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CHAPTER XIV.
MISTAKES EXTENSIVELY PREVALENT AT THIS TIME, AS TO THE NATURE AND
EVIDENCES OF TRUE GODLINESS--"TREATISE ON RELIGIOUS
AFFECTIONS"--DESIGN AND CHARACTER OF THE WORK--REPUBLISHED
ABROAD--LETTER FROM MR. GILLESPIE CONCERNING IT--LETTER FROM MR.
EDWARDS TO MR. M'CULLOCH--REPLY TO MR. GILLESPIE--PROPOSAL MADE IN
SCOTLAND, FOR UNITED EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER--EFFORTS OF MR. EDWARDS TO
PROMOTE IT--LETTER TO MR. M'CULLOCH--"HUMBLE ATTEMPT TO PROMOTE
EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER." MISTAKES EXTENSIVELY PREVALENT AT THIS TIME, AS
TO THE NATURE AND EVIDENCES OF TRUE GODLINESS--"TREATISE ON RELIGIOUS
AFFECTIONS"--DESIGN AND CHARACTER OF THE WORK--REPUBLISHED
ABROAD--LETTER FROM MR. GILLESPIE CONCERNING IT--LETTER FROM MR.
EDWARDS TO MR. M'CULLOCH--REPLY TO MR. GILLESPIE--PROPOSAL MADE IN
SCOTLAND, FOR UNITED EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER--EFFORTS OF MR. EDWARDS TO
PROMOTE IT--LETTER TO MR. M'CULLOCH--"HUMBLE ATTEMPT TO PROMOTE
EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER."
From the facts already recited, it will be obvious to the reader, that
few ministers, even in the course of a long ministry, have as full an
opportunity of learning, from their own observation, the true nature
of a revival of religion, and the differences between imaginary and
saving conversion, as Mr. Edwards had now enjoyed. He had early
discovered, that there was a radical difficulty attending not only
every revival of religion, but, in a greater or less degree, also,
every instance of supposed conversion:--a difficulty arising from
erroneous conceptions, so generally entertained, respecting the
question, What is the nature of true religion? or, What are the
distinguishing marks of that holiness, which is acceptable in the
sight of God?--Perceiving, at an early period of his christian life,
that no other subject was equally important to man, that no other was
more frequently or variously illustrated by the scriptural writers,
and yet, that on no other had professing Christians been less agreed;
his attention, as he himself informs us, had been particularly
directed to it, from his first commencement of the study of theology;
and he was led to examine it with all the diligence, and care, and
exactness of search and inquiry, of which his mind was capable. In
addition to this, he had not only witnessed, in two successive
instances, a solemn and universal attention to religion, among the
young as well as among grown persons in his own congregation, and in
both, almost all of the latter, as well as very many of the former,
gathered into the church; but he had been the spiritual counsellor and
guide of multitudes in other congregations, where he had occasionally
laboured, as well as of great numbers who visited him for this purpose
at Northampton. These advantages of observation, it may easily be
believed, were not lost on a mind like his.
This subject, at the time of which we are speaking, had become, also,
a subject of warm and extended controversy. The advocates of revivals
of religion, had too generally been accustomed to attach to the mere
circumstances of conversion--to the time, place, manner, and means, in
and by which it was supposed to be effected--an importance, no where
given them in the Scriptures; as well as to conclude, that all
affections which were high in degree, and accompanied with great
apparent zeal and ardour, were of course gracious in their nature;
while their opposers insisted, that true religion did not consist at
all in the affections, but wholly in the external conduct. The latter
class attributed the uncommon attention to religion, which they could
not deny had existed for four years in New England, to artificial
excitement merely; while the former saw nothing in it, or in the
measures taken to promote it, to condemn, but everything to approve.
Mr. Edwards, in his views of the subject, differed materially from
both classes. As he knew from his own experience, that sin and the
saving grace of God might dwell in the same heart; so he had learned,
both from observation and testimony, that much false religion might
prevail during a powerful revival of true religion, and that at such a
time, multitudes of hypocrites might spring up among real Christians.
Thus it was in the revival of religion in the time of Josiah, in that
which attended the preaching of John the Baptist, in those which
occurred under the preaching of Christ, in the remarkable outpouring
of the Spirit in the days of the apostles, and in that which existed
in the time of the Reformation. He clearly saw, that it was this
mixture of counterfeit religion with true, which in all ages had given
the devil his chief advantage against the kingdom of Christ. "By
this," observes Mr. Edwards, "he hurt the cause of Christianity, in
and after the apostolic age, much more, than by all the persecutions
of both Jews and heathens. By this he prevailed against the
Reformation, to put a stop to its progress, more than by all the
bloody persecutions of the church of Rome. By this he prevailed
against the revivals of religion, that have occurred since the
Reformation. By this he prevailed against New England, to quench the
love of her espousals, about a hundred years ago. And I think I have
had opportunity enough to see plainly, that by this the devil has
prevailed against the late great revival of religion in New England,
so happy and promising in its beginning. I have seen the devil prevail
in this way, against two great revivings of religion in this country.
By perverting us from the simplicity that is in Christ, he hath
suddenly prevailed to deprive us of that fair prospect we had a little
while ago, of a kind of paradisaic state of the church of God in New
England."
