noun
definition
One skilled in divinity; a theologian.
definition
A minister of the gospel; a priest; a clergyman.
definition
(often capitalized, with 'the') God or a god, particularly in its aspect as a transcendental concept.
verb
definition
To foretell (something), especially by the use of divination.
definition
To guess or discover (something) through intuition or insight.
definition
To search for (underground objects or water) using a divining rod.
definition
To render divine; to deify.
Examples of divines in a Sentence
Calamy was an active member in the Westminster assembly of divines, and, refusing to advance to Congregationalism, found in Presbyterianism the middle course which best suited his views of theology and church government.
All his divines are Protestants.
Shields (1825-1904), who afterwards entered the Protestant Episcopal Church, republished and urged the adoption of the Book of Common Prayer as amended by the Westminster Divines in the royal commission of 1661; and Henry Van Dyke was prominent in the latter stage of the movement for a liturgy.
He is not known to have protested against any of the changes effected by his masters; he professed to be no theologian, and was wont, when asked theological questions, to refer his interrogators to the divines.
In 1538 an embassy of German divines visited England with the design, among other things, of forming a common confession for the two countries.
The English reformers realized this fact; and notwithstanding their insistence on the unique authority of the canon of Scripture, their appeal to the fathers as representatives of the teaching of the undivided Church was as wholehearted as that of the Tridentine divines.
British and American divines, on the other hand, are slow to suspect that a new apologetic principle may mean a new system of apologetics, to say nothing of a new dogmatic. Among the evangelicals, for the most part, natural theology, far from being rejected, is not even modified, and certain doctrines continue to be described as incomprehensible mysteries.
He was soon promoted to be one of Edward VI.'s chaplains and prebendary of Westminster, and in October 1552 was one of the six divines to whom the Forty-two articles were submitted for examination before being sanctioned by the Privy Council.
In 1604 Chaderton was appointed one of the four divines for managing the cause of the Puritans at the Hampton Court conference; and he was also one of the translators of the Bible.
The new archbishop, without being one of the English divines who have made notable contributions to theological learning, already had a great reputation for ecclesiastical statesmanship; and in subsequent years his diplomatic abilities found ample scope in dealing not only with the difficulties caused in the church by doctrinal questions, but pre-eminently with the education crisis, and with the new problems arising in the enlarged Anglican Communion.
The Latin sermons of St Augustine, of which 384 are extant, have been taken as their models by all sensible subsequent divines, for it was he who rejected the formal arrangement of the divisions of his theme, and insisted that simplicity and familiarity of style were not incompatible with dignity and religion.
Some of the most remarkable divines of this great period, however, are scarcely to be mentioned as successful writers of sermons.
For this reason, probabilism found vigorous opponents in Bossuet and other eminent divines; and various of its excesses were condemned by the popes during the latter half of the 17th century.
Four of those divines were, it is said, decidedly opposed to the admission of Anglican orders as valid; four were more or less favourably disposed to them.
They appealed not to the school divines, but to Scripture and primitive antiquity.
They lavished money on the embellishment of their capital, Gyulafehervar, which became a sort of Protestant Mecca, whither scholars and divines of every anti-Roman denomination flocked to bask in the favour of princes who were as liberal as they were pious.
When we put aside one or two exceptionally fine pieces, like the hymn of the soul in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, the highest degree of excellence in style is perhaps attained in staightforward historical narrative - such as the account of the PersoRoman War at the beginning of the 6th century by the author who passes under the name of Joshua the Stylite, or by romancers like him who wrote the romance of Julian; by biographers like some of those who have written lives of saints, martyrs and eminent divines; and by some early writers of homilies such as Philoxenus (in prose) and Isaac of Antioch (in verse).
His learning was greater than his originality, and he was one of the least heterodox of the Italian divines who rejected Roman Catholicism.
In some of the cases the question has been raised how far the doctrine of the church could be ascertained by reference to the opinions generally expressed by divines belonging to its communion.
With Zwingli, who had arrived on the 27th of September, he had several interviews of considerable political importance before the Wittenberg divines made their appearance.
His name is the first on the list of divines appointed to make the authorized version of the Bible.
He took a prominent and truculent part in the famous conference of prelates and Presbyterian divines held at Hampton Court in 1604.
In 1643 he was elected one of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, but his sympathies with the king and with the Anglican Church were so strong that he declined to sit.
In 1553 appeared at Brzesc the Protestant translation of the whole Bible made by a committee of learned men and divines, and published at the expense of Nicholas Radziwill, a very rich Polish magnate who had embraced the Protestant doctrines.
