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	society_n	1,162	5	9.1993	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49492	Six sermons preached before His Majesty at White-Hall Published by command. Tending all to give satisfaction in certain points to such who have thereupon endeavoured to unsettle the state, and government of the church. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Benjamin Laney, Late Lord Bishop of Ely.	Laney, Benjamin, 1591-1675.	1675 (1675)	Wing L351A; ESTC R216387	93,670	230

is no good principle whereon to ground the Churches peace The next is That howsoever it be in other matters of Religion it would make much for the quiet of the Church if Errors in Judgment were not punished as crimes because no man can be abler and wiser than God hath made him It is true that an Error so long as it stays in the Understanding and goes no further is not properly a sin for the Understanding is not agens liberum but passive In that the eye of the mind is as the eye of the body if that be naturally short-sighted it is no fault that it sees not so far as another But if the weakness of the Understanding participate with the Will which is agens liberum and so the Error comes within our power then it may be properly a sin This is the case of all that dissent in Sects for though in speculation the Understanding is distinct from the Will yet in practise they are seldom severed For it is morally impossible that after a man hath conceived an opinion he should not be well pleased with it and have a will as occasion is to defend and propagate it too And when it is Voluntarium no doubt but it is Peccatum and when error grows to be a sin I know no reason why it may not be punished for interest reipublicae peccata puniri But for all that it is they say a great disturbance of quiet to be tied to assent to that we cannot know nor comprehend That 's a great mistake I know there is much exception taken to the too punctual desinitions of some mysteries of the faith and particularly in the Creed commonly called by Athanasius where there are many particulars which they cannot know nor comprehend Whereas in truth it is not required of them they are not bound to know them but to believe them for it is the mercy of God that the defect of our knowledg may be supplyed by the knowledg of others for to believe is to see with other mens eyes as knowledg is with our own But may we safely trust others in that which so neerly concerns as a Creed Yes sure and it is as well the mercy as the command of God that we should trust those that watch over our souls yet still that must be to supply the defect of our knowledg not otherwise for the Church is not Lord of our Faith but helper of our Ignorance It supplies the defect of our sight it doth not put it out for if a man knows the contrary he is not bound to believe others for if he can see with his own eyes why shall he be tied to see with other mens But then we must distinguish betwixt not knowing the negative and a positive knowing the contrary for if we refuse to believe meerly because we do not know or understand we leave no place for Faith at all which is the benefit to see by others And for that positive knowledg which discharges us of believing others that we be not mistaken it is not every conjectural or probable perswasion will do it but certain knowledg and when that is we may safely learn from the Schools Ubi non est for mido contrarii after diligent search and enquiry when there remains no scruple doubt or fear of the contrary when the understanding is fixed we are said to be certain If this knowledge will serve to discharge us of believing others every one that dissents will say he knows the contrary yea and if need be will swear to it too for that 's an expedient lately found out to obtain that liberty That they may be admitted to swear they know the contrary to that which is commanded Truly if they will say it and think so too whether they swear it or no I think we may safely absolve them from the guilt of disobedience but that must be in foro Conscientiae only and let them make the best use they can of that yet in foro externo we cannot for there the Judge must give sentence according to his knowledge and not according to the knowledge of the party if he will do justice And that course can be no good friend to Peace which is an enemy to Justice Though Errors may be punished yet it troubles the quiet of many that the omission of Forms and Ceremonies is more severely punished then some foul and scandalous crimes To this I answer First That they who object this are not to be trusted with the ballance of sins for we know how the Market went for them when they held the Scale Obedience to the King and the Laws and serving God according to them were the great scandalous crimes 2. Allowing it to be true as they say That omission of Forms and Ceremonies is by the Church more frequently and severely punished then greater faults But how greater It may be in their proper and natural guilt and obliquity according to which sentence shall be given at the day of Judgment and to death eternal But our earthly Tribunals are not erected to anticipate the day of Judgment to bring all sinners to trial for whatsoever they have committed in the flesh and according to the proper measure of their guilt but for a particular end and use that people while they live here in the world and in society may be kept in good order and quiet from doing or receiving injuries And to this end is the degree of their punishments commensurate Treason and Rebellion are more severely punished in the State then many other hainous crimes because they destroy the very foundation of government and Society And for the same reason a schismatical disobedience though but in matters of Form and Ceremony is pursued with more care and strictness because it destroys the very end for which the power is given the Church to punish which is the preservation of peace and unity For though the Pastors of the Church may and must by way of Instruction the better to prepare us for our account at the great and general Judgment give every sin the proper weight and measure of guilt that is by way of Instruction But by way of Correction the Church is bound up to certain causes and if they keep not their bounds they shall be sure to hear of a prohibition and those causes are especially such for which the power is only given That the peaceable orderly Worship and service of God be not disturbed For though they are ever telling us it is for trifles ceremonies or indifferent things it is but the same quarrel the Atheists have against God himself for being so much offended for an Apple a trifle which scarce any man that hath an Orchard would have been troubled with and one Answer will serve both in effect In that forbidden fruit Gods authority in commanding and Adams duty in obeying were symbolically engaged for him and his and there was venome enough in that to infect both The Rites and

