RELIGIOUS AFFECTIONS
JONATHAN EDWARDS
VIII.
Nothing can certainly be determined concerning the nature of the affections,
by this, that comforts and joys seem to follow awakenings and convictions of
conscience, in a certain order.
Many persons seem to be
prejudiced against affections and experiences that come in such a method, as
has been much insisted on by many divines; first, such awakenings, fears, and
awful apprehensions, followed with such legal humblings, in a sense of total
sinfulness and helplessness, and then, such and such light and comfort; they
look upon all such schemes, laying down such methods and steps, to be of men's
devising; and particularly if high affections of joy follow great distress and
terror, it is made by many an argument against those affections. But such
prejudices and objections are without reason or Scripture. Surely it cannot be
unreasonable to suppose, that before God delivers persons from a state of sin
and exposedness to eternal destruction, he should give them some considerable
sense of the evil he delivers from; that they may be delivered sensibly, and
understand their own salvation, and know something of what God does for them.
As men that are saved are in two exceeding different states, first a state of
condemnation, and then in a state of justification and blessedness: and as
God, in the work of the salvation of mankind, deals with them suitably to
their intelligent rational nature; so its seems reasonable, and agreeable to
God's wisdom, that men who are saved should be in these two states sensibly;
first, that they should, sensibly to themselves, be in a state of
condemnation, and so in a state of woeful calamity and dreadful misery, and so
afterwards in a state of deliverance and happiness; and that they should be
first sensible of their absolute extreme necessity, and afterwards of Christ's
sufficiency and God's mercy through him.
And that it is God's manner of
dealing with men, to "lead them into a wilderness, before he speaks
comfortably to them," and so to order it, that they shall be brought into
distress, and made to see their own helplessness and absolute dependence on
his power and grace, before he appears to work any great deliverance for them,
is abundantly manifest by the Scripture. Then is God wont to "repent
himself for his professing people, when their strength is gone, and there is
none shut up or left," and when they are brought to see that their false
gods cannot help them, and that the rock in whom they trusted is vain, Deut.
32:36, 37. Before God delivered the children of
Israel
out of
Egypt
, they were prepared
for it, by being made to "see that they were in an evil case," and
"to cry unto God, because of their hard bondage," Exod. 2:23, and
5:19
. And before God
wrought that great deliverance for them at the Red Sea, they were brought into
great distress, the wilderness had shut them in, they could not turn to the
right hand nor the left, and the Red Sea was before them, and the great
Egyptian host behind, and they were brought to see that they could do nothing
to help themselves, and that if God did not help them, they should be
immediately swallowed up; and then God appeared, and turned their cries into
songs. So before they were brought to their rest, and to enjoy the milk and
honey of Canaan, God "led them through a great and terrible wilderness,
that he might humble them and teach them what was in their heart, and so do
them good in their latter end," Deut. 8:2, 16. The woman that had the
issue of blood twelve years, was not delivered, until she had first
"spent all her living on earthly physicians, and could not be healed of
any," and so was left helpless, having no more money to spend; and then
she came to the great Physician, without any money or price, and was healed by
him, Luke 8:43, 44. Before Christ would answer the request of the woman of
Canaan, he first seemed utterly to deny her, and humbled her, and brought her
to own herself worthy to be called a dog; and then he showed her mercy, and
received her as a dear child, Matt. 15:22, &c. The Apostle Paul, before a
remarkable deliverance, was "pressed out of measure, above strength,
insomuch that he despaired even of life; but had the sentence of death in
himself, that he might not trust in himself, but in God that raiseth the
dead," 2 Cor. 1:8, 9, 10. There was first a great tempest, and the ship
was covered with the waves, and just ready to sink, find the disciples were
brought to cry to Jesus, "Lord save us, we perish;" and then the
winds and seas were rebuked, and there was a great calm, Matt. 8:24, 25, 26.
The leper, before he is cleansed, must have his mouth stopped, by a covering
on his upper lip, and was to acknowledge his great misery and utter
uncleannesss by rending his clothes, and crying, "Unclean, unclean,"
Lev. 13:45. And backsliding Israel, before God heals them, are brought to
"acknowledge that they have sinned, and have not obeyed the voice of the
Lord," and to see that "they lie down in their shame, and that
confusion covers them," and "that in vain is salvation hoped for
from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains," and that God only
can save them, Jer. 3:23, 24, 25. Joseph, who was sold be his brethren, and
therein was a type of Christ, brings his brethren into great perplexity and
distress, and brings them to reflect on their sin, and to say, We are verily
guilty; and at last to resign up themselves entirely into his hands for
bondmen; and then reveals himself to them, as their brother and their saviour.
