A37042:240
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal…
The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland, or, A treatise concerning scandal divided into four parts ... : in each of which there are not a few choice and useful questions, very shortly and satisfyingly discussed and cleared / by ... Mr. James Durham ... who being dead (by this) yet speaketh ; and published by John Carstares ... ; to which is prefixed an excellent preface of famous Mr. Blair ... ; together with a table of the contents of the several chapters of each part.
Edinburgh: printed by Christopher Higgins, 1659
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
as being a thing in its evidence known to so many (beside what is reported to others) that it cannot be supposed that an ingenuous mind can have access to deny or shift the same, without some indignation in the hearts of those that know it. 5. Sometimes an offence is to be accounted public when, though it may be, many are not witnesses thereof, yet when many are in hazard to be infected thereby; as suppose those witnesses to be such as cannot rest quiet in a private satisfaction, but they have either spread it, or are in hazard to spread it, and, it ⟨p. 115⟩may be, long afterward they make it a ground of reproach: In this case it becometh a scandal not only to the first witnesses, but also to those to whom it is reported; So that although it was not at first public, yet it becometh so by the rumour thereof. This infectiousness may also proceed from the time wherein it is committed, the person who committeth it▪ the nature of the fact that is committed, (which may more readily ensnare others than facts of some other nature) from those also before whom it was committed; Therefore in such cases it is necessary that public notice be taken thereof.
as being a thing in its evidence known to so many (beside what is reported to others) that it cannot be supposed that an ingenuous mind can have accesse to deny or shift the same, without some indignation in the hearts of those that know it. 5. Sometimes an offence is to be accounted publick when, though it may be, many are not witnesses thereof, yet when many are in hazard to be infected thereby; as suppose those witnesses to be such as cannot rest quiet in a private satisfaction, but they have either spread it, or are in hazard to spread it, and, it ⟨p. 115⟩may be, long afterward they make it a ground of reproach: In this case it becometh a scandal not only to the first witnesses, but also to those to whom it is reported; So that although it was not at first publick, yet it becometh so by the rumour thereof. This infectiousness may also proceed from the time wherein it is committed, the person who committeth it▪ the nature of the fact that is committed, (which may more readily insuare others than facts of some other nature) from those also before whom it was committed; Therefore in such cases it is necessary that publick notice be taken thereof.