Corruption They walk in the Light of their own Sparks and have only this at Gods hand to lie down in sorrow Besides that God in just displeasure sends down upon them the Revenges of an abused and injur'd Power and Godhead Now all this expresses the Heighth both of the Deception and Mischief of Scandal 4. The fourth great Principle of Truth is the absolute and indispensible Necessity of Holiness both in Heart and Life without which no Man shall see the Lord Against which Heb. 12. 24. there lies no such Scandal or cause of Offence as inward and inherent Lust and inordinate Appetite which is obstinately set to obtain its Satisfaction and is no way to be tam'd but by beinâ— cut off though it be the Right Hand or Right Foot or even the Right Eye The Love of God Mark 9. 43. and his Law is the best Security against this Scandal and daily Mortification and Crucifixion of the Old Man with Ephes 4. 22. its sinful Lusts and Affections Pretences from Reason or Doctrines of Religion there can be none in this Case to those who acknowledge either Christianity or Morality But Men are carried down the violent Stream of ungovern'd Passion and that falls into the wide Sea of general Corruption and Bad Example which looks most like an Authority There are the Palliations and Excuses of Sin which may serve in a time of Peace and Carnal Security but cannot so delude Conscience as to be in a strict sense Scandal The continual Practice of Sin hardens the Heart sears benumbs and stupifies all inward Sense and cancels the Awe of those ingraven Laws and revealed Commands of God for a time but cannot either deny their Just Power or challenge them of Unreasonableness So that if any where Men are forc'd to take Refuge at the Atheistick denial of Religion it self or to blind Conscience with Superstitious Acts which seem to commute and make satisfaction for Sin Or if Men are resolved to blind their Eyes and obstruct all Sense they may make the Profession of True Religion a Cover to Sin as they that cry Lord Lord and Mat. 7. 22. the Temple of the Lord are we that name the Name of Jer. 7. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Christ with great ostentation and so may deceive their own Souls but to hold out against either the Challenges of Divine Truth or of their own Reflexions is impossible So that upon the whole matter Predominant Lust from within and Bad Example from the so abounding Iniquity of all sorts of Men the Falls of Good Men the Miscarriages of Hypocrites and insincere Professours of Religion are the greatest Scandals or Stumbling-blocks in the Ways of Holiness to those that are not insnared in the afore-named Scandals But although the necessity of Holiness is above the reach of strict and proper Scandal yet it is the very Center of all Scandal in the effect of it for then a Man is indeed scandalised when the Salt of Divine Truth when the Spirit of Truth can have no power nor efficacy upon him because of that Scandal to season the Heart nor govern the Life and Action in the Love Fear and Obedience of God and Jesus Christ But if it be possible for any Man to understand in his Heart and Life what he does not promise by Profession or if he seem to deny any Principle of Truth and does not understand in his Heart and Life the Extent and Force of his Denial but hath better Principles that are an Antidote and Counter-poyson to any Mistakes in the Doctrine of Religion he is not scandalised with the great Mischief of Scandal But that Man is scandalised that through False Principles or the denial of True ones wants their Power and Vertue upon his Affections and Actions For no Truth is for Notions sake but to make truly good the Heart and Practice the very Confession with the Mouth is to recoil back into the Soul and make that better and to move forward and ingage the Life along with it 5. It is a grand Pillar of the Truth of Religion That we love our Neighbour as our selves and that he that loves 1 John 4. 21. God should love his Brother also And there is not there cannot be any Law of Religion wherein the Equity the Love Favour and Compassion of the Lord our God and of Jesus Christ our Saviour towards Humane Nature does more evidently recommend it self It is the Justification of the Religion of the Scriptures to be the True Religion And as the Love of God to Man his Philanthropy does shine out more illustriously in the Gospel so does the Law and Doctrine of this Love of Christians to one another and not only to Christians but to all Men And in this as of greatest concernment thâ— Gospel is so abundant and its Discourses of so great weight that it is made another Hemisphere of Religion to the Love of God The one is the first and Mat. â—1 38 39. great Commandment and the second is like to it It is the Law and the Prophets it is the whole Law It is irreconcilable Rom. 13. 8 9. to the Love of God not to love our Brother It is 1 Joh. 3. 15. such a Degree of Murther that whoever is guilty of cannot have Eternal Life abiding in him It is the great Mark 1 Joh. 3. 