And if we consider those
extraordinary manifestations which God made of himself to saints of old, we
shall find that he commonly first manifested himself in a way which was
terrible, and then by those things that were comfortable. So it was with
Abraham; first, a horror of great darkness fell upon him, and then God
revealed himself to him in sweet promises, Gen. 15:12, 13. So it was with
Moses at Mount Sinai; first, God appeared to him in all the terrors of his
dreadful Majesty, so that Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and
quake," and then he made all his goodness to pass before him, and
proclaimed his name, "The Lord God gracious and merciful," &c.
So it was with Elijah; first, there is a stormy wind, and earthquakes and
devouring fire, and then a still, small, sweet voice, 1 Kings 19. So it was
with Daniel; he first saw Christ's countenance as lightning, that terrified
him, and caused him to faint away; and then be is strengthened and refreshed
with such comfortable words as these, "O Daniel, a man greatly
beloved," Dan. 10. So it was with the apostle John, Rev. 1. And there is
an analogy observable in God's dispensations and deliverances which he works
for his people, and the manifestations which he makes of himself to them, both
ordinary and extraordinary.
But there are many things in
Scripture which do more directly show, that this is God's ordinary manner in
working salvation for the souls of men, and in the manifestations God makes of
himself and of his mercy in Christ, in the ordinary works of his grace on the
hearts of sinners. The servant that owed his prince ten thousand talents, is
first held to his debt, and the king pronounces sentence of condemnation upon
him, and commands him to be sold, and his wife and children, and payment to be
made; and thus he humbles him, and brings him to own the as whole of the debt
to be just, and then forgives him all. The prodigal son spends all he has, and
is brought to see himself in extreme circumstances, and to humble himself, and
own his unworthiness, before he is relieved and feasted by his father, Luke
15. Old inveterate wounds must be searched to the bottom, in order to healing:
and the Scripture compares sin, the wound of the soul, to this, and speaks of
healing this wound without thus searching of it, as vain and deceitful, Jer.
7:11. Christ, in the work of his grace on the hearts of men, is compared to
rain on the new mown grass, grass that is cut down with a scythe, Psal. 72:6,
representing his refreshing, comforting influences on the wounded spirit. Our
first parents, after they had sinned, were first terrified with God's majesty
and justice, and had their sin, with its aggravations, set before them by
their Judge, before they were relieved by the promise of the seed of the
woman. Christians are spoken of as those "that have fled for refuge to
lay hold on the hope set before them," Heb. 6:18, which representation
implies great fear and sense of danger, preceding. To the like purpose, Christ
is called "a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,
and as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land," Isa. 32 at the beginning. And it seems to be the natural
import of the word gospel, glad tidings, that it is news of deliverance
and salvation, after great fear and distress. There is also reason to suppose,
that God deals with particular believers, as he dealt with his church, which
he first made to hear his voice in the law, with terrible thunders and
lightning and kept her under that schoolmaster to prepare her for Christ; and
then comforted her with the joyful sound of the gospel from Mount Zion. So
likewise John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Christ, and prepare
men's hearts for his reception, by showing them their sins, and by bringing
the self-righteous Jews off from their own righteousness, telling them that
they were "a generation of vipers," and showing them their danger of
"the wrath to come," telling them that "the axe was laid at the
root of the trees," &c.
And if it be indeed God's manner
(as I think the foregoing considerations show that it undoubtedly is), before
he gives men the comfort of a deliverance from their sin and misery, to give
them a considerable sense of the greatness and dreadfulness of those evils,
and their extreme wretchedness by reason of them; surely it is not
unreasonable to suppose, that persons, at least oftentimes, while under these
views, should have great distresses and terrible apprehensions of mind;
especially if it be considered what these evils are that they have a view of;
which are no other than great and manifold sins, against the infinite majesty
of the great Jehovah, and the suffering of the fierceness of his wrath to all
eternity. And the more so still, when we have many plain instances in
Scripture of persons that have actually been brought into great distress, by
such convictions, before they have received saving consolations: as the
multitude at Jerusalem, who were "pricked in their heart, and said unto
Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
And the apostle Paul, who trembled and was astonished, before he was
comforted; and the gaoler, when "he called for a light, and sprang in,
and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and said, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?"
