of _November_, for the due observation of
the said day. And that after morning prayer or preaching on the said
Fifth day of _November_, they read publicly, distinctly, and plainly,
the present Act[35]."

[Footnote 35: I give the Act entire, because I am not aware that
it is to be found in any popular form; and it is desirable that
the present generation should know how this treason was viewed
by their ancestors.]

A particular service was prepared to be used on the Fifth of November,
and was published in 1606. I have not been able to ascertain whether it
was framed by the convocation; but I am disposed to think that it was
arranged by the bishops, as is still the case in particular prayers on
special occasions, and then set forth by the authority of the crown. In
my copy of the original service printed by Barker and Bill, printers to
the king, the words "Set forth by authority," stand on the title-page.
The authority of the crown is evidently intended, and not that of
convocation.

The original service was used on this day until the alterations were
effected in 1662, except during the period of the Commonwealth, when
forms of prayer were altogether discarded. It appears, however, from
Fuller, that in his time, the observance of the day was very much
neglected. "If this plot," says he, "had taken effect, the papists would
have celebrated this day with all solemnity; and it would have taken the
upper hand of all other festivals. The more, therefore, the shame and
pity, that amongst Protestants the keeping of this day (not yet full
fifty years old) begins already to wax weak and decay; so that the red
letters, wherever it is written, seem to grow dimmer and paler in our
English calendar. God forbid that our thankfulness for this great
deliverance, formerly so solemnly observed, should hereafter be like the
_squibs_ which the apprentices in London make on this day; and which
give a great flash and crack at first, but soon go out in a stink[36]."

[Footnote 36: FULLER, book x. 38. From several of the incidental
notices in the works of writers of the times of James I. and
Charles I., we learn that the observance of the day was
gradually neglected. In a curious work of the date of 1618,
there is a notice to the effect that the people were cold in
praising God for their deliverance. See GAREY'S _Amphitheatrum
Scelerum_. 4to. 1618. In the reigns of Charles II. and James
II., w