92SermonsofJonathanEdwards (continued)
1. All the graces of Christianity always go together. — They so go together, that where there is one, there are all, and where one is wanting, all are wanting. Where there is faith, there are love, and hope, and humility; and where there is love, there is also trust; and where there is a holy trust in God, there is love to God; and where there is a gracious hope, there also is a holy fear of God. "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy" (Psa. 147:11). Where there is love to God, there is a gracious love to man;and where there is a Christian love to man, there is love to God. Hence we find that the apostle John at one time gives love to the brethren as a sign of love to God, saying, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar" (1 John 4:20); and then, again, speaks of love to God as a sign of love to the brethren, saying, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments" (1 John 5:2). It is also, true,
2. That the graces of Christianity depend upon one another. — There is not only a connection, whereby they are always joined together, but there is also a mutual dependence between them, so that one cannot be without the others. To deny one, would in effect be to deny another, and so all; just as to deny the cause would be to deny the effect, or to deny the effect would be to deny the cause. Faith promotes love, and love is the most effectual ingredient in a living faith. Love is dependent on faith; for a being cannot be truly loved, and especially loved above all other beings, who is not looked upon as a real being. And then love, again, enlarges and promotes faith, because we are more apt to believe and give credit to, and more disposed to trust in, those we love, than in those we do not. So faith begets hope, for faith sees and trusts in God's sufficiency to bestow blessings, and in his faithfulness to his promises, that he will do what he has said. All gracious hope is hope resting on faith; and hope encourages and draws forth acts of faith. And so love tends to hope, for the spirit of love is the spirit of a child, and the more anyone feels in himself this spirit toward God, the more natural it will be to him to look to God, and go to God as his father. This childlike spirit casts out the spirit of bondage and fear, and gives the Spirit of adoption, which is the spirit of confidence and hope. "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom 8:15); and the apostle John tells us "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear" (1 John 4:18). And so, again, a true and genuine hope tends greatly to promote love. When a Christian has most of a right hope of his interest in God's favor, and in those eternal blessings that are its fruits, this tends to draw forth the exercise of love, and oftentimes does draw it forth; as says the apostle Paul, "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed: because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts" (Rom. 5:3-5).
Faith, too, promotes humility; for the more entirely anyone depends on God's sufficiency, the more will it tend to a low sense of his own sufficiency. And so humility tends to promote faith; for the more anyone has an humble sense of his own insufficiency, the more will his heart be disposed to trust only on God, and to depend entirely on Christ. So love promotes humility; for the more the heart is ravished with God's loveliness, the more will it abhor itself, and abase and humble itself for its own unloveliness and vileness. Humility promotes love; for the more anyone has an humble sense of his own unworthiness, the more will he admire God's goodness to him, and the more will his heart be drawn out in love to him for his glorious grace. Love tends to repentance; for he that truly repents of sin, repents of it because it is committed against a being that he loves. And repentance tends to humility; for no one can be truly sorry for sin, and self-condemned in view of it, without being humbled in heart for it. So repentance, faith, and love, all tend to thankfulness. He that by faith trusts to Christ for salvation, will be thankful to him for salvation. He that loves God will be disposed thankfully to acknowledge his kindness. And he that repents of his sins will be disposed heartily to thank God for the grace that is sufficient to deliver him from their guilt and power. A true love to God tends to love to men who bear the image of God; and a spirit of love and peace toward men cherishes a spirit of love to God, as love to the image