A LEARNED AND GRACIOUS SERMON Preached at Paul's Cross, BY THAT FAMOUS AND ludicious Divine, JOHN SPENSER, D. of Divinity, and late Precedent of Corpus Chr: Coll: in OXFORD.  
Published for the benefit of Christ's Vineyard, by H. M.  JOHN 15.2. 
Every branch that bears not fruit in me, he taketh away, and every one that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  
LONDON, Imprinted by George Purslowe for Samuel Rande, and are to be sold at his shop near Holborn Bridge. 1615.   

TO THE RIGHT RIVER END AND worthily honoured Father in God, JOHN by Divine Providence, L. Bishop of LONDON, Grace and Peace be multiplied, with all the compliments of true Essential Happiness.  
THe Author of this Heavenly Sermon, (Right Reverend and most worthy Moecenae of Learning) I may justly compare to john the Baptist, of whom jesus giveth this commendation, that he was a burning and a shining light, john 5.35. for he was a john indeed, a faithful dispenser of the mysteries of God; in whom the grace of God was exceedingly resplendent, who burned with zeal & love towards God's Vineyard; and was while he lived, such a shining light in the house of God, in respect of his knowledge, learning, piety and godliness, that he was reverenced of all good men, admired of such as excel in judicious learning; yea, all men of what sort or condition soever, which knew him, did worthily afford him the testimony of a mild and loving spirit. Oh, what admirable height of knowledge, and depth of judgement dwelled within the lowly mind of this true humble man, great in all men's eyes except his own! with what gravity, & majesty of speech did his tongue utter heavenly mysteries, which many a Christian ear hath heard, with unspeakable joy and comfort! Oh, how did he empty himself to fill others! how did he waste and consume himself, to enlighten that flock which was committed to his chargel yea, as it is the nature of true goodness to communicate itself to others; so was it this good man's endeavour, that as he was Lux illuminata, enlightened himself with knowledge and grace from above, so he might be Lux illuminans, the instrument and servant of God to enlighten others in the ways of their peace, to the glory of his Master Christ, and the soul's health of the lambs of his little flock. For mine own part I profess it freely, that as I was to him under God most of all indebted for my livelihood in this world: so for matter of learning & light of knowledge (if I have any) it was especially drawn from his fountain, & derived from the splendour of his goodness; yea, while I lived as it were under his roof (being his Minister for the space of five years) what gain I got by attending his voice, how much I have profited by penning and observing his precious meditations, and what a blessing I have reaped from the harvest of his honest, religious, and unblamable conversation; those which knew me before, and have been acquainted with me since, can truly testify to God's glory, that me mihi meliorem reddidit; quam accepit.  
Wherefore now to show my thankfulness in part, and the reverend respect I deservedly bore him, I have undertaken (though unworthy of all others) to publish such of his learned labours as he left behind him: and which I am sure he rather penned for his own private use, then with any purpose to have them printed either before or after his death: for though by all possible means this blessed man was ever ready to manifest his good will to the benefit of the Church, and behoof of posterity; yet was he so lowly in his own eyes, so cast down in his own conceit, and his labours of such little esteem in his own sight, that he held nothing he did, worthy of the world's view, though his pains were never so great in the composing thereof; yea this of mine own knowledge I dare affirm, that such was his humility and modesty in that kind, that when he had taken extraordinary pains, together with a most judicious and complete Divine in our Church, about the compiling of a learned and profitable work now extant, yet would he not be moved to put his hand to it, though he had a special hand in it, and therefore it fell out, that tulitalter honores.  
Concerning this particular Sermon, which is his fathers postbumus, and presents itself in the first place to the world before the rest, which by God's grace shall follow after, (though of itself it deserves allowance, and binds dependency unto it) yet am I bold to recommend the protection thereof to your Lordship, and to entitle it to your Honour's name upon due deliberation, and divers just causes; as first, in regard of the unthankfulness of this inconsiderate age of ours, which is more willing to entertain every idle Pamphlet and vain toy that fond invention can excogitate, then to embrace such laudable enterprises which further the Kingdom of God, or persuade the truth of religion among the sons of men: amongst which ungrateful monsters, some are such Atheists and open enemies of God's truth, that they bark at them, sicut Cerberus in Stygio; some are such Athenians, affecters of novelty, that they will hiss at them, sicut anguis in herba, and look asquint at every occurrent that fits not their humour: and there is an ignawm pecus, which themselves stand idle in the market place all the day long, and yet with forked tongues will they not spare to carp at each monument of piety, and in a prejudicate opinion reject & disgrace their pains, who shall but cross the path of their wicked delights; wherefore I much desired (my Honourable L.) that this worthy Sermon might find such an happy Patron as yourself, being assured, that passing under your Honourable name, it might be sheelded from the injury and envy of impious, superstitious and contentious persons, and might find with men of sound judgement the freer acceptation, and with men of great place the graver consideration, and with men of all sorts the better entertainment when it comes abroad. And further, though I know your Lordship delights not to have your name divulged in printed papers, yet I doubt not but you will be pleased to patronize this poor Orphan, and suffer it willingly to pass under your honours protection, and that for it own sake, being a discourse of God's Vineyard, a part whereof Almighty God hath made you an happy overseer: but especially for his father's sake, whom while he lived, you loved as your own life, and tendered as that which was nearest and dearest unto you: oh, how did the loadstone of your love ever draw him after yourself! so that in the same University you were Students together, in the same house you were servants & Chaplains together, in the same city you were neighbours and Preachers together: to the same colleges where you were first Students, you were advanced together, and I doubt not, but in the same kingdom (though he be gone first) through God's mercy you shall shine as stars together: and therefore, seeing (good my Lord) he sleepeth, but you are waking, he is in heaven, and you on earth; what part or parcel of his writings can challenge as of right, protection from any man that lives, save only yourself, who have so truly loved him in his life, and so redoubled your affection upon him in his, since his death, which his religious, constant, and truly sorrowful widow with her fatherless children do find and freely confess, pouring out incessant prayers to almighty God for you and yours? And how can you want the blessings of heaven, which have the widow and fatherless to intercede for you upon earth? Oh give me leave to say of your Lordship, concerning this, without suspicion of flattery, as Saint Hierom writes of Origen in his preface before his book upon the Canticles, In ceteris libris omnes alios vicerit, in Cantico Canticorum seipsum vicit: So in other of your painful works you go beyond others, but in this work of piety you exceed yourself. But not to trespass too far upon your Lordship's patience, seeing thus the God of mercy hath moved your heart, sincerely to affect the Author of this Sermon, and next under God to regard his widow and fatherless children; let me presume to make this suit further unto you, in the behalf of this the living Image of his soul, the first fruit of his published labours, that you being a Reverend father of the church, would give it your blessing before it go abroad, yea that blessing which jacob sent with his sons into Egypt, Gen. 43.14. God Almighty give you mercy in the sight of the man; in the sight of the proud man, that you may make him humble; in the sight of the poor man, that you may make him content; in the sight of the stubborn man, that you may make him yield; in the sight of the penitent man, that you may bind up and power wine and oil into his wounds; in the sight of the barren man, that you may make him fruitful; in the sight of every man, that you may touch their consciences, and win their souls; but especially in the sight of our joseph, our jesus, who ever so bless your Lordship, that your ways may be prosperous, your sorrows easy, your comforts many, your virtues eminent, your conscience quiet, your life holy, your death comfortable, your election sure, and your salvation certain. Amen.  
Your Honours humbly devoted, Hamlett Martial.   

GOD'S LOVE TO HIS VINEYARD.  ESAY the 5. VERSE 2.3. 
Now therefore, O Inhabitants of jerusalem, and men of judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my Vineyard: What could I have done any more to my Vineyard, which I have not done unto it? Why have I looked for grapes, and it bringeth forth wild grapes?  
WHereas the beginning of man's salvation, the spur and goad which driveth him to Christ, is the sense of his own imperfections, and terror of his own sins: Strange it is, how averse we are by nature from this first means of our conversion: strange, how blind, how partially, how corruptly we judge in our own causes: either not once considering, or not faithfully acknowledging our own transgressions: which forceth God in the ordinary courses of man's salvation, sometimes to deal by policies and devices, and to propose his own case to him, not as his own, but in Parables, and in the person of others: that drawing him from himself, he might also draw from him an unpartial sentence against himself. Thus God dealt with David, when he lay asleep in the sin of Bershebah, and would not awake himself, to consider of his own estate: that when David had given a severe sentence against the rich man that slew the poor man's lamb, and had pronounced death against him with an oath, As the Lord liveth, he shall surely die: The Prophet might strike him to the heart with the sentence of his own mouth: Thou art the man; Thus and thus hast thou done. And (to omit the manifold examples in Scriptures of this kind) thus doth our Prophet in this place deal with the people of judah: he proposeth to them a Parable, and because it should be taken up in every man's mouth, he setteth it down in verse, and maketh a song, of a Vineyard, which after the infinite care & cost of the husbandman, in planting, fencing, weeding, watering, pruning it, could not be won to bring forth any thing, but wild, unwholesome, &, as the word signifieth, stinking grapes; wherein, having every man's secret judgement, that such an unprofitable vineyard were to be left desolate and neglected: he concludeth out of this, their own severity, against themselves, Verse 7. Surely, this Vineyard of the Lord of hosts, is the house of Israel, the men of judah are his pleasant plants, and he looked for judgement, and behold oppression, for righteousness, and behold a crying.  
And first by the way for the Parable itself: God hath judged it profitable thus to teach his Church sometimes by parables; which though they be veils and shadows, & do hide under them spiritual mysteries, yet when they are opened and unfolded, they give a great light to the thing which they shadowed, and by their sensible similitude & proportion, they breed a sensible conceit of things removed from sense.  
Now to discourse of this whole Parable, time will not permit. I have made choice of that one part only, in which the case of the Vineyard is put to the judgement of the people, that is, their own cause is referred to their own arbitrement. Now therefore, O inhabitants, etc. judge I pray you, etc.  
