He says a man may perhaps answer, that the necessity of things held by him, is not a stoical necessity, but a Christian necessity,... &c. But this distinction I have not used, nor indeed have ever heard before, nor could I think any man could make stoical and Christian two kinds of necessity, though they may be two kinds of doctrineLESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But he [Bramhall] adds that we must subject them, according to that presentiality which they have in eternity, which he says canno...t be done by them that conceive eternity to be an everlasting succession, but only by them that conceive it as an indivisible point. To which I answer, that as soon as I can conceive eternity to be an indivisible point, or anything be an everlasting succession, I will renounce all that I have written on this subject.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Again we have here two distinctions that are no distinctions, but made to seem so by terms invented by I know not whom to cover ig...norance, and blind the understanding of the reader: for it cannot be conceived that there is any liberty greater, than for a man to do what he will.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In sum, all actions and habits are to be esteemed good or evil by their causes and usefulness in reference to the commonwealth, an...d not by their mediocrity, nor by their being commended. For several men praise several customs, and, contrarily, what one calls vice, another calls virtue, as their present affections lead them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have seen in this revolution a circular motion of the sovereign power through two usurpers, father and son, to the late King to ...this his son. For ... it moved from King Charles I to the Long Parliament; from thence to the Rump; from the Rump to Oliver Cromwell; and then back again from Richard Cromwell to the Rump; then to the Long Parliament; and thence to King Charles, where long may it remain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If in time, as in place, there were degrees of high and low, I verily believe that the highest of time would be that which passed ...between the years of 1640 and 1660. For he that thence, as from the Devil's Mountain, should have looked upon the world and observed the actions of men, especially in England, might have had a prospect of all kinds of injustice, and of all kinds of folly, that the world could afford, and how they were produced by their dams hypocrisy and self-conceit, whereof the one is double iniquity, and the other double folly.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To speak impartially, both sayings are very true: that man to man is a kind of God; and that man to man is an arrant wolf. The fir...st is true, if we compare citizens amongst themselves; and the second, if we compare cities.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »