Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	church_n	civil_a	society_n	1,332	5	9.1138	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B20591	The Bishop of London's eighth letter to his clergy upon a conference how they ought to behave themselves under the Toleration.	Compton, Henry, 1632-1713.	1692 (1692)	Wing C5665	8,559	22

THE BISHOP OF LONDON's EIGHTH LETTER To his CLERGY Upon a CONFERENCE How they ought to behave themselves UNDER THE TOLERATION LONDON Printed by BENJ. MOTTE 1692. THE Bishop of LONDON'S EIGHTH LETTER TO HIS CLERGY c. Good BROTHER IT is now Three Years since I first begun this Conference in my Diocese and therefore it can be no wonder if many of you should have forgot what Discourse passed upon this occasion For I begun in 1689. and concluded not till the last Summer 1691. But besides this and my constant Custom of communicating to you from time to time the substance of what had been the entertainment of our Conference I find my self obliged to publish the Heads of this Conference and in what manner we pursued it that I may take off the Edge of some unadvised and false Representations that have been made as if I designed signed to disturb and interrupt that Repose which the Laws have given to Dissenters Whereas God is my Witness I had no such Thoughts but as much the contrary as possible Which will best appear by what follows I. It was enquired What Discipline we had left for the support of our Church since the Act of Toleration And this we did by considering what Statutes were suspended upon that account and what Conditions were to be observed by such as should have the benefit of that Suspension For it is a very reasonable Proverb Even Reckonings make long Friends Should we break in upon one anothers Boundaries and not keep every one within his own Line it would cause such continual Strife and Debate as would inevitably bring in Confusion and every evil Work But if we will be limited by those Rules which the Law has set and be careful not to intrench upon one anothers Privileges This will be the only means to create a Confidence and good Understanding among us for the conservation of the publick Peace For such Behaviour will naturally allay the Bitterness of Dissention and quench the Coals of Schism It will render Charity triumphant over Division and if it were possible make us one Spirit tho of different Minds A care not to offend carries so many Charms with it that it tames the wildest Beasts it gives that security of Peace and Repose that it perswades or shames the worst of Tempers into an acquiescence And here I presume to lay one Argument before you which I should think if discretely handled would very much work upon those that differ from us There is a great noise made about the Church enjoyning the Observation of things in themselves indifferent And yet I question not but that the severest Opposers of this will confess that the secular Power may determine the use of such things For otherwise there would be an end of all Government Societies good Order and Peace in the World The Conservation of which consists mostly in such Laws as are taken up about things indifferent or such indifferent Circumstances of Time Place Manner or the like as would render all ineffectual if not prescribed But if it shall be said This must not be done but where there is sufficient Reason for it this sets all to Sea again and whilst the infinite Varieties of mans Reasonings are afloat no Law can live in such a Storm as they will raise And we do not find that God has given any other Method for establishing the outward Decency and Order of the Church than what is common to all other Societies of Men Civil or Military Nay the state of the Church is declared to be a Spiritual Warfare And we know nothing is more rigorous than Military Discipline even in the minutest things We may therefore certainly conclude that things indifferent in themselves do not hang so loose to the world but that for the good of mankind they may be restrained from their neutrality No Body of men in the world can carry on any common purpose without this power over things indifferent Should they not deny their Private Liberty by agreeing to Time and Place and by tying themselves up to some Rules it would be like the Confusion of Babel or like an Army armed at all adventures where there might possibly be found more weapons to offend every one his next man than to annoy his enemy So that I do not think I wronged any religious Sect of men in the world if I should say there is none but what finds it self obliged in some measure to retrench Private Liberty for the sake of Common Convenience The true Difference then betwixt the Necessity that lies upon things necessary in their own nature and that which lies upon things indifferent is that the one is alwaies so and the other only upon occasion Which agrees with the just and wise Declaration of our Church The Ceremonies retained are for a Discipline and Order which for a just cause may be altered and changed and therefore are not to be esteemed equal with God's Law The case being thus I would gladly know whether we that obey the Laws made about things indifferent do not come nearer up to the Precept Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake than they that insist upon an unconfined Liberty I must confess by the Principles of some and the Practice of others one would think there were no Power of God in Rulers but what were controlable by the will of the Subject and that Laws were no longer in force than men had a mind to keep them But what would be the fate of such a precarious Government our present unhappy and self-destroying Divisions give but too broad an intimation Not but that there are times and seasons to do things beyond common allowance But it is neither convenient to prescribe particulars in such cases beforehand nor possible to come to an end of them And therefore it has been the wisdom of all Governments to let alone such Decisions till the exigency of affairs call for them And if at any time some upstart scoundrel pretence of a Government has done otherwise it proved one of the things that most exposed their folly There may be indeed general Rules such as our Saviour's for dispensing with positive Laws tho of Gods own making Man was not made for the sabbath but the sabbath for man and that which surmounts all Necessity has no Law but the Laws as I may call them for such particular occasions must arise out of the exigencies themselves and either stand or fall by the Judgement of Mankind II. The thing we next confidered was how to prevent the Abuses ill men might make of this Liberty who we might easily perceive would be apt to pervert the easiness of the Government which was intended to favour weak Consciences into an occasion of Profaness and Disorderliness For we find already how much forwarder wicked men are to abuse this Indulgence than others to be thankful for it There are numbers of late who have forsaken the Church not to go to