Note 144 — Chapter I · THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY.[137]

[“It is no real objection to this, though it may seem so at first sight, to say that since Christianity is a remedial system, designed to obviate those very evils which have been produced by the neglect and abuse of the light of nature, it ought not to be liable to the same perversions. Because—1. Christianity is not designed primarily to remedy the defects of nature, but of an unnatural state of ruin into which men were brought by the Fall. And 2. It is remedial of the defects of nature in a great degree, by its giving additional advantages. 3. It might be impossible that it should be remedial in a greater degree than it is, without destroying man’s free agency; which would be to destroy its own end, the practice of virtue.”—Fitzgerald’s Notes.]