The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards is a treatise on the nature of religion (religion used in a positive way), the heart, revival, true conversion, and the affections.
Note about audio books: This was a 15 hr audio reading that was one of the free monthly books on christianaudio.com. I like audio books when they are telling a story, but not as much when you need to listen (or read) carefully. Some may wonder why I listened to Edwards instead of reading him. I would have mush rather read Edwards than listened to him, but the car is not the place to read and so my choice was listen to him or not listen to him. And I would choose 'listen to him' all over again if I had to. (I do hope to read the book sometime too.)
A brief enticement to get us all to read the book:
The first foundation of the delight a true saint has in God, is his own perfection; and the first foundation of the delight he has in Christ, is his own beauty; he appears in himself the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. The way of salvation by Christ is a delightful way to him, for the sweet and admirable manifestations of the divine perfections in it: the holy doctrines of the gospel, by which God is exalted and man abased, holiness honored and promoted, and sin greatly disgraced and discouraged, and free and sovereign love manifested, are glorious doctrines in his eyes, and sweet to his taste, prior to any conception of his interest in these things. Indeed the saints rejoice in their interest in God, and that Christ is theirs: and so they have great reason, but this is not the first spring of their joy. They first rejoice in God as glorious and excellent in himself, and then secondarily rejoice in it, that so glorious a God is theirs.—They first have their hearts filled with sweetness, from the view of Christ's excellency, and the excellency of his grace and the beauty of the way of salvation by him, and then they have a secondary joy in that so excellent a Savior, and such excellent grace are theirs.
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