From these things it appears to
be very unreasonable in professing Christians to make this an objection
against the truth and spiritual nature of the comfortable and joyful
affections which any have, that they follow such awful apprehensions and
distresses as have been mentioned.
And, on the other hand, it is no
evidence that comforts and joys are right, because they succeed great terrors,
and amazing fears of hell.[21]
This seems to be what some persons lay a great weight upon; esteeming great
terrors an evidence of the great work of the law as wrought on the heart, well
preparing the way for solid comfort; not considering that terror and a
conviction of conscience are different things. For though convictions of
conscience do often cause terror; yet they do not consist in it; and terrors
do often arise from other causes. Convictions of conscience, through the
influences of God's Spirit, consist in conviction of sinfulness of heart and
practices and of the dreadfulness of sins as committed against a God of
terrible majesty, infinite holiness and hatred of sin, and strict justice in
punishing of it. But there are some persons that have frightful apprehensions
of hell, a dreadful pit ready to swallow them up, and flames just ready to lay
hold of them, and devils around them, ready to seize them; who at the same
time seem to have very little proper enlightenings of conscience really
convincing them of their sinfulness of heart and life. The devil, if
permitted, can terrify men as well as the Spirit of God, it is a work natural
to him, and he has many ways of doing it, in a manner tending to no good.
He may exceedingly affright
persons, by impressing on them images and ideas of many external things, of a
countenance frowning, a sword drawn, black clouds of vengeance, words of an
awful doom pronounced,[22]
hell gaping, devils coming, and the like, not to convince persons of things
that are true, and revealed in the word of God, but to lead them to vain and
groundless determinations; as that their day is past, that they are
reprobated, that God is implacable, that he has come to a resolution
immediately to cut them off, &c.
And the terrors which some
persons have, are very much owing to the particular constitution and temper
they are of. Nothing is more manifest than that some persons are of such a
temper and frame, that their imaginations are more strongly impressed with
everything they are affected with, than others; and the impression on the
imagination reacts on the affection, and raises that still higher; and so
affection and imagination act reciprocally, one on another, till their
affection is raised to a vast height, and the person is swallowed up, and
loses as possession of himself.[23]
And some speak of a great sight
they have of their wickedness, who really, when the matter comes to be well
examined into and thoroughly weighted, are found to have little or no
convictions of conscience. They tell of a dreadful hard heart, and how their
heart lies like a stone; when truly they have none of those things in their
minds or thoughts, wherein the hardness of men's heart does really consist.
They tell of a dreadful load and sink of sin, a heap of black and loathsome
filthiness within them; when, if the matter be carefully inquired into, they
have not in view anything wherein the corruption of nature does truly consist,
nor have they any thought of any particular thing wherein their hearts are
sinfully defective, or fall short of what ought to be in them, or any
exercises at all of corruption in them. And many think also they have great
convictions of their actual sins, who truly have none. They tell how their
sins are set in order before them, they see them stand encompassing them round
in a row, with a dreadful, frightful appearance; when really they have not so
much as one of the sins they gave been guilty of in the course of their lives,
coming into view, that they are affected with the aggravations of.
And if persons have had great
terrors which really have been from the awakening and convincing influences of
the Spirit of God, it doth not thence follow that their terrors must needs
issue in true comfort. The unmortified corruption of the heart may quench the
Spirit of God (after he has been striving) by leading men to presumptuous, and
self-exalting hopes and joys, as well as otherwise. It is not every woman who
is really in travail, that brings forth a real child; but it may be a
monstrous production, without anything of the form or properties of human
nature belonging to it. Pharaoh's chief baker after he had lain in the dungeon
with Joseph, had a vision that raised his hopes and he was lifted out of the
dungeon, as well as the chief butler; but it was to be hanged.
