RELIGIOUS AFFECTIONS
JONATHAN EDWARDS
I.
It is no sign one way or the other, that religious affections are very great,
or raised very high.
Some are ready to condemn all high affections: if
persons appear to have their religious affections
raised to an extraordinary pitch, they are prejudiced against
them, and determine that they are delusions, without further inquiry. But if
it be, as has been proved, that true religion lies very much in religious
affections, then it follows, that if there be a great deal of true religion,
there will be great religious affections; if true religion in the hearts of
men be raised to a great height, divine and holy affections will be raised to
a great height.
Love is an
affection, but will any Christian say, men ought not to love God and Jesus
Christ in a high degree? And will any say, we ought not to have a very great
hatred of sin, and a very deep sorrow for it? Or that we ought not to exercise
a high degree of gratitude to God for the mercies we receive of him, and the
great things he has done for the salvation of fallen men? Or that we should
not have very great and strong desires after God and holiness? Is there any
who will profess, that his affections in religion are great enough; and will
say, "I have no cause to be humbled, that I am no more affected with the
things of religion than I am; I have no reason to be ashamed, that I have no
greater exercises of love to God and sorrow for sin, and gratitude for the
mercies which I have received?" Who is there that will bless God that he
is affected enough with what he has read and heard of the wonderful love of
God to worms and rebels, in giving his only begotten Son to die for them, and
of the dying love of Christ; and will pray that he may not be affected with
them in any higher degree, because high affections are improper and very
unlovely in Christians, being enthusiastical, and ruinous to true religion?
Our text plainly
speaks of great and high affections when it speaks of "repining with joy
unspeakable, and full of glory:" here the most superlative expressions
are used, which language will afford. And the Scriptures often require us to
exercise very high affections: thus in the first and great commandment of the
law, there is an accumulation of expressions, as though words were wanting to
express the degree in which we ought to love God: "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and
with all thy strength." So the saints are called upon to exercise high
degrees of joy: "Rejoice," says Christ to his disciples, "and
be exceeding glad," Matt.
5:12
. So it is said, Psalm 68:3, "Let the righteous be glad: let them rejoice
before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice." So in the book of Psalms,
the saints are often called upon to shout for joy; and in Luke 6:23, to leap
for joy. So they are abundantly called upon to exercise high degrees of
gratitude for mercies, to "praise God with all their hearts, with hearts
lifted up in the ways of the Lord, and their souls magnifying the Lord,
singing his praises, talking of his wondrous works, declaring his doings,
&c."
And we find the
most eminent saints in Scripture often professing high affections. Thus the
Psalmist speaks of his love, as if it were unspeakable; Psal. 119:97, "O
how love I thy law!" So he expresses a great degree of hatred of sin,
Psal. 139:21, 29: "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not
I grieved with them that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect
hatred." He also expresses a high degree of sorrow for sin: he speaks of
his sins "going over his head as a heavy burden that was too heavy for
him: and of his roaring all the day, and his moisture being turned into the
drought of summer," and his bones being as it were broken with sorrow. So
he often expresses great degrees of spiritual desires, in a multitude of the
strongest expressions which can be conceived of; such as "his longing,
his soul's thirsting as a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, his
panting, his flesh and heart crying out, his soul's breaking for the longing
it hath," &c. He expresses the exercises of great and extreme grief
for the sins of others, Psal. 119:136, "Rivers of water run down mine
eyes, because they keep not thy law." And verse 53, "Horror hath
taken hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law." He
expresses high exercises of joy, Psal. 21:1: "The king shall joy in thy
strength, and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice." Psal. 71:23
"My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee." Psal. 63:3,
4, 5, 6, 7, "Because thy loving kindness is better than life; my lips
shall praise thee, Thus will I bless thee, while I live: I will lift up my
hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and
my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember thee upon my bed,
and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help;
therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice."
