at last Crucified him between two Thieves by the common consent of all the People and destroyed the Son of God as if he had been the Son of Perdition And in all this bitter suffering no body afforded him the least pitty or compassion but the common People mocked him and said he saved others but cannnot save himself if thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross And this usage Christ complains of to his Father Psalm 22. 6. where he saith that He by his cries had no deliverance which yet Others who had trusted in God obtained but saith he I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the People All they that see me laugh me to scorn they shout out the lip they shake the head saying be trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he delight in him And Isaiah saith that by reason of this strange suffering of Christ many were astonished at him his visage was marr'd more then any mans and his face more then the sons of men and through this suffering of Christ all the World were so extreamly offended that Christ crucified was to the Iews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness And thus was and is the VVorld and Worldly Church offended at the true Christ whom the Scriptures hold forth Indeed the false Church have fancied to themselves such a Christ as flesh and blood can like of well enough a Christ fashioned after the mind and will and Wisdom and Prudence and Righteousness of man and such a Christ they extol and magnifie to wit for their own worldly advantage sake as the Papists have fancied the por Virgin his Mother who kept Iosephs house and provided his diet and layd her hands to the performance of his ordinary household affairs to be a gallant Lady and have clothed her in Silke and Sattin and rich attire and such a Mother of Christ they do highly esteem whereas the poor Virgin the true believer who lived in the plain and laborious imployment of a Family they would even scorn to regard such an one No more will the carnal Church regard or value the true Christ in his mean condition and marred Visage And thus much for their Offense at Christ himself 2. The World and Worldly Church are offended at Christs true 2. They are offended at his his true Word VVord Because Christ under the New Testament hath given forth a New VVord which is the VVord of the Gospel And this also they are offended at in many regards as 1. Because it is the word of Faith the word of Faith and not 1. Because it is the Word of faith of Sense the Word of Faith and not of VVorks For this VVord of Faith is wholly a Spiritual Word and hath nothing in it that is sutable to flesh and blood Nothing in it that pleaseth the Fancy or Reason or Understanding of man it hath nothing in it 2. Because it exalts Christ alone and God in Christ wherein a Natural or Carnal heart can take pleasure but is throughout a Word of Faith 2. They are offended at the New word of the New Testament because it exalts Christ alone and in him the Power of God and the Wisdom of God and the Righteousness of God and the Things of God and cries down all the Things of the World in which men trust and delight and all the common Religion and Righteousness of the World and makes Christ all in all and God in Christ and all other things nothing So Paul 1 Cor. 1. preached to them that did believe Christ the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God and nothing else 3. They are offended at this Word because it cannot be learned as humane Arts and Sciences can to wit by the teaching of man 3. Because it can only be learned by the Teaching of God together with their own pains and endeavors but only by the teaching of God and his Spirit as it is written They that is the true children of the Spiritual Church shall be all taught of God he therefore that hath heard and learned of my father cometh to me All my divinity said Luther consisteth in this that I believe that Christ only is the Lord touching whom the scriptures speak and neither my Grammer nor Hebrew tongue taught me this but it is the work of the holy spirit Now when God teacheth us his word Himself we have an other When God teacheth us his Word we know it otherwise then other men understanding of it then other men who hear and read the same outward words and yet want that inward Teaching For then have we the spiritual meaning of the Word and the very mind of Christ in it which others want that are not so taught And this offends the carnal Christians grievously that the spiritual Christians have another knowledge and understanding of the Word then they VVhereupon they thus break out what say they are you the only men who have the word of God and is all wisdom and knowledge comprehended in your brests and do you know more of the Mysterie of of Christ then the grave and learned men who have studied the Scriptures all their life and will you with your pretended teaching overthrow that Orthodox sense of the Scriptures that we have had so many yeers and thus they are greatly offended 4. They are offended at this word because it discovers the 4. Because it discovers the wickedness of the World and worldly Church wickedness of the world and worldly Church at a very high rate The world doth not seem the thousand part so wicked anywhere as it doth where the Gospel comes For where this cleer light of God shines and the word comes in any degree of truth and Power there not only the wickedness of the world appears out of measure wicked but also the Religion and Righteousness and Works and Duties of the carnal Christians are manifested to be gross hypocrisie and the deceivableness of unrighteousness and wholly contrary to Christ the righteousness of God and so nothing else but a more plausible way to Death and Hell Where the Word of Christ or the Gospel of God comes in power Many who seemed good are discovered to be very evil by the light of the Word there many who before seemed very Godly and Religious people and very good Christians and very quiet and peaceable men do presently become full of wrath and rage and cursed enmity against it and call it Error and Heresie and Blasphemy and so do no less then spit in the very face of the Truth and Gospel of Christ which he hath manifested above all his name And no man could ever have imagined they had been such children of the Devil before the word came And thus by the coming of the Word in the Spiritual Sense and Doctrine of it many that did once seem to be Christs Friends are manifested to be
