sacrilegiously they usurp the angel's office. Christ hath reserved. the cleansing and removing of all scandals, all offences to the last day; the angels of the church, the minister, the angels of the state, the magistrate, cannot do it; nor the angels of heaven themselves, till the day of judgment. All scandals cannot be removed in this life; but a great many more might be than are, if men were not so apt to suspect, and misconstrue, and imprint the name of scandal upon every action, of which they see not the end, nor the way; for from this jealousy and suspicion, and misconstruction of the angels of church and state (our superiors in those spheres) we shall become jealous, and suspicious of God himself, that he hath neglected us, abandoned us, if he do not deliver us, and establish us, at those times, and by those means, which we prescribe him; we shall come to argue thus against God himself, surely, if God meant any good to us, he would not put us into their hands, who do us no good. Reduce all to the precious mediocrity; to be insensible of any declination, of any diminution of the glory of God, or his true worship and religion, is an irreligious stupidity; but to be so ombragious, so startling, so apprehensive, so suspicious, as to think every thing that is done, is done to that end; this is a seditious jealousy, a satyr in the heart, and an unwritten libel; and God hath a star-chamber, to punish unwritten libels before they are published; libels against that law, Curse not, or speak not ill of the king, no not in thy thought". Not to mourn under the sense of evils, that may fall upon us, is stony disposition; nay, the hardest stone, marble, will weep towards foul weather. But to make all possible things necessary, (this may fall upon us, therefore it must fall upon us,) and to make contingent, and accidental things, to be the effects of counsels, (this is fallen upon us, therefore it is fallen by their practice that have the government in their hands) this is a vexation of spirit in ourselves, and a defacing, a casting of dirt in the face of God's image, of that representation, and resemblance of God, which he hath imprinted in them, of whom he hath said, They are gods. In divine matters there is principally exercise of our faith, that which we understand not, we believe. In civil affairs, that are above us, matters of state, there is exercise of our hope; those ways which

27 Eccles. x. 20.

a

VOL. IV.

X

we see not, we hope are directed to good ends. In civil actions amongst ourselves, there is exercise of our charity, those hearts which we see not, let us charitably believe to be disposed to God's service. That when as Christ hath shut up his woe only in those two, Væ quia fortes illusiones, Woe because scandals and offences are so strong in their nature; and væ quia infirmi cos, woe because you are so weak in yours, we do not create a third woe, væ quia prævaricatores, in an uncharitable jealousy, and misinterpretation of him, (that we are not in his care) nor of his ministers (that they do not execute his purposes,) nor of one another; that when as God hath placed us in a land, where there are no wolves, we do not think hominem homini lupum, imagine every man to be a wolf to us, or to intend our destruction. But as in the ark there were lions, but the lion shut his mouth, and clinched his paw, (the lion hurt nothing in the ark) and in the ark there were vipers and scorpions, but the viper showed no teeth, nor the scorpion no tail, (the viper bit none, the scorpion stung none in the ark) (for, if they had occasioned any disorder there, their escape could have been but into the sea, into irreparable ruin) so, in every state, (though that state be an ark of peace, and preservation) there will be some kind of oppression in some lions, some that will abuse power; but va si scandalizemur, woe unto us if we be scandalized with that, and seditiously lay aspersions upon the state and government, because there are some such in every church, (though that church be an ark, for integrity and sincerity) there will be some vipers, vipers that will gnaw at their mother's belly, men that will shake the articles of religion; but væ si scandalizemur, woe if we be so scandalized at that, as to defame that church, or separate ourselves from that church which hath given us our baptism, for that. It is the chafing of the lion, and the stirring of the viper, that aggravates the danger; the first blow makes the wrong, but the second makes the fray; and they that will endure no kind of abuse in state or church, are many times more dangerous than that abuse which they oppose. Christ Jesus himself that could say to the tempest, tesce, Peace, be still 28, not a blast, not a sob more; only he could becalm a tempest at once. It is well for us if we can beat out a

