By William Huntington.
Forty Stripes save non for satan, etc.
A feeble dispute with a wise and learned man, etc.
The Mistery of Godliness letters, etc.
Volume 12
By William Huntington.
From he preface of this book:
Forty Stripes Save None For Satan
CHRISTIAN READER:
I THINK I may call Satan God’s ape; for whatsoever the Almighty does from heaven above, the devil tries to imitate on earth beneath—only God intends our salvation, and Satan our destruction. If God sends his angels as ministering spirits, to minister to them that are heirs of salvation, Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, to imitate them. God sent Moses and Aaron—Satan sent Jannes and Jambres to counterfeit their works. When God sent persons in the character of prophets into the world, Satan sent four hundred prophets to one. When God order Solomon to build him a temple, the devil strewed the heathen world with temples. When God sent priests, Satan sent Cheanarims, Zeph. 1-4.
When God ordered sacrifices for Israel, then the Gentiles were set to offer sacrifices to devils. When God sent the highest officers (called apostles) into the church, then Satan sent false apostles, transformed as the ministers of righteousness. And, soon after God had set his King upon his holy hill of Zion, the devil gave the pope his seat and great authority at Rome. If the Lord makes his ministers burning and shining lights, Satan sends others to counterfeit them with his rays. “Take heed,” says the Lord, “lest the light that is in thee be darkness; if it be, how great is that darkness!” Luke xi. 35.
If God blesses his children with the full assurance of faith, Satan sets the fool to rage and be confident, in imitation of them. And, if any be commissioned by the Lord to preach, to cast out devils, and work miracles, workers of iniquity plead that they have done the same,—”Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name; and in thy name cast out devils, and done many wonderful works?” Matt. 7- 22.
If love to the brethren constrains the primitive saints to sell all that they have to supply the needs of the righteous, Satan fills the hearts of Ananias and Sapphire to imitate them, only to keep back part of the price. If God enables his servants to seal the truth that they have preached with their blood, it is allowed that a child of Satan may give all his goods to feed the poor, and his body to be burnt, and yet not have charity. If a servant of God is liberal to the poor, and a rebuker of iniquity, Satan’s children are up with them—”to what purpose is all this waste? this ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor.” John 7 – 5
If God orders lambs and kids for sacrifices, the devil orders children to be burnt alive to him—an infant being a sweeter morsel to a devil than the firstlings of the flock. “They sacrificed their children to devils.” Psalm cvi. 37. “And made them pass through the fire to Molock.” Jer. 32 : 85. If God raises the widow’s son, and the son of the Shunammite, the devil imitates Him who is the resurrection and the life, and pretends to bring up Samuel.
If God grants his children fellowship with himself and his dear Son, the lion of the bottomless pit ceases to rage and roar, and becomes a familiar spirit. If prophets predict future events by the Spirit of prophesy, Satan’s children divine, and pretend to the same by enchantments, astrology, and conjuration. If God condescends to espouse souls to himself as a husband, Satan turns wooer and whoremonger—”and they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring.” Lev. 17-7. If “God keeps that man in perfect peace whose mind stayed upon him,”
Satan keeps possession of his palace and his goods in peace also. If the children of God are joyful, the way-side hearers are the same. If a saint departs this life in freedom from fear and bondage, the offspring of Satan are up with him—”The wicked have no bands in their death, their strength is firm.” Psalm lxxiii. 4. If God orders Moses to smite the waters and turn them into blood, Satan orders his magicians to do the same. Exod. 7 – 5 God calls for frogs, Satan’s instruments imitate them. Exod. viii. 7. God orders dust to be turned into lice, and Satan tried to imitate that; but God put his hook in his jaws, and baffled the king of darkness, and all his princes, in the open court of Egypt, by a louse.
Then my reader may say—What are we to do with this archhypocrite? Why, the Lord has promised to give us “power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and that nothing shall by any means hurt us.” Luke 10 – 5 Nevertheless, we must use Aaron’s rod—it is still in the hand of our great High Priest, who is the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. The rod of power, in the hand of Aaron, swallowed up all the rods of the magicians.
And the rod of the Lord’s strength, that was sent out of Zion, is the gospel, by which he rules in the midst, of Jerusalem: this rod is the word of Jesus—”He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” Isaiah xi. 4.
Satan deceived the whole world with two lies—Ye shall not die, but be as gods. This entitled him to the honour of being the father of lies. And there is nothing Satan labours harder at than to get poor souls to trust in a lie; for God has declared that he. who goes down to the grave with a lie in his hand cannot deliver his soul; nor shall any thing enter into the heavenly Jerusalem that loveth and maketh a (doctrinal) lie.
Hence the Saviour’s caution. “Take heed how ye hear;” and his charge, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown;” and his promise, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the whole earth,” Rev, iii. 10. There is no playing at the hole of this asp, but in faith; nor any other way of belabouring Satan, but by the rod of truth; nor of being more than a conqueror, but by sovereign love. Hence you read, “they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;” and again, “we are more than conquerors through him that hath loved us.” But we must be valiant for truth, and smite every liar with this rod as far as God is pleased by his Spirit to discover truth to us. The father of lies hates the truth, and the king of darkness hates divine light.
I have in this little treatise, reader, been hunting an old heresy, with which I was pestered and tormented many years ago: the seeds of which have lately been revived; and some few, who are known, to me, are secretly leavened with it. I call it a heresy, for such God discovered it to me long since. I have no other end in view, in this work, than to disentangle those that fear God, who may be caught in this snare: as to others, if God gives them up to a strong delusion, they are sure to be steadfast till they they lift up their eyes beyond the grave. I have stuck as close to the scriptures as I could in pointing out the error, and have set truth against it as plainly, as clearly, and made the matter as intelligible, as God has been pleased to enable me; though I expect little else but reproach for my pains: nevertheless it is the truth, and God himself revealed it to me. And I will appeal to every Sabellian’s conscience, that holds the lie, for confirmation of this truth—that they never got their doctrine from God upon their knees, as I got mine. They cannot say, with Paul, that their doctrine is not after men.—
“For I received it not of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ; for it pleased God to reveal his Son in me,” Gal. i. 12:16. But alas, alas! those that know not the profound deceits of the human heart, and the depths of Satan, believe every word; and no wonder, for they receive not the word at God’s mouth, Job xxii. 22.
Reader, carefully attend to what I have written; and beg earnestly of God, before thou read it, to shew thee whether I am right or wrong: then thou wilt act a safe part with thyself, and an honourable part with me. I am earnestly contending for the doctrine of the TRINITY; the greatest and grandest article of “the faith that was once delivered to the saints,” and the most weighty and most dangerous matter to be trifled with in all the book of God. That to cause the simple soul to err in the Fountain is the devil’s master-piece I know, by sad experience of the perpetual buffetings of Satan for some years; for which villany he is here beaten with rods.
Reader, that God would bless thee and keep thee, cause his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee, lift up the light of his countenance upon thee and give thee peace, is the prayer and desire of
Thy willing servant in the Lord Jesus Christ,
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.
Nov. 1792