PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Systematic Theology — Volume 2
Hodge, Charles, 1797–1878 · 339,329 words · 411 reading sections
§ 7.] PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 183
again say that an enlightened regard to the happiness of the universe is the only law to which rational creatures are subject. (4.) Others take a still lower view, and say that it is an enlightened regard to onr own happiness which alone has authority over men. It is evident, however, that these theories deny the sjiec…
1,576 wordsSECTION 122Part 122
Sin not Confined to Acts of the Will. 4. Another conclusion drawn from the Scriptural doctrine as to the extent of the divine law, as held by all Augustinians, is that sin is not confined to acts of the will. There are three senses in which the word voluntary is used in connection with this subject. The first and stric…
377 wordsSECTION 123§ 7.] PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 187
of the burden of corruption which he hopes to lay clown in the grave ; and lie knows tiiat as he shall be free from them in heaven, they never disturbed the perfectly holy soul of his blessed Lox'd, to whose image he is even now bound to be conformed. 5. It follows from tiie principle that the law condemns all want of…
1,005 wordsSECTION 124§ 7.] PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 189
The ont; we express by the words criminality, demerit, and blamewor- thiness ; the other is the obli^ration to suffer the punishment due to our offences. These are evidently distinct, although expressed by the same word. The guilt of our sins is said to have been laid upon Christ, that is, the obligation to satisfy the…
985 wordsSECTION 125§ 7.] PROTESTANT DOCTRINE. 191
4. The doctrine in question contradicts the faith of the Clmrch Universal. A (Hstinction mnst be made between the i'nith of the Church and the s])ecuhitions (or even the doctrines) of theo- loirians. These are often divergent. The former is determined by tile Scriptures and the inward teacln'ngs of the Spirit; the hitt…
903 wordsSECTION 126^9.] BDIEDIATE IMPUTATION. 1^-S
Adam and his posterity, His sin, although not their act, is so im- puted to them that it is the judicial ground of the penalty threat- ened against him coming also upon them. This is tiie doctrine of immediate imputation. 2. Others, while they admit that a corrupt nature is derived from Adam hy all his ordinary poster…
470 wordsSECTION 127VOL. 11. 13
194 PART U. Ca. VUL — SIN. Statement of the Doctrine of Immediate Imputation. The first of the above mentioned doctrines is that presented in the Symbols of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, and by the great body of the theohtgians of those great iiistorical brandies of the Protestant community.^ What that doctrine …
528 wordsSECTION 128§ 9.] IMMEDIATE BIPUTATION. 195
tliat He assumed, in the language of tlie older theologians, " our law-place."' He undertook to answer the demands of justice for the sins of men, or, as it is expressed by the Apostle, to be made a curse for them. In like manner, when it is said that the righteous- ness of Christ is imputed to believers, it does not m…
953 wordsSECTION 129§9.] IMMEDIATE IMPUTATION. 197
Adam and his descendants, but in all other cases, that the charac- ter and conduct of the one, of necessity to a greater or less degree affect the other. No fact in history is plainer than that children bear the iniquities of their fathers. They suffer for their sins. There must be a reason for this ; and a reason foun…
930 wordsSECTION 130§9.] IMIMEDIATE IMPUTATION. 199
on our cliiklren," still weighs down the scattered people of Israel. Our Lord hiinself said to the Jews of his £:;eneration that they built tiie sepulchres of the propliets wiiom their fathers had slain, and thus acknowledoced tlieinselves to be the children of murderers, and that therefore the blood of those prophets …
965 wordsSECTION 131§ 9.] IMMEDIATE IMPUTATION. 201
but also (5.) From the fact that the principle of imputation is in- volved in other great doctrines of the Bible. The assumption that one man cannot righteously, under the government of God, be punished for the sins of another, is not only contrary, as wo have seen to the express declarations of Scripture and to the ad…
992 wordsSECTION 132(5'9.] BIMEDIATE IMPUTATION. 203
It cannot be tlie law as written on the heart ; for tliose die who Itave never committed any personal sin. There are penal evils, therefore, which come upon all mankind prior to anything; in their state or conduct to merit such infliction. Tlie ground of tliat in- fliction must therefore be sought out of themselves, i.…
