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A40077
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A discourse of offences delivered in two sermons Aug. 19, and Sept. 2, 1683 in the Cathedral church of Gloucester / by Edward Fowler.
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Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing F1702; ESTC R6859
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22,108
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40
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A DISCOURSE OF OFFENCES Delivered in Two SERMONS Aug. 19. and Sept. 2. 1683. IN THE Cathedral Church OF GLOUCESTER Published by reason of the Hainous Offence that was taken at the former of these Sermons by some of that City By Edward Fowler D. D. Give none Offence neither to the Iews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God 1 Cor. 10. 32. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this Adulterous and Sinfull Generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels S. Mark 8. 38. LONDON Printed by I. Heptinstall for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1683. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God ROBERT Lord Bishop of GLOUCESTER My LORD LITTLE did I think when I made these plain Sermons of Offences that they would have made me in any Place within His Majestie 's Dominions so High an Offender as the former of them hath in your City But whether the Offence that is so strangely expressed and without President of which way of doing it I thank the Observator heartily for being the first Publisher be Offence given or merely taken I leave it to your Lordship to judge when you have given your self the trouble of reading it over together with the Second part on the same Subject And it is the onely favour I have now to beg of your Lordship that you would give your self this little trouble I wish your Lordship had been present at the Hearing of these Sermons which if you had you had heard every syllable of what I took the Freedom to deliver in your Absence I doubt not your Lordship hath had as Odious Representations made of the Sermon that occasioned the Act of Common Council as I perceive were sent to the Observator And no doubt a no whit better Character of the second had been given you for I am sure it deserves no better had not those that were offended obliged themselves to be out of the Hearing of it by that sudden Act of theirs the very next day after the first was preach'd I solemnly profess to your Lordship that this whole Discourse is neither better nor worse in Print than it was in the Preaching Each part of it being published without the least Addition Diminution or Alteration of any thing So that by this most fair Play the Act-Makers have all the Advantage imaginable given them of going a much more Terrible way to work with me if any thing either Seditious or Factious be to be found in either of these Sermons And I assure you Lordship there is as much such Stuff in these as in any I ever preached either in Gloucester or else where in my whole Life And therefore if your Lordship shall find me guilty of any such Crimes I need not put you in mind that you can doe no less than procure to the COVNTENANCER of SEDITION and FACTION or which is the same thing without mincing the matter like these modest Gentlemen to the Seditious and Factious Preacher the severest Punishment that either the Laws or the Canons can inflict upon so high an Offender That so an ORTHODOX and LOYAL Person may fill his Stall in the Quire and take his turns in the Pulpit for the time to come And the Innocent City may be saved Harmless from the Penalty now imposed upon them of hiring such a Preacher I am in great earnest My Lord for I had a thousand times rather fall into a Bishop's hands than into the hands of any New Committee of Tryers I am sorry for the trouble that my Preaching at Gloucester hath occasioned to your Lordship but I should have been more sorry to have prevented it by Dawbing with untempered Morter and being Meal-mouth'd and partial for fear of displeasing a very few though never so powerfull in exposing of that which we are all obliged to take all opportunities to expose Many I am sure will bear me witness that impartiality is one of the worst faults I have ever been guilty of in any of the Sermons that have made Men angry but by the grace of God this fault I will never mend And all that know your Lordship will easily believe that you 'll never like me one jot the worse for 't Some of the other sort of People in London I hear took such Offence at the same Sermon as to declare they would never hear me more And this Fate of being Censured and Reproached by the bad or weak of all Parties those must make full account of undergoing who are resolved to doe the Work of their great Master with all Faithfulness And this by God's help is my sincere Resolution whatsoever it costs me and in the doing of my duty to have always in my Eye that advice of the Apostle Whatsoever you doe doe it heartily as to the Lord and not as to men knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the Reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. I hope you will pardon this Freedom to My LORD Your Lordship 's Obedient and Humble Servant Edw. Fowler A DISCOURSE OF Offences c. MATTH 18. 7. Woe unto the World because of Offences for it must needs be that Offences come but woe to that man by whom the Offence cometh NOT to trouble you with any thing of Preface we have our Saviour in these Words First Asserting the impossibility of the not Coming of Offences or the Vnavoidableness of them And Secondly Pronouncing Woes upon the account of them He asserts the Vnavoidableness of them in these words It must needs be that Offences come The Woes he pronounceth upon the account of them are two First Against the World or men in general Woe unto the World because of Offences Secondly Against those particular persons who are the Causes of Offences But woe to that man by whom the Offence cometh In the handling of this Text I will endeavour to shew I. What we are to understand here by Offences II. From whence the Vnavoidableness of them doth arise III. That Offences are of woefull consequence both to men in general and to those particular persons by whom they come I. We will endeavour to shew what we are to understand by Offences in this place It is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Woe to the world because of Scandals Now the Grammarians tell us that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Halt or to be Lame And its proper signification is a Trap or Snare and by a Metaphor is used in the New Testament to signifie whatsoever administreth an occasion of falling into sin or is a temptation thereunto In Rom. 14. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Stumbling-block and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put together to express the same thing Iudge this rather that no man put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stumbling-block 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an occasion to fall as it is translated in his Brother's way And 1 Pet. 2. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stone of stumbling and rock of offence or scandal are also two phrases of the same signification And accordingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make ones Brother to offend or to fall into sin 1 Cor. 8. 13. And whereas in the verse following our Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated offend if thine hand or foot offend thee cut them off by offending is to be understood being an unavoidable occasion of Offending Now an Offence or Scandal is commonly distinguished into Datum Acceptum Given and Taken An Offence given is when such things are said or done as have a natural tendency to the drawing of men into sin An Offence taken or taken and not given is when words or actions that are well intended and in themselves either good or lawfull are so construed as to be made an occasion of sinning And in this acceptation of the word Offence the best actions that ever were done may accidentally become Offences or Scandals and the best men that have ever lived may happen to be Offenders or Scandalizers Our Saviour himself as appears from the now cited Text was one from whom Offence came and that mighty Offence too He there being said to be made a stone of stumbling and rock of Offence even to them which stumble at the word And this was predicted concerning him by Old Simeon Luk. 2. 34. This Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel As for the rising of many so for the fall of many but not so set for their fall as for their rising for he was designedly set for the rising of many but he accidentally became an occasion of the fall of many through the offence they causelesly took at him upon several accounts Now both these sorts of Offences viz. those given and those onely taken are to be understood in this saying in the Text Woe to the world because of Offences and in this too for it must needs be that Offences come But that Offence onely which is given Scandalum datum is to be understood in the last words but woe to that man by whom the Offence cometh For no woe can justly be pronounced against him from whom an Offence cometh upon the accout thereof if he be but a mere accidental cause of the Offence and it be wholly the fault of the Offended that Offence is taken at him which as we said was the case of our Blessed Lord himself And indeed no one that ever appeared in the world was ever so great an accidental cause of Peoples being offended as He was II. I proceed to shew from whence the Vnavoidableness of Offences doth arise Our Text saith that it must needs be that Offences come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a necessity of the coming of Offences And St. Luke Chap. 17. 1. doth thus express this Passage It is impossible but that Offences will come So that there is no preventing them as unhappy things as in both these places we understand they are by the Woes pronounced on the account of them But we are now to enquire from whence the unavoidableness of them the necessity of their coming the impossibility of their not coming doth proceed And to this I answer that it proceeds from these two causes conjunctly 1. From the World's being so full of Folly and Wickedness as it is and every part thereof 2. From God's determination for great ends not to prevent by his Omnipotency the natural effects of these 1. From the world's being so full of Folly and Wickedness as it is and all parts of it I need not go about to convince you that the Generality of men in all places are far from being Wise are Rash Heady and Inconsiderative acted by Prejudice and blind Passions And that the number of those who are calmly and sedately considerative in their own actings and in passing judgment upon the actions of others is exceeding small And consequently most men must needs be extremely prone to give Offence and no less liable to the taking of Offence when Offence is given and when also it is not given Nor need I go about to convince you that all places abound with Wickedness as well as Folly The whole world saith St. Iohn lieth in wickedness 1 Ep. 5. v. 19. So it was in his time and so it hath done ever since the first Apostasie to our times Moses gives a lamentable account of the Depravedness of the Old World which provoked God Almighty to overflow it with a Deluge of Waters Gen. 6. 5. There he saith that God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the Earth and that every imagination and the thoughts of his heart were onely evil continually And St. Paul gives a like sad account of the New World both Gentile and Iewish Rom. 3. from the 9 th verse He there setteth forth the General fearfull depravation both of the Gentiles and Iews as if it were Vniversal And I need not tell you that though the business of Christ's coming into the world was to destroy the works of the Devil and to Redeem us from all iniquity yet his Grace is received in vain and turned also into wantouness by the generality of those that profess faith in him So that the Iews could not more vie with the Gentiles in wickedness than the Christians may vie with both Iews and Gentiles And to our great grief and shame be it spoken this may too truly be affirmed of those that pass under the name of Protestant and Reformed as well as of Popish Professors of Christianity And although all Ages have not been alike wicked nor all Countries in any Age yet the far greater part of all Societies of men in all Ages have hitherto greatly corrupted their ways And which is never sufficiently to be laid to heart this Present Age is in divers respects more debauched than many if not than all the foregoing And this Nation is more so than it hath been known to be in formey times notwithstanding the blessed means of Grace we have enjoyed above most other People in the World and notwithstanding too the very heavy judgments which have come for fourty years past so thick upon us Now then considering the great wickedness of the world and how full all places are of wicked men it must needs be that Offences come And 't is impossible but that very many in all Ages and Places will be Scandalized and fall into Sin by the means of them It is impossible but all places must be full of Stumbling-blocks and 't is impossible too but that many will fall over them and break their Necks as will be shewn anon We add hereunto that 2. It must needs be that Offences come because God Almighty hath for great Ends determined not to prevent these natural effects