Great Throughts Treasury

"Laws have been made upon special occasions; which occasions ceasing, laws of that kind do abrogate themselves."

"Laws, as all other things human, are many times full of imperfection; and that which supposed behoveful unto men proveth oftentimes most pernicious."

"Let us beg of God that, when the hour of our rest is come, the patterns of our dissolution may be Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and David, who, leisurably ending their lives in peace, prayed for the mercies of God upon their posterity."

"Manifest it is, that the very majesty and holiness of the place where God is worshipped hath, in regard to us, great virtue, force, and efficacy; for that it serveth as a sensible help to stir up devotion."

"Many men there are than whom nothing is more commendable when they are singled; and yet, in society with others, none less fit to answer the duties which are looked for at their hands."

"Men will not bend their wits to examine whether things wherewith they have been accustomed be good or evil."

"Man doth not seem to rest satisfied either with fruition of that wherewith his life is preserved, or with performance of such actions as advance him most deservedly in estimation."

"Let it therefore be required, on both parts, at the hands of the clergy, to be in meanness of estate like the apostles; at the hands of the laity, to be as they who lived under the apostles."

"Let this be granted, and it shall hereupon plainly ensue that the light of Scripture once shining in the world, all other light of nature is therewith in such sort drowned that now we need it not."

"Many times that which deserveth approbation would hardly find favour if they which propose it were not to profess themselves scholars, and followers of the ancients."

"No man can attain belief by the bare contemplation of heaven and earth, for they neither are sufficient to give us as much as the least spark of light concerning the very principal mysteries of our faith."

"Now for the most part it so falleth out, touching things which generally are received, that although in themselves they be most certain, yet, because men presume them granted of all, we are hardliest able to bring proof of their certainty."

"Nature worketh in us all a love to our own counsels: the contradiction of others is a fan to inflame that love."

"Of divers things evil, all being not evitable, we take one; which one, saving only in case of so great urgency, were not otherwise to betaken."

"Of those things which are for direction of all the parts of our life needful, and not impossible to be discerned by the light of nature itself, are there not many which few men?s natural capacity hath been able to find out?"

"Number may serve your purpose with the ignorant, who measure by tale, and not by weight."

"Of translations the better I acknowledge that which cometh nearer to the very letter of the very original verity."

"Prayer kindleth our desire to behold God by speculation, and the mind, delighted with that contemplative sight of God, taketh everywhere new inflammations to pray the riches of the mysteries of heavenly wisdom, continually stirring up in us correspondent desires towards them."

"Our endeavor is not so much to overthrow them with whom we contend, as to yield them just and reasonable causes of those things which, for want of due consideration heretofore, they misconceived."

"Respective and wary men had rather seek quietly their own, and wish that the well may go well, so it be not long of them, than with pains and hazard make themselves advisers for the common good."

"Sharp and subtle discourses of wit procure many times very great applause, but being laid in the balance with that which the habit of sound experience delivereth, they are overweighed."

"Some things are done by men, though not through outward force and impulsion, though not against, yet without, their wills; as in alienation of mind, or any like inevitable utter absence of wit and judgment."

"Seeing, therefore, it doth thus appear that the safety of all states dependeth upon religion; that religion, unfeignedly loved, perfecteth men?s abilities unto all kinds of virtuous services in the commonwealth; that men?s desire is, in general, to hold no religion but the true; and that whatever good effects do grow out of their religion who embrace, instead of the true, a false, the roots thereof are certain sparks of the light of truth intermingled with the darkness of error,?because no religion can wholly and only consist of untruths,?we have reason to think that all true virtues are to honor true religion as their parent, and all well-ordered commonwealths to love her as their chiefest stay."

"Rewards and punishments do always presuppose something willingly done, well or ill; without which respect, though we may sometimes receive good, yet then it is only a benefit, and not a reward."

"Some things are good, yet in so mean a degree of goodness that many are only not disproved nor disallowed of God for them."

"Sith evils, great and unexpected, doth cause oftentimes even them to think upon divine power with fearfullest suspicions, which have been otherwise the most sacred adorers thereof; how should we look for any constant resolution of mind in such cases, saving only where unfeigned affection to God hath bred the most assured confidence to be assisted by his hand?"

"That to live by one man's will became the cause of all men's misery."

"That which causeth bitterness in death is the languishing attendance and expectation of it ere it come."

"That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, that which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint the form and measure of working, the same we term a law."

"Sometimes the very custom of evil makes the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary."

"That which should make for them must prove that men ought not to make laws for church regiment, but only keep those laws which in Scripture they find made."

"That which moveth God to work is goodness, and that which ordereth his work is wisdom, and that which perfecteth his work is power."

"That which wisdom did first begin, and hath been with good men long continued, challengeth allowance of them that succeed, although it plead for itself nothing."

"The cause of error is ignorance what restraints and limitations all principles have in regard of the matter whereunto they are applicable."

"The better, the more desirable: that therefore must be desirable wherein there is infinity of goodness; so that if anything desirable may be infinite, that must needs be the highest of all things that are desired: no good is infinite but only God, therefore he is our felicity and bliss."

"The choice and flower of all things profitable in other books, the Psalms do both more briefly contain, and more movingly also express, by reason of that poetical form wherewith they are written."

"The labor of doing good, with the pleasure arising from the contrary, doth make men for the most part slower to the one and proner to the other than that duty, prescribed them by law, can prevail sufficiently with them."

"The little which some of the heathen did chance to hear concerning such matter as the sacred Scripture plentifully containeth, they did in wonderful sort effect."

"The love of things ancient doth argue stayedness, but levity and want of experience maketh apt unto innovation."

"The main principles of reason are in themselves apparent. For to make nothing evident of itself unto man?s understanding were to take away all possibility of knowing anything."

"The most certain token of evident goodness is, if the general persuasion of all men does so account it."

"The custom of evil makes the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary."

"The knowledge is small which we have on earth concerning things that are done in heaven; notwithstanding, this much we know even of saints in heaven, that they pray."

"The greatness of all actions is measured by the worthiness of the subject from which they proceed, and the object whereabout they are conversant: we must of necessity, in both respects, acknowledge that this present world affordeth not anything comparable unto the duties of religion."

"The knowledge of that which a man is in reference unto himself and other things in relation unto man, I may term the mother of all those principles which are decrees in that law of nature; whereby human actions are framed."

"The reading of Scripture is effectual, as well to lay even the first foundation, as to add degrees of farther perfection, in the fear of God."

"The reason which moved Calvin herein to be so earnest was, as Beza himself testifieth, ?For that he saw how needful these bridles were, to be put in the jaws of that city.? That which by wisdom he saw to be requisite for that people, was by as great wisdom compassed. But wise men are men, and the truth is truth. That which Calvin did for establishment of his discipline, seemeth more commendable than that which he taught for the countenancing of it established. Nature worketh in us all a love to our own counsels. The contradiction of others is a fan to inflame that love. Our love set on fire to maintain that which once we have done, sharpeneth the wit to dispute, to argue, and by all means to reason for it. Wherefore a marvel it were if a man of so great capacity, having such incitements to make him desirous of all kind of furtherances unto his cause, could espy in the whole Scripture of God nothing which might breed at the least a probable opinion of likelihood, that divine authority itself was the same way somewhat inclinable."

"The rule of voluntary agents on earth is the sentence that reason giveth concerning the goodness of those things which they are to do."

"The Scripture must be sufficient to imprint in us the character of all things necessary for the attainment of eternal life."

"The minds of the afflicted do never think they have fully conceived the weight or measure of their own woe: they use their affection as a whetstone both to wit and memory."