The Religious Affections – wisdom for today from three hundred years ago

The current spiritual/fleshly manifestations and goings on seen at the Lakeland Revival, at Brownsville and during the Toronto Blessing were also seen, among other places and at other times, during the First Great Awakening of the 18th century. During the genuine religious revivals in New England, all sorts of bizarre behaviour was also recorded – behaviour which divided congregations and led to all sorts of strange cults and splinter sects being formed. One of the best know cults that rode on the back of the Greak Awakening’s emotionalism and bizarre ’sacred theatre’ were the Shakers.

Jonathan Edwards, the great puritan theologian, wrote of the high emotions, the physical exertions, the drama, and the other miscellaneous goings on that we might today call spiritual manifestations or ‘anointing’: (he called these ‘religious affections’ – and by that I understand he meant religious feelings, emotions, psycholigical highs, inspirations and how the mind and flesh responds either via holy laughter, shriekings, shakings, jumpings, jerkings or other manifestations including prophecy) in his great work ‘The Religious Affections’. He said (bold emphasises mine):

“It is a hard thing to be a hearty zealous friend of what has been good and glorious, in the late extraordinary appearances [in New England during the Great Awakening], and to rejoice much in it; and at the same time to see the evil and pernicious tendency of what has been bad, and earnestly to oppose that. But yet, I am humbly but fully persuaded, we shall never be in the way of truth, nor go on in a way acceptable to God, and tending to the advancement of Christ’s kingdom till we do so.

There is indeed something very mysterious in it, that so much good, and so much bad, should be mixed together in the church of God; as it is a mysterious thing…..

“… There never will, in this world, be an entire purity, either in particular saints, in a perfect freedom from mixtures of corruption; or in the church of God, without any mixture of hypocrites with saints, and counterfeit religion, and false appearances of grace with true religion, and real holiness.

“It is by the mixture of counterfeit religion with true, not discerned and distinguished, that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ… It is by this means, principally, that he has prevailed against all revivings of religion, that ever have been sheen the first founding of the Christian church. By this, he hurt the cause of Christianity, in and after the apostolic age, much more than by all the persecutions of both Jews and Heathens.

“And so it is ever likely to be in the church, whenever religion revives remarkably, till we have learned well to distinguish between true and false religion, between saving affections and experiences, and those manifold fair shows, and glistering appearances, by which they are counterfeited; the consequences of which, when they are not distinguished, are often inexpressibly dreadful. By this means, the devil gratifies himself, by bringing it to pass, that that should be offered to God, by multitudes, under a notion of a pleasing acceptable service to him, that is indeed above all things abominable to him. By this means he deceives great multitudes about the state of their souls; making them think they are something, when they are nothing; and so eternally undoes them; and not only so, but establishes many in a strong confidence of their eminent holiness, who are in God’s sight some of the vilest of hypocrites. By this means, he many ways damps and wounds religion in the hearts of the saints, obscures and deforms it by corrupt mixtures, causes their religious affections woefully to degenerate, and sometimes, for a considerable time, to be like the manna that bred worms and stank; and dreadfully ensnares and confounds the minds of others of the saints and brings them into great difficulties and temptation, and entangles them in a wilderness, out of which they can by no means extricate themselves.

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Jonathan Edwards then goes on to say about discerning whether ‘religious affections’/spiritual manifestations be from God. Contrary to the tide of popular opinion in his day that declared if religious show was there, it had to be of God, or on the other side of the fence, if a lot of manifestation/emotionalism there it definitely was not of God, Edwards said that manifestation, feeling, experience, emotionalism, signs and wonders, certain religious activity, was not in itself the indication one way or the other whether something was of God or not. He said:

- It is no sign one way or the other [that a work is of God, the flesh or the devil], that religious affections are very great, or raised very high.

- It is no sign that affections have the nature of true religion, or that they have not, that they have great effects on the body.

- It is no sign that affections are truly gracious affections [that is of God], or that they are not, that they cause those who have them to be fluent, fervent, and abundant, in talking of the things of religion.

