A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian Politics

What is not scandal, that is by many so called.

II. By this you may see, 1. That to scandalize, is not merely to displease or grieve another; for many a man is displeased, through his folly and vice, by that which tendeth to his good; and many a man is tempted (that is, scandalized) by that which pleaseth him; when Christ saith, "If thy right eye or hand offend (or scandalize) thee, pluck it out, or cut it off," &c. Matt. v. he doth not, by offending, mean displeasing, or grieving; for by so offending it may profit us; but he plainly meaneth, If it draw thee to sin; or else he had never added, "That it is better to enter maimed into life, than having two eyes or hands to be cast into hell!" That is, in a word, Thy damnation is a greater hurt than the loss of hand or eye, and therefore if there were no other way to avoid it, this would be a very cheap way. So pedem offendere in lapidem, is to stumble upon a stone. The most censorious and humorous sort of men, have got a notion, that whatever offendeth or displeaseth them is scandalous! And they think that no man must do any thing which grieveth or displeaseth them, lest he be guilty of scandal; and by this trick whoever can purchase impatience and peevishness enough, to be always displeased with the actions of others, shall rule the world. But the truth is, the ordinary way of scandalizing these men is by pleasing them.

I will give you one instance of scandal in Scripture, which may help this sort of people better to understand it, Gal. ii. 10-16. Peter there giveth true scandal to the Jews and gentiles; he walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, but laid a stumblingblock before the Jews and gentiles; and this was not by displeasing the Jews, but by pleasing them. The Jews thought it a sin to eat with the gentiles, and to have communion with uncircumcised men. Peter knew the contrary, but for fear of them of the circumcision, lest they should be offended at him as a sinner, he "withdrew and separated himself." This scandal tended to harden the Jews in their sinful separation, and to seduce the gentiles into a conceit of the necessity of circumcision; and Barnabas was carried away with the dissimulation. Here you may see, that if any think it a sin in us to have communion in such or such congregations, with such persons, in such worship, which God alloweth us not to separate from, it is a sin of scandal in us to separate to avoid these men's offence. We scandalize them and others, even by pleasing them, and by avoiding that which they falsely called scandalous. And if we would not scandalize them, we must do that which is just, and not by our practice hide the sound doctrine, which is contrary to their separating error.

2. And it is as apparent that to scandalize another, is not (as is vulgarly imagined by the ignorant) to do that which is commonly reputed sinful, or which hath the appearance of a sin, or which will make a man evil thought of or spoken of by others; yet commonly when men say, This is a scandalous action, they mean, it is an action which is reproachful or of evil report as a sin. And therefore in our English speech it is common to say of one that slandereth another, that he raised a scandal of him. But this is not the meaning of the word in Scripture: materially indeed scandal may consist in any such thing which may be a stumblingblock to another; but formally it is the tempting of another, or occasioning his fall, or ruin, or hurt, which is the nature of scandalizing. And this is done more seldom by committing open, disgraceful sins, and doing that which will make the doer evil spoken of; for by that means others are the more assisted against the temptation of imitating him; but scandal is most commonly found in those actions, which are under least reproach among men, or which have the most plausible appearance of good in them, when they are evil! For these are apter to deceive and overthrow another.

3. And it is also apparent, that it is no sinful scandalizing to do a duty or necessary action, which I have not power to forbear, though I know that another will be offended, or fall by it into sin. If God have made it my duty, even at this time, I must not disobey him, and omit my duty, because another will make it an occasion of his sin. It must be either a sinful or an indifferent action that is scandal, or something that is in my power to do or to forbear; yet this must be added, that affirmatives binding not ad semper, to all times, and no duty being a duty at every moment, it may oft fall out, that that which else would have been my duty at this time, may become at this time no duty but a sin, by the evil consequents which I may foresee, as if another man will make it an occasion of his fall. So that this may oblige me to defer a duty to a fitter time and place. For all such duties as have the nature of a means, are never duties when they cross the interest of their chief ends, and make against that which they are used to effect. And therefore here christian prudence, foreseeing consequents, and weighing the good and evil together, is necessary to him that will know a duty from a sin, and a scandal from no scandal.

