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
the evidence of things not seen yet Segniùs irritant animos c. as the Poet speaketh a man will give more credit to his eyes then to his ears Saint Thomas would not go by hear-say except he might see he resolved not to believe But the chief Priests were so perverse that they would not believe their own eyes for they conspired against our Saviour though they saw him though they knew him though they knew him to be the Messiah and could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Heire From whence we may observe that as there is a zeale without knowledg so there is a knowledg without faith The very Devils knew our Saviour they knew him to be the Son of God Mat. 3.29 Jesus I know said the evill Spirit to those Exorcists Act. 19.15 But their knowledge was meerly historicall like their faith And just after this manner did the chief Priests know Christ There are indeed some places of Scripture that seem to contradict our Text and to say that the chief Priests knew not Jesus to be Christ knew not that he was the Heire For Saint John saith plainly that the world knew him not Joh. 1.10 And Saint Peter upbraiding the Jewes for killing the Prince of life useth these very words I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers Act. 3.17 And Saint Paul speaking of the wisdome of God which I take to be his Son telleth us in expresse words that none of the Princes of this world knew it for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 But I answer First to that of Saint John the world knew not Christ that is the greatest part of it to that of Saint Paul none of the Princes of this world knew him that is few of them to that of Saint Peter the Jewes and their Rulers slew him ignorantly that is some of them did so thus the ordinary glosse would have those places construed Secondly I answer that the ignorance of the chief Priests was not purae negationis but pravae dispositionis if they were ignorant of Christ it was because they would be ignorant as the people used to say to their Seers see not so these Seers seem to have stopped their eares and shut their eyes for otherwise they could not chuse but acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah because all the Prophecies of his comming were fulfilled First that Prophecy Gen. 49.10 pointing at the time of his Birth the Scepter was then departed from Judah the Jewes paid contribution they were tributaries to the Romans Secondly that Prophecy Micah 5.2 pointing out the place of his Nativity he was borne in Bethleem of Judea which was the place assigned for Christs Birth as these very chief Priests or their Predecessours told King Herod But if neither the time nor place of his Birth yet his Miracles might perfectly assure them that he was the Messiah And therefore when Saint John Baptist sent two of his Disciples to aske him if he were Christ all the answer he would returne by them was this Go and shew John again those things ye doe heare and see the blind receive their sight the deafe hear the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the dead are raised up c. Mat. 11.4 5. And when Christ commeth some asked the question Shall he doe more Miracles then these which this man doth Joh. 7.31 Though the chief Priests then would not believe his words yet they might have believed him for his works sake But neither of these would prevaile with them they had eares yet would not heare they had eyes yet would not see Which was a most notorious aggravation of their treason for had they been stark blind their sin haply might have been remitted but because seeing they would not see therefore their sin remaineth And this sin of theirs seemeth to be no better then the very sin against the Holy Ghost for against conscience out of meer malice they conspired to put this Heire to death And I pray God the Ring-leaders of our rebellious Reformation be not guilty of the self-same sin for it seemeth to be out of a desperate inveterate malice that notwithstanding the present Treaty some of them persist in their conspiracy against the best of Kings But these Levellers shall bring up the rear of my discourse I passe therefore from the second part of the Text the Person that the chief Priests conspired against which was the Heire to the third which is the manner of their conspiracy They reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they reasoned they argued the case Treason is a sin of deliberation a studied sin All sins are not cognita known sins there are sins of ignorance as well as sins of knowledge But there is neither ignorantia facti nor ignorantia juris in treason it is wilfully contrived and complotted it is a premeditated sin And herein appeareth the hainousnesse of it above other sins To sin out of infirmity or ignorance to be overtaken in a fault this is but as it were chance medley pardonable by the law of God and men But to sin with a full career of set purpose to consult about it this is no lesse then wilfull murder a sin that never must go unpardoned and yet this was the sin of these chief Priests in our Text they reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come Wicked men use to call and invite one another to commit sin they are a sociable sort of people that are unwilling to go to Hell alone they entise and engage as many as they can to be partakers with them they are in league and covenant there is a combination among them especially among Traytours such as these chief Priests were who conspired against Christ just as Joseph's Brethren against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come let us kill him Joseph indeed scaped with life thanks to his eldest Brother but Jesus had not one Reuben to speak for him none but a Woman and she could not prevaile the Kings of the earth standing up and the Rulers taking counsell together against the Lord and against his Christ for against the holy Child Jesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of the Jewes were gathered together they gathered them together against the soule of the righteous that they might condemn the innocent bloud they reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him Kill him As the Devil is a murtherer so all those that are of his party thirst after bloud Shimei did a great deal of wrong to David in calling him so but otherwise Bloudy man and man of Belial may well go together for there is no man desperately wicked but he is a bloud-thirsty man It hath been thus from the beginning of the world and will be so to the end Caine was of that wicked one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and slew his Brother 1 Joh. 3.12 This was likewise the resolution of wicked Esau the daies of mourning for my Father are at hand then saith he will I slay my Brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 Thus Pharaoh commanded the Aegyptian Midwives to murder every Male child of the Hebrews if it be a Son then ye shall kill him Exod. 1.16 And thus Herod slew all the Children in Bethleem from two years old and under Mat. 2.16 This we read of Herodias that nothing would satiate her malice but Saint John Baptists bloud Mat. 14.8 Thus the Jewes cried out against Saint Paul Away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live Act. 22.22 And Act. 23.12 we find some that bound themselves under a curse they took the Covenant saying that they would neither eate nor drinke till they had killed Paul And the Whore of Babylon is said to be drunk with the bloud of Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus Rev. 17.6 I might be infinite in examples but this in our Text shall be instar omnium we may fee the bloudy mindednesse of wicked men by these chief Priests who conspired not to banish or imprison but even to murder Gods owne Son they reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him And the voices of the multitude and of these chief Priests prevailed this treason stood not alway in consultation but went on to action what the common counsell determined wickedly the common people executed greedily they cast the Heire out of the Vineyard and slew him with this dreadfull imprecation his bloud be on us and on our children And seeing our Master was thus used we must expect no better measure but even to be killed all the day long as the Psalmist speaketh and to be counted as Sheep appointed to be slaine The Alpha and the Omega of the Church is writ in bloud Sanguine fundata est Ecclesia sanguine crevit Sanguine firmatur sanguine finis erit And we need not wonder at this if we believe our Saviour for it is but that which he told us long agoe that we should be hated and hunted after for his sake yea the time will come saies he that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service A Prophecy that seemeth to point directly at our very daies when the bloudiest of Souldiers think themselves the best of Saints when murdering of loyall Christians goeth for pure Religion But though our bloud be shed like water on every side yet our God that is true and holy will in his good time judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth there will one day be a strict inquisition made for bloud for the blood of Strafford and Canterbury for the bloud of Lucas and Lisle for the bloud of Tomkins and Chaloner for the bloud of Yeomans Bourchier and Burleigh for the bloud of Dunkin and others in Kent there will be a day I say if not in this yet in the next world when all the righteous bloud that hath of late years been shed in this Kingdome shall be required at the hands of this tyrannicall satanicall generation And so I passe from the third part of the Text which was the manner of the chief Priests conspiracy they reasoned among themselves saying come let us kill him to the fourth and last the end of their conspiracy which was that they might be Lords of the Mannour that the inheritance may be ours But when the Husbandmen saw him they reasoned among themselves saying this is the Heire come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours In every action there is both Opus and Intentio operantis the doing of the work and the end for which we doe it and by an Hysteron proteron the last of these is first what is last in execution the same is first in our intention the end being alway the beginning of the action Now it is an axiome in Philosophy Finis Bonum convertuntur let the action be what it will Good is alway propounded for the end either Honestum or Jucundum or Vtile either an honest or a pleasant or a profitable end they that doe evill will say they doe this that good may come of it good to themselves at least though hurt to others or if it be not good indeed yet it shall seemingly be good and the last of those three ends the chief Priests here propound unto themselves Bonum utile they set up profit for their end Come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours They propound the same end with those sinners that Solomon cautioneth us to take heed of Prov. 1.11 13. where hope of gaine is used as a motive to invite others to joyne with them Come let us lay wait for bloud let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause we shall find all pretious substance we shall fill our houses with spoile And at the 19 Verse there is just such another passage So are the waies of every one that is greedy of gaine which taketh away the life of the owners thereof quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames There is no villany but will go down with men if it have a golden bait The love of money is the root of all evill 1 Tim. 6.10 Balaam will endeavour to curse Israel if he may gain but the rewards of Divination Achan will take of the accursed thing if he may gain a Babylonish garment two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold Saul will spare the spoile of Amaleck if he may gain good store of rich plunder Gehazi will tell an arrant lie to Naaman if he may gain two talents and new clothes Judas will betray his own Master if he may gain thirty pieces of silver the Souldiers will say that Christ was stollen out of the grave if the chief Priests will give them large money Jezebel will plot Naboth's death if she may gain his Vineyard she proclaimed a fast yet knew no other godlinesse but gaine and this this likewise set the chief Priests a work to conspire the death of Christ Come say they let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours That we may be no longer dressers but possessers of the Vineyard that there may be no Superiour no Lord over us but that the Church may be ruled and governed as we list that the doctrine and discipline of it may be what we see good nay that we may have dominion as well over mens free-hold as their faith that their consciences and coffers may both be at our command This was the end that the chief Priests aimed at when they conspired against the Heire Come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours And herein the Bishop of Rome looketh very like them who stileth himself Christs Vicar S. Peters Successour he saith that he is the right heire the head of Christs whole Church he arrogateth the
