[i. e., the Reformation.]
war brings with it. Hence it comes that night is unto us instead of vision, that is, that we embrace darkness instead of light. Are we not all blinded to the clear light of truth? And do we not pretend not to see what we really do see? But through whose wiles does this come about? Those of the false prophets, who prophesy for money. Hence it soon follows that the princes also give judgment for bribes. Since, therefore, magistrates ought to strain every nerve to rule rightly, conducting themselves as fathers rather than as masters, and since we yet see them so given over to pleasure and rioting that we can have no hope of our condition being bettered through them, we must supplicate the one and only one who has numbered the hairs of our heads [cf. Mt. 10: 30] to enlighten their minds, made insolent by worldly prosperity, so that they may know God and themselves, and we thereby be able peacefully to abandon this anti-Christian condition due to the Pope. For no other effort is necessary in this matter than abandoning. If we all abandon him, or, even less, if we simply hide our purses so that they cannot discover them, it will be all up with him. Let us pray, I say, that we may all abandon him and follow the banners of God alone, the Lord of all, the Father and Salvation of all. Amen.
[28]. Offence
The Greek word for “offence” [σκάνδαλον, scandal] means not only offence but also insulting treatment, if we are to believe Chrysostom on these words in Matth. 18: 6: “If any one shall offend [scandalizaverit] one of these little ones,” ete. For he takes σκανδαλίζειν for “treat with insult or contempt,” doubtless because whoever is treated with contempt or insult is also offended; and, again, whoever inconsiderately offends is treating with contempt. In explaining σκανδαλίζειν 88 “to treat with contempt” as well as “to offend,” Chrysostom, in my
[Chrysostom’s comment on these words of Christ is: For, as those who]
[honor these little ones for my sake will gain heaven,… so those who]
[dishonor them (for that is to offend them) will suffer the extreme pun-]
[ishment. And if He calls the insult an “offence,” do not marvel; for many]
[spiritless persons have been very much offended (scandalized) from being]
[slighted and treated with contempt.—Homilies on the Gospel according to]
[St. Matthew, Homily 58: 4.]
opinion, shows that he had carefully considered its meaning here. For God wishes His own not to be treated with contempt as well as not to be offended, and He just as little wishes them to be offended as to be treated with contempt. “Offence” [scandalum], therefore, is offence combined with contempt.
I am compelled to speak about this in the last part of this work for the reason that the subject of the book demands it, as well as because certain persons are wrong in regard to both aspects of offence; some, for instance, always wanting special consideration, even when it is impossible for them to receive further offence, since nothing is done to throw contempt upon them; whereas others, as soon as they have beheld the face of liberty, disregarding altogether the question of offence, instead of putting aside things which should be promptly put aside, rudely cast them off with such violent indignation that the noise thereof offends the weak ears of conscientious brethren.
The subject of my book, I say, demands that I speak about offence.
This is because there has been error hitherto not only in teaching (though there it has been most pernicious), but also in ceremonies (and there also it has not been of trifling character, since we have embraced the external elements of this world as things spiritual, vain and empty things as things real and solid). I will speak first of all, therefore, about offence arising from teaching—namely, to what extent we should forbear to teach. We should not forbear to teach. For as soon as you are sent forth, you ought to spread teaching abroad, and not to “confer with flesh and blood,” Gal. 1: 16. Yet in teaching there should be special regard to timeliness, as I said above in introducing the discussion of the Eucharist. For Christ praises that, and Paul, I Cor. 3: 2, boasts that in the beginning he fed the Corinthians with milk. Therefore, no one can begin better or more securely than by following the example of John and Christ and the Apostles, thus: “Ye are very evil, ye have turned aside from the way of God thus and so. Therefore, unless ye change your lives, cruel vengeance hangs over you. God is just, and He will not spare to strike when He has once laid the axe to the root of the tree [cf. Mt. 3: 10]. Repent, therefore, of your sins, and loathe them, and ye will straight-
320 The Works of Huldreich Zwingli way find Him a gentle father whom, unless ye mend your ways, ye will discover to be a stern avenger. He is just, but He is also kind, and loveth His own work; and to show His kindness to us He gave His only begotten Son, that through Him we may have life. Thus life will be your portion. I have warned you to cease to be evil and to become good. Since this will throw you into fresh despair—for who was ever so blameless or righteous that he could venture to trust to his own righteousness?—in order that ye may not wholly perish in this despair, I will show who has appeased the divine justice for us, that ye may not be forced to dread it as inexorable: Christ by His own blamelessness has cleansed away the sins of all. If thou trust in Him, thou shalt be saved, but so that thou put off the old man and put on Christ [cf. Col. 3: 9-10], as I have said often and at length already.” When you have well taught the knowledge of God, man, and Christ, and the Lord has given the increase [cf. I Cor. 3:6-7] (which you will easily judge from its fruits), all the abominations and errors that had risen up against God and been received as the true worship of God will fall away. For when everyone has once been taught that he is a Christian who lives blamelessly and trusts in the blameless one, namely, Christ, whom taking up His cross he follows, he will disregard those fallacious hopes which certain persons have told us to place in sacraments, ceremonies, and created things, and will see that all his hopes are placed in God. Therefore they do unwisely who begin by proclaiming very hard and quite paradoxical things, though these seem mild enough to people who have already made some progress. I will give an illustration. If you make Christianity begin, as was mistakenly done for several centuries, with giving up hope in the saints, you will nullify rather than implant your teaching, even though your soul does strongly urge you to such utterance as, “Ye err in worshipping as gods them that are not gods. Cast all your hopes upon the Lord, not upon a creature. They are impious who put the creature in place of the Creator. Those who invoke the creature put it in the place of God. For to every one God is that through which he trusts that he will be delivered from that which oppresses him or be given that of which he has need.” Since,
therefore, the matter must be begun in such a way that we may bring the most fruit to the Lord, we will never begin with these things that spoil the whole case, but we will set forth faithfully and wisely certain things which are especially necessary, such as the knowledge of God, of man, of the gospel, and will hold back certain things till the favorable occasion.
So much briefly as to looking out for offence in teaching. For Christ says [Lk. 12: 8-9]: “He that shall confess me before men, him will I confess before the angels of God; but he that shall deny me before men, him will I deny before the angels of God.” The things, therefore, on which faith hinges should be brought out without delay; but the things that militate against it need to be demolished with skill, lest they do harm in their downfall and bury the little that has been already built up. You can easily persuade an old man to leave his chair if you first put into his hand a staff upon which he can lean, when otherwise he will never listen to you but rather believe that you are trying to entrap him into falling upon the pavement and breaking his head. So the human mind must above all be led to infallible knowledge of God, and when it has duly attained that, it will easily let go false hopes in created things. Now I pass on to externals, and will show how offence is to be taken into account in the case of these.
Of external things some have to do with eating, some with the regulation of life, and some seem to have to do with salvation, though they really amount to nothing.,
Those that have to do with eating have been made a stumbling-block of offence by the huckster business of the high priest of Rome. For how else am I to name that cunning with which he has forbidden certain foods simply that we may be forced to buy back for a high price what we cannot do without? Yet Christ says plainly in Mark 7: 18: “There is nothing without a man entering into him that can defile him.” Nor is there any reason to say in opposition here that no kinds of food are forbidden, but the use of certain ones is prohibited at particular times. For the word of God is free and does not suffer itself to be confined to particular times. And this very thing
[Cf Zwingli’s Von Erkiesen und Freiheit der Spiesen. See, in this]
[series, vol. 1, pp. 70-112.]
that I said, the giving back for money of what had been tyrannieally taken from us, shows well enough that no food has been absolutely forbidden by the commandment of God. For if it had been enacted by the word of God that certain foods must be abstained from, there would be no need of a special law to that effect. Hence it is clear that when the Pope promulgates such a law he does it of himself. And when he abrogates it for money received he shows that that which he abrogates is not divine. For who can abrogate a divine law? Paul predicts, I Tim. 4: 1-4, that it will come to pass that some wil engage in this sort of traffic, saying: “The Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons that will speak lies in hypocrisy and have their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. Certainly every creature of God is good, and nothing is worthless, if it be received with thanksgiving,” etc. These words of Paul are clear. When, therefore, he says that it is plain to those who know the truth that “every creature of God is good, and nothing is worthless,” there will no doubt be persons who will instantly say: “I believe thoroughly that to the pure all things are pure [cf. Tit. 1: 15]; hence I shall have no hesitation in using with thanksgiving anything I please without regard to anybody. For why should my liberty be judged by others’ consciences?’ Here then we must take offence into account. You must consider your neighbor, whether he be weak, or contumacious, or pious. You should take the weak one to yourself, that is, extend a hand, that he likewise may be able to rise to the measure of your knowledge; and this not by means of marvelously intricate inventions that will tangle him up rather than straighten him out, but with clear sayings like these: “To the pure all things are pure,” Tit. 1:15; “Every creature of God is good, and is created to the end that we may use it with thanksgiving,” I Tim. 4: 4; “There is nothing without a man entering into him that can defile him,” Mk. 7: 15, Mt. 15: 17; “I know that nothing is in its own nature unclean: but only to him that accounteth anything to be unclean is it
unclean,” Rom. 14: 14. If he is made stronger by such words, you may then safely eat any kind of food in his presence at any time; if not, you must spare his weakness as long as there is weakness. For so Paul says, Rom. 14:15: “If because of meat thy brother is grieved, thou walkest no longer in love. Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died”; and, “Overthrow not for meat’s sake the work of God” [Rom. 14: 20]. These things Paul here, as always, speaks of by divine inspiration. Again, in I Cor. 8: 13, you have: “If meat offend my brother, I will eat no flesh for evermore, lest I offend my brother.” Therefore, as long as your brother is weak and not contumacious, you must spare him. And even if your brother is contumacious, again you must spare him if your meat can cause any turmoil. For you should not “overthrow for meat’s sake the work of God”; that is, we should not for the sake of liberty as to foods act so as to render the gospel hateful. But if after sufficient teaching you can eat without offence and turmoil, you may do so. Mortals are not so made that what is nearest right pleases everybody: there will never be lacking persons to object. But we must always look to this, that we pursue the works of peace. Paul circumcised Timothy because the Jews were so insistent about it and he could not withstand them without great turmoil and offence as to the gospel, Acts 16:3; but he could not be forced to circumcise Titus, Gal. 2:3, because his teachings had then made such progress that the better and larger number could carry the day without turmoil and offence. So, therefore, we must strive for peace and tranquillity in these things that have to do with food, and spare the weak as long as they are weak; and, indeed, the contumacious as long as we cannot without turmoil freely enjoy that in which we are free. For if we should be obliged forever to spare every contumacious person, we should never be allowed to enjoy anything freely. There are always wanton persons who have the audacity lightly to misinterpret any act or motive whatsoever. If your brethren are pious, there is no offence, no matter what you eat, so long as you observe moderation.
In the things which have to do with the regulation of life we ought all to walk most blamelessly, that by our good conversation unbelievers may be kindled to follow Him whose dis-
ciples live so uprightly. We ought, therefore, to cast off at once the license of the Gentiles, for it is enough and more than enough to have lived so long according to the way of the flesh. So Peter teaches, I Pet. 4: 2; and Paul, Rom. 13: 12-14, saying: “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk as in the day; not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In the same manner he says, I Cor. 5:11: “But now I write unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat.” It is lawful, therefore, to cast off all these things at the first opportunity, for they ought to be as far distant as possible from a Christian, aye, they ought to be so far away that they must be immediately removed from the church. If, therefore, you have hitherto been a fornicator, abandon your mistress; or if continence is denied you, seek a wife, or turn your mistress herself into a wife. Here, however, very great offence is apt to arise. For if ecclesiasties, as they are called, begin to marry, immediately there rise up persons who pretend to be offended, though they are not in the least offended; but for the sake of their revenues, which they fear will decrease, they make pretence of being offended, as has been said before. Everyone should, therefore, keep as far away from fornication as possible. And every one knows also that fornication is a great sin. You will say, therefore: Every one ought, then, without any regard to offence to take a wife just as soon as he discovers his want of continence, since nothing forbids or discourages this. For no one can be offended, since there is no one who denies that fornication must be done away with.” These are the reasons why for some time I thought that in this matter no attention should be paid to offence. But though I see that these two things, ‘“Fornication ought to be absent from the Christian flock,” and, “Everybody knows that fornication is a sin,” are strong enough fairly to allow any one to pay no attention to offence in the matter, yet at the same time I see that
[Of. Zwingli’s plea that priests be given permission to marry. See]
[vol. 1, pp. 150-165, and 177-196.]
