| Jonathan Edwards wrote two books on discerning true and counterfeit
spiritual experiences. The earlier was "Some Thoughts Concerning
the Present Revival of Religion in New England," and the second,
a much fuller work, was entitled "A Treatise Concerning Religious
Affections" and was published in 1746.
Edwards recognised that true revivals are usually accompanied by human
errors and carnal emotions. In this book he deals exhaustively with
twelve things which are not certain signs of a true work of God. Then
he deals with twelve things which are most certainly evidence of 'truly
gracious and holy affections'. This work is of immense value today to both those who decry the expression of any emotions in Christian experience, as well as those who equate emotional expressions as the only evidence of true spirituality. The original work is in the public domain and this electronic version was prepared for the The Christian Classics Ethereal Library at http://www.ccel.org/, which is an absolute feast of Christian etexts! Please pay them a visit. You will be enriched by their huge downloadable library of Christian etexts. We are grateful to Harry Plantinga for allowing us to place this great work in the Revival Library. |
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