Chapter 16. Assimilation Of Spiritual Things By Faith.
CHAPTER 16. ASSIMILATION OF SPIRITUAL THINGS BY
FAITH.
Assimilation of things heavenly and spiritual, in affections that are spiritually renewed — This assimilation is the work of faith; how, and by what — Reasons for the lack of growth in our spiritual affections as to this assimilation.
WHEN affections are spiritually renewed in their exercise, or fixing themselves on spiritual things, there is an assimilation wrought in them and in the whole soul, to those spiritual and heavenly things, by faith. But when there is a change in them only from other causes and occasions, and not from renewing grace, there is an assimilation effected of spiritual and heavenly things themselves to those affections, only by imagination.
This must be spoken to somewhat at large, as that which gives the most eminent distinction between the various frames of mind whose difference we inquire into. And to that end we will cast our consideration of it into the ensuing observations:
1. Affections spiritually renewed, in all their actings, in their whole exercise, are under the guidance and conduct of faith. It is faith which, in its spiritual light, leads the soul in the whole life of God. We live here by faith, just as hereafter we will live by sight. If our affections deviate or decline in the least from the guidance of the faith, they degenerate from their spirituality, and give themselves up to the service of superstition. Next to corrupt secular interest in the management of crafty, selfish seducers, this has been the great inlet of all superstition and false worship into the world. Blind affections groping in the dark after spiritual things, not having the saving light of faith to conduct them, have seduced the minds of men into all manner of superstitious imaginations and practices, continuing to do so at this present day. And wherever they lead the way, when faith doesn't go before them to discover both the way and the end, those that lead and the mind that is led, must fall into one snare and pit or another.
That's why affections that are spiritually renewed, don't move, and don't act, except as faith discovers their object and directs them to it.
It is faith that works by love. We can love nothing sincerely with divine love except what we believe savingly with divine faith. Let
our affections for any spiritual thing be ever so vehement, if they don't spring from faith, if they're not guided by it, they are neither accepted with God, nor will they promote the interest of spirituality and holiness in our own souls, Heb 11.6; Mat 6.22,23.114 And this is the reason we often see great and plausible appearances of spiritual affections, which yet endure only for a season. They have been awakened, excited, and acted by one means or another, outward or inward. But not having the light of faith to guide them to their proper object, they either wither and die as to any appearance of spiritual motions, or else they keep the mind tossed up and down in perpetual disquietude, without rest or peace. "The foolish man wearies himself because he cannot find the way to the city." Ecc 10.15 So was it with those who, on account of their attendance to the doctrine of Christ, are called his disciples, John 6. Having preached to them about the bread which came down from heaven and gives life to those who feed, they were greatly affected with it, and cried out, "Lord, give us this bread evermore," verse 34. But when he proceeded to declare the mystery of it, they didn't have faith to discern and apprehend it, so their affections immediately decayed, and they abandoned both him and his doctrine, verse 66.
We may consider one especial instance of this nature. Persons every day fall under great and effectual convictions of sin, and thus of their danger or certain misery. This stirs up and acts all their affections, especially their fears, hopes, desires, sorrow, and self-revenge, as their condition calls for. Hence they sometimes grow restless in their complaints, and turn every way for relief, like men who are off the highway and bewildered in the night. But in this state and condition, tell them of the only proper way and means of their relief— which, let the world say what it will, is Christ and his righteousness alone, with the grace of God in him — and they quickly discover that the means are strange to them, ones they don't understand, nor indeed approve.
They cannot see them; they cannot discern them, nor any beauty in them for which they should be desired. Isa 53.2
Therefore, after their affections have been tossed up and down for a season under the power and torment of this conviction, they come to one or the other of these results. For either they utterly decay, and the mind loses all sense of any impressions from them, so that they wonder why they were so foolish as to be tossed and troubled with
such melancholy fancies, and prove to be as bad a sort of men as live upon the earth; or else they take up a formal, legal profession, and never attain to being spiritually minded. This is the best end that our affections towards spiritual things come to, if not guided by the light of faith.
2. Faith has a clear prospect into and apprehension of spiritual things, as they are in themselves and in their own nature. It is true, the light of it cannot fully comprehend the nature of all those things which are the objects of its affections. For they are infinite and incomprehensible, as are the nature of God and the person of Christ; and some of them, such as future glory, are not yet clearly revealed.
But it discerns them all in a due manner, so that they may be the objects of our affections in themselves, and not in any corrupt representation or imagination of them. They are, as the apostle says,
"spiritually discerned," 1Cor 2:14. This is the reason why the natural man cannot receive them — namely, because he doesn't have the ability spiritually to discern them. This is the principal end of the renovation of our minds, the principal work and effect of faith — namely, the communication to our minds, and the acting in us, of a spiritual saving light by which we may see and discern spiritual things as they are in their own nature, kind, and proper use.
Eph 1.17-19, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power."
2Cor 4.6, "God shines in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ."
The end God designs is to draw our hearts and affections to himself.
And to this end He gives us a glorious internal light, by which we may be enabled to discern the true nature of the things that we are to cling to with love and delight. Without this, we have nothing but false images of spiritual things in our minds; not always as to the truth or doctrine concerning them, but as to their reality, power, and efficacy.
This is one of the principal effects of faith, as it is the principal part
of the renovation of our minds — namely, to reveal in the soul and represent to the affections, things spiritual and heavenly in their nature, beauty, and genuine excellency. This attracts them if they are spiritually renewed, and causes them to cling with delight to what is so proposed to them. Whoever believes in Christ in a due manner, and thereupon discovers the excellency of his person and the glory of his mediation, will both love him, and "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." So it is in all other instances. The steadier our view by faith of spiritual things, the firmer and more constant our affections will be in clinging to them. And wherever the mind is darkened about them, by temptation or seduction from the truth, there the affections will be quickly weakened and impaired.
Therefore — 3. Affections thus led to and fixed on spiritual and heavenly things, under the light and conduct of faith, are more and more renewed, or made more spiritual and heavenly in themselves. They are, in their clinging to them and delight in them, continually changed and assimilated to the things themselves, becoming more and more what they are — namely, spiritual and heavenly.
This transformation is wrought by faith, and it's one of its most excellent faculties and operations. See 2Cor 3.18.115 And the means by which it works in these, are our affections. In them, as we are carnal, we are conformed to this world; and by them, as we are sanctified, we are "transformed by the renewing of our mind," Rom
12.2. This transformation is the introduction of a new form or nature into our souls, diverse from what we were endued with before, as described in Isa 11.6-9.116 They were changed into a spiritual nature.
And this is twofold:
First, it is original and radical as to the substance or essence of it, which is the effect of the first act of divine grace upon our souls when we are made new creatures. Our affections are passive in this; they don't transform us, but are transformed.
Secondly, it is gradual as to its increase; and faith works in this, in and by the affections.
Whenever the affections cling intensely to any object they receive an impression from it — as wax does from the seal when applied to it — which changes them into its own likeness. So the apostle affirms
about sensual, unclean persons: they "have eyes full of adultery,"
2Pet 2.14. Their affections are so wholly possessed and filled with their lustful objects, that they have produced their own likeness upon their imaginations. That blots out all others, and leaves them no inclinations except what their affections stir up in them. When men are filled with the "love of this world," which carries along with it all their other affections — their hopes, fears, and desires — to a constant exercise about the same object, they become earthly minded. Their minds are so changed into the image of the things themselves, by the effectual working of the corrupt principles of sin, self-love, and lust, it's as though they were made up of the earth; and therefore have no savor of anything else.
