The following is an excerpt from "Gracious Affections Are Attended With Evangelical Humiliation"~~ Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)followed with comments on the treatise by W.F.Bell
A legal spirit is a more subtle thing than many imagine. So far as a man is not emptied of himself, and of his own righteousness and goodness, in whatever form or shape, so far he is of a legal spirit. A spirit of pride of a man’s own righteousness, morality holiness, affection, experience, faith, humiliation, or any goodness whatsoever, is a legal spirit. A spiritually-proud spirit is a legal spirit. There is no man living that is lifted up with a conceit of his own experiences and discoveries, and upon the account of them glistens in his own eyes, but what trusts in his experiences and makes a righteousness of them. However he may use humble terms, and speak of his experiences as the great things God has done for him, yet he that is proud of his experiences arrogates something to himself, as though his experiences were some dignity of his. Those who often speak of their love for Christ and the gospel are indeed some of the greatest enemies to the gospel way of free grace, and the most dangerous to pure humble Christianity. There is a pretended great humiliation, and being dead to the law, and emptied of self, which is one of the biggest and most elated things in the world. Some there are who have made a great profession of experience of a thorough work of the law on their own hearts, and of being brought fully off from works, whose conversation has savored most of a self righteous spirit. And some who think themselves quite emptied of themselves, and are confident that they are abased in the dust, are full as they can hold with the glory of their own humility, and lifted up to heaven with a high opinion of their abasement. Their humility is a swelling, self-conceited, confident, showy, noisy, assuming humility. It seems to be the nature of spiritual pride to make men conceited and ostentatious of their humility. The deceitfulness of the heart of men appears in its height in Satan’s managing of persons with respect to this sin. And perhaps one reason may be, that here he has most experience; he knows the way of its coming in; he is acquainted with the secret springs of it; it was his own sin (I Tim.3:6). Experience gives vast advantages in leading souls either in good or evil. There are some persons’ experiences that naturally work that way to make them think highly of their experiences; and they do often themselves speak of their experiences as very great and extraordinary. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, NOT to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; BUT to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” ~~Romans 12:3 (end Of the excerpt)
“Fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. Job 4:14-15Bro Bell's comments -- This brief, powerful treatise by Jonathan Edwards is here given, must be slowly meditated upon for real benefit. We all must beware of bragging about our religious experiences. Even Eliphaz the Temanite, supposedly the wisest of Job’s three friends, was a “spiritualist,” and gloried in his experiences. Eliphaz tells of “visions of the night,” relating how a “spirit passed before my face,” and “the hair of my flesh stood up.” But this was no comfort at all to Job, or to us. Through the years all of us have heard certain people say, “The Holy Ghost spoke to me, saying…” It must be asked, was this in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin? That is never answered, for the only thing that matters to “spiritualists” is the “experience” itself. This is exactly why there is a Mormon Church for “prophet” Joseph Smith supposedly had a direct revelation from God in the 1820’s, finding “golden plates,” which eventually became The Book of Mormon. This foolishness is accepted because most people do not believe in the finality of divine revelation, the Holy Scriptures. If not, the door is open to anything and everything, like Eliphaz saying, “Now a thing was secretly brought to me.” What Edwards warmly tells us in three dynamic paragraphs is that we must not imagine ourselves “spiritual simply by our unique experiences. True Christianity goes beyond self-exalting experiences to “gracious affections,” wrought in us by the power of the Holy Spirit, and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, not us. Indeed, “Not unto us, O lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake” (Ps.115:1). Let us heed Paul’s counsel: “Be not wise in your own conceits” (Rom.12:1`6). May we beseech the Lord to give us true “gracious affections” of the heart, granting us grace to “humbly” and “fearfully” heed these searching words from Jonathan Edwards, “a theologian of the heart” if ever there was one. ~W.F. Bell
Mysticism: “The doctrine of the Mystics, who profess a pure, sublime and perfect devotion, wholly disinterested, and maintain that they hold immediate intercourse with the divine Spirit.” ~~Noah Webster Beware of mystic preachers who suggest that they receive revelations directly from God apart from the divinely inspired Word. ~~WTW
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