Fifty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 17
SERMON XVII.
Preached at Lincolns Inne.
MATTH. 18. 7.
We unto the world, because of offences.
THe Man Moses was very meeke, above all the men which were upon the face of the Earth. Numb. 12. 3.The man Moses was so; but the Child Iesus was meeker then he. Compare Moses with men, and Moses will scarce be parallel'd; Compare him with him, who being so much more then man, as that he was God too, was made so much lesse then man, as that he was a worme and no man, and Moses will not be admitted. If you consider Moses his highest expression, what he would have parted with for his brethren, in his Dele me, Pardon them, or blot my name out of thy book, yet Saint Pauls zeale will enter into the balance, and come into comparison with Moses in his Anathema pro fratribus, in that he wished himselfe to be separated from Christ, rather then his brethren should be. But what comparison hath a sodaine, a passionate, and indigested vehemence of love, expressed in a phrase that tasts of zeale, but is not done, (Moses was not blotted out of the book of life, nor Saint Paul was not separated from Christ for his brethren) what comparison hath such a love, that was but said, and perchance should not have been said (for, we can scarce excuse Moses, or Saint Paul, of all excesse and inordinatenesse, in that that they said) with a deliberate and an eternall purpose in Christ Jesus conceived as soon as we can conceive God to have knowen that Adam would fall, to come into this world, & dye for man, and then actually and really, in the fulnesse of time, to do so; he did come, and he did dye. The man Moses was very meeke, the child Jesus meeker then hee. Moses his meeknesse had a determination, (at least an interruption, a discontinuance) when hee revenged the wrong of another upon that Egyptian whom he slew.Exod. 2. 11. Esay 42. 3. But a bruised reed might have stood unbroken, and smoking flax might have lien unquenched for ever,Mat. 23. 1. for all Christ. And therefore though Christ send his Disciples to School, to the Scribes and Pharisees, because they sate in Moses seat, for other lessons, yet for this,11. 29. hee was their School-master himselfe, Discite à me, learne of mee, for I am meek. In this Chapter hee gives them three lessons in this doctrine of meeknesse; Hee gives them foundations, and upperbuildings, The Text, and a Comment, all the Elements of true instruction, Rule and Example. First, hee findes them contending for place,ver. 1. Quis maximus, who should be greatest in the kingdome of heaven. The disease which they were sick of, was truly an ignorance what this kingdome was; For, though they were never ignorant that there should bee an eternall kingdome in heaven, yet they thought not that the kingdome of Christ here should onelyonly be a spirituall kingdome, but they looked for a temporall inchoation of that kingdome here. That was their disease, and a dangerous one. But as Physitians are forced to doe sometimes, to turne upon the present cure of some vehement symptome, and accdient, and leave the consideration of the maine disease for a time, so Christ leaves the doctrine of the kingdome for the present, and does not rectifie them in that yet, but for this pestilent symptome, this malignant accident of precedency, and ambition of place, he corrects that first, and to that purpose gives them the example of a little child, and tells them, that except they become as humble, as gentle, as supple, as simple, as seely, as tractable, as ductile, as carelesse of place, as negligent of precedency, as that little child, they could not onelyonly not be great, but they could not at all enter into the kingdome of heaven. He gives them a second lesson in this doctrine of meeknesse against scandals, and offences, against an easinesse in giving or an easinesse in taking offences. For, how well soever we may seeme to be in our selves, we are not well, if we forbear not that company, and abstaine not from that conversation, which by ill example may make us worse, or if wee forbear not such things, as, though they bee indifferent in themselves, and can do us no harme, yet our example may make weaker persons then we are, worse, because they may come to doe as we do, and not proceed upon so good ground as we doe; They may sin in doing those things by our example, in which we did not sinne, because we knew them to be indifferent things, and therefore did them, and they did them though they thought them to bee sinnes. And for this Doctrine,vers. 8. Christ takes an example very near to them, If thy hand, or foot, or eye offend thee, cut it off, pull it out. His third lesson in this doctrine of meeknes is against hardnesse of heart, against a loathnesse, a wearinesse in forgiving the offences of other men,vers. 21. against us, occasioned by Peters question, Quoties remittam, How oft shall my brother sinne against me, and I forgive him? and the example in this rule Christ hath wrapped up in a parable,vers. 28. The Master forgave his servant ten thousand Talents, (more money then perchance any private man is worth) and that servant took his fellow by the throat, and cast him into prison, because he did not presently pay an hundred pence, perchance fifty shillings, not three pound of our money: in such a proportion was Christ pleased to expresse the Masters inexhaustible largenesse and bounty, (which is himselfe,) and the servants inexcusable cruelty, and penuriousnesse, (which is every one of us.) The root of all Christian duties is Humility, meeknesse, that's violated in an ambitious precedency, for that implyes an over-estimation of our selves, and an undervalue of others; And it is violated in scandals, and offences, for that implies an unsetlednesse and irresolution in our selves, that we can bee so easily shaked, or a neglecting of weaker persons, of whom Christ neglected none; and it is violated in an unmercifulnesse, and inex…rablenesse, for that implies an indocilenesse, that we will not learn by Christs doctrine; & an ungratefulnesse, that we will not apply his example, and do to his servants, as he, our Master, hath done to us: And so have you some Paraphrase of the whole Chapter, as it consists of Rules and Examples in this Doctrine of meeknes, endangered by pride, by scandall, by uncharitablenes. But of those two, pride & uncharitabenes (though they deserve to be often spoken of,) I shal have no occasion from these words of my text, to speak, for into the second of these three parts, The Doctrine of scandals, our text fals, and it is a Doctrine very necessary, and seldome touched upon.
As the words of our Text are,Divisio. our parts must be three. First, that heavy word Vae, woe; Secondly, that generall word, Mundo, Woe be unto the world; And lastly, that mischievous word, A scandalis, Woe bee unto the, world because of scandals, of offences. each of these three words wil receive a twofold consideration; for the first, Vae, is first Vox dolentis, a voice of condoling and lamenting, Christ laments the miseries imminent upon the world, because of scandals, and then it is Vox minantis, a voice of threatning, and intermination, Christ threatens, he interminates heavy judgements upon them, who occasion and induce these miseries by these scandals; This one Vae denotes both these; sorrow, and yet infallibility; They always go together in God; God is loath to doe it, and yet God will certainly inflict these judgements. The second word, Mundo, Woe be unto the world, lookes two ways too; Vae malis, woe unto evill men that raise scandals, vae bonis, woe unto them who are otherwise good in themselves, if they be so various, as to be easily shaked and seduced by scandals. And then upon the last word A scandalis, Woe be unto the world, because of scandals, of offences, wee must look two ways also; first, as it denotes Scandalum activum, a scandall given by another, and then, as it denotes Scandalum passivum, a scandal taken by another.
