Charles Hodge quotes

The ultimate ground of faith and knowledge is confidence in God. (Charles Hodge)
The Church is everywhere represented as one. It is one body, one family, one fold, one kingdom. It is one because pervaded by one Spirit. We are all baptized into one Spirit so as to become, says the apostle, on body. View quote
Charles Hodge
The Galatians are severely censured for giving heed to false doctrines, and are called to pronounce even an apostle anathema, if he preached another gospel. View quote
Charles Hodge
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. View quote
Charles Hodge
Ruling elders are declared to be the representatives of the people. View quote
Charles Hodge
The best evidence of the Bible's being the word of God is to be found between its covers. It proves itself. View quote
Charles Hodge
The doctrines of grace humble man without degrading him and exalt him without inflating him. View quote
Charles Hodge
The Spirit never makes men the instruments of converting others until they feel that they cannot do it themselves; that their skill in argument, in persuasion, in management, avails nothing. View quote
Charles Hodge
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. View quote
Charles Hodge
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. View quote
Charles Hodge
There is more of power to sanctify, elevate, strengthen, and cheer in the word Jesus (Jehovah-Saviour) than in all the utterances of man since the world began. (Charles Hodge)
The Reformers, therefore, as instruments in the hands of God, in delivering the Church from bondage to prelates, did not make it a tumultuous multitude, in which every man was a law to himself, free to believe, and free to do what he pleased. View quote
Charles Hodge
Romanists tell us that the Pope is the vicar of Christ; that he is his successor as the universal head and ruler of the Church on earth. If this is so, he must be a Christ. View quote
Charles Hodge
That the apostolic office is temporary, is a plain historical fact. View quote
Charles Hodge
The right of the people to a substantive part in the government of the Church is recognized and sanctioned by the apostles in almost every conceivable way. View quote
Charles Hodge
As the Church is the aggregate of believers, there is an intimate analogy between the experience of the individual believer, and of the Church as a whole. View quote
Charles Hodge
When the great promise of the Spirit was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, it was fulfilled not in reference to the apostles only. View quote
Charles Hodge
But to be the Vicar of Christ, to claim to exercise his prerogatives on earth, does involve a claim to his attributes, and therefore our opposition to Popery is opposition to a man claiming to be God. View quote
Charles Hodge
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. View quote
Charles Hodge
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. View quote
Charles Hodge
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. (Charles Hodge)
If the Church is a living body united to the same head, governed by the same laws, and pervaded by the same Spirit, it is impossible that one part should be independent of all the rest. View quote
Charles Hodge
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. View quote
Charles Hodge
The Independent or Congregational theory includes two principles; first, that the governing and executive power in the Church is in the brotherhood; and secondly, that the Church organization is complete in each worshipping assembly, which is independent of every other. View quote
Charles Hodge
So too, in forming a constitution, or in enacting rules of procedure, or making canons, the people do not merely passively assent, but actively cooperate. They have, in all these matters, the same authority as the clergy. View quote
Charles Hodge