The State of Spiritual Affections Daily Exercised and Improved
It remains only as to this head now spoken to, that we briefly consider what is the state of spiritual affections thus daily exercised and improved. And this we shall do by showing,
(1.) What is their pattern.
(2.) What is their rule.
(3.) What is their measure, or whereto they may attain.
First. The pattern which we ought continually to bear in our eyes, whereto our affections ought to be conformed, is Jesus Christ, and the affections of his holy soul. The mind is the seat of all our affections j and this is that which we ought continually to design and endeavor, namely, that the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus, Phil. ii. 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 is not much in the contemplation of the same mind that was in Christ, 2 Cor. iii. 18. To this purpose, ought we to 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 ought to be conversant in our meditations on them. What glorious things are spoken of his love to God, and his delight in him, whence also he delighteth to do his will, and his law was in the midst of his bowels, Psal. xl. 8, seated in the throne of his affections! What pity and compassion had he for the souls of men, yea, for the whole human kind, in all their sufferings, pains and distresses! How were all his affections always in perfection of order, under the conduct of the spirit of his mind! Thence was his self-denial, his contempt of the world, his m readiness for the cross, to do or suffer according to the will lot God. If this pattern be continually before us, it will put forth a transforming efficacy to change us into the same image. When we fmd our minds liable to any disorders, cleaving 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 be the frame of mind that was in Christ Jesus? This, therefore, is an evidence that our affections are spiritually renewed, and that they have received some progress in an assimilation to 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 improvements, is the scripture. And two things are respected in them:
(1.) Their internal actings.
(2.) Their exercise in outward ways and means whereby they are expressed. Of them both, the scripture is the entire rule. 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 hearts, souls, minds, and strength. The actings 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 cleave to him, and do nothing whatever, at any time, that is not influenced and directed by the love of God. This perfection, as we shall 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, which the powers and faculties of our nature were created for, and which we ought in all things to design and aim at. But the indispensable obligation of this rule is, that we should always be in a sincere endeavor to cleave to God continually in all things, to prefer him above all, and delight iii him as our chiefest 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 put in for a predominant interest in our affections, as they do every day. And if it be not so with us, we shall be at a continual loss in all our ways. This is that which makes us lifeless and heartless in duties, careless m temptations or occasions of them, forgetful of God, when it is impossible we should be preserved from sin without a due remembrance of his holiness. In brief, the want of a predominant love to God, kept in continual exercise, is the spring of all that unprofitable profession of religion that the world is filled with.
Secondly. There are outward ways and duties whereby our spiritual affections are expressed. The rule of them also is the scripture. The way marked out therein, is the only channel wherein the stream of our spiritual affections takes its course to God. The graces required therein, are to act themselves by this rule: the duties it prescribes, are those which they stir up and enliven; the religious worship which it appoints, is that wherein they have their exercise. Where this rule hath been neglected, men’s religious affections have grown irregular, yea, wild and ungovernable. All the superstitions that the world is filled with, owe their original principally to men’s affections set loose from the rule of the word. There is nothing so fond, absurd, and foolish, but they have imbondaged the souls of men to; nothing so horrid and difficult hut they have engaged them in. And having once taken to themselves this liberty, the corrupt minds of men are a thousand times more satisfied than in the regular exercise of them according to the word of God. Hence they will rejoice in such penances as are not without their austerities in such outward duties of devotion as are troublesome and chargeable 5 in every thing that hath a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility and neglect of the body. Hence will all their affections be more sensibly moved by images and pictures, and a melting devotion be stirred up in them, than by all the motives and incentives which God proposeth 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. There is considerable concerning them, the measure of their attainments, or what, through due exercise and holy diligence, they may be raised to. Now this is not absolute perfection. i Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect, but I follow after,’ as the apostle speaks, Phil. iii. 12. But there is that attainable, which those who pretend highly to perfection seem to be strangers to. And the state of our affections under a due exercise on heavenly things, and in their assimilation to them, may be fixed in these three things:
(1.) An habitual suitableness to spiritual things upon the proposal of them. The ways whereby spiritual things are proposed to our minds are various. They are so, directly, in all ordinances of divine worship; they are so, indirectly, and in just consequence, by all the especial providences wherein we are concerned by our own thoughts and stated meditations; they are so by the motions of the Holy Spirit, when he causeth us to hear a word behind us, saying, this is the way, walk in it; by holy converse with others; by all sorts of occurrences. And as the ways of their proposal are various, so the times and seasons wherein a representation of them is made to us, are somprehensive of all, at least are not exclusive of any, times and seasons of our lives. Be the way of their proposal what it will, and whenever be the season of it, if our affections are duly improved by spiritual exercises, they are suited to them, and will be ready to give them entertainment.
Hence, or for want hereof, on the other hand, are tergiversations and shiftings in duties, proneness to comply with diversion, all to keep off the mind from closing with, and receiving of, those spiritual things which it is not suited to. Wherefore, as to the solemn way of proposing spiritual things to our minds which is in and py the ordinances of divine worship, when men have a prevalent loathness to engage in them, or when they are satisfied with an outward attendance on them, but are not enabled to a vigorous stirring up of the inward man, to an holy affectionate converse with spiritual and heavenly things, it is because they are carnal. When men can receive the fiery darts of Satan in his temptations into their bosoms, and suffer them to abide there, yea, foster and cherish them in thoughts of the lusts that they kindle, but quickly quench the motions of the Spirit, stirring them up to the embracing of heavenly things; they are carnal, and carnally minded. When providences of concernment in afflictions, trials, deliverances, do not engage the mind in thoughts of spiritual things, and excite the affections to the attainment of them, men are carnal and earthly. When every lust, corruption, or passion — as anger, envy, displeasure at this or that person or thing, can divert the mind from compliance with the proposal of spiritual things that is made to it, we are carnal.
