The Creed also determines the order in which the facts of supernatural revelation arc developed. As the Creed, on the one hand, presupposes the fall and misery of man, and, on the other, involves and implies holy living as a necessarj' consequence of the new life, whilst it embraces only those facts which belong to the positive side of revelation, the Catechism, an- swering to this order, places the creation and fall of man, sin and depravity, in the first part; conversion, good works, and prayer, as the necessary fruit of the new life, in the third part, under the general head of Thankfulness, taking the Decalogue as the law of good works, and the Lord's Prayer as the model of devo- tion; whilst the second part gives the positive objec- tive substance of redemption, and consists in setting forth the facts of revelation in the order in which the Creed affirms them ; and, in immediate connection therewith, expounds tlie sacraments and the office of the keys ; the sacraments as the means of gi-ace l)y which, through faith, we have part in the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and are fed and nourished unto everlasting life ; and the office of the keys as embrac- ing the preaching of the Gospel and Christian disci- pline, by which two things the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers and shut against unbelievers. Holding this central position, the Creed informs the constitution of the Catechism, projects its peculiar structure, and breathes its animating spirit into the form of instruction. Not that the Catechism realizes the idea of the Creed perfectlj' at all points ; but it ac- knowledges the original authoritv^ of the Creed, and realizes its fundamental characteristics. The Creed tlius also liolds the Catechism in organic connection with the undoubted faith of the one holy Catholic Ciiurch in all the ages of her history up to the apos- tolic period.
Though the peculiar organizing force of the Creed may not, at all times since the Reformation, or even at the time of its first publication, have been clearly or consciously apprehended, yet this principial element has always been felt, and lias always had a correspondent mouhling influence whenever and wherever the Cate- chism has been cordially received, and has, without prejudice and obstruction, been allowed freely to exert its educational power. AVhatever is distinctive in the original character, or subsequent liistory, or the pres- ent attitude, as regards doctrine and worship, of the German as compared with other Reformed branches of the Protestant Churcli, is owing primarily and main- ly to this fundamental and distinguishing element of her confession.
It is the peculiar genius of the Heidelberg Catechism
which has given impulse to the profound and compre- hensive theological movement \>y which the Church is now apprehended, and has sustained it with increas- ing power ; a movement that is progressively elimi- nating two classes of doctrinal views : those which fol- low logically from the Calvinistic theorj' of the divine sovereigntj', and those which proceed from the Armin- ian conception of human freedom. Neither the sov- ereign will of God on the one hand, nor the free will of man on the other, is the principle of salvation ; nei- ther God apart from man, nor man apart from God. According to the general idea of the Catechism, this principle is found in a concrete fact, the person of the Redeemer, who, being true God and ti ue man, unites in himself mysteriously tlie freedom of the human with thesovereignty of tlie divine will. Being liy true faith a member of Christ through the power of the Holy Ghost, a Christian determines himself freelv, and is at the same time determined by God, when he lives ac- cording to the will of God, actualized in the person and work of Christ.
The most important result, theologically, of the ter- centenary celebration, 18G3, was the advancing and maturing of a consciousness of this principial element of the Catechism, namely, the organic relation which the Creed bears to its structure and doctrines. For the first time in her American histor}' did the Cliurch formally recognize the Creed, in its proper historical sense, as possessing fundamental authority for the Re- formed faith. The tercentenary convention held in Reading, May, 18G4, appointed a committee to submit to the (Eastern) synod for adoption certain topics hav- ing reference to the theological and religious bearings of the tercentenary jubilee. The report of this com- mittee was presented to the Synod of Lancaster in Oc- tober of the same year. It sums up the theological and religious results in the following theses :
1. "Our tercentenary jubilee has served a whole- some purpose for renewing for our ecclesiastical con- sciousness a proper sense of what is comprehended in our confessional title Reformed, as related originally to Lutheranism in one direction, and to the Catholic Church of the olden times in another.
2. "It is an argument of sound and right historical feeling in this case, that the beginnings of our Church- life are referred, not simply to the epoch and crisis of the Reformation, but throiujh that also to the original form of Christianity as it existed in the first ages.
3. " The true genius and spirit of our Church in tliis respect is shown by the place which is assigned to the Apostles' Creed in the Heidelberg Catechism, where it is plainly -assumed that the Creed, in its proper histor- ical sense, is to Ije considered of fundamental author- ity for the Refoniied faith.