A SERMON PREACHED AT PAUL'S CROSS THE 24. OF OCTOBER. 1624. BY ROBERT BEDINGFIELD Master of Arts, and Student of Christ-Church in Oxford. Oxford seal AC: OX OXFORD, Printed by JOHN LICHFIELD and WILLIAM TURNER, for HENRY CRIPPS. 1625. modern (?) bookplate Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL HIS VERY WORTHY UNCLE SIR THOMAS RICHARDSON Knight, Sergeant at the Law, grace and peace be multiplied in CHRIST JESUS. SIR, LEt me humbly beg of you, that you would be pleased to take this Sermon into the Sanctuary of your patronage: your free and gracious promise to be the Patron of the Author, hath emboldened him to entitle you so to his issue. The violence of a wet season denied it some Auditors, which it might have had, your encouraging command to have a sight of it, & the forcible importunity of wel-wishing friends have pressed it, and given it readers which I intended it should not have had. I apologise not, if it be better to preach, 'tis good to print: the understanding is not informed, nor the will moved always by the Ear, but sometimes by the Eye; otherwise the subtle Romanists would unclasp the Bibles of the Laity, and not deny them to read the Scriptures. I know your devotions and your employment; God and your Country permit you not in the termtime to read a long Epistle. I conclude therefore with my prayers to almighty God, that as he hath endowed 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 balance your deserts, & that in the mean time your dwelling may remain (as now it is) the oracle of the city. From my study in Christ-Church, in Oxford. Novemb. 24. Your most humbly devoted Servant and Nephew ROBERT BEDINGFIELD. ROMANS 6. VERSE 23. For the Wages of Sin is Death, but the Gift of God is Eternal life through jesus Christ our Lord. MY Embassy (Right Honourable, and the rest Beloved) I know not whether it be fuller of horror or delight, whether it may more amaze or comfort you, the first part like the severe threats of the punishing Law, searcheth the wound; the latter, like the sovereign balm of the saving Gospel, worketh the cure; 'tis equally divided, the first woundeth not so deep, but the latter cureth as fast. If the wound be unto death, the cure is unto life: If the wages of sin be death, the gift of God is eternal life, through jesus Christ our Lord. The Text naturally is thus put on sunder, there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; The wages of sin is death, there is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; but the gift of God is eternal life through jesus Christ our Lord; there is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, there is first malum culpae, the offence given; sin; secondly, there is malum poenae, the punishment inflicted: Death, thirdly, there is the justice and proportion between the offence and the punishment, it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the stipend, the wages; fourthly and lastly, there is the certainty of the punishment to be inflicted, intimated in the verb of the present tense, it is death, The wages of sin is death. In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, there is first life, opposed unto death in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, commended by his adjunct or duration, it is eternal; Secondly, here is the means of conferring of it on them that receive it, which is not by way of wages, as death in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but freely and by gift; thirdly, here is the donor, he that bestoweth it, GOD. Lastly, here is the Mediator, he through whom, and for whose sake it is given, jesus Christ our Lord. This is my model, these my parts: briefly, God hath this day set before you life and death, good and evil, now that you be not deceived in your choice, give me leave to lay them open unto you; first, the evil, malum delicti, & malum supplicij, the evil of Sin, and the evil of death, The wages of sin is death. Man in his Original & Primitive perfection, being the Son of God, by creation, as he summed up the world in an Epitome, so was he a living Image of his father's glory, De eo quod de terius potiori insidiari soleat. August. lib. 2. de Gen. cap. 8. & praeter Heretics, ●uius sententiae fuit Lactantius, lib. 2. Ins●itut. diuin. whom he best copied out in his better part, his soul; not that it was ex traduce, from God, not that the Divinity was rend in two, or divided, so that that became part of the Divine Essence, as first Philo the jew doted, and after him the Manichees 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 soul alone so glorious, but the body also, which was first made a house for the soul to inhabit, and not a prison to suffer in; a house indeed made of clay, but made by the immediate touch of the God of Heaven, a sublunary body, yet not waited upon by corruption, a subject where contrary qualities did reside, and yet not a subject over which they might triumph; Lastly, both soul and body were so united and married together, that corruption being not able to possess the parts, nor to dissolve the union, the whole man was immortal, and that not by the dowry of grace, but by the privilege of Nature, not supernaturally, as were the garments of the Israelites in the Wilderness, or as Austin conjectured concerning Enoch & Elias, Lib. 1. de peccat. meritu, & remissione cap. 4. but per sequelam naturae, so that immortality was part of his Nature, as well as his nature was ever immortal; immortal not absolutely or essentially, for so he had been a God; not by creation positively, for so had he been a spirit; but negatively, saith the School, and conditionally, he had the privilege, 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 inquisitive to know what should become of man, if he had not fallen: how he should have preserved himself from Corruption, whether by eating of the tree of life, or by any other means, we know no more than our Grandfather, Lib. 2. distinct. 23. and he (saith Lombard) Accepit scientiam & praeceptum eorum quae facienda erant, non accepit praescientiam eorum quae futura erant. We know not what he should have eaten, to have preserved his immortality, we know what he did eat to lose it. Adami homicida gula. The eating of the forbidden fruit dismantled and stripped our first Parents at once, both of their robes of Righteousness and Immortality: that first sin made a breach in the well-ordered Oeconomy of the soul: prostrating reason at the feet of sense, and enthroning passion in the chair of reason: there was now no longer harmony between the flesh and the Spirit; the motions of the flesh, rebelling against the rules of reason, the stern of reason being neither pliable to the spirit, nor the spirit obedient unto God: this disorder bred diseases, the summoners and forerunners of death, so that man was presently retrograded into the element of dust, of which he was first composed. Death as it was threatened for sin, so was it inflicted upon sin, The day that thou sinnest thou shalt surely die, Gen. 2.17. and the day that he did eat, surely he did die, the Mother and the Daughter, Sin and Death, are both of an age, he was afterward but a moving carcase, a walking sepulchre, Mortuus erat, non mortalis, as a malefactor is a dead man when he is condemned, before he is executed. Every sin is of the same nature with the first, and bringeth death like that; indeed it murthereth not with the same extent: that was the sin 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 noverunt & parentis sui soluebant poenam, cuius vix vitam degustarunt. Other sins are personal, and therefore the destruction of the person; be it sin in the root, or sin in the branch, be it the mother and spawn of sin, inbred pollution, or the fruit and harvest of sin, actual transgression: the first hath many branches, and all deadly, the other hath many Species, and all mortal; in the first there is participatio culpae, imputatio reatus, and concupiscentia, and all are rewarded with death, even the last, which is not only the cause of sin, and the punishment of sin, but sin itself; be it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not only where consent is added to lust, but where lust is without consent; not only actual concupiscence, but habitual, natural, and original; not the second motions only, or concupiscentia formata, as the School speaketh; but motus primò primi, and that which is informis: yea, although it preventeth the use 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 contriver escape? or shall the last escape punishment, because the first will not offend? Original sin hath not more branches, then actual hath species; neither are these less fatal than the other, whether they be seated in the understanding, as the darkness of error concerning God; or in the heart and will, as our irregular thoughts, and exorbitant desires; or in our outward members, as external actions, whether they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, trespasses against the rules of Nature; not engraven in stone, but imprinted in the conscience; so the Gentiles sinned, Rom. 2.14. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, trespasses against the word written, 1 john 3.4. so the jews offended both these, whether they be of omission or commission, not only the obliquity of our actions, but our unlawful surcease from action, not our words, but our silence also. The Advocate whose lips are sealed up with a fee of the adverse party; the Priest, not whom Authority, but sloth hath silenced, shall both be rewarded with death, and they therefore deserve their wages, because they have not done their work. There is no sin of omission, which is not a sin of commission; si non pavisti, occidisti: he that seethe his neighbour's Ox fall into the pit, and helpeth him not out, he pusheth him in; not to save a man when we may, when we ought, in the Court of Conscience is to murder a man. If I should reckon up all sorts of sin, I should commit one against your patience, yet could I show you none, whose issue is not death. If the Eye but lusteth, mors per fenestras; if the foot but slippeth, praecipitium est, there are no stairs but fall we must into the pit, and we should down to the bottom, were it not bottomless. He that doth but peevishly quarrel, or maliciously hate, murthereth himself, although he killeth not his Adversary: let the Act be wanting, the desire will kill, and there may be manslaughter, where there is no shedding of blood. 'Twas a witty speech of one of your ancient Declamators, ●ib. 1. de Civ. 〈◊〉 cap. 19 registered by S. Austin, concerning Lucrece being ravished by Tarquin: Duo fuêre, & unus adulterium commisit. I know not whether the Act could be committed without the sin, I am sure the sin may be without the Act, Et ●pado mach●●●rit. and an Eunuch may be an Adulterer. Less infirmities as well as great impieties, will work destruction; neither is it certain that Egypt's little flies were not her greatest plague. The least prick in the least joint impostumateth the whole flesh, but a moat in the Eye blindeth the sight, a breach in the wall is the conquest of the enemy, and the ruin of the City: let us not weigh our sins, but number them, if they may seem small, we cannot count them few. He that offendeth in one point of the Law, is guilty of all, james 2.10. Sin like Heresy, is of an encroaching nature; as one Heresy proveth another, so doth one sin usher in another, the lesser always making room for the greater. Our uncatechised traveller journeying into country's superstitious & idolatrous, at the first is only uncovered, and boweth at the meeting of the Host, 'tis not good (saith he) to give offence to them which are without; then he ventureth to go to their high places, to visit their Churches and Chapels, to hear and see their loud blasphemy in their Liturgies, and the profane pomp 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 & seethe, but he liketh and approveth. Lastly, as a sure pledge of his Apostasy, 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 laid long since. Traditions the Mother of all their Heresies, had with them their right use, until first those which were temporary and for a season, were taught to be permanent and to endure for ever; then those which were particular, and bound only some one Church, were made Catholic, generally to enforce; after that, without examination, humane traditions had the same credit, the same Authority that divine, Apotacticall as Apostolical: Lastly all these were made as authentical as the word written; give the Pope a primacy, and he will assume a Principality; give him more honour, and he will have more power. As in doctrine, so in manners, small things neglected, grow and become big ones, the tares spring up faster than the corn, and they do it insensibly, they steal their growth, crescere non videmus, sed crevisse; yet if this were not so, if lesser slips opened not the sluices for greater crimes to flow in; if wanton glances were not forerunners of Fornication, nor Fornication a step to Adultery: if concupiscence would not win consent, nor consent break out into Act, nor the Act often reiterated, beget an habit; yet were one and the least of these damnable. Flesh and Blood may dispute the fairest praetexts for sin, yet black will not be died into white. The Prince of darkness when he transformeth himself into an Angel of light, 'tis a juggling, and not a change; so the works of darkness may have the credit of the deeds of light, they can never have the goodness: 'tis in vain to sow fig-leaues together to cover our deformities: let us distinguish, and mitigate, colour, or qualify what we can, that which is mortal, (and such is every sin) will not be made venial, otherwise every Popish Casuist, or Roman Schoolman would make venial sins as fast as their God on earth doth pardon them. Possunt excusari à mortali parents, etc. Parents putting off as well Nature as Religion, cursing their children even to that height, that they wish them with the Devil, sinne but venially, so Greg. de Val. 3 Tom. 1090 page: Qui iudicium facit in re gravi temerarium, etc. A judge judging rashly be it upon life and death, sinneth but venially. Bonacina in his second disputation de peccatis, his 3 quaestion, puncto 5. Some lying, some theft must be venial, when some blasphemy, all if it be but choleric, is not mortal, Navarre in his Manual, page 91. Yet do these which thus preach impunity for sin, brand us with the slander of Libertines. The distinction of mortal and venial, understand it aright, 'tis none of theirs, but ours: 'tis true, all sins even of the Elect in foro iustitiae, in the rigour of justice are mortal, but in foro misericordiae, by the mercy of God, they are all venial: legally all are mortal, evangelically all venial; ratione peccatorum, they are all mortal, ratione peccantium, there are none not venial; 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 use of the distinction, as Gerson and Fisher, they cannot agree what this venial sin should be: some will have it contra consilium, others contra praeceptum; some state it to be praeter legem, not contra legem, others grant it to be against the Law, but not against charity which is the end of the Law; some think it both to be against the Law, and to diminish charity; one will have it to be sin imperfectly & by analogy, others properly & univocally; you may know 'tis Babel they are building, by the confusion of their language. While we thus prove all sins to be mortal, we teach not a parity of offences; we are so Catholic, that we are not Stoical: all sins are mortal, therefore all are equal; 'tis bad Logic: but calumnies must be proved by such sequels. Virtue's have their Climax, much more vices, the School giveth the reason; Illae ad unum tendunt, haec ab uno ad multas mundi vanitates. The person, the place, the manner, are circumstances which both aggravate & extenuate a sin. First the person, the person against whom we offend, & the person who offendeth: for the first, less was the sin of the usurpers in slaying the servants, then in killing the Heir of the Vineyard; far greater was the sin of the jews in crucifying the Lord of glory, then that of their Fathers in murdering the Prophets: he sinneth with a higher hand that transgresseth against the Commandments of the first Table, than he that offendeth against them of the second. Blasphemy of oaths, & profanation of the Sabbaoth, although here by the indulgence of the Law, or by the connivance of the Magistrate, they escape the severity 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 Commandment. Homicide & Parricide are both murder, yet the severe torture which all Nations