeth and James weere depicted as Deborah and Solomon in triumph vs popes and devils.

“Their hellish device was at one blow to root out religion, to destroy the state, the father of our country, the mother of our country, the olive branches the hopeful succession of our king,, the reverend clergy, the honorable nobility the faithful councillors, the grave judges, the greatgest part of our knights and gentry, the choices burgesses, the officers of the crown, couincil, signet, seals and other seats of judgment, the learned lawyers with an infinite number of common people, the hall of justice, the houses of parliament, the church used for the coronation of our kings, the monuments of our former princes, all records of parliament, and of every particular man’s right with great number of charters, and other things of this nature, all these things had the devil by his agents devised at one secret blow to destroy.”
-George Carleton, A Thankful Rememgbrance of God’s Mercy. In an Historical Collection of the great and mercifull Deliverances of the Church and State of England (London, 1624)

Thomas Hooker 1626- in a sermon noted:
that the targets of the plot....”assembled for the glory of God, to enact good laws for this commonwealth. Now these in that place in one hour, in one instant, should all ahave been miserably blown up and torn in pieces, so that they should not have been found, should not have been known that they might be buried according to their degree. This is that matchless villainy and that unconceivable treachery which the papists had contrivbed” and should be remembered “to all posterity”.
-The Church’s Deliverances”,in George H. Williams, Norman Pettit, Winifried Herget, and Sargent Bush, Jr. (Eds.) Thomas Hooker, Writings in England and Holland, 1626-1633 (Cambridge, Mass., 1975)

Thomas Gataker in a sermon at St. Pancras in 1626 was thankful for:
“the preservation of our king and state from that damnable powder plot, as hyet unparalleled in any age since the world began’.
-Thomas Gataker, An Anniuersarie Memoriall (London, 1629)

Henry King in a sermon at the Spittle in London 1626-
God “snatched us like brands from the mouth of the furnace, and by discovering the bloody trap, delivered us from the snare of those fowlers.”
-Henry King, A sermon of Deliverance, (London 1626).

John Cope:
“If there had been a council called in hell, and a comnpany of devils sent upon earth for the executing of their designs, they could not have found out a more damnable plot, nor with greater resolution have prosecuted it, than they did the Gunpowder Treason.”
-John Cope.,A Religious Inquisition.,(London 1629)

John Milton mid 1620s
“in Quintuim Novembris” c. 1626. Notes how God triumphs over treason. The devil is seen as the inventor of gunpowder which came in response to god’s thunderbolts.

John Dunne c. 1620-1625
MS Royal 17.B.XX (British Library)

