92SermonsofJonathanEdwards (continued)
those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?" (Jam. 2:15, 16.)
Experience shows, that those who cherish a sincere love toward others, are ready both to do and suffer for them. We are very ready to believe that parents love their own children, because this is natural; and such a love generally prevails throughout the world. But, incredible as it is that a man should not love his own children, yet, if there was a father that beheld his child in suffering circumstances, and would not put himself out of the way to relieve him, or that did not ordinarily treat his children with consideration and kindness, but acted from day to day as though he were utterly careless of their comfort, or as to what became of them, we should scarcely believe that he had anything of a father's love in his heart. Love to our children will dispose us to loving deeds to our children. And so love to our neighbor will dispose us to all manner of good practice toward our neighbor. So the apostle declares, when, after summing up the several commandments of the second table of the law, he says, "And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" and then adds, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:9, 10). Once more, and lastly, the same remark applies,
9. To a true and gracious hope, that this also tends to holy practice. — A false hope has a tendency just the reverse of this. It tends to licentiousness — to encourage men in their sinful desires and lusts, and to flatter and embolden them even when they are in the way of evil. But a true hope, so far from hardening men in sin, and making them careless of their duty, tends to stir them up to holiness of life, to awaken them to duty, and to make them more careful to avoid sin, and more diligent in serving God. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3). A gracious hope has this tendency, from the nature of the happiness hoped for, which is a holy happiness; a happiness that the more a man seeks and hopes for, the more he is quickened and enlivened in the