sin also that is like to undo and ruine the Vniversity and to race it down to the very ground even your horrible The University admonished Envy Enmity and Opposition to the truth of the Gospel When Christs word or the Truth as it is in Iesus is hated opposed derided and scoffed at in your Colledges in your Schools in your Meetings yea sometimes in your Pulpits this sin will dash you in pieces that you shall find none to recover you This sin will engage against you the Son of the living God and when his wrath is kindled against you not a little but to the very utmost for so great wickedness shall then your * Certum est Aristotelem mortuum damnatum esse Doctorem hodie omnium Vniversitatum magis quà m Christum Luth. Respons ad Libr. Ambros Cathar Masters Plato Aristotle Pythagoras c. wretched Heathens who with all their wisdom knew not Christ but are dead and damned many hundred years ago be able to deliver you Or shall Thomas and Scotus and other Schoolmen with their cold vain and Antichristian Divinity help you Or shall the Secular Arm and worldly Power whom you have seduced for many Ages be able to shelter you in such an hour No certainly but if you continue in your bitter Emnity against the true and spiritual Word and Gospel of Christ Christ lives and reignes to bring you down wonderfully and to make your Name a shame and a Curse to the whole true Church of God And this poor contemptible Doctrine of the Gospel which you hear to day and it may be most of you despise and esteem of no more then a straw for strength this very Word shall prevail against you and triumph over you And the poor People of God that small handfull of believers that are amongst you whom you despise in your hearts and reckon but as the filth and off-scouring of the place even they shall see your downfall and shall say Thou art righteous O Lord who hast judged thus and shall say again Even so Lord God almighty true and righteous are thy Iudgements And this now have I spoken in faithfulness to Iesus Christ and The Conclusion to the University in faithfulness to his true Church and in faithfulness also to the Vniversity that they might hear and avoid that Ruine with will otherwise inevitably befall them for their offence at Christ and his Gospel And now let them that can receive it receive it and let them that cannot deride and reject it But whether you receive it or whether you reject it sure I am I have spoken the Truth which God himself in his due time will witness to and so much also for this Point The fourth Point is 4. Generall The blessedness of them that-are not offended at Christ according The Blessedness of those who are not offended to Christs word here Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me Now those very few that are not offended at Christ and his things when the whole World and worldly Church are offended their Blessedness appears in many particulars 1. As first in that its evident that they all are taught of God 1. Such are taught of God and have heard and learned from the Father himself touching the Son And they that see Christ by the Revelation of the Father are not at all offended at him when all other men are For such do clearly see Christs Power in his weakness his Glory in his Reproach his Exaltation in his Abasement his Divine nature in his Humane they see his Sufferings were for our sins his stripes to heal Us his Death to deliver us from death and all this they know not only by the Letter of the Word but also by the Revelation of the Father in their hearts and so they cannot be offended at Christ who see him thus Wherefore when the World and worldly Church had many several Opinions of Christ and Peter notwithstanding acknowledged him to be the Son of the living God Christ replied blessed art thou Simon for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee but my Father which is in Heaven and this is thy blessedness that thou knowest me by the Revelation of the Father and so knowest me aright and art not offended He then that is not offended at Christ when all other men are hath for certain the Fathers Teaching and sees Christ far otherwise then the World and worldly Church do He sees Christ in all his Mysterie and in all his Glory and when we see him thus we value him never the worse for the form of a Servant nor for all his reproaches and sufferings from the World but we rather behold these things with the greater wonder and comfort seeing for our sakes he humbled himself from the form of God to the form of a servant and in that form to the death of the Cross 2. They are blessed because through this Revelation of the Father they have true Faith in Christ wrought in them For true 2. Through this Revelation have true Faith Faith in Christ doth necessarily follow the Fathers Revelation and when God teaches us Christ we must needs believe in him and through this Faith we know him by Experience and he that knows Christ through the Experience of Faith finds and feels Christ to be all that to him which the Scripture speaks of him He through this faith feels Christ to be made unto him of God VVisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and all things and Christ being through Faith made all that to him which he is in Himself it is not possible he should be offended at him Farther through this Experience of Faith Christ becomes precious to him as Peter saith 1 Pet. 2. 