False Positive 4—that Religious Affections Don’t Come About from One’s own Strength or Intention. Part 2.

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.

In the second part of his book, Edwards outlines twelve signs which neither prove nor disprove one’s affections to be truly gracious. For each of these signs, Edwards shows why a spiritually healthy Christian would and even should exhibit these signs; and then shows why it should not be looked at as a certain sign that it is a proof of saving grace…though sometimes he reverses the order and does the negative before the positive.

So far we have seen that it doesn’t prove one way or the other that religious affections are truly spiritual because:

1. They are raised very high.
2. They have great effects on the body.
3. They cause one to talk a lot about God and religion.

Last week we started looking at number 4, “that persons did not make ’em themselves, or excite ’em of their own contrivance, and by their own strength.” This week’s post looks at why Edwards believed this was not a solid sign upon which to base one’s assurance.

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 141-142.

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On the other hand, it is no evidence that affections are gracious, that they are not purposely produced by those who are the subjects of them, or that they arise in their minds in a manner they can’t account for.

There are some who make this an argument in their own favor, when speaking of what they have experienced, they say: “I am sure I did not make it myself: it was a fruit of no contrivance or endeavor of mine; it came when I thought nothing of it; if I might have the world for it, I can’t make it again when I please.” And hence they determine, that what they have experienced, must be from the mighty influence of the Spirit of God, and is of a saving nature; but very ignorantly, and without grounds. What they have been the subjects of, may indeed, not be from themselves directly, but may be from the operation of an invisible agent, some spirit besides their own: but it does not thence follow, that it was from the Spirit of God. There are other spirits who have influence on the minds of men, besides the Holy Ghost. We are directed not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits, whether they be of God [I John 4:1]. There are many false spirits, exceeding busy with men, who often transform themselves into angels of light, and do in many wonderful ways, with great subtlety and power, mimic the operations of the Spirit of God. And there are many of Satan’s operations, which are very distinguishable from the voluntary exercises of men’s own minds. They are so, in those dreadful and horrid suggestions, and blasphemous injections with which he follows many persons; and in vain and fruitless frights and terrors, which he is the author of. And the power of Satan may be as immediate, and as evident in false comforts and joys, as in terrors and horrid suggestions; and oftentimes is so in fact. ‘Tis not in men’s power to put themselves into such raptures, as the Anabaptists in Germany, and many other raving enthusiasts like them, have been the subjects of.

And besides, it is to be considered, that persons may have those impressions on their minds, which may not be of their own producing, nor from an evil spirit, but from the Spirit of God, and yet not be from any saving, but a common influence of the Spirit of God: and the subjects of such impressions, may be of the number of those we read of, Hebrews 6:4–5. “That are once enlightened, and taste of the heavenly gift, and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and taste the good Word of God, and the power of the world to come”; and yet may be wholly unacquainted with those “better things that accompany salvation,” spoken of, v. 9.

And where neither a good nor evil spirit have any immediate hand, persons, especially such as are of a weak and vapory habit of body, and the brain weak, and easily susceptive of impressions, may have strange apprehensions and imaginations, and strong affections attending them, unaccountably arising, which are not voluntarily produced by themselves. We see that such persons are liable to such impressions, about temporal things; and there is equal reason, why they should about spiritual things. As a person who is asleep, has dreams, that he is not the voluntary author of; so may such persons, in like manner, be the subjects of involuntary impressions, when they are awake.