The sorts of scandalizing.

III. The several ways of scandalizing are these following: 1. Scandal is either intended or not intended, either that which is done maliciously of set purpose, or that which is done through negligence, carelessness, or contempt. Some men do purposely contrive the fall or ruin of another; and this is a devilish aggravation of the sin: and some do hurt to others while they intend it not; yet this is far from excusing them from sin; for it is voluntary as an omission of the will, though not as its positive choice: that is called voluntary which the will is chargeable with, or culpable of; and it is chargeable with its omissions, and sluggish neglects of the duty which it should do. Those that are careless of the consequent of their actions, and contemn the souls of other men, and will go their own way, come of it what will, and say, Let other men look to themselves, are the commonest sort of scandalizers; and are as culpable as a servant that would leave hot water or fire when the children are like to fall into it; or that would leave straw or gunpowder near the fire, or would leave open the doors, though not of purpose to let in the thieves.

2. Scandal is that which tendeth to another's fall, either directly or indirectly, immediately or remotely. The former may easily be foreseen; but the latter requireth a large foreseeing, comparing understanding; yet this kind of scandal also must be avoided; and wise men that would not undo men's souls while they think no harm, must look far before them, and foresee what is like to be the consequent of their actions at the greatest distance and at many removes.

3. Scandals also are aptitudinal or actual: many things are apt to tempt and occasion the ruin of another, which yet never attain so bad an end, because God disappointeth them; but that is no thanks to them that give the scandal.

4. Scandal also as to the means of it, is of several sorts. 1. By doctrine. 2. By persuasion. 3. By alluring promises. 4. By threats. 5. By violence. 6. By gifts. 7. By example. 8. By omission of duties, and by silence: by all these ways you may scandalize.

1. False doctrine is directly scandalous; for it seduceth the judgment, which then misguideth the will, which then misruleth the rest of the faculties. False doctrine, if it be in weighty, practical points, is the pernicious plague of souls and nations.

2. Also the solicitations of seducers and of tempting people are scandalous, and tend to the ruin of souls; when people have no reason to draw a man to sin, they weary him out by tedious importunity. And many a one yields to the earnestness, or importunity, or tediousness of a persuasion, who could easily resist it if it came only with pretence of reason.

3. Alluring promises of some gain or pleasure that shall come by sin, is another scandal which doth cause the fall of many. The course that Satan tried with Christ, "All this will I give thee," was but the same which he found most successful with sinners in the world. This is a bait which sinners will themselves hunt after, if it be not offered them. Judas will go to the Pharisees with a "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" Peter saith of the scandalous heretics of his time, "They allure through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error; while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption," 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19.

4. Threatenings also and scorns are scandals, which frighten unbelieving souls into sin. Thus Rabshakeh thought to prevail with Hezekiah. Thus Nebuchadnezzar Dan. iii. thought to have drawn those three worthies to idolatry. Thus the Pharisees thought to have frightened the apostles from preaching any more in the name of Christ, Acts iv. 17, 21. Thus Saul thought to have perverted the disciples, by breathing out threatenings against them, Acts ix. 1.

5. And what words will not do, the ungodly think to do by force; and it enrageth them, that any should resist their wills, and that their force is patiently endured. What cruel torments, what various sorts of heavy sufferings, have the devil and his instruments devised, to be stumblingblocks to the weak, to affright them into sin!

6. Gifts also have blinded the eyes of some who seemed wise: "As oppression maketh a wise man mad, so a gift destroyeth the heart," Eccles. vii. 7. What scandals have preferments proved to the world, and how many have they ruined! Few are able to esteem the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of the world.

7. And evil examples are the commonest sort of scandals:135 not as they offend, or grieve, or are apparently sinful; but as they seem good, and therefore are temptations to the weak to imitate them. So apt are men to imitation, especially in evil, that they will do what they see another do, without examining whether it be justifiable or not. Especially if it be the example either of great men, or of learned men, or of men reputed eminently godly, or of a multitude, any of these the people are apt to imitate: this therefore is the common way of scandal. When people do that which is evil as if it were good, and thereby draw the ignorant to think it good, and so imitate them. Or else when they do that which is lawful itself, in such a manner as tendeth to deceive another, and draw him to that which is indeed unlawful; or to hinder him in any thing that is good.

