Jonathan Edwards says that “love” is the main thing in justifying faith. In Charity and Its Fruits, Edwards writes, “love is an ingredient in true and living faith, and is what is most essential and distinguishing in it.” Again, Edwards says, “All saving faith and hope have love in them as ingredients, and as their essence; and if this ingredient is taken out, there is nothing left but the body without the spirit. It is nothing saving, but is at best only a common fruit of the Spirit.”
When Edwards places love interior to the nature of faith, some have accused him of departing from the Reformed tradition. Instead, some say, Edwards is more Roman Catholic than Reformed. However, this paper demonstrates that the particular way Edwards defines love and places it within the nature of faith is consistent with the preceding tradition.
In the end, for Edwards, the love interior to faith is defined as a “disposition or affection by which one is dear to another.” This dispositional element that Edwards links to faith finds numerous points of contact with the Reformed authors preceding him.