CONTEMPLATIONS

- A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FRIEND

William Huntington (1745-1813)

LETTER II

TO THE REV. J. JENKINS, LEWIS, SUSSEX

Dearly beloved in the Lord,

Having, now a little time on my hands, I will reassume my former subject. When I began the last my mind was dark and my heart cold. Much work and many engagements at the time of Christmas had banished my former sweet meditations far from me; so that, when I came to sit down to put them to paper, I had them far to fetch, and all to collect afresh; but before I had been long at the work they came about me again, and I found myself rather happy in the return of my pleasing visitors. I left off after I had offered a few thoughts on the personal characters which the scriptures of truth ascribe to the Holy Ghost; and I shall now mention some few works and actions which the scriptures ascribe to the Spirit, and which are personal works and actions, such as none but real persons can do.

None but persons can bear record to the truth of any contract, covenant, or agreement; nor be admitted as a witness in such cases, or to any deed, or upon any trial whatever. But "there are three that bear record in heaven; the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost: and there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood. And we are witnesses of these things," says the apostle; "and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him," Acts v. 32. The Spirit bears witness to the truth of the word; he gives testimony to the word of his grace, and to the truth of their commission whom he sends to preach it. He brings the righteousness of Christ to the soul; we "are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God!" And he bears witness to our justification, and to our adoption. "He that believeth hath the witness in himself." And even in the court of a believers conscience his witness is so powerful and effectual, that neither law, devil, nor sin, which is represented as crying to heaven, no nor even conscience itself, is suffered to speak. And this witness is true, and is no lie; and we are to abide in him. I know that Jacob set up a pillar at Bethal; and that Laban and Jacob gathered a heap of stones together at mount Gilead, and called them witness: but these were only to help the treacherous memory of persons, who are apt to forget, as Jacob did, when God bid him arise, and go up to Bethel, where he anointed the Pillar.

Power and authority; qualifying, equipping and investing men with offices, must be personal works. "You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. To one is given the word of wisdom, to another faith, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues; and all these worketh that one and the self-same spirit." "Take heed to yourselves, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers," Acts, xx. 28. And, "as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed," Acts, xiii. 2, 4., And they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. And they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not." Now, upon the whole, if speaking teaching, leading; qualifying of men with grace, gifts, and abilities for the ministerial work; furnishing them with wisdom and knowledge, and giving, them divers kinds of tongues; appointing them to the office of overseers, and telling, them what to say giving readiness of mind, aptitude and utterance in speaking, telling, them where to go, and forbidding them to go here and there, where he had no work for them to do, at least not at that season if these are not personal works and actions, what are? There are some, I believe, in the world, who deny the very being of a God: The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." These must be left to be convinced by the torments of the damned. But I believe there are very few, who profess to believe the Bible, but will allow that there is one divine person in the Godhead, which is in general allowed to be God the Father; though many will not allow the Saviour to be a person, although he is his only begotten Son, the Son of the Father in truth and love: and still less will they allow divine personality to the Holy Ghost; though the scriptures ascribe the same personal characters, properties, works, and actions, to the Son, and to the Spirit, as they do to God the Father. Therefore, if the Father be a person, the Son and Spirit must. The work of creation is ascribed to the Holy Ghost, as well as to the Son and to the Father: "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." He operated upon the confused chaos, and brought it into beautiful order. "By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens, his hand hath formed the crooked serpent," Job, xxvi. 18. "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth," Psalm xxxiii. 6. Here the creation of the heavens are ascribed to the essential Word and to the holy Spirit. "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth," Psalm xxxiv. 30. Here is the work of creation ascribed to the Spirit, and it is he that renews the face of the earth every springs. The creation of man is ascribed to the Holy Spirit also. "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life," Job, xxxiii. 4.

Nor was the Holy Spirit a spectator when Christ appeared for our salvation. It was the Holy Ghost that came upon the Virgin Mary at her conception, and that formed the human nature which Christ assumed, and preserved it from every stain or spot of original sin, and then rested upon him with his fullness of gifts and grace. He applied the word which the Saviour spoke, and displayed his power in the miracles that be wrought; and those that blasphemed either his words or his power, blasphemed against the Holy Ghost. It was thought the eternal Spirit that he offered himself in sacrifice to God, and it was the same Spirit that quickened our Lord's body in the tomb. "He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." And under his great power the apostles gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and hence it is said that he is "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the [testimony of] the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead," Rom. i. 4.

