A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

Secondly, If after we have weighed these Circumstances, and can find no probability of Scandal in them, if others with whom we are, or who are liable to take exception, if they do not discover their Exceptions, we are not bound to abstain from any thing that is indifferently lawful. We have a hint of this from the Apostle, 1 Cor. 10.28. If any one say to you, this was offered to Idols, eat not; if he say to you. But if they take offence, and will not make it known, the offence, as it rests in their own bosom, so shall it lie on their own heads, and we shall it be guiltless; and that's the first Limitation. We are not bound to abstain from things lawful in themselves, though they carry in them an appearance of Evil towards others, if there be no probable grounds to conjecture that they will be offended at them.

Secondly, We must consider whether or not the Action that we do, which another takes offence at, be as indifferent to us, as it is indifferent in, respect of God, that is, whether it be of great conveniency, or of great importance and concernment to us, if it be not of such ⟨p. 144⟩convenience and importance, then the Rule of Charity obligeth us to abstain from it. There are those things that are indifferent in respect of God, that yet may not be indifferent in respect of us; because they may be of great concernment unto us; if it be so, then we ought to observe this Method, as long as we may without any notable inconveniency: We must abstain from these things, endeavouring in the mean time, to satisfy their Doubts, and inform their Consciences of the Lawfulness of that wherewith they are offended. This Rule the Apostle lays down for us, Rom. 15.2. Let every one seek to please his Neighbour for his good to edification. We ought to abstain from those things that are indifferent in respect of God, and yet of importance unto us from the exceptions of others, so long as we have no notable inconveniency accruing to our selves thereby, endeavouring also to inform them of the lawfulness of them.