Antichrist, that is, the Pope of Rome, has laid an offence upon us, half asleep or rather sound asleep as we are, so that, now that we want to wake up, we give offence. For to whom has he not, against every law of God, forbidden marriage? Since, therefore, for some time much faith has been had in him, it has been absolutely necessary to have regard for offence, but on the same principle as in the case of teaching. As that ought not in any degree to be omitted, but to be imparted in due season, so, too, fornication must be entirely done away with, and to that end a marriage must be brought about if you burn, but at the right time. Hence some brethren among us, to avoid offence, and to quiet the pangs of conscience (for it was torture to be a fornicator), contracted marriage secretly, that the mind might not, being conscious of fornication and suffering from this wound, do everything more listlessly than it ought; and they concealed the fact until teaching on the subject of marriage could be seasonably put forth. When this had once been done, so that all saw plainly that there was no possible reason for hindering any one who wished from taking a wife, new husbands began everywhere to appear. Then certain of the tyrants began to slaughter the innocent, and others to deprive them of their priesthoods and to banish them. This has raised the question, whether those who thus made their marriages public a little too soon ought not to have waited somewhat longer. I answer that there should not have been any further waiting after the teaching had once been well set forth, for impious rulers can never be induced not to indulge in the most savage persecution. Yet there were some indiscreet or false brethren who proceeded to make marriage the foundation of Christianity, and though I do not disapprove their conduct, I do disapprove their conclusion, for it was ill-considered to demonstrate their Christianity by nothing else than their marriage. These men, therefore, seem sometimes rather to have occasioned disturbances than to have prevented them. But, now that the whole matter has been set forth, especially in Germany, there is no room left for offence; nay, rather it is
[In the writings of Luther, e. g., De votis monasticis (1521); Vom]
[ehelichen Leben (1522); Ursach und Antwort, dass Jungfrauen Kloster]
[góttlich verlassen mógen (1523).]
permitted that all who are incontinent contract marriage. And if some tyrants threaten and strike, flee to another country; for it is better with Zeno] to carry away everything, ὁ. e., a heart disburdened of fornication, than to be tortured within amidst the cares of riches, even if no persecutor troubles you without.
In the external things that seem to have to do with salvation, we must have regard to offence in this way. We should set forth how these things that seem to be of some avail for salvation cannot be of any value, and this simply by teaching; but we must do it in such manner as, above all else, to win the approval of Him in whom alone the conscience finds peace. We shall show that these external things are signs with which we do something for our neighbor rather than for ourselves. Such are anointings, sprinklings, benedictions, and such like ceremonies. When everything is already set forth in the word, these signs are to be calmly done away with, having been brought in by device of man, in the same way as forbidden foods. For this is the way we see Paul did with circumcision. Though he knew well that neither cireumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, as he taught in I Cor. 7: 19 and Gal. 6: 15, he yet suffered Timothy to be circumcised [Acts 16:3]. But we must strenuously insist that no hope is to be placed in these external things, for they have no power; and then we must make concession to the weakness of some persons. For the feelings are not lightly persuaded to abandon immediately things that the mind has long since given up. But let no one understand by this that the things I am speaking of are to be tolerated forever, but only for a time. For his armor must be taken away from the enemy, that he may not sometime again equip himself with it for battle. This was what Christ meant in the parable of the strong man armed, Lk. 11: 22: “But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole armor wherein he trusted,” ete. See how he approves taking away the armor also, lest, forsooth, if we allow the things that ought to be abolished to remain, they may bring us back sometime to our earlier error. For some are so frail that, like a vine, they cling to the nearest support, and when they have once done so find it hard to let go.
[tThe saying, “Omnia mea mecum porto,” is usually attributed to Bias.]
