Vol. I, Ch. 1: Introduction concerning the Compilers of the books of the Old Testament
Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733)
Context: The authority of Emperors, Kings, and Princes, is human. The authority of Councils, Synods, Bishops, and Presbyters, is human. The authority of the Prophets is divine, and comprehends the sum of religion, reckoning Moses and the Apostles among the Prophets; and if an Angel from Heaven preach any other gospel, than what they have delivered, let him be accursed. Their writings contain covenant between God and his people, with instructions for keeping this covenant; instances of God’s judgments upon them that break it: and predictions of things to come. While the people of God keep the covenant they continue to be his people: when they break it they cease to be his people or church, and become the Synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not. And no power on earth is authorized to alter this covenant.
The predictions of things to come relate to the state of the Church in all ages: and amongst the old Prophets, Daniel is most distinct in order of time, and easiest to be understood: and therefore in those things which relate to the last times, he must be made the key to the rest.
“Here beyond men's judgments all covenants were brittle.”
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
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Cormac McCarthy 270
American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter 1933Related quotes
Theodoros Kolokotronis' memoirs (1846), quoted in: Jim Potts (2010) The Ionian Islands and Epirus: A Cultural History, p. 176
Youtube, Other, The Damn Commandments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u3z69YpLx0 (January 7, 2015)
“There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind.”
XXII. 262–263 (tr. Samuel Butler); Achilles to Hector.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 372.
Source: The Mike Wallace Interview (1958)
Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from A Separate Reality (Chapter 6)
“They were men who were here before us. We must build again.”
By the Waters of Babylon (1937)
Context: It is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast.
Nevertheless, we make a beginning. it is not for the metal alone we go to the Dead Places now — there are the books and the writings. They are hard to learn. And the magic tools are broken — but we can look at them and wonder. At least, we make a beginning. And, when I am chief priest we shall go beyond the great river. We shall go to the Place of the Gods — the place newyork — not one man but a company. We shall look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the others — the gods Lincoln and Biltmore and Moses. But they were men who built the city, not gods or demons. They were men. I remember the dead man's face. They were men who were here before us. We must build again.
1810s, Letter to H. Tompkinson (AKA Samuel Kercheval) (1816)
Context: Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves were they to rise from the dead.