praise, and without fearing their blame.

"It

is required," says he, "in stewards (such as we are) that a man should be found faithful; " but of this faithfulness, he continues, it is of very little consequence what you or I may think. "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgement, yea, I judge not mine own self.” I am, indeed, unconscious of having done any thing which could deserve the censures which have been brought against me; but it is not to mine own heart that I would appeal, which may be corrupt or mistaken; but to that Judgement which nothing can escape, and before which I must one day give an account of my whole behaviour. "I know nothing by myself," or, as the Greek words would be more exactly rendered, "I know nothing against myself; I am not conscious of any negligence in my duties as an Apostle; yet I am not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore," he continues in the words of my text, "Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God."

In these words there are four things to which I chiefly desire to call your attention, as of the greatest practical consequence to the improve

ment of your lives, and to your hopes of everlasting happiness. 1st. The caution given against rash and premature judgement, "judge nothing

before the time." 2nd. The time to which all judgement of men, their motives, and characters should, so far as possible, be deferred,—“ till the Lord come." 3rd. The discovery, which will then be made, of all those particulars, our ignorance of which, in the present life, must prevent our forming a just opinion of men or things, — "till the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart." 4th. What is represented as the consequence of this general and glorious light which will be thrown on all our words and thoughts—namely, that not men only shall acknowledge the integrity of the righteous; but that every man, that is, every good man, shall receive an honour, compared to which the loudest applause of men is less than nothing Every man shall have praise of GOD."

The first of these assertions, that, namely, we are to judge nothing before the time of Christ's coming in glory, is to be understood, I admit, in a limited sense, and qualified with some exceptions. There are some respects in which every man must judge for himself; and there are some persons whose duty it is to judge, [and to condemn, if found faulty,] the actions of their fellow

creatures. We are expressly commanded to examine our own consciences; to "judge ourselves that we be not judged of the Lord';" while "they, who have the rule over us" are, in like manner, authorised and directed to judge righteously, to determine justly and without partiality or prejudice, to be a terror to evil doers, and a praise to them who do well, and, as the ministers of God appointed for this purpose, not to bear the sword in vain, nor allow the guilty to pass unpunished. Nay, St. Paul himself, in this very epistle, imputes it as a reproach to the Corinthians, that there was not one wise man among them who was able to judge his brethren2; and himself, though absent, yet by his apostolical authority, pronounces in the fifth chapter a very severe judgement against the person who "had his father's wife." It is plain, then, that nothing, which is said here, can be meant to forbid selfexamination, or judgement by a lawful authority. Nor can this caution be intended entirely to take away that right of private judgement, which every man is in the habit of exercising, on the outward actions and behaviour of those with whom he dwells: and that, for the following

In the first place, while men are men, to deprive them of this liberty would be impossible. It is a necessary consequence of the faculties

1 1 Cor. xi. 31.

2 1 Cor. vi. 5.

3 1st verse.

which God has given us; and which, in a great measure, distinguish us from the brute creation; that we not only see, but compare, and comparing, judge men's actions with one another, and with those notions of right and wrong which we have received both from nature and from revelation. We cannot help

seeing that men We cannot help

differ greatly from each other. judging that such men are right, and such others wrong, in their respective lines of behaviour; and, therefore, it was that our Saviour himself rebuked the Jews for not making a proper use of their natural powers of distinguishing between good and evil, when He said, " Why, even of your own selves, do ye not judge the thing that is right?" And, secondly, this use of our natural reason and observation, in judging the conduct and character of men, is not only allowed, but commanded. We are commanded in many, very many passages of Scripture, to shun the company and conversation of the wicked. But how are we to shun the wicked, unless we first determine who is wicked, and who is not? or how are we to do this without judging them? So plain it is that neither examination of ourselves, nor the exercise of a lawful authority in the judgement of offenders, nor the exercise of the natural right of private opinion can, within reasonable limits, be held up to reprobation in Scripture.

What then, can be intended by the Apostle, when he thus commands us to "judge nothing before the time, till the Lord come?"

I answer, in the first place, all rash and uncharitable judgement is hereby condemned; all censure, that is, of a man's conduct or principles, which arises either from a hasty or an angry view of them, or from a prejudice against his person. We may lawfully think ill of a man, because, under certain circumstances, it becomes our duty to warn others against him. But we cannot, without a great sin, do either the one or the other of these, unless we are first well persuaded in our minds, [and persuaded, on some probable grounds,] that the man is really such a person as we represent him. We must not do, what is too often done, first take a dislike on trifling grounds; and then feed that dislike in our hearts, and justify it to ourselves and others by aggravating our neighbour's failings, by imputing to him actions of which we do not know that he is guilty, and motives of which we cannot know any thing. If we feel any personal dislike towards him, that very consciousness should act as a warning to be more slow in our suspicions, more cautious, more charitable in our expressions concerning him. And, secondly, all unnecessary judgement or censure is forbidden. may be impossible, as I have already observed, to avoid thinking evil of our neighbour, if tha

It