Therefore those things in which there is such great occasion for seduction must be removed; but with due regard to offence. If you now say: “Who, then, will be able to see when those things which must be endured for a time are to be abolished? For who will know when turmoil is likely to follow, and when not?” He whose eye is clear, and single, for his whole body is full of light and has no part in darkness [cf. Mt. 6: 22-23]; that is, he who is faithful to his Lord, does all things for His sake and nothing for his own. For when the glory of God alone is regarded, all things go on well. And if ever the fire, that is, persecution, rages, it will do no more harm than fire does to gold. But when we begin to regard our own interest, we shall be consumed by the fire of persecution, just like wood and hay and stubble [cf. I Cor. 3:12-13]. But how shall we purge the eye so that we can see plainly when the work should be begun? I answer: We shall purge it with that fire which the Lord wills should burn fiercely [cf. Lk. 12: 49], which is love: this knows all things, sees all things, is ever intent upon building up, not upon tearing down. Knowledge is sometimes so puffed up as even to burst, but knowledge edifieth not; for this is the province of love. I Cor. 8:1: “Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth”; for it desires to extend as widely as possible the domain of him whom it loves. It suffers all things, therefore, for Christ’s sake, “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, never faileth,” that is, is never deceived, never makes a mistake, I Cor. 13: 7-8. For where love is, there is God Himself, as I have said at sufficient length before. But is it at all in our power to love? By no means. But neither is it in our power to have the will or ability to build, though it is in the mouth of all men to boast that they are going to build for the Lord. So bold is hypocrisy. It is to be observed, therefore, that, since “it is God who worketh in us both to will and to work,” Phil. 2: 13, surely those who will to build to the glory of God have been taught of the Lord to have this will. “Therefore, when you feel that all your plans have as their object the making of the whole world subject to God, when you can both bear and do all things for the sake of God, be sure that the Lord has wrought this in you. Consider yourself, therefore, and be your own judge. No man
328 The Works of Huldreich Zwingli knows but yourself whether you have any guile hidden in your heart. And when you feel sincerely and truly that you are seeking the glory of Christ, then your will has been led to Him by divine power. For “every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me” [Jn. 6:45]. You are not for Christ unless the Father has led you to Him [Jn. 6:44]. Consider now the individual points. If you see that you are so on fire with love for God as to refer all things to His glory, you will wish to raise His building; if your will aims at that, God has wrought this in you. What you build, therefore, will never collapse; for it rests upon a rock that no man Ϊ can overturn. You will know, too, how you ought to build, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things. You will say: “But who will tell the church whether he who begins to build is minded to build unto God or not? Yet is it most necessary for us to know this; for otherwise the times are such that we shall fall into the greatest dissensions if we know not the mind of the builder. For all men wish to seem to build to the glory of God.” I answer: There are many ways in which the individual can judge concerning the builder, and in regard to them I leave each man to be fully assured in his own mind [cf. Rom. 14:5]. For every man says that from this or that he detects the deceit of a builder. Only let nothing be done in the heat of passion. But there are two ways in particular by which you can infallibly detect the mind of the teacher. One is the way that Christ taught, according to which the teacher is known by his fruits, whether those which he offers or those which he seeks; for it is in this latter sense that Christ says, Matth. 7:20, “By their fruits,” that is, by that which they seek, ye shall know them.” If, therefore, the teacher looks only to being splendidly fed and looked after, no one can fail to see whether he is building for God or for himself. And if he is nothing but a sink of iniquity, even if he is a very brilliant teacher, he is the least in the kingdom of God, that is, he is nothing in the church of God. “This judgment, therefore, is derived from the man himself whom you are judging, though in such a way that you alone are not to condemn him before others, but only when the church condemns him. When the church condemns, every one who is a member of the church
must also condemn in his heart; although, as I have said, no one ought to pronounce judgment until the church does. For, “judge not, ete.” [Mt. 7:1]. I am speaking here of each man’s private judgment, by which everyone in the church sees what the mind of a teacher is, even though the church delays to pronounce judgment upon him. That this is so our own time proves, in which all the Christian congregation together, as soon as truth showed itself to the public view, abandoned those whose words savored of greed and domination, and went over to the side of the truth, though in the beginning they had no other βάσανος [standard of judgment] than dominion and greed. The other way in which the mind of the builder can be detected, even in spite of himself, whether he is building for the Lord or seeking glory, is this: Paul writes, Rom. 14: 17-18: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he that in these things serveth Christ is well-pleasing to Godand approved of men.” When, therefore, a man’s efforts are directed towards making public righteousness flourish, so that every man shall above all things be zealous in his own heart for blamelessness; when he is wholly absorbed in keeping peace with all men as far as is in us lies, in bringing men’s consciences into the quiet haven of faith and love of God, that they may not be buffeted about by every wind; when his only aim is to banish as far as possible all the sorrows that arise from worldly desires to torment mortals, so that Christian cheerfulness and grace may abide with all—this man surely is building for the Lord. And every man can tell for himself whether the whole force of the teacher breathes God and blamelessness or not. Those, therefore, who for the sake of certain externals, by which the conscience is in no wise helped, disturb Christian peace are seeking nothing but glory, even though they pretend the lowliest humility; for that is just the way hypocrisy goes to work, according to Paul’s testimony, Col. 2:15. “This is what those do who at this time refuse baptism to infants or give it to adults a second time; for they are so contentious that you never saw anything more harsh and bitter. Where, then, is the humility? For where there is contention and jealousy, there the flesh reigneth, by the testimony of the Apostle, I Cor.
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