Newsgroup: it.news.net-abuse
Titolo: Re: Duri a morire (1/3)

The account of the pike and frog of Liancourt. They do it always, and
never otherwise, nor any other thing showing mind.
342. If an animal did by mind what it does by instinct, and if it spoke by
mind what it speaks by instinct, in hunting and in warning its mates that
the prey is found or lost, it would indeed also speak in regard to those
things which affect it closer, as example, "Gnaw me this cord which is
wounding me, and which I cannot reach."
343. The beak of the parrot, which it wipes, although it is clean.
344. Instinct and reason, marks of two natures.
345. Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in
disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are
fools.
346. Thought constitutes the greatness of man.
347. Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a
thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A
vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to
crush him, man would still be more noble than that wh

think it is
their own fault and not that of the art which they claim always to possess.
But it is well there are so many such people in the world, who are not
sceptics for the glory of scepticism, in order to show that man is quite
capable of the most extravagant opinions, since he is capable of believing
that he is not in a state of natural and inevitable weakness, but, on the
contrary, of natural wisdom.
Nothing fortifies scepticism more than that there are some who are not
sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.
375. I have passed a great part of my life believing that there was justice,
and in this I was not mistaken; for there is justice according as God has
willed to reveal it to us. But I did not take it so, and this is where I
made a mistake; for I believed that our justice was essentially just, and
that I had that whereby to know and judge of it. But I have so often found
my right judgement at fault, that at last I have come to distrust myself and
then others. I have seen changes in all nations and men, and thus, after
many changes of judgement regarding true justice, I have recognised that our
nature was but in continual change, and I have not changed since; and if I
changed, I would confirm my opinion.
The sceptic Arcesilaus, who became a dogmatist.
376. This sect derives more strength from its enemies than from its friends;
for the weakness of man is far more evident in those who know it not than in
those who know it.
377. Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of
humility in the humble. So those on scepticism cause believers to affirm.
Few men s

God has never abandoned His true
worshippers.
I prefer to follow Jesus Christ than any other, because He has miracle,
prophecy, doctrine, perpetuity, etc.
The Donatists. No miracle which obliges them to say it is the devil.
The more we particularise God, Jesus Christ, the Church.
823. If there were no false miracles, there would be certainty. If there
were no rule to judge of them, miracles would be useless and there would be
no reason for believing.
Now there is, humanly speaking, no human certainty, but we have reason.
824. Either God has confounded the false miracles, or He has foretold them;
and in both ways He has raised Himself above what is supernatural with
respect to us, and has raised us to it.
825. Miracles serve not to convert, but to condemn. Part I-II (Q. 113, A.
10, Ad. 2.)[182]
826. Reasons why we do not believe.
John 12:37. Cum autem tanta signa fecisset, non credebant in eum, ut sermo
Isayae impleretur... Excaecavit,183 etc.
Haec dixit Isaias, quando vidit gloriam ejus et locutus est de eo.184
Judaei signa petunt et Graeci sapientiam quaerunt, nos autem Jesum
crucifixum.185 (Sed plenum signis, sed plenum sapientia; vos autem Christum
non crucifixum et religionem sine miraculis et sine sapientia.)[186]
What makes us not believe in the true miracles is want of love. John: Sed
vos non creditis, quia non estis ex ovibus.187 What makes us believe the
false is want of love. Thess. 2.
The foundation of religion. It is the miracles. What then? Does God speak
against miracles, against the foundations of the faith which we have in Him?
If there is a God, faith in God must exist on earth. Now the miracles of
Jesus Christ are not foretold by Antichrist, but the mir

For
instance, the first parish in Windsor, under the pastoral care of the
Rev. Mr. Marsh, was thus blest about the same time as we in Northampton,
while we had no knowledge of each other's circumstances. There has been
a very great ingathering of souls to Christ in that place, and something
considerable of the same work began afterwards in East Windsor, my
honored father's parish, which has in times past been a place favored
with mercies of this nature, above any on this western side of New
England, excepting Northampton; there having been four or five seasons
of the pouring out of the Spirit to the general awakening of the people
there, since my father's settlement amongst them.
There was also the last spring and summer a wonderful work of God
carried on at Coventry, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Meacham. I
had opportunity to converse with some Coventry people, who gave me a
very remarkable account of the surprising change that appeared in the
most rude and vicious persons there. The like was also very great at the
same time in a part of Lebanon, called the Crank, where the Rev. Mr.
Wheelock, a young gentleman, is lately settled: and there has been much
of the same at Durham, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Chauncey; and
to appearance no small ingathering of souls there. Likewise amongst many
of the young people in the first precinct in Stratford, under the
ministry of the Rev. Mr. Gould; where the work was much promoted by the
remarkable conversion of a young woman who had been a great
company-keeper, as it was here.
Something of this work appeared in several others towns in those parts,
as I was informed when I wa