CONTEMPLATIONS- A SERIES OF LETTERS TO A FRIENDWilliam Huntington (1745-1813)LETTER XX.TO MR. BRITTON. SIR, THE God of all grace neither applauds nor approves of that conceited wisdom which will make a man an offender for a word, and lie in wait for him that reproves in the gate. But it seems that I have offended more than once; in your pulpit, and likewise from the press. One great offence from your pulpit was, bidding sinners, convicted of unbelief, to ask faith of God. But the greatest offence seems to be taken from two passages in my two sermons lately published on The Loss and Restoration of the Image of God in Man. Gods image of Adam, and all his souls adorning, was owing to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; and when that sweetest of all comforters took his leave, all was gone, Page 52. The other passage is, When Adam lost his native righteousness, the entrance of guilt opened his eyes, and he saw that he was naked, for the Holy Spirit with all his adorning left him, Page 114. At these capital offences you have stormed and raged for many months, belabouring poor Adam at a sad rate. Adam, you say, never had grace; Adam was a good and an upright natural man; Adam never had the Spirit of God; Adam never was a spiritual man; Adam was a natural man; and this you will defend as long as you have breath,&c. And your audience has caught the same flame, Huntington has quite missed the mark; he has now done for himself; he has cut himself all to pieces in this book; he is inconsistent with himself,&c. All this may be true, for I am no more perfect than Mr. Britton. About my first offence you might have disputed with me before I left Downham; and about the other you might have written in a friendly manner to me, and I would most willingly have informed you what support I have for my arguments. But this would not answer the end of unprovoked envy; you chose to do it publicly; and the more heterodox you could make me, of course the more orthodox you must appeal; and by beating out my taper add additional flame to your own lamp. You have likewise invited another to assist you, who has published a twopenny volume of poetry, in which he has inserted many things about Adam, as though they were taken from my sermons, which were never in them. In this I am not the plaintiff, but the defendant. You have publicly attacked me from your pulpit, and I now send you this public answer, that you may have an opportunity of displaying your wisdom, and of fulfilling your promise, to oppose me, in my opinions of Adam, as long as you have breath. 1. I must confess I have often wondered how Adam, just after he was formed, could stand with such intrepidity, and converse with such freedom and familiarity with the most high and eternal God, without being fortified with spiritual might, and furnished with a spirit of revelation and understanding; especially when I read of Daniel, a man greatly beloved of God, fainting away, his strength wholly forsaking him, and all his comeliness turning into corruption at the sight of an angel. And the beloved disciple was twice smitten with such awe, at the appearance of one of the heavenly host, as to forget himself, and even fall down in order to worship the heavenly messenger. Even the ass, on which Balaam rode, started, first to the wall on one side of the road, and then to the wall on the other; and, though cruelly beaten, yet fell down and would go no farther, being so terrified at the sight of the angel. If it be replied that Adam had no sin in him; I answer, no more had the ass. 2. And it is a mystery to me how Adam could, as soon as created, forthwith speak with such promptitude, unless the Spirit of God gave him utterance; and how he could readily give names to all the creatures that God had made, without the spirit of wisdom and understanding from above: and a mystery it must appear to all men, if they consider what some have observed, that the names which he gave them were perfectly applicable to their different natures; the consideration of which drew the following assertion even from Plato, an heathen philosopher: He was most wise that first imposed names on things; yea, had more than human wisdom. 3. The greatest sacred chronologer that ever I read has the following words: That man had the use of speech as soon as he was created, and a language in which to express the sentiments of his mind; consequently, that God endued him with this speech of language at the time he breathed into him the breath of life, is evident from the history of the creation as delivered by Moses: for Adam, in the day that he was created, before his first sleep, or that Eve was formed of his rib, gave a name to every beast of the earth, and. to every fowl of the air: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. So that no man, who knows and believes the holy scripture, can doubt of mans having the use of speech, or his being inspired with the gift of a language, from the very time he was created; I say inspired. 