A30587:763
Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and…
Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and evils of them : with cautions that we may not be hurt by them, and endeavours to heal them / by Jeremiah Burroughs.Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and evils of them : with cautions that we may not be hurt by them, and endeavours to heal them / by Jeremiah Burroughes.
London: printed for Robert Dawlman, 1653
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Our Divisions hinder our strength; If you untwist a Cable, how weak is it in the several parts of it? a threefold cord is not easily broken, but a single one is: Divide a strong current into several rivulets, and how shallow and weak will the course of the water be? That act that Plutarch reports to the King of Scythia, Scilurus, toward his Sons hath been very famous, to set out how divisions weaken wheresoever they are; he says he had eighty Sons, and when he was near death, he caused a bundle of Arrows to be brought and given them one by one, ⟨p. 197⟩bidding each of them to break it; they all answered, it was impossible for any man to do it;1 then he causes the Arrows to be taken out one by one, and bade one of his Sons break them, this any of them could easily do; upon this he speaks to his Sons thus, If ye agree together, ye shall abide strong and unconquerable; but if ye divide your selves, contending one with another, ye will be weak and easily overcome.
Our Divisions hinder our strength; If you untwist a Cable, how weak is it in the severall parts of it? a threefold cord is not easily broken, but a single one is: Divide a strong current into severall rivelets, and how shallow and weak will the course of the water be? That act that Plutarch reports to the King of Scythia, Scilurus, toward his Sons hath been very famous, to set out how divisions weaken wheresoever they are; he sayes he had eighty Sons, and when he was near death, he caused a bundle of Arrows to be brought and given them one by one, ⟨p. 197⟩bidding each of them to break it; they all answered, it was impossible for any man to do it;1 then he causes the Arrows to be taken out one by one, and bade one of his Sons break them, this any of them could easily do; upon this he speaks to his Sonnes thus, If ye agree together, ye shall abide strong and unconquerable; but if ye divide your selves, contending one with another, ye will be weak and easily overcome.
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