14. We have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren So many are the Arguments and so strong the Obligations to this Duty that they cannot be recounted all may be summed up in that God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love is born of God dwelleth in God and God in him Now that this Love is fix'd in an Uniformity of Opinions or points of outward order in the Worship of God is most unreasonable to believe for besides the impossibility to reconcile all the innocent Varieties that are in Humane Nature though it be Christian humane Nature in their Sentiments and Elections in these things the things themselves are not of that amount as to be the proper rest of this Divine Love or that if it misses these Poles it should therefore cease to be the Axis upon which the Catholick Society of Christians and Christian unity turns for that in the very Nature of the thing must be substantial Christianity it self And this is indeed the Great Schism to be divided in Affection from Christians it is a wonder how it could be otherwise understood seeing smaller differences are frequently by the Apostle considered and allowed for without the least allowance for Christians not loving one another Christianity carries no Gall even towards utmost Strangers upon the account of its being the true Religion much less towards those that are truly Christians though not each uniform with one another in all things The great Scandals against this Love are private Men think it justifiable not to love those that have injured them but this Case hath been considered
in strict combination one with nother this Peace is the close rest of the parts by which every one adheres with greatest kindness to each other and desire of self-preservation in the preservation of the whole and so all the parts seek the commodious situation each of other and abhor the disturbance the disease of any And because this Peace cannot procure or conserve it self seeing it is not a dull sluggish Rest but in the midst of Motion and Action Love is as I may call it the Divine Archeus that Divine Spirit of Nature the great Instrument of the Holy Spirit the supreme Author of this Love and Peace And Love runs every way pries into all the causes of Division and removes them sees into all the ways of conciliating and effectually pursues them This is that Love that edifies the body it takes off all the asperities and roughness of the parts those particular sharp angularities of Opinion reduces them to a square to a Figure fitted one to another and then cements and ties them one to another till they grow into a spiritual Temple What incomparable Virtues to this purpose does the Apostle at large and with greatest speciality express in that Divine Treatise of Love 1 Cor. 13. All knowledg without 1 Cor. 8. 1. this is nothing of what sort soever it be That only puffs up and swells men as if they themselves were All as if they could themselves be an Intire Temple a Spiritual Building alone the understanding all Mysteries it makes a man look to himself like the whole Body of Christ or at least as if he were to determine the posture and figure of the whole and all the other parts to obey and be contented with the room he leaves We know this is the general temper of Opinion the product of Knowledg without Love Knowledg therefore alone cannot build Airy Knowledg is big boisterous angry if it be not admir'd if it be not venerated so as to take up what space it pleases to order as it pleases Even the following of the Truth the earnest search after and Eph. 4. 15. pursuit of what is True a much more excellent thing than meer Knowledg yet if this be not in love there cannot be a growing up into the Head in all things even Christ Love then is that which takes care of all the members of all the lively stones how they may all most comply with and advance each other and rest in their peaceable conformity one with another and sweetest application one to another even while they are in a most intense Christian motion like the Heavenly bodies so harmonious so at peace in all their activity that there is in this true sense The sweet musick of the spheres so it should be so it is in true Christianity in all its motions govern'd by love how various soever in other respects yet they are all melodious because they are all in peace how different in lesser things soever Now this Love and Peace are spiritual and intellectual and they therefore are fix'd upon a complication of spiritual intellectual Centers if I may so express them all the Right True Lines from which and returns to which are in Love and Peace And these are those several points of union the Apostle hath laid together Ephes 4. 4 5 6. There is one Body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of All who is above All and through All and in you All. 1. One Body Even the whole Society of Christians dispersed throughout all the world and united so as to make up this one Body and that by virtue of the second point of union that follows 2. One Spirit One Divine Spirit Author of the same Spirit of Holiness and Grace within Christians informing every Christian and making them All of the same Christianity as the soul in men makes them All of the same Rationality This is the one Spirit into which All are made to drink and so are this one body for without this they would be indeed but as so many single stones or scattered parts else too their union were no other than dull and stupid but now all the parts feel throughout in this Center of one Spirit 3. One Hope of our Calling The same Heaven and Eternal Happiness Mansions of this same House of our Father is the one hope of Christians unto which the Gospel alike calls them They then who are to meet together in the same Eternal Blessedness and to be one general Assembly and Church of the first born for ever with what unconcernedness in little trifles should they aspire to that Glory together with unexpressible indearedness of Love and Peace 4. One Lord even Jesus Christ instead of the Lords many is the One Lord to Christians by whom are all things Rom. 11. 