8. Lastly, Even silence and omissions also may be scandalous, and draw another into error and sin. If by silence you seem to consent to false doctrine, or to wicked works, when you have opportunity to control them, hereby you draw others to consent also to the sin: or if you omit those public or private duties, which others may be witnesses of, you tempt them to the like omission, and to think they are no duties, but indifferent things: for in evil they will easily rest in your judgment, and say that you are wiser than they; but they are not so ductile and flexible to good.

5. Scandals also are distinguishable by the effects; which are such as these:

1. Some scandals do tempt men to actual infidelity, and to deny or doubt of the truth of the gospel.

2. Some scandals would draw men but into some particular error, and from some particular truth, while he holds the rest.

3. Some scandals draw men to dislike and distaste the way of godliness; and some to dislike the servants of God.

4. Some scandals tend to confound men, and bring them to utter uncertainties in religion.

5. Some tend to terrify men from the way of godliness.

6. Some only stop them for a time, and discourage or hinder them in their way.

7. Some tend to draw them to some particular sin.

8. And some to draw them from some particular duty.

9. And some tend to break and weaken their spirits, by grief or perplexity of mind.

10. And as the word is taken in the Old Testament, the snares that malicious men lay to entrap others in their lives, or liberties, or estates, or names, are called scandals. And all these ways a man may sinfully scandalize another.

And that you may see that the scandal forbidden in the New Testament, is always of this nature, let us take notice of the particular texts where the word is used. And first, to scandalize is used actively in these following texts: in Matt. v. before cited, and in the other evangelists citing the same words, the sense is clear; that the offending of a hand or eye, is not displeasing, nor seeking of ill report; but hindering our salvation by drawing us to sin. So in Matt. xviii. 8; and Mark ix. 42, 43, where the sense is the same. In Matt. xvii. 27, "Lest we should offend them," &c. is not only, lest we displease them, but lest we give them occasion to dislike religion, or think hardly of the gospel, and so lay a stumblingblock to the danger of their souls. So Matt. xviii. 6, and Mark ix. "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me," &c. that is, not who shall displease them, but whoso by threats, persecutions, cruelties, or any other means, shall go about to turn them from the faith of Christ, or stop them in their way to heaven, or hinder them in a holy life: though these two texts seem nearest to the denied sense, yet that is not indeed their meaning. So in John vi. 6, "Doth this offend you?" that is, doth this seem incredible to you, or hard to be believed, or digested? Doth it stop your faith, and make you distaste my doctrine? So 1 Cor. viii. 13, "If meat scandalize my brother;" our translators have turned it, "If meat make my brother to offend." So it was not displeasing him only, but tempting him to sin, which is the scandalizing here reproved.

View also the places where the word scandal is used. Matt. xiii. 41, Πάντα τὰ σκάνδαλα, All scandals, translated, "All things that offend," doth not signify All that is displeasing; but all temptations to sin, and hinderances or stumblingblocks that would have stopped men in the ways to heaven. So in Matt. xvi. 23, (a text as like as any to be near the denied sense; yet indeed,) "Thou art a scandal to me," (translated an offence,) doth not only signify, Thou displeasest me, but, Thou goest about to hinder me in my undertaken office, from suffering for the redemption of the world; it was an aptitudinal scandal, though not effectual. So Matt. xvii. 7, "It must be that scandals come," (translated offences,) that is, that there be many stumblingblocks set before men in their way to heaven. So Luke xvii. 1, to the same sense. And Rom. ix. 33, "I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone, and a rock of scandal," (translated offence,) that is, such as will not only be displeasing, but an occasion of utter ruin to the unbelieving, persecuting Jews; according to that of Simeon, Luke ii. 34, "This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." Rom. xi. 9, "Let their table be made a snare, a trap, and a stumblingblock." The Greek word εἰς σκὰνδαλον doth not signify a displeasure only, but an occasion of ruin. So Rom. xiv. 13, expoundeth itself, "That no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall into his brother's way." The Greek word is, or a scandal. This is the just exposition of the word in its ordinary use in the New Testament.136 So Rom. xvi. 17, "Mark them which cause divisions and scandals," (translated offences,) that is, which lay stumblingblocks in the way of christians, and would trouble them in it, or turn them from it. So 1 Cor. i. 23, "To the Jews a stumblingblock," that is, a scandal, (as the Greek word is,) as before expounded. So Gal. v. 11, "The scandal of the cross," translated the offence, doth signify not the bare reproach, but the reproach as it is the trial and stumblingblock of the world, that maketh believing difficult. So 1 John ii. 10, "There is no scandal in him," translated, no occasion of stumbling. These are all the places that I remember where the word is used.

