Charity, or Love
14. Charity, or True Grace, Not to be Overthrown by Opposition
15. The Holy Spirit Forever to be Communicated to the Saints, in Charity, or Love
16. Heaven, A World of Love
All True Grace in the Heart
Summed up in Charity, or Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-3, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as counting brass, or a tinkling cymbal And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."
IN these words we observe First, that something is spoken of as of special importance, and as peculiarly essential in Christians, which the apostle calls CHARITY. And this charity, we find, is abundantly insisted on in the New Testament by Christ and his apostles,-more insisted on, indeed, than any other virtue.
But, then, the word "charity," as used in the New Testament, is of much more extensive signification than as it is used generally in common discourse. What persons very often mean by " charity," in their ordinary conversation, is a disposition to hope and think the best of others, and to put a good construction on their words and behaviour; and sometimes the word is used for a disposition to give to the poor. But these things are only certain particular branches, or