933 wordsSECTION 133§ 10.] MEDIATE IMPUTATION. 205
wrong. To inflict it for the attainment of some right and desirable end may be not only just but benevolent. Is not the support of the divine law such an end ? The fact that all mankind do suffer on account of Adam's sin no believer in the Bible can or does deny. It cannot be denied that these sufferings were designed.…
836 wordsSECTION 134§ 10 J MEDIATE IMPUTATION. 207
ten's, cum Ecclesiarum et Dootonim Protestantium consensu, ex scriptis eoriiin ah Andrea Riveto collecto." This treatise is con- tained in the third volume of the folio edition of his works. His colleagues in the University pubHshed their formal indorsement of his woi'k, and earnestly coumiended it as an antidote to th…
911 wordsSECTION 135§ 10.] MEDIATE BIPUTATIOX. 209
of immediate imputation, and especially when the equally impor- tant doctrine of hereditary depravity was openly rejected by an influential party in the Romish Church, the Protestant theologians should apparently ignore a doctrine which no one denied, and devote their attention principally to the points which were then…
423 wordsSECTION 136VOL. II. 11
210 PART n. ch. viil — sin. Objections to the Doctrine of Mediate Imputation. Tlie leading, objections against the doctrine of mediate imputa- tion are, — 1. That it denies what the Scriptures assert. The Scriptures assert that the sentence of condemnation has passed upon all men for the sin of one man. This the doct…
449 wordsSECTION 137§ 10.] MEDIATE BIPUTATIOX. 211
and which included his posterity, was the loss of the divine favour and fellowship. The consequences of the forfeiture of the diviiu' favour in the case of Adam were, (1.) The loss of original right- eousness ; (2.) The consequent corruption of his whole nature ; and, (3.) Exposure to eternal death. These consequences …
875 wordsSECTION 138§ 10.] MEDIATE IMPUTATION. 213
sin or sinfulness of our own is the ground of our condemnation. If we are partakers of the ])enal consequences of Adam's sin only be- cause of the corrupt nature derived by a law of nature from him, then we are justified only on the ground of our own inherent holi- ness derived by a law of grace from Christ. We have th…
875 wordsSECTION 139§11] PREEXISTENCE. 215
doctrine of the Bible and the testimony of experience that men are born in sin, that they come into the world in a state of guilt and of" moral pollution, that a necessity arises of reconciling; this fact with what they regard as self-evidently true. Two tlieories have been proposed to effect this reconciliation. The f…
994 wordsSECTION 140§12.] REALISTIC THEORY. 217
that the act of Adam was our act, is, tliat the same numerical luitiu'e or substance, the same reason and will which existed and acted iu Adam, belong to us ; so that we were truly and properly the agents of his act of apostasy. President Edwards' Theory of Identity. The assumption which President Edwards undertakes …
956 wordsSECTION 141§ 12. REALISTIC THEORY. 219
Objections to the Edwardian Theory. The fatal consequences of this view of the nature of preservation were presented under the head of Providence. All that need be here remarked, is, — 1. That it proceeds upon the assumption that we can under- stand the relation of the efficiency of God to the effects pro- duced in ti…
929 wordsSECTION 142§12] REALISTIC THEORY. 221
e.Ni.stence. It essentially differs, however, in that Edwards denies numerical sameness in any case. Identity, according to h:ni, does not in any creature include tlie continued existence of one and the same substance. The realistic doctrine, on the contrary, makes the numerical sameness of substance the essence of ide…
943 wordsSECTION 143§ 12.] REALISTIC THEORY. 223
produced by his actual transgressions, so we are responsible for the character with which we come into the world, because it is the result of our voluntary apostasy from God. To this it is an obvious objV'ction, -r— 1. That admitting realism to be true ; admitting that humanity is numerically one and the same substanc…
991 wordsSECTION 144§ 12.] REALISTIC THEORY. 225
wliich they do not sustain to the sin of Eve is a plain Scriptural fact. We are said to bear the guilt of his sin, but never to bear the guilt of hers. The reason is that Adam was our representa- tive. The covenant v^^as made with him ; just as in after genera- tions the covenant was made with Abraham and not with Sara…
508 wordsSECTION 145VOL. II. 15
226 PART II. Ch. VIII. — sin. be so, then, according to the Apostle, unless we can perfectly ftii- fil the law, and restore our nature to the image of God, by our own agency, we must perish for ever. 5. Finally, the solution presented by Realists to explain our relation to Adam and to solve the problems of original s…
483 wordsSECTION 146§ 13. J ORIGINAL SIN. 227
ticate itself as true at the bar of enlightened reason. The objec- tion to Realism is, tliat it inverts this order. It assumes to con- trol Scripture, instead of being controlled by it. The Bible says we are condemned for Adam's sin. Realism denies this, and says no man is or can be condemned except for his own sin. §…
846 wordsSECTION 147§ 13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 229
" Artlculi XXXIX." ^ " Peccatum originis ... est vitium et (lepravatio naturas cujuslibet hoininis ex Adamo naturaliter propa- ii;ati, qua fit ut ab original! justitia quam longissime distet ; ad malum sua natura propendeat et caro semper adversus spiritum conciipiscat, unde in unoquoque nascentium iram Dei atque dam- …
826 wordsSECTION 1485 13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 231
for the Bible undeniably clesio;nates indwellini;; or liereditarv cor- ruption, or vitium^ as dfiapria. This is ackno\vle(lo;ecl by Romanists who (U^ny tliat such concupiscence after regeneration is of the na- ture of sin.^ 5. The fifth form of docti'ine to which the Protestant faith Btiuids opposed, is tliat which ad…
1,543 wordsSECTION 149Part 149
2. By the consideration that the claims of God on our supreme reverence, love, and obedience, which are habitually and univeisally disregarded by unrenewed men, are infinitely great. That is, they are so great that they cannot be imagined to be greater. These claims are not only ignored in times of excitement and passi…
294 wordsSECTION 150§ 13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 235
rendered it possible for God to be just and yet justify the ungodly. He therefore offers blessings of infinite value, without money and without price, to all who will accept them. He has secured, and offers to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption ; to make us kings and priests unto God, and to exalt…
959 wordsSECTION 151§ 13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 237
Scriptures, teach him he ought to feel of his moral corruption and degradation. 6. It need scarcely be added, tliat what the Scriptures so man- ifestly teach indirectly of the depth of the corruption of our fallen nature, they teach also by direct assertion. The human heart is pronounced deceitful above all things, an…
1,581 wordsSECTION 152Part 152
The Scriptures expressly Teach the Doctrine. The Sci-iptures not only indirectly teach the doctrine of original sin, or of the hereditary, sinful corruption of our nature as de- rived from Adam, by teaching, as we have seen, the universal and total depravity of our race, but they directly assert the doctrine. They not…
828 wordsSECTION 153VOL. II. 18
242 PART n. ch. vm. — sin. his actual sins ; and he here humbles himself still more completely before God by acknowledging his innate, hereditary depravity ; a depravity which he did not regard as a mere weakness, or inclination to evil, but which he pronounces iniquity and sin. To this inherent, hereditary corruption…
507 wordsSECTION 154§13.] ORIGLNAL SIN. 213
derived from an evil source is itself evil. A child born of fallen parents derives from them a fallen, corrupt nature. (8.) This intei-pretation is demanded by the context. Our Lord is assigning the reason for the necessity of regeneration or spiritual birth. That reason is, tlie derivation of a corrupt nature by our n…
988 wordsSECTION 155§ IS.] ORIGINAL SIN. 245
Human nature in its present state is always and everywhere described as thus darkened and curru[)ted. Argument from the Necessity of Redemption. Another argument in support of the doctrine of original sin is that the Bible everywliere teaches that all men need redemption through the blood of Christ. The Scriptures k…
922 wordsSECTION 156§13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 247
it is j)lain, tliat besides these national promises, there was also the j)romise of redemption made to Abraham, which promise, the Apos- tle expressly says, lias come upon us. (Gal. iii. 14.) Tiiat is, we (all believers) are included in the covenant made with Abraham. It is no less plain that circumcision was the sign …
955 wordsSECTION 157§ 13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 249
questioned that this argument is founded on the assumption that death, in the case of man, is a penal evil, and its infliction an un- deniable proof of guilt. We must, therefore, either reject the authorit}' of the Scriptures, or we must admit that the death of infants is a proof of their sinfulness. Although the Ai)o…
955 wordsSECTION 158§ 13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 251
Objections. The objections to this doctrine, it must be admitted, are many and serious. But this is true of all the great doctrines of religion, whether natural or revealed. Nor are such difficulties confined to the sphere of religion. Our knowledge in every department is limited^ and in a great measure confined to is…
924 wordsSECTION 159§ 13.] ORIGINAL SIN. 253
sality of sin among men is compatible with his nature and with his government of the world. (3.) The Bible, as often before remarked, accounts for and vindicates the corruption of our race on the ground tiiat mankind had a full and fair probation in Adam, and that the spiritual death in which they are born is part of t…
918 wordsSECTION 160§ 14.] THE SEAT OF ORIGINAL SIN. 255
trines Augustinianisrn, as held by the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, teaches that the whole man, soul and body, the higher as well as the lower, the intellectnal as well as the emotional facul- ties of the soul, is affected by the corruption of our nature derived from our first parents. As the Scriptures speak of th…
948 wordsSECTION 161^ 15.J INABILITY. 257
§ 15. Inability. Tlie third great point included in the Scriptural doctrine of origi- nal sin, is the inability of fallen man in his natural state, of himself to do anything spiritually good. This is necessarily included in the idea of spiritual death. On this subject it is proposed: (1.) To state the doctrine as prese…
1,395 wordsSECTION 162Part 162
It appears from the authoritative statements of this doctrine, as given in the standards of the Lutheran and Reformed churches, that the inability under which man, since the fall, is said to labour, does not arise : — Inahility does not arise from the Loss of any Faculty of the Soul. 1. From the loss of any faculty o…
194 wordsSECTION 163§ 15.] INABILITY. 261
tlie convictions of conscience or the precepts of the moral law. That a man is in such a state that he uniformly prefers and chooses evil instead of good, as do the fallen angels, is no more inconsistent with his free mural agency than his being in such a state as that he pre- fers and chooses good with the same unifor…
965 wordsSECTION 164§ 15.] INABILITY. 263
saved and sanctified by the truth. It is therefore the dear doctrine of the Bible that the inability of men does not consist in mere disinclination or opposition of feeling to the things of God, but that this disinclination or alienation, as the Apostle calls it, arises from the blindness of their minds. We are not, ho…
916 wordsSECTION 165(} 15.] INABILITY. 265
Objections to the Popular Distinction between Natural and Moral Ability. In tliis country much stress lias been laid upon the distinction between moral and natural ability. It has been regarded as one of the threat American improvements in theology, and as marking an important advance in the science. It is asserted t…
1,483 wordsSECTION 166Part 166
Without me ye can do nothing." (John xv. 4, 5.) We are here taught that Christ is the only source of spiritual life ; that those out of Him are destitute of that life and of all ability to produce its appropriate fruits ; and even with regard to those who are in Him, this ability is not of themselves, it is derived ent…
408 wordsSECTION 167§ 15] INABILITY. 2G9
one in wliom the Holy Spirit is the principle of life and activity, or, who is under the control of the Spirit ; the former is one who is under the control of his own fallen nature, in whom there is no [U'inciple of life and action but what belongs to him as a fallen creature. Of such a man the Apostle asserts, first, …
974 wordsSECTION 168§ 15.] INABILITY. 271
its operations ; just as in the natural world God gives sight to the blind, and then light bv which to see, and objects to be seen, and guides and sustains all the exei"i;ises of the power of vision wliich He has bestowed. (3.) That the nature of the influence by which regeneration, which must precede all holy exercise…
951 wordsSECTION 169§ 15.] INABILITY. 273
Conviction of Sin. There is another aspect of this argument which deserves to be considered. What is conviction of sin ? What are the experiences of those whom the Spirit of God brings under that conviction ? The answer to these questions may be drawn from the Bible, as for example the seventh chapter of the Epistle t…
479 wordsSECTION 170VOL. II. 18
C74 PART n. Ch. vm. — sm. of the Church so also it is the testimony of all history. The world furnishes no example of a self-regenerated man. No such man exists or ever has existed ; and no man ever believed himself to he regenerated by his own power. If what men can do is to be determined by what men have done, it ma…
502 wordsSECTION 171§ 15.] INABILITY. 275
is the doctrine of the Bible and is confirmed by the universal con- sciousness of men, and especially by the experience of all the people of God. They with one voice deplore their helplessness and their perfect inability to live without sin, and yet acknowledge their obli- gation to be perfectly holy. We are responsib…
950 wordsSECTION 172§ 15.J INABILITY. 277
to bestow those gifts on me." No doubt Satan does tempt men thus to argue and thus to act, as he tempts them in other ways to egregious folly. The natural tendency of the doctrine in question, however, is directly the reverse. When a man is convinced that the attainment of a desirable end is beyond the compass of his o…
351 wordsSECTION 173FREE AGENCY.
In all discussions concerning sin and grace, the question con- cerning the nature and necessary conditions of free agency is of necessity involved. This is one of the points in which theology and psychology come into immediate contact. There is a theory of free agency with which the doctrines of original sin and of eff…
385 wordsSECTION 174FREE AGENCY. 279
the mind is left undisturbed, and allowed to act according to its own laws, men, in the great majority of cases, think alike on all the great questions about wliich philosophers are divided. It is only when they stir up the placid lake, and attempt to sound its depths, to analyze its waters, to determine the laws of it…
904 wordsSECTION 175§ K] DIFFERENT THEORIES OF THE WILL. 281
Or it may admit that the world owed its existence to an intelligent first cause, but assume that its author never designed to create free agents, but determined to set in operation certain causes which should work out given results. However fatalists may differ as to the cause of the necessity which governs all events,…
927 wordsSECTION 1765 J.] DIFFERENT THEORIES OF THE ^VILL. 283
variously modified. Sometimes it is called the liberty of indiffer- ence ; by which is meant, that the will, at the moment of decision, is self-poised among conflicting motives, and decides one way or the other, not because of the greater influence of one motive over others, but because it is indifferent or undetermine…
919 wordsSECTION 177§ 1.] DIFFERENT THEORIES OF THE WILL> 285
from that of contingency on the other. It teaches that a man is free not only when his outward acts are determined by his will, but when his volitions are truly and properly his own, determined by nothino- out of himself but proceeding from his own views, feelings, and immanent dispositions, so that they are the real, …
945 wordsSECTION 178§ 1.] DIFFERENT THEORIES OF THE WILL. 287
thing, it is because I appreliend it as suitable to satisfy soma craving of my nature. If I will anything because it is right, its being right is something for the understanding to discern. In other words, all the desires, affections, or feelings which determine the will to act must have an object, and that object by w…
943 wordsSECTION 179^ 2.] DEFINITION OF TERMS. 289
are entirely different things. One of these propositions may be affirmed and the other denied ; bnt if will and desire are confounded the distinction between these propositions is obliterated. It has often been remarked that the confusion of these two meanings of the word will is the great defect of President Edwards's…
949 wordsSECTION 180§ 2.] DEFINITION OF TERMS. 291
self-determination is a determination of the will, and whatever leads to a self-decision leads to a decision of the will. (2.) A sec- ond objection to confounding these expressions is, that they are not really equivalent. The man may be free, when his will is in bond- ao-e. It is a correct and. established usage of lan…
974 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1876). Text from OCR of an original Internet Archive scan; OCR may contain recognition errors.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.