Charles Hodge (1797 - 1878) was an eminent Presbyterian divine who taught biblical languages and theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, as well as other colleges and institutions in America and Europe. He founded the magazine Princeton Review. His greatest work, Systematic Theology, a three-volume set available from Hendrickson Publishers, reveals a profound mind, a broad and deep cache of knowledge, as well as a solid grasp of those biblical doctrines that traffic under the name of Calvinism - election, predestination, and so forth. Charles Hodge was a prolific writer and laborer who stuck close to that "old-time religion," and his great magnum opus would be mandatory reading in my school. If I had one, that is.

"Christ is both God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person forever. This is the great mystery of Godliness. GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH is the distinguishing doctrine of the religion of the Bible, without which it is a cold and lifeless corpse." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter III

"The Incarnation is declared to be the characteristic and essential doctrine of the gospel." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter III

"Nothing can be plainer than that the Scriptures do teach that Christ is truly God, that He is truly man, and that He is one person. They assert of Him whatever may be said of God, and everything that can be said of sinless man. They enter into no explanations. They assume it as a certain fact that Christ is God and man in one person, just as they assume that a man is a soul and body in one person." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter III

"Christ is one person with two distinct natures forever; at once God and man." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter III

"The Bible teaches that the eternal Son of God became man by taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, and so was, and continues to be, God and man, in two entire distinct natures, and one person forever." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter III

"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." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter III

"The simple, sublime, saving Christology of the Bible and the Church universal is: That the eternal Son of God became man by taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul, and so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter III

"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 sacrificers, because they presume to offer the real body and blood of Christ to God, as an expiation for the sins of the people. And they are intercessors, not as one man may pray for another, but as having the power to forgive sins... This is the highest power which man has ever assumed over his fellow-men, and when recognized, reduces the people to a state of the most absolute subjection. No greater benefit was rendered the world by the Reformation than the breaking of this iron yoke." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VI

"It is important to adhere to old words if we would adhere to old doctrines." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VI

"If the end of redemption as well as of creation and of providence, is the production of the greatest amount of happiness, then Christianity is one thing; if the end be the glory of God, then Christianity is another thing. The whole character of our theology and religion depends on the answer to that question." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"The end of creation, therefore, is not merely the glory of God, but the special manifestation of that glory in the person and work of Christ. As He is the Alpha, so also is He the Omega; the beginning and the end." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"It cannot however be supposed that God intends what is never accomplished; that He purposes what He does not intend to effect; that He adopts means for an end which is never to be attained... If all men are not saved, God never purposed their salvation, and never devised and put into operation means designed to accomplish that end." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"The Bible clearly teaches that the work of Christ is certainly efficacious. It renders certain the attainment of the end it was designed to accomplish. It was intended to save HIS PEOPLE, and not merely to make the salvation of all men possible." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"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?" Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"The inability of sinners is not only clearly and repeatedly asserted in the Scriptures, but is proved by all experience, by the common consciousness of men, and, of course, by the consciousness of every individual man, and especially of every man who has ever been or who is truly convinced of sin... THe point intended to be illustrated when the Scriptures compare sinners to men dead, and even to dry bones, is their entire helplessness." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"Paul himself was an illustration of election, and a proof of its entirely gratuitous nature... What, however, was true of Paul is true of every other believer. Every man who is brought to Christ is so brought that it is revealed to his own consciousness, and openly confessed by the mouth, that his conversion is of God and not of himself; that he is a monument of the election of grace; that he, at least, was not chosen because of his deserts." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"God condemns no man, and foreordains no man to condemnation, except on account of his sin. But the preterition of such men, leaving them, rather than others equally guilty, to suffer the penalty of their sins, is distinctly declared to be a sovereign act." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"Men cannot be educated into Christians, as they may be trained in knowledge or morals." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"If salvation is of grace, as the Scriptures so clearly teach, then it is not of works, whether actual or foreseen." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"As the sheep of Christ are chosen out of the world, and given to Him, God is the chooser. They do not choose Him, but He chooses them. No one can be added to their number, and that number shall certainly be completed - ALL that the Father giveth me shall come to me." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter I

"In the Godhead there are three persons, the same in substance, and equal in power and glory." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter II

"It is inconceivable that God should send his only begotten Son into the world to suffer and die if the same end could have been accomplished in any other way." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"That God cannot pardon sin without a satisfaction to justice, and that He cannot have fellowship with the unholy, are the two great truths which are revealed in the constitution of our nature as well as in the Scriptures, and which are recognized in all forms of religion, human or divine. It is because the demands of justice are met by the work of Christ, that his gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and that it is so unspeakably precious to those whom the Spirit of God has convinced of sin." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"Throughout the Scriptures, the immutability of the divine law; the necessity of its demands being satisfied; the impossibility of sinners making that satisfaction for themselves; the possibility of its being rendered by substitution; and that a wonderfully constituted person could and would, and in fact HAS, accomplished this work in our behalf, are the great constituent principles of the religion of the Bible." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"If we adhere to the doctrine of the Bible we must believe that Christ saves us, not by 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 the modes of thought prevalent in the age of the Apostles; or to substitute modern ideas of the nature of sacrifices for those of the Bible and of the whole ancient world; or to attempt to get at the philosophical truth inclosed in these Scriptural forms, while we reject the forms themselves, are only different ways of substituting our thoughts for God's thoughts, our way of salvation for God's way." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"The Old Testament sacrifices were expiatory and not reformatory, and so was the sacrifice of Christ." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"The inconsistency between love, and expiation or satisfaction for sin, which modern writers so much insist upon, was not perceived by men who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"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." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"We hear from the pulpits much about God as a moral governor; much about the law and obligation, and of the duty of submission; but little about Christ, of the duty of fleeing to Him, of receiving Him, of trusting in Him, of renouncing our own righteousness that we may put on the righteousness of God; and little of our union with Him, of his living in us, and of our duty to live by faith in Him." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"It is true that the leading theologians of the Church, as was perhaps to be expected, have given themselves up to the guidance of the German mind. All they have done has been to incorporate the modern German philosophy with theology. Their advances, therefore, have no more worth than belongs to any other form of human speculations." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"All men, in despite of the sophistry of the understanding, and in despite of their moral degradation, know that it is the righteousness judgment of God, that those who sin are worthy of death... This conviction lies undisturbed at the bottom of every human breast, and never fails, sooner or later, to reveal itself with irresponsible force on the reason and the conscience." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"It is true God is love. But it is no less true that love in God is not a weakness, impelling Him to do what ought not to be done. If sin ought to be punished, as conscience and the Word of God declare, then there is nothing in God which impels Him to leave it unpunished." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VII