"...The king is  Anima regna, The Soule of the kindome; and to provide for the health of the body, by the detriment of the Soule, is ill phisick.  The king is  Caput  regni,  the head of the kingdome, and to cure a member, by cutting of the head, is ill Surgery.  Man and wife, Soule and body, Head and Members, god hath joined, and those whome god hath joined let no man sever:  Salus regni asylum proditorum, To pretend to uphold the kingdome, and over throw the king hath ever been the tenmptation before and  the excuse after in the greatest treasons.  In that Action of the Jews, which we insisted upon before, in theyr pressinge for a king.  The elders of Israel gathered together, So far they were in their way; for this was no popular, no seditious assembly of light and turbulent Men, but the elders: and then they came to Samuel,  so far they were in their right way too for they held  not counsayls apart, but came to the right place, for redresse of greivances, to theyr then highest governor, to Samuel. when they were then lawfully met, they forbear not to lay open unto him, the injustices of his officers, though it concerned the very Sonnns of Samuel:  and thus far they kept within convenient limits: but when they would presse Samuel  to a new way of remedy, to an inconuenient way, to a present way, to theyr own way and refer nothing to him, what care soeuer they pretended of the good of the state if it is evident that they had no good opinion of Samuel,  and even that displeased god, to be ill affected to the person whome he had set over them.  To sever the king and the kingdome, and pretend the Weale of the one, with  out the other, is to shake, and discompose gods buildinge.
Historically this was the Jews case, when Jeremie  lamented here, if he lamented the Declination of that state, in the Death of the kinge  Josiah,  And if he lamented the transportation of Zedechiah,  and that that were not yet come, or if he lamented the devestation of that nation occasioned by the death of the king of kings Christ Jesus himselfe, when he came, this was their case prophetically.  Either way, historically, or prophetically, Jeremie  looks upon the kingdome through that glasse, Through the king.   The duety of the day, and the order of the text invites us to an application of this branch too.  Our adversaries did not come to say to them selves, Nolumus regnum hoc  we will not have this kingdome stand the materiall kingdome, the plenty of the land, they would have been content to have, but for the formall kingdome, that is this forme of government, by a Sovereign king that depends upon none but god, they would not have.  So that that they came implicitly to Nolumbus regem hunc,we will not have this kingdome to be gouernd thus, and explicitely to a Nolumus regem hunc,   we will not have this king to governie us at all. Non hunc?  will you not haue him! you were at your Nolumus hanc   long before, you would not have that Queene to raigne over you.  There, your, not aniuersary, but hebdomidary treasons cast upon her a necessitie of drawing blood often: and so your Nolumus hanc  might have some ground.  But your Nolumus hunc,  for this king, who had made no Inquisition for blood, who had forborne the very pecuniary penalties , who had  (as himselfe witnesses of himselfe) made your partakers, with his Subjects of his own religion, in matters of grace, in reall benefits, and in titles of  honor, Quare fremuerunt,  why did these Men rage, and imagine a vayne thinge? what they did historically we know: They made that House which is the hyve of this kindome, from whence all her Hony comes, That House, where justice herselfe is conceyud, in their preparing of good laws, and inanimated and quickned and borne by the Royall assent then given, they made that whole house, one Murdring peece: and having put in their powder they charged that peece with Peers, with people with Princes, with the King, and ment to discharge it upward at the face of heaven, to shoote god at the face of god, Him, of whome god had sayd, Dij estis,  you are gods, at the face of that god who had said so : as though they would have reproched the god  of heaven, and not have been beholden to him for  such a king, but shoote him up to him and bid him take  his king againe, for  Nolumus hunc regnare,  we will not have this king to reigne over us.  This was our case historically, and what it is prophetically, as longe as that remains their doctrine, which he against whome that attempt was principally made, found by theyr Examinations to be theyr doctrine, That they, and no sect in the world but they, did make treason an article of Religion,  That theyr Religion bound them to those attempts, so long they are neuer at an end, tyll they disauow those Doctrines, that conduce to yt, prophetically they wish, prophetically they hope for better success in worse attempts.
It is then the Kingdome  that  Jeremie  laments: but his nearest object is the king: he laments him. first, let it be, as with Hierome,  many of the Ancients, and with them Many of the later Rabbins, will have it, for Josias,  for a good king, in whose death the honor and strength of that kingdome, tooke that deadly wound, to be come tributarie  to a foraine prince: for to this lamentation, they refer, those words which describe a great sorrowe, In that day, shall there be a great mourninge in Jerusalem as the mourninge of Hadradrimmon. in the valley of Megiddon:  which was the place, where Josiah  was slaine,  There shall be such a lamentation, as was for Josiah: This then was for him, for a good king, wherein have we his goodness expressed? Abundantly. He did that which was right in gods sight. And whose Ey needs he fear, that is right in the ey of god? but how longe? To the end. for Nero  who had his   Quinquenniuim,  was worst of all. He that is evil all the way is but a Tirant, he that is good at first, and after evil, An Angells face, and a Serpents tayle make him a monster; Josiah  perseuerd; He tuned not a side to the right hand, nor to the left.  If we applie it to the Josiah  of our tyme, neither to the fugitiue, that leaues our Church and goes to the Romane, nor to the Separtist, that leaves our Church, and goes to none.  In the eighteenth year of his reigne, he undertook the reparation of gods house; If we applie that to the Josiah  of our tymes, I thinke in that year of his reigne, he visited these walls.  In one word, like to him ther was no king before, nor after; and therefore there was just cause of lamentation for this king;  for  Josiah;  historically, for the very losse of his person, prophetically for the misery of the state, after his death.
Our errand is to day, to applie all these branches to the day.  Those men who intended us this cause of lamentation this day, in the destruction of our Josiah,  spard him not, because he was so, because he was a Josiah,  because he was good. No, Not because he was good to them, his benefitts to them, had not mollified them to him. for that is not their way both the French Henries  were their own good to them, and did that rescue eyther of them, from the knife? and was not that Emperour whom they poysoned in the Sacrament, theyr  own, and good to them; And was that any Antidote against theyr poyson? To so reprobate a sense hath god given them over, as that, though they lie heaviest in their books upon princes of our religion yet truly they have destroyd more of theyr owne, then of ours.  Thus it is Historically in theyr proceedings past, and prophetically, yet can be but thus, since no king is good, in theyr sense, if he agree not to all poynts of Doctrine with them, and when that is donne, not good yet, except he agree in all poynts of jurisdiction too; and that no king can doe, that will not be theyr farmer of his owne kingdome.  Theyr autors have disputed Auferibilitatem Papae;  They have made it a Probleme, whether the Church of god might not be with out a Pope, and some of theyr autors have diuerted toward an afirmation of yt. but Auferbilitas potestatis,  to imagine a king without kingly Souertainty, never came in to probleme, into disputation. we all lamented, and bitterly, and justly the losse of our   Deborah,  though then wee all saw a  Josiah succeeding but if this had mou'd our Josiah  and his Children, and this forme of government, where, or who, or what had been an object of consolation unto us? The cause of lamentation, in the losse of a good king is certainly great; so it was, if Jeremie  lamented Josiah;  but if it were but for Zedechiah an evil king (as the greater part of Expositors take it) yet the lamentation we see is the same.  How evial a king was  Zedechiah?  very evil as evil as Josiah  was good, thats his measure, for he did evyll in the sight of the lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had donne: her's his Syn; by precedent; he sets the worst kings before him, and is as bad as they.....
-Source: Adapted to make more readable from: Shami,Jeanne,John Donne 's 1622 Gunpowder Plot Sermon. Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,1996.pp.87-107.

