CONTEMPLATIONS

- A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FRIEND

William Huntington (1745-1813)

LETTER XIV.

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

To my joy, and the crown of my rejoicing.

BELOVED, when I finished my last I concluded that the cruse was nearly exhausted - but this morning early it sprung up again, and seemed to flow in various directions; it anointed my eyes, and I perceived it with this observation, "The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing" I found it was so, and therefore I pursued it with pleasure, finding the service to be perfect freedom. "My horn" is exalted "like the horn of an unicorn," and I am "anointed with fresh oil." O, that this was a little more observed and attended to! But the believer is too much like the worldly miser, he never knows what he is worth. I must now "speak of the things which I have made touching the King," and his anointing; and I hope it will turn out to thee that my heart hath been inditing a good matter. The matter is,

14. Concerning the judgment of the Holy Spirit. In the justification of our souls the Holy Spirit brings the righteousness of Christ near to us, and enlightens the sinner to see Christ as the end of the law; while he works faith in the heart to go forth, embrace him, and put him on: hence we are said to be "justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." The Holy Spirit, by the ministry of the apostles, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; he, by applying the words of reproof and rebuke to them, arraigned and brought in many guilty, who humbly craved forgiveness and obtained it; when the blessed Spirit, who takes of the things that are Christ's and shews them to us, pointed these poor condemned sinners to the atonement and satisfaction of Christ, and to his righteousness and reconciliation with God by it; and, upon their believing, he filled them with the flames of love and zeal; and, sanctifying them, he set them apart, and devoted them as holy vessels of honour, meet for the Master's use. You have this work and these people thus described by the prophet; - "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning," Isa. iv. 2-4. Where this work is done there is a court of equity and justice set up and established in the conscience of a believer, that he may no more call evil good, and good evil; nor put light for darkness, and darkness for light. The law is put into the heart, and written in the mind; or that which is equivalent to it. Faith being a persuasion in the mind, and the love of God (which love is the fulfiling of the law) in the heart; this, with the righteousness of Christ placed to our account, is called, by the apostle, "the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us," while we "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Now, to keep things in order in the breasts of all Gods children, God sets up this court of equity and justice, that we may daily cite ourselves at it; and, upon every arraignment, "if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." Our daily happiness depends upon our attention to this; - "Herein do I exercise myself," says Paul, "to have a conscience void of offence;" for "blessed is the man that condemns not himself in the thing which he allows." To this end God promises the Holy Spirit to guide and assist us in judgment: "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people; and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment; and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate," Isa. xxviil 5, 6. My brother, take notice of the personality of the Holy Spirit in that text; of the personal characters and incommunicable names ascribed to him, and of the train of divine perfections-the Lord of hosts; a crown of glory; a diadem of beauty; a spirit of judgment; and strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. I know the text may be accommodated to religion magistrates, and to persons in the church of Christ-judging them that are within: but these things are often done, and well done, even by men who know nothing savingly of the things which I am writing. The apostle, reprehending some of the church at Corinth, for their unbecoming behaviour at the Lord's table, tells them that, "if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world," I Cor. xi. 31, 32. Did the believer attend more to this when conscience reproaches or checks him, and go immediately to God by confession and prayer, disallow and disapprove of what he has done, and not suffer his sin to go either from mind or memory, but importune, and implore pardon and forgiveness; he would soon preveil, and save himself many a bitter cry and restless hour. The Corinthians omitted this, and therefore God took it in hand. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep," I Cor. xi. 30. David neglected this, till his soul got hardened through the deceitfullness of sin; till Nathan set him where he ought to have set himself; namely, on the judgment seat; and, by his wise parable, made him condemn himself, which he ought to have done before. These God judged and chastened, that they might not be condemned with the world.

God not only keeps his court in the believer's heart, and the spirit of judgment there; but his house of correction also. God purges the daughter of Zion and Jerusalem by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning; hence he keeps his "fire in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem," Isa. xxxi. 9. Those whom God judges he chastens; and this fire and furnace are to purge away the dross and tin. Many a time have I escaped that terrible furnace, by judging and condemning myself. And, though sometimes the process has continued for several days, yet I followed it up, and could not, would not rest, till pardon was obtained, conscience quieted, and peace restored; and sometimes this has been done even in the pulpit; there the word has come and healed me. Whereas some are in the furnace almost all the year round, they hardly ever make straight paths for their feet; but that which is lame is turned out of the way instead of being healed, Heb. xii. 13. "From all your filthiness, and from all your idols," says God, "will I cleanse you." This he does at conversion. But dross and tin still remain, and the furnace is prepared for this; - "I will purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin," Isa. i. 25. The spirit of judgment, and the furnace of affliction, are continually at work in Zion. Cold and lifeless frames; ingratitude for mercies received; yielding to unbelief, and listen to Satan; murmuring and rebelling at the daily cross; deadness in the service of God; being often selfwilled and soon angry; speaking hastily and unadvisedly with our lips; indulging evil and unclean thoughts; being stubborn and sullen under the rod, with many slips and falls into sin. Hence the complaints; - "Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love: thou hast a name that thou livest, but art dead. My people are bent to backslide from me. Hezekiah rendered not again according to the kindness done unto him: nevertheless Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart," 2 Chron. xxxii. 25, 26. Hezekiah judged and humbled himself, and so escaped the furnace: "Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah," verse 26. If we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. Upon every sinful frame and miscarriage God calls us to bar of equity; - "Come, now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," Isa. i. 18. "When these things are strictly attended to, a solid joy and lasting consolation is established in the soul. "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world," 2 Cor. i. 12. The testimony of conscience, and the enjoyment of peace, are inseparable; and by attending to these, a man walks with God: "He walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity," Mal. ii. 6.

Some indiscreet ones of the Lord's household are like some men who are embarked in several branches of business, and, being often cast down in their own minds, fearing they are going back, omit taking stock, lest a right knowledge of their affairs should sink them lower. But God will bring all his children to book; and, if they shun the bar of equity, he will bring them to the bar of judgment, and put fresh wrath and terror into the law, and hold up that hand-writing against them; - "Enter not into judgment with thy servant," says David. "Thou writest bitter things against me," says Job. If we will not judge ourselves, the Lord will judge us; and, if we will not reason with him, he will make us bear the rod, and who hath pointed it; and then the question is, "Hast thou not procured these things to thyself?" Then into the furnace we go, kicking and plunging like a wild bull in a net, full of the fairy and the rebuke of our God; and here he keeps us till we can say from the heart, "Not my will, but thine be done. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness," Micah, vii. 9. By these means is the iniquity of Jacob purged, and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin. Faith gets a fresh discovery of the atonement of Christ, and a fresh application of it by the Spirit. If this is not the case, we come out "like a fool brayed in a mortar." It is not a deliverance from the furnace, but is intended to confound us, and to keep us in fear and suspense; doubting whether the furnace is not going to be heated hotter. When God takes us in hand, and judges and chastens us, we are sure of this furnace; - "I will bring them through the fire, and will purify them as silver is purified, and try them as gold is tried; and make a man more precious than the golden wedge of Opbir." But my dear brother will say, "If all our dross and tin are to be taken away, how comes it to pass that so much still remain? "When I would do good, evil is" always "present with me." No furnace that I have yet been in has ever removed the in-being of it from me." No; if the vessels of mercy were ever thus effectually and perfectly purged, there could be no more conscience of indwelling sin. But, the root that bears gall and wormwood still remaining, the furnace remains. I can find that the furnace purges me from my evil frames; but not from the in-being of sin, which betrays me into these evil frames. Self is daily to be denied; the war between the law of the mind and that of the members remains, and is sure to be, more or less, directly or indirectly, the daily cross that a child of God has to take up. On account of these things the spirit of judgment remains in Zion. To subdue sin, and to keep grace in the throne, is the cause of this fire and this furnace in Jerusalem. Self-examination is to the believer the business of every day; and every bill that conscience files against us is intended to bring us to the bar; and, upon trial, that which is disallowed, disapproved, bewailed, lamented over, and which is a cause of grief, and which makes us groan for deliverance, is no more we; - "It is not I" that do it, "but sin that dwelleth in me." We are complete in him; without fault before the throne; and clean every whit, notwithstanding these things. And now, my dear brother, in observing these things; - "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. And the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever, amen." So says yours, in the unity of the faith, and in the bond of love,

W. HUNTINGTON, S.S.