absolutenessn.

1551 T. Raynald tr. A. Vesalius Compend. Declar. Vertues Oile Imperial sig. Biii It is easie to be understandid to what encrease & absolutenes..al maner of sciences mought attaigne.

1574 J. Whitgift Def. Aunswere to Admon. i. 74 The Canonicall scripture are of that absolutenesse and perfection, that nothing maye be taken awaye from them, nothing added to them.

1633 Bp. J. Hall Plaine Explic. Hard Texts i. 137 He findes not any such stabilitie, or absolutenesse in his very Angels.

1665 R. South Serm. preached before Court 34 There is nothing that can raise a Man to that generous absoluteness of condition.

1574 J. Whitgift Def. Aunswere to Admon. i. i. §4 But the greeke words..doth not signify heere a peruersnesse of rule, but an absolutenesse and a full power, and iurisdiction.

1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. ii. xix. §6. 515 Monarches need not to feare any courbing of their absolutnesse by mightie subiectes, as long as by wisdome they keepe the hearts of the people.

1659 W. Charleton Ephesian Matron 41 Yet doth not that detract from either the excellency of its [sc. the soul's] nature, or the absolutenesse of its dominion over the Body.

1728 J. Morgan Compl. Hist. Algiers I. vi. 195 His brother and predecessor laid the foundation of that absoluteness.

1742 R. Mason Mutual Advantages Subordination 14 From the Absoluteness of his Prince he could not refuse accepting it.

1841 E. Rigby Resid. Shores Baltic II. xxiii. 239 The absoluteness of the monarchy extinguishes all etiquette.

1896 E. P. Gould Crit. & Exegetical Comm. Gospel St. Mark 184 This principle of accommodation to the time in Scripture..limits finally the absoluteness of its authority.

1950 G. Misch Hist. Autobiogr. in Antiq. 46 The absoluteness of the ruler would be impaired by an indirect form of speech referring to him objectively.

1998 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 28 May 17/1 Public disputes that McIntyre seemed to encourage less for canonical reasons than to establish the absoluteness of his prelacy.

1603 C. Heydon Def. Iudiciall Astrol. x. 228 That which is of necessitie cannot bee auoided, it hath beene before confuted; sith euery necessitie doth not presently suppose absolutenesse.

1651 R. Baxter Plain Script. Proof Infants Church-membership & Baptism 299 The excellency of the mercy promised, rather than any absoluteness in the promise.

1673 H. Hickman Hist. Quinq-articularis 29 Gods Decree, and the absoluteness or conditionality thereof.

1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. viii. 393 The absoluteness, and illimitedness of his Commission.

1836 Southern Literary Messenger Jan. 138/2 Knavishly objecting to the allowance of a claim because of its absoluteness.

1864 C. Kingsley Roman & Teuton iii. 76 Thus denying the absoluteness..the illimitability, by any category of quantity, of that One Eternal.

1903 H. James Ambassadors ix. xxiv. 320 The sharp downstrokes of her pen..hinted at a probable absoluteness in any decree of the writer.

1944 Ethics 54 144/2 Absoluteness or relativity is a matter of degree of certainty.

1990 R. Young White Mythologies (BNC) 19 Postmodernism..involves the loss of the sense of an absoluteness of any Western account of History.

1605 F. Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Ii3^v Hee pretended not to make any newe Philosophy; yet did vse the absolutenesse of his owne sense, vpon the olde. View more context for this quotation

1652 P. Sterry England's Deliverance Pref. Giving them a more Excellent Being in this Relative State and Subordination, than they had in their absolutenesse.

1731 T. Ridgley Body of Divinity I. Pref. p. v I have..maintained the absoluteness and independency hereof [sc. of divine grace] on the will of man to render it effectual to salvation.

1792 J. Weaver Free Thoughts 22 To tie up God in his actions to the reason of things, destroys his Liberty, Absoluteness, and Independency.

1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours with Mystics I. v. ii. 169 To gaze on the Divine Nature in its absoluteness and abstraction, apart from the manifestation of it to our intellect, our heart, and our imagination.

1876 H. James in Atlantic Monthly Dec. 692/2 Gwendolen is a perfect picture of youthfulness—its eagerness, its presumption, its preoccupation with itself, its vanity and silliness, its sense of its own absoluteness.

1969 Japanese Relig. 5 54 Absoluteness (independence) is only the negative form of relativity or dependence.

1994 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 5 Mar. 1-B Reality..is not something that sits there in absoluteness.