-Stella P. Revard., Milton’s Gunpowder Poems and Satan’s conspiracy.”, Milton Studies, 4, (1972), pp.63-77.

1625- One work appeared:A song or Psalm of thanksgiving in remembrance of our deliverance from the Gunpowder Treason
-London 1626

1626- John Wilson “A song or story, for the lasting remembrance of divers famous works, which God hath done in our time. Contained: “ A short song made upon the powder Treason” in which was found”
“O England, praise the name of God
That kept the from this heavy rod.
- London 1626.

1630- John Taylor
“Now treason plotted in th’ infernal den,
Hell’s mischief masterpiece began to work,
Assisted by unnatural Englishmen.
And jesuits, that within this land did lurk.
These would Saint Peter to saltpeter turn,
And make our kingdom caper in the air,
At one blast, prince and peers and commons burn
And fill the land with murder and despair.
No treason e’re might be compared to this.
Such an escape the church had ne;re before:
The glory’s God’s the victory is his,
Not unto us, to him be praise therefore.
Our church is his, her foes may understand,
That he defends her with his mighty hand.”
-John Taylor, “God’s Manifold Mercies.” In All the Works of John Taylor (London, 1630)

Sermons c.1630
Under Charles Archbisop Laud did not preach on the 5th of November. Laud’
s chaplin Jeremy Taylor kept his preaching on the topic at Oxford in 1638 subdued.

Samuel Ward, Ipswich, 5 November 1633- “beware of relapse into popery and supersition.” ...”That
men began to ring the changes,as in bells and fashions, so in opinions and manners”...”the best way of thankfullness for that deliverance...was a more strict observance of the Ten Commandments.” (Ward was called before the High Commission for this attack)

John Goodwin St. Stephen Coleman Street. 1634-
“to pay the yearly tribute of praise and thanksgiving...with the rest of our brethren of this nation”. Deliverance was from god and of the “first magnitude” and demanded solemn remembrance.”
(Due to censorship this sermon was not published till 1640)
-John Goodwin., The Saints Interest in God (London 1640)

1637-a publisher refused to reprint a poem on the Gunpowder Plot saying:
“we are not so angry with the papists now as we were twenty years ago.”

Henry Burton: St. Matthew Friday Street, London Nov. 5 1636-
“My son, fear nthou the Lord and the king; and meddle not with them that are given to change.” (Proverbs 24;21)
In response to the change in the official service book for November 5 made in 1635 Burton noted:
“that the religion of papists is the true religion. Thus with altering of a word they have quite perveted thw sense, and so turned the cat in the pan”
I deemed that day, the memorial whereof should cause all loyal subjects forever to detest all innovations tending to reduce us to that religion of Rome, which plotted matchless treason, the most seasonable for this text...This is a time of sorrow and humiliation, but this day a day of joy and festivity”..”a deliverance never to be cancelled out of the calendar, b ut to be written in every man’s heart forever” ...”through God’s mercy, the change was prevented: a change of Christ’s religion into Antichrist’s; of tables into altars; of preaching ministers of the gospel into sacrificing mass priests; of light into darkness’ of Christ into Belial; of the temple of God into a temple of idols; of fundamental just laws of a kingdom into papal cnons; of the liberty of the sjbjects into the servitude of slaves; of regal edifices and monuments into vast solitude and ruinous heaps.”
-
-Henry Burton., For God and the King., (London 1635)

