CONTEMPLATIONS

- A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FRIEND

William Huntington (1745-1813)

LETTER XIII.

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

The Coalheaver to the Welsh Ambassador sendeth greeting, with words of peace and love.

BELOVED, the perishing soul, parched with the heat of a fiery law, who is led to the fountain of living water to drink, is to have a well of living water in his heart, which is to spring up into everlasting life. I know that Christ has rent the heavens and come down; that there is a new and living way opened into the holy of holies; and that he has admitted our hearts and hopes, our faith and our affections, already to the right hand of God, where he sitteth: and where our heart is, there is our treasure. And there is nothing that men delight in more than in their treasure: of this they boast, and on this they set their mind, and this generally employs their thoughts; and therefore you must not wonder if I come again and again, for we have heavenly treasure even in a earthen vessels. The next thing, that I shall treat of is,

12. The assistance of the Spirit against Satan. "So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion," Isa. lix. 19. 20. Every time that a new-born soul gets under the hiding of God's countenance, or into the furnace of affliction, or is exercised with legal bondage or spiritual desertions, the adversary is sure to be upon him, to raise doubts and fears in him, by calling the whole work of God upon his soul into question; and, by raising scruples in his mind, he rouses up the unbelief of his heart; and when he deals with the poor soul just as a highwayman does with the unwary traveler; he comes upon him unexpectedly, and flurries him, and fills him with confusion, so that he is robbed before he can recollect himself. So the believer, when his comforts are gone, is suddenly surprised by the various assaults of Satan; - "As a bird that is caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it cometh suddenly upon them," Ecel. ix. 12. The devil labours to dispute him out of the truth of the work of God in his heart, by setting before him such as the foolish virgins, and how far they went on; the gifts and abilities of Judas, and what became of him; and of many in the present day, who made a great shew and deceived many. Moreover, Satan suggests to the young believer that the real children of God receive a Comforter that abides with them for ever, and therefore they are always comfortable; and that no such temptations befall the real saints of God, for "he that is born of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not," 1 John, v. 18. The blood of Christ cleanseth them from all sin, and "he that is born of God sinneth not," 1 John, iii. 9. "Whereas (saith Satan) you are full of sin and hardness of heart, full of rebellion and unbelief, and of all manner of concupiscence. No, no; do not deceive yourself (saith he): the saints of God are pureed, and therefore clean; they are washed, and they are whiter than snow: whereas you are as black as the tents of Kedar, and are filled with secret rage and envy at those that do really love and fear God; and this is an infallible mark of an hypocrite; - For they that hate Zion shall be desolate. This (says Satan) was the case and state of Saul, king of Israel; he hated David because the Lord was with him. And this upon him was an evident token of perdition; for he that hateth his brother is as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother: yea, he that hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

"Besides, you really hate them because they are happy, and because you see and know that the Lord is with them this is hating the Holy Comforter also; and, if this be not doing 'despite to the Spirit of grace,' what is? Moreover, real believers are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation; but where is your keeping? Have I not access to you when I please? Are you not at this time in my hands? You have often, and (as you thought) with the deepest self-abhorrence, confessed your own vileness, and told God that had he destroyed you he would have been strictly righteous, for you have been an awful sinner against him. God only softened your heart, and gave you a little joy, like that of the way-side hearers, on purpose to draw those confessions out of your mouth, that he may take advantage of it, and condemn you out of your own mouth, as a wicked servant. And not only this, but you have called God himself your Father, as the Jews of old did, when the devil himself was their Father; and you have called Jesus Christ your dear Lord and Master, when you know at this very time that I have full power over you. Never, no never, was there such a headstrong, daring, presumptuous, God-dishonouring wretch as you. You a saint! You look like one; don't you? No, no; do not deceive yourself; all your joys and hopes, and all your comfort, that you ran from house to house and chartered about, it all came from me. I can transform myself into the likeness of an angel of light; I can counterfeit all the joys and comforts of the Holy Spirit on purpose to deceive. The whole work in you was all my own, and I did it on purpose to entrap you. Back to my work you must come, for you are still my captive, and I will make you fetch up all your lost time; and this the scripture declares when it says, I and the last state of that man is worse than the first.'

