THE CAUSE & CURE OF Offences: IN A DISCOURSE On MATTH. 18.7.  
BY R. Kingston, M. A. Prebendary of So ●. and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty.  1 Cor. 10.32. 
Give no offence to the Jew nor to the Gentile, nor to the Church of God.  Rom. 16.17. 
Mark them that cause diusions and offences, contrary to the Doctrine ye have learned, and avoid them.  
LONDON: Printed for Daniel Brown, at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-bar. 1682.   

To the Right Worshipful SAMUEL ASTRY Esq His Majesty's Coroner, and Attorney in His Majesty's Court of Kings-Bench, and one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Gloucester.  
SIR,  
THOUGH I have so deep a Resentment of those many & extraordinary Favours which you have been pleased to confer upon me, that I know it impossible to make any proportionable retaliation, and think it would be also more than a venial sin, to offer such a violence to Gratitude, as not to acknowledge them with all Thankfulness; yet I must assure you and all the World, the Arguments which prevailed with me for this Dedication, were fetched from Topics of a far different nature. The Discourse is of a Pious and Public Concernment, and therefore no other Patron could be more suitable, than one of such a Sober and Well-tempered Zeal, and that with such a prudent care of the Public Peace and common good adorn your Station, as all that know you must bear witness to.  
The Cure of Offences, and an endeavour to recover the Age from the Mischiefs of Misunderstanding & prejudice, and settle it in a harmonious peace, and united Devotion, will not go under any other Patronage, than of so Loyal a Subject to his Majesty, a hearty wellwisher to the Doctrine & Discipline of the Church of England, and one that by Inclination, as well as Authority, is an enemy to all that of malicious wickedness offend against either.  
Neither do I fear hereby to derive (from the most invidious person) any envy upon you, or the imputation of flattery upon myself; since it is a well-known Maxim, that Honour as a shadow flies the pursuer, but follows him close that flies from it: and among thankful men, Desert will sooner be descried where it obscures itself, and published with greater applause the less it is affected.  
Sir, If these few and unpolished Papers, that in all Humility and Thankfulness, and as a lasting Testimony of my due Respects I here offer to you, may be serviceable to the Public, in reducing Dissenters to a Venerable Esteem of our Church, and an unanimous embracing all its Holy Sanctions, I have accomplished my end; and hope to obtain your pardon for making use of your Name to countenance this honest Design: in confidence whereof, I shall never cease to implore the Blessings of Heaven for yourself, your Virtuous Consort, and all your hopeful Issue; and take leave to assume the Honour of being  
Worthy Sir, Your most Humble, Obedient, and thankful Servant, RICH. KINGSTON.   

THE CAUSE and CURE OF Offences.  St. MATTH. 18.7. 
Woe be to the man by whom the offence cometh.  
THE Disciples of the holy and blessed Jesus, hearing their Royal Master discourse of his Death and Passion, 
Mark 9.31.  like Alexander's Captains, every man looks for a Seignory: somebody they think must be Lord-Deputy on Earth, when Christ is gone to his Glory; 
34  and therefore ambitiously inquire, who should be the person dignified with superiority in that Kingdom of the Messiah, which they supposed would now be erected upon earth. One thinks his Merit shall prefer him; another, his Intimacy; another, his Affinity; another, his Seniority: but our Saviour, who knew their Thoughts, and understood their unwarrantable Designs was after worldly Gain, and secular Grandeur, drives them from that unhallowed inquest with Words and Signs too. First,  

35  With a Word of Admonishment, The greatest among you must be as one that serves: and unless they lowered those aspiring thoughts, and abandoned their ambition's designs after Greatness, they could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; they could not truly and indeed be his Disciples, or deserve the very name of Christians. As if he had said, Should your Gifts and Graces prefer you, should you obtain what you wish, and be the uppermost Garments in the mystical Body of Christ; yet may you not contemn or despise your Underlings. But on the contrary, the greater dignity you acquire, the more service will be expected; the larger portion of Favour is bestowed, the higher Obligation lies on you to be beneficial to others; for herein you comply with the grand design of eternal goodness, who is unwilling the meanest person on earth should be lost, that might with our indulgent and charitable methods be recovered to the knowledge and exercise of Godliness.  
The next warning is by a Sign. A little Child coming in his way, our Saviour sets him in the midst of his haughty followers; saying, Unless they became as little Children in their innocency and unconcernedness, Heaven was no place for them. As if he had thus reproved their sinful affectation of Dominion: You that aspire to the highest place in my Kingdom, if you persevere so diametrically opposite to the Laws of Christianity, the lowest Class will be too good for you. And lest such eminent Grandees should scorn to take their Copy from a Child's hand, he tells them in what esteem these Punies are with him; Receive a little one, (saith our Saviour) and you receive me: offend a little one, and you offend me. Beware then, whoever you are that pretend to belong to Christ, that you make not the fall of others, steps for yourselves to rise by: That being great men, or having advantage by Authority, or the luckiness of befriended Circumstances, that you wrong not, nor offend, the genuine Babes of Christ, and instead of a temporal Happiness, incur an endless Woe: For woe is to the man by whom the offence cometh.  
Which words are the denunciation of a sad Curse against those that scandalise or offend Christ's little ones: Yet notwithstanding our duty is so plainly explicated and represented in Gloss, and Case, by the several Commentaries of St. Paul upon this commination of our blessed Saviour; the words being misunderstood by the Ignorant, and misapplied by the Litigious, I hope it will not be thought waste of time to explain them.  
The Greek Grammarians tell us the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies the Prop or little piece of wood in a Trap or Pitfal, that supports the device, and being touched lets it fall; 
Aristoph. Suidas Lexic. voc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  but I suppose naturally hath a more general Notion, and signifies any thing that makes one halt, or limp, or that occasions a man to stumble or fall, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to halt, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such like; wherefore 'tis rendered sometimes a Stumbling-block, that which in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and St. Peter expresses by another Greek word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it denotes then any thing done by us, whereby another is hindered in his course of piety, in his way to Heaven. So that to scandalise or offend, is to discourage, grieve, or afflict them, to stagger, and make them doubtful in their thoughts of Religion; and by our Advice, or Example, to misled them from virtuous courses, and to encourage others in sinful practice.  
What this Woe or Curse was which our Saviour denounced against offenders, we may easily understand by taking our measures from the sixth Verse: For our Saviour could not meet with a Metaphor near home to express the horror of his indignation and resentment by: It seems the four Capital punishments used by the Jews, 〈◊〉 too ●aint colours to delineate his frightful figure with, and therefore borrows a word from the Syriac Tongue, whose custom it was in notorious cases to drown Malefactors; He that offends one of these little ones, (saith our Saviour) it were good for him that a Millstone was hanged about his neck, and be drowned in the depth of the Sea, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, when the repeating the same thing in two Synonymous words, much aggravates the sense. Thus Aristophanes his Scholiast informs us, that the Grecians when they inflicted this punishment, put a weight upon the criminals Neck: And our Saviour, to show how much he is offended at the offence given to his little ones, appoints the weight to be a Millstone of the largest size, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mola jumentaria, such a one as was usually turned about by the help of Asses, which might sink him to the lowest Abyss of misery.  
Now this being compared with the words of the Text, it acquaints us, that the heaviest Woe, the bitterest Curse, and the hottest place in Hell, is appointed for the man by whom the offence cometh. For though it must needs be that offences come, yet God's wise permission of them does not hinder his just vengeance upon them, as not laying any necessity upon the will of man, and consequently not lessening his Gild or penalty.  
St. Jerom hath told us, 
In Commentar. Matth. 18.  that this doom pointed at Judas alone, by whose sudden and traitorous Plot, as our Saviour forewarned, all should be offended. But what need we settle it upon one man, when the foregoing words tell us, that the whole world is full of offenders, full of offences; corporeal offences, which holy David was beset with, Traps, and Snares in his way; spiritual offences, which the Prophet Malachi spied, when men were made to stumble at Gods Law.  
These are of two sorts; active, or passive: active, of themselves, or by accident. Of themselves 〈◊〉 when the work and intent both 〈◊〉 vicious. So by accident, when a good work appears evil, or fails in some needful circumstance.  
Passive offences are taken or given. Given, by the broad offences of others: Taken, by our own Malice: One, the offence of the little ones; The other, the offence of the Pharisees. The one attended with a vae, the other with a Sinite: Woe be to those that give the little ones an offence; but if the Pharisee take an offence where none is given, woe be to himself.  
To lay open the terms in a word; the little one is a weak Christian; the offence, an obstruction or impediment in the way of his Salvation; the woe, an endless torment.  
Now to rive this great Block in sunder, we shall find several pieces big enough to stumble at; big enough to kindle an everlasting fire, to bring an everlasting woe upon us: whether we consider the deportment of our Tongues or our Lives, offences are given by both.  
I will begin with a mad Engine, that lies in a wet place, yet vomits fire. The venom of other creatures are in their Tail, but the poison of man is in his Tongue: There are men that have adders poison under their lips; 
Psal. 52.4.  whose sole employment is in mischievous words; giving a lose to a dangerous precipitancy, where they should use the curb of a religious restraint. St. James out of our own mouths will inform us, that the least part of ourselves gives the loudest report. The Tongue is a little Member, but boasteth great things. 
Jam. 3.5.  If the Soul be puffed up with haughtiness, it is the Tongue that speaketh proud things; and when the thoughts are conspiring into a Mutiny and close Rebellion, at last they burst out, With our Tongues we will prevail; who is Lord over us? 
Psal. 30.12.  To what unholy and irreligious purposes is that useful faculty of Speech perverted, and that which was designed for the benefit of Mankind, become the common disturber thereof? that we have great cause to conclude with St. James, If any man offend not in word, 
Jam. 3.2.  he is fit to be accounted in the number of those that can inoffensively govern the whole body. The fairest Garden is spoiled without an Hedge. Had our Grandmother Eve but sensed in her Tongue, she had not lost her Paradise, nor bequeathed the unhappy Legacy of sin and misery to her Posterity. Job obtained a victory over the Devil with silence: he that filled his body with Ulcers, could not blister his Tongue, nor exasperate that unruly member to charge his Creator foolishly. 'Tis the great policy of Satan, to continue our Vassalage by the same methods by which he first procured it, viz. a phrenetick Garrulity: we all fell, because Eve could not hold her peace; because she would say that to her Husband, she had not learned of her God. When broad chinks and cranneys are seen in the walls of our House, we begin to fear its downfall; and why do we not as well the fatal Prognostics of unclosed Mouths? How many Christian-souls have been crushed to death, yea, sunk down to Hell? How many a credulous Ear hath sucked offence in? how many Houses have fallen into discord and jars, for want of stopping up the gaping chinks and cranneys of a wide Mouth? But that I may be a little more particular, our Tongues are apt to offend, as in many others, so chief in these things; either in the broaching of error, or the concealment of truth, or in the rash publication of it; by vile Calumny, by corrupt Counsel, by Flattery, or by Filthiness.  
You see what a large Field I am got into, and how many stones of offence lie about it: and though Solomon says, He that removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; 
Eccles. 10.9  yet I go on to prepare the way of the Lord and his little ones; beseeching you all to remember that you are not at a Musick-lecture, to have your Ears tickled; but at the Chair and Tribunal of Christ, to have your offences arraigned, to have your lives bettered. And now as I have been always careful not to give offence by making a satire on any religious Party, the same method I shall still pursue, as far as it consists with my duty towards God, the peace and quiet of his Church, and the discharge of my own Conscience.  
In the rank of offensive Tongues, I will first present you with the false Prophet, the teacher of Lies, which causeth many unstable Souls to err from the faith once delivered to the Saints; the Priests (saith Malachi) are departed out of the way, and then no wonder that the People stumble at God's Law: some fat gobbet those spiritual Guides step aside for, and care not whom they misled for company. When Physicians design to purge a Sucking-child, they command the Nurse, and not the Child to take the Potion, that with more safety in the Nurse's Milk the Child may receive the benefit of the Medicine. The Devil is no less skilled in poisoning the Babes of Christ; for thus the two great Clerks of Rome, the voluminous Cardinals, and their succeeding Jesuits, have infused corrupt Articles into our common Creed, have taught people to shake off obedience to their lawful Sovereign, and to expect Wreaths of Martyrdom for bloody Assassinatious. 'Tis true indeed, they call us Heretics, and charge us with Schism in departing from their Communion; but these calumnies will easily be blown off, and like bullets shot against Heaven, fall upon their own heads: for we withdrew not from them, till they gave the offence by departing from the Catholic Faith. And to prove this, I need no other testimony than their Tridentine Creed, which in those Articles wherein they differ from the Church of England, is neither true, ancient, nor Catholic, but an entire Apostasy from it, and without controversy, is the most Catholic, and greatest Heresy in the Christian-world. View it first in their Doctrine of Transubstantiation; an Opinion that upon due examination and choice, no man can embrace without reproaching his Maker and Redeemer, by renouncing his very Reason and outward Senses: For to make me believe that to be Flesh which I see and taste is Bread, is to turn fool or madman; and for an unwarrantable Faith, forfeit both my Reason and Sense: and by the same reason they would justify this fond and absurd Notion, a man may as well believe the Picture of a man to be the man himself. If the Church of Rome would lay aside their Fire and Faggot, (the strongest argument that ever yet they brought to prove it) and tell us which of Christ's Bodies it is that is corporeally in the Sacrament, whether his glorified, or not glorified body, and clear it from all those monstrous absurdities which that opinion is guilty of, they would greatly oblige us; for till they have done this, they must give us leave to believe it a real and substantial contradiction.  
And notwithstanding God's solemn prohibition against the worship of Images delivered in fire, with Thunder and Lightning, on the Mount; 
Deu. 27.15  yet in a direct opposition, the Church of Rome command under dreadful anathemas, that religious worship be given to them. 
Jo. Azor. tom. 1. lib. 9 c. 6.  Aquinas says, that the same Worship is to be given to the Image of Christ, as to Christ himself: 
Sum. par. 3. q. 25. art. 3.  And this is avouched by Pedro de Cabrera super loc. to be the Doctrine of their whole Church, and the contrary to be heretical. 
Zac. Bovir par. 2. reg. 1. p. 189.  Thus impudently sacrilegious dare they be, though the Scripture saith, Cursed be all they that worship graven Images, and boast themselves of Idols. 
Deut. 27.15.   
Again, the Church of Rome forbids the use of the sacred Oracles to Laics, 
Concil. Trident. 22. Sess. c. 8. 9 Canon. Ind. expur. regul. 5.  and hath therefore placed the holy Bible in the front of prohibited Books, and Anathematised all those that should dare to translate it into any Language vulgarly intelligible: and to strengthen this ungodly Decree, the Sons of that Church have superadded many slight and undervaluing expressions, tending to lessen the esteem of God's holy Word. One tells us, that if the Scriptures were not strengthened by the authority of the Church, they were of no more value than Aesop's Fables. 
Vid. Chemnit. exam. de S. Canon, p. 47.  Another of their Authors (enriched with the same brazen modesty) says, that the people were permitted to read God's Word, was the invention of the Devil! 
Peris. de tradit. par. assert. 3.  Blush O Heavens, and be astonished O Earth, at such daring impieties! Tell it not in Gath, nor in the Streets of Askelon, lest whole Christianity be stigmatised for a delusion, through the wickedness of those that bear the world in hand they are the only Catholic Christians.  
The Doctrine of deposing Kings, disposing their Kingdoms, and authorising Subjects to destroy their lawful Sovereign, they not only stoutly deny even to death, but accuse us of scandalising both them and their Religion, in charging the act of one man as a blemish on the whole Church. And for the more credit to their charge, they vapour with a Decree of the Council of Constance, which (as they say) forbids the murder of Crowned Heads. 
