Of the Abuse of the Passions in Religion
In the two last discourses, we learned the use of the passions in matters of religion, and what advantages may be expected from them, in the christian life: We proceed now to the fourth general; and that is, to inquire into the abuse of the passions in religious concerns, or when the exercise of our affections in the things of God maybe pronounced irregular, and in what manner they should be limited and restrained, and put under better conduct.
Abuse I. Then are the passions irregularly exercised, “when we suffer them to influence our opinions in religion, and to determine our judgment in any points of faith or practice.” The passions were made to be servants to reason, to be governed by the judgment, and to be influenced by truth; but they were never given us to decide controversies, and to determine what is truth, and what is error. Even the best affections, and those that seem to have a strong tendency toward piety, are not al-I ways safe guides in this respect; yet they are too often indulged to sway the mind in its search after truth or duty, as I shall 1 make it appear in several instances.
1. Suppose a person should be exceedingly affected with the unlimited goodness I and abounding grace of G od: if, by this ’ pious affection towards God and his goodness, he is persuaded to think that God has no such severe vengeance for sinful and rebel-creatures, and that he will not destroy such multitudes of mankind in hell as the scripture asserts; or that their punishment! shall not be so long and so terrible as God I has expressly declared; here the passion of. love and esteem for the divine goodness, acts in an irregular manner, for it takes off the eyes of the soul from his awful holijness and his strict justice,’ and the un-I known evil that is in sin. It prevents the mind from giving due attention to God’s j express words, and to those perfections of I the divine nature, and his wise and righteous government, which may demand such dreadful and eternal punishment, for the jrebellion of a creature, against the infinite 1 dignity of its creator and governor. [ 2. Suppose a christian has most powertful impressions made on the passions of fear by the tremendous ideas of God’s majesty, and his punishing justice, and thence he concludes that the Great God will pardon no wilful sins, that he will forgive no repeated iniquities, no sins after Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, or after vows or solemn engagements; that he will have no mercy upon apostates, even though they turn to him by repentance: This is yielding up truth to the passion of fear, and abuse of our religious dread of the majesty of God; for such an opinion runs counter to the great design of the gospel, which assures us that “Christ came to save the chief of sinners,” 1 Tim. i. 15: to remove the gutlt of wilful and repeated sins, and to provide forgiveness for some of the most profligate rebels, even for all that renounce their rebellion.
3. Some pious persons have had such an aflfectionate zeal to honour God, that they have been led by this passion to contrive various forms of service and ceremony, gay and costly rites, with long and painful exercises of devotion, which God never appointed, and have introduced a number of them into his worship. A childish fondness to please the great God with bodily services, has tempted them to forget his own divine prerogative to prescribe how men should worship him. They have been blinded with this sort of fondness for ceremony, in such a degree, as to lead them far ’ astray firom the divine simplicity of worship, which the New Testament has appointed.
4. Some persons, out of a passionate desire to honour Christ, and ascribe the whole train of their blessings and salvation to him, have been tempted to think that they are to do nothing towards their own salvation, but to lie still and be saved without any labour or care of their own; so that they have sought no more after sanctification, and holiness in themselves, than they have sought to make atonement for their own sins. But this zgal has much darkness in it, anl betrays them into a gross mistake, as though they could not ascribe their salvation sufficiently to Christ, unless they fancied that he came to save them in their sins, rather than to save them from sin.
5. It is possible that a person may have so high an esteem and so excessive a love for some near relation, some christian friend, somewise and pious minister of the gospel, that he sees no fault in them: He imitates all their practice, as though they were perfect patterns; he receives all their opinions for certain and divine truths, and believes every thing which they teach, as though they were infallible, without comparing it with the Bible, which is the onlytest of truth in matters of revealed iligion. This affection of love to ministers or christians is certainly irregular, when it tempts us to set up their judgments, their practices and their dictates, in the room of the words of God.
6. Again, it is the same culpable indulgence of our passions, to sway our judgment, and bias our understanding, when our souls are warmed with the holy fire of love and devotion under a particular sermon, and we cry out, “This is the best sermon that ever was preached, or the finest that ever was composed.” Qr, perhaps, your devout affections flag and languish under a sermon; you sit indolent and unmoved, and then the sermon goes for a poor dry discourse, and the man that delivered it for a dull and heavy preacher. Each of these hasty and irregular judgments, built on the passions, is very common to christians, and ought to be corrected.
7. I might add another instance a-kin to the last; and that is, when our devout affections of fear and hope, of holy love and heavenly delight, are raised in a place of public worship, whether at the established church or among the several denominations of the protestant dissenters, and immediately we conclude, “This is the right way of worship, this is most agreeable to the gospel, and these people are the only true church of Christ.” How weak is this reasoning! And yet how many are there, who have been determined both in their opinion and practice for or against such a particular community of christians, or mode of worship; and that for their whole life-time, merely by the effects that one or two attendances at “such a particular place of worship have had on their affections?
These arguments drawn from the passions, have been often employed to support idolatry and transubstantiation, and all the wild inventions of men in the worship of God. What sighs, and tears, what warm affections of sorrow and joy have been sometimes produced by some ingenious orators in the Roman church, in their sermons at Lent, when they have held up a crucifix before the face of the people in the midst of their discourse! While they set forth the sufferings of our Saviour in most pathetic language, the preiiehers have fallen down on their knees, and embraced and adored the wooden image: The natural affections of the hearers have been awakened in a very sensible manner, and being mingled with some thoughts of Christ and religion, they have fallen down and worshipped the idol, and have imagined all this to be pure devotion and piety towards God and his 6^ Son Jesus: and after all, they have made their lively passions a sufficient argument that God approved of all their fooleries, though, in his own word he hath expressly forbidden the worship of images.;
I have read of another instance; when a poor devout creature hath come to the sacrament of the mass of the Romish church, and her passions being raised to a rapturous degree, as she thought, by the presence of Christ there, under the form of the conse-’ crated wafer, she hath boldly declared, “should all the men on earth, and all the angels in heaven, join together to assure me that God himself was not there, I would not believe them, for I have seen him, and felt his divine presence.” What a wretched and mischievous abuse of passion is this, when persons shall suffer it to lead them to such unwarranted and sinful modes of worship, and persuade them to believe such strange doctrines, as are not only contrary to the express word of God, but a perfect contradiction to nature, sense, and reason!
Instances of this kind might be still multiplied. I have mentioned these few only to make it appear how unreasonable a thing it is to form our opinions in religion by the influence of the passions.
Abuse IL Then must the affections in matters of religion be pronounced irregular,
DISCOtJRSE V.
“when they run before the understanding, or when they rise higher toward any particular object than the judgment directs.” As in the foregoing particular, I told you that the passions were not designed to be directing powers of the soul, in the search of truth or duty; so neither are they made to rule all within us; but they are to be governed by reason and understanding: And in whatsoever instances they assumea superiority over the understanding, or run before it, they are excessive and irregular. Let us enter into a few particulars.
1. Some persons, as soon as they begin to find farther light dawning upon their minds, and are let into the knowledge of some doctrine or sentiment which they knew not before, immediately set their zeal to work: Their zeal is all on a flame to propagate and promote this new lesson of truth, before their own hearts are well established in it upon solid reasonings, and before they have considered whether it be a doctrine of great importance, and whether it merit such a degree of zeal. How common a case is it among christians, and too often found among ministers of the gospel, to give a loose to their affections at the first glimpse of some pleasing opinion, or some fresh discovery of what they call truth? “They help out the weakness of the proof by the strength of their passions, and by the pleasure they take in the opinion they have embraced. This confirms their assent too soon, and they grow deaf to the arguments that are brought to oppose it. They construe every text in the scripture to support this doctrine, they bring in the prophets and apostles to maintain it. They fancy they see in it a thousand verses of their Bibles, and they pronounce all men heretics that dare maintain the contrary opinions. Their conduct in this matter is so vehement, as though every gleam of light were sufficient to determine their faith, because it happens to fire their affections; they grow so warm about it, as though every opinion in religion were fundamental; and so fiery is their zeal, as though every mistake deserved the severest censures.
Nor is this the case of the christians only, with relation to the new opinions they receive: There are too many who tak:e up most of their articles of faith at first without due examination, and without sufficient argument: Their veneration for great names, or their affection to a particular party, has determined their opinions long ago: Their passions and other prejudices have formed their schemes of doctrines, with the neglect or abuse of their understandings and yet they pronounce as posilively upon truth and error, as though they were infallible. Happy are those whose faith is built on better foundations!
2. Again, there are some persons, when they begin to be convinced that such a particular practice is culpable or unlawful, their indignation is too soon awakened, and rises too high; immediately they condemn it, as inconsistent with salvation: Their hatred of it grows as violent as if it were blasphemy or idolatry: They are ready to break out into hard speeches and railing accusations against all that practice it, and pronounce them apostates and sinners of the first rank. The sudden rise and warmth of their passions does not suffer them to consider that there are some faults and follies that a good christian may be guilty of, through ignorance or inadvertence; there are some sins that do not carry in them such malignity and poison as to destroy all our Christianity.
