Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 7 · Verse 1
Verse 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged]
HOc verbum … induginem involvit. The word imports…. a kinde of curious enquiry into other mens faults, … we may the more severely censure and subject them to a … interpretation. It signifies sometimes no more, I grant, then to…. … as Rom. 2. 1. But this (so it were wisely done) … Saviour would never have reprehended. Thou shalt not hate … brother in thy heart: but (for prevention of such a …) thou shalt … (not perfunctorily, or in …, bravery, … derision) rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sinne upon … ….(as some reade it:) lest thou suffer for his sinne: or (as others)…. lift not up his sinne over him as an ensigne, blaze it not abroad … his … grief and disgrace; but clap a plaister on the sore, and … cover it with thy hand (as Surgeons use to doe,) that the … may be never the wiser. This were charity; which hides … her mantle a multitude of sinnes: yea prepares covers and … for the infirmities of others as fast as they breed them. And … ….neglect …, the not giving vent to our hearts, by a wise … plain reproof, causeth abalienation of affection, dwelling … blinde censures, a very habit of misprision, and misinterpretation … all things, till men grow rusty with rancour and malice, the … whereof would be soon drawn out by a seasonable reproof. This, well and wisely done, were far better then judging and … one against another: sith it is, Iudge not, that ye be not …, and Grudge not, that ye be not …, …. 5 9. The … ….of others we should hear of with indignation, fearfully and unwillingly …, acknowledge with grief, never speak of them but in … Ordinance, rather hide them, as much as may be, with honest excuses, and make apology: as, that there are infirmities in the …, though we know them not, that as good gold, they are haply of the lightest, may want a grain or two of their just weight: but…. give them their allowance, and they may … for currant, &c. … not rash in rejecting, or sowr in censuring your fellow-servants. That saying is …: Three things are not … tō …; the counsels of God, the holy Scriptures, and the persons of men, Rom. 14. 10.
That ye be judged]
Judge we must our selves, and God will not judge us. … from the barre (… …, witnessed and pleaded guilty against thy self) to the …, and there passe sentence of condemnation, judging thy self … to be turned into hell-torments. Thus judge your selves … spare God. But judge not others, viz. rashly, sinisterly, … and peremptorily, left ye be judged; both first, of God, into … chair ye leap, … whose children ye condemn, even the … of the just; as David once did, and befooled himself well-favouredly for it when he had done. And second of men:I piter … coeli … juisset; … sed … ipse suae. Sic, in …. Good men must suspect you, bad men scorn you, and all men shun …, and … to be rid of you, as unfit to live in a civil society. Therefore judge nothing before the time, behold the Judge … at the door. It is the office of Angels, to sever the sheep from … goats, the tares from the wheat, the elect from the reprobate. Those that undertake … to determine of mens finall …,…, … censorem scriptorum, quidam …. …. they know not of what pirit they are, with those sons of …, they take too much upon them, with those sonnes of Levi, … understand neither what they say, nor where of they affirm, with those impostors in Timothy. Neither may they escape hereSunt … in Ecclesia Catholica plurimi, mali, sed ex … nullus … bonus, … de not. …, that for particular acts, or petty failings, take upon … rashly and harshly to censure their betters many times: Iob … Ieremy met with such as watched-for their halting, … made … offendours for a word. These pry into every particular more …, then Laban did into Iacobs stuffe; waiting (as a dog for a bone) for any thing … beseeming the Saints, that theyEccles l. 4 c. 13. may fasten upon with their …, that they may tear with theirNum. 16. 7. …, and swallow down with those open sepulchers, their throats,1 Tim. 1. 7. the good names of others: censuring them deeply for humane …, unchurching and unbrothering them for unavoidable …. It is hard measuring of a man by his state and behaviour in a pelt, in a passion, which are violent, and have made the holiest, in their heat, little lesse then bestiall, 1 Sam. 25. 22. Psal. 116. 9. The like may be said of sinnes strengthened by ancient custom, or naturall …, or herditary, the sinnes of our parents, or furthered by multitude of … and enticements. Handleforeign. these … in the judgement of charity, and joint them again inGal. 0 1. …. … suimus, aut … esse … est.the spirit of …, considering thy self, lest thou also be tempted. It is not to be liked, when men leap from the cradle of profession, into the chair of censure, blinder then beetles at home, sharper then Eagles abroad. Charity and humility would teach them to wink at small …, as God doth, and to pitch upon that in another that is praise worthy. Our Saviour is said to have loved the rich young Pharisee, for that little good he found in him; and Bucer never, rejected any, though different in opinion, in whom he discerned aliquid Christi, any thing of Christ. S. Paul bidds us, consider one another, to whet on to love: to pitch upon…. 10. 24. such good parts and properties as may engender love, and sway … to a good opinion of our brethren. The wisedom from above, is full of mercy and good fruits, without judging &c. But they shall…. 17. have judgement without mercy, that … no mercy in their …. God shall bring home their own dealings to their own doors: For with what judgement ye judge, &c. Only our … is to be understood here of private and corrupt judgement passed upon others, out of sinfull curiosity and ill-will (for … curiosus quin malevolus) either to set up our selves above them, or by condemning them to countenance our own evil …. Magistrates may and must judge between the righteous and the wicked. Ministers must take out the precious from the vile, and…. 11. say to the wicked, it shall be ill with them, the reward of their … shall be given unto them. Wilt thou judge them, Son of man, wilt thou judge them? yea thou shalt shew them all their Ez. k. 22. 2.…. How often doth our Saviour call the Pharisees hypocrites, serpents, vipers &c? And how roundly dealt St Paul with the sorcerer, Acts 13. 10. and with the … person?1 Cor 5. Lastly, Though we may not be many masters, Jam. 3. 1. … and censorious. &c. yet we may all judge the … by the fruit, call a spade a spade, a drunkard a drunkard, &c. and, leaving his finall doom to the searcher of all hearts, judge and censure him, for the present, to be Gods enemy, and in a most … estate. We both may and must condemn all sinne in our selves and others. But it is a fault to be itchingly inquisitive after other mens …,foreign & foreign … 2. …. …. to be an eves-dropper, Eccles. 7 21. or to censure them, when they come to our knowledge, unmercifully and above the royall Law. Let your foreign, moderation of utmost right be known to … men: The Lord is at hand, Phil. 4. 5.