In like manner, when by faith men come to embrace heavenly things, through the effectual working of a principle of spiritual life and grace in them, they are made more and more heavenly every day: "The inward man is renewed day by day." Love is more sincere and ardent, delight is more ravishing and tangible, desires are more enlarged and intense, and by all, a taste and relish of heavenly things is heightened into refreshing experience. See Rom 5.2-5. 117
This is the way by which one grace is added to another in degrees, 2Pet 1.5-7. 118 Great is the assimilation between renewed affections and their spiritual objects, that may be attained by this means.
The mind hereby becomes the temple of God, in which He dwells by the Spirit; Christ also dwells in believers, and they in him: "God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him," 1Joh
4.16.
Love in its proper exercise gives a mutual inhabitation to God and believers. In brief, the one whose affections are set upon heavenly things in a due manner, will be heavenly minded; and in the due exercise of them, that heavenly mindedness will be increased. The transformation and assimilation that is wrought is not in the objects or spiritual things themselves; they are not changed either in themselves or in the representation made of them to our minds. The change is in our affections, which are made like them.
Two cases deriving from this principle and consideration may and will be spoken to here — the first in this chapter, the other in the following. The one concerns the slowness and imperceptibility of the
growth of our affections in their assimilation of heavenly things, with the causes and reasons for it. The other is the decays that frequently befall men in their affections for spiritual things, instead of growing and thriving in them, with the causes and reasons for it.
1. The progress and growth of our affections into spirituality and heavenliness, into conformity to the things they're set upon, is often very slow, and sometimes imperceptible; indeed, for the most part, it's a hard thing to find it satisfactorily in ourselves or others. Our affections stand like shrubs in the wilderness, which when growth comes, aren't seen; they're not like plants in an enclosed garden, which are watered every day. But this isn't so, without our folly and our sin.
(1.) The folly that keeps many in this condition consists in this: most Christians are contented with their present measures, and design little more than not to lose the ground they've gained. This is a pernicious folly that both ruins the glory of religion, and deprives the souls of men of peace and consolation. But so it is.
Men have some grounds of persuasion, or at least they hope and suppose they have such grounds, that they have "passed from death to life," that they are in a state of grace and acceptance with God.
They will endeavor to preserve this state by a diligent performance of the duties it requires, and the avoidance of those sins by which they might forfeit it. But as for earnest, watchful endeavors and diligence to thrive in this state, to grow in grace, to be changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ, to press forward towards the mark of their high calling — and after perfection, to lay hold upon eternal life, to be more holy, more humble, more righteous, more spiritually minded, to have their affections more and more transformed into the likeness of things above — there are but few who sincerely and diligently apply themselves to this endeavor, or to the means of these things. The measures which they have attained to, give satisfaction to the church, and their reputation in the world, that they are professors; and some thus speak peace to their own souls. To be more holy and heavenly, to have their affections more taken up with the things above, they suppose to be somewhat inconsistent with their present occasions and affairs. By this means, religion has lost much of its glory, and
the souls of men have been deprived of the principal advantages of it in this world.
Such persons are like men who live in a country in which they are not only pressed with poverty and all sorts of misery, but also liable to grievous punishments, even death itself, if they are taken in it. In this condition, they are told and assured of another country in which, as soon as they have arrived, they will be freed from all fear of danger of punishment. And if they pass further into it, they will meet with riches, plenty, and a fair inheritance provided for them.
Upon this, they begin their voyage to an entrance to it and possession of it. But no sooner do they come within its borders, and so are freed from danger, or fear of punishment and death, than they sit down, and will go no further to enjoy the good things of the country into which they have come. And it happens with many of them, that through their sloth, negligence, and ignorance, they come short of the true bounds and limits of the country of liberty and peace which they aimed at; and so danger and death surprise them unawares. This ruin could not have befallen them, if they had industriously endeavored to enter into the heart of the country, and possessed the good things there. At best, being only on the borders, they lead a poor life all their days, exposed to wants and danger.
So it is in this case. Men falling under the power of convictions, and those restless fears which accompany them, will stir themselves up and inquire how they may "flee from the wrath to come," Mat 3.7 how they may be delivered from the state of sin, and the eternal misery which will immediately ensue.
In the gospel, not only mercy and pardon are proposed to them upon their believing, which is the first entrance into the heavenly country; but peace, joy, and spiritual strength, upon their admission into it, and then progress made in it by faith and obedience. But once they attain so far as to have some hopes of pardon and freedom from the curse, so as to deliver them from their tormenting fears, many will endeavor to preserve those hopes, and keep that state. But they won't pass on to a full enjoyment of the precious things of the gospel, by growth in grace and spiritual affections. How many of them fall under woeful mistakes! For, supposing they're in a gospel state, the issue (the outcome) proves that they never entered it. They were, perhaps, "not far from the
kingdom of heaven," Mar 12.34 in the same sense it was said of someone who never came there. There is no way to secure an interest in the gospel (as to pardon and mercy, safety and deliverance), but by growth in grace, holiness, and spirituality. This is what gives an entrance into the choicest mercies and privileges of it.
This folly of men in taking up their measures, endeavoring only to maintain that state and condition which they hope they have attained, is the great reason why their affections don't daily grow up into spirituality, through an assimilation of heavenly things. And it is a folly attended with innumerable aggravations; for instance —
[1.] It is contrary and destructive to the genuine and principal property of gospel grace; for our Savior compares it everywhere to things which, from small seeds and beginnings, grow by a continual increase to large measures — such as a grain of mustard seed, a little leaven, and the like. That grace in whose nature it is not to thrive and grow, may justly be suspected, and should be diligently examined by those who take care of their own souls, and would not be eternally deceived.
[2.] It is contrary to the most excellent or invaluable evangelical promises recorded in the Old Testament and New, which are among the principal supports of the faith, hope, and comfort of believers. God has given them to us to encourage us to expect such supplies of grace that will cause us to thrive and grow against all opposition, to the utmost of our continuance in this world. And they are so multiplied that there is no need to mention any of them in particular. God evidences by these how great and precious is the grace which he so often promises, and of what consideration it is to us. See Psa 92.13-15; Isa 40.28-31.119 Thus, the folly of being content with present measures of grace, holiness, and spirituality, is attended with two unspeakable evils:
1st, A signal contempt of the love, grace, faithfulness, and wisdom of God, in giving us such promises of grace, to make us to increase, thrive, and grow. How can it be done more effectually than by such a neglect of his promised grace?
2dly, An evidence that such persons don't love or care for grace and holiness for their own sake, but merely to serve their turn at
present, as they suppose; nor do they desire the least grace or privilege by Christ, without which they can have any hopes to get to heaven. This sufficiently reveals men to be wholly under the power of self-love, and to center in this; for if they may have enough grace and mercy to save them, they don't care for more.
[3.] It is repugnant to the honor of gospel grace, as though it would carry us so far, and no farther, on the way to glory. For it must be known that this sort of persons, who sit down in their present measures and attainments, either really have no true grace at all, or it is of the lowest, meanest, and most imperceptible size and degree. For if anyone has attained any considerable growth in faith and love, in the mortification of sin, in heavenly mindedness, it is utterly impossible for him, ordinarily, not to press forward towards further attainments and further degrees of spiritual strength in the life of God. So the apostle declares it in his own example, Phi 3.12-14.120 What thoughts can these persons have concerning the glory, power, and efficacy of gospel grace, which they suppose they have received? If they measure them by the effects which they find in themselves — either as to the mortification of sin, or strength and delight in duties of holiness, or as to spiritual consolation — they can see no excellency nor beauty in them; for they don't manifest themselves except in their success as they transform the soul daily into the image of Christ.
[4.] It is that which has lost the reputation and glory of religion in the world, and thus the honor of the gospel itself. For most professors adopt those measures which put no lustre on the Gospel, and give no commendation to the religion they profess.
