Kingdome that the revenue of the Crowne and the patrimony of the Miter and the Estate of every loyall Subject may be theirs Most truly may that of the Prophet be applied to them Jer. 22.17 their eyes and their hearts are not but for their covetousnesse and for to shed innocent bloud and for oppression and for violence to doe it witnesse their Sequestrations their Contributions their Excise their Fift and Twentieth part besides their greedines in getting all the gainful Offices of the Kingdom Their love of money hath been the root of all our evils we may see this by their dividing of the spoile their sharing of the Kingdoms wealth among themselves especially by their sacrilegious selling and usurping of Church-lands they had long agoe ended the Warre or rather had never begun it but to get these Lands they kill as Saint James speaketh because they desire to have to have other mens possessions the whole world and even their own consciences beare witnesse to this truth And their Chaplaines of the Assembly are just like them those Journey-men-Rebels that love the wages of unrighteousnesse that have so much by the day to make Rebellion good by Scripture an heart they have exercised with covetous practises through covetousnesse with fained words making merchandise of men Their ayme is to get the greatest Livings even Pluralities which once they so much railed at and under the name forsooth of Lecturers they creep into Deanes and Prebendaries houses some get Masterships of Colledges some of Hospitals all their ayme is that the inheritance the profitable preferments may be theirs I shall not need to rake this dunghill nor stir this Camerina any further It is most evident how bloudy and covetous all these levelling Vine-dressers are What therefore shall the Lord of the Vineyard doe unto them Sure in justice he might destroy them though he delighteth more in mercy and might let out his Vineyard to others he might discard these unjust Judges he might displace these unfaithfull Stewards these Zimries deserve no peace no pardon that would have slain their Master these Shebaes deserve to have their heads thrown over the Wall these Hamans to be executed upon their owne gallowes those mine enemies might the King say which would not that I should reigne over them bring them hither and slay them before me neque est lex justior ulla Quà m necis artifices arte perire suâ They might justly be served as the Scythian Queen served Cyrus have their heads thrown into a bloud-boule with this exprobration of their tyranny Satiate vos sanguine sanguisugae quem sitistis their heads should down to the grave with bloud theirs especially that have shed the bloud of war in peace that for meer envy have murdered their Captives in cold bloud And methinks indeed these men of bloud should have such an hell within themselves that like Cain they should be afraid that every one which meeteth them will slay them For bloud-thirsty men as David speaketh shall not live out halfe their daies if they doe they seldome die peaceably in their beds Ad generum Ceteris sine caede vulnere paci Descendunt siccâ morte tiranni If any aske why I rip up these mens actions in a time of Treaty I Answer that I have in a manner their owne order for it they returned thanks to those men that petitioned lately against the Treaty whereby it is evident that they approved of their Petition and one passage in that Petition was to this purpose that no base Act of Oblivion might obliterate their doings but that there might be an Act rather for the propagating of their memoriall to posterity But to speak no more of them being absent let me now apply my self to you here present and let me intreat you to be no longer partakers in their sins walke not ye in the way with them refraine your feet from their path for their feet run to evill and make haste to shed bloud and bloud-shed Brethren how light soever now esteemed is a most crying sin the cries of it enter into the eares of the Lord of Sabbath Wash therefore not your hands onely but your hearts too from this sin let no bloudy thoughts any longer lodge in you As the death of men is dear in the sight of God so let it be in your sight Remember what Almighty God saith Gen. 9.5 6. Surely your bloud of your lives will I require at the hand of every mans Brother will I require the life of man Who so sheddeth mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed Take heed then of shaking hands with those men that delight in bloud this sin will not suffer God to be quiet till he avenge it To the slaine his eares are open but fast shut to those that slay them all your daies of Fasting and Humiliation will be ineffectuall if ye be against the Treaty if ye be still for War though ye make never so many Prayers God will not hear you so long as your hands are full of bloud Wash your selves therefore I beseech you make you cleane from the bloud of all men be no longer accessary to murder by raising Money to maintaine War ye know that no murderer no not a second-hand murderer hath eternal life abiding in him Let then your prayer be that God would deliver you from this kind of bloud-guiltinesse and hereafter make better use of your money make it not the price of bloud Cursed be he saith God by Jeremy that keepeth back his sword from bloud Jer. 48.10 A place that Assembly-men have strangely wrested of late yeares pressing it upon mens consciences as a warrant for them to cut throats urging it as a Commission and command for them to kill and slay and many thousands have followed their pernitious doctrine even LONDON the sometime faithfull City is become an Harlot righteousnesse did once lodge in it but now murderers But let not these bloudy wolvish Prophets seduce you any more Wo to the bloudy City this is the voice of the Lords Prophets and if any man teach you otherwise let him be accursed O that ye would know therefore in this your day the things that belong unto your peace lest otherwise they be hid for ever from your eyes Consider what God saith to the Jewes Isa 1.19 20. for the very same he saith now to you If ye be willing and obedient willing to have your King restored and will henceforth be obedient to him ye shall eate the good of the land but if ye refuse his gratious pardon and resolve still to rebel against him ye shal be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord bath spoken it If ye still keep up the sword ye will in the end perish by it your sword will certainly penetrate your own heart Obey not them therefore that think they can kill the body and that would have you make a trade of killing but obey him that can kill body
