=_Nathaniel Emmons,[1] 1745-1840._=

From his "Sermons."

=_5._= THE RIGHT OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT.

The right of private judgment involves the right of forming our opinions
according to the best light we can obtain. After a man knows what
others have said or written, and after he has thought and searched the
Scriptures, upon any religious subject, he has a right to form his own
judgment exactly according to evidence. He has no right to exercise
prejudice or partiality; but he has a right to exercise impartiality, in
spite of all the world. After all the evidence is collected from every
quarter, then it is the proper business of the understanding or judgment
to compare and balance evidence, and to form a decisive opinion or
belief, according to apparent truth. We have no more right to judge
without evidence than we have to judge contrary to evidence; and we have
no more right to doubt without, or contrary to, evidence, than we have
to believe without, or contrary to, evidence. We have no right to keep
ourselves in a state of doubt or uncertainty, when we have sufficient
evidence to come to a decision. The command is, "Prove all things; hold
fast that which is good." The meaning is, Examine all things; and after
examination, decide what is right.

[Footnote 1: A Congregational clergyman of Massachusetts, original in
theology, and eminently lucid in style.]