PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Systematic Theology — Volume 2
Hodge, Charles, 1797–1878 · 339,329 words · 411 reading sections
$7.] LUTHERAN DOCTRINE. 409
Different Views among the iMtherans. The principal points of difference among the Lutheran divines concerning the person of Christ were the following : The nature and effects of the union of natures in Christ ; the ground of that union ; and the time of its occurrence. The Reformed Church in adiiering to the doctrine …
959 wordsSECTION 242§ 7.] LUTHERAN DOCTRINE. 411
the formative idea in the Lutheran doctrine of the person of Christ. No less diversity appears in the answer to the question, What is meant by the communication of natures ? Sometimes it is said to be a communication of the essence of God to the human nature of Christ ; sometimes a communication of divine attributes ;…
1,035 wordsSECTION 243§7.] LUTHERAN DOCTRINE. 113
Tc avoid these fatal consequences of their theory, tlie Lutherans were driven to different and conflicting subtle explanations. Ac- cordino- to some there was no actual communication of the divine essence and attributes to the human nature until after his resurrec- tion. The Logos was in Him only potentially. There was…
987 wordsSECTION 244§ 7.] LUTHERAN DOCTRINE. 415
he hated the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, and was bit- terly opposed to all the subtleties of scholasticism. Yet as he un- derstood our Lord's words, " This is my body," literally, he adopted all the subtleties, inconsistencies, and, we may say, impossibilities, involved in the doctrine of the ubiquity of Chr…
958 wordsSECTION 245§ 7.] LUTHERAN DOCTRINE. 417
entire drift of the teaching of the Word of God, and of the whole Church. If anything is plainly revealed in the Scriptures concern- ino- our Lord, and if there is anything to which the heart of the believer instinctively clings, it is that although He is God over all and blessed forever, He is nevertheless a man like …
474 wordsSECTION 246TOL. II. 27
418 PART m. Ch. m. -the person of christ. that the essential attributes or properties of the two natures remain unchanged after the hypostatical union. The properties of the divine essence do not become the properties of the liuman. Then the humanity of Christ has the attributes of his divinity without its essence, an…
435 wordsSECTION 247§8.] LATER FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 419
Socinus and his followers admitted the divine authority of tl;*' Scriptures. The sacred writers, tliey said, wrote, divino Spiritu im- puhi eoque dictante. They admitted that the Bible contained doc- trines above, but not contrary to reason. Of this contrariety reason was to judge. On this ground they rejected many doc…
936 wordsSECTION 248§8.] LATER FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 421
much more exalted views of Christ than those who in Great Britain and America are called Socinians, by whom our Lord is regarded as an ordinary man. The term Unitarian, especially in this coun- try, is used in a sense which includes all who deny the doctrine of the Trinity and retain the name of Christians. It therefor…
906 wordsSECTION 249J 8." LATER FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 423
couvrir son corps glorieux de notre chair niortelle, qu'il voulut prendre dans le sein d'une Vierge." " Le corps de J^sus Christ, se revetant de la chair et da sang de la bien heureuse Vierge, fera aussi pen un compose de deux corps difFerents, qu'un habit blanc et lumineux plonge dans un vase de couleur chargee et ob-…
1,029 wordsSECTION 250§8.] LATER FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 42^
soul of Christ is due to its union with the divine nature. It was because of this union that when the soul of Christ, while here on earth, willed to perform a miracle, the effect immediately followed. So " the man Ciirist may give forth all the commands of God whereby the world is governed." ^ " Upon this representatio…
968 wordsSECTION 251§ 8.] LATER FORMS OF THE DOCTRIXE. 427
pleasant or painful, by the means of that body, and is also able to actuate and influence all the animal powers of that body in a way agreeable to human nature." The above is very far from being a full exposition of the consid- erations urged by Dr. Watts in support of liis theory. It is sim- ply a selection of the mo…
966 wordsSECTION 252§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 429
cher's theology and of Christianity itself, is not entirely new. It was inculcated by the German Mystics of the Middle Ages.^ lie- gel says that what the Bible teaches of Christ is not true of an individual, but only of mankind as a whole ; and Hegel's Christo- logical ideas, Dr. John Nevin of Mercersburg, says, " are …
898 wordsSECTION 253§9,] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 431
by the power of God. At the grave of Lazarus He prayed for power to restore his friend to life, or rather that God would raise him from the dead; and He gave thanks that his prayer was heard. Secondly, they agree that the development of the humanity of our Lord was without sin. He was from the beginning holy, harmless…
986 wordsSECTION 254K 9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTPJNT:. 433
bum extra carnem nee caro extra Verbura). He lias in the totality of his being become man, his existence-and-life-form is that of a corporeal-spiritual man subject to the limitations of time and space. The other side of this relation is that the human nature is taken up entirely into the divine, and is pervaded bv it. …
998 wordsSECTION 255§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 435
As to the still more difficult question, How can the Son as the second person of the Trinity retain his divine perfections (as Ebrard holds that He does), and yet, as revealed on earth, lay them aside? " The one is world-ruling and omniscient, and the other is not," he says we must understand the problem. It is not tha…
923 wordsSECTION 256§ 9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 437
while on earth ; and the same with the unchangeable bliss of the livine life. Nor was it only eternal self-consciousness which the Son laid aside, but He also ' went out from the Father.' We are not to understand that the indwelling of the Father, Son, and Spirit in each other had been dissolved, but that the Father's …
951 wordsSECTION 257§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 439
Christians can say, and always have said, with an intelligent and cordial faith, that God purchased the Church with his blood. ' It was because the person who died was possessed of an Eternal Spirit that his blood cleanses from all sin. 2. The arguments from Scripture in support of the theory are for the most part fou…
960 wordsSECTION 258§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 441
him to adopt a philosophical system whose principles and tendencies were decidedly pantheistic. And, thirdly, he succumbed to the attacks which rationalistic criticism had made against faitli in the Bible. He could not receive it as a supernatural revelation from God. He did not regard it as containing doctrines which …
921 wordsSECTION 259§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 443
is nevertheless a fact, and enables us to condemn a system without wounding our charity for its author. Schleiermacher, however, was an exceptional case. As a general rule, a man's faith is the expression of his inward life. 1. The first objection to Schleiermacher's theory is that it is not and does not pretend to be…
925 wordsSECTION 260§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 445
first part of Schleiermacher's Glaubenslehre are intelligible onl}' when translated into the formulas of Spinoza, whence they were derived ; and adds that he made no greater difference between God and the world than Spinoza made between the natura naturans and the natura naturata} Schleiermacher wrote at the time when …
940 wordsSECTION 261§ 9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 447
very poor creatures.^ The objection, however, to this system now in hand is not so much that it deifies man, as that it makes Christ nothing more than an ideal man. It is therefore utterly at variance with the teachings of Scripture, the faith of the Church, and the intimate convictions of the people of God. Schleierm…
1,050 wordsSECTION 262§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 449
and henceforth develops itself historically in the form of the Church. The Church, therefore, consists of those to whom this elevated principle of life has been communicated, and in whom it develops itself until it realizes all it includes. That is, until the essential oneness of God and man is in the Church fully real…
940 wordsSECTION 263§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 451
less retained, but not in their received and established meaning. For the Scriptural system of salvation, another is substituted. Christ saves us not by what He teaches, or by what He does, but by what He is. He infuses a new principle of life into the Church and into the world. The universal life as communicated to, o…
1,034 wordsSECTION 264§9.] MODERN FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE. 453
tion of the original act of creation, and by saying that it was only for a moment, and that all thenceforth was natural. Schwarz, himself a great admirer, although not a disciple of Schleiermacher, characterizes this " mediating theology " as an utter failure. It is neither one thing nor the other. It is neither true …
547 wordsSECTION 265THE MEDIATOEIAL WORK OF CHRIST.
§ 1. Christ the only Mediator. According to the Scriptures the incarnation of the eternal Son of God was not a necessary event arising out of the nature of God. It was not the culminating point in the development of humanity. It was an act of voluntary humiliation. God gave his Son for the redemption of man. He came i…
813 wordsSECTION 266§ 2.] QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE WORK. 457
He should be made under the law which we had broken ; that He should fulfil all righteousness ; that He should suffer and die ; that He should be able to sympathize in all the infirmities of his people, and that He should be united to them in a common nature. He wlio sanctifies (purifies from sin both as guilt and as p…
993 wordsSECTION 267§3.] THE THREEFOLD OFFICE OF CHRIST. 459
All Christ's acts and sufferings in the execution of his mediato- rial work were, therefore, the acts and sufferings of a divine person. It was the Lord of glory who was crucified ; it was the Son of God who poured out his soul unto death. That this is the doctrine of the Scriptures is plain, (1.) Because they attribut…
988 wordsSECTION 268§8.] THE THREEFOLD OFFICE OF CHRIST. 461
the ancient prophets, priests, and kings performed in a lower sphere and as an adumbration of Christ's more perfect work. (5.) We as fallen men, ignorant, guilty, polluted, and helpless, need a Saviour who is a prophet to instruct us; a priest to atone and to make inter- cession for U6 ; and a king to rule over and pro…
441 wordsSECTION 269PROPHETIC OFFICE.
§ 1. Nature of the Prophetic Office. According to Scriptural usage a prophet is one who speaks for another. In Exodus vii. 1, it is said, " See, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh : and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." Moses was to be the authoritative source of the communication, Aaron the organ of communicati…
393 wordsSECTION 270§2.] HOW CHRIST EXECUTES THE OFFICE. 463
When, therefore, the Messiah was predicted as a prophet it was predicted that He should be the great organ of God in communi- cating his mind and will to men. And when our Lord appeared on earth it was to speak the words of God. " The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." (John xiv. 24.) " Je…
460 wordsSECTION 271PRIESTLY OFFICE.
§ 1. Christ is truly ^ not figuratively, a Priest. The meaning of the word priest and the nature of the office are to be determined, first, by general usage and consent ; secondly, by the express declarations of the Scriptures ; and, thirdly, by the nature of the functions peculiar to the office. From these sources it…
390 wordsSECTION 272§ 1 ] CHRIST A TRUE TRIEST. 466
nature, have ever taught them the necessity of the expiation of guilt Dy a satisfaction of divine justice, and their own inability and unworthmess to make any adequate atonement, or to secure by their own elforts the favour of God. They have, therefore, ever sought for some one or some class of men to act in their beha…
932 wordsSECTION 273§2.] CHRIST OUR ONLY PRIEST. 467
application to individuals, which is the essential element in the in- tercession of Christ. The Roman priests are mediators, because it is taught that the sinner cannot for himself draw near to God through Christ and obtain pardon and grace, but can secure those blessings only through their intervention. They are sacri…
878 wordsSECTION 274§ 8.] DEFINITION OF TERMS. 469
The Word Atonement. The word atonement is often used, especially in this country, to designate the priestly work of Christ. This word does not occur in the English version of the New Testament except in Romans V. 11, where it is interchanged with " reconciliation " as the trans- lation of the Greek word KaToXkay-q. In …
937 wordsSECTION 275§8.] DEFINITION OF TERMS. 471
a substitute take his place, if one be provided, the terms on which the benefits of his substitution sliall accrue to the principal, are matters of ao-reement, or covenant between the substitute and the niao-istrate who represents justice. The deliverance of the offen- der may be immediate, unconditional, and complete …
967 wordsSECTION 276§ 3.] DEFINITION OF TERMS. 473
ings is reserved for the life to come. All these are facts of Scrip- ture and of experience, and they are all explained by the nature of the satisfaction rendered. It is not the payment of a debt, but a matter of agreement or covenant. It seemed good to the parties to the covenant of redemption that matters should be s…
900 wordsSECTION 277§3.J DEFINITION OF TERMS. 475