inflict upon the one above the other, are sufficient evidence of the difference of the crimes. All murder is censured, is punished with death, but death hath not always the same sting: when she cometh to torture a Parricide, a Ravillac for murdering his King, O how she is dressed like a Fury, armed with racks, with fires, with strappadoes, with burning pincers, pulling off flesh to make wounds; with scalding oil, pitch, & to pour into those wounds, with horses to disjoint & rend the body: & that the malefactor may think himself in Hell before he is dead, she tormenteth him in a furnace flaming with fire & brimstone, making up her tragedy with the banishment of the Parricides parents, with pulling down the house where he was borne; & although she spareth the lives of his brethren, sisters, & uncles, yet must they change their names, & all the Ravillacs must perish. Degrees of punishment are as well after death as in death: the tortures of one damned soul are differenced from the pangs of an other; he that hath been 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. Greatness & goodness should twin together, no Monarch hath licence to offend, no Prince hath any nonobstante for sin: neither yet is the King's prerogative lessened, because he may not sin, it should be enlarged if he could not sin. 'Tis the misery of sovereignty, that the offence is always as great as the offender, the sin as sovereign as the person; a Prince his slips are crimes, a moat in his Eye is a beam; his blemish is a leprosy; 'tis the King's truth in the beginning of his first book of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: the reason is, because he doth not so much commit his sin, as teach it, nec tam delicto nocens est, quàm exemplo. A Peasant's sin presently findeth its grave, & is neglected as his person; but Monarch's vices are always masculine, and beget the like in others. Let Nero be overmuch delighted in stageplaies, strait the gravity of the Senate putteth on Buskins, Lactant. 5. infiit. and acteth a Comedy. Mores & vitia Regis imitari genus obsequij putatur. Many do think 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 do it, whatsoever josuah their Captain, their King, commandeth them, that will they do, josuah 1.16. Hence is it that the Israëlitish renegado Kings, with their damnable revolts so often apostated the whole land, and made the Israelites turn Idolaters. As all imitate their king, & so aggravate his sin, so do most copy out his Nobles, & augment their crimes. My Lord must have his followers aswell of his vice, as of his person; if he leaveth his King at the Chapel door, he turneth not back without his Attendants, who if his Honour pleaseth to be Idolatrous, will wait upon him even unto a Mass. As the Nobles & Peers be so borne, so you honoured Lords who judge the Land, & you grave Fathers the Elders of the City, are so exalted, so placed, ut bona malaque vestra ad Rempublicam pertineant, your virtues, and your vices are subjected & inhaerent in your persons; but by these (as the Heavens by their Influences) you work good and evil through the whole Land. Better no judge in Israel then a corrupt one, no Elder than a wicked one; the first giveth but liberty, the second addeth encouragement to sin: you see to eminence of your persons doubleth your crimes, and maketh your sins as scarlet, as your habits. I might enlarge my proof and exhortation with an Apostrophe to the Clergy, the living Oracles of God, to whom ye must resort for counsel. Hi si eloquuntur magna & non vivunt; if their lives cry not down sin as loud as their tongues, they may help to build the Ark, and perish in the Flood: if they that preach the way to Heaven tread the way to Hell, Hell must be their portion, & the number of their followers shall add unto their tortures: From the Clergy I might descend unto the Gentry, from them to every Economical Goveruour and Father of his family; & although I stay there, yet let none the meanest here take heart to offend, for the sin which the meanness of his Person lessneth by denying him followers, may be aggravated by other circumstances of the place and manner, which I will briefly glance over. We ascribe no inherent holiness to any place, Bethel may become Bethaven; the Temple of God, the house of an Idol; the seat of Peter, the chair of Antichrist; neither do I know whether the zeal of Christendom was right, if they warred for jewry as for the Holy land; yet may we justify our consecrated Churches & Chapels, which being separated for an holy use, may not be profaned; if the buyers and sellers will trade in the Temple, our SAVIOUR provideth a whip for them; and I would to God the zeal 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 Isles, or into the Quire. Good God, to see how the profane walkers in the time of divine service, when the Quire are chanting their sacred Anthems and Heavenly Hallelujahs, are then polluting the stones with their dirty feet, when they should wear them with their supplicating knees; there are at the same time, some praying above, & 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 sin. men's & propositum, saith the Law, distinguunt maleficia, whosoever calleth his brother fool, is in danger of Hell fire, Matth. 5.22. yet doth Paul call his brethren the Galatians fools, and sinneth not, Gal. 3.1. He that killeth a man shall surely be put to death, Levit. 24.17. yet he that killeth a man ignorantly, whom he hated not before, shall flee unto one of the Cities of refuge and live, 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 advocate 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 sin, in them that may not know it is a punishment for sin; it is to none which ought to know, (and all aught) a privilege to sin: yet if it be particularis, and not Vniversalis, as the Philosopher; facti and not iuris, as the Lawyer, invincibilis, 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 sin, and therefore liable to the punishment of sin, Death, which is the second part in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. There is a death unto sin, as well as a death for sin; a death which putteth not Nature in her grave, but Vice: how shall we being dead to sin, live therein. Rom. 6.2. Death for sin is either spiritual, and of the soul; natural and of the body; or eternal both of soul and body: Anima est vita, & habet ipsa suam vitam, as the soul is the life of the body, so is God the life of the soul. The just do live by faith, Romans, chapter 1. verse 17. Even by faith in the Son of God, Galat. chap. 2. v. 20. Who quickeneth them with his spirit, Eph. 2.5. The body may live, and yet the soul may be dead, by which the body liveth: there are some long since buried, which yet live, such are Abraham, Isaac, and jacob; for God which is their God, is not the God of the dead but of the living; so there be now some living which have been long since dead. A widow living in pleasure, is dead while she liveth; the 1 of Timoth. 5. and 6. You that live in sin, are already in your graves; I must therefore bespeak you, as sometime Christ did Lazarus, Lazare veni for as, come you forth of your graves, arise from death to life, from sin to newness of life: but my words want efficacy, and my speech hath no power to raise you; Christ jesus therefore speak that unto your hearts, which I do unto your ears. De eo quod deterius potiori insidiari solcat. Where it is in the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Philo the jew would have us read, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; for saith he, Cain had no sooner slain his brother, but he became dead himself; and Abel being murdered, was yet alive: if he was not, how did he speak, how did he speak aloud and cry for vengeance? so he 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 provide for their own interrring which is at hand, for mors operata erit mortem, the death of the soul will cause the death of the body. A death common unto all; it is all men's pilgrimage from the sepulchre to the sepulchre, from the grave of the womb, to the grave of the earth; all men shall once die, for as much as all men have sinned, Heb. 9.27. The instinct of nature, which prompteth every creature to seek it's own preservation, should teach man not to make love to death, not to woo his own destruction: although he