Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A47481
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The cause & cure of offences in a discourse on Matth. 18:7 / by R. Kingston ...
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Kingston, Richard, b. 1635?
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1682
(1682)
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Wing K610; ESTC R965
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56,152
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182
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are just whatsoever are of good report and it is heartily to be wished that men would not pride themselves in the mistaken signs of Grace and think their condition good only because they have perswaded themselves to believe so but would endeavour to be true and real Christians that the Name of God and Religion be not evil spoken of for their miscarriages Lastly Men and Women offend one another by that wanton garb of Apparel they have taken up Light Weeds I know are accounted but a slender fault but why should not our Pulpits arraign that which Esaiahs did how doth that noble Prophet lift up his voice like a trumpet proclaiming an heavy woe to those that draw iniquity with cords of vanity To steal a silken string were no great Robbery but how if a rowe of Diamonds hung upon it how if on these things we count but light and vain toyes monstrous iniquities do depend Pride and haughtiness oppression and envy scandal and lust what goodly Patrimonies do they not exhaust what works of mercy do they not devour what honest eyes do they not offend what hearts do they not batter O God what do we mean to indanger one another why do we kindle the flame of Lust in anothers bosome should our own hearts be innocent yet we draw suspition and envy upon our selves Our blessed Saviour would have us wise as Serpents and 't is a piece of the Serpents wisdom that coming abroad to drink he leaves his poyson at home lest other Creatures perish by his infection that drink at the same Spring Let us my brethren be thus wise does any infectious evil reside in our Souls any poyson of Asps lurk under our tongues any foul enormity appear in our lives any unjust violence defile our hands any scandalous Weeds hang on our backs either spit your poyson out or so smother it that it hurt none but thy self Was not young Jacob saith St. Ambrose even then an happy man when he was turned out to the wide world when he was fain to forsake his Countrey and Friends and his Fathers house how happy a Voyage did that forlorn wanderer make that thus saved his own life and his Brothers innocency get thee gone O man get thee gone from thy brothers sight if there be ought in thee that offendeth his eye or woundeth his Soul and that for thy brothers sake for thy Saviours sake for thy own sake First for thy Brothers sake for by thine offensive carriage thy weak Brother perisheth 1 Cor. 8.10 Methinks every word is a new enforcement offend him not for he is thy Brother offend him not because he is weak offend him not because he perisheth by it The Jews that sought our Saviours life would be thought Abrahams Children but Christ fetcheth their Pedegree from Hell they are of their father the Devil who was a Murtherer from the begining Joh. 8.44 How was the Devil a Murtherer he came not with a Sword or Poniard at his side but whispered a wicked word and killed us all he killed our bodies he killed our Souls too when our fore-fathers were tempted to sin Now if those that sought the bodily death of our Saviour were in this the brats of that murderous Feind how can we think better of them that seek the destruction of Souls since it was of the Soul too that the Devil was a Murtherer from the beginning By killing a man thou dost but rob him of that Breath which is common to him with other Creatures but by leading him into a vicious course thou strippest his Soul of that life of Grace which the Angels of Heaven are more happy in than in their natural being murther the Body and thou takest but his Soul from it but mislead his Soul and thou takest away his God 2. As for thy brothers sake so for thy Saviours sake too take heed of offences lest thy weak Brother perish for whom Christ dyed Consider O Man saith holy Bernard if the Son of God gave up his pretious Blood to redeem the Souls of men do not they persecute him worse who rob him of his purchased Souls than the Jews did who shed his pretious Blood 't is one of the Laws of God that if a stack of Corn or Corn-field had been burnt up he that kindled the fire was to make amends for the loss For a whole year the poor Husbandman had took pains for that hopedâ—… crease but it was not one nor two nor three but thirty three years together that the Son of God laboured hard to get a crop of Souls into his Garner what fearful Agonies did he go through what a bloody sweat bedewed his face that these fruits might prosper and grow and rather than go without this fruit he would give his life for it every Christian Soul is as it were a sheaf of this harvest which after so many toylsome endeavours of that careful Husbandman to bring it to maturity if thou shalt now scorch and burn up by mis-leading a man first into the crooked paths of sin and at last plunge him into the unquenchable flames of Hell hath not the Lord of the Harvest Reason to look these consumed sheaves this spoyled crop this wastful detriment should be made good and how this restitution should be made God Almighty hath directed in another case If a man dig or open a pit and an Ox or an Ass fall therein the owner of the pit shall restore the price of the beast Exod. 21.33 By drawing thy brother to sin thou hast opened a bottomless pit in which his Soul is everlastingly plunged and since thou canst not restore that perished Soul thou must be accountable to God for the price of it and what was the price of thy Brothers Soul but the pretious blood of the Son of God let me intreat you therefore to consider in time that it is no petty driblet no trifling arrearage thou runnest into but it is those invaluable drops of thy Saviours Blood thou art now guilty of and with what payment can'st thou wipe out such a score why if there be none else it must be such a recompence as the Mosaical Law exacted a life for a life an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth a burning for a burning a wound for a wound Hast thou been an helper of thy Brothers destruction a Soul must go for a Soul a burning for a burning thou that hast brought his Soul within the reach of those endless torments canst look for no less to be the portion of thine inheritance than to be cast irrecoverably into the merciless and devouring flames of Gods everlasting displeasure 3. For thy own sake give no offence for as Moses loads him with fearful curses that shall remove the bounds of his Neighbours land so the Law of God hath fenc'd in the Souls of men and he that makes them common which that Divine rule had inclosed stands liable to the seven curses of the Son of
