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Faith is not a blind, irrational conviction. In order to believe, we must know what we believe, and the grounds on which our faith rests.

Charles Hodge

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Charles Hodge
Age: 80 †
Born: 1797
Born: December 27
Died: 1878
Died: June 19
Author
Slaveholder
Theologian
University Teacher
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Faith
Order
Must
Believe
Grounds
Rests
Irrational
Conviction
Blind

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The doctrines of grace humble man without degrading him and exalt him without inflating him.
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Ruling elders are declared to be the representatives of the people.
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It is because God is infinitely great and good that his glory is the end of all things and his good pleasure the highest reason for whatever comes to pass. What is man that he should contend with God, or presume that his interests rather than God's glory should be made the final end?
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Sanctification is not a work of nature, but a work of grace. It is a transformation of character effected not by moral influences, but supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.
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The office of presbyters is a permanent one.
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The Bible contains all the extant revelations of God, which He designed to be the rule of faith and practice for his Church so that nothing can rightfully be imposed on the consciences of men as truth or duty which is not taught directly or by necessary implication in the Holy Scriptures.
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As we fell in Adam, we are saved in Christ. To deny the principle in the one case, is to deny it in the other for the two are inseparably united in the representations of Scripture
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There can, therefore, be no doubt that Presbyterians do carry out the principle that Church power vests in the Church itself, and that the people have a right to a substantive part in its discipline and government.
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The functions of these elders, therefore, determine the power of the people for a representative is one chosen by others to do in their name what they are entitled to do in their own persons or rather to exercise the powers which radically inhere in those for whom they act.
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All the reasons which require the subjection of a believer to the brethren of a particular church require his subjection to all his brethren in the Lord.
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If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice for all right of private judgment is then denied.
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All Church power arises from the indwelling of the Spirit therefore those in whom the Spirit dwells are the seat of Church power. But the Spirit dwells in the whole Church, and therefore the whole Church is the seat of Church power.
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When the great promise of the Spirit was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, it was fulfilled not in reference to the apostles only.
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Christ has not only ordained that there shall be such officers in his Church - he has not only specified their duties and prerogatives - but he gives the requisite qualifications, and calls those thus qualified, and by that call gives them their official authority.
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In every system of theology, therefore, there is a chapter De libero arbitrio. This is a question which every theologian finds in his path, and which he must dispose of and on the manner in which it is determined depends his theology, and of course his religion, so far as his theology is to him a truth and reality
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The Church, during the apostolic age, did not consist of isolated, independent congregations, but was one body, of which the separate churches were constituent members, each subject to all the rest, or to an authority which extended over all.
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The Church, however, is a self-governing society, distinct from the State, having its officers and laws, and, therefore, an administrative government of its own.
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It is important that when we come to die we have nothing to do but die.
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To be in Christ is the source of the Christian life to be like Christ is the sum of his excellence to be with Christ is the fullness of his joy.
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Original sin is the only rational solution of the undeniable fact of the deep, universal and early manifested sinfulness of men in all ages, of every class, and in every part of the world
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