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DOCTRINE, PRECEPT, PRINCIPLE. Doctrine, in French doctrine, Latin doctrina, from doceo to teach, signifies the thing taught; precept, from the Latin præcipio, signifies the thing laid down; and principle, in French principe, Latin principium, signifies the beginning of things, that is, their first or original component parts.

The doctrine requires a teacher; the precept requires a superior with authority; the principle requires only an illustrator. The doctrine is always framed by some one; the precept is enjoined or laid down by some one; the principle lies in the thing itself. The doctrine is composed of principles; the precept rests upon principles or doctrines. Pythagoras taught the doctrine of the metempsychosis, and enjoined many precepts on his disciples for the regulation of their conduct, particularly that they should abstain from eating animal food, and be only silent hearers for the first five years of their scholarship: the former of these rules depended upon the preceding doctrine of the soul's transmigration to the bodies of animals; the latter rested on that simple principle of education, the entire devotion of the scholar to the master.

We are said to believe in doctrines; to obey precepts; to imbibe or hold principles. The doctrine is that which enters into the composition of our faith;

To make new articles of faith and doctrine no man thinketh it lawful; new laws of government what church or commonwealth is there which maketh not either at one time or other.' HOOKER. This seditious, unconstitutional doctrine of electing kings is now pub licly taught, avowed, and printed.' BURKE. The precept is that which is recommended for practice; Pythagoras's first rule directs us to worship the gods, as is ordained by law, for that is the most natural interpretation of the precept.' ADDISON. Both are the subjects of rational assent, and suited only to the matured understanding: principles are often admitted without examination; and imbibed as frequently from observation and circumstances, as from any direct personal efforts; children as well as men get principles; If we had the whole history of zeal, from the days of Cain to our times, we should see it filled with so many scenes of slaughter and bloodshed, as would make a wise man very careful not to suffer himself to be actuated by such a principle, when it regards matters of opinion and speculation.' ADDISON.

DOCTRINE, DOGMA, TENET.

The doctrine (v. Doctrine) originates with the individual who teaches, in application to all subjects; the doctrine is whatever is taught or recommended to the belief of others; the dogma, from the Greek doyux and doxéw to think, signifies the thing thought, admitted, or taken for granted; this lies with a body or number of individuals; the tenet, from the Latin teneo to hold or maintain, signifies the thing held or maintained, and is a species of principle (v. Doctrine) spe

cifically maintained in matters of opinion by persons in general.

The doctrine rests on the authority of the individual by whom it is framed;

Unpractis'd he to fawn or seek for power
By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour;
Far other aims his heart had learn'd to prize,
More skill'd to raise the wretched, than to rise.
GOLDSMITH.

The dogma rests on the authority of the body by whom it is maintained; Our poet was a stoick philosopher, and all his moral sentences are drawn from the dogmas of that sect.' DRYDEN. The tenet rests on its own intrinsic merits or demerits; One of the puritanical tenets was the illegality of all games of chance.' JOHNSON. Many of the doctrines of our blessed Saviour are held by faith in him; they are subjects of persuasion by the exercise of our rational powers: the dogmas of the Romish church are admitted by none but such as admit its authority: the tenets of republicans, levellers, and freethinkers, have been unblushingly maintained both in public and private.

TENET, POSITION.

The tenet (v. Doctrine) is the opinion which we hold in our own minds; the position is that which we lay down for others. lay down for others. Our tenets may be hurtful, our positions false. positions false. He who gives up his tenets readily evinces an unstable mind; he who argues on a false position shows more tenacity and subtlety than good Christians are scarcely to be known or distinguished; sense. The tenets of the different denominations of they often rest upon such trivial points; The occasion of Luther's being first disgusted with the tenets of the Romish church, is known to every one, the least conversant with history.' ROBERTSON. positions which an author lays down must be very definite and clear when he wishes to build upon them any theory or system; To the position of Tully, that if virtue could be seen, she must be loved, may be added, that if truth could be heard, she must be obeyed.' JOHNSON.

THEORY, SPECULATION.