18. and they by him they therefore who subsist and are borne upon the Root as branches of the one Vine must not boast 1 Cor. 8. 6. against the Branches for they bear not the Root but the Root them the worshipping of one True Supreme Lord how 1 Cor. 8. 6. much a stronger tye of Union than a precarious visible but visible Apostate head If one Earthly Prince be such a band of Union how much more one King of kings and Lord of lords they are to be forgiven every thing conceded every thing who sincerely worship this one Lord every thing that can possibly consist with their sincere acknowledgment of him 5. One Faith the Principles of Revealed Religion which they believe even the substantial Principles as I nam'd them in the last Head are one and the same and therefore a solid band of Agreement and it is the same Living and like Precious Saving Act of their Souls wherewith 2 Pet. 1. 1. they believe these alike Precious Principles Faith that worketh by Love Love to God and Love to all Christians Gal. 5. 6. Love is the very natural Breath of that life of Faith 6. One Baptism One open Profession and Confession of Faith Christians make to Salvation with one Mind and one Mouth from under one end of Heaven to the other generally seal'd with the same Sacramental Rites Baptism comprehending all the instituted Rites of Christianity a voice of Confession as the voice of Thunder so high as to still and quiet all the small murmurs and jars of Division Rites so solemn and great as to make void and vain all other Ceremonies as notes of Distinction 7. One God and Father of All who is above All through 1 Cor. 8. 6. All in you All To us Christians there is one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him This grand Uniting Principle of Natural Religion is more nearly condescended to us in Christianity and the Bounties of the Creator in and through the Redeemer flow with an Infinite Redundancy in and through and over All
is wise He shall understand these things Prudent And he shall know them for the ways of the Lord are right in themselves and lye in streight Lines one to another the Just shall walk in them though Transgressors fall therein In fine Magistrates especially Christian Magistrates are as much oblig'd against pushing on Scandal as private Christians and more as they are the Custodes the Publick Guardians of Conscience But if they fail in their Duty Obedience to them cannot disannul the Charges against Scandal lying upon all Christians in Relation to one another nor can their Laws prescribe against Moderation Obj. 6. But when time is allowed to the Doubtful to satisfy themselves if they come not off from their Scruples it argues Humor and Faction are highest in the Case or a Superstition on the other side Answ The Apostle tells us it is a very happy a very rare thing when Christians surmount their Doubts Happy is he that Condemns not himself wherein he allows himself It is a very Priviledged Case to be well and wisely satisfied after Doubt and therefore it must not be hastily censured if those that have been unsatisfied cannot presently answer our Lure to the other side And the time is much larger that is necessary in some Cases than in others The Ceremonies of Moses it was reasonable should go off more quick as Shaddows of the Night by the brightness of the Gospel and could never return any more But the Reasons against eating at an Idols Feast being nearer Moral are much more durable and may last even while the World stands where or when-ever Idolatry has place In the first Reformation from Popery there was Reason to expect the Superstitious Rites and Customs that had gained upon Mens Minds with the Reputation of Religion should be daily wearing off but the Reasons of Doubt in Indifferents affixed to Divine Worship taken from that perpetual Obligation of preserving it pure setled upon the Base of truest soundest Reason and much more favoured by Scripture well arm'd with Experience of Events must always continue in force and so no Time may be large enough for getting off from those Scruples that spring from them but that wherein they are indeed taken away But if any thing of Turbulency Faction or Unruliness be supposed to lye deeper than the Scruples it is best to unmask it by taking away so just a Cause to mannage it self upon and by so great a kindness to Conscience that ought to be tendered to heap Coals of Fire upon the heads of such Persons either to reform them or condemn them beyond Apologie Or if Superstition and placing Religion on the other side in having a Zeal against Ceremonies be suspected even that does but increase the Scandal arising from these Indifferent