Making the saints meet for heaven lies much upon the Holy Ghost. It is he that applies the word, and makes it effectual: the word comes in power, and in the Holy Ghost; he convinces of sin; and it is the Spirit that quickens the dead sinner; and, as a Spirit of illumination and understanding, he enlightens him, testifies of Christ to him, works faith in him to believe, regenerates and renews him; takes the Lord's righteousness and peace, and shews them to the sinner; works the life and power of; reigning grace in him, and sets up the kingdom of God in the heart, which stands in power, in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The law of faith by the Saviour, which the isles were to wait for, is applied and made effectual by the Holy Ghost, who is our last law-giver. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." He bears witness to our adoption, and empowers us to Claim it; produces the first-fruits of the Spirit; and is the pledge and earnest of the future inheritance. He seals us up to the day of redemption; renews us, or restores the lost image of God to us, and sanctifies us, and carries on his sanctifying, renewing, and transforming work in us, and makes us meet for the inheritance with the saints in light: "that the offering up of the Gentiles may be accepted, being, sanctified by the Holy Ghost."

Sins against the Holy Spirit, in his work and operations, are taken notice of in a very particular manner, and are highly resented, even in the saints, and punished with peculiar severity in the daring, and presumptuous. The Israelites in the wilderness vexed his Holy Spirit, till he turned to be their enemy, and fought against them. Some of the Young Gentile converts grieved him, and many were sickly and weak among them, and many slept, for their unbecoming behaviour at the Lord's table. The Holy Spirit (says Christ) shall glorify me. And the Spirit is grieved when the Lord is dishonoured. Ananias and Sapphira, agreeing together in sin, tempted the Spirit of the Lord, and Satan filled their hearts to lie to the Holy Ghost. "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God," says Peter, Acts v. Therefore the Holy Ghost is God. And they were both struck dead upon the spot for it. Great and innumerable sins against God in his law, as in Manasseh and others, have been forgiven; and many awful things done and spoken against the Son of man have been pardoned, as may be seen in Paul. But those that do despite to the Spirit of Grace; who willing, and wilfully counteract his operations and designs in the souls of God's people; and who see his power, and yet oppose, hate, and fight against it; and who ridicule and blaspheme both the author and his operations; never have been, nor ever will be forgiven; for "the sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men," Matt. xii. 31. And can any man in his senses believe, or attempt to affirm, that the all-wise God, the Judge of all the earth, who is rich in mercy and abundant in goodness and in truth, would exclude men from all possibility of pardon, and doom them to eternal damnation, for sinning against a name, an accident, or only a quality, attribute, perfection, or a power in God, which may be transiently put forth, and displayed as an operation on man? Surely sinning, against God the Father himself, which is sinning against all the revealed perfections and attributes of his nature, must be a more heinous crime than sinning against a single quality in him. And yet all manner of sins and blasphemies, committed against him in the law, have been forgiven unto men, Matt. xii. 31; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost never was, nor ever will be. And why this sin unto death should be emphatically called "the great transgression," I cannot conceive, if the Holy Ghost, against whom it is committed, be not the great and terrible God.

The dispensation of the gospel, in the administration of it, is peculiarly his: hence it is called "the ministration of the Spirit," that exceeds the former ministration in glory, 2 Cor. iii. 8. He is the operator and worker of all good from God, through Christ, in men; and of all the glory and praise that rebounds to God by men; and will be greatly concerned in the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just. "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and the Spirit will attend it, and quicken them all, as it is written - "But, if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you," Rom. viii. II.

I must beg my dear brother's pardon for the length of this epistle. My pen ran on; and, being deeply engaged in the subject, I had quite forgotten myself. Ponder these matters over attentively, and send me your thoughts upon the subject. I have written them as I see and believe them; and so to see and believe, in my judgment, is to walk in the ways of God safely.

Ever yours,

W. HUNTINGTON.