Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	judge_v	truth_n	2,178	5	5.6964	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30326	The case of compulsion in matters of religion stated by G.B. ; addressed to the serious consideration of the members of the Church of England, in this present juncture.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5765; ESTC R32597	10,812	18

to punish it in the severest manner as it was to punish any other Works of the flesh and since all Hereticks were looked on as Persons damned all tenderness toward them and pity for them was as far extinguished as was possible For a false Religion will not easily have the better of good nature so entirely as to root it quite out 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 in Divine matters And as many have explained this Obstinacy it amounts to a continuing in Error after one is convinced of it This notion of Heresie which has been received by many of the Greatest of Men even of the Church of Rome it self seems to agree well with that of St. Paul's ranking Heresie 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 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 inlightned so that he stifles and denies that inward Conviction then the Reason is very plain why such an ill Temper of Mind should be reckon'd a work of the Flesh because it plainly arises out of a depraved nature I will not here enter into so troublesom 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 by Laws Councils c. I am carried next into a Scene of Thoughts that are more particularly suited 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 justifie 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 always make Shipwrack of a good Conscience when it comes in competition with the Love of this present World yet work quite contrariwise on Men of awakened 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 though Divines that carry their Speculations farther 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 feel them less but every man feels an injury Nature makes her inferences very quick upon it concludes that Those who use us ill hate us 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 is a War 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 Humors in the Body which ●●●ul about less perceived till some unlucky accident has weakened any part of it and then they will all discharge themselves on the part that suffers Men that are uneasie naturally love changes for these are like the shifting of postures that give some present ease and they flatter the Patient with the hope of more to follow Persecution is not only hurtful to those that suffer many hard things by it but is likewise mischievous to them by the Aversion that it inspires in them to those at whose hands they suffer by the ill habit of Mind into which it throws them and by those violent Projects and Convulsions which do very naturally come into the Heads of those who as they feel much so they fear yet more Those that do Persecute though they seem to triumph a while with the spoils of their Enemies yet will soon feel how this sinks their credit extreamly among those that were more indifferent Spectators while the debate was managed with the Pen or Tongue but they will certainly take part at least in their Compassions with the Miserable and will be disposed to think ill not only of those men that are heavy upon their harmless Neighbours but even the cause it self that is supported by such methods The Multitude even of the lowest Order of Men has a Remnant of good Nature left which shews it self in the sad looks that all put on at the Execution even of Malefactors But if a false Religion has not quite extinguished Humanity in its Votaries this will make a more sensible Impression when men that have done nothing amiss and are only in fault because they cannot help thinking as they do are made Sacrifices to the rage of others that perhaps have little more to say for themselves but that they are in possession of the Law which in the next Revolution of Affairs that may fall out will be an Argument so much the stronger for using themselves in the same manner because it is a just retaliation on them for that which they made others to suffer In short Persecution does extreamly vitiate the Morals of the Party that manages it the worst men so they are furious and violent are not only connived at but are even courted and men otherwise of severer Morals will insensibly slacken by reason of their engagements with vitious men whom they will find themselves forced to cherish and imploy and if those who have Persecuted others fall under a reverse 〈◊〉 Fortune and come to suffer themselves a little of that which they made others feel as their ill behaviour will deprive them in a great measure of those Compassions that would otherwise work towards them so it will raise within them many uneasie reflections upon their own Actings which will prove but Melancholy Companions to them in their Afflictions and these will force them to conclude that because they shewed no mercy therefore they now meet with the requital of Judgment without mercy which how unjust soever it may be in those by whom they suffer yet they will find it meet to look up to God and to confess that just and righteous are all his ways And the returning the Severities we have suffered at the hands of any is a Practice so contrary to the Christian Religion and to the Principles of the Protestant Religion that I do not stick to say it that I had rather see the Church of England fall under a very severe Persecution than fall to Persecute others when it should come to its turn to be able to do it The former will 〈◊〉 serve to unite us among our selves and to purge us from our Dross and in particular from any of the Leaven of the Doctrine of Persecution that we have not yet quite thrown out but the other would very much slain the purest and best constituted Church in the World and it would be too near an approach to that cruelty which we cannot enough detest but how much soever we may hate their corruption we must still remember that they are Men and Christians though perhaps of a course grain and that we our selves are Reformed Christians who in Imitation of our Blessed Master must not render evil for evil but overcome evil with good G. B. FINIS