But if comforts and joys do not
only come after great terrors and awakenings, but there be an appearance of
such preparatory convictions and humiliations, and brought about very
distinctly, by such steps, and in such a method as has frequently been
observable in true converts; this is no certain sign that the light and
comforts which follow are true and saving. And for these following reasons:
First, As the devil can counterfeit all the saving
operations and graces of the Spirit of God, so he can counterfeit those
operations that are preparatory to grace. If Satan can counterfeit those
effects of God's Spirit, which are special, divine and sanctifying, so that
there shall be a very great resemblance, in all that can be observed by
others; much more easily may he imitate those works of God's Spirit which are
common, and which men, while they are yet his own children, are the subjects
of. These works are in no wise so much above him as the other. There are no
works of God that are so high and divine, and above the powers of nature, and
out of reach of the power of all creatures, as those works of his Spirit,
whereby he forms the creature in his own image, and makes it to be a partaker
of the divine nature. But if the devil can be the author of such resemblances
of these as have been spoken of, without doubt he may of those that are of an
infinitely inferior kind. And it is abundantly evident in fact, that there are
false humiliations and false submissions, as well as false comforts.[24]
How far was Saul brought, though a very wicked man, and of a haughty spirit,
when he (though a great king) was brought, in conviction of his sin, as it
were to fall down, all in tears, weeping aloud, before David his own subject
(and one that he had for a long time mortally hated, and openly treated as an
enemy), and condemn himself before him, crying out, "Thou art more
righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee
evil!" And at another time, "I have sinned, I have played the fool,
I have erred exceedingly," 1 Sam. 24:16, 17, and chap. 26:21. And yet
Saul seems then to have had very little of the influences of the Spirit of
God, it being after God's Spirit had departed from him, and given him up, and
an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And if this proud monarch, in a
pang of affection, was brought to humble himself so low before a subject that
he hated, and still continued an enemy to, there doubtless may be appearances
of great conviction and humiliation in men, before God, while they yet remain
enemies to him, and though they finally continue so. There is oftentimes in
men who are terrified through fears of hell, a great appearance of their being
brought off from their own righteousness, when they are not brought off from
it in all ways, although they are in many ways that are more plain and
visible. They have only exchanged some ways of trusting in their own
righteousness, for others that are more secret and subtle. Oftentimes a great
degree of discouragement, as to many things they used to depend upon, is taken
for humiliation: that is called a submission to God, which is no absolute
submission, but has some secret bargain in it, that it is hard to discover.
Secondly, If the operations and effects of the Spirit of
God, in the convictions, and comforts of true converts, may be sophisticated,
then the order of them may be imitated. If Satan can imitate the things
themselves, he may easily put them one after another, in such a certain order.
If the devil can make A, B, and C, it is as easy for him to put A first, and B
next, and C next, as to range item in a contrary order. The nature of divine
things is harder for the devil to imitate, than their order. He cannot exactly
imitate divine operations in their nature, though his counterfeits may be very
much like them in external appearance, but he can exactly imitate their order.
When counterfeits are made, there is no divine power needful in order to the
placing one of them first, and another last. And therefore no order or method
of operations and experiences is any certain sign of their divinity. That only
is to be trusted to, as a certain evidence of grace, which Satan cannot do,
and which it is impossible should be brought to pass by any power short of
divine.
Thirdly, We have no certain rule to determine how far God's
own Spirit may go in those operations and convictions which in themselves are
not spiritual and saving, and yet the person that is the subject of them never
be converted, but fall short of salvation at last. There is no necessary
connection in the nature of things, between anything that a natural man may
experience while in a state of nature, and the saving grace of God's Spirit.
And if there be no connection in the nature of things, then there can be no
known and certain connection at all, unless it be by divine revelation. But
there is no revealed certain connection between a state of salvation, and
anything that a natural man can be the subject of, before he believes in
Christ. God has revealed no certain connection between salvation, and any
qualifications in men, but only grace and its fruits. And therefore we do not
find any legal convictions, or comforts, following these legal convictions, in
any certain method or order, ever once mentioned in the Scripture, as certain
signs of grace, or things peculiar to the saints; although we do find gracious
operations and effects themselves, so mentioned, thousands of times. Which
should be enough with Christians who are willing to have the word of God,
rather than their own philosophy, and experiences and conjectures, as their
sufficient and sure guide in things of this nature.
Fourthly, Experience does greatly confirm, that persons
seeming to have convictions and comforts following one another in such a
method and order, as is frequently observable in true converts, is no certain
sign of grace.[25] I appeal
to all those ministers in this land, who have had much occasion of dealing
with souls in the late extraordinary season, whether there have not been many
who do not prove well, that have given a fair account of their experiences,
and have seemed to be converted according to rule, i.e., with convictions and
affections, succeeding distinctly and exactly, in that order and method, which
has been ordinarily insisted on, as the order of the operations of the Spirit
of God in conversion.
