Scandal being a murdering of souls, is a violation of the general law of charity, and of the sixth commandment in particular. In handling this subject, I shall, 1. Show you what is true scandal given to another. 2. What things go under the name of scandal, which are not it, but are falsely so named. 3. What are the particular ways and sorts of scandal. 4. The greatness of this sin. 5. Directions to avoid it. [Sidenote: Scandal what it is.] I. I shall not need to stand upon the etymology of the word scandal; whether it come from σκάζω, _claudico_, as Erasmus thought, or from σκάμβον, _curvum_, &c. Martinius, Stephanus, Lyserus, &c. have sufficiently done it, whither I refer you. As for the sense of the word, it is past doubt, that the ordinary use of it in Scripture is for a stumblingblock for a man to fall upon, or a trap to insnare a man; and in the Old Testament it is often used for a stumbling-stone, on which a man may fall into any corporal calamity, or a snare to hurt or ruin a man in the world; (as Exod. x. 7; 1 Sam. xviii. 21; xxv. 31; Psal. cxix. 165; Ezek. vii. 19, Sept.) But in the New Testament, (which speaketh more of spiritual hurts,) it is taken for a stumblingblock or temptation, by which a man is in danger of falling into sin, or spiritual loss, or ruin, or dislike of godliness, or any way to be turned from God, or hindered in a religious, holy way; (and if sometimes it be taken for grieving or troubling, it is as it hereby thus hindereth or insnareth;) so that to scandalize, is sometimes taken for the doing of a blameless action, from which another unjustly taketh occasion to fall, or sin, or be perverted: but when it signifieth a sin, (as we take it in this place,) then to scandalize is, by something unlawful of itself, or at least unnecessary, which may occasion the spiritual hurt or ruin of another. 1. The matter is either something that is simply sinful, (and then it is a double sin,) or something indifferent or unnecessary, and then it is simply the sin of scandal. 2. It must be that which may occasion another's fall, I say, occasion; for no man can forcibly cause another man to sin, but only occasion it, or tempt him to it, as a moral cause. [Sidenote: What is not scandal, that is by many so called.]