4. When true religion is thus received, such an advantage should not be lost or carelessly looked after. Partly because it is with much ado that Christ gets up in the world ; not only by the labours of his servants, but by their deep sufferings. As the chief captain said to Paul, ' With a great sum obtained I this freedom,' Acts xxii. 28 ; so this liberty was not only purchased by the blood of Christ, 1 Peter i. 18, 19, but with the expense of many of his servants' lives, who
SERMON UPON JOSHUA VI. 26. 35
counted not tlieir interest dear to them, to bring tlie world to this pass, and to recover the truths and interests of Christ's kingdom out of the common apostasy. Partly because it is unreasonable that should be lost in an instant that hath been so long a-gaining, and wantonly thrown away which with so many years' care hath been brought to this effect ; so that the work of Christ is set back in the world. After the second apostasy, God doth by degrees bring down the kingdom of Satan, and recover the kingdom of the Mediator: Kev. xi. 13, ' The tenth part of the city fell, and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven ; ' Ps. lix. 11, ' Slay them not, lest my people forget : scatter them in thy power, and bring them down.' To put Christ to do again what hath been done already, is such a presuming on his providence as will cost dear. Partly also because the present age is a kind of trustee for the next. We are God's witnesses to the present age : Isa. xliii. 10, ' Ye are my wit- nesses, saith the Lord.' And we are God's trustees for future genera- tions, and should take care we do not entail prejudices upon them, and leave them to grapple with insuperable difficulties, to find out their way to heaven : Eom. iii. 2, ' The oracles of God were committed to the Jews.' So 2 Tim. ii. 2, ' The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.' Now we must see that we be faithful in our trust. And we are bound to this zeal, if we remember our ancestors, or remember our posterity. Partly also because God severely threateneth them that play the wanton with religion, because they were not bitten with the inconveniences under which former gene- rations smarted. And therefore, as Samuel dealt with the Israelites, when they would cast off the theocracy, or God's government, under which they had been well and safely governed, that they might be like the nations round about them ; Samuel telleth them by God's appoint- ment, ' The manner of the king that shall reign over them,' 1 Sam. viii. 11-13, 'He shall take your sons, and appoint them for him- self, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots ; and he will take your daughters to be his confectionaries, and to be cooks and bakers,' &c. ; so if such a wanton humour should possess us that we must have the religion of the nations round about us, consider whom you receive spiritually to reign over you ; one that will lord it over your consciences, obtrude upon you his damnable errors, and pestilent superstitions, and bold usurpations on the authority of Christ ; or else burn you with temporal fire, or excom- municate you, and cast out your name, as one that is to be condemned to that which is eternal. And then you will see the difference between the blessed yoke of Christ and the iron yoke of antichrist.
Secondly, Reasons.
1. It is ingratitude to build again what God hath destroyed, as if his mercies were not worth the having. God prefaces the law, Exod. XX. 2, ' I am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.' Now God took it heinously when ever and anon they were making to themselves a captain to return again to Egypt ; as if he had done them wrong to knock off their shackles and to free them from the brick-kilns, when their cry, because
36 SERMON UPON JOSHUA VI. 26.
of the anguish of their souls, came up to heaven. So in the new testa- ment : Gal. V. 1, ' Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.* The servility of legal observances was so great and so unprofitable, that they could not be thankful enough for their liberty ; and there- fore it should be dearer to us than to part with it for trifles, or to take on the yoke again, when God hath freed us from it.
2. It is an affront to the God of heaven, or a contempt of his power ; an entering into the list with the almighty God, as if we could keep up what he hath a mind to destroy. It is not a simple sin to stand out against Christ, and not to open the gates to him is a great evil. If his anger be but kindled a little, what can we do, the greatest, the wisest, the most powerful amongst us ? Ps. ii. 12, ' Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.' But it is an aggravated sin to turn him out after he is entered. Alas ! how horrible a contempt is that of Christ ! It is a vile scorn put upon the majesty of God. Better never have owned him than to be cold, indifferent, and negligent in his interests. If the business had been to introduce a religion, it had been another matter ; but this is to preserve what is already introduced.