SECTION I. PRELIMINARY MATTER. CHAPTER I. Respecting the Character of a Religion suitable to a fallen Creature. IF, to certain of his intellectual creatures, God be pleased to reveal a system of religion; that system must be a system ADAPTED to their necessities: for, otherwise, God will have acted vainly. I. Now, that The religion, which is SUITABLE to the condition of a sinless creature, is UNSUITABLE to the condition of a lapsed and therefore sinful creature, must, I think, be acknowledged by every person who fairly considers the bearing of the question. 1. A sinless creature, not having offended his Creator, has no need to court reconciliation with him: neither has he any anxiety in regard to the vital point, Whether a reconciliation be possible. 2. But a fallen and therefore a sinful creature, having, by the hypothesis, offended his Creator, has need to court reconciliation with him: he is uncertain, without a revelation to that special purpose, whether reconciliation be possible: and, on the supposition of its impossibility, he must assuredly, so far as he himself and his own interests are concerned, feel the utter uselessness of any religious service; for, to a fallen creature, a religion, without a well-grounded hope of reconciliation, is a religion of utter despair; and a religion of utter despair is, in effect, no religion. 3. Hence it follows, that the religion, SUITABLE to the condition of a sinful creature, differs from the religion SUITABLE to the condition of a sinless creature, in the specific point of its comprehending a revelation which shall set forth the possibility of a reconciliation with God. Hence also, from the mere necessity of the matter, we may safely pronounce, that the religion, which holds NOT forth to a sinful creature the possibility of a reconciliation with God, is a religion totally UNSUITED to his case. And hence, finally, we may venture to assert, that such a religion is a religion, which, in the very nature of things, an all-wise God could not have communicated to him. II. In laying down these positions, it will of course be understood, that I speak exclusively of a religion SUITABLE to a fallen creature. A religion, UNSUITABLE to a fallen creature, may doubtless exist in the world: because, as we may conceive it to have been possible, that God, in his wrath, might have altogether withheld from his apostate creatures a revelation of his purposes; so such a religion may have been independently struck out by erring man, through ignorance unconscious of his true condition. But, in the very nature of things, no religion can be SUITABLE to the condition of a fallen creature, unless it holds forth the possibility of a reconciliation with God: and, consequently, since God never acts in vain, we may safely assert, that he would never reveal an UNSUITABLE religion. The final result, therefore, is, that, If God ever revealed a religion to a race of apostate creatures, that religion must, of very necessity, have taught the possibility of a reconciliation with God. |