7. to you who believe he is precious That very Christ which to others is a Stone of stumbling and a rock of offence is precious to them who have Faith and know him by Experience So precious that they esteem all the greatest and most excellent things in the world but dross and dung in comparison of Him and such believers have chosen to part with their Liberty their Estates their Relations and their own Lives all which are precious things in themselves rather then they would part with this infinitely more precious Christ 3. They are blessed in that through this faith they have establishment as Christ saith on this rock I will build my Church And he 3. Through this faith have establishment that hath Christ for his only Foundation is never offended at him what ever scandals the World and the Devil raise up against him But he that hath another Foundation then Christ to wit either his own works and Righteousness or the World and the Things of the World when scandals come they are presently offended and their offence against Christ declares they are not built on him But they whom nothing can offend they are surely built and established on Christ and in
this they are blessed 4. They who have received the Revelation of the Father and 4. Through this establishment are free from perishing through this Revelation true Faith and through this true Faith firm Establishment are farther Blessed in that all such are past perishing For he that cleaves so inseparably to Christ that nothing can offend him and is so firmly built on Christ that nothing can remove him It is impossible for him to perish by any thing Wherefore it is said behold I lay in Sion a chief corner stone Elect and precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded And Mat. 16. saith Christ On this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail 5. And last of all They that have escaped the Offence of Christ are sure of Salvation For such do truly partake of all that infinite 5. Are sure of Salvation and everlasting advantage that is by Christ they partake of his own Righteousness and Wisdom and Truth and Power and Nature and Life and Word and Spirit and of all his fulness and thus they have true possession of the beginnings of eternal life as John saith These things have I written to you that believe that you may know ye have eternal life abiding in you 1 Joh. 5. 13. and Christ saith I give unto my sheep eternal life that very life which was in the Father and was communicated to Christ and manifested in his humane Nature And in all these Regards are they blessed that are not offended at Christ as Christ affirms blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me And so now I proceed to some Uses 5. General The Vses 5. The Vses 1. To warn all of all men sorts that they take special care that they 1. To admonish men to take heed that themselves be not offended at Christ be not offended at Christ and the things of Christ You have heard that the World and the wisest and greatest of the world and that the worldly Church and the holiest and most religious in that are offended at Christ And you have heard also how great an evil it is to be offended and how great a blessedness it is not to be offended Wherefore I do advise you from the Word to take care that you be not found amongst them who are offended at Christ Objection But you will be ready to say We hope we are not offended at Christ but we do love honor and embrace both Christ and the things of Christ Answer To this I answer That many do usually say they are not offended Many are offended at Christ who say they are not offended 1. They that are offended at the Word are offended at Christ at Christ and it may be some may think so too who yet indeed and before the Lord are grievously offended at Him as may thus appears For. 1. First He that is offended at the true Word of Christ is offended at Christ himself For Christ is the Word the Gospel Word the Word that was with God and was God and came into the flesh and that spake and did and suffered and overcame all in that flesh and Christ said it was expedient for the Church that he should withdraw his flesh or bodily presence and only continue that presence of his with them which is by the living Word of God through the Gospel And this is that Jesus Christ who is present with believers to the end of the World And so he that is offended at the true spiritual Word held forth by the confession of Faith is offended at Christ himself who is present in that Word Wherefore saith Peter 1 Pet. 2. 8. He is a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to them that Stumble 〈◊〉 the Word The most people adore the outward name of Christ but yet cannot endure the true Word of Christ Now all that are offended at the true spiritual Word of Christ and right Doctrine of the Gospel are offended at Christ himself and stumble at that stumbling Stone And thus multitudes are offended at Christ who do think themselves very free from this sin 2. They that are offended at true Believers are offended at Christ 2. And they who are offended at true Believers himself For they are in the World as He was and Walk as He did Walk And they are one flesh and Spirit with him They are his Members They are Himself And whosoever is offended at Them is offended at Him For Christ is the self same both in Himself the Head and in Believers his Members And These are the Children of God together with Him the first born and These are comprehended in the same Love chosen with the same Choice called with the same Calling Sanctified with the same Holiness Kept by the same Power and Glorified with the same Glory These partake of the same Divine Nature and have the same Word and Spirit dwelling in them in the same Righteousness Wisdom Grace and Truth and there is no difference between Christ and them but what is between the Head and the Members the first-born and his Brethren And so they that are offended at These would as certainly and necessarily be offended at Christ himself if He had lived in their time or if They had lived in his time It is manifest then that They who are offended at the Word of Christ and at the Works of Christ at the Nature and Life of Christ in Believers would have been offended at them in Christ Himself Yea they who are offended at Christ in Believers would much more have been offended at Christ in Himself because what is in a Christian but in part was fully in Christ And what is in a Christian in a small measure was in Christ without measure and there was in Christ a far more glorious presence and manifestation of God then in any Christian and proportionably would they have been offended at Him in Himself who are truly offended at Him in his Members 3. They who are offended at the Sufferings which come on 3. And they who are offended at the sufferings of Christians Christians for Christs sake are offended at Christ Himself because they suffer not on their own account but on Christs and the Cross they take up and bear is His and not their own If They would live as other men in the common Religion of the Nation and make use of the form of Godliness without the Power and comply with that Doctrine and Discipline which the Clergy shall allow for Orthodox and the Magistrate accordingly approve and confirm then might they live as quietly and prosperously as other men but because they cleave only to Christ and take Him for their only Master in the things of God and do receive his Word in Faith and then hold it forth to others therefore the World hates them as Christ said I have given them thy Word and the world hath hated them because they are not
THE Stumbling-Stone OR A Discourse touching that offence which the World and Worldly Church do take against 1. Christ Himself 2. His true Word 3. His true Worship 4. His true Church 5. His true Government 6. His true Ministry Wherein the UNIVERSITY is reproved by the WORD of GOD. Delivered partly to the University-Congregation in Cambridge partly to another in the same Town Together with A brief touch in the Epistle for the present on the late quarrelsom weak and erroneous Animadversions of one Mr. Chambers called Doctor in Divinity and Pastor of Pewsy in Wiltshire By William Dell Minister of the Gospel and Master of Gonvil and Caius Colledge in Cambridge Mihi plane omnium jucundissima facies ista in rebus est videre ob verbum Dei studia dissentiones fieri is enim est Verbi Dei cursus casus eventus nam dicit non veni pacem mittere sed gladium Luther LONDON Printed by R. W. for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the Black-spread Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1653. To the Reader HEre I present thee with this Discourse which met with such notable Opposition and Contradiction from the Vniversity of Cambridge to whom it was delivered and also from such of the Town then present who are baptized into the University spirit And yet every point of this Doctrine will appear to spiritual men to be the Word and Truth of God and if need shall require I can yet more fully prove it to be so by the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles and by the Doctrine of Christ himself the Head of both and that against not only One but All Universities and also against the Gates of Hell and Powers of darkness And by this gross Opposition against the plain Gospel thou maist judge and discern that this Vniversity which hath beeen counted one of the Eyes of the Nation SEEING SEES NOT and which hath been counted a Fountain of Knowledge and good Learning HEARING HEARS NOT NEITHER UNDERSTANDS Whereby we may conceive that gray Haâ—rs are upon it and that the time of its departure is near except it REPENT I had thought also at this time to have given a farther Testimony for Jesus against the Mysterie of iniquity which hath hitherto prevailed in the Ecclesiastical State and in the Vniversities the Head and Heart of it but that this work under my hands multiplied into too great a Proportion for an Epistle And also because I intend to add threunto my Testimony against that Mysterie of Iniquity which hath hitherto also prevailed in the civilState Antichrist having with his deceivableness of unrighteousness seduced and deluded both ever since the Reign of Constantine And this twofold Testimonie through Grace given and hoped to be given I intend very shortly to publish For I Judge it most necessary for the true Church to be acquainted herewith especially after so many of the Seals have been opened and also seeing the time of the Restitution of all things makes haste upon us and we hope is even at the doors Wherefore we continually intreat that the Arm of the Lord would awaken and put on strength not only as in Ancient times and in the days of old but more also to wit as his Spirit by his Prophets hath foretold he will do in the last time when he will reveal his Arm for Christ and his seed in his greatest Might and Glory And