Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/201

If this be so, it follows that the religious Element or faculty in Man bears the same relation to each and all particular forms and teachers of Religion, that Reason bears to each and all particular systems or teachers of Philosophy. That is, as no one teacher or system of Philosophy, nor all teachers and systems taken together, have exhausted Reason, which is the groundwork and standard-measure of them all, and is represented more or less partially in each of them, and therefore as new teachers and new systems of Philosophy are always possible and necessary until a system is discovered which embraces all the facts of Science, sets forth and legitimates all the laws of Nature, and thus represents the Absolute Science, which is implied in the Facts of Nature, or the Ideas of God; so no one teacher or form of Religion, nor all teachers and forms put together, have exhausted the religious Faculty, which is the groundwork and standard-measure of them all, and is represented more or less partially in each, and so new teachers and new forms of Religion are always possible and necessary, until a form is discovered, which embraces all the facts of Man’s moral and religious nature, sets forth and legitimates all the laws thereof, and thus represents the Absolute Religion, as it is implied in the Facts of Man’s nature, or the Ideas of God. As no system or teacher of Philosophy is greater than Reason, and competent to give laws to Nature, but at the utmost is only coördinate with Reason, and competent to discover and announce the laws of Nature previously existing; so no form or teacher of Religion can be greater than the religious Element, and competent to give laws to Man, but at the utmost is only coördinate with the religious Element, and competent to discover and announce the laws of Man previously existing. In one word, Absolute Science answers exactly to Reason, and is what Reason demands; Absolute Religion answers exactly to the religious Element, and is what the religious Element demands. Therefore until Philosophy and Religion attain the Absolute, each form or teacher of either is subject to be modified or supplanted by any man who has a truth not embraced by the Philosophy or Religion at that time extant. However, there are certain primary truths of Science and Religion, which alone render the two possible, and which are possessed with more or less of