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“It must needs
be,” considering man’s frailty, Satan’s malice, and God’s
providence, “that offenses come,” saith Christ our Lord: “but woe be
to the person by whom they come.” Matt.
xvii. 6, 7. Woe be to him,
first, that gives offence; next, to him that takes it, where he should
not: as the same our Lord teacheth elsewhere, saying, “Blessed is he,
whosoever shall not be offended in me,” Matt. xi.6; that is, who takes
not occasion of stumbling, to hinder himself in the way of godliness,
either at my person or doctrine, or works or followers; or at the
persecutions and contradictions raised against me and mine, by mine and
their adversaries. And
considering how many such like stumbling stones are in the narrow way of
Christ, which leads unto life; he is a happy man indeed, that hath either
power to remove them, or wisdom to decline from them, or nimbleness of
grace to leap over them.
Offence may be given, where none is taken; as in such evil actions, as
whereby others may or might be, but are not provoked to evil, and so Peter
was an offence, or scandal to Christ, Matt. xvi.23: or offence may be
taken, where none is given; and so Christ, and the gospel were “a stone
of stumbling” and “rock of offence to both the houses of Israel,”
Isa. Viii.15; 1 Pet. Ii.8; and so are many good and lawful things, yea
necessary also, to many now. Offence
also may both be given and taken in the same action, and that either in
things simply evil; as when one provokes, and another is provoked to evil,
by false doctrine, corrupt counsel, ill example, or the like; or in things
of indifferent nature, but unseasonably used, to the effectual hindrance
of others, in the way of godliness. In
such cases, as I last mentioned, offence is given through want of charity;
and taken through want, or weakness of faith in the particular.
Rom. xiv.1.
God would have us walk in faith towards him, and love towards men, 1 Cor.
viii.5-7; that so doing we may neither offend God nor men.
But these two, which the Lord hath joined together, Satan would not
only disjoin in many, but so oppose, as either may oppress or destroy
other. Hence some are so
strong in faith and zealous for faithfulness towards God, as they are
lifted up above charity towards men; now considering how they ought to
receive the weak, Rom. xiv.1, and bear and forbear them, yea apply unto
them in many things, and drive according to their pace, as fearing to
offend one of those little ones. And
though we may do nothing simply evil to please men; for that were to
prefer them before God, nor betray the truth to gratify them; so better
scandal arise, than truth forsaken [Austin.
Bernard]; yet are we not only to do or leave undone things of
indifferent nature, wherein we have liberty, for the preventing of
offence, and so to depart from our own right: but withal, both to do
divers things, which out of the case of offence, were sin, as Paul
circumcised Timothy, Matt. xvii.26; John xvi.1; Matt. ix.11; and for a
time also to forbear both the publishing and practicing of some truth, to
the which, in time, we do owe testimony both ways.
Others, on the contrary, are so full of charity, towards men, and
fear of offending them, as that for, and sometimes under pretence thereof,
they will both adventure to do many things, which God plainly enough
forbids, and neglect the practice of other things commanded them, and all
Christ’s disciples, in his gospel.
Many pretend the weakness of others, where, in truth, they show
their own weakness; others, that they would do such and such things, to
which indeed both conscience of God, and duty to men binds them, but for
offence. And what is this
offence many times? Surely
often nothing else but the waspishness of some peevish and imperious
persons carried against others with hatred, or contempt, or envy, or
divers of those passions. But
this is not to respect the weak in faith, but the strong in passion.
To be offended at good
things in men, which is the property of an evil mind, is to be offended at
God in men [Tertullian]; to be offended at things indifferent, is to be
offended, as it were, at men in men: but to be offended at evil, in men,
in due manner and measure, is to be offended at the devil in men.
IN this last case no man should think much at due opposition and
reproof, seeing it is not properly against him, but against Satan in him.
Readiness to take offence, and exception at and against other men in their
failings, shows either weakness of understanding in the offended, when
they discern not either of men’s temptations, under which they lie, or
what they may and ought to bear in their brethren: or it shows pride which
makes men either out of envy apt to bark at others upon every small
occasion, or to despise them in their wants and weaknesses, through
over-valuation of their own excellency; whereas, on the contrary, they
should support them, that they sink not under the burden of their
infirmities: or else it comes from hypocrisy, out of which many seek to
cover both from other men’s eyes and from their own also, their proper
beam-like corruptions by quarrelling at the motes in their brother’s
eye. I never knew any more
forward to take offence, than such as were most apt to give it; nor any
more hardly brought to bear with failings at the hands of others, than
such as stood in greatest need to have both God and men to bear with no
small things amiss in themselves. “Oh!
hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye: and then shalt
thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
Matt. vii.3.
None should plead his own offence against a thing, but, his reason; nor
say this should not be done, because it offends me; but it offends me,
because it should not be done, being contrary to the word of God.
To say to another, do not this because it offends God, shows love
to God: and, do not this, because it offends others, love to men: but to
say, do it not, because it offends me, without rendering further reason
against it, is from plain self-love; and is an absurd and insolent
request, and motion. All
should take care not to offend one another; but none should look much not
to be offended by others; for that is to nourish weakness in himself, and
to provide trouble and disquietness for himself beforehand. |