commonly eate their bread And herein they are a patterne and ensample unto us who indeed should labour more abundantly then they all because they labour but to sustaine mens bodies we to feed their soules We must therefore abound alwaies in the worke of the Lord we must Preach the word as Saint Paul charged Timothy not slothfully but painfully we must labour in the Gospel we must be instant and eager and earnest in our preaching in season out of season in time of peace in time of warre we must reprove we must rebuke we we must exhort with all long suffering and doctrine as the Apostle speaketh And as we must be fervent so we must be perseverant in our office having put our hand to Gods plow we must resolve not to look back We must not with Demas forsake our function and embrace the world nor must we cease to exercise it till we just put off this tabernacle though there be never so great danger in the exercising of it though there be never so many wicked warrants out against us Husband-men will not give over plowing for a showre of raine nor must we give over Preaching because of persecution though we are never so superannuated though we are such as Paul the aged or though so feeble that with St. John we must be carried to the Pulpit Neither must we lord it over Gods heritage like Presbyterian Pastors or like these chiefe Priests who that they may be Lords of the Lords Vineyard conspire to murder the right Lord of it the Conspirators our Text telleth us were Coloni the Husband-men And so likewise Pontius Pilate told our Saviour Thine owne Nation and the chiefe Priests have delivered thee unto me Joh. 18.35 What prodigious unthankfull miscreants were these there can be no Epithet bad enough for such Traytours For they that taught the people taught they not themselves They that were dressers of the Vineyard durst they conspire against the owner of it durst men of the Temple venture upon the worst of treasons well we see by this the truth of that old axiome Corruptio optimi est pessima the best wine maketh the sharpest vineger if Clergy-men once turn Traytours they are incarnate Devils So our Saviour stiled the traytour Judas and thus likewise all Synod-traytours may be stiled And so I passe from the first part of the Text the Conspirators the Husband-men to the second the person against whom they conspired which was the Heire when the Husband-men saw him The Heire The wise God of peace and order will not have every man be his owne carver for the best weapon would then be the best evidence as Levellers would fain have it the strongest arm would be the surest title But as he hath ordained a succession of men so of Estates their Children must be their Heires they must leave their substance to their Babes Dominio non fundatur in gratia they that call themselves babes of grace all things are not theirs had not Jacob supplanted Esau this gracelesse one had been Isaac's Heire For the inheritance was alway challenged by the eldest Son and therefore this title of Heire must needs be due to Christ who was the first begotten of his Heavenly Father the first-borne of his Earthly Mother the first-borne of every Creature the first-borne among many Brethren by right of primogeniture he was the Heir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and they that dwell therein Psal 24.1 And he that is owner of all things maketh his eldest Son a promise of them he promiseth to give him the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 The Devill I know made his brags once that he was Heire of the world when he shewed our Saviour all the Kingdomes of it and told him they were his But as he was a murderer so he was a lyar from the beginning It is true that Abraham had a promise that he should be Heire of the World as the Apostle testifyeth Rom. 4.13 But though to Abraham and his seed there were such a promise made yet Christ for all this was still to be the Heire it is the same Apostles observation Gal. 3.16 He saith not to seeds as of many but to thy seed as of one which is Christ. But here we must not be mistaken for though our Saviour be stiled the Heire yet we must know that his inheritance is no temporall but a spirituall inheritance his Kingdome his Church his heritage is not of this world And as we Christians are not of it so our inheritance properly is not in it we are Heires to a better Country that is an Heavenly though not by nature yet by grace though not by birth yet by faith we are made partabers of the inheritance of the Saints in light we are heires of God co heires with Christ we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us where we shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of God where we shall see our pierced-Saviour not to our terrour but our triumph where we shal see him not with other but with these same eyes the same numericall though not the same mortall eyes where we shall see that which Saint Austin so much wished to see Christum in carne Christ in the flesh and that which many Prophets and Kings desired to see and could not see it They saw this sight indeed a far off which did not a little chear their hearts Abraham rejoyced