The passive verb σκανδαλιζομαι, to be scandalized, is often used. As Matt. xi. 6, "Blessed is he that is not scandalized," (translated, offended in me,)137 that is, who is not distasted with my person and doctrine through carnal prejudices; and so kept in unbelief: there were many things in the person, life, and doctrine of Christ, which were unsuitable to carnal reason and expectation. These men thought them to be hard and strange, and could not digest them, and so were hindered by them from believing: and this was being offended in Christ. So in Matt. xiii. 57, and Mark vi. 3, "They were offended in, or at him;" that is, took a dislike or distaste to him for his words. And Matt. xiii. 21, "When persecution ariseth, by and by they are offended;"138 that is, they stumble and fall away: and Matt. xv. 12, "The Pharisees were offended," (or scandalized,139) that is, so offended as to be more in dislike of Christ. And Matt. xxiv. 10, "Then shall many be offended," (or scandalized,) that is, shall draw back and fall away from Christ. And Matt. xxvi. 31, 33; Mark xiv. 27, 29, "All ye shall be offended because of me," &c. "Though all men shall be offended (or scandalized) yet will I never be scandalized;" that is, brought to doubt of Christ, or to forsake him, or deny him, or be hindered from owning their relation to him. So John xvi. 1, "These things have I spoken that ye should not be offended;" that is, that when the time cometh, the unexpected trouble may not so surprise you, as to turn you from the faith, or stagger you in your obedience or hope. Rom. xiv. 21, doth exactly expound it; "It is good neither to eat flesh, or drink wine, or any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is scandalized, (or offended,) or made weak: " it is a making weak. So 2 Cor. xi. 29, "Who is offended;" that is, stumbled, or hindered, or ready to apostatize. So much for the nature and sorts of scandal.

IV. You are next to observe the aggravations of this sin. Which briefly are such as these:

1. Scandal is a murdering of souls; it is a hindering of men's salvation, and an enticing or driving them towards hell. And therefore in some respect worse than murder, as the soul is better than the body.

2. Scandal is a fighting against Jesus Christ, in his work of man's salvation. "He came to seek and to save that which was lost;" and the scandalizer seeketh to lose and destroy that which Christ would seek and save.

3. Scandal robbeth God of the hearts and service of his creatures; for it is a raising in them a distaste of his people, and word, and ways, and of himself: and a turning from him the hearts of those that should adhere unto him.

4. Scandal is a serving of the devil, in his proper work of enmity to Christ, and perdition of souls; scandalizers do his work in the world, and propagate his cause and kingdom.

