[Sidenote: 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.