Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/205

158 taught it. Therefore if the intellectual character of Jesus had never so many defects, if he entertained false notions about himself, his office, ministry, destination; respecting ancient history and Jewish literature; the existence and agency of devils, and in general, respecting things past, present, and to come; if he entertained the absurdest notions at the same time with his pure doctrine; nay, if he had never so many moral deficiencies, if he denounced his enemies, and was frighted at danger, and fled away from death, or had even recanted his most vigorous statements, still his religious doctrine remains unaffected by all of these circumstances. To make this point clear by recurring to a former illustration, a philosopher may show that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, yet lead an immoral life, believe in witches, devils, the philosopher's stone, and imputed righteousness. His absurd belief and wicked life do not affect the truth of his theorem.

Now then to determine what Christianity is, we must remove all those extraneous matters relating to the person, character, and authority of him who first taught it; we must separate it from all applications thereof which have been made to life; must view it by itself, as doctrine, as life; and measure it by this ideal standard of Absolute Religion. After we have determined this question, we may then judge of the applications of Christianity to life; of the character of its Revealer, and try both by the standard he offers.

method of acquiring a knowledge of Absolute Religion is plain and easy, but to get a knowledge of the doctrine taught by any teacher of ancient times is more difficult. This, however, may be said in general, that