true Christians. When they have truly gracious experiences, and
in different respects and degrees — alas! what could make it enter into the hearts of worms of the dust, that it is fitting and suitable for them to do so?
Thus I have considered the first two of those three causes of error in conduct that were mentioned. I now come to the third.
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3. Ignorance of Satan's Devices. The third and last cause of the errors of those who have appeared to be the subjects or zealous promoters of this work, is being ignorant or unobservant of some particular things, by which the devil has a special advantage. Here I would particularly take notice of:
(1) some things with respect to the inward experiences of Christians themselves; and, (2) something with regard to the external effects of experiences.
(1) There are three things I would take notice of with regard to the
INWARD EXPERIENCES of Christians, by which the devil has many advantages against us.
1. The first thing is the mixture often found in the experiences of true Christians. When they have truly gracious experiences, and divine and spiritual revelations and exercises, they also have something else mixed with them, besides what is spiritual. There is a mixture of that which is natural and corrupt, with that which is divine. This is what Christians are liable to in the present exceedingly imperfect state: the great imperfection of grace, the feebleness and infancy of the new nature, and the great remains of corruption, together with our circumstances in this world, where we are surrounded by what tends to pollute us. Indeed, it is not to be supposed that Christians ever have any experiences in this world that are wholly pure, or entirely spiritual, without any mixture of what is natural and carnal. The beam of light, as it comes from the fountain of light upon our hearts, is pure; but as it is reflected from there, it is mixed. The seed, as sent from heaven and planted in the heart, is pure; but as it springs up out of the heart, it is impure.
Indeed, there is commonly a much greater mixture than people for the most part seem to imagine. I have often thought the experiences of true Christians are very frequently like it is with some sorts of fruits. They are enveloped in several coverings of thick shells or pods, which are thrown away by the one who gathers the fruit. Only a very small part of the whole bulk is the pure kernel that is good to eat.
All of the things with which there is frequently some mixture of gracious experiences, even very great and high experiences, are these three:
(1) human or natural affection and passion; (2) impressions on the imagination; and (3) a degree of self-righteousness or spiritual pride.
(1) There is often a great mixture of affection or passion, with that which is spiritual. This passion arises from natural principles; so that nature has a very great hand in those vehement motions and flights of the passions that appear. Thus the same degrees of divine communications from heaven will have vastly different effects in what outwardly appears in people of different natural tempers. The great mixture of what is natural, with what is spiritual, is very manifest in the peculiar effects that divine influences have in certain families, or in people of a particular temperament. There is a distinguishing manner in how the passions and affections operate, and how they are outwardly expressed. I know some remarkable instances of this. The same is also evident by the different effects divine communications have on the same person at different times, and in different circumstances. The novelty of things, or the sudden transition from an opposite extreme, and many other things that might be mentioned, greatly contribute to raising the passions.
Sometimes there is not only a mixture of what is common and natural with gracious experience, but even what is animal — that which, in great measure, is from the body and is properly the result of the animal frame. All is not always purely holy and divine in what
true Christians feel in theirs affections towards God. Everything that is felt in the affections does not arise from spiritual principles. Common and natural principles have a very great hand in it. An improper self-love may have a great share in the effect. God is not loved for his own sake, or for the excellency and beauty of his own perfections, as he ought to be. Nor do these things in any way have that proportion in the effect that they ought to have. So in that love that true Christians have toward one another, very often there is a great mixture with grace, of what arises from common and natural principles; self-love has a great hand it. The children of God are not loved purely for Christ's sake, but there may be a great mixture of that natural love which many sects of heretics have boasted about. They were united to one another because they were of the same company; they were on their side and against the rest of the world. Indeed, there may be a mixture of natural love toward the opposite sex, with Christian and divine love. So too, there may be a great mixture in that sorrow for sin which the godly have, and also in their joys. Natural principles may in a great many ways, greatly contribute to what is felt. This might easily be shown if it wouldn't make my discourse too lengthy. There is nothing that belongs to Christian experience that is more liable to a corrupt mixture, than zeal. It is an excellent virtue, and a heavenly flame when it is pure. But as it is exercised in those who are so little sanctified and so little humbled, as we are in the present state, it is apt to be mixed with human passion. Indeed, zeal may be mixed with corrupt and hateful affections, like pride and uncharitable bitterness, and other things that are not from heaven, but from hell.