"All that Christ did and suffered would have been necessary had only one human soul been the object of redemption; and nothing different and nothing more would have been required had every child of Adam been saved through his blood." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter VIII

"Theories antagonistic to the common Church doctrine are purely philosophical." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter IX

"We are bound to understand the Scriptures in their plain historical sense, and to admit no philosophy to explain or modify that sense." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter IX

"Christians are worshippers of Christ. Christ requires his disciples to honour Him as they honour the Father. They are to believe in Him (put the same confidence in Him), as they do in God. It is the same offence under the new dispensation to refuse to worship Christ as GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH that it was under the old economy to refuse to worship Jehovah as the only living and true God." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XI

"Whatever is true of God, is true of God manifested in the flesh." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XII

"The whole course of Christ on earth was one of voluntary obedience. He came to do the will of his Father." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XII

"If Christ has a true body, it must occupy a definite portion of space. And where Christ is, there is the Christian's heaven." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIII

"Such is the condition of men since the fall, that if left to themselves they would continue in their rebellion and refuse the offers of reconciliation with God. Christ then had died in vain. To secure the accomplishment of the promise that He should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, the Holy Spirit so operates on the chosen people of God, that they are brought to repentance and faith, and thus made heirs of eternal life, through Jesus Christ their Lord." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"It is by a divine call, that sinners are made partakers of the benefits of redemption." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"It has ever been, and still is, the doctrine of the Church universal in almost all its parts, that it is only in and through the Scriptures that the knowledge necessary to salvation is revealed to men." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"Christ is not only the giver, but the object of life. Those exercises which are the manifestations of spiritual life terminate on Him; without the knowledge of Him, therefore, there can be no such exercises... There is no faith, therefore, where the gospel is not heard; and where there is no faith, there is no salvation. This is indeed an awful doctrine. But are not the words of our Lord also awful - Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"The proper effect of the doctrine that the knowledge of the gospel is essential to the salvation of adults, instead of exciting opposition to God's word or providence, is to prompt us to greatly increased exertion to send the gospel to those who are perishing for lack of knowledge." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"All men are sinners; they are all guilty before God; they have all forfeited every claim upon his justice... It is God's prerogative to determine who shall be vessels of mercy, and who shall be left to the just recompense of their sins. Such are the declarations of Scripture; and such are the facts of the case. We can alter neither." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"Finally and mainly, the epistle [to the Ephesians] reveals itself as the work of the Holy Ghost, as clearly as the stars declare their maker to be God. In no portion of the sacred Scriptures are the self-evidencing light and power of divine truth more concentrated than they are here. Had it been first discovered in the nineteenth century, in a forsaken monastery, it would command the faith of the whole church." Commentary On The Epistle To The Ephesians, Introduction

"If the special work of regeneration, in the narrow sense of that word, be the effect of almighty power, then it cannot be resisted, any more than that act of creation. The effect follows immediately on the will of God, as when He said let there be light, and light was." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"Regeneration is an act of sovereign grace. If a tree must be made good before the fruit is good; the goodness of the fruit cannot be the reason which determines him who has the power to change the tree from bad to good." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"Spiritual death is as real as corporeal death. The dead body is not more insensible and powerless in relation to the objects of sense, than the soul, when spiritually dead, is to the things of the Spirit." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"As then Christ was raised by the immediate power of God, so are the people of God raised from spiritual death by the same almighty power." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"If in that covenant God gave to the Son his people as the reward of his obedience and death, then all those thus given to Him must come unto Him; and the influence which secures their coming must be certainly efficacious." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"No believer ever ascribes his regeneration to himself. He does not recognize himself as the author of the work, or his own relative goodness, his greater susceptibility to good impression, or his greater readiness of persuasion, as the reason why he rather than others, is the subject of this change. He knows that it is a work of God; and that it is a work of God's free grace." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"Paul's conversion is the type of every genuine conversion from that day to this." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part III, Chapter XIV

"The Son of God became a man; not all men. He assumed an individual rational soul, not the general principle of humanity." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part II, Chapter II

"The new birth is not the effect of second causes. It is not a natural effect produced by the influence of the truth or the energy of the human will. It is due to the immediate exercise of the almighty power of God." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part II, Chapter III

"The Scriptural doctrine, however, concerning man is, that the race is not only the same in kind but the same in origin. They are all the children of a common parent, and have a common nature." Systematic Theology, Vol II, Part II, Chapter IV