PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Outlines of Theology
A. A. Hodge, 1823–1886 · 184,090 words · 224 reading sections
CHAPTER VI.
■H»hr Class . Book.. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT .# OUTLINES THEOLOGY. REV. A. ALEXANDER HODGE, PASTOE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, FREDRICKSBURG, VIRGINIA. NEW Y 0 E K : ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 531 BROADWAY. 1860. d**&£* 3> <^-\5 *>. \%W<> Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by ROBERT CART…
853 wordsSECTION 212 THE BEING OF GOD.
CHAPTER VI. THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE 90 CHAPTER VH. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 101 CHAPTER VIII. THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY, INCLUDING THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, THE ETERNAL GENERATION OF THE SON, THE PERSONALITY, DIVINITY, AND ETERNAL PROCESSION OF THE HOLY GHOST, AND THE SEVERAL PROP- ERTIES AND MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE P…
821 wordsSECTION 314 THE BEING OF GOD.
It is not innate in the sense either that any man is born with a correct idea of God perfectly developed, or that, independently of instruction, any man can, in the development of his natural powers alone, arrive at a correct knowledge of God. Some very debased fragments of the human family have been found who were eve…
812 wordsSECTION 4CAX IT BE LOGICALLY DEMONSTRATED ? 17
The conception of God, as a powerful and righteous person, is first given us in our constitutional feeling of dependence and of moral accountability. Starting with this conception, we may abundantly demonstrate his wisdom, goodness, power, etc., and thus reciprocally confirm the evidence for his being from the work of …
794 wordsSECTION 5CAN IT BE LOGICALLY DEMONSTRATED ? 19
IV. The material world can not possibly be the first and ori- ginal being, uncreated, independent, and of itself eternal ; because it involves no contradiction to conceive of the world, as to the matter, form, measure, or motion of it, either not to be at all, or to be different from what it is, pp. 22, 23. V. But sin…
784 wordsSECTION 6THE WOKLD AN EFFECT. 21
knowledge in the feeling of absolute and infinite dependence. This they claim to be an inseparable element of every man's self- consciousness, and they represent this feeling as apprehending God immediately as he is in himself, an infinite being, embracing and conditioning our dependent being upon every hand. Schell- i…
764 wordsSECTION 7DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 23
Or, III. The endless succession of changes which make up the phenomenal world must have gone on from all eternity without beginning or cause. This is self-evidently absurd. Every change is an effect, and every effect must have a cause ; but an infinite chain of changes, each being in turn first effect and then cause, i…
800 wordsSECTION 8ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 25
The anonymous author of the Vestiges of Creation, whose work has excited such general attention, has carried out this theory of development into its furthest consequences and most detailed applications, to the successive origination of new species of plants and animals, and to all the contemporaneous geologic changes o…
796 wordsSECTION 9OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 27
23. What is the Teleological argument, or that which estab- lishes the existence of God from the existence of design in his works ? We have already proved that the world must have had a cause, a cause distinct from and exterior to itself, since eternal succession and successive development have both been proved to be …
807 wordsSECTION 10MORAL ARGUMENT. 29
To this we answer : 1st. That design and intelligence are correlative terms, it is impossible for a sane rumd to separate them. An intelligible design, wherever seen, must suggest intelligence. 2d. All our experience leads to the same result, viz., not merely that some instances of design have been produced by intellig…
825 wordsSECTION 11SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE. 31
Introduction, pp. 57-60. " We can not think the divine attri- butes as in themselves they are, we can not think God without impiety, unless we also implicitly confess our impotence to think him worthily ; and if we should assert that God is as we think, or can affirm him to be, we actually blaspheme. For the Deity is a…
753 wordsSECTION 12MATERIALISM. 33
than does either nature or providence. All the evidences of Christi- anity, which are spread out in the third chapter of this volume, which prove that, if there be a God Christianity is a revelation from him, also just as legitimately prove that there is a God, since these are divine works. We are under the same necess…
838 wordsSECTION 13PANTHEISM. 35
32. What is Materialism ? As soon as we begin to reflect we become conscious of the presence of two everywhere interlaced, but always distinct classes of phenomena — of thought, feeling, will on the one hand, and of extension, inertia, etc., on the other. Analyze these as we may, we never can resolve the one into the …
737 wordsSECTION 14THEOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES.
