Religious Affections: True Faith Shows Itself in the Fruit of the Spirit and Christlike Living

Affections"

INTRODUCTION

You probably know him as preacher of the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But Jonathan Edwards had much more to say about the Christian life.

Born in 1703 in what was then known as the Connecticut Colony, Edwards would become the central figure in New England’s first Great Awakening, a massive Christian revival of the 1730s and 1740s. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, preached to Edwards’ church in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1741, was a powerful influence in the revival.

A student at Yale by age thirteen, Edwards showed brilliance in many fields—and is known as one of America’s greatest intellectuals. Though deeply interested in the sciences (Edwards would die at age fifty-four, after taking an experimental smallpox inoculation), he is best known as a preacher and theologian, leaving behind a vast body of work that includes A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, written in 1746.

This abridged edition of Religious Affections contains approximately 20 percent of Edwards’ original, with language lightly updated for ease of reading. In the pages that follow, you’ll find a detailed description of the signs—true and false—of conversion, along with an explanation of the role truly balanced emotions play within the Christian life.

Edwards provides an in-depth look at the evidence of true saving faith: the fruit that comes from living like Christ.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

Undoubtedly, the most important concern of every individual is this: What distinguishes those who are in favor with God, entitled to His eternal rewards? Or, What is the nature of true faith? And how do we know when we have the virtue and holiness that are acceptable in God’s sight? Even though these are important questions, and we have clear light in God’s Word to provide us with their answers, there is no other point where professing Christians differ more from one another. They divide the Christian world, making obvious the truth of our Savior’s declaration, Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:14).

For a long time the consideration of these things has kept me busy. The subject has absorbed me ever since I first began my theological studies. How successful I’ve been must be left to the reader’s judgment.

Many will probably be disappointed to find that I condemn so much that has to do with religious affection; others may be indignant and disgusted that I justify and approve so much. And some may accuse me of being inconsistent when I approve some things and condemn others. That so much good and so much bad should be mixed together in the church of God is indeed very mysterious, just as it is a mystery that the saving grace of God and the new and divine nature should dwell with so much corruption, hypocrisy, and iniquity in the heart of the same Christian. No matter how mysterious, however, these are realities. False religion often thrives at the same time as great revivals of true faith, and hypocrites spring up among true saints.

Therefore, we need to do our best to clearly discern, without any doubt, just what makes true faith. Until we do, we can expect religious revivals to last only a short while; until we do, all our discussion will do little good, since we have so little idea what we are aiming toward.

My aim is to show the nature and signs of the grace-filled operations of God’s Spirit, what distinguishes them from all other human influences that have no power to redeem. I hope my efforts will promote humanity’s relationship with God—but whether or not I succeed in shedding some light on this subject, I hope God’s mercy will grant that readers will believe in my sincerity. I hope also for the honesty and prayers of the true followers of God’s meek and loving Lamb.

Part I

THE NATURE OF AFFECTIONS, AND THEIR IMPORTANCE TO RELIGION

Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

1 PETER 1:8

With these words the apostle demonstrates the state of mind of the Christians to whom he wrote. In the two preceding verses, he speaks of their trials: the trial of their faith, their being in heaviness through manifold temptations. These trials benefit true faith in three ways.

First, trials like this have a tendency to distinguish between true faith and false. That is why in the verse immediately preceding the text, and in innumerable other places, they are called trials—because they try the faith of people who profess to be Christians, just as apparent gold is tried in the fire to see whether it is true gold or not. When faith is tried this way and proven to be true, it is found to praise, honor, and glory (1 Peter 1:7).

Second, these trials are of further benefit to true faith, not only because they reveal its truth, but also because they make its genuine beauty and sweetness remarkably clear. True virtue never looks so lovely as when it is most oppressed, and the divine excellence of real Christianity is never demonstrated as clearly as when it faces trials.

Last, trials benefit true faith by purifying and strengthening it. They not only show its reality, but they also tend to refine it, delivering it from anything that might get in its way, so that all that’s left is what’s real. Trials tend to make the loveliness of true faith appear at its best advantage, while also tending to increase its beauty by planting it firmly, making it more lively and vigorous, purifying it from anything that dulls its shiny glory. When gold is tried in the fire, its impurities are purged, and it comes out more solid and beautiful, and in the same way when true faith is tried in the fire, it becomes more precious and is found to praise, honor, and glory.

The apostle also mentions two ways that suffering strengthens true faith.

