RELIGIOUS legislation is always legislation against the true religion. It cannot possibly be anything else.
Religious legislation means enforced religious observances. Thus it is contrary to Christianity, which means religious observances through faith.
The scope of human legislation falls infinitely short of the scope of divine truth; and Christianity is divine truth. It is as high as the throne of God and as broad as the universe. What folly, therefore, for finite man to undertake to enforce it, in any respect, by legislation which is the expression of his own finite conceptions!
Such legislation would contract the infinite to the finite, and drag the divine down to the level of the human, instead of elevating the human to the level of the divine, as Christianity seeks to do.
What folly, also, and worse than folly, for fallen man to set his sin-stained hand to the infinitely pure and holy law of God! For Christianity is a law; even “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:2. Such an act is a repetition, in aggravated form, of the folly of Uzza in trying to steady with his hand the ark of God. See 1 Chronicles 13:9, 10.
The force which directs Christianity in this world and makes it effective in the uplifting of mankind, is the holy Spirit. It alone is competent for such a work. Human agency can be properly brought into it only as a means directed and controlled by the Spirit. Whenever it is not so controlled it can only mar the work. And it is so controlled when, and only when, it is operating in perfect harmony with God’s Word. The Holy Spirit operates always by the power of God, and never by the power of the human arm.
Being thus against Christianity, religious legislation is never from God, and can never accomplish anything but evil.