concern for others, even to anguish of heart," 2 Cor. 2:4: "For out of much affliction and
anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears; not that you should be grieved, but that
ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you." He speaks of the great
conflict of his soul for them, Col. 2:1. He speaks of great and continual grief that he had in
his heart from compassion to the Jews, Rom. 9:2. He speaks of "his mouth's being opened,
and his heart enlarged" towards Christians, 2 Cor. 6:11: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is
open unto you, our heart is enlarged." He often speaks of his "affectionate and longing de-
sires," 1 Thess. 2:8, Rom. 1:11, Phil. 1:8, and chap. 4:1, 2 Tim. 1:4. The same apostle is very
often, in his epistles, expressing the affection of joy, 2 Cor. 1:12 and chap. 7:7, and ver. 9.
16. Phil. 1:4, and chap. 2:12, and chap 3:3. Col. 1:34. 1 Thess. 3:9. He speaks of his "rejoicing
with great joy," Phil 4:10, Philem. 1:7; of his "joying and rejoicing," Phil. 2:1, 7, and "of his
rejoicing exceedingly," 2 Cor. 7:13, and of his being "filled with comfort, and being exceeding
joyful," 2 Cor. 7:4. He speaks of himself as "always rejoicing," 2 Cor. 6:10. So he speaks of
the triumphs of his soul, 2 Cor. 2:14, and of his glorying in tribulation," 2 Thess. 1:4, and
Rom. 5:3. He also expresses the affection of hope; in Phil. 1:20, he speaks of his "earnest ex-
pectation, and his hope." He likewise expresses an affection of godly jealousy, 2 Cor. 11:2,
3. And it appears by his whole history, after his conversion, in the Acts, and also by all his
epistles, and the accounts he gives of himself there that the affection of zeal, as having the
cause of his Master, and the interest and prosperity of his church, for its object, was mighty
in him, continually inflaming his heart, strongly engaging to those great and constant labors
he went through, in instructing, exhorting, warning, and reproving others, "travailing in
birth with them;" conflicting with those powerful and innumerable enemies who continually
opposed him, wrestling with principalities and powers, not fighting as one who beats the
air, running the race set before him, continually pressing forwards through all manner of
difficulties and sufferings; so that others thought him quite beside himself. And how full he
was of affection, does further appear by his being so full of tears: in 2 Cor. 2:4, he speaks of
his a many tears;" and so Acts 20:19; and of his "tears that he shed continually night and
day," ver. 31.
Now if anyone can consider these accounts given in the Scripture of this great apostle,
and which he gives of himself, and yet not see that his religion consisted much in affection,
must have a strange faculty of managing his eyes to shut out the light which shines most
full in his face.
The other instance I shall mention, is of the apostle John, that beloved disciple, who
was the nearest and dearest to his Master, of any of the twelve, and was by him admitted to
the greatest privileges of any of them; being not only one of the three who were admitted
to be present with him in the mount at his transfiguration, and at the raising of Jairus's
daughter, and whom he took with him when he was in his agony, and one of the three
spoken of by the apostle Paul, as the three main pillars of the Christian church; but was
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Part I. Concerning the nature of the affections and their importance in…