(2) Another thing that is often mixed with what is spiritual in the experiences of Christians, is impressions on the imagination. Godly people have external ideas or images of things strongly impressed on their minds by these, together with a spiritual understanding of divine things, a conviction of their reality and certainty, and a strong and deep sense of their excellency or great importance on their hearts. A degree of imagination in such a case (as I observed elsewhere) is unavoidable, and necessarily arises from human
nature as constituted in our present state. And a degree of imagination is really useful, and often of great benefit. But when it is exercised in too great a degree, it becomes an impure mixture that is prejudicial. This mixture very often arises from the constitution of the body. It usually contributes greatly to the other kind of mixture mentioned before, namely, of natural affections and passions. It helps to raise them to a great height.
(3) Another thing that is often mixed with the experiences of true Christians — and this is the worst mixture of all — is a degree of self-righteousness or spiritual pride. This is often mixed with the joys of Christians. Thus the joy they have is not purely the joy of faith, or a rejoicing in Christ Jesus, but is partly a rejoicing in themselves; for oftentimes in their elevations they look at themselves, and view their own high attainments. They rejoice partly because they are taken with their own experiences and great discoveries which, in their own apprehensions, makes them so excel. And this heightens all their passions, and especially those effects that are more external.
There is a much greater mixture of these external things in the experiences of some Christians, than others. In some, the mixture is so great that it very much obscures and hides the beauty of grace in them, like a thick smoke that blocks the light of a fire. We should be well aware of these things so we won't take all that glistens for gold; and so we may know what to countenance and encourage, and what to discourage. Otherwise Satan will have a vast advantage against us, for he works in the corrupt mixture. Sometimes for lack of people distinguishing the ore from pure metal, those experiences are most admired by the people who are themselves its subjects, and by others who are not the most excellent. The great external effects and vehemence of the passions, and the violent agitations of the animal spirits,63 are sometimes owing to this corrupt mixture (as very apparent in some instances), though it is not always so.
I observed a great difference among those who are under high affections, and seem disposed to earnestly talk to those who are
around them. Some insist much more in their talk, on what they behold in God and Christ, and the glory of the divine perfections — Christ's beauty and excellency, and His wonderful condescension and grace. They also talk about their own unworthiness, and the great and infinite obligations that they and others are under to love and serve God. But some insist almost entirely on their own high privileges, their assurance, God's love and favor; and on the weakness and wickedness of opposers, and how much they are above their reach. The latter may have experienced much of the presence of God, but their experiences do not appear to be as solid and unmixed as the former.
There is a great difference in people's earnestness in their talk and behavior. In some, it seems to come from the fulness of their hearts, and from the great sense that they have of truth. There is a deep sense of the certainty and infinite greatness, the excellency and importance of divine and eternal things, attended by the appearance of great humility. In others, their earnestness seems to arise from a great mixture of human passion, and an undue and intemperate agitation of the spirits. This appears by their earnestness and vehemence not being proportioned to the nature of the subject they insist on. They are violent in everything they say, as much when they are talking about things of smaller importance, as when speaking of things of greater weight. I have seen this in an instance or two, in which this vehemence at length resulted in mental turmoil. There have been a few instances of a more extraordinary nature still, even of people finding themselves disposed to earnestly talk and cry out from an unaccountable kind of bodily pressure. This is without an extraordinary view of anything in their minds, nor a sense of anything on their hearts; there was probably the immediate hand of the devil in this.
Another thing by which the devil gains great advantage, is the unheeded defects there are in the experiences of true Christians sometimes — even in those high affections in which there is much that is truly good.
What I now address is something different from that defect or imperfection of degree which is in every holy disposition and exercise in this life, even in the best of saints. What I aim at is experiences being especially defective in some particular thing that ought to be in them. It is not an essential defect, nor such a defect as is found in the experiences of hypocrites, which would render them utterly vain, monstrous, and altogether abominable to God. Yet it is such a defect that it maims and deforms the experience. The essence of truly Christian experiences is not lacking in them. What is lacking is that which is very needful for the proper beauty of the image of Christ in such a person's experiences. Things are very much out of proportion. There is indeed much of some things, but at the same time there is so little of some other things that ought to have a due proportion to the whole, that the defect very much deforms the Christian, and it is truly odious in the sight of God.
What I observed before was something that deformed the Christian because it was too much; it was something mixed in; that is, something not belonging to the Christian as such. What I speak of now is something that deforms the Christian the other way; namely, there is not enough of it; something is lacking that belongs to the Christian as such. The one deforms the Christian as a monstrous protuberance. The other is something by which the new creature is maimed, and some member is lacking in great measure; or it is so small and withering as to be out of due proportion. This is another spiritual calamity that the saints are liable to through the great imperfection of grace in this life. It's like the chicken in the egg, at the beginning of its formation. Though there are indeed the rudiments or lineaments 64 of all the parts, a few parts are plain to be seen, while others are hidden; so that, without a microscope it appears quite monstrous.
When this deficiency and disproportion is great, as it sometimes is in real saints, it is not only a great deformity in itself, but it has many adverse consequences. It gives the devil great advantage, and leaves a door open for corruption. It exposes us to very deformed and unlovely actions, and often results in the great wounding of the soul.
To better understand this matter, we may observe that in the revelation of what God has made of himself to the world by Jesus Christ, he has taken care to give a proportionate manifestation of two kinds of excellencies or perfections of his nature — first, those that especially tend to instill us with awe and reverence, and to search and humble us; and secondly, those that tend to win, draw, and encourage us. By the one, he appears as an infinitely great, pure, holy, and heart-searching judge; by the other, he appears as a gentle and gracious father, and a loving friend. By the one he is a pure, searching, and burning flame; by the other, he is a sweet refreshing light. These two kinds of attributes are admirably tempered together in the revelation of the gospel. There is a proportionate manifestation of justice and mercy, holiness and grace, majesty and gentleness, authority and condescension. God has thus ordered that his diverse excellencies, as he reveals himself in the face of Jesus Christ, would have a proportionate manifestation, providing for our necessities in this. He knew it would be of great consequence that our apprehensions of these diverse perfections of his nature be duly proportioned to one another. A defect on the one hand — namely, revealing much of his love and grace, without a proportionate revelation of his awful majesty and his holy and searching purity — would tend toward spiritual pride, carnal confidence, and presumption. And a defect on the other hand — namely, revealing much of his holy majesty, without a proportionate revelation of his grace, tends toward unbelief, a sinful fearfulness, and spirit of bondage. Therefore, that deficiency of experiences that I am now speaking of, chiefly consists in that. The revelation that God has made of himself in his word, and the provision made for our spiritual welfare in the gospel, is perfect. Yet the actual light and communications that we have are not perfect; in many ways they are exceedingly imperfect and maimed.
Experience plainly shows that Christians may have high experiences in some respects, and yet their circumstances may be unhappy in this regard: that their experiences and discoveries are not more common. There is a great difference among Christians in this respect. Some
have much more general discoveries than others, who on many accounts are the most amiable Christians. Christians may have experiences that are very high. And yet there may be very much of this deficiency and disproportion: their high experiences are truly from the Spirit of God, but sin comes in by the defect (as indeed all sin is originally from a defective privative cause). And in such a case, high discoveries at the same time that they are enjoyed, may be and sometimes are the occasion, or causa sine qua non of sin.65 Sin may come in at that back door, the gap that is left open, as spiritual pride often does. And many times, the Spirit of God is quenched by this means. God punishes the pride and presumption that arise, by bringing such darkness and suffering, such awful consequences and horrid temptations, that they are enough to make one's hair stand on end to hear them. Christians should therefore diligently observe their own hearts as to this matter. And they should pray to God that he would give us experiences in which one thing is proportional to another, so that God may be honored and their souls be edified by it. Ministers should have an eye to this in their private dealings with the souls of their people.
It is chiefly from such a defect of experiences that some things have arisen which have been pretty common among true Christians of late. Many have supposed they arose from a good cause, such as talking about divine and heavenly things in particular, and expressing divine joys with laughter or light behavior. I believe, in many instances, such things have arisen from a good cause, as their causa sine qua non, and high discoveries and gracious joyful affections have been the occasion of them. But the proper cause has been sin — even that odious defect in their experience, by which a sense has been missing of the awful and holy majesty of God as present with them, and their nothingness and vileness before Him, proportionate to the sense they have of God's grace and the love of Christ. The same is true in many cases, of people's unsuitable boldness, their disposition to speak with authority, intemperate zeal, and many other things, that sometimes appear in true Christians under great religious affections.