Another leading feature of the common-sense system is the position, that we can discover the chief end or design of the Creator, by the nature of his works, and that this end is to produce the greatest possible happiness with the least possible evil.
It will now be shown that leading theologians teach the same.
President Edwards, in his Dissertation concerning the end for which God created the world, teaches that
“What God had respect to as an ultimate end of his creating the world, was to communicate of his own infinite fullness of good.”
He teaches that God is in no way dependent on his creatures for happiness, but that his enjoyment consists in outpouring his own good to his vast family.
No one can read that essay without perceiving that, though disconnected passages may make a different impression, the above is a correct statement of the doctrine of that dissertation.
It is supposed that this view has been assented to by most of those American and European theologians who most strenuously defend the Augustinian system.
The end or design of mind being ascertained, its right mode of action is thus determined. Accordingly we shall find that the great New England divines and metaphysicians, though they use different language, [pg 205] all express the same idea in defining true virtue or holiness.
Thus President Edwards taught, as his son states, that
“Every voluntary action which, in its general tendency and ultimate consequence, leads to happiness—happiness in general—happiness on the largest scale—is virtuous; and every such action which has not this tendency, and does not lead to this consequence, is vicious.”