In general, this depravation of our affections by nature may be reduced unto two heads:—
1. An utter aversation from God and all spiritual things. In this lies the spring of all that dislike of God and his ways that the hearts of men are filled withal; yea, they do not only produce an aversation from them and dislike of them, but they fill the mind with an enmity against them. Therefore men say in their hearts unto God, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?” Job xxi. 14, 15. See Rom. i. 28, viii. 7.
2. An inordinate cleaving unto things vain, earthly, and sensual, causing the soul to engage into the pursuit of them as the horse rushes into the battle.
Whilst our affections are in this state and condition we are far enough from being spiritually minded, nor is it possible to engage them into an adherence unto or delight in spiritual things.
In this state they may be two ways wrought upon, and yet not so renewed as to be serviceable unto this end:—
1. There may be various temporary impressions made on them. Sometimes there is so by the preaching of the word. Hereon men may hear it with joy, and do many things gladly. Sometimes it is so by judgments, dangers, sicknesses, apprehensions of the approach of death, Ps. lxxviii. 35–37. These things take men off for a season from their greedy delight in earthly things, and the pursuit of the interest of lust in making provision for the flesh. On many other occasions, by great variety of causes, there may be temporary impressions made on the affections, that shall seem for a season to have turned the stream of them. And thereon we have many who any day will be wholly, as it were, for God, resolved to forsake sin and all the pleasures of it, but the next return unto all their former excesses; for this is the effect of those impressions, that whereas men ordinarily are predominantly acted by love, desire, and delight, which lead them to act according unto the true natural principles of the soul, now they are for a season acted by fear and dread, which put a kind of force on all their inclinations. Hereon they have other thoughts of good and evil, of things eternal and temporal, of God and their own duty, for a season. And hereon some of them may and do persuade themselves that there is a change in their hearts and affections, which there is not; like a man who persuades himself that he hath lost his ague because his present fit is over. The next trial of temptation carries them away again unto the world and sin.
There are sometimes sudden impressions made on spiritual affections, which are always of great advantage to the soul, renewing its engagements unto God and duty. So was it with Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 16–20; so is it often with believers in hearing the word, and on other occasions. On all of them they renew their clearings unto God with love and delight. But the effect of these impressions on unrenewed affections are neither spiritual nor durable; yea, for the most part, they are but checks given in the providence of God unto the raging of their lusts, Ps. ix. 20.
2. They are liable unto an habitual change. This the experience of all ages gives testimony to. There may be an habitual change wrought in the passions and affections of the mind, as unto the inordinate and violent pursuit of their inclinations, without any gracious renovation of them. Education, philosophy, or reason, long afflictions, spiritual light and gifts, have wrought this change. So Saul, upon his call to be king, became “another man.” Hereby persons naturally passionate and furious have been made sedate and moderate, and those who have been sensual have become temperate, yea, and haters of religion to be professors of it. All these things, and many more of the like nature, have proceeded from a change wrought upon the affections only, whilst the mind, will, and conscience, have been totally unsanctified.
By this change, when it is alone, no man ever became spiritually minded; for whereas there are two parts of the depravation of our affections, that whereby they are turned off from God, and that whereby they inordinately cleave unto other things, their change principally, if not only, respects the latter. They are brought into some order with respect unto present things. The mind is not continually tossed up and down by them as the waves of the sea, that are troubled, and east up mire and dirt. They do not carry those in whom they are into vicious, sensual actions, but they allow them to make virtue in moderation, sobriety, temperance, fidelity, and usefulness in several ways, to be their design; and it is admirable to think what degrees of eminency in all sorts of moral virtues, upon this one principle of moderating the affections, even many among the heathens attained unto. But as unto their aversation from God and spiritual things, in the true spiritual notion of them, they are not cured by this change; at least this change may be, and yet this latter not be wrought.
Again; this alteration doth but turn the course or stream of men’s affections, it doth not change the nature of them. They are the same in their spring and fountain as ever they were, only they are habituated unto another course than what of themselves they are inclined unto. You may take a young whelp of the most fierce and savage creature, as of a tiger or a wolf, and by custom or usage make it as tame and harmless as any domestic creature, — a dog, or the like: but although it may be turned into quite another way or course of acting than what it was of itself inclined unto, yet its nature is not changed; and therefore frequently, on occasion, opportunity, or provocation, it will fall into its own savage inclination, and having tasted of the blood of creatures, it will never be reclaimed. So is it with the depraved affections of men with respect unto their change: their streams are turned, they are habituated unto a new course; but their nature is not altered, at least not from rational unto spiritual, from earthly unto heavenly. Yet this is that which was most beautiful and desirable in nature, the glory of it, and the utmost of its attainments. He who has by any means proceeded unto such a moderation of his affections as to render him kind, benign, patient, useful, preferring public good before private, ordinate and temperate in all things, will rise up in judgment against those who, professing themselves to be under the conduct of the light of grace, do yet, by being morose, angry, selfish, worldly, manifest that their affections are not subdued by the power of that grace. Wherefore, that we may be spiritually minded, there is yet another work upon our affections required, which is their internal renovation, whereby not only the course of their actings is changed, but their nature is altered and spiritually renewed. I intend that which is expressed in that great evangelical promise, Isa. xi. 6–9, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.” A change and alteration is promised in the natures, principles, and first inclinations, of the worst and most savage sinners who pass under the power of gospel grace.
This is that which is required of us in a way of duty, Eph. iv. 23, “Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind.” There is a renovation of the mind itself, by the communication of spiritual, saving light and understanding thereunto, whereof I have treated elsewhere at large. See Rom. xii. 2; Eph. i. 17, 18. But “the spirit of the mind,” that whereby it is enlivened, led, and disposed unto its actings, that is to be renewed also. “The spirit of the mind” is in this place opposed unto “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,” or depraved affections, Eph. iv. 22. These, therefore, are that “spirit of the mind,” which inclines, bends, and leads it to act suitably unto its inclinations, which is to be renewed. And when our affections are inclined by the saving grace of the Holy Spirit, then are they renewed, and not else. No other change will give them a spiritual renovation. Hereby those things which are only natural affections in themselves, in them that believe become fruits of the Spirit: Gal. v. 22, 23, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,” etc. They continue the same as they were in their essence, substance, and natural powers; but are changed in their properties, qualities, inclinations, whenever a new nature is given unto them. So the waters at Marah were the same waters still before and after their cure. But of themselves and in their own nature they were bitter, so as that the people could not drink them; on the casting of a tree into them, they were made sweet and useful, Exod. xv. 25. So was it with the waters of Jericho, which were cured by casting salt into them, 2 Kings ii. 19–22. Our affections continue the same as they were in their nature and essence; but they are so cured by grace as that their properties, qualities, and inclinations, are all cleansed or renewed. The tree or salt that is cast into these waters, whereby the cure is wrought, is the love of God above all, proceeding from faith in him by Christ Jesus.
← Chapter XI. The seat of spiritual mindedness in the affections — The nature and use of them — The ways and means used by God himself to call the affections of men from the world · Contents · Chapter XIII. The work of the renovation of our affections — How differenced from any other impression on or change wrought in them, and how it is evidenced so to be — The first instance, in the universality accompanying of affections spiritually renewed — The order of the exercise of our affections with respect unto their objects →