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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62865	Christs commination against scandalizers, or, A treatise wherein the necessitie, nature, sorts, and evils of scandalizing are clearly and fully handled with resolution of many questions, especially touching the abuse of Christian liberty, shewing that vengeance is awarded against such as use it to the grievance of their weake brethren / by Iohn Tombes ...	Tombes, John, 1603?-1676.	1641 (1641)	Wing T1802; ESTC R1928	96,775	467

time it lasteth nor that which is extrinsecally evill as being contrary to the governours commandement or to the restrained parties vow or the verdict of his owne conscience or being scandalous and hurtfull to his neighbour is extrinsecally evill to all but only those who are under that government that vow that opinion to whom it happens that their use of their liberty may become the harme of their neighbour That which is evil for a subject of the King of England to doe may not bee evill to the subject of the King of Spaine who hath made no such law as the King of England And that vow that binds him that made it bindes not another which hath made no such vow and that opinion which one man hath and that harme of our brother which restraines one man from the use of his liberty restraines not another whose action would cause no such harme in whose mind is no such opinion Having premised these things I am next to enquire into the Apostles resolutions delivered Rom. 14. 1. Cor. 8. 9. 10. chapters concerning the forbearing of the use of our liberty in case of scandall which was then in agitation and determined by the Apostle in those chapters Which that wee may the better understand we are to take notice that as appeares by S. Lukes history of the Acts of the Apostles and likewise by other histories of Iosephus Suetonius Tacitus and others the nation of the Iewes was in those dayes wherein S. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans dispersed over many countries of the world in Asia AEgypt Greece Italy and particularly that many of that nation dwelt in Rome In which citty at that time the great city which had dominion over a great part of the earth the Iewes retained the religion and rites of their nation prescribed by Moses and were for their Sabbaths Circumcision abstaining from swines flesh and such like rites derided by the Satyrists of those times famous at Rome Horace Iuvenall Persius and the rest Now of these Iewes at Rome it pleased God to convert some to the Christian faith as well as some of the Gentiles Wee are likewise to remember that while the Ceremoniall law of Moses was in force the Iewes conceived themselves as strictly bounde to the observances of meates and dayes and other ordinances of Moses as of the decalogue unlesse in such cases as wherein the observing of them was against a morall duty For then that of the Prophet took place I will have mercy and not sacrifice as our Saviour determines Mat. 12. 7. Whereupon the godly Iewes made conscience of obedience to the ceremoniall lawes as to other morall precepts When in a vision all manner of foure footed beasts of the earth wild beasts and creeping things and foules of the aire were presented to Peter to kill and eate he replyed not so Lord for I have never eatē any thing that is common or unclean Acts. 10. 14. Hence they thought thēselves bound rather to suffer any torment than to eat so much as a bit of swines flesh as appears in the example of Eleazar and the mother and her seaven sons in the historie of the Maccabees 2. Maccab. ch 6. 7. wherefore when the Gospell began to bee preached and the ceremonies of Moses his law to bee disclaimed and neglected much contention arose betweene the Christians that were of the Circumcision and those of the Gentiles concerning the necessity of observing Moses law in so much that it was thought necessary to call a counsell of the Apostles and Elders at Hierusalem to decide this difference Acts. 15. So that although by Christs death the necessity of observing them was taken away and the Gospell being promulgated their observation became dangerous as we read Gal. 5. yet such esteem had the ceremonies of the law gotten partly by their originall institution and partly tractu temporis by a long tract of time in which they had stood in force that many Christians not sufficiently instructed in their liberty feared to neglect or break them after their initiation into Christianity as on the other side those that were well instructed in their liberty did neglect them securely they made no scruple of eating meates of neglecting new moones and the like Festivalls And thus was it among the Romans when S. Paul wrot this Epistle to them There were some that would not eat meats prohibited by Moses law but rather eat hearbes nor would they omit the observation of dayes as not knowing their liberty therein so that if it happened they did eat such meats or neglect such dayes it was with doubting and regrete of conscience These the Apostle calleth weake brethren weake in the faith Others there were among the Romans who made no question of eating any sort of meats nor regarded dayes as knowing they had lawfull liberty therein And these are called strong in the faith by the Apostle Now if this diversity had been onely in practise or opinion it had been somewhat tollerable But the difference in opinion and deformity in practise bred among them as usually it doth discord and division For whereas Christian charity and holy wisdome should have prevented all quarrell between them all harming each other contrariwise it so fell out that the strong despised the weak as more scrupulous then needed and the weak with an aggrieved mind judged the strong as licentious and unholy and whereas sometimes the weake by the example of the strong might bee induced to doe that W ch though lawfull they doubted whether it were so or not their consciences were thereby wounded To ease the Christians of this grievance the Apostle as an equall arbitrator thus decides the controversy In this case the strong should take to them the weake in faith shewing kindnesse love to them but not imprudently intangle them with disputes which bred more doubts in them while they sought to cure their errour about meats and dayes that they should not despise or sleight them for their weaknesse but shew them all respect as believers that they should enjoy their knowledge to themselves but not use their liberty to the grievance of their brethrē that they should not so looke to their own much content in the use of their priviledge as to damnifie their brethren and to wound their conscience On the other side the Apostle admonisheth the weake that they neither censure nor judge their brethren in the use of their liberty nor yet venture upon the use of their lawfull liberty with doubting consciences but bee sure that they bee well resoved in their judgements afore they enter on the practise Concerning the other Scripture in which the Apostle sets downe his resolutions in point of scandals the case was thus Corinth was an eminent beautifull citty called by Tully lumen Graeciae the eye of Greece but a Pagan citty In which the people were wont to worship Idols of Iupiter Mars Minerva c. to these they built Temples

〈◊〉 by Saint Matthew fully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Woe be to that man by whom the scandall cometh or is for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which proposition the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neverthelesse shews to be added in manner of a prolepsis For whereas it might be urged if there be a necessity of offences then they are no faults nor punishable our Saviour seems to deny this consequence by telling us that though they be necessary yet they be voluntary in the scandalizers who are therefore culpable and punishable Woe unto him through whom they come Saint Hierome in his Commentary on Math. 18. conceives that in this speech our Saviour specially pointed at Iudas T is true that Christ doth pronounce a woe to Iudas Mat. 26. 24. But that these words in my Text should either aime at Iudas his particular fact or be restrained to his scandalous action agrees not with the words which speak of woe or evill redundant 〈…〉 to the world by offences not one offence and of scandalizing indefinitely any of those litle ones that believe in him Wherefore the meaning is Woe that is misery or evill shall befall him by whom the offence cometh who ever he be And the conclusion that it affords is this That misery belongs to him that is the cause of scandalls or as in S. Mathew in that paralel place Mat. 18. 7. Woe shall be to that man by whom the offence commeth To declare which truth we are distinctly to expresse 1. What scandalizers this woe belongs to 2. What the woe is which is pronoūced against thē 3. Why it is that they incur this woe In answer to the first we are to consider that that by which scandall comes is not a bare object but a person woe be to that man as it is in S. Mathew and that as an agent in causing scandall 2. That sometimes a mā may be a scandalizer in overthrowing himselfe As is manifest by that speech of our Saviour Mat. 18. 8. If thy hand or thy foot scandalize or offend thee cut them off That is as Interpreters conceive if thy lust or will cause thee to sin deny them For mens own carnall reason the lusts of their own hearts doe ofttimes cause them to fall or to goe away An instance is the example of the Psalmist Ps. 73. 2. Whose feet were almost gone his foot-steps had wellnigh slipt For he was envious at the foolish whē he saw the prosperity of the wicked His own understanding had in a sort tripped up his heeles or scandalized him And this sort of scandalizing may not unfitly be called internall or immanent and is so far from being excluded here that our Saviour by subjoyning to the words Mat. 18. 7. Woe to that man by whom the offence commeth presently in the 8. ver If thy hand scandalize thee cut it off which is meant of this inward scandall seemes to have plainely intended it And therefore S. Chrysostome in his Homily on Math. 18. 7 calls the scandals here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all hinderances of the right way whether from within or without And indeed a Woe doth undoubtedly belong to all such as by their own vaine imagination their own evill affections doe overthrow themselves when as S. Iames speaks a man is drawn away of his own lust and entised for as it followes then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Accordingly occasion might be taken hence to consider the waies of selfe-scandalizing which are in a manner infinite and to shew the woe consequent to them and to give directions to prevent this danger But this is besides my purpose in handling this text and an immense taske it must be to shew the deceites of every sinne its manner of working c. and therefore letting this thing passe only with this admonition that it behooves every Christian to be jealous of his own heart and to watch it narrowly lest it prove a Iudas to him and how deare so ever his lust or imagination be to him yet it must be cut off that it scandalize him not remembring the Counsell of our Saviour that it is better without them to enter into heaven then with them to be cast into hell fire 3. That sometimes and that most commonly scandalizing is a transeunt action and he is said to cause offence that harmes another by his action and this may be called externall or transeunt scandall And this is undoubtedly here meant for he speaks here of scandalizing one of these litle ones that believe in him and of such scandall as whereby a woe comes to the world that is to the societies rankes of men And this sort of Scandalizing is it which I intend to treat of 4. That of this sort of scandalizing diverse definitions are given There is this definition or description in Tertullian his book de velandis virginibus where he defines scandall Exemplum rei non bonae aedificans ad delictum an example of a thing not good building to sin which description though it doe not unfitly expresse what is the scandall which is by evill example yet doth it not sufficiently comprize all sorts of scandalizing another v. g. not the scandalizing by abuse of our liberty in things indifferent nor that which is by persecution That definition which the schoole-men as Aqu. 2 a. 2 ae q. 43. art 1. doe cōmōly follow taken from S. Hierome comment in Math. 15. is more fit to comprize all sorts of scandall to another Scandalum est dictum vel factum minùs rectum praebens alteri occasionem ruinae that is Scandall is a saying or deed lesse or not right occasioning ruine to another This definition is good enough saving that the terme of ruine being a metaphor and according to Aristotles rule in his Topicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All metaphors are obscure is unfit for a definition till explained wherefore it is needfull we should shew more plainly what is meant by ruine in this definition By ruine or falling is doubtlesse meant here not corporall ruine or falling of the body but spirituall ruine or the falling of the minde Now this spirituall ruine is primarily understood of falling into sinne whether it be greater as Apostacy from the faith heresy infidelity Idolatry or the like or lesser as by causing a slower progresse in Religion unchearfulnesse therein impediment to any other duty a Christian or an unbeliever should doe If any be asked whether any griefe or displicency of mind or anger which are the effects of Scandall as is before shewed may be called ruine of another according to this definition whereto I answer The griefe displicency or anger that ariseeth from another mans saying or deed is sometimes just and necessary when the words or deeds be manifestly evill such was the griefe of the Corinthians for the scandall of

lawfull after their owne wills though God be provoked or their brethren damnified Wherefore it concerns us all to take heed of scandall in the use of our liberty in things indifferent I meane of scandall both active and passive And therefore this admonition is to be conceived as pertaining both to them that use their liberty and them that may be offended with it 1. Those that are to use their liberty are to take heed that they marre not their good by evill-handling to wit by using it to destruction and not to edification of their brethren Our liberty is a great blessing of God it is no small benefit that we may have his creatures to use that he hath made us under himselfe Lords over the works of his hands And though he require obedience of us yet he hath given us a large scope in things after our owne wills enough to satisfy us if we have any reason we may eat this or that weare this or that dwell here or there and a thousand more such things are left to our owne choice But what then Shall we grow petulant and wanton Shall we be like an ungracious sonne who when his father hath put an estate in his hand followes his owne pleasure regarding neither parents nor brethren God forbid we should thus requite the Lord Nay rather it becomes us as wee have all our priviledges from God so to doe as a good child to a kinde father a generous Favorite to a munificent Prince even to lay all our gifts at the donours feet to devote them all to his honour that gave them freely to spend that for his service which he hath so frankly endowed us with It 's to bee remembred that we are not Proprietaries but Vsufructuaries of Gods creatures they are his goods still though put into our hands to occupy the earth is still the Lords and the fulnes thereof we may not say of it wee may doe with our owne as we list That wee ought to doe which the Apostle inferres hereupon Whether wee eat or drinke or whatsoever we doe doe all to the glory of God 1. Cor. 10. 31. Not forgetting our brethren but as it is added v. 32. giving none offence neither to the Iewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God or as we are admonished Gal. 5. 13. Though we are called to liberty yet not to use our liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love to serve one another It will be but a miserable advantage to vs to vse our liberty so as to spurn at Gods honour and to trample our brethrens good vnder our feete to obscure the lustre of Gods glory or to make gashes in our brothers conscience Shall a man because he is strong kicke the weake under his feet Shall a man use his owne happines no better but to make others miserable No no Brethren Mercy Iustice Charity our Calling Christs example all these and more then these should teach us better to seeke not our owne but one anothers wealth to use our owne good so as not to spoyle anothers peace We are to remember that as our Saviour said we should have the poore alwayes with us so it is true also that we shall have the weake in faith alwayes with us and therefore it will be a perpetuall duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 20. 35. to support not to supplant the weake To this end 1. get a tender and compassionate love of thy brother in thy heart thou art bound to love all men but thy christian brother chiefly Let the love of Christ to thee and him be thy patterne he would not breake a bruised Reed nor quench smoaking Flaxe Isai. 42. 3. He fed his flock like a sheepheard hee gathered the Lambes with his arme and carried them in his bosome and gently led those that were with young Isai. 40. 11. Oh get such a tender love that yee may be as the Apostle requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 10. Inclined to tender affectionate kindnesse one to another in brotherly love that thou maist communicate to them the warmth of thy bosome that they may have heate by thee and the kissing of thy mouth that they may have delight by thee and the strength of thy armes that they may have safety by thee not be exposed by thee to dangers much lesse bitten and devoured by thee you are not borne for your selves you have not your goods only to serve your owne turnes They are thy bone and thy flesh yea thy spirit too if a christian If there be any excellency in thee yet both are of the same kind If thou differest from him yet who made thee to differ from him Or what hast thou that thou hast not received Love him therefore and despise him not bee tender over him and not contemne him 2. Get much prudence also to know the condition inclination minde of thy brother Much charity may make us willing but there must be much prudence also to make us able to avoyde scandalizing There 's such variety of dispositions opinions and conditions of men that it is no small difficulty to avoyde scandalizing of some one or other Neverthelesse if we doe what lyes in us the Almighty will accept of the integrity of our hearts and not impute to us our defects of imprudence And here I could heartily wish that all christians especially those that are set apart for the ministery of the word would take heed of one evill to which in these times men are very prone I meane the teaching of many things to be evill whose abuse only is evill not the things themselves For what ever bee the cause whether it bee facility of sliding into extreames or unskilfullnesse to distinguish betweene the use and abuse of things indifferent or the debility that is in many to reason and to gather right consequences or the preoccupating of mens minds with erroneous principles or that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S t Basill calls it the immoderate drawing things to a contrary way as to think that to be most right which seemes most contrary to Popery prophanesse or the vitiousnesse of the times or the addictednesse that is in men to hold that which their affected teachers doe vent or studium partium a desire to promote some party or to have and to entertaine opinions peculiar to such a party as a Cognizance for them to be discerned by from others or an affectation of singular opinions I say what ever bee the cause the great Charter of christian liberty is too much inlarged by the licentious who make that indifferent which is evill or necessary to the confirming of themselves in sin and on the other side is too much straitned by others in making things evill which are not so expunging that out of this gracious Charter which God hath indulgently granted us therein Both which are contrary to Gods precepts which require us neither to cal good evill nor evill good Isai.

malefactors in the deepe of the sea with a milstone hanged about their necke Casaubon in his notes on Matthew 18. 6. proves by a passage or two which he cites out of Diodorus Siculus and Athenaeus that the Greekes used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drowning in the Sea as a punishment among them but he finds not that it was by tying a stone to their necke but rather by putting the malefactor into leade And it may seeme by a passage which he cites out of Polybius that it was rather reckoned among the easier then more grievous sorts of punishment Maldonate conceives it might bee that our Saviour in using this resemblance did allude unto the pride which hee here censures as he did Math 11. 23. when hee said And thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven shalt be brought down to hell What ever the allusion be Saint Hierome rightly notes that our Saviour meant hereby to let us understand that it were better for scandalizers to receive a short punishment here then eternall torments Or that though to be cast into the sea with a milstone about the necke be a certaine grievous irrecoverable destruction yet the woe of scandalizers is more certaine more grievous more irrecoverable And it is considerable that the Emphasis of our Saviours words in averring this seemes to intimate that He spake this with some vehemency as if he had said to this purpose though it bee that those that beleive in me are litle ones in their owne and others eyes yet I tell you it will be more tolerable for a man to bee thus dolefully cast into the sea then for him to incurre the punishment of offending these litle ones as little as they be yea though hee offend but one of these little ones Now from this speech of our Saviour wee may observe that those that beleive in Christ are litle ones which is true whether we compare them among themselves or with others for Magnum parvum are relatives as Aristotle observes in his Categories in the chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now compared among themselves they are some lesse then others Our Saviour Math 25 40. by saying In as much as yee have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren yee have done it unto mee Intimates that some of his brethren are lesse then others And indeed so it is 1 In respect of spirituall gifts and graces some are lesse then others Our Saviour in his charge to Peter concerning his pastorall office distinguisheth betweene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his little Lambes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his sheepe Ioh. 21. 15 16. and requires Peter to doe as it was foretold of himselfe Isay 40. 11. that he should feed his flocke like a shepheard that hee should gather the Lambes with his armes and carry them in his bosome and should gently leade those that are with young The Apostle distinguisheth between the strong in faith and the weak in faith Rom. 14. 1. and 15. 1. Thus it hath beene and it is still Some are Christians come to maturity others are in the blossome and bud some are novices Catechumeni yongling in Christ some are confirmed Christians strong men in Christ. Which thing happens First because of the sutablenesse of it to the condition of a body For as it is in the naturall body all members are not of equall growth so it is in the mysticall body of Christ it is fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectuall working in the measure of each part Ephes. 4. 16. There is a different measure of each part that there may be a meete Symmetry in the whole Secōdly Besides all members have not the same office And therefore Gods spirit gives not to all a like measure of knowledge and other gifts Rom. 12. 4 6. Thirdly Againe all parts have not a like meanes for growth not a like instruction and nurture not a like time for growth There is a different working in the severall parts and accordingly a different growth Ephes. 4. 16. Fourthly If all Christians were of equall strength Faith wisdome and other graces there would be a subtraction of the matter of sundry principall duties there would be no need one Christian should edifie one another beare with one another avoyd the offence of another give helpe to another restore one another c. Wheras God hath so tempered the parts of the mysticall body as well as the naturall that the members should have the same care one of another 1. Cor. 12. 25. 2. In power dignity authority wealth c. Both in the Church and in the world some believers in Christ exceed others Among many meane Christians some are noble in birth and dignity among many Christian subjects there are some soveraigne Kings and Princes that are Christians among many illiterate believers there are some learned believers In which thing God hath admirably ordered that as there should be some nobles some Princes some learned among his people that they may help defend his Church so there are not many nobles not many mighty not many wise after the flesh that the support and raising of his Church may appeare not to be by an arme of flesh not by might but by his spirit that no flesh should glory in his presence 1. Cor. 1. 26 29. If wee compare them with others they are but little I meane in dignity secular honour power strength among men Except a David or a Constantine and some other christian Kings how few of Gods people have injoyed any eminent degree of worldy glory the triumphant Cōquerors the mighty Monarchs of the world have been most of them Infidels The Almighty that intends a better inheritance for his Saints even a kingdome that cannot be shaken Heb. 12. 28. bestowes not on them the great Monarchies Dominions and dignities of this world which are meaner gifts And accordingly the world makes small account of beleivers as if they were but contemptible persons For the men of this world have eyes of flesh and fleshly minds they magnify and admire the world and the pompe thereof sumptuous palaces gorgeous attire great command great observance and attendance But the worth of spirituall excellencies the glorious priviledges and endowments of Gods sons they know not even as Christ was unknowne in the world so are his members 1. Iohn 3. 1 2. Lastly those that believe in Christ are little in their owne eyes that is humble which it's likely was chiefly here meant by our Saviour For to this Christ specially applyes the Embleme of a little child Math. 18. 4. And in this sense Saul is said to have been little in his own eyes 1. Sam. 15. 17. Thus certainly are all the Saints David was as great in the eye of others as any man in the world in his age yet he was not so great in the eyes of others but he was as small in his owne Who am