nature which prompteth euery creature to seeke it 's owne preseruation should teach man not to make loue to death not to wooe his owne destruction although he transgresseth not the Law made against robbers who cutteth his owne purse yet he is guilty of murder who cutteth his owne throat and surely he loueth murder who will act it vpon himselfe and yet such are all sinners whose sinnes are the weapons with which they butcher themselues like Saul and his Armor-bearer they fall and die vpon their owne swords If any sonne of Hippocrates pronounceth it to be preiudiciall to their health the debauched Drunkard will abstaine from his cups and the luxurious Epicure will fast from his dainties how foolish are they who would shunne death and yet worke wickednesse which causeth death There is no other cause of death but sinne where there is no sinne there is no death no death of the body no death of Nature And yet he who had no sinne the Sonne of Righteousnesse had his setting as well as his rising and walked into the West Licet naturae dominus carnis tamen quam susceperat legem non recusauit so that life it selfe dyed yet not necessarily but voluntarily tradidit in mortem animam suam neither was his death penall but expiatory hee was not stung to death by sinne but he stung sinne to death by suffering death he made death to suffer and got the victory by yeelding O death where is thy sting 1 Cor. 15.55.56 O graue where is thy victory the sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law but thankes be vnto God which hath giuen vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ Christ so deliuered his from death as hee freed them from sinne which he suffered still to dwell in them although not to raigne ouer them The Canaanites remaine in the land to proue the Israelites sinne must inhabite in the regenerate to encrease and try their faith sift them you shall finde them so enlightned that they sit in darkenesse so purged that they must be cleansed their faith is mixed with infidelity their wisedome ioyned with folly and their glory eclipsed with shame to want sinne must be a Christians wish it cannot be his hope otherwise hee that must alwayes here be militant should sometime be triumphant We may be dead to sinne but sinne will not be altogether dead to vs we may cut it off but it will bud againe we may chase it away but it will returne we may quench it but it will flame againe it still approacheth it still entiseth and prouoketh vs it still striueth but it is to encrease our victory at last it must haue the fall and be triumphed ouer so may the tyrant weepe to see himselfe prostrate at the feete of them who were his Captiues Et ad eorum triumphum de quibus diù triumphaverat se veteranus hostis pervenisse deploret Sinne is not so in the Elect as it is in the reprobate these either by habit or resolution or discourse are incorporated into euill and sinne is naturalized in them the other may sometime be surprised by force of passion but their vnderstanding seldome giueth consent the first serue sinne the other giue it only house-roome or if they doe it any seruice 't is as the Israelites serued Pharaoh or as his Gally-slaues serue the Turke by compulsion Damnatum est peccatum si non extinctum Sinne hath lost it's dominion although it be not cast out so death is dis-armed although she be not remoued she hath lost her sting although she keepeth her essence nay she hath lost her essence the forme the life of death is lost and she is but equivocally what she was before As she hath lost her nature so hath she changed her name to die now is but to sleepe to rest or be at peace Death to the Elect is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nyssen stileth it it doth not so much punish as purge and expiate sinne 't is a Snake without her sting a gaole-deliuery an earnest-peny of the resurrection a bridge to passe from corruption to incorruption to be wished of all that wish to goe to Paradise not to be feared at all because it freeth vs from all that is to be feared A curious workeman seeing his Image of brasse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epiph. in his 2 Booke Aduersus Haereses on which he hath bestowed his Art and industry to be spotted and defaced he putteth it againe into the fire and new casteth it which is not the losse but the perfection of the Image so God after hee had made man a most elegant fabricke seeing him polluted with sinne resolued him againe into dust that he might rise vnspotted When the vessell that the Potter made was marred he made of it another vessell Ier. 18.4 Cannot I doe with you as the Potter with his clay saith the Lord behold as the clay is in the Potters hand so are yee in my hand O ye house of Israel the same chapter and the sixt verse Non interit quisquis victurus moritur This death of Nature is rather a change then a death 't is not finall quem putas interitum secessus est neither is it totall 't is onely of the body death is dieted like the serpent and can eat nothing but dust nay 't is not so much the death of the body Plin. Ep. lib. 2. epist 1. as of the corruption of the body Et mortalitas magis finita est quam vita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isiod Peleus lib. 4. epist 52. Happy Martyrs how their torments pleased them how they kissed the fagot and hug'd the fire as though like Eliah they had gone to heauen in fiery chariots weigh their tortures and reade their constancy you would iudge them to haue beene spirits without flesh if they might seeme to be afflicted because they were heard to pray they must be iudged to haue beene merry in their affliction because they sung Psalmes Their note was the same although their pangs were differenced with the three children in the fiery furnace Hieron Qui inter frigidos flammarum globos hymnos edidêre pro fletibus They wept not out an Elegy as if they had beene preparing for their funerals but they sung and reioyced as if it had beene their birth day and it was their birth day to eternity Blessed Martyres for if they be blessed who die in the Lord blessed must they bee who die for the Lord. God saith to man If thou sinnest thou dyest Gen. 2 but he bespeaketh the Martyr if thou refusest to die August thou sinnest Quod tunc timendum fuerat vt non peccaretur nunc suscipiendum est ne peccetur Death which is the punishment of the Sinner suffer it for Gods sake 't is the glory of the regenerate Et cùm sit mors peccati retributio aliquando impetrat vt nihil retribuatur peccato As the wicked
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
