Chapter 5.

CHAPTER 5.

Containing reflections upon the apostles’ creed.

FOR the fullest proof that a strict connection subsists between the doctrines of the Gospel and the most perfect morality, let us cast our eyes on an assemblage of those doctrines, known by the name of the apostles’ creed; a creed to which every true Christian conscientiously subscribes, and which baptized hypocrites make a solemn show of assenting to. Our prejudice against these holy doctrines must necessarily vanish, after we have duly considered the influence they naturally have upon the conduct of true believers.

This confession of faith has three parts. The first contains the principal doctrines of Deism, or natural religion, setting forth the relation in which we stand to God, as Creator. The second part of this creed includes the principal doctrines contained in the four Gospels, and places before us the relation we bear to God, considered in the character of Redeemer, or as coming to save the world by that extraordinary person, who is called the only begotten Son of God. The doctrines here enumerated are those with which the disciples of our Lord were wholly taken up till the day of their spiritual baptism. The third part presents us with a recapitulation of the principal doctrines set forth in the Acts and Epistles of the apostles. This latter part of the Christian creed instructs us in our relation to God, as Sanctifier, or as coming to regenerate man by that Spirit of truth, consolation, and power, which was promised by Christ to his followers: a Spirit, whose office is to instruct and sanctify the Church of Christ, to maintain a constant communion among its members, to seal upon their consciences the pardon of sin, to assure them of a future resurrection, and prepare them for a life of everlasting blessedness. Let us review these three parts of this apostolic creed, and observe the necessary reference they have to morality.

The first article of this creed informs us that there is an all-powerful God, who is the Creator of all things in heaven and in earth. It is evident that no man can renounce this doctrine, without renouncing natural religion, and plunging headlong into Atheism. If there is no God, there can be no Divine law, and morality becomes a mere insignificant term. Human laws may, indeed, restrain the wretch who indulges a persuasion of this nature; but were it not for the authority of such laws, he would throw off the mask of decency, and laugh at the distinction between virtue and vice. If you admit, with Epicurus, the being of a God, without admitting an overruling providence: if you believe not that the Creator is an all-powerful Parent, and, as such, peculiarly attentive to the concerns of his immense family: you then destroy all confidence in the Supreme Being: you take from the righteous their chief consolation in adversity, and from the wicked their chief restraining curb in prosperity.

Mutilate this important doctrine by admitting only a general providence, and you destroy the particular confidence which holy men indulge, that God dispenses to his children, according to his unsearchable wisdom, both prosperity and adversity; that he listens to their supplications, and will finally deliver them out of all their afflictions. You trample under foot the most powerful motives to resignation and patience; you nourish discontent in the heart, and scatter the seeds of despair among the unfortunate. Yet all this is done by many inconsistent advocates for morality. Heathens themselves were perfectly convinced, that the practice of morality was closely connected with the above-mentioned doctrines Cicero, in his book concerning the nature of the gods, seems to apprehend, that the whole edifice of morality would fall to the ground, were the doctrine of a particular providence to be taken away: “For,” says he, “if the gods observed not what is transacted here below, what would become of religion and holiness, without which human life would be replete with trouble and confusion? I am persuaded that, in banishing the fear of the gods, we should, at the same time, banish from among as good faith, justice, and all those other virtues which are considered as forming the basis of society.”