Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter · Verse 3,4
v. 3.
And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye, and perceiuest not the beame that is in thine owne eye?
4. Or how saiest thou to thy brother, Suffer me to cast out the mote out of thine eye, and behold a beame is in thine owne eye?
These two verses containe a second reason to inforce the former cō mandement against rash iudgement. The meaning of the words is this: Why seest thou that is, vponupon what ground, forwhat cause, and with what conscience seest thou. And so in the 4. v. How saiest thou that is, with what face, with what honestie and conscience saiest thou. So much these interrogations how, and why, import. Seest sight, here is not a light or sudden beholding of the mote, but a seeing with attention, a serious and considerate obseruation thereof. A mote the word vsed in the originall,foreign may as well be translated a straw, or a peece of a straw, as a mote, as it hath beene in former times; for it will beare ei…her translation: yet the word beame, seemes rather to hauehave reference to a straw, then to a mote: but which way soeuer it be taken, it signifies small and little sinnes, as sinnes of ignorance and infirmitie, such as the best Christians doe commit, & cannot be free from in this life. Again, it signifies supposed sinnes; such as are not indeed sinnes before God, but onelyonly in his opinion that giues rash iudgement. And perceiuest not this perceiuing is properly an action of the minde, standing in consideration and thinking, which follows after seeing. Thus the word is vsed, Luk. 12. 27. Consider the lilies of the field; that is, looke vponupon them, and then consider well thereof in your minde. And, Iam. 1. 23. He that heares the word, and doth it not, is like vntounto a man that BEHOLDS his naturall face in a glasse: that is, to one that sees and considers of his shape. So that Christs meaning is, as if he had said, It may be thou seest, but why doest thou not well waigh and consider with thy selfe of the beame that is in thine owne eye? By beame, is here meant great and notorious raigning sinnes in mans heart; such as wound the conscience, which are like vntounto a beame in the eye: which doth not onelyonly blemish, but quite dash out the fight. Some may here aske, in what sense this is spoken, seeing the eye is not capable of a beame? Ans. It is spoken by way of supposition, as if i… had bin said; if it were possible that a beame could be in the eye, the rash censurers fault is as a beame in the eye: this kind of spech is vsuall in Scripture; If I could speake with tongues of Angels, saith S. Paul, 1. Cor. 13. 1. that is, suppose Angels had tongues, and that I could speake as eloquently as they. The words of the 4. v. are for substance all one with the former in the 3. The difference between them is onelyonly this; in the 3. v. Christ speaks onelyonly of rash iudgment cōceiued in the mind; but in the 4. he speaks of rash iudgemēt vttered in speech, How saist thou to thy brother, &c. So that in both verses the words are a parable bearing this sense: with what face, honestie, or conscience, canst thou finde fault with thy brother either in thought or speach, thou thy selfe beeing tainted with greater faults and offences? And hence the second reason may be thus conceiued:
He that hath greater faults, must not censure him that hath lesser:
But he that giues rash iudgement, hath greater faults then he whom he censureth: And therfore no mā ought to vse rash iudgment. The proposition or first part is omitted: the Assumption expressely set downe in the 3. & 4. v. whereupon the conclusion follows against rash iudgement.
VponUpon this forme of speech, How seest thou? why saiest thou? that is,Our word & thoughts must hauehave good groūd. with what face and honestie, and vponupon what ground? we may learne this instruction; that our speaches, yea our very thoughts must be conceiued and vttered vponupon good ground, and in a good manner. Establish thy thoughts by counsell, (saith Salomon) and by counsel make warre: teachingProv. 20. 18. vsus to hauehave direction from the word of God, for the ground and maner of our very thoughts, and for all our affaires. Our Sauiour Christ bids vsus take heede how we heare Gods word: and Salomon would draw vsusLuk …. 18. to this heede & attention in prayer also; Be not rash with thy mouth, nor Eccles. 5. 1.let thy heart be hastie to vtter a thing before God: now that which they speak of diuine exercises, is in this place by our Sauiour inlarged to eueryevery thought of the heart, & word of the mouth that cōcerns our brother.
