h proposition.

_Sect._ 17. Secondly, saith he, all those Scriptures condemn only the
scandal of the weak which is made at that time when we know they will be
scandalised.

_Ans._ 1. If he speak of certain and infallible knowledge, none but God
knoweth whether a man shall be scandalised or not, by that which we are to
do. He must mean, therefore, of such knowledge as we can have of the event
of our actions, and so his answer bringeth great damage to his own cause.
Formalists know that then weak brethren have been of a long time
scandalised by the ceremonies, and they hear them professing that they are
yet scandalised, and how then can they but know that scandal will still
follow upon that which they do?

2. Albeit they know not that their brethren will be scandalised by the
ceremonies, yea, albeit then brethren should not be scandalised thereby,
yet because the ceremonies are appearances of evil, inductive to sin, and
occasions of ruin, scandal is given by them, whether it be taken by their
brethren or not, according to my fourth and fifth propositions.

_Sect._ 18. Thirdly, saith Paybody, all those Scriptures condemn only that
offence of another in things indifferent, which is made by him who is at
liberty and not bound, they speak not of using or refusing those things,
as men are tied by the commandment of authority. Where he laboureth to
prove that obedience to the magistrate in a thing indifferent is a better
duty than the pleasing of a private person in such a thing.

_Ans._ 1. I have proved heretofore, that the commandment of authority
cannot make the use of a thing indifferent to be no scandal, which
otherwise were scandal.

2. I have also proved in the first part of this dispute, that an
ecclesiastical constitution cannot bind us, nor take away our liberty in
the using or not using of a thing indifferent in itself, except some other
reason be showed us than the bare authority of the church. As touching the
civil magistrate's place and power to judge and determine in things
pertaining to the worship of God, we shall see it afterwards, and so shall
we know how far his decisions and ordinances in this kind of things have
force to bind us to obedience.

3. He should have proved that obedience to the magistrate in a thing
indifferent, is a better duty than abstaining from that which scandaliseth
many Christians. He should not have opposed pleasing and scandalising (for
perhaps a man is most scandalised when he