transgresseth not the Law made against robbers who cutteth his own purse, yet he is guilty of murder who cutteth his own throat: and surely he loveth murder who will act it upon himself, and yet such are all sinners, whose sins are the weapons with which they butcher themselves: like Saul and his Armor-bearer, they fall and die upon their own swords. If any son of Hypocrates pronounceth it to be prejudicial to their health, the debauched Drunkard will abstain from his cups, and the luxurious Epicure will fast from his dainties: how foolish are they who would shun death, and yet work wickedness which causeth death? There is no other cause of death but sin, where there is no sin, there is no death, no death of the body, no death of Nature. And yet he who had no sin, the Son of Righteousness, had his setting as well as his rising, and walked into the West; Licet naturae dominus, carnis tamen quam susceperat legem non recusavit; so that life itself died, yet not necessarily, but voluntarily, tradidit in mortem animam suam; neither was his death penal but expiatory, he was not stung to death by sin, but he stung sin to death; by suffering death, he made death to suffer, and got the victory by yielding. O death where is thy sting, 1 Cor. 15.55.56. O grave where is thy victory? the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law, but thankes be unto God which hath given us victory through our Lord jesus Christ. Christ so delivered his from death, as he freed them from sin; which he suffered still to dwell in them, although not to reign over them. The Canaanites remain in the land to prove the Israelites; sin must inhabit in the regenerate, to increase and try their faith: sift them, you shall find them so enlightened, that they sit in darkness, so purged that they must be cleansed, their faith is mixed with infidelity, their wisdom joined with folly, and their glory eclipsed with shame; to want sin must be a Christians wish, it cannot be his hope, otherwise he that must always here be militant, should sometime be triumphant. We may be dead to sin, but sin will not be altogether dead to us: we may cut it off, but it will bud again; we may chase it away, but it will return; we may quench it, but it will flame again; it still approacheth, it still enticeth and provoketh us; it still striveth, but it is to increase our victory: at last it must have the fall, and be triumphed over; so may the tyrant weep to see himself prostrate at the feet of them who were his Captives, Et ad eorum triumphum de quibus diù triumphaverat, se veteranus hostis pervenisse deploret. Sin is not so in the Elect, as it is in the reprobate; these either by habit, or resolution, or discourse, are incorporated into evil, and sin is naturalised in them: the other may sometime be surprised by force of passion, but their understanding seldom giveth consent: the first serve sin, the other give it only houseroom, or if they do it any service, 'tis as the Israelites served Pharaoh, or as his Galleyslaves serve the Turk; by compulsion. Damnatum est peccatum si non extinctum. Sin hath lost its dominion, although it be not cast out; so death is dis-armed, although she be not removed; she hath lost her sting, although she keepeth her essence: nay, she hath lost her essence, the form, 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 sleep, to rest, or be at peace. Death to the Elect is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (as Nyssen styleth it) it doth not so much punish, as purge and expiate sin, 'tis a Snake without her sting, a gaoledelivery, an earnest-peny of the resurrection, a bridge to pass from corruption to incorruption, to be wished of all that wish to go to Paradise, not to be feared at all, because it freeth us from all that is to be feared. A curious workman seeing his Image of brass, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. etc. Epiph. in his 2 Book. Aduersus Haereses. on which he hath bestowed his Art and industry, to be spotted and defaced, he putteth it again into the fire and new casteth it, which is not the loss, but the perfection of the Image; so God after he had made man a most elegant fabric, seeing him polluted with sin, resolved him again into dust, that he might rise unspotted. When the vessel that the Potter made was marred, he made of it another vessel, jer. 18.4. Cannot I do with you as the Potter with his clay, saith the Lord? behold, as the clay is in the Potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O ye house of Israel; the same chapter and the sixth verse. Non interit quisquis victurus moritur. This death of Nature is rather a change then a death, 'tis not final, quem putas interitum, secessus est; neither is it total, 'tis only of the body: death is dieted like the serpent, and can eat nothing but dust; nay, 'tis 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 faggot! and hug'd the fire, as though like Eliah, they had gone to heaven in fiery chariots! weigh their tortures, and read their constancy, you would judge them to have been spirits without flesh; if they might seem to be afflicted because they were heard to pray, they must be judged to have been merry in their affliction, because they sung Psalms. 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 been preparing for their funerals: but they sung and rejoiced, as if it had been their birth day, and it was their birth day to eternity. Blessed Martyrs! for if they be blessed who die in the Lord, blessed must they be who die for the Lord. God saith to man, If thou sinnest thou diest, Gen. 2; but he bespeaketh the Martyr, if thou refusest to die, August. thou sinnest. Quod tunc timendum fuerat ut non peccaretur, nunc suscipiendum est ne peccetur. Death which is the punishment of the Sinner, suffer it for God's sake, 'tis the glory of the regenerate. Et cùm sit mors peccati retributio, aliquando impetrat ut nihil retribuatur peccato: As the wicked make bad use of the Law which is good; so do the righteous make good use of death, which is bad; Ipsa poena vitiorum transit in arma virtutis, & fit iusti meritum etiam supplicium peccatoris. This made the Primitive Christians so ambitious of Martyrdom, that they did pursue their persecution; so covetous of ruin, that not staying for the hand of the hangman, they turned their own executioners, and left their lives now in the fire, now in the water, like the man his lunatic son in the Gospel; who being possessed with a Devil, fell sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water, Mat. 17.14. 'Tis one thing for death to come to us, 'tis another thing for us to go to death; the first may be martyrdom, the second is murder. We must go with alacrity, but we must stay until we are called; death which is just in the will, is unjust in the hand; we may not meet it, although we may attend it: insomuch that it is an argument of force enough to prove the Books of the Maccabees to be Apocryphal, because they do so much extol Razis the Father of the jews for murdering himself. 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 do but worship false gods; these go about to prove them true, Epiph. lib. 2. Her. 8. & of these there were a number, even unto a Sect. Little better than these were the Pseudo-Catholicks if they suffered for their Heresies, but indeed they die malefactors, more for sedition, than Religion; more for faction, then for Faith; they live Papists, but they are hanged Traitors; & although both Heresy & Treason might deserve death, yet hath the mercy of our Princes inflicted it only upon the latter: God will reward both, & every sin, even the least, with death; not with the first death only, but with the second; not with natural death only of the body, but with eternal also both of body and soul for evermore. Vita hîc aut amittitur, aut tenetur. Every one that departeth this life is either sung into bliss by the Angels, or hauled into torments by the devils. Cypr. de mort. sect. 2. The Fathers were unacquainted with the new Orcography of the Schoolmen, whose searching invention hath founded as many Regions below the Earth, as there are above in the Air; the first is their Limbus Patrum, where they feign the Fathers to have suffered the temporary pain of loss before Christ's coming; Tert. lib. 4. cont. Ma●cion. an Heresy borrowed from Martion. and grounded upon this false reason, that Heaven gates were shut until Christ's ascension, which being disproved by the theeue's entrance, Bellarmine taketh the Keys, and openeth them at his Passion, and before they were not open; but then was his Passion when he was slain, which was from the beginning of the world. The second place is their Limbus Infantum, where they lodge Infants dying before Baptism, where they torture them with eternal pain of loss. 1 Cor. 17.12 A bloody conclusion of a merciless Religion, which maketh not death (as it is here) a punishment for sin, but sin itself; 'tis foolish to think, that the seed of the faithful who are holy from their birth, should be deprived of inward grace, because necessity denyeth them the use of outward Sacraments; when public Baptism may not be had, private is sufficient; if death prevent this, votall will avail. 