Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	charge_v	discretion_n	great_a	14	3	2.0902	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04365	A treatise concerning a Christians carefull abstinence from all appearance of evill gathered for the most part out of the schoolemen, and casuists: wherein the questions and cases of conscience belonging unto the difficult matter of scandall are briefly resolved: By Henry Jeanes, Mr of Arts, lately of Hart-Hall in Oxon, and rector of the church of Beere-Crocombe in Somerset-shire.	Jeanes, Henry, 1611-1662.	1640 (1640)	STC 14480; ESTC S103351	48,005	158

ought not to be received to be believed For why doth hee before command us to hold fast onely that which is good and here he wills us to abstaine not barely from evill but from its appearance because when after a thorough sifting a truth is cleared 't is fitting it should forthwith be believed but when as the falshood of it is feared or the mind with doubting is entangled we must for a while withdraw our assent least wee embrace any thing with a doubting and perplexed conscience But suppose I for mine owne part am firmly perswaded of the truth of such or such a Tenent or at least unconvinced unperswaded of its falshood and yet it appeare generally unto unto others to bee false the judgements of the godly learned of most of the ancient Fathers unto either generall or provinciall Councels in such a case what course must I take because it hath appearance of falshood unto others understādings must I therefore dissent from it or stoppe mine assent unto it For answer take these foure following rules First wee owe so reverent humble an esteeme of and submission unto the Spirits of the Prophets to the judgement of learned sober pious Divines unto the writings of the auncient godly Fathers unto the Canons and decrees of Occumenicall and Provinciall Councels at that whatsoever Tenents the whole Church representative to wit a generall Councell or the greatest and cheefest part of the Church most of the Fathers and Divines too of later and present times have rejected condemned for false and erroneous we should abstaine negatively from assenting to that is though not change yet suspend our beleefe of them and not fully passe over our full and absolute assent unto them untill by diligent inquisition fervent prayer imploring the guidance of Gods holy Spirit and use of all other good meanes either their consonancie with or dissonancie from the truth be cleerly discerned fully confirmed and manifested unto our consciences But Christian modestie stayeth not here but goeth one step further and in a second place exacts of us a conditionall probable Dr Jackson and cautionary dissent frō all doctrines thus generally suspected and censured For upon generall dislike of a doctrine as upon a prudentiall motive wee may ground a strong presumption an high and probable conjecture of the falshood of it so that hereupon we may reject it though not in an absolute and irrevocable way yet with this limitation caution so the apparent veritie therein of it selfe do not force us to embrace it So sottish I am not as to measure truth by multitude of voices for errours I know that have grated upon the foundation nay heresies that have razed the foundation have had their cloud of witnesses yet I should so farre honor a publike testimonie as to suspect mine owne and others private bare opinions not back't by plaine Scripture with evident sense or a full demonstrative argument rather than a generall suffrage For n●mo omnes neminem omnes fefellêre improbable as for one to deceive all so for all to deceive one * Nec dubitamus coeteris quidem paribus c. Rivett Isag ad Scrip. Sact. cap. 19. Rivet is a man bred up in such a Church as it is not likely that he should ascribe overmuch to Church Councels or Ministers and yet he makes no doubt but coeter is paribus that is if parts prayer diligence of studie after the truth bee equall that then a greater and fuller measure of the gift of expounding the Scripture and deciding controversies thereabouts is communicated to the publicke Ministers of the Church whether they execute their function severally and apart in some one particular Church or else jointly conferre and discourse among themselves concerning the true and genuine sense of the Scriptures in some assemblies call'd lawfully and in the name of Christ than unto severall private men who were neither endowed with so many gifts nor see with so many eyes nor by their private and single meditation can equall the united consultations and enquiries after truth of many And thus you see how farre Christian modesty requireth us to abstaine frō assenting to doctrines upon the appearance of evill of falshood which they carry unto those who in interpreting Scripture and deciding controversies have committed to them the publicke office of direction and instruction of others but yet it taketh not from us the judgement of private discretion for Christian libertie alloweth us such a freedome of dissenting unto what the Church or her chiefe and publicke Ministers say as it is to be specified in the next two following rules In a third place therefore although the Church or the greatest and chiefest part of her charge errour falshood upon such a doctrine yet this bare and single testimonie not seconded by any Scripture or reason is not to gaine so farre upon our beliefe as that thereupon wee should presently reject and dissent from the doctrine thus generally censured with an absolute and peremptorie dissent This were to give unto the Churches decisions as high an over-ruling a suffrage in our harts as is onely due to divine revelations to receive them not as they are indeed the word of men but as if they were the word of God to yeeld unto them an absolute divine faith and credence This were a meere Vassallage of our soules understandings faiths unto the authority of an humaine testimonie a thing utterly unworthy the generositie freedome of Christian Spirits If God hath indulged to any the exercise of such dominion over mens faiths and consciences alas then to what purpose hath hee placed that glorious lampe of reason in our bosomes of what use are our intellectualls what place is there left for St Pauls proving of all things St John's triall of the Spirits 1 Joh. 4.1 but the truth is that God is so farre from enslaving our understandings or captivating our beliefe unto the judgement of any mortall as that hee approves not onely of a forbearance from a flat and absolute dissent from doubtfull doctrines thus publickely and generally disliked but also of a full peremptorie assent unto doctrines manifestly true though condemned in a generall Councel as is apparent from the fourth and last rule which is If a doctrine bee as true in it selfe so also clearely and evidently by mee apprehended to be so and yet appeare generally to be false unto others of what degree order or condition soever neverthelesse it commands absolute subscription and assent of the minde without contradiction without hesitancie nay without so much as suspense of judgement If the veritie then of a Doctrine bee apparent it must over-rule the assent of the understanding against the testimonie of the whole world For the testimony of men of the wisest holyest men considered either apart or as assembled in a Councell admits as allwaies of examination and triall by the ballance of the Sanctuarie and rules of right reason so likewise