make one son a Papist, another a Protestant. Excuse not your own levity, with so high a dishonour to the prince; when have you heard, that ever he thanked any man, for becoming a papist? Leave his doors to himself; the doors into his kingdom, the ports, and the doors in his kingdom, the prisons; let him open and shut his doors, as God shall put into his mind: look thou seriously to thine own doors, to thine own family, and keep all right there. A thief that is let out of Newgate is not therefore let into thy house; a priest that is let out of 'prison, is not therefore let into thy house neither: still it may be felony, to harbour him, though there were mercy in letting him out. Cities are built of families, and so are churches too; every man keeps his own family, and then every pastor shall keep his flock, and so the church shall be free from schism, and the state from sedition, and our Josiah preserved, prophetically for ever, as he was historically this day, from them, in whose pits, the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken. Amen.

SERMON CXXV.

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S CROSS, NOVEMBER 22, 1629.

MATTHEW Xi. 6.

And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

THESE are words spoken by our blessed Saviour, to two disciples, sent by John Baptist, then a prisoner, to inform themselves of some particulars concerning Christ. Christ, who read hearts, better than we do faces, and heard thoughts clearer than we do words, saw in the thoughts, and hearts of these men, a certain perverseness, an obliquity, an irregularity towards him, a jealousy and suspicion of him, and according to that indisposition of theirs he speaks to them, and tells them, This, and this only is true blessedness, not to be scandalized in me, not to be offended in

I see you are; but, as you love blessedness, (and there is no

other object of true love, but blessedness) establish yourselves in me, maintain in yourselves a submission, and an acquiescence to me, in my Gospel, suspect not me, be not jealous of me, nor press farther upon me, than I open and declare myself unto you, for, blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me.

The words have in them an injunction, and a remuneration; a precept, and a promise; the way, and the end of a Christian. The injunction, the precept, the way is, As you love blessedness, be not offended in me, be satisfied with me, and mine ordinances; it is an acquiescence in the Gospel of Christ Jesus: and the remuneration, the promise, the end, is blessedness; that, which, in itself, hath no end, that, in respect of which, all other things are to no end, blessedness, everlasting blessedness, blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me. In the first, Christ gives them first, if not an increpation, yet an intimation of our facility in falling into the passive scandal, the mis-interpreting of the words or actions of other men, which is that which our Saviour intends, by being offended in another; and blessed are they, in general, who are not apt to fall into this passive scandal, not subject to this facility of mis-interpreting other men. In a second branch in this first part, Christ appropriates this to himself, Blessed is he, whosoever is not scandalized, not offended in me; in which branch, we shall see, that the general scandal, and offence that the world took at Christ, and his Gospel, was, that he induced a religion that opposed the honours, and the pleasures, and the profit of this world: and these three being the triangle within our circle, the three corners, into which Satan, that compasses the world, leads us, (all is honour, or pleasure, or profit) because the Christian religion seemed to the world to withdraw men's affections from these, the world was scandalized, offended in Christ. But then, in a third consideration, we shall see, that Christ discerned in these two persons, these disciples of John, a passive scandal of another kind; not that Christ's Gospel, and the religion that he induced, was too low, too base, too contemptible, as the world thought, but that it was not low enough, not humble enough, and therefore John's disciples would do more than Christ's disciples, and bind themselves to a greater strictness and austerity of life, than Christ in his Gospel required. In

which third branch, we shall take knowledge of some disciples of John's disciples, in the world yet; and, (as for the most part it falls out in sectaries) of divers kinds and ways; for, we shall find some, who in an over-valuation of their own purity, condemn, and contemn other men, as unpardonable reprobates; and these are scandalized, and offended in Christ, that is, not satisfied with his Gospel, in that they will not see, that it is as well a part of the Gospel of Christ, to rely upon his mercy, if I have departed from that purity, which his Gospel enjoined me, as it is, to have endeavoured to have preserved that purity; and a part of his Gospel, as well to assist with my prayers, and my counsel, and with all mildness, that poor soul that hath strayed from that purity, as it is to love the communion of those saints, that have in a better measure preserved it; not to believe the mercy of God in Christ, after a sin, to be a part of the Gospel, as well as the grace of God for prevention before, not to give favourable constructions, and conceive charitable hopes of him, who is fallen into some sin, which I may have escaped, this is to be scandalized, to be offended in Christ, not to be satisfied with his Gospel; and this is one sect of the offspring of John's disciples. And the other is this, that other men thinking the Gospel of Christ to be too large a Gospel, a religion of too much liberty, will needs undertake to do more, than Christ, or his disciples practised, or his Gospel prescribed: for, this is to be offended in Christ, not to believe the means of salvation ordained by him, to be sufficient for that end, which they were ordained to, that is, salvation. And then, after all this, in a fourth branch we shall see, the way, which our Saviour takes to reclaim them, and to divest them of this passive scandal, which hindered their blessedness, which was, to call them to the contemplation of his good works, and of good works in the highest kind, his miracles; for, in the verse immediately before the text, (which verse induces the text) he says to them, You see the blind receive their sight, the lame go, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life. Christ does not propose, at least, he does not put all, upon that external purity, and austerity of life, in which, these disciples of John pretended to exceed all others, but upon doing good to others, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk. Which miracles, and great works of his,

our blessed Saviour sums up with that, which therefore seems the greatest of all, Pauperes evangelizantur, The poor have the Gospel preached unto them. Beloved, the greatest good that we, (we to whom the dispensation of the word of reconciliation is committed) can do, is, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to assist the poor, to apply ourselves by all ways, to them, whether they be poor in estate, and fortune, or poor in understanding and capacity, or poor in their accounts and dis-estimation of themselves, poor and dejected in spirit. And all these considerations, which, as you see, are many, and important, (first our general easiness to fall into the passive scandal, to be offended in others, to misinterpret others; and then the general passive scandal and offence that the world took at Christ, that he induced a religion incapable of the honours, or the pleasures, or profits of this world; and thirdly, the particular passive scandal that disaffected these disciples of John towards Christ, which was, that his Gospel enjoined not enough, and therefore they would do more, in which kind, we find two sects in the world yet, the offspring, and disciples of those disciples; and then lastly, the way that Christ took to reclaim and satisfy them, which was, by good works, and the best works that they that did them, could do, (for in himself it was by doing miracles, for the good of others, and preferring in his good and great works, the assisting of the poor) all these considerations, I say, will fall into our first part, as you love blessedness, be not scandalized, be not offended in me, which is the injunction, the precept, the way. And, when in our due order, we shall come to our second part, the remuneration, the promise, the end, blessedness, everlasting blessedness, I may be glad, that the time will give me some colour, some excuse of saying little of that, as I can foresee already, by this distribution, that we shall be forced to thrust that part into a narrow conclusion. For, if I had Methusalem's years, and his years multiplied by the minutes of his years, (which were a fair term) if I could speak till the angels' trumpets blew, and you had the patience of martyrs, and could be content to hear me, till you heard the surgite mortui, till you were called to meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds, all that time would not make up one minute, all those words would not make up one syllable, towards this eternity, the

period of this blessedness. Reserving ourselves therefore for that, to those few minutes which may be left, or borrowed, when we come to the handling thereof, pursue we first, those considerations which fall more naturally into our comprehension, the several branches of our first part; As you love blessedness, be not scandalized, be not offended in me.

First then our Saviour's answer to these disciples of John, gives us occasion to consider our inclination, our propenseness to the passive scandal, to be offended in others, to misinterpret the words and actions of others, and to lament that our infirmity, or perverseness, in the words of our Saviour, Væ mundo à scandalis, Woe to the world by reason of scandals, of offences: for, that is both a va dolentis, the voice of our Saviour lamenting that perverseness of ours, and væ minantis, his voice threatening punishments for that perverseness. For, Parum distat scandalizare, et scandalizari, says St. Hierome excellently; It is almost all one to be scandalized by another, as to scandalize another; almost as great a sin, to be shaked in our constancy, in ourselves, or in our charity towards others, as to offer a scandal to others. For, this va, this intermination of woe from our Saviour, is bent upon us, from three batteries; for, it is Væ quia illusiones fortes, Woe, because scandals are so strong in their nature, as that they shall seduce, if it be possible, the elect'; and then, Væ quia infirmi cos, Woe, because you are so weak in your nature, as that, though you receive the word, and receive it with joy, yet temporales estis, you may be but time-servers for all that, for, as soon as persecution comes, Ilico, continuo, scandalizamini, Instantly, presently, you are scandalized, offended; but especially, Væ quia prævaricatores, Woe be unto you, not because the scandals are so strong, not because you are so weak, but because you prevaricate against your own souls, because you betray yourselves, and make yourselves weaker than you are, you open yourselves too easily to a scandal, you assist a scandal, create a scandal, by your aptness to misinterpret other men's proceedings. Great peace have they that love thy law, says David': wherein consists this great peace? In this, non est illis scandalum, nothing scandalizes, nothing offends

1 Matt. xviii. 7.
Matt. xiii. 21.

2 Matt. xxiv. 32. Psalm cxix. 165.