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, even where he disputeth against Schismatics for private Baptism. If there were not strength of proof, charity should make them rather partial, Ecclesiast. polit. lib. 5. sect. 61. then cruel judges, & force them to conclude, that many Infants of believing parents, as they suffer no pain of sense, so do they undergo no sense of pain. The third place is their Purgatory, that Apocryphal dream, that Roman mythology, Dial. lib. 4. ca 41 a place first offered to be built by Gregory six hundred years after Christ, upon the false & disproved foundation of venial sins; but they pretend more antiquity, Dionys. Eccl. Hier. cap. 7. & would prove it by this false illation, because there was prayer for the dead, whereas this prayer was not a supplication but a thanksgiving, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; or if they did petition, 'twas not for the soul's safety, but the body's glory; or if they supplicated for the soul, for the remission of the sins of the soul, 'twas only for a public justification, for a solemn acquittal and perfect consummation of bliss: and this not because the event was doubtful, but as Austin prayed for his Mother her entrance into Heaven, although he believed she was entered 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 deserve 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 everlasting. The reprobate like the Salamander, is still scorched in the fire, but never consumed; the soul 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 unto the lightning which is the thunder's fire, it so toucheth the bodies, Minutius in Dial. Octa. that it destroyeth them not, and if the fuel remain, the fire will still endure. The flames of Aetna and Vesuvius still burn, but never burn out; Ita poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascitur, sed inexesâ corporum laceratione nutritur. I dispute not whether this fire be material or metaphorical, whether it be spiritual or corporal, certainly 'tis furious and terrible. I desire neither to understand nor undergo it: yet thus much is certain, as it hath extremity of heat to torment, so hath it no light to comfort; it burneth, but shineth not: how painful it is to sit, how dismal to suffer in darkness. There is no punishment but it is in Hell, there is no sense-afflicting torture, but it is there augmented: and yet doth the pain of loss far surmount the pain of sense; 'tis more affliction to be shut out of Heaven, then to be imprisoned in Hell; and banishment is worse than death: and yet shall this also be inflicted on sin, both these, both without intermission; to make Holidays in Hell, were to poëtize with Prudentius, both without end; for that Traian was delivered from Hell by the prayers of Pope Gregory, I believe not, although Damascen bringeth the East & West to witness it. Damas'. serm. de defunctu. August de civet, Dei lib. 21. 〈◊〉. 24 This were with Origen to be kindly mad, and to turn Hell into Purgatory, both these, both without intermission, both without end; and yet is the punishment as just as great: for death, even 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Qui●. Facinus est mensura paenae; when misdemeanour is censured with death, when the malefactor suffreth beyond the rigour of the Law, 'tis cruelty doometh him, and not justice; yet must the sentence always balance the crime; if the sin be impudent, the punishment must be exemplary as is the offence, and an extraordinary offender must not be hanged upon a common gallows. God his doom is always impartial, and he doth still proportion his vengeance with the sin: he blesseth and curseth, he rewardeth and punisheth in analogo; so that the virtue is charactered in the reward, and the vice may be read in the punishment. When God promiseth to build david's House for ever, because he purposed to build God an House: when Ioseph's brethren do homage unto him as unto their Lord, because they had sold him as their slave: God so rewardeth them both, that he showeth the piety of the one, and the affliction of the othet. Ahab is humbled, and God deferreth his judgements, the reward showeth his humiliation, and showeth it to be temporary. Because Vriah falleth by david's sword, Optatus lib. 2. cont. Parmenian. the sword must not departed from david's House, 2 Sam. 12: because the profane Donatists do impiously cast the Sacramental Bread unto the dogs, the same dogs do presently tear in pieces those Donatists: Because Sodom burneth with flames of lust, it is burned with flames of fire, Gen. 19.24: because the lust is unnatural, the fire is supernatural, and God sendeth Hell from Heaven. When you see Absalom's hair to be his halter, you may know it was his pride; and when ye read that Salomon's Kingdom was divided, ye may read, (and yet ye need not read to know it) that he divided God's Kingdom. The line is no otherwise laid to the rule, than God's rewards and punishments are proportioned to our works, many times thus in special, & in this life, so that (as the casuists observe) he punishes in the same manner, in the same kind, in the same place, in the same part, but always in general & hereafter. 1 Cor. 15. As there are here degrees of grace, so shall there be hereafter degrees of glory. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one star differeth from another in glory: some shall but shine with the brightness of the firmament, others shall glister with the glory of the stars. All the Elect shall build up the House of God; but the Martyrs only shall be pillars in the House, Apocal. 2.12. All the Saints shall judge the world, but the Apostles shall be mounted upon twelve more eminent Thrones. All the Elect after judgement shall sit in Heaven; but some with joy only on the left hand; others both with joy and preeminency on the right. In Heaven there are many Mansions, john 14.2. And though he cannot lodge amiss who lodgeth there, yet is one room more glorious than another. If there be not many mansions in Hell, if the rooms be not distinguished, I am sure the tortures are. Hell fire is all of one heat, yet doth it not burn alike. The same scorching Sun heateth a Northern man more than a Southern; yea an English man travailing into Spain, doth justly more fear a Calenture then a Spaniard. Let straw & wood be the fuel of our fire, the heat is more and less. The fuel of this fire are the sins of the Reprobate; as they are small or great, more or few, the heat is augmented or diminished; but yet it is always intolerable. See the proportion; when the least sin is committed, an infinite Majesty is offended, and therefore an infinite punishment must be inflicted. In the least sin, God is contemned: and the creature praefered before the Creator: Suarez de legibus lib. 3. 8. num. 21. Let Suarez distinguish mandatum à mandante; 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 understood Metaphysical subtleties, the sin must still be infinite, and the guilty must suffer torments in proportion: which because they cannot do, Intensiuè simul & semel: they must do extensiuè & successiuè. 