The

Theory, from the Greek edouas to behold, and speculation, from the Latin speculor to watch for or espy, are both employed to express what is seen with the mind's eye. Theory is the fruit of reflection, it serves when the theory is false; the purposes of science; practice will be incomplete

True piety without cessation tost

By theories, the practice past is lost. DENHAM. Speculation belongs more to the imagination; it has therefore less to do with realities: it is that which cannot be reduced to practice, and can therefore never be brought to the test of experience; In all these things

OPINION, SENTIMENT, NOTION.

Opinion, in Latin opinio from opinor, and the Greek now, to think or judge, is the work of the head; sentiment, from sentio to feel, is the work of the heart; notion (vide Perception) is a simple operation of the thinking faculty.

We form opinions: we have sentiments: we get notions. Opinions are formed on speculative matters; they are the result of reading, experience, or reflection: sentiments are entertained on matters of practice; they are the consequence of habits and circumstances notions are gathered upon sensible objects, and arise out of the casualties of hearing and seeing. We have opinions on religion as respects its doctrines; we have sentiments on religion as respects its practice and its precepts. The unity of the Godhead in the general sense, and the doctrine of the Trinity in the particular sense, are opinions; honor and gratitude towards the Deity, the sense of our dependance upon him, and obligations to him, are senti

ments.

Opinions are more liable to error than sentiments: the former depend upon knowledge, and must therefore be inaccurate; the latter depend rather upon instinct, and a well oganized frame of mind; Time wears out the fictions of opinion, and doth by degrees discover and unmask that fallacy of ungrounded persuasions, but confirms the dictates and sentiments of nature.' WILKINS. Notions are still more liable to error than either; they are the immatured decisions of the uninformed mind on the appearances of things; discourse than nature and its laws, and yet few agree There is nothing made a more common subject of

in their notions about these words.' CHEYNE.

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ment of love and good will among those who follow the example of Christ, rather than their own passions; There are never great numbers in any nation who can raise a pleasing discourse from their own stock of sentiments and images.' JOHNSON. The notions of a Deity are so imperfect among savages in general, that they seem to amount to little more than an indistinct idea of some superior invisible agent; Being we are at this time to speak of the proper notion of the church, therefore I shall not look upon it as any more than the sons of men.' PEARSON.

DEITY, DIVINITY.

Deity, from Deus a God, signifies a divine person. Divinity, from divinus, signifies the divine essence or power: the deities of the heathens had little of divinity in them; The first original of the drama was religious worship, consisting only of a chorus, which was nothing else but a hymn to a Deity.' ADDISON. The divinity of our Saviour is a fundamental article in the Christian faith;

Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us.

ADDISON.

CELESTIAL, HEAVENLY.

Celestial and heavenly derive their difference in signification from their different origin; they both literally imply belonging to heaven; but the former, from the Latin cælestum, signifies belonging to the heaven of heathens; the latter, which has its origin among believers in the true God, has acquired a superior sense, in regard to heaven as the habitation of the Almighty. This distinction is pretty faithfully observed in their application: celestial is applied mostly in the natural sense of the heavens; heavenly is employed more commonly in a spiritual sense. Hence we speak of the celestial globe as distinguished from the terrestial, of the celestial bodies, of Olympus as the celestial abode of Jupiter, of the celestial deities; Twice warn'd by the celestial messenger, The pious prince arose, with hasty fear. Unhappy son! (fair Thetis thus replies, While tears celestial trickle from her eyes.) POPE. But on the other hand, of the heavenly habitation, of be used for heavenly in the moral sense; heavenly joys or bliss, of heavenly spirits and the like. There are doubtless many cases in which celestial may

DRYDEN.

Thus having said, the hero bound his brows
With leafy branches, then perform'd his vows;
Adoring first the genius of the place,

Then Earth, the mother of the heavenly race. DRYDEN.

But there are cases in which heavenly cannot so properly be substituted by celestial; As the love of heaven makes one heavenly, the love of virtue virtuous, so doth the love of the world make one become

worldly.' SIDNEY. Heavenly is frequently employed in the sense of superexcellent;

But now he seiz'd Briseis' heav'nly charms,

And of my valour's prize defrauds my arms. POPE. The poets have also availed themselves of the licence to use celestial in a similar sense as occasion might

serve.

TO ADORE, WORSHIP.

