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A53924
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Jericho's downfal, in a sermon preached upon Jan. 31, 1688/89 being a day of publick thanksgiving to God for our deliverance from popery and arbitrary power / by Samuel Peck, Minister of Popler.
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Peck, Samuel.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing P1035; ESTC R1038
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9,368
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32
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would not subscribe or set to their hands for the building up of Jericho again in this Kingdom And those men advanced to places of greatest trust and profit as well as honour that were for it and would any ways contribute to it There is no end of their Intrigues Plots and Devices to build up Jericho again Three most publick and notorious attempts besides smaller essays have they made this way since the fall of their Jericho in this Kingdom or since our first Reformation In all which they have been bafled and defeated through the mercy and goodness of our God for which we this day praise his name 1. The first was by a Spanish Armado stiled the invincible Armado when they came to rebuild their Romish Jericho furnished with all Instruments of Cruelty and hearts full of confidence that the work would be done that they should cut us off from being a Nation and that the name of Protestant of Heretick should be had no more in remembrance They were so big with hopes as to say with Moab before the fight Vp Moab to the spoil 2 King 3. 21 22 23. up Rome to the spoil for the Victory shall be ours but God in mercy to us Crossed Cursed that design and wonderfully disappointed that hopeful enterprize 2. Their next was the Powder-Plot designed to cut off the King the Prince and Royal Family with all the Noble Peers and Commons the Flower and Glory of our English Nation assembled in Parliament These blown up they doubted not but their Popish Jericho would be built up Wherefore as while Nehemiah and his men were at work to make up the Walls of Jerusalem the adversaries came upon them to temper the Mortar with their blood for they said they shall not see nor know till we come upon them Neh. 4. 11. and slay them and cause their work to cease And as Pilate came upon the Galileans when they were sacrificing and mingled their Blood with their Sacrifices Luke 13. 1 2. So when both houses of Parliament were met to make Laws against the rebuilding of Popish Jericho and for settling the true Religion then did these Plotters of Rome contrive to blow up those Law-makers resolving they should write no Laws but in their own Blood. And what a Vesuvius had those houses been had the Plot taken had the blow been given What an Aceldama what a Golgotha had this Land been what a Chaos had our Church and State been How had our Laws Liberties and Religion been swallowed up in that fiery Gulph and for ever buried in those Ashes How would the Man of Sin the Son of Perdition have triumphed and rejoyced to have seen the Foundation of his Romish Jericho laid in the Ruines of our English Israel But our God delivered us from the barbarous and bloody intendments of our adversaries that time also As he did his Church of old from the Bloody Conspiracy of Haman and brought the Plot upon their own heads So that hitherto God hath said as in the Text Cursed be those that shall rise up to build this Jericho 3. And yet they will not give over but they will to work still and try once more And their last we pray and hope it will be their last attempt was indeed as fair for it as any before For now they had gotten over a vast number of builders Priests and Jesuits who were night and day employed to help the work forward in Court City and Countrey Some parts of Jericho they had erected some Mass-houses they had set up in the City and in many great Towns and Populous places in the Countrey which Antichristian Conventicles were countenanced and upheld contrary to our known Laws where the Priests with unheard of impudence decry'd the true Religion as Heresy and all Protestants as damn'd Hereticks Yea and most blasphemously reproached our very Bibles where our Religion not theirs is to be found as false and spurious preferring their own Old and Rotten Traditions before the Sacred Oracles and the lying Legend of their Saints before the Testament of the Holy Jesus Thus far I say were they gotten which gave them great hopes their Jericho will now up again And which is more they had now a zealous King a Puissant Prince on their side who was able by his power not only to Countenance but in some measure to Command that Jericho should be built having brought over some of our Judges and Nobles to his Service having at his Command a well furnished Exchequer a vast annual Revenue a formidable standing Army with a great number of inferiour Missionaries that went from Countrey to Countrey to reform as 't was called the Corporations and to find out such men for our Houses of Parliament as should abrogate and abolish those Laws that obstructed them in the erecting of their Popish Jericho amongst us and all this gave them great hope it would be done And in truth this Plot was so formed and so far promoted that in their eyes 't was beautiful as Absolom without defect or blemish from Head to Foot. And they were so taken with the Beauty and comliness of it as Nebuchadnezzar was with his Golden Image that they fell down before it and worshipped it What was the matter then that the building went not forward Surely it must be this that the curse of God was upon it Had there been so much pains taken so much time and treasure spent to advance Gods Church and the true Religion God would have blessed it but the design was to build up mystical Jericho which God hath cursed therefore it could not prosper therefore all their power and policy could not bring it to perfection for which our God is to be praised from generation to generation 2. Must not Jericho be built again are the builders of it cursed before the Lord Then let us be none of them I hope none here present ever had or ever will have either heart or hand for this work or any way contribute towards it No let us in our several Places and Capacities heartily oppose it and do all that lawfully we may to hinder the building of it To this purpose 1. Let Magistrates Minister Justice Impartially and duly Execute the Laws of this Kingdom against the builders of Jericho Laws made on purpose to hinder that work and to keep up and preserve the true Church of God among us 2. Attend upon the Ministry of Gods word this is a Light will discover the Errors of Popery And though it seems but a Weak means or instrument yet like the Trumpets of Rams-horns it will make the Walls of Jericho to reel The Jesuits and Priests found this by late Experience when by the Sermons and other Writings of our Divines they were bafled and put to silence yielding up their Paper Controversy as a foundation too weak to bear up the tottering Walls of their Jericho 3. You that have Youth Children or Servants under your charge instruct
