CONTEMPLATIONS

- A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FRIEND

William Huntington (1745-1813)

LETTER VII

TO THE REV. J. JENKINS, AT THE NEW VICARAGE, NEAR THE DEANERY, LEWES, SUSSEX.

Companion in travail,

By the contents of your last I perceive that your fits of incredulity are returned upon you. I was in hopes that you had been in a great measure recovered from this disease; but epidemical disorders are not easily eradicated. "In the ministry you are lifeless, in bodily sickness just ready for the grave, and in circumstances almost a bankrupt." You must think me one of Solomon's simple ones, indeed, if I can believe all this, when you do not believe one word of it yourself. I shall go on with my former subject, and not suffer the devil to employ all my time in disproving what he himself knows to be lies of his own inventing.

The damnable heresy of denying, the divinity of our Lord and Saviour seems to me to render him of no use in any one of his office characters; it renders, also, his great undertaking and his finished work neither meritorious nor efficacious; for no mere creature can merit for himself, much less for another. His divine nature stamps infinite dignity on all his office characters, and so it does on all his mighty works.

His kingly office stands on this - "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." Which kingdom stands in power, and is always called the kingdom of God. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace; of the increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this," Isa. ix. 6, 7. Hence he is called King of Zion, and King of glory.

The merit and dignity of his priestly office proceeds on the same footing. How could any mere man's dying atone for all the transgressions that were committed under the first testament, and all the sins of God's elect under the second? Insomuch as those that are called do "receive the promise of eternal inheritance," Heb. ix. 15. Hence it is asserted that "by his one offering, he hath perfected for ever all them that are sanctified." The dignity of his office and the merits of his oblation spring, from his divine sonship. "For the law maketh men high-priests which have infirmities; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore Heb. vii. 28.

His prophetic office, and the perfection of it, proceeds on the foundation of his proper deity. "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people: all his saints are in thy hand, and they shall sit down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words," Deut, xxxiii. 2, 3. At this divine prophet's feet did Mary sit, and receive of his word, when Martha was cumbered with much serving. And in allusion to this text is Mary commended, and is said to choose the good part, which shall not be taken from her. She was a disciple that was brought up at the Lord's feet; and, as all God's children are taught of the Lord, Mary was one of this family, who could never be deprived either of the word of life which she received, nor yet of her adoption into God's family; she was an heir of promise, and a child of God. And who but the only-begotten Son could reveal and make known God's counsel and covenant, his goodwill of purpose and of promise; his tender mercy, loving-kindness, pity, and compassion, which were but dimly known under the former dispensation? And that "God is love," I John iv 8, was not known, at least not recorded, under the first testament. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him," Matt. xi. 27.

His office of mediator could stand us in no stead if he were not Immanuel, God with us." The breach opened by sin between God and man was infinite, as the Scriptures witness - "Is not thy wickedness great, and thine iniquities infinite?" Job xxii.5. Our sin had separated between us and our God. Moses, indeed, was at times allowed to stand in the gap; but it was by virtue of his office, in which he personated the Saviour, that be was suffered to mediate there; and, though at times he prevailed to lengthen out Israel's tranquillity, yet judgment always overtook them at last. "I have pardoned according to thy word. But "they have tempted me now these ten times, surely they shall not see the land," Numb. xiv. 20, 22. No prayer of Moses, Noab, Daniel, or Job, will purge our sins, magnify the law, or satisfy divine justice. He that stands in this breach, and lays his hand upon both, must be God's equal, Phil. ii. 6, and man's fellow, Psalm xlv. 7; or else mercy and truth will never meet together, nor will righteousness and peace kiss each other. But Christ was the mighty God when a child born, and the Prince of life when crucified, Acts, iii. 15; the Holy One, who saw no corruption, when in the tomb, Psalm xvi. 10. It was "truth that sprung out of the earth" at his resurrection, "when righteousness looked down from heaven" well-pleased, Psalm lxxxv. He was "God manifest in the flesh when he was received up into glory," I Tim. iii. 16. And "the Lord of hosts and King of glory when he entered there," Psalm xxiv. 9, 10. And we can have no better proof of all this than by seems, poor prisoners come forth out of the pit in which is no water, by the blood of his covenant, Zech. ix. 11.

And sure I am that his being our Advocate with the Father, if he be no more than a creature, would never be sufficient to silence law and justice, Satan and conscience; but, as he is "the wonderful Counsellor, and the mighty God," he can do it; and, blessed be his precious name, we know that be has done it, and will do it.

His endearing character of a Husband is founded on the same divine basis - "Thy maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name, the God of the whole earth shall he be called."

His character of a Father stands on the same bottom - "The second Adam, the quickening Spirit, the Lord from heaven;" hence called the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.

And that of a Saviour must needs stand on the same footing - "God has laid help upon one that is mighty." For how can a creature save? "Vain is the help of man," Psal. cviii. 12. "In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God, in the midst of thee, is mighty; he will save, be will rejoice over thee with joy; be will rest in his love, be will joy over thee with singing, Zeph. iii. 16, 17.

