Spiritual whoredom discovered in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons assembled…Spirituall vvhordome discovered in a sermon preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons assembled…

As for covetousness and worldliness, ¹alas it is death to consider after a little suspension of trading and straitening of our estates, a little blood-let in our superfluous abundance, whereby God would have taught us that lesson, that riches have wings and fly away; ²and thereby would have weaned our hearts from the world, and have winged our affections for an higher flight, even the pursuit of more excellent treasures, the things above: I say it is death to see and consider on the contrary how people do with the Israelites (after they had fasted an whole day) fly upon the spoil, and eat with the very blood running about their lips, the blood of the widow, the fatherless and oppressed! What feathering of nests, what heaping of preferments and places: What scraping for the world, as if the dust thereof would not serve every man for an handful! What enriching of menselves upon the poverty of the Kingdom? What building (as of old) houses with blood, and raising of families with oppression?

As for covetousness and worldliness, ¹alas it is death to consider after a little suspension of trading and straitning of our estates, a little blood-let in our superfluous abundance, whereby God would have taught us that lesson, that riches have wings and fly away; ²and thereby would have weaned our hearts from the world, and have winged our affections for an higher flight, even the pursuit of more excellent treasures, the things above: I say it is death to see and consider on the contrary how people do with the Israelites (after they had fasted an whole day) fly upon the spoil, and eat with the very blood running about their lips, the blood of the widdow, the fatherless and oppressed! What feathering of nests, what heaping of preferments and places: What scraping for the world, as if the dust thereof would not serve every man for an handful! What enriching of menselves upon the poverty of the Kingdom? What building (as of old) houses with blood, and raising of families with oppression?

1. 1