or degree of our Lord's suflferings was a matter of indiffeience. We ai'e not autliorized to say, as has so often been said, that one drop of his blood would have been sufficient to redeem the world. This may express a pious sentiment, but not a Scriptural truth. He would not have suffered as He did, nor to the degree …
938 wordsSECTION 278§3.] DEFINITION OJ^ TERMS. 477
Todes schuldig seyn," means to be under the obligation to suffer death as a penalty. " Des hollischen Feuers schuldig," means to be in justice bound to endure the fires of hell. So in the Lord's prayer, "Vergieb uns unsere Schulden," remit to us the obligation to satisfy for our sins. The German theologians, old and ne…
902 wordsSECTION 279§3.] DEFINITION OF TERMS. 479
who assumed their obligation to satisfy divine justice, and that He did in fact make a full and perfect satisfaction for sin, bearino- the penalty of the law in their stead ; all this is so plain and undenia- ble that it has always been the faith of the Church and is admitted to be the doctrine of the Scriptures by the…
109 wordsSECTION 280SATISFACTION OF CHRIST
§ 1. Statement of the Doctrine, The Symbols of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches agree entirely in their statement of this doctrine. In the " Augsburg Confession " 1 it is said, Christus "sua morte pro nostris peccatis satisfecit." In the "Apology for the Augsburg Confession "^ it is more fully expounded, " Christus,…
326 wordsSECTION 28151.] STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 481
Dominus legis erat. Earn ob causam ipsius obedientia (non ea tantum, qua patri paruit in tota sua passione et morte, verum etiam, qua nostra causa sponte sese legi subjecit, eamque obedientia ilia sua implevit) nobis ad justitiam imputatur, ita, ut Deus propter totam obedientiam (quam Christus agendo et patiendo, in vi…
861 wordsSECTION 282§2.] ITS INTRINSIC WORTH. 483
to be illustrated when the work of Christ is compared in Scripture and in the writings of theologians to the payment of a debt. The creditor has no further claims when the debt due to him is fully paid. This perfection of the satisfaction of Christ, as already remarked, is not due to his having suffered either in kind …
933 wordsSECTION 283§3.] REMONSTRANT DOCTRINE. 485
the penances imposed in the early ages upon the lapsed. Those penances were satisfactions rendered to the Church ; that is, they were intended to satisfy the Church of the sincerity of the offend- er's repentance. When they came to be regarded as satisfactions rendered to the justice of God, the tlieologians were oblig…
880 wordsSECTION 284§3.] REMONSTRANT DOCTRINE. 487
mors, qiias omnibus mortibus, quas singuli pro suis peccatis merue- rant, non aequivaluisset." It is obvious that the objections presented in the above extracts arise from confounding pecuniary with judicial or legal satisfaction. There is an analogy between them, and, therefore, on the ground of that analogy it is ri…
922 wordsSECTION 285§4.] SATISFACTION RENDERED TO JUSTICE. 489
7. All tliat the Bible teaches of the truth of God ; of the immu- tability of the law ; of the necessity of faith ; of the uselessness and worthlessuess of all other sacrifices for sin ; and of the impossibility of salvation except through the work of the incarnate Son of God, precludes the idea that his satisfaction w…
920 wordsSECTION 286M-] SATISFACTION RENDERED TO JUSTICE. 491
stitution of our nature. The connection between sin and misery is so intimate that many have gone to the extreme of teaching that there is no other punishment of sin but its natural effects. This is contrary to fact as well as to Scripture. Nevertheless it is true tliat to be " carnally minded is death," that is, damna…
1,614 wordsSECTION 287Part 287
The principles above stated are not arbitrarily assumed ; they are not deductions from any d priori maxims or axioms ; they are not the constituent elements of a humanly constructed theory : they are not even the mere obiter dicta of inspired men ; they arc the principles which the sacred writers not only announce as t…
1,266 wordsSECTION 288§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 497
secured ; and secondly, tliat the victims tlien offered, having no iniierent dignity or worth, could not take away sin ; they could not purge the conscience from the sense of guilt, or bring to the end contemplated (reAeiwo-at) those for whom they were offered, and hence had to be continually repeated. In Hebrews ix. 9…
440 wordsSECTION 289VOL. II. 32
