john witherspoon

“ The faculties of the mind are commonly divided into three kinds, the understanding, the will, and the affections; though perhaps it is proper to observe, that there are not three qualities wholly distinct, as if they were three different beings, but different ways of exerting the same principle. ”

“ Of the will it is usual to enumerate four acts; desire, aversion, joy, and sorrow. The two last, Hutchinson says, are superfluous, in which he seems to be right. ”

“ It is very evident that both the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New are at great pains to give us a view of the glory and dignity of the person of Christ. ”

“ It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man. ”

“ The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of usurped authority. ”

“ There is scarcely anything more harmless than political or party malice. It is best to leave it to itself. Opposition and contradiction are the only means of giving it life or duration. ”

“ I think we may say with certainty, that infinite perfection, intellectual and moral, are united and inseparable in the Supreme Being. ”

“ The people in general ought to have regard to the moral character of those whom they invest with authority either in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches. ”

“ Men are not generally sufficiently aware of the distinction between the law of God and his purpose; they are apt to suppose, that as the temper of the sinner is contrary to the one, so the outrages of the sinner are able to defeat the other; than which nothing can be more false. ”