Quotes about Doctrine

I began to see as all this weighing and sifting what this text means and that text means, and whether folks are saved all by God's grace, or whether there goes an ounce o' their own will to't, was no part o' real religion at all. You may talk o' these things for hours on end, and you'll only be all the more coxy and conceited for't.

He was doctrinally convinced that there was a total absence of merit in himself; but that doctrinal conviction may be held without pain when the sense of demerit does not take a distinct shape in memory and revive the tingling of shame or the pang of remorse. Nay, it may be held with intense satisfaction when the depth of our sinning is but a measure for the depth of forgiveness, and a clenching proof that we are peculiar instruments of the divine intention.

I care only to know, if possible, the lasting meaning that lies in all religious doctrine from the beginning till now.

The bread while becoming by virtue of Christ's words the body of Christ does not cease to be bread.

Nothing is more dangerous to one's own faith than the work of an apologist. No doctrine of that faith seems to me so spectral, so unreal as one that I have just successfully defended in a public debate.

If I should say anything that is not in conformity with what is held by the Holy Roman Catholic Church, it will be through ignorance and not through malice. This may be taken as certain, and also that, through God's goodness, I am, and shall always be, as I always have been, subject to her.

I would not have believed the gospel had not the authority of the Church moved me.

He cannot have God for his father who has not the Church for his Mother.

All denominations of Christians have really little difference in point of doctrine, though they may differ widely in external forms.

M]ake much of the written word, and pray to God to copy his Bible in your conscience, and write a new book of his doctrine in your hearts.

The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.

Correct division should be preferred over corrupt unity.