Month: August 2007

Categories
Controversy Poetry Quotations

A Position He Later Rejected

From John Dryden’s Religio Laici

[Of Rome’s claims to final authority in the interpretation of Scripture]

The partial Papists wou’d infer from hence

Their Church, in last resort, shou’d Judge the Sense,

But first they wou’d assume, with wondrous Art,

Themselves to be the whole, who are but part

Of that vast Frame, the Church; yet grant they were

The handers down, can they from thence infer

A right t’ interpret? or wou’d they alone

Who brought the Present, claim it for their own?

In explanation of the title, it should be noted that John Dryden declared that he had converted to Catholicism shortly after the accession of King James. I suppose that Dr. Johnson’s reasons as to the possibility of the sincerity of such a timely conversion should suffice to quiet the impatient. Dryden may, of course have replied to this argument after his conversion, but if so I have not yet come across it.

Categories
Piety Quotations

Self-Ownership

C.S. Lewis, “Christianity and Culture” in Christian Reflections

Finally, I agree with Brother Every that our leisure, even our play, is a matter of serious concern. There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.

C.S. Lewis, Letter to “Mrs Ashton”, 17 July 1953

The writer you quote was very good at the stage at wh. you met him: Now, as is plain, you’ve got beyond him. Poor boob � he thought his mind was his own. Never his own until he makes it Christ’s: up till then merely a result of heredity, environment, and the state of his digestion. I became my own only when I gave myself to Another.

Some years ago, the place where I worked hired some new temporaries, including a friendly man with a blue jacket who had been in the Army. He and I got along well, and we had some interesting conversation. I told him at one point the verse in Scripture which most reminded me of him was 2 Peter 2:14 �having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin. This co-worker once asked me if a statement he had heard were true, namely, that what happens in the bedroom is none of God’s business. I’ll let C.S. Lewis answer that question:

He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures; I know no promise that He will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself; and He can give that only insofar as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls. Let us make up our minds to it; there will be nothing �of our own� left over to live on, no �ordinary� life. (…) What cannot be admitted�what must exist only as an undefeated but daily resisted enemy�is the idea of something that is �our own,� some area in which we are to be �out of school,� on which God has no claim.

(C.S. Lewis, �A Slip of the Tongue� in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)

…ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body… (1 Corinthians 6:19,20)

Categories
Poetry Practical Notes Quotations

Humility and Commentaries

From John Dryden’s Religio Laici

[Of the role of patristic interpretations of Scripture]

That Antient Fathers thus expound the Page,

Gives Truth the reverend Majesty of Age:

Confirms its force, by biding every Test;

For best Authority’s next Rules are best.

And still the nearer to the Spring we go

More limpid, more unsoyl’d the Waters flow.

(…)

In doubtful questions ’tis the safest way

To learn what unsuspected Antients say:

For ’tis not likely we shou’d higher Soar

In search of Heav’n, than all the Church before:

Categories
Piety Quotations

The Heavenly Doctor

This of course was the title applied to Richard Sibbes. As the author of his memoir and editor of his works, A.B. Grosart observes, it seems to have come naturally to people to apply this epithet to him. Here are two lines from a sermon on judgment (The Church’s Visitation) which in their brief compass do much to explain why the adjective of �heavenly� was so appropriate for this man.

In the first quote he is explaining that judgment begins at the house of God, even though that may seem to encourage the enemies of God. According to Sibbes, this is why:

God’s love to his people is such, that he regards their correction before the confusion of his enemies.

And a little later on he makes a statement which allows us to see one reason among many why it is sane and rational to commit ourselves unto our faithful Creator:

Every Christian may truly say, God loves me better than I do myself.