Jonathan Edwards on Spiritual Warfare

This portion of a Jonathan Edwards's sermon is taken from the book Charity and Its Fruits

There are many things which do greatly oppose the grace which is in the heart of a Christian. This holy principle has innumerable enemies, as it were, constantly watching and warring against it. The Christian is encompassed around with enemies on every side. Being a pilgrim and a stranger in the earth he is, as it were, in an enemy's country. There are thousands of devils that are bitter enemies to the grace which is in the heart of a Christian, and do all in their power against it. And the world is an enemy to it. It abounds with persons and things that make opposition to it. And the Christian not only has many enemies without, but multitudes within his own breast which he carries about with him, and of which he cannot divest himself; many corruptions which have footing in his heart, which are the worst enemies of grace, and are under the greatest advantages of any in their warfare against it. Those enemies are not only many but exceedingly strong and powerful, and bitter in their enmity, implacable, irreconcilable, mortal enemies, seeking nothing but the utter ruin and overthrow of grace. And they are unwearied in their opposition. So that the Christian, while he remains in this world, is represented as being in a state of war; his business is the business of a soldier. Many are the powerful and violent assaults which the enemies of grace make upon it; they are not only constantly besieging it, but sometimes they assault it as a city which they would take by storm. They are always lurking and watching advantages against it, but sometimes they rise up in a dreadful rage against it. Sometimes one enemy, and sometimes another, and sometimes all together with one consent besetting it on every side, covering it like a flood, ready to overwhelm it and as though they would swallow it at once. Sometimes grace in the midst of the violent opposition of its enemies, besetting it with united strength, is like a spark of fire encompassed with swelling billows, or raging waves, which appear as if they would swallow it up and extinguish it in a moment. Or like a jewel of gold in the midst of a furnace of raging heat, enough to consume anything but pure gold, which is of that nature that it will not consume in the fire.

Jonathan Edwards on Grace at Conversion

Jonathan Edwards is preaching in this sermon about how all the spiritual gifts are interrelated.

A convert at the same moment that he is become such is possessed of all holy principles, all gracious dispositions. There is a seed of every kind of holy behavior towards God, and towards men. There are as many graces in a true Christian as there are in Jesus Christ himself; which is what the evangelist John means in John 1:14-16, "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us....and of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." And it cannot be otherwise; for they are renewed after Christ's image, as Colossians 3:10, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created them. But that is no true image or picture of another which has some parts wanting. An exact image has part answerable to part; the copy answers the original throughout in all parts, though it may be an obscure image, and not represent any part perfectly, as grace answers to grace. Grace in the soul is a reflection of Christ's glory. It is a reflection of his glory, as the image of a man is reflected from a glass which exhibits part for part (2 Cor. 3:18)

(pp. 245-246, Charity and its Gifts)
Edwards is talking about how the Christian is fully equipped at his conversion with all the spiritual gifts and character to live as a Christian for God. Edwards later on in the sermon compares a Christian conversion to a birth. A healthy baby has all the basic parts of a full grown adult. It just needs to grow and be nourished. Since we have the Holy Spirit within us, God is fully in us. We have all the grace we'll ever need at birth, we just have to grow into it.

Piper quoted Jonathan Edwards on the Beauty of Holiness

The Desiring God National Conference was very good. However, I underestimated the richness of John Piper's quote of Jonathan Edwards on sanctification. Piper did preface the long quotation by talking about how amazing it was, but I needed to read it to get the full effect. Read and drink deeply.

We drink in strange notions of holiness from our childhood, as if it were a melancholy, morose, sour, and unpleasant thing; but there is nothing in it but what is sweet and ravishingly lovely. ‘Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above all other beauties. ‘Tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly and far purer than anything here on earth. . . . ‘Tis of a sweet, pleasant, charming, lovely, amiable, delightful, serene, calm, and still nature. ‘Tis almost too high a beauty for any creatures to be adorned with; it makes the soul a little, sweet, and delightful image of the blessed Jehovah.
Oh, how may angels stand, with pleased, delighted, and charmed eyes, and look and look, with smiles of pleasure upon their lips, upon that soul that is holy; how may they hover over such a soul, to delight to behold such loveliness! . . . What a sweet calmness, what a calm ecstasy, doth it bring to the soul! How doth it make the soul love itself; how doth it make the pure invisible world love it; yea, how doth God love it and delight in it; how do even the whole creation, the sun, the fields, and trees love a humble holiness; how doth all the world congratulate, embrace, and sing to a sanctified soul! . . .
It makes the soul like a delightful field or garden planted by God . . . where the sun is Jesus Christ; the blessed beams and calm breeze, the Holy Spirit; the sweet and delightful flowers, and the pleasant shrill music of the little birds, are the Christian graces.
Or like the little white flower: pure, unspotted, and undefiled, low and humble, pleasing and harmless; receiving the beams, the pleasant beams of the serene sun, gently moved and a little shaken by a sweet breeze, rejoicing as it were in a calm rapture, diffusing around [a] most delightful fragrancy, standing most peacefully and lovingly in the midst of the other like flowers round about.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/act-the-miracle-future-grace-the-word-of-the-cross-and-the-purifying-power-of-god-s-promises

Jonathan Edwards on Hope and Holy Practice

Jonathan Edwards preaching on 1 Corinthians 13:6.

It is so also with a true and gracious hope. This also tends to holy practice. A false hope has a tendency which is the reverse. It tends to licentiousness, to encourage men's lusts, and flatter and embolden them in sin. But a true hope not only does not tend to harden men in sin, and make them more careless of their duty, but it tends to stir them up to holiness of life, to quicken them to duty, to make them more careful to avoid sin, and more diligent and strict 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. The happiness which a gracious person wishes is that which consists in holiness. But the more a man seeks and the more he hopes for such a happiness, which consists in holiness, the more does it quicken and enliven a disposition to holiness. And it also has this tendency from the respect it has to the Author of the happiness hoped for; it hopes for it from God, as the fruit of his undeserved and infinite mercy; and therefore it stirs up thankfulness, and engages the heart to seek what to render for such a wonderful benefit promised. It has also this tendency by its regard to the means by which it hopes to obtain it. A true hope hopes to obtain happiness in no way but the way of the gospel, which is by a holy Savior and in a way of cleaving to and following him. It has also this tendency by the influence of that which is the immediate source of a gracious hope, which is faith in Jesus Christ; for a true Christian hope is the immediate fruit of faith. But faith tends to practice and works by love, as has been already shown.

Charity and Its Fruits, p. 219