ADORE, in French adorer, Latin adoro, or ad and oro, signifies literally to pray to. Worship, in Saxon weorthscype, is contracted from worthship, implying either the object that is worth, or the worth itself; whence it has been employed to designate the action of doing suitable homage to the object which has worth, and, by a just distinction, of paying homage to our Maker by religious rites.

Adoration, strictly speaking, is the service of the heart towards a Superior Being, in which we acknowledge our dependence and obedience, by petition and thanksgiving: worship consists in the outward form of showing reverence to some supposed superior being. Adoration can with propriety be paid only to the one true God; Menander that " says, God, the Lord and Father of all things, is alone worthy of our humble adoration, being at once the maker and giver of all blessings." CUMBERLAND. But worship is offered by heathens to stocks and stones;

By reason man a Godhead can discern,

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But how he should be worship'd cannot learn. DRYDEN. We may adore our Maker at all times and in all places, whenever the heart is lifted up towards him; but we worship him only at stated times, and according to certain rules; Solemn and serviceable worship we name, for distinction sake, whatsoever belongeth to the church or public society, of God, by way of external adoration. HOOKER. Outward signs are but secondary in the act of adoration; and in divine worship there is often nothing existing but the outward form. We seldom adore without worshipping; but we too frequently worship without adoring.

TO ADORE, REVERENCE, VENERATE, REVERE.

Adoration has been before considered only in relation to our Maker; it is here employed in an improper and extended application to express in the strongest possible manner the devotion of the mind towards sensible objects: Reverence, in Latin reverentia reverence or awe, implies to show reverence, from revereor to stand in awe of: venerate, in Latin veneratus, participle of veneror, probably from venere beauty, signifying to hold in very high esteem for its superior qualities: revere is another form of the same

verb.

Reverence is equally engendered by the contemplation of superiority in a being, whether of the Supreme Being, as our Creator, or any earthly being, as our parent. It differs, however, from adoration, in as much as it has a mixture of fear arising from the consciousness of weakness and dependence, or of obligation for favours received; The fear acceptable to God, is a filial fear, an awful reverence of the Divine Nature, proceeding from a just esteem of his perfections, which produces in us an inclination to his service, and an unwillingness to offend him." ROGERS.

To revere and venerate are applied only to human beings, and that not so much from the relation we stand in to them, as from their characters and endowments; on which account these two latter terms are applicable to inanimate as well as animate objects.

Adoration in this case, as in the former, essentially requires no external form of expression; it is best expressed by the devotion of the individual to the service of him whom he adores; "There is no end of his greatness." The most exalted creature he has made is only capable of adoring it; none but himself can comprehend it.' ADDISON. Reverencing our Maker is altogether an inward feeling; but reverencing our parents includes in it an outward expression of our sentiments by our deportment towards them;

The war protracted, and the siege delay'd,
Were due to Hector's and this hero's hand,
Both brave alike and equal in command;
Æneas not inferior in the field,

In pious reverence to the gods excell'd. DRYDEN.

Revering and venerating are confined to the breast of the individual, but they may sometimes display themselves in suitable acts of homage.

Good princes are frequently adored by their subjects: it is a part of the Christian character to reverence our spiritual pastors and masters, as well as all temporal authorities; It seems to me remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred of the bad.' JOHNSON. We ought to venerate all truly good men while living, and to revere their memories when they are dead;

And had not men the hoary head rever'd,
And boys paid reverence when a man appear'd,
Both must have died, though richer skins they wore,
And saw more heaps of acorns in their store. CREECH.

They are polluted offerings, more abhorr'd

Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. SHAKSPEARE. The winds to heav'n the curling vapours bore, Ungrateful off'ring to th' immortal pow'rs, Whose wrath hung heavy o'er the Trojan tow'rs. POPE. The oblation is the offering which is accompanied with some particular ceremony; Many conceive in the oblation of Jephtha's daughter, not a natural but a civil kind of death.' BROWN. The wise men made an offering to our Saviour, but not properly an oblation; the Jewish sacrifices, as in general all religious sacrifices, were in the proper sense oblations. The term oblation, in a figurative sense, may be as generally applied as offering;

Ye mighty princes, your oblations bring,

And pay due honours to your awful king. PITT.
The kind oblation of a falling tear. DRYDEN.

MALEDICTION, CURSE, IMPRECATION,

EXECRATION, ANATHEMA.

Malediction, from malè and dico, signifies a saying ill, that is, declaring an evil wish against a person: curse, in Saxon kursian, comes in all probability from the Greek xupów to sanction or ratify, signifying a bad wish declared upon oath, or in a solemn manner: imprecation from im and preco, signifies a praying down evil

upon a person: execration, from the Latin erecror, that is, è sacris excludere, signifies the same as to excommunicate, with every form of solemn imprecation: anathema, in Greek dvábua, signifies a setting out, that is, a putting out of a religious community by way of penance.

The malediction is the most indefinite and general term, signifying simply the declaration of evil: curse is a solemn denunciation of evil: the former is em

ployed mostly by men; the latter by God or man: the rest are species of the curse pronounced only by man. The malediction is caused by simple anger; the curse is occasioned by some grievous offence: men, in the heat of their passion, will utter maledictions against any object that offends them; With many praises of his good play, and many maledictions on the power of chance, he took up the cards and threw them in the fire.' MACKENZIE. God pronounced a curse upon Adam, and all his posterity, after the fall;

But know, that ere your promis'd walls you build, My curses shall severely be fulfilled. DRYDEN. The curse differs in the degree of evil pronounced or wished; the imprecation and execration always imply some positive great evil, and, in fact, as much evil as can be conceived by man in his anger; • Thus either host their imprecations join'd.' POPE. The anathema respects the evil which is pronounced according to the canon law, by which a man is not only put out of the church, but held up as an object of offence. The malediction is altogether an unallowed

mitted, in some cases, according to the Mosaic law; and that, as well as the anathema, at one time formed a part of the ecclesiastical discipline of the Christian church; 'The bare anathemas of the church fall like so many bruta fulmina upon the obstinate and schismatical.' SOUTH. The imprecation formed a part of the heathenish ceremony of religion, whereby they invoked the Dire to bring down every evil on the heads of their enemies. They had different formulas of speech for different occasions, as to an enemy on his departure; • Abeas rediturus.' Mela informs us nunquam that the Abrantes, a people of Africa, used to salute the rising and setting sun after this manner.

The execration is always the informal expression of the most violent personal anger; I have seen in Bedlam a man that has held up his face in a posture of adoration towards heaven to utter execrations and blasphemies.' STEELE.

TEMPLE, CHURCH.

These words designate an edifice destined for the sufficiently distinguish them from each other. The exercise of religion, but with collateral ideas, which templum of the Latins signified originally an open lituus, or sacred wand, whence they could best survey elevated spot marked out by the augurs with their the heavens on all sides; the idea, therefore, of spacious, open, and elevated, enters into the meaning of this word in the same manner as it does in the Hebrew word ', derived from an, which in the Arabic signifies great and lofty. The Greek vads, from vai to inhabit, signifies a dwelling-place, and by distinction the dwelling-place of the Almighty, in which sense the Hebrew word is also taken to denote the high and holy place where Jehovah peculiarly dwelleth, otherwise called the holy heavens, Jehovah's dwelling or resting-place; whence St. Paul calls our bodies the temples of God when the spirit of God dwelleth in us. The Roman poets used the word templum in a similar sense ;

Cœli tonitralia templa. LUCRET. (Lib. I.)
Qui templa cœli summa sonitu concutit. TERENT. (Eun.)
Contremuit templum magnum Jovis altitonantis.

ENNIUS.

The word temple, therefore, strictly signifies a spacious open place set apart for the peculiar presence and worship of the divine being, and is applied with peculiar property to the sacred edifices of the Jews.

Church, which, through the medium of the Saxon cince, cynic, and the German kirche, is derived from the Greek xupiaxòs, signifying literally what belonged to xúpios, the Lord; whence it became a word among the earliest Christians for the Lord's Supper, the Lord's day, the Lord's house, and also for an assembly of the faithful, and is still used in the two latter That churches were consecrated unto meanings; none but the Lord only, the very general name chiefly

doth sufficiently show; church doth signify no other thing than the Lord's house.' HOOKER. The church being a supernatural society, doth differ from natural societies in this; that the persons unto whom we associate ourselves in the one, are men simply considered as men; but they to whom we be joined in the other, are God, angels, and holy men.' HOOKER. The word church having acquired a specific meaning is never used by the poets, or in a general application like the word temple; Here we have no temple but the wood, no assembly but horn-beasts.' SHAKSPEARE. On the other hand, it has a diversity of particular meanings; being taken sometimes in the sense of the ecclesiastical power in distinction from the state, sometimes for holy orders, &c.