JERICHO'S Downfal IN A SERMON Preached upon Jan. 31. 1688 / 9. Being a day of Publick Thanksgiving to God for our Deliverance FROM Popery and Arbitrary Power By Samuel Peck Minister of Popler LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1689. Joshua 6. 26. Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this City Jericho THE Notion of Doctrine or a Purgatory in the other life hath been long since exploded as an idle Dream or Fiction by a great part of the Christian world But that a double Purgatory attends the Church and People of God in this Life all sound Christians firmly believe the one of Water the other of Fire The former that great Apostle St. Paul stiles the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. the other St. Peter calls the 1 Pet. 4. 12. Fiery Tryal And no sooner almost are they passed through the one the Water of Baptism but instantly they are plunged into the other the Fire of Affliction and both are needful That they may be cleansed and made like to Christ in Purity and Holiness the Laver of Regeneration or washing of the Isa 27. 9. Heb. 12. 10. New Birth is necessary And that they may be made conformable to Christ in suffering the Fiery Tryal is necessary also It may seem strange indeed that Afflictions and Troubles should await Heavens darling Gods beloved the Spouse or Church of Christ yet 't is so Rom. 8. 29. 1 Thes 3. 3. predestinated 't is so appointed saith St. Paul for their purification not their destruction no Christ hath said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church to destroy it Tho' God may suffer his People as the Prophet Isa speaks to pass through the Fire and through Isa 43. 2. the Water to Try Purge Refine and Prove them yet is he so far from intending their destruction that he hath breathed forth many terrible threatnings against yea entails an heavy curse upon those that seek or endeavour his Churches Extirpation and Ruine by upholding and maintaining the professed and Implacable Enemies thereof saying Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this City Jericho Whereupon Joshua here adjures or chargeth them that they put not their helping hand to this work for whoever shall do it is cursed before the Lord And Joshua adjured them at that time saying Cursed be the man before the Lord that buildeth this City Jericho In this Chapter you have the Story of the Overthrow and Conquest of that once famous City Jericho with the reason of it It seems it stood in the way to hinder Gods People in their passage to Canaan the Land of promise and therefore down it must it must be removed God will clear a way for his people to what he had promised though he be at the expence of a Miracle to do it as you find he was here For Joshua by Gods Direction and Commission compasseth the Walls of the City seven days together and at last not by Storm and Battery but by the blast of Rams-horns and the Shout of the People the Walls fall flat to the ground this was to shew the Israelites that the Conquest was not owing to their power but to Gods mercy and what great things God can do for a people by small means when he pleaseth Well the Walls being down Joshua and the People enter and destroy all that was therein Rahab and her Family only excepted sparing neither man nor Beast Young nor Old but cut off all with the Edge of the Sword and then burn the City as you read in the former part of the Chapter Now this being done to shew what the Enemies of Gods People must expect Joshua doth in the name of God impose a curse upon him that should go about to build this City again saying Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this City Jericho The Text then you see contains a curse breathed forth against the Enemies of Gods Church wherein you have these particulars 1. The denuntiation of the Curse Cursed be the man. 2. The Reality and certainty of the curse expressed in these words Before the Lord. 3. The Subject of the curse or the person cursed The man that shall rise up to build the City Jericho 1. The Denuntiation of the curse Cursed be the man. We read in Scripture of many curses denounced both by God and Man It was an heavy curse God denounced against Adam Eve and the Serpent for their sin Gen. 3. Our Saviour often poured out Woes and Curses against the Scribes and Pharisees for Mat. 23. their hypocrisy Moses denounceth many curses Deut. 28. against the transgressors of the Law Jacob cursed the wrath of Simeon and Levi Cursed be their wrath for it was Cruel And Gen. 49. these curses were often used by Abraham and the Prophets What a Roll of curses have you in Psal 109. Denounced by the Prophet David against the Enemies of Gods Church And such is this of Joshua in my Text Cursed be the man that shall build this City Qu. But the question is Whether Joshua did well to curse any in this manner since the command is given by our Saviour Bless and curse not Ans Yes No doubt but Joshua might lawfully do it because in this he was a Prophet God had revealed to Joshua thus much that the man should be accursed that should build the City Jericho so that he spoke this by the Spirit of Prophecy foreknowing the mind of God in this matter This plainly appears by what you read 1 King 16. last In his days that is in the days of Ahab did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born and set up the Gates thereof in his youngest Son Segub that is in the death of these Sons according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Joshua the Son of Nun that is in this place cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this City Jericho he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born and in his youngest Son shall he set up the Gates of it So then Joshua spoke no more than what God had revealed to him and which he knew would most certainly come to pass he did it by the direction and inspiration of the Holy Ghost for this reason Joshua might lawfully denounce this curse Yet we must not hereupon think it lawful for us to curse our Enemies No our Rule is Bless and curse not Bless those that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you saith our Saviour It may be a wretched Goliah an uncircumcised Philistine may accustom his mouth to curses but such Gall and Poyson becomes not the mouths of Gods People Besides he that curseth another doth in truth curse himself Observe that of