JERICHO'S Downfall; IN A SERMON Preached upon Jan. 31. 1688/ 9 Being a day of Public Thanksgiving to God for our Deliverance FROM Popery and Arbitrary Power. By Samuel Perk Minister of Poplar. LONDON, Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercer's 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 styles the washing of Regeneration; Tit. 3. 5. the other St. Peter calls the 1 Pet. 4. 12. Fiery Trial. 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 Trial is necessary also. It may seem strange indeed; that Afflictions and Troubles should await Heaven's darling, Gods beloved, the Spouse or Church of Christ; yet 'tis so Rom. 8. 29. 1 Thes. 3. 3. predestinated, 'tis 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 threaten against, yea entails an heavy curse upon those that seek or endeavour his Church's Extirpation and Ruin, 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 God's 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 expense of a Miracle to do it; as you find he was here. For Joshua by God's 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 show the Israelites that the Conquest was not owing to their power, but to God's 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 show what the Enemies of God's 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 God's Church, wherein you have these particulars. 1. The denunciation 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 Denunciation 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 God's 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 Bethelite build Jericho; he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, 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 firstborn, 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 Goliath, an uncircumcised Philistine may accustom his mouth to curses, but such Gall and Poison becomes not the mouths of God's People. Besides, he that curseth another, doth in truth curse himself. Observe that of David, Psal. 109. 17, 18. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him, let it come into his Bowels like water, and like Oil into his Bones. As the Bird taking her flight from her Nest, fetcheth a Circuit, and then returns thither again, so Curses come in where they went out, and at last return upon our own heads, as Dust cast in the Air against the Wind. This therefore is not the use we are to make of such Examples as this in my Text. But where we meet with Curses in the Writings of the Prophets and holy men of God, who had the Spirit of Prophecy, we are to apply them to the Enemies of God's Church, who seek the Ruin of the true Religion, and profess an open enmity to the Gospel and Faith of Christ. We may ever with safety take God's part, our Saviour's side, and curse all those that are Enemies to him, saying, with Deborah and Barak; So let all [thine] Enemies perish, O Lord: But for Judg. 5. 31. our Enemies that have done us any personal or private wrong, to curse them is (as I said before) unwarrantable, uncharitable and ungodly.— So much of the first particular, the denunciation of the curse, Cursed be the man. 2. The next is the reality and certainty of the curse, contained in these words, [before the Lord] cursed be the man before the Lord. Which words are not added in vain, therefore not to be passed by without some notice. The meaning is, let him be, or he is cursed indeed: for what is done before the Lord, is truly and solemnly done: And therefore the sense is this, That man that shall build this City Jericho is cursed of God, the Lord Ratifies and Confirms the curse, and it shall certainly light upon him. There are many curses, which in this sense are not before the Lord: Such are the Pope's Bulls and Excommunications against Kings and Princes, and all Heretics, that refuse Subjection to the Papal Power, Obedience to the See of Rome: But the persons thus cursed with Bell, Book and Candle, are not cursed before the Lord, the Lord hath not Ratified and Confirmed the curse; nay, a curse unjustly denounced and by one, who hath no power to denounce it, is not a curse, but a blessing; As the Prophet speaks of Balaam's cursing Israel, Neh. 13. 2. The Lord turned the curse into a blessing; So where Rome curseth the Lord shall bless. Therefore we need no more to fear or care for the Pope's Curses than a man in Armour needs to fear an headless Arrow, or a Child's Potgun, for an unjust or an undeserved curse hurts not. But when a man is cursed by a qualified person, commissionated of God, and that for a just cause, this is dreadful indeed; for such a one may be said (as in the Text) to be cursed before the Lord. And this leads us to consider the third particular, viz. 3. The Subject of this curse, or the person cursed [The man that shall rise up and build this City Jericho. Qu. And why is there a Curse denounced against him that shall build this City, or why would not Joshua have Jericho built again? Ans. For these Reasons. 1. In obedience to God's command, who had revealed unto Joshua, that he would curse the man that built it, and therefore he denounced him accursed; besides, you read, Deut. 13. 15, 16. That when any City was destroyed for its Idolatry and other sins committed in it, God Commands it should be an heap for ever, and not be built again; therefore in Obedience to God's Command (which Joshua could not be ignorant of) he would have Jericho as a ruinous heap for ever, and curseth the man that should raise it out of its Ruins, out of its Ashes, in which he had laid it by God's Commission. 