3. There have been some weak christians, when they have heard a sermon, or read a discourse full of sublime language and mysterious darkness, and especially, if the style and manner has been very- pathetic, who have been raptured and transported, as though it contained the deepest sense, the noblest truths of religion, and the highest discoveries of grace and the gospel:
Whereas, perhaps, there may be scarce any thing in it which has a just agreement with reason or scripture; but when well examined, it proves to be a mere jargon of words, a mixture of unintelligible and unmeaning sounds, with some affectionate airs among them, whereby their passions were fired, and that without knowledge, and beyond all reason; And it is well, if after these flashes of affection and violent transports, they are not deluded into shameful iniquities. This has been the case of some high pretenders in elder and later days. They have spoken great swelling words of vanity, they are murmurers and complainers against the common rank of christians, but they “walk after their own ungodly lusts; they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and they allure others into lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness; and while they promise liberty, they are the servants of corruption,” 1 Pet. ii. 18, 19; and Judge 4, 16, 18.
4. This irregular exercise of the affections running before reason, is eminently exemplified also or another weak sort of people, who are very sincere in the main, but if they read an awful and terrible threatening, or if they hear it pronounced or the pulpit with a just degree of authority and proper accent, their fears are raised in an j excessive manner, and their soul is filled I with long sorrows and doubtings: Or, if. they happen to read or hear a sentence of; comfort, they are transported with sudden joy, and raise almost to assurance of the love of God: They give themselves up to the sudden efforts of passion, before they I suffer themselves to inquire, according to scriptural grounds, whether this text of threatenings, or whether the other sentences of comfort, do really belong to them or no.
There are many other cases, wherein it I is evident, that the affections in the things! of religion get the start of the understand-I ing, and run far before it. But I proceed. Abuse HI. It is a very gross abuse of the [ affections, “when we encourage them to; rise high, and grow very warm about the lesser things of religion, and yet are content to be cold and indifferent in mat-. ters of the highest importance.” There ’ are too many christians whose warmest zeal is employed about the mint, the annise, and the cummin of Christianity, Mat. xxiii. 23. and have few passions awakened or engaged in the weighty things of the law or the gospel. They are furiously intent upon speculative notions, and some peculiar opinions, that distinguish the little parties of christendom, and crumble the church to pieces;
Their fears, their hopes, their wishes, their desires, their grief and joy, are all employed in party-quarrels and in a strife of words: But they are thoughtless and indolent about the momentous duties of love to God and Christ, of justice to men, of charity to fellow creatures and fellow christians. So a sickly fancy is fond of trifles, and careless of solid treasures: So children have their little souls wrapped up in painted toys, while the matters of manly life and necessary business awaken no desire, no delight in them.
Suppose a man mourns to see the church of England lose ground in the nation, or to see the assemblies of Protestant dissenters grow thin and decrease, and yet he finds not his soul grieved, and his heart mourning over the atheism and profaneness of the land, the drunkenness and lewdness, the growing heathenism and infidelity of thd age: Or suppose a christian triumphs to see the controversy about Baptism well managed, and his joys arise, according as his own opinion is bravely supported, while at the same time he takes little pleasure to hear of the conversion of a sinner, or that a wicked family is grown religious. What shall we think of such a person? Is not his religion in a childish and sickly state? Are not his passions, even about religious ob-I jects, managed in a very irregular manner,
’ and worthy of a just and severe reproof? Abuse IV. There is also another evil conduct of the affections, in the matters of religion: and that is, “when they express themselves in an improper or indecent manner, and especially in such a way as is unnatural and uninstituted, foolish and ridiculous, savage and barbarous, contrary to the dictates of reason and human nature, or the word of God.”
V Take for instance some of the persecuters and idolators, the bigots and enthusiasts of the church of Rome. And I wish such persecution and bigotry, enthusiasm
. and idolatry, were never found among any other sects of christians.
1. With what furious and burning barbarity do Popish persecutors express their zeal for their religion! They arm their
, tongues and their pens with bitter reproaches and gall against those who divide from their communion, and would reform their gross corruptions; and they still profess it is out of love to Christ, and to the souls of men, that they imprison, cut, burn, torment, and destroy their fellow-christians. O my soul, come not into their secrets, nor learn such unrighteous and bloody zeal!
2. Survey Popish idolators. They imagine they can never show their affectionate
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devotion to Christ sufficiently, without mak’ ing images of a crucified man, and placing them continually in their sight, in order to pay their worship to Christ by those unappointed mediums. Sometimes they wear these little idols in their bosom, near their heart, and then they think they manifest how much their heart loves him. They kiss these wooden baubles, or their silver iigures, with a strange childish fondness, and sometimes bedew them with their tears, to show their inward affection to Jesus their Saviour. There may be much animal passion, much commotion of nature and the flesh in these practices, with very little spiritual love. Sometimes they made pictures even of God the Father, and then perform their devotions toward them with forbidden ceremonies, and break God’s second commandment to express their love to him. Strange and preposterous expressions of love, to practise what he forbids so often in his word, and that upon severe penalties!
3. Turn your eyes now to the Romish enthusiasts. God forbid that I should so condemn all that are educated in that church, as though there was no sincere devotion among them, though the church itself is abominally corrupt: but it is well known, that when some of these devotees have fancied themselves possessed with such a sub* linae love to God, that they have thrown themselves into odd postures and strange disorders of body, and appeared more like distracted persons than sober christians, as though it must be something not human that must express their divine affections. Others have imagined they could never do nor suffer enough to manifest the inward fire of that love to God which dwelt in their heart, and they have contrived what torments they should inflict upon themselves, as they used to express it, for the love of God.
Others, to show their sorrow for having eyes that offended him, have not only worn sackcloth upon their skin, but they have scourged themselves, till they have been covered with blood; they have bound themselves with vows to travel barefoot, and to make long and tedious pilgrimages to distant lands. Some have sent themselves to death by voluntary starving; others have tortured and destroyed themselves with excessive thirst ,* and either made their bodies miserable, or put an end to life to show their love to God. These are wild and frantic superstitions indeed, extravagant methods of expressing any devout passion, and most of them utterly unlawful. Let us remember that the religion which God teaches, has nothing in it contrary to the light of na-’ ture; nor must our inward piety break in upon the rules of reason and decency, when we would express it by any outward signs.
There are some religious affections, which are very properly expressed and manifested in the common way, whereby nature usually expresses those inward sensations of the soul. Godly sorrow naturally vents itself in groans and tears, Psalm ii vi. 6. Holy joy sometimes by a smile of ti the countenance, and often by the voice of sacred melody: And this not only appears in the example of the royal Psalmist, but in the precepts of the New Testament, Eph. V. 19. James v. 13. “If any be merry, let him sing psalms.” Pious and earnest desires of the presence of God and of his favour, are signified by stretching of the arm towards him, or lifting up the eyes and hands to him. Psalm lxviii. 81. and xxviii. 2. and cxxi. 1, 2, Repentance and shame are naturally signified by downcast eyes or blushing, Luke xviii. 13. Ezra ix. 6.
Some of the stronger outward appearances, and vehement tokens of inward holy passion, are indeed rather to be indulged in private than in public worship: But in all our behaviour in this respect, let us take heed that the inward affection is sincere, and is the real spring of all the outward signs and expressions. Let us see to it, that we indulge not that practice which our
Saviour so much condemns in the hypocrites of his day, Matt. vi. 16. Let us make no sad faces, nor put on dismal airs, nor smite the breast with the hand, and disfigure our countenances, merely to make the world believe that we are penitents. Nor let us make ourselves remarkable in puMic and mixed company, by turning up our eyes to heaven, to tell the world how often we pray in the midst of our secular affairs; though secret prayer may and ought to be sometimes rising to God, and we may lift an eye to him, while we are among men: Nor in public worship should we use frequent and loud groan ingSj to persuade our neighbours that we are more deeply affected with divine things than they; though devout affection will sometimes vent a gToan or a sigh.
But above all, let us take heed lest we make use of these outward colours and forms of passion, to cover the want of inward devotion and piety We should always make our religion appear to the world with a natural and becoming aspect; and in a decent dress to invite, and not forbid those who behold us. Let us take care that we do not disguise our holy Christianity, nor make it look like an irrational thing, by unmanly or unbecoming sounds or gestures; lest we thereby expose ourselves to the charge of hypocrisy, and give up our holy profession to the ridicule and contempt of i the profane world.
Abuse V, It is an irregular management in the affairs of religion, or an abase of devout passions, when we content ourselves with the exercise of these inward and affectionate sensations of the mind, while they have no influence .on the holiness of oar conversation. Consider, my friends what were the passions made for? Not merely for the sensible pleasure of human nature, but to give it vigour and power for useful actions. I have bat a poor pretence to be,., a sincere lover of Christ, if I rejoice to hear. his name repeated often in a sermon, and say never so many affectionate things of him;in the language of the book of Canticles, and yet take no care to keep his commandments: Whereas this is the appointed way wherein Christ has reqaired his disciples to manifest their love to him: John xiv. 15. ‘’ If ye love me, keep my commandments;” chap. XV. 14. “Then are ye my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” In vain do I pretend to gious sorrows, in vain do I mourn for some great and grievous sin, in my secret retirements, or in public worship, if my life be spent among the gay follies and variiiies of the world; if I run into new temptations whenf soever the world beckons to me, and follow every son of mirth that waves the hand of invitation.
True Christianity, where it reigns in the heart, will make itself appear in the purity of life. We should always suspect those flatteries of affection, those sudden inward sensations of sorrow or delight, which have no power to produce the fruits of holiness in our daily conversation. The fruits of the Spirit, are found in the life and the heart together, as they are described, Oal. V. 22. ^’ Love to God and man, joy in holy things, peace of conscience, and peace with all men, as far as possible, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, that is faithfulness, meekness, temperance, and particularly a crucifixion of all sinful affections.” Let us never content ourselves with any exercise of lively devotion, unless we feel our corrupt affections in some measure subdued thereby.
O how shameful a sight is it, and what a reproach to the profession of the gospel, to see a christian just come from church and holy ordinances, where his devout affections have been raised and moved, and immediately to find him breaking out into vain, earthly rarerriment, and carried away with idle and sensual discourse? What a scandal is it to our religion, to see some zealous
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professors coming down from their closet, where they fancy they have been favoured with holy raptures, and enjoyed muck converse with God; where they think they have exercised repentance and love, and holy desires, and yet immediately fall into a fit of rage against their servants or children, for mere trifles, and express their wrath in very unchristian language and indecent behaviour! This is an open contradiction to their profession; and the shop and the parlour, or perhaps the kitchen, give the lie to the pretences of the closet. O glorious evidence of a disciple of Christ, where all the pious passions join to resist every temptation! Where divine love keeps warm at the heart, where it purifies the whole behaviour, and exalts the life of men near to the life of angels!
Abuse VI. That must certainly be a culpable conduct, with regard to our religious affections, when they are suffered to entrench upon other duties either to God or man, and withhold us from the proper business of our place and station in the world. Though devout passions should be indulged at proper seasons, yet they should not so far govern all the powers of nature, and engross the moments of life, as to make us neglect any necessary work, to which the providence of God hath called us.
j 4’ This is the case, when persons find so much sweetness in their religious retire-. ments, that they dwell there too many hours of the day, and neglect the care of their families, the conduct of their children and servants, and other necessary duties of life, and let all things run at random in their household, under the excuse of religion and converse with God: Though I must confess this is so uncommon a fault in our godless and irreligious age, that it may almost pass without censure.
It is the same culpable conduct, when christians experience a sacred and affectionate relish of public ordinances, and they are tempted to run from sermon to sermon, from lecture to lecture, in order to maintain their spiritual pleasures, with a slight and careless performance of relative duties. It is yet more criminal in persons of lowcircumstances in the world, who would spend all iheir time in hearing or reading good things, or at some religious assemblies or conferences, while they, grossly and grievously, neglect their common duties of providing for themselves and their children. They are ready to expect, that the rich should maintain them, while they make their devout affections an excuse for their shameful idleness and sloth. Let us remember there is a time for working, as well as a time for praying, or hearing: “Every thing is beautiful in its season,” Eccles. iii. 11.
This sort of excessive and irregular affection appears also eminently, when, out of pity to the poor, or love to the public worship of God, dying persons leave vast legacies to the building of churches and hospitals, and endow alms-houses liberally, while their near kindred, and perhaps their own descendants, are in a starving condition, or want the conveniencies of life. He that takes no care of his nearest relations living or dying, is in that respect worse than an infidel. God does not love robbery for burnt-oifering, nor does he permit us to abandon our natural affection to our fellow-creatures, to show, our love or zeal for our Creator in such instances as these.
Abuse VIL Religious passion is then certainly exercised in a very irregular and criminal manner, when we suffer it to degenerate into carnal and vicious affections, and, as the apostle expresses it in another place, when we begin in the Spirit, and end in the fiesh. Gal. iii. 3. Examples of this kind are too comnion in the present age of christians.
1. Zeal may turn into wrath and fury. A high veneration for the glorious -truths of the gospel, and a warm zeal for the defence of them, has too often degenerated into ma-G Jice and indignation, against those who differ from us in religious sentiments; and J that too in matters which are of small im- ) portance to practical godliness. Pious zeal .against dangerous errors is a just and laudable thing, when it carries moderation nd good temper with it, and does not break out into wrath and malignity against the persons of those who are unhappily betrayed into those mistakes: but, it becomes a guilty passion, and hateful in the eyes of God our Saviour, when it breaks all the bonds of charity and christian love. The :flaming bigot and the persecutor, come in naturaily, at every tuni for their share o£ this caution and reproof, as abusers- of the passions in the things of God and religion. ^Yhen we come sometimes into Vvwshipping assemblies, where a man of burning zeal leads the worship, we find the wild-fire of his own passions spreading through the whole congregation. Is it not a shameful thing to hear the preacher railing against his brethren, because they differ a little from him, and will not use some unscriptural modes of expression, or will not admit some favourite explications of a verse of sci’ipture, or will not consent to practise seme lesser forms and rites of worship? And it is a matter of equal shame to see many persons, who imagine themselves to be christians of the first rank, take a malicious pleasure to hear such scurrilous reproaches, and public railing against their fellow-christians, and curses denounced against them, because they differ in cere- ) monies and phrases. And the crime is cer- ‘tainly the greater, if these opinions and forms, wherein they disagree, are but t)f ». small importance. This is a wretched] abuse of passion in the things of God: and yet so deceitful is the heart of man, and so given up to self-flattery, that perhaps both the preacher and the hearers vainly presume they are expressing a sacred love for divine truth, and paying sublime service to God and their Saviour. What madness is mixed with mistaken zeal!