28 Mark iv. 39.

It was only

Tace, obmu

storm at sea, with boarding to and again; that is, maintain and preserve our present condition in church, and state, though we increase not, that though we gain no way, yet we lose no way whilst the storm lasts. It is well for us, if, though we be put to take in our sails, and to take down our masts, yet we can hull it out; that is, if in storms of contradiction, or persecution, the church, or state, though they be put to accept worse conditions than before, and to depart with some of their outward splendour, be yet able to subsist and swim above water, and reserve itself for God's farther glory, after the storm is past; only Christ could becalm the storm; he is a good Christian that can ride out, or board out, or hull out a storm, that by industry, as long as he can, and by patience, when he can do no more, over-lives a storm, and does not forsake his ship for it, that is not scandalized with that state, nor that church, of which he is a member, for those abuses that are in it. The ark is peace, peace is good dispositions to one another, good interpretations of one another; for if our impatience put us from our peace, and so out of the ark, all without the ark is sea; the bottomless and boundless sea of Rome, will hope to swallow us, if we disunite ourselves, in uncharitable misinterpretations of one another; the peace of God is the peace that passeth all understanding"; that men should subdue and captivate even their understanding to the love of this peace, that when in their understanding they see no reason why this or this thing should be thus or thus done, or so and so suffered, the peace of God, that is, charity, may pass their understanding, and go above it; for, howsoever the affections of men, or the vicissitudes and changes of affairs may vary, or apply those two great axioms, and aphorisms, of ancient Rome, Salus populi suprema lex esto, The good of the people is above all law, and then, Quod principi placet, lex esto, The pleasure of the prince is above all law, howsoever I say, various occasions may vary their laws, adhere we to that rule of the law, which the apostle prescribes, that we always make, Finem præcepti charitatem, The end of the commandment charity3: for, no commandment, (no not those of the first table) is kept, if, upon pretence of keeping that commandment, or of the service of God, I come to an uncharitable opinion of other men.

20 Phil. iv. 7.

so 1 Tim. i. 5.

That so first, Fundemur et radicemur in charitate, that we be planted, and take root in that ground, in charity, (so we are, by being planted in that church, that thinks charitably even of that church, that uncharitably condemns us) and then, Ut multiplicemur, That grace and peace may be multiplied in us, (so it is, if to our outward peace, God add the inward peace of conscience in our own bosoms) and lastly, ut abundemus, that we may not only increase, (as the apostle says there33) but (he adds) abound in charity towards one another, and towards all men, for this abundant and overflowing charity, (as long as we can, to believe well, for the present, and where we cannot do so, to hope well of the future) is the best persuasive and antidote against the woe of this text, Woe unto the world because of scandals and offences; which, though it be spoken of the active, is more especially intended of the passive scandal; and though it be pressed upon us, first, quia illusiones fortes, because those scandals are so strong, and then, quia infirmi nos, because we are so weak, do yet endanger us most, in that respect, quia prævaricatores, because we open ourselves, nay offer ourselves to the vexation of scandals, by an easy, a jealous, a suspicious, an uncharitable interpreting of others.

SERMON C.

PREACHED at LINCOLN'S INN.

PSALM XXXviii. 2.

For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

ALMOST every man hath his appetite, and his taste disposed to some kind of meats rather than others; he knows what dish he would choose, for his first, and for his second course. We have often the same disposition in our spiritual diet; a man may

have

81 Ephes. iii. 17.

32 1 Pet. i. 2.

33 1 Thes. iii. 12.

a particular love towards such or such a book of Scripture, and in such an affection, I acknowledge, that my spiritual appetite carries me still, upon the Psalms of David, for a first course, for the Scriptures of the Old Testament: and upon the epistles of St. Paul, for a second course, for the New, and my meditations even for these public exercises to God's church, return oftenest to these two. For, as a hearty entertainer offers to others, the meat which he loves best himself, so do I oftenest present to God's people, in these congregations, the meditations which I feed upon at home, in those two Scriptures. If a man be asked a reason why he loves one meat better than another, where all are equally good, (as the books of Scripture are) he will at least, find a reason in some good example, that he sees some man of good taste, and temperate withal, so do: and for my diet, I have St. Augustine's protestation, that he loved the Book of Psalms, and St. Chrysostom's, that he loved St. Paul's Epistles, with a particular devotion. I may have another more particular reason, because they are Scriptures, written in such forms, as I have been most accustomed to; St. Paul's being letters, and David's being poems: for, God gives us, not only that which is merely necessary, but that which is convenient too; he does not only feed us, but feed us with marrow and with fatness; he gives us our instruction in cheerful forms, not in a sour, and sullen, and angry, and unacceptable way, but cheerfully, in Psalms, which is also a limited and a restrained form; not in an oration, not in prose, but in Psalms; which is such a form as is both curious, and requires diligence in the making, and then when it is made, can have nothing, no syllable taken from it, nor added to it: therefore is God's will delivered to us in Psalms, that we might have it the more cheerfully, and that we might have it the more certainly, because where all the words are numbered, and measured, and weighed, the whole work is less subject to falsification, either by subtraction or addition. God speaks to us in oratione stricta, in a limited, in a diligent form; let us speak to him in oratione soluta; not pray, not preach, not hear, slackly, suddenly, unadvisedly, extemporally, occasionally, indiligently; but let all our speech to him, be weighed, and measured in the weights of the sanctuary, let us be content to preach, and to hear within the com