of the soule prostrating reason at the feet of sense and enthroning passion in the chaire of reason there was now no longer harmony betweene the flesh and the Spirit the motions of the flesh rebelling against the rules of reason the sterne of reason being neither pliable to the spirit nor the spirit obedient vnto God this disorder bred diseases the summoners and fore-runners of death so that man was presently retrograded into the element of dust of which hee was first composed Death as it was threatned for sinne so was it inflicted vpon sinne The day that thou sinnest thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 and the day that hee did eate surely hee did die the Mother and the Daughter Sinne and Death are both of an age he was afterward but a mouing carcase a walking sepulcher Mortuus erat non mortalis as a malefactor is a dead man when he is condemned before he is executed Euery sinne is of the same nature with the first and bringeth death like that indeed it murthereth not with the same extent that was the sinne of nature and therefore the death of nature so that afterward women brought forth children Chrysolog Serm 111. Vindictae ordine non naturae Lucbant peccatum mundi qui mundum non nouerunt parentis sui soluebant poenam cuius vix vitam degustarunt Other sinnes are personall and therefore the destruction of the person be it sinne in the roote or sinne in the branch be it the mother and spawne of sinne inbred pollution or the fruit and haruest of sinne actuall transgression the first hath many branches and all deadly the other hath many Species and all mortall in the first there is participatio culpae imputatio reatus and concupiscentia and all are rewarded with death euen the last which is not onely the cause of sinne and the punishment of sinne but sinne it selfe be it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely where consent is added to lust but where lust is without consent not only actuall concupiscence but habituall naturall and originall not the second motions only or concupiscentia formata as the Schoole speaketh but motus primò primi and that which is informis yea although it preuenteth the vse of reason although it be resisted by the power of the spirit shall the traitor suffer that committeth the Treason and shall the plotter and contriuer escape or shall the last escape punishment because the first will not offend Originall sinne hath not more branches then actuall hath species neither are these lesse fatall then the other whether they be seated in the vnderstanding as the darkenesse of errour concerning God or in the heart and will as our irregular thoughts and exorbitant desires or in our outward members as externall actions whether they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trespasses against the rules of Nature not ingrauen in stone but imprinted in the conscience so the Gentiles sinned Rom. 2.14 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trespasses against the word written 1 Iohn 3.4 so the Iewes offended both these whether they be of omission or commission not onely the obliquity of our actions but our vnlawfull surcease from action not our words but our silence also The Advocate whose lips are sealed vp with a fee of the aduerse party the Priest not whom Authority but sloth hath silenced shall both be rewarded with death and they therefore deserue their wages because they haue not done their worke There is no sin of omission which is not a sinne of commission si non pavisti occidisti he that seeth his neighbours Oxe fall into the pit and helpeth him not out he pusheth him in not to saue a man when we may when we ought in the Court of Conscience is to murther a man If I should reckon vp all sorts of sinne I should commit one against your patience yet could I shew you none whose issue is not death If the Eye but lusteth mors per fenestras if the foot but slippeth praecipitiuÌ„ est there are no staires but fall we must into the pit and wee should downe to the bottome were it not bottomlesse Hee that doth but peeuishly quarrell or maliciously hate murthereth himselfe although he killeth not his Aduersary let the Act be wanting the desire will kill and there may bee man-slaughter where there is no shedding of bloud 'T was a witty speech of one of your auncient Declamators â—ib 1. de Civ 〈◊〉 cap. 19. registred by S. Austin concerning Lucrece being rauished by Tarquin Duo fuêre unus adulterium commisit I know not whether the Act could bee committed without the sinne I am sure the sinne may bee without the Act Et â—pado machâ—â—â—rit and an Eunuch may bee an Adulterer Lesse infirmities as well as great impieties will worke destruction neither is it certaine that Aegypts little flyes were not her greatest plague The least pricke in the least ioint impostumateth the whole flesh but a moate in the Eye blindeth the sight a breach in the wall is the conquest of the enemie and the ruine of the City let vs not weigh our sinnes but number them if they may seeme small wee cannot count them few He that offendeth in one point of the Law is guilty of all Iames 2.10 Sinne like Heresie is of an encroaching nature as one Heresie proueth another so doth one sinne vsher in another the lesser alwayes making roome for the greater Our vncatechised trauailer iourneying into countries