'Tis no disproportion when he that sinneth but for a time, doth suffer more than for a time: he would always have lived in sin, who never left to sin while he lived. And 'tis proportion that he should never want punishment, who had a will ever to offend. You see the justice, yet is not God more strict in fitting the punishment to the sin, then certain in avenging the sin with the punishment, which is the fourth and last part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. If neither Virtue should be rewarded, nor Vice punished, we might with Epicurus conclude both against God and providence; yet were the persecutions of the Christians weakly urged by Caecilius in Minutius against their belief. In Dial. Oct. And his Dilemma (that their God either could not, or would not secure them; and so that he was either weak or unjust) was but a flourish, and therefore he might have spared his sarcastical Interrogatory triumph: Qui subvenire reviviscentibus potest, viventibus non potest? saevitia non est, sed certamen: The fightings without, and the terrors within, which the Saints undergo, are their trials, and not their punishments; and do more exercise, then hurt then. Persecution is not always the instrument of God's fury, but sometimes of his mercy. They are bastards and not sons who were never corrected: The father seeing his child swooning, dareth him a blow to recover him: The Physician putteth his Patient into an Ague, that he may cure him of a worse malady. God sometimes casteth down, that he may raise up: he sometimes killeth, that he may make alive: and turneth the poison to a preservative: Sicut ignis flatu premitur ut crescat, & unde quasi extingui cernitur inde roboratur. God then wrestled with jacob, when he came to bless 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 feel the lash of thy blows, so I escape the smart of thy fury: so if I be whipped, I will kiss he rod. As the just do thus enjoy their afflictions, so do he unjust suffer in their prosperity, and are cursed with their blessings: ●ern. in Cant. Hom. 42. Certè tunc magis irascitur Deus, cùm n●n irascitur. God's hand is then heaviest on the wicked, when it is lightest; and it is their plague, that they are not plagued. Veniet ad faelices sua portio, & quisquis vid●tur dimissus, Sene●. dilatus est. These happy worldlings must at last have their judgement; and their judgement will be their damnation. Our sins are our debts unto God, and his judgements are his debts to our sins: where God oweth, he can, he will repay. He is not like the Heathen's jupiter, that his Quiver should be empty, that want of thunderbolts should disarm him: The Lord of hosts cannot want Soldiers to fight his battles: If men of War should be lacking, he hath an army of Frogs, and another of Lice, to discomfit and devour both Pharaoh and Herod. As the wicked do multiply their transgressions, so doth he cumulate his judgements: and washeth away a deluge of sin, with a deluge of water. He who is omnipotent, is no more powerful than just: and 'tis as certain that he will, as that he can revenge; sometimes his wrath is slow, and not upon the neck of the sin, Num. 25.8. as Phineas slew Zimri and Cosbi, in the very act of incontinency; yet it always at last overtaketh it: and then as he hath been slow to wrath, so will he be slow to lay down his wrath; when he hath leaden heels, than he hath iron hands. So that the sinner might wish that the blow came sooner, so it came lighter. God judgeth not like man: our Courts of justice do censure only known and open Malefactors: The judge at the last day will punish, the most close and secret offenders: Hear the hired eloquence of the unconscionable Advocate, or the false perjury of the suborned witness, sometimes casteth a mist before the eyes of the judge, that he cannot see: sometimes corruption hoodwinkes him, that he will not see: The judge at the general Assize, shall be his own evidence; he shall be judge, and jury, and Witnesses: Ipse est qui videt, & unde videt. He ●hat made the eye, shall not he see? and he that made ●he heart, shall not he understand? And as he can both see and understand what he will, so will he see and understand what he can. There none may escape, here so few are censured, that most are not quaestioned. Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic Diadema. Hear you may see the petty thief, whose accusation (and that perchance false) is but petty larciny, with chains of iron about his feet; when the grand-thiefe, the state-theife, who by forestalling, engrossing, or by worse means, robs the commonwealth; hath no chains but of gold, and them about his neck. Such are your sacrilegious Lay-Patrons, those spiritual robbers, and our jewish oppressing Usurers: The first, backed by the authority of the Law, begin now to confront the Pulpit, to quaestion the zeal of the Priest denouncing Gods judgements against them, and to threaten punishment if they cannot inflict it: so that 'tis much safer to commit sin, then to reprove it. Let them therefore enjoy their conquest, let them triumph that they may rob God freely; At last their punishment will overtake them. Quis enim laesos impune putabit— Esse Deos? The Usurer hath no Law on his side, yet doth he praetend some, and where he findeth a toleration, there doth the covetous Penyfather conclude an allowance. Turn to the Statutes made against this Citty-sinne, and you shall find it tolerated with an inhibition; for the Acts which seem to allow it, do some of them plainly preface, that God's Law condemneth it. And God will one day take an account of his Law, and that with fare more terror than he delivered it; At the delivery he did but show how fearful he could be, at the execution he will be as fearful as he shown to be: when he shall be a judge he will inflict death, which he did but threaten when he was a Lawgiver. The day will come as certain, as it is uncertain when it will come. Behold the day cometh which shall burn like an Oven, and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts. Then shall the malignant spirit which tempted to sin, be a tormenter for sin: Then shall the amazed reprobate stand between his sins accusinng him, and God's justice terrifying him; below him shall be his punishment, above him his judge, and he equally trembling at the horror 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 sin? what pleasure of tentation can countervail this horror of event? who now is not frighted, who would not be won from wickedness? who now is not drawn, who could not be before alured unto repentance? let us therefore accept no object but of sorrow: let us, because we are fallen by nature, hasten to arise by grace, that we may turn the sentence, from Go ye cursed, into Come ye blessed: that death may be changed into life: this everlasting death, into eternal life, which is the first part in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To have any conceit of life but good, is now as well impious as Stoical; since eternal bliss is compared to it. Yet doth this life of glory so fare surpass the life of nature, as the second death is worse than the first: Hence it is that many who fear not death, fear to die after death, and they who are hungry to lose their lives, are yet afraid not to find them being lost. I should now from this mount, as God did from mount Nebo unto Moses, show you the land of Canaan, and discourse of, though not express, the joys of this eternal life: joys in number infinite, yet are they summed up in the Beatifical vision; and you might see them all, could you see God. How often hath the devotion of many not superstitious Pilgrims, with wearied paces measured the way from every climate to jerusalem; who have recompensed their tedious travels, only with the sight of the ground which our Saviour trod, and the visitation of the Sepulchre where he lay? how were the wise men ravished with contentment, when the star 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 took house, there was such a crowd that the sick of the palsy could not get in, except the house had been unroofed: when he journeyed from jerusalem, migravit civitas, the City was dislodged, and ran out of the gates: The Sick 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 Heaven: The press was once so great, that there was no ground left for Zacheus to stand on: for he needed not to have climbed the tree, to look down upon him that was higher than the clouds. If these were happy, (and happy they were: happy were the eyes which have seen that which you see, Luke 28.10) who thus saw Christ on earth, and in the form of a servant, happy must they be who shall behold him in Heaven, & in his glory. There must be all the objects both of love & admiration. There shall internal