CONTEMPLATIONS

- A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FRIEND

William Huntington (1745-1813)

LETTER VI

TO THE REV. J. JENKINS, LEWES, SUSSEX.

Beloved in the Lord,

Yours came to hand; and I am glad that the subject meets with your approbation, as my mind is still employed in this glorious mystery. I concluded my last with our abiding in the Son and in the Father; and likewise in the anointing, which is true, and is no lie. And shall proceed, and begin this with the apostolic benediction: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us," is of the same import. Now from all these plain passages of scripture, which I have quoted, three divine persons appear in the one God, and no more: not one can be left out, nor can one be added.

But the adversaries to the Trinity object, because the express word Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible: but it is not the word that they hate and fight against, but the doctrine. We know that two is a couple, or a pair; three is a trinity, and four a quaternity: and "there are three that bear record in heaven," and no more, "and these three are one:" not three names and one person, but three distinct persons in one undivided essence. So likewise they object to the word satisfaction by the sacrifice of Christ; because the express word is not mentioned. But the thing, is to be found in the Bible. God is called a creditor, Luke vii. 41, and poor sinners are debtors, to fulfil the whole law, on pain of eternal death; "and he that offends in one point is guilty of all;" and should he die in this state, into the prison of hell he must go; for, if we die in our sins, where Christ is we cannot come; and therefore cannot come out of prison till the very last mite is paid; and, as lying, in jail cannot pay debts, there can be no hope of a jail-delivery. Exposed to this, and threatened with it, are all men while in their sins. In this state Christ found us when "he took our nature, and was made of a woman, and made under the law;" which law he obeyed, and his obedience is placed to our account for righteousness our sins he took, and bore them in his own body on the tree, and was made a curse for us, and died in our room; the just for the unjust, and so redeemed us from the curse," and thus fulfilled all righteousness, with which our creditor is well pleased; and by the blood of his covenant he sends forth his elect prisoners out of the pit, declaring himself faithful and just in forgiving our sins, and in cleansing us from all unrighteousness. And this is real satisfaction made for sin, for the creditor is well pleased with it; and to be well pleased with the payment is to be satisfied with it. And, as these things are found, we hold the words which well express them; and it pleases God, by the foolishness of preaching these things, to save all those who believe in them. And, on the other hand, we find many things advanced by those who are opposite to us, which sound as bad in our, ears as the words person, trinity, and satisfaction, do in theirs. Some tell us that Christ was only an instrument in the creation, or a creating, instrument. "Nothing can sound worse in the ears of a true lover of Christ than this; it is not common sense. We know that instruments are used by mechanics and builders, to fit and prepare materials for the purpose the artist or builder intends them; but to tell a man that such a mechanic has finished such a curious machine, and such a building is erected, to be the property of the tools that were used in the work, and for the praise and glory of them, would appear madness. So to talk of a creating instrument, or an instrument possessing creating power to make all things out of nothing, are such things as no man in his senses can believe. "For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist," Col. i. 16, 17. He is here declared to be before all things; and of course long, before this creating, instrument could be invented, or brought forth. "All things were created by him, and for him, created by his own power, and for his own glory and use: and by him all things consist," or are preserved in their existence. Now this glorious Creator cannot be an instrument, but he must be God: and to this the Father bears witness - "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom: thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish but thou remainest; and they shall all wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail," Heb. i. 8, 9. In the above words God the Father calls the divine Creator of heaven and earth, God and Lord; and tells us, that the heavens are the work of his hands: and he must be the best judge of his own Son. The tell us that Christ had a human soul pre-existing from eternity, and that it was with this that God took counsel, and by this he made the world. But "Christ is before all things," which this thing cannot be; much less can it be called the fellow of the Lord of Hosts," and surely it must be robbery with a witness, for such a thing as this to make itself "equal with God," as Christ did, even when "he made himself of no reputation, but took on him the form of a servant," Philip. ii. 6. Some talk of Christ being a delegated power, and a subordinate God, and a God by office; but this is making more gods than one: for, if one be supreme, and the other subordinate, there must be two; different in essence, glory, power, and majesty. And to worship with divine adoration any thing below infinite divinity, is rank idolatry. However, this vain-imagined distinction between the Father and the Son hath no place in the Bible. The Lord of Hosts calls Christ his fellow, Zech. xiii. 7. And Christ thought it no robbery to be equal with God the Father, Phil. ii. 6. Christ says, "I and my Father are one." And "all men must honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." And, if he is truly and properly God, equal to the Father, and one with him, and always in him, then there can be no idolatry in worshipping him; for all the angels of God are commanded to worship the first-born, even in his state of incarnation; as they all did at his birth, Heb. i. 6. And Zion is commanded to do the same; and the true reason given for this command is, because he is God: "He is thy Jehovah, and worship thou him," Psalm xlv. 11. And we know that " the Lord our God is one Lord," Deut. vi. 4. And we must have no other gods but him: " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," Matt. iv. 10. And he that obeys this first and great commandment must banish far from his mind all the spurious deities of the Arians and Socinians, for these are no better than the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Many such strange notions as these does Satan beget in the vain imaginations of men; and such are inventors of evil things, and set up the stumbling-block of their iniquity in their heart; and God takes them in their own craftiness, by suffering, them to pay adoration to that which is not God; which is idolatry, and an image of jealousy: which the pure gospel, if ever it had been attended with power to their hearts, would have pulled down. "For the weapons of our warfare are mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong holds; casting, down imaginations, and every high things that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ," 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. And sure I am that those who deny the eternity of Christ, and talk of a human soul pre-existing, talk nonsense. No human soul can be God's fellow, nor God's equal, nor one with him, nor one in him; much less can such a creature, which is inferior to an angel, be the only-begotten Son of God, or the Son of the Father in truth and love: But, as for Christ, "all things were made by him, and he is before all thing," Col. i. 16, 17. And, if he is before all things then he must be before this human soul was made; and, if all things were made him, then he must make this soul also, and of course make himself. But this phantom is not the Christ of God; this is not God's mystery among the Gentiles, which he is pleased to reveal in us, the hope of glory. We are not to hope in a creature, but to set our hope in God. Christ is the faithful and true witness, and the record that he bears of himself is true; and this is the record that he bears of himself: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty," Rev. i. 8.

