slow-worms, and other venomous creeping things? Shall we that are nothing but boxes of poison in ourselves, reprove God for making toads and spiders in the world? Shall we that are all discord, quarrel the harmony of his creation, or his providence? Can an apothecary make a sovereign treacle of vipers, and other poisons, and cannot God admit offences, and scandals into his physic? Scandals, and offences, temptations, and tribulations, are our leaven that ferment us, and our lees that preserve us. Use them to God's glory, and to thine own establishing, and then thou shall be a particular exception to that general rule, the Væ mundo à scandalis, shall be an Euge tibi a scandalis, thou shalt see that it was well for thee, that there were scandals and offences in the world, for they shall have exercised thy patience, they shall have occasioned thy victory, they shall have assured thy triumph.

SERMON XCIX.

PREACHED AT LINCOLN'S INN.

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The second Sermon on MATTHEW Xviii. 7.

Woe unto the world, because of offences.

We have seen in the first word the re, as it is vox dolentis, the voice of condoling and lamenting, that it is accompanied with a heu; God's judgments come against his will, he had rather they might be forborne, he had rather those easy conditions had been performed; and as it is cox minantis, a voice of threatening and intermination, it is accompanied with an amen; if conditions be rebelliously broken, God's judgments do come infallibly, inevitably; and we have seen in the second word, va mundo, and the twofold signification of that, that these offences, and scandals fall upon all the world; the wicked embrace temptations, and are glad of them, and sorry when they are but weak; the godly meet temptations, and wrestle with them, and sometimes do overcome

them, and are sometimes overcome by them; but all have them, and yet we must not break out of the world by a retired life, nor break out of the world by a violent death, but take God's ways, and stay God's leisure. In this our third part, we are to consider the root from which this over-spreading ca, this woe proceeds, a scandalis, from scandals, from offences, and the double signification of that word, first, scandalum activum, the active scandal, which is a malice, or at least an indiscretion in giving offence, and scandalum passivum, the passive scandal, which is a forwardness, at least an easiness in taking offence; to know the nature of the thing, look we to the derivation, the extraction, the origination of the word. The word from which scandal is derived, oxálev, signifies claudicare, to halt; and thence, a scandal is any trap, or engine, any occasion of stumbling, and laming, hid in the way that I must go, by another person; and as it is transferred to a spiritual use, appropriated to an ecclesiastical sense, it is an occasion of sinning. It hath many branches; too many to be so much as named; but some fruits from some of them we shall gather, and present you. First, in our first, the active scandal, to do any thing that is naturally ill, formally sin, whereby another may be occasioned or encouraged by my example to do the like, this is the active scandal most evidently, and most directly, and this is morbus complicatus, a disease that carries another disease in it, a fever exalted to a frenzy; it is peccatum prægnans, peccatum gravidum, a spawning sin, a sin of multiplication, to sin purposely, to lead another into temptation. But there is a less degree than this, and it is an active scandal too; to do any thing that in itself is indifferent, (and so no sin in me, that do it) in the sight of another that thinks it not indifferent, but unlawful, and yet because he hath a real, or a reverential dependence upon me, (my son, my servant, my tenant) and thinks I would be displeased if he did it not, does it against his conscience by my example, though the sin be formally his, radically it is mine, because I gave the occasion. And there is a lower degree than this; and yet is an active scandal. If I do an indifferent thing in the sight and knowledge of another, that thinks it unlawful, though he do not come to do it, out of my example, by any dependence upon me, yet if he come to think

uncharitably of me, or to condemn me for doing it, though this uncharitableness in him be his sin, yet the root grew in me, and

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gave the scandal. And there is a lower degree than this; and yet is an active scandal too. Origen hath expressed it thus, Scandalum est quo scandentium pedes offenduntur; To hinder the feet of another, that would go farther, or climb higher in the ways of godliness; but for me, to say to any man, what need you be so pure, so devout, so godly, so zealous, will this make you rich, will this bring you to preferment? This is an active scandal in me, though he that I speak to, be not damnified by me. Of which kind of scandal, there is an evident, and an illustrious example, between St. Peter, and Christ'; Christ calls Peter a scandal unto him, when Peter rebuked Christ for offering to go up to Jerusalem in a time of danger. Christ was to accomplish the work of our salvation at Jerusalem, by dying, and Peter dissuades, discounsels that journey; and for this, Christ lays that heavy name upon his indiscreet zeal, and that heavy name upon his person, vade retro, get thee behind me Satan, thou art a scandal unto me. This is scandalum oppositionis, the scandal of opposing, dissuading, discounselling, discountenancing, and consequently the frustrating of God's purpose in man; this is but by word, and yet there is a less than this, which is scandalum timoris, when he that hath power in his hand, in a family, in a parish, in a city, in a court, intimidates them who depend upon him, (though nothing be expressly done or said that way) and so slackens them in their religious duties to God; and in their constancy in religion itself; and væ illis, woe unto them that do so, and væ mundo ab illis; woe unto the world, because there are so many that do so. And yet there is another scandal which seems less than this, scandalum amoris, the scandal of love; as Saul gave David his daughter Michal, ut esset ei in scandalum, That she might be a snare unto him; that is, that David being over-uxorious, and over-indulgent to his wife, might thereby lie the more open to Saul's mischievous purposes upon him, and væ illis, woe unto them that doth so; and væ mundo ab illis, woe unto the world, because there are so many that do so, that study the affections, and dispositions, and inclinations of men, and

