THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN TAKEN BY PRAYER 4/10 (WILLIAM HUNTINGTON)

The Kingdom of Heaven Taken by Prayer

or

An Account of the Author's Translation from the Kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of God.

"The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force..." Matt. