CONTEMPLATIONS

- A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FRIEND

William Huntington (1745-1813)

LETTER XII.

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

To his Excellency the Welch Ambassador his friend sendeth greeting.

AMBASSADORS personate their sovereigns, and are as their month in foreign courts; and are, or should be, respected according to their wisdom and faithfullness, and according to the greatness, dignity, and formidability of their royal masters. But, O, my beloved, what an honour is it to be an ambassador of the King of kinds! Called and commissioned, owned and honoured, by him; and to be in a pardoned and justified state; in union, in Fellowship, and in peace with him: and therefore ambassadors or peace, bearers of good tidings, publishers of salvation, and that say unto Zion, "Thy God reigneth!" Such are the chariots of the Lord of host, in which he rides, and by which he bears his name among the Gentiles; out of which he shines, and from whom he sends out his line into all the earth, and his words to the end of the world. Infinite condescension is this. And when we consider what we were; how mean! how low! how poor! how despicable! But he hath chosen the poor, the weak, the foolish, and the base, that he may stain the pride of human glory, and bring into contempt the honourable of the earth. "Now he which establisheth us in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God: who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts," 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. Upon this delightful subject I shall yet proceed.

11. The Holy Spirit is to aid and assist the true worshippers of God in every branch of religious worship; and the saints must "serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." God requires worship suitable to his nature - "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth; for God seeketh such to worship him." Worship in the spirit is opposed to all carnal worship with a dead form, in which the body only is engaged; and therefore called bodily excerise, which profiteth little. Worshipping God in truth is opposed to all false, deceitful, and hypocritical worship, when the heart and soul are altogether disengaged: "They draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but their heart is far from me; therefore in vain they worship me." In order to this true worship we must be purged and purified, justified and sanctified, and influenced with the Holy Spirit of God. God requires a pure offering, and an offering, in righteousness, or offerings offered up by persons in a justified state. "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years," Mal. iii. 3, 4. The days of old, and the ancient times spoken of, are the days of Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noab, Abraham, Melchizedek, Isaac, and Jacob, &c. of whom, and of whose worship, we have no fault; but they obtained a good report through faith." Now God promises that, under the gospel the same acceptable worship shall be performed; and therefore he promises to influence and guide us in every branch of it - "For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them," Isaiah, Ixi. 8. And the Lord directs us in all our works by his Holy Spirit, and especially in prayer; "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God," Rom. viii. 26, 27. The apostle here tells us that we know not what we should pray for as we ought, unless the Spirit help us. And there are prayers that have been put up by good men that have not been answered; "Elijah requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers," 1 Kings, xix. 4. Zebedee's wife's request for her two sons to sit, one at the right hand of Christ, and the other at the left, meets with no better answer than, "Ye know not what ye ask," Matt. xx. 22. Which shews us the need of a Spirit of grace and supplication. The Holy Spirit enlightens us to see our wants, and quickens us to feel them, and creates a hunger and a thirst after the provision of God's house; and then leads our minds into the word, and shews us what is held forth, promised, and freely given to us - "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God," I Cor. ii. 12. The Holy Spirit, which searches the deep things of God, knows what is in reserve for us, and the time appointed for us to receive that which God hath laid up for us; and he sets us to praying for them when that time arrives. Thus, when the time of Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage drew near, the spirit of supplication was poured out, and the cries of the children of Israel went up. "And God heard their groanings; and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them," Exod. ii- 24, 25. So, in Daniel, just as the time was approaching for them to return to their own land, Daniel understands, by the prophecies of Jeremiah, that God would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem; then Daniel sets his "face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes" Dan. ix. 3. So, also, there is a set time to favour Zion, and every one that is ordained to be of her community; a set time for every purpose; and, when that time is up, which the Holy Spirit is perfectly acquainted with, then he makes intercession with such energy, that the kingdom of heaven, which suffereth violence, is taken by force. The Holy Spirit furnishes the soul with suitable promises to Plead, with invitations and encouraging passages of scripture: these he brings to the mind and puts into the mouth, enabling the soul to use all sorts of arguments, pleadings, intercessions, supplications, confessions, and reasonings; and, at the same time, helps the poor creature against his unbelief, misgivings of heart, desponding thoughts, shame, fear, and confusion of face. He draws forth faith into lively exercise, and raises up hopes and expectations of being heard and answered. He emboldens the poor sinner, and fortifies his mind; he strengthens his heart, silences his accusers, and clothes his words with power; enabling him to pour out his very soul before God with earnest cries and tears, till his cares and concerns, his burdens, his griefs, his distresses and sorrows, his doubts and fears, all flow out with his words; and he goes from Shiloh with his countenance no more sad. How did he help Manasseh, who was an idolater and a wizard, who made Judah and Jerusalem do worse than the heathen, and who was deaf to all warning and admonition, till God brought an host against him, who took him and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon? "And when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him; and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God," 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13. How did the Holy Spirit furnish the poor Syrophenician woman with her great faith and treble plea, till she got all her heart's desire? He made the poor prodigal claim his sonship in a far country, even when stung with the guilt of sinning against heaven and before God, as his own father in covenant; and Hezekiah, also, when both heaven and earth seemed to combine against him. Some of the children of God, who have foully fallen, and brought on themselves, and on God's cause and family, open reproach and scandal; as Noah, David, Peter, &C. and those who have awfully backslidden, and got into sin and into the world, till their hearts have been almost hardened from fear, and who would have gone from bad to worse, till they had become quite callous; and return no more, if the Holy Spirit, either by his own immediate operations, or by the instrumentality of some Nathan, did not alarm and awaken them to a sense of their state; and, when they are awakened and brought to a sense of their sins, their crimes are aggravated with such a complication of circumstances, and attended with such bitter reflections, as would sink them for ever, if the power of the Spirit was not put forth in them. Sins against light and love; against comfort, joy, and peace; against a merciful and compassionate Father; against all the blessings of the better testament; against a God formerly known and enjoyed, and against a Saviour revealed, and after union, communion, and fellowship with him; and against the consolations, witnessing and sealing of the Holy Spirit of promise. Looking back to the glorious times that are past; to the blessed days of the Son o man; and to the joy, peace, rest, quietude, and happiness then enjoyed. But now all is gone. "Fool that I am," says the poor creature; "for a little self, a little imagined pleasure, and by the deceitfullness of sin, am I shorn of all my strength, and divested of all true happiness. I have stumbled the weak, and have opened the mouths of the enemies of my God: they that have watched for my halting, and who would rejoice when I am moved, and who eat up the sin of God's people as they eat bread, will now say, This is the day that we have looked for. My smiling God is gone, and all sweet intercourse appears to be cut off. The Holy Spirit is grieved; no access to a throne of grace, no liberty in the Spirit, no liberty of speech. A dismal gloom appears in the Bible; nothing but reproofs and rebukes from the pulpit, barrenness in the pew, a fallen countenance before the world; and nothing but secret rage, envy, and jealousy in my heart, when I am among them that love God, which casts a damp upon all their holy fire. O my base ingratitude! "Fools, because of their iniquities, are afflicted.' I may go halting to my grave under fatherly severity, and perhaps it will be worse than that. Who knows but I have committed the unpardonable sin, and have crucified Christ afresh, and done despite to the Spirit of grace, and therefore am a castaway.

A sheep thus strayed would never return, a soul thus fallen would never rise more, without the assistance of the Holy Spirit. David knew this when be prayed - "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me," Psalm li. 11. A soul under such circumstances watches, observes, and attends all the day long, to the Holy Spirit, to see if he can find any enlargement of heart, any risings of hope and expectation, any goings forth in faith or affection, any freedom of soul or of speech in prayer, any flowings out of godly sorrow, any sounding of the bowels after God, any real compunction, contrition, or pious mourning's after the Lord; if there be any goings forth of love to him; if any filial or childlike fear of him springing up, which has the goodness of God for its object; if he can find any fortitude, help, or inward support, or assistance in prayer; if any word come to assuage his grief, to soften the heart, to support, encourage, or to produce submission to the will of God: if there be any dispersion of his fears and terrors; if any self-abhorrence or self-loathing; if Satan's accusations and fiery darts lose their force, or abate in their violence; if the reproaches of conscience get less severe. Thus does the poor distressed soul wait upon the Holy Spirit, and watch and observe every influence, operation, or change, that is made in the heart; and greedily catches every hint, dictate, sensation, motion, affection, allurement, or encouragement, which is produced in the soul; and weighs it, considers it, embraces it, and interprets it in his own favour as far as circumstances, truth, and conscience will permit him.

Sometimes souls under such relapses find that the law is armed with fresh wrath and terrors against them, and that bitter things in that hand-writing appear against them; that it lays a fresh hold of them, and binds them fast - "The strength of sin is the law," I Cor. xv. 56. The spirit of bondage seizes them and shuts them up; which is nothing else but the anger of God working wrath, slavish fear, terror, and torment, in them; under which they are contracted, bound, and hemmed in; shut up in unbelief, in hardness of heart, and under the rebukes of God, and in fear of worse to come; and while thus imprisoned neither faith nor love dare to venture out. Hence David complains in his fall - "Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul, I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: My throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God," Ps. ixix. "Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin: for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit," Psalm li. And again - "0, my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me," Psalm xlii. In the above the psalmist feels the spirit of bondage, which is wrath and fear; and he prays for the joy of God's salvation, and to be upheld by God's free spirit; which is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love and power. He complains of "deep calling unto deep." A soul in the horrible pit hears little else but the calls of law and justice for vengeance which are always answered again by the accusations of Satan and conscience. The storms of Sinai, like a water-spout at sea, threaten the earthen vessel with a deluge of wrath, which would soon drown it in destruction and perdition. These waves of real, and some imaginary displeasure (no less terrible than real) rolling over the poor creature, are ready to send the bark to the bottom. This is the terrible way in which some fallen and backsliding souls are purged and reclaimed; and especially such as have brought public scandal upon the gospel and church of Christ, as the incestuous Corinthian, &c. Others are revived and restored by more gentle means - "A soft tongue shall break their bones," Prov. xxv. 15. Divine kindness shall melt them, humble and soften them. But even this unexpected kindness, which is coyly received, and in much self-abhorrence often put from them, as they are utterly unworthy of the least notice of God, and is mixed with some resentment, which keeps the soul at a distance, mixing his fear with trembling; and when any child of God is raised up and restored in this way, as the poor prodigal was, when the kiss, the robe, and the ring, quite killed him; and as a propitious look from the Lord Jesus Christ killed Peter to sin, self, and the world, when he went out, and, with a flood of the tears of penitence and love, discharged the guilt with which he had been drenched while in the sieve of Satan. Such are forgiven; but it is long before they can forgive themselves. They are acquitted by God; but they will not suffer conscience to acquit them. "What carefullness it works in them! yea, what clearing of themselves! yea, what indignation! yea, what fear! yea, what vehement desire; yea, what zeal! yea, what revenge! 2 Cor. vii. 11.

Thus, my dearly-beloved brother, does the Holy Spirit help the infirmities of the saints of God, through the mediation of Jesus Christ; and continually communicates grace from his fullness to help us in every time of need: whose inexhaustible fullness of grace is sufficient to change the heart of the stoutest rebel, to raise up the fearfully fallen, and to restore the most awful backslider. "Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen" I Tim. i. 16, 17. And so says,

Your affectionate servant, friend, and brother,

W. HUNTINGTON.