In which words is comprehended the sum of the whole. 1. The Church of Israel is proposed under the figure of the Lords vineyard. 2. Is set down the Lords care of provision for his Vineyard: What could I have done for my Vineyard, which I have not done? 3. The end of God's care and benefits, fruits, good works, (I looked for grapes.) 4. The Church's unthankfulness, (It bringeth forth wild grapes.) 5. and lastly, the judgement which passed on it, (judge I pray you.)  
First, for the Church of Israel, thus figured by a vineyard: As there is one Creator both of heaven and earth: so wonderful are the similitudes and resemblances of one order of his creatures to another, of things sensible, to things intelligible, whereby in earth wise men do behold a shadow of heaven itself: but of earthly things which represent spiritual, nothing doth more lively express the nature of the visible Church, then doth a Vineyard. A certain householder (saith our Saviour, Math. 21.) planted a Vineyard. And john the 15. I am the Vine, and ye are the branches, and my Father is a husbandman. For what property can we find in the one, which is not in a sort answered in the other? Both Church and Vineyard, neither of them do, as selfe-sowne things naturally spring and multiply out of the earth, both are to be planted by hand and by art. Non exsanguinibus nec ex voluntate carnis, sed ex Deo, saith Saint john of the Church. Both Vine & Church grow up the meanest of all plants; they cannot bear up themselves without props and stays: even as the Elm is to the Vine, so is the civil state unto the Church. Both in regard of their natural weakness are taught to twine their arms and their branches one within an other, & embrace, sustain and strengthen one another, as it were, growing in one by love; when they flourish, and are suffered to spread, nothing so enlargeth itself. As Pliny speaketh of Vines: Sine modo crescunt: So the Church spreadeth forth her arms from the sea unto the river, from one end of the world unto the other. In the time of their flourishing estate, and their summer, no plant is so pleasant, every thing harboureth under their shadow: but when winter cometh, and the persecutions of storms take away their beauty, no plant standeth so poor, so deformed, so contemptible to the outward eye; the rich, the noble, the worldly wise, like their green leaves, do commonly fall away. Both Vineyard and Church, both must be strongly fenced, else they lie open to the prey of many kinds of spoils: both must be pruned and kept under with continual cutting, else they grow out luxuriously, and become wild; and as for their fruits, when they prove fruitful, how are their weak branches laden with grapes? how do their fruits exceed their strength? how do they bring forth their grapes in bunches, and clusters, united in love? as the Apostle Saint james speaketh of the fruits of righteousness, that they are brought forth in peace of them that love peace. And as for the kinds of their fruits, all other fruits in comparison, are as nothing: It is the fruit of these two vines which ministereth mirth and comfort to all the world; and as the vine speaketh, judg. 9 cherisheth the heart both of God and man. Fruits of mercy and love, how do they warm and cheer up the weak hearts? fruits of justice and Equity, how do they ease and relieve the oppressed soul? God & Angels, and men rejoice, when these Vines are laden with these fruits. For when they are unfruitful, both sorts of Vines are of all trees most unprofitable, serving for no use but for the fire.  
This is then the nature of God's Church. It is a spiritual Vineyard; the root whereof is but one, Christ jesus the second Adam. Other foundation (sayeth the Apostle) can no man lay: Other Plants shallbe rooted out: Into him the multitude of believers are planted, into him they grow: for all the branches of it, are of their own nature wild, taken from the old stock, the first Adam, even as many as the Lord our God shall call, and they are set into that eternal Vine, the second Adam, by engrafting.  
Now, as in Grafts, though all in like manner stand in stocks, and are fastened to them with outward bonds, yet all do not incorporate themselves by drawing sap from the root, & thereby growing in it, and bringing forth fruit; so there is an outward engrafting into Christ, by outward visible bonds of union, the outward profession of the faith of Christ, and the outward Sacrament of Incorporations, the society and company of which outward professions, so visibly engrafted, do make the visible Church and Vineyard of God on earth: And with this visible and outward engrafting, and by means thereof, there is wrought an inward engrafting and incorporating, through the invisible bonds of the spirit also, in which some do grow into the stock, and receive sap and life from the root, even the participation of the spirit of life from Christ, and do bring forth fruit in him; the company of which only do make up that mystical body of Christ, which is to man invisible, because the bond is invisible. These two sorts of grafts, howsoever to our eyes they stand alike in the stock, and do sometimes seem to grow alike, yet the Apostle distinguisheth most plainly with their several bonds also, Rom. 2.28. He is not a jew, who is a jew outward, neither that circumcision which is in the flesh: but he is a jew, who is a jew within, whose circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Notwithstanding, both these sorts, as they communicate together in the outward bonds of one profession, as they visibly continued together like one visible body, upon that one root Christ jesus, on whom they all outwardly profess that they depend, as on the fountain of their sap and life: so they both together make this one visible Vineyard, and visible Church on earth, to which God speaketh by his Prophets; that Vineyard which is sometimes fruitful, and sometimes bringeth forth wild grapes. And of this visible kind of Vineyard we are now to entreat.  
Our next question therefore is, where that vinyeard may be seen. For in Esayes days; Surely (saith God) the Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, the men of judah are his pleasant plants: All the world beside, was as a wilderness and a forest, the habitation of wild beasts: this only was the Lord's Paradise placed in the midst of the world, and fenced in from all the world; the subject of our present Parable. But the circumstances of this Church doc minister occasion of 3. doubts, concerning the general nature and state of God's Church on earth, which are necessary to be unfolded: first, seeing the whole church of Israel and judah, was at these times so generally corrupted, as well in idolatry and superstition, as in life & manners; that, as it is, Esay 1. From the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot, there was nothing sound, but wounds & swellings, and sores full of cerruption: A doubt ariseth how it might be called God's Church and Vineyard, unless an Idolatrous, and erring. Church, notwithstanding may be accounted God's Church; an adulterous wife, God's Spouse. 2. Seeing the house of Israel at this day was divided, and Ephram separated from judah, not only in civil sort, but in the form of Religion also; our next doubt is then, how these two Churches are notwithstanding by the Prophet counted as one: The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, though the men of judah be his pleasant plants: And seeing both judah and Samaria are now laid waste, and the Church and Vineyard there is utterly destroyed; our last doubt is, where the Vineyard and Church of God may now be found on earth. I will lightly touch them all; speaking first of the place where the Church is; secondly, of her variable state, her purity and corruption: thirdly, of her unity, how, many particular Churches are notwithstanding one.  
Now for the first, where the Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is. Unhappy Israel, thou hadst an eternal promise; 
Psal. 132. ver. 14.  This (said God) is my rest for ever, here will I dwell: but thou didst thyself reject God, and didst cast the LORD thy Redeemer out of his own Vineyard: thou didst with a loud cry, in the sight of the Sun, and in the hearing of the Gentiles protest, We will not have this man to reign over us, we will have no King but Caesar. Thou didst lead him out of thy City, & didst crucify him without the gate, calling for the guilt of his innocent blood, not only upon thine own head, but also upon the heads of all thy posterity. And now the Lord is risen up again, and is departed; the Vine is removed, and planted elsewhere: and as for that old Vineyard, it is burnt, it is burnt with fire, and the wild beasts of the forest have devoured it up.  
Seeing then the Lord will not be without a Church on earth, without a Vineyard: 
Psal. 80.  if we demand where it is now; 1. it is evident, that since judah is for her contempt laid waste, the Lord hath planted his Church in the desert of the Gentiles: secondly, it is as evident, that according to the prophecies, he hath enlarged the bounds thereof, and hath made it universal and Catholic, so that there is no City nor Nation, which will receive that eternal root to be planted in it, which may not become a part of his Church and Vineyard. This appeareth by the manner of Gods proceeding. When Paul and Apollo the Lord's workmen went forth to work, in what City soever they stayed, they made a Vineyard; Paul planted, Apollo watered: and by their industry the Lord had a new Church in Corinth; a Church at Ephesus, a Church in Galatia, in Thessalonica, in Philippi: the other Apostles and Evangelists did the like in other Countries, planting Vineyards as far as India: so that if any man would know where the Lords. Church is, we need not seek for secret marks and tokens: These Vineyards are easily discerned from other parts of the earth: And yet not by their fruits; for often they bring forth wild grapes, but by their root that is planted in them, in what Country or place soever; that Vine which came down from heaven is planted, wheresoever it is outwardly received, as the root and spring of man's life and salvation: where there is Baptism to engraft and incorporate the new professed branches, and the food of the word, and the communion of the Lords Supper, to make them increase and grow, there is a Vineyard: because there both is his vine, & the means to make it spread to the Lord of hosts, and therefore there is his eye, and care, and providence and protection, there he expecteth fruit: for wheresoever God vouchsafeth to bestow the outward grace of the knowledge of Christ, 
Act. 16.9  and to continue the sowing of his seed of life; it is an evident token that he hath some people in that place.  
Thus of those seven several Vineyards and Churches in Asia, with their Angels and overseers, Revel. 1. though one Church was purer than another, and some were so degenerated, that the great LORD of the Vineyard doth threaten them with desolation, and removing the vine root; yet his careful eye was over them all, & he that seemeth to be gone into a far Country, yet was seen walking in the midst of them, and, as it were holding them in his hand. And thus to seek no other marks and notes of the Church, than this present Parable affordeth; what greater assurance can we have to ourselves, that the Lord hath chosen us for a part of his Vineyard, than this, that he hath with such care and long assiduity laboured to plant the knowledge of Christ crucified among us; that he hath raised up such multitudes of Labourers amongst us, and endued them with excellent faculties and graces, and sent them into his Vineyard to follow his spiritual husbandry; that he hath so many thousands daily engrafted into him by Baptism; that he so mightily protecteth them with his defences, & so continually feedeth them with the knowledge of his word, so importunately calleth at their hands for the fruits of a Vineyard, and no doubt receiveth some? for it is impossible that all these things should be in vain, as not from God, seeing not so much as the rain and snow from heaven do return again in vain, Esai. 55.10.11.  
The second question which the Vineyard moveth, is concerning the state of the Lords Churches, their purity or corruptions here on earth, whether they are always clean, and not sometimes through the negligence of the Overseers overgrown with weeds, or through their private covetousness sometimes planted among, with other plants. For first, the Church of judah, howsoever at this time, in the days of Vzziah, it held the public profession of God purely, yet was it both now so generally corrupted in manners, that in Esai 1. God crieth against it: Ah sinful Nation, laden with iniquity, corrupt children, which have forsaken the Lord: After, in the days of Ahas, both Prince & high Priest and people, even the whole outward state fell to Idolatry, and by little and little so corrupted their ways, that as Ezechiel chargeth her, she went beyond her sister Samaria in spiritual fornication and idolatry. And yet notwithstanding this her uncleanness, she is still counted the Lords Spouse, though a harlot also; and the Lords vineyard, though for the outward face in most part clean degenerated; yea, and the Lord by his Prophets wooeth her as his own, because she had not absolutely renounced his covenants; otherwise God had no public & visible Church and Vineyard at all upon the earth in those days. Nay, I may go further and affirm of Israel, that though it not only worshipped God by calves, and after in Ahabs' time, did set up Baal also, the god of the Gentiles, and then as the Prophet chargeth them, halted between God & Baal: yet the Lord, not only in this place calleth it his Vineyard, and professeth, jer. 3.9. I am a Father to Israel, Ephraim is my first borne; But his merciful presence in the midst of these abominations did not clean forsake them, but that he had of his Prophets continually amongst them, and many messages of kindness he sent to their state, and many miraculous deliverances he wrought for them; and after almost three hundred years Idolatry, when Israel was for this their irrevocable obstinacy in rebellious fornication to be cast off into the hands of her enemies, and yielded up to captivity: yet he is as it were distracted within himself, Hos. 8. How shall I deliver thee up, O Ephraim? My heart is turned within me: I will not (yet) execute the fierceness of my wrath: for though Ephraim were a prodigal son, yet he was counted a son to his last being, even till he gave up the seal of circumcision and outward profession of the name of the God of Israel. Can then an Idolatrous Church be counted the Lords Church? and a degenerate Vine that only groweth upon another root, and bringeth forth wild fruit of another kind, be named the Lords Vineyard? Surely, to use Gods own similitude, where there hath publicly passed a solemn contract of marriage, visibly confirmed by Covenants and pledges mutually delivered and received, though the wife keep not the truth of her first faith, but even openly and shamelessly turneth away her heart after other lovers; yet till there passeth a public renouncing one of the other, and a bill of divorcement given, and separation passed, she is accounted his wife whose name she beareth, & whose wife she publicly professeth herself to be: So is between God and his visible Church, both Israel and judah, notwithstanding their fornications, still kept the public profession of the name of the God of Israel, they retained circumcision, the outward seal and pledge both of his Covenant; both offered sacrifices to him that brought them out of Egypt, even by that style, though in a superstitious manner: both had the law of God publicly amongst them, & his Prophets also: And therefore this outward foundation of the old league and covenant continueth still; the Lord accounteth them both as his; and notwithstanding their known adulteries, and their children of fornication by other gods (whom they also served) he entreateth them, though in anger and displeasure and in threats, and sometimes in chastisements, yet as his own (for they were never denounced till they were destroyed) and by the benefit of that same outward society & conjunction, which in the midst of their other abominations still remained between God and them, of the word and Sacrament many spiritual children also were borne by them to the Lord, such as those 7000. were in Elias days, who living in house together with their illegitimate brethren, feared their father, the God of Israel, and secretly mourned at the abominations of their mother; howsoever by living in so corrupt a house, they might be tainted with some of the corruptions of their mother, and carnal brethren. And this is the nature of the Christian Church, whereof that was a figure: it is here on earth, subject to alterations, and to that like general defection and overrunning with weeds, which both Christ and the Apostles prophesy should happen in the outward and visible face thereof, which we see did happen in the figurative Church of Israel before Christ, though the root and foundation of Christianity shall never fail in it, and the book of God, the seed of immortality, shall remain in it uncorrupted; and the public profession of Christ, shall never be utterly choked for the Elects sake, that shall be from age to age of this world being borne in it; yea, though one part of the Church, whose preservation of the truth shall be less corrupted than an other, as judah was in comparison of Israel. For the particular Churches are like Vineyards; some flourishing for a time, some barren, and according to their husbandmen, some cleaner kept, some overgrown with thorns; some become wild for want of pruning; yea, they are like our bodies, some sound and orthodox, some more diseased, some sick unto death, and some unclean and leprous, and with whom there can be no communion.  
Thus the Church of Corinth in the Apostle Saint Paul's time, was not so sound as the Churches of Rome & Ephesus, the Church of Galatia was infected with a most dangerous error. After, when S. john wrote, the church of Ephesus had her imperfections; the other six Churches were more infected, and amongst them Laodicea was in far worse estate then either Pergamus or Thyatira; and yet all these remained the Lords Churches and Vineyards in the midst of their errors & corruptions, because they held that foundation of Christianity, upon which the Church is builded: Thou art Christ the Son of the living God: For although as every sin is opposite to thelove of God, so every error also is opposite to his truth, and do not agree together: yet by reason of our weak eyes and judgements, not discerning the disagreement of truth and error, as of righteousness and sin, the best men do receive some probable errors into the society of truth, without rejecting and overturning their faith of those grounds which they truly hold; and therefore though every little error in matter of faith be dangerous, and causeth some defect and maim in our practice of piety, either in our invocations of faith, or in our works of love, and the more deadly, the nearer they touch the principal grounds: yet they do not all make wounds unto death, and kill our faith and piety, till they come to be known and wilful errors, that is, to be heresies and sins of the will; for then the least error is deadly, because it is wilful, and directly opposite to the love of the truth of Christ.  
Finally, as one Church is more or less pure and Orthodox than another, so we see how the self same Churches continue not always in one and the self same state; for the Church of judah was sometime religious, sometimes idolatrous, sometimes purged in part the groves and high places still remaining; so hath every Church in the world since Christ's time undergone great alterations and changes: the Church of Rome in her first ages was very sound and pure; the Eastern Churches were more overgrown with errors in these latter ages since, as Platina observeth, john 10. The people were clean departed from Saint Peter's steps; the west Churches have more declined, and the Eastern Churches, except that one error of the proceeding of the holy Ghost, in all other parts of faith, remain much more pure than the Church of Rome and her adherents: yea Rome itself began a little changing of herself, when Pius the fift, acknowledging that their books of public divine service in all places were stuffed with vain errors of superstitions, did cast out some corruptions, and (no doubt) besides the private reformations both in the judgements and practice of numbers of her followers, who will not embrace all her abominations, she would have proceeded further in public reformation, had not, besides the love of her private gains, a respect of her public credit hindered her: for by confessing any one error, she seethe that she should give prejudice against herself for other her opinions, in acknowledging that she might err in them also. Which ministereth an answer to their vain objections; who demand of us where our Church was for so many ages, till Martin Luther's days, in what cave of the earth it lurked? for our Church is one and the same which it was at the first planting of Christianity amongst us; It hath always had one and the same root and foundation, one and the same Christ publicly professed, though at the first more purely, afterwards more corruptly; and not by God's mercy the same Christ more purely again. For as the new dressing and weeding of a Vineyard, is not a new planting; and as the often repairing the decays and purging of the uncleanness of the Temple, was not the new founding and building of another Temple; so in our Church, since it was reform we know no other difference from that which it was before, than such as we see in the Vineyard and Church of judah, which in the days of Manasses was full of superstition, in the days of josiah had her abominations cast out, and the purity of God's service restored according to his own law.  
There were crept into our Church graven Images, & the likenesses of things in heaven, and things in earth; and men did bow down and worship them contrary to the law, and contrary to antiquity; for, as yet appeareth even by the buildings and walls of our most ancient Churches, there was no place within the Church provided for them. To these Images of dead men they did light candles, and burned Incense, and offered gifts after the custom of the heathen; the light of the Church was removed out of the candlesticks; and the word of God, which is the true light of the world, and lantern to our feet, was hidden under an unknown tongue, as under a bushel; that which the Apostle calleth both our milk and our meat, was taken away, and nothing was read to the people's understanding, but the lies of their Legend; the author thereof had a leaden head, & a brazen forehead, as Vives a learned Papist censureth them. The holy Sacraments of the church were profaned; to the sanctified water in baptism, cream was added, & salt & spittle, & by the people received as parts of the sacrament; the Lords Supper was mangled; the cup of blessing, which is the Communion of the blood of Christ, was sacrile giously removed; & the communion of the bread was turned into a private mass of dead ceremonies: These and infinite other abominations were grown up so high, that they did both draw all the fatness from the root, and overdrop and overshadow the true vine, and even called for the fickle to cut them down: for there was not any learned devout man amongst themselves in those ages, who did not both bewail the corruptions of the Church, as appeareth by them that wrote, and in particular acknowledge some one error of theirs or other; though now authority stoppeth their mouths, and clippeth such tongues; and the Indices expungatorij do race those confessions out of their writings. Now the indisposition therefore, either of the Church of Rome, or any other neighbour Church to reform themselves, can be no just excuse for our Church, and her overseers, not to reform herself, than it had been for Israel to sin, because judah sinned, or for judah, because of the sin of Israel. In these cases of God's service and honour, the expectation of neighbours, and desire of unity is no allowed answer: but that of josuah belongeth to all governors, which he spoke to all Israel, josu. 15. If it seem evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve: but I and my house will serve the Lord: and that rule of Hosea; If Ephraim be joined unto Idols, let him alone; and if Israel play the harlot, yet let not judah sin. Only our hearty prayer unto God is, that as we do communicate in the general grounds and foundations of Christianity, and jointly profess the same Creed, so the Lord would give them hearts to remove these abominations, which block up the way of peace and communion between Church and Church; or if either for pride or covetousness, they will acknowledge no error, yet he would give them contented minds to keep to themselves their own corruptions, which now being cast off by us, would be so much the more loathsome to put on again.  