'Deceiving and being deceived.' I have deceived you, and you have deceived others. You have been to your minister and told him a thousand lies, and have deceived him; for he thinks it is a work of grace. And you have been to old Honesty and told him your experience; you have been to Dame Simplicity and filled her head; and to Miss Lovetruth, and she thinks you are a wonder. Go, go, and undeceive them all; tell them what you really are; that you always was a forward, daring, bold, arrogant rebel; and that you have added this, your deceitful and hypocritical profession, to all the rest of your innumerable and complicated crimes. Never, never more open your mouth, nor drop one word to any soul living about religion-yea, if your heart be hot within you keep silence, even from good words; for you will be a reproach, a public scandal, a by-word, and an offence; and "woe be to that man through whom the offence cometh.' You will stumble these poor weaklings that you have tried to encourage, by telling them your experience; these will faint and give all up: and you know what Christ says to them who offend one of these little ones that believe in him; - Good had it been that thou hadst never been born: yea, "better that a millstone were handed about thy neck, and that thou wert drowned in the depths of the sea, than that thou shouldest offend one of these little ones."

"No soul that ever appeared upon the stage of time, no character that is drawn in the annals of God, ever appeared so desperate as yours. Cain was banished from his Father's house; Esau's cries and tears, and his hatred to Jacob, sprung chiefly for a blessing in temporal things; and Saul's hatred to David was mostly because he viewed him as the rival of his family in a temporal kingdom: but your crimes are worse than theirs, put them all together. For you hate the people of God because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts, and the comforts of the Holy Spirit is in their souls; and to be jealous, envious, and hateful, not only to the children of God, but even to the comforts of the Holy Spirit, is an evident token of perdition. Go, tell them all what you really are, and undeceive them; and tell them never to lift up either cry or prayer for you;" - "There is a sin unto death; I do not say he shall pray for it." Tell them that all your faith was nothing but presumption, and that all your claims upon God were unwarrantable and daring intrusions; - "And the soul that doeth aught presumptuously, that soul shall be destroyed from among his people." You will now be held up to contempt, and be made a public example to deter others; yea, "a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." And, as for me, I will harass, worry, and drive you, as I did the mad Gadarene into the wilderness. I never sweat nor tire. I will pursue you with unremitted violence, till I drive you mad and desperate.

"Law sinners, that know nothing of the will of God in the gospel, will be beaten with few stripes; the heathen, who are a law to themselves, will be beaten with fewer still. But you are an impostor, a hypocrite in Zion, and a sinner against the Holy Ghost; the hottest place in hell is your portion, and I will punish you (for I am the tormentor) worse than all the slaves I have, unless you will 'fall down and worship me.' It is in vain to cry to God, for there is no God; nor is it of any use to plead the promises, for the Bible is not true, I dictated it; it was compiled by cunning and designing men which I employed on purpose to deceive the simple. Hence many noblemen, and some of the most learned in all the nation, burlesque it and ridicule it as a mere fable and as an idle tale."

