That Religion is designed to improve the nature and faculties of man,
in order to the right governing of our actions, to the securing the
peace and progress, external and internal, of individuals and of
communities, and lastly, to the rendering us capable of a more perfect
state, entitled the kingdom of God, to which the present life is
_probationary_--this is a Truth, which all who have truth only in
view, will receive on its own evidence. If such then be the main end
of religion altogether (the improvement namely of our nature and
faculties), it is plain, that every part of religion is to be judged
by its relation to this main end. And since the Christian scheme is
religion in its most perfect and effective form, a revealed religion,
and therefore, in a _special_ sense proceeding from that Being who
made us and knows what we are, of course therefore adapted to the
needs and capabilities of human nature; nothing can be a part of this
holy faith that is not duly proportioned to this end.[81]