For their measures allow them such a conformity to the world — in their ways, words, and actions, in their gestures, apparel, and attire — that they are in no way to be visibly distinguished from the world. Indeed, the ground and reason why most rest in their present measures, is because they would not be further differenced from the world. This has greatly lost the glory, honor, and reputation of religion among us. And on the other side, if all visible professors would endeavor to continually grow and thrive in spirituality of mind and heavenliness of affections, with fruits that are suited to that, it would bring a conviction on the world that there is a secret invisible power accompanying the religion
they profess, transforming them daily into the image and likeness of God.
[5.] Whatever is pretended to the contrary, it is inconsistent with all solid peace of conscience; for no such thing is promised to any who live in such a contempt of divine promises, nor is it attainable except by the diligent exercise of all those graces which lie neglected under this frame. Few men are able to judge whether they have real, internal, abiding peace or not, unless it is in case of trials and temptations At other seasons, general hopes and confidences may supply the lack of it in their minds; but when any fear, danger, trial, or word of conviction, befalls them, they cannot help but inquire and examine how it is with themselves. And if they find their affections are cold, dead, earthly, carnal, withering, not spiritual or heavenly, there will be an end of their supposed peace, and they will fall into woeful disquietudes. And they will then find that the root of all this evil lies in this frame and disposition: They have been so far satisfied with their present measures or attainments in religion, that the utmost of their endeavors has been but to preserve their station, or not to forfeit it by open sins; to keep their souls alive from the severe reflections of the world, and to keep their reputation fair in the church of God. But to thrive spiritually, to prosper in their souls, to grow fat and flourishing in the inward man, to bring forth more fruit as age increases, to press towards perfection — these are things they have not designed nor pursued.
This is why so many among us are visibly at an unthrifty standstill in the world — that where they were one year, there they are still in another, like shrubs in the wilderness; not like plants in the "garden of God," not like vines planted in "a very fruitful hill." Isa
5.1 Indeed, though many sense that they are cold, lifeless, and fruitless, they won't be convinced that there is a necessity to make daily progress in spirituality and heavenly mindedness, so that the inward man may be renewed day by day, and grace may be augmented with the increase of God. This is work, they suppose, for those who have nothing else to do. But it's not consistent with their own business, callings, and occasions; it's not necessary to their salvation, they hope; nor, maybe, is it to be attained by them if they were to set themselves about it. In many, this apprehension
or imagination, at the beginning of the declension and decay of Christian religion, casts holiness and devotion onto that sort of men who undertook to utterly retire from the world; those among whom the substance of religion was quickly lost, and a cloud or meteor of superstition was embraced in its place. This folly is ominous to the souls of men.
Those who have made the greatest progress in conforming their affections to things spiritual and heavenly, know most of its necessity, excellency, and desirableness — indeed, without some progress in it, these things will not be known. These men will testify that the more they attain in this, the more they see there is yet to be attained, and the more they desire what was attained before. Forgetting those things which are behind, they reach forth to the things that are yet before them, like men running in a race, whose prize and reward is yet before them, Phi 3.13, 14. It is a beautiful thing to see a Christian weaned from the world, minding heavenly things, green and flourishing in spiritual affections; and it is even lovelier because it is so rare. Most of them take up with those measures which neither glorify God nor bring a durable peace to their own souls.