498 PART iO. Ch. VII. — satisfaction OF CHRIST. power, or by moral influence, but as a priest, by offering Himself as an expiatory sacrifice for our sins. To deny this ; to explain away these express teachings of the Scriptures, as mere accommodations to tlie modes of thought prevalent in the age of the Apostles; or t…
529 wordsSECTION 290§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 499
offerings of the old economy were of different kinds, not only as bloody and unbloody, but that among those which involved the shedding of blood some were designed for one purpose and some lor another. The whole question relates to the sin offerings prop- erly so called, of which the sacrifices on the great day of aton…
957 wordsSECTION 291§ 6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 601
Christians. That this world-wide belief in the necessity of expia- tion even among the heathen ; this uniform conviction of the Hebrews that the sacrifices, which they were commanded to offer for sin, were expiatory ; this concurrent judgment of the Christian Church in all ages and places are, after all, mere error and…
951 wordsSECTION 292§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 503
signifies that which covers, and, in such connections, that which covers sin so that it no longer demands punishment. When, there- fore, a sacrifice is said to cover sin it must mean that it expiates it, hides it from the eyes of justice by a satisfaction. A -ipb is a sat- isfaction. This satisfaction must be made eith…
1,011 wordsSECTION 293§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 506
admitted that the Hebrew word Stt73 i«ay mean to remove^ or hear away^ as in 1 Samuel xvii. 34 and judges xvi. 31, although even in these cases the ordinary sense is admissible. The question, how- ever, is not what a word may mean, but what it does mean in a given formula and connection. The word signifies to raise^ or…
1,034 wordsSECTION 294§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 507
Christ in the infinitely higher sphere to which his work belongs. Such being the relation between the Old Economy and the New, the whole sacrificial service of the Mosaic institutions, becomes to the Christian an extended and irresistible proof and exhibition of the work of Christ as an expiation for the sins of the wo…
905 wordsSECTION 295§6.J PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 500
of sill. And tlie SiKaLoa-vvrj of God manifested in the sa'^u-ifice of Christ, was not in's benevolence, but that form of justice which demands the punishment of sin. " It is a fundamental idea of Scripture," says Delitzsch, " that sin is expiated (i^p*) by punish- ment, as murder by the death of the murderer."^ Again,…
1,003 wordsSECTION 296§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 511
to do thy will." By which will, i. e., by the execution of this purpose of sending his incarnate Son, we are cleansed by the one offering up of Iiis body. The ancient sacrifices, he says (verse 11), had to be constantly repeated. "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right…
1,003 wordsSECTION 297§6.] PKOOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 513
turn ultro in se suscipit." Bretsclmeider (Rationalist) thus defines the word, " attollo et mihi impono, i. g., inipositum mihi porto, tropice de poenis : poenani susceptam luo ; Heb. ix. 28 Vide etiam Num. xiv. 38, dvoCaovat ryv -opveLuv vjxwv, poena vestrae perfidias ilHs persolvenda est." Wegscheider, the chief of…
1,499 wordsSECTION 298Part 298
Christ our Redeemer. There is a third class of passages equally numerous and equally important. Christ is not only set forth as a Priest and as a sacri- fice, but also as a Redeemer, and his work as a Redemption. Re- demption is deliverance from evil by the payment of a ransom. This idea is expressed by the words dTroA…
450 wordsSECTION 299§6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. 617
ends. Nor were they the mere natural consequences of his be- coming a man and subjecting Himself to the common lot of human- ity. They were divine inflictions. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He was smitten of God and afflicted. These sufferings were declared to be on account of sin, not his own, but ours. He bore o…
1,514 wordsSECTION 300Part 300
5. Christ redeems us not only from the curse of the law, from the law itself as a covenant of works, from the power of sin, and from the dominion of Satan, but also from all evil. This evil is the consequence of the curse of the law, and being redeemed from that we are delivered from all evil. Hence the word redemp- ti…
396 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.