CHAPTER IV.

How the doctrines of the gospel come in to the succour of morality.

Ir to preach the gospel is to teach sinners the relations they sustain with respect to God, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; if it is to announce the advantages which flow from this three-fold relation, till, penetrated with gratitude and love, mankind apply themselves to fulfil the several duties to which they stand engaged, we may challenge the world to point out any knowledge of equal importance with that which is discovered in the gospel; to deprive us, then, of the doctrines contained in this gospel, is it not to suppress the most important instructions we can possibly receive; is it not to conceal from us a testament which is made wholly in our favour? To decide this question we shall here consider what influence these doctrines have upon morality.

The virtues of worldly men, as well as their vices, are little else than a kind of traffic carried on by an inordinate self love. From this impure source the most amiable of their actions flow; and hence, instead of referring all things primarily to God, they act with an eye to their own immediate advantage. Christ has offered a remedy to this grand evil, by teaching us that to love the Deity with all our heart, is the first commandment of the law; and that to love ourselves, and our neighbour as ourselves, is but a secondary commandment in the sight of God; thus leading us up to divine love, as the only source of pure virtue. When self love is once reduced to this wholesome order, and moves in exact obedience to the Creator's law, it then becomes truly commendable in man, and serves as the surest rule of fraternal affection.

Evangelical morality ennobles our most ordinary actions, such as those of eating and drinking, requiring that "all things be done to the glory of God," i. e. in celebration of his unspeakable bounty. A just precept this, and founded upon the following doctrine: "All things are of God:" to whom of consequence they ought finally to refer. If you lose sight of this doctrine, your apparent gratitude is

nothing more than a feigned virtue, which has no other motives or ends, except such as originate and lose themselves in self love. In such circumstances you cannot possibly assent to the justice of the grand precept above cited; but holding it up, like the author of the Philosophical Dictionary, as a just subject of ridicule, you may - perhaps burlesque the feelings of a conscientious man, with regard to this command, as the comedian is accustomed to sport with the character of a modest woman. Thus many philosophers are emulating the morality and benevolence of those censorious religionists, concerning whom our Lord significantly declared, "Verily, they have their reward."

How shall we reduce a sinner to moral order? Will it be sufficient to press upon him the following exhortations : Love God with all thy heart: Be filled with benevolence toward all men: Do good to your very enemies? All this would be only commanding a rebel to seek happiness in the presence of a prince, whose indignation he has justly merited: it would be urging a covetous man to sacrifice his interests, not only to indifferent persons, but to his implacable adversaries. To effect so desirable a change in the human heart, motives and assistance are as absolutely necessary as counsels and precepts.

Here the doctrines of the gospel come in to the succour of morality. But how shall we sufficiently adore that incomprehensible Being, who has demonstrated to us, by the mission of his beloved Son, that the Divine nature is love! Or how shall we refuse any thing to this gracious Redeemer, who clothed himself with mortality that he might suffer in our stead! All the doctrines of the gospel have an immediate tendency to promote the practice of morality. That of the incarnation, which serves as the basis of the New Testament, expresses the benevolence of the Supreme Being in so striking a manner, that every sinner who cordially receives this doctrine, is constrained to surrender his heart unreservedly to God. His servile fear is changed into filial reverence, and his aversion into fervent love. He is overwhelmed with the greatness of benefits received, and, as the only suitable return for, mercies of so stupendous a nature, he sacrifices, at once, all his darling vices. "If the Son of God has united himself to my fallen nature," such an humble believer will

naturally say, "I will not rest till I feel myself united to this divine Mediator; if he comes to put a period to my misery, nothing shall ever put a period to my gratitude; if he has visited me with the beams of his glory, it shall henceforth become my chief concern to reflect those beams upon all around me, to his everlasting praise."

The memorable sacrifice which was once offered up in the person of Christ, as a propitiation for our sins, is abundantly efficacious in the same respect. This mysterious offering sets forth the malignity of our offences, and represents the compassion of the Deity in so overpowering a manner, that, while it fills us with horror for sin, it completely triumphs over the obduracy of our hearts. From the moment we come to a real perception of this meritorious sacrifice, from that moment we die to sin, till "rising again with Christ" into a new life, we become at length wholly "renewed in the spirit of our mind." Point out a man who unfeignedly believes in a crucified Saviour, and you have discovered a man who abhors all manner of vice, and in whom every virtue has taken root. Such a one can thankfully join the whole multitude of the faithful, and say, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, we have obeyed, from the heart, that form of doctrine which was delivered unto us." Once, indeed, when we were without the knowledge of Christ, "we were the servants of sin: but now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

If you ravish from such a man these consoling and sanctifying doctrines, you will leave him either in the stupid insensibility of those who give themselves up to carnal security, or in the perplexity of others who are crying, "What shall we do to be saved?" The one or the other of these states must be experienced in different degrees, by every man who is unacquainted with the efficacy of evangelical doctrines. And if the first moralist of the Pagan world was yet observed to triumph over this stupidity and confusion, it was merely through the regenerating hope he indulged, that a restoring God, of whose internal operations he had already been favoured with some faintperception, would one day afford him a more clear and perfect light.

CHAPTER V.

Containing reflections upon the Apostles' Creed.

For the fullest proof that a strict connexion subsists between the doctrines of the gospel and the most perfect morality, let us cast our eye on the 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 doctines 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 was 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 doctrine. Cicero, in his book concerning the nature of the gods, seems to apprehend that the whole edifice of morality would fall to the ground, was 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 us good faith, justice, and all those other virtues, which are considered as forming the basis of society."

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