First then,1. Part. our first word, in the firrst acceptation thereof, is Vae dolentis, the voice of condoling and lamentation; God laments the necessity that he is reduced to, and those judgements which the sinnes of men have made inevitable. In the person of the Prophets which denounced the judgements of God, it is expressed so, Onus Babyl… nis, Onus Egypti, Onus Damasci? O the burthen of Damascus, the burthen of Egypt, the burthen of Babylon; And not only so, but Onus visionis, Not onelyonly that that judgment would be a heavy burthen, when it fell upon that Nation, but that the very pre-contemplation, and pre-denunciation of that judgement upon that people, was a burthen and a distastfull bitternesse, to the Prophet himself, that was sent upon that message. In reading of an Act of Parliament, or of any Law that inflicts the heaviest punishment that can be imagined upon a delinquent, and transgressour of that Law, a man is not often much affected, because hee needs not, when he does but read that law, consider that any particular man is fallen under the penalty, and bitternesse thereof. But if upon evidence and verdict he be put to give judgement upon a particular man that stands before him, at the bar, according to that Law, That that man that stands there that day, must that day be no man; that that breath breathed in by God, to glorify him, must be suffocated and strangled with a halter, or evaporated with an Axe, he must be hanged or beheaded, that those limbs which make up a Cabinet for that precious Jewell, the image of God, to be kept in, must be cut into quarters, or torne with horses; that that body which is a consecrated Temple of the Holy Ghost, must be chained to a stake, and burnt to ashes, hee that is not affected in giving such a judgment, upon such a man, hath no part in the bowels of Christ Jesus, that melt in cō passion, when our sinnes draw and extort his Judgements upon us in the mouth of those Prophets, those men whom God sends, it is so, and it is so in the mouth of God himself that sends them.Esa. 1. 24. Heu vindicabor, (says God) Alas, I will revenge mee of mine enemies; Alas, I will, is Alas, I must, his glory compels him to doe it, the good of his Church, and the sustentation of his Saints compell him to it, and yet he comes to it with a condolency, with a compassion, Heu vindicabor, Alas, I will revenge mee of mine enemies: Ezech. 6. 11.so also in another Prophet, Heu abominationes, Alas for all the evill abominations of the house of Israel; for (as it is added there) they shall fall, (that is, they will fall) by the sword, by famine, by pestilence, and (as it follows) I will accomplish my fury upon them; Though it were come to that height, fury, and accomplishment, consummation of fury, yet it comes with a condolency, and compassion, Heu abominationes, Alas for all the evill abominations of the house of Israel, I would they were not so ill, that I might be better to them. Men sent by God do so, so does God that sends those men, & he that is both God and man, Christ Jesus does so too: We have but two clear records in the Scriptures of Christs weeping, and both in compassion for others, when Mary wept for her dead brother Lazarus, Ioh. 11. 33.and the Jews that were with her wept too, Iesus also wept, and he groan'd in the spirit, and was troubled. This was but for the discomfort of one family, (it was not a mortality over the whole Country) It was but for one person in that family, (it was not a contagion that had swept, or did threaten the whole house) it was but for such a person in that family, as he meant forthwith to restore to life again, and yet Iesus wept, & groaned in the Spirits, & was trobled; he would not lose that opportunity of shewing his tendernesse, and compassion in the behalf of others. How vehement, how passionate then, must we beleeve his other weeping to have been,Luke. 19. 41. when hee had his glorious and beloved City Jerusalem in his sight, and wept over that City, and with that stream of tears powred out that Sea, that tempestuous Sea, those heavy judgements, which, (though he wept in doing it) he denounced upon that City, that glorious, that beloved City, which City (though Christ charge, to have stoned them that were sent to her,Mat. 23. 34. and to bee guilty of all the righteous blood shed upon the earth) the holy Ghost cals the holy City for all that,4. 5. not onelyonly at the beginning of Christs appearance, (The Devill took him up into the holy City) (for at that time she was not the unholyer for any thing that shee had done upon the person of Christ,) but when they had exercised all their cruelty, even to death, the death of the Crosse upon Christ himselfe,Mat. 27. 33. the Holy Ghost calls still the holy City; Many bodies of Saints, which slept, arose, and went into the holy City. When the Fathers take into their contemplation and discourse, that passionate exclamation of our Saviour upon the Crosse, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? those blessed Fathers, that never thought of any such sense of that place, that Christ was, at that time, actually in the reall torments of hell, assign no fitter sense of those words, then that the foresight of those insupportable, and inevitable, and imminent judgements upon his City, and his people, occasioned that passionate exclamation, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Acts 9. 4.That as, after he was ascended into heaven, he said to Saul, Cur me persequeris? He called Sauls persecuting of his Church, a persecuting of him, so when hee considered that God had forsaken his people, his Citie, his Jerusalem, he cryed out, that God had forsaken him. God that sent the Prophets; the Prophets that were sent; Christ who was both, the person sent, and the sender, came to the inflicting and denouncing of judgements, with this Vae dolentis, a heart, and voice of condoling and lamentation.
