PREFACE.

If thou art either a lover, a favourer, a follower, or a seeker, of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, let me counsel thee to attend to the three following things. The

First is, to "cleanse thy way by taking heed thereto according to God's word," which cannot be done but by looking well to thy conscience, and by seeking and praying for a saving application of the atonement, according to God's new covenant promise: "I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and will remember their sins no more," for nothing short of the blood of Christ can make the sinner clean touching his conscience. And if, after pardon obtained, thou shouldest, through weakness, or violent temptation, fall into sin, then do as David did, immediately seek pardon and forgiveness, lest thou be hardened through the deceitfullness of sin, and so go from bad to worse, till "the backslider in heart be filled with his own ways."

Errors and heresies defile the mind, confuse the judgment, and corrupt the affections, so as to damp our love to the Saviour, and draw it from the truth, and from the simplicity of it, as it is in Christ; therefore be earnest with God to teach thee by his Spirit, for nothing but that which is applied by God with power to thy soul will ever keep thee from the path of the destroyer, support thee in the fiery trial, or stay thy heart in a dying hour.

2dly. "Make straight paths for thy feet." This work will require much prayer, diligence, and watchfullness; but when it is well done, "thou shalt have rejoicing in thyself alone, and not in another; yea, thou shalt walk safely, and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble."

The Arminian grasps at the conditional promises, which are peculiar to the law; and at those texts which his unenlightened mind construes to be in favour of, and to exalt, the free will of man; and stumbles and takes offence at the sovereign and good-will of God in Christ Jesus, and the freeness of his grace in him; and also at the covenant of promise, which is yea and amen; and at every glorious doctrine that is calculated to debase the sinner and exclude boasting. Thus "he makes flesh his arm, and in his heart departeth from God, who will leave him like the dreary desert and barren heath, and he shall not know when good cometh."

The Arian catches at every text which speaks of the human nature of Christ, and of his state of humiliation, and of the inferiority of his manhood to that of his infinite divinity; and so concludes him to be no more than a creature; and, having made this lie his refuge, he takes offence, and stumbles at a thousand passages of holy writ that are expressive of his ETERNAL POWER and GODHEAD, which is stumbling at Zion's foundation; by which they fall, and in that way are broken, snared, and taken in their own craftiness, until "the stone at which they stumble falls upon them, and grinds them to powder."

Some hold God the Father to be the only person in the GOD-HEAD, and deny the divinity and personality of Christ, and personality of the HOLY GHOST. Others hold that Christ is the only person, and deny both the Father and the Spirit. These take shelter under every text that speaks of the unity of God, and stumble and take offence at, and wrest, every passage of scripture that is expressive of a trinity of persons in the UNITY OF GOD. They agree with John that there is ONE, but not that there are THREE IN ONE, and that those THREE are ONE. A trinity in unity, or three distinct persons in one nature, or one in nature, they cannot make out nor allow. And yet some of them have been so driven into corners by words of the plural form,, such as "Holy Ones," Dan. iv. 17, 24; "Let us make man," Gen. i. 26; "Let us go down," Gen. xi. 7; that they have been obliged to divide Christ, making him two Persons, human and divine; which human nature never had personal existence, or it never did exist alone; for it is called a thing, a new thing, and a holy thing; and thus these wise men, by denying a trinity, have in fact made a quarternity; for it appears plain that John, by his assertion of a trinity of Persons in unity of nature, neither brings in a human person, nor mentions a human nature; but confines and applies it entirely to the three divine persons in unity of essence, or in unity of essential divinity; as it is written, "There are three that bear record in heaven, the FATHER, and the WORD, and the HOLY GHOST; and these three are ONE. In this passage the humanity of Christ is not mentioned: nor is it implied in the phrase WORD; for the WORD was a divine person before the human nature existed, and without it; for John had in a preceding passage declared that the WORD was with GOD, and that the WORD was God, and that all things were made by HIM, and without HIM was not any thing made that was made; which is an absolute assertion of the distinct personality and essential divinity of the WORD; and he confirms it by ascribing the whole work of creation to him, and all this antecedent to his incarnation, as follows; "And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

This is the mystery which real faith not only assents to, but soundly credits, cordially receives, humbly acknowledges, and submits to, as it is written, "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words," Col. ii. 2, 3, 4. This mystery the wise and prudent of this world resist, and therefore God resists these proud ones. They oppose the revelation that He hath made of himself, who (one would think) must be the best judge of the mode of his own existence; at least, a better judge than those who cannot account for their own. These wanton ones sport and trifle with the most profound mystery in all the Bible; and by their preaching and writing they harden and embolden numbers of poor, unenlightened, unrenewed, unhumbled, uninformed young men, to "laugh at and open a wide mouth against a MYSTERY that is higher than heaven, deeper than hell, longer than the earth, and broader than the sea," Job, xi. 7, 8, 9.

Whatever appears to thee, Reader, in the scriptures of truth to be contradictions, or whatever appears there in thy view of things to clash, seek wisdom from above to reconcile and make plain those things. "Commit thy way unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." If any text in God's book opposes any notion thou hast imbibed from the preaching or writings of men, stumble not, take no offence at the word, lest God leave thee to "err from the way of understanding, and stumble upon the dark mountains." Be open to conviction, neither hate the light, nor fly from it. Be not too proud to seek wisdom and direction from above, which is contempt of the divine prophet; neither rest or build on the judgment, parts, or abilities of any man. "Let God be true, but every man a liar." We have many, yea, multitudes, who, though they neither believe in Christ Jesus, or in the scriptures of truth, yet have faith in Socinus, Sabellius, Arius, and Elliot, who never knew either Christ or themselves, neither the wisdom that is from above, nor their own ignorance.

To "make straight paths for thy feet," is to be enlightened to see a sweet consistency in the word of God; to see that nothing essential to salvation is "lacking in thy faith;" to have harmonious views of faith in the covenant of grace, and to feel tranquillity in thy soul.

3dly. Cultivate communion and friendship with those who have been the most tried, and who are the most humble, steady, selfbased, and experimental; for such are the best able "to cast up the highway, and to take up the stumbling blocks" that man be laid before thee by crafty, designing, erroneous and deceitful men. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but the companion of fools shall be destroyed."

A false church is like a whore who keeps pimps. She hath not only "some seated at her door, to call passengers who go right on their way," but she hath spies also to attend the assemblies of Zion, who are said "to lie in wait to deceive;" these look after, find out, and catch, those who are simple and unwary, "to destroy the way of their paths, lie in wait for him that reproves in the gate, and pervert the right ways of the Lord." These, by throwing themselves in the way of such weak souls, "lead them straight to her house, who has cast down many wounded, and whose guests are in the depths of hell."

Grievous hath been the struggles and conflicts of my soul formerly, occasioned by the false glosses of these ministers of Satan, whose notions have been imbibed by their deluded followers, and thrown in my way by them; by which the devil always worked powerfully to make me stumble at the word, and take an offence at what I could not comprehend; and all his devices were intended to lead me into idolatry. What he aimed at was to fix the Most High in the image or similitude of a man, of a man, on the area of my imagination; which was nothing less than "a high thing, which exalteth itself against the knowledge of God:" yea, it is an idol in embryo, conceived in the imagination. Sometimes this old crafty enemy of souls would attempt to puzzle me by bringing up three idols of this sort to represent the glorious Trinity, and then puzzle me about which to address. Against this I fought with all my might, well knowing that "no man had heard the Father's voice or seen his shape," John, v. 37. That "Israel saw no manner of similitude, lest ye corrupt yourselves and make an image," Deut. iv. 15. And that Christ, considered as man, is not an object of divine worship, though God incarnate is. "For though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him so no more." Those who saw him as man only were not to call him good, for no one is good but God; nor yet to trust in him, or pray to him, considered as man. "Trust not in man, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Now the word that was with God, and that was God, and was made flesh, and who is Immanuel, God with us, or God incarnate, is to be worshipped. This I read in scripture. But the devil, as I have just hinted, was working on my imagination, to confuse and confound my mind, and to lead me to heart-idolatry; for I knew that God had compared himself to "a fountain of living water," and to "a consuming fire;" and that the Holy Ghost was compared to wind; to either of which no human likeness can be framed or formed. I also knew that omnipresence could never be circumscribed in the limits of an imaginary doll, as was represented to me by Satan on the threshold of fancy. I likewise knew that eternal light, life, and love, could never be moulded into the likeness or similitude of a poor earth-worm. If I had thought thus, I should have thought God to be just such an one as myself.

All idolatry begins first in the heart, "by men who become vain in their imaginations, till their foolish hearts be darkened; professing themselves to be wise, they become fools, and change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, birds, beasts, and creeping things," Rom. i. 21, 22, 23. "To what then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" Isaiah, xl. 18. I further knew that a trinity in unity was far enough above the rules of arithmetic; that immensity was too vast for a vain imagination either to explore or contract. "And, as Christ ascended that he might fill all things," Eph. iv. 10, no gross image is to be made of him who is the image of the invisible God. Hence the three-one Jehovah, the eternal and invisible God, is out of the reach of the poor short-sighted light of nature, and can never be known but in his own glorious rays, as it is written, "In thy light we see light."

Under these workings of Satan, concerning the Trinity, I lay confused and confounded for a considerable time; but confession and prayer, reading and meditation, were kept up day and night; and, after having been thus exercised for three years, the ever blessed God appeared, and sweetly delivered me from all my idols, and from all my filthiness he cleansed me; since which sore conflict neither the devil, the Arian, Socinian, or Sabellian, have ever been able to move me; for Butler, the worst of all snares to me, who is mentioned in several of my books, was led to set up these three dolls in his brains, in imitation of the Trinity; and, as he could not make one to be three, and three one, he denied the personality both of the Father and of the Holy Ghost; and, being wonderfully established in this lie, he held it fast, and refused to let it go. Resisting the apostles, who had so strenuously asserted a plurality of persons, he held fast only the scriptures that expressed the unity, and construed the others to be the effects of the apostles' ignorance and blindness. And he affirmed that the future glorious light which is expected would deliver the saints from the ignorance that lay under their veil. In this he was fixed, and in this he exulted and triumphed, for, I believe, near or quite ten years; yea, and this he circulated privately to all that he could, and then began to preach it openly, which cost me many sighs, groans, and tears. But soon after I had disputed with him, and written to him, on the subject, the fiery trial seized him, when the little imaginary god in human shape that he had exalted in his vain imagination, and which he called his God and Saviour, stood him in no stead; for in that perilous hour, down he sunk into the dark regions of black despair, where he has lain these ten years, and from whence it is to be feared he will never come out; nor is it likely he should, seeing he held fast what God calls a damnable heresy.

Reader, many are the passages of holy writ that have puzzled and perplexed me in the course of my pilgrimage, most of which my most gracious God and Father hath, at different times, opened and explained to me, some few whereof are handled in this work, and perhaps the rest may come after. That God may bless the attempt of his servant to the good of thy soul is the prayer and desire of,

Dear Reader,

The chiefest of sinners,

W. HUNTINGTON

Church-street, Paddington,

March 1, 1796.