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
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
those who do vehemently and zealously fall in with Conformity to these Impositions in Indifferents yet they may be scandalised and that very deeply This Case does not I confess arise out of the Apostles Discourses except by the other Interpretation of the Scope of that to the Corinths which gives it not onely as if Compliance against the Sentiments of Conscience upon the Trust of Example were the Sin and Scandal but that the weaker Christians not having the Knowledge of the stronger doing as they did and not prepossess'd as they were that the Idol was nothing sunk into some Degrees at least of Idolatrous Reverence and Worship as if they knew no other Reason of eating in an Idols Temple but Devotion to him And this kind of Scandal though I believe the drift of the Apostle is chiefly as I have explained it yet too often falls out in these Cases Those Ceremonies that have been promoted into Divine Services or into the Ornament of Religion and the Places of it have been though dangerously enough yet not so ill design'd as afterwards abused by more Ignorant Persons who greedy and fond of a sensual and external Religion have been transported upon Superstition and sometimes downright Idolatry and this often noted in Scripture under the very Name of Scandal Thus I before observ'd in the Case of Gideons Ephod his House and all Israel were insnar'd beyond the first Intention Thus in the Brazen Serpent continued no doubt in memory of the Miracle yet afterwards prov'd so great a Snare that they burnt Incense to it And it is most likely Balaam cast his Snare at first in a less-guilty Feasting with the Midianites upon their Idols Sacrifices not known to be such poysonous Meat and by degrees toll'd them on into the midst of the Congregation and Assembly of Idolaters Thus the Apostles by Divine Direction condescending to the weakness of Convert-Jews among the Romans on consideration of the Divine Command in some of their Rites but just now expiring degenerated afterward into such a Judaism that the same Apostle was most severe against it and that very Strength of the Corinthian Christians or at least the Weakness of the Unknowing following their Example became afterwards into an infamous Doctrine the Doctrine of Balaam and the very inchanting Seduction of the Prophetess Jezebel who taught the People of Christ to commit Fornication and to eat things offered to Idols in honour to them The bringing in of Pictures into Places of Religious Worship suppose it as innocent as could be suppos'd at first yet was abus'd speedily into all imaginable Corruption and it is much to be fear'd all the Remonstrances concerning more Innocent Rites as they can't vindicate them from Scrupulosity on one side so can't preserve them from Mens placing too much of their Religion in them on the other whereby the true Conscience of it is weakned the Vertue and Vigour of Conscience in things truly Religious weakned and spent by having been laid out unnecessarily upon extern Observances and loosness of Life like Fornication with eating things offered to Idols breaking in upon the Commute of such Flatteries of Conscience for substantial Piety as the Jews would exchange New-Moons and Oblations for Justice and Mercy and walking humbly with God It must be indeed acknowledg'd not onely Humane Appointments but even Divine Commands are subject to the Injury of Scandal but with this difference One cannot be cut off though Scandal presses never so hard the other may and ought For in all things not ordained by God the Principle sinned against in Scandal is the exceeding Purity of Religion the substantial Piety and most Spiritual and Rational Worship of himself God requires and expects by his Word and that all things he has commanded be adjusted to those Ends even as he provided them and all he has not commanded should stand off or at least be presently superseded when become the Prey of Scandal Yet on the other side Scandal shelters it self under Order Decency or Edification of the Ignorant Obedience to Authority and presses on to the utmost under them 3. The third sort of Scandal arising from Indifferent Things upon those that will not be at all perswaded to a Compliance with them even they may be scandalised by unlawful and very sinful Censoriousness and Passion placing too much of their sense of Religion upon their dislike of such Additions to Divine Worship Divisions and Separations on both sides from the Publickest Worship of God and National Union in Religion beyond the Merit and Quality of the Cause or further than the Case at its utmost extent can require and if the Sin of Schism be such as the endeavour'd Notion of it would make it a Fall into the great Sin of Schism The Principle offended against in this sort of Scandal is That great Love of Christians and Union in Divine Worship in Truth and Peace made so Fundamental in Christianity by Christ and the Apostles The pretence of Scandal lies too both ways That for the sake of such Additionals we may desert those much higher Considerations and Reasons and Causes of Love and Union and our Obligations to them The Apostle represents this great Mischief not under the formal Account of Scandal in the Discourse to the Romans though I doubt not he after refers to it expresly as such when he joyns Scandals and Divisions together but Rom. 16. 17. in the Discourse it self he both sets out the Heat on both sides in judging and despising and argues on both sides with highest strength of Divine Reason against the Evil both ways And this is certain The more excellent our Religion the more desirable our Publick Worship and Communion for the Piety Rationality and Order of it the more pure our National Church and Association in Religion is and the greater the Sin of Separation the more does the Apostles Argument against scandalising for the sake of Indifferencies press and urge us Why should our Good be thought evil of or blasphem'd Why should our Publick Worship and National Religion be once thought to be Ceremony Why should our Communion be clogg'd with things of no greater avail than Meat and Drink Why should we lose those from our Communion who own The Kingdom of God is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and contend for those Divine things though they have not leisure and freedom for Ceremonies when they that serve God in them though they cannot joyn in lesser things yet as they are accepted of God so should be approved of Men Or if the Sin of Separation be so great and even Schism it self why for our Meat for our Indifferent things should they perish for whom Christ died or such a Work of God as appears in them be destroyed 4. The Severity Passion Transport beyond the Values of the things themselves and taking up the Instruments of Cruelty cannot be without Scandal upon the Imposers of Indifferency and those that will needs be
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