Grieve not then the holy Spirit of God, Eph. 4. 30.says the Apostle; extort not from him those Judgements, which he cannot in justice forbear, and yet is grieved to inflict. How often doe we use that motive, to divert young men from some ill actions, and ill courses, How will this trouble your friends, how will this grieve your Mother, this will kill your Father? The Angels of heaven who are of a friendship and family with us, as they rejoyce at our conversion, so are they sorry and troubled at our aversion from God. Our sins have grieved our Mother; that is, made the Church ashamed, and blush that he hath washed us, and clothed us, in the whitenesse and innocency of Christ Jesus in our baptisme, and given us his bloud to drinke in the other Sacrament. Our sins have made our mother the Church ashamed in her selfe, (we have scandalized and offended the Congregation) and our sinnes have defamed and dishonoured our mother abroad, that is, imprinted an opinion in others, that that cannot be a good Church, in which we live so dissolutely, so falsely to our first faith, and contract, and stipulation with God in Baptisme. Wee have grieved our brethren, the Angels,Mal. 2. 10. our mother, the Church, and we have killed our Father: God is the father of us all; Act. 20. 28.and we have killed him; for God hath purchased a Church with his bloud, says Saint Paul. And, oh, how much more is God grieved now, that we will make no benefit of that bloud which is shed for us, then he was for the very shedding of that bloud! We take it not so ill, (pardon solow a comparison in so high a mystery; for, since our blessed Saviour was pleased to assume that metaphor,Mat. 20. 22. and to call his passion a Cup, and his death a drinking, we may be admitted to that Comparison of drinking too) we take it not so ill, that a man go down into our Cellar, and draw, and drinke his fill, as that he goe in, and pierce the vessells, and let them runne out, in a wastfull wantonneste. To satisfie the thirst of our soules, there was a necessity that the bloud of Christ Jesus, should be shed; To satisfie Christs own sitto, that thirst which was upon him, when he was upon the Crosse, there was a necessity too, that Christ should bleed to death. On our part there was an absolute and a primary necessity; God in his justice requiring a satisfaction, nothing could redeem us, by way of satisfaction, but the bloud of his Sonne. And though there were never act more voluntary, more spontaneous, then Christs dying for man, nor freer from all coaction, and necessity of that kind, yet after Christ had submitted himselfe to that Decree and contract that passed between him,Luke 24. 26. and his Father, that he, by shedding his bloud, should redeem Mankind, there lay a necessity upon Christ himselfe to shed his bloud, as himselfe says first to his Disciples that went with him to Emans, Nonne op…rtuit, ought not Christ to suffer all these things? do ye not find by the prophets that he was bound to do it? and then to his Apostles at Ierusalem,verse 36. Sic opertuit, Thus it behoved Christ to suffer. There was then an absolute necessity upon us, an obedientiall necessity upon Christ, that his bloud must be shed; But to let him dye in a wantonnesse, to let out all that precious liquor, and taste no drop of it, to draw out all that immaculate and unvaluable bloud, and make no balsamum, no antidote, no plaister, no fomentation in the application of that bloud, to labour still under a burning fever of lust, and ambition, and presumption, and finde no cooling julips there, in the application of that bloud, to labour under a cold damp of indevotion, and under heartlesse desperation, and find no warming Cordialls there, to be still as farre under judgements and executions for finne, as if there had been no Messias sent, no ransome given, no satisfiaction made, not to apply this bloud thus shed for us, by those meanes which God in his Church presents to us, this puts Christ to his wofull Interjection, to cast out this wo upon us, (which he had rather have left out) wo be unto the world, which, though it begin in a vae dolentis, a voice of condoling and lamenting, yet it is also vae minantis, a voice of threatning, and intermination, denoting the infallibility of Judgements,Vae minantis. and that's our next consideration.