1 Matt. xvi. 23.

1 Sam. xviii. 21.

then minister those things to them, that affect them most, which is the way of the instruments of the Roman church, to promise preferments to discontented persons, and is indeed, his way, whose instrument the Roman church is, the devil; for this is all that the devil is able to do, in the ways of temptation, applicare passivis activa, to find out what will work upon a man, and to work by that. The devil did not create me, nor bring materials to my creation; the devil did not infuse into me that choler, that makes me ignorantly and indiscreetly zealous, nor that phlegm that chokes me with a stupid indevotion; he did not infuse into me that blood, that inflames me in licentiousness, nor that melancholy that damps me in a jealousy and suspicion, a diffidence and distrust in God. The devil had no hand in composing me in my constitution. But the devil knows, which of these govern, and prevail in me, and ministers such temptations, as are most acceptable to me, and this is scandalum amoris, the scandal of love,

So have ye then the name, and nature, and extent of the active scandal; against which, the inhibition given in this text is general, we are forbidden to scandalize any person by any of these ways, the scandal of example, or the scandal of persuasion, the scandal of fear, or the scandal of love. For, there is scarce any so free to himself, so entirely his own, so independent upon others, but that example, or persuasion, or fear, or love may scandalize him, that is, lead him into temptation, and make him do some things against his own mind. Our Saviour Christ had spoken, de pusillis, of little children, of weak persons, easy to be scandalized, before this text, and he returns, ad pusillos, to the consideration of little children, persons easy to be scandalized again; this text is not of them, or not of them only, but of all; say not thou of any man, ætatem habet, he is old enough, let him look to himself, he hath reason as other men have, he hath had a learned and a religious education, ill example can do him no harm; but give no ill example to any, study the settling, and the establishing of all; for, scarce is there any so strong, but may be shaked by some of these scandals, example, persuasion, fear, or love. And he that employs his gift of wit, and counsel, to seduce and mislead men, or his gift of power, and authority, to intimidate, and affright men, or his gift of other graces, loveliness of

person, agreeableness of conversation, powerfulness of speech, to ensnare and entangle men by any of these scandals, may draw others into perdition, but he falls also with them, and shall not be left out by God in the punishments inflicted upon them that fall by his occasion.

The commandment is general, scandalize none; scarce any but may be overthrown, by some of these ways; and then the apostle's practice was general too, we give no occasion of offence in any thing. As he requires that we should eat and drink to the glory of God', so he would have us study to avoid scandalizing of others, even in our eating, and drinking; If meat make my brother to offend, (offend either in eating against his own conscience, or offend in an uncharitable misinterpretation of my eating) in æternum, says the apostle there, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth3; nor, destroy my brother with my meat, for whom Christ died. That is the apostle's tenderness in things; (he would give no occasion of offence in anything) and it is as general in contemplation of persons, he would have no offence given, neither to the Jew, nor to the Grecian, nor to the church of God": he was as careful not to scandalize, not to give just occasion of offence to Jew, nor Gentile, as not to the church of God; so must we be towards them of a superstitious religion amongst us, as careful as towards one another, not to give any scandal, any just cause of offence. But what is to be called a just cause of offence towards those men? Good ends, and good ways, plain, and direct, and manifest proceedings, these can be called no scandal, no just cause of offence, to Jew, nor Gentile, to Turk, nor papist; nor does St. Paul intend that we should forbear essential and necessary things, for fear of displeasing perverse and peevish men. To maintain the doctrinal truths of our religion, by conferences, by disputations, by writing, by preaching, to avow, and to prove our religion to be the same, that Christ Jesus and his apostles proposed at beginning, the same that the general councils established after, the same that the blessed fathers of those times, unanimely, and dogmatically delivered, the same that those glorious martyrs quickened by their death,

3

2 Cor. vi. 3.
41 Cor. x. 31.
Rom. xiv. 15.

5 1 Cor. viii. 13. 71 Cor. x. 32.