"Dover Beach is not about to be submerged. But a tide has turned, and boats at anchor now point the other way."

     Jonathan Clark on Roger Scruton's In the soul of the world (Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 2014), in "Books of the year:  seventy-four writers make their selections from around the world," Times literary supplement no. 5826 (November 28, 2014):  9.  According to Clark, Scruton is, if not an atheist, "a secularist who cannot resist writing about God".

"It is the Text that saves us; the interlineary glosses, and the marginal notes, and the variæ lectiones, controversies and perplexities, undo us:"

"When I come to heaven, I shall not need to ask of S. John's Angel, nor of his Elders, Ubi Prophetæ, ubi Apostoli, ubi Evangelistæ; where are the Prophets, where are the Evangelists, where are the Apostles? for, I am sure I shall see them there: But perchance I may be put to ask S. Paul's question, Ubi Scribæ? ubi Sapientes? where are the Scribes? where are the Wise men? where are the Disputers of the world? perchance I may misse a great many of them there. It is the Text that saves us; the interlineary glosses, and the marginal notes, and the variæ lectiones, controversies and perplexities, undo us: the Will, the Testament of God, enriches us; the Schedules, the Codicils of men, begger us: because the Serpent was subtiller then any, he would dispute and comment upon Gods Law, and so deceiv'd by his subtilty. The Word of God is Biblia, it is not Bibliotheca; a Book, a Bible, not a Library. And all that book is not written in Balthazars character, in a Mene, Tekel, Upharsim, that we must call in Astrologers, and Chaldeans, and Southsayers, to interpret it. That which was written so, as that it could not be understood, was written, sayes the text there, with the fingers of mans hand; It is the hand of man that induces obscurities; the hand of God hath written so, as a man may runne, and read; walk in the duties of his calling here, and attend the salvation of his soul too."

     John Donne, A Lent-Sermon Preached before the King, at White-Hall, February 16, 1620 [Julian] or 1621 [Gregorian], on 1 Tim 3:16.  The collected sermons of John Donne 3, ed. Simpson & Potter (Berkeley, CA:  The University of California Press, 1953), no. 9, p. 3.  I was put onto this by Hugh Adlington, "Close reader:  John Donne's Horace," Times literary supplement no. 5833 (January 16, 2015):  15 (14-15).