Robert Woodford-1638 Northampton Nov.5
(after listening to Mr. Ball give a sermon)
“it was a sermon to stir up God’s people to wait on God for deliverance and to live by Faith. Lord prevail with us by it”.
-New College., Oxford,MS., Robert Woodford’s Diary.

(Source: (when not cited above) -David Cressy.,Bonfires and Bells.”National Memory and the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart England.,University of California Press, Berkeley,1989.

Sermons c.1640
Nehemiah Wallington noted: “how Antichrist, even these bloody-hearted papists, doth plot against the poor church of God, as in ‘ 88 and that hellish Gunpowder Plot”. Wallington included the Gunpowder plot in his Bundle of Mercies” -Paul S. Seaver. Wallington’s World: A Puritan Artisan in Seventeenth-Century London”(Stanford1985)

John Goodwin wrote of the 5th of November: it “was the anniversary remembrance of that great battle fought between Hell and Heaven, about he peace and safety of our nation....wherin Hell was overthrown and Heaven and we rejoiced together.”
Reprinting sermons from past years Goodwin wrote: “I have not, to my present rembrance met with anything published of late of any special influence or tendency, to maintain the life and spirit of the solemnity and joy of that day and deliverance. And pity it is that such a plant of paradise should wither or languish for lack of watering. Such a delivberance may, through the mercy and goodness of God prove a breeder, and become a joyful mother of many children.-John Goodwin “The Saints Interest in God (London,1640)

Prior to the Civil War there was a new interest in the plot brought about by new plots and fears of
Catholic disturbances.

Speaker Lenthall spoke to the Commons on Nov. 5 1640 suggesting that all note: “this day’s solemnization”. Bonfires and squibs and bells had returned! (The Calendar of State Papers Domestic 1640-1)

Sermons 1641-44
Cornelius Burgess-(1641) Preaching to the House of Commons giving only one sermon in that year
instead of the usual two) praises the contemporary importance of the Plot: “That great deliverance we now celebrate was not as a dead bush to stop a present gap only, nor a mercy expiring with that hour and occasion; but intended for a living, lasting, breeding bercy, that hath been very fertile ever since.”its lesson was not to trust Catholics who were:”walking too openly, and boldly...pressing too near.” He continued however to warn against violence in the cause of reformation.-Cornelius Burgess “Another Sermon Preached to the Honorable House of Commons.”, (London 1641) pp. 54,19,60,63.

In the Fall of 1642 the country was at war. There was a renewed interest in the celebration of the
deliverance from the plot. “Both Houses kept the thanksgiving this forenoon at Saint Margaret’s Westminster, before whom preached one Mr. Newcomen, and aftrer his sermon they sat again and ordered that thanks should be returned to Mr. Newcomen for his sermon, and that he be desired to publish it in print..” -”A Perfect Diurnall of the Passages in Parliament: from October 31to November 7, 1642.

Matthew Newcomen, Nov. 5 1642- “this day thirty-seven years was this scripture fulfilled in England...Do you in hyour consciences think that the bare keeping this deliverance in memory, or an acknowledging of it in our assemblies, as at this day,issufficient retribution of dignity and honour to our great deliverer?...Arise, arise...ye members of the honourable houses of parliament, act something this day...worthy of this day...Root out not only popery but all that is popish. Let hsi day add something towards the peerfection of that work”-Matthew Newcomen., “The Craft and Cruelty of the Churche’s Adversaries.”,(London,1642), pp. 21,31,33.

It became the custom to preach as m any as four official sermons on the topic of the Gunpowder plot to both houses of parliament. The city leadersip of london heard sermons at St. Pauls. Other sermons were preached locally around the country.

1644 Gunpowder Semons: These sermons rejoiced in the continued favor of god at the battles of the Civil war-Newbury, Newcastle and Liverpool. The war gave a new reason to continue to celebrate and give thanksgiving for God’s intervention as in the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the Gunpowder Plot.

-William Spurstoe- Morning Sermon, Lords, 5 November 1644:tremble in behalf of poor England...the plot was a “matchless salvation and deliverance” however the nation was now “carless in preserving its memory...the truth is...all the ways by which eminent mercies are abused and God provoked, we have practiced” Parliamentarians should be: eminent in your zeal against popery.”-William Spurstoe:”Englands Eminent Judgements Caus’d by the Abuse of Gods Eminent Mercies.-William Spurstoe “England’s Eminent Judgements Caus’d by the Abuse of God’s Eminent Mercies. (London, 1644) pp. 2,21,10,22,24-6.

-John Strickland- Evening sermon, Lords , 5 November 1644: Sermon title: “Immanuel, or The Church Triumphing”...we should strive to give God perpetual praises by perpetuating his praises into posterity, a laying up a stock of seed and praise, that may bring forth a plentiful crop in the generations to com”(based upon Psalm 46)-John Strickland “Immanuel, or The Church Triumphing” (London, 1644),pp.16,2,25,20.

-Anthony Burgess- Sermon before the Commons, 5 November 1644: Had the Gunpowder Plot succeeded: “what darkness would have covered the land”. “Connivance at popery” should be avoided. Moderation and toleration discouraged -Anthony Burgess “Rome’s Cruelty and Apostacie Declared” (London, 1645) pp. 11,21.

-Charles Herle- Sermon before the Commons, 5 November 1644: (the text of Samuel of David vs. Philistines was used.) “David in fighting God’s battles is a thype of no earthly king, but a type or rather emblem of God’s church in all succeeding ages” noting thedeliverance of 1605 he said: “you must expectto stand in need of more deliverances; the same brood of enemies that then durst venture but an undermining, dare now attemt an open battery” he described the Catholics as tunneling: from Oxford, Rome, Hell to Westminster, and there to blow up, if possible the better foundations of your houses, their liberties and privleges”-Charles Herle “David’s Reserve, and Rescue “ (London, 1645), pp.11,12,13,16.

William Sclater- Exeter Cathedral 5 November 1641- presents a royalist point of view the king (Charles) being “The very mirror of Christian princes” who stood against Puritan “novelty”. The plot of 1605 was “treason unheard of”
But was matched by the actions of the puritains in the Civil War.-William Sclater “Papisto-Mastix, or Deborah’s Prayer against God’s Enemies” (London, 1642), pp. 13,53.

Sermons 1647
-5 November 1647 After a sermon the House of commons discussed some matters relating to the king and then went to watch a pagent of fireworks.-”The Perfect Weekly Account.,” 2-10 Nov. 1647.

-5 November 1647 William Bridge called attention to the fact that deliverance was not deserved but came through God’s Grace. “Witness the mercy and deliverance of this day. When the Pow2der Treason was on foot, what a dark night of security had trodden upon the glory of our English day...what pride, oppression, cour-uncleanness, superstitions, and persecution of the saints then under the name of puritans? Nevertheless he saved us, and our fathers. And now of late, what bitterness of spirit among professors, what divisions, oppressions, instead of justice? What new-fangled prides? What unwillingness to be reformed? The discovery of Gunpowder Plot was a great blow to the papists and a great salvation to England, but the situation called for continual watchfulness. “I fear the hand of the Jesuit is too much among us at this day. But, Oh England! Oh Parliament! For ever remember the fifth of November: the snare is broken and we are delivered”-William Bridge., “England Saved with a Notwithstanding” (London,1648)