V. The means of avoiding the guilt of scandal, are as followeth.

Direct. I. Mistake not (with the vulgar) the nature of scandal, as if it lay in that offending men, which is nothing but grieving or displeasing them; or in making yourselves to be of evil report; but remember that scandal is that offending men, which tempteth them into sin from God and godliness, and maketh them stumble and fall, or occasioneth them to think evil of a holy life. It is a pitiful thing to hear religious persons plead for the sin of man-pleasing, under the name of avoiding scandal; yea, to hear them set up a usurped dominion over the lives of other men, and all by the advantage of the word scandal misunderstood. So that all men must avoid whatever a censorious person will call scandalous, when he meaneth nothing else himself by scandal, than a thing that is of evil report, with such as he. Yea, pride itself is often pleaded for by this misunderstanding of scandal; and men are taught to overvalue their reputations, and to strain their consciences to keep up their esteem, and all under pretence of avoiding scandal; and in the mean time they are really scandalous, even in that action by which they think they are avoiding it. I need no other instance, than the case of unwarrantable separation. Some will hold communion with none but the rebaptized; some think an imposed liturgy is enough to prove communion with such a church unlawful (at least in the use of it); and almost every sect do make their differences a reason for their separating from other churches. And if any one would hold communion with those that they separate from, they presently say, That it is scandalous to do so, and to join in any worship which they think unlawful: and by scandal they mean no more, but that it is among them of evil report, and is offensive or displeasing to them. Whereas indeed the argument from scandal should move men to use such communion, which erroneous, uncharitable, dividing men do hold unlawful. For else by avoiding that communion I shall lay a stumblingblock in the way of the weak; I shall tempt him to think that a duty is a sin, and weaken his charity, and draw him into a sinful separation, or the neglect of some ordinances of God, or opportunities of getting good. And it is this temptation which is indeed the scandal. This is before proved in the instance of Peter, Gal. ii. who scandalized or hardened the Jews, by yielding to a sinful separation from the gentiles, and fearing the censoriousness of the Jews, whom he sought to please; and the offending of whom he was avoiding, when he really offended them, that is, was a scandal, or temptation to them.

Direct. II. He that will escape the guilt of scandal, must be no contemner of the souls of others, but must be truly charitable, and have a tender love to souls. That which a man highly valueth, and dearly loveth, he will be careful to preserve, and loth to hurt. Such a man will easily part with his own rights, or submit to losses, injuries, or disgrace, to preserve his neighbour's soul from sin. Whereas a despiser of souls will insist upon his own power, and right, and honour, and will entrap and damn a hundred souls, rather than he will abate a word, or a ceremony, which he thinks his interest requireth him to exact. Tell him that it will insnare men's souls in sin, and he is ready to say as the Pharisees to Judas, "What is that to us? See thou to that." A dog hath as much pity on a hare, or a hawk on a partridge, as a carnal, worldly, ambitious Diotrephes, or an Elymas, hath of souls. Tell him that it will occasion men to sin, to wound their consciences, to offend their God, it moveth him no more than to tell him of the smallest incommodity to himself: he will do more to save a horse or a dog of his own, than to save another's soul from sin. To lay snares in their way, or to deprive them of the preaching of the gospel, or other means of their salvation, is a thing which they may be induced to, by the smallest interest of their own; yea, though it be but a point of seeming honour. And therefore when carnal, worldly men do become the disposers of matters of religion, it is easy to see what measure and usage men must expect; yea, though they assume the office and name of pastors, who should have the most tender, fatherly care of the souls of all the flocks, yet will their carnal inclinations and interests engage them in the work of wolves, to entrap, or famish, or destroy Christ's sheep.

Direct. III. Also you must be persons who value your own souls, and are diligently exercised in saving them from temptations; or else you are very like to be scandalizers and tempters of the souls of others. And therefore when such a man is made a church governor as is unacquainted with the renewing work of grace, and with the inward government of Christ in the soul, what devilish work is he like to make among the sheep of Christ, under the name of government! What corrupting of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of Christ! What inventions of his own to insnare men's consciences! and driving them on, by armed force, to do that which, at least to them, is sin, and which can never countervail the loss, either of their souls, or of the church, by such disturbances! How merciless will he be, when a poor member of Christ shall beg of him but to have pity on his soul! and tell him, I cannot do this, or swear this, or subscribe this, without the guilt of a deliberate sin; and I cannot sin without displeasing God, and hindering my salvation. He that dare wilfully sin himself, and make it his deliberate choice, and dare play away his own salvation, at the poorest game that the devil will invite him to, and will sell his own soul at the basest price, even for a little pelf, or pleasure, or high titles, for so short a time, certainly this man is unlike to be very tender of the souls of others, or to stick at scandalizing and insnaring them, or to care any more to murder souls, than a butcher doth to kill a hog: Judas's heart will make them sell their Lord, or his flock, at Judas's price; and prepare themselves for Judas's reward. And hence it is, that the carnal seed, even within the church, hath ordinarily persecuted the spiritual seed. For saith Paul, "As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now," Gal. iv. 29.