The third doubt which the vineyard of the house of Israel answereth, is the unity of the Church, seeing the divided houses of Ephraim and judah not so much severed in state, as in religion, are yet by our Prophet accepted as one vineyard: for though one read of many several Churches in the new Testament also: 
Psal. 64.  yet that of Saint Augustine is most true, there be many Churches, yet but one Church; and in such sort many; yet they are all but one. Nay, in the unity of the Church, we must yet go further, and acknowledge with the same father, the Church is the body of Christ; not that which is here or there, but that which is every where throughout the world; 
Psalm 90.  neither that which is at this time, but even from Abel, unto those which shall hereafter be borne, and believe in Christ unto the end: the whole company of saints belonging to one City, which is the body of Christ, and whereof he is head: for this is that which the Apostle affirmeth of all believers: Be they jew or Gentile, bond or free, they are all incorporate into one Company, they all make one body. But this unity is properly meant of Christ's mystical body and Church, which is invisible, of which church these men are no part, who are only in Sacrament is Ecclesiae, as Saint Augustine expoundeth himself; that is, of the whole body of the faithful from Adam to the end of the world; yet notwithstanding these outward visible societies of professed christians, in which the militant members of Christ, mingled with the bad, are yet in framing for eternity, these also have a bond of unity also, and though they be many, yet are they but as one.  
Now the outward bonds of these visible Churches are divers: for 1. they all spring by propagation, from one original mother Church: jerusalem, which is beneath, is the mother of us all, and from Zion came the Gospel by propagation unto all Nations. But this bond is not so strong, as to tie them in one, that are sprung from one beginning: There is a stronger, which this Parable of a Vine doth lay before us: for the Vine or tree which is divided into so many several branches, some dying, some springing up; and one bough perhaps bearing several fruits from another; what is it that maketh them all one, but their own stock and root, on which they all vifibly grow? this is the visible bond of the several arms, and parts of the visible Church; they all outwardly join in that one root Christ, in whom they are all visibly engrafted, & on whom they all make outward show, that they do stand and grow.  
The Apostle, Ephes. 4.5. exhorting Christians to unity, setteth down this bond, and to it addeth two other kinds, the uniformity of our faith, and articles of belief. There is one kind of engrafting, one badge of their incorporation, Baptism. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism: i One King, under which they live; one Law, by which they are guided; one common badge of their incorporation, which they all publicly receive: so that seeing the jews, howsoever dispersed amongst all the Nations of the earth, and living without dependence upon any one common governor, and yet accounted but as one Nation, because of the bond of their unity in the public profession of the Law of Moses; and seeing they that hang on Mahomet as their Prophet only, howsoever divided both in sects and kingdoms amongst themselves, are yet in regard of their common profession of Mahumetisme, accounted but as one body of Mahometans; How much more truly do these 3. bonds of professing one and the same Lord and King, of receiving his one and the same law and word of incorporating themselves into one body by Baptism, in which 3. the essence of Christianity consisteth, make all the professed christians of the world of one incorporation, howsoever they are scattered in the earth, and scattered in place and in knowledge one of another? yea, and in some private opinions also differ; for they all visibly meet in their one root Christ, and in professing of faith in him. To these 4. common bonds the Primitive Church added, as they might, a fift bond of communion, and mutual society, every new created Bishop and overseer of any particular Church, sending his synodical letters of the profession of his faith to his neighbour brethren, and they accordingly receiving one another into the communion and fellowship of love, as appeareth by the Ecclesiastical story. Lastly, when the Emperor himself became a christian, and the bonds of the Empire and of the church were in a manner all one, they added a 6. bond; the common assemblies of all the overseers of the particular Vineyards within the Empire, in common counsel to make peace, and set down orders for the peaceable and uniform government of the whole. But the church of Rome, which in the greatness she is grown to, sayeth of herself, as Babylon, Revel. 18. I am a Queen, and am no widow, and shall see no mourning, that is, I cannot fail, would teach the world a new lesson or article of christian faith, not read in the Scripture, not thought of in the Primitive church, not acknowledged by any ancient Father, not dreamed of by any ancient Bishop of that See, that notwithstanding God thundered, and was angry, when the Israelites asked a King, as therein rejecting God to reign over them; yet now the Church cannot be under Christ and his judges, as Israel was, unless she have a King, an absolute Monarch over her, and that is the Bishop of Rome: that all who acknowledge not this doctrine, are heretics; all that yield not that obedience, are schismatics; none of the Church and body of Christ; all as Publicans and Infidels, and in the state of damnation. A fearful sentence, like that of the Bramble, jugd. 9 If you put not your trust under my shadow, fire shall come out from me, and consume the Cedars of Libanon: For if all be schismatics, and cut off from the Church, like branches from the Vine, that acknowledged not the Bishop of Rome for their King: then was Saint Cyprian in a damnable estate, who not only rejected Stephanus the Bishop of Rome, in a matter of faith, but in matter and cases of jurisdiction also forced appeals to Rome, and advised the Bishops of Spain to repeal him, whom Stephanus had restored to his Bishopric. Then was Saint Augustine in a damnable estate, who with 216. Bishops, in the 6. Council of Carthage, not only wrote to Innocentius, not to receive appeals out of Africa, nor to send his Legates a letter, nor to bring in the smoky pride of the world into the Church of God, but also made a decree purposely against his challenged authority, that what Priest or Deacon soever should appeal to any beyond the sea, he should be excommunicated throughout all Africa.  
But what do I speak of particular Bishops, that a canonical Council of Chalcedon, of 630. Catholic Bishops was in a damnable state, which made a decree, that the Archbishop of Constantinople should have equal privileges with the Archbishop of Rome; and that he having the next place of honour, should in causes Ecclesiastical be advanced as far as the See of Rome? And although the Pope's Legates did by all means labour to stay the decree, as being repugnant to a former decree of the Nicene Council for the church of Antioch, yet it passed with general consent, and was pronounced by the judge as the decree of the Council: neither is this itself so much to be regarded, as the reason they gave for that their decree; that as their Father had not given, without good advice, to the See of elder Rome, the first place of honour, because that City was the seat of the Empire, so with a former council of 150. Bishops at Constantinople, under Theodosius the elder, moved with like consideration, had given equal privileges to the most holy See of new Rome; and they insisting in the steps of sacred Fathers, did again decree the same thing. This was in those days the opinion of the Bishops of the whole world, concerning the ground & reason of the Bishop of Rome's Primacy; neither was that the opinion of the Church for a time: but three parts of the Christian world, under the three patriarchs of Constantinople, of Antioch, and of Alexandria, have always since received him as heretical for his claim, insomuch that they denied their Emperor Michael Palaeologus christian burial, for yielding to the Church in the council at Lions; & even at this day, though their miserable slavery under the Turk might force them to yield a show of subjection to any christian, of whom they might hope of any comfort: yet they cannot in their consciences frame themselves to this gross and lying flattery. Wretched men, if undergoing such miseries under the hands of their enemies for Christ's name, neglecting such liberties and worldly preferments, as are proposed to revolters, they are notwithstanding in the damnable estate of the Turks and Infidels, and Aliens from CHRIST for that default, though they thus live as Confessors, and many of them die as Martyrs.  
But to conclude, the universal Church and Spouse of Christ, for many ages after her Lord's ascension, kept herself free from these domestical yokes; neither could she be induced, that any decree or cannon should be imposed over her by any one of her Bishops, but that which herself in the free and common Council of her elder children concluded to be good for herself and hers: for execution of which orders and Canons, though she appointed her elder sons to oversee her younger first, some as Bishops to oversee her Presbyters; and after some as Primates to oversee her Bishops; and lastly, some as archbishops and patriarchs to oversee her Primates; yet all the orders which they exacted of particular persons, were the common decrees of their Synods. Now wonderful it is to consider, how one of her own children, by getting the elder brother's place, hath in the absence of the Lord, usurped and claimed over the necks, first, of all his brethren in particular; and lastly, over the neck of his mother also, creeping up by the Emperor, like ivy by the Oak, till he had overtopped him also; from a primacy, to a supremacy, and after, to an absolute and visible Monarchy and Kingdom of Romans, and as Lord of all, imposed laws to his own mother, & drawing all power into his hands, and making himself as the Sun, from which all others, both Moon and Stars do receive their light.  
Thus hath Lucifer invaded Christ's poor Family, and hath made choice of a person of humility, by whom, under the colour of piety and religion, he might bring into the Church of Christ, the highest degree of pride, that ever the world saw in any worldly state, or the weakness of man is capable of; whom he setting up on the foundation, not of a rock, but of imagination and opinion only; and crowning with a triple crown, hath persuaded both him to take, and persuaded men to give more than human honours, as high as to the titles of Optimus maximus, our Lord God the Pope; and as our Countryman Stapleton writeth to him, Supremum in terris Numen, forcing the Emperors sometimes acknowledged for his gracious Lords and Sovereigns, to yield their necks for him to trample on, and the Kings and Princes of the earth to lick the dust of his feet, and all the people for their salvation to fall down before him, as having all keys and powers of heaven and earth, and hell, and purgatory; as blasting with the breath of his mouth like lightning, whatsoever he curseth; as having the oracles of God in his breast, and that never ordinary privilege that he cannot err.  
This was the punishment of the Church, after that thorough abundance and wealth, and ease, she became wanton, and loved not the truth: that as it was prophesied, 2. Thess. 2. God should send strong delusions, and men should believe lies, to the astonishment of all other churches, both Eastern and Southern, who wonder that we can believe such fancies.  
As for the necessity of one visible Monarch to make the visible church one, seeing the Apostles writings in their so often mention of the church, and the pastors of the same, never intimate this doctrine of this Monarchy, seeing Eph. 4. the Apostle of purpose layeth the grounds of unity, allegeth those other bonds, One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, and omitteth this; seeing after reckoning upon the several degrees of Ministers both ordinary and inordinary, given to his church, after his affection for the building of it in truth and love, he setteth down Apostles, Evangelists, Prophets, Pastors & Teachers, this one Monarch is not once named to the church; seeing before Christ's coming God had a visible Church in job his house, not depending upon the Church of judah, and is also granted by Bellarmine, and yet the Church of God was always one; seeing since Christ the Primitive Church had no such head, but as Aeneas Silvius acknowledgeth, Ante Nicenum Concilium sibi quisque vivebat, & ad Romanam Ecclesiam parvus ad modum respectus habebat: and yet in the long time of that little regard of Rome, the Church of Christ was one; seeing to this day all Churches in the three parts of the world, have so anciently renounced this one head, who notwithstanding may not be accounted castaways, and no parts of Christ's Church; seeing whatsoever reason is urged of necessity, one Bishop doth as necessarily prove the necessity of one King over all the Christian world; truly, we are so far from thinking the necessity of one visible head to be an article of our faith, that contrariwise we agree in judgement with Gregory the Great, concerning the danger of the same, who disputing against the very name and title of an universal Bishop, bringeth this reason against the thing, Ecclesiae universa corruit, si ille universus cadit: if that universal Bishop should fall, his fall be the ruin of the whole Church. This our lamentable experience hath made good, not only in the government of the Western Churches, in which he hath been like a wild Boar in the Lord's Vineyard, but also in their faith, which by reason of their general subjection to that one head, was as generally tainted with the same errors: for as when one foot slippeth, the other may stand and uphold the body, unless it be carried with the sway of that which slipped: so when one Church faileth in any point of truth, an other may stand & uphold the same, unless they be dependent one upon an other, & respect not that only uncorruptible head Christ, and his unchangeable laws.  
2 Now, that we have found out the Lords Vineyard, and considered the nature and state of the same, we are in the next place to consider the husbandry which the Lord of this Vineyard useth, the labour, the cost, the skill, and care he bestoweth on it to make it prosper; for since that universal curse pronounced by the mouth of God, Cursed be the earth for man's sake: thorns and thistles shall it bring forth: 
Gen. 3.  good things do hardly thrive, without skilful and Industrious planting and cherishing; their impediments are many; their helps must be so many, that the Vineyard which is neglected and left to itself, may seem in a manner blameless, though it prove not fruitful; for these duties therefore of the husbandman, the Lord conscious to himself of his own goodness towards it, doubteth not to make the Vineyard and Church itself, and every plant thereof, even all the inhabitants of judah, his judges, what one thing he hath omitted which might have smothered it, (What could I have done to my Vineyard (saith God) which I have not done?  
The particulars were set down before. 1. The choice of the seat of Canaan, (My beloved had a Vineyard on a very fruitful hill. 2. His fencing it from spoils (He hedged it about) with his mighty protection. 3. The choice of the plants, (He planted it with the best plants) the root the (true Vine that came down from heaven) the branches, the sons of Abraham. 4. The preparing of the Soil, he gathered up the stones that might hinder the growth, the Canaanites and Hittites. 5. For a further defence he built a Tower in the midst of it, his glorious Temple. 6. He set up a Vinepresse in it, an Altar upon which they might offer the fruits of their free will offerings; to those he added continual pruning and dressing; & watering of it from the clouds of heaven: It appeareth after, Ver. 6. For the proof of these particulars, read the old Testament. What is the whole history of the Bible, but the narration of God's blessings upon his own people, as if he minded no other nation, no part of his creation but only them? What is Genesis, but the miraculous preservation of them in their first spring and tender beginnings, till they were grown into a great people, now a plant able to be removed, and to stand by itself? What are Exodus and Numbers, but a powerful translating of this Vine by a mighty hand out of the Garden of Egypt, where it was borne down, and the gracious ordering and preserving of it, as it were, above ground in a wilderness, where it had nothing to live on for forty years, till it was to be planted in Canaan? What are Leviticus and Deuternomy, but the heavenly rules and orders of husbandring, disposing and pruning, and dressing this vine to preserve it in state? And lastly, what are the histories of josua and judges, and Kings, but the mighty planting of it in the land of Canaan, the casting out of the Cananits, like stones & thorns, & the weeding out of those mighty Nations, which might hinder the growth of the Vine? There the heavens and the earth, the sun, the fire, the clouds, and the sea, together with the Angels & host of heaven, all were commanded in their several callings to attend upon this Vine: for they were the people which the Lord called to be a holy generation, his royal Priesthood, and that was the place of which he prophesieth, Psal. 132. The Lord hath chosen Zion, and loveth to dwell in it, saying, here is my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have delighted therein: I will surely bless her victuals, & satisfy her poor with bread: I will  her Priests with salvation, and her Saints shall shout for joy. Now those temporal blessings of peace and abundance, those temporary deliverances from all enemies, those miracles and those wonders, and that sensible presence of God himself in the midst of them, though they seem strange in our eyes, and at the reading of them do make us Christians to say, He hath not dealt so with any Nation, He hath not dealt so with any Christian Church; yet we are deceived, for the gracious kindness of God died not with Israel: but rather those visible mercies towards judah, were the visible seals of his invisible and perpetual graces towards his Church, and every part thereof; for where he hath an outward Church, there he hath also some elect to be placed in it for eternity; and where any of his elect are, there are all things necessary to their accomplishment, his Ministers, his Word, his Sacraments, his Graces, his Protection, his exceeding love. For seeing those outward visible Churches, be as it were the Lords Worke-houses, wherein he frameth the invisible members of Christ's body by grace, and proportioneth them to glory: that etern all wisdom and love will so provide, order, and proportion also those means one to another, and all unto the end, that it may justly challenge the whole world: what should I say? (What could I have done for my Vineyard which I have not done?) And here, though occasion is offered, It were a good thing to praise the Lord, and to sing unto the name of the most high, to declare this his loving kindness in the morning, and his truth all the day until night season: (for so much of our life is Angelical, as is spent in songs of thankfulness unto our God;) yet I must leave this work to be the sacrifice of your private devotion. In which that one only benefit upon the Christian Church is more than we shall be able to comprehend, that this Vineyard, this Paradise whereof himself vouchsafeth to be the husbandman, he hath purchased to himself by the price of blood, not as Ahab purchased Naboth his Vineyard by the cruel shedding of the right owner's blood, and unjust robbing the possessor of it, but by giving an infinite price for it, the blood of his only beloved son to redeem it, where it lay engaged in the hand of justice: and the Apostle concludeth necessarily, Rom. 9 He who spared not his own son, but gave him for his Church, how shall he not with him give all things to her? he that hath yielded up the person of his infinitely beloved to be a sacrifice for her sins, and doth give his flesh to feed his Church, and his blood to be her drink: how justly may he demand, What could he do more for his Vineyard which he hath not done?  
But here though it be with the consent of all tongues acknowledged, that the blessings of God upon his Church and every part thereof are exceeding great, yet this challenging, as it were, of his own omnipotency, (What could I have done more, which I have not done?) raiseth a doubt not to be overpassed. For might not this house of judah & the inhabitants of jerusalem have replied in the words of the Leper, Math. 8.2. Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean? the ordinary objection which many godless persons in our times do frame, both against God and themselves, attributing their impenitency not to their own obstinacy and corruptions, but to God's unresistible will: for, if he would (say they) he could sanctify us, and make us clean also. Wherein, first, that is undoubtedly true, that God, who made Iron to swim, and rocks of stone to yield forth streams of water; who made Aaron his dried staff to bud, and bring forth Almonds in a night; he, who could of stones raise up children unto Abraham, if he would by miracle, could mollify these obstinate sinners also, and make their rocky hearts gush forth with tears; he could make them of stones children, and of withered sticks fruitful trees, and that in a moment by the might of his omnipotent power: but as in the government of the world, he hath set down an ordinary course according to the nature of his creatures, which he doth not alter, but upon special occasion, as our Saviour noteth in the cure of Naaman, and in the feeding of the widow of Sarepththa, Luke 4.27. so in the ordering of his Church also, & conversion of the souls of men, he hath set down an ordinary course of secondary spiritual causes agreeable to their end, and fitted to persuade the mind of man; as principally, the word of truth and light in the mouth of his messengers, accompanied with a measure of his spirit. Thus by Moses and the Prophets he converteth sinners: if men will not hear them, no though a man should rise from the dead, saith our Saviour, they will not believe: for these are so forcible, and so proportionated in his wisdom to the heart of man, so seconded with the graces of his powerful spirit, both for the instructing of the mind, and thereby the inclining of the will, that unless a man hath more than ordinarily corrupted himself in sin, unless he be like these trees in Jude his Epistle, Twice dead, and plucked up by the roots, unless he be like Lazarus, not only dead, but stinking also in his grave, habitually corrupted, and that with such kinds of particular vices, as are opposite to the receiving of the life of grace; it could not but draw him unto God. Of this sort are those obdurate sinners, which have hearts and cannot repent: 
Rom. 2.5.  for though all inherent sin be contrary to God and his truth; yet some sins and vices are more opposite to Christ than others, which maketh some sinner's conversion more difficult than others. Thus our Saviour affirmeth, that Publicans and Harlots shall sooner come to God's Kingdom, then proud pharisees, that stand upon their own righteousness according to the Law, and therefore conceived no need of repentance and redemption by an other Saviour. Thus he generally affirmeth of the jews, whose ears and hearts were by custom grown more than as all men naturally are, so obstinately hardened in contempt, against the word of truth, that, 
Mat. 11.21  had the signs and wonders that were done amongst them been done in tire and Sydon, nay in Sodom, they would have repent in Sackcloth and Ashes, as the Ninevites did at the preaching of jonas only. And this is that obstinate opposition of some against the ordinary means of man's salvation, that caused not only the Prophets to mourn, but our Saviour Christ to sit down and to weep over jerusalem, when he saw that she would not be gathered to her Redeemet; as if Christ should have said, as God by our Prophet: What could I have done more for my Vineyard which I have not done?  