big ones the tares spring vp faster then the corne and they doe it insensibly they steale their growth crescere non videmus sed crevisse yet if this were not so if lesser slips opened not the sluces for greater crimes to flow in if wanton glances were not fore-runners of Fornication nor Fornication a step to Adultery if concupiscence would not winne consent nor consent breake out into Act nor the Act often reiterated beget an habit yet were one and the least of these damnable Flesh and Bloud may dispute the fairest praetexts for sinne yet black wil not be dyed into white The Prince of darknesse when he transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light 't is a iugling and not a change so the workes of darknesse may haue the credit of the deedes of light they can neuer haue the goodnesse 't is in vaine to sow fig-leaues together to couer our deformities let vs distinguish and mitigate colour or qualifie what we can that which is mortall and such is euery sinne will not be made veniall otherwise euery Popish Casuist or Roman Schoolman would make veniall sinnes as fast as their God on earth doth pardō them Possunt excusari à mortali parentes c. Parents putting off as well Nature as Religion cursing their children euen to that height that they wish them with the Diuell sinne but venially so Greg. de Val. 3 Tome 1090 page Qui iudicium facit in re gravi temerarium c. A Iudge iudging rashly be it vpon life and death sinneth but venially Bonacina in his second disputation de peccatis his 3 quaestion puncto 5. Some lying some theft must be veniall when some blasphemy all if it be but chollerick is not mortall Navar in his Manuall page 91. Yet doe these which thus preach impunity for sin brand vs with the slaunder of Libertines The distinction of mortall and veniall vnderstand it aright 't is none of theirs but ours 't is true all sinnes euen of the Elect in foro iustitiae in the rigour of iustice are mortall but in foro misericordiae by the mercy of God they are all veniall legally all are mortall Euangelically all veniall ratione peccatorum they are all mortall ratione peccantium there are none not veniall this is our doctrine in which there is as well consent as truth with them there is no concord for besides some amongst them which altogether deny their vse of the distinction as Gerson and Fisher they cannot agree what this venial sinne should be some will haue it contra consilium others contra praeceptum some state it to be praeter legem not contra legem others graunt it to be against the Law but not against charity which is the end of the Law some thinke it both to be against the Law and to diminish charity one will haue it to be sinne imperfectly by analogy others properly vnivocally you may know 't is Babel they are building by the confusion of their language While we thus proue all sinnes to be mortall we teach not a parity of offences we are so Catholicke that we are not Stoicall all sinnes are mortall therfore all are aequall 't is bad Logicke but calumnies must be prou'd by such sequels Vertues haue their Climax much more vices the School giueth the reason Illae ad unum tendunt haec ab uno ad multas mundi vanitates The person the place the manner are circumstances which both aggrauate extenuate a sinne First the person the person against whom we offend the person who offendeth for the first lesse was the sin of the vsurpers in slaying the seruants then in killing the Heire of the Vineyard far greater was the sin of the Iewes in crucifying the Lord of glory then that of their Fathers in murthering the Prophets he sinneth with a higher hand that transgresseth against the Cōmandements of the first Table then he that offendeth against them of the second Blasphemie of oathes profanation of the Sabbaoth although here by the indulgence of the Law or by the conniuence of the Magistrate they escape the seuerity of discipline shall hereafter be punished with extremity of torture Neither doth the person only distinguish the guilt of the two Tables but maketh degrees of sin against one the same Commandement Homicide Parricide are both murder yet the seuere torture which all Nations inflict vpon the one aboue the other are sufficient euidence of the difference of the crimes All murder is censured is punished with death but death hath not alwaies the same sting when she commeth to torture a Parricide a Rauillac for murthering his King O how she is dressed like a Fury armed with racks with fires with strapadoes with burning pincers pulling off flesh to make wounds with scalding oile pitch rozen to powre into those wounds with horses to disioint rent the body that the malefactour may think himselfe in Hell before he is dead she tormenteth him in a furnace flaming with fire brimstone making vp her tragedie with the banishment of the Parricides parents with pulling down the house where he was borne although she spareth the liues of his brethren sisters vnkles yet must they change their names all the Rauillacs must perish Degrees of punishment are as well after death as in death the tortures of one damned soule are differenced from the pangs of an other he that hath bin more wicked Mar. 23.15 shall be more wretched such shall be the punishment as is the crime which is augmented not only by the person who is offended but by the person also who doth offend Greatnes goodnes should twin together no Monarch hath licence to offend no Prince hath any non-obstante for sin neither yet is the Kings praerogatiue lessened because he may not sin it should be inlarged if he could not sin 'T is the misery of soueraignty that the offence is alwayes as great as the offender the sin as soueraigne as the person a Prince his slips are crimes a moat in his Eye is a beame his blemish is a leprosie 't is the Kings truth in the beginning of his first booke of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reason is because he doth not so much commit his sin as teach it nec tam delicto nocens est quà m exemplo A Peasants sin presently findeth it's graue is neglected as his person but Monarchs vices are alwaies masculine and beget the like in others Let Nero be ouer-much delighted in stageplaies straight the grauity of the Senat putteth on Buskins Lactant. 5. infiit and acteth a Comedy Mores vitia Regis imitari genus obsequij putatur Many doe thinke it against their allegiance to be holy if their King be profane The People will follow their Prince yea although they forsake their God to doe it whatsoeuer Iosuah their Captaine their King commandeth them that will they doe Iosuah 1.16 Hence is it that the Israëlitish renegado