146 PART n. Ch. vm. — sen.
expedient ; or, if he should say that there is no difference between ]iohness and sin, we can only refer to our own consciousness and to the common consciousness of men, as contradicting his as- sertion. We know, therefore, from the very constitution of our nature that the right and the expedient are not identical ideas ; that the difference is essential and immutable. And we know from the same source, and with equal assurance or certainty, that happiness is not the highest good ; but on the contrary, that holi- ness is as much higher than happiness, as heaven is higher than the earth, or Christ than Epicurus. (2.) Tiiis theory is as much opposed to our religious, as it is to our moral nature. Our depend- ence is upon God ; our allegiance is to Him ; we are bound to do His will irrespective of all consequences ; and we are exalted and purified just in proportion as we are lost in Him, adoring his (Hvine perfections, seeking to promote his glory, and recognizing that in fact and of right all things are by Him, through Him, and for Him. According to this theory, however, our allegiance is to the universe of sentient beings. We are bound to promote their happiness. This is our highest and our only obligation. There can therefore be no religion in the proper sense of the word. Religion is the homage and allegiance of the soul to an infinitely perfect per- sonal Being, to whom we owe our existence, who is the source of all good, and for whom all things consist. To substitute the uni- verse for this Being, and to resolve all duty into the obligation to promote the happiness of the universe, is really to render all re- ligion impossible. The universe is not our God. It is not the uni- verse that we love ; it is not the universe that we adore ; it is not the universe that we fear. It is not the favour of the universe that is our life, nor is its disapprobation our death. (3.) As this theory is thus opposed to our moral and religious nature, it is evil in its practical effects. It is a proverb, a maxim founded on the nature of things and on universal experience, that the world is governed by ideas. It is doubtful whether history furnishes any more strik- ing illustration of the truth of this maxim than that furnished by the operation of the theory that all virtue is founded in expediency ; that holiness is that which tends to produce happiness. When the individual man adopts that principle, his whole inward and outward life is determined by it. Every question which comes up for de- cision, is answered, not by a reference to the law of God, or to the instincts of his moral nature, but by the calculations of expediency. And when a people come under the control of this theory they in- variably and of necessity become calculating. If happiness be the