A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…

That we may sum up this Command (which is broad) into some few particulars, we may consider it first, as it is broken, 1. in the heart, 2. in the gesture, 3. in right, 4. in word.

First, in heart a man may fail, 1. By suspecting others injustly, this is called evil surmising, 1 Tim. 6.4. or as it is in the original, evil suspicion; which is when men are suspected of some evil without ground, as Potiphar suspected Joseph; or it is jealousy, when this suspicion is mixed with fear of prejudice to some interest we love, so Herod was jealous when Christ was born, and the neighbouring Kings when Jerusalem was a building. There is, I grant, a right suspicion, such as Solomon had of Adonijah, and wherein Gedaliah failed, in not crediting Johannan's information anent Ishmaels conspiracy against ⟨p. 438⟩his life. 2. By rash judging and unjust concluding concerning a mans state, as Jobs friends did; or his actions, as Eli did of Hannah, saying, that she was drunk, because of the moving of her lips; or his end, as the Corinthians did of Paul, when he took wages, they said it was covetousness, and when he took not, they said it was want of love, see Rom. 14.4. and 2 Cor. 12.4. &c. 3. By hasty judging, too soon passing sentence in our mind from some seeming evidence of that which is only in the heart, and not in the outward practice, this is but to judge before the time, and hastily, Matth. 7.1. 4. There is light judging, laying the weight of conclusions upon arguments or midses that will not bear it, as Jobs friends did, and as the Barbarians suspected Paul, when they saw the Viper on his hand, to be a murderer, Acts 25.4. Thus the King Ahasuerus trusted Hamans calumny of the Jews too soon. 5. The breach of this Command in the heart may be when suspicion of our neighbours failing is kept up, and means not used to be satisfied about it, contrary to that