N07809:444
Two dissertations, I. Concerning the end for which God created the world. II. The…
Two dissertations, I. Concerning the end for which God created the world. II. The nature of true virtue. / by the late Reverend, learned and pious Jonathan Edwards, A.M. president of the College in New-Jersey.
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland, 1765
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, THAT they don't arise from a principle of virtue.—A principle of virtue, I think, is owned by the most considerable of late writers on morality to be general benevolence or public affection: and I think it has been proved to be union of heart to Being simply considered; which implies a disposition to benevolence to Being in general. Now by the supposition, the affections we are speaking of do not arise from this principle; and that, whether we suppose they arise from self-love, or from particular instincts: because either of those sources is diverse from a principle of general benevolence. And,
First, THAT they don't arise from a principle of virtue.—A principle of virtue, I think, is own'd by the most considerable of late writers on morality to be general benevolence or public affection: and I think it has been proved to be union of heart to Being simply considered; which implies a disposition to benevolence to Being in general. Now by the supposition, the affections we are speaking of do not arise from this principle; and that, whether we suppose they arise from self-love, or from particular instincts: because either of those sources is diverse from a principle of general benevolence. And,
Secondly, THESE private affections, if they do not arise from general benevolence, & they are not connected with it in their first existence, have no tendency to produce it. This appears ⟨p. 171⟩from what has been observed: for being not dependent on it, their detached and unsubordinate operation rather tends to, and implies opposition to Being in general, than general benevolence; as every one sees and owns with respect to self-love. And there are the very same reasons why any other private affection, confined to limits infinitely short of universal existence, should have that influence, as well as love that is confined to a single person.—Now upon the whole, nothing can be plainer than that affections which don't arise from a virtuous principle, and have no tendency to true virtue, as their effect, cannot be of the nature of true virtue.