There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as Justice. Most of the other virtues are the virtues of created Beings, or accommodated to our nature as we are men. Justice is that which is practised by God himself, and to be practised in its perfection by none but him. Omniscience and Omnipotence are requisite for the full exertion of it. The one, to discover every degree of uprightness or iniquity in thoughts, words and actions. The other, to measure out and impart suitable rewards and punishments. As to be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature, to be so to the utmost of our abilities is the glory of a man. Such an one who has the publick administration in his hands, acts like the representative of his Maker, in recompencing the virtuous, and punishing the offender.
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If the individual, or heretic, gets hold of some essential truth, or sees some error in the system being practised, he commits so many marginal errors himself that he is worn out before he can establish his point.
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They (the animals) have very positive rights because they are God’s creatures. If we have to speak with absolute accuracy we must say that God has the right to have all His creatures treated with proper respect. Nobody should therefore carelessly repeat the old saying that animals have no rights. This could easily lead to wanton cruelty … The difficulty is that many people do not realise the extent to which cruelty to animals is practised as a matter of business … The best and most experienced teachers … talk of kindness to animals. Christians have a duty not only to refrain from doing harm but also to do positive good.
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The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practised, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good. . . . God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.
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He that has acquired learning and nor practised what he has learnt, is like a man who ploughs but sows no seed.
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