bliss be joined to external felicity; where there shall be added the Contemplation of his Divinity, to the sight of his Humanity. Then shall every sense enjoy it's own delight; then every faculty of the soul shall be fully satisfied; satisfied, but not glutted: Vitae fontem & sitientes haurient, & haurientes sitient: There shall be hunger without want, abundance without loathing. The Saints shall still have what they desire, but they shall still see more to be desired; what here we can neither in wish seek, nor in imagination fain, there we shall beyond hope be possessed of: neither shall this joy be more full than it shall be universal. Here one part of the Earth is not illuminated, but the other is darkened: The Sun riseth not, but the Moon goeth down: All the Stars though they shine with the lustre of the Sun, yet can they not be seen for the lustre of the Sun, so that they are eclipsed with their light. Here the joy of one, occasioneth and breedeth the sorrow of another: there Et si dispar sit gloria singulorum, Austin. med. cap. 25. attamen communis est laetitia omnium. Me thinks while I dilate of this glory, I find myself in the same temper with Peter, james, and john, those three Disciples when they saw a glimpse of it in the transfiguration of CHRIST on mount Tabor, and must cry out with the first of them. Math. 7.4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 'tis good for us to be here; and I would build Tabernacles too for your attentions to reside in, but that my discourse may not be like this life everlasting, which is the adjunct or Duration. The life of Nature if it be sweet, yet it is short, and if we may love it, we cannot keep it; vivendo decrescit, & transeundo nosterit: So that our age beginneth not to increase, before it decreaseth. This life of glory is more glorious, because it is lasting; if there were any thought of ending, there could not be a full power of enjoying it. In Heaven there is no time, there is no distinction of time: there are no years, nor days, nor nights, or if there be, there is but one day, a day without a night, Aeternitas unus dies aeternus est: and one day in thy Courts O Lord, as it is better, so it is longer than a thousand. Consideremus magnitudinem praemij, si considerari possit quod immensum est: Let us a little meditate on the unlimited greatness of this reward, & we shall find, that no treasure of our best works can ever purchase it; 'Tis a reward, not of merit, but of mercy, not of debt, but of favour. 'Tis so a reward, that it is a gift, which is the second part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The words are in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the gift or grace of God. The modern Popish Schools have so highly magnified the arm of flesh, and ambitiously extolled the nature of mankind, that they have blasphemously opposed the grace & mercy of Christ: See how the little worms swell; see how corruption disputeth for the freedom of the will: not for such a freedom as Austin proved against the Manichees, or the Greek Fathers evinced from the Stoical Christians: They argue not that the will cannot be carried violently, but that it may be moved necessarily; neither is this necessity from which they would be freed, a fatal or absolute necessity; they hold it not enough that a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, except he may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; they account not that freewill which dependeth upon the free will of God. They place it in the indifferency of Election, giving it ability to choose, to refuse, good, or bad; & that not only in things which are natural & moral, but in those also which are spiritual: Biel. 3. sent. dist. 27. still making the liberty of the will as large as the object. These are their blasphemies, that the will is a faculty merely Active; and this they conclude against their own Aquinas, that by their naturals, Suarez de auxil. Diuin. great. l 3. c. 2 num. 2. they can do works acceptable unto God; that without spiritual help, they can for the love of God sorrow for sin; most of them indeed tower not so high, but they require the help of exciting grace: Some outward only, so did Pelagius; some inward too, so did the semi-Pelagians; at least to be profitable, if not necessary: and those do no more; Ibid. lib. 3. cap. 4 num. 12. for they yield not any Physical efficacy or real working by infusing any power of consent, but only a moral determination in propounding some object of fear or love: they hold the necessity of grace, but they hold they merit the grace which is necessary: & when 'tis offered, they may choose whether they will accept it: 'Tis in our power to reject or receive any inspiration of the spirit: so the Tridentine Conventicle in their 6. Sess. 5. cap. 4. Canon, making grace Instar advenae, like a guest whom we may choose to let in; like a garment which we may refuse to put on: like a suasory or eloquent oration, which we are not forced to consent unto: They never speak of grace and the will, but with blasphemous similitudes: They match them together, yea they sometimes praeferre the last, making the will the agent, and grace to instrument. See Pelagius returned from Hell, only a little disguised, and therefore the better able to seduce. What Maxentius sometimes spoke of Faustus, give me leave to conclude of these, Dum nolunt videri Pelagiani, accuratius Pelagij errorem fovent, quàm Pelagius pepererat: Upon this ground of freewill, is built the proud Heresy of the Roman merit, their immunity from sin; not only from the punishment, but the guilt of sin: their satisfaction, a thing most derogatory from Christ's passion: the treasure of their Church, the supererogated works of their Saints departed, are true corollaries from this false position: Religion cannot teach them how Christ's merits may be imputed to us: Covetousness persuadeth them that the merits of one man, may be conferred upon another: And I believe them in their tenet, the merits of one man may be conferred on another; the sins of our forefathers may be visited upon us their children; see our merits, Damnationis sunt, non liberationis, they may cast us down to Hell, they cannot lift us up to Heaven. The sacred volumes everywhere oppose these Popish pharisees in their high-towring thoughts of meriting, still throwing down this top of Babel, and with a critical preciseness giving all unto grace; When we were children of wrath, Eph. 2.13. Enemies to God, Rom. 5.10. reprobate to every good work, the same Epist. the 8.1. Then was our election of grace, Rom. 11.5. our vocation was according to grace. 2 Timoth. 1.9. Faith was given us, Philip. 1.29. and our justification was gratis. Rom. 3.24. Nemo quicquam agit ad seipsum generandum; no man is his own father, and begetteth himself; 'tis as good divinity concerning man's regeneration and second birth, as it is Philosophy concerning his first: and as we are justified freely by grace, so by grace also shall we be freely glorified. Heaven will not be taken by violence, neither shall they who shall wear the Crown of bliss, ever win it; they shall never be saved who will be their own Saviour's: we may inherit, we cannot purchase this Kingdom; by industry we cannot, by birth we shall obtain it. jacob might have lost the blessing, had he not put on the garments of his brother Esau, and so shall we to, if we be not clothed with Christ's righteousness, with the righteousness of our elder brother as with a garment. If our good works were perfect, yet are they not our own; if they were our own, yet are they not perfect; if they were both perfect, and our own, yet could they not merit: still the reward is of mercy, so saith the Law, Exod. 20.6: so the Gospel, Rom. 8.18. Our good works are not our own, and Nature's great secretary his position is only true of the works of Nature, Arist. 