SICKNESS OF MR. EDWARDS—“GODS LAST END IN CREATION”—“NATURE OF VIRTUE”—MR. EDWARDS SECOND SON RESIDES AT ONOHQUAUGA—DANGERS OF THE WAR—LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE—LETTER TO COL. WILLIAMS—LORD KAIMES—LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE—LETTER TO MR. M’CULLOCH—LETTER OF DR. BELLAMY—“TREATISE ON ORIGINAL SIN”—LETTER TO HIS FATHER—LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE.
In July, 1754, Mr. Edwards had a most severe attack of the ague and fever, which lasted until January. It wholly disqualified him from writing even to his correspondents, and greatly enfeebled his constitution. In the course of the spring following, he began the preparation of two other treatises, which were entitled, “A Dissertation concerning the End for which God created the World;” and “A Dissertation concerning the Nature of True Virtue.” These two subjects are fundamental in a system of theology. On the first, many writers had hazarded occasional remarks; yet it has rarely occupied the space even of a chapter or a section in theological systems; and I know not whether any writer before Mr. Edwards had made it the subject of a formal and separate treatise. From the purest principles of reason, as well as from the fountain of revealed truth, he demonstrates that the chief and ultimate end of the Supreme Being, in the works of creation and providence, was the manifestation of his own glory, in the highest happiness of his creatures. The treatise was left by the author, as at first written, without being prepared for the press; yet it exhibits the subject in a manner so clear and convincing, that it has been the manual of theologians from the time of its publication to the present.
The nature of virtue has been a frequent subject of discussion among ethical writers of almost every class, heathen, infidel, and Christian. Aristotle, and other ancient moralists, supposed virtue to consist in avoiding extremes, and in following the mean in everything. Others of the ancients defined virtue to be living according to nature. Balguy and Doddridge represent it as consisting in acting agreeably to the moral fitness of things. Wollaston places it in regard to truth. Hutcheson defines it to be ” a quality apprehended in some actions which produces approbation and love towards the actor, from those who receive no benefit from the action. Many writers, ancient and modern, have placed virtue in imitation of God; and many others in obedience to the will of God. Waterland, Rutherforth, and (John) Brown, have placed it in a wise regard to our own interest. Bishop Butler says, that “a due concern about our own interest or happiness, and a reasonable endeavour to promote it, is virtue;” and that “benevolence, singly considered, is in no sort the whole of virtue.” Hume, who appears to have read several of the works or Edwards, and to have made use of them in accommodation to his own views, includes in his description of virtue, whatever is agreeable and useful to ourselves and others. Adam Smith refers it to the principal of sympathy. Paley, who read Edwards with care, defines virtue to be ”The doing good to mankind in Obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness.“ Cumberland, in his Laws of Nature, justly regards it as consisting in the love of God, and of our fellow-creatures, and explains himself thus, “The foundation of all natural law is the greatest benevolence of every rational agent towards all.
Mr. Edwards represents virtue as founded in happiness; and as being love to the greatest happiness, or love to the happiness of universal being. He describes it, as leading its possessor to desire, and to promote, as far as in him lies, the happiness of all beings, and a greater degree of happiness in preference to a less. His account of the subject is in exact accordance with the decision of reason. Happiness is the end, for which intelligent beings were made, the perfection of their existence; and therefore virtue, or moral excellence, must be love to that happiness. It is also in exact accordance with the Scriptures. The sum of our duty is unquestionably virtue. But Moses sums up our duty in two commands, ”Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart“ and ”Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:” in other words, Thou shalt love the happiness of universal being.
When the Scriptures had so plainly pointed out the nature of virtue, as consisting in love; and its foundation, as being happiness; it is not a little remarkable, that so many acute writers, with the Scriptures in their hands, should have formed views either so obscure, or so erroneous, of these subjects; and, perhaps not less remarkable, that Mr. Edwards should have been able to discover its true nature, and its real foundation, at a very early age, as clearly as he did in after-life. That this was the case, no one will want evidence, who reads the various articles under the head of Excellency, particularly the last, in the Notes on the Mind 1 .