4. And another very learned divine has these words: Were the wisest men living, yea, a general collection of all the wise men in the world to make an experiment of their skill and learning, in giving names to all living creatures suitable to their natures, and expressive of their qualities, they would quickly perceive the loss they have incurred. Acquaintance with the works of God, spiritual and natural, is lost. 5. If I am not much mistaken, I remember reading, in one of the works of Mr. John Bunyan, words to this effect; Adam knew Eve the same way that the three disciples on the mount knew Moses and Elias; namely, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 6. I have read, in one of the greatest divines that ever old England produced, words similar to these: The knowledge aimed at to be recovered by men, was given unto man [that is, unto Adam] in order to his walking with God, unto that supernatural end whereunto he was appointed: for, after he was furnished with all his endowments, the law of life and death was given to him, that he might know wherefore he received them; therefore foreknowledge in him was spiritualized and sanctified; even that knowledge which he had by nature in respect of its principle and end, was spiritual. 7. Our very sublime poet has the following speech in his performance: Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleasd, 8. A learned Jew, in his comment on Adams speech to God at the reception of Eve, declares it to be the voice of the Holy Ghost: The Holy spirit says thus, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife." 9. The language of scripture, at the formation and quickening of Adam, agrees with other parts of scripture which are fully expressive of divine inspiration, such as," Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live:" which is afterwards explained of Gods putting his Spirit within them, and causing them to live. Moreover, the Saviour in breathing upon his disciples, when he said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," seems manifestly to allude to the inspiration of Adam. And that mysterious speech in Job, where he says, "All the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God in my nostrils," to allude to Gods breathing into Adams, nostrils the breath of life, when he became a living soul; which life was something more than simply forming the soul within him, and giving sensations, affections, and motions, to the faculties of it, for these remained with him, though corrupted, after his fall. Nor does it mean communicating vital heat by the soul animating and quickening the body, and giving it animal spirits, for animal life abode with Adam after sin and death entered into him. Adam forfeited a higher life than either of these, a life in the favour of God, in whose favour there is life; a life of love and delight in God; a life of communion and fellowship with him. If it may in any sense be called a natural life, it must be because it was natural to him in that state, he being created in Gods image, of which this was a principal part; but, with respect to God, it was of divine origin. And it is a mystery to me how Adam could be made in the image of the living God, who is a spirit, and yet have neither spiritual nor divine life in him. Whatever life it was Adam forfeited it; and when sin entered into him, and the pleasures of lust began to operate, he found a delusive life in the carnal pleasures of sin. Here are the first beginnings of the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts. And when the sentence of the law entered, then guilt, shame, and wrath, overwhelmed him, and he became sullen, and his heart fretted against the Lord; his mind was alienated from him and at enmity with him, as are all his children to this day; and so says Paul, "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart," Eph. iv. 18. Here Paul calls it the life of God. And when did this enmity and alienation take place? As soon as Adam fell then he became a lover of sin and death, and an enemy to the Son of God, who made him and gave him life; and so says the Saviour, "He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul; all they that hate me love death," Prov. viii. 36. Here began our alienation from the life of God. But how it can be called the life of God if there was nothing spiritual or divine in it, is what I cannot comprehend. 10. I believe that the Holy Ghost entered, into Adam when the Lord breathed into his nostrils. "The Spirit of God hath made me," says Job, "and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." And I believe the whole formation, of Adams soul, with all its endowments, was compiled by the Holy Spirit; that it was he that influenced him, with a life of love and delight in God and as a spirit of revelation and understanding, inspired him with all that wisdom and knowledge that he had in the mind and will of God, of himself, of Eve, and of the other works of God. And, moreover, that Adam spoke every word as the Spirit of God moved him and gave him utter-ante; or rather, that it was God, by his Spirit, who spoke in Adam; this I think is confirmed by Christ himself: "The Pharisees came to Jesus, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh," Matt. xix. 3-5. The words in the fifth verse were all spoken or articulated by Adam, Gen. ii. 24. But Christ does not so much as mention Adam, but leaves him quite out of the question, and declares that the creator of Adam, and the speaker in Adam, was God. God made them male and female; and God said, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife," &c. 11. Moreover, the words spoken by Adam were all prophetic, for there were no children upon earth to marry at that time; nor were there any fathers or mothers then to forsake. Adam had begotten none, nor had Eve conceived. The words spoken were to be fulfilled in future, and are regarded anti obeyed to this day by them that love and fear God; not as the words of Adam, but as the words of God, containing his ordinance and appointment. And we are told that prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Peter i. 21. Then it is plain that as Adam was a holy man, his prophecy also came from the same divine motion. 12. Nor will it be easy to prove that, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God," if that part of scripture spoken by Adam, which is the first prophecy, came in old time from the will of a natural man. Nor do I believe that Christ Jesus would have enforced those words, and have given them his sanction and confirmation, if they sprang from such a source; for he seldom favoured the precepts, doctrines, and commandments, of men. Hence I infer that, although Mr. Britton cannot allow Adam in his innocent state to be any thing more than a natural man, yet it is plain, from the word of God, that the Holy Ghost was in him, and influenced him with love and holiness, and inspired him; and that God, by his most holy Spirit, spake in him and by him. Nor do I believe that Mr. Britton, with all his supposed endowments, can come within a thousand leagues of that divine wisdom, knowledge, holiness, and love, that were in Adam. 13. We read in the Bible that Adam was created in the image of God: "Let us," said God the Father to God the Son, "make man in out image, after our likeness." The image of the Father and the Son is one and the same; for Christ is "The brightness of his glory and the express image of his person," Heb. i. 3. And we read that the elect of God are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. I should be glad if Mr. Britton would point out the difference between this image in Adam and the image in a true believer; for, if this glorious image be the same in both, and it be granted that every true believer that hath the image of Christ stamped upon his soul is a spiritual man, as Paul says he is, I should think that Adam, in his innocent state, must be very much like one. It may be answered, that Adam was created in the image of God, and therefore in that sense it was natural to him; but his standing in this most blessed state was conditional, according to the tenor of the law of creation, or the covenant of works; which covenant he broke, and this blessed image was lost, and another obtained; and in that image, and after, that likeness, Adam begot a son, and all his children by nature bear the same, which image God despises; and therefore he has chosen his elect in a better head, and appointed them a better father, and has predestinated them to be conformed to this image; which comes not through Adam, but through Christ; not by natural generation; "Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," and that by spiritual regeneration; and this image is now secured to us by a better covenant, established upon better promises, &c. All this must be granted; yet it makes no difference in the image. The image that was in Adam, and that in a real believer, seems to me to be one and the same most holy thing; so that, if the latter be a spiritual man, as was before observed, the former must be very much like one. 14. The way by which the apostle expresses it makes it one and the same, both in Adam and in all believers; and I believe that the image and likeness, in which Adam begat his sons, is the same thing which the apostle calls the old man of sin, which is the express image of the devil, and which is said to be put off when the new man, with the image of God, is put on. "Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him," Col. iii. 9, 10. And again: "But according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," Titus iii. 5. This word, renewing, seems to mean restoring something to mankind which mankind had before. We read of renewing an altar, which means repairing of it, and making it look as it did when it was new, or when first built. So we read also of renewing the kingdom of Saul, which means reinstating him, and confirming him in his kingdom, and making it more public and more strong. Hence the apostles meaning seems to carry this in it: when Adam was first created, and appeared a new creature in the world, he appeared in the image of God; but sin entered, and death by sin; and so the divine image, with which the Holy Ghost adorned Adam, was defaced and lost; but God has chosen us in another head, and creates us anew in Christ Jesus; for, being chosen in him, and united to him in the purpose and covenant of God, the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and washes away the guilt and filth of sin, and in a measure blots out the devils image in us; and, by producing the abundance of grace, we are renewed, and the new man is formed; and this new man is, by every believing and transforming view of Christ by faith, renewed afresh, after the image of him that created man at the first. This seems to be the unstrained sense of the apostle. And, when Christ is speaking of the old man of sin, and the new man of grace, he says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." He does not say that he which is born of the Spirit, but that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit; nor does Christ say it is of a spiritual nature; the words express a stronger sense: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And, if this be true of every soul renewed, it is no less true in Adam, while he stood in the image of God. Furthermore. We are not to understand, by the image of God in man, any external form or shape; for, "To whom will ye liken God; or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" Isa. xl. 18. Adam, like the Kings daughter, was all glorious within. Gods image consisted of the endowments of the mind; the divine adornings and embellishments of his soul. There was in him the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. A divine radiance shone through him, Hence man is called the image and glory of God, 1 Cor. xi. 7. He was created in righteousness, and true holiness, Col. iii. 10. The great commandment, in the law of creation, is love to God with all the soul. This law was his rule of righteousness, and it was spiritual; it reached to his soul, and threatened both body and soul with temporal and eternal death; it was holy, it was just, and it was good. Adams righteousness, therefore, must stand on an equal footing with this law. He therefore must love God with all his soul; he must be inspired, he must be holy, he must be just, and he must be good; and God said he was very good, otherwise he could not be strictly righteous in the eye of this law. Divest him of any one of these, even of inspiration only, and where is the image of God? God is a Spirit; and where is Adams righteousness? "The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin," says Paul. Adam lost inspiration when he sold himself and us under sin; nor can we ever stand before that law till inspiration be restored again. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and nothing else, can make us free from either the law of sin, which is in our members or from the law of death, engraven on tables of stone. Adam was created in true holiness; and that which made him so was the divine influence of the Holy Ghost, which was divinely spread throughout all his soul; and that which made the temple h01y was the same; and it is the same now, which makes the church a holy temple; and therefore it is called, "An habitation of God through the Spirit." 15. But it may be objected, from the following passage, "The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit. Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly," 1 Cor. xv. 45-49. There is not one word in all this quotation that affords any support to my opponents. Neither Paul, nor any other inspired penman, ever called Adam, in his state of innocency, a natural man, according to the present acceptation of that term, nor in any other sense. Nor was the whole and every part of Adam of the earth, or earthy; his soul was not of the earth, nor earthy; and much less the image of God in him. What the apostle is there proving is the resurrection, and nothing else; and we know that there is nothing raised at the resurrection but the body; and so says Paul, "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," 1 Cor. xv. 44. And this he proves by the two heads, Adam and Christ. Adams body was a natural one, supported by natural food, and capable of suffering; and so was Christs body a natural one; he took part of the children's flesh and blood, and in all things, sin excepted, was made like unto his brethren, and lived upon natural food, and was capable of hunger, thirst, sorrow, and suffering. But, after his resurrection, ascension, and glorification, Christs body is a spiritual, a heavenly, and a glorious body. And then the apostle affirms that all who die in the Lord, though their bodies be sown natural bodies, yet they shall be raised spiritual bodies; and, though they have borne the image of fallen Adams body in frailty, mortality, and death, being subjected to this vanity, which came upon us all through Adams sin, yet are we subjected in hope: for at the resurrection these bodies will bear the image of Christs heavenly body; for, "Every one that is perfect shall be as his master." We shall see him as he is; our bodies shall awake in the likeness of his body: yea, we shall be changed. "He shall change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his glorious body." So that this frail part of the creature shall be delivered from the bondage. of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, Rom. viii. 21. I shall now attempt to make some excuses for my other offence, which is that of telling sensible sinners, struggling under the workings of unbelief, to ask faith of God. I believe I have had more success in my labours, by encouraging awakened sinners to be importunate with God in calling upon him, than ever Mr. Britton has had, or ever will have, unless God should make him acquainted with that invaluable blessing so essential to the ministry; I mean an unctuous experience of the power of godliness. But you have got a curious proverb among you, namely, that souls must be born again before they can cry. "Let God be true, but every man a liar;" and this proverb is a lie, both in nature and in grace. For Christ says, "A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." The cause of the womans crying, in the book of the Revelation, is not because she is delivered, but because she was in labour. "And she, being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered,Rev. xii. 2. They that cry and complain of travail and sorrow after they are delivered, and when nothing ails them, must be the worst of hypocrites. Gods elect cry day and night unto him; and their bitterest cries are, when guilt stings them, when shame and confusion cover them, when the curse of the law and the wrath of God enter into them, when the fear of death and the dread of damnation overwhelm them; these want God to avenge them. God himself, speaking of Christ under the name of his type, Cyrus, says, "They shall come after thee in chains; they shall come over; and they shall fa11 down unto thee; they shall make supplication unto thee." With weeping and supplications doth the Lord lead such. But surely these chains and tears of grief cannot be the fruits and effects of our first love, when perfect love casts out fear and torment; for then our spiritual birth is made clear: at such times God brings out them that are hound with chains, while the rebellious dwell in a dry land. And, although there is a most sweet and heavenly crying at times, yet it is not the voice of them that cry for being overcome, nor the voice of them in chains; but the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shout for the victory. If no souls are to cry or pray to God until they are born again, I know not where they would vent their grief, pour out their complaints, or east their burdens; for in general all refuges but God fail them, and none care for their souls. But God tells them to call as soon as they feel their distresses. "Call upon me in the time of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Here they are commanded to call upon God for help as soon as their troubles come on; and they are to call upon him for deliverance, not after they are delivered; for when they are delivered they are to offer him praise and thanksgiving, which is glorifying him. Pray, was Paul born again when he called first upon God? Had the Spirit of love, of power, and of a sound mind, brought Paul forth when the Lord said to Annanias, Inquire for one Saul of Tarsus, for behold he prayeth? Saul prayed when the commandment entered into him, when sin revived and he died: and it was after this that he is bid to arise and receive the Holy Ghost. The prevalent groans of Israel in Egypt; the prayers of Manasseh, of Jabez, of Peter upon the water, of David when the snares of death and the pains of hell got hold of him, when he found trouble and heaviness, and called on the name of the Lord; all those prayers, which were heard and answered, were not put up by persons born again. The scripture speaks of God begetting them, of his quickening them, and of the sorrows of a travailling woman coming upon them; and all this before the birth. And indeed God has declared it as his most general way of dealing with his elect, that he will make them pray to him in their greatest afflictions; and the answers which he promises to give are to be his acknowledgment of them, with a power to enable them to lay a claim upon him, and to confess their interest in him. "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God," Zech. xiii. 9. To discourage poor sinners in calling upon God when they are alarmed or awakened to a sight and sense of their sin and danger, is throwing stumblingblocks in the way to the city of refuge: it is not telling them to fly from the wrath to come, but to fly into it. The description of Gods elect is that they cry day and night unto him, Luke xviii. 7. And the mark of hypocrites is, that they cry not when he bindeth them, Job xxxvi. 13. To tell sinners in soul-distress that it is in vain for them to call for mercy, is bringing the same heavy tidings to their ears that the devil brings to their hearts; and such are ministers of Satan, and are ignorant of the benefits of a throne of grace, and never knew what it is to cry to God from the heart. However, they are to come to Gods feast who were ready to perish; for it is the hungry soul that he will fill with good things, while he sends the rich empty away. No begging and praying, no blessing. It is the poor in soul that God lifts from the dust, and the beggar from the dunghill, and makes them to inherit the throne of glory. Those who pray in secret shall be rewarded openly. God, in his covenant, tells us what he will do for us; and has pointed out the means to be used in order to move him to it. He promises to cleanse us from all our filthiness and from all our idols; and to give us anew heart and a new spirit; and that he will cause us to walk in his statutes and judgments, and to make us his people, and that he will be our God: and that then we shall loath ourselves in our own sight for our sins, when he is pacified toward us; and that he will call for the corn and wine and will increase it, anti lay no famine upon us; yet, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them," Ezek. xxxvi. 37. To yield obedience these divine orders of God, according to the tenor of the words, is for filthy sinners and idolaters, who feel the burden of sin, to ask God to cleanse them. Hard-hearted sinners, who feel their hardness, are to inquire of God to take away the stony heart, and to give them a heart of flesh; and sinners labouring under a spirit of bondage and the power of sin, are to inquire of God for a new spirit. These are the divine warrants of God; and all convinced sinners will venture upon them: nor will Mr. Britton be able to stop their mouths; and this he may see in those who have tried his experiment. "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be brought unto him," Luke xviii. 