Concil. Const. Sess. 15.  'Tis true, by this Council the Murder of Kings is covertly forbidden, but tacitly implied; for it only makes the horrid act unlawful, where it wants the Judge's Sentence: But if his Holiness, or any General of an Order, sentence them, it renders the proditorious act not only Lawful, but Meritorious. And that this was but the opinion of one man, viz. Mariana, is a grand mistake; for 'tis a Doctrine taught in their Schools, justified by their Practices, and maintained in their Writings, as might be made appear from Ribadenira, Becanus, Windects, Stapleton, and the rest of that lawless herd of Ignatian Casuists: Nay, 'tis a Doctrine whose bloody hand can never be concealed, nor the stain washed off from their Church, whilst the triumphant Oration of Pope Sixtus the Fifth continues extant in the world, which he made to his Cardinals in the Consistory upon the barbarous Assassination of Henry the Third of France, after he was stabbed to death by Clement a Dominican Friar, assimilating it with the mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection, and with the acts of Judeth and Eleazar. Again,  
When Gerrard designed the Murder of the Prince of Orange, he had encouragement, and blessing, from the Warden of the Friars at Tourny; and the Jesuit his Apologist, says, That Gerrard did that deed, pour la bien de vertu!  
Campian the Jesuit, having Command from Rome, and associated by William Parry, conspired the death of Queen Elizabeth.  
Gordon, Chreiton, and Abercany, Jesuits, plotted the death of King James; and this traitorous design was forwarded by two Breves from Clement the Eighth: and Cardinal Bellarmin calls Garnet, and his fellow Oldcorn, Martyrs, and for such are Registered in the Jesuits Catalogue of Martyrs, Printed at Rome, 1607. Of these sanguinary Attempts, I could give you instances usque ad nauseam; but for the present let these suffice.  
What hath been said, I hope is sufficient to prove, that their bloody Tenent of King-killing, is not the Opinion of one man only, but that some of all Orders in that Church have been guilty of it; and though Charity may incline me to believe, that many Loyal persons of the Romish persuasion, do abhor those Jesuitical principles and practices, yet the Pope, nay, the whole Church cannot be acquitted, till they have punished those Churchmen of his, who have publicly abetted such treasonable Conspiracies, censured Mariana's, and such other Books as have commended Regicides, to the great scandal of Religion; and by his Pontifical decree, provided better for the safety of Kings, than his College of Jesuits have: for till this be done, and they have given us as many years' experience of their Loyalty, as they have of their Treachery, 'twill be of dangerous consequence to believe them innocent: For what faith, or trust, can be reposed in those men, whose Church persuades them to be wicked, and covers all their hellbred Contrivances under the umbrello of Religion, which does nothing else but give scandal to it, and bring upon themselves an endless Woe?  
Now having done with these kill Nurses, I could gladly break off this unsavoury Theme, but that there is another Sect amongst us, whose Poisonous Doctrines are as baneful if we take not heed: 'Tis one of the present Troubles we groan under; a proud company of male-contented Babblers (who are Priests of their own making, and the sictitious Idols of abused Fancies), having imbibed Seditious principles, from them unwary Zealots have sucked not the Sincere milk of the Word, I will be bold to say, but a poisoned dose of Schism and Prejudice. Thus the Stars fall from Heaven, the waters below are turned into wormwood, and the drinkers die. What mischievous offences have overspread the bosom of great Britain? What splenative rage, and opprobrious words, are cast on the face of Authority? What stumbling-blocks are daily thrown out, to check harmonious Peace, and united Devotion, since troublesome, rebellious, and testy Spirits were both indulged and applauded!  
'Tis now grown a necessary point of Purity, to muzzle Assemblies into Schism and Faction, to snivel out a demure Lie, instead of a holy Doctrine, to vent a Libel instead of a Use, to bring in suspicion that Thames and Tiber have joined Channels, and that our Government, Rites, and Liturgy, are wholly Romish, or Antichristian. With this sour milk the Babes of Christ are publicly fed, and yet the Nonconforming Presbyters would be thought no Offenders.  
The boisterous Thunders of Heaven strike not the top of Olympus; but saucy Seducers are now found, that fear not to blast the height of Majesty, overthrew the Seats of Superiority, and tear Allegiance out of the people's hearts; and instead of casting St. Peter's Net into the wild lusts of Mars, translate the blessed Gospel of Peace into the iron language of Blood and War, Trouble and Discord. Truly however such clamorous Zealots boast of the certainty of their Election, Christ hath marked them with a woe of rejection. Woe to those barbarous Pilat's that mingle blood with their Sacrifices; Woe to those furious sampson's that must have multitudes to perish with them; Woe to the Seducing Prophet, by whom the offence comes.  
But truth as well as error may occasion an offence; good Counsel, like the Peach-tree, may bring forth poisonous fruit in one place, and wholesome in another. The messages of Heaven are oft compared to showers of rain, which falling in due season makes a plentiful year; but scarcity follows unseasonable showers: That which in one place avails, in another annoys; it inricheth our fields, but dirtieth our streets. Woe be to those Clouds (saith Bernard) that send such showers, as make foul work among us, but bring forth no Fruit.  
A word spoken in due season, and sit place, hath an excellent savour; but when both these are wanting, the audience goes away worse. Among others, there are three ways of giving offences, even in the publication of Truth. 

1. Either by scrupulous Doctrine,  
2. By bitter Rebukes, or  
3. By personal Invectives.    
First, We have some that while they would be thought Solid, do indeed prove but saucy Divines; on all occasions they are rushing into the hidden Secrets of God, and perplex their weak people with the thorny mysteries of Election and reprobation; a doctrine which is fitly ranked among those things that profit being unknown: Not that I deny, but there may be excellent matter drawn from such high Points; but the Brain must use her knowledge, as she doth her spittle, and vent no more of it, than may stand with the body's welfare. The bright countenance of Moses was veiled, when he was to deal with the people, whose benefit he preferred before his own applause. It were far better men obscured the light of their knowledge and learning, than that they should display it to affright others, or dote about questions that breed envy and evil surmises. There are in our Religion several Mysteries, and holy Scripture contains many things above the reach of our quickest Capacities; and in nothing more men give offences, than in going about to explain Mysteries, and give an account of such things, which themselves acknowledge to be incomprehensible. And this is not my opinion only, but (what some men will think strange) 'tis Mr. Calvin's also: for at the close of his Doctrine of decrees, he advises Ministers to be very wary of proposing this Doctrine to the people, for fear of giving them offence and disturbance: For if a man (saith he) should come into a Congregation, and thus bespeak them: Friends and Christians, I am here sent to you to preach the Gospel; but I must acquaint you aforehand, that there are but two or three among you, those (that are the Elect) that are like to be ever the better for my Ministry; and as to the rest of you, there's Horribile Decretum, a dreadful Bar in your way, that all the Preaching in the world can do you no good; and the Ordinances of Christ, apply to them as you will, can never prove available to your Salvation: His hearers would run out of the Church, and cry the man were out of his Wits. This just resentment was extorted from the Geneva-Oracle, by an ingenious reflection on his own Scheme, and the unhappy consequence he foresaw it would produce; and I hearty wish his caveat might be observed by his followers. For certainly it would conduce more to the Glory of God, and the Interest of Christianity, if men would let those things that are mysterious remain so, and employ themselves in promoting Justice, Honesty, and serious Devotion; and instead of reprobating one another into the Regions of darkness, to do offices of love and friendship one towards another, and adorn the Doctrine of our Saviour by our mutual goodwill, and serviceableness to our brethren.  
Secondly, Public Rebukes, (unless like Jonathans' Rod they be dipped in honey) offend all. The rough hands of Esau were unfit for Superiority. Sinners like blind men must be led gently, not haled by violence. What gets the Merchant by a Tempest? Who had not rather drink at a sweet Fountain, than a brinish Sea? who raises a fallen man, that bows not himself down? sleeper's ought to be waked gently: for as frightful and violent rousing have driven many into wild Lunacies; so wounded and broken hearts are cast into despair, profane ones into fury and virulence, by the offensive harshness of a bitter reprover. St. Chrysostom observes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That too unreasonable, or importunate reproof, is apt to make the Sinner first shameless, and then obdurate.  
In the List of the Beatitudes, we are to be first Meek, and then Merciful: we must be merciful to the Soul of our brother; but we must have the Spirit of meekness in ourselves first. To correct other men's offences in anger, is to be guilty of greater than theirs. How have those grim Orators forgot this, that vomit nothing but fire and brimstone! that breath nothing but judgement and condemnation! that thus unadvisedly scare distressed souls from the door of Christ's mercy! The Jews have a saying, It were better we were cold in our graves, than we should make our brother pale in a public assembly: Our reproofs are allowed to glow with the ardent desires of our Neighbour's reformation; but if we suffer them to grow so hot as to blister the skin of his Reputation, it is reproaching, not reproving. God Almighty, I am sure, hath a quarrel to those rigorous masters, that have not strengthened the diseased, not healed the sick, nor bound up that which was broken; 
Eze. 34.4.  but instead of a pious condescension to their Infirmities, have by bitter taunts encouraged them to presume, or frighted them to desperation.  
Thirdly, Personal invectives offend all: our blessed Lord brought not his Traitor upon the stage in public view, but deciphers him in general terms, One of you shall betray me. St. Paul would have his Timothy to rebuke and entreat all; but gives him no commission by a particular reflection to scandalise any. We are Fishermen, and must cast in a common bait, without design to wound any single person in the common esteem; lest instead of reforming his vices, we give him a real offence, and make the sore rankle worse for being vanned with the public Air. How ill-becoming is it then in our low-spirited predicants, that choose a Text on purpose to begin a brawl! and Raise a Doctrine to revenge some Peccadillo on their silent Auditors! This is to Preach ourselves, and not Christ, and him crucified; to bring into contempt God's sacred Ordinance, and to make the more serious part of our discourses to be slighted, for blending our little quarrels with the holy message, and driving on some design of our own, under the mask of a more holy Employment. One would think the foolishness of this Vice might obstruct a further progress: For it neither procures us Friends, nor removes our Feuds; but on the contrary, enrages our enemies, and makes them assume an unjust defence, rather than fall under a just shame. In whatsoever Sphere we move, 'tis good neither to by't nor fawn, but rather subscribe to him that said, Nolo minor me timeat, despiciatur major. An even and humble carriage to all men, especially whilst dispensing the sacred Word, makes men look like Ambassadors of Christ, and such whose Religion is not vain, spending itself in idle & frivolous taunts, but is circumscribed within the bounds of Charity, that will neither hear nor speak any thing that may directly occasion an Offence.  
Our blessed Saviour restraining the hostility and murder of the Tongue, threatens hellfire to them that call their brother fool. Meaning, that all language which does really, and by intention, disgrace him in the greater instances, is as directly against the Charity of the Gospel, as killing a man was against the Justice and Severity of the Law: And although the Word itself way be used to reprove the indiscretions and careless follies of an idle person; yet it must be used only in order to his amendment, by an authorised person, and within the limits of a just reproof, upon just occasion, and so as may not do him mischief in the event of things. And though some men justify their personal rebukes, from examples in Scripture, as from our Saviour calling his Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish, and St. James using 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain man, the same in signification with the forbidden Raca; and St. Paul calling the Galatians mad, foolish and bewitched; and Christ calling Herod Fox, etc. Yet is their practice not warranted hereby, unless it be done in the some manner, and with the same mind: if it be for correction and reproof toward persons deserving it, and by persons whose authority can warrant it, and this be done prudently, safely, and usefully, it is not contumely; but when men upon all occasions revile an offending person, lessenning, souring his spirit and his life, despising his infirmities, tragically expressing his lightest Misdemeanour, being tyrannically declamatory and intolerably angry for a trifle: These are such who, as Apollonius the Philosopher said, will not suffer the offending person to know when his fault is great, and when 'tis little: For they who always put on a Supreme anger, or express the least anger with the highest reproaches, make no difference between him that robs a House, and him that breaks a Glass. Non plus oequo, non diutius oequo, was a good rule for reprehension of sinners. He that reproves too long, does reproach and harden the Offender; he that does it too bitterly, betrays his own anger, and is guilty of railing; if too loud, he is immodest; if too public, he is unmanly; and if too personal, he is imprudent, for no clamorous person can be wise. The cure of which evil consists in following St. Paul's Exhortation, Let all bitterness and clamour be put away. Spare the person, but not the sin; for he carries a witness in his bosom, that tells him he is the man against which the arrow of reproof is shot; whereas the opposite dealing will rather shame the sinner, than amend him. Who increpanti, Woe to the bitter reprover by whom the offence comes.  
Fourthly, Yea, and non increpant too; our very silence may give an offence: But one Erring man is winked at, saith Origen, and the whole Church is wounded. What mercy is this, to dispense with one, and to destroy all! How  is all Israe● punished for the fault of one Acha●… Concealed enormities imply a permission that encourageth to perpetration; and now that which might have been blown away with a word is grown a rooted example. Suc● Prophets had Jury in Isaiahs' time that smoothed up the people in lyese Prophets that should have bee● Heads, and indeed were nothing bu● Tails; nothing but tails to cover filthiness: 
Isai. 9.15.  Or as Ezekiel amplifie● 
Ezek. 13.4.  that homely Character, They were grown Foxes with great tails, as sit as could be to hid or wipe away the noisomeness of a sinning people, as Foxes with their dangling singles do their filth, that they may not be scented by their loud threatening enemies. O Mercenary wretch, saith St. Augustin, thou sawest a Wolf endangering the Flock of Christ, and runnest away! How ran I away? will some old Levite reply, that sticks faithfully to his Glebe and vails; why, here I live, here am I Canonically resident; how do I run away? That Father will tell you, you are then fled, when your lips are sinfully closed; when either to keep a commodious friend, or to shun a furious enemy, some lewd man shall be let alone in his impieties. How many luxurious wantoness might have been chaste and regular? How many in whom the sparkling Canary hath drowned Reason and Grace, might have start up rigid Patterns of Temperance and Sobriety! How many gripple Mammonists might have become renowned Miracles of Bounty, if some holy and wholesome tongue had given a timely assault, and come in to the rescue of the precious Image of God, so miserably defaced by an unchristian connivance? But on the contrary, that which is our shame, and should be our sorrow, we suffer God's Name to be dishonoured and blasphemed, Christ's body to be torn and mangled afresh with Oaths, and his truth impaired with impious Absurdities, yet never open our mouths in their vindication! What preposterous madness is this! should our friends Coat but sit disorderly on his back, we would presently rectify the immodish error: But his life is wretchedly debauched and dissolute, and we never stop him in this dangerous Career. Is not the Soul of more worth than the Raiment? this at most but an unfashionable blemish, but the other fearful and extremely perilous. Might not the Jew suffer the beast of his Neighbour to fall and perish; and shall we suffer the Soul of our brother to be undone to all eternity? God forbidden; let us rather by good advice, snatch them as brands out of the fire. And this is a duty not confined to those of the Ministerial Function only, who must needs want the frequent and requisite opportunities, but indispensibly incumbent upon all men who fear God, and wish the good of humane Souls.  
Easy observation will make it apparent, that the neglect of this Duty hath caused the greatest degeneracy in Christianity, and made Religion esteemed the most inconsiderable part and end of our lives: That general remissness visibly in Piety, is chief, if not wholly, to be attributed to this sort of slavish Compliance, which even Conscientious men are too apt to admit of, in relation to other men's vices; by which they receive a currant stamp and approbation, whilst a prudent reproof would certainly work a Shame, if not a Conviction in the sinner. Now this unfriendly and unchristian Custom, is usually warranted upon the pretended Civility of the Age, and Freedom of conversation, which allows every man an  privilege of living his own life: And then it must be no less than rudeness and impertinence, to introduce any religious Cautions. Indifferency here makes the best company; and any reluctant dislike of Sin, spoils and disturbs it: And so Christ himself must now be excluded, as an unfit Companion for Publicans and Sinners. All concern for his Honour must out of civility be disclaimed, even by his own followers, because to the Jew he is a stumbling blook, and to the Greek Philosopher foolishness. As the transcendent Graces and Gifts of Gods holy Spirit are almost leveled with moral Virtues, so those Gospel-duties, such as the fear of death could never yet dispense with, must now be restrained and limited, by the rules of a pretendedly civil, i. e. a licentious Conversation. Nay, so far has this endearing and obliging humour prevailed, that men are afraid to stand up in the Cause of God, lest they should affront his Enemies; but must live in constant rebellion to their own Consciences, on the petty obligation of Civility and Manners falsely so called: Whereas according to the rule of good Manners, that is certainly th● highest rudeness, to dare to appea● irreligiously in the sight of them tha● have by a solemn and sacred Vo● engaged themselves in a contrary Profession. For as in civil matters, to conceal Treason includes an equal guilt, and is obnoxious to the same punishment with the actual offence: So in this case also, he that does not reprehend a sinner, is little less than a cringing assistant to another's debauchery. For shame therefore, my brethren, let it not be said of you, that you love the Society of wicked Wretches, better than the blessed Fellowship of Angels; and that you had rather hear your God and Saviour abused, than disturb your hellish company: and will hazard the damnation of your souls, out of Courtship to the Devil, rather than be counted absurd among unreasonable men. It was this filled the soul of Isaiah with amazement and horror, if the Fathers construe him right: Woe unto me, saith that generous Seer, because I am a man of unclean lips: 
Isai. 6.5.  He cannot praise God with the singing Seraphim, saith Jerom, because his lips are unclean, and their foulness arose from hence, that they had not faithfully reproved wicked Vzziah. All Ely's personal holiness is eclipsed with the guilt of those heinous Transgressions he winked at.  