Sermons/Writings 1650-60
5 November 1651: Peter Sterry sermon to the Rump Parliament
“England’s Deliverance from the Northern Presbytery, Compared with its Deliverance from the Roman Papacy.”
The “zeal plot” of presbytery was seen to be more dangerous than the Gunpowder Plot of the Catholics.
“The same spirit which lay in the polluted bed of papacy may meet them in the perfumed bed of presbytery”-Peter Sterry, “England’s Deliverance from the Northern Presbytery, Compared with its Deliverance from the Roman Papacy (London, 1652), epistle dedicatory, p. 17.
The day had become a Protestant day of thanksgiving during the interregnum.
5 November 1654- The Weekly Intellignencer of the Commonwealth,: “Mr. Nanton and Mr. Vines preached before the parliament, it being a day of commemoration for deliverance from the Gunpowder Treason”-The Weekly Intelligencer of the Commonwealth, 31 October.-7 November 1654.
5 November 1654- Thomas Horton “it is our day, the day which God hath marked with an eminent and famous deliverance of this land and nation...It is a deliverance and preservation which is never to be forgotten by us, nor our posterity after us, so long as the sun and moon shal endure in heaven....The goodness of God to his people in his deliverances and preservations of them, it is such as even succeeding ages and generations shall take notice of.”it was: “The Pilar and Pattern of England’s Deliverances...It is our duty to be mindful and talkative of the goodness of God to us in the times and generations which are past...As it should be often in our memories and thoughts and meditations nad mental reflections, so it should be likewise in our lips and mouths and speeches and daily converse.”he maintained that the memory would die out “were it not for such solem times as these are, which are set apart on purpose for their commemoration.” -Thomas Horton., “The Pillar and Pattern of England’s Deliverances” (London, 1655),pp.2, preface 40.
Ralph Venning Sermon St. Paul’s 5 November 1656 “Memory is a slippery thing” the Gunpowder Plot should be in our “catalogues of mercies” -Ralph Venning, “Mercies Memorial:-or Israel’s Thankful Remembrance of God. (London 1657)
1657 Samuel Clarke Published his account: “England’s Remembrancer, Containing a True and Full Narative of those Two Never to be Forgotten Deliverances: The One from the Spanish Invasion in Eighty Eight; the Other from the Hellish Powder Plot: November 5 1605. “They that would see further into this work of darkness in the powder plot are desired to look into the sermons of the Reverend Dr. Spurstowe,pastor of Hackney and Mr. Matthew Newcomen, pastor of Dedham, both preached before the parliament on the fifth of November. As also Mr. Venning’s sermon preached at Paul’s last fifth of November.” He wrote so that: “all sorts may be stirred up to real thankfullness and transmit the same to their posterity; that their children may know the reason why the fifth of November is celebrated; that God may have glory, and the papists perpetual infamy....lest the remembrance of so signal a mercy and deliverance, vouchsafed by God both to our church and state, should be bried in oblivion...And truly, the remembrance of this great mercy hath the more need to be revived at this time, when some noted persons amongst us begin to lessen and decry it, and wholly to lay aside the observation of that day, though enjoined by Act of Parliament and made conscience of by most of the godly people of the nation.”-Samuel Clarke, “England’s Rembembrancer (1671 edition)
1658 Thomas Spencer wrote: “England’s Warning-Peece; or the History of the Gun-powder Treason. He wrote so that: “the memorial of this most prodigious conspiracy, which never had any fellow, being almost obliterated and forgotten in many places of the land may be renewed, revived, and presented to succeeding generations.” -Thomas Spencer, “England’s Warning-Peece: or The History of the Gunpowder Treaon (London 1659)
5 November 1659 Ralph Bronrigg Sermon, Exeter from the text of Daniel: “O king, live for ever.” He spoke of: a malicious conspiracy” Iif you count it now a day out of date, an old day, and it may be forgotten, take heed a second war does not finish that work that those traitors would have done but could not accomplish”-Ralph Brownrigg.”A sermon on the 5th of November(London, 1660),pp.1,48,75.

1664-1670-Sermons
November 1670 wrote: “a day which ought to be remembered forever, but is almost forgotten by these unthankful nations, which bodes ill in my eye; ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplica (large benefits large crimes, large punishments)-Matthew Henry Lee (ed.) “Diaries and Letters of Philip Henry London, 1882), p. 232.
November 5 1664- John Evelyn hears sermon/ Westminster Abbey: “concerning obedience to magistrates, against the pontificians and sectaries....an excellent discourse” -.”-Austin Dobson (ed.) “The diary of John Evelyn.” ( London, 1906) p.207.
1666 George Morley preached a “gunpowder delivery” to the King. He: “did so pelt the papists and presbyterians with such evangelical broadsides of allegiance as would make the severest schismatic of their persuasions be in love with loyalty-Library of Congress, London Newsletter Collection, 1665-85” vol. 1 f.128.