Pantheism, as the etymology of the term indicates, signifies that system which maintains that all phenomena of every class known to man, whether spiritual or material, are to be referred to but one substance, and that the universal substance of God ; and thus, matter and mind being declared to be only different modific…
802 wordsSECTION 15PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY. 39
II. In the concrete, religion signifies (1.) subjectively, that inward spiritual state and experience which justly corresponds to the reality of our relations to God ; thus a religious man is one who has an inward religious experience ; (2.) objectively, those doctrines, institutions, and practical observances whereby …
712 wordsSECTION 16EATIONALISM. 41
In all its departments philosophy sustains to revealed the- ology solely the relation of an humble handmaid : 1st. By dem- onstrating the weakness and narrow limits of human reason, and the utter impossibility of the human mind, as at present consti- tuted, either solving or finally dismissing certain insolvable ques- …
827 wordsSECTION 17SUPERNATURAL REVELATION POSSIBLE. 43
In this connection we, on the other hand, use the word reason to include the whole of man's faculty of knowing the truth as it exists at present in his fallen condition, informed by all the lights of his moral, emotional and spiritual nature, by his personal ex- perience, and by all the natural light of the world witho…
714 wordsSECTION 18SUPERNATURAL REVELATION NECESSARY. 45
II. There remains another large class of rationalists, distin- guished among themselves however by many special triats, and carrying their principles to very various degrees, who, while ad- mitting the fact of a divine revelation, assert the right of reason to sit in judgment upon the truth, and to discriminate in the …
808 wordsSECTION 19TRUE OFFICE OF EEASON. 47
I. From reason itself ; for, although in man's original con- dition reason doubtless was a sufficient guide, yet reason itself teaches us (1.) that man's intellectual and moral nature is disor- dered and not capable of perfectly fulfilling its original functions. (2.) That man's relations to God are complicated by guil…
859 wordsSECTION 2050 THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The use of reason in the sphere of theology is, 1st, to exa- mine the authenticating evidence of revelation, and to decide the fact that God is speaking therein. 2d. To interpret, with the help of every light of the most va- rious learning, the records of revelation, and to determine impar- tially what God does say to…
800 wordsSECTION 2152 THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
5th. By the miraculous harmony of all the books, and by the other phenomena of supernatural knowledge which they present. 6th. By the character of the moral system they teach. 7th. By the character of its Founder. 8th. By the spiritual power of Christianity, as testified in the religious experience of its individual…
824 wordsSECTION 2254 THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
(4.) That such monuments and such actions be instituted, and do commence from the time that the matter of fact was done. All of these marks concur in establishing the truth of the most remarkable facts related in the inspired records, and conse- quently in confirming their truth as a whole. These monuments and actions…
786 wordsSECTION 23CONSTITUTION OF SCRIPTURE. 57
More men and worthier -have seen miracles than ever were in a condition to prove by testimony the descent of meteoric stones. Does water never freeze because universal experience in Africa knows nothing of such a phenomenon ? Hume argued that miracles are incredible, that even if they occurred they could not be establ…
767 wordsSECTION 24MORAL EVIDENCE. 59
1st. Old Testament prophecies concerning, (1.), the present state of the Jews. — Hosea, ix., 17 ; Jer. xxiv., 9, and (2.); Tyre, Isa. chap, xxiii. ; Joel iii., 4-6 ; Ezek. chaps, xxvi.-xxviii. ; Amos i., 9 and 10 ; Zech. ix., 1-8. (3.) Nineveh, Nahuro, i., 8, 9 ; ii., 8-13 ; iii., 17-19, and Zeph. ii., 13-15. (4.) Baby…
783 wordsSECTION 25EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE, 61
refined, the virtuous and the vicious, the young and the old, of every generation and tribe of men. Yet these books proceeded from the Jewish nation, a people rude and ignorant, and more narrow and bigoted than any other, and from writers chiefly drawn from the least educated classes. Surely they must have been moved b…
796 wordsSECTION 26EARLY SUCCESSES. 63
He must then have existed as he is portrayed. The concep- tion and execution of such a character by man would, as J. J. Rousseau confesses, be a greater miracle than its existence. If he existed he must have been the divine being he claimed. A miracle of intelligence, he could not have been deceived. A mir- acle of mor…
814 wordsSECTION 27EVIDENCE SUFFICIENT AND OBLIGING. 65
4th. That precisely in proportion to its influence have the morals of every community, or generation, been more pure, and the active fruits of that holy love which is the basis of all moral- ity more abundant ; as witness the provision made for the relief of all suffering, and the elevation of all classes of the degrad…
815 wordsSECTION 2868 INSPIRATION.
This evidence, when fully brought out and applied, has availed in time past to repel the just force of every infidel objection, and to render invincible the faith of many of the most powerful and learnedly informed intellects among men. It is adapted to reach and influence the minds of all classes of men ; it addresses…
741 wordsSECTION 2970 INSPIRATION.
Inspiration, therefore, while it controlled the writer, so that all he wrote was infallibly true, and to the very purpose for which God designed it, yet left him free in the exercise of his natural faculties, and to the use of materials drawn from different sources, both natural and supernatural. On the other hand, rev…
768 wordsSECTION 3072 INSPIRATION.
6th. Many transcendental philosophers of the present day, as represented by Morell in his " Philosophy of Religion," hold that the inspiration of the sacred writers was nothing more than an exaltation of their " intuitional consciousness," i. e., that this di- vine assistance took the place in them of great genius and …
814 wordsSECTION 31OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 75
The very office of a supernatural revelation is to lead men to an adequate and certain knowledge of God and his will, other- wise unattainable to them. But an infallible record is the only channel through which a certain knowledge of a divine revelation, made by God to the men of one age and nation, can be conveyed to …
890 wordsSECTION 32OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 77
21. What is the argument on this subject drawn from the manner in which Christ and his apostles argue from the Old Testament as of final authority ? Christ constantly quotes the old Testament, Matt, xxi., 13 ; xxii., 43. He declares that it can not be falsified, John vii., 23 ; x., 35 ; that the whole law must be fulf…
817 wordsSECTION 3380 THE RULE OF FAITH AND PEACTICE.
2d. With respect to apparent inaccuracies in matters of science, that the sacred writers having for their design to teach moral and religious truth, and not physical science, use on all such subjects the common language of their cotemporaries, always speaking of natural phenomena as they appear, and not as they really …
799 wordsSECTION 3482 THE EULE OF FAITH AND PRACTICE.
3d. The whole ground upon which Komanists base the au- thority of their traditions (viz., history and church authority) is invalid. (1.) History utterly fails them. For more than three hundred years after the apostles they have very little, and that contradictory, evidence for any one of their traditions. They are thus…
788 wordsSECTION 3584 JUDGE OF CONTROVERSIES.
We saw (question 8) that Scripture is either complete or false, from its own professed design. We now prove its perspicuity upon the same principle. It professes to be (1.) a law to be obeyed ; (2.) a revelation of truth to be believed, to be received by us in both aspects upon the penalty of eternal death. To suppose …
862 wordsSECTION 3686 JUDGE OF CONTROVERSIES.
3d. The church is declared to be " the pillar and ground of the truth," and it is affirmed that " the gates of hell shall never prevail against her." 4th. To the churclr is granted power to bind and loose, and he that will not hear the church is to be treated as a heathen. — Matt, xvi., 19 ; xviii., 15-18. 5th. The c…
841 wordsSECTION 3700 JUDGE OF CONTROVERSIES.