superstitious idolatrous at the first is only vncouered and boweth at the meeting of the Hoast 't is not good saith he to giue offence to them which are without then he ventureth to goe to their high places to visit their Churches and Chappels to heare and see their loud blasphemy in their Liturgies and the profane pompe of their ceremonies not that he intendeth a change of his Religion but to purchase a sounder hate of their superstition he no sooner heareth seeth but he liketh and approueth Lastly as a sure pledge of his Apostasie he returneth home and seduceth others The grand Heresies of the Apostate Roman Church which indirectly and by consequence raze and destroy the very foundation of Faith came in by degrees and the first stone for the building of Babel was laide long since Traditions the Mother of all their Heresies had with them their right vse vntill first those which were temporarie and for a season were taught to be permanent and to endure for euer then those which were particular and bound only some one Church were made Catholick generaly to enforce after that without examination humane traditions had the same credit the same Authority that diuine Apotacticall as Apostolicall Lastly all these were made as authenticall as the word written giue the Pope a primacy and he will assume a Principality giue him more honour and he will haue more power As in doctrine so in manners small things neglected grow and become
A SERMON PREACHED AT PAVLS CROSSE THE 24. OF OCTOBER 1624. BY ROBERT BEDINGFIELD Master of Arts and Student of Christ-Church in Oxford AC OX OXFORD Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD and WILLIAM TVRNER for HENRY CRIPPS 1625. Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVLL HIS VERY WORTHY VNCLE SIR THOMAS RICHARDSON Knight Serieant at the Law grace and peace be multiplied in CHRIST IESVS SIR LEt mee humblie beg of you that you would bee pleased to take this Sermon into the Sanctuary of your patronage your free and gracious promise to be the Patron of the Author hath imboldened him to intitle you so to his issue The violence of a wet season denied it some Auditors which it might haue had your incouraging command to haue a sight of it the forcible importunity of wel-wishing friends haue pressed it and giuen it readers which I intended it should not haue had I apologize not if it bee better to preach 't is good to print the vnderstanding is not informed nor the will moued alwaies by the Eare but sometimes by the Eye otherwise the suttle Romanists would vnclaspe the Bibles of the Laitie and not denie them to read the Scriptures I know your deuotions and your imploiment God and your Countrie permit you not in the tearme-time to read a long Epistle I conclude therefore with my prayers to almightie God that as he hath indowed you with his more eminent graces and richer gifts so he would put it into the heart of the King to reward them that your Honours may one day ballance your deserts that in the meane time your dwelling may remaine as now it is the oracle of the citie From my study in Christ-Church in Oxford Nouemb. 24. Your most humbly deuoted Seruant and Nephew ROBERT BEDINGFIELD ROMANS 6. VERSE 23. For the Wages of Sinne is Death but the Gift of God is Eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. MY Embassie Right Honourable and the rest Beloued I know not whether it bee fuller of horrour or delight whether it may more amaze or comfort you the first part like the seuere threats of the punishing Law searcheth the wound the latter like the soueraigne balme of the sauing Gospell worketh the cure 't is equally diuided the first woundeth not so deepe but the latter cureth as fast If the wound be vnto death the cure is vnto life If the wages of sinne be death the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. The Text naturally is thus put on sunder there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wages of sinne is death there is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord there is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is first malum culpae the offence giuen sinne secondly there is malum poenae the punishment inflicted Death thirdly there is the Iustice and proportion betweene the offence and the punishment it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stipend the wages fourthly and lastly there is the certainty of the punishment to bee inflicted intimated in the verbe of the present tense it is death The wages of sinne is death In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is first life opposed vnto death in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commended by his adiunct or duration it is eternall Secondly heere is the meanes of conferring of it on them that receiue it which is not by way of wages as death in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but freely and by gift thirdly heere is the doner hee that bestoweth it GOD. Lastly heere is the Mediator hee through whom and for whose sake it is giuen Iesus Christ our Lord. This is my modell these my parts briefly God hath this day set before you life and death good and euill now that you be not deceiued in your choice giue me leaue to lay them open vnto you first the euill malum delicti malum supplicij the euill of Sinne and the euill of