2. There is another instance of the abuse of the passions, which is very near akin to this, and may stand next in rank; and that is, when we behold the vices of men, with holy aversion and hatred, and immediately transfer this hatred to their persons, whereas we ought to pity and pray for them: Or when we see a fellow christian fall into sin, and because we hate the sin, we hate the sinner too, and suffer our hatred to grow into disdain and irreconcileable enmity, and that even though the offender has given signs of sincere repentance. This is not christian zeal, but human corruption; and such criminal indulgence of the passions, which ought to be mortified, if ever we would be imitators of the Holy Jesus: He hated even the least sin, but loved and saved the greatest of sinners, and delighted to receive penitents to his love.
3. It is a culpable exercise of the passions, when holy emulation degenerates into envy. At first we admire the virtues of others, we respect their persons highly, we imitate their conduct, and aspire after the same degrees of piety and goodness; we have a holy ambition to equal them in every grace, and in every virtue, and if possible to exceed them: all this is right and worthy of praise; but when I fall short of the attainments of my neighbour, and envy him on the account of his superior character; when I feel an inward displeasure against my brother, because his gifts or graces shine brighter than mine, then the holy affection degenerates, and becomes a lust of the flesh, instead of a fruit of the Spirit.
4. I might give another instance also of this kind; and that is, when love to fellow-christians begins on a spiritual account, between persons of different sexes, and there is a mutual delight in each other’s company and pious conversation; but without great watchfulness, this christian love may be in danger of degenerating into vicious desires and corrupt passions.
5. It may be worth our notice also, that ’ there is another danger of the degeneracy of a devout passion, when persons of a pious and cheerful spirit have taken great delight in singing the praises of God, and meet together at the stated seasons for this purpose; but in time, this has insensibly sunk into the pleasure of the ear, into a mere natural relish of harmony, and delight of sounds well connected. This may have easily happened, when fine instruments of church-music have been used to assist psalmody, or when persons pride themselves in too nice and delicate a skill in singing, in too exquisite a taste in harmony, even though the words which they sing may be holy and religious.
To guard against these dangers, let chrisj tians frequently enter into their own hearts and endeavour, as far as possible, to examine their spirit and conscience, to distinguish between their inward workings of piety, and the mere exercises of animal nature, or the working of corrupt affection, and set a constant guard upon their hearts in this respect.
Abuse VIIL The last thing I shall mention, wherein some christians are guilty ot
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an irregular conduct with regard to their affections in matters of religion, is this, “when they live entirely by their devout passions, and make these the only rules of self-inquiry concerning their temper, their habitual state of soul, and their present frame of spirit, and concerning every thing that belongs to their Christianity.” Such persons have little regard to the growth of their knowledge, the improvement of their understanding in the things of God, the steady and fixed bent of their will toward religion, and the constant regular course of a holy conversation. They seem to make all their religion consist in a few warm and pious affections. There are two sorts of persons subject to this mistake.
1. Awakened sinners, who feel their passions of fear and desire excited by some convincing sermon, or awful providence, and the rich doctrines of grace suited to their case and state, raise in them some hopes of heaven, and sensitive commotions of joy. This may continue for many months, and incline them to infer that they are converted from sin to God; and bein also in a great measure reformed in their lives, they imagine they are new creatures, and all is safe for eternity: whereas they never had a heart fixed in the love of God, and in the hatred of every sin; they never became hearty and resolved christians: and, in a little time, their devout passions die, and all their religion vanishes, for it had no root.
2. There are also some real converts, who are but weak, and live too much by their passions. If their hope and desire and delight, are but engaged and raised high in their secret retirement, or in public worship, then they are good christians indeed in a heavenly state, and they think exceeding well of themselves: but if, at any time, there is a damp upon their passions, through the indisposition of their animal nature, when they feel not a great degree of animal fervour powerfully assisting their pious exercises, they are ready to pronounce against themselves; they sink into great despondencies, and imagine they have no true grace.