These evils, it was obvious, must exist in the church, until their
cause was removed, and men had learned to distinguish accurately
between true and false religion. To contribute his own best endeavours
for the accomplishment of this end, Mr. Edwards prepared and published
his "Treatise on Religious Affections." The great design of this
treatise is, to show, in what true religion consists, and what are its
distinguishing marks and evidences; and thus to enable every man, who
will be honest and faithful with himself, to decide whether he is, or
is not, a real Christian. Similar attempts had been made, by many
earlier writers; but it may, I believe, safely be asserted, that no
one of their efforts, taken as a whole, and viewed as an investigation
of the entire subject would now be regarded as in any high degree
important or valuable. The subject itself is one of the most difficult
which theology presents; and demands for its full investigation, not
only ardent piety, and a most intimate acquaintance with the
Scriptures, but an exact and metaphysical inspection of the faculties
and operations of the human mind; which unfortunately few, very few,
writers on experimental religion have hitherto discovered. The work of
Mr. Edwards is at once a scriptural and a philosophical view of the
subject;--as truly scientific in its arrangement, and logical in its
deductions, as any work on the exact sciences. That it is also a
thorough and complete view of it, we have this decisive evidence--that
no work of the kind, of any value, has appeared since, for which the
author has not been indebted, substantially, to the "Treatise on the
Affections;" or which has not been that very treatise, in part, or in
whole, diluted to the capacity of weaker understandings. The trial, to
which the mind of the honest, attentive, and prayerful reader of its
pages is subjected, is the very trial of the final day. He who can
endure the trial of the "Treatise on the Affections," will stand
unhurt amidst a dissolving universe; and he who cannot will assuredly
perish in its ruins. It ought to be the vade mecum, not only of every
minister, and every Christian, but of every man, who has sobriety of
thought enough to realize, that he has any interest in a coming
eternity. Every minister should take effectual care that it is well
dispersed among the people of his own charge, and that none of them is
admitted to a profession of religion, until, after a thorough study of
this treatise, he can satisfy both himself and his spiritual guide,
not only that he does not rely upon the mere negative signs of
holiness, but that he finds within himself those distinguishing marks
and evidences of its positive existence, which the Divine Author of
holiness has pronounced sure and unerring. It is indeed said, that
anxious inquirers will often be discouraged by this
course--particularly by a perusal of the Second Part of the
treatise--from making a profession of religion, and led to renounce
the hope of their own conversion; and the answer is, that he, who, on
finding himself discouraged from a profession of religion by the
Second Part, is not encouraged to make it by a perusal of the Third
Part, should of course, unless his views are perverted by disease or
melancholy, consider the call to repent and believe the gospel, as
still addressed immediately to himself; and that he, who on the
perusal of this Treatise, is led to renounce the hope which he had
cherished of his own piety, while he has the best reason to regard it
as a false hope, will find almost of course that that hope is soon
succeeded by one which will endure the strictest scrutiny. It is also
said that many persons cannot understand this treatise; and the answer
is, that he who is too young to understand it in its substance, is too
young to make a profession of religion; and that he whose mind is too
feeble to receive it substantially, when communicated by a kind and
faithful pastor, cannot understandingly make such a profession.
Pre-eminently is this treatise necessary to every congregation during
a revival of religion. It was especially designed by its author to be
used on every such occasion; and the minister who then uses it as he
ought, will find it like a fan in his hand, winnowing the chaff from
the wheat. And until ministers, laying aside the miserable vanity
which leads them, in the mere number of those whom they denominate
their `spiritual children,' to find an occasion of boasting, and of
course to swell that number as much as they can, shall be willing thus
faithfully and honestly to make a separation among their inquirers;
every revival of religion will open a great and effectual door,
through which the enemies as well as the friends of religion, will
gain an admission into the house of God. And when they are thus
admitted, and the ardour of animal feeling has once subsided, the
minister will generally find not only that he has wounded Christ in
the house of his friends, but that he has destroyed his own peace, and
that of his church, and prepared the way for his own speedy separation
from his people.
To prevent this miserable system of deception on the part of ministers
and churches, as well as of candidates for a profession of religion,
Mr. Edwards wrote the treatise in question. As at first prepared, it
was a series of sermons, which he preached from his own pulpit, from
the text still prefixed to it, 1 Peter i. 8. "Whom having not seen, ye
love: in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory." It was thus written and
preached, probably in the years 1742 and 1743. Being afterwards thrown
into the form of a treatise by the author, it was published early in
1746. In its style it is the least correct of any of the works of Mr.
Edwards, published in his life-time; but, as a work exhibiting genuine
Christianity in distinction from all its counterfeits, it possesses
such singular excellence, that were the books on earth destined to a
destruction so nearly universal, that only one beside the Bible could
be saved; the church of Christ, if aiming to preserve the volume of
the greatest value to man, that which would best unfold to a bereaved
posterity the real nature of true religion, would unquestionably
select for preservation, the "Treatise on the Affections."
This treatise was immediately republished in England and Scotland, and
was cordially welcomed by all the friends of evangelical religion in
those countries, as well as in America. Its appearance in Scotland
gave rise to an interesting correspondence, between Mr. Edwards and
the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, of Carnock, near Edinburgh; which was
commenced by the latter gentleman with the following letter.
Letter from Mr. Gillespie.