- It is no sign that affections are gracious, or that they are otherwise, that persons did not make them themselves, or excite them of their own contrivance and by their own strength.

- It is no sign that religious affections are truly holy and spiritual, or that they are not, that they come with texts of Scripture, remarkably brought to the mind.

- It is no evidence that religious affections are saving, or that they are otherwise, that there is an appearance of love in them.

- Persons having religious affections of many kinds, accompanying one another, is not sufficient to determine whether they have any gracious affections or no.

- 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.

- It is no certain sign that the religious affections which persons have are such as have in them the nature of true religion, or that they have not, that they dispose persons to spend much time in religion, and to be zealously engaged in the external duties of worship.

- Nothing can be certainly known of the nature of religious affections by this, that they much dispose persons with their mouths to praise and glorify God. This indeed is implied in what has been just now observed, of abounding and spending much time in the external exercises of religion, and was also hinted before; but because many seem to look upon it as a bright evidence of gracious affection, when persons appear greatly disposed to praise and magnify God, to have their mouths full of his praises, and affectionately to be calling on others to praise and extol him,

- It is no sign that affections are right, or that they are wrong, that they make persons that have them exceeding confident that what they experience is divine, and that they are in a good estate

- Nothing can be certainly concluded concerning the nature of religious affections, that any are the subjects of, from this, that the outward manifestations of them, and the relation persons give of them, are very affecting and pleasing to the truly godly, and such as greatly gain their charity, and win their hearts.

However, Edwards did say that TRUE religious experiences coming from God could be determined thus -

1. Affections that are truly spiritual and gracious, do arise from those influences and operations on the heart, which are spiritual, supernatural and divine. [So is the heart, not just flesh changed in the long term]

II. The first objective ground of gracious affections, is the transcendently excellent and amiable nature of divine things as they are themselves; and not any conceived relation they bear to self, or self-interest.

III. Those affections that are truly holy, are primarily founded on the loveliness of the moral excellency of divine things. Or (to express it otherwise) a love to divine things for the beauty and sweetness of their moral excellency is the first beginning and spring of all holy affections.

IV. Gracious affections do arise from the mind’s being enlightened, richly and spiritually to understand or apprehend divine things.

V. Truly gracious affections are attended with a reasonable and spiritual conviction of the judgment, of the reality and certainty of divine things.

VI. Gracious affections are attended with evangelical humiliation. Evangelical humiliation is a sense that a Christian has of his own utter insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousnesss, with an answerable frame of heart.

VII. Another thing, wherein gracious affections are distinguished from others, is, that they are attended with a change of nature.

VIII. Truly gracious affections differ from those affections that are false and delusive, in that they tend to, and are attended with the lamblike, dovelike spirit and temper of Jesus Christ; or in other words, they naturally beget and promote such a spirit of love, meekness, quietness, forgiveness and mercy, as appears in Christ.

IX. Gracious affections soften the heart, and are attended and followed with a Christian tenderness of spirit.

X. affections that are truly gracious and holy cause beautiful symmetry and proportion [balance in a Christian’s life]

XI. gracious affections, the higher they are raised, the more is a spiritual appetite and longing of soul after spiritual attainments increased. On the contrary, false affections rest satisfied in themselves Truly there is no work of Christ that is right (says Mr. Shepard) but it carries the soul to long for more of it.” Parable of the Ten Virgins , Part I. p. 136.

XII. Gracious and holy affections have their exercise and fruit in Christian practice.— they have such an influence and power upon him, that they cause it to be the practice and business of his life.

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While I find disagreement with Jonathan Edwards on quite a few points of his general theology which I will not go into here (and I do not pretend to have read it all or understand it all), I have to say, I think this is a helpful and wise assessment that still speaks to Christians today. It is one more testimony from someone who experienced real revival, that counterfeit and true mingle together and need to be discerned and routed out. Keep your eyes off the flesh which is of little to no account, and keep your eyes on God and scripture. (Another testimony would be Jessie Penn Lewis and Evan Roberts speaking about the deception that happened at the time of the Welsh Revival – a genuine and great move of God).