38-40. If it be a crime to bid awakened sinners to ask faith of God, what shall we say of our Saviour, who says, "If you that are evil can give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" This is asking for a greater gift than faith. Let those, who tell us that none cry to God but those that are born again; and that none are to ask for faith but such as have already got it; let these, I say, inform us what this new heart and new spirit is, and how they felt themselves when their filthiness and their idols were purged away: and then we shall find them more inconsistent with themselves, and more full of self-contradictions, than ever I was. But this is tauntingly called, bidding the dead to rise, Gods promise is to the dead. "Thy, dead men shall live, with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust," Isaiah xxvi. 19. The voice of Christ in the gospel is to such: "The time cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." But then my wise opponent should consider that real servants of Christ are ministers of the Spirit, It is not they that speak, but Christ speaketh in them; and his word is not weak but mighty, 2 Cor. xiii. 3. Where the word of this King is there is power. "Tabitha, arise!" Acts ix. 40, "When thou wast in thy blood, I said unto thee, Live," Ezek. xvi. 6. There is more inconsistency in hearing a man dead and bound, like Mr. Britton, hold forth the promise of eternal life, than in hearing a minister of the Spirit say, "Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light," Eph. v. 14. The latter is an ambassador of God, speaking by divine authority, commanding and raising the dead: the former is the dead, in his grave-clothes, commanding and reproving the living. Another of my offences is saying that the first thing that enters the soul under Gods teaching is light. And I believe the same now. "Every one that doth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved," John iii. 20. If light is not the first thing put forth, why is it the first thing hated? The Spirit is to reprove the world of sin; and, "All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for whatsoever maketh manifest is light," Eph. v. 13. The beginning of the good work in Paul was, a light shined round about him, above the brightness of the sun; the voice came afterwards. And the same stands first in Pauls mission and commission. "I have appeared unto thee, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of those things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. To the Gentiles I send thee; to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me," Acts xxvi. 16-18. So God began at the first appearing of Christ: "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and those that sat in the regions of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." And perhaps this is one reason why Christ is called the day-spring from on high that visits us. But Mr. Britton says life, and not light, comes first to the sinner. It was not so at the conversion of Isaiah; light came first to him; he saw before he felt. "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts," Isa. vi. 1-5. "All these things Isaiah saw first; the live coal, or coal of life, came afterwards. And so Paul; he first saw that Just One, and then heard the voice of his mouth, Acts xxii. 14. The light shone round about him; this collected his thoughts, and raised his attention; and afterwards he heard the voice of the Son of God; "And they that hear shall live," John v. 25. But you avow that what I have said of Adam has established Mr. Fullers doctrine; for you say, If Adam was a spiritual man, then it is the duty of all Adams posterity to believe; if Adam had faith before he fell, then all his children ought to believe afterwards. I shall not labour to disprove the wisdom, nor the justice, that appear in this inference. But I have at times thought that there were scarcely any rational creatures without a faith of some sort or other. Milton says there was faith in angels, and in Adam too ? I made him just and right; And he represents one believing angel reproving all the unbelieving ones that fell: So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found The worst creatures in all the world are devils; and James says that they believe and tremble, James ii. 19. Next to devils in sin are hypocrites; and these have some sort of faith; for surely they would never cry out, "Who shall dwell with devouring fire? Who shall, dwell with everlasting burnings?" if they believed there were no such things. And even the worst of heretics have a faith; for, Paul says, God sends them strong delusions that they may believe a lie, 2 Thess. ii. 11. And though I never mentioned a word in my life, to my knowledge, about Adams having faith, yet I have no doubt but he had, because the Spirit of all grace was in him. He must believe that there was a God, because he had communion with him; and I think he believed the word of God. And what would be the effects of his transgression before he ate the fruit? for Paul says, "Adam was not deceived;" therefore he did it not ignorantly and in unbelief, but went voluntarily into it, with open eyes, against both faith and conscience. So did not Eve; the serpent beguiled her; she fell in unbelief, disbelieving the, positive denunciation of God, and giving credence to Satans lie: "Ye shall not surely die." Eves heart was the first womb that conceived seed by the devil: and by this act Satan obtained the title of the Father of lies, and of a murderer from the beginning. Annanias and his wife both died in child-bearing by the same father. "Why have ye conceived this thing in your heart? Why hath Satan filled your heart?" They lusted or coveted after Mammon, and this brought them to a conjunction with Satan; then Sin was conceived, Satan filled their hearts, and, when lust had conceived, it brought forth sin; they lied, not unto men, but unto God: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death; they were both struck, dead upon the spot. I shall take no notice of Robert Skilleters poetry; that has its answer in itself. The author with respect to faith, is as lame as his performance; for neither the poet nor the poem have a foot to stand upon. Even in an empty profession he is but a novice, and in nature nothing but an idiot. W. H. S. S.Nov. 1801. |