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	peace_n	unity_n	1,654	5	9.0086	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36727	A conference between an orthodox Christian and a Socinian in four dialogues : wherein the late distinction of a real and nominal Trinitarian is considered / by H. de Lvzancy ...	De Luzancy, H. C. (Hippolyte du Chastelet), d. 1713.	1698 (1698)	Wing D2417; ESTC R31382	78,348	146

both Men of Learning and I suppose method too without which Learning is of no use and becomes only a large heap of rich Materials without beauty or strength because without order or disposition Socin All that I could perceive of both sides was very little reason or Argument But a World of heat and clamor Perpetual reflections either on the Church or the Socinians rude expressions and an insufferable shifting and running from one thing to another Orthod Truly this is the misery of disputes which for want of good and sincere management become a fatigue and a labour not to be overcome Books come as much short of it as Conversation The Writers and the Readers are equally unfortunate in this the one not giving that which they promise and the other being disappointed of that which they look for and that is Information Socin For this very reason I have almost vow'd to dispute no more I will hate the very Name of Controversy and no Book of that Nature shall find Room in my Library Time may be spent much better than in endeavoring to understand an Author who does not understand himself An infinite Stock of Patience is necessary to bear with a dull flat and insipid Writer Nor was I ever made to be a Witness to all their heats and follies who load their Adversary with ill Language because he is not of their Opinion Orthod I am not of your mind That which is good cannot cease to be such because it is abus'd Inquiry after Truth is the Noblest endeavour as well as the most Natural inclination of Mankind And disputing is the way which leads to it It is by comparing Argument with Argument and Reason with Reason that at last it does appear In the State of Weakness that we are in Thinking and Reflection are the only helps we have and it is from striking the steal and the flint together that the blessed fire breaks out which improv'd removes our darkness We have very few Self-Evident Principles and from them we do not always draw true and exact consequences The Mine must be open'd and digg'd with a great deal of Labour till we come to the precious Ore But once found it yields an inestimable treasure In a word it is by the opposition and difference of Men in their opinions that we come to examine reflect inquire and at last find out the Truth Socin I grant all this But when disputing is so wholly perverted as to become a sanctuary to Error When two contending Parties are so obstinate as not to yield the least Point and it is no more whether what I say is true but what I say must be true When Books are fill'd up and grow to large volumes and yet nothing to the purpose When all degenerates into heat and passion I think it time to have done keep my sense of things to my self and meddle no more with disputes Orthod What you say is too true We have a large experience that several have Writ of subjects which they never understood and others have pretended to answer objections which they have wholly mistaken Like those Translators Who have assassinated several Authors and disfigur'd many admirable and Original Pieces for want of understanding both the Language out of which they translated and their own which they translated into It is also evident that Divine Matters have been treated with very little piety As if God was not to be consulted when Man presumes to speak of him and the heart as well as the mind was not to guide the hand of the Writer But yet for all this there are Books of this kind which cannot be sufficiently admir'd so clear they are and yet so concise so eloquent and yet so grave so Candid and yet so home that it is hard to say whether they are more commended by the present Age or shall be more admir'd by posterity Socin Pray where are those Phoenix's to be found For they are so rare that they really deserve that name Orthod Not so very rare neither What Curious Writings did the Reign of Charles the Second produce in Defence of the Unity and Peace of the Church How was Popery treated in that of James the Second With what solidity and clearness did our Divines argue with the Emissaries of Rome never starting from the state of the question or the main stress of the difficulty propos'd And in this of William the Third when the Socinian Controversy which had slept some years began to awake again and to promise it self some increase from the looseness of Men's principles and from some other unhappy Circumstances unknown but to very few How did the Church rowse up and with what Zeal what Learning what success did they oppose the growing Heresy Socin I own that some good Books have been written against the Nonconformists and many excellent ones against the Church of Rome But for your success against Socinianism it is indeed much to be admir'd Is it not notorious that all your Writings have not brought one over to a Recantation and that though the Sect does not thrive much in the Country where Conversation is more rare yet it visibly gets ground in the Town There is scarce a Wit but what is a Socinian If Socinianism is a rank Poison I can assure you that the young Gentlemen swallow it with greediness One whisper'd me not long since that it is got even amongst some eminent Lawyers Many of your Clergy themselves are not free from the aspersion Socinianism is publickly disown'd and hated but privately much made of and caress'd I am afraid if your Universities were search'd it would be found that the sinful Weed grows there too Orthod What you say is that which we now exclaim'd against and that is Reflecting But when all is done the trick is stale and not like to take There never was yet so despicable a Sect in the World but what was willing to insinuate that their numbers were far greater than what really they appear'd A piece of Vanity laugh'd at every where by Men of Sence But in this the Socinians are unhappy For they are a Sect and no Sect a Body and no Body Some particular Persons have been Intoxicated with reading Socinus Crellius c. They have corrected and improv'd many of their Notions These they have put into several short and truly Elegant Writings and having had the happiness to be answer'd by Men every way Great it gave a general curiosity to read what these Authors had said which should arm so many famous Pens against them This has perswaded them into a belief that they have a croud of followers And as formerly the Arrians in the disputes against Arrianism so in these against Socinianism they fansie that the whole World is become Socinian But I will presume to say that it is nothing but fancy Men do not so easily part with the Faith in which they were baptiz'd and in which the hope of their Eternal Salvation consists