(Continued from p. 57).
IV.
ONE of the most outstanding works on experimental theology is Jonathan Edwards’ Treatise on the Religious Affections. Edwards’ preaching at Northampton and elsewhere was owned in a signal manner by his Master especially in the years 1740 and 1741. During these awakenings there were many excesses as there is usually when Satan’s kingdom is being shaken to its foundations. To separate the genuine from the spurious Edwards preached a sermon at New Haven on 10th September, 1741, on The distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God. This was followed by his famous work on the Religious Affections. In setting forth his aim in writing this book he says: “My design is to contribute my mite, and use my best endeavours to this end in the ensuing treatise; wherein it must be noted that my design is somewhat diverse from the design of what I have formerly published, which was to show the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God, including both His common and saving operations; but what I aim at now, is to show the nature and signs of the gracious operations of God’s Spirit, by which they are to be distinguished from all things whatsoever, that the minds of men are the subjects of, which are not of a saving nature.” Needless to say that the treatise coming from such a master mind and one so deeply taught by the Spirit of God is one of supreme importance. Its searching analysis the fruit of a metaphysical mind of the first order, its balanced statement of the truth and the profound spirituality of the writer breathing through every page all combine to give it that place of pre-eminence in this class of religious literature which it has enjoyed in the Church of Christ. Edwards was one of the most remarkable men gifted to the Church by her risen Lord. The story of his life is of intense interest but cannot be narrated here except to give one extract from his diary. “Once,” he says, “as I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737,
having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure, and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception—which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time in tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardeny of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve and follow Him; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity. I have, several other times, had experiences of very much of the same nature, and which have had the same effects.” Edwards was no mere visionary for this was a man of the soberest judgment possessed with a mind of the highest order to whom these extraordinary spiritual experiences were granted. In these respects he reminds one of Paul more than any other of the great teachers of the Church.
In the space at our disposal it is not possible to give even a summary of his great masterpiece in experimental theology but we would recommend our readers to give it a careful and prayerful perusal if they have not already done so. It will certainly make one look well to the foundation on which his hope is resting for eternity and any book that will do that is worth reading.
In 1749 Edwards published The Life of the Rev. David Brainerd with Reflections and Observations, the saintly missionary to the Red Indians. This is one of the most remarkable religious biographies in the English language. The burning zeal of the consecrated servant of the Most High, the termination of
his career in early youth, the heavenliness of his character all combine to produce a profound impression on every seriously minded person. There are passages in the Diary so affecting that they move one to tears. After reading it one feels as if one had lived a useless life and never done anything for Christ at all.
In this book there are, however, expressions used in regard to the believer’s love to Christ which have caused some trouble to not a few of the Lord’s people. Reference has already been made to the distress caused to Dr. Love by the statements of Edwards, Brainerd and Shepard* on this subject. It was while he was passing through deep waters in his early spiritual experiences that Dr. Love read the Life and Journal of the saintly Brainerd and he records in his Diary that in the winter of 1777 his mind was racked by some of the expressions used by Edwards and Brainerd. As Dr. Love understood these worthy men they held that Christ invites sinners to come to Him only if they have disinterested love to Him—that was Dr. Love’s interpretation of their words at anyrate. Dr. Love saw in this a legal demand. In 1778 he wrote a paper on the subject—”Is Disinterested Love to God an Essential Element in True Faith?”—which is printed in his Memorials, I. 252-3. “It may be questioned,” he says, “whether, in the first acting of faith, the soul really, in a sensible and discernible degree, acts chiefly for the glory of God; and whether this be essential to the nature of true faith. The soul rather trusts in Christ forgetting the Spirit, to mould it into accordance with the divine law, and to restore the divine image in this respect . . . . To have such a love to God and His glory, as to be willing to suffer His wrath through eternity without hope of recovery—implies a self-contradiction. For if I love God, I cannot but desire to be closely united to Him, and to enjoy Him. And the more I desire this, the more averse will I be to separation from Him . . . . A rational creature is bound to desire—not the glory
*Magazine, xlii. 14, 15.
of God simply and absolutely but the glory of God in his own salvation.” Notwithstanding these criticisms Dr. Love acknowledges his great indebtedness to Edwards, Brainerd and Shepard though disagreeing with them on the particular point criticised above.
We have now accomplished our purpose in bringing before our readers some of the outstanding works on experimental theology. The field is a wide one and we have by no means covered it all but it is to be hoped that these articles may send some of our readers to the perusal of the books referred to. Unfortunately most of the books mentioned can only be obtained second-hand. Publishers in our days do not seem to get encouragement to print them, at least, new editions of most of them are never issued from the press. We have also noticed a considerable falling off among our own people as compared with our younger days of interest in these works. It will not be a good day for the Church of Christ in Scotland and for our own in particular when the rich, satisfying, spiritual meat on which the fathers fed is either despised or neglected. Recent works of an experimental kind may be useful enough but it will be generally admitted that in this department the old is better.