let the Remembrancers of the Lord not keep silence till the cursed Kingdom of Antichrist with all its Religion Works Duties Doctrines counterfeit Law and Gospel false Clergy false Church false Power and Jurisdiction or Discipline false Ordinances and false all things be utterly overcome with the Spirit of Christs mouth and the Brightness of his coming And till the true spiritual Church that through Faith Hope and Love lives out of this World and the Elements thereof in the Kingdom of Gods dear Son be made an Eternal Excellency and the Ioy of Generations and till they who have afflicted it and domineered over it be made to come humbly bending to it and to lick the dust of its feet as the Lord hath promised Farther I thought good at this time to advertise thee of the Animadversions of Mr. Humfry Chambers called Doctor in Divinity and Pastor of Pewsy in the County of Wilts on a discourse published by me entituled The Crucified and quickned Christian In which Animadversions as he calls them after Mr. Christopher Loves Example who was one of his Forerunners in this opposition to the Truth he hath Doctor-like contradicted the manifest Truth and the very Substance Marrow and Mysterie of the Gospel which being made void which yet is impossible as to the true Church there would be neither true Righteousness nor Life nor Redemption nor Salvation nor the true Christ nor the true God in Christ left remaining to Believers All which I make account in due time to make appear by the Scriptures for I allow no Doctrine that is not according Christ is the only Law-giver and the Spirit is the only Law Interpreter to the Doctrine of Christ and the writings of his Apostles and Prophets which are a most sure and infallible word if they be understood according to Christs mind and not according to Mans. Now when I read those Animadversions I found them very Captious Slight Weak and grosly erroneous and somewhat like the Animadversions of the Sorbonists on some of Luthers writings And this hath not been my Judgement only but also it hath been represented to me from godly and understanding Christians that this great undertaking of this Doctor is judged such by them that it deserves no more Refutation his Animadversions compared only with the Discourse it self being sufficiently for ever already confuted by it And truly I cannot but bless God who hath given his Truth so weak an Enemy and Error and Darkness so weak a Patron But by this the true Church may judge also what a sad Ministry these poor Nations have received from Antichrists Ordination when the chief Doctors the very Scribes and Pharisees among the Clergy do not know the very first Principles of the Gospel in any spiritual light or by any Teaching from God but all their cold faint and uncertain Doctrine they scrape from Fathers and Schoolmen and from other Ordinary Systemes of Divinity without any presence of Faith or anointing of the Spirit whereby all their Doctrine becomes carnal and corrupt and contrary to Christs mind and agreeable to Antichrists So that I cannot choose but conclude with John Hus THAT ALL THE CLERGY MUST BE QUITE TAKEN AVVAY ERE THE Ioan. Hus libr. de vita Reg. Antichrist cap. 37. CHURCH OF CHRIST CAN HAVE ANY TRUE REFORMATION Another thing hath happened in this matter which makes me wonder and that is that those few Shreds of weakness and Error published by Mr. Chambers should be so honourably licensed by so famous a Divine as the present Vicechancellor of
his utter Enemies And this also was foretold by Simeon Luke 2. Where he saith that by the coming of Christ in his word the thoughts of many hearts shall be revealed and then that unbelief and enmity against Christ that before lay hid is discovered and brought forth by the Preaching of the Word as we have seen heretofore and still see by daily experience And for this cause also they are offended 5. They are offended at the true Word because everywhere so 5. Because so few entertain it few entertain it and embrace it As when Christ himself preached there were very few in all Iudea and Ierusalem that entertained his Doctrine and though sometimes many thronged to hear him yet at another time they were so offended at his Doctrine that they all forsook him so that Christ said to the twelve Iohn 6. Will ye also go away Now this makes many to be offended at the true Word that when it comes to any town or people the far greater part should reject it and speak evil of it and they for the most part the greatest wisest and learnedst men and that only a few poor and contemptible people should receive it this also exceedingly offends 6. And lastly They are offended because the true Word of Christ 6. Because it occasions troubles where it comes in any evidence and demonstration of the Spirit brings Troubles Tumults Stirs and Vproars in the VVorld ac to that of Christ Mat. 10. 34. I came not to send peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law For the true word of Christ is such a sword as cuts in sunder all Natural and Civil relations and takes away the peace of any place where it comes in power Christ saith also Luke 12. 