Further, in these words, Seest thou; that is, with attention and considerationMans cor…pt prying … the f…ts of others. beholdest our Sauiour Christ acquaints vsus with a common fault wherewith our nature is generally stained and corrupted: to wit, that we are ouersharpe sighted into other mens liues and offences: this appeares in that men can easily discerne small faults in others, and cannot see great offences in themselues, nay whē they can find no iust fault, yet they will make those faults which indeed be none at all. Example hereof we hauehave in the Scribes and Pharisies, in their censures against our Sauiour and his disciples: they thēselues were hypocrits tainted with grieuous sinnes, & yet they pried to finde motes in Christs …ies; for when he wrought miracles, cured the diseased, and did good vntounto all, they blamed him as a breaker of the Sabbath day, and as a companion of Publicans and sinners, though he conuersed with them for their good: so they blamed his Disciples for eating with vnwashen hands, and for plucking vp the eares of corne on the Sabbath day to satisfie their hunger; and for their seldome fasting. This fault was in the Corinthians, who censured Paul and his ministerie, for want of eloquence and excellencie of words, which was in other Teachers among them, as may appeare by his rebuking of them, 1. Cor. 4. And the Christian brethren among the Romans condemned one another in the obseruation of daies and times, and in the vse of the creatures of God, Rom. 14. which was nothing els but rash iudgement. And this no doubt is a fault which raignes in our congregations, euen among the better sort at this day; for deepely is our nature stained with this corruption, and so prone it is to this sinne, that euen they which hauehave receiued true grace, can hardly abstaine from the practises of rash iudgement.
The consideration hereof must teach vsus these duties. First, to take knowledge of this corruption of our nature, and of the want of brotherly louelove in vsus; for why should we so soone spie a fault in another, but because we want louelove and charitie to his person? Wee may consider the vilenesse of this practise by resemblance in some bruite creatures, for we account most basely of those rauening fowles which delight in nothing but in filthie carrions; and such for all the world are these rash censurers, all their delight is in other mens faults, which makes them so sharp sighted to spie them out.
Secondly, when we are about to censure any man, we must (in regard of this corruption) suspect our selues, and our speeches, & call our selues backe to a view and consideration of that which wee are to speake; for oft-times we see that which we ought not to see, and thereupon speake that which we ought in conscience to conceale. Physitions giuegive this note of a frensie, to begin to take vp strawes: Now when the mind looks not into it selfe, but pries into other mens actions, then no doubt it is not right, but is corrupt and infected with a spirituall frensie, and therefore the danger of this disease must cause vsus to looke vntounto our selues.
Thirdly, here we may obserue a reason of the strange behauiour of men in regard of sinne; for this we may easily perceiue, that men with open mouth will condemne those things in others, which they like and approoue in themselues: now the cause hereof is, for that the affections doe followe the minde, such as the minde is, such are the affections: and mans minde naturally lookes outwarde, not inwarde, it sees very little faults in others, but will neither see nor condemne the same faults, nor greater in it selfe: nay, rather it causeth man to louelove those sinnes in himselfe which he detests in others. And therefore in the amendment of our liues, we must beginne in our owne hearts, and turne the eye of our minde inward, to see our owne sinnes, and labour first to hauehave our hearts touched with sorow for them, and to hate them first in our selues, and then to proceede to hate them in others. It is a preposterous course, arising from the corruption of nature, to beginne with the hatred and dislike of sinne out of our selues.
II. Doctr. Further, here in this reason our Sauiour Christ makes a… in degree. difference of sinnes: some are as motes, some as beames: eueryevery sinne indeede is death and condemnation, and yet all are not equall, but farre different in degrees▪ as some men are drowned in the chanell and middle of the sea, some by the shoare side, which places differ in depth and danger, though all is one in regard of death: some men indure damnation in deeper measure, some in lesser, yet both are condemned. But the Papists abuse these words, and would gather hereon a distinction ofBellar. de amiss. grat. & stat. p…cc. l. 1. c 9. sinnes which God doth not allow; to wit, that some sinnes are veniall, which deserue not death, and these are here called motes: some againe are mortall, deseruing death, and those are called beames: But the moto and beame are both mortall sinnes. A mote or a straw may sometime put out the eye, though indeed the beame be more forcible to dash it quite out: and so doe small sinnes wound the conscience, and damne the soule, though greater sinnes doe more deepely wound the conscience and plunge the same into hell: small and great sinnes, both destroy the soule, though in a differēt degree: the very mote is deadly sinne, though in nature the beame be more mortal. This distinction they borowed frō former ages, but abusing the primitiue Church from whence they had it: for the ancient Fathers called some sinnes veniall, not because theyHow the fathers called some sinnes veniall. deserued not death, but because they were pardonable in regard of the censure of the Church, and did not incurre the censure of excommunication: and those they called mortall or criminall sinnes which had the censure of excommunication passed against them: so that the Papists abuse both Fathers and Scripture in this distinction.
Thirdly, Christ naming the very eye, and not the face, or other partsRash iudgement per…erts a mans good meaning. of the bodie, would hereby giuegive vsus to vnderstand what is the propertie and scope of rash iudgement: namely, to deface the very intention of his heart of whome censure is giuen. When Dauid sent his seruants to Hanun king of Ammon to comfort him after his fathers death; the Princes of Ammon told their lord, that Dauids seruants were but spies that came to search out his citie: thus they iudged rashly of Dauids fact,1. Sam. 10. 3. and their intent was to corrupt the honest mind of Dauid: perswading the king that Dauid and his seruants had an other intent and end of their comming then they made knowen to the King. So that the rash censurer seekes to blemish the good mind and conscience of his brother. And hence we may well be warned to take notice of our naturall corruption, how that without Gods speciall grace we doe plainly hate our brother; els we would neuer so suspiciously prie into his waies as to depraue his good meaning. We must therefore content our selues with the speaches and actions of our brother, and take heede how we deale about the eye; that is, with his intent and meaning; that we must leaue to God, who onelyonly knowes the heart: and for his actions & speaches (if it may be) we must alwaies expound them in the better part: if we cannot defend a mans doing, yet we must excuse his meaning: if we cannot excuse his intent, yet we must thinke the best of his conscience: if we cannot excuse his cōscience, yet we must iudge it to be but a sinne of ignorance: if we cannot so doe, yet we must thinke that it was done in some grieuous temptation, and that if we our selues had beene in like case, we should hauehave done farre worse: we know not when God may giuegive grace to men, or when he leaues them to themselues, and therefore in regard of the minde and conscience, we must comprimit our iudgements at all times.
And perceiuest not] that is, though it may be thou seest it, yet thou dost not well consider of it. Hence our Sauiour noteth out a secondMans carnal securitie. maine fault in mans nature to be thought vponupon; namely, carnall securitie, whereby though in some small measure men see their offences, yet naturally they neuer thinke on them heartily & seriously as they ought to doe: S. Paul saith, Awake thou that sleepest, signifying, that by natureEph. 5. 14. we lie slumbering in sinne: so as though we may sometime hauehave a little glimmering thereof, yet we neuer throughly behold and consider them as we should: the Lord himselfe complaines of this securitie in sinne in his owne people: No man saith, what hauehave I done? Ier. 8. 6. This was the sinne of the old world; they kn…w nothing till the flood came, Mat. 24. 39. it may be they had now & then some conceit thereof, but they thought not seriously thereon: now as the daies of Noe were, so shalbe the daies of the comming of the sonne of man, in regard of securitie: and these are those daies wherein we now liue: for howsoeuer we sometime thinke on our sinnes, yet we looke not on them with both eyes, as we doe▪ on our neighbours faults. We must here be warned to take heede of this sinne: for it is a fearefull case either not to see our sinnes; or seeing them to passe them ouer without serious consideration. The Apostle saith, when men say, peace, peace, then comes sudden destruction: Now men doe then most fearefully crie, peace, peace, vntounto themselues,1. Thess. 5. 3. when they either will not see their sinnes; or seeing them, doe not well consider thereof in their hearts. We therefore must labour for this grace to hauehave a cleare sight into our sinnes, for without that we can neuer sorow according vntounto God, nor repent vntounto life as we ought to do.
Why seest thou, &c. and how saiest thou to thy brother,] In both theseIudges of others should be blame…esse. phrases consider how Christ would hauehave all those which are to giuegive iudgement of the offences of others, to be themselues without reproofe and blame: els they are no fit persons to giuegive censure of those that be vnderunder them. And therefore the Magistrate in the towne and commonwealth, the Minister in the Church, the master in the family, and eueryevery superiour in his place must labour to be vnblameable: for if they be tainted with grosse sinnes, they can neuer throughly purge them that be vnderunder them. A Minister (saith Paul) must be vnreprooueable, 1. Tim. 3. 2. and so likewise the Magistrate, who is Gods vicegerent, and eueryevery gouernour in his place.
Lastly, in both verses obserue the cōdition of those that are giuen toR…h censurer…, the vi…est persons. rash iudgement: namly, that of all men they are the worst: Christ makes them to carrie beames in their eyes, when others hauehave but motes or strawes. The man that is giuen to censure others would seeme to be of all men most holy: but the truth is, there is none so bad as he though he be a minister, yea be he what he wil, nay the better is his place, the wors is his fault: & the more he is giuen to this sinne of censuring, the worse he is, for the lesse he sees his owne sinnes: nay, let him liue vnblameably before men, yet he hath a heart full of pride and selfeloue, and full of disdaine toward his brother. And therefore let vsus take heede of this sinne, euen when it beginnes to creepe vponupon vsus.