saith our Saviour to see my day and he saw it and was glad John 8.56 But when Simeon saw him in the Temple his eyes were satisfied with seeing close them now Lord saith he let me die in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation And we may observe here by the way that if ever we will see Christ in Heaven we must first see him upon earth for though we cannot see him yet as Simeon and these chief Priests did with the eyes of our body yet we may see him as Abraham did with the perspective of our faith we may we must see him thorow this glasse darkly before ever we can see him face to face A Christian must not be like a Cyclop with one eye the spouse of Christ as Peraldus observeth must have two oculum fidei and oculum gloriae the eye of faith and the eye of fruition We must walk by faith before we can walk by sight We must like Jacob be first married to blear eyed Leak before we can obtain beautifull Rachel we must first see our Saviour with the tender eye of faith before ever we can behold him with the brighter eye of glory Now though our Saviour pronounce them blessed that have not seen and yet have believed and though Faith be defined by the Apostle
and soule whose expresse command is that ye shall not kill If ye will not follow peace ye shall never see the Lord. If here ye banish that from you He will hereafter banish you from him he will renounce you with those words of David Psal 139.19 Depart from me ye bloudy ye bloud-thirsty men And as God abhorreth the bloudy Psal 5. so doth he the covetous man Psal 10. He that said Doe not kill said also Doe not covet as therefore ye must abstaine from bloud so must ye from covetousnesse let not this be onâ—e named amongst you as becommeth Saints but learn of the Apostle in whatsoever state ye are therewith to be content see that ye covet no mans silver or gold or apparell but having food and rayment be therewith content Ye know whose law it is Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house take heed then Brethren of coveting Bishops houses or any thing else that is anothers and not yours All covet all lose ye may have good Scripture for it Jer. 8.10 I will give their Wives unto others and their fields to them that shall inherit them for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousnesse from the Prophet even unto the Priest They that greedly get away other mens beget a gangrene in their owne estates De male quaesitis vix gaudet tertius hares Take heed therefore as our Saviour exhorteth and beware of covetousnesse Consider what S. Paul saith Ephes 5.5 no covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God and consider what the same Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6.9 They that will be rich as it were whether God will or no fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition Covetousnesse tempteth men to murder this is that maketh Levellers so bloudy as they are from whence come wars and fightings among you Surely covetousnesse hath been the originall of them all the lower sort of people strive to be in an higher roome the poore would faine turn tables with the rich they would thus have every valley to be filled and every mountain and hill to be laid low as if in this sense every man were bound to seek anothers wealth they that were borne to nothing strive to get others birth rights calling themselves for sooth the Saints who they say must inherit the earth they would make themselves rich that have nothing and others poore that have great riches But to conclude this Brethren is not the office of Saints it is Gods office it is the Lord that maketh poore and maketh rich Presume not then to take Gods office out of his hand strive not to make your selves rich if God have made you poore but be content with that portion of outward things that he hath given you the silver is mine and the Gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts Hag. 2.8 Deny him not therefore that priviledge which your owne selves challenge give him leave to doe what he pleaseth with his owne let not the least root of covetousnesse remaine in you remember that godlinesse with contentment is great gaine if the riches of others increase set not your hearts upon them seek not these things below but those above strive not for an inheritance on earth but to have one in heaven that ye may banish cruelty let covetousness be banished first that ye may not thirst after other mens blouds covet not their goods bast thou killed saith God to Ahab and also taken possession well ye know what became of him Jezebel for this stifle therefore not onely you murtherous but also your covetous thoughts if ye must needs be killing mortifie your earthly members if ye must needs be coveting covet earnestly the best gifts God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith to be heires of his kingdome labour therefore to get the gold of faith whereby ye may be rich towards God and then although here ye have no temporall inheritance yet hereafter ye shall have one far better ye shall be heires apparent unto Heaven ye shall inherit gloty God will give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified though now ye are in your nonage yet at the last day ye shall be perfect men ye shall be of full age ye shall attain to the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ who shall then invite you to enter upon your inheritance in these words Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Which God of his infinite mercy vouchsafe to grant unto us all for the merits of his beloved Son our blessed Saviour To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost Three Persons one Immortall Invisible Indivisible only wise God be rendred and ascribed as most due is All Honour Glory Power Praise Might Majesty Wisdome and Dominion the residue of this blessed day present and for evermore world without end Amen FINIS