from the ambition or discontent of a few yet because the people who are the necessary instruments of that mischief be not apt to serve the ambition of others if it comes bare-faced to them the mask of Religion is always put on wherein all people are concerned which makes it a common and popular interest And therefore you shall scarce hear of a Rebellion of late times in which Religion did not carry the Colours at least if not command in chief But I shall nevertheless at this time forbear to make that any part of the Schismaticks charge but treat them upon their own terms that they are as great enemies to War as any that object it to them Yet I must charge them all to be guilty of the breach of peace and quiet in the Church and that not accidentally which may sometimes bear excuse but necessarily it is connatural and incident to the very nature of Schism which is a rent or division so the word signifies It is the worst disturbance that can be to any body to be torn in pieces It dissolves the bonds by which the parts are joyned together especially that which unites them to the Head for schism in the Churches notion is properly a separation from the Head and authority and is the same in the Church that Rebellion or Treason is in the State Now as every disobedience to the King and the Law is not Treason though against the King but the disclaiming the right and power the King hath to govern and the practice of such things by which his Regalia and rights are usurpt by others as to make War to make Laws to thrust Officers upon him to order the Coin these and of the like kind are only Treason So every error or disobedience in Religion makes not a schism but the disclaiming the right and power the Church hath to govern them and a usurpation of a right to themselves to order and frame points of Belief and Forms how to serve and worship God apart from the Church for so went the style of the ancient Church for Schism altare contra altare which in our modern dialect is a Conventicle against the Church For though Schism be formally a separation from the Head yet consequently it works upon the members for that which was at first but difference of opinion soon begets a disaffection and from that grows to hatred and contempt and so falls into the practice of such things as destroy the very being and power of Religion which consists in the mutual offices of Charity and though this mischief breaks not out into an actual War yet is always accompanied with most unnatural and unchristian practices as S. James long since observed Jam. 3.16 Where envy and strife is there is confusion and every evil work Now to avoid all this it will highly concern us to study to be quiet Having cleared the first Point the Object of our study Quiet and wherein the formalis ratio of it consists and how it comes to be disturbed by Schism The next Point is to enquire into the Principles whereon we are to ground our study for if there should be an errour or mistake in them all our labour and study is lost or worse for an inveterate grounded studied errour is so much the harder to be reclaimed It was no unreasonable demand therefore of the Philosopher who asked a double reward for those Scholars that had been already entred into the study of Philosophy because his pains would be double with them to undo first and cast out those false prejudices which they had already learned Now if it should happen that they which are otherwise studious and desirous of peace should not do the things that make for peace Rom. 14.10 as the Apostle requires our study will grow upon us first to unlearn those false deceitful principles of peace before we enquire into the true Of some of the chief of these therefore I shall give you an account in the first place It will conduce much to the peace of the Church they say First 1. If Religion were free and all compulsory means forborne 2. If meer Errours in Judgment howsoever were not punished as crimes which is not in the power of any to help 3. Or if that yet Thirdly That omission of Forms and Ceremonies were not more severely and frequently punished than notorious and scandalous crimes 4. If fewer Articles and Points of Religion were defined it would make more room in the Church for those that dissent 5. Another is If men of moderate Opinions were only imployed in the Church 6. The last and most importunate pretender to peace is Liberty of Conscience But that none of all these are things that make for peace I shall shew with as much brevity as the matter is capable of as first 1. Not the forbearance of all compulsory means by punishments which they say is repugnant to that freeness with which Religion should be entertained and only forces men to an hypocritical obedience to that which in in their judgments they detest Religion I grant should be free it is no Religion which is not so But it is as true that every other act of vertue and obedience to the Laws should be free likewise but therefore not to punish them that transgress were to proclaim a perpetual Jubile and set open all prison doors God would never have enjoyned the Magistrate to punish temporally nor himself threatned to punish eternally if the fear of that did corrupt our obedience For our Saviour in the Parable when the guests came not to the banquet at his invitation Luk. 14.23 commanded his servants to compel them to come in And where they say the fruit of that is but hypocrisie Hypocrites they are like enough to be but from a worse cause not from the punishment but their own frailties because they prefer their temporal safety before the eternal blessing which Christ hath promised to all that suffer for his sake and the truth Secondly It is true that punishments reach not directly the inward man nor do they teach or inform the Judgment that is they do not perfect the work but are nevertheless a good beginning to it For Fear is the beginning of Wisdom which Love must perfect Though the Needle stays not in the Garment yet it must lead the Thred that makes it up The Rod indeed doth not teach the child yet scares him to his book where he may learn So though punishments do not perfect and accomplish our duty yet they set us to our studies to consider that we do not rashly cast our selves upon danger which otherwise possibly we would never think off but run on whither our wild vain fancies and groundless perswasions led us For Spes impunitatis est illecebra peccandi Punishments therefore are both justified for the good they do and are absolved from the evil they are pretended to do and therefore wholly to forbear them in matters of Religion