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
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
wicked when it is lightest and it is their plague that they are not plagued Veniet ad faelices sua portio quisquis vidâ—tur dimissus Seneâ— dilatus est These happy worldlings must at last haue their iudgement and their iudgement will be their damnation Our sinnes are our debts vnto God and his iudgements are his debts to our sinnes where God oweth he can he will repay He is not like the Heathen's Iupiter that his Quiuer should be empty that want of thunder-bolts should dis-arme him The Lord of hostes cannot want Souldiers to fight his battels If men of Warre should be lacking he hath an army of Frogges and another of Lice to discomfite and deuoure both Pharaoh and Herod As the wicked doe multiply their transgressions so doth he cumulate his iudgements and washeth away a deluge of sinne with a deluge of water He who is omnipotent is no more powerfull then iust and 't is as certaine that he will as that he can reuenge sometimes his wrath is slow and not vpon the necke of the sinne Num. 25.8 as Phineas slew Zimri and Cosbi in the very act of incontinency yet it alwayes at last ouertaketh it and then as hee hath beene slow to wrath so will he be slow to lay downe his wrath when he hath leaden heeles then hee hath iron hands So that the sinner might wish that the blow came sooner so it came lighter God iudgeth not like man our Courts of Iustice doe censure onely knowne and open Malefactors The Iudge at the last day will punish the most close and secret offenders Heere the hired eloquence of the vnconscionable Aduocate or the false periury of the suborned witnesse sometimes casteth a mist before the eyes of the Iudge that he cannot see sometimes corruption hood-winkes him that he will not see The Iudge at the generall Assise shall be his owne euidence he shall be Iudge and Iury and Witnesses Ipse est qui videt vnde videt Hee â—hat made the eye shall not hee see and he that made â—he heart shall not hee vnderstand And as hee can both see and vnderstand what he will so will hee see and vnderstand what hee can There none may escape heere so few are censured that most are not quaestioned Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit hic Diadema Heere you may see the petty thiefe whose accusation and that perchance false is but petty larciny with chaines of iron about his feete when the grand-thiefe the state-theife who by fore-stalling ingrossing or by worse means robs the common-wealth hath no chaines but of gold and them about his neck Such are your sacrilegious Lay-Patrons those spirituall robbers and our Iewish oppressing Vsurers The first back't by the authority of the Law begin now to confront the Pulpit to quaestion the zeale of the Priest denouncing Gods iudgements against them and to threaten punishment if they cannot inflict it so that 't is much safer to commit sinne then to reproue it Let them therefore enioy their conquest let them triumph that they may rob God freely At last their punishment will ouer-take them Quis enim laesos impune putabit Esse Deos The Vsurer hath no Law on his side yet doth he praetend some and where he findeth a tolleration there doth the couetous Peny-father conclude an allowance Turne to the Statutes made against this Citty-sinne and you shall finde it tolerated with an inhibition for the Acts which seeme to allow it doe some of them plainely praeface that Gods Law condemneth it And God will one day take an account of his Law and that with farre more terrour then he deliuered it At the deliuery hee did but shew how fearefull hee could be at the execution he will be as fearefull as he shewed to be when he shall be a Iudge he will inflict death which he did but threaten when he was a Law-giuer The day will come as certaine as it is vncertaine when it will come Behold the day commeth which shall burne like an Ouen and all that doe wickedly shall be as stubble and the day that commeth shall burne them vp saith the Lord of Hostes Then shall the malignant spirit which tempted to sinne be a tormenter for sinne Then shall the amazed reprobate stand betweene his sinnes accusinng him and God's Iustice terrifying him below him shall be his punishment aboue him his Iudge and he equally trembling at the horrour of the one and the wrath of the other within him his conscience without him the world shall be on fire Quid metuat qui ad ista non trepidat Who heareth this and yet dareth to sinne what pleasure of tentation can counteruaile this horrour of euent who now is not frighted who would not bee wonne from wickednesse who now is not drawne who could not be before allured vnto repentance let vs therefore accept no obiect but of sorrow let vs because we are fallen by nature hasten to arise by grace that we may turne the sentence from Goe yee cursed into Come yee blessed that death may be changed into life this euerlasting death into eternall life which is the first part in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To haue any conceit of life but good is now as well impious as Stoicall since eternall blisse is compared to it Yet doth this life of glory so farre surpasse the life of nature as the second death is worse then the first Hence it is that many who feare not death feare to die after death and they who are hungry to