This does not imply that the sinful conduct of man is what is desired or intended by the Creator—nor does it imply that sin was desired or intended by God as the “necessary means to the greatest good.” Instead of this, it is clear that if it had been possible—i.e., if God had the power—to create all minds with all the knowledge and all the motives that would secure perfect obedience to law from all the race of Adam, there would have been more happiness. The universal obedience of all free agents to all God's laws for making happiness on the greatest possible scale, would secure perfect happiness to all, while every act of disobedience would lessen the amount. To deny this is the same as saying that less happiness is more than the most happiness, which is absurd.
The result is, that sin is not the fault of the Creator, but is the inevitable result of the commencement of finite, ignorant, inexperienced minds, and is what neither God nor man could prevent, in a perfect system of finite, free agents.
At the same time, it is the fault of all free agents who sin when they have adequate knowledge and [pg 208] motives. And it is only sins against known law and appropriate motives which are the proper subject of penalties in addition to the natural consequences of wrong doing.
It is claimed, therefore, that when theologians teach—as all do—that “God orders all things for the best,” they really teach, in another form, the common-sense doctrine as stated above.
Having gained the teachings of leading theologians as to the nature of true virtue or right voluntary action, we also gain their definition of wrong moral action, or sin. In the words of President Edwards, “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,” or sinful.
That is to say, every volition that tends to lessen the general happiness, is vicious or sinful, and every violation of God's physical, social and moral laws, has this tendency. Thus the Bible definition of sin is the one accepted by theologians—i.e., “sin is the transgression of law,” without reference to the question whether the law is known or not. True virtue is voluntary obedience to law, and sin is the voluntary transgression of law. These definitions then are a part of the Augustinian system as much as they are of the common-sense system.
The next point of the common-sense system taught by theologians, is that our moral power to obey God—i.e., power to choose according to law instead of impulse—is proportioned to our knowledge of law, [pg 209] and the motives of fear, hope, love and gratitude, as they are employed by God and man.
This doctrine is taught by all theologians, except those who hold that the sin of Adam so ruined the human mind, that there is no power of any kind to obey God, except as he gives new capacities. No quotations will be given to establish this point, because, it is believed, that no one will question it.
No quotations are needed to show that the Augustinian creeds and theologians agree with the common-sense system, in teaching that the soul is immortal—that our destiny in a future state depends on our conduct in this life—that there is to be an eternal separation of the righteous and the wicked, whose immortality will be happy or miserable according to their characters.