Things and makes them more necessary to be remov'd as Stumbling-Blocks out of Mens way you cure the Superstition on the other side too by taking away the Cause Object 7. Order and Government in the Church or National Religion cannot be preserv'd without such Guards upon both Piety Order and Unity for besides that Publick Authority hath thought them fit there are many private Christians zealous of them and that would be scandalised if they were taken away as if the Precept of the Apostle were broken Let all things be done Decently and in Order and of them greatest care is to be had as owning the Publique Authority most Answ I have already asserted in answer to some parts of this Objection 1. That Religion and Piety are its own best Guards and Devotion to God preserv'd most awful as well as most pure in its own Spirituality and Truth 2. That all Natural and Necessary Order and Decency are always to be secured as much as may be as being above the Scale of meer Indifferents 3. That Unity is to be preserv'd in the Inviolate love of Christians to one another center'd in those principal Things Love of God and Christ and keeping his Commandments and not in one Face of Vniformity which is if plac'd upon Ceremonials in its own Nature as variable as the Phase of the Moon 4. I add The more Publick Societies in Religion are intended and desired to be the more Comprehensive the Forms of Union must be The Prudence and holy Caution of that first Council we read of in the Christian Church is always to be followed When the Jews and Gentiles were to come into the nearest Union and as great an Vniformity as was any way necessary either in the several Churches or the whole Church when Doubts and Disputes had arisen concerning the Terms of their Union was that prime Canon made happy had it been if that Pattern had been ever since kept to It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no other Burden than These necessary Things one necessary by a perpetual Morality one other in the fear and danger of Idolatry or Scandal The other two necessary at that time but by alteration of Time they dropp'd off as to any Religious Import except as general Nature may check at them 5. The Banding of Societies in unnecessary Rites is rather of Ecclesiastick Interest and Domination than of the Concerns of Christian Religion 6. If there are such Varieties that some cannot serve God without adorning their Worship with these Arbitrary Rites of Order and Decency they must stand or fall to their own Master If they have such a Faith seeing the Danger of Scandalising lies most on the side of Ceremonies they are those that should have it to themselves before God not they that doubt or because it is the Publickly Established Order they should carry the Happiness the Priviledge of their full Perswasion humbly and compassionately being not high minded but fearing lest in some parts of that wherein they seem so clear Causes of Condemning themselves lye hid at present and afterwards start out But all this cannot be a Standard for others they that are doubtful ought not to be screwed up by Engines and Pullies to this Happiness Seeing then there are some that dare not serve God in this way we must seek out other Terms of Union and they are very near us the vital Union of Christianity our National Reformed Religion which may subsist well enough if we would let it in these lesser Distinctions It did not make diverse Churches in Primitive Rome that some Christians distinguished Meats and Days and others did not Yet the asserting the Rights of the Gospel-Freedom from Judaick Bondage was of more concernment to the Christian Church at that time than all the Order and Decency of Despotick Ceremonies can be worth to it now Let us therefore as the Conclusion of this Head of Scandal always remember upon the point of Indifferency That All that it is hath been nam'd already and it is known to be Indifferency and it may not contend with Scandal that is mightier than it for Scandal is Scandal real Mischief and lays about it from
others What recompence or allay of Anguish will it be to us that there were such and such Offences or Causes of Exception to Religion and the Ways of it And that we saw they took mightily in the World that they were generally received When all is but making a Covenant with Death and binding over our selves to it Can there be any Cause just enough why we should be Damned and lose our selves for ever Or will it satisfie us for our Souls that others perish with us 2. It is therefore every Mans Interest to arm himself with all the Reasons he can against Scandal as there are sufficient and to resist this Enemy at the very Gates It is only that we are deeply Scandalised first against Religion that we go up and down as it were inquiring for Scandal for some to Scandalise us and to give us further shew of Reason against being Religious Were our Hearts but true to Religion we should easily find they are more and stronger that are with it than that are against it If our Eyes were opened the Reasons for Religion are like a Mountain full of Charriots and Horses of Fire that cannot be resisted Our business therefore is not if we sincerely resolve that we and our 2 kings 6. 17. House shall serve the Lord to search every where for Offences Josh 24. 