I thinke we find no words in Christs mouth so often, as vae, and Amen. Each of them hath two significations; as almost all Christs words, and actions have; consolation, and commination. For, as this vae signifies (as before) a sorrow, (wo, that is, wo is me, for this will fall upon you) and signifies also a Judgment inevitable and infallible, (wo, that is, wo be unto you, for this Judgement shall fall upon you) so Amen is sometimes vox Asserentis, and signifies verè, verily, Verily I say unto you, when Christ would confirm, and establish a beleefe in some doctrine,Iohn 14. 12. or promise of his, (as when he says Amen, Amen, verily verily I say unto you, he that beleeveth on me, the works that I doe, shall he doe also, and greater works then these shall he doe) so it is vox Asserentis, a word of assertion,Mat. 5. 26. and it is also vox Deserentis, a word of desertion, when God denounces an infallibility,Mat. 5. 26. an unavoydablenesse, an inevitablenesse in his judgements, Amen dico, verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no meanes come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing; so this Amen signifies Fiat, this shall certainly be thus done. And this seale, this Amen, as Amen is Fiat, is always set to his vae, as his vae is vox minantis; whensoever God threatens any Judgement, he meanes to execute that Judgement as farre as he threatens it; God threatens nothing in terrorem onelyonly, onelyonly to frighten us; every vae hath his Amen, every Judgement denounced, a purpose of execution. This then is our wofull case; every man may find upon record, in the Scriptures, a vae denounced upon that sinne, which he knows to be his sinne; and if there be a vae, there is an Amen too, if God have said it shall, it shall be executed, so that this is not an execution of a few condemned persons, but a Massacre of all: It is not a Decimation, as in a rebellion, to spare nine, and hang the tenth, but it is a washing, a sweeping away of all: every man may find a Judgement upon record against him. It doth not acquit him that he hath not committed an adultery; and yet, is he sure of that? He may have done that in a looke, in a letter, in a word, in a wish: It doth not acquit him, that he hath not done a murder; and yet, is he sure of that? He may have killed a man, in not defending him from the oppression of another, if he have power in his hand, and he may have killed in not relieving, if he have a plentifull fortune. He may have killed in not reprehending him who was under his charge, whē he saw him kil himself in the sinful ways of death.Ardoinus. As they that write of Poysons, and of those creatures that naturally maligne and would destroy man, do name the Flea, as well as the Viper, because the Flea sucks as much bloud as he can, so that man is a murderer that stabs as deep as he can, though it be but with his tongue, with his pen, with his frowne; for a man may kill with a frowne, in withdrawing his countenance from that man, that lives upon so low a pasture as his countenance, nay he may kill with a smile, with a good looke, if he afford that good looke with a purpose to delude him. And, beloved, how many dye of this disease; how many dye laughing, dye of a tickling; how many are overjoyed with the good looks, and with the familiarity of greater persons then themselves, and led on by hopes of getting more, wast that they have? An adultery, a murder may be done in a dreame, if that dreame were an effect of a murderous, or an adulterous thought conceived before.1 Cor. 4. 4. The Apostle says, I know nothing by my selfe, yet am I not thereby justified, we sinne some sinnes, that all the world sees, and yet we see not, but then, how many more, which none in the world sees but our selves? Scarce any man scapes all degrees of any sinne; scarce any man some great degree of some great sinne; no man escapes so, but that he may find upon record, in the Scriptures, a vae, and an Amen, a Judgment denounced, and an execution sealed against him. And, if that be our case, where is there any roome for this milder signification of these two words, vae, and Amen, which we spoke of before, as they are words of Consolation? If because God hath said Stipendium peccati mors est, the wages of sinne is death, because I have sinned, I must dye, what can I doe in a Prayer? can I flatter God? what can I doe in an Almes? Can I bribe God, or frustrate his purpose? Can I put an Euge upon his vae, a vacat upon his Fiat, a Nonobstante upon his Amen. God is not man, not a false man that he can lie, nor a weake man that he can repent. Where then is the restorative, the consolatory nature of these words? In this, beloved, consists our comfort, that all Gods vae's and Amens, all judgments, and all his executions are Conditionall; There is a Crede & vives, Beleeve and thou shalt live; there is a Fac hoc & vives, doe this and thou shalt live; If thou have done otherwise, there is a Converte & vives, turne unto the Lord and thou shalt live; If thou have done so, and fallen off, there is a Revertere & vives, returne againe unto the Lord, and thou shalt live. How heavy so ever any of Gods judgements be,2 Sam. 12. 