Such christians as these live very much by sudden fits and starts of devotion, without that uniform and steady spring of faith and holiness, which would render their religion more even and uniform, more honourable to God, and comfortable to themselves. They are always high on the wing, or else lying moveless on the ground: they are ever in the heights or the depths, travelling on bright mountains with the songs of heaven on their lips, or groaning and la* i bouring through the darkvallies, and nevet i walking onward as on an evil plain toward heaven.
. There is much danger, lest such sort of i professors as these two, which I have men-I tioned, should deceive themselves, if not in judging of the truth of their graces, yet at; least in their opinion of the strength or weakness of them, for they judge merely i by their affections. Let us watch against, this danger, and remember that though the I passions are of excellent use in religion, yet I they were never designed to stand in the place of reason and judgment, or to supply the room of an enlightened understanding, a sanctified will, and a conversation attended with all the fruits of holiness.
Thus I have finished what I designed to say concerning the abuse of the passions in religion.
The remarks which I shall make on this head of discourse are these three.
Remark I. “Those christians are best prepared for the useful and pious exercises of their passions in religion, who have laid the foundation of it in a regular knowledge of the things of God.” Let your understanding therefore be fully persuaded of the necessity and excellency of religion, of the duties you owe to God, as your maker and
governor; let all your reasoning powers be 7# convinced of the evil of sin, of the holiness and justice of God, of the danger of eternal death, of the relief and hope that is held forth in the gospel of Christ, of the necessity of faith and holiness, in order to eternal happiness; and amidst all the workings of devout affections, maintain a constant exercise of your reason and judgment. The scripture itself was not given us to make the use of our reason needless, but to assist its operations, and to render it more successful in our inquiries into the things of our everlasting welfare. Knowledge and affection should go hand in hand, in all the affairs of religion: the more we know of God, and the things of the upper world, we shall have the stronger spring for our holy passions, and a more secure guard against any excesses and irregularities in the exercise of them.
Remark IL “As it is the business of a preacher to assist the devout passions, so it is part of his work to guard his hearers against the abuse of them.”
We have granted and maintained that it is the business of every sacred orator, to raise the affections of men toward the things of God; let him therefore manage his divine arguments in such a manner, as to awaken the fears, the hopes, the desires, the penitent sorrows, and the pious joys of the whole assembly, in a sublime degree; but, in order to secure them from excesses and irregularities of every kind, let him lay the foundations of their religion in clear ideas of divine things, and in a just and proper explication of the holy scriptures.
When he has a mind to lead his hearers into any particular religious sentiments, which he firmly believes to be true, and which he supposes useful to their edification, let him not begin with their passions, and address himself to them in the first place: he must not artfully practise upon their warm and animal powers, before he has set these doctrines or sentiments of his, in a fair and convincing light, before the eye of their understanding, and their reasoning faculties: the aflfections are neither the guides to truth, nor the judges of it, nor must the preacher set them to their sprightly and fervent work, till he has informed the mind by clear explication and sincere argument. The sun in the heavens gives us a fair document in this case: his light comes before his heat: the dawn of the morning grows up by degrees, and introduces the fervours of noon. So let the preacher diffuse his light over the assembly, before he kindles their warm affections. Let him convince their reason and judgment of the truth of every article of religion, which he persuades them to believe; let him show the duty and the necessity of every part of holiness, which he prescribes for their practise. Let him imitate that noble pattern of divine oratory, Apollos at Ephesus, who was an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures; he was fervent in spirit, and could raise the passions of those that heald him, yet he was willing to kindle the flame of his own oratory by the light of his own understanding, and when he himself “had learned the way of God, more perfectly, he mightily convinced the Jews by divine argument, and showed them by the scriptures, that Jesus was the Christ,” Acts xviii. 24 — 28. Then there was a proper way made for his following zeal and fervour to display themselves. i
Remark III. If the passions are of such J| eminent service in religion, and yet they are * in danger of unruly excesses, “how much need have we to beg earnestly at the throne of grace, that they may be all sanctified?” It is only the sanctifying influence .of the blessed Spirit, that can excite them in a due degree, and can give them proper limits and regulations. It is nothing but divine grace can raise them to due height on all just occasions, and yet preserve them from any irregular conduct and unhappy effects.
In this sinful state of corrupt nature, we are averse to the things of God: our passions are violent towards sensible objects, but are hardly moved by the most important discoveries in religion. It is God alone viho can. correct and change their corrupt bias, and give them a divine tendency. They are so ready to take a wrong turn, and sometimes to make wide mischief, even in the matters of religion, that God alone can keep them constant in their right situation and course. They are living wheels of strong and powerful movement in human nature, but they make wretched work if they are not put in motion by a regular and happy spring. They are glorious and noble instruments of religion when under good conduct, but they are ungovernable and mischievous powers, when they go astray: and they are also too prone to wander from their proper place and duty. Let it, there-I fore, be the matter of our daily prayer, that ’ we may be “sanctified throughout in body, ’ soul and spirit,” 1 Thess. v. 23. and that I every faculty of our nature may lend its j proper aid to the kingdom of grace within! us, till we are trained up by the piety of this r present state, and made fit for the unknow-, ing exercises of a sublimer sort of devotion in the kingdom of glory.
