128

THE CENSORIOUS MAN.

His Crimination.

I KNOW there is much of the seed of the serpent in him by his very looks, if his words betrayed him not. He hath eaten the egg of the cockatrice, and surely he remaineth in the state of perdition. He is not within the covenant, and abideth in the gall of bitterness. His studied prayers shew him to be a high malignant, and his Jesu-worship concludes him popishly affected. He comes not to our private meetings, nor contributes a penny to the cause. He cries up learning, and the Book of Commou Prayer, and takes no arms to hasten reformation. He fears God for his own ends, for the spirit of Antichrist is in him. His eyes are full of adulteries, and he goes a-whoring

after his own inventions. He can hear an oath from his superiors without reproof, and the heathenish gods named without spitting in his face: wherefore

my soul detesteth him, and I will have no conversation with him; for what fellowship hath light with darkness, or the pure in heart with the unclean? Sometimes he is a publican, sometimes a pharisee, and always an hypocrite. He rails against the altar as loud as we, and yet he cringes and makes an idol of the name of Jesus. He is quick-sighted to the infirmities of the saints, and in his heart rejoices at our failings. He honours not a preaching ministry, and too much leans to a church government. He paints devotion on his face, whilst pride is stamped within his heart. He places sanctity in the walls of a steeple house, and adores the sacrament with his popish knee. His religion is a weathercock, which turns its breast to every blast of

wind. With the pure he seems pure, and with the wicked he will join in fellowship. A sober language is in his mouth, but the poison of asps is under his tongue. His works conduce not to edification, nor are the motions of his heart sanctified. He adores great ones for preferment, and speaks too partially of autho rity. He is a Laodicean in his faith, a Nicolaitan in his works, a pharisee in his disguise, a rank papist in his heart, and I thank my God 'I am not as this man.'

BUT stay, my soul; take heed, whilst thou judge another, lest God judge thee. How comest thou so expert in another's heart, being so often deceived in thy own? A Saul to-day may prove a Paul to-morrow. Take heed whilst thou wouldst seem religious, thou appear not uncharitable; and whilst thou judgest man, thou be not judged of God, who saith.

Judge not, lest

ye be judged, Matth.

vii. 1.

John, vii. 24.

Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

Rom. xiv. 10. 13.

But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.

Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block, or an accusation to fall in his brother's way. 1 Cor. iv. 5.

Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsel of the heart. Psal. 1. 6.

God is Judge himself.

His Soliloquy.

HAS thy brother, O my soul, a beam in his eye, and hast thou no mote in thine? Clear thine own, and thou wilt see the better to cleanse his. If a thief be in his candle, blow it not out, lest thou wrong the flame; but if thy snuffers be of gold, snuff it. Has he offended thee? forgive him: hath he trespassed against the congregation? reprove him: hath he sinned against •God? pray for him. O my soul, how uncharitable hast thou been! how pharisaically hast thou judged! Being sick of the jaundice, how hast thou censured another yellow-and with blotted fingers made his blur the greater? How has the pride of thy own heart blinded thee toward thyself! how quick-sighted to another! Thy brother has slipped, but thou hast fallen; and hast blanched thy