22. yet there is always roome for Davids question, Quis scit, who can tell whether God will be gracious unto mee? What better assurance could one have, then David had? The Prophet Nathan had told David immediately from the mouth of God, this child shall surely dye, and ratified it by that reason, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, this child shall surely dye, yet David fasted, and wept, and said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gratious unto me, that the child may live? There is always roome for Davids question, Quis scit, who can tell? Nay there is no roome for it, as it is a question of diffidence and distrust; every man may and must know, that whatsoever any Prophet have denounced against any sinne of his, yet there are conditions, upon which the Lord will be gracious and thy soule shall live. But if the first condition, that is Innocency, and the second, that is Repentance, be rebelliously broken, then every man hath his vae, and every vae hath his Amen, the judgements are denounced against him; and upon him they shall bee executed; for God threatens not to fright children, but the Mountains melt, and Powers, and Thrones, and Principalities tremble at his threatning. And so have you the doubled signification of the first word vae, as it is vox Dolentis, and as it is Vox minantis, God is loath, but God will infallibly execute his judgement, and we proceed to the extension of this vae, over all, vae mundo, woe unto the world, and the double signification of that word.
I have wondred sometimes that that great Author,2. Part. Mund…. and Bishop in the Roman Church, Abulensis, is so free, as to confesse that some Expositors amongst them, have taken this word in our Text, Mundo, adjectivè, not to signify the world, but a clean person, a free man, that it should be vae immuni, woe unto him that is free from offences, that hath had no offences; perchance they mean from crosses. And so, though it be a most absurd, and illiterate, and ungrammaticall construction of the place that they make, yet there is a doctrine to bee raised from thence, of good use. As God brought light out of darknesse, and raises glory out of sin, so we may raise good Divinity out of their ill Grammar; for vae mundo, indeed, vae immuni, woe be unto him that hath had no crosses. There cannot be so great a crosse as to have none. I lack one loaf of that dayly bread that I pray for, if I have no crosse; for afflictions are our spirituall nourishment; I lacke one limb of that body I must grow into, which is the body of Christ Jesus, if I have no crosses; for, my conformity to Christ, (and that's my being made up into his body) must be accomplished in my fulfilling his sufferings in his flesh. So that, though our adversaries out of their ignorance mislead us in a wrong sense of the place; the Holy Ghost leads us into a true, and right use thereof. But there is another good use of their error too, another good doctrine out of their ill Grammar; Take the word mundo, adjectivè, for an adjective, and vae mundo, vae immuni, wo unto him that is so free from all offences, as to take offence at nothing; to be indifferent to any thing, to any Religion, to any Discipline, to any form of Gods service; That from a glorious Masse to a sordid Conventi…le, all's one to him, all one to him whether that religion, in which they meet, and light candles at Noon; or that, in which they meet, and put out candles at midnight; what innovations, what alterations, what tolerations of false, what extirpations of true Religion soever come, it shall never trouble, never offend him; 'Tis true, Vae mundo indeed, wo unto him that is so free, so unsensible, so unaffected with any thing in this kinde; for, as to bee too inquisitive into the proceedings of the State, and the Church, out of a jealousie and suspicion that any such alterations, or tolerations in Religion are intended or prepared, is a seditious disaffection to the government, and