The enemies to the glorious mystery of the Trinity hold a trinity as well as we; they allow that there are three in God; so that if we err in this matter, so do they; only they allow of three names, and but one person; nor are they agreed which is the person: some Sabellians hold Christ to be the person, and the Father and the Spirit to be only names; some, that are called Arians and Socinians, say the Father is the person, and the Son and Spirit are only names: thus one denies the Father, and the other denies the Son; and between these two they have no God.

This, however, must be true, that whatsoever the Father is, the Son must be the same; and so the Jews understood the Saviour's confession of his own sonship, and laid this thing to his charge, namely, that he made himself equal with God. "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because be not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God:" which the Saviour never denied, but confirmed. The Son can do nothing of himself, (and how can he, when the Father and he are one?) but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise," John, v. 19. Hence it is plain, that the Son is equal with the Father; and, if so, then he must be of the same nature with him. So that, if the Son be a son only in name, the Father must be the same; if Christ be only a son in office, or in a figurative sense, the Father must be so too; and, if Christ be no more than a human soul, which is but a mere creature, the Father must be such also. For Christ is declared to be "the only begotten Son of God," John, iii. 16. Begotten and not created. Nor is he a son by office, as magistrates are; nor by creation, as angels and men are: but "the Son of the Father in truth and love," 2 John 3. Therefore, whatever the Son is, such is the Father; for Christ is the Son of the Father in truth and love: and, as the Father is God, such is Christ; "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," Heb. i. 3. "The true God, and eternal life," I John. iii. 20. "And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory, 1 Tim. iii. 16. And, were all the Arians and Socinians in the world to combine together, they never could apply the above, nor the following ascriptions, to a human soul, or to any mere creature, however exalted or glorified. "Keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling, in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen," 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15, 16. Let all the enemies of the Son of God prove that an empty name, or a pre-existing, human soul, or a demi-god, or a god by office, or a creating, instrument, or a subordinate god; let them, I say, choose out of this list of imaginary deities which they please, and let them prove that the apostle's ascriptions are applicable to their feigned gods, namely, that their pre-existing human soul is " the blessed and only Potentate;" that this creature is "the King of kings, and Lord of lords that this human soul hath only immortality; that it "dwells in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see;" and that "Honour and power everlasting, Amen," is to be ascribed to that. "He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah, xliv.

Nor did the incarnation of Christ bring a fourth person into the Trinity. The human nature of Christ is not a person; it is called "a new thing," Jer. xxxi. 22, and "a holy thing," Luke, i. 35, Christ never had personal subsistence, or it never did personally exist alone or of itself, but it subsisted in union with the divine person of the Son of God; and this union took place before the human nature was prepared or formed - "the Word was made flesh."

Some tell us that Christ took on him a "human form" from everlasting; but how be could assume a human form when there were no human beings, is what I cannot conceive; there can be no form of a thing that never existed, any more than the sun could have a shadow from everlasting when the sun had no being. I read that "Christ was found in the form of God, and that he thought it no robbery to be equal with God." And this form does not mean any outward shape; for "who hath heard God's voice, or seen his shape?" But it means that he possessed, in the highest degree, all divine perfections which are peculiar to the divine being; "being the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person." What has led some poor, blind, presumptuous souls into this mistake is, the Saviour's being seen by Abraham and by Joshua in a human appearance: and by the same rule they might prove that he assumed the nature and form of angels from everlasting; for he appeared to Moses, to Jacob, and to Manoah, as an angel of God. But the truth is, Christ is neither an angel nor a man; not an angel, because he is the creator of angels - "He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire;" nor a man, for as such he never had personal subsistence or existence.

But they tell us that the human soul of Christ, and the form of a human body which Christ took from everlasting, and which they call "the glory man," and in which he appeared to the ancient patriarchs, was part of our nature; so that, when he became incarnate, he took only a human body, not a reasonable soul; which they prove from these words - "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels." "Human souls," they say, "are angelic; but he took not on him the nature of angels." But, if this can be any proof, we shall not know what the scriptures mean by things; there is a distinction between "an innumerable company of angels," and "the spirits of just men made perfect." Nor are the souls of men ever called angels, though ministers of the gospel are; but even this respects their office, not their nature; for both angels and preachers are ministers to the heirs of salvation: but preachers are only angels by office, not by nature. Nor can it be proved from the words of Christ, when be says; "They neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels of God in heaven;" for this only respects their glorified state: and the words were intended to confound the Sadducees, who asked, "Whose wife of the seven the woman should be in the resurrection?" The Saviour informs them that marriage is peculiar to this life, and for the procreation of children; but in the world to come there would be no more of this than there is among the angels. Otherwise there will be a great deal of difference between angels and saints; the former being the Lord's servants, the latter the Lord's wife - "Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name;" but this never was said of angels.

One would wonder (were it not for the power and dominion that the devil has over mankind) how any man dare to assert such things in plain contradiction to the word of God. For, if this human bodily form and the human soul of Christ were from eternity, and nothing, taken at his incarnation but the body, how can this scripture be true - "Wherefore, in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren," Heb. ii. 17, when there was none of his brethren ever made like unto him? And if this behoved him, if it was meet and fit it should be so, it ill becomes men to make such a difference. Nor could Adam be "a figure of him that was to come;" for Adam came not into being this way. Adam, Christ's figure, was made body and soul at once, and all Christ's brethren come into the world with a body and a soul; and they are all born under the law and under the curse of it, being by this natural birth children of wrath even as others and the heaviest sentence of the law is levelled at the soul - "the soul that sins shall die." Now Christ, as our surety, must be made like unto his brethren; and so he was; he was "made of a woman," and "made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law," by making, his soul an offering, for sin; and then he was to see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. But, if his human soul existed from eternity, it was not made under the law, and therefore could not be subjected, by virtue of his suretyship engagements, to endure the wrath and curse of God for us. They that suffer the law, whether they suffer as surety or as debtors, must be made under the law, and be subject to the law. Men have bodies and souls, and both are under the law, and both have sinned. And he that redeems them must be of the same nature with them, and near of kin to them, or the former institution of God will not admit of it. He that redeems must be a "brother," or one "near of kin," Lev. xxv. 48, 49. Christ is both brother and goal; but a human body is neither a brother nor a kinsman, it is only half a brother, and the worst half; yea, a dead brother, "for the body without the spirit is dead," James, ii. 26. The truth is, Christ took not on him the nature of angels to redeem fallen angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham, the whole human nature, body and soul; and this is plain by the growth of both; for "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man," Luke, ii. 52. His soul crew in wisdom, and his body grew in stature; but, if his soul had existed from all eternity, his wisdom and understanding must have been mature and fully ripe before the world began, and therefore incapable of such a growth.

O, my brother, my pen has run on at a strange rate; double letters, I fear, will bring, thee to poverty, unless thy faith increaseth more than it has hitherto done. I received yours, and thank you for it; and shall still entreat thee to find fault where you see cause, and you will much oblige your affectionate friend and brother in Christ Jesus,

W. HUNTINGTON.