"Carnock, Nov. 24, 1746
very dear sir,
I have ever honoured you for your work's sake, and what the great
Shepherd made you the instrument of, from the time you published the
then very extraordinary account of the revival of religion at
Northampton, I think in the year 1735. The two performances you
published on the subject of the late glorious work in New England,
well adapted to that in Scotland, gave me great satisfaction,
especially the last of them, for peculiar reasons. This much I think
myself bound to say. I have many a time, for some years, designed to
claim humbly the privilege of correspondence with you. What has made
me defer doing it so long, when some of my brethren and good
acquaintances have been favoured with it for a considerable time, it
is needless now to mention. I shall only say, I have blamed myself for
neglect in that matter. I do now earnestly desire a room in your
prayers and friendship, and a letter from you sometimes, when you have
occasion to write to Scotland; and I shall wish to be as regular as I
can in making a return. With your permission, I propose to trouble you
now and then with the proposal of doubts and difficulties that I meet
with, and am exercised by; as for other reasons, so because some
solutions in the two mentioned performances were peculiarly agreeable
to me, and I find from these discourses, that wherein I have differed
in some things from many others, my sentiments have harmonized with
Mr. Edwards. This especially was the case in some things contained in
your `Thoughts concerning the Revival of Religion in New England.' All
the apology I make for using such freedom, though altogether
unacquainted, is that you will find from my short attestation in Mr.
Robe's Narrative, I am no enemy to you or to the work you have been
engaged in, and which you have defended in a way I could not but much
approve of. Also my friend and countryman, the Rev. Mr. Robert
Abercrombie, will inform you about me, if you have occasion to see him
or hear from him.
I longed to see somewhat about impressions respecting facts and future
events, &c. whether by scripture texts or otherwise, made on the minds
of good people, and supposed to be from the Lord; for I have had too
good occasion to know the hurtful, yea, pernicious tendency of this
principle, as commonly managed, upon many persons in manifold
instances and various respects. It has indeed surprised me much, that
wise, holy, and learned divines, as well as others, have supposed this
a spiritual experience, an answer of prayers, an evidence of being
highly favoured by the Lord, &c. and I was exceeding glad, that the
Lord had directed you to give so seasonable a caveat against what I am
assured you had the best reason to term, `A handle in the hand of the
devil,' &c. I was only sorry your then design had not permitted you to
say more on that point. It merits a volume; and the proper full
discussion of it would be one of the most seasonable and effectual
services done the church of Christ, and interest of vital religion
through the world, that I know of. I rejoice to find there is a good
deal more on that subject interspersed in your `Treatise of Religious
Affections,' which I have got, but could not as yet regularly peruse.
I humbly think the Lord calls you, dear Sir, to consider every part of
that point in the most critical manner, and to represent fully the
consequences resulting from the several principles in that matter,
which good people, as well as others, have been so fond of. And as (if
I do not mistake) Providence has already put that in your hand as a
part of your generation-work, so it will give me, as well as others,
vast satisfaction to find more said on the subject by you, if you do
not find what is in the mentioned treatises sufficient, as to which I
can form no judgment, because, for myself, I have not as yet
considered it. If any other author has treated that subject, I do not
remember to have met with it, and I believe hell has been no less
delighted than surprised, that a regular attack has not been made on
them on that side before now. I doubt not they dread the consequences
of such assault with exquisite horror. The neglect or oversight, if
not the mistakes, of so many learned authors, who have insisted on
doctrines that bear similitude or relation to this matter, while it
was passed over, I humbly think should teach us humility, and some
other useful lessons I need not name to Mr. Edwards.
I hope, dear Sir, it will not offend you, that I humbly offer some
remarks, with all due deference, upon what I have observed in looking
into your `Treatise on Religious Affections:' and, upon further
perusal, shall frankly represent what I may find difficulty about, if
any such passage should cast up; expecting you will be so good as to
set me right, if I shall mistake or not perceive your meaning.
Pages 78, 79, [26] there are several passages I do not well
understand. Page 78, line 6, ad finem, you say, `That they should
confidently believe and trust, while they yet remain without spiritual
light or sight, is an antiscriptural and absurd doctrine you are
refuting.' But this doctrine, as it is understood by many, is, that
Christians ought firmly to believe and trust in Christ without light
or sight, and though they are in a dark, dead frame, and for the
present having no spiritual experiences and discoveries. Had you said
they could not or would not believe or trust without spiritual light
or sight, this is what could not be doubted: but I humbly apprehend,
the position will not hold as you have laid it, whether it is applied
to a sinner or a saint, as I suppose you understand it; for though the
sinner never will believe on the Lord Jesus, till he has received a
saving manifestation of his glory by the work of the Spirit, yet every
sinner, we know, is indispensably bound, at all seasons, by the divine
authority, to believe instantly on the Lord Jesus. The command of the
Lord, 1 John iii. 23. that we should believe on the name of his Son
Jesus Christ, no less binds the sinner to immediate performance, than
the command not to kill, to keep the sabbath day, or any other duty,
as to the present performance of which, in way of duty, all agree, the
sinner is bound. I suppose none of us think we are authorized, or will
adventure to preach, that the sinner should delay to attempt to
believe in the Saviour, till he finds light from heaven shining into
his mind, or has got a saving sight or discovery of the Lord Jesus,
though it is certain he cannot believe, nor will do it eventually,
till favoured with such light or sight; because we should, in that
event, put in a qualification where the apostle Paul and Silas did put
none; such is their exhortation to the jailor, Acts xvi. 31. Also, as
it may be the last call the sinner is to receive, in the dispensation
of the word, we are bound to require him instantly to believe,
whatever he does or does not feel in himself. If you did intend not
the sinner, but the saint, in the before-mentioned positions, as I am
apt to think your scope plainly intimates, still I apprehend these
your assertions are not tenable; for I humbly suppose the Christian is
bound to trust the divine faithfulness plighted in the promise for
needful blessings, be his case with respect to light or darkness,
sight, &c. what it will; and that no situation the saint can be in,
looses him from obligation to glorify the Lord on all occasions, by
trusting in him and expecting the fulfilment of his word suiting his
case. Also, I would imagine, in Isa. l. 10. the saint is required to
believe, in the precise circumstances mentioned in your assertion
above mentioned. Pardon my freedom. You do indeed say, `It is truly
the duty of those who are thus in darkness to come out of darkness
into light and believe,' page 78, line 5; but how to reconcile that
with the mentioned assertion that immediately follows, or with Isa. l.
