Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Jonathan Edwards: Soft Hearts and Hard Warnings

"False affections, however persons may seem to be melted by them while they are new, have a tendency in the end to harden the heart. With the delusion that attends them, they finally tend to stupefy the mind, and shut it up against those affections wherein tenderness of heart consists: and the effect of them at last is that persons become less affected with their present and past sins, and less conscientious with respect to future sins, less moved with the warnings and cautions of God's word or God's chastisements in His providence, more careless of the frame of their hearts and the manner and tendency of their behavior, less quick-sighted to discern what is sinful, less afraid of the appearance of evil, than they were while they were under legal awakenings and fears of hell...

...Yea, the most confident and assured hope, that is truly gracious, has this tendency. The higher a holy hope is raised, the more there is of this Christian tenderness. The banishing of a servile fear by a holy assurance is attended with a proportionable increase of a reverential fear. The diminishing of the fear of the fruits of God's displeasure in future punishment is attended with a proportionable increase of fear of His displeasure itself; the diminishing of the fear of hell, with an increase of the fear of sin. The vanishing of jealousies concerning the person's state is attended with a proportionable increase of jealousy of heart, in a distrust of its strength, wisdom, stability, faithfulness, etc. The less apt he is to be afraid of natural evil (having his heart fixed, trusting in God, and so not afraid of evil tidings), the more apt he is to be alarmed with the appearance of moral evil, or the evil of sin. As he has more holy boldness, so he has less of self-confidence, and more modesty. As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has more of a sense of the desert [i.e. deserving] of it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith; but more apt than others to be moved with solemn warnings, and with God's frowns, and with the calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart. Richer than others, he is the poorest of all in spirit: the tallest and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them." (Religious Affections, pp. 285, 291-92)

No comments: