409 
“ Iii the Divine nature, according to these authors, benevolence or love 
was the sole principle of action, and directed the exertion of all the other 
attributes. The wisdom of the Deity was employed in finding out the means 
for bringing about those ends which His goodness suggested, as His infinite 
power was exerted to execute them. Benevolence, however, was still the 
supreme and governing attribute, to which the others were subservient, and 
from which the whole excellency or the whole morality, if I may be allowed 
such an expression, of the Divine operations was ultimately derived. The 
whole perfection and virtue of the human mind consisted in some resem- 
blance or participation of the Divine perfections, and consequently in being 
filled with the same principles of benevolence and love which influenced all 
the actions of the Deity. The actions of men which flowed from this motive 
were alone truly praiseworthy, or could claim any merit in the sight of the 
Deity. It was by actions of charity and love only that we could imitate, as 
became us, the conduct of God ; that we could express our humble and 
devout admiration of His infinite perfections ; that by fostering in our own 
minds the same Divine principles, we could bring our affections to a greater 
resemblance with His holy attributes, and thereby become more'' proper 
objects of His love and esteem, till at last we arrived at that immediate 
converse and communication with the Deity to which it was the great object 
of this philosophy to raise us.”* 
In this beautiful passage I seem to find the very soul of 
New Testament teaching. Dr. Adam Smith proceeds: — 
“ This system, as it was much esteemed by many ancient Fathers of the 
Christian Church, so, after the Reformation, it was adopted by several divines 
of the most eminent piety and learning, and of the most amiable manners, 
particularly by Dr. Ralph Cud worth, by Dr. Henry More, and by Mr. John 
Smith, of Cambridge. But of all the patrons of this system, ancient or 
modern, the late Dr. Hutcheson was undoubtedly, beyond all comparison, 
the most acute, the most distinct, the most "philosophical, and, what is of the 
greatest consequence of all, the soberest and most judicious.”! 
The late Dr. Whewell has also said : — 
“ Since virtue or goodness must be a law and a disposition which binds 
man to man by the tie of a common humanity, and excludes all that operates 
merely to separate men, all affections which tend to introduce discord and 
conflict ; it excludes malice and anger, as we have said, and directs us to 
mildness and kindness. The absence of all the affections which place man 
in opposition to man, and the aggregate of all the affections by which man 
clings to man, may be expressed by the term benevolence , understood in its 
widest sense. ‘All these dispositions, Benevolence, Justice, Purity, and 
Order, may be conceived to be included in a love of goodness .’ ” % 
* Theory of Moral Sentiments , part vii. ch. iii. t Ibid . 
1 Elements of Morality , book ii. ch. ii. 