a disloyall aspersion upon the persons of our Superiours, to suspect without cause, so, not to be sensible that the Catterpillars of the Roman Church, doe eat up our tender fruit, that the Jesuites, and other enginiers of that Church, doe seduce our forwardest and best spirits, not to be watchfull in our own families, that our wives and children and servants be not corrupted by them, for the Pastor to s…acken in his duty, (not to be earnest in the Pulpit) for the Magistrate to slacken in his, (not to be vigilant in the execution of those Laws as are left in his power) vae mundo, vae immuni, woe unto him that is unsensible of offences. Jealously, suspiciously to mis-interpret the actions of our Superiours, is inexcusable, but so is it also not to feel how the adversary gains upon us, and not to wish that it were, and not to pray that it may be otherwise; vae mundo, vae immuni, wo to him that is un-offended unsensible, thus. But as I have wondred that that Bishop would so easily confesse, that some of their Expositors were so very unlearned, so barbarously ignorant, so enormously stupid, as to take this vae mundo adjective, so doe I wonder more, that after such confessions, and acknowledgements of such ignorances and stupidities amongst them, they will not remedy it in the cause, but still continue so rigid, so severe in the maintenance of their own Translation, their Vulgate Edition, as in places, and cases of doubt, not to admit recourse to the Originall, as to the Supreme Judge, nor to other Translations: for, by either of those ways, it would have appeared, that this vae mundo could not be taken adjectivè, but is a cloud cast upon the whole world, a woe upon all, no place, no person,Gen. 25. no calling free from these scandals, and offences, from tentations, and tribulations; when there was a vae Sodom, that God raigned fire and brimstone upon Sodom, yet there was a Zoar, where Let might be safe. When there was a vae Egypto, wo and wo upon wo upon Aegypt, there was a Go…hen a Sanctuary for the children of God in Egypt. When there is a vae inhabitantibus, a persecution in any place, there is a Fuge in aliam, leave to fly into another City. But in such an extension, such an expansion, such an exaltation, such an inundation of woe, as this in our text, Vae mundo, woe to the world, to all the world, a tide, a flood without any ebbe, a Sea without any shoare, a darke skie without any Horizon; That though I doe withdraw my selfe from the wofull uncertainties, and irresolutions and indeterminations of the Court, and from the snares and circumventions of the City; Though I would devest, and shake off the woes and offences of Europe in Afrique, or of Asia in America, I cannot, since wheresoever, or howsoever I live, these woes, and scandals, and offences, tentations, and tribulations will pursue mee, who can expresse the wretched condition, the miserable station, and prostration of man in this world? vae mundo.
Take the word,Ioh. 17. 9. World, in as ill a sense as you will, as ill as when Christ says, I pray not for the world, (and they are very ill, for whom Christ Jesus who prayed for them that crucifyed him, would not pray:) Take the word world, in as good a sense as you will,6. 51. as good as when Christ says, I give my flesh for the life of the world, (and they are very good that are elemented, made up with his flesh, and alimented and nursed with his blood:) Take it for the Elect, take it for the Reprobate, the Reprobate and the Elect too are under this vae, wo to the world, from tentations, and tribulations, scandals, and offences.
So it is if the world be persons, and it is so also, if it be times; Take the world for the times wee live in now, 1 Ioh. 2. 18.and it is Novissima hora, this is the last time, and the Apostle hath told us, that the last times are the worst. Take the world for the Old world, Originalis mundus, 2. 2. 5.as Saint Peter call's it; the Originall world, of which, this world; since the flood, is but a copy, and God spared not the Old world, says that Apostle. Take it for an elder world then that, the world in Paradise, when one Adam, the Son of God, and one Eve produced by God, from him, made up the world: or take it for an elder world then that, the world in heaven, when onelyonly the Angels, and no other creatures made up the world; Take it any of these ways, we in this latter world do, Noah in the old world did, so did Adam in the world in Paradise, and so did the Angels in the oldest world of all, find these woes from offences, and scandals, tentations, and tribulations.
