CHARITY AND ITS FRUITS
CHRISTIAN LOVE AS MANIFESTED
IN THE HEART AND LIFE
By JONATHAN EDWARDS
Charity and Its Fruits
By Jonathan Edwards
Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7148-4
eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7149-1
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Cover Image: a detail of an engraving of Jonathan Edwards by R. Babson & J. Andrews, from “The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution,” published by Durrie and Peck, New Haven, c. 1855.
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CONTENTS
LECTURE I. CHARITY, OR LOVE, THE SUM OF ALL VIRTUE
LECTURE II. CHARITY MORE EXCELLENT THAN THE EXTRAORDINARY GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT
LECTURE III. THE GREATEST PERFORMANCES OR SUFFERINGS IN VAIN WITHOUT CHARITY
LECTURE IV. CHARITY DISPOSES US MEEKLY TO BEAR THE INJURIES RECEIVED FROM OTHERS
LECTURE V. CHARITY DISPOSES US TO DO GOOD
LECTURE VI. CHARITY INCONSISTENT WITH AN ENVIOUS SPIRIT
LECTURE VII. THE SPIRIT OF CHARITY IS A HUMBLE SPIRIT
LECTURE VIII. THE SPIRIT OF CHARITY THE OPPOSITE OF A SELFISH SPIRIT
LECTURE IX. THE SPIRIT OF CHARITY THE OPPOSITE OF AN ANGRY OR WRATHFUL SPIRIT
LECTURE X. THE SPIRIT OF CHARITY THE OPPOSITE OF A CENSORIOUS SPIRIT
LECTURE XI. ALL TRUE GRACE IN THE HEART TENDS TO HOLY PRACTICE IN THE LIFE
LECTURE XII. CHARITY, OR A CHRISTIAN SPIRIT, WILLING TO UNDERGO ALL SUFFERINGS IN THE WAY OF DUTY
LECTURE XIII. ALL THE GRACES OF CHRISTIANITY CONNECTED
LECTURE XIV. CHARITY, OR TRUE GRACE, NOT TO BE OVERTHROWN BY OPPOSITION
LECTURE XV. THE HOLY SPIRIT FOREVER TO BE COMMUNICATED TO THE SAINTS, IN THE GRACE OF CHARITY, OR DIVINE LOVE
LECTURE XVI. HEAVEN, A WORLD OF CHARITY OR LOVE
Introduction
Perhaps no person ever lived who so habitually and carefully committed his thoughts, on almost every subject, to writing, as the elder PRESIDENT EDWARDS. His ordinary studies were pursued pen in hand, and with his notebooks before him; and he not only often stopped, in his daily rides, by the wayside, but frequently rose even at midnight, to commit to paper any important thought that had occurred to him.
As the result of this habit, his manuscripts are probably more thoroughly the record of the intellectual life of their author, than those of any other individual who has a name in either the theological or literary world. These manuscripts are also very numerous The seventeenth century was an age of voluminous authorship. The works of Bishop Hall to ten volumes octavo; Lightfoot’s, to thirteen; Jeremy Taylor’s, to fifteen; Dr. Goodwin’s, to twenty; Owen’s, to twenty-eight; while Baxter’s would extend to some sixty volumes, or from thirty to forty thousand closely-printed octavo pages. The manuscripts of Edwards, if all published, would be more voluminous than the works of any of these writers, if, possibly, the last be excepted. And these manuscripts have been carefully preserved and kept together and about three years since were committed to the Editor of this work, as sole permanent trustee, by all the then surviving grandchildren of their author.
Included in these manuscripts are various papers, of great interest and value, that have never been given to the public, among which are the Lectures contained in this volume. These Lectures were first preached by Mr. Edwards in 1738, in a series of sermons to the people of his charge in Northampton, and were apparently designed by himself for publication; for they were written out in full, and soon after they were completed, he began his discourses on the “History of Redemption,” which, it is known, he intended should be published. After his death they were selected for publication by Dr. Hopkins and Dr. Bellamy; and by the latter were in part copied out and prepared for the press, when, for some reason, he was interrupted in their preparation, so that now, for the first time, they are given to the public.
The subject of these Lectures is eminently practical and important. LOVE is the first outgoing of the renewed soul to God—“We love him, because he first loved us.” It is the sure evidence of a saving work of grace in the soul—“The fruit of the Spirit is love.” It lies at the very foundation of Christian character; we are: rooted and grounded in love.” It is the path in which All the true children of God are found; they “walk in love”—the bond of their mutual union; their hearts are “knit together in love”—their protection in the spiritual warfare; they are to put on “the breastplate of love.”—the fullness and completeness of their Christian character; they are “made perfect in love”—the spirit through which they may fulfill all the Divine acquirements; for “love is the fulfilling of the law;” that by which they may become like their Father in heaven, and fitted for his presence; for “God is love,” and Heaven is a world of LOVE.
As to the character of the Lectures, it is sufficient in a word to say, that they are marked throughout by that strong and clear thought, those broad and comprehensive views of truth, that thorough knowledge of human nature, and that accurate and familiar acquaintance with the Scriptures, which characterize