loose their liues are yet afraid not to find them being lost I should now from this mount as God did from mount Nebo vnto Moyses shew you the land of Canaan and discourse of though not expresse the ioyes of this eternall life Ioyes in number infinite yet are they summed vp in the Beatificall vision and you might see them all could you see God How often hath the deuotion of many not superstitious Pilgrims with wearied paces measured the way from euery climate to Ierusalem who haue recompensed their tedious trauels onely with the sight of the ground which our Sauiour trode and the visitation of the Sepulcher where hee lay how were the wise men rauished with contentment when the starre had brought them to see Christ but in his Cradle when he came to be of age and began to preach in the City Videres referta tecta ac laborantia when he tooke house there was such a crowd that the sicke of the palsie could not get in except the house had bin vnroofed when he iournied from Ierusalem migravit ciuitas the City was dislodged and ran out of the gates The Sicke and all Qui neglecto medentium imperio ad salutem sanitatemque prorepebant Plin. Paneg. So that the concourse of the people made a narrow way to Christ as well as to Heauen The presse was once so great that there was no ground left for Zacheus to stand on for he needed not
God which is the third part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which is a syllable Life as death is naturall spirituall and eternall there is a life of Nature a life of Grace and a life of Glory and God who is the Prince and Lord of life Acts the 3 and 15. is doner of them all First of the naturall In him we liue and moue and haue our being Acts 17.28 Then of the spirituall Neuerthelesse I liue yet not I but Christ in me Gal. 2.20 And lastly of eternall life here in my Text. And God heere is no one person but the whole Trinity when the Creator conferreth a benefit vpon the creature then as the Father giueth so doth the Sonne as both so doth the Holy Ghost Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa You haue the Authour of whom ye may with confidence beg it with certainty obtaine it for ye haue a powerfull Mediator Iesus Christ our Lord. But the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord which is my last part of which in a briefe conclusion Christ is our Mediatour as he is God and man God incarnate the person by a different act and operation but in one and the same perfection proceeding from both his natures his humanity suffered his humanity satisfied but that his humanity could suffer could satisfie was from his Diuinity Had he bin onely man the Iewes had neither reuiled nor blasphemed when they scoffingly said He that saued others let him saue himselfe We are neither Manichees nor Arians we neither deny the humanity nor oppose the Diuinity we embrace that of Timothy Tim. 1. 2. and 5. There is one God and one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus But we must haue S. Austins Commentary Sed neque per ipsum liberaremur vnū mediatorē Dei hominum hominē Iesum Christū nisi esset Deus In his Enchridion his 108. Chapter If Christ be Mediatour according to his God-head then can none be mediatour who is not God our Pseudo-Catholickes are not more Idolatricall in any point then this although they labour to distinguish themselues into the truth by saying they haue but one mediatour of redemption although they haue more of intercession one chiefe Aduocate although many secundary that their prayers are directed vnto God Tanquam per eum implendae to Saints onely tanquam per eos impetrandae Aquinas 2.2 the 83. quaestion and the 4. Article while they pretend they worship God in the Saints they worship the Saints as God Certainely their practice in this is worse then their doctrine and yet is their doctrine so bad that Bellarmine is ashamed of it and weakely excuseth it saying Their words are not their meaning De beatitudine sanctorum his 17 Chapter and his 1. proposition I will not offend your eares with their blasphemous phrases euery where inserted in their Missals and Liturgies Christus say they caput gratiae Maria collum and they ioyne her milke with his blood I haue troden the Vine-presse alone there was no man with me Esaw the 63.3 true no man but a woman there was the blessed Virgin so there sottish as well as blasphemous glosse 't is not hee but shee that shall breake the Serpents head Gen 3.16 not ipse but ipsa so 't is translated so allowed by the graue Fathers of Trent We are no more saued by Mary then we were condemned by Eue saluation is onely by Christ Per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum though Iesus Christ our Lord as all our Collects runne and by him wee shall be saued hee hath a double right to this eternall life the first by heritage the other by conquest the first for himselfe the second for vs. Mercy hath giuen way to Iustice and Innocency hath suffered Iustice shall giue way to Mercy and the guilty shall be saued Let vs therefore begge with alacrity Quid non dabit petentibus qui seipsum dedit non petentibus Giue vs O God this eternall life euen for thy Sonnes sake our Mediatour and Aduocate Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS ERRATA Pag. 22. in marg r. part 3. p. 37. l. 25. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in marg r. lib. 3. cap. 5.