"So Sweet a Sense..."

I find Jonathan Edwards' (1730's) description of his experience of spiritual awakening and renewal very arresting:
There came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, as I know not how to ex­press… The appearance of every thing was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet cast or appearance of divine glory, in almost every thing. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity, and love, seemed to appear in every thing…I had vehe­ment longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holi­ness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break . . . My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them . . . Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent.

At first it sounds unrealistic, out of touch. But then Edwards goes on to tell the painful part:
Often . . . I have had very affecting views of my own sinfulness and vileness; very frequently to such a degree, as to hold me in a kind of loud weeping, sometimes for a considerable time . . .
(quoted in Richard Lovelace, Renewal as a Way of Life)