MEDITATION.
What a wide and unhappy ruin has the fall of man spread over all the powers of the soul! Oar understanding is darkened, our will grown perverse, and our passions corrupt and irregular in their exercises; and even when they are engaged about the things of God, their conduct is not always wise and holy. We have seen what glorious instruments they are, when managed by the hands of divine grace, to promote piety and goodness: but if they are left to themselves, they will sometimes make wild mischief, even in the sacred concerns of religion.
Guard and secure me, O my God, against those false lights which my affections may cast upon the objects I converse with, and so delude my judgment. Suffer me not to be imposed on by the false colours, in which my passions may happen to dress up error, and make it look like truth. Let my judgment be always directed steadily by the reason of things and the discoveries of thy word, and not by the delusive flatteries of the passions. Let me remember that these were not given for my guides in the search of duty or truth; they were not made to teach me what is false and what is true, but
I to awaken me with the greater zeal to pursue truth, and to practise whatever I learn to be my duty.
May I be so happy as always to lay solid
reason and scripture for the foundation,
I whence my devout affections may take their
’ rise, and ascend high toward God: let them
never flutter in the dark, nor break away
from the government of my understanding:
that if at any time, my conscience calls me
’ to account for the warmest and boldest
’ flights of my pious affections, I may be able
I to support and justify them all upon the foot
of reason, and by the divine examples and
encouragements of the word of God.
If at any time, my zeal has been too fervent about the lesser matters of Christianity, while it has been cold and listless in the things of the highest importance I would take shame to myself in the sight of God and men. Blessed Jesus, never suffer my anxieties, my fears, my desires, and my joys to rise, but in due proportion to the worth and importance of their objects. Let my name never be numbered among those men of irregular zeal, “who strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel,” Matt, xxiii. 124. When I read or hear of the idolators tand bigots of the church of Rome, in what a strange childish manner, and with what ridiculous fopperies they express their love, to God and Christ, and to saints departed; when I read how they scourge their bodies to show their sorrow for sin, and put their flesh to torments which God never appointed nor required: when I have been told how they cut and burn and destroy their fellow-christians, animated by a supposed zeal for God and his church; I bless God that I have been taught better methods of expressing my devout affections. “Come not, O my soul, into their secrets, to their assemblies be thou not united.” Gen. xlix. 5. Nor let my religion make me sour and unsociable; nor let me indulge awkward gestures, or put on a distorted countenance, nor appear with any unmanly or unbecoming airs, to express the inward workings of my heart. I am afraid of all those outward forms which would turn piety into contempt before an ungodly world, who take all the occasions to ridicule things sacred.
I would remember that religion does not consist in a warm flash of aflection, or in sudden eflbrts of devout joy, where holiness has no settled root in the heart, nor any visible fruits in the conversation. Let me be all of a piece, and if my Christianity raises my pious passions in the church, or in the closet, may the same christian spirit be found in all my daily behaviour: may it regulate my words and adorn my actions, that God, angels, and menp niay see the golden thread of religion running through my heart and life, in an uniform manner, in all times, places, and stations.
Never let my devotions break in upon any part of other necessary duties which I owe to God or man: the great God does not permit sacrifice to stand in the room of works of mercy, nor will he allow of robbery for burnt offering. Remember this, O my soul!
Help me, O my God, to keep up my pious affections to their own character, and let them not degenerate into a vicious or criminal temper of mind. Suffer not my zeal against error, to turn into fury against a mistaken brother. Teach me to piiy the man, while I endeavour to cure his unhappy mistakes by the only methods which Christ has appointed, by gentle reasoning, by arguments drawn from scripture, by the winning arts of love and goodness, and by earnest prayer for his recovery from the error of his way. Let me watch against every instance wherein holy affections may be corrupted and turned into vice or folly.
Though I desire to have my passions
I deeply tinctured by the things of God, yet
I would not live entirely by the efforts of
devout passion, nor judge of my state and
S frame merely by these sorts of emotion. It is possible that sudden flashes of affection may sometimes deceive our yidgment, and make us determine suddenly and unjustly concerning ourselves and our state Godward. Let my religion and love to God be deeply rooted in the mind, and in the principles of solid knowledge; let my will be strongly and unchangeably inclined towards God and things heavenly: and let my love and hope, my desire, my sorrow, and my joy, be all awake and engaged in proper seasons, to promote the divine work within me, and make blessed advances daily toward the world of perfection. Amen.