Puritan Rhetoric: The Issue of Emotion in Religion

4. Concerning the Nature of the Affections, and Their Importance in Religion

READING N U M B E R F 0 U R Concerning the Nature of the Mfections, and Their Importance in Religion Jonathan Edwm'ds During the winter of 1742-43, in response to the widespread opposition which had developed to the excesses of the revival, Edwards delivered a series of sermons defending and explaining the role of emotion in religion. "Concerning the Nature of the Affections" ~ is the first of the lectures in tIllS series. Missing from this speech are the impelling emotional appeals and the sulfurous fumes which were so overpowering in "Future Punishments" and which were present to a lesser extent in the "Distinguishing Marks." Missing, too, are the stridency, the abrasiveness, the confidence, and the clarion calls to action. Appearing to recognize that the chief peril to his cause was the misunderstanding of his supporters, in this series Edwards seems to address particularly his allies, explaining the role of emotion in religion and cautioning against excesses. Although the tone throughout the sermons is ostenSibly expository, the style is affectingly directed to the senses, and the implicit thrust is evocative. Possibly "the most profound explanation of the religious psychology in all American literature," these sermons represent Edwards's mature position concerning the relation of the emotions to religion. Affections are the substance of religion. By their nature, saving affections are reasonable and rational. They cannot be experienced, however, through the censoring agency of the Understanding whichas a disinterested and distant spectator-passes impersonal, objective judgments. Of central significance to his confrontations with the antirevivalists, Edwards called for the involvement, the engagement, of the reason as an integral part of the whole man's experiencing of religion. ~ Along with the other lectures in this series, "The Nature of the Affections " was published in 1746 under the title, A Treatise Conoerning Religious Affections. The text of our copy comes from the Treatise. For further orientation, see Part One: The Developing Exigence. 119 120 READINGS 1 PETER 1:8 Whom having not; seen, ye love: In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye fefoice with Joy unspeakable, and full of Glory. In these Words, the Apostle represents the State of the Minds of the Christians he wrote to, under the Persecutions they were then the subjects of.l These Persecutions are what he has Respect to, in the two preceeding Verses, when he speaks of the Trial of their Faith, and of their being in Heaviness th1'Ough manifold Temptations. Sueh Trials are of threefold Benefit to true Religion: Hereby the truth of it is manifested, and it appears to be indeed true Religion: They, above all other Things, have a Tendency to distinguish between true Religion and false, and to cause the Difference between them evidently to appear. Hence they are called by the Name of Trials, in the Verse nextly preceeding the Text, and in innumerable other Places: They try the Faith and Religion of Professors, of what Sort it is; as apparent Gold is tried in the Fire, and manifested, whether it be true Gold or no. And the Faith of true Christians being thus tried and proved to be true, is found to Praise, and Honour, and Glory; as in that preceeding Verse. And then, These Trials are of further Benefit to true Re~ ligion; they not only manifest the Truth of it, but they make it's genuine Beauty and Amiableness remarkably to appear. True Veriue never appears so lovely, as when it is most oppressed: And the divine Excellency of real Christianity, is never exhibited with such Advantage, as when under the greatest Trials: Then it is that true Faith appears much more precious than Gold; and upon this Account, is found to Praise, and Honour, and Glory. And again, Another Benefit that such Trials are of to true Religion, is, that they purify and increase it. They not only manifest it to be true, but also tend to refine it, and deliver it from those Mixtnres of that which is false, which incumber and impede it; that nothing may be left but that which is true. They tend to cause the Amiableness of true Religion to appear to the best Advantage, as was before observed; and not only so, but Nature of the Affeotions 121 they tend to increase it's Beauty, by establishing and con£rm~ ing it, and making it more lively and vigourous, and purifying...