TO DEDICATE, DEVOTE, CONSECRATE, HALLOW.

Dedicate, in Latin dedicatus, participle from de and dico, signifies to set apart by a promise; devote, in Latin devotus, participle from devoveo, signifies to vow for an express purpose; consecrate, in Latin consecratus, from consecro or con and sacro, signifies to make sacred by a special act; hallow from holy, or the German heilig, signifies to make holy.

There is something more positive in the act of dedicating than in that of devoting; but less so than in that of consecrating.

To dedicate and devote may be employed in both temporal and spiritual matters; to consecrate and hallow only in the spiritual sense we may dedicate or devote any thing that is at our disposal to the service of some object; but the former is employed mostly in regard to superiors, and the latter to persons without distinction of rank: we dedicate a house to the service of God;

Warn'd by the seer, to her offended name
We raise and dedicate this wond'rous frame.

DRYDEN.

Or we devote our time to the benefit of our friends, or the relief of the poor; Gilbert West settled himself in a very pleasant house at Wickham in Kent, where he devoted himself to piety.' JOHNSON. We may dedicate or devote ourselves to an object; but the former always implies a solemn setting apart springing from a sense of duty; the latter an entire application of one's self from zeal and affection; in this manner he who dedicates himself to God abstracts himself from every object which is not immediately connected with the service of God; he who devotes himself to the ministry pursues it as the first object of his attention and regard: such a dedication of ourself is hardly consistent with our other duties as members of society; but a devotion of one's powers, one's time, and one's knowledge to the spread of religion among men is one of the most honourable and sacred kinds of devotion.

To consecrate is a species of formal dedication by virtue of a religious observance; it is applicable mostly to places and things connected with religious works; The greatest conqueror in this holy nation did not

only compose the words of his divine odes, but generally set them to music himself; after which his works, though they were consecrated to the tabernacle, became the national entertainment.' ADDISON. Hallow is a species of informal consecration applied to the same objects: the church is consecrated; particular days are hallowed;

Without the walls a ruin'd temple stands,
To Ceres hallowed once. DRYDEN.

FORM, CEREMONY, RITE, OBSERVANCE. Form in this sense respects the form or manner of the action; ceremony, in Latin ceremonia, is supposed to signify the rites of Ceres; rite, in Latin ritus, is probably changed from ratus, signifying a custom that is esteemed; observance signifies the thing observed.

All these terms are employed with regard to particular modes of action in civil society. Form is here the most general in its sense and application; ceremony, rite, and observance, are particular kinds of form, suited to particular occasions. Form, in its distinct application, respects all modes of acting and speaking, that are adopted by society at large, in every transaction of life; ceremony respects those forms of outward behaviour which are made the expressions of respect and deference; rite and observance are applied to national ceremonies in matters of religion. A certain form is requisite for the sake of order, method, and decorum, in every social matter, whether in affairs of state, in a court of law, in a place of worship, or in the private intercourse of friends. So long as distinctions are admitted in society, and men are agreed to express their sentiments of regard and respect to each other, it will be necessary to preserve the ceremonies of politeness which have been established. Every country has adopted certain rites founded upon its peculiar religious faith, and prescribed certainˇobservances by which individuals could make a public profession of their faith. Administering oaths by the magistrate is a necessary form in law; A long table and a square table, or seat about the walls, seem things of form, but are things of substance; for at a long table, a few at the upper end, in effect, sway all the business; but in the other form, there is more use of the counsellors' opinions that sit lower.' BACON. Kissing the king's hand is a ceremony practised at court;

And what have kings that privates have not too,
Save ceremony? SHAKSPEARE.

Baptism is one rite of initiation into the Christian church, and confirmation another; prayer, reading the Scriptures, and preaching, are different religious observances.

As respects religion, the form is the established practice, comprehending the rite, ceremony, and observance, but the word is mostly applied to that which is external, and suited for a community; He who affirmeth speech to be necessary among all men throughout the world doth not thereby import that all