What men pretend and complain about in this, is the difficulty of the work. They suppose they can preserve their present station; but to press forward, to grow in grace, to thrive in their affections, this is too hard for them. This complaint is unequal and unjust, and adds to the guilt of their sloth. It reflects negatively on the words of our Savior, that "his yoke is easy and his burden light,"
Mat 11.30 that "his commandments are not grievous." 1Joh 5.3 It expresses unbelief in the promises of God tendering such supplies of grace as to render all the ways of Wisdom easy, indeed, the ways of mercy and peace. It is contrary to the experience of all who have engaged in the ways of gospel obedience with any sincerity and diligence. And the whole cause of the pretended difficulty lies in themselves alone, which may be reduced to these two heads:
1st, A desire to retain some thing (or things) that is inconsistent with such progress; for unless the heart is ready on all occasions to esteem everything "as loss and dung, that we may win Christ," the work will be accompanied with insuperable difficulties. This
is the first principle of religion, of gospel obedience: that all things are to be despised for Christ. But this difficulty doesn't arise from the thing itself, but from our indisposition to it and unfitness for it. What is an easy, pleasant walk to a sound and healthy man, is a toilsome journey to someone diseased and infirm. In particular, while men retain an inordinate respect for the world, the vanities, the pleasures, the profits, the contentments of it; while self-love clings to us, putting an undue valuation on our persons, our relations, our enjoyments, and our reputations — we will labor in the fire when we engage in this duty; or rather, we won't sincerely engage in it at all. That's why the apostle tells us that in this case, we must cast off every weight, and the sin that so easily besets us, if we intend to run with joy the race that is set before us, Heb 12.1.
2dly, It is because men dwell continually at the entrances of religion, in the first and lowest exercise of grace. Some are always beginning at religion, and the beginning of things is always difficult. They intend not to be complete in the whole will of God, nor to grant all graces their perfect work. With use, they don't habituate grace to a readiness in all the actings of grace, which the apostle commends in those who are "perfect" or complete, Heb 5.14.121 Hence he calls such persons "babes and carnal," compared to those who are "strong men and spiritual."
Such persons don't oblige themselves to the whole work and all the duties of religion, but only to what they judge necessary for them in their present circumstances. In particular, they don't attempt a thorough work in the mortification of any sin, but they hew and hack at it as their convictions are urgent, or abate; the wounds from this in the body of sin are quickly healed. They don't grant any grace its perfect work, but are always making mere attempts; and so they give up.
So long as it is this way with any, they will be deluded with apprehensions of insuperable difficulties as to the growth of their affections in spirituality and heavenliness. Remove these things out of the way, as they ought to be removed, and we'll find that all the paths in which we are to walk towards God, are pleasantness and peace.
This is the first cause why there may be affections that are truly spiritual and graciously renewed in some persons, who yet don't thrive in an assimilation and conformity to heavenly things. Men keep to their present measures, and thereupon pretend there is either a necessary occasion, or discouragements from difficulties, hindering their attempts at spiritual growth in the inward man. But as they bring no honor to Christ, they may thank themselves if they have no solid peace in their own souls.
(2.) Just as the evil proceeds from folly, so it is always the consequent of sin, of many sins, and of various sorts. Let's not dwell on heartless complaints that we don't find our affections lively and heavenly, or that we don't find the inward man thriving or growing. Let's not hearken after this or that relief or comfort under this consideration, as many things are usually insisted on to this purpose. They may be of use when persons are under temptations and not able to make a right judgment of themselves; but in the course of our ordinary walking with God, they are not to be attended or resorted to.
The general reason for this evil state is our own sinful carelessness, negligence, and sloth, with perhaps an indulgence of some known lust or corruption. In vain we seek refreshing cordials, as though we were only spiritually faint, when in fact we stand in need of lancings and burnings, being near comatose. It would take too long to give instances of those sins which effectually obstruct the thriving of spiritual affections. But in general, when men are careless as to the continual watch they should keep over their hearts; while they are negligent in holy duties, either as to their seasons or the manner of their performance; when they are strangers to holy meditation and self-examination; while they inordinately pursue the things of the world, or are so tender and delicate that they won't undergo the hardship of a heavenly life, either as to the inward or outward man; and much more, when they are vain in their conversation, and corrupt in their communication, especially if they're under the predominant influence of any particular lust — it is vain to think of thriving in spiritual affections.
And yet this is how it is with all those who ordinarily and in their constant course, are careless in this.