death The wages of sinne is death Man in his Original Primitiue perfectioÌ„ being the Son of God by creation as he summed vp the world in an Epitome so was he a liuing Image of his fathers glory De eo quod de terius potiori insidiari soleat August lib. 2. de Gen. cap. 8. praeter Haereticâ—s â—uius sententiae fuit Lactantius lib. 2. Insâ—itut diuin whom he best copied out in his better part his soule not that it was ex traduce from God not that the Diuinity was rent in two or diuided so that that became part of the Diuine Essence as first Philo the Iew doted and after him the Maniches blasphemed there was no trans-fusion but a creation no identity but a conformity which was not in substance but in quality neither was the soule alone so glorious but the body also which was first made a house for the soule to inhabit and not a prison to suffer in a house indeede made of clay but made by the immediate touch of the God of Heauen a sublunary body yet not waited vpon by corruption a subiect where contrary qualities did reside and yet not a subiect ouer which they might triumph Lastly both soule and body were so vnited and married together that corruption being not able to possesse the parts nor to dissolue the vnion the whole man was immortall and that not by the dowry of grace but by the priuiledge of Nature not supernaturally as were the garments of the Israelites in the Wildernesse or as Austin coniectured concerning Enoch Elias Lib. 1. de peccat meritu remissione cap. 4. but per sequelaÌ„ naturae so that immortality was part of his Nature as well as his nature was euer immortall immortall not absolutely or essentially for so hee had been a God not by creation positiuely for so had he beene a spirit but negatiuely saith the Schoole and conditionally he had the priuiledge posse non mori although he had not the immunity non posse morï as there was a possibility of dying so it was without a necessity I follow not the Sententiaries which follow not their Master but are curiously inquisitiue to know what should become of man if hee had not fallen how he should haue preserued himselfe from Corruption whether by eating of the tree of life or by any other meanes we know no more then our Grandfather Lib. 2. distinct 23. and he saith Lombard Accepit scientiam praeceptum eorum quae facienda erant non accepit praescientiam eorum quae futura erant Wee know not what he should haue eaten to haue preserued his immortality we know what he did eate to lose it Adami homicida gula The eating of the forbidden fruit dismantled and stript our first Parents at once both of their roabes of Righteousnesse and Immortality that first sinne made a breach in the well-ordered Oeconomy
de defunctu August de civit Dei lib. 21. 〈◊〉 24 This were with Origen to be kindly mad and to turne Hell into Purgatory both these both without intermission both without end and yet is the punishment as iust as great for death euen this death is the stipend and wages of sin there is a proportion between the punishment and the offence which is the third part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quiâ— Facinus est mensura paenae when misdemeanour is censured with death when the malefactor suffreth beyond the rigour of the Law 't is cruelty doometh him and not Iustice yet must the sentence alwayes ballance the crime if the sin be impudent the punishment must be exemplary as is the offence and an extraordinary offender must not be hanged vpon a common gallowes God his doome is alwayes impartiall and he doth still proportion his vengeance with the sinne he blesseth and curseth he rewardeth and punisheth in analogo so that the vertue is charactred in the reward and the vice may be read in the punishment When God promiseth to build Dauid's House for euer because he purposed to build God an House when Ioseph's brethren doe homage vnto him as vnto their Lord because they had sold him as their slaue God so rewardeth them both that he sheweth the piety of the one and the affliction of the othet Ahab is humbled and God deferreth his iudgments the reward sheweth his humiliation and sheweth it to be temporary Because Vriah falleth by Dauid's sword Optatus lib. 2. cont Parmenian the sword must not depart from Dauid's House 2 Sam. 12 because the prophane Donatists doe impiously cast the Sacramentall Bread vnto the dogges the same doggs doe presently teare in pieces those Donatists Because Sodome burneth with flames of lust it is burned with flames of fire Gen. 19.24 because the lust is vnnaturall the fire is supernaturall and God sendeth Hell froÌ„ Heauen When you see Absalom's haire to be his halter you may know it was his pride and when ye read that Salomon's Kingdome was diuided ye may read and yet ye need not read to know it that he diuided God's Kingdome The line is no otherwise laid to the rule then God's rewards and punishments are proportioned to our workes many times thus in speciall in this life so that as the casuists obserue he punishes in the same maner in the same kind in the same place in the same part but alwayes in generall hereafter 1 Cor. 15. As there are here degrees of grace so shall there be hereafter degrees of glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one starre differeth from another in glory some shall but shine with the brightnes of the firmament others shall glister with the glory of the starres All the Elect shall build vp the House of God but the Martyrs only shall be pillars in the House Apocal. 