Doctrine

• Still more do men pretend in this time of ours, wherein the habitual use of the human intelligence has sunk to its lowest, that doctrine is but a private, individual affair, creating a mere opinion. Upon the contrary, it is doctrine that drives the State; and every State is stronger in the degree in which the doctrine of its citizens is united. Nor have I met any man in my life, arguing for what should be among men, but took for granted as he argued that the doctrine he consciously or unconsciously accepted was or should be a similar foundation for all mankind. Hence battle.
  • Hilaire Belloc, The Cruise of the "Nona" (1925). Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1958, p. 49.

• For his religion, it was fit
  To match his learning and his wit;
  'Twas Presbyterian true blue;
  For he was of that stubborn crew
  Of errant saints, whom all men grant
  To be the true Church Militant;
  Such as do build their faith upon
  The holy text of pike and gun;
  Decide all controversies by
  Infallible artillery;
  And prove their doctrine orthodox,
  By Apostolic blows and knocks.
  • Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part I (1663-64), Canto I, line 189.

• What makes all doctrines plain and clear?—
  About two hundred pounds a year.
  And that which was prov'd true before
  Prove false again? Two hundred more.
  • Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part III (1678), Canto I, line 1,277.

• Nothing can be progressive without being doctrinal.
  • G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905), Ch. II: "On the Negative Spirit".

• The Athanasian Creed is the most splendid ecclesiastical lyric ever poured forth by the genius of man.
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Endymion (1880), Ch. LIV.

• He was the word that spake it,
  He took the bread and brake it;
  And what that word did make it,
  I do believe and take it.
  • John Donne, Divine Poems, On the Sacrament, Flesher's Edition (1654), p. 352. Found earlier in Camden's Remains.

• 'Twas God the word that spake it,
  He took the bread and brake it,
  And what the word did make it,
  That I believe and take it.
  • Queen Elizabeth I, in Clark, Ecclesiastical History, Life of Queen Elizabeth, p. 94 (edition 1675), quoting the queen when asked her opinion of Christ's presence in the Sacrament. Foxe, Acts and Monuments, Fuller, Holy State, Book IV, p. 302. (Ed. 1648). Rapin, History of England, Volume II, p. 42 (1733). Given also "Christ was the word". Generally attributed to Anne Askew. Also to Lady Jane Grey in Sir H. Nicolas' Life and Remains.

• Sound doctrine does not enter into the hard and disobedient heart; but, as if beaten back, enters anew into itself.
  • Justin Martyr (c100–165 AD), "Fragments from the Lost Writings", Fragment XVI, translated by the Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.D.; in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I (Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885), p. 302.

• My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.
  • Anna Sewell, Black Beauty (London: Jarrold and Sons, 1877), Ch. XXXVIII, p. 192.

• We are not called on to believe this or that doctrine which may be proposed to us till we can do so from honest conviction. But we are called on to trust, — to trust ourselves to God, being sure that He will lead us right, — to keep close to Him, — and to trust the promises which He whispers through our conscience; this we can do, and we ought to do.
  • John Campbell Shairp, Culture and Religion (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1870), Lecture IV, p. 91.

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 197-98.

• O how far remov'd,
  Predestination! is thy foot from such
  As see not the First Cause entire: and ye,
  O mortal men! be wary how ye judge:
  For we, who see the Maker, know not yet
  The number of the chosen; and esteem
  Such scantiness of knowledge our delight:
  For all our good is, in that primal good,
  Concentrate; and God's will and ours are one.
  • Dante Alighieri, Vision of Paradise, Canto XX, line 122.

• You can and you can't,
  You will and you won't;
  You'll be damn'd if you do,
  You'll be damn'd if you don't.
  • Lorenzo Dow, Chain (Definition of Calvinism).

• And after hearing what our Church can say,
  If still our reason runs another way,
  That private reason 'tis more just to curb,
  Than by disputes the public peace disturb;
  For points obscure are of small use to learn,
  But common quiet is mankind's concern.
  • John Dryden, Religio Laici, line 445.

• Carried about with every wind of doctrine.
  • Ephesians, IV. 14.

• Die Theologie ist die Anthropologie.
  • Theology is Anthropology.
  • Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, Wesen des Christenthums.

• Thus this brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over.
  • Thomas Fuller, Church History, Section II, Book IV. Par. 53. Wickliffe's body was burned, the ashes thrown into the brook Swift, by order of the Council of Constance, 1415.

• Shall I ask the brave soldier, who fights by my side
  In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?
  Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,
  If he kneel not before the same altar with me?
  From the heretic girl of my soul should I fly,
  To seek somewhere else a more orthodox kiss?
  No! perish the hearts, and the laws that try
  Truth, valour, or love, by a standard like this!
  • Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies, Come Send Round the Wine.

• "Orthodoxy, my Lord," said Bishop Warburton, in a whisper,—"orthodoxy is my doxy,—heterodoxy is another man's doxy."
  • Joseph Priestly, Memoirs, Volume I, p. 572.

• Live to explain thy doctrine by thy life.
  • Matthew Prior, to Dr. Sherlock, on his Practical Discourse Concerning Death.

• The Avon to the Severn runs,
  The Severn, to the sea,
  And Wickliff's dust shall spread abroad
  Wide as the waters be.
  • Daniel Webster, quoted in an Address before the Sons of New Hampshire (1849).

• As thou these ashes, little brook! will bear
  Into the Avon, Avon to the tide
  Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
  Into main ocean they, this deed accurst,
  An emblem yields to friends and enemies
  How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified
  By truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.
  • William Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Sketches, Part II.

Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 76.

• The old and received law for above a century is not to be broken in upon by any new doctrine.
  • Lord Kenyon, Rex v. Walter (1799), 3 Esp. 22.

• The law of England is wisely reluctant to admit any doctrine which is repugnant to the settled principles and policy of its own institution.
  • Stuart, V.-C., Brook v. Brook (1858), 6 W. R. 452.

• That doctrine cannot be law which injures the rights of individuals, and will be productive of evil to the Church and to the community.
  • Best, C.J., Fletcher v. Lord Sondes (1826), 3 Bing. 590.

• I can never assent to a doctrine so discreditable to our Courts of law as that, because it is equitable and just, that it is therefore not strictly legal.
  • Booke, J., Oppenheim v. Russell (1802), 3 Bos. raid Pull. 50.

• A most unjust doctrine and I shall not extend it.
  • Romer, J., in reference to the doctrine expounded in Tweedale v. Tweedale, 23 Beav. 341.

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• Go on your knees before God. Bring all your idols; bring self-will, and pride, and every evil lust before Him, and give them up. Devote yourself, heart and soul, to His will; and see if you do not "know of the doctrine."
  • Henry Ward Beecher, p. 194.

• Don't turn your back upon your doctrinal doubts and difficulties. Go up to them and examine them. Perhaps the ghastly object which looks to you in the twilight like a sheeted ghost may prove to be no more than a table-cloth hanging upon a hedge.
  • Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd, p. 194.

• Doctrine is the frame-work of life; it is the skeleton of truth, to be clothed and rounded out by the living graces of a holy life. It is only the lean creature whose bones become offensive.
  • Adoniram Judson Gordon, p. 194.

• Religion, as embodied in the character and conduct of its disciples, cannot survive without doctrinal purity. In the absence of this element, religious feeling inevitably decays; while even religious necessity becomes a thing of naught.
  • John McClellan Holmes, p. 194.