The Prophet Hosea exhibits a complaint against a sort of Priests, Cannibals rather, that eat up the sins of the people: 
Hos. 4.8.  for as the Viands we eat, after a short digestion become our own flesh and blood; so the Sins of the people which we smother and palliate, being thus swallowed, become our own. The sacred Ministers of Justice, in what Orb soever they shine, will easily apprehend how much this Lesson concerns them, especially in this dismal Juncture of public affairs; and permit me (not as an imperious Dictator, but) as an humble Suppliant, to ●ntreat you to remember that the sins of others, which you labour not within your powers to prevent, are yours in the guilt, as well as those of your own personal commission: and the exercise of Lenity in grand Enormities, brings a woe upon your own heads For to justify the Wicked, and condemn the Righteous, are both alike to God Have a care therefore, you earthly gods, that you give no Indulgence o● Countenance to that generation of Vipers, that would be poisoning the Cups of sacred Monarches, and thrusting their stings into the innocent hearts of merciful Princes, or sucking the Royal blood of their lawful Sovereigns. And as you have any love or regard for that Religion which is pure and peaceable, truly Ancient, Catholic and Apostolic; or any abhorrency to that enchanting City fully of Idolatry, Superstition and Blasphemy; any concern for the safety of his Majesty's Person, Crown and Dignity, and your own Freedom and Property, that you would vex those Midianites that trouble you with their wiles; and correct those Amalekites which conspire the ruin of our Israel, and endeavour once more to make England, Issachar like, couch under the burden of a Romish or Fanatic Vassalage, 'Tis as manifest as the Sun on the Meridian, that the mischief, intended is acted with two hands, (as the Prophet most emphatically), the best of which is a Briar, and the most righteous of them sharper than a Thorn-hedge; 
Mic. 3.4.  which gives us cause to implore the assistance of both arms against them, the strength of the Brachium seculare, to be added to our weaker Ecclesiastical coertions, to manacle those mighty men in outrageous Wickedness, who every where confront not us, but God, in open Rebellion or private Treachery, in a Conclave or a Conventicle. Doth the Sun in his imagined Progress meet with Constellations full of venom and irregularity? their hurtful malice is corrected by his beneficial Rays: Doth he meet with benign and temperate Planets? they have strength and influence added to them by that Superior Light. What do we look for from the Superior Powers, but the approbation & encouragement of the virtuous Stars, and the Cure and Correction of the Malignant? And here I cannot but complain of those Stumbling-blocks that stop the course of Justice; Our Constable's Assize and Session blanks, and our Churchwardens Visitation bilks: Oh abominable partiality! they that are always inveighing against the Times, to indulge the petulancy of a mistaken Zeal; and come forth all the year with eager Complaints against those that sit at the Helm; they that are daily bellowing out their Discontents, and arraigning their Governors failings; they that find all things amiss in the management of public affairs; when themselves are inspected (and it lies in their power and office, by virtue of the solemn Oath of God, to redress these grievances, by presenting the Offenders to the cognizance of their Superiors) like surly Elephants endure no representment of their ugliness, not the least aspersion of a disorder. Abroad in the Church or State, they will tell you nothing is right; but on their own dunghills, in their own Parishes, or Constableries, omnia bene, all is as it should be. Thus these poor Officers plunge themselves into Perjury, for fear of some frowning Sir; and disoblige their Consciences, because they will not displease their Neighbours; and by concealing past offences, bring them into a custom, which no vigilance can remove. Who silenti, woe to the silent Tongue by whom the offence comes.  
Fifthly, And now Calumny follows with her mouth full of Poison, ready to blast and offend all. As Timothy's Pipe enkindled the rage of the fight Macedonians, so spleen and hatred are stirred up, with the railing accents of a malevolent Tongue. The spies of Canaan, as an honest Rabbin observes, did but discredit the trees and the ground, and the stonewalls, and a thousand mischiefs ensued: how many evils may we then think do they bring on themselves and others, who sharpen their tongues to wound and disgrace men! When our Saviour asked his Disciples what men were wont to say of him, had they been addicted to the vice of raising quarrels, they might a replied, One calls you a Demoniac, another a Samaritan, another a Wine-bibber; these are the goodly Characters you get from a thankless people: But these harsh and approbrious titles are kept from his ear; they tell him nothing but their good words; One calls you John Baptist, another Jeremy, another some great Prophet. The lips of Christ's Spouse are like a thread of Scarlet; yea, indeed, like that Scarlet thread which Rahab tied to her window, not to strangle any, but save all. The lips of a true Christian are tied with such threads as prevent mischief, but breed none. It would be well done of our shrill Dames, and imperious Women, to think a little on Rahab, and keep their houses unhurt with the Scarlet thread of silence and modesty. We should not then have our ears filled, and our hearts wounded with domestical brawls; we should not have groundless and rancorous tales so currant among us; we should not have every small spark made a mountain of Aetna, if this Scarlet thread of Silent and Modesty Charity were but religiously fastened to the door of our lips. But Grave and Good men, for aught I see, are as ready to over-lash, as that weak Sex; and let me tell them, such offences are worst. A ball of wool or leather hurts not where it lights; but a bullet spit with violence from the mouth of a Canon, causes Towers and Bulwarks to moulder into dust: So men of gravity being once heard to bolt out rash and unjust Verdicts, the weak Christians that cannot judge must needs stumble. How hath the cankered mouths of some demure Levites, who had first got a reputation of singular Sanctity, blasted the face and form of our renowned Church, inflam'd people's hearts with a rude and spiteful Opinion of the Reverend Prelates set over them! How have these great Wheels set the lesser a going, that now too many Families are become houses of Inquisition, when every Notched Idiot will as freely as falsely talk of those men, in whose awful presence 'twould be sauciness for them to speak at all without permission. The Bible these holy Railers seem to hug, hath told them, if a Ruler be reproached, a bird of the air (which Hugo the Cardinal thinks is an evil spirit) shall accuse them of it; and that if they inure their Tongues to speak evil of Dignities, and despise Dominions, they are filthy dreamers, not true Disciples. Our Lord hath put cases of an offending eye, and hand, and foot, but we hear nothing of an offending head; That, says Cajetan, challengeth more regard, than to be profaned by any vulgar breath, or to be censured by any thing under Heaven. How much then they are to be reproved, that in their Conventicles set their lungs to sale to encourage Sedition, and promote a new Rebellion by justifying the last; I leave it to God and their own Consciences to judge: but it makes me very suspicious they are of the same spirit with Diotrephes; (for there is a strange temptation in being a Head, or Ruler, though but of a Faction) and that their constant belching such malicious words, disloyal glances, and uncharitable reflections against their lawful Superiors, proceeds from that ambitious love they have to Pre-eminence; which slains their Zeal with such an aversion to those Humilities and due Submission they own to others.  
Methinks 'tis mischief enough in the busy tales of Detraction, that ill opinions are bred by it, Unkindness fostered, Charity quenched, and Jarrs raised that many times end in Blood, that we need not add to it the displeasure of an enraged Deity. Solomon tells us, There are six things the Lord hates, and the seventh he counts a foul abomination. Pride and Bloodiness, and wicked Imaginations, were hateful enough; but there is yet a worse, a more abominable thing, a scandalous Babbler, a sour of Discord among brethren: this shall be laid in our dish in that terrible Judgement, that we sat like grim Judges, and spoke harshly against our brother, and slandered our mother's son. This is a fruitful, though a foolish Vice. For through the help of the Devil, and our corrupt Nature, whensoever we have a mind to throw dirt at one another, there is enough to be found in every street. The Apostle tells us, In some things we offend all. Which renders it the greast imprudence imaginable, for him that hath a house made of glass, to throw stones at his neighbour's windows, when the slightest requital will quickly demolish the brittle Fabric of his own Reputation. 
Alterius dictum aut factum ne carpseris unquam  
Exemplo simili ne te derideat alter.  And however we set a grave look upon it, as if we had done nothing amiss; however our own Oracles please us; however we rise up from our garrulous Bench, forgetting the mischief is done both to the audience and accused; Yet the severe Judge of Heaven and Earth will call us to a strict account, and make us at last see the foulness of that Vice we accounted none; and then voe detrahenti, Woe be to that man by whose detracting tongue the offence comes.  
Sixthly, Pernicious counsels are Offences of the Tongue also, and as gross and spreading as any. Sin is then grown to a fearful height, when it delights to spread its infection; when the lewd man takes up his seat in the Chair of Pestilence; when like a Doctor of the Chair, those evils that he practiseth himself, he seeks to teach others. The Spirit of God finds fault with the Church of Pregamus, that she had a sort of men that held the Doctrine of Balaam; upon the naming of which, some will think, saith Origen, there were some in St. Judes' time that studied the Black Art, some profound Wizzards that pretended the hidden skill of that old Serpent. No, that man teacheth the Doctrine of Balaam, that follows his example in persuading unwary souls to the commission of scandalous Actions. It was Balaams bad counsel, that laid the fair women of Moab as stumbling-blocks before the People of God. Seducing persuasions, which either stumble us in the ways of Goodness, or lead us into a vicious course, (and so pull the wrath of God on our heads) these are the Doctrines of Balaam. Thus the Serpent seduced Eve, and she Adam: Thus Solomon's wives turn his heart from God, and crafty Achitophel puts Incest into Absalon's head: Thus a litigious wretch that hath undone himself in Suits of Law, lies like a gloing coal ready to kindle others; for none proves a deeper knave, than a spent fool. Thus the corrupted Advocate puts Lies and Perjury into his Client's mouth, for the maintenance of an unjust Cause. Thus furious Revengers bring in Seconds, to imbrue their hands in blood: Thus Country- Tiplers are grown Rashers and Anchova's to one another: Thus one Sacrilegious Cormorant, the Bell-wether of the Parish, encourages another, and he a third, to a concealment of the Churches due! How fearful and lamentable is it to conceive what a deal of this scandalous Ware is openly vended in City and Country! How the gripple Shopman nurture's his Apprentice in a Trade of Lies: how the ravenous Cheater draws on his landed Novice to Dice and Drabs: How one cries out with Solomon's Ruffler, Come, let us take our fill of love till the day break: another, Come, let us lay wait for blood: another, Let us lurk privately to undo the Innocent; let us join purses, and find out the strong drink, and continue till night at the wine-boles.  
How would the King take it, should War and Tumul arise, to have his own Guard enticed from him, to serve on the Enemy's side! we are by Baptism become of the household and retinue of God, and shall we make it our study to pluck his Servants away from him, to corrupt his household with traitorous counsels, and persuade them to serve on his Enemy's side, and not look for a furious revenge, not so much as a rebuke from our Minister's mouth? Truly 'twould be wellpleasing to us, that we might always come to you as the gracious Heralds of Peace: But Christ Jesus hath given us an example, to thunder in such a Case as this, to ring it aloud in the terrible Ruffians ear, Who male consulenti, Woe be to the man by whose pernicious counsel the offence comes.  
Seventhly, How have I forgot that tempting Siren, whose enchanting Songs lulls incautious Mariners into a sound sleep, while their Vessel splits upon a Rock! That crafty Panther, whose odoriferous breath enticeth herds of  after him to their own destruction; I mean the smooth and flattering Tongue, by which the Offence comes. As the Shellfish is mounted aloft in the eagle's Pounces, to be shattered with the greater fall: So frail men are highly extolled by their pickthanks, but 'tis to tumble them down into a depth of Sin. The precious balms of ungodly men have a secret dose of Poison in the composition; that Oleum peccati & Oleum veneni, are used promiscuously in the Hebrew Dialect. Now as dogs pursue their game best, when the huntsman excites them to sport and courage with his voice: so wicked men run more eagerly into vicious courses, when they are encouraged to it by their obsequious Flatterers. 'Tis now nicknamed a point of good Manners, a token of Humility and Gentleness, to sooth and applaud men in Vice and Vanity: and he that basely stoops not to those inhuman appliances, shall be reported Proud, Peevish, and Envious. But know your friends, know your enemies better, whosoever you are that love to be tickled with the glozing tongues of parasitical observers. To steal our Houshold-provision were a gross theft; but to be robbed of our Seed-corn, was a worse damage. What are our inward affections, but seminaries of all the goodness can be derived from us? Now these affections are stolen and spoiled, when oily tongues, to endear themselves, & patch up the rents in tattered fortunes, shall so egregiously abuse us, as to think well of our own enormities, and pursue what we should most abhor. What can mischief us more, than the pilfering of our hearts, and depraving our inclinations? for by this means the very Seeds of Grace are risled away, and we are left barren (like the Figtree) to the curse of an incensed Judge. Woe be to them that call good evil, and evil good; that put light for darkness, and darkness for light. Vae Adulanti, woe to the flattering Tongue by which the offence comes.  
Eighthly, And may we not rank those in the List of Vocal Offenders, from whose unsavoury Jests, lascivious Songs, and scurrilous Pens, balls of Wildfire are cast abroad to inflame others; whose Bills, like tame Ducks, are ever dabbling in stinking mud? How is our tuneful Melody scandalised with debauched Airs; the harmless recreative Instruments of Music, transformed into the Engines of Mischief, our entertainments flyblown with and lose and abusive Catches! I hope none will be so uncharitable to think I conclude all under Offences that musically recreate themselves, and delight others; no, for God's people may be merry within the limits of filial duty: 'tis the abuse only that I declaim against, who am of Aristippus' mind: 
In libri Patris Sacris,  
Mens quae pudica est nesciet corrumpier.  But these empty sounds vanish into Air, and reach but to few; we have found a way, with the publication of obscene Pamphlets, to make our offences Eternal, and are become universal Bawds to the whole world. Cupid is Crowned a Laureate, and that unchaste licence which hath been expunged and hissed at in Heathen Poets, is hug'd and applauded in Christian. The Jews have a saying, that when Scurrility is heard without, the door rots; the door! nay, the Audience rather; for rotten communication is the quickest corrupter of good Manners.  
Can we think Almighty God bestowed our breath on us to no other purpose, but to blast his Image? Can we think our Creator intended us for nothing else, but to be the Devils bellows? Oh woeful merriment, that afflicts our God, and grieves his Spirit and holy Angels, to make sport for the Devil and his infernal Crew! Let no evil commnication, saith the holy Apostle, proceed from you mouth; and presently adds, Grieve not the Spirit of God. Go now, unhappy drols, and think to delight your fond admirers with an obscene Jest: but remember, that truly Religious hearts are grieved; nay, the Spirit of God is grieved with those that thus hazard their souls, to purchase the reputation of Facetious Blateroons. Hath Christ pronounced weeping and woe to them that laugh now: How then can they think to escape, that do not only admit, but cause and further this vain and frolic excess. Oh lamentable and heedless folly! to kindle a wanton delight in some lose heart, to feed a lascivious ear, and make our company merry, we bring on our souls a sorrowful woe. Who turpiloqui, woe to the scurrilous Tongue by whom the offence comes.  
