Must not this be a cursed endeavour, when we go about to build that
THE UNPEOSPEKOUS BUILDER. 29
that we ourselves have vowed to pull down ? when we go about to raise that that we have formerly destroyed by our own vows ? As Saint Paul saith, Gal. ii. 18, * If I again build the things I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.' Indeed, when we go about to build the things that we have vowed their destruction, we make ourselves transgressors.
Let us take notice of the wondrous poison and rebellion of the corrup- tion of our hearts in this kind. Hath not the Lord threatened curse upon curse against many particular sins ? ' Cursed is the man that calls evil good, and good evil,' Isa. v. 20. Have we not many that do so ? In Deuteronomy there is curse upon curse to those that mislead others, xxvii. 16, et alibi. And in the New Testament there is curse upon curse ; St Paul threateneth that such and such shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, I'^Cor. vi. 9, 10. Yet, notwithstanding the curse, we go about to build Jericho again, to set up that that God hath pronounced a curse upon.
We cry out against popery, and well we may, when the Scripture directs curses against their particular opinions, as where it saith, * If an angel from heaven shall teach other doctrine, let him be accursed,' Gal. i. 8. The Council of Trent hath cursed those that say traditions are not of equal authority with the Scriptures, and so they set curse against curse. We wonder at them that they are not afraid of the curse of God, nay, to coun- ter-curse God as it were ; when he curseth disobedience, to curse the practice of obedience to him. And then there is a j curse to those that shall add or take away from the Scripture. St John seals the whole Scripture with a curse : ' Cursed is he that adds, or takes away,' &c., Kev. xxii. 18. Now they add to the Scripture that that is no scripture ; and they take away what they list, as the second commandment and the cup in the sacrament. I say we wonder at them, that they will run upon the curses, that they will be stricken through with so many curses, more than Absalom with javelins, or Achan with stones : ' Cursed is he that worship- peth graven images,' Deut. xxvii. 15 ; besides particular things that are cursed in Scripture. We wonder at them that they are so desperately blind to run on. But are not we as ill ? Are there not many curses in the Scripture, and denunciations of being excluded from the kingdom of God, against the courses that are taken by many men ? And yet we ven- ture on it. Will a negative religion bring any man to heaven, to say he is no papist, nor no schismatic ? No. Certainly therefore profane persons that maintain corruptions, and abuses, and abominations, against the light of conscience, and nature, and Scriptures, they raise up Jericho again and they are under a curse.
Let me ask any one why Christ came ?* The apostle saith, and they will be ready to say, ' To dissolve the cursed works of the devil,' 1 John iii. 8. It should seem by many, notwithstanding, especially at these times, that he came to establish the works of the devil ; for what good we do in the ministry, in three quarters of a year, it is almost undone in one quarter. At the time when we pretend great honour to Christ, we live as if he came to build up the cursed wall of hell ; to break loose all. Whereas he came to destroy the works of the devil : ' He came to redeem us out of the hands of our enemies, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our life,' Luke i. 75. He came to redeem us from our vain conversation. Nay, many live as if he came to give liberty to all conversation. Is not this to raise Jericho ? to raise a fort for Satan to enter into our souls and keep possession in us ? to beat out God * In margin here, ' Application concerning the feast of the nativity.' — G.
80 THE TJNPROSPEEOUS BUILDER.
and his Spirit ? to figlit against our known salvation, when we rear up courses contrary to Christ's coming in the flesh, and to the end of Christ's dying for us, which was to free us from our vain conversation, and to redeem us from the world, that we should not be led as slaves to the cus- toms of the world ? e ■ re ■
Therefore let us consider what we do, what our course of hfe is. If it be a proceeding, and edification, and building up ourselves more and more to heaven, a growing in knowledge and in holy obedience to the divine truths we know ; if it bo a pulling down of sin more and more, a going further and further out of the kingdom of darkness, and a setting ourselves at a gi-acious liberty to serve God ; oh it is a happy thing if it be so ! If our life be a taking part with Christ, and his Spuit, and his ministry, to grow in grace and piety, oh it is an excellent thing when we grow better the longer we live in the world, and this cursed Jericho, the corruption of nature, which, if we cherish, will be the cause of an eternal curse after, if it go down, and we ruin it more and more, and we sufi'er the word to beat down the forts of Satan, those strong imaginations, &c. But if our Hfe be nothing else but a Hving answerable to our lusts ; that as we are dead and cursedlby nature, so we make ourselves twice dead, a hundred times dead by sin, and bring curse upon curse by our sinful conversation, we are then under God's broad seal cursed. We aio all born accursed, till we get out of the state of nature ; to free us from which Christ became a curse. If we get not out of this, but go on and feed our vanity and corruption, what will be the end of it but an eternal curse afterwards ? Therefore let us consider what we do, when we maintain and cherish corruptions and abuses in ourselves and others. We build that that God hath cursed ; we build that that we have vowed against ourselves.