Whitehall, December 12, 1678.

By license from the Right Honourable Mr. Secretary Coventry, thi book, containing King James's Speech to both Houses of Parliament, on occasion of the Gunpowder Treason-with a discourse of the manner of its discovery, and a perfect relation of the whole proceedings against those horrid conspirators-may be reprinted.

JO. COOKE.

A SPEECH

MADE BY KING JAMES TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, UPON OCCASION OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT, DESIGNED TO BE EXECUTED ON THE 5TH NOVEMBER, 1605.

My Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and you the Knights and Burgesses of this Parliament, it was far from my thoughts, till very lately before my coming to this place, that this subject should have been ministered unto me, whereupon I am now to speak. But now it so falleth out, that whereas in the preceding session of this Parliament, the principal occasion of my speech was to thank and congratulate all you of this house, and in you, all the whole commonwealth (as being the representative body of the state), for your so willing and loving receiving and embracing of me in that place, which God and nature by descent of blood, had in his own time provided for me: so now my subject is, to speak of a far greater thanksgiving than before I gave to you, being to a far greater person, which is to God, for the great and miraculous delivery he hath at this time granted to me, and to you all, and consequently to the whole body of this estate.

I must therefore begin with this old and most approved sentence of divinity, Misericordia Dei supra omnia opera ejus est. For Almighty God did not furnish so great matter to his glory, by the creation of this great world, as he did by the redemption of the same. Neither did his generation of the little world, in our old and first Adam, so much set forth the praises of

God in his justice and mercy, as did our regeneration in the last and second Adam.

And now I must crave a little pardon of you, that since kings are in the word of God itself called gods, as being his lieutenants and vicegerents on earth, and so adorned and furnished with some sparkles of the Divinity; to compare some of the works of God the Great King towards the whole and general world, to some of his works towards me, and this little world of my dominions, compassed and severed by the sea from the rest of the earth. For as God for the just punishment of the first great sinner in the original world, when the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and the cup of their iniquities of all sorts was filled, and heaped up to the full, did by a general deluge and overflowing of waters, baptize the world to a general destruction, and not to general purgation (only excepted Noah and his family, who did repent and believe the threatenings of God's judgment): so now, when the world shall wax old as a garment, and that all the impieties and sins that can be devised against both the first and second table, have and shall be committed to the full measure; God is to punish the world the second time by fire, to the general destruction and not purgation thereof. Although as it was done in the former to Noah and his family by the waters; so shall all we that believe be likewise purged, and not destroyed by the fire. In the like sort, I say, I may justly compare these two great and fearful doomsdays, wherewith God threatened to destroy me, and all you of this little world that have interest in me. For although I confess, as all mankind, so chiefly kings, as being in the higher places, like the high trees, or stayest mountains, and steepest rocks, are most subject to the daily tempests of innumerable dangers-and I amongst all other kings, have ever been subject unto them,

not only ever since my birth, but even, as I may justly say, before my birth, and whilst yet in my conception-yet have I been exposed to two more special and greater dangers than all the rest.

The first of them, in the kingdom where I was born, and passed the first part of my life; and the last of them here, which is the greatest. In the former, I should have been baptised in blood, and in my destruction, not only the › kingdom wherein I then was, but ye also by your future interest, should have tasted of my ruin. Yet it pleased God to deliver me, as it were, from the very brink of death, from the point of the dagger, and so to purge me by my thankful acknowledgment of so great a benefit. But in this, which did so lately fall out, and which was a destruction prepared not for me alone, but for you all that are here present, and wherein no rank, age, or sex should have been spared, this was not a crying sin of blood as the former, but it may well be called a roaring, nay, a thundering sin of fire and brimstone, from the which God hath so miraculously delivered us all. What I can speak of this, I know not: nay rather, what can I not speak of it? And therefore I must for horror say with the poet, Vox faucibus hæret.

culous events be

In this great and horrible attempt, whereof Three mirathe like was never either heard or read, I to be observed observe three wonderful, or rather miraculous in the attempt: events.

First, In the cruelty of the plot itself, I. The cruelty wherein cannot be enough wondered at the of the plot. horrible and fearful cruelty of their device, which was not only for the destruction of my person, nor of my wife and posterity only, but of the whole body of the state in general; wherein should neither have been spared, or distinction made of young nor of old, of great

Three

how

nor of small, of man nor of woman. The whole nobility, the whole reverend clergy, bishops, and most part of the good preachers, the most part of the knights and gentry; yea, and if that any in this society were favourers of their profession, they should all have gone one way: the whole judges of the land, with the most of the lawyers and the whole clerks and as the wretch himself that is in the Tower doth confess, it was purposely devised by them, and concluded to be done in this House; that where the cruel laws (as they say) were made against their religion, both place and persons should ways all be destroyed and blown up at once. mankind then consider therewithal the cruel form of that practice; for by three different sorts in general may mankind be put to death.

may come

death.

1. By man.

to

And

The first, by other men, and reasonable creatures, which is least cruel; for then both defence of men against men may be expected, and likewise who knoweth what pity God may stir up in the hearts of the actors at the very instant? besides the many ways and means, whereby men may escape in such a present fury.

And the second way, more cruel than that, is by animal and unreasonable creatures: for as they have less pity than men, so is it a greater horror, and more unnatural for men to deal with them; but yet with them both resistance may avail, and also some pity may be had, as was in the lions in whose den Daniel was thrown; or that thankful lion, that had the Roman slave in his mercy.

But the third, which is most cruel and unmerciful of all, is the destruction by insensible and inanimate things: and amongst them all, the most cruel are the two elements of water and fire; and of those two the fire most raging and merciless.

Secondly, How wonderful it is when you shall think upon the small, or rather no ground,