I. The Love of Christ

Whom having not seen, you love. The world wondered what strange principles influenced the saints to expose themselves to such great suffering, to forsake the visible world, and to renounce all the sweet, pleasant things offered by the senses. But although they had no visible comfort, yet they had a supernatural foundation of love: They loved Jesus Christ, for they saw Him spiritually, even though the world could not see Him and they themselves had never seen Him with physical eyes.

II. Joy in Christ

Though their external suffering was severe, yet the spiritual joy inside them was greater than their suffering, and this joy supported them and enabled them to suffer cheerfully.

The apostle remarks on two aspects of this joy. First, its source: Christ, though unseen, is the foundation of it through faith, which is the evidence of things not seen: Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice. Second, the nature of this joy: inexpressible and full of glory. It is very different from worldly joys and physical delights; its nature is vastly more pure, sublime, and heavenly, since it is something supernatural, truly divine, and indescribably excellent. And not only is the quality of this joy inexpressible, but its quantity also, for God was pleased to give them this holy joy with a liberal hand in the midst of their trials.

The saints’ joy was full of glory. In their rejoicing, their minds were filled with a glorious brightness, and their natures were perfected. This rejoicing was worthy and noble, and it did not corrupt and reduce the mind’s strength but beautified and dignified it. It was a foretaste of the joy that will be poured out in heaven, and it filled their minds with the light of God’s glory.

Therefore, based on these verses, I propose that:

True faith mostly depends on having the emotions of God, loving the things He loves.

We see that the apostle singles out the spiritual emotions of love and joy; these are the activities of faith on which he remarks, for these demonstrated that the saints’ faith was true and pure, full of God’s glory. I intend to

1. show what is meant by affections;

2. point out some things that demonstrate that a great part of true faith lies in the emotions.

You may ask what I mean by affections. The affections are nothing more than the vigorous and perceptible inclinations of the soul’s will. They are the passions that motivate the will, the springs of motion and action, our deepest feelings.

God has given the soul two faculties: one that is capable of perception and speculation, by which it discerns and views and judges things; this is called the understanding. The other faculty allows the soul to not only look at things as an indifferent and unaffected spectator, but to also have an emotional reaction. This faculty is called by various names, sometimes the character, sometimes the will or the mind, and often the heart.

When this faculty is exercised, sometimes the soul is fairly indifferent. Other times, the reactions of this faculty may lift us higher and higher, until we feel our soul move vigorously and perceptibly. The Creator has made us so that soul and body are one being, so when this happens, not only are our souls affected but our bodies, too. We experience some physical sensation; we may begin to cry, and that is why the exercise of this mental faculty is called the heart. And the strongest and most perceptible activities of this faculty are what we call the emotions. The will and the emotions are not two faculties; the emotions are not separate from the will, nor are they different from the mere actions of the will and the soul’s inclinations, except that what we call the emotions are usually stronger and more perceptible to us.

I have to admit that language is somewhat imperfect here. In some sense, the soul’s emotions are no different from the will and inclination. Yet many times the will’s actions are not usually referred to as emotions; whenever we act voluntarily, we use our will, but all these actions of our will are not normally called emotions. Yet what we usually call emotions are not essentially different from these ordinary acts of our will except in degree. In every act of the will, the soul either likes or dislikes what is in view; it is either inclined or disinclined to it. These are not essentially different from the emotions of love and hatred. When the soul is inclined toward something it doesn’t actually possess, that is the same as the emotion of desire. And when the soul approves of something present, it experiences pleasure; if that pleasure is strong enough, it is the same as the feeling of joy or delight. And if the will disapproves of what is present, and if that displeasure is strong enough, it is the same as the feeling of grief or sorrow.

Because of the union between our soul and body, our will cannot be moved strongly without some effect on the body. And, on the other hand, since our body and soul are one, our physical condition affects our emotions. Yet it is not the body but the mind that is the seat of the emotions. The human body is no more capable of experiencing love or hatred, joy or sorrow, fear or hope, than the body of a tree. The soul only has ideas, and so the soul only is pleased with its ideas. The soul only thinks, and so the soul only loves or hates, rejoices or grieves at what it thinks. Our bodies’ physical responses do not truly belong to the nature of our emotions, though they always accompany them; they are only the effects or by-products of the emotions, entirely different from the emotions themselves, and in no way essential to them. A spirit with no body may be as capable of love and hatred, joy or sorrow, hope or fear, or other feelings, as one