8. But what is properly the meaning of this word, _Judge not_? What is the _judging_ which is here forbidden? It is not the same as evil-speaking, altho’ it is frequently joined therewith. Evil-speaking, is the relating any thing that is evil, concerning an absent person: whereas _judging_ may indifferently refer, either to the absent or the present. Neither does it necessarily imply the speaking at all, but only the _thinking evil_ of another. Not that all kind of thinking evil of others, is that _judging_ which our Lord condemns. If I see one commit robbery or murder, or hear him blaspheme the name of God, I cannot refrain from thinking ill of the robber or murderer. Yet this is not evil _judging_: there is no sin in this, nor any thing contrary to tender affection. 9. The thinking of another, in a manner that is contrary to love, is that _judging_ which is here condemned. And this may be of various kinds. For, first, we may think another to blame when he is not. We may lay to his charge (at least in our own mind) the things of which he is not guilty: the words which he has never spoke, or the actions which he has never done. Or we may think his _manner_ of acting was wrong, altho’ in reality it was not. And even where nothing can justly be blamed, either in the thing itself, or in the manner of doing it, we may suppose, his _intention_ was not good, and so condemn him on that ground; at the same time that he who searches the heart, sees his simplicity and godly sincerity. 10. But we may not only fall into the sin of _judging_, by condemning the innocent, but also, secondly, by condemning the guilty, in a higher degree than he deserves. This species of judging is likewise an offence against justice as well as mercy: and yet such an offence as nothing can secure us from, but the strongest and tenderest affection. Without this, we readily suppose one who is acknowledged to be in fault, to be more in fault than he really is. We undervalue whatever good is found in him. Nay, we are not easily induced to believe, that any thing good can remain in him, in whom we have found any thing that is evil. 11. All this shews a manifest want of that love, which οὑ λογίζεται κακόν· _thinketh no evil_: which never draws an unjust or unkind conclusion, from any premisses whatsoever. Love will not infer, from a person’s falling once into an act of open sin, that he is accustomed so to do, that he is habitually guilty of it. And if he was habitually guilty once, love does not conclude, he is so still: much less, that if he is now guilty of this, therefore he is guilty of other sins also. These evil reasonings all pertain to that sinful _judging_, which our Lord here guards us against: and which we are in the highest degree concerned to avoid, if we love either God or our own souls.