It has been shown that a choice or act is virtuous in all relations, when it absolutely is best for all, and when it is done in reference to a rule of rectitude, or because it is right. The motive or reason of a choice decides whether or not it is virtuous.
Now as the Creator's will and the rules of rectitude are the same, when we say that any act, in order to be virtuous, must have reference to God's will, the question comes up, is an act virtuous because it pleases God, or does it please God because it is virtuous? i.e., [pg 156] because it conforms to those rules by which his chief end in creation is secured, and which rest on the eternal nature of things.
The last is the principle here assumed. God's great end is the highest happiness of his creatures. Obedience to his laws is the mode for securing this end; his own actions are right as they conform to this end; and the actions of all his creatures are right only in the same relation.
So God's “glory” consists in the highest happiness of his creatures, which can only be secured by their obedience to his laws.
This makes it clear that choosing as our chief end to obey all the physical, social, and moral laws of God, as learned by experience, is the same as loving God with all the heart, and our neighbors as ourselves. It is also living for God's glory as the chief end; and it is being a truly righteous, virtuous, and pious man.
This distinction between voluntary and involuntary love enables us to discover certain dangers that result for want of such discrimination. Men may conceive of the Creator as desiring to be loved, admired, and glorified, just as selfish conquerors, like Alexander and Napoleon have done. In this view all their aims would be to excite agreeable emotions toward God by the contemplation of his various attributes. And thus they might be so absorbed in the indulgence of such delightful emotions as to become entirely heedless of the wants and the wishes of those around them. This kind of experience would cultivate selfishness instead of benevolence.
On the contrary, choosing to obey all God's laws for happiness-making on the largest scale, and viewing [pg 157] the lovely and glorious attributes of the Creator as means to this end, would induce the only true virtue, while it is the true mode of pleasing our Maker and increasing his enjoyment.
The preceding furnishes the mode of harmonizing a great variety of expressions that may properly be given in answer to the great question, “what must we do to be saved?” as we gain this answer independently of revelation.
The first answer is, “believe in God's teachings—or have faith in God.” This means, take the laws of God as revealed by reason and experience, and obey them, and you shall be saved. It is a practical and not a mere intellectual belief that constitutes this “saving faith.”
The next answer is, “repent,” or “repentance toward God.”