Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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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