2. That it might be a remembrance both of God's Mercy and Justice. In mercy to the Israelites God takes this City by a Miracle; Now that this miraculous work of God might never be forgotten, Joshua would have it remain desolate; that so when People in after ages, beholding the Ruins of it, should inquire the cause of its destruction, and the reason why it so remained, this might give occasion to speak of the mercy of God towards his people.— And also of his Justice against the Idolatrous Inhabitants of that City whose sins and abominations had rendered them ripe for Vengeance. 3. Joshua would (or God rather would) have it remain a ruinous heap, for terror to the rest of the Inhabitants of the Land. As great Conquerors usually set up some terrible monuments and signal examples of Justice to terrify others; so this being one of the first or chief Cities after their passage over Jordan, God, to strike terror into others, will have it destroyed, with the sentence of a curse upon any that should build it again for ever. By which we may take notice what a curse sin brings upon most famous Cities and Places. Jericho was a goodly place, a City, of Palm-trees, a fenced City, whose Walls reached up to Heaven; yet being a sinful, an Idolatrous City, what a woeful curse fell upon it, to be utterly destroyed and demolished, and never to be built again. We have the like instances in Sodom, Gomorrah and the adjacent Cities, upon which the fire of God's wrath broke forth and consumed them in a miraculous manner. Thus you have heard the words run over in a literal sense: Now be pleased to hear them in the Mystical, and then you will see how well they suit the present occasion. 1. First then, by way of Analogy and Proportion, there be many that venture upon this curse by endeavouring to build up Jericho. Popery is a Spiritual or Mystical Jericho; and how many are there, that in this sense, have put to their hearts, heads and hands to build Jericho? Whereby they stop or hinder the Church and People of God from entering into the heavenly Canaan, as ancient Jericho did the People of Israel from entering into the earthly. What Strange and Crafty Means, what Subtle and Wicked Methods have they used and still do use to raise up this building? As by shutting out the Light of God's Truth in those places, where Popery prevails, and is established. By falsifying and corrupting ancient Authors, that there might be none to witness against them. By labouring to make divisions between Kings and their Subjects, where their Religion hath not obtained, that they may bring it in, and have it uppermost. By barbarous Homicides and secret Murders, to remove those out of the way, that are opposers of their designs, and by endeavouring to root those out of all places in Church and State, that would not promise and engage to promote the work. It was julian's Policy to provide that no Christian should be a General, a Captain, or bear any Office in his Armies. And were not the Jesuits and Papists Promoting and practising the same Policy amongst us; when men of Worth and Honour, both in Church and State, were displaced, only because they 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 public 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 baffled 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, styled 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 Heretic should be had no more in remembrance. They were so big with hopes, as to say with Moab, (before the fight) Up 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 enterprise. 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, than did these Plotters of Rome contrive to blow up those Lawmakers, 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 Gulf, and for ever buried in those Ashes? How would the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition, have triumphed and rejoiced to have seen the Foundation of his Romish Jericho laid in the Ruins 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 bvilders, Priests and Jesuits, who were night and day employed to help the work forward in Court, City and Country. 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 Country; which Antichristian Conventicles were countenanced and upheld contrary to our known Laws; where the Priests with unheard of impudence decried the true Religion as Heresy, and all Protestants as damned. Heretics; 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 inferior Missionaries, that went from Country to Country to reform (as 'twas 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 form and so far promoted, that in their eyes 'twas beautiful as Absolom, without defect or blemish from Head to Foot. And they were so taken with the Beauty and comeliness of it (as Nabuchadnezzar 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 God's 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 bvilders 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 hearty 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 bvilders 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 God's 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 baffled 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 them in the grounds of Divinity and Principles of Christian Religion. The Seduction of many in this Nation to Popery hath risen from hence, their not being well seasoned with the grounds of true Religion. 