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	power_n	secular_a	1,359	5	10.4493	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55529	The woman as good as the man, or, The equallity of both sexes written originally in French and translated into English by A.L.; De l'égalité des deux sexes. English. 1677	Poulain de La Barre, François, 1647-1723.; A. L.	1677 (1677)	Wing P3038; ESTC R35373	70,496	218

general by the reflections which she may have made upon her self would bring her into the Mystery of Policy Interest and Passions and help her to discover the moving wheele and spring of enterprizes the fountain and source of revolutions and to supply in great Undertakings the lesser things which have made them prosper and which have escaped Histories And following their true Notions which she hath of Vice and Vertue she may observe the flattery passion and ignorance of Authors and to guard her self from the Corruption which infect men in reading of Histories where these faults are commonly mingled As the ancient policy was not so refined as the modern and the interest of Princes less conjoyned in former times than at present and commerce of less extent there is more Judgement required to understand and disentangle our Gazettes than Lives of Quintus Curtius There are a great many persons that find the Ecclesiastick History more pleasing and solid than civil or prophane because there they find the effects of Reason and Vertue farther pursued and that passions and prejudices covered with a pretext of Religion sets the mind upon a method altogether particular in its conduct A Woman would apply her self thereto with so much more affection as she judged it more important She might convince her self that the books of Scripture are as authentick as all the others which we have that they containe the true Religion and all the Maxims whereon it is founded that the New Testament where the History of Christianity properly begins is no more difficult to be understood than Greek and Latin Authors that they that read it with the simplicity of Children seeking only the Kingdome of God discover the truth and meaning thereof with more ease and pleasure than that of ridles emblems and fables And after having regulated her mind by the Morality of Jesus Christ she may find her self in condition to direct others remove their scruples and to resolve Cases of conscience with more solidity than if she had filled her head with all the Casuists in the world I see nothing that could hinder but that in the progress of her studies she might observe as well as a man How it is that the Gospel hath passed from hand to hand from Kingdom to Kingdom from age to age even to her own times but that she might gain by reading of the Fathers the Notion of true Theology and find out that it only consists in the Knowledge of the History of Christians and the Particular Sentiment of those that have written thereon So she might render her self able to compose Works of Religion Preach the Truth and batter down Novelties by shewing what hath been alwayes Believed through the whole Church about the Matters in Controversie If a Woman be capable to inform her self from History of the Nature of all Publick Societies how they have been formed and how they are preserved by virtue of a fixed and constant Authority exercised by Magistrates and Officers subordinate to one another she is no less to Learn the Application of that Authority by Laws Ordinations and Constitutions for the Conduct of those who are submitted thereunto as well to the Relation of Persons according to their several Conditions as for the Possession and Enjoyment of Goods Is it a thing so difficult to know the Relation between a Husband and his Wife between a Father and his Children the Master and his Servants the Land-Lord and his Tennants betwixt those who are Allied in Affinity betwixt a Guardian and his Pupil Is it so great a Mystery to understand what it is to possess by Purchase Exchange Donation Legacy Testament Prescription and Usufruit and what are the necessary Conditions to render Use and Possession valid There appears to be no more Understanding requisite to know aright the spirit of Christian Society than that of the Civil to frame a right Notion of the Authority which is peculiar thereto and upon which is founded all its Conduct and to distinguish precisely betwixt that which Jesus Christ hath left to His Church and the Dominion which onely belongs to Temporal Powers After having made that Distinction absolutely necessary to the right Understanding of the Canon Law a Woman might study and observe how the Church is Governed in the State and how the Spiritual Jurisdiction is mingled with the Secular wherein the Hierarchy consists what are the Offices of Prelates the Power of Councels Popes Bishops and Pastors what is the meaning of Discipline what are the Rules and Changes thereof what mean Canons Priviledges and Exemptions how Benefices are Established and what is the Right and Possession thereof In a word What are the Customs and Ordinances of the Church and the Duties of all those that Compose it There is therein nothing at all whereof a Woman is not most capable and so she might become most Skilful in the Canon-Law These are some general Notions of the Highest Knowledges where-with Men serve themselves to signalize their Parts and raise their Fortune and of which to the Prejudice of Women they have been so long in Posse●●●on And although they have as great right thereto as themselves 〈◊〉 notwithstanding entertain such Thoughts and carry with a 〈◊〉 towards them by so much the more unjust that nothing like is to be seen in the use of the Goods of the Body It hath been judged expedient that for the Peace and security of Families Prescription should take place my Meaning is That a Man who with a good Conscience and without trouble or molestation might have enjoyed the Goods of another for a certain space of time should remain Possessour thereof without the After-claims and Pretensions of any whosoever But it hath never entered into the minds of Men to believe That such who had fallen from their Possessions by Neglect or otherwise should be incapable by some manner or other to retrive them and their Incapacity hath never been considered as Natural but onely Civill On the contrary Men have not onely contented themselves not to call Women to a share in Sciences and Offices after a long Prescription against them but have proceeded farther to fancy that their Exclusion therefrom is founded on a natural Indisposition on their Part. In the mean-while there is nothing in the World more Fantastical than that Imagination For whether that we consider the Sciences in themselves or that we regard the Organs which serves to acquire them we shall find that both Sexes are thereto equally disposed There is but one only way to insinuate Truth into the Mind whereof it is the Food as there is but one to convey Nourishment into all sorts of Stomacks for the Subsistance of the Body And as to what concerns the different Dispositions of that Organ which renders us more or less fit for Sciences if we would fairly and honestly acknowledge Who have the better we must confess it to be the Women We cannot disagree but amongst Men such as are gross

