Tuesdays with Edwards!
A Treatise Concerning
Religious Affections is one of Edwards’ most widely read and influential works, and has come to be viewed as a classic in Christian literature; its popularity and influence attested to by the fact that since its original publication in 1746 it has never been out of print.
Edwards outlines twelve signs which neither prove nor disprove one’s affections to be truly gracious. These are essentially false positives, things that you expect a healthy Christian would be experiencing but are not things we should focus on to gain any assurance that the Holy Spirit is in fact at work in us.
The first of these “no signs” is: “‘Tis no sign one way or the other, that religious affections are very great, or raised very high.”
This week and next week’s post look at the second of these no signs, “‘Tis no sign that affections have the nature of true religion, or that they have not, that they have great effects on the body.”
You can read Religious Affections in its entirety at www.edwards.yale.edu. This selection is from Religious Affections, ed. John E, Smith, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959) Pages 131-135.
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2. ‘Tis no sign that affections have the nature of true religion, or that they have not, that they have great effects on the body.
All affections whatsoever, have in some respect or degree, an effect on the body. As was observed before, such is our nature, and such are the laws of union of soul and body, that the mind can have no lively or vigorous exercise, without some effect upon the body. So subject is the body to the mind, and so much do its fluids, especially the animal spirits, attend the motions and exercises of the mind, that there can’t be so much as an intense thought, without an effect upon them. Yea, ’tis questionable, whether an embodied soul ever so much as thinks one thought, or has any exercise at all, but that there is some corresponding motion or alteration of motion, in some degree, of the fluids, in some part of the body. But universal experience shows, that the exercise of the affections, have in a special manner a tendency, to some sensible effect upon the body. And if this be so, that all affections have some effect on the body, we may then well suppose, the greater those affections be, and the more vigorous their exercise (other circumstances being equal) the greater will be the effect on the body. Hence it is not to be wondered at, that very great and strong exercises of the affections, should have great effects on the body. And therefore, seeing there are very great affections, both common and spiritual; hence it is not to be wondered at, that great effects on the body, should arise from both these kinds of affections. And consequently these effects are not signs, that the affections they arise from, are of one kind or the other.
Great effects on the body certainly are no sure evidences that affections are spiritual; for we see that such effects oftentimes arise from great affections about temporal things, and when religion is no way concerned in them. And if great affections about secular things that are purely natural, may have these effects, I know not by what rule we should determine, that high affections about religious things, which arise in like manner from nature, can’t have the like effect.
Nor on the other hand, do I know of any rule any have to determine, that gracious and holy affections, when raised as high as any natural affections, and have equally strong and vigorous exercises, can’t have a great effect on the body. No such rule can be drawn from reason: I know of no reason, why a being affected with a view of God’s glory should not cause the body to faint, as well as a being affected with a view of Solomon’s glory. And no such rule has as yet been produced from the Scripture: none has ever been found in all the late controversies which have been about things of this nature. There is a great power in spiritual affections; we read of the power which worketh in Christians, and of the Spirit of God being in them, as the spirit of power, and of the effectual working of his power in them yea of the working of God’s mighty power in them
But man’s nature is weak: flesh and blood are represented in Scripture as exceeding weak; and particularly with respect to its unfitness for great spiritual and heavenly operations and exercises (Matthew 26:41; 1 Corinthians 15:43, and 1 Corinthians 15:50). The text we are upon speaks of “joy unspeakable, and full of glory.” And who that considers what man’s nature is, and what the nature of the affections are, can reasonably doubt but that such unutterable and glorious joys, may be too great and mighty for weak dust and ashes, so as to be considerably overbearing to it? It is evident by the Scripture, that true divine discoveries, or ideas of God’s glory, when given in a great degree, have a tendency, by affecting the mind, to overbear the body; because the Scripture teaches us often, that if these ideas or views should be given to such a degree, as they are given in heaven, the weak frame of the body could not subsist under it, and that no man can, in that manner, see God and live. The knowledge which the saints have of God’s beauty and glory in this world, and those holy affections that arise from it, are of the same nature and kind with what the saints are the subjects of in heaven, differing only in degree and circumstances: what God gives them here, is a foretaste of heavenly happiness, and an earnest of their future inheritance. And who shall limit God in his giving this earnest, or say he shall give so much of the inheritance, such a part of the future reward, as an earnest of the whole, and no more? And seeing God has taught us in his Word, that the whole reward is such, that it would at once destroy the body, is it not too bold a thing for us, so to set bounds to the sovereign God, as to say, that in giving the earnest of this reward in this world, he shall never give so much of it, as in the least to diminish the strength of the body, when God has nowhere thus limited himself?
The Psalmist speaking of vehement religious affections he had, speaks of an effect in his flesh or body, besides what was in his soul, expressly distinguishing one from the other, once and again, Psalms 84:2, “My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” Here is a plain distinction between the heart and the flesh, as being each affected. So Psalms 63:1, “My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” Here also is an evident designed distinction between the soul and the flesh.
The prophet Habakkuk speaks of his body’s being overborne, by a sense of the majesty of God, Habakkuk 3:16. “When I heard, my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself.” So the Psalmist speaks expressly of his flesh trembling, Psalms 119:120. “My flesh trembleth for fear of thee.”
That such ideas of God’s glory, as are sometimes given in this world, have a tendency to overbear the body, is evident, because the Scripture gives us an account, that this has sometimes actually been the effect of those external manifestations God has made of himself, to some of the saints, which were made to that end, viz. to give them an idea of God’s majesty and glory. Such instances we have in the prophet Daniel, and the apostle John. Daniel giving an account of an external representation of the glory of Christ, says, Daniel 10:8, “And there remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength.” And the apostle John giving an account of a like manifestation made to him, says, Revelation 1:17, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.” ‘Tis in vain to say here, these were only external manifestations or symbols of the glory of Christ, which these saints beheld: for though it be true, that they were outward representations of Christ’s glory, which they beheld with their bodily eyes; yet the end and use of these external symbols or representations, was to give to these prophets an idea of the thing represented, and that was the true divine glory and majesty of Christ, which is his spiritual glory; they were made use of only as significations of this spiritual glory, and thus undoubtedly they received them, and improved them, and were affected by them. According to the end, for which God intended these outward signs, they received by them a great and lively apprehension of the real glory and majesty of God’s nature, which they were signs of; and thus were greatly affected, their souls swallowed up, and their bodies overborne. And I think, they are very bold and daring, who will say God cannot, or shall not give the like clear and affecting ideas and apprehensions of the same real glory and majesty of his nature, to none of his saints, without the intervention of any such external shadows of it.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 