Ninthly, Derision and Mockage is the last offence I shall arraign in the Tongue: For, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you! saith the chosen Vessel. As the grumbled Charm of a Witch, some think will strike dead a little child, so the goodness of a weak Christian, with every breath of derision is almost blasted. How little a thing stays a boat on the river, and startles a horse by the wayside! no less easily are we deterred in a course of Goodness. Some frail disordered man hath the symptoms of a growing Cure upon his Soul, has mewed off his sick feathers, and now gins to startle at his former excess; to forbear his brain-shaking Cups, and hell-invented Oaths; has tied up his Tongue to the good behaviour, and imposed on his Conversation the strict Rules of Religion: and now the fleering drunkards make Songs upon him; the scorns and taunts of his old Mates lie in his way, and he falls again upon the same rock of offence. Another is mildly disposed, and would wink at a wrong, but hotspurs are hissing his pusillanimity; he shall be marked out for a Coward and Milksop, that dares not incur the guilt of a spontaneous Murder, to gratify some beastly humour. Should a sort of poor Christians be redeemed from the Turkish Galleys, what would we think of him that should endeavour to betray them again to their old servitudes? Is a soul loosed from the power of Sin and Satan, what a horrid villainy is it to ensnare it again into that Captivity! Whosoever he be, that thus nips the buddings of Grace, like the cruel Egyptians, he does but strangle the Hebrew Babes that God would have preserved; and like Tyrannous Herod, put Christ to death, when he is first conceived and born in a regenerate heart. But the most degenerate sort of scoffers, and dregs of mankind, are those that scoff at Religion, and deride our hopes of another Life, as the Phantasms of a melancholy Priest, or the Politic stratagems of some cunning Statesmen, to keep people in awe. We are cast into the very Dog-days of Atheism and Ungodliness, and live among those which scoff at such things that are most Sacred and to be trembled at. Oh the frequent dare of Divine Vengeance, that continually pierces our ears, and wounds our hearts! and those vented in such direful expressions, that the most deeply damned in hell could never be guilty of worse. Wonder not if this be the Cordolium of all that are religiously sensible in the land, if it puts them into the weeping Prophets Iliaca passio, My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at the very heart; for 'tis enough to raise a paroxysm of grief and indignation in the holy Apostle, and make the hearts of good men sink and die in them, to see how prodigiously lewd and impudent men are grown. Yea, those dull souls who are insipid and dreggy on all other arguments, are by the Devils, and the Leviathans help, grown eloquent in abusing God and Religion, to magnify their abused Corpuscularean Philosophy.  
Tell them of a God, and they laugh aloud at your folly, who are so tame and childish to believe what you never saw; and pity your ignorance, for being deluded by the men in black, into the melancholy thoughts of Religion. Democritus and Epicurus are polite Authors, and in better credit with such, than Moses, St. John, or St. Paul; and Hobs' borrowed Hypothesis, than the sacred Volumes of the Old and New Testament. Quis fando temperet à lachrimis? They can solve the Phoenomena of Nature, without the allowance of a Deity; and derive the world's Original from a Fortuitous concourse of Atoms. Thus these imperious Atheistical Dictator's, boast themselves the only men of Learning and Discretion; stigmatising all others, as ignorant Rustics, and illiterate Buffoons, that have nothing of generosity, who dare not set their mouths against Heaven, and defy the Authority of their Maker. Now to blunt the edge of this scoffing Wit, which boasts of so easy a Victory over despised Christianity; Pray consider, that their only argument is taken from Sense, unless they enforce them with Oaths, the usual Graces and Ornaments, and the only proof they have for such wild discourses; and are to be pitied and prayed for, but not disputed with, lest we spread the contagion, having to do with such as had rather lose Heaven, than live soberly; and have no other reason why the say there is no God, but because 'twould be well for them there was none. 'Tis a strange delusion that hath infatuated these absurd Animals, that they dare sport with the flames of Hell, in scoffing at God and Goodness, and the same moment startle at their own Shadow, frighted with the noise of Thunder, and are as fearful of being alone in the night, as other vermin are of light and company. O quam multos dominos habet, qui unum non habet! Every surprising accident skares them from their Principles; there being nothing more evident, than that the greatest Atheist is always the most notorious Coward. Thus we read of Antiochus, when he enjoyed the constant series of a smiling fortune, boasted himself Superior to God himself; but when the inconstant Goddess withdrew her Beams, and appeared unto him under a cloud of Troubles, he changed his note; for having received a fall out of his Chariot, and his insolency curbed by an immediate blow from Heaven, he could say then, as too many of our Atheists do upon the assault of a disease, and the fears of death (Pray God it be not then too late) Justum est hominem mortalem subditum esse Deo. It is meet and requisite for mortal men to be subject to the immortal God. Tell me, I pray you, that pretend to be so great masters of Reason, whether 'tis not more agreeable to the principles of right Reason, to believe a God, than deny it; if so, then give over (ye men of sense) those sordid extravagancies, that render you Clowns to Heaven. Burlesque no more upon God, nor cast disgrace upon the holy and blessed Trinity: For if frail man compacted of infirmities is so jealous of his Honour, that (by the commands of Hell) he thinks himself obliged to duel him that stains it; How will God Almighty be jealous in taking vengeance against such as blaspheme his Godhead, neglect their own Salvation, and choose rather to venture their whole Happiness in gratifying their corruptions, than provide for their own Safety by examining their groundless surmises? And you that have better learned Christ, be entreated t● shun the Society of such scoffing Atheists, who would laugh you into eternal mourning, and mock you from the exercise of Piety, till the Dev●… claim you by Prescription. By 〈◊〉 stratagem or device hath the Devil●… much disheartened from Religion, an● afflicted men for it, as by Scoffers, wh● make themselves the main promote●… of his Cause, and advancers of hi● Kingdom: by no methods hath th● Devil more instructed those tha● would be bad, and discouraged other● from being good, than by these accursed instruments of Cruelty. Whe● the Jews could not withstand the miraculous coming of the Messiah any other way, they took shelter in a taunting proverb, Can any good come out of Nazareth? When the convincing power of Miracles had proclaimed his Divinity, and the Works that Christ did had declared he was the Son of God, they had no way to prevent believing on him, but Is not this the Carpenter's Son? Thus also fares it with Religion, that they who have their minds estranged from it, from thence take an occasion to scorn and deride it. But if nothing else can persuade you to rise out of the Chair of Pestilence; See the examples of God's Judgements upon Scorners: Ishmael mocking Isaac, was banished the pleasant land, and exposed as a prey to foreigners: Michal mocking David for dancing before the Ark, was punished with the sorrow & shame of barrenness. Machivel that mocking Atheist, died in the prison of Florence; and Julian that made Christianity a derision, expired in a most hideous and cruel manner. Nothing is more just and equitable, than for the impudent in sin, to be dashed out of countenance, and to be beaten with their own Weapons; for the Lord scorneth the scorners, and will mock at their Calamities when they come, who mocked at God before they was inflicted: take heed therefore you offend none of God's little ones, those that begin to taste sweetness in the Word of God, and the promises of the world to come; but rather strengthen the weak hands, and the feeble knees, and encourage all men in the way of Goodness. But Changelings sometimes pass for the Babes of Christ, and while I am pleading for the Righteous, I would not patronise a counterfeit in the ways of malice and disobedience, in the ways of guilt and dissimulation, (which many now take for the straight paths of Christ). I think we do well to stop your course, and to deride your deviation: but far be it from us to retard you in the ways of Jesus, the good old way wherein you may find life for your Souls; the ways that are strewed with Love, Peace, Meekness, and Humility; woe be unto us if we call you not (as we do daily) to walk therein: but if any by precept, or example, put you from the pursuit of these real Graces, Who deridenti, woe be to that man, by whose deriding Tongue the offence comes.  
The next member that upon arraignment will be found guilty of Offences, is the Eye; a part of the body endued with so much excellency, and withal so much iniquity, that I know not whether it may more invite your admiration or your sorrow; for when the heart corrupts the eye, and the eye betrays the heart, it stains its own glory, by agreeing with the mind in the service of Iniquity; it renders the eye an egregious offender: for if with a greedy aspect it looks upon food, without charging the stomach, 'tis guilty of Gluttony; if on a woman to lust after her, 'tis guilty of Adultery; if it beholds riches with covetous desires, it hath committed Robbery; if on another's good, with an eye of evil, it commits the sin of Envy; which is the meaning of our Saviour's reprehension, Is thine eye evil, because mine is good? But as if the vice of the husbandmen were transformed into a virtue, sinful man is continually reviving it, in repining that his fellow labourer in the vineyard that came in late, should receive equal wages with himself, who like Caesar and Pompey can endure no equal, nor second to rival him in his victorious Achievements: Hence it is that Envy is called the green-sickness of the Soul, that feeding upon cinders, or rubbish, contracts the stature, impallids the body to a hectic leanness, and through default of the liver, spots the face with gutta Rosacea, as the effigies of the man by whom the offence comes. This is he that cannot endure the abilities of any, should be admitted competitors with his feeble acquirements; thinks illustrious merits an upbraiding his own defects, and that he is lighted into envy by the splendour of his rivals virtues, against whom he hath no other quarrel, than what the Africans have against the Sun, Vrit fulgore suo; or what one had against Demosthenes' candle, only because it stood in his light. This sin of Envy renders men more vicious than devils; for we nowhere read, that they envy one another: Besides, their malice ariseth from the want of that good which they have lost, and these envy that good which another hath found. And now through the suggestions of Malice, the sinner wracks himself with jealousies and surmises, to persuade himself each Candidate is his enemy, that he hath a greater share in the love of the Popularity; and this puts him upon base and ungenerous employments, to satisfy an unreasonable and impatient jealousy; sends him as a spy into every dark corner, to discover that which only dwells in his own imagination; and all this while he hath perhaps been fight with his own Chagrene Ghost, and hath had no other enemy, than his own ill nature. This makes it a kind of misery to be excellent, because it is sure to be attended with malignity; it being the constant guise of poorer spirits, those brats of mouldy clay, to erect obelisks to their own obscure bearings, out of the ruins of others: and since they are unable to raise themselves to the esteem of their adversaries, they endeavour by Calumny (or the exercise of their befriended, not acquired authority) to bring them down to the same ignoble level with themselves. This is a stone of Stumbling, and a rock of offence, for Christians to malign each other: 
Joh. 1.2.9.  for he that hateth his brother is in darkness until now; but he that loveth abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. But that which aggravates the offence, and makes the sin become so excessively sinful, is, that the only cause for which the envious man is enraged against his brother, is that for which Cain slew Abel, because his own works were evil, and his brothers good. And that this hath been the constant practice of this devilish vice, will appear when we further consider, that for this cause joseph's brethren sold him; and it was virtue in David, that provoked Saul to seek his life; and the Ninevites repentance, that distempered Ionas; for this cause (namely unparallelled goodness) 'twas, that the Jews conspired the death of our Saviour, and which made the Roman Governor endeavour his releasement, because he knew that for envy they had delivered him. This is even the nature of envy, to assault the worthiest persons, whose eminency shines beyond others in glorious Actions, but meddles not with such as be of meaner quality. But to persuade men from the practice of this unchristian and unmanlike vice, know, that Divine Justice hath appointed this sin to be the torment of itself; for Envy, like cankered Brass, feeds upon his own substance. 
Justius invidia nihil est, quae protinus ipsum  
Authorem rodit excrutiatquesuum.  But I shall rather prescribe Antidotes against this poison, than show the punishment that attends it: and to that purpose, if thou seest another abound in Learning, Judgement, or the like commendables, be not so envious to thyself, as to be vexed at that which may better or inform thee, if thou wouldst make a right use thereof.  
If thou hear him defend the Truth with applause of others, let not a perverse emulation tempt thee to maintain the contrary, to the subverting of the hearers: for there is, saith Nazianzen, a happiness even to be overcome. And it is far better to be honestly vanquished, and quit the field, than to obtain an inglorious Victory, with the shipwreck of true Religion. If thou see another endued with spiritual Graces, as Virtue, Knowledge, Temperance, Patience; here is matter for thy godly Emulation, but not for thy bitter Envying: thou shouldst strive to match him in the exercise of holy duties, but not to damp his alacrity by malicious detraction. According to our Saviour's precept, our light should so shine before men, that they seeing our good Works, may glorify our Father which is in Heaven. Therefore let not thy envy be the cloud to dim the light of another's works, and thereby hinder so much glory, as might redound to thy heavenly Father. 
Chrysost.  Although such a man were thy enemy, yet because Almighty God is glorified by him, he ought to be thy friend: and now because God is glorified by him, shall he therefore be thy enemy? God forbidden! Remember whose work he is doing, and encourage his faint endeavours with the addition of thy service, and help to effect what thou daily prayest for; That Gods will may be done on Earth by thee, and thy fellow-servants, as it is in Heaven by the glorious Angels.  
The Tongue is now wormed, and the Cataract of Envy over the Eye is touched; but I must lead you on with Ezekiel to more abominations, to more offences in our lives; they are of two sorts, injurious and exemplary.  
First, The injurious offences are apparently indigitated in our Saviour's words: for who receiveth his little ones, but their hopeful benefactors? and who on the other side gives them offence, but their spiteful opposers? And here our old Complainants are ready to commence their suit, in reckoning up the hard measures offered to their Zealous guides, who are exiled their Pulpits, stripped of their Maintenance, rated, fined, persecuted, as their word is; whereas the contrary is most evident, Being treated, through the kindness of some, and the remissness of others, more favourably than the Law allows, and their practice deserves. And when they fall under any pecuniary mulct or corporal restraint, their punishment is of themselves; they cannot be called innocent Sufferers, but injurious Aggressors. I would to God they would once learn to saddle the right Ass: for, as St. Augustin said of Sara and Hagar, the Maid did more persecute the Mistress by her pride and sauciness, than the Mistress did her Maid by the severity of her discipline: and notwithstanding the Dissenters clamorous Charge, upon a Melius inquirendum, 'twill be found, that Schismatics do more persecute and offend the Church, than holy Church doth persecute or offend them: and so unhappy consequences have been the issue of their lucrous ingannations, that the Church better endured the Swords of Tyrants, than the tongues of Schismatics: for while we smarted, Unity remained; but while these Anticeremonian Bigots are believed, the Church is obnoxious to ruin, by the seeds of division they sow amongst us.  
But that which spreads the contagion, is, that the Schismatical tenants of some Nonconforming brethren, like ill weeds in a fat soil, have done greater mischief through the good opinion men have of their personal Sanctity. They are good men! and (by a bad consequence) all they do must be so accounted.  
But what can the pretence amount to, when examined by an intelligent and unprejudiced soul? for 'tis not flourishing the banner of goodness, that can privilege men from either error or sinning: neither aught the unreprovableness of men's converse in other things, countenance their Schismatical opinions, or Church-dividing practices, against the light of divine Scripture, and right Reason. Let men's Gifts and Graces be as large as they themselves would have it believed, must not men of honesty live under Laws, and submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake? Surely however they whisper the contrary, they dare not speak it aloud, lest they be as openly convicted to resist the Ordinance of God, and purchase to themselves Damnation.  
These are the gildings and varnish of those selfish intrigues, whereby men of good hearts, but weak heads; and women, who have weakest judgements, but strongest wills and passions, are cozened into a good opinion of these painted outsides, to embrace a Cloud instead of Juno, and forsake a peaceable Church, to be members of a contentious Conventicle. I take no delight in searching the wounds, or displaying the faults of a religious Party; but in so noble a Cause 'twould be a sin to hold my peace: Meam injuriam patienter tuli, injuriam contra sponsam Christi ferre non potui. 'Tis a deplorable offence, that men of excellent parts and improvements, which might be eminently serviceable to the Church of God, should abuse their learning to the maintenance of a Schism; and instead of winning souls to Heaven, with busy and illboding diligence compass sea and land to draw proselytes to a party. How many Kilns and Barns (the present threshing-sloors of discontented Jebusites) are turned into Trojan horses, from whence public mischiefs proceed! How many souls are heedlessly led by these stubborn and furious guides, into a bitter distaste of their common Mother the Church! how many into a Peevish disesteem of their able and pious Instructers! yea, which is most lamentable, into a true loathing of their spiritual Food. But to return to injurious offences, cast your eyes I, beseech you, about you, and every corner will afford you such, as under a pretence of Purity, root up the Vineyard of God, affront Majesty, scorn Laws, and pursue their hateful designs, with all the violence of disloyal and affrighting insinuations: whose deadly Talons (like the soaring Eagle) are only bowed in (I fear) for want of an opportunity to prey and ravin. Another way of discerning the humour and malice of injurious Sectaries, is in the bitter Colycinthos they shred into the pots of those profits they relish not. Let some Reverend Divine but cross and discountenance Schismatical fancies; let him but walk in the ways of Meek obedience and Humble concord, he shall be defamed in their Conventicles, and called either a Tory, a Papist, or at best a Papist in Masquerade; he shall be defrauded in their Contracts, excluded their Houses, deprived utterly of all their Contributions: his heart shall be broken with daily affronts and oppositions; his intents crossed, and his desires hindered: the Reverence due to his Function shall be detained; and by telling the Vulgar he is a man of Arbitrary Principles, he preacheth Obedience to Laws, he is therefore of a persecuting spirit. And by these arts having prejudiced the Factious many, nothing but the salt scorn of a sour face shall be cast upon him. His domestic necessities, and painful maladies, shall be so far from any share in their aid, or pity, that they shall rather become matter of mirth and mockage amongst them; his grave shall be made for him, and his knell rung in the votes of unmerciful people,  God takes him away: Nay, which is worst of all, his holy Labours shall be despised, his Rebukes slighted, and his Doctrine taxed; his Church either quite forsaken, or thinly resorted to. And are not these offences enough to stumble one; Nay, to hinder the course of Christ's Gospel? to keep many good wits from entering upon a Function, that, in the conscientious discharge of it, brings nothing but barrenness and vexation? Truly, if they can show us no better fruit of their boasted holiness, like the barren ground the Hebrews are told of, they have a curse at their elbow. Vae injurianti, Woe be to that man, by whose injurious dealing the Offence comes.  
But injurious offences cannot be thought all that our Saviour meant; for when he puts those cases of an offending Eye, and Hand, and Foot, we understand it not of our own members, as if they should offer us violence. We proceed therefore to the last block, the exemplary offence; and this I will divide into three parts, and in them show you.  
1. That Offence may be given by the indiscreet management of a good work.  
2. By the unreasonable use of an indifferent thing: And  
3. By the foul example of a work in its own nature evil.  
1. In the performance of a good work commanded by God, we are not to balk an offence, but as much as in us lies to remove a misprision. 'Tis better an offence should be given, than any of God's sacred Truths should be betrayed. Si aliqui sunt infirmi, & scentia destituuntur, non oportet ut nos eorum causa Christiana libertate fraudemur: 
Pet. Martyr  what though some are weak, and destitute of knowledge, there is no reason that we for their cause should be cheated of our Christian liberty. We must not regard their offence, who refuse to be healed, unless we ourselves become sick. In those works which fall not under a strict command, we are to do that which we cannot omit without an offence; and though 'tis certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, nothing can be so spoken or done, but it may be spoken against: yet when we consider that the Ceremonies of our Church (about which Dissenters make their pretence to quarrel) are but few in number, are significant in their nature, and advantageous to the grand designs of Religio●… in their use, our Christian liberty consists in this, That we have leave 〈◊〉 do them, without the imputation of Sin● nay, 'tis so far from being a Sin or Offence, to comply with our neighbours in such plainly innocent usages, and harmless customs; or with the wil● of our Governors, when they command us such things, that it would be both sin and scandal to refuse so to do● for our refusing to comply with either of these, can hardly proceed from any better principle, than a proud affectation of Singularity, or at best from a superstitious Scrupulosity. St. Pa●… would have us abstain from every appearance of evil; but wills us not to think every thing evil which some men call so; for in that good old way which the covenanting Consistorians & blind Papists call Superstition & Heresy, we may truly worship the God of our Fathers: for God judgeth not as man judgeth.  
2. In the use of indifferent things, we have two lights to show us our way; Faith, and Charity; Faith pondering the nature of the thing itself, to settle the wavering conscience: Charity prescribing the time and manner, lest we incur danger, and our weak brother offence. Truly a scandal taken from the use of indifferent things, if it proceed merely of weakness and ignorance, is to be pitied and tendered. The Apostle is ●ull of warnings, serious warnings, that we lay not a stumbling-block before our weak brother, that we cause him not to perish for whom Christ died: and for his own part avers, he would eat no flesh as long as he lived, rather than it should stick in another man's stomach. But doth he mean that his weak brother should keep him for ever thus cautelous? Or doth he yield to their infirmity only so long till the truth be taught him? Yea verily: for if our weak brother after a clear instruction will yet remain blind, and stumble at every thing, his weakness is no longer to be yielded unto, but to be corrected. Pertinacia potius quam imbecillitas, saith a learned Divine; you are mistaken, my scrupulous brethren, you are mistaken, 'tis rather Obstinacy, than Infirmity; 'tis rather wilfulness, than weakness in you, since there is nothing in our worship of God committed that is unlawful, or omitted that is necessary. You that are Dissenters contend for trifles, we for order and obedience: as for example, in our English Church many people stumble at our public Rites decent Gestures, and Vestments; and challenge us fiercely of these as offences. But give me leave to tell you that these ungrounded notions, how plausible soever, are but the dreams of some misty sleepy brains: for the Devil, that he may keep the world under these delusions, 'tis his usual knack to burden the forms of God's Worship with clamour and vulgar prejudice, lest the union of Christians should destroy his Kingdom, or lessen his Subjects. I appeal to any indifferent man, whether it be not more injurious to Christian liberty, to follow the humorous dislikes of private and petulant spirits, which require the omission, or to yield obedience to lawful Authority, which by mature advice commands the use of such things, as are otherwise, and in themselves, equally indifferent for use or forbearance. The respect of private scandal ceaseth, when just authority determines our liberty: and that restraint which proceeds from special duty, is of superior reason to that which is derived from common charity: We ought to bear a greater regard to our public Governors, than to our private brethren; and be more careful to obey them, than satisfy these. 'Tis true, we are commanded be not conformed unto this world; 
Rom. 12.2.  but the main import of the words, and design of the Apostle, is in what follows: But be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind: Newness of mind, is that Substantial duty of Christianity, which makes all other things lawful unto us. To the indifferent things of the world we may conform for quietness sake; to the things of decency and order, we should conform for conscience sake; only to the wickedness of it we should not fashion ourselves.  
But since I know that our adversaries out of interest cannot be quiet, but will (notwithstanding all that can be said to the contrary) load innocent Ceremonies with scandalous Epithets (for by this craft they get their live) let me demand of them, How came you so weak, that are so pure? How long hath the lawfulness of these things been cleared among you? what pains hath been taken by our reverend Prelates? What evincing arguments have fallen from the Lips and Pens 〈◊〉 our reverend Divines? what stone 〈◊〉 offence have we not removed, to make your way clear? And now let th● world judge, if our holy Mother th● Church, who but maintains her ju●… Right and Liberty, be to be taxed for giving offence, or not rather her wea● Sons, which shut their eyes against th● light, to be sharply reproved for the●… wilful disobedience. Yet am I no●… so uncharitable to think, that every one which dissents from the doctrine of this or that Church must be stigmatised for a Schismatic: No, if a dissenter be meek and modest, humble and holy, and makes no breach in the Church's Unity; such a one hath the temper of a sober Christian, and will do no mischief to Religion: but when dissenting about indifferent things, is managed with Pride and Passion, Rage and Malice, tending to the subversion of Government and good Order; Then 'tis manifest there is something more in the case than Conscience, and the man is become Factious. When a weak scruple against the Sign of the Cross, shall make men Rebels against the Crown; when a superstitious abhorrence of a white Vesture, shall make us die our garments in blood; and a furious zeal against an Organ, shall make men call for the confused noise of Drums and Trumpets, 'tis manifest they have lost the temper of sober Christians, and deserve the hateful name of Rebels, as well as Schismatics. 'Tis a strange delusion that hath seized some which scruple at an innocent Ceremony, who against all convictions and armies of reason will be troubled, and will not understand; this is very bad; but 'tis worse that he should think himself to be the more godly man, for being thus troubled and diseased; and that upon this account he shall fall out with his lawful Sovereign, calumniate his Actions, reproach his Counsellors, abuse his subjects, and quarrel with his Government, and despise it; this man nurses his scruple, and instead of curing a Boyl, dies of a Cancer: or is like a man that hath strained his foot, and keeps his 〈◊〉 for ●ase; but by lying long there, falls into a Lip●thymie, and that bears him to his grave. Thus calling themselves to doubtful disputations, (instead of practising known duties), they go on deceiving and being deceived, to their own discomfort here, and misery hereafter. But I gladly shift the Scene; entreating my dissenting and scrupulous brethren to remember, it is all our duties to obey and do what is commanded; not judging our Judges, but quietly submitting to their Injunctions, who watch for our souls, and must give an account to God. But if so many mischiefs and offences proceed from indifferent things, what shall we think of gross and infectious evils, the misleading acts of the vicious or indulgent Ruler, the Riots and Rapines of the rich, the lewd examples of Churchmen, Parents and Masters, domestic fails, the foul slips of the Religious, the mutual seducements of men and women by scandalous habits, Cum multis aliis, etc.  
The Ruler is first. As jacob's Sheep brought forth Lambs agreeing in colour with the peeled rods they cast their eyes on; so many people, either out of a greedy hope to thrive by a servile imitation, or out of a vain ambition to follow their betters, take courses of the same tincture with the Sceptres of Authority. When the Clock strikes not in due season, we blame not the weights or movement, but the Clock-keeper; and whom are the fails of the Vulgar ascribed to, but their eminent Guides? Let Baltazar carouse in the hallowed boles of the Temple, and all the Court will pledge him: let Queen Vasti control her husband, and all the scattered Dames in the Country-provinces will take the Reins into their own hands. Why did the Heathens so furiously rage? who did the people imagine a vain thing? The Psalmographer resolves us, The Rulers of the earth took counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed. Who could imagine a people so laden with the favours of a gracious Messiah, that saw their sick restored, their blind enlightened, their lame walking, and their dumb speaking; yea, their dead bodies brought to ●ife! Who would imagine after these beneficial works, they should put him to so base and bitter a death? Had not Herod and Pilate, had not Annas and Caiaphas, had not the Chief Priests and the Ruling Elders took counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed? Therefore, as if the guilt of all this had stuck on the Princes and Rulers, the holy Psalmist directs his advice to them only: Be wise now therefore, O ye Kings, be learned ye that are Judges of the Earth. It is with men as with fishes, if the head gins to putrisy, the body can be worth nothing; if the head be sick what can the heart do but faint, and the body but languish? If a Ruler hearken to lies, (saith Solomon) all his servants are wicked. And here turning our woe on the Romish and Factious Grandees that have harkened to lies, and led people into mischievous inventions: how are we bound to bless God for the upright and moderate sway, the inoffensive and meek carriage of our Royal Head, and his subbordinate Deputies, whose very lives may as well silence a saucy Libeler, as their authority?  
But this word gives them another memento: Authority hath a Sword in her hand; and if she bear it in vain, sin is heartened, and offences given. The old Giants were called Nephilim, Cadentes, not as if they fell from Heaven, but because other men asrighted with their grim looks, were ready to fall down and swoon away. Among us, 'tis rather the over- gentle, than the terrible Rulers, are the right Nephilim, that make men fall into a custom of sinning: for as Moses Rod cast on the ground became a Serpent, so the Rod of Justice that falls from the Magistrates hands for earthly respects, what does it prove but a destroying, a poisoning Serpent? therefore is it good Counsel given by the Son of Syrac, Let no man seek to be a Judge, who is not able to take away iniquity, lest at any time he fear the person of the mighty, and lay a stumbling-block in the way of uprightness. Honour on a Fools back is as Snow in Summer, as Rain in the time of Harvest, not only unfit for himself; but pernicious to others: for as Summer-Snows corrupt the Fruits, and Harvest-Showers rot the Corn; so a weak Ruler is the spoil of a Country. And though we may thank God that even this way we are better provided, yet our Saviour's Item (like Philip's boy) may stand for a Remembrance; when sin and partiality would get admission, Who Rectoribus, woe be to the exalted man by whom the offence comes.  
And now if oiled Paper would be writ on, I could try the Rich of this world how prone they are to scatter Offences; as St. Paul says, They fa●… themselves into divers snares and temptations, and bring others into the same trap. Riches in the Hebrew Dialect have a name that implies Stability; they are called Jechum, as if they made a man to stand sure: but if they make our selves stand, and others fall, what are they but unrighteous Mammon? Our Saviour's Churl was arrayed in Purple, which is a bloody colour; and how many of our great men's Robes are died in the blood and wrack, and offensive spoil of their poor Neighbours; yea, in the pillage of the Temples? How many of these dry Nurses have Breasts great enough, but yield no Milk for the Babes of Christ, whose houses stand like Beech-trees, only for Beasts and Drunkards to be sheltered under; or like Oaks of Bashan (as the Prophet speaks) that have nothing but A corns for a few Swine, while the poor and indigent are denied sitting relief, and forced to rob, pilfer, and offend God, if not to challenge him of unjust partiality?  
2. 'Tis another offence I take it in men of Quality, that many of them are become the Patrons of Schism, and instead of their true Mistress, that heavenly and religious Wisdom, that is both pure and peaceable, like Errand Knights in the Pores legend, have embraced an ugly Witch with her angry and fantastical face, the masked Hypocrisy of cunning Zealots; that such men whom our Pulpits have spewed out for retaining their old Principles of Disobedience, Tumult, Schism, or Heresy, shall by these great ones be hug'd and listened to as the only Oracles of Infallibility. O how they bless and admire themselves (and are proclaimed by others) as the grand Sticklers of their Party, because they have a Nonconforming Levite to their Priest! Is not this an offence, that you that impose Laws upon us, are the first breakers of them yourselves, and think you do God good service, while you fight against him, in disturbing the peace of the Church and Kingdom? 
Ubi sublimior praerogativa, ibi major culpa. Salvian, lib. 4. de gubernat. Dei.  Combustible matter is not more incident to ruin by its vicinity to the flames, than your inferiors are by tracing your steps. You know well, the honour and respect that belongs to your qualities, cannot exempt you from the common Obligation and Law of Religion; but the greater your persons are, the more enforcing is your interest to be religious, because your Examples are more leading and influential. Be not, I beseech you, the Ringleaders into Schism, but be Followers of solid Piety and sincere Religion: for this will adorn your bearings, and ennoble your Souls and Names in the lasting Records of Heaven. And on the contrary, woe be to them that add fuel to the fire of Dissension: Who diviti, Woe be to the man by whose abused riches or honours the offence comes.  
3. 'Tis a great exemplary offence in the judgement of all the sober and unprejudiced world, that our Nonconforming Brethren give, in separating from the Church of England, because in our public Service we use Set Forms of Prayer: and because they think themselves innocent, though but for the advantage of accusing us first, ●s laying these stumbling-blocks in th● way to Peace and Unity; I shall tak● off this Sanctimonious Vizor, (mad● only to startle the unwary admirers, that gaze on the outside only) and make it appear to all that are not guarded with the Shield and Buckle● of Irrationality, That they themselves are the men by whom the offence comes.  
And that I may leave them without quarrel, I shall make them both Judge and Party, and endeavour to convict or acquit them by a Jury of their own packing, and their own Creatures being Judges. This makes Religion contemptible (saith Mr. Baxter) when we are perceived to place Religion in unwarrantable Separations, and affected Singularities from a true Church, and have no other pretence, but that they pray by a Book, and we pray without one: These are the Complaints that make our Houses and Streets ring, that our Governors are Persecutors, because they would compel you to hear a man that is Conformable, and pray with such as use the Liturgy, and communicate with a Parochial Congregation. These are the no Crimes you charge on the Church's score, and the foundation on which you build the Wall of Separation, and estrange yourselves from the best Church in the world. But how you will answer this to God Almighty in the Great and Terrible Day, is my wonder and astonishment: And therefore entreat you to consider whether these are sufficient causes to make Rents and Divisions in the Church, and raise Contentions and Heart-burnings amongst those which agree in all fundamental truths. No, but rather on the contrary, if you had (as God bethanked you have not) a just cause to refuse Communion with our Church in some instances; yet you ought not therefore to proceed to a total Separation from it, or to erect new Churches in contradistinction to us, or gratify the humorous dislikes of them that do, by joining with them. You often call us Popish Prelatical Priests; but if you will believe Mr. Baxter, he says. You are the great Factors of Rome, and Upholders of the Triple Crown: For (saith he) 
Defence of the Principle of Love p. 52.  thousands have been drawn to Popery, or confirmed in it by your Separation already; and I am persuaded that all the Arguments else in Bellarmine, and all other Books, have not done so much to make Papists in England, as the Divisions among ourselves; yea, some Professors of strictness in Religion, and of great esteem for godliness, have turned Papists themselves, when they were giddied and wearied with turning.  