8th. If this Komish system be true then genuine spiritual re- ligion ought to flourish in her communion, and all the rest of the world ought to be a moral desert. The facts are notoriously the reverse. If, therefore, we admit that the Komish system is true, we subvert one of the principal evidences of Christianity itse…
793 wordsSECTION 38OLD TESTAMENT CANON. 91
Is there a God ? Has he revealed himself ? Has he estab- lished a church ? Is that church an infallible teacher ? Is private judgment a blind leader ? Which of all pretended churches is the true one ? Every one of these questions evidently must be settled in the private judgment of the inquirer, before he can, rational…
815 wordsSECTION 39APOCRYPHA, 93
The uniform Jewish tradition is, that the collection and seal- ing of the Old Testament canon was accomplished by Ezra and a number of other holy men, who, after the building of the second temple, formed with him the " Great Synagogue," consisting of one hundred and twenty members, among whom, however, they enumerated …
829 wordsSECTION 4096 THE CANON OF SCRIPTUKE.
They are believed to have been written by Alexandrian Jews between the ages of Malachi and Christ. They first appear in certain history in the Greek language, and in connection with the Septuagint translation of the genuine Scriptures, among which it is probable they were surreptitiously introduced by heretics. 94 THE…
794 wordsSECTION 4198 THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE.
rapidity, and acknowledged with a universality of consent truly wonderful. Such writings as were directed to particular churches were immediately accredited ; while the circular letters or epistles generally were longer left in doubt. Each individual church and teacher received all of the apostolic writings which they …
819 wordsSECTION 42100 THE CANON OF SCRIPTUKE.
Although not themselves apostles, they were the immediate associates of those princes of the church, and there was a well- accredited tradition among the fathers that Mark wrote his gospel under the direction of Peter, and that Luke wrote his under the direction of Paul. Their writings were widely circulated thirty yea…
828 wordsSECTION 43102 THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.
1st. Ancient manuscripts. The oldest and most authorita- tive Greek manuscripts now extant : (1.) The Codex Alexandri- nus of the fifth century, (called A.) now in the British Museum. (2.) The Codex Vaticanus of the fourth century, (called B.) now in the Vatican Library at Rome. (3.) Codex Regius of the sixth century, …
812 wordsSECTION 44THE UNITY OF GOD.
As God is infinite in his being, and in all the affections and modes thereof, it is manifestly impossible for any creature to con- ceive of him as he is in himself, or as he apprehends his own infi- nite being in his infinite knowledge. Yet he has mercifully con- descended to reveal himself to us under the form of cert…
853 wordsSECTION 45SPIRITUALITY. 107
2d. Notwithstanding the threefold personal distinction in the unity of the Godhead, yet these three are one in substance, and constitute one indivisible God. UNITY. 105 6. How may the proposition, that God is one and indivisible, be proved ? 1st. There appears to be a necessity in reason for conceiving of God as one…
816 wordsSECTION 46THE RELATION OF GOD TO TIME.
1st. Negatively, that he does not possess bodily parts or pas- sions ; that he is composed of no material elements ; that he is not subject to any of the limiting conditions of material exist- ence ; and, consequently, that he is not to be apprehended as the object of any of our bodily senses. 2d. Positively, that he …
830 wordsSECTION 47THE INFINITE INTELLIGENCE OF GOD.
Thought is possible to us, however, only under the limitations of time and space. We can conceive of God only under the finite fashion of first purposing1 and then acting, of first promising or threatening and then fulfilling his word, etc. He that inhabiteth eternity infinitely transcends our understanding. — Isa. lvi…
832 wordsSECTION 48114 THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.
(2.) It is independent, i. e., it does in no way depend upon his creatures or their actions, but solely upon his own infinite intuition of all things possible in the light of his own reason, and of all things actual and future in the light of his own eternal purpose. 112 THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. (3.) It is total and si…
762 wordsSECTION 49THE INFINITE POWER OF GOD.
