Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Slavery volume 5 .djvu/242

230 discipline, development, enjoyment, and delight of every limb of the body, every faculty of the spirit, every power which we possess over matter or over mankind,—each in its due proportion, all in their complete harmony. That is the whole and complete religion. Now leaving out of sight for a moment the matter of mere sentiment, in religion reducing itself to practice there are two things,—to wit, first, intellectual ideas, doctrines of the mind, things to be believed ; secondly, moral duties, doctrines of the conscience, things to be done. Each man in his private individual capacity, as Edwin or Richard, has his own intellectual ideas, things to be believed; his own moral duties, things to be done. To be faithful to himself he must believe the one and must do the other. It is a part of his personal religion to believe the truths which he knows, to do the duties that he acknowledges.

But man is social as well as solitary. So men, in their collective capacity as churches, towns, nations, come to the conclusion that they have certain intellectual ideas which ought to be believed, certain moral duties which ought to be done. As an expression of this fact, men assembling in bodies for purposes called religious, as churches, make up a collection of ideas connected with religion which are deemed true. They call this a creed. It is a collection of things to be believed, and so it is also a rule of intellectual conduct in matters pertaining to religion.

They likewise assemble in bodies for a purpose more directly practical, as towns, as nations, and make a collection of duties which are deemed obligatory. They call this collection of duties a constitution or a code of statutes. I will use the word statute to mean what is commonly called a law, made by men: that is to say, a rule of practical conduct devised by men in authority. I keep the word law to describe the natural mode of operation which God wrote in the constitution of material or human nature, and the word statute for that rule of conduct which man makes and adds thereunto. This is a legitimate aim in making the creed,—to preserve all known religious truth, and diffuse it amongst men. But it is not legitimate to aim at hindering the attainment of new religious truth, or to hinder efforts for the attainment of new religious truth.