fections and wonderful works, earnest desires, thirstings, and pantings of soul after God,
delight and joy in God, a sweet and melting gratitude to God, for his great goodness, a holy
exultation and triumph of soul in the favor, sufficiency, and faithfulness of God, his love to,
and delight in the saints, the excellent of the earth, his great delight in the word and ordin-
ances of God, his grief for his own and others' sins, and his fervent zeal for God, and against
the enemies of God and his church. And these expressions of holy affection, which the
psalms of David are everywhere full of, are the more to our present purpose, because those
psalms are not only the expressions of the religion of so eminent a saint, that God speaks
of as so agreeable to his mind; but were also, by the direction of the Holy Ghost, penned for
the use of the church of God in its public worship, not only in that age, but in after ages; as
being fitted to express the religion of all saints, in all ages, as well as the religion of the
Psalmist. And it is moreover to be observed, that David, in the book of Psalms, speaks not
as a private person, but as the Psalmist of Israel, as the subordinate head of the church of
God, and leader in their worship and praises; and in many of the psalms speaks in the name
of Christ, as personating him in these breathings forth of holy affection; and in many other
psalms he speaks in the name of the church.
Another instance I shall observe, is the apostle Paul; who was in many respects, the chief
of all the ministers of the New Testament; being above all others, a chosen vessel unto Christ,
to bear his name before the Gentiles, and made a chief instrument of propagating and estab-
lishing the Christian church in the world, and of distinctly revealing the glorious mysteries
of the gospel, for the instruction of the church in all ages; and (as has not been improperly
thought by some) the most eminent servant of Christ that ever lived, received to the highest
rewards in the heavenly kingdom of his Master. By what is said of him in the Scripture, he
appears to have been a person that was full of affection. And it is very manifest, that the re-
ligion he expresses in his epistles, consisted very much in holy affections. It appears by all
his expressions of himself, that he was, in the course of his life, inflamed, actuated, and en-
tirely swallowed up, by a most ardent love to his glorious Lord, esteeming all things as loss,
for the excellency of the knowledge of him, and esteeming them but dung that he might win
him. He represents himself, as overpowered by this holy affection, and as it were compelled
by it to go forward in his service, through all difficulties and sufferings, 2 Cor. 5:14, 15. And
his epistles are full of expressions of an overpowering affection towards the people of Christ.
He speaks of his dear love to them, 2 Cor. 12:19, Phil. 4:1, 2 Tim. 1:2; of his "abundant love,"
2 Cor. 2:4; and of his "affectionate and tender love," as of a nurse towards her children, 1
Thess. 2:7, 8: "But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children; so,
being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the
gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." So also he speaks
of his "bowels of love," Phil. 1:8, Philem. 5, 12, and 20. So he speaks of his "earnest care" for
others, 2 Cor. 8:16, and of his "bowels of pity, or mercy towards them, Phil. 2:1; and of his
19
Part I. Concerning the nature of the affections and their importance in…