2.12 All the Saints shall iudge the world but the Apostles shall be mounted vpon twelue more eminent Thrones All the Elect after iudgment shall sit in Heauen but some with ioy only on the left hand others both with ioy and preheminency on the right In Heauen there are many Mansions Iohn 14.2 And though he cannot lodge amisse who lodgeth there yet is one roome more glorious then another If there be not many mansions in Hell if the roomes be not distinguished I am sure the tortures are Hell fire is all of one heat yet doth it not burne alike The same scorching Sun heateth a Northerne man more then a Southerne yea an English man trauailing into Spaine doth iustly more feare a Calenture then a Spaniard Let straw wood be the fuell of our fire the heat is more and lesse The fuell of this fire are the sinnes of the Reprobate as they are small or great more or few the heat is augmented or diminished but yet it is alwayes intollerable See the proportion when the least sin is committed an infinite Maiesty is offended and therefore an infinite punishment must be inflicted In the least sinne God is contemned and the creature praefer'd before the Creator Suarez de legibus lib. 3. 8. num 21. Let Suarez distinguish mandatum à mandaÌ„te Legistatorem à lege there must be contemptus personae where there is contemptus operis and if God be contemned let it be materially or formally directly or indirectly Simply or secundum quid Let them modificate it with more not to be vnderstood Metaphysicall suttleties the sinne must still be infinite and the guilty must suffer torments in proportion which because they cannot doe Intensivè simul semel they must doe extensivè successivè 'T is no disproportion when he that sinneth but for a time doth suffer more then for a time hee would alwayes haue liued in sinne who neuer left to sinne while he liued And 't is proportion that hee should neuer want punishment who had a will euer to offend You see the Iustice yet is not God more strict in fitting the punishment to the sinne then certaine in auenging the sin with the punishment which is the fourth and last part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If neither Vertue should be rewarded nor Vice punished we might with Epicurus conclude both against God and prouidence yet were the persecutions of the Christians weakely vrged by Caecilius in Minutius against their beliefe In Dial. Oct. And his Dilemma that their God either could not or would not succour them and so that he was either weake or vniust was but a flourish and therefore he might haue spared his Sarcasticall Interrogatory triumph Qui subvenire reviviscentibus potest viventibus non potest saevitia non est sed certamen The fightings without and the terrours within which the Saints vndergoe are their trials and not their punishments and doe more exercise then hurt then Persecution is not alwayes the instrument of God's fury but sometimes of his mercy They are bastards and not sonnes who were neuer corrected The father seeing his childe swouning lendeth him a blow to recouer him The Physician putteth his Patient into an Ague that hee may cure him of a worse malady God sometimes casteth downe that he may raise vp hee sometimes killeth that he may make aliue and turneth the poyson to a preseruatiue Sicut ignis flatu premitur ut crescat vnde quasi extingui cernitur inde roboratur God then wrestled with Iacob when he came to blesse him and put out Saul's eyes that he might restore him his sight Let me be persecuted O Lord so I be not forsaken let me feele the lash of thy blowes so I escape the smart of thy fury so if I be whipped I will kisse he rod. As the iust doe thus enioy their afflictions so doe he vniust suffer in their prosperity and are cursed with their blessings â—ern in Cant. Hom. 42. Certè tunc magis irascitur Deus cùm nâ—n irascitur God's hand is then heauiest on the
make bad vse of the Law which is good so doe the righteous make good vse of death which is bad Ipsa poena vitiorum transit in arma virtutis fit iusti meritum etiam supplicium peccatoris This made the Primitiue Christians so ambitious of Martyrdome that they did pursue their persecution so couetous of ruine that not staying for the hand of the hangman they turned their owne executioners and left their liues now in the fire now in the water like the man his lunaticke sonne in the Gospell who being possessed with a Diuell fell sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water Mat. 17.14 'T is one thing for death to come to vs 't is another thing for vs to goe to death the first may be martyrdome the second is murder We must goe with alacrity but we must stay vntil we are called death which is iust in the will is vniust in the hand we may not meet it although we may attend it insomuch that it is an argument of force enough to proue the Bookes of the Maccabees to be Apocryphall because they doe so much extoll Razis the Father of the Iewes for murthering himselfe 2 Maccab. 