His address to the assembled divines was "practically a declaration of war against the Ultramontane party."
Many bishops and divines considered the proposed definition a false one.
In 1644 he was appointed one of the scribes or secretaries of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster.
In 1J35 he was sent to Germany, in the hope of inducing Lutheran divines to approve of Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and four years later he was employed in negotiations connected with Anne of Cleves's marriage.
Eberhard stated the arguments for the broader view with dignity, acuteness and learning, but the liberality of the reasoning gave great offence to the strictly orthodox divines, and is believed to have obstructed his preferment in the church.
As a result the king summoned a conference of leading Puritan divines, and of bishops and other leading Anglican divines, which met under his presidency at Hampton Court in January 1604.
The result was that a conference was held in 1661, known from its place of meeting as the Savoy Conference, the church being represented by twelve bishops and the Nonconformists by twelve eminent Presbyterian divines, each side accompanied by nine coadjutors.
Jurieu defended the doctrines of Protestantism with great ability against the attacks of Antoine Arnauld, Pierre Nicole and Bossuet, but was equally ready to enter into dispute with his fellow Protestant divines (with Louis Du Moulin and Claude Payon, for instance) when their opinions differed from his own even on minor matters.
With them were associated Wesleyan and Presbyterian divines, and in September 1795 the London Missionary Society, emphasizing no one form of church government, was formed.
One hundred members, many of them foreign divines, composed this great assembly, who after 154 sittings gave their seal to the doctrines of the Netherlands Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism.
It was subscribed by many in both kingdoms and also in Ireland, and was approved by the English parliament, and with some slight modifications by the Westminster Assembly of Divines.
In the following year he published An Answere to a Certain Libel intituled an Admonition to the Parliament, which led to further controversy between the two divines.
The definitions show so much acuteness of thought and command of language, and the passages quoted from poets, divines and philosophers are so skilfully selected, that a leisure hour may always be very agreeably spent in turning over the pages.
In consultation with both Romanist and Lutheran divines a confession of faith called the Interim was drawn up; this was in the nature of a compromise and was issued as an edict in May 1548, but owing to the opposition of the Romanist princes it was not made binding upon them, only upon the Lutherans.
He visited privately many of the leading citizens of the city, statesmen, divines and merchants, and besought them to take the lead in a national movement against slavery; but they all with one consent made excuse, some of them listening to his plea with manifest impatience.
It was admitted that such obligation must be not natural but positive; but it was argued by the stricter Calvinistic divines that the proportion of one in seven is agreeable to nature, based on the order of creation in six days, and in no way specially connected with anything Jewish.
The almspeople consisted of six " poor brethren " and six " poor sisters," and the teaching and governing staff of a master and a warden, who were always to be of the founder's surname, and four fellows, all " graduates and divines," among whom were apportioned the ministerial work of the chapel, the instruction of the boys, and the supervision of the almspeople.
He held conferences with Roman divines appointed to adjust differences, and afterwards wrote an Apology for the Augsburg Confession.
In 1537, when the Protestant divines signed the Lutheran Articles of Schmalkalden, Melanchthon appended to his signature the reservation that he would admit of a pope provided he allowed the gospel and did not claim to rule by divine right.
The English Christians overcame the Celtic divines of Iona, and in 710 even in Pictland they came into the customs of western Christianity.
Nevertheless he opposed the policy of Holles and the peace party and the proposed disbanding of the army in 1647, and though one of the lay members of the assembly of divines, repudiated the claims of divine authority put forward by the Presbyterians for their church, and approved of religious tolerance.
Cheke took a fairly active share in public life; he sat, as member for Bletchingley, for the parliaments of 1547 and 1 55 2-1 553; he was made provost of King's College, Cambridge (April 1, 1548), was one of the commissioners for visiting that university as well as Oxford and Eton, and was appointed with seven divines to draw up a body of laws for the governance of the church.
There have, however, been divines who dissented from this general disapproval.
In all these matters he followed the guidance of divines and devotees, in whose congenial company he delighted.
He was a member of the convocation of 1640, and was nominated one of the Westminster Assembly of divines.
Among his many writings are An Ecclesiastical Biography, containing the Lives of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines (8 vols., 1845-1852), A Church Dictionary, The Means of Rendering more Effectual the Education of the People, The Cross of Christ (1873), The Church and its Ordinances (sermons, 4 vols., 1876), and Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (12 vols., 1860-1876).