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228 THE COMPREHENSIVE CHURCH.
there is liberty there can be no permanent evils. Such
as may arise will be temporary; they will cure themselves ; they will be removed soon by the common sense
and experience of men. New evils, occasional evils,
will arise and be removed continually, while the great
body of the Church shall be continually progressing in
grace and happiness. It cannot be thus where there is
intolerance. Evils, the evils which always appertain to
things human, will in this latter case be made permanent ; and the devotions of many souls will be repressed;
and error will pass into malignity and heresy ; and in-"
nocent diversity of opinion or of practice will go out
into rancorous and deadly schism. This has been the
woful history of the Church of Christ. It takes but
the enactment of a positive law—done in a moment of
deliberation, or, it may be, of carelessness or of passion—
to make a religious duty or a sin of a matter in itself indifferent or unimportant; and rulers, as well ecclesiastical as civil, should beware how they exert their power.
The great fault of ecclesiastical legislators, in all. ages
of the Church, has been in legislating too much. They
seem to have forgotten how wide and almost boundless
is the application of a law, though it appear to be circumscribed ; and that even a legal license will operate
somewhere as a legal prohibition. They seem to have
forgotten that there are laws in nature itself and in the
Gospel as well as in their codes of canons. The legislators of a Church ought to have faith in the common
sense and the deliberate judgments and the sincere
hearts of the Christian people ; they should trust much
to the laws of experience, the laws of the human mind
and affections; they should have calm confidence in the
| Title | The comprehensive church |
| Creator | Vail, Thomas H. (Thomas Hubbard) |
| Publisher | Appleton |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000232 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 228 THE COMPREHENSIVE CHURCH. there is liberty there can be no permanent evils. Such as may arise will be temporary; they will cure themselves ; they will be removed soon by the common sense and experience of men. New evils, occasional evils, will arise and be removed continually, while the great body of the Church shall be continually progressing in grace and happiness. It cannot be thus where there is intolerance. Evils, the evils which always appertain to things human, will in this latter case be made permanent ; and the devotions of many souls will be repressed; and error will pass into malignity and heresy ; and in-" nocent diversity of opinion or of practice will go out into rancorous and deadly schism. This has been the woful history of the Church of Christ. It takes but the enactment of a positive law—done in a moment of deliberation, or, it may be, of carelessness or of passion— to make a religious duty or a sin of a matter in itself indifferent or unimportant; and rulers, as well ecclesiastical as civil, should beware how they exert their power. The great fault of ecclesiastical legislators, in all. ages of the Church, has been in legislating too much. They seem to have forgotten how wide and almost boundless is the application of a law, though it appear to be circumscribed ; and that even a legal license will operate somewhere as a legal prohibition. They seem to have forgotten that there are laws in nature itself and in the Gospel as well as in their codes of canons. The legislators of a Church ought to have faith in the common sense and the deliberate judgments and the sincere hearts of the Christian people ; they should trust much to the laws of experience, the laws of the human mind and affections; they should have calm confidence in the |
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