The Apostle Paul
expresses high exercises of affection. Thus he expresses the exercises of pity
and concern for others' good, even to anguish of heart; a great, fervent, and
abundant love, and earnest and longing desires, and exceeding joy; and speaks
of the exultation and triumphs of his soul, and his earnest expectation and
hope, and his abundant tears, and the travails of his soul, in pity, grief,
earnest desires, godly jealousy, and fervent zeal, in many places that have
been cited already, and which therefore I need not repeat. John the Baptist
expressed great joy, John 3:39. Those blessed women that anointed the body of
Jesus, are represented as in a very high exercise of religious affection, on
occasion of Christ's resurrection, Matt. 28:8: "And they departed from
the sepulchre with fear and great joy."
It is often
foretold of the church of God, in her future happy seasons here on earth, that
they shall exceedingly rejoice: Psal. 89:15, 16, "They shall walk, O
Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the
day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted." Zech. 9:9,
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:
behold thy King cometh," &c. The same is represented in innumerable
other places. And because high degrees of joy are the proper and genuine
fruits of the gospel of Christ, therefore the angel calls this gospel,
"good tidings of great joy, that should be to all people."
The saints and
angels in heaven, that have religion in its highest perfection, are
exceedingly affected with what they behold and contemplate of God's
perfections and works. They are all as a pure heavenly flame of fire in their
love and in the greatness and strength of their joy and gratitude: their
praises are represented, "as the voice of many waters and as the voice of
a great thunder." Now the only reason why their affections are so much
higher than the holy affections of saints on earth, is, they see the things
they are affected by, more according to their truth, and have their affections
more conformed to the nature of things. And therefore, if religious affections
in men here below, are but of the same nature and kind with theirs, the higher
they are, and the nearer they are to theirs in degree, the better, because
therein they will be so much the more conformed to truth, as theirs are.
From these things
it certainly appears, that religious affections being in a very high degree,
is no evidence that they are not such as have the nature of true religion.
Therefore they do greatly err, who condemn persons as enthusiasts merely
because their affections are very high.
And on the other
hand, it is no evidence that religious affections are of a spiritual and
gracious nature, because they are great. It is very manifest by the holy
Scripture, our sure and infallible rule to judge of things of this nature,
that there are religious affections which are very high, that are not
spiritual and saving. The Apostle Paul speaks of affections in the Galatians,
which had been exceedingly elevated, and which yet he manifestly speaks of, as
fearing that they were vain, and had come to nothing: Gal. 4:15, "Where
is the blessedness you spoke of? For I bear you record, that if it had been
possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to
me." And in the 11th verse, he tells them, "he was afraid of them,
lest he had bestowed upon them labour in vain." So the children of Israel
were greatly affected with God's mercy to them, when they had seen how
wonderfully he wrought for them at the Red Sea, where they sang God's praise;
though they soon forgot his works. So they were greatly affected again at
mount Sinai, when they saw the marvellous manifestations God made of himself
there; and seemed mightily engaged in their minds, and with great forwardness
made answer, when God proposed his holy covenant to them, saying, "All
that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient." But how soon was
there an end to all this mighty forwardness and engagedness of affection! How
quickly were they turned aside after other gods, rejoicing and shouting around
their golden calf! So great multitudes who were affected with the miracle of
raising Lazarus from the dead, were elevated to a high degree, and made a
mighty ado, when Jesus presently after entered into Jerusalem, exceedingly
magnifying Christ, as though the ground were not good enough for the ass he
rode to tread upon; and therefore cut branches of palm trees, and strewed them
in the way; yea, pulled off their garments, and spread them in the way; and
cried with loud voices, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest;" so as to make
the whole city ring again, and put all into an uproar. We learn by the
evangelist John, that the reason why the people made this ado, was because
they were affected with the miracle of raising Lazarus, John 12:18. Here was a
vast multitude crying Hosanna on this occasion, so that it gave occasion to
the Pharisees to say, "Behold, the world has gone after him," John
12:19, but Christ had at that time but few true disciples. And how quickly was
this ado at an end! All of this nature is quelled and dead, when this Jesus
stands bound, with a mock robe and a crown of thorns, to be derided, spit
upon, scourged, condemned and executed. Indeed, there was a great and loud
outcry concerning him among the multitude then, as well as before; but of a
very different kind: it is not then, Hosanna, hosanna, but Crucify, crucify.
And it is the
concurring voice of all orthodox divines, that there may be religious
affections, which are raised to a very high degree, and yet there be nothing
of true religion.[1]
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