So it is in all persons, in all men, so it is in all times, in all ages, and so it is in all places too; for hee that retires into a Monastery upon pretence of avoiding tentations, and offences in this world, he brings them thither, and hee meets them there; Hee sees them intramittendo, and extramittendo, he is scandalized by others, and others are scandalized by him. That part of the world that sweats in continuall labour in severall vocations, is scandalized with their laziness, and their riches, to see them anoint themselves with other mens sweat, and lard themselves with other mens fat; and then these retired and cloistrall men are scandalized with all the world, that is out of their walls. There is no sort of men more exercised with contentious and scandalous wranglings, then they are: for, first, with all eager animosity they prefer their Monasticall life before all other secular callings, yea, before those Priests, whom they call Secular Priests, such as have care of souls, in particular parishes, (as though it were a Diminution, and an inferiour state to have care of souls, and study and labour the salvation of others.) And then as they undervalue all secular callings, (Mechaniques, and Merchants, and Magistrates too) in respect of any Regular order, (as they call them) so with the same animosity doe they prefer their own Order, before any other Order. A Carthusian is but a man of fish, for one Element, to dwell still in a Pond, in his Cell alone, but a Jesuit is a usefull ubiquitary, and his Scene is the Court, as well as the Cloister. And howsoever they pretend to bee gone out of the world, they are never the farther from the Exchange for all their Cloister; they buy, and sell, and purchase in their Cloister. They are never the farther from Westminster in their Cloister, they occasion and they maintain suits from their Cloister; and there are the Courts of Justice noted to abound most with suits, where Monasteries abound most. Nay, they are never the farther from the field for all their Cloister; for they give occasions of armies, they raise armies, they direct armies, they pay armies from their Cloister. Men should not retire from the mutuall duties of this world, to avoid offences, tentations, tribulations, neither doe they at all avoid them, that retire thus, upon that pretence.
Shall we say then,Mat. 19. 9. as the Disciples said to Christ; If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to mary? If the world be nothing but a bed of Adders, a quiver of poysoned arrows, from every person, every time, every place, woes by occasion of offences, and scandals, it had been better God had made no world, better that I had never been born into the world, better, if by any meanes I could get out of the world quickly,… 2. 22. shall we say so? God forbid. As long as Iob charged not God foolishly, it is said, in all this Iob sinned not; but when he came to curse his birth, and to loath his life,1 Reg. 19. 4. then Iob charged God foolishly. When one Prophet (Eliah) comes to proportion God the measure of his corrections,Ion. 4. Satisest, Lord, this is enough; Thou hast done enough, I have suffered enough, now take away my life. When another Prophet comes to wish his own death in anger, and to justify his anger, and dispute it out with God himselfe, for not proceeding with the Ninivites, as he would have had him doe; nay for the withering of his gourd that shadowed him, in all these, they did, in all such, we doe charge God foolishly; And shall we that are but wormes, but silke-wormes, but glow-wormes at best, chide God that hee hath made slow-wormes, and other venimous creeping things? shall we that are nothing but boxes of poyson in our selves, reprove God for making Toads and Spiders in the world? shall we that are all discord, quarrell the harmony of his Creation, or his providence? Can an Apothecary make a Soveraign triacle of Vipers, and other poysons, and cannot God admit offences, and scandals into his physick? scandals, and offences, tentations, and tribulations, are our leaven that ferment us, and our lees that preserve us. Use them to Gods glory, and to thine own establishing, and then thou shall be a particular exception to that generall Rule, the Vae mundo à scandalis, shall be an Euge tibi à scandalis, thou shalt see that it was well for thee, that there were scandals and offences in the world, for they shall have exercised thy patience, they shall have occasioned thy victory, they shall have assured thy triumph.