Thus with violence doth the devil break in upon the young believer and harass him, when it pleases God to leave him for the trial of his faith, and that he may know what is in his heart; and thus he used to serve me. Well may the prophet say, "The enemy comes in like a flood;" for all seems to be swept and carried away before him. Nothing appears to be left but the bare remembrance of things past, and sometimes hardly that. But, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." This standard is Christ Jesus. "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people," Isa. xlix. 22. This standard is intended to gather together God's elect to Christ, as will appear in the following passage. "Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, say ye to the laughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him," Isa. Ixii. 10, 11. Christ is the rod from out of the stem of Jesse; he is the standard and the ensign staff; his everlasting love is the banner; a daily cross and a crown of glory is the motto upon the banner; ministers of Christ are standard-bearers; these are commanded to go through the gates, to cast up the way, to gather out the stones, and to lift up the standard to the people. But then we can only lift up the standard to the people, not in them: whereas the enemy is said to get into them; - "When the enemy shall come in like a flood," &c. All in-door work belongs to the Holy Spirit. We can only preach to the outward ear, and set forth the Lord Jesus Christ before them; which is called lifting up a standard to them. But it is the Holy Spirit that testifies of Christ to the heart, and that lifts up the standard against Satan in the soul. And this he does by dispersing all the darkness and confusion which the devil has spread over the mind; and by subduing our inbred corruptions which the devil has stirred up, and by enlightening the understanding afresh, and presenting the Saviour as shining into the soul, and by drawing forth faith, hope, love, repentance, and godly sorrow, to go forth and flow out to him; and, at the same time, raising up and bringing forth to the believer's view the whole work of grace in his soul; by passing afresh the sentence of justification in the court of conscience, by brightening every evidence, bearing his own witness afresh, shedding abroad again God's love in the heart, and filling the soul with joy and peace in believing. Now, says the soul, let my enemy come! No, no; Satan knows better; he will not face thee with all that armour about thee. He lays at the catch; he hates the believing voice of triumph. When he hears thee mourning alone and sitting solitary, then he will visit thee again with a, "Where is now thy God?" These are Satan's times, and he will let us know it. But still the Spirit lifts up the standard against him, and unfolds the banner of God's love, again and again, in the behalf of them that fear God, that his beloved may be delivered from the power of sin and Satan. "Thou hast given a banner to them that feared thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth, Selah. That thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me," Psal. lx. 4, 5. As sure as ever Satan obscures the blessed work, and raises doubts in the poor sinner's mind about the reality of it, so sure does the Spirit lift up the standard against him, and revives the work, and brings it forth again to the light, that we may behold the righteousness of God in it. He does it over and over again, till he has strengthened, stablished, and settled us.

13. Our fruitfullness, also, is owing to the in-dwelling and operation of the Holy Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law," Gal. V. 22, 23. Again, "For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth," Eph. v. 9. Christ is our living root, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit makes us one with Christ: while the everlasting love of God the Father to us in him unites us to him. From his fullness does the Holy Spirit continually us supply us. We receive from his fullness, and grace for grace. Present grace to assure us of future grace; or sanctifying grace in this life as a pledge of glorifying grace in heaven. The Spirit takes of the things that are Christ's, and shews them unto us; - his undertaking, his finished work; his truths, doctrines, and promises; his righteousness, peace, and satisfaction; his mysteries, his kingdom, and the power and majesty of it; his exaltation, meditation, intercession, and glorification in heaven above. This is the work of the blessed Spirit; and this union with Christ Jesus does the Holy Spirit keep up: and we having life in Christ the root, the Holy Spirit communicates life every moment from the root to the branch; for our life is hid with Christ in God. And Christ says, "Because I live, you shall live also." Hence the promise, "Their leaf shall be green, neither shall they cease from yielding fruit." And no small part of the saint's fruit is put forth in God's house of prayer, and by diligent attendance there. "The Lord loveth the gates of Zior more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; They shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him," Psalm xcii. 12, 13, 14, 15. In God's house of prayer the united fruits of the lips are offered up; such as, honest confessions of sins, and humble acknowledgments of mercies received. Prayers, supplications, and intercessions, are offered up in the unity of faith and love. God is extolled by the high praises of Zion, by thank offerings, and by blessings, and the celebration of the perfections and attributes of his nature ; such as his mercy, goodness, truth, and Holiness, love) Pity, and compassion, towards poor sinners in Christ Jesus. "Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I the Lord exercise righteousness, judgment, loving-kindness, and tender mercy in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Here the saints often have bowels of mercy drawn forth, and their hearts enlarged towards the poor of the flock, to relieve their wants. Those that are enriched by Christ Jesus come not behind in this grace also. Besides all these, there are internal fruits brought forth under the word of God, which word is said to bring forth fruit. "We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints; for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel: which is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth," Col. i. 3-6. A word of reproof often produces self-loathing and self-abasement. A word of severity mixed with love produces humility and meekness. A word descriptive of the tried soul's case, attended with an increase of strength and encouragement, draws forth faith into lively act and exercise. A word of comfort draws forth love to God, and joy in him. A word that restores a backslider is attended with contrition and godly sorrow. A word that seals pardon to a fallen saint, fires his zeal, and arms him with indignation against both sin and self. A word of instruction that settles a doubting mind, or fixes a soul halting between two opinions, and which informs his judgment and discovers heresy and heretics, produces blessings and thanksgivings to the glory of God. A word that encourages and succours the tempted, excites love to Christ and hatred to Satan. A word that strengthens and refreshes the sincere seeker, produces patience, submission, and resignation to the will of God. And though these are sometimes short and transient, yet they are genuine fruits, and such fruits as are produced under the influence of the Holy Ghost, who applies the word, and works with it, and by it.