It is otherwise, when our affections are conformed to things spiritual and heavenly. Upon every proposal of this, the mind finds a suitableness to itself, like that which a well disposed appetite finds to savory meat. As the full soul loathes the honey comb, so a mind under the power of carnal affections, hath an aversion to all spiritual sweetness. But spiritualized affections desire them, have an appetite to them, 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 gust, a pleasant taste, a relish, in spiritual things. They do in them taste that the Lord is gracious, 1 Pet. ii. 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, do taste a sweet savor in all spiritual things. Some of them, as a sense of the love of Christ, are sometimes as it were too hard for them, and overpower them, until they are sick of love, and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Neither is there any of them, however condicted with afflictions or mortifications, but is sweet to them, Prov. xxvii. 7. Every thing that is wholesome food, that is good nourishment, though it be but bitter herbs, is sweet to him that is hungry. And when by our affections we ‘have raised up in us a spiritual appetite to heavenly things, however any of them in their own nature, or in their dispensation, may be bitter to flesh and blood, 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, the love of this world, or when the appetite is lost by spiritual sickness, or vitiated and corrupted by any prevalent sin, heavenly things are unsavory and sapless, or, as Job speaks, like the white of an egg wherein there is no taste. There may be in the dispensation of the word a taste, or pleasing relish, given to the fancy; there may be so to the notional understanding, when the affections find no complacency in the things themselves. But to them who are spiritually minded to the degree intended, they are all sweet, savory, pleasant; the affections taste them immediately, as the palate doth meat.
(3.) They are a just repository of all graces, and therein the treasury of the soul. There are graces of the spirit, whose formal direct residence is in the understanding and the will, as faith itself. And therein are all other graces radically comprised; they grow from that root. Howbeit the most of them have their principal residence in the affections. In them are they preserved secure and ready 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 hath made provision for in his word, but they readily receive it, lay it up, keep and preserve it. Hereby they come to be filled with grace, with all graces; for there is room in them for all the graces of the spirit to inhabit; and they readily comply with the light and direction of faith to their exercise. When faith discerns and determines that there is any thing to be done or suffered in a way of duty to the glory of God, the affections thus disposed do not shut up or stifle the graces that are in them, but cheerfully offer them to 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 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 them whose affections have only an occasional change wrought upon them by the means before described, but are not spiritually renewed; yea, on the contrary, such persons design to debate 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.) These affections are under the light and conduct of such notions in the mind and understandings as da not give a clear distinct representation of them in their own nature to them. For where they are not themselves spiritually renewed, there the mind itself is carnal and unrenewed. And such a mind discerneth not the things of God, nor can do so, because they are spiritually discerned. They cannot be discerned aright 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 cleave to them as they ought, nor will ever be conformed to them.
(2.) Those notions in such persons are ofttimes variously influenced and corrupted by fancy and imagination. They are merely puffed up in their fleshly minds; that is, they are filled with vain, foolish, proud imaginations, about spiritual things, as the apostle declares, Col. ii. 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 the progress of it produceth superstition, false worship, and idolatry. For they are all of them 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, delight, in the things themselves, when they all respect that false representation of them, whereby they are suited to them as carnal. These have been the spring of all false worship and idolatry in the Christian world.
First. The mind and affections have been changed and tinctured with devotion by some of the means we have before insisted on. Herein they will one way or other be exercised about spiritual things, and are ready to receive impressions from any thing that superstition can impose upon them.
Secondly. They are, by error and false information, get at liberty from the only rule of their actings and exercise, that is, the word of God. Men satisfied themselves that so their affections were engaged about 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. Nothing almost is so ridiculous, nothing so horrid and difficult, that they will not embrace under the notion of things spiritual and heavenly.
Thirdly. 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 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 were easy to manifest, that from these three corrupt springs, arose that flood of idolatry and false worship which spread itself over the church of Home, and with whose machinations the minds of men are yet too much replenished.
Fourthly. Where it is not thus, yet carnal affections variously debase spiritual things, to bring them into a conformity with themselves. And this may proceed so farp until men think wickedly, that God is altogether like to them. But I shall not insist on these things any further.
Lastly. Where affections are spiritually renewed, the person of Christ is the centre of them; but where they are changed only, they tend to an end in self. Where the new man is put on, Christ is all in all, Col. iii. 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, presents not himself in his beauty and amiableness as the object of our affections, but as he is in Christ, acting his love in him, 1 John iv. 8, 9. And as to all other spiritual things, renewed affections cleave to them, according as they derive from Christ and lead to him; for he is to them 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, that without which we cannot live or breathe; but if the sun did not enlighten it, and warm it with its beams; if it were always one perpetual night, and cold, what refreshment could be received by it 1 Christ is the sun of righteousness, and if his beams did not 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 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, therein they find complacency. It is otherwise with them 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
348 ot spiritual mindness.
of his person, and in the glory of his meditation, are the only things that they dislike in religion. False representations of him by images and pictures, they may embrace; and delight in false notions of his present glory, greatness, and power, may affect them; a worship of their own devising they may give to him, and please themselves in it 5 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: yea, they have an inward secret aversion from the mystery of his person and his grace. It is self which all their affections centre in, the ways whereof are too long here to be declared.
This is the first thing that is required, to render our affections in such a state -and condition, as that from and by them we may be spiritually minded, namely, that they themselves are spiritually and savingly renewed.
The things that remain will admit of a speedy dispatch, as I suppose.