3 After the consideration of this so exceeding great cost and care bestowed upon the Lord's Vineyard, we are in the third place to look unto the end of these his labours and husbandry bestowed on his Church; & that is the same which every man which plants a vineyard, doth expect of his plants, fruits, (I looked for grapes) fruits natural and proper to a Vine, proper to a Christian that receiveth the nature, the sap, the spirit of the root Christ. Why the good works and fruits of Christians are compared to grapes, and themselves to vines, I partly showed before. For, as nothing is created for itself; so the poorest creature that GOD hath made, is enabled with some gift to imitate the bounty and goodness of the Creator, and to yield something from itself to the use and benefit of others; and this is their natural work: thus the Sun and Moon, and Stars, as they are endued with light & virtue, so they restlessly move to impart their light and influence to the enlightening and quickening of the inferior world. Thus do the clouds fly up and down, emptying themselves to enrich the earth, of which notwithstanding they reap no harvest. Thus doth the earth without respect of her private profit, liberally yield her riches and fatness to the innumerable armies of creatures, which all suck her breasts, and hang on her for maintenance, as on their common mother: and not to departed from our Parable, thus do all fruitbearing trees, spend themselves and the principal part of their sap and moisture, not on the increase of themselves, but in making some pleasant fruit or berry, of which neither they, nor their young springs shall taste; and this when it is ripe & perfect, they voluntarily let fall at their master's feet: & thus neither doth the Vine make herself drunk with her own grapes, nor the Olive anoint herself with her own oil, and yet they strive to abound with fruits. For the more every thing furthereth the common good of the world, the higher is the excellency of the nature thereof, and the greater resemblance it hath to the Creator's goodness. Now when heaven and earth are fruitful in their kind, when neither beast nor tree are idle, but are always bringing forth something to the good of others; when not only the creatures under man, but the blessed Angels of heaven are ministering spirits, perpetually and willingly serving for our good: when God the father himself, with the Lord our King, are yet working, and dividing the streams of their goodness to the best behoof of the world; how can it be allowable, that when all the Armies of heaven and earth, the Creator with the creatures are thus busied in bringing forth fruit: only man should remain unfruitful, his faculties and graces idle, himself a burden to the earth? It cannot be, for not only the Church of God, for the gathering of her children, & the propagation of truth and piety amongst them, but the world itself, for the upholding of her estate, doth necessarily require man's fruits: for seeing we grow together as members in a body, and branches in a tree; the life and sap, & strength and help of the root, and head cannot be derived to us, unless it be conveyed by joints and by sinews, by arms and by boughs, by the mutual ministry of man, by the works of justice and mercy from one to another: and therefore unless the Pastor yield the fruit of his light and knowledge, unless the Magistrate do yield the fruit of his justice and authority, unless every private man do yield forth the fruit of those faculties & graces which they receive not for themselves, but for the good of the body: they are no parts of Christ's body, neither have they the spirit of the head, the spirit of love in them; but they are thieves and murderers, enemies to Christ and to his Church, they starve his body, and purloin from their fellow members those good things which the merciful head hath so intended by them to us, that the benefit might be ours, and the thanks theirs, and all might grow by the natural fruits of love.  
But here ordinarily ariseth in the mind of man a vain shift which much hindereth his fruitfulness, and maketh him draw in all to himself, and recall his sap from the fruits into the root again, and that is a false reasoning with himself, that because, do he the best he can, yet his fruits will be earthly and sour, and never perfect and kindly ripened, because were they never so perfect and abundant, yet they cannot merit life's eternity to him that beareth them, and because that which is wanting, is fully supplied in the all-sufficient fullness and superrogative merits of the head, and therefore it is but lost labour to spend himself in bringing forth such unperfect fruits, so helpless in the work of his own salvation: thus doth iniquity lie unto herself, and turneth the truth of God into a lie: for though those three promises are all true, yet the conclusion we infer upon them, is altogether uncoherent. True it is, that though we be engrafted into the eternal Vine Christ, yet we retain something of the nature of the old stock whence we were taken, which giveth to our best fruits an earthly taste and some relish of the old man. True it is, that though we are planted with the best heavenly plants of piety, yet they grow in a foreign soil, and in a cold clime, far from the Sun, and our fruits are not concocted and perfect; even our most spiritual fruits, our prayers have not a pleasing taste, unless they have some sweetening. But this defect is supplied by the great Angel of the covenant, who when he presenteth these our fruits to God the great husbandman, addeth to them of his own precious incense, which helpeth their infirmity and harshness, and maketh them acceptable, Renel. 8.4. Again, true it is, that these our fruits, were they never so abundant, and as excellent as man's perfectly restored perfection can afford, yet can they not merit those crowns and kingdoms, and the eternity of that glory, but that When ye have done all that you can, we must say that ye are unprofitable trees, not worthy the care and cost, the feeding, the watering, the graces, the continuance bestowed on them in this world, no more than the fruits of the Orange and lemon, and figtrees in this our cold land are answerable to the extraordinary charge of their planting and maintaining; yet notwithstanding all this, even these our sour and unperfect fruits, howsoever defective in themselves, are yet sufficiently profitable for the uses of the Church, during this her warfare, wherein any mean thing is very comfortable, and troubled waters do often serve for Soldiers drink; and in that regard all they are pleasing to the great husbandman, to see these his plants in some degrees profitable to the world, and by their fruits, loving, cherishing and feeding one another, as their root doth feed them. But for the Crown of heaven, and a kingdom of eternal glory, this riseth above the compass of the deservings of servants: It passeth to us by another right and claim, by inheritance, due only to us as sons, and therefore children and babes as soon as they are adopted in Christ: thecues and murderers like the prodigal son, upon their faithful return to God, though they die immediately (as the thief on the Cross) before the time of fruitbearing, and working in the vinyeard; yet by right of this their new birth, and adoption into Christ's body, they have a right to heaven equal with their brethren, that have spent all their life in painful fruit bearing; for if sons, than heirs (saith the Apostle) even fellow heirs with jesus Christ: For notwithstanding for the present whilst these sons continue in their minority, they differ not from servants, though they be Lords of all, Gal. 4.1. they obey their Father's commandments, and they labour in his Vineyard, and do more faithful service in the house, one son of love, than twenty hired servants do for fear of stripes: and this is to them as discipline healthful and necessary for their own good also, and in their time of living, the foundation of their perfection in grace, to make them fit for that heavenly place, & in all virtues qualified, for so great an inheritance in a society so glorious. And as for the reward of such obedient sons, we have our father's answer to the elder brother that challenged his father's justice for his bounty towards his unthrifty son, & hardness towards him who had continued most faithful in his service: Son (saith our Father) thou art always with me, and all that I have is thine: as obedient sons therefore we are always with our father, this is our security, and all is ours, because sons. What can we desire more? Our good works and services of piety are therefore, as S. Barnard most excellently concludeth of them, in the very end of his Book; De libero Arbitrio: They are the nurseries of our hope, the ministries of our love, tokens of our secret predestination, foretokens of our future blessedness: Via regni, non causa regnandi: they are the way unto our kingdom: they are not the cause why we shall reign as Kings. Now if notwithstanding all this, we Christians cannot be induced to exercise our faculties in doing good, and to bring forth fruits of love answerable to our new nature, as all other creatures do in their kind, without some reward and hire; behold first we are created, ordained, redeemed, furnished with gracer, maintained in our estate, with bountiful supplies of all necessaries for our place: and what greater reward doth the Vine or the Olive, or any other Creature expect for their fruits but their maintenance, every thing in their kind; the Centurion in the Gospel that had Soldiers under him, and could say to one, Come, and he came, and to another, Go and he went, though into certain danger of his life; what greater rewards could he give to them, than this present abundance and maintenance, or what greater rewards doth any servant expect at his master's hand, for as great service and as faithful as we men perform to God? Again, were our natural love and services one towards another as ready and as perfect as are the duty of one member in the body to another, (for the Apostle proposeth as the sampler of our duty) yet we receive a further sufficient reward, the like mutual helps from them again: and what other reward doth the eye or feet, or hand expect for their daily atrendance, but the like mutual service from the body? Again, this is the Apostles counsel, Gal. 6.1. If any man be fallen, ye that are spiritual, restore him, considering thyself, lest thou be also tempted; Even as travelers do mutually aid, comfort, and in any distress relieve one another without any further respects of private gain. If all this will not stir up our Christian hearts to perform the duties of a Christian man, by which their own souls are bettered and increased in grace: Behold yet a further commodity from the Master of the Vineyard, his special blessing, and increase of his care and graces upon these plants which are most fruitful: For every branch that beareth not fruit in me, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth, that it may bear more, joh. 15.  
Thus have they increase of graces from heaven, & which is the greatest of all graces, the grace of perseverance, when other perish they are preserved and watered, when fruitless branches are cut off for the fire: for he not only blesseth their store who spend it upon their brethren, as springs that run are fed that they may continue; but he dealeth mercifully also with them that are merciful to his children, and his pity is ready to pardon their offences, & to remit their chastisements who are kind and pitiful one to another: how gracious is our God to his vines that bring forth grapes, who hath reward for those that give but a cup (not of the juice of grapes) but of cold water to any little one for his sake? Thus doth the temporary fruits of our love & mercy make a way for us to Christ's mercy, and so to our eternal peace. Lastly, if all this cannot stir up the graces of God in us unto fruitfulness: Christ's final separation & trial of his sheep from goats, of his members from aliens and strangers; his final public sentence of life and death given in the sight of men and Angels, shall be grounded, not upon the diversity of their inward hidden natures, but upon their several kind of acts proceeding from them, upon the several kind of men's fruits: for every tree is known by their fruits: all Christ's branches yielded grapes, all his members as they were possessed, so they were moved, & did work by the spirit of love. Hereby ye are known to be mine, if ye love one another, john 13.35. and therefore this sentence also is  
our times be of any better kind, the exact judgement of this point belongeth unto God; but what is in the eye, if man may judge, whose tongue will not confess, but that as God spoke of judah, Ezec. 16. that she had justified her elder sister Samaria by her sins; so we have justified our eldest sister judah by these our sins, and in stead of grapes have brought forth oppression, unjustice, covetousness, wild grapes full of poison, and the gall of Asps, our peace, our plenty, the richness of our soil in which we live, our want of severe pruning hath brought forth a luxurious harvest of pestilent weeds in the Vineyard, which have in a manner overgrown and choked piety, righteousness, and all hearty devotion. I know the Lord hath reserved unto us a seed, a small remnant also: but look on the general face of our land, how hath this hateful sin of unjustice overgrown all: for the root thereof covetousness and self-love hath got deep rooting, and all men now in a manner do turn the sap and the blessings of God, their wealth, their labours, not into clusters of fruits, according to their vocation, but into their own arms and branches, every one striveth not to be a good, but to be a great tree, the bramble would grow to be of the bigness of the maple, and the maple would be strong and tall, like unto the oak, overdropping, and by getting ground starveth another, some by an unsensible soaking from them, some by violent and open wrong, some under colour of right, & pretence of love; so that in every quarter and rank of the Lords Vineyard, there is oppression, and from oppression there ascendeth a cry to the Lord of the Vineyard. But what do I speak of private unjustice between men and men, when there is found in our Vineyard a kind of oppression, not heard of amongst the heathen? Christians in their greediness to lay hands upon their God and father, and unnaturally to seek to rob him of that which the bounty of his better children had bestowed on him for the maintenance of his worship amongst men. Doth any man rob his gods (saith the Lord) Malachy. 3.8. yet this people robbeth their God, and they ask wherein, even in tithes and offerings.  
This is one main root of unnatural impiety, a principal cause of all our corruption, when the branches of the Vine do not only suck and draw one from another, but do intercept that also which should maintain the principal root, on which we all grow, even Christ & his service in his Church. When God sent his son unto the jews; Come (said they) let us cast him out of the Vineyard, & kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.  
The Lord our life hath yet some inheritance and patrimony in his own Vineyard amongst us, for the maintenance of his labourers, which should plant Christ amongst us, and in graft us in him, unto his inheritance; how many covetous men do cast their greedy eyes, and put to their hands also, that first the Labourers might be cast out, and the inheritance may be theirs? What is this, but by consequence to cast out Christ himself out of his own Vineyard, and as much as in us lieth, to kill Religion and Piety, to kill Christ himself within our hearts? For it is not the loss only of earthly living, and the daily diminishing of the maintenance of his Labourers, which is to be lamented (though when you mussel the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out your corn, and detract from the ordinary allowance of your labouring beast, you shall find the want thereof in their heartless travel, and in your own empty harvest) but the greatest cause of lamentation & complaint herein, is the corruption of the Ministry of Christ, whilst patrons and such as deal in the disposing of Church livings, do shut up all the ordinary ways for the Labourers to enter into the Lord's Vineyard, but only by the door of Simony, by which, men of good conscience will not enter. Thus is the Lords work and tillage of his vineyard unfruitfully followed, whilst men of corruptest minds, and the basest of the people take up the places of  
should be plentiful among us, crying, I have looked for righteous dealing as amongst brethren, who should rather suffer then offer wrong, and behold a crying? I have heard a voice, (saith Moses) Exod. 32. when he descended from the Mount, the noise neither of them that have the victory, nor of them that have the worse; for the people had sat down to eat, and were risen up to play. But where there is oppression and wrong, there is a kind of war, some have the better, and some have the worse, and therefore amongst them there is always heard the noise of them that have the worse; the noise of Oppression, the noise of complaining and of crying. A dangerous thing to have any crying heard in the family of God, & amongst brethren; a fearful thing that the complaint of the oppressed should come to his ear: Omne sub Regno graviore regnum est, Every Court is subject to a higher Court. That there should be no wrongs it cannot be provided; but for redress, there is refuge to God's officers and ministers of justice upon earth, and if they by righteous judgement do take away the cause of crying, God is satisfied: but if the wronged party can find no ease in those inferior Courts, but that in grief of soul he appealeth to the supreme Court, when he crieth after the judge of the world, as David, Psalm 10. Arise, O Lord, lift up thy arm, forget not the poor, wherefore do the wicked contemn and say, thou wilt not regard? then the righteous God, the refuge of the fatherless, provoked with those often appeals, taketh judgement into his own hands, and as Psalm 12. Now for the oppressing of the needy, and sighs of the poor, I will rise up, saith the Lord: for seeing Deut. 15.9. he chargeth us not to harden our hearts from giving to our wanting brother, lest he cry unto the Lord, and it be sin unto us: How much more certainly will he perform that which he protesteth, Exod. 22. If thou trouble or vex the widow or fatherless, & so they call & cry unto me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath shall be kindled, and I will kill thee with the sword, thy wife shall be a widow, and thy children fatherless. Oh (my beloved) as there is much unjustice in every estate, & contrary to Pharaohs dream the fat do feed upon the lean, the stronger upon the weaker, as the fishes do in the sea: so let no man presume upon the weakness of the Plainetiffe, or upon his own means to bear out his cause in the world; for though men should be silent in their own wrongs, the stones shall cry, and the dumb creatures shall make complaint; the detained hire of the labourer, though it lie in our chest, yet it sendeth up a cry into the ears of the Lord of hosts, jacob. 5. The stone that lieth in the wall of our own buildings crieth, and the beam out of the timber answereth, and denounceth, Woe to him that buildeth a Town by blood, and getteth a City by iniquity, Hab. 2.11. Who would have thought, that when Abel's mouth was stopped by death, and his blood swallowed up by the earth, that there had been none to complain? but his blood, saith God, Gen. 4. which the earth had swallowed, crieth to me out of the bowels thereof. What a complaining noise then must the blood of so many men as is daily shed in this land, make in the ears of the Lord of hosts, crying now for vengeance against them that will not revenge it, against them that help to smother it, and do not remove evil from Israel?  
But I will not dwell upon these sores of our land; we see the fruits which the chosen Church of Israel and judah his pleasant plant brought forth; we see the fruits which our unthankful land, so blessed of the Lord, so instructed in the precepts of piety and righteousness, doth afford to him for all his mercies and loving kindnesses: I looked for grapes, and behold wild grapes. Here just occasion is ministered to inquire out some reason, why all these blessings of God in planting, watering and pruning his Church, should not be of force to make it fruitful, but that notwithstanding all his husbandry, it should so degenerate, & bring forth the fruits not of the new, but of the old stock; I will not undertake to set down all the particular reasons thereof, but amongst many (no doubt) one, not the least, is that first blessing of planting his Vineyard in a fruitful soil, his temporal blessings, his peace, his plenty, his furnishing of it with all outward necessaries, that it might be in heart, and strong to bring forth goodly fruit. It may seem strange, that these helps of piety should prove the bane thereof: for when straw is not ministered to Israel, but that they are forced to wander over the land to seek stubble; what marvel if they yield not their full tale of bricks? or if the necessities of this life doc distract Martha unto many things; how can she with her sister intent to fit at the foot of Christ, and by the waters of the Word which should increase her fruitfulness?  
But though Abraham, job, David, & all faithful men truly rooted and grounded in Christ, the more they are increased with those outward blessings of wealth, of honour, of authority, the more abundance of the outward fruits of righteousness and mercy they do yield: yet in men not truly regenerated and altered into the nature of the root Christ, of which sort the greater part of outward professors always are, lamentable experience showeth, how that fatness of the soil, which in the fanctified branches of the Vine Christ, doth increase good fruit, contrariwise in these unreceived Christians doth feed the corruption of their old nature, and do help to the fruits thereof. This corrupted the purity of the Church of Israel, Deut. 32.5. He that should have been upright, when he waxed fat, spurned with his heel. And jer. 5. Though I fed them full, yet they committed adultery, they assembled themselves by companies in harlots houses. This corrupted the Church of Christians, Religio peperit divitias, & filia devoravit matrem: Piety brought forth wealth, and this daughter destroyed her mother that brought her forth. This corrupted the Church of Rome. As soon as the Church was endued with riches (saith Platina) the worshippers of God were turned from severity to wantonness, and by the general impunity, no Prince repressing the lewdness of men, monsters usurped Peter's seat.  
Lastly, this hath been the bane of our church, our peace, our plenty, our rest, even the Lords blessings, like plenty of showers, hath brought forth this harvest of weeds and brambles, which have choked true devotion; abundance hath increased luxuric, and ministered food to the pride of life; fullness of bread hath brought forth wantonness of the flesh, and lust of uncleanness, which in want and hunger do ordinarily whither; peace hath bread security, and called every man to the building of his own house. Here began our gathering when we conceived hope of enjoying, and the increase of our goods increaseth our love to wards them, and by stealing our affection separateth our hearts from the root Christ, in whom we should grow. And thus when men should have said in their hearts; Let us fear the Lord our God that giveth rain both early and late, and reserveth to us the appointed time of harvest; or when they should say with David, Psal. 116. Enter into God thy rest (O my soul) for he hath been beneficial to thee, we say with the glutton, Take thy rest, O my soul, for thou hast goods laid up for many years, eat, drink and be merry: Whereby as our Saviour objecteth to the jews, Math. 13.15. This people's heart is waxed fat, and their ears are dull of hearing; with their eyes have they winked, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should heal them. So necessary is the prayer of Solomon for the Church of God also; Give me not abundance, lest I be full and deny God, and say, Who is the Lord?  