than weakness in you since there is nothing in our worship of God committed that is unlawful or omitted that is necessary You that are Dissenters contend for trifles we for order and obedience as for example in our English Church many people stumble at our publick Rites decent Gestures and Vestments and challenge us fiercely of these as offences But give me leave to tell you that these ungrounded notions how plausible soever are but the dreams of some misty sleepy brains for the Devil that he may keep the world under these delusions 't is his usual knack to burthen the forms of Gods Worship with clamour and vulgar prejudice lest the union of Christians should destroy his Kingdom or lessen his Subjects I appeal to any indifferent man whether it be not more injurious to Christian liberty to follow the humorous dislikes of private and petulant spirits which require the omission or to yield obedience to lawful Authority which by mature advice commands the use of such things as are otherwise and in themselves equally indifferent for use or forbearance The respect of private scandal ceaseth when just authority determines our liberty and that restraint which proceeds from special duty is of superiour reason to that which is deriv'd from common charity We ought to bear a greater regard to our publick Governours than to our private brethren and be more careful to obey them than satisfie these 'T is true we are commanded be not conformed unto this world Rom. 12.2 but the main import of the words and design of the Apostle is in what follows But be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind Newness of mind is that Substantial duty of Christianity which makes all other things lawful unto us To the indifferent things of the world we may conform for quietness sake to the things of decency and order we should conform for conscience sake onely to the wickedness of it we should not fashion our selves But since I know that our adversaries out of interest cannot be quiet but will notwithstanding all that can be said to the contrary load innocent Ceremonies with scandalous Epithets for by this craft they get their livings let me demand of them How came you so weak that are so pure How long hath the lawfulness of these things been cleer'd among you what pains hath been taken by our reverend Prelates What evincing arguments have fallen from the Lips and Pens 〈◊〉 our reverend Divines what stone 〈◊〉 offence have we not removed to make your way cleer And now let thâ— world judge if our holy Mother thâ— Church who but maintains her juâ—… Right and Liberty be to be taxed for giving offence or not rather her weaâ— Sons which shut their eyes against thâ— light to be sharply reproved for theâ—… wilful disobedience Yet am I noâ—… so uncharitable to think that every one which dissents from the doctrinâ— of this or that Church must be stigmatized for a Schismatick No if a dissenter be meek and modest humble and holy and makes no breach in the Church's Vnity such a one hath the temper of a sober Christian and will do no mischief to Religion but when dissenting about indifferent things is managed with Pride and Passion Rage and Malice tending to the subversion of Government and good Order Then 't is manifest there is something more in the case than Conscience and the man is become Factious When a weak scruple against the Sign of the Cross shall make men Rebels against the Crown when a superstitious abhorrence of a white Vesture shall make us dye our garments in blood and a furious zeal against an Organ shall make men call for the confused noise of Drums and Trumpets 't is manifest they have lost the temper of sober Christians and deserve the hateful name of Rebels as well as Schismaticks 'T is a strange delusion that hath seized some which scruple at an innocent Ceremony who against all convictions and armies of reason will be troubled and will not understand this is very bad but 't is worse that he should think himself to be the more godly man for being thus troubled and diseas'd and that upon this account he shall fall out with his lawful Soveraign calumniate his Actions reproach his Counsellors abuse his subjects and quarrel with his Government and despise it this man nurses his scruple and instead of curing a Boyl dies of a Cancer or is like a man that hath strained his foot and keeps his 〈◊〉 for â—ase but by lying long there falls into a Lipâ—thymie and that bears him to his grave Thus calling themselves to doubtful disputations instead of practising known duties they go on deceiving and being deceived to their own discomfort here and misery hereafter But I gladly shift the Scene intreating my dissenting and scrupulous brethren to remember it is all our duties to obey and do what is commanded not judging our Judges but quietly submitting to their Injunctions who watch for our souls and must give an account to God But if so many mischiefs and offences proceed from indifferent things what shall we think of gross and infectious evils the misleading acts of the vitious or indulgent Ruler the Riots and Rapines of the rich the leud examples of Church-men Parents and Masters domestick fails the foul slips of the Religious the mutual seducements of men and women by scandalous habits Cum multis aliis c. The Ruler is first As Jacobs Sheep brought forth Lambs agreeing in colour with the pill'd rods they cast their eyes on so many people either out of a greedy hope to thrive by a servile imitation or out of a vain ambition to follow their betters take courses of the same tincture with the Scepters of Authority When the Clock strikes not in due season we blame not the weights or movement but the Clock-keeper and whom are the fails of the Vulgar ascribed to but their eminent Guides Let Baltazar carouze in the hallowed boles of the Temple and all the Court will pledge him let Queen Vasti controul her husband and all the scattered Dames in the Country-provinces will take the Reins into their own hands Why did the Heathens so furiously rage who did the people imagine a vain thing The Psalmographer resolves us The Rulers of the earth took counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Who could imagine a people so laden with the favours of a gracious Messiah that saw their sick restored their blind inlightened their lame walking and their dumb speaking yea their dead bodies brought to â—ife Who would imagine after these beneficial works they should put him to so base and bitter a death Had not Herod and Pilat had not Annas and Caiaphas had not the Chief Priests and the Ruling Elders took counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Therefore as if the guilt of all this had stuck on the Princes and Rulers the holy Psalmist directs his advice to them onely Be wise