5. lib. Ethic. cap 3. Hominem esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; we work not, but God worketh in us. Quoties enim bona agimus, Deus in nobis atque nobiscum, ut operemur, operatur; as it is in the 9 Canon of the 2 Council of Arausica: to which I add concilium Milevitanun the 5 Canon, because it hath the approbation of two Roman Popes, Innocentius, and Caelestinus: Our works are not perfect, the miry channel muddeth the water which runneth through it; the vessel maketh the wine unsavoury which is within it: what God worketh in man, is blemished by the pollution which is in man. Tutissimum est fiduciam totam in solâ Dei misericordiâ & benignitate reponere, Bellarmine in his 5 book the justificatione, 7 chap. 3 proposition: how? is it safest to put no confidence in merit, and yet is it no danger to teach merit? will they believe that which they dare not hope? Christ hath merited our salvation, he hath not given us power to merit it, he hath satisfied and paid our debt, he hath not given us wherewith to pay or satisfy; neither is our modesty humble enough, if we confess we have received the power of meriting, except we deny all power to merit. The enemy of grace acknowledged that he had received his soul, and the faculties of his soul; his will, and the ability of his will, from God; and yet was he still an enemy to grace. So do the Romanists still oppose Christ's merits, although they derive their power of meriting from his merits. If I would confirm this doctrine with the strength of authority, I could cite a cloud of witnesses, nursed in their own School, Durand, Pighius, Eckius, Gregorius Ariminensis, all confessed by Bellarmine in his 5 book the justificatione, 16 chap. to whom may be joined Marsilius, Ferus. Faber Stapulensis, Stella, all rightly quoted by our reverend Bishop, in the 2 book of his Protestants appeal, 11 chap. besides the many blots which their frequent expurgations have made in most of the ancient Liturgies and Fathers, which are as good testimonies as these men's writings: Nay, 'tis most true of Cardinal Bellarmine himself, which Kemnitius observeth of most of your Romish Doctors, that in this argument, as he is an heretical disputing jesuite, so is he a most Orthodox meditating Protestant. Whose doctrine is not, as the Papist maliciously imposeth, the vice of the Libertine; we teach indeed that the righteousness by which we are justified, is not inherent but imputative; that it is not ours, but Christ's; or if it be, 'tis made ours, and not within us: that on our part faith only is required, and that also ' to be the gift of God. Elegit eos quos voluit gratuita dei misericordia, non quia fideles futuri erant sed ut essent, ijsque gratiam dedit non quia fideles erant sed ut fierent: Lombard in his first book, and his 41 distinction. Yet do we affirm that this faith which alone justifieth, is never alone, Sola fides sed non fides sola, as the School critikiseth; faith justifieth without works, and yet is not the faith which justifieth without works. Faith without works is dead, and faith which is dead cannot give life, eternal life. It must be lively and active, operative and fruitful; we deny it to be faith in the Puritan phrase, that is a naked faith; so that we require of our good works, although not a meritorious dignity to justification, yet a dutiful necessity to sanctification. God begetteth not children to the Devil's image: your carnal Gospelers, bastard Christians, and pseudo-professors, are so fare from being the sons of God, that they are not his servants. This is our doctrine, this our practice: for (thankes be unto God) our Land is almost as rich in charity as in wealth: superstition was never more bountiful than is Religion, witness the Catalogue of our Founders and Benefactors, with new additions now so enlarged, that the Preacher is forced to be unthankful, and cannot remember them. Our Colleges newly built, and now in building, our Lectures daily multiplied, our Libraries completely furnished, our poor better provided for by charity then by Statute; and yet well by Statute, were the Statutes well executed. Our Hospitals lately Founded, and yet not so lately, but they begin already to be abused. I am afraid some of them are so sick, that it were charity to visit them. You who have power and authority, you whom God and our Benefactors have made Visitors and Overseers of their liberality; let me beseech you in the bowels of Christ jesus, that you would not suffer that which bounty hath given, to maintain luxury, or that which hath been dedicated unto God, to be conferred upon them, who doing the deeds of darkness▪ and that in the light, profess themselves to be the children of the Devil: so shall these houses of piety be as richly endowed with your care, as with their Founder's Revenues, and you shall be as bountiful as their Benefactors without expense. I have now shown you the way how eternal life is conferred upon us, 'tis freely and by gift, 'tis but Ask and have: and I make no quaestion but that ye are willing to petition for it, that therefore ye may know to whom to direct your supplications, I must show you the Author, who is God. Eternal life is the gift of God, which is the third part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of which is a syllable. Life as death is natural, spiritual and eternal, 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 donor of them all. First, of the natural, In him we live, and move, and have our being; Acts 17.28. Then of the spiritual, Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ in me, Gal. 2.20. And lastly, of eternal life here in my Text. And God here is no one person, but the whole Trinity, when the Creator conferreth a benefit upon the creature; then as the Father giveth, so doth the Son; as both, so doth the Holy Ghost. Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa. You have the Author, of whom ye may with confidence beg it, with certainty obtain it; for ye have a powerful Mediator jesus Christ our Lord. But the gift of God is eternal life through jesus Christ our Lord, which is my last part, of which in a brief conclusion. Christ is our Mediator, 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 satisfy, was from his Divinity. Had he been only man, the jews had neither reviled, nor blasphemed, when they scoffingly said, He that saved others, let him save himself. We are neither Manichees, nor Arians; we neither deny the humanity, nor oppose the Divinity; we embrace that of Timothy, Tim. 1. 2. and 5. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ jesus. But we must have S. Augustine's Commentary. Sed neque per ipsum liberaremur unum mediatorem Dei & hominum hominem jesum Christum nisi esset & Deus. In his Enchridion, his 108. Chapter: If Christ be Mediator according to his Godhead, then can none be mediator who is not God; our Pseudocatholickes are not more Idolatricall in any point then this; although they labour to distinguish themselves into the truth, by saying they have but one mediator of redemption, although they have more of intercession: one chief Advocate, although many secundary, that their prayers are directed unto God; Tanquam per eum implendae, to Saints only, 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. Certainly their practice in this is worse than their doctrine, and yet is their doctrine so bad, that Bellarmine is ashamed of it, and weakly excuseth it, saying, Their words are not their meaning, De beatitudine sanctorum, his 17, Chapter, and his 1. proposition. I will not offend your ears with their blasphemous phrases, every where inserted in their Missals and Liturgies. Christus, say they; caput gratiae Maria collum, and they join her milk with his blood. I have trodden 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 gloss, 'tis not he but she, that shall break the Serpent's head, Gen, 3.16. not ipse but ipsa; so 'tis translated, so allowed by the grave Fathers of Trent. We are no more saved by Mary, than we were condemned by Eve; salvation is only by Christ, Per jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, though jesus Christ our Lord, as all our Collects run, and by him we shall be saved, he hath a double right to this eternal life; the first by heritage, the other by conquest: the first for himself; the second for us. Mercy hath given way to justice, and Innocency hath suffered; justice shall give way to Mercy, and the guilty shall be saved. Let us therefore beg with alacrity. Quid non dabit petentibus, qui seipsum dedit non petentibus? Give us O God, this eternal life, even for thy Son's sake, our Mediator and Advocate, jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. FINIS. ERRATA. Pag. 22. in mark r. part. 3. p. 37. l. 25. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. in mark r. lib. 3. cap. 5.