But to conclude this point, howsoever the corruption of men doth turn this plenty of earthly blessings, to the nourishing of their earthly affections, seeing as Vines cannot bring forth fair & goodly fruit in a barren soil: so the fruits of the Church, & of righteous men cannot be abundant & fair without this food; seeing God in his mercy also often taketh away this abundance, when his Church groweth wanton, & by breaking the staff of bread, trieth them with scarcity sometimes, & with afflictions: the Lords challenge doth notwithstanding still continue firm: What could I have done to my Vineyard which I have not done?  
In this abundant allowance unto our bodies, if any man think that the abundant provision made for the food of our souls also, this plenty of preaching and of instructions should have kept down the pride of the body, and held up the spirit above the flesh, & reform the abuses of wealth & peace; I may add even this abundance of spiritual food, as one of the causes of confirming & hardening corrupt minds in their corruptions: for in those fat hearts which are either wanton or sleepy, the continual plenty of the word causeth a fullness, a lusting after Quails and novelties, and a weary loathing of that plain bread of life which came from heaven: Our souls, said the jews, are dried up with this Manna. Even as water and bread, and fire, because they are things without which we cannot live, God made them more common than things of pleasure, and yet because they are so common, they are of less price: so that word, without which there is no spiritual life, God in his mercy maketh it common in his church, that according to the prophesy, it may run like waters in the midst of the streets; and this very commonnes of it breedeth a contempt, so that as great noise and loud sounds unto which we are continually accustomed, do not strike the ear, but rather allureth sleep, and as the hand which at the first is soft and tender, and galled with handy labours, doth with use wax hard, and gathereth a senseless brawn: so the ears of jews & Christians, are by custom not affected with the continual voice of God, & their hearts, which at the first are tender, galled and pricked with every hard sentence of the word, by daily use grow hard and unsensible; that whereas Nineuie repent at the hearing of one fearful Sermon of the Prophet jonas, Israel was not strucken at the usual thunder of so many fearful prophecies, neither did the works & wonders of our saviour bring them to any sense of themselves, Which if they had been done in Tire and Sidon, nay in Sodom and Gomorrah, would have drawn them to repentance in sackcloth & ashes: notwithstanding, seeing this word preached, is the only food, without which the soul pineth, and her life consumeth: seeing by the streams of this water, all faithful men do grow as trees (in whole countries) planted by the water side, which bring forth their fruits in due season: there is no reason why the Lord should scant his children of this bread of strength and life, because some without government do abuse it to excess, or that his bounty should not be magnified, in whose house the prodigal son happily remembered, that even the servants have bread enough.  
I come therefore to the last point of my Text, to the consideration of the judgement which is due to those ungrateful Vineyards, which notwithstanding the exceeding great means used for their good, do obstinately continue in bringing forth wild fruits; for the Lord, the great judge referreth this controversy between himself and us, to our own consciences, our own case to our own judgements, O inhabitants of judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my Vineyard, that is, judge between yourselves & me: for though God beginneth his judgement at his own house, yet he goeth to this judgement with a heavy heart, as it were, and a slow pace, though upon our continual provocations, he giveth out words of highest revenge, As Esai 1.24. Ah, I. will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies; and as Hose. 11. The sword shall fall upon their Cities, and consume their bars, and I will meet them as a Bear rob of her whelps, I will break the kall of their hearts, I will devour them like a Lion, their Infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped: yet when he is to come to the execution of these fearful sentences, he stayeth himself, as in the 18. verse of the same Chapter, How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee up Israel? How shall I make thee as Adamah? how shall I make thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are rolled together, I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, etc. which is the reason why the Lord calleth man first to sit in judgement upon himself, because as Cor. 11.13. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the lord judge therefore (I pray you) between me and my Vineyard.  
But unjust men that are so corrupt and partial in judging other men's causes, when will we be upright and uncorrupt in our own causes? when will a man condemn himself? when will he sift his secret corners, and set his own ways both seen and hidden before his own eyes? when will he upon exact examination, give that just doom and sentence of death upon his own iniquities, and upon his own head, making true restitution what lieth in him of all his wrongs, and executing vengeance upon all his vices and corruptions, that there shall, be no need of appeal from his own partial judgement, to the judgement seat of God, no need of the Lords after coming to punish those sins, which are acknowledged, condemned, removed and reform? and now mercy is implored for them, and supplications put up to the throne of grace: for to them, Esai 1. Come now (sayeth God) let us reason together; If thy sins were as red as crimson, I will make them as white as snow, though they be double died as scarlet, I will make them like wool. To them, that is spoken, Malachy 3. I will spare you, as a father spareth his own son that serveth him.  
But these sins that have been so deeply rooted in us, and by long familiarity and custom, are become dear to us, and which like that evil spirit, Act. 16.16. do bring gain & pleasure to their masters; there is little hope of our willing consents to root them out. We come like those jews with minds resolved in our courses, whatsoever the Prophets shall teach to the contrary: And therefore what remaineth, but that this Vineyard should expect the Lords sentence; Now will I tell you (saith God) Ver. 5. what I will do? A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  
A sentence of deprivation of his graces: A sentence of final desolation, only by removing his mercies and blessings by which only it standeth, by removing his own saving presence from it, 1. the hedge of his defence shall be taken away, and then he shall not need to hiss to the nations to come against her, she hath greedy enemies at home that lie in wait for the prey.  
Secondly, He will not maintain the wall or props which uphold her. How can it then but fall down to the ground, and be trampled on by the feet of every wild beast?  
Thirdly, He will not bestow dressing and pruning of her by discipline and chastisements: how can she then but grow wild? She shall not be digged and weeded; then will thorns and corruptions overgrow her. And yet by all these punishments the wrath of the Lord is not appeased: for there remaineth one, which taketh away all future hopes and possible means of any one branch to continue, and live in the midst of these former desolations: He will command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon her: How then can the dry and barren earth bring forth any good?  
I cannot, I need not prosecute the particulars of this sentence: we all know how exactly and severely it is long since executed upon the Vineyard of Israel, and not a word of the Lord is fallen to the ground: that Garden and Paradise of the earth, that delightful habitation of the mighty God of Israel, wherein the light of life shined, when all the earth beside was darkness, lieth now as waste, as the wilderness of Horeb; and where the voice of the Bridegroom was heard, and of him that did lead the dance with Tabrets' and haps; where the people of God joined together in the joyful songs of Zion; there now Zims and satires dance, the Ostrich & the Shrich-owle do dwell there, and the inhabitants themselves being cast out of their Cities and Vineyards, and scattered over the whole earth amongst them that hate them, do live without GOD, without a Saviour and Protector, without a sacrifice, without hope and comfort, a forlorn Nation, & according to the Prophecies, the reproach and hissing and scorn of all people, a perpetual exemplary monument in the midst of Christians and Nations of all tongues, of the Lords justice upon his own unthankful Church and family.  
Concerning now ourselves, who have succeeded the jew in God's inheritance, and are made a part of his Vineyard, what can we allege for ourselves, why the same sentence should not pass upon us? If we compare Gods mercies towards us, we go beyond the jew, as far as the light of Christ and his Apostles doth exceed the light of Moses and his Prophets, and the son of righteousness doth go beyond the Stars of the night, the grace of the Gospel beyond the commandments of the law. If we compare our fruits of thankfulness, what one complaint do the Prophets make of the jews covetousness, unjustice, oppression, wantonness and pride, which is not, by altering the names, as it were, spoken to our land, besides the sins of sacrilege, of gluttony proper to us?  
Wherefore seeing where the Lord had juster cause to expect such multitude of grapes, he is provoked with a continual Vintage of these wild grapes, I will not dare to pronounce the LORDS sentence, that thus and thus will he do unto his Vineyard.  
Yet seeing GOD referreth it to our judgements, to pronounce what it hath deserved; I may with the secret assent of your own consciences affirm, that, in that he hath not yet executed that sentence upon us, he hath not dealt with us after our sins, neither rewarded us according to our iniquities: for the hedge of jewrie is broken down, and the wild Boar hath destroyed that Vine. The Beasts of the field have devoured it up. But the LORD hath kept our hedges, and the Boar hath not devoured, the wild beasts have not broken in upon us. The LORDS final Sessions are approaching; and who knoweth whether by his exemplary justice, he being sufficiently known to the world? These public & corporal executions of his wrath upon sinful Nations, be not referred unto that day. This is our chiefest cause of fear, lest a spiritual curse proceed out of his mouth against us, like that of our Saviour Christ upon the barren figtree; lest he neglect to prune and dress this his Vineyard; lest he neglect to weed out our thorns, and suffer the brambles to choke that little good that is found amongst us; lest to our final desolation and spiritual vastity, he command the clouds not to rain their rain upon us lest he make the Heaven over our heads to be as brass: for then the earth shall be as iron, or as dry and fruitless dust.  
What fruit can earth yield, when it is forsaken of heavenly grace?  
Oh stir up therefore the graces of GOD which are in you, and apply them unto fruitfulness; that ye may yet take, and lad the Altar of the LORDS winepress with the sacrifice of your fruits. Say in your hearts, as the Vine, judg. 9 Should I leave my Wine, whereby I cheer both God and man, and go to advance myself above other trees? That as, Esai 65. When there is wine found in the cluster, one doth say, Destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it: So our Lord visiting this Vineyard, may have cause to say, There are clusters found in the Vine, destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it: and a blessing be upon it.  
Thus, and thus only may we continue Christ the Vine unto our land, & ourselves a Vineyard unto Christ; A Seat of perpetuity for the Lords mercies, and inheritance of life to our Children and Posterity. Amen.  
FINIS.