and to draw from thence the two Advantages which we expect therefrom the one to have clear and distinct Knowledges which we naturally desire and whereof the desire is often stifled and annihilated by the confusion of thoughts and the cares and agitations of life And the other To employ these Knowledges for the particular conduct of themselves and for that of others in the different conditions of Society of which they make a part This agrees not atall with the common Opinion There are indeed many that will believe that Women may learn what is to be attained by the Physicks or Natural Sciences but will not admit that they are as fit as Men for those which may be called Civil as Ethicks Laws and Politicks and that if they should be able by the Maximes of these Last to conduct themselves they could not therefore be capable of guiding of others Men entertain this thought because they consider not that the mind in all it's actions hath need of no more but Discerning and Exactitude and whosoever hath once these two qualities in one thing may as easily and by the same means have them in all the rest The being Moral or Civil changeth not the nature of our actions They continue to be still Natural Because that Morality is nothing else but to know the manner how men regard the actions of others with Relation to the Notions which they have of good or evil of vice and vertue of justice and injustice And as that when we have once rightly conceived the Rules of Motion in Natural Philosophy we may apply them to all the changes and varieties which are remarked in Nature So likewise knowing once the true principles of civil Sciences there remains no more difficulty to make application thereof to the new and incident Emergents which occurr They that are in places have not alwayes more wit though they have better Luck than others And indeed it is not necessary that they should have more than the common though it be to be wished that none were admitted to employments but the most worthy We act still after the same manner and by the same Rules in what estate soever we find our selves unless it be that the more our conditions are raised the more our cares and views are extended because we have the more to do And all the change which happens to men who are placed above others is like to that of a person who being mounted to the top of a Tower caryes his prospect farther and discovers more different objects than they who stay on the ground below It is their favours if VVomen be as capable as we are to guid themselves they are likewise to conduct others and to have place in charges and dignities of Civil Society The most Simple and natural use that we can make of Sciences which we have well learned is to teach them to others And if VVomen had studyed in the Universities with men or in others appointed for them in particular they might have entred into Degrees and taken the title of Master of Arts Doctor of Divinity Medicine Civil and Cannon Law And their genius so advantagiously fitting them to learn would dispose them likewise to teach with success They would find methods and insinuating biassess to instill their Doctrine they would discover the strength and weakness of their Schollars to proportion themselves to their reach and the facility which they have to express themselves and which is one of the most excellent talents of a good Master would compleat and render them admirable Mistresses The employment which approacheth most to a School-Master is that of Pastour or Minister in the Church and there can be nothing else but custome shewn which remove VVomen there-from They have a Spirit as well as we capable of the Knowledge and love of God and thereby able to incline others to know and love him Faith is common to them with us And the Gospel with the Promises thereof are likewise addressed to them Charity also comprehends them in its duties and if they know how to put in practice the actions thereof may not they likewise publickly teach its Maxims Whosoever can preach by Example from stronger reason can do so by Words And a VVoman that should joyn her Natural Eloquence with the Morality of Jesus Christ should be as capable as another to Exhort Direct Correct admit into Christian Society those who deserved And cut off such who after having submitted themselves thereto should refuse to observe the Rules thereof And if men were accustomed to see VVomen in a Pulpit they would be no more startled thereat than the VVoman are at the sight of men We are not assembled into Society but that we may live in peace and find in a Mutual assistance all that is necessary for the Body and Soul This we could not enjoy without trouble if there were no authority that is to say that for that end there ought to be some persons who have power to make Laws and to inflict punishment upon the breakers of them And to make the right use of that authority we must know to what it obligeth and be perswaded that those who possess it ought to have no other design in the discharge thereof but to procure the welfare and advantage of their inferiours Women being no less susceptible of this perswasion than men may not we then submit our selves to them and consent not only not to resist their Orders but even contribute as much as we can to oblige to obedience such as make any difficulty therein So that nothing needed to hinder but that a Woman might sit upon a Throne and that for the government of her people She might study their humour the interests their Lawes their customes and their practices That she might place in Offices of the Gown and Sword only able and deserving persons and in the Dignities of the Church men of understanding and Example Is it a thing so difficult that a Woman could not perform it to instruct her-self of the strength and weakness of a State and of those that lay round it to entertain amongst strangers secret Intelligences for to discover their designes and disappoint their measures and to have faithfull Spies and Emissaries in all Suspected places to be exactly informed of all that passeth there wherein she might have interest Is there needfull for the conduct of a Kingdome more vigilance and application than Women have for their families or the Religious for their Convents They would prove no less refined in publick Negotiations than they are in private affairs And as piety and mildness is natural to their Sex their government would prove less Rigorous than that of many Princes and we should wish for under their Reign that which is often feared under that of many others that Subjects would regulate themselves according to the Example of their Governours We may easily conclude that if Woman are capable to possesse severally all publick authority they