amid which it strives at first to raise itself to purity and perfectness. In the first place, as respects the former view of the activity of True Religion;—this Religion is precisely similar to the Love of Goodness which we have described at the close of a former lecture; which Goodness appears to the religious sense as the immediate work of God within us; while we, in the accomplishment of this work, are regarded as the instruments of God. We formerly remarked that this Love of Goodness sets itself entirely free even from the Perfect State, and raises itself completely above all compulsive Authority; and for the same reasons this may also be said of the True Religion. That which the God-devoted man may not do on any consideration, is indeed also outwardly forbidden in the Perfect State; but he has already cast it from him in obedience to the Will of God without regard to any outward prohibition. That which alone this God-devoted man loves and desires to do, is indeed outwardly commanded in this Perfect State; but he has already done it in obedience to the Will of God. If, then, this religious frame of mind is to exist in the State and yet never to come into collision with it, it is absolutely necessary that the State should at all times keep pace with the development of the religious sense among its Citizens, so that it shall never command anything which True Religion forbids, or forbid anything which she enjoins. In such a state of things, the well-known principle, that we must obey God rather than man, could never come into application; for in that case man would only command what God also commanded, and there would remain to the willing servant only the choice whether he would pay his obedience to the command as that of human power, or as the Will of God which he loves before all things else. From this perfect Freedom and superiority which Religion possesses over the State arises the duty of both to keep themselves absolutely separate, and to cast off all imme-
Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/227
