Kings with their damnable revolts so often apostated the whole land and made the Israelites turne Idolaters As all imitate their king so aggrauate his sinne so doe most copie out his Nobles augment their crimes My Lord must haue his followers aswell of his vice as of his person if he leaueth his King at the Chappell dore he turneth not back without his Attendants who if his Honour pleaseth to be Idolatrous wil wait vpon him euen vnto a Masse As the Nobles Peers be so borne so you honoured Lords who iudge the Land you graue Fathers the Elders of the City are so exalted so placed ut bona malaque vestra ad Rempublicam pertineant your vertues and your vices are subiected inhaerent in your persons but by these as the Heauens by their Influences you worke good and euill through the whole Land Better no Iudge in Israel then a corrupt one no Elder then a wicked one the first giueth but liberty the second addeth incouragement to sin you see to eminence of your persons doubleth your crimes and maketh your sinnes as scarlet as your habits I might inlarge my proofe and exhortation with an Apostrophe to the Clergy the liuing Oracles of God to whom ye must resort for counsell Hi si eloquuntur magna non vivunt if their liues cry not downe sin as loud as their tongues they may helpe to build the Arke and perish in the Floud if they that preach the way to Heauen tread the way to Hell Hell must be their portion the number of their followers shall add vnto their tortures From the Clergy I might descend vnto the Gentry from them to euery Oeconomicall Goueruour and Father of his family although I stay there yet let none the meanest here take heart to offend for the sin which the meannesse of his Person lessneth by denying him followers may be aggrauated by other circumstances of the place and manner which I will briefly glance ouer We ascribe no inherent holinesse to any place Bethel may become Bethauen the Temple of God the house of an Idol the seat of Peter the chaire of Antichrist neither doe I know whether the zeale of Christendome was right if they warred for Iewry as for the Holy land yet may we iustifie our consecrated Churches Chappels which being separated for an holy vse may not be profaned if the buyers and sellers will trade in the Temple our SAVIOVR prouideth a whip for them and I would to God the zeale of Authority in imitation of that of our God would whip out the buyers and sellers out of the Temple would whip them either out of the Iles or into the Quier Good God to see how the prophane walkers in the time of diuine seruice when the Quier are chaunting their sacred Anthems and Heauenly Halleluiahs are then polluting the stones with their durty feete when they should weare them with their supplicating knees there are at the same time some praying aboue some blaspheming below and that so loud that God heareth not the prayers for the blasphemy As the Vbi the place so the Quomodo the manner of doing it doth much difference a sinne Mens propositū saith the Law distinguunt maleficia whosoeuer calleth his brother foole is in danger of Hell fire Matth. 5.22 yet doth Paul call his brethren the Galatians fooles and sinneth not Gal. 3.1 He that killeth a man shall surely be put to death Leuit. 24.17 yet he that killeth a man ignorantly whō he hated not before shall flee vnto one of the Cities of refuge and liue Deut. 19.4 5. that which infirmity slippeth must not be censured as that which malice acteth that which is committed out of ignorance is not punished as that which is done out of presumption I am no aduocate for ignorance he who is ignorant let him be ignorant still he who affecteth ignorance let him perish in his ignorance In them that may know it is a sinne in them that may not know it is a punishment for sinne it is to none which ought to know and all ought a priuiledge to sinne yet if it be particularis and not Vniuersalis as the Philosopher facti and not iuris as the Lawyer inuincibilis and not vincibilis as the Master of the sentences it doth excuse à tanto although not à toto it lesneth the offence but taketh it not away it still remaineth a sinne and therefore liable to the punishment of sinne Death which is the second part in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a death vnto sinne as well as a death for sinne a death which putteth not Nature in her graue but Vice how shall we being dead to sinne liue therein Rom. 6.2 Death for sinne is either spirituall and of the soule naturall and of the body or eternall both of soule and body Anima est vita habet ipsa suam vitam as the soule is the life of the body so is God the life of the soule The iust doe liue by faith Romans chapter 1. verse 17. Euen by faith in the Sonne of God Galat. chap. 2. v. 20. Who quickneth them with his spirit Eph. 2.5 The body may liue and yet the soule may be dead by which the body liueth there are some long since buried which yet liue such are Abraham Isaac and Iacob for God which is their God is not the God of the dead but of the liuing so there bee now some liuing which haue bin long since dead A widow liuing in pleasure is dead while she liueth the 1 of Timoth. 5. and 6. You that liue in sinne are already in your graues I must therefore bespeake you as sometime Christ did Lazarus Lazare veni for as come you forth of your graues arise from death to life from sinne to newnesse of life but my words want efficacy and my speech hath no power to raise you Christ Iesus therefore speak that vnto your hearts which I doe vnto your eares De eo quod deterius potiori insidiari solcat Where it is in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo the Iew would haue vs read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for saith he Cain had no sooner slaine his brother but he became dead himselfe and Abel being murthered was yet aliue if hee was not how did hee speake how did he speake aloude and cry for vengeance so hee wittily Let the dead bury the dead Matth. 8.22 let them which are spiritually dead bury them which are dead to nature and the solemnity of their funerals being ended let them prouide for their owne interrring which is at hand for mors operata erit mortem the death of the soule will cause the death of the body A death common vnto all it is all mens pilgrimage from the sepulcher to the sepulcher from the graue of the wombe to the graue of the earth all men shall once die for as much as all men haue sinned Heb. 9.27 The instinct of
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
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