title of Vniversall Bishop he challengeth as it were the Wardship nay the Lordship of the Church whatsoever he saith must go for Gospel meerly because he saith it he taketh upon him more then Apostolicall authority even that which is Gods peculiar To forgive sins for which cause fall the silly people unto him and thereout he sucketh no small advantage it is a masse of money that his Pardons annually bring in to him And other stratagems he hath but all to enrich himselfe He will release men out of Purgatory if they will give him money enough he will warrant they shal be heires of Heaven though herein he contradict himself for sometimes he telleth them that they can never be sure of Heaven till they come thither yet thus he befooleth the people he will warrant them an inheritance in Heaven if they will make him their Heire on earth His whole Religion indeed is nothing else but a politick project to get money he feedeth not the flock of Christ but feedeth upon it he keepeth the people in ignorance seeking not them but theirs He and all his Cardinals Monks and Abbots they seek their own profit and preferment their own gain and greatnesse like these chief Priests in our Text whose aime was to get the inheritance Come say they let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours And so I have gone thorow the severall parts of the Text. A few words of application and I have done Our Text is a plain conspiracy against our Saviour and the conspiracy of Levellers against our Soveraigne wil match it right Our Saviour let out his Vineyard to Husbandmen so our Soveraigne did as it were let out His Kingdome to States-men he gave them power to prune and dresse it to take off superfluities to rectifie enormities he gave them their hearts desire and denied them not the request of their lips he granted that which none but a most indulgent Land-lord would ere have granted they asked a lease of him and he gave them a long lease longer then any of their Predecessours ever had he made them no Tenants for years much lesse at will but reserving his fee-simple I mean his Negative voice he gave it under his hand that he would not re-enter till they themselves consented to it O fortunatos nimium bona si sua norint Agricolas What men were ever so happy as these might have been How might the glory of their God of their King of their Countrey and even of themselves have been advanced by them But neglecting the three first they aimed chiefly at the last at their owne glory For assoone as their unlucky lease was sealed they straight way thought themselves free-holders taking Regall power upon them as if the Militia the King's inheritance had been theirs they devested their Soveraigne of it and invested themselves with it making the Heire of three Kingdomes though no Child in any thing but malice to differ nothing from a servant when he was Lord of all for without him they took upon them to un-make and to make Lawes saying we have the legislative power who is Lord over us And that they might the better enjoy the Crowne they entred into Covenant against the Miter resolved to abolish the excellent government of Bishops root and branch And because the King both against his oath and conscience would not yeild to this Come said they let us compell him to it by force of Armes they set the people awork first to mutiny then to fight against him as who should say we have no part in Charles neither have we inheritance in the Son of James every man to his tents ô England they proclaimed open War against Him and His Adherents giving out Commissions to kill and slay all persons that should oppose them their Soveraigne Lord the King was not excepted for bullets cannot distinguish between a Scepter and a shovel the sword as David said devoureth one as well as another But seeing they could not kill Him in the field they have since attempted it in the prison it is too apparent that the Ring-leaders of this Rebellion had an hand in that late Conspiracy against Him Nor is it only Carolus but even Rex that they strike at going about not onely to kill the Person but the very office of King I speak of the levelling Faction all this while Come say they let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us come let us make no more addresses to him but let us make our selves a free-State that the name of Monarch may be no more in remembrance And to effect this they have made the Kingdome not only a field but even a sea of bloud breathing out nothing but slaughter against all loyall Subjects killing and slaying butchering and murthering their Brethren whose bloud they have shed like Water on every side like that Woman in the Revelation drinking themselves drunk with the bloud of Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus in which noble Army those matchlesse Knights murdered at Colchester may well be listed It is no mervaile if these bloud-hounds will not have Gods Commandements read in Churches for one of these telleth them expresly they must doe no murder and as almost all the rest so most especially that sixt Commandement they count Apocryphall for murdering of men is their profession and a great part of their Religion as if Mars were their God and Mahomet their Messiah Let them usurp the name of Christians while they will I am sure their bloudy practices proclaime them arrant Turkes Christianity is for the saving of mens lives Turcisme for the destroying of them and such is the Religion of these Levellers destruction is in their way they are still opposing of Treaties the way of peace have they not known like horse-leaches they never think they have bloud enough they would have it even unto the horse-bridles as if they had a mind to swim in bloud And all this under pretence of Religion and Reformation a pretence so pitiful so thread bare that I wonder men are not ashamed to be seduced by it for Religion was ever made the stalking-horse to Rebellion and indeed this must be the pretence or else the designe will soon be dasht for should they proclaime themselves open Atheists and professe the subverting of Religion I think the world is not so bad but that it would tear them all in pieces They are bound therefore to pretend piety like Absolom and Jezebel but their actions tell the world that they ayme at other ends even at Libertinisme that they may be lawlesse that they may doe what they list that they may roare and whore yet never be questioned or controuled for there are no men living more given to the flesh then they that pretend so extreamly to the spirit but chiefly the Inheritance the Kingdomes wealth is that they ayme at they seek not the kingdom of God but the riches of this
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