All these, and many more such fruits, do the hearts of God's children conceive by the word, and under the operation of the Holy Spirit of God; which often fills their souls with pious grief, godly sorrow, or love to God, or self-loathing; so that they would be glad, could the discourse be stopped while they might retire into some lonely apartment to acknowledge his goodness, express their joys, or to pour out their souls before God; and are often grieved, when they go home, to find the blessed unction and the divine power abated, and the heavenly dew dried up.

There is a continual flowing of grace from the fountain to the holy city of Zion. The river of pleasure, that flows from the Fountain of life, sends forth its streams, which "make glad the city of God;" and Zion continually plays all her springs back again in devotion, worship, and adoration: hence the church is called "a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." Shut up and sealed under sore trials: opened and unsealed in times of deliverance: shut up and sealed to all rivals and strangers; opened and unsealed to the Lord and to his friends.

At times, when the believer is under sore conflicts, and the Spirit begins to sanctify the trial, the divine flowings are wonderful, especially in prayer; matter and manner, words and power, are so abundant, that the soul is "as wine which hath no vent;" he "is ready to burst, like new bottles," Job, xxxii. 19. He has no sooner sent up the whole weight and sensations of his soul, but the heart conceives again, and he is constrained to "speak that he may be refreshed," Job, xxxii. 20. But still the spring rises, till he can attend to nothing else. "For my love they are mine adversaries; but I give myself unto prayer," Ps. cix. 4. At such times the Spirit of grace and supplication operates in a wonderful manner; the believer, under the Spirit's influence, is more formidable than an army with banners; there is nothing in heaven, earth, or hell, that can stand against him, as may be seen in Hezekiah (Isaiah, chap. xxxviii.), and in Daniel (Dan. ix. 21); the former of whom drove back the sun in his firmament, and the latter fetched down an angel from heaven.

So, on the other hand, when the Holy Spirit furnishes the soul for praises and thank-offerings at the time of conspicuous deliverances from sore trials, temptation, or spiritual desertions, the soul is so banquetted, and the unction is so abundant, that the heart must pour it out: "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth," over," Psal. xxiii. 5, While we are blessing God he keeps blessing us. "In blessing I will bless thee." His love flows in, and we pour it out; the sacred flame burns, and the continual burnt-offering goes up, But the former and latter of these are upon our solemn feast days, and at the commencement of the years of jubilee; for, in the general, things are not so.

My son, think on these things, and follow after charity, righteousness, peace, faith, meekness, patience, with all them that call upon God out of a pure heart; while I remain, in the best of bonds,

Devotedly yours,

W. Huntington