They know but little of the world, who perceive not that our Differences are the Contrivances of the Romish Cabal to ruin us: Read the Bishop of Rhodes' History of Henry the Fourth of France, and Campanella's Spanish Monarchy; where, after a long discourse of the intended Invasion of England by the Monarches of Spain and France (incited thereto by the Commands and Benedictions of Rome, as well as their own Ambition) they especially declare their judgements of the means and instruments to be employed for the Ruin of the English Church in this sort, that there was no better Artifice, than by causing Divisions and Dissensions among the English: And to this purpose they advised it as the only way, to erect certain Schools and Academies in Flanders, that the Students thereof may disseminate Seeds of Division in Natural and Theological Sciences: which would discompose their Opinions, and unsettle their Judgements: for (say they) the English are inclined to Novelties, and are no less violent in defending them. And how considerable the effects of this Contrivance has been, their late horrid Conspiracies against our gracious King, do manifest. And you, my dissenting Brethren, of whom it may be said, as Chemnitius spoke of the Monks concerning Pelagianism, You defy the Heretic, and foster the Heresy: for while you separate from us, you do no less than make yourselves Agents to accomplish their designs, in overthrowing a Church you acknowledge to be true, and promote the Errors of Antichrist.  
Many sad Examples might be produced to this purpose; 
Vid. Dr. Ashton's Postscript to the case of Scandal  but I delight not to vex a Wound by a continued application of Corrosives: I shall therefore proceed to answer the main Objections against the use of our Common-prayer-book; the first of which is,  
Object. Praying by a Set Form, is a humane invention, and sinful, because not commanded in Scripture.  
Answ. In answering whereof, I must invoke again the assistance of Mr. Baxter, (for they that raise these Spectrums are best skilled in laying them:) 
Lib. id. pag. 53. ad 60. " If by false Worship, saith he, you mean forbidden or not commanded, we (i. e. the Presbyterians) worship God falsely every day, and in some part of the matter, very oft our Disorders, Confusions, Tautologies, and unfit Expressions are all forbidden, and so false Worship: and if God prohibit it in the Liturgy, he prohibits the same in extemporate Prayers; in which some good Christians are as failing as the Liturgy. And as the words of the Liturgy are not commanded in Scripture, so neither are the words of our extemporate or studied Sermons or Prayers. God hateth every sin in every Prayer, but he hateth the avoiding of Prayer and due Communion much more; and you but strain at Gnats and swallow Camels, while you thus eagerly contend for the Shadow, and let the Substance glide from you; giving us cause to think these Niceties are but the Bones that the Devil throws amongst us to break our Teeth with, and in the mean space reject the wholesome Food of our Souls."  
Open your Eyes, I beseech you, and you will easily discern how you are imposed on, and made the Engines of their Malice, who would destroy both us and you. Methinks I hear the Papists, Independents, Anabaptists, and Quakers, hissing each Party on, saying, There, there, so would we have it: One while crying, Throw Dirt enough on the Surplice, and be sure some will stick; call the sign of the Cross the Mark of the Beast; tear in pieces their Liturgy, and call it the Popish Mass-book: Another Sect saying, Bate them nothing; and others, Stand it out, and yield to nothing; with a deal more of this insignificant Jargon: Who are well assured, that if there be once a right Understanding, and consequently a mutual Agreement betwixt the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties, they must of necessity dwindle into their Original Nothing; or like rotten Houses, when the substantial Props they lean on are taken away, moulter to dirt, and bury themselves in their own Ruins. Have a care therefore you warm not these Vipers any longer in your bosoms, by espousing their Quarrels: for if ever they come to be strengthened with power, will turn their stings against their Nourishers; as the Independents have done against you once already.  
Object. But the Covenant (i. e. the Scotch Covenant) (say they) wherein we have lifted up our hands to the most High, makes it unlawful to hold Communion with any that use a Liturgy.  
Answ. I shall again make bold with Mr. Baxter for this reason, that Lawyers affirm, there needs no greater conviction of an Offender, than the Confession of one of the Complices: His words in answer to this Objection are these: " No man of us all hath need or aught to go to the Covenant to know what is his duty in the Worship of God, but only to the Scriptures: for if Scripture make it not a duty, the Magistrates Law will make it a sin; and if Scripture make it not a sin, the Magistrates Command will make it a duty." And in p. 9 and p. 88 of his Defence of the Principles of Love, resolves it thus: " To prefer no public Worship, or a worse, before the Liturgy, is deformation and profaneness: for all the reformed Churches in Christendom do profess to hold Communion with the Church of England in their Liturgy, if they come amongst us where 'tis used: Therefore it seems to me to be Perjury and Covenant-breaking, either to prefer no public Worship before the Liturgy, or to refuse Communion with the Churches that use it, as a thing merely on that account unlawful."  
Consider further, that your Separation savours of Novelty, (which among the Wise and Holy, without any further aggravation, renders it scandalous) and our practice corresponds with Antiquity, whose custom in the first and purest times was, to pray by Forms: Nay, the Ancients pronounced it a sin to do otherwise in their public Devotions. And though I urge not their Practices and Opinions, as Principles of infallible verity, to command your belief; yet I hope you will admit them as grounds of credibility, to facilitate your assent, being handed to us by those that cannot be imagined not to know, being so near; nor be suspected to combine flalsly to impose on us, being so pious. And if you want an Example, take it from the Disciples; who out of a sense of their own wants, bespoke their Master, thus: Teach us to pray, as John taught his Disciples.  
I beseech you therefore, consider in time, what you are doing: for if Mr. Baxter prophecies right, he tells you, That Separating will at last ruin the separate Churches themselves: for no instance can be given (saith he) of a separate Church of a hundred years standing. To conclude, the same Author saith, The Protestant Religion must be kept up by the means of the Parish-Ministers, and by the Doctrine and Worship then performed; and they that think and endeavour that which is contrary to this, of what side soever, shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists. O that now, my dissenting Brethren, you would be persuaded to lay aside all prejudice and partiality, self-ends and interests, and follow the things that make for peace: Suffer your Reasons to awake; put on Modesty, be clothed with Humility, and call no men, or decent Custom, Popish or Antichristian, till you are assured by an infallible sign it is so; lest you be found fighters against God, and slanderers of your Brethren: Be not rash censurers, but judge righteous judgement, lest you abuse the truth itself, and call the Spouse of Christ an Harlot.  
The Church of England is barefaced, hath no Idols to obscure, no spiritual Cheat with which to delude you; for the representing of which, we should stand either in need of darkness, or a false light: we have nothing in our public profession which the wisest men, the most pious Christians, may not practise; nothing in our Faith which they ought not steadfastly to believe. It is only want of Enquiry, and a sober Examination, that the purity of our Church's Doctrine is not more generally embraced; 'tis because the calmness and sobriety of its Devotion, the moderation of its Discipline, the largeness of its Charity, are not more impartially enquired into, that men mistake us, divide from our Communion, trouble the world with their impertinent noise and clamour, and administer matter of offence to many thousands in England, who are hardened into an utter neglect of Godliness by the unwarrantable Singularities, and the scandalous sins, especially of those Professors that have been most addicted to sinful Separations; without receiving occasion, or giving a reason for it.  
And to conclude, I am afraid that all those Scruples that have been urged to vindicate a Separation from our Communion, will be found too light at the day of the Lord, to counterpoise the vast guilt of Schism and Disobedience. Can you make it appear that your Salvation was in the least hazarded by Communion with us; if you could not have Peace, but upon those ill terms of parting with Truth and Holiness; could you demonstrate that in any thing we are departed from the true Church, your Separation was warrantable: but since 'tis evident our Church hath preserved entire that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints, without any loss or innovation; since all the Laws and Rules of holy and Christian life, are by our Church taught; since men may conform to all the Constitutions of our Church, and yet be as holy as the best of Saints in any Age of the world; since there is nothing herein commanded, that ever God did forbid; and since all this we are able to prove by the clearest Demonstrations, it must necessarily follow, they incur a Woe that call good evil, and light darkness.  
4. 'Tis no less a heinous offence also to separate from a true Church, under a pretence that notoriously sinful Members are received into Communion with it. This is to strain at a Gnat, and swallow a Spider; and to prevent an imaginary guilt of Pollution by others, incur a real guilt of Schism in themselves. And though by dispencing with Humility and Charity, they magnify themselves, and brand those they separate from, with the disgraceful Epithets of ungodly and profane, and with the Whore in the Proverbs, wipe their mouths, and say, they have done no harm; yet in the judgement of St. Paul, the sin of Separation is so dangerously infectious, that the persons guilty of it are to be set in the first rate of Offenders, and to be shunned as soon as descried: Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences, contrary to the Doctrine you have learned, and avoid them. 
Rom. 16.17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est attentè, diligenter, quasi hostes è spicula observetis. Biza in loc.  Divisions are the Intelligences that put the Orbs of Offences into motion, and are the prime subversion of the Church; which otherwise is rarely endamaged: for whilst it is united, Satan is not admitted, nor Scandals started; which makes the Apostle in another place so passionately resent the injury offered to the Church by Divisions, that he wishes they were cut off that trouble it, by unsettling and removing its Votaries from their first Station. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   
And you will have no cause to think this a severe process, since there is more mischief threatened to the Church of God, and less hopes of recovery in a Separatist, than a more notified Malefactor: A debauched man, if discreetly reprehended, will blush and tremble at his Miscarriage; but an Ableptick Schism-Master will disdain, insult, and spurn at him, that by a modest Reproof would turn him from the error of his way; besides, a Sect-maker disturbs the peace of the Church, tears its Unity, and paves a Causey to destruction, whilst the other only perverts himself, and disquiets but his own Conscience. But admit some of the Members of our Church were as bad as they would render them, it makes no palizado for their Conventicle: for as long as the Church sojourneth on Earth, bad men will be mixed with the good; and they deserve a sharp reprehension (in the opinion of Mr. Calvin) 
Calvin. in Mat. 13.36  that tumultuously depart from the Church, or by unseasonable rigidness endeavour to overthrow it. And Christ Jesus in propounding this Parable (saith the same Author) would bridle and moderate their Zeal who think it unlawful to have Communion with none but pure Angels; and they that preposterously make haste to root out all that displeaseth them, do as much as in them is, prevent Christ's Judgement, and usurp the Angels Office.  
Mr. Perkins tells us, 
Expos. on St. Judas, v. 9 Amplified on Gal. 1.2  that faults in the manners of Professors, is no warrant for our Separation: for though vices (saith he) appear in the lives of Ministers and People; so long as true Religion is taught, and the Sacraments duly administered, it is a Church, and we may not departed from it.  
Mr. Hildersham makes it is Doctrinal Observation upon the fourth of St. John 22. 
Lecture the 36.  That those Assemblies that enjoy the Word and Doctrine of Salvation, though they may have many corruptions in them, are to be acknowledged the true Churches of God, and such as none of the faithful may make separation from.  
I am almost assured, they would think it little less than Sacrilege, not to allow these men to be theirs; and whether it be not an offence for those of a second Edition to make their practices clash with these allowed Doctrines, let Conscience judge: Only give me leave to make this use of their Doctrine, That 'tis extremely sinful for Presbyterians to separate from the Church of England, their own celebrated Teachers being Judges.  
Our blessed Saviour refused not to communicate with the Twelve, though he knew one of them was a Devil; nay, he lived and died in Communion with the Jewish Church, though 'twas abominably corrupted; and was so indulgent and graciously applicable to sinners, that the Pharisees called him a Companion and Friend of Publicans and Sinners.  
One reason why Christ would be baptised among the common sort, is rendered by Spanheim to be, that he might convince the World he was no Friend to those Opinions that debarred men from frequenting the means of their Salvation, under the colour of their present unworthiness: for he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It is the works, not the workers of darkness, that the Apostle enjoins us to have no fellowship with. Judas his personal action in eating the Pascal Lamb, was an abomination; but it had no reflection on the Apostles that communicated with him: for as their Faith and Piety did not sanctify him, neither did his iniquity defile them, or hinder the benefit of their worthy receiving. The Sons of Ely were practically vicious, scandalous Sons of Belial; 
2 Sam. 12.29.  yet the People that communicated with them were God's people. Scripture almost every where is loud in the commendation of unanimous Congregations; but stigmatizeth the privacy of a disjointed Separation.  
Neither is it fit for you, my dissenting Brethren, to complain against our Parochial Communions: for the detestation of our Offences, is no Privilege nor Plea before God's dreadful Tribunal, for the prosecution of your own, though spun with a finer thread: First cast out the beam that is in your own eye, and then you may see clearer to take the mote out of your brother's eye.  
Give me leave, I pray you, out of love to your Souls and the Church's peace, to be plain with you: for I must not, I dare not flatter you, by sowing Pillows under your Elbows, and calling you precious Souls, God's elect people, and your lawless Meetings the Assembly of Saints, until I have other proof of your immunity from the common Errors of others, besides your own naked affirmations. Do not delude yourselves, nor suffer your Hirelings to do it: you are not better than others, but are daily convicted of Pride and Covetousness, Envy, Malice, and uncharitableness, Dissimulation, Lying, Over-reaching, and Hypocrisy, to every discerning eye; and the reason why it is no more notorious to the common view, is, you have learned the knack to indulge each other in your close iniquities, to palliate your open wickedness, and obscure your own Crimes by defaming others.  
But were you as eminent Vessels of Honour as you would be thought to be, yet you may not disdain those that are but of wood and stone, as unworthy your Societies. 'Tis one of Machiavil's principles, that who they stagger with one wrong, they must utterly cast down with more; which you make your practice, if you endeavour not by uniting with us, to ward off that blow that from the hand of our common Enemy is falling on us. 'Twould well beseem the goodness you pretend, to return and strengthen us with your better Members (if you have any such) that we may be thereby enabled to mend what is amiss, and bless God for the mercy of making men to be of one mind in a house, and stilling the Outrage of an unruly Faction: And I beseech God Almighty to endue us all with a sorrowful apprehension of all our Offences, that our Parochial Assemblies may be more sober and devout, and that your separate Churches may be more just, humble, and charitable; that we may all study to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace, all minding the same thing; and that there may be no Divisions amongst us, but that with one mind and one mouth we may serve the living God; that his Name may be glorified, our Sins purged, all our Souls saved, and avoid that woe that belongs to them that cause Divisions and Offences. We Segregatori, Woe be to them that separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.  
5. Neglecting the service of God in the public Offices of Religion, under the fallacious pretext of being above those subsidiary helps, or being better employed on the Lord's day at home, is a most injurious and scandalous offence. Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy? are you wiser than he, that you usurp a privilege of doing only what is right in your own eyes, in opposition to the alwise commands of a Deity? Many Opinionists have done wickedly; but this in pride and ingratitude exceeds them all. Woe be to him that is alone, in the want of a spiritual Guide to correct his wandering, and direct his feet in the right paths. For so pernicious is an affected curiosity to be wiser than our Neighbours and Teachers, that it forces men upon dangerous precipices to their destruction: Whereas abiding in their Station with a meek and humble obedience, in a plain and well-ordered Devotion, would have made them better men, if not more knowing Christians. To decline offences, to be careful and conscientious in our several actions, is a purity that every man ought to strive after; but to cheat the world into a belief that we do so, only by separating from our Brethren, is a double iniquity. You think you are above Ordinances; but I doubt it is nothing but a wanton fastus, and proud temper of spirit, that makes you boast so: and if your own arrogance and presumption would give you leave to lay aside the flattering glass of Self-love, you would find you stood in greatest need of them.  