10. or other scriptures, or said assertions, and the other, of which
before, I am indeed at a loss. Sometimes I think it is not believing
the promise, or trusting the Lord, and trusting in him, you mean in
the positions I have cited; but the belief of the goodness of one's
state that he is a saint. If that was what you intended, I heartily
wish you had said so much in the book; but as this is not ordinarily
what is meant by believing in Scripture, I must suppose it was not the
idea affixed to your words; and an expression of yours seems to make
it evident. Had you plainly stated the distinction, betwixt the
impossibility of one's actually believing, and its yet being his duty
to believe, in the circumstances you mentioned, danger of mistake and
a handle for cavil had been cut off.
Page 78, line 20, &c., you say, `To press and urge them to believe,
without any spiritual light or sight, tends greatly to help forward
the delusions of the prince of darkness.' Had you said, to press them
to believe that the Lord was their God, when going on in a course of
sin, or when sinning presumptuously, was of such tendency, which
probably was in part what you designed, it would, in my humble
apprehension, have been much more safe, for the reasons given. Also,
as it is ordinarily and justly observed, that they who are most
humbled think they are least so, when under a saving work of the
Spirit, perhaps in like manner, spiritual light and sight may, in some
instances, be mistaken or not duly apprehended; in which case, the
person, upon admitting and proceeding upon your suppositions, may
perhaps be apt to give way to unbelief, and to say, If I am not to be
urged by the Lord's servants to believe in my present circumstances,
it would surely be presumptuous in me to entertain thoughts of
attempting it. Or, it may be, he shall think he has not that degree of
spiritual light or sight, that is absolutely necessary in order to his
believing; and thus the evil heart of unbelief shall make him depart
from the living God, and neglect to set to his seal that he is true,
perhaps from the apprehension that it is his duty to remain as he is,
or at least in the persuasion it would be in vain to essay to believe,
till matters be otherwise with him. If I have deduced consequences
from your words and manner of reasoning, which you think they do not
justly bear, I will be glad to be rectified by you, dear Sir, and
would be satisfied to know from you, how the practice you remark upon
in the fore-mentioned passage tends to help forward the delusions of
Satan. I am apt to believe the grounds upon which you proceed, in the
whole paragraph I have mentioned, is, that you have with you real
Antinomians, who teach things about faith and believing, subversive of
new obedience and gospel holiness, and inconsistent with the scripture
doctrines concerning them. But as we have few, if any such at all, (I
believe I might say more,) in this country, and at the same time have
numbers who would have the most accurate and judicious evangelical
preachers to insist a great deal more upon doing, and less upon
believing, Mark x. 17-23. for what reasons you will perceive, I am
afraid your words will be misrepresented by them, and a sense put upon
your expressions, which you were far from intending. I expect a mighty
clamour by the Seceders, if the book shall fall into their hands. All
I shall say about what is expressed by you, page 78, line 32, &c. is,
that I have frequently heard it taught by those accounted the most
orthodox, that the believer was bound to trust in the Lord, in the
very worst frame he could be in, and that the exercise of faith was
the way to be delivered from darkness, deadness, backsliding, &c. It
is impossible one should err, who follows the course prescribed by the
Lord in his word. I suppose no person is bound or allowed to defer
believing one single moment, because he finds himself in a bad
situation, because the Spirit breathes not on him, or he finds not
actual influence from heaven communicated to him at that season,
rendering him capable or meet for it; for this reason, that not our
ability or fitness, but the Lord's command, is the rule of duty, &c.
It merits consideration, whether the believer should ever doubt of his
state, on any account whatever; because doubting, as opposed to
believing, is absolutely sinful. I know the opposite has been
prescribed, when the saint is plunged in prevailing iniquity; but does
not doubting strengthen corruption? is not unbelief the leading sin,
as faith is the leading grace?
Page 258, (Note,) you cite as an authority Mr. Stoddard, affirming,
`One way of sin is exception enough against men's salvation, though
their temptations be great.' I well remember the singularly judicious
Dr. Owen somewhere says to this effect, `Prevalence of a particular
sin over a person for a considerable time, shows him to be no saint,
except when under the power of a strong temptation.' I would suppose
such texts as Isaiah lxiv. 6. page 65, 3, &c. warranted the Doctor to
assert as he did. It is, I own, no small difficulty to steer the
middle course, betwixt affording hypocrites ground unwarrantably to
presume on the one hand, and wounding the Lord's dear children on the
other; and all the little knowledge of the Scriptures I would hope the
Lord has given me, makes me think Mr. Shepherd, good and great man as
he was, verged not a little to the last extreme, with whom, if I
mistake not, Mr. Stoddard symbolizes in the above assertion; for such
as I have mentioned, I apprehend is the drift and tendency of Mr.
Shepherd's principles. In some instances, daily experience and
observation confirm me still more, that we should be very cautious and
modest when asserting on that head, and should take care to go no
further in the matter, than we have plain Scripture to bear us out.
The consideration, that indwelling sin sometimes certainly gets such
ascendant, that the new creature is, for the time the Lord seems meet,
as fire buried under ashes, undiscerned and inactive, lays foundation,
in my humble apprehension, for saying somewhat stronger on that point,
than I would choose to utter in public teaching; and how long a saint
may have been in the case now hinted, I suppose it belongs not to us
precisely to determine.
Page 259, you say, `Nor can a true saint ever fall away, so that it
shall come to this, that ordinarily there shall be no remarkable
difference in his walk and behaviour since his conversion, from what
was before.' I do not remember that the Scripture any where mentions,
that David or Solomon were sanctified from the womb. I think the
contrary may be presumed; and it is evident for a considerable time,
with the first ordinarily, and for a long time, in the case of the
latter ordinarily, there was a remarkable difference for the worse, in
the walk and behaviour of both of them, when we are sure they were
saints, from what it appears it had been in their younger years.
Besides, let us suppose a person of a good natural disposition, bred
up in aversion to all vicious practices, by a religious education and
example, and virtuous inclination thus cultivated in him, 2 Peter ii.
20. and he is converted when come to maturity, and afterwards
corruption in him meets with peculiar temptations; I doubt much if
there would be a remarkable difference betwixt his then conversation
and walk, and that in unregeneracy. The contrary I think is found in
experience, and the principles laid down leave room to suppose it.
I own in what I have above said I have perhaps gone further than
becomes a man of my standing in writing to one of Mr. Edwards's
experience, and am heartily sorry my first letter to you is in such a
strain, and on such a subject. But love to you, dear Sir, and concern
lest you should be thought to patronize what I am sure you do not, and
to oppose what are your real sentiments, made me write with such
freedom, and break over restraints, which modesty, decency, &c. should
otherwise have laid me under, that you might have an opportunity to
know in what light these things I mention to you appear to some who
are your real friends in this country. A valuable minister, in looking
into what is noticed in pages 78 and 79, said to me; it would be right
some should write you about it; and I take this first opportunity,
that you may have access to judge of the matter, and what it may be
proper for you to do or not to do in it.
I will expect an answer with your convenience. I hope you will deal
freely with me; for I can say, I would sit down and learn at your
feet, dear Sir, accounting myself as a child in knowledge of the
Scriptures, when compared with others I will not name, and the longer
I live I see the greater advantage in improvements of that kind.
Conceal nothing that you think will tend to put me right if you find
my views are not just. I proposed in the beginning of this letter to
trouble you with some questions or doubts, and shall mention one or
two at present. What should one do who is incessantly harassed by
Satan; can by no means keep him out of his mind; has used all means
prescribed in Scripture and suggested by divines for resistance known
to him, in vain; it may be for a long time has cried to Christ, but he
hears not, seems not to regard him; all his efforts are swallowed up
in the deluge of the foe; do what he will, seems to gain no ground
against the powers of darkness; is apt to dread he shall sink under
the load, and never shall be delivered in this world? What would you
advise such a person to do? What construction, think you, should be
put on the sovereign conduct and dispensation of Heaven toward him? I
have occasion to be conversant about this case practically
demonstrated, of many years continuance, without interruption; and
will therefore be glad to have your mind about it in a particular
manner, and as much at large as you conveniently can. It is said, all
things work for good, &c. As degrees of glory will be in proportion to
those of grace, how can it be made appear it is for one's good what
sometimes happens to saints, their being permitted to fall under
backslidings and spiritual decays, and to die in that state, perhaps
after continuing in it a considerable while, and when their situation
has been attended with the melancholy circumstances and consequences
that sometimes have place in that state of matters? The solution of
this I would gladly receive from you.
Are the works of the great Mr. Boston known in your country, viz. the
Fourfold State of Man, View of the Covenant of Grace, and a Discourse
on Afflictions, and Church Communion, &c. If not, inform me by your
letter. I have now need to own my fault in troubling you with so long
a letter, and so I shall end," &c.
Letter from Mr. Edwards to Mr. M'Culloch, of Cambuslang.
"To the Rev. Mr. M'Culloch.
Northampton, Jan. 21, 1747.
rev. and dear brother,
The time seems long to me since I have received a letter from you; I
have had two letters from each of my other correspondents in Scotland
since I have had any from you. Our correspondence has been to me very
pleasant, and I am very loth it should fail.
Great changes have been, dear Sir, since I have had a letter from you,
and God has done great things, both in Scotland and America; though
not of the same nature, with those that were wrought some years ago,
by the outpourings of his Spirit, yet those wherein his providence is
on many accounts exceedingly remarkable: in Scotland, in the
suppression of the late rebellion; and in America, in our preservation
from the great French armada, from Brest, and their utter
disappointment and confusion, by the immediate and wonderful hand of
Heaven against them, without any interposition of any arm of flesh.
The nearest akin to God's wonderful works of old, in the defence of
his people in Moses's, Joshua's, and Hezekiah's time, perhaps of any
that have been in these latter ages of the world. I have been writing
some account of it to Mr. M'Laurin; but since then I have seen a
thanksgiving sermon of Mr. Prince's, preached on that occasion; in
which is a much more distinct, particular, and (I suppose) exact
account of the matter (which sermon you will doubtless see). Though
there is something that I observed in my letter to Mr. M'Laurin, of
the coming of that fleet, its being overruled for our preservation, in
this part of the land where I dwell, when eminently exposed, and when
we have all reason to think our enemies in Canada had formed designs
against us, that Mr. Prince does not mention.
In my last letter to you, I wrote you some thoughts and notions I had
entertained, concerning the pouring out of the sixth vial on the river
Euphrates, and the approach of the happy day of the church's
prosperity and glory, and the utter destruction of antichrist, and
other enemies of the church, so often spoken of in the Holy
Scriptures: I signified it as what appeared to me probable, that one
main thing intended by the drying up the river Euphrates, was the
drying up the temporal supplies and income of the antichristian church
and kingdom; and suggested it to consideration whether God, appearing
so wonderfully for the taking Cape Breton, and the American fishery,
thereon depending, out of the hands of the French, and thereby drying
up so great a fountain of the wealth of the kingdom of France, might
not be looked upon as one effect of the sixth vial. I would now also
propose it to be considered, whether God's so extraordinarily
appearing to baffle the great attempt of the French nation, to
repossess themselves of this place, be not some confirmation of it;
and whether or no the almost ruining the French East India trade, by
the dreadful hand of Heaven, in burying their stores at Port L'Orient,
and the taking so many of their ships by Commodore Barnet, and also
the taking so many of their South Sea ships, vastly rich, and several
other things of like nature, that might be mentioned, may not probably
be further effects of this vial. But whatever be thought of these
particular events, and the application of the prophecies to them; yet
it appears to me, that God's late dealings, both with Great Britain
and the American plantations, if they be duly considered, as they are
in themselves and circumstances, afford just reason to hope that a day
is approaching for the peculiar triumphs of divine mercy and sovereign
grace, over all the unworthiness, and most aggravated provocations of
men. If it be considered what God's past dealings have been with
England and Scotland for two centuries past, what obligations he has
laid those nations under, and particularly the mercies bestowed more
lately; and we then well consider the kind, manner, and degree, of the
provocations and wickedness of those nations, and yet that God so
spares them, and has of late so remarkably delivered them, when so
exposed to deserved destruction: and if it be also considered what
God's dealings have been with this land, on its first settlement, and
from its beginning hitherto, and how long we have been revolting and
growing worse, and what great mercy he has lately granted us, on the
late remarkable striving of his Spirit with us, and how his Spirit has
been treated, his mercy and grace despised, and bitterly opposed, how
greatly we have backslidden, what a degree of stupidity we are sunk
into, and how full the land has been of such kinds of wickedness, as
have approached so near to the unpardonable sin against the Holy
Ghost, and how obstinate we are still in our wickedness, without the
least appearances of repentance or reformation; and it be then
considered how God has of late made his arm bare, in almost miraculous
dispensations of his providence, in our behalf, to succeed us against
our enemies, and defend us from them:--I say, if these things be
considered, it appears evident to me, not only that God's mercies are
infinitely above the mercies of men; but also that he has, in these
things, gone quite out of the usual course of his providence and
manner of dealings with his professing people, and I confess, it gives
me great hope that God's appointed time is approaching, for the
triumphs and displays of his infinite, sovereign grace, beyond all
that ever has been before, from the beginning of the world; at least I
think there is much in these things, considered together with other
remarkable things God has lately done, to encourage and animate God's
people unitedly to cry to God, that he would appear for the bringing
on those glorious effects of his mercy, so often foretold to be in the
latter days; and particularly to continue that concert for prayer, set
on foot in Scotland, and which it is now proposed to continue seven
years longer. My wife and children join with me in respectful, cordial
salutations to you and yours.
That we may be remembered in your prayers, is the request, dear Sir,
of your affectionate brother,
jonathan edwards."
To the letter from Mr. Gillespie, Mr. Edwards returned the following
answer.
"Northampton, Sept. 4, 1747.
rev. and dear sir,
I received your letter of Nov. 24, 1746, though very long after it was
written. I thank you for it, and for your proposing a correspondence.
Such an offer I shall gladly embrace, and esteem it a great privilege,
more especially from the character I have received of you from Mr.
Abercrombie, who I perceive was intimately acquainted with you.
As to the objections you make against some things contained in my work
on Religious Affections, I am sorry you did not read the book through
before you made them; if you had, perhaps the difficulties would not
have appeared quite so great. As to what is contained in the 78th and
79th pages, I suppose there is not the least difference of opinion
between you and me, unless it be concerning the signification and
propriety of expressions. I am fully of your mind, and always was
without the least doubt of it; `That every one, both saint and sinner,
is indispensably bound, at all seasons, by the Divine authority, to
believe instantly on the Lord Jesus; and that the command of the Lord,
1 John iii. 23. that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus
Christ, as it is a prescription of the moral law, no less binds the
sinner to immediate performance, than the commandment not to kill, to
keep the sabbath day, or any other duty, as to the present performance
of which, in way of duty, all agree the sinner is bound; and that men
are bound to trust the divine faithfulness, be their case with respect
to light and darkness, sight, &c. what it will; and that no situation
they can be in, looses them from obligation to glorify the Lord at all
seasons, and to expect the fulfilment of his words; and that the
sinner who is without spiritual light or sight is bound to believe,
and that it is a duty at that very time incumbent on him to believe.'
