Jonathan Edwards
Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Jack Deere (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993, pp. 185-186.
In 1746 Jonathan Edwards published a book, The Religious Affections, in which he argued that "true religion must consist very much in the affections," Edwards saw that one of the chief works of Satan was
"to propagate and establish a persuasion that all affections and sensible emotions of the mind, in things of religion, are nothing at all to be regarded, but are rather to be avoided and carefully guarded against, as things of a pernicious tendency. This he knows is the way to bring all religion to a mere lifeless formality, and effectually shut out the power of godliness, and everything which is spiritual and to have all true Christianity turned out of doors."
Edwards went on to say,
"As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection….If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart….This manner of slighting all religious affections is the way exceedingly to harden the hearts of men, and to encourage them in their stupidity and senselessness, and to keep them in a state of spiritual death as long as they live and bring them at last to death eternal."