Object. But, say they, we can better employ our time at home, and read good Books, and better Sermons than our Ministers can make. And in these studied Excuses, take themselves to be no less zealous, but only more discreet than their Brethren, who do not the like; when indeed they are guilty of folly and wickedness: Of folly, in ascribing as great applause to our private Devotions (which lose their virtue, and have no promise of audience, being done in opposition to God's public Worship) as the united Orisons of religiously disposed persons in God's House of Prayer: And of wickedness, in offering Sacrilege for Sacrifice, robbing God of one duty, and paying him with another; withholding the greater, and yet would seem conscientious in the less. Whilst thus contemning the Precepts of Heaven, and the Communion of Saints, in doing their own Will, they lose the benefit of both: Who hath required these things at your hand? Religion is not a thing left to the arbitrary fancies of men, to cull out from that diversity with which the World abounds, what best pleases themselves; neither are the ways and mediums of the exercise of it, put into their power; but as God is the Object of Worship, so the means and manner by which, and how he is honoured, and his Servants benefited, must be circumstantiated by himself; his Will, and not ours, must be the sole and adequate Rule. All Ordinances do not work necessarily, as the Sun enlightens the sable Skies; nor physically, as having an inherent power to produce their effects: but they are operative by the sacredness of their Institution. Be wise then, O Christians, in maintaining a venerable esteem of our Church devotions, where God by solemn Prayer is invoked, the Word preached, and the Sacraments rightly and reverendly administered; being as Babes for hunger and thirst after them, though not for knowledge and understanding in them. 'Tis a no less common than dreadful observation, that those that leave the Church-Assemblies, do at last bid adieu to Religion also: Which that we may prevent, 'tis expedient we forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but account it a special favour from God, when we may congregate ourselves freely to worship the God of our Fathers. And that our obedience may keep pace with the mercy, let us provoke one another to the discharge of this duty, saying, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, to pray before the Lord, and with praises make his Name glorious. But alas, we might rather expect the removal of this Blessing, than the continuance thereof, for our exceeding faultiness and negligence. God hath given a long and happy rest to the Land of our Nativity, with advantages of giving our attendance at the posts of the doors of the Lords house: We are not driven, like the Primitive Christians, of whom the world was not worthy, to assemble by stealth in Dens and Caves of the Earth, being persecuted, afflicted, and tormented; but the Gates of the Lords House have been open to us, and we have or might have had free access to his Altars. While other Nations have heard the terrible noise of Cannons, and the dismal effects of War and Bloodshed, the shrieks of Widows and Orphans, we have had the music of Bells calling us to the House of God, and there the melody of Psalms, and Hymns, and spiritual Songs. We read in Acts 9.31. that the Churches had rest through all Judea; and what use did they make thereof? Did they grow careless and wanton, kick against the Breasts that gave them suck, and spurn at those Knees whereon they were dandled? Did they contemn Ordinances, slight the Sacraments, throw contempt upon Prayer, and despise Prophesying? Did they lose their first love, and neglect the good opportunities which God gave them for their increase in Holiness? No, they were edified, and walked in the fear of the Lord, and were multiplied.  
Oh let us follow these pious Examples, in loving the place where God's honour dwells, and answering the end for which they were appointed. He that frequents the place of God's Worship, hath an early Title to a Blessing: for though many are found of God that sought him not, yet few or none ever sought him but they shall find him, though it be in the last Watch of the night: Nay, sometimes those who have had ill designs in going to Church, yet God hath made it work for their good, and of unwilling Auditors, framed willing and real Converts. St. Augustin in a proud humour of carping, entered the Church of St. Ambrose, but departed with a broken and bleeding heart: And who can tell but God may work as great a change on you, if you would not fly the means that God hath appointed, and wilfully neglect so great Salvation?  
Let us at last, with the shrill Cock, not only awake others, but clap our own sides. A sinning Priest is the fall of many, and the offence of all: It was a lamentable sight in the Prophet's eye, that the very stones of the Sanctuary were stumbling-blocks in every street. What doth embolden sin more? what doth occasion more spiritual falls, than the foul Example of a Churchman? who is heavenly in his Pulpit only, but out of it given to all excess of riot. Oh how barbarously and cruelly do they wound the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, that preach it to the World, yet live as if they intended to go to Heaven some other way than that which they teach their Auditors! Nay, how is it possible his discourses against sin, and of Heaven and Hell, should prevail to the amendment of others, who hath no care of his own Soul? for the love men have to their Vices, with a little help from the Devil, will easily persuade them the whole is fictitious, or else that Heaven may be obtained, and Hell escaped, upon easier terms than the Priest tells them. How odious is the name of some old Heretic that hath filled the Church with Garboils and Blasphemy? yet a crafty Heretic, in St. Bernard's account, hurts less than a lewd Minister: for Heretics poison the Church but with Words, with giddy Tenants, and airy Speculations, which vulgar heads are not capable of; but each shallow Idiot will spy a disorder in our lives, and sooner follow our Vices, than maintain our Opinions. Divines may not think to carry it as some more wittily than truly say Physicians do, to have the Sun see their good deeds, and the grave abscond their failures. No, my brethren, in the very walls of your houses holes will be digged (as in the Prophecy of Ezekiel) to spy out your secret abominations; we cannot err, but with the Snail, we leave our slimy filth to public view; and what need we wonder, that our Messages miscarry, and that the following flock are tumbling down, when their Shepherd is walking on the edge of Rocks! The River Nilus, as Aristotle tells us, hath a marvellous Stone in it, which if ground to powder, and given to a dog in some proper Vehicle, he will never be able to spend his mouth. Beloved, that harsh and austere life, as it were the Stone of Nile, if we soften it in liquor and voluptuous courses, we quite lose the vigour of our rebuking voice, the authority of our holy Embassy! What do we sweeting in Pulpits, if we love and practise the Vices we declaim against! Divinity is a strange kind of Physic, that effects no Cure, unless the Physician take it as well as the Patient. Who pulls a drowning man out of a deep stream with a dry hand? Joash his Arrow is then prevalent, when the Prophet's Arm is joined to it. A merry Soldier struck a bird dead, from which his Comrades expected an Augury; saying, How should these silly creatures direct others, that cannot secure themselves? Who goes to a Barber for his bread, or to a Victualler for his cloth? and who will e'er hope to receive direction for Holiness from them, in whom there is nothing to be seen but Vice? We often complain, and it may be justly enough, of prevailing Faction amongst us; but I am sure nothing so much promotes their interest, as the scandalous lives of some that exercise the Ministerial Function among us. The late incomparable Bishop, Dr. Jer. Taylor, tells us, 
Sermon to the University of Dublin.  If we live Holy, our Doctrine will be true, and that truth shall prevail: but if we live Wickedly and Scandalously, every little Schismatic will put us to shame, and abuse our Flocks, and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock; and place Heresy in the Chair oppointed for our Religion. 'Tis an error I know, a fond and precise error, to think the Power of God's Word, or the benefit of the Sacrament, should be tied to the holiness of him that ministereth. The Church in the Canticles is a Garden of Nuts: 
Cant. 6.11  and if the Law of God that is planted here, be a Nut, we may safely eat the Kernel, though it come from a slovens hand. But truly it were to be wished, that as the beautiful Heavens above our heads, are infinitely raised from earth, most different and opposite to her Centre; so the Messengers of Heaven were as far removed from the base and sinful customs of this corrupt World, that instead of refreshing Fountains, they were not Whirlpools to draw into danger such as are about them: For as the Ivy and Elm, for the People and Pastor grow together: The people, saith Jeremy, take ill courses: 
Jer. 23.10.  and the reason is added in the next words: The Prophet and Priest are profane men. Therefore St. Paul thought it would ask more than an ordinary care; 
Rom. 12.17  that it would be a point of high prudence in us, to be honest men, not only in the sight of God, but in the eyes of the World also. Even Kings and Emperors have refused to quench their extreme thirst with offered Water, when their Armies had none: they would not give an example of Intemperance: Why then do they that are Sacred to God, offer themselves up to swinish excesses, with the hazard of so many Souls? The Whale espying her young ones at a low water, left in danger of the almost-dry shore, spouts such abundance of water upon them, that they can swim away in that artificial Tide. 
●…nat.  Did we truly regard the welfare of the Servants of Christ Jesus, we would part with our Liquor, to save their Souls; we would abandon our delights, we would cast out a drunken humour, to bring them again into the right way: and this we may learn from the Indian Ocotochlus, that having obtained his Prey by a great noise, invites other beasts to feed on it; and when they are sated, feeds on the rest, that the poison wherewith he abounds, might not injure his mes-mates by feeding with them. What a shame is this to us men! to us consecrated Priests! that will abstain from none of our Cups, from none of our Carouses, from none of our vain delights, how scandalous, how infecting soever.  
Truly, the best remedy I can commend unto us of the Clergy, who are set upon a hill, for religious Example, or the people's Scorn and Derision, is a holy Privacy and Retiredness; at least a careful choice of our Company. It is on record in Leviticus 14.36. That the Priests of God must not come into a polluted house. They that are strangers to the course of our lives, will judge of us by the quality of our company. We lose our masculine Gravity, and get contempt by Familiarity: We throw the Honour of our Function too prodigally into a common bosom, whiles we are seen mixing at Feasts and merry meetings with light and dissolute persons. Our Saviour is observed never to stay long at Capernaum: it was a place of pleasure, and, as Druthmarus tells us, was much haunted for that purpose, even by the Grandees of Rome. People are prone to take offence that Churchmen, should share in those pleasures, or haunt those places, which yet themselves will freely enjoy. The damned Churl thought he must be a man of another world, that could convert his brethren. How shall Soldiers wound their enemies, if their Battalion stand not aloof? how shall we vanquish humane corruptions, if we keep not from them? St. Paul wished himself separate even from Christ, for his brother's sake; and shall not we separate from lewd and debauched Societies, for as great a matters doth it not hinder men in the way of Salvation to be insensible of their own errings? and who will think that he goes astray, while his Pastor is in his company? should no scandal ensue, yet we pull a stain upon ourselves: For he that sorts with uncivil men, shall hardly come off untainted.  
While the Hebrew Multitude sports and dances, and worships a golden Calf, Moses is on the Mount with God, praying and weeping, and interceding for the sins of the people Let the world take her course, and pursue her follies it is not for us, my holy Brethren, it is not for us to mix with it: it would become us better to retire, and pray and weep for public offences: not to lie as stumbling-blocks, and pull God's anger upon us; but to stand in the gap, and turn away his wrathful Indignation: This were the way to be held in greater account, if we were less seen; to be more conspicuous, if we were more hidden; if like the Halcyon birds, we came not out but to calm a tempestuous, Sea, to remove troubles, and to bring peace to the vexed Conscience. Woe be to them that gad abroad on contrary errands, even to raise stirs, and to cause offences. Vae Sacerdoti, woe be to the Churchman, by whose irregular Life the offence comes.  
A sinful compliance with the humours of Factious people, against the prescribed Order of Holy Church, is another offence in Clergymen; and too many such false brethren there are amongst us. I speak this to their shame, who like Aristotle's first matter, are capable of any form which profit shall stamp upon them, and will be any thing, but what they ought to be: for in declaiming against abuses, their meaning is not to have them redressed, but by disgracing the present posture of things, to make a way for their own exploded Discipline; it being a certain Rule, that he which persuades a multitude that things are not as they ought to be, shall never want Rewards, nor Auditors; because under this fair and plausible colour, whatsoever they utter passeth for good and currant: These are the seeming friends that do more hurt to the Church of England, than her professed enemies: For open force is not so dangerous, as close dissimulation. In which respect it may be truly said of our Church, what is spoken of the Eagle in the Greek Apologue, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that died with the greater horror, because she received her mortal Wound, with a Dart which was winged with a Feather of her own kind. These serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, who creep to the Altar to devour the Church's Morsels, whilst privately they cry, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground. And though by Subscription they have given us an assurance of their Submission, yet by conforming with a grudging conscience, out of necessity, and not with a ready mind, do more undermine the Church's Impositions, than the Nonconformists themselves. They were unhappy in their Education, and (to prove they are like glass, which once being cracked, does ever remain crazed and unsound) do continue obstinate and incorrigible, in their sneaking obnuntiations: and accordingly when they are called to execute the Ministerial Function, if they may do it safely, and without censure, 'tis ordinary without any remorse, to the great scandal of poor people, and the hardening them in their Errors, upon all occasions, to neglect the Constitutions of the Church: as for instance, if a zealous and rich Malcontent desires the Baptism of his Child may not be accompanied with the Sign of the Cross, it shall, to please this Opinionist, be censured as a Romish use, and omitted accordingly; though the Incumbent is sensible, that very act renders him Perjured in the wilful breach of his Oath of Canonical Obedience. If a sick person entreats the Prayers of the Congregation, the Office of the Church for that purpose shall be neglected in the Desk, to show how far the Mimic can exceed the Church's prescription in his Extemporary abilities in the Pulpit, And because the common Devotions of the Church must precede the Sermon, they shall be so irreverently hurried over, that the people may easily perceive the Heteroclite performs them not as Prayers, but as an imposed Task, for which he mourns in secret. These are the slights which our Semiconformists use, to secure the good Opinion of the Factious, and to stigmatize their Zealous brethren with the Name of Rigid Conformists, who but conscionably perform what they apprehend to be their Duty. This gives us cause to complain with the Prophet, that the Leaders of the people cause them to err, and deserve to be sharply rebuked, that they may be sound in the Faith, and not tossed to & fro with every wind of popular oblimation. For though they applaud themselves with the gilded title of moderate Men, they are in plain and true English, the Pest and Bane of our Church, whose ambodextry contributes not to the strengthening of the Edifice, but to the demolishing of the Fabric  
Object. But did not St. Paul exhort men to Moderation by his own example, when he became all things to all men, that he might gain some?  
Answ. The sum of these words, so often and erroneously brought to justify this omnifarious principle, imports no more than this, that he denied himself in the use of his liberty, to gain those that were not acquainted with the extent of it; and dealt with all sorts of men in that way, which he thought most probable to convert them to Christianity, and keep them in the regular profession of it: Not that he sneaked and dissembled, and made weak people think that he was of their mind; and so confirmed them in their mistakes and follies: Nor had he any regard to the humours of unreasonable and merely captious people, that will be finding faults upon no ground at all: this must needs be unworthy of an Apostle; for it is so of all inferior Ministers, and likewise of every private Christian. Let me therefore entreat you, my brethren, who are too guilty in this particular, not to sacrifice your Souls to your Fortunes, nor repair a subsistence with the least breach of your Consciences: But for time to come approve yourselves faithful, by employing your best diligence to inform the judgement of others, (especially those that seem to have your Persons in admiration) concerning the Nature and Use of those things they oppose with so much fury; and not humour them in their petulant dislikes, and pernicious errors; nor suffer them to continue therein without your rebukes, either public, or private, as prudence shall direct, and opportunity minister occasion: and this will be a means to pacify the God you have angered, the Consciences you have grieved, the Church that you have wronged, and your Souls and Brethren whom you have offended. Who Semi-christiani, woe to the partial Conformist, by whose sinful compliance the offence comes.  
There be little ones in the Family too; little ones in a literal sense, such as our Saviour was now pointing unto: and here I must bring you forth the Guardians of Youth, Parents, and Poedagogues, and Heads of Families, who either by negligent nurture, or naughty examples, are guilty of an Offence. What an offence was it in Noah's Family, to see the old man so drowned in his excess! How is I'm heightened with scorn and derision, Shem and Japhet dejected with shame and grief, at the ill example of their aged Father.  
As water follows the tract of your finger's end, so young children with the least word or deed, are drawn away: I speak that which I have seen with my Father, and you do that which you have seen with your father, saith our blessed Saviour. 
John 8.38.  How ready are children to do that which they see done by their Parents! Beware therefore, all you that have attained this Reverend Name, that you let not your children see you do or speak, that which they cannot do or speak after you, but they must sin.  
The most powerful motive to sin, and that which maketh a forcible entry into the Soul, is Vice armed with the authority of a Parent; be it Lying, Swearing, Drinking, or Gaming, that usual, though dangerous Sport, which doth not so much recreate, as infect them with all ill customs, of lying, and cozenage, and the like abominations  
Many times, on the other hand, Parents corrupt their children with too much indulgence and mildness towards them, never finding in their hearts to chastise them, upon a foolish conceit, they are too near our bloods to be controlled. What! do not vermin, and other superfluities proceed from our own bodies, yet being noisome are cast forth? How shall Amaleck be chased away, if the Rod of Moses be not lifted up? How shall growing corruptions be rooted out, when Discipline and due correction are laid aside? it was this plunged King David in a world of Woe; for cockering one of his Sons, he felt the loss of two: Had Amnon been chid by his Father, he had not perhaps been murdered by his Brother. Yet so far are many from observing these things, that they rather cherish them in their faults, hearing their lewd words with applause and smiling, as the tokens of a pregnant Nature; which fond indulgence, as it is still pernicious to children, by unsinewing their minds and bodies into all kind of Luxuary, so it proveth many times no less disastrous unto Parents, who are commonly most grieved with those whom they breed most wantonly: Then feeling the sad truth of Syracides his Observation, Cocker thy child and he shall make thee afraid, play with him and he will bring thee to heaviness. 