But I conceive that there is a great deal of difference between these
two things, viz. its being the duty of a man, who is without spiritual
light or sight, to believe, and its being his duty to believe without
spiritual light or sight, or to believe while he yet remains without
spiritual light or sight. Just the same difference, which there is
between these two things, viz. its being his duty who has no faith to
believe, and its being his duty to believe without faith, or to
believe without believing. I trust none will assert the latter,
because of the contradiction which it implies. As it is not proper to
say, it is a man's duty to believe without faith, because it implies a
contradiction; so I think it equally improper to say, it is a man's
duty to believe without those things which are essentially implied in
faith, because that also implies a contradiction. But a spiritual
sight of Christ, or knowledge of Christ, is essentially implied in the
very nature and notion of faith; and therefore it is absurd to talk of
believing on Christ, without spiritual light or sight. It is the duty
of a man, who is without those things which essentially belong to
faith, to believe; and it is the duty of a man, who is without those
things which essentially belong to love, to love God; because it is an
indispensable obligation that lies on men at all times, and in all
circumstances, to love God: but yet it is not a duty to love God
without loving him, or continuing without those things which
essentially belong to his love. It is the duty of those who have no
sense of the loveliness of God and have no esteem of him, to love him,
and they are not in the least excused, by the want of this sense and
esteem in not loving him one moment; but yet it would be properly
nonsense to say it is their duty to love him, without any sense of his
loveliness, or esteem of him. It is indeed their duty this moment to
come out of their disesteem, and stupid wicked insensibility of his
loveliness, and to love him. I made the distinction (I thought) very
plainly, in the midst of those sentences you quote as exceptionable. I
say expressly, p. 74, `It is truly the duty of those who are in
darkness, to come out of darkness into light and believe; but, that
they should confidently believe and trust, while they yet remain
without spiritual light or sight, is an anti-scriptural and absurd
doctrine.' The misunderstanding between us, dear Sir, I suppose to be
in the different application of the particle without, in my use of it,
and your understanding of it, or what we understand as spoken of and
supposed in the expression, without spiritual light or sight. As I use
it, I apply it to the act of believing, and I suppose it to be very
absurd to talk of an act of faith without spiritual light or sight,
wherein I suppose you will allow me to be in the right. As you
understand it, it is applied to duty or obligation, and you suppose it
to be not at all absurd, to talk of an obligation to believe without
spiritual light or sight, but that the obligation remains full, where
there is no spiritual light or sight, wherein I allow you are in the
right. I think, Sir, if you read what I have said in my book on this
head again, it will be exceedingly apparent to you, that it is thus
that I apply the preposition without, and not as you before understood
it. I thought I had very plainly manifested, that what I meant by
being in darkness was being in spiritual blindness, and so in a dead,
stupid, and unchristian frame, and not what is commonly called being
without the light of God's countenance, under the hidings of his face.
Great numbers in this country proceed on the supposition, in their
opinions and practice, that there really is such a manner of
believing, such a kind of faith as this, viz. a confident believing
and firm trusting in God in the dark, in the sense just mentioned,
which is the subject matter of Divine prescription, and which many
actually have. Indeed there are innumerable instances of such as are
apparently in a most negligent, apostate, and every way unchristian
and wicked frame; who yet, encouraged by this principle, retain a
strong confidence of their piety, and imagine that herein they do
their duty and glorify God, under the notion of trusting God in the
dark, and hoping against hope, and not relying on their own
righteousness; and they suppose it would show a legal spirit to do
otherwise. I thought it would be manifest to every reader that I was
arguing against such persons as these.
You say, `It merits consideration, whether the believer should ever
doubt of his state, on any account whatever, because doubting, as
opposed to believing, is absolutely sinful.' Here, Sir, you seem to
suppose that a person's doubting of his own good estate, is the proper
opposite of faith; and these and some other expressions in your letter
seem to suppose that doubting of one's good estate, and unbelief, are
the same thing; and so, that confidence in one's good estate, and
faith, are the same thing. This, I acknowledge, I do not understand; I
do not suppose faith, and a person's believing that he has faith, to
be the same thing. Nor do I take unbelief, or being without faith, and
doubting whether he has it, to be the same thing, but entirely
different. I should have been glad either that you had taken a little
more notice of what I say on this head, p. 79, 80, or that you had
said something to convince me that I am wrong in this point. The
exercise of faith is doubtless the way to be delivered from darkness,
deadness, backsliding, &c. or rather is the deliverance; as forsaking
sin is the way to deliverance from sin, and is the deliverance itself.
The exercise of grace is doubtless the way to deliverance from a
graceless frame, which consists in the want of the exercise of grace.
But as to what you say, or seem to intimate, that a person's being
confident of his own good estate, is the way to be delivered from
darkness, deadness, backsliding, and prevailing iniquity; I think,
whoever supposes this to be God's method of delivering his saints,
when sunk into an evil, careless, carnal, and unchristian frame, first
to assure them of their good estate and his favour, while they yet
remain in such a frame, and to make that the means of their
deliverance, does surely mistake God's method of dealing with such
persons. Among all the multitudes I have had opportunity to observe, I
never knew one dealt with after this manner. I have known many brought
back from great declension, who appeared to me to be real saints; but
it was in a way very different from this. In the first place,
conscience has been awakened, and they have been brought into
distressing fears of the wrath of God. Thus they have become the
subjects of a new work of humiliation, and have been led deeply to
feel that they deserve his wrath, even while they have feared it,
before God has delivered them from their apprehensions, and comforted
them with a renewed sense of his favour.
