| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: endured, if it had not been his will? or been preserved, if not
called by him?' as saith the Scripture.
"A ship holdeth not together without a steersman, but easily
foundereth; and a small house shall not stand without a
protector. How then could the world have subsisted for long
ages, a work so great, and so fair and wondrous, -- without some
glorious mighty and marvellous steersmanship and all-wise
providence? Behold the heavens, how long they have stood, and
have not been darkened: and the earth hath not been exhausted,
though she hath been bearing offspring so long. The water-
springs have not failed to gush out since they were made. The
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: unremitting labor. Although they afterwards restricted this too
closely, and grossly abused it, so that they traduced and could not
endure in Christ those works which they themselves were accustomed to
do on that day, as we read in the Gospel just as though the commandment
were fulfilled by doing no external [manual] work whatever, which,
however, was not the meaning, but, as we shall hear, that they sanctify
the holy day or day of rest.
This commandment, therefore, according to its gross sense, does not
concern us Christians; for it is altogether an external matter, like
other ordinances of the Old Testament, which were attached to
particular customs, persons, times, and places, and now have been made
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: dangerous it may prove, should the Continent divide thereon. Do they
take within their view, all the various orders of men whose situation
and circumstances, as well as their own, are to be considered therein.
Do they put themselves in the place of the sufferer whose ALL
is ALREADY gone, and of the soldier, who hath quitted ALL for the defence
of his country. If their ill judged moderation be suited to their own
private situations only, regardless of others, the event will convince them,
that "they are reckoning without their Host."
Put us, says some, on the footing we were on in sixty-three:
To which I answer, the request is not now in the power of Britain
to comply with, neither will she propose it; but if it were,
Common Sense |
