our Cenforioufnefs firft and chiefly upon our felves. For we are blamed for not beholding the Beam in our own Eye; and commanded firft to caft the Beam out of our own Eye, in order to the difpofing us to fee clearly to caft out the Mote out of our Brother's Eye. This is a great and important Duty, the Duty of Self-examination, and of strictly cenfuring and correcting ourselves for our Sins and Follies; a Duty which our corrupt Natures have in as great Aversion, as they are inclined to that of judging and cenfuring our Neighbour. In this Work of Self-examination, we must endeavour both to find out the feveral Species or Kinds of our Sins, and likewise the Frequency, and other Aggravations of them; as if they have been committed against Knowledge; upon Deliberation; against Checks of Confcience; against Vows and Promises; againft Admonitions and Warnings; against signal Mercies and Judgments; and other extraordinary Means to reform and reclaim us. But you may think, perhaps, how is this fuch an oppofite Duty to the rafh judging of others? One may fancy that the fharper we are in difcovering our own Faults, we fhall know fo much the better how to find out those of other Men. But this may be easily answered; for though it may acquaint us better with the Nature of Sin, and the Temptations of Satan, yet this will not incline us to be more cenforious of our Neighbour. For, 1. The more Time we spend at home, the lefs we have to fquander away abroad; we shall find fuch a full Business and Employment in this Work of fearching and trying our own Hearts and Ways, that we shall have no Leifure Leisure to pry narrowly, and to fearch wishfully into our Neighbour's Concerns. 2. The better acquainted we are with our own Sin and Folly, we shall be fo much the more Charitable to the Errors of others; as being then more capable to judge of the Temptations and Infirmities incident to Mankind. 3. The better we are acquainted with our own Sins, we shall be fo much the freer from Pride and Vanity, whichis the great Cause of rath Judgments. We shall be apt to think our felves the unworthieft and moft undeferving of all others;, and fo living in Humility, shall have no vain Curiofity, by leffening others, to increase the vain Phantom of our own Superiority and Excellency. This Work then of Self-examination, acquainting us intimately with our own bad Character, and beating down all touring Thoughts and Imaginations, as faft as they rife in our Hearts and Minds, is an excellent Antidote both against positive and com→ parative Pride, which laft is the chief Caufe and Occafion of rafh Judging and Cenfuring. By the by, from this Part of the oppofite Duty, we may obferve a feeming Paradox, that they who leaft mind their own Faults, are the feverest in Cenfuring the Faults of others, as was plain in the Scribes and Pharifees, who, though very fharp-fighted in fpying out the Motes, that is, the smallest Faults in their Neighbour's Eye, could not discern the Beams, that is, the greatest Faults in their own. II. A fecond Branch of the contrary Duty to rash Judgment, is, to look charitably on the Actions of our Neighbour, and neither to be VOL. IV. G too too fharp-fighted in fpying out his fmall Faults, nor too forward to cenfure him our felves, nor apt to affent to the Cenfures of others. It is one Property of Charity, that it covers a multitude of Sins, 1 Pet. iv. 8. But that we may be more fenfible of this Truth, how Charity prevents rafh Judgments, it will not be amifs to confider this Matter a little more particularly. The Occafion of all our rafh Judgments of our Neighbour is from these two Caufes; our own flight or partial Obfervation; or the believing the rafh Reports of others. 1. As to the firft, our own flight or partial Obfervation, let us confider whether there is not a previous Averfion to the Perfon on fome Account or other, which makes us fo ready to form these Judgments. We pretend we fee many Things amifs, because we fecretly with that thefe our Conjectures and Obfervations may be true; and when we have once made thefe rafh Judgments and Cenfures, we think our felves obliged in Honour to ftand by them, and defend them, and are afraid of every thing that may be offered to undeceive us; fo that what was at firft a mere Error of our own rafh Judgment, occafioned by a Spice of Malice and Averfion to the Perfon against whom we pafs it, comes in Time to be judged neceffary to be juftified and maintained; because it would be a difreputable Thing to admit into our vain Thoughts fuch a choaking Truth, (far lefs to let it be understood by the World,) as that we committed an Error in our Judgment, or did any Thing of which we have occafion to repent. I am confident that this unreasonable Admiration of our own Judgment, as if it were infallible; and of the unbyaffed Rectitude of our own Will, as if it inclined to nothing that perverts the Judgment; is one plentiful Source of rafh Judgments. To which if we add fome of thofe falfe Principles of Honour, that it is more reputable to defend than to retract a precipitate rafh Judgment once given, this, inftead of Remedying, roots this Evil fo firmly, that it is really Proof against all Remedies. But because nothing is to be deffaired of, through the Grace of God, let us try fome Antidotes that Scripture and Reason fuggeft to this great Evil of rafh Judging. 1. First then, let me entreat you to confider the most pernicious Confequences of rafh Judgments. I will offer you two Inftances out of the Holy Scriptures, one in which it is plain what the wicked Confequence would have been, if they who gave the rafh Judgment had not been undeceived, and had not retracted it; and the other, in which they were not undeceived till it was too late; but drove on their Prejudices to the Extremity of the fatal Confequences that attended it. The firft is the rafh Judgment which the rest of the Children of Ifrael made of the Tribe of Reuben and Gad, and the half Tribe of Manaffeb, Joh. xxii. 11, &c. for Erecting an Altar in the Borders of Jordan, mistaking and mifconftruing their Intent therein, as if it had been with an idolatrous Defign of fetting up an Idolaltar against the Altar of the true God; whereas it was quite otherwife, to be only a Memorial of their being one and the fame People with thofe that worshipped the true God on the other Side of Jordan. Upon this rafh Judgment, they de G 2 figned [SERM. figned no less than the utter Extirpation of those two Tribes and an half, and they carried the Matter fo far, that they affembled themselves in warlike Manner for that End. But yet they fhewed themselves good Men, in that they were not fo carried away with their first Prejudices, but that they used Means to be better informed and after right Information, were as ready to lay down their Arms, as they had before upon a rafh Judgment taken them up. ; The next was a more fatal Example, namely, the Example of Rehoboam, 2 Chron. x. 13, &c. who, by the Advice of fome hot-headed young Men, chofe to treat the People of Ifrael in a huffy, threatning Manner, when they represented their Grievances to him, and defired fome Relaxation of them; which rafh Judgment loft him Ten of the twelve Tribes of Ifrael. And tho' he quickly repented of it, and would have made up the Matter, it was then too late; and they were by that Time fo incenfed, that they refused to hear any offers of Peace, and ftoned the Perfon who was fent to them on that Account. It is really strange to observe, both what difinal Effects rafh Judgments have on the Perfons guilty of them, and on the Persons against whom they are pronounced; the one, or the other, if not both, proving implacable, and Peace irretrievable. 2. Together with the evil Confequences, let us confider the bad Caufes and Occafions of rafh Judgments, I mean that Sort which proceeds from our own Obfervation, both as to the first making them, and our Perfeverance in them, and at the fame Time think of the Antidotes and Remedies. The Causes of rash Judg ments |