And as a seeming to have this
distinctness as to steps and method, is no certain sign that a person is
converted; so a being without it, is no evidence that a person is not
converted. For though it might be made evident to a demonstration, on
Scripture principles, that a sinner cannot be brought heartily to receive
Christ as his Saviour, who is not convinced of his sin and misery, and of his
own emptiness and helplessness, and his just desert of eternal condemnation;
and that therefore such convictions must be some way implied in what is
wrought in his soul; yet nothing proves it to be necessary, that all those
things which are implied or presupposed in an act of faith in Christ, must be
plainly and distinctly wrought in the soul, in so many successive and separate
works of the Spirit, that shall be each one plain and manifest, in all who are
truly converted. On the contrary (as Mr. Shepard observes), sometimes the
change made in a saint, at first work, is like a confused chaos; so that the
saints know not what to make of it. The manner of the Spirit's proceeding in
them that are born of the Spirit, is very often exceeding mysterious and
unsearchable; we, as it were, hear the sound of it, the effect of it is
discernible; but no man can tell whence it came, or whither it went. And it is
oftentimes as difficult to know the way of the Spirit in the new birth, as in
the first birth; Eccl. 11:5, "Thou knowest not what is the way of the
Spirit, or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; even
so thou knowest not the works of God, that worketh all." The ingenerating
of a principle of grace in the soul, seems in Scripture to be compared to the
conceiving of Christ in the womb, Gal. 4:19. And therefore the Church is
called Christ's mother, Cant. 3:11. And so is every particular believer, Matt.
12:49, 50. And the conception of Christ in the womb of the blessed virgin, by
the power of the Holy Ghost, seems to be a designed resemblance of the
conception of Christ in the soul of a believer, by the power of the same Holy
Ghost. And we know not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do
grow, either in the womb, or heart that conceives this holy child. The new
creature may use that language in Psal. 139:14, 15, "I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right
well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret."
Concerning the generation of Christ, both in his person, and also in the
hearts of his people, it may be said, as in Isa. 53:8, "Who can declare
his generation?" We know not the works of God, that worketh all. "It
is the glory of God to conceal a thing" (Prov. 25:2), and to have
"his path as it were in the mighty waters, that his footsteps may not be
known;" and especially in the works of his Spirit on the hearts of men,
which are the highest and chief of his works. And therefore it is said, Isa.
40:13, "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor
hath taught him?" It is to be feared that some have gone too far towards
directing the Spirit of the Lord, and marking out his footsteps for him, and
limiting him to certain steps and methods. Experience plainly shows, that
God's Spirit is unsearchable and untraceable, in some of the best of
Christians, in the method of his operations, in their conversion. Nor does the
Spirit of God proceed discernibly in the steps of a particular established
scheme, one half so often as is imagined. A scheme of what is necessary, and
according to a rule already received and established by common opinion, has a
vast (though to many a very insensible) influence in forming persons' notions
of the steps and method of their own experiences. I know very well what their
way is; for I have had much opportunity to observe it. Very often, at first,
their experiences appear like a confused chaos, as Mr. Shepard expresses it:
but then those passages of their experience are picked out, that have most of
the appearance of such particular steps that are insisted on; and these are
dwelt upon in the thoughts, and these are told of from time to time, in the
relation they give: these parts grow brighter and brighter in their view; and
others, being neglected, grow more and more obscure: and what they have
experienced is insensibly strained to bring all to an exact conformity to the
scheme that is established. And it becomes natural for ministers, who have to
deal with them, and direct them that insist upon distinctness and clearness of
method, to do so too. But yet there has been so much to be seen of the
operations of the Spirit of God, of late, that they who have had much to do
with souls, and are not blinded with a seven-fold vail of prejudice, must know
that the Spirit is so exceeding various in the manner of his operating, that
in many cases it is impossible to trace him, or find out his way.
What we have principally to do
with, in our inquiries into our own state, or directions we give to others, is
the nature of the effect that God has brought to pass in the soul. As to the
steps which the Spirit of God took to bring that effect to pass, we may leave
them to him. We are often in Scripture expressly directed to try ourselves by
the nature of the fruits of the Spirit; but nowhere by the Spirit's method of
producing them.[26] Many do
greatly err in their notions of a clear work of conversion; calling that a
clear work, where the successive steps of influence, and method of experience
are clear: whereas that indeed is the clearest work (not where the order of doing
is clearest, but) where the spiritual and divine nature of the work done,
and effect wrought, is most clear.
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