“The provinces of Church and State are perfectly distinct, and the one has no right to usurp the jurisdiction of the other. The State is a natural institute, founded in the constitution of man as moral and social, and designed to realize the idea of justice. It is the society of rights. The Church is a supernatural institute, founded in the facts of redemption, and is designed to realize the idea of grace...The power of Church is exclusively spiritual; that of the State includes the exercise of force. The Constitution of the Church is a Divine revelation; the Constitution of the State must be determined by human reason and the course of providential events. The Church has no right to construct or modify a government for the State, and the State has no right to frame a creed or polity for a Church. They are as planets moving in different orbits, and unless each is confined to its own track the consequences may be as disastrous in the moral world as the collision of different spheres in the world of matter.” “Address to All Churches” by James Henley Thornwell, 1861
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 00:11:49 +0000
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