Ecclus. 30.9.  He that will let his children alone till they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animum consilio ac ratione firmatum, a fixed and settled judgement, shall find evil habits so fixed and permanent, that good counsel will be too easy a remedy.  
'Tis another offence in point of Nurture, that they who would not lay the Fruit of their Orchards on a dank floor where it would rot and putrify, will yet suffer the Fruit of their Loins to be depraved and corrupted in bad company, which is the plague & bane of all Goodness; whose poisonous leaven more infecteth, and sinketh deeper into the soul, than all the precepts of Virtue and Godliness can do on the contrary: Such Parents are like the Ostrich that is hardened against her young ones; who provide not for their children the sincere Milk of the Word, that they might grow thereby: But from the time of their being washed in the Laver of Regeneration, take no more care, but expose them forthwith to such lusts & conversations, as are much more wild and savage than those beasts 
* Lam. 4.3. Job. 39.14.  in the comparison; to which they cannot choose but be a prey. They strive indeed (as the moding term is), to educate them into men betimes; that is, make them conversible and bold: and since for that they must engage them into frequent company, where they see and hear men's follies, that I say no worse, by that means they come to have their understandings stored with nothing but the modes and sins of Conversation; filled with froth and mud, for want of religious principles being instilled and wrought into their minds before these evil days came on.  
'Tis another offence in point of Nurture, that young ones for dirty respects are forced to a course of life either in the Church or Kingdom, which they neither affect, nor are fit for. A man would think the maid that let in St. Peter to a warm Hall, and a good fire in a cold night, had done him an high courtesy, but it proved a manifest injury: for that very maid drew him first to the foul sin which he shortly after committed. So men think they have fairly acquitted themselves in Offices of love and care, if they can bring up a child to be a Scholar. Nay, the violence of some rigorous Pedant (who, I verily think, is as deep in our Saviour's woe, as any other) shall make him one whether he will or no: and now an Advowson is bought for him, the maid hath opened the door: worldly policy and covetousness hath brought the youngster into the high Priests Hall to the fireside; but how oft doth sin and offences follow! your Scholar perhaps hath neither body nor brain fit for his Function; and then like cruel Palamedes, you have but laid your child before Ulysses' Plough to be run over; or like our Lord's Tempter, you have but led him up to the Pinnacle of the Temple to get a fall. This might have been prevented, if you had gone to work like the old Spartans'; they would feel the palms of a man's hand, whether they were hard or soft, whether he were like to be a painful man, ere they would choose him into a public Office. We should do as much in the trial of Wits and Inclinations, ere we mark out a little one for his profession: for many times the Kingdom is rob of a good artificer, and the Church overcharged with a bad Minister.  
In Heads of Families 'tis an offence that there is no more care took of a Servants Soul: the Master 
* Gent. Calling.  imposes his Vices upon his whole Family, as if they were to be the badges and cognisances to witness whom they belonged to; as if they thought it a disparagement to their qualities, to go to Hell without an honourable Retinue. Hence disorders and drunkenness are winked at, as if they made for the Master's credit; as if Bounty could not be seen but in a Deluge, or Hospitality stood in staggering; that many of them are wholly kept with Kitchen drudgery, or worldly employment, from the service of God. Who patri, Who patri familiâs, Who lactantibus! woe be them that give suck, if they bring up their babes no better; woe to the Parent, to the good man of the house, by whose ill example or lose Government the offence comes.  
There are offences we see in the fails of Superiors, there are offences too in the fails of the religious. As pilferers regard not empty Cottages, but prey and break into rich houses to rob and spoil; so that cunning tempter bestirs himself most to rifle such hearts as are richly fraught with the graces of God: and many times his desire is attained; for through those relics of corruption that still reside in the best of us, we are too prone to stumble into the paths of sin. Certainly, Religion itself getteth a blot in the fall of a just man; how is the Name of the Lord blasphemed, when the man after his own heart is found an Adulterer? let him therefore that thinks he stands sure, let him that professes the Name of Christ with zeal and ardour, let him take heed lest he fall, lest the profane Philistines rejoice, and uncircumcised hearts triumph over goodness itself, in the fall of her zealous Votary.  
None so much detriment Religion, as those that profess a believing in Christ, but in their conversations deny the Lord that bought them. Now what is this, but to act the Heathen under the Honourable name of a Christian, and offend more heinously for being invested with that Sacred Title? as the higher our Prerogative is, so much the greater is our fault. The very Religion we profess, is an aggravation to our sins; he that knows his Master's will, and squares not his life accordingly, does but load his Soul with the greater guilt and more intolerable punishment. There may be some excuse for ignorance, but the contemptuous and wilful sins of professors, will not obtain an easy pardon; to him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin. 
Jam. 4.17.  With what face can we look up and call ourselves by Christ's Name, who are shamefully upbraided by the practice of a Pericles, Socrates, and Aristides, who are accounted Heathens and Barbarous? what prodigies of baseness do we Christians make ourselves, upon the account of our scandalous practices, whose holy Religion lays undispensible obligations upon its followers, only to think upon and to do whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever are of good report: and it is hearty to be wished, that men would not pride themselves in the mistaken signs of Grace, and think their condition good, only because they have persuaded themselves to believe so; but would endeavour to be true and real Christians, that the Name of God and Religion be not evil spoken of for their miscarriages.  
Lastly, Men and Women offend one another, by that wanton garb of Apparel they have taken up. Light Weeds I know are accounted but a slender fault, but why should not our Pulpits arraign that which Esaiahs did? how doth that noble Prophet lift up his voice like a trumpet, proclaiming an heavy woe to those that draw iniquity with cords of vanity? To steal a silken string were no great Robbery; but how if a row of Diamonds hung upon it? how if on these things we count but light and vain toys, monstrous iniquities do depend? Pride and haughtiness, oppression and envy, scandal and lust, what goodly Patrimonies do they not exhaust? what works of mercy do they not devour? what honest eyes do they not offend? what hearts do they not batter? O God, what do we mean to endanger one another? why do we kindle the flame of Lust in another's bosom? should our own hearts be innocent, yet we draw suspicion and envy upon ourselves. Our blessed Saviour would have us wise as Serpents, and 'tis a piece of the Serpent's wisdom, that coming abroad to drink, he leaves his poison at home, lest other Creatures perish by his infection, that drink at the same Spring. Let us, my brethren, be thus wise; does any infectious evil reside in our Souls, any poison of Asps lurk under our tongues, any foul enormity appear in our lives, any unjust violence defile our hands, any scandalous Weeds hang on our backs; either spit your poison out, or so smother it, that it hurt none but thyself. Was not young Jacob, saith St. Ambrose, even than an happy man, when he was turned out to the wide world, when he was fain to forsake his Country, and Friends, and his Father's house? how happy a Voyage did that forlorn wanderer make, that thus saved his own life, and his Brother's innocency? get thee gone, O man, get thee gone from thy brother's sight, if there be aught in thee that offendeth his eye, or woundeth his Soul; and that for thy brother's sake, for thy Saviour's sake, for thy own sake.  
First, for thy Brother's sake: for by thine offensive carriage thy weak Brother perisheth. 
1 Cor. 8.10.  Methinks every word is a new enforcement; offend him not, for he is thy Brother; offend him not, because he is weak; offend him not, because he perisheth by it. The Jews that sought our Saviour's life, would be thought Abraham's Children; but Christ fetcheth their Pedigree from Hell; they are of their father the Devil, who was a Murderer from the beginning. 
Joh. 8.44.  How was the Devil a Murderer? he came not with a Sword or Poniard at his side, but whispered a wicked word, and killed us all: he killed our bodies, he killed our Souls too, when our forefathers were tempted to sin. Now if those that sought the bodily death of our Saviour, were in this the brats of that murderous Fiend, how can we think better of them that seek the destruction of Souls, since it was of the Soul too that the Devil was a Murderer from the beginning? By killing a man, thou dost but rob him of that Breath which is common to him with other Creatures; but by leading him into a vicious course, thou strippest his Soul of that life of Grace, which the Angels of Heaven are more happy in than in their natural being: murder the Body, and thou takest but his Soul from it; but misled his Soul, and thou takest away his God.  
2. As for thy brother's sake, so for thy Saviour's sake too, take heed of offences, lest thy weak Brother perish for whom Christ died. Consider, O Man, saith holy Bernard, if the Son of God gave up his precious Blood to redeem the Souls of men, do not they persecute him worse, who rob him of his purchased Souls, than the Jews did, who shed his precious Blood? 'tis one of the Laws of God, that if a stack of Corn, or Cornfield, had been burnt up, he that kindled the fire was to make amends for the loss. For a whole year the poor Husbandman had took pains for that hoped●… crease; but it was not one, nor two, nor three, but thirty three years together, that the Son of God laboured hard to get a crop of Souls into his Garner: what fearful Agonies did he go through! what a bloody sweat bedewed his face, that these fruits might prosper and grow! and rather than go without this fruit, he would give his life for it: every Christian Soul is (as it were) a sheaf of this harvest, which after so many toilsome endeavours of that careful Husbandman to bring it to maturity, if thou shalt now scorch and burn up, by mis-leading a man first into the crooked paths of sin, and at last plunge him into the unquenchable flames of Hell; hath not the Lord of the Harvest Reason to look these consumed sheaves, this spoiled crop, this wasteful detriment should be made good? and how this restitution should be made, God Almighty hath directed in another case: If a man dig or open a pit, and an Ox or an Ass fall therein, the owner of the pit shall restore the price of the beast. 
Exod. 21.33.  By drawing thy brother to sin, thou hast opened a bottomless pit, in which his Soul is everlastingly plunged: and since thou canst not restore that perished Soul, thou must be accountable to God for the price of it; and what was the price of thy Brother's Soul, but the precious blood of the Son of God? let me entreat you therefore to consider in time, that it is no petty driblet, no trifling arrearage thou runnest into, but it is those invaluable drops of thy Saviour's Blood thou art now guilty of: and with what payment canst thou wipe out such a score! why, if there be none else, it must be such a recompense as the Mosaical Law exacted, a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a burning for a burning, a wound for a wound. Hast thou been an helper of thy Brother's destruction? a Soul must go for a Soul, a burning for a burning; thou that hast brought his Soul within the reach of those endless torments, canst look for no less to be the portion of thine inheritance, than to be cast irrecoverably into the merciless and devouring flames of Gods everlasting displeasure.  
3. For thy own sake, give no offence: for as Moses loads him with fearful curses, that shall remove the bounds of his Neighbour's land; so the Law of God hath fenced in the Souls of men; and he that makes them common, which that Divine rule had enclosed, stands liable to the seven curses of the Son of God, woe be to that man; and thus we find it of old: for as they that intent to destroy any devouring beasts of prey, can do it no better way than by killing those that are great with young; so Almighty God hath always took vengeance on the Parents and Authors of sin, that he might root out the young cubs in their Dam's belly.  
When the Jews were consulting what to do with him that gathered sticks on their Sabbath-day, God's Oracle instructed them to stone him to death, because (as Theodoret states it, though the fault in itself were a light one) he was the first that offended in this kind: the first man that violated that Sacred Law, & in his mis-leading act, as in the Womb of a she-Wolf, the future transgressions of others lay bleeding. For this cause, when that vile Traitor Judas had hanged himself, his bowels gushed out on the ground, because he was the first man that laid wicked hands on the body of Christ. Now when that bloody Wolf had devoured the consecrated sop, methinks all those indigested Gobbets unworthy receivers take in, were now contained in his belly; God therefore provides that belly should be presently ripped up, and those bowels gush out, that these horrible profanations, even in their Dam's belly, might receive their Death's wound. The Serpent, saith Chrysostom, was punished worse than the woman, the woman worse than the man; Isabel that devised the mischief, worse than Ahab that took away the vineyard: so thou that art the moving cause of another's destruction, must look for an heavier torment than those thou hast seduced: the people of God were plagued for sinning with the Daughters of Midian, but the Midianite was worse plagued for laying those stumbling-blocks before the people of God.  
What a spotted Chronicle attends that Son of Nebat, Jeroboam, he that set up his glittering Calves to keep the people from the Temple of God this scandalous affront was so taken to heart, that almost in every page it is complained of: whensoever the slips of other Princes fall into mention, Jeroboam is cried out of as the ringleader; Jeroboam the Son of Nebat that made Israel sin. So hateful to God was the offensive Idolatry of this man, that even long before he rejected the Tribe Jeroboam came of, he chose not the Tribe of Ephraim (as the Psalm speaks) 
Psal. 76.67.  and Theodoret venter's to tell you why, Because it was of this Tribe Jeroboam descended, who plucked away Ten Tribes from the Worship of God. Even in this life the plagues of God meet with scandalous sins, a blemished name, outward mishaps, and the fierce sting of an accusing Conscience. But our Saviour's woe implies more, the lasting torments of another world; and therefore he says, 'twere better a millstone was hanged about thy neck, and thou cast into the Sea, than these offences were given; for that Massy piece could only sink thy body to the Seas bottom, but lewd and offensive courses will at last drown both Body and Soul too in the Sulphurous lake of Hell-fire.  
Now to keep off the blurs of following offences, or the woes of offences already come, I advise men to three things; Restitution, Circumspection, Mortification.  
1. First, in case of offences already given, I advise Restitution. For can we think Almighty God takes more care of our Silver, than of our Souls? no! one Soul is of more value with him, than the wealth of the whole world: if then he will have Zacheus restore that base Metal that was unjustly taken away, how much more doth he look some amends should be made for a precious, for an immortal Soul? have thy public aberrations given the world an offence? let thy public amendment proclaim thee to be a new man. As those Eastern Sages while they stayed with Herod, lost the sight of the Star, but when they left Herod met with it again: so if thou hast lost the splendour of thy good name, by wallowing in a known sin, recover it again by forsaking thy vicious courses. Hast thou drawn men by thy lewd suggestions? draw them to God by thy good Counsels; if that fail, by thy fervent prayer: if the same parties thou canst not recover, bring in others instead of them; as, if thou hast borrowed so many Crowns and couldst not repay the very pieces, it is enough if thou return an equivalent sum. But thou wilt say, It lies not in my power to do this, I shall but get mocks, and do no good. Let not that obstruct thy holy endeavours; for whether they turn or no, thou shalt be no loser; the God of Heaven is a gracious paymaster; and as the hired labourer that hath digged in the garden, or held the plough, hath not his payment deferred till the flowers blow, or harvest appear, but is immediately discharged, though those prosper not: so if thou work in the vineyard of God by thy good Counsels, and holy examples, whether the fruit be answerable to thy pains, or not, thou shalt be sure of thy reward in heaven.  
2. Since these things are thus, since every stumbling-block we lay in our brother's way, doth but kindle our flame higher in the next world; what manner of persons ought we to be! how holy and spotless in our converse! how strict and cautelous in our lives, like those nimble Creatures in Ezekiel? 
Ezek. 1.  what a sort of Eyes had we need have on all sides? how importunately should we invoke God, to order our steps aright, that we hurt not our feet against the stones! to keep the door of our mouth, that we offend not with our tongues; and the windows of our eyes, that they gaze not on forbidden objects; to manacle our hands from violence and oppression, and restrain our feet from revenge! how diligently should we all watch, lest we enter ourselves and draw others with us into temptation?  
3. But if offences will come in spite of our circumspection, our Saviour's Counsel may help all; do but cut off these offending parts with the keen razor of a sober mortification, and thou art safe; whether it be a wanton eye, or a griping fist, or a foot too swift in the pursuit of a bloody revenge; whether it be a licentious tongue, or a quaffing Weazand, or the lap of a scandalous weed; whatsoever irregular lust it be that layeth a stumbling block, an occasion to fall in thy brother's way, do but pair them away with the dreadful remembrance of their imminent woe, lest the offending part being now spared, thy whole body be afterward cast into Hell.  
Now to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.  
FINIS.