The Church and its Polity
Overview
The Church and Its Polity contains the lectures Charles Hodge gave on the subject of ecclesiology. Hodge had one day hoped to revise these lectures to be added into his Systematic Theology, but Hodge never found the time. Edited by one of his students and his son A. A. Hodge, these lectures concerning the administration of ecclesiastical affairs contain a vast amount of valuable discussion of Church principles and their practical applications.
Top Highlights
“We are therefore bound to do as the sacred writers did, that is, to regard and treat every man as a believer who makes a credible profession of faith in Christ; and of course we are bound to regard and treat any body of such men as a Church.” (Page 206)
“The Protestant doctrine which makes the profession of the true religion the only essential criterion of the Church, is neither arbitrary nor optional. It is necessary and obligatory. We must hold it, and must act upon it, or set ourselves in direct opposition to the word of God.” (Page 139)
“so no body of men is a Church, except so far as it is organized, animated and controlled by the same Spirit” (Page 120)
“Augustin says, the Church is a living body, in which there are both a soul and body. Some are members of the Church in both respects, being united to Christ, as well externally as internally. These are the living members of the Church; others are of the soul, but not of the body—that is, they have faith and love, without external communion with the Church. Others, again, are of the body and not of the soul—that is, they have no true faith. These last, he says, are as the hairs, or nails, or evil humours of the human body.* According to Augustin, then, the wicked are not true members of the Church; their relation to it is altogether external.” (Pages 20–21)
“This can be nothing less than their relation to Christ. It is in virtue of union with him that men become saints, or are justified, sanctified, and brought nigh to God. They are one body in Christ Jesus. The bond of union between Christ and his people is the Holy Spirit, who dwells in him and in them. He is the head, they are the members of his body, the Church, which is one body, because pervaded and animated by one Spirit. The proximate and essential bond of union between the saints, that which gives rise to their communion, and makes them the Church or body of Christ, is, therefore, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.” (Page 7)
- Title: The Church and its Polity
- Author: Charles Hodge
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson
- Print Publication Date: 1879
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Church polity; Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A
- Resource ID: LLS:CHRPOLHODGE
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-11T17:31:37Z
Charles Hodge (1797–1898), an American Presbyterian theologian, was ordained in 1821, and taught at Princeton for almost his whole life. In 1825 he founded the Biblical Repository and Princeton Review, and during 40 years was its editor, and the principal contributor to its pages. He received the degree of D.D. from Rutgers College in 1834, and that of LL.D. from Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1864. In 1840 Dr. Hodge was transferred to the chair of didactic theology, retaining still, however, the department of New Testament exegesis, the duties of which he continued to discharge until his death.