Chapter 18. The State Of Spiritual Affections.
CHAPTER 18. THE STATE OF SPIRITUAL AFFECTIONS.
It remains only, as to this head now spoken to, that we briefly consider what is the state of spiritual affections that are thus daily exercised and improved. And this we will do by showing — first,
What is their pattern; secondly, What is their rule; thirdly, What is their measure, or to what they may attain.
FIRST, The pattern which we should continually bear in our eyes, to which our affections should be conformed, is Jesus Christ and the affections of his holy soul. The mind is the seat of all our affections; and this is what we should continually design and endeavor: namely, that the "same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus," Phi 2.5. To have our minds so affected with spiritual things as was the mind of Christ, is the principal part of our duty and grace. Nor do I think that any man can attain any considerable degree in spiritual mindedness, who does not much contemplate the same mind in Christ, 2Cor
3.18.135 To this purpose, we should furnish our minds with instances of the holy affections that were in Christ, and their blessed exercise on all occasions. The Scripture makes a full representation of them to us, and we should be conversant in our meditations on them. What glorious things are spoken of his love to God, and his delight in Him, from which he also "delighted to do his will, and his law was in the midst of his heart," Psa 40.8 — seated in the throne of his affections!
What pity and compassion he had for the souls of men, even for the whole of humankind, in all their sufferings, pains, and distresses!
How all his affections were always in perfection of order, under the conduct of the spirit of his mind! From this came his self-denial, his contempt of the world, his readiness for the cross, to do or suffer according to the will of God. If this pattern is continually before us, it will exert a transforming efficacy to change us into the same image.
When we find our minds liable to any disorders — clinging inordinately to the things of this world, moved with intemperate passions, vain and frothy in conversation, darkened or disturbed by the fumes of distempered lusts — let us call things to an account, and ask of ourselves whether this is the frame of mind that was in Christ
Jesus. This, therefore, is an evidence that our affections are spiritually renewed, and that they have had some progress in an assimilation of heavenly things — namely, when the soul is delighted in making Christ their pattern in all things.
SECONDLY, The rule of our affections in their utmost spiritual improvement is the Scripture. And two things are respected in them:
— their internal actings; and their exercise in outward ways and means, by which they are expressed. The Scripture is the entire rule of them both:
1. And with respect to the former, it gives us one general law or rule that is comprehensive of all others — namely, "That we love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength." The acting of all our affections towards God in the utmost degree of perfection is required of us; that in all instances we prefer and value
Him above all things; that we inseparably cling to Him, and do nothing whatever at any time that is not influenced and directed by the love of God. This perfection, as we will see immediately, is not attainable absolutely in this life; but it is proposed to us as that which the excellency of God's nature requires, and which the faculties and powers of our nature were created for, and which we should design and aim at in all things. But the indispensable obligation of this rule is that we should always be in a sincere endeavor to cling to God continually in all things, to prefer Him above all, and delight in Him as our chief good. When this frame and disposition is habitually fixed in our minds, it will declare and act itself in all instances of duties, on all occasions of trial, when other things bid for a predominant interest in our affections, as they do every day. And if it is not so with us, we will be at a continual loss in all our ways. This is what makes us lifeless and heartless in duties, careless in temptations or the occasions of them, and forgetful of God: when it is impossible to be preserved from sin without a due remembrance of his holiness. In brief, the lack of a predominant love of God, continually exercised, is the spring of all that unprofitable profession of religion that the world is filled with.
2. There are outward ways and duties by which our spiritual affections are expressed. Their rule also is the Scripture. The way marked out in it is the only channel in which the stream of spiritual affections takes its course to God. The graces required in it are acted by the affections; the duties it prescribes are those which they stir up and enliven; the religious worship it appoints is that in which they have their exercise. Where this rule has been neglected, men's religious affections have grown irregular, indeed, wild and
ungovernable. All the superstitions that the world is filled with owe their origin principally to men's affections set loose from the rule of the word. There is nothing so silly, absurd, and foolish, as what they have enslaved the souls of men to, nothing so horrid and difficult but what they have engaged them in. And having once taken this liberty to themselves, the corrupt minds of men are a thousand times more satisfied than in their regular exercise according to the word of God.
Hence they rejoice in those penances which are not without their austerities; in such outward duties of devotion as are troublesome and chargeable; in everything that has only a show of wisdom in willworship, humility, and neglect of the body. Col 2.23 Hence all their affections will be more sensibly moved by images and pictures, and a melting devotion will be more stirred up in them, than by all the motives and incentives which God proposes to them to draw their affections to Himself. Nothing is more extravagant than the affections of men, tinctured with some devotion, if they forsake the rule of the Scripture.
THIRDLY, consider the measure of their attainments, or what their affections may be raised to through due exercise and holy diligence.
Now, this is not absolute perfection: "Not as though I had already attained, nor am already perfected, but I follow after," as the apostle says, Phi 3.12. But there is something attainable by those who pretend highly to perfection, which they seem to be strangers to. And the state of our affections under a due exercise on heavenly things, and in their assimilation of them, may be fixed on these three things:
1. A habitual suitableness to spiritual things upon their proposal.
The ways by which spiritual things are proposed to our minds are various. They are proposed directly in all ordinances of divine worship — indirectly and in just consequence by all the especial providences in which we are concerned; by our own thoughts and stated meditations; by the motions of the Holy Spirit, when he causes us to "hear a word behind us saying, "This is the way, walk in it;" 2Joh 1.6 by holy converse with others; by all sorts of occurrences.
And as the ways of their proposal are various, so the times and seasons in which they are represented to us, comprehend them all
— at least, they don't exclude any times and seasons of our lives.
Whatever the way of their proposal, and whenever its season, if our affections are duly improved by spiritual exercises, they are suited
to them, and will be ready to entertain them. For lack of that exercise, on the other hand, we see equivocations and shiftings in duties, proneness to comply with diversions, all to keep the mind away from closing with and receiving those spiritual things which it is not suited to. Therefore, because the solemn way of proposing spiritual things to our minds, is in and by the ordinances of divine worship, when men have a prevalent loathness to engage in them, or when they are satisfied with an outward attendance to them, but not enabled to a vigorous stirring up of the inward man to a holy, affectionate converse with spiritual and heavenly things — it is because they are carnal. When men can receive the fiery darts of Satan's temptations in their bosoms, and allow them to abide there, or even foster and cherish them in thoughts of the lusts they kindle
— but they quickly quench the motions of the Spirit that stir them to embrace heavenly things — they are carnal, and carnally minded.
When providences of concern — in afflictions, trials, and deliverances — don't engage the mind in thoughts of spiritual things, and excite the affections to entertain them, then men are carnal and earthly. When every lust, corruption, or passion — such as anger, envy, or displeasure at this or that person or thing — can divert our mind from compliance with the proposal of spiritual things made to it, we are carnal.
It is otherwise when our affections are conformed to things spiritual and heavenly. Upon every proposal of these, the mind finds it suitable, like that which a well-disposed appetite finds for savory food. As "the full soul loathes a honeycomb," Pro 27.7 so a mind under the power of carnal affections has an aversion to all spiritual sweetness. But spiritualized affections desire them, have an appetite for them, and readily receive them on all occasions, as those which are natural to them, as milk is to new-born babes.
2. Affections so disposed constantly find a gusto, a pleasant taste, a relish, in spiritual things. In them they "taste that the Lord is gracious," 1Pet 2.3. To taste of God's goodness, is to have an experience of a savory relish and sweetness in converse and communion with Him. And persons whose affections are thus renewed and thus improved, taste a sweet savor in all spiritual things. Some affections, such as a sense of the love of Christ, are sometimes too hard for them as it were, and overpower them, until
they are "sick of love," Song 5.8 and "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1Pet 1.8 Nor are there any, however seasoned with afflictions or mortifications, that [God's goodness] is not sweet to them, Pro 27.7.136 Everything that is wholesome food, that is good nourishment, though it is but bitter herbs, is sweet to someone who is hungry. And when by our affections, we have raised up in us a spiritual appetite for heavenly things, however bitter any of them may be to flesh and blood in their own nature or in their dispensation — as are all the doctrines of the cross — they are all sweet to us, and we can taste how gracious the Lord is in them.
When the soul is filled with earthly things — with the love of this world, or when the appetite is lost by spiritual sickness, or vitiated and corrupted by any prevalent sin — heavenly things become unsavory and sapless; or as Job says, they are "like the white of an egg, in which there is no taste." In the dispensation of the word, there may be a taste or pleasing relish given to the fancy; and maybe to the notional understanding, when the affections find no contentment in the things themselves. But for those who are spiritually minded to the degree intended, these are all sweet, savory, and pleasant — the affections taste them immediately, as the palate does food.
3. They are a just repository of all graces, and in this, they are the treasury of the soul. There are graces of the Spirit whose formal direct residence is in the understanding and the will, as with faith itself; and in this, all other graces are radically comprised; they grow from that root. However, most of them have their principal residence in the affections. They are preserved secure and ready in them, for exercise on all occasions. And when they are duly spiritual, there is nothing that tends to their growth or improvement, to their cherishing or quickening, which they stand in need of continually, and which God has made provision for in his word, that they will not readily receive it, lay it up, keep and preserve it. By this they come to be filled with grace, with all graces
— for there is room in the affections for all the graces of the Spirit to inhabit — and they readily comply with the light and direction of faith for their exercise. When faith discerns and determines that there is anything to be done or suffered in a way of duty to the glory of God, the affections thus disposed don't shut up or stifle the
graces that are in them, but carefully offer them for their proper exercise.
These are some of those things which our affections, conformed to heavenly things, will attain to. And thus it is with affections that are spiritually renewed. By being fixed on things spiritual and heavenly, they are more and more conformed to them, made like them, and become more spiritual and heavenly themselves.
