Jonathan Edwards Selected Shor (continued)
CHAPTER II. SHEWING WHEREIN ALL SAVING GRACE DOES SUMMARILY CONSIST.
THE next thing that arises for consideration is, What is the nature of this principle in the soul that is so entirely diverse from all that is naturally in the soul ? Here I would observe,—
1. That that saving grace that is in the hearts of the saints, that within them [which is] above nature, and entirely distinguishes 'em from all unconverted men, is radically but one—i.e., however various its exercises are, yet it is but one in its root; 'tis one individual principle in the heart.
'Tis common for us to speak of various graces of the Spirit of God as though they were so many different principles of holiness, and to call them by distinct names as such,—repentance, humility, resignation, thankfulness, &c. But we err if we imagine that these in their first source and root in the heart are properly distinct principles. They all come from the same fountain, and are, indeed, the various exertions and conditions of the same thing; only different denominations according to the various occasions, objects, and manners, attendants and circumstances of its exercise. There is some one holy principle in the heart that is the essence and sum of all grace, the root and source of all holy acts of every kind, and the fountain of every good stream, into which all Christian virtues may ultimately be resolved, and in which all duty and [all] holiness is fulfilled.
Thus the Scripture represents it. Grace in the soul is one fountain of water of life, (John iv. 14,) and not various distinct fountains. So God, in the work of Regeneration, implants one heavenly seed in the