17. against such a resolution but to find out the pressing and undeniable Arguments why we should so resolve to fortifie our selves against all the seeming pretences to the contrary by setting them before us as Joshua does before the People of Israel to animate our selves the higher against them That we are so unequally poised so propense upon Scandal is because our Hearts are first bribed toward Sin and Apostacy from God 3. This should engage us to take heed to our selves to beware of our own proper Scandal the motion prejudice and passion that grows from our own false Understanding or Lust and does and will scandalise us though there were no other Scandal in the World these will make us fall into Dislike or Discontent with any of the ways of Holiness and our Duty when they do not satisfie our particular Apprehensions Affections or Desires Let us commit our ways wholly to the Lord and he will give us the desires Psal 37. 1. c. of our hearts a hundred fold in our Design of Good even in this Life in the room of what we would purchase with Scandal Let us rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him and he will bring it to pass for us But let us not fret our selves in any wise to do Evil because any thing in our Duty lies cross to our inordinate Concupiscence We cannot do well in being angry to Scandal for that is indeed to be angry to our Death we foolishly pervert our own way when ever our hearts fret against the Lord. If we love the Law of God nothing can offend us If we love God and our Brother we can have no occasion of stumbling or Scandal in us 4. Seeing Scandals are so every where abroad and our own Hearts so weak on the part of Scandal it is most necessary to commit our selves to Infinite Grace and the Divine Spirit as our greatest Security and Protection without which no Flesh could be saved not the very Elect If we set our love upon God and place our trust in him we shall dwell in the secret place of the Most High and rest under the Shadow of the Almighty and he will deliver us from the Snare of the Fowler from noisome Scandal though a thousand Psal 91. fall at our side and ten thousand at our right hand They that be planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish Psal 92. 13. c. in the Courts of our God they shall still being unscandalised bring forth fruit in their old-age they shall be fat and flourishing not blasted with Scandal's East Wind to shew that the Lord is upright a Rock of Security not of Scandal and there is no unrighteousness no cause of Scandal in him Oh how great is thy Goodness to them that fear thee to them Psal 31. 19. that trust in thee before the Sons of Men. Thou shalt hide them in the Secret of thy presence from the Pride of Scandal that compasseth men as a Chain yet they are proud of it from the strife of Tongues the Tongue of Scandal that are a World of Inquity that are set on fire of Hell that are set against Heav'n and walk through the Earth 5. We may from hence learn the great unreasonableness of being Scandalised that there are so many Scandals against Religion not marked with Vengeance If we consider well the state of the World how can it be otherwise It is neither a Heaven nor a Paradise upon Earth that immediately spue out Scandal and having once spued it out never receive it any more for ever Nor is it a Hell where there is Scandal all Scandal and no Religion but Scandal under Divine Vengeance Scandal all in a Flame with the Wrath of God discovering what it is so that it can intrap none any longer but those that are its Vassals for ever This World then is a World of Scandals and scandalised only it is under a Discipline an Administration of Grace like an Hospital a Bethlehem for Lunaticks the Lunaticks of Scandal the Infani as Holy Writ calls them They are under a gracious Provision of all Necessaries and a Method for Cure In the mean time that they that are at the height of this Lunacy should throw about Scandal with all their might is no more strange than that there are Mad Men in such a Bethlehem at the height of Distraction Indeed the Patience the Bounty that God uses to these is greater than of the most compassionate Hospitals generally in this world yet no doubt they have the cruel twinges and lashes of Conscience in order to their Cure if they might proceed to their Effect but that their Cure grows desperate is no more to be wondered at in the one Case than in the other Many never come to themselves They truly have Devils and are Mad Devils that are never cast out Others there are that are brought to a more quiet but sullen state others that have their lucid Intervals others again that have generally fair appearance of Reason yet not in their Right Minds and lastly some that are reduced beyond danger of relapse but not perfect What Reproach is it now to Right Reason to Sobriety that Lunaticks of all sorts erre from it or that some rally at it or that the very best among them do some things unbecoming to it No more is it that Evil Men or Imperfect Men not sanctified to the Perfection of Paradise or Heaven do unsuitable to Religion according to their several states though they do insanire cum ratione seem to be in their Wits and Reason while they do so Or that there