This is the technical designation of God's knowledge of future contingent events, presumed, by the authors of this distinction, to depend not upon the eternal purpose of God making the event certain, but upon the free act of the creature as foreseen by a spe- cial intuition. It is called scientia media, middle Jcnoivle…
824 wordsSECTION 50118 THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.
We regard this language as inaccurate. For with regard to the first limit, his own nature, his power, resides in his will, and he certainly can do whatsoever he wills to do. It would be more accurate, therefore, to say that his infinitely wise and righteous will always chooses wisely and righteously, than to say that w…
881 wordsSECTION 51INFINITE JUSTICE. 121
45. In what sense do Arminians hold, the distinction betiveen the absolute and conditional ivill of God, and what are the objec- tions to that view ? In their view that is the absolute will of God which is sus- pended upon no condition without himself, e. g., his decree to create man. That is the conditional will of G…
829 wordsSECTION 52THE INFINITE GOODNESS OF GOD.
The true view is that God is immutably determined by his own eternal and essential righteousness to visit every sin with a proportionate punishment. 50. How may it be argued from the independence and absolute self -sufficiency of God, that punitive justice is an essential attri- bute of his nature ? It is inconsisten…
829 wordsSECTION 53INFINITE GOODNESS. 125
The infinite goodness of God is a glorious perfection which preeminently characterizes his nature, and which he, in an in- finitely wise, righteous, and sovereign manner, exercises towards his creatures in various modes according to their relations and conditions. Benevolence is the goodness of God viewed generically.…
837 wordsSECTION 54THE INFINITE HOLINESS OF GOD.
Even in our experience these attributes of our moral nature are found not to be inconsistent in principle, though our want both of wisdom and knowledge, a sense of our own unworthiness, and a mere physical sympathy, often sadly distract our judgments as well as our hearts in adjusting these principles to the individual…
832 wordsSECTION 55DEFINITIONS. 131
jfih I Holiness ia the total glory thm Holiness in th the total | affection of an mfhi righteous intellig moa Holiness in the aeatnre is not mac moral perfection, but d ::" the seated nature of moral agents their kind, in spiritual union and fellowship with the in- finite C rea : : i — 1 John i.. 3. The word holine…
766 wordsSECTION 56SYNOPSIS OF ARGUMENT. 133
That distinguishing mode of existence which constitutes the one divine essence coordinately three separate persons, is of course an infinite mystery which we can not understand, and therefore can not adequately define, and which we can know only so far as it is explicitly revealed. All that we know is, that this distin…
849 wordsSECTION 57DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 135
The answer to the question, How the coordinate existence of three distinct persons in the Trinity can be reconciled with this fundamental doctrine of the divine unity is given below in ques- tion 85 of this chapter. II. Jesus or Nazareth, as to his divine nature, is truly God, and yet a distinct person from the Father…
884 wordsSECTION 58138 THE HOLT TRINITY.
That this Psalm refers to the Messiah is proved by Christ (Matt, xxii., 43, 44), and by Paul (Heb. v., 6 ; vii., 17. He is here called David's Lord (Adonai), and invited to sit at the right hand of Jehovah until all his enemies be made his footstool. 16. What evidence is furnished by Isaiah ix., 6 ? This passage self…
830 wordsSECTION 59140 THE HOLT TRINITY.
The divinity of the Holy Ghost is so clearly revealed in Scrip- ture that very few have dared to call it in question. The early controversies of the orthodox with the Arians precedent and con- sequent to the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, to such a degree ab- sorbed the mind of both parties with the question of the divini…
893 wordsSECTION 60DIRECTLY TAUGHT. 143
Omnipotence. — Luke i., 35 ; Rom. viii., 11. 35. What agency in the external world do the Scriptures ascribe to him ? Creation. — Gen. i., 2 ; Job xxvi., 13 ; Ps. civ., 30. The power of working miracles. — Matt, xii., 28 ; 1 Cor. xii., 9-11. 36. Hoio is his supreme divinity established by what the Scriptures teach o…
850 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical work by A. A. Hodge, 1823–1886. OCR from an original historical scan hosted by Internet Archive; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.