4. Encourage Learning what you can: For Popery is a Kingdom of darkness and ignorance, nothing Ruins it like knowledge. It first fell in this Nation with the beginning of good learning; and the continuance and increase of this will keep it down; and therefore amongst the rest of the Contrivances of Jericho's bvilders, this was one of the chief, to poison our Colleges, to propagate Popery in our most famous Schools of Learning, and by a Malicious and Illegal Prosecution to have extinguished, the brightest Luminaries of the English Church; to the end that the benighted people might the more easily have been misled into the pitfalls of Superstition and Slavery. 5. And because they Love to fish in troubled Waters; and gain ground by divisions: therefore let us labour to promote Peace and Union amongst ourselves; let us not differ and quarrel, tear and devour one another for small matters, but unite, be of one heart, of one mind, and love one another; leading Holy and Religious Conversations, as becomes our Profession. Popery ever thrives best in a Land of profaneness; debauchery always did, and always will help forward Popery. 6. Lastly, one special means to prevent the rise of Jericho is that which this day occasions; thankfulness to God for the downfall of it; or a thankful remembrance of the great things God hath done for us. When we call to mind their attempts against us, and how God hath crossed and cursed them, it will make us love our own Religion (which God hath witnessed by so many deliverances) the better, and to hate theirs the more. Therefore let our Souls and all that is within us this day praise the Psal. 10. 3. Lord, for all his mercies of this kind vouchsafed to us; and in an especial manner for the glorious deliverance we this day commemorate: It is his do, and it is marvellous in our Eyes; Not unto us therefore, not unto us, but to him be all the glory of it. But if we shall be unthankful for this and the like gracious preservations; if the wonders of God's Love do not melt our hearts, and work in them a sincere gratitude to God, an hearty Love to Religion and an universal holiness in our Conversations; if all the favours of our God towards us do not win us to a most constant, and Cheerful Obedience to his holy commands, it will be just with God, that those adversaries should still prove goads in our Sides, and thorns in our Eyes: Just with God to lay us open again to their enraged Malice and Hatred, and when we stand in need of deliverance, to say to us as he did to Israel in distress, I will deliver you no Judg. 10. 13. more. Stir up your Souls therefore to thankfulness, and testify your gratitude, not only by words, but deeds; not only by the fruits of holiness, but also by works of Charity and Mercy: Your labour shall not be lost; your cost not cast away, for God will reward you. Thus honour him, and he will honour you; thus bless him, and he will bless you; give him his praises due on Earth, and he will give you immortal renown in Heaven. 3. And in the last place, to our praises for Jericho's fall, let us add our prayers that it may rise no more in our days, or in the days of our posterity. In order to this let us pray, 1. That God would more and more discover and make known the abominations of Romish Jericho, both in respect of their Religion and practice. That he would give all men amongst us a more clear understanding of the errors of their Religion, of the Falsity, Idolatry and Superstition of it, which consists of unwritten Traditions, diabolical Revelations and Illusions: In fruitless Penances, and Pilgrimages; in antiscriptural merits, praying to Saints and worshipping of Images; in unlawful Vows, Masses, indulgences and Dispensations; that seeing the Errors of their Religion, we may abhor it, and Eat the Society of those that profess it, and seek the Propagation of it. 2. Pray that God would lay open to the view and observance of all men their ungodly practices: their promoting Discord and Division in all Places and Societies; their imposing new Articles of Faith as necessary to Salvation; their absolving some from lawful Oaths and Vows, and obliging others to themselves and their cause by Vows and Oaths unlawful. That the allseeing Eye, which beholds men in their most secret acts, would detect their barbarous Homicides, and private Murders, and hear the cries of that innocent Blood which hath been shed both formerly and lately, to enlarge the borders of their Jericho; a discovery of which would do the cause of God this Service, to take off the hearts of many from them, and to lessen their strength and number amongst us.— And let us conclude our prayers, as our Church hath taught us, — That God would scatter our Enemies that delight in blood, infatuate and defeat their Counsels, assuage their malice and confound their devices, and strengthen the hands of all that are in Authority with Judgement and Justice, to cut off all such workers of iniquity, as turn Religion into Rebellion, and Faith into Faction; that they may never prevail against us, or triumph in the Ruins of his Church amongst us: That Babylon may never tread down Zion, nor Jericho boast herself a Conqueror over Jerusalem; but that we, being preserved in the true Religion, may all our days serve him, and give him thanks in his holy Congregation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. FINIS.