 God, though, “is infinitely the greatest being,” and “infinitely the most beautiful and excellent.” True virtue thus principally consists “in a supreme love to God, both of benevolence and complacence” (True Virtue, 1765; Edwards 1957–, vol. 8, 550–51). It follows that “a determination of mind to union and benevolence to a particular person or private system [whether one's self, one's family, one's nation, or even humanity], which is but a small part of the universal system of being…is not of the nature of true virtue” unless it is dependent on or “subordinate to, benevolence to Being in general” (True Virtue, 1765; Edwards 1957–, vol. 8, 554).