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SERMON XCVIII.

PREACHED AT LINCOLN'S INN.

MATTHEW Xviii. 7.

Wo unto the world, because of offences.

THE man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth'. The man Moses was so; but the child Jesus was meeker than he. Compare Moses with men, and Moses will scarce be paralleled; compare him with him, who being so much more than man, as that he was God too, was made so much less than man, as that he was a worm and no man, and Moses will not be admitted. If you consider Moses' 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 St. Paul's zeal will enter into the balance, and come into comparison with Moses, in his Anathema pro fratribus, in that he wished himself to be separated from Christ, rather than his brethren should be. But what comparison hath a sudden, a passionate, and indigested vehemence of love, expressed in a phrase that tastes of zeal, but is not done, (Moses was not blotted out of the book of life, nor St. 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 St. Paul, of all excess and inordinateness, in that that they said) with a deliberate and an eternal purpose in Christ Jesus conceived as soon as we can conceive God to have known that Adam would fall, to come into this world, and die for man, and then actually and really, in the fulness of time, to do so; he did come, and he did die. The man Moses was very ineek, the child Jesus meeker than he. Moses' meekness had a determination, (at least an interruption, a discontinuance) when he revenged the wrong of another upon that Egyptian whom he slew. But a bruised reed might have stood unbroken, and smoking flax might have lain unquenched for ever, for all

'Numb. xii. 3.

2 Exod. ii. 11.

3 Isaiah XLii. 3.

Christ. And therefore though Christ send his disciples to school, to the Scribes and Pharisees, because they sat in Moses's seat*, for other lessons, yet for this, he was their schoolmaster himself, Discite à me, learn of me, for I am meek3. In this chapter he gives them three lessons in this doctrine of meekness; he gives them foundations, and upper buildings, the text, and a comment, all the elements of true instruction, rule and example. First, he finds them contending for place, quis maximus, who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The disease which they were sick of, was truly an ignorance what this kingdom was; for, though they were never ignorant that there should be an eternal kingdom in heaven, yet they thought not that the kingdom of Christ here should only be a spiritual kingdom, but they looked for a temporal inchoation of that kingdom here. That was their disease, and a dangerous one. But as physicians are forced to do sometimes, to turn upon the present cure of some vehement symptom, and accident, and leave the consideration of the main disease for a time, so Christ leaves the doctrine of the kingdom for the present, and does not rectify them in that yet, but for this pestilent symptom, 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 careless of place, as negligent of precedency, as that little child, they could not only not be great, but they could not at all enter into the kingdom of heaven. He gives them a second lesson in this doctrine of meekness against scandals, and offences, against an easiness in giving or an easiness in taking offences. For, how well soever we may seem to be in ourselves, we are not well, if we forbear not that company, and abstain not from that conversation, which by ill example may make us worse, or if we forbear not such things, as, though they be indifferent in themselves, and can do us no harm, yet our example may make weaker persons than we are, worse, because they may come to do as we do, and not proceed upon so good ground as we do; they may sin in doing those things by our example, in which we did not sin, because we

Matt. xxiii. 1, 2.

5 Matt. xi. 29.

knew them to be indifferent things, and therefore did them, and they did them though they thought them to be sins. And for this doctrine, Christ takes an example very near to them, If thy hand, or foot, or eye offend thee, cut it off, pull it out. And his third lesson in this doctrine of meekness is against hardness of heart, against a loathness, a weariness in forgiving the offences of other men, against us, occasioned by Peter's question, Quoties remittam, How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? and the example in this rule Christ hath wrapped up in a parable, The master forgave his servant ten thousand talents, (more money than 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 pounds of our money: in such a proportion was Christ pleased to express the master's inexhaustible largeness and bounty, (which is himself,) and the servant's inexcusable cruelty, and penuriousness, (which is every one of us). The root of all Christian duties is humility, meekness, that is violated in an ambitious precedency, for that implies an over estimation of ourselves, and an under value of others; and it is violated in scandals, and offences, for that implies an unsettledness and irresolution in ourselves, that we can be so easily shaked, or a neglecting of weaker persons, of whom Christ neglected none; and it is violated in an unmercifulness, and inexorableness, for that implies an indocileness, that we will not learn by Christ's doctrine; and an ungratefulness, that we will not apply his example, and do to his servants, as, he, our Master, hath done to us: and s have you some paraphrase of the whole chapter, as it consists of rules and examples in this doctrine of meekness, endangered by pride, by scandal, by uncharitableness. But of those two, pride and uncharitableness (though they deserve to be often spoken of), I shall 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 falls, and it is a doctrine very necessary and seldom touched upon.

As the words of our text, our parts must be three. First, that heavy word ca, woe; secondly, that general word, mundo, woe be unto the world; and lastly, that mischievous word, a scandalis,

woe be unto the world because of scandals, of offences. Each of these three words will receive a twofold consideration; for the first, vo, is first rox 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 threatening, and intermination, Christ threatens, he interminates heavy judgments upon them, who occasion and induce these miseries by these scandals; this one va denotes both these; sorrow, and yet infallibility; they always go together in God; God is loath to do it, and yet God will certainly inflict these judgments. The second word, mundo, woe be unto the world, looks two ways too; vœ malis, woe unto evil men that raise scandals, va 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, we must look two ways also; first, as it denotes scandalum activium, a scandal given by another, and then, as it denotes scandalum passivum, a scandal taken by another.

First then, our first word, in the first acceptation thereof, is vo dolentis, the voice of condoling and lamentation; God laments the necessity that he is reduced to, and those judgments which the sins of men have made inevitable. In the person of the prophets which denounced the judgments of God, it is expressed so, Onus Babylonis, 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 only 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 judgment upon that people, was a burthen and a distasteful bitterness, 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 transgressor of that law, a man is not often much affected, because he needs not, when he does but read that law, consider that any particular man is fallen under the penalty, and bitterness thereof. But if upon evidence and verdict he be put to give judgment 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 jewel, the image of God, to be kept in, must be cut into quarters, or torn with horses; that that body which is a consecrated temple of the Holy Ghost, must be chained to a stake, and burnt to ashes, he 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 compassion, when our sins draw and extort his judgments 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. Heu vindicabor, (says God) Alas, I will revenge me of mine enemies'; alas, I will, is alas, I must, his glory compels him to do it, the good of his church, and the sustentation of his saints compel him to it, and yet he comes to it with a condolency, with a compassion, Heu vindicabor, Alas, I will revenge me of mine enemies: so also in another prophet, Heu abominationes, Alas for all the evil 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 evil 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, and he that is both God and man, Christ Jesus does so too: we have but two clear records in the Scriptures of Christ's weeping, and both in compassion for others; when Mary wept for her dead brother Lazarus, and the Jews that were with her wept too, Jesus also wept, and he groaned 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 Jesus wept and

Isaiah i. 24.

Ezek. vi, 11,

John xi, 33.