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judgement_n according_a judge_v sin_n 1,601 5 4.7510 4 false
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A48024 A relation of the death of the primitive persecutors written originally in Latin by L.C.F. Lactantius ; Englished by Gilbert Burnet, D.D., to which he hath made a large preface concerning persecution.; De mortibus persecutorum. English Lactantius, ca. 240-ca. 320.; Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1687 (1687) Wing L142; ESTC R234919 60,272 167

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of their Pastoral Authority as if that had been given them to Worry their Sheep and not to Feed them objected Articles to their Prisoners upon suspition and required them to purge themselves of them by Oath and because Bishops were not perhaps all so equally Zealous and Cruel some of them being Persons of great Quality so that some remnants of a generous Education and of their lay pity might still hang about them that Bloody Man Dominick took this work to task and his Order has ever since furnished the World with a set of Inquisitors compared to whom all that had ever dealt in Tortures in any former times were but Bunglers So far has this Melancholy Speculation of the Degeneracy of the Church of Rome carried me they at last came to extol a Zeal against Heresie as the highest Act of Piety towards God and since Heresie is reckoned by S. Paul among the Works of the Flesh it seemed as just to punish it in the severest manner as it was to punish any of the other Works of the Flesh and since all Hereticks were looked on as Persons damned all Tenderness towards them and Pity for them was as far exinguished as it was possible For a false Religion will not easily have the better of good Nature so entirely as to root it quite out tho it must be acknowledged that the Roman Religion has done more towards that than any other that has ever yet appeared in the World. All the room that was left for good Nature was the favourable Definition that was given of Heresy by which Obstinacy was made its peculiar Character that distinguished it from Error which lies in a more Innocent Mistake concerning Divine Matters and as many have explain'd this Obstinacy it amounts to a continuing in Errour after one is convinced of it This Notion of Heresy which has been received by many of the greatest Men even in the Church of Rome it self seems to agree well with that of St. Paul's ranking Heresy among the Works of the Flesh for if it is meerly a mistake in the Judgment in which one continues because he cannot overcome his persuasion nor see Reasons that are strong enough to oblige him to change his Mind such an adhering to Error may be called any thing rather than a Work of the Flesh. But if a Man from a Principle of Interest Pride or Discontent either throws himself into ill Opinions or continues in them after his Mind is better enlightned so that he stisles and denies that inward Conviction then the Reason is very plain why such an ill Temper of Mind should be reckoned a Work of the Flesh because it plainly arises out of a depraved Nature I will not here enter into so troublesome an Enquiry as it would be to examine how far an Erroneous Conscience acquits one before God for that must be left to Him who will judge every Man according to his Works and who best knows how far he will accept of a general Repentance of unknown Sins and of a general Act of Faith even of Truths that are yet unknown but as for the Judgments of men certainly when the other parts of ones life make it clear not only to a Judgment of Charity but even to that of Discretion that he is sincere and that he means well it is hard to know when he is Obstinate and when his Errors become Heresies that is to say Works of the Flesh. So far have I been led upon the consideration of the Spirit of Persecution that is not only warranted by Custom and a long continued Practice but is by the Authority not only of Popes but even of General Councils established into a Law on the Church of Rome I am carried next into a Scene of Thoughts that are more particularly suted to the Doctrines of the Reformed Churches and here it must be acknowledged that Persecution is a more justifiable thing according to the Principles of the Church of Rome than it is according to our Tenets for the Church of Rome that pretends to be infallible has a better Right to demand a blind Submission from all its Subjects and to treat those roughly who refuse to grant it than a Church that pretends to nothing but a Power of Order and Government and that confesses she may be mistaken Our being Subject to Error is unreasonably urged when men would carry it so far as to make us doubt of all things yet it ought at least to have this effect on us as to keep us from being too ready to judge hardly of those who are of another mind or to use them roughly for it since it is possible that they may be in the Right and that we may be mistaken at least they may have very probable Reasons for their Opinions which if they do not quite justify their Mistakes yet do very much excuse and lessen them It is likewise visible that all severe Proceedings upon the diversity of Opinions how effectual soever they may be on base-minded men who will alwayes make Shipwrack of a good Conscience when it comes in competition with the Love of this present World yet work quite contrary wise on men of awakned Understandings and generous Souls instead of gaining on such Persons these Inspire them with horror at a sort of men who go about to ruin companies of people that never did them hurt It is from this that those Violent Hatreds arise among men of different Persuasions Every man is not capable to understand an Argument or to be much disturbed at it and tho Divines that carry their Speculations further into the Consequences of Opinions whether Real or Imaginary grow hot and angry at one another upon those Heads yet the people understand them little and feel them less but every man feels an Injury and Nature makes her Inferences very quick upon it and concludes that those who use us ill hate us and there must be a great degree of Regeneration to keep men from hating those that hate them upon this arises all the Animosity that is among the several Parties for every one reckoning himself a Member of that Body to which he associates himself thinks that he is obliged to resent all the Injuries that are done to his Fellow-members as much as if they were done to himself in particular and by the same natural Logick he casts the Guilt of the Wrongs done his own Party not only on those Individuals of the other Party from whom they did more Immediately arise but upon the whole Body of them and so here a War is kindled in mens Breasts and when that is once formed within it will find some unhappy occasion or other to give it self a vent Those who are ill used are in a State like that of a Mass of humours in the Body which roul about less perceived till some unlucky Accident has weakned any part of it and then they will all discharge themselves on the part that suffers Men that are