Here let it be noted that President Edwards expressly teaches that it is not voluntary happiness-making, irrespective of the amount, that constitutes virtue; but it is “happiness in general—happiness on the largest scale.” This corresponds exactly with the common-sense system, demanding that happiness-making be on the greatest possible scale, and in order to this, it must be according to law or rules.
Dr. Dwight, whose system of theology is accepted as the most satisfactory exposition of the new school Calvinistic views, teaches that
“True virtue is the love of doing good, or the love of promoting happiness. Its excellence consists in this, that it is the voluntaryand only source of happiness in the universe. God wills our happiness; it is, therefore, right, it is virtuous in us, to seek to promote it both here and hereafter.”
In this case, the language of Dr. Dwight is not so discriminating and clear as that of President Edwards—for he does not show so clearly as does President Edwards that his real meaning is voluntary happiness-making on the largest scale. In this, and all the following quotations from other writers, it is a fact, as gained by their combined expressions, that the distinction [pg 206] made by President Edwards was accepted, and that by the “love of doing good,” or the “love of promoting happiness,” is intended that voluntary love or good willing which seeks not merely some good, but the best good of all.
Dr. Taylor, the distinguished successor of Dr. Dwight, teaches the same doctrine, as is so abundantly manifest in his published writings, that no quotations will be deemed needful.
The Westminster Assembly's Catechism teaches that
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.”
The glory of God can be secured only by true virtue in himself and in his creatures; and if this consists in voluntary happiness-making on the greatest possible scale, then the chief end of man, as taught in that old standard of orthodoxy, is exactly the same as is taught in the system of common sense. Man is to make happiness on the greatest possible scale, guided by the laws of God—and thus doing, he will “glorify God and enjoy him for ever.”
The same theologians also teach that the laws of God are our guide as to what is good and evil, and that true virtue, or right action, is secured only by obeying these laws. They hold, therefore, the doctrine of common sense, that all true virtue consists in voluntary obedience to the will of God as manifested in his natural and revealed laws.
The next point of agreement is in the proposition, that God always has, and always will do what is “for the best”—so that it always is and will be, out of his power [pg 207] to do better—inasmuch as to do better than best, is a contradiction and absurdity. Every theologian, in one form of words or another, maintains that God always has done, and always will do, the best he can, so that he has no power to do better. This being so, it is the same as teaching that the past, present and future existence of sin and misery, is what is inevitable in the best system which God has power to create, so that any change in God's plans, laws, and their results, would imply an act of folly and malevolence on his part.