There are some so inordinately subject to anger, and passion therein, as if they were absolutely under the power and dominion of it; yet do they also know how to be “angry and sin not,” in being angry at sin in themselves and others: “Yea, what indignation; yea, what revenge!” etc., 2 Cor. vii. 11. Yea, God is pleased sometimes to leave somewhat more than ordinary of the power of corruption in one affection, that it may be an occasion of the continual exercise of grace in the other affections. Yet are they all sanctified in their degree, that which is relieved as well as that which doth relieve. And therefore, as the remainder of sin in them that believe is called “the old man,” which is to be crucified in all the members of it, because of its adherence unto the whole person in all its powers and faculties; so the grace
CHAP. XUI.] UNIVERSALITY IN RENEWED AFFECTIONS. 419
implanted in our natures is called “the new man,” there being nothing in us that is not seasoned and affected with it, As nothing in our natures escaped the taint of sin, so nothing in our natures is excepted from the renovation that. is by grace. He in whom any one affec- _ tion is utterly unrenewed hath no one graciously renewed in him. Let men take heed how they indulge to any depraved affection, for it will be an unavoidable impeachment of their sincerity. Think not to say, with Naaman, “God be merciful unto me in this thing; in all others I will be for him.”
He requires the whole heart, and will have it or none. The chief work of a Christian is. to make all. his affections, in all their opera- tions, subservient unto the life of God, Rom. vi. 17, 18; and he who is wise will keep a continual watch over those wherein he finds the greatest reluctancy thereunto. And every affection is originally sanctified according unto the use it is to be of in the life of holiness and obedience.
To be entire for God, to “follow him fully,” to “cleave unto him with purpose of heart,” to have the “heart circumcised to love him,” is to have all our affections renewed and sanctified ; without which we can do none of them. When it is otherwise, there is a “double heart,” “a heart and a heart,” which he abhors: “Their heart is di- vided; now shall they be found faulty,’ Hosea x, 2.
So it is in the other change mentioned. Whatever is or may be wrought upon our affections when they are not spiritually renewed, that very change, as unto the extent of it, 1s not universal. It doth not affect the whole mind, m all its powers and affections, until a vital, prevailmg principle and habit of grace is implanted in the soul. Sim will not only radically adhere unto all the faculties, powers, and affections, but it will, under any change that may befall them, refer the rule and dominion in some of them unto itself. So was it with the young man that came unto our Lord Jesus Christ to know what he should do to obtain eternal life, Mark x. 17-22.
Thus there are many who in other things are reduced unto mo- deration, sobriety, and temperanee, yet there remaineth in them “the love of money” in a predominant degree; which to them is “the root of all evil,” as the apostle speaks. ‘Some “seem to be religious,” but they “ bridle not their tongues;” through anger, envy, hatred, and the like, “ their religion is vain.”
The most of men, in their several ways of profession, pretend not only unto religion, but unto zeal in it, yet set no bounds unto their affections unto earthly enjoyments. Some of old, who had most eminently in all other things subdued their passions and affections, were the greatest enemies unto and persecutors of the gospel.
Some who seem to have had a mighty change wrought in them by
420 OF SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. | _ [PART II.
a superstitious devotion, do yet walk in the spirit of Cain towards all the disciples of Christ,—as it is with the principal devotionists of the church of Rome; and elsewhere we may gee some go soberly about the persecution and destruction of other Christians. Some will cherish one secret lust or other, which they cannot but know to be pernicious unto their souls. Some love the praise of men, which will never permit them to be truly spiritually minded: so our Sa- viour testifieth of some, that they “could not believe, because they loved the praise of men.” This was the known vice of all the an- cient philosophers. They had, many of them, on the principles of reason and by severe exercise, subdued their affections unto great moderation about temporary things, but in the meantime were all of them slaves to vain-glory and the praise of men, until by the public observation of it, and some contradictions in their lives unto their pretences unto virtue, they lost that also among wise and consi- derative men. And, generally, if men not spiritually renewed were able to search themselves, they would find that some of their affec- tions are so far from having any change wrought in them, as that they are a quiet habitation for sin, where it exerciseth its rule and dominion. ; ,