ing. He conceives, therefore, of virtue, or
moral beauty, as consisting in the cordial agreement or consent to
intelligent being. He defines it as benevolence (good-will), or rather
as a disposition to benevolence, towards being in general. This
disposition, he argues, has no regard primarily to beauty in the
object, nor is it primarily based on gratitude. Its first object is
being, "simply considered," and it is accordingly proportioned, other
things being equal, to the object's "degree of existence." He admits,
however, benevolent being as a second object, on the ground that such
an object, having a like virtuous propensity, "is, as it were,
enlarged, extends to, and in some sort comprehends being in general."
In brief, since God is the "being of beings" and comprehends, in the
fullest extent, benevolent consent to being in general, true virtue
consists essentially in a supreme love to God. Thus the principle of
virtue--Edwards has nothing to say of "morality"--is identical with
the principle of religion. From this standpoint Edwards combats every
lower view. He will not admit that there is any evidence of true
virtue in the approbation of virtue and hatred of vice, in the
workings of conscience or in the exercises of the natural affections;
he thinks that these may all spring from self-love and the association
of ideas, from "instinct" or from a "moral sense of a secondary kind"
entirely different from "a sense or relish of the essential beauty of
true virtue." Nor does he recognize the possibility of a natural
development of true virtue out of the sentiments directed on the
"private systems"; on the contrary, he sets the love of particular
being, when not subordinated to being in general, in opposition to the
latter and as equivalent to treating it with the greatest contempt.
All that he allows is that the perception of natural beauty may, by
its resemblance to the primary spiritual beauty, quicken the
disposition to divine love in those who are already under the
influence of a truly virtuous temper.

Closely connected with the essay on Virtue is the boldly speculative
_Dissertation on the End for which God Created the World_. As,
according to the doctrine of virtue, God's virtue consists primarily
in love to Himself, so His final end in creation is conceived to be,
not as the Arminians held, the happiness of His creatures, but His
own glory. Ed