Having shown in Part II what are no certain signs of gracious affections, Edwards now turns to the positive question: what marks genuinely distinguish truly gracious and holy affections from all counterfeits? He opens with four important preliminary cautions before presenting twelve distinguishing signs.
Preliminary cautions: (1) These signs are not given to enable us to judge others with certainty — God reserves that as his own prerogative. (2) They will not enable those who are very low in grace, or in a dead carnal frame, to know their good estate with certainty — nor is it fitting they should, until they come out of that frame. (3) It is not claimed that the signs are so clear that hypocrites will never stumble or that true saints will always recognize them. (4) These are signs to be applied primarily by each person to themselves, not as instruments to condemn others.
Sign I — Arising from a Supernatural Divine Work
Truly spiritual and gracious affections arise from those influences and operations on the heart which are spiritual, supernatural, and divine. The true saints — those sanctified by the Spirit of God — are called “spiritual persons” in the New Testament, and this is their peculiar and distinguishing character. The Spirit of God dwells in them as a vital principle, and the exercises of grace arising thence are called “spiritual.” What the Spirit produces in the saint is entirely different in nature, not merely in degree, from anything a natural man can experience. It is as different as light from darkness. The natural man may have common influences of the Spirit — conviction, awakening, illumination of a common kind — but the special gracious influences are of a different nature entirely, being a communication of divine life itself. No improvement of natural principles, no refinement of human faculties, no elevation of merely natural affections can produce what the Spirit alone can work in regeneration.
Sign II — Their Primary Object Is the Divine Excellence Itself
The first objective ground of gracious affections is the transcendently excellent and amiable nature of divine things as they are in themselves — not any conceived relation they bear to self or self-interest. The truly gracious soul loves God for what God is, not merely for what God does for him. This is not to say that benefits and mercies have no place in holy affections — they do, as a secondary and consequential foundation. But the primary foundation — what first and chiefly moves the gracious heart — is the beauty and excellency of the divine nature itself. In the natural man, all religious affections begin and end in self. He fears hell, he desires heaven, he is grateful for mercies — but always the motion originates in self and terminates on self. The truly renewed soul, by contrast, has had a new principle of love wrought in him, by which he is drawn out to God and divine things for what they are in themselves.
Sign III — Founded on the Moral Excellency of Divine Things
Truly holy affections are primarily founded on the loveliness of the moral excellency of divine things. That is, a love to divine things for the beauty and sweetness of their moral excellency — the holiness, justice, grace, and truth of God — is the first beginning and spring of all holy affections. The natural man, if he is affected with God at all, is most affected with God's power, greatness, or the benefits he receives — rarely with the moral beauty of God's holiness. The renewed soul first sees and is captivated by the moral beauty of God's character. He loves the law of God because it is holy, just, and good — not merely because it is useful. He loves the gospel because it displays the moral perfections of God in their highest glory. This distinguishing love to divine things for their moral beauty and spiritual sweetness is the very essence of what Edwards means by “holy affection.”
Sign IV — Arising from Spiritual Understanding
Gracious affections arise from the mind's being enlightened, richly and spiritually, to understand or apprehend divine things. Holy affections are not heat without light — they evermore arise from some spiritual instruction the mind receives, some light or actual knowledge. The child of God is graciously affected because he sees and understands something more of divine things than he did before. There is in the renewed soul a new spiritual sense — a new faculty, as it were — by which he perceives the beauty and excellency of divine things, which the natural man cannot perceive at all, any more than a blind man can perceive colour. This is not a new faculty in the sense of being a new organ, but a new spiritual capacity to apprehend what was always there but invisible to the unrenewed eye.
Sign V — Attended with Spiritual Conviction
Truly gracious affections are attended with a reasonable and spiritual conviction of the judgment of the reality and certainty of divine things. All truly gracious persons have a solid, thorough, and effectual conviction of the truth of the great things of the gospel. The great doctrines of the gospel cease to seem doubtful and uncertain to them — they are as certain as any earthly truth. This is not the mere notional assent of the understanding, which many have without saving grace. It is a conviction that is spiritual — wrought by the Spirit of God — and that extends to all the great truths of the gospel in their fullness. The truly converted man does not merely hope the gospel is true — he knows it with the full persuasion of his soul. Nor is this conviction a bare confidence without ground — it rests on a real spiritual apprehension of the things themselves.
Sign VI — Attended with Evangelical Humiliation
Gracious affections are attended with evangelical humiliation — a sense that a Christian has of his own utter insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart. There is a legal humiliation — what men may have while yet in a state of nature, arising from common influences of the Spirit and natural conscience — and an evangelical humiliation, which is peculiar to true saints. Legal humiliation is a sense of misery and danger; evangelical humiliation is a sense of vileness and unworthiness arising from a sight of God's holiness and grace. The higher the gracious affections, the deeper the evangelical humiliation. The more a saint sees of God, the more he sees of his own nothingness. This is the very reverse of false religion, in which the higher the affections, the higher the self-esteem.
Sign VII — Attended with a Change of Nature
Gracious affections are attended with a change of nature. All gracious affections arise from a spiritual understanding in which the soul sees the excellency and glory of divine things, and all such spiritual discoveries are transforming — they not only alter the present exercise and frame of the soul, but make a real and permanent alteration in the very nature of the soul. The truly converted person is a new creature — old things have passed away, all things have become new. This change is radical and thorough, extending to the inclinations, dispositions, and habits of the soul. It is not a mere reformation of the outward life, nor even a reformation of outward religious behaviour, but a genuine transformation of the inner man. The change is toward the image of God — toward that moral beauty and holiness which is the very nature of God.
Sign VIII — The Lamblike Spirit of Christ
Truly gracious affections tend to and are attended with the lamblike, dovelike spirit and temper of Jesus Christ — a spirit of love, meekness, quietness, forgiveness, and mercy. This is the Christian spirit par excellence, and may be called the distinguishing beauty of true Christianity. False affections, however elevated, tend toward a spirit of pride, self-exaltation, contempt of others, censoriousness, and harshness. True grace softens and sweetens the spirit toward all men, even enemies. It makes the saint more tender toward the failings of others, more patient under injuries, more forgiving and longsuffering. The more eminent the grace, the more of this spirit there is. The greatest saints have been the most gentle, the most lowly, the most patient.
Sign IX — Softening the Heart
Gracious affections soften the heart and are attended and followed with a Christian tenderness of spirit. False affections, however persons may seem to be melted by them while they are new, tend in the end to harden the heart. The deceit that accompanies false affections progressively stupefies the mind and shuts it up against the tenderness of conscience which is the very essence of a soft heart. The true saint, by contrast, grows in tenderness of conscience, in sensitivity to sin, in a trembling regard for God's word and glory. He is quick to feel any wrong inclination in himself, and swift to mourn over it. His heart is not callous toward the suffering of others, nor indifferent to the sins of the world. He is easily moved where he ought to be moved, and not moved where he ought not to be.
Sign X — Beautiful Symmetry and Proportion
Truly gracious affections have a beautiful symmetry and proportion. No single grace is monstrous or over-developed at the expense of others — they grow together. The truly renewed soul loves God — but also fears him. He rejoices — but also mourns for sin. He is bold in the cause of truth — but also meek and humble. He has high spiritual experiences — but also deep evangelical humiliation. False religion is always lopsided — it picks and chooses, exalting certain virtues while ignoring or even opposing others. Zeal without knowledge; confidence without meekness; joy without sorrow for sin; love without hatred of iniquity — these are marks of false religion. True grace, while never perfect in this life, has a beautiful and God-like proportion among all its parts.
Sign XI — Increasing Spiritual Appetite
Gracious affections, the higher they are raised, increase a spiritual appetite and longing of soul after spiritual attainments. False affections rest satisfied in themselves. The higher the false affections, the more content the person is with his own attainments — his high experiences become a ground of self-congratulation and rest. But the true saint, the more he receives of grace, the more he hungers for more. The more he sees of God, the more he longs to see. The more he loves Christ, the more he desires to love him more. This is an unfailing mark — grace is never self-satisfied. It always thirsts as a dry and thirsty land. The soul that has truly tasted the heavenly gift knows that what it has received is only a foretaste, and cries out the more earnestly for the fullness.
Sign XII — Christian Practice as the Grand Test
The twelfth and greatest sign — to which Edwards devotes more attention than all the others — is that gracious and holy affections have their exercise and fruit in Christian practice. They have that influence and power over the life that causes a practice universally conformed to and directed by Christian rules to be the practice and business of the person's life.
This implies three things: (1) His behaviour in the world is universally conformed to Christian rules — not in some things only, but in all things, in all circumstances and relations of life. (2) He makes this holy practice his chief business, above all things, pursuing it with the highest priority. (3) He perseveres in it to the end of his life, through all manner of difficulties and temptations.
Edwards is emphatic: Christian practice is the greatest and most sure evidence of true grace — both to ourselves and to others. This is the test Christ himself gave: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Not by their experiences, not by the account they give, not by their frames and feelings, not by their assurance — but by their fruits. A holy life is the highest evidence of a holy heart. The person who truly fears God, truly loves Christ, and truly has the Spirit dwelling in him will show it in the manner of his life. He will not be perfect — but the bent and business and direction of his life will be holy.
This is also the test by which we should chiefly judge ourselves. Distant experiences and past frames are not the surest evidence. It is the present and continuing exercise of grace in daily life that gives the most solid and satisfying evidence of a true work of God. Edwards closes the entire treatise by calling the reader to make the practice of Christianity the grand ambition and business of life — and promising that those who thus live will not only give evidence to others, but will so shine before men that many will glorify their Father which is in heaven.