The efficacy of his blood springs from the same divine source; for, though he was put to death only in the flesh, yet his human nature suffered in union with his divine person. "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood," Acts, xx. 28

The efficacy and excellency of his everlasting righteousness takes its divinity and dignity from hence - "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man: and, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," Phil. ii. 6-8. From hence springs the glory and efficacy of his obedience; and by the obedience of [this] one shall many be made righteous;" yea. "in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory:" for he has brought in an everlasting righteousness, which takes its name from the Saviour's divine nature. "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith. And this is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness."

As Head over all things to the church, what comfort could flow to it from the consideration of Christ's being a mere man? She is exposed to thousands of inveterate adversaries, ghostly and bodily; and continually floating upon the waves and billows of trouble and distress, and deemed as the filth and off-scouring of things, and treated accordingly: while Christ, the Head, is ascended far above all heavens, and of course at an infinite distance from his well-beloved, if he be no more than man. No comfort can flow to her but from his immensity and omnipresence - "Behold, I am with you always to the world's end;" which, as man, abstractedly considered, he cannot be.

As a Physician, who is God's way upon earth, and his "saving health among all nations," Psal. lxvii. 2. Who bore our sins and took our infirmities, and who binds up the broken-hearted and restores health to us; which cannot be done but by purging us from all our guilt and filth, idols and dead works, false notions of God and a dead form of godliness: the comfort of all which springs from his being God. "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes; I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee," Exodus, iv. 26.

As the Covenant Head. - "Thou speaks in vision to thy holy one, and aids, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. Also, I will make him my first-born higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed, also, will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven," Psalm lxxxix. Which covenant is a covenant of royalty; the Lord is king, and the elect are subjects. A covenant of wedlock, in which the Lord of hosts is the husband, and the elect the wife; and he betroths them unto him for ever - "Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfullness, and thou shalt know the Lord," Hosea, ii. 19, 20. It is a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, in which the Son of God is high-priest, and God the Holy Ghost is his anointing and consecration; and he is ordained by God the Father to this office for his elect, to make an atonement for them, to perfect them, and to intercede for them, till they are all brought, in a state of holiness and happiness, "into the holy of holies, eternal in the heavens," where our high-priest is for us entered. The comfort of all which springs from his being, not as Moses, who was a faithful servant; but from Christ being "a son over his own house, whose house are we;" and the son over this his own house is God. "For every house is builded by some man; but be that built all things is God," Heb. iii. iv.

As an object of trust and confidence-no consolation can arise to us from his being no more than a creature; so far from it, that it is dangerous to the last degree to trust in him as such. "For thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land not inhabited," Jer. xvii. 5, 6. This is the woeful case and state of all those who deny the godhead of Christ, and yet trust in him as no more than man. But there is no curse upon them that trust in the only-begotten Son of God.

I have set my king, upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him," Psal. ii. Here is no curse to them that trust in the Son of God and King of Zion, but an eternal blessing; and no blessing; can be upon those that trust in Christ if he be not God; but he is truly and properly God, and therefore those that trust in him are doubly blessed. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree Planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh; but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit," Jer. xvii. 7, 8.

As the object of the saints love. - "He that loveth father or mother, wife or children, more than me, is not worthy of me." And adds, "If any man come unto me, and hateth not his father and mother, and even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Surely, if Christ be not God, he hath zealously affected us, but not well; for we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart; and with all our soul, mind, and strength. And, as Christ demands this love of all the saints, he must be God; and so he is; and therefore we can never love him enough. And those who dearly love the Son of God, God the Father is well pleased with - "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him," John, xi v. 21. And he adds, "The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God, John, xvi. 27.

As an object of prayer, - Almost every recipient of a bodily cure and of special grace, in the days of his flesh, prayed to him before they obtained either; and prayer is a branch of divine worship: yea, they worshiped him with divine adoration, as the tenth leper that was healed, who returned to give glory to God; the woman with her bloody issue also, and the Syrophenician woman; yea, and all the apostles, also, on the mount of Olivet, when he was taken from them up into heaven, worshiped him as he went up. And all the heavenly host worshiped the Firstborn when he was brought into the world; and Stephen, that evangelical deacon, breathed out the following, petition to him with his expiring, breath - "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this be fell asleep," Acts, vii. 59, 60. But we need not wonder at Stephen putting, up his last prayer to Christ; Stephen knew him, and had the spirit of supplication in him; and the Spirit always testifies of Christ, and glorifies him also - "He shall glorify me." And, besides, Stephen had a view of the Saviour; be saw "the heavens open, and Jesus standing, at the right hand of God." And we know that, if Christ be not God, he could not be admitted to "the right hand of the Majesty on high," Heb. i. 3. Hence it is plain that all who debase the Saviour to the level of a mere creature are ignorant of him; they have never known him nor seen him. But all believers do see him, though not in that miraculous manner Stephen did. "Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: and because I live ye shall live also," John xiv. 19.