49. I am come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled This fire that Christ sends is the word in the ministration of the spirit of which the Lord saith by the Prophet is not my word as fire and this word comes to burn up all the corrupt Manners Fashions Customes Yea all the lusts and sins of the world and all the Antichristian Doctrine and formes of worship in the outward Church And when this fire begins to burn anywhere presently all the people are in an uproar and lay all their heads and use all their hands together to quench it So that where-ever the true word comes the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing the Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take councel together against it and say Let us break these bonds in sunder and cast away these cords from us which no flâ—sh and blood especially the Rich Wise Learned Honourable would endure to be bound in Now this exceedingly offends For say they before this kind of word came in all things were better and more quiet Under Episcopacy The world say before the Gospel came all things were quiet all things were wel and in good order But since this new Doctrine came in all things are full of trouble mischief wars and death and therefore they reckon this word the cause of all the evils we have and do endure But yet the cause of all these tumults are not truly in the word The word is not properly the cause of these Tumults but by accident but in the world and in the Devil Christ he will have his Christians to publish his word and thereby to gather together his elect unto him now the World and the Devil the Prince of it will not suffer this to be done quietly and hence arise all tumults The Devil who hath the first possession of the world would have all things quiet that he might keep his possession but Christ will not suffer it to be so but he will have all those whom his Father hath given him out of the Devils possession by the might and efficacy of his word but the Devil will not endure that this should be done quietly but stirs us all the World against the word And so where ever the word comes in truth there are alwayes troubles and uproares but where the word is preached and the world is quiet that for certain is not the true word of God Wherefore the dull and drousie Divinity of Synods and Schools The ordinary Divinity of the Schools is none of Christs Word cannot be the true word of Christ for that meets with no opposition and contradiction at all from the World or worldly Church it meets with no enemies and avengers amongst them but it is rather praised and embraced and honoured with degrees and Scarlet and the Professors and Publishers of it are in credit with men and worldly Powers and receive from them riches honour and quiet life whereas the true Doctrine of Christ can never be published without the offence of the world And thus much for their offence at the true word of Christ 3. They are offended at his true Worship 3. At his true Worship For Christ under the New-Testament hath instituted a New-Worship and this the World and worldly Church are also greatly offended at Because this Worship is wholly spiritual and hath nothing carnal Because it is Spiritual De instituendo cultu notanda est haec regula Sine Spiritu Sancto non est suscipienda ulla ratio aut modus colendi Dei Luther in c. 35. Gen. Cultus Dei principaliter vere consistit non in externis operibus sed in fide spe dilectione Dei. Luth. in cap. 25. Gen. in it but consists altogether of Grace and truth according to that of Christ Ioh. 4. 23. The hour cometh saith He and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth and there is no worship in truth but that which is in Spirit And Paul saith of true believers Phil. 3. 2. we are the Circumcision who worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh Now this spiritual VVorship stands in Faith Hope and Love whereby our old nature is mortified and we bring forth spiritual fruit unto God and to our brother And this Worship of the New-Testament being wholly spiritual is free from Time Place and Person as all spiritual things are and so at all times and in all places alike this worship may be performed by all persons alike who are true believers And so accordingly do all true believers at all times and in all places alike believe in God and trust in him and fear him and love him and delight in him and speak good of his name and also do good to their brother in Instructing Teaching Exhorting Comforting him and Helping him as freely as Christ hath
there is no Town or City under the whole Kingdom of Antichrist which hath not such Doctors and Masters as are Created in the Vniversities For the whole world saith he is of this Opinion that the Vniversities are the fountains whence they should flow who ought to teach the People Now this saith he is a most horrible and abominable error so that nothing hath proceeded in all the world out of any thing so much to be opposed as out of Vniversities wherefore saith he Peter saith that all these are false Masters and false Doctors Thus Luther Now if any say This Doctrine being commonly taught and received will throw down the Vniversities I answer If thâ— Vniversities will stand upon an Humane and Answer Civil account as Schools of good Learning for the instructing and educating Youth in the knowledge of the Tongues and of the liberal Arts and and Sciences thereby to make them usefull and serviceable to the Commonwealth if they will stand upon this account which is the surest and safest Account they can stand on and will be content to shake hands with their Ecclesiastical and Antichristian Interest then let them stand during the good Pleasure of God but if they will still exalt themselves above themselves and place themselves on Christs very Throne as if they had ascended up on high to lead captivity captive and to give gifts to men for the work of the Ministry and so will presume to darken the Glory of Jesus Christ and his true Ministry which He sends forth as his Father sent Him then let them in the Name of Christ descend into that darkness out of which they first sprang that the Glory of Christ may fill the World And thus have I declared how the World and worldly Church are offended at Christ and his Word and Worship and Church and Government and Ministry and so consequently at all his things And now I proceed to the third General I propounded to wit to shew 3. Point How great an evil it is to be thus offended at Christ and his Things The third General To be offended at Christ 1. It s a sign men are ignorant of Christ And this appears in many particulars 1. One Evil is That to be offended at Christ and his Things is a certain Evidence that men are wholly Ignorant of Christ and of God though they be called Christians and have the Name of God alwayes in their mouths For if men knew Christ aright and God in Christ it were impossible they should be offended at Him and inasmuch as they are offended it is certain they do not know Him by any revelation from the Father Wherefore Christ tells his Disciples Joh. 16. 