It is not thus with those whose affections have only an occasional change wrought upon them by the means described before, but are not spiritually renewed. On the contrary, such persons design to debase spiritual things, to bring down heavenly things into a conformity with their affections which, however changed, are not spiritual, but carnal. To evince this we may observe,
1. Their affections are under the light and conduct of such notions in the mind and understanding that they don't give a clear, distinct representation of them in their own nature to the affections. For where they are not themselves spiritually renewed, the mind itself is carnal and unrenewed; and such a mind "does not perceive the things of God, nor can it do so, because they are spiritually discerned." 1Cor 2.14 They cannot be rightly discerned in their own beauty and glory, but in and by a spiritual, saving light, which the mind is devoid of. And where they are not thus represented, the affections cannot receive or cling to them as they should, nor will they ever be conformed to them.
2. Those notions in such persons are oftentimes variously influenced and corrupted by fancy and imagination. They are merely "puffed up by their fleshly minds;" that is, they are filled with vain, foolish, proud imaginations about spiritual things, as the apostle declares,
Col 2.18,19. And the work of fancy, in a fleshly mind, is to raise up such images of spiritual things, as may render them suitable to natural, unrenewed affections.
3. This, in its progress, produces superstition, false worship, and idolatry. For all of these are an attempt to represent spiritual things in a way suited to carnal, unrenewed affections. Hence men suppose themselves to be excited by them to love, joy, fear, and delight in the things themselves, when indeed they all respect that false representation of them by which they are suited to them as carnal.
These have been the spring of all false worship and idolatry in the Christian world:
(1) The mind and affections have been changed and tinctured with devotion by some of the means we insisted on before. In this, one way or another, they will be exercised about spiritual things, and ready to receive impressions from anything that superstition can impose on them.
(2) They are, by error and false information, set at liberty from the only rule of their actings and exercise — that is, the word of God.
Men satisfied themselves that their affections were engaged in things spiritual and heavenly; it was no matter at all whether the way of their exercise was directed by the Scripture or not. Having thus lost their guide and their way, every "ignis fatuus," every wandering meteor, allures them to follow its conduct into foolish superstitions. Almost nothing is so ridiculous, nothing so horrid and difficult, that they will not embrace under the notion of things spiritual and heavenly.
(3) The carnal minds of men, having no proper, distinct apprehensions and notions of spiritual things in their own nature, endeavor to represent them under such notions and images as may suit them to their carnal, unrenewed affections; for it is implanted almost indelibly upon them, that the end of all knowledge of spiritual things, is to propose them to the embraces of the affections.
It would be easy to manifest that from these three corrupt springs, arose that flood of idolatry and false worship which spread itself over the church of Rome, and with whose machinations the minds of men are still too replenished.
4. Where it is not thus, carnal affections still variously debase spiritual things, to conform them to themselves; and this may proceed so far, until men think wickedly that God is altogether like themselves. Psa 50.21 But I won't insist on these things any further.
LASTLY, Where affections are spiritually renewed, the person of Christ is the center of them; but where they are only changed, they tend to end in self. Where the "new man" is put on, "Christ is all, and in all," Col 3.10,11. He is the spring, by his Spirit, that gives them life,
light, and being; and he is the ocean that receives all their streams.
God, even the Father, doesn't present Himself in his beauty and amiableness as the object of our affections, but as he is in Christ, acting his love in him, 1Joh 4.8,9.137 As for all other spiritual things, renewed affections cling to them as they derive from Christ and lead to him; for to them he is "all, and in all." It is he whom the souls of his saints love for himself, for his own sake, and all other things of religion in and for him.
The air is pleasant and useful; without it, we cannot live or breathe.
But if the sun didn't enlighten it and warm it with its beams, if it were always one perpetual night and cold, what refreshment could be received by it? Christ is the "Sun of Righteousness," and if his beams don't quicken, animate, and enlighten, the best, the most necessary duties of religion, nothing desirable would remain in them. This is the most certain character of affections that are spiritually renewed: they can rest in nothing but in Christ; they fix on nothing but what is amiable by a participation of his beauty; and in whatever he is, in this they find contentment. It is otherwise with those whose affections may be changed, but are not renewed. The truth is — and it may be made good by all sorts of instances — that Christ, in the mystery of his person and in the glory of his mediation, is the only thing that they dislike in religion. They may embrace and delight in false representations of him by images and pictures; false notions of his present glory, greatness, and power may affect them; they may give him a worship of their own devising, and please themselves in it; corrupt opinions concerning his office and grace may possess their minds, and they may contend for them. But those who are not spiritually renewed, cannot love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
Indeed, they have an inward, secret aversion to the mystery of his person and his grace. It is self which all their affections center in, the ways of which are too long to be declared here.
This is the first thing that is required to render our affections in such a state and condition that from them and by them, we may be spiritually minded — namely, that they themselves are spiritually and savingly renewed.
I suppose the things that remain will allow for a speedy dispatch.