As a foundation. - What security could a perishing sinner expect by venturing his eternal all upon any thing, less than God? A human arm, and all human works, are but a sandy foundation, which must give way when the fiery trial, the dying hour, and the day of judgment come to try it. But Christ is an elect, precious, tried stone, and a sure foundation; but not as a mere man - "For who is God, save the Lord? And who is a rock, save our God?" 2 Sam, xxii. 32. He that ventures here is safe, for the gates of hell shall never preveil, either against the foundation or the superstructure. "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them, is like unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and when the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock," Matt. vii. 24, 25. In all this, my dearly beloved brother, I have endeavoured, as far as God hath enabled me, to cast up the high way, in opposition to them who obscure and destroy the way of our paths. But we have the promise that some shall be raised up and be enlightened, and shall be called healers of the breach, and restorers of paths to dwell in; and these are the good old paths which the just are to inquire after, and to walk in, and in which they are to find rest for their souls, Jer. vi. 16. For never surely was there more opposition made to the divinity of the Son of God, and to the power of the Holy Ghost, than in the present day. "But, if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?" The wicked can rejoice in Zion's calamity - "Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof." But what shall the righteous do? Christ is the Lord our righteousness; and "he is the rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he," Deut. xxxii. 4. To remove these foundations is to strip Zion both of her ornaments and bulwarks, and to leave her "as a cottage in a vineyard," or "as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city !" Isa. i. 8.

A most daring, bold, presumptuous man, not long since, had the effrontery to declare in public, "that Christ was no more God than he was; so far (said he) from his being God, he did not know the time of Jerusalem's destruction." Alluding to the following passage, which he thought was a full proof it - "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father," Mark, xiii. 32. We know that the human nature of Christ is not omniscient: as man he "grew in wisdom and in stature. I wonder this poor child of Satan did not go a little further, and prove him to be blind also; the scriptures would have borne him out according to the light which is in him, for his light is darkness. "Who is blind but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing, many things, but thou observest not: opening, the ears, but he beareth not. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake; he will magnify the law and make it honourable," Isaiah, xlii. 19-21. Though men might call him blind, yet he was perfect, and seeing many things. Who is deaf as my messenger? Opening the ears, but thou hearest not. Though he was blind yet he saw many things; and, though he was deaf, yet he opened the ears of others. And one of the many things, which the Lord's perfect messenger saw, was the day of Jerusalem's destruction; and this be declared eight or nine hundred years before it came to pass. "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come," Isa. lxiii. 3, 4. The day of vengeance, that was in his heart, was the day of Jerusalem's destruction - "Let not them that are in the countries enter into the city. for these be the days of vengeance," Luke, xxi. 22. The year of his redeemed was not the year in which Christ died, when he redeemed his elect from death and hell; but the time of the saints' redemption from Jewish persecutions, And, when ye see these things come to pass, then look up, and lift tip your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh," Luke, xxi. 28. Christ redeems his people from the deceit and violence of men, as well as from the wrath of God; and precious shall their blood be in his sight," Psal. lxxii. 14. And so the Jews found it when all the righteous blood shed, from the blood of Abel to Zacharias, was required of that generation.

The going forth of the commandment to build Jerusalem, and from that time to the coming of Messiah the Prince, and to the cutting off the Messiah; and the people of the Roman prince that was to come to Jerusalem to destroy the city and the sanctuary; together with the seven years' peace with many nations, which the Romans were to make during the time of their war with the Jews, till God's decreed indignation was poured out upon the desolate; were all foretold by the angel Gabriel to Daniel, Dan. ix. 25-28. And the whole of this matter was made known to Gabriel by a man clothed in linen, which was no other than the High-priest of our profession. "And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision," Dan. viii. 16. Hence it appears that, though he knew not that woeful day as man, yet he knew it as God, and highly resented their cruel treatment of him, and their blasphemy against his Holy Spirit; for it was Christ that executed that fearful judgement upon them, God having committed all judgment to the Son, and all power in heaven and on earth. And he displayed it with a witness, as he foretold them he would - "Yea mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me. But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite then," Psalm xli. 9, 10. And he did requite them: for it was he that mustered the Roman army, and brought it against them: and the appearance of that was "the sign of the Son of man in heaven, when all the tribes of the earth were to mourn, Matt. xxiv. 30. The Jews had long required of him a sign, from heaven, and he gave them one. The destruction and desolation of the Jews was not to come till Messiah was cut off; and their ruin and destruction was a sure sign that Jesus was the Messiah; and, though, the blind Jews could not see it, the children of light did.

These my dearly-beloved brother, are the men that labour at Zion's foundation, which to them is a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence; and too often do they preveil, till the foundations are almost hid, and then God raises up others to bring, them forth again. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many Generations; and thou shalt be called, the Repairer of the breach, the Restorer of paths to dwell in," Isa. lviii. 12. Thus some bring to light and some bury; some pull down, and some build up. "He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth."

True yoke-fellow, adieu. Grace and peace be multiplied. So prays,

Yours in the path of tribulation,

W. HUNTINGTON, SS.