As to what I say of the necessity of universal obedience, or of one
way of known sin, (i.e. so as properly to be said to be the way and
manner of the man,) being exception enough against a man's salvation;
I should have known better what to have said further about it, if you
had briefly shown how the passages of Scripture which I mention, and
the arguments which I deduce from them, are insufficient for the proof
of this point. I confess they appear to me to approve it as fully, as
any thing concerning the necessary qualifications of a Christian can
be proved from Scripture.
You object against my saying, p. 259, `Nor can a true saint ever fall
away to such a degree, that ordinarily there shall be no remarkable
difference between his behaviour, after his conversion, and before.'
This, I think, implies no more than that his behaviour, in similar
circumstances, and under similar trials, will have a remarkable
difference. As to the instances of David and Solomon, I am not aware
that the Scriptures give us any where so full a history of their
behaviour before their conversion, as to enable us to compare it with
their subsequent life. These examples are uncertain. But I think those
doctrines of the Scriptures are not uncertain, which I mention in the
passage you cite, to prove that converts are new men, new creatures,
that they are renewed not only within but without, that old things are
passed away and all things become new, that they walk in newness of
life, that the members of their bodies are new, that whereas they
before were the servants of sin, and yielded their members servants of
iniquity, now they yield them servants of righteousness unto holiness.
As to the doubts and cases of difficulty you mention, I think it
needless for a divine of your character, to apply for the solution of
them to one, who ought rather to take the attitude of a learner.
However, since you are pleased to insist on my giving my mind upon
them, I would observe, with regard to the first case you mention, that
of a person incessantly harassed by Satan, &c. you do not point out
the nature of the temptations with which he is harassed; and without
this, I think it impossible to give proper advice and directions
concerning it. Satan is to be resisted in a very different manner, in
different kinds of onsets. When persons are harassed with those
strange, horrid impressions, to which persons afflicted with
hypochondria are often subject, he is to be resisted in a very
different manner, from what is proper in cases of violent temptation
to gratify some worldly lust. In the former case, I should by no means
advise men to resist the devil by entering the lists with him, and
engaging in a violent struggle with the grand adversary; but rather by
diverting the mind from his frightful suggestions, by going on
stedfastly and diligently in the ordinary course of duty, without
allowing themselves time and leisure to attend to his sophistry, and
by committing themselves to God in prayer. That is the best way of
resisting the devil, which crosses his design most; and he more
effectually disappoints him in such cases, who treats him with
neglect, than he who engages in a direct conflict, and tries his
strength and skill with him, in a violent dispute or combat. The
latter course rather gives him an advantage; and if he can get persons
thus engaged in a violent struggle, he gains a great point. He knows
that hypochondriacal persons are not qualified to maintain it. By this
he diverts him from the ordinary course of duty; and having gained his
attention to what he says, he has opportunity to use all his craft and
subtilty. By such a struggle he raises a deeper melancholy, weakens
the mind still more, gets the unhappy man faster and faster in his
snares, and increases his anxiety of mind; which is the very thing by
which he mainly accomplishes all his purposes with such persons.
As to the difficulty of verifying Rom. viii. 28. `All things shall
work together for good to them that love God,' in the case of a
Christian who falls under backsliding and spiritual decays; it is not
perfectly obvious how this is to be interpreted, and how far it may
hence be inferred, that the temptations of Christians from Satan and
an evil world, and their declensions and sins, shall surely work for
their good. However, since you desire my thoughts, I will endeavour to
express them.
Two things may be laid down, as certain and indubitable, concerning
this doctrine of the apostle.
First. The meaning cannot be that God's actual dispensations towards
each Christian are the best for him of all that are possible; or that
all things which are ordered for him, or done with respect to him, are
in all respects better for him than any thing which God could have
ordered or done, issuing in the highest good and happiness to which he
can possibly be brought; for that implies that God will confer on
every one of his elect as much happiness as he can confer, in the
utmost exercise of his omnipotence; and this sets aside all those
different degrees of grace and holiness here, and glory hereafter,
which he bestows according to his sovereign pleasure.
All things work together for good to the saints; all may have a
concurring tendency to their happiness, and may finally issue in it,
and yet not tend to, or issue in, the highest possible degree of
happiness. There is a certain measure of holiness and happiness, to
which each one of the elect is eternally appointed, and all things
that relate to him work together to bring to pass this appointed
measure of good. The text and context speak of God's eternal purpose
of good to the elect, predestinating them to a conformity to his Son
in holiness and happiness; and the implicit reasoning of the apostle
leads us to suppose that all things will purely concur to bring to
effect God's eternal purpose. Hence from his reasoning it may be
inferred, that all things will tend to, and work together to
accomplish, that degree of good which God has purposed to bestow upon
them, and not any more. Indeed it would be in itself unreasonable to
suppose any thing else; for as God is the supreme orderer of all
things, doubtless all things shall be so ordered, that with one
consent they shall help to bring to pass his ends and purposes; but
surely not to bring to pass what he does not aim at, and never
intended. God, in his government of the world, is carrying on his own
designs in every thing; but he is not carrying on that which is not
his design, and therefore there is no need of supposing, that all the
circumstances, means, and advantages of every saint, are the best in
every respect that God could have ordered for him, or that there could
have been no circumstances or means of which he could have been the
subject, which would with God's usual blessing have issued in his
greater good. Every Christian is a living stone, that, in this present
state of preparation, is fitting for the place appointed for him in
the heavenly temple. In this sense all things undoubtedly work
together for good to every one who is called according to God's
promise. He is, all the while he lives in this world, by all the
dispensations of Providence towards him, fitting for the particular
mansion in glory which is appointed and prepared for him.