3. that the chief ground of that offence which the World and worldly Church should take against them who are his true Members and have received the same Word and Spirit with him through true faith is because they have not known the Father nor Him For he that knows Christ in Christians is not offended at them and he that knows God in Christ is not offended at Him But they that are offended at Christians know not Christ and they that are offended at Christ know not God 2. When men are offended at Christ and his things it is a sign 2. That they are Unbelievers they are real Vnbelievers what ever forms of Godliness they may live under and though it may be they have been old Professors for Peter saith Christ is precious to them that believe wherefore they that are offended are destitute of Faith 3. They that are offended at Christ lose all that spiritual and eternal advantage that comes by Christ to true believers and so 3. They loose all advantage by Christ fall short of the Love of God in Christ of Reconciliation with God in Christ of the Righteousness Wisdom and Power and of all the fulness of God in Christ of eternal Redemption from the Law Sin Death and Hell by Christ and of all that great Salvation that is in and by Him And Jesus Christ is wholly in vain to them 4. When men are fully and irreconcileably offended at Christ 4. Are manifest Reprobates and his things it is a Sign they are of the wicked one of the seed of the Serpent and very Reprobates as Christ told such offended Iews Ye are of your Father the Devil and my sheep hear my voice but you hear it not but are offended and therefore you are none of my sheep that is none of the Elect And again saith Christ all that my Father giveth me shall come to me Wherefore they that come not to Christ but are offended at him are not given to him of God and consequently are Reprobates 5. They that are offended at Christ are utterly ruined through 5. Are utterly ruined such offence Wherefore Christ is called a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to them that are disobedient and stumble at the Word And he is said to be set for the fall and ruine of many in Israel and Mat. 21. 44. Christ saith Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whosoever it shall fall it shall grinde him to pouder For whoever stumbles or dashes against this Stone dashes against God himself in the nature of Man He dashes against the Councel and Decree of God against the Wisdom and Vnderstanding of God against the Love Mercy Righteousness Truth and Power of God against the eternal Word and Spirit of God and no man perishes like that man For he incurrs all that Wrath Vengeance Destruction Damnation which the Lord God himself in all his infinite VVisdom Knowledge Righteousness Justice and Power can inflict on him to all eternity and so he is indeed ground to pouder Yea farther that man that stumbles against Christ is not only Ruined without remedy ruined by such offence but ruined without all means or hope of Recovery They that are broken against Him and by Him are broken in pieces like a potters vessel which can never be made up again They that fall against Him never rise again they that are ruined by him are never repaired again If a man were dashed in pieces by Moses he might be repaired again by Christ but he that is destroyed by the Saviour by whom shall he be saved He that was condemned by the Justice of God for Sin might recover again by the Love and Mercy of God in Christ But he that is destroyed by the Love and Mercy of God is past all Hope and Remedy Wherefore I intreat you to consider this thing with all your hearts For nothing makes such ruines in the world as this Sin Mens being offended against Christ and his Gospel This is the sin that ruined Ierusalem of old and Germany of late and if any thing undo this Commonwealth this will undo it the offence that is taken by mean men and by men in Place and Authority against Christ and his Gospel And this is the
Christ through our abiding in him so they shall as certainly perish and be ruined through His abiding in Us and their dashing against Him in Us. 2. To carry our selves aright in the midst of offences let us be sure that the Word we believe and hold forth is Christs Word 2. To be sure the Word we confess is the true Word of God and then we may be very confident that this truth and cause shall and must remain how many Adversaries soever it may have and though the World and Devil may rage against it yet as hath been said they shall never be able to overthrow it much less to root it out A true Christian must be able to say I know the Word which I believe and profess is the only Word of the Lord God and his everlasting and unchangeable truth and the last manifestation of his will by his own Son and what ever Word agreeth not herewith is false and of the Devil and Antichrist and therefore by this Word will I stay though all the VVorld be against me And when we are thus certain of the Word of God through Faith and the Spirit it comforts the heart and makes it glad and settles it in inward Peace and Rest in the midst of all outward Oppositions and Troubles as through Gods goodness we have found by Experience For when we know that the VVord which we have received and profess is the very Doctrine of the Son of God then also we know that it shall prevail against all Kingdoms Common-wealths States Governments Societies Universities against all Laws Orders Decrees Acts and against all sorts and degrees of worldly and Ecclesiastical Powers which are contrary thereunto and shal in the time appointed by God utterly consume them and bring them to nothing And by these Means to wit by abiding in Christ and being all in Him And by being sure that the Word we believe and profess is His Word we may live safely in the midst of all offences without the least prejudice Vse 4 4. Lastly I shall speak a few words to those in this Vniversity and Town who are offended at Christ and his Gospel and also a few words to those who through the Grace of God have escaped this offence and so shall conclude this matter And first for you who are offended at Christ and his VVord 1. A Word to them who are offended which we must needs say is come amongst you in Truth and in plainness and are angry at it and storm at it and reproach it and think and contrive how to resist it and to hinder the free course and passage of it in this place because it is not only contrary to the Philosophical Divinity of the Schools and Vniversity and the common carnal Religion of the Nation but doth also reprove and condemn them and will have the haughtiness of men bowed down and the pride of men laid low and the Lord Iesus Christ and his things only exalted and that here where the VVit and VVisdom and Parts and Learning and Accomplishments of men have ruffled it and reigned hitherto I say you that are thus offended for this cause are offended at Christ himself and at God in Christ and you do stumble at the stumbling Stone and shall so fall thereby as to be broken in pieces Yea this Stone it self shall fall upon you and shall grinde you to pouder and you shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power and this destruction shall be poured on you with the greatest severity and wrath that God himself can inflict in all his Infiniteness and Eternity For if as the Penman of the Epistle to the Hebrews saith the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every trangression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward what escaping can there be for them who neglect that great salvation which was published at first by the Lord Christ and after confirmed by the first believers and witnessed to by Signs and Miracles and gifts of the Spirit by God himself Heb. 2. 2 3. and if as the same Believer saith he that despised Moses Law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment shall he be guilty who treads underfoot the Son of God c. And assuredly it had been much better for you that you had lived among the Heathen and Pagans where the Gospel of God our Saviour had never been heard then to hear this joyful sound which manifests the Love of God and brings along with it Remission of sins and the gift of the Spirit through faith in Christ and to be offended at it and so to be destroyed by the word of salvation and to be immediately punished with eternal death by him who is the true God and eternal life And this is the heavy burden which the VVord of the Lord hath laid on your shoulders and you cannot remove it 2. And then for you true Believers you little flock you few chosen out of the many called who hear the VVord of Christ and 2. A Word to them who are not offended are not offended at it though you hear it everywhere and that with both ears in this Vniversity and Town Contradicted Misreported Reproached Scandalized and called Error Heresie New Light Faction Schism Sedition and hear all manner of evil spoken against it falsly not only by the rude and ignorant People but also by the Scribes and Pharisees and Hypocrites of this place and yet for all these offences you are not offended at it but own it and love it and imbrace it notwithstanding all the extream disadvantages it hath from this Place which is counted by carnal people the very fountain of Religion and the Ministry knowing by Gods own teaching that it is the VVord of Righteousness and Life and the Truth as it is in Iesus though contrary to the sense of the Vniversity and Schools who have generally their teaching from man To all such I say by the word of the Lord blessed are ye of the blessed of the Lord for you are all taught of God touching Christ and have heard and learned the Son from the Father and through this teaching you have true faith in Christ and so know him by experience whereupon Christ is most precious to you and through this faith you are established on Christ so that nothing from Earth or Hell can remove you And being so established through Vnion with Christ you can no more perish then Christ can perish and you shall as ceâ—tainly be saved as Christ is saved This is your blessedness from the Lord and the World and the Devil shall never be able to make it void And therefore go and eat your bread with cheerfulness and lie down and rise and live in safety under the shadow of the Almighty though in this World and in this Place you dwell among Bears and Lyons and have your conversation in the midst of Scorpions for Christ himself hath blessed you in himself and you shall be blessed for ever Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me FINIS