14 42. As the true Christian Martyrs be the best of Christians so be your Pagan Pseudo-Martyrs the worst of the Heathen other Idolaters doe but worship false gods these goe about to proue them true Epiph. lib. 2. Her 8. of these there were a number euen vnto a Sect. Litle better then these were the Pseudo-Catholicks if they suffred for their Haeresies but indeed they die malefactors more for sedition then Religion more for faction then for Faith they liue Papists but they are hanged Traitors although both Haeresie Treason might deserue death yet hath the mercy of our Princes inflicted it only vpon the latter God will reward both euery sin euen the least with death not with the first death only but with the second not with naturall death only of the body but with aeternall also both of body and soule for euermore Vita hîc aut amittitur aut tenetur Euery one that departeth this life is either sung into blisse by the Angels or hauled into torments by the diuels Cypr. de mort sect 2. The Fathers were vnacquainted with the new Orcography of the School-men whose searching invention hath founded as many Regions below the Earth as there are aboue in the Aire the first is their Limbus Patrum where they faigne the Fathers to haue suffred the temporary pain of losse before Christ's comming Tert. lib. 4. cont Maâ—cion an Haeresie borrowed from Marcion and grounded vpon this false reason that Heauen gates were shut vntill Christ's ascension which being disprooued by the theeue's entrance Bellarmine taketh the Keies and openeth them at his Passion and before they were not open but then was his Passion when he was slaine which was from the beginning of the world The second place is their Limbus Infantum where they lodge Infants dying before Baptisme where they torture them with eternall paine of losse 1 Cor. 17.12 A bloody conclusion of a mercilesse Religion which maketh not death as it is here a punishment for sin but sin it self 't is foolish to thinke that the seed of the faithfull who are holy from their birth should be depriued of inward grace because necessity denyeth them the vse of outward Sacraments when publick Baptisme may not be had priuate is sufficient if death preuent this votall will availe Sat est si adest mentalitèr cùm non potest haberi sacramentalitèr Thom. part 5. quest 68. art 2. it is enough if Christian Parents desire it if they cannot obtain it The force of truth made Mr Hooker of this opinion euen where he disputeth against Schismaticks for priuate Baptisme If there were not strength of proofe charity should make them rather partiall Ecclesiast polit lib. 5. sect 61. then cruell Iudges force them to conclude that many Infants of beleeuing parents as they suffer no paine of sense so doe they vndergoe no sense of paine The third place is their Purgatory that Apocryphall dreame that Roman mythology Dial. lib. 4. ca. 41 a place first offered to be built by Gregory six hundred yeares after Christ vpon the false disproued foundation of veniall sins but they pretend more antiquity Dionys Eccl. Hier. cap. 7. would proue it by this false illation because there was prayer for the dead whereas this prayer was not a supplicatioÌ„ but a thanksgiuing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or if they did petition 't was not for the soule 's safety but the bodies glory or if they supplicated for the soule for the remission of the sins of the soul 't was only for a publick iustification for a solemne acquittal and perfect consummation of blisse and this not because the euent was doubtfull but as Austin prayed for his Mother her entrance into Heauen although he beleeued she was entred before Lib. 9. Confess cap. 13. and endeth his Petition with Credo Domine iam feceris quod te rogo There is a fourth place which these men deserue to inhabit for inventing the other three which is Hell the place of the damned where they suffer death a second death a death after death a death and yet euerlasting The reprobate like the Salamander is stil scorched in the fire but neuer consumed the soule suffreth of the body but dieth not so is the body tormented by the fire but perisheth not Illic sapiens ignis membra urit reficit carpit nutrit like vnto the lightning which is the thunders fire it so toucheth the bodies Minutius in Dial. Octa. that it destroyeth them not and if the fuell remain the fire will still endure The flames of Aetna and Vesuvius still burne but neuer burne out Ita poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascitur sed inexesâ corporum laceratione nutritur I dispute not whether this fire be materiall or metaphoricall whether it be spirituall or corporall certainly 't is furious and terrible I desire neither to vnderstand nor vndergoe it yet thus much is certain as it hath extremity of heat to tormeÌ„t so hath it no light to comfort it burneth but shineth not how painfull it is to sit how dismall to suffer in darknes There is no punishment but it is in Hell there is no sense-afflicting torture but it is there augmented and yet doth the paine of losse far surmount the pain of sense t is more affliction to be shut out of Heauen then to be imprisoned in Hell and banishment is worse then death and yet shall this also be inflicted on sin both these both without intermission to make Holy-daies in Hell were to poëtize with Prudentius both without end for that Traian was deliuered from Hell by the prayers of Pope Gregory I beleeue not although Damascen bringeth the East West to witnesse it Damas serm