Sermons 1660-70’s
5 November 1673- Ralph Josselin preaching at Earl’s Colne hoped that God: “will deliver against the fears of popery at present in England, the Duke marrying Modena’s daughter”-MacFarlane (ed.) “Diary of Ralph Josselin.”pp.571-588
5 November 1673- Peter Gunning preached to the Lords, Edward Stillingfleet to the Commons. The reaction was:”universal applause, and the night was solemnized with the usual divertisement of fireworks.”-Library of Congress. “London NewsletterCollection”, vol.4, f. 129

Sermons c.1670-80
November 5 1678- William Lloyd preaches at St. Martin in the fields speaks against the plots and their: “barbarous and horrid and execrable cruelty” Lloyd does not tar all Catholics with the same brush however. William Lloyd “A Sermon Preached at St. Martin in the Fields, on November the Fifth, 1678.” (London 1679)
November 5 1680- William Lloyd in a sermon before the House of Lords notes “danger of another civil war”-William Lloyd “A Sermon Preached before the House of Lords on November 5, 1680” (London, 1680)
Thomas Wilson, Arrow, Warwickshire in a sermon: “our present business of celebnrating our deliverance from popish conspiachy” was celebrated “God hath delivered us, so he will deliver us still, if we hold his truth without corruption.” The difference between Protestantism and Catholicism was noted. “Blessed be God, then, that our religion, which is spiritual, substantial and lively, is not turned into idle and dead ceremony, shows and gazings, crosses, beads and relics.”-Thomas Wilson A sermon on the Gunpowder Treason with Reflections on the Late Plot (London, 1679),pp. 1,10, 11, 18.

Sermons 1680-90
1689- Bishop William Lloyd preached to William and Mary on November 5. The theme was deliverance from: “popery and slavery...the day of our resurrection...a day that brought us new life from the dead”...an irrestible impulse of god” -William Lloyd “A sermon Preached before Their Majesties At Whitehall. On the Fifth day of November, 1689. Being hte Anniversary-day of Thanksgiving For that Great Deliverance From the Gunpowder-Treason. And also the Day of His Majesties Happy Landing in England (London 1689 p . 1,32.
1689-Nov.5 Gilbert Burnet preached to the Lords and Commons that Nov. 5 1688 was more important than the date of the Gunpowder plot. “The Gunpowder Treason was a personal thing;but the late conspiracy was national” (France as well as Rome were both involved) -Gilbert Burnet. “A Sermon Preached before the House of Peers”., (London 1689 p. 27.)
1691- Archbishop John Sharp in a sermon to the House of Lords on Nov. 5 the “storm is blown over” the country was “in a good measure out of the danger of our old inveterate enemy, popery”-John Sharp. “A sermon preached before the Lords” (London 1691) p.24.
Bell; ringing and widespread celebration returned.

The celebration of the 5th of November - of the two deliverances set appart the two major partys- the Whigs and the Torries so much so as to give each a special identity as both looked at he celebration from a different perspective.The importance for liberty for the whigs was opposed by the Tories value of the blessing of God given to the Stuarts.
Henry Sacheverell- Sermon St.Paul’s 5 November 1709- “the church in danger” The danger was described not as that from Rome but from all extremists. -Henry Sacheverell “The Perils of False Brethren both in Church and State. (London 1709)
November 4 1712- “The same day being the anniversary of King William III, great rejoicing were made in the cities of London and Westminster by those who being well-afected to the late revolution and the protestant succession in the house of Hanover, entertain a due respect and veneration for the memory of a prince whom they look upon as the deliverer of these nations from popery and arbitrary power, and the asserter of the liberties of Europe. Among the rest a aconsiderable number of lords, gentlemen, and citizens met at the “Three Tuns and Rummer” in Gracechurch Street to celebrate that festival, caused a great bonfire to be made before the house, and gave beer to the mob, to pledge the healths they drank on the balcoony, or at the windows, to the queen, the house of Hanover, and the memory of King William. A party of men were, it seems, offended at it, and raised an opposite mob, who offered to disturb the rejoicings around the bonfire, a scuffle ensued, in which the aggressors were repulsed with some broken heads and bloody noses; but the trained bands being that day (and the next) under arms, the fray was soon parted, and all was quiet, till the bonfire was consumed, and the company in the tavern retired, when part of that mob that had been worsted, finding no opposition, they revenged themselves on the glass windows of the tavern.”- Abel Boyer, “History of the Reign of Queen Anne digested into Annals...1712” (London., 1712),p.291.
Activities such as these were the cause of the Riot Act of 1715 - Nicholas Rogers., “Popular Protest in Early Hanoverian London”Past and Present 79 (1978) 70-100.

 

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