THEOLOGY. 287 the increasing distinctness of ideas, or enlightenment, or wisdom, raises the impulse to transitory, sensuous pleasure into an impulse to permanent delight in our spiritual perfec- tion, or toward happiness, while, further, it opens up an insight into the connection of all beings and the harmony of the world, in virtue of which the virtuous man will seek to promote the perfection and happiness of others as well as his own, i. c, will love them, for to love is to find pleasure in the happiness of others. To promote the good of all, again, is the same as to contribute one's share to the world-
harmony and to co-operate in the fulfillment of God's pur- poses. Probity and piety are the same. They form the highest of the three grades of natural right, which Leibnitz distinguishes as Jus strictum (mere right, with the principle : Injure no one), cEquitas (equity or charity, with the maxim: To each his due), and probitas sive pietas (honorableness joined with religion, according to the command : Lead an upright and morally pure life). They may also be desig- nated as commutative, distributive, and universal justice. Belief in God and immortality is a condition of the last. 4. Theology and Theodicy. God is the ground and the end of the world. All beings strive toward him, as all came out from him. In man the general striving toward the most perfect Being rises into conscious love to God, which is conditioned by the knowl- edge of God and produces virtuous action as its effect. Enlightenment and virtue are the essential constituents of religion ; all else, as cultus and dogma, have only a derivative value. Religious ceremonies are an imperfect expression of the practical element in piety, as the doctrines of faith are a weak imitation of the theoretical. It is a direct contradiction of the intention of the Divine Teacher when occult formulas and ceremonies, which have no connection with virtue, are made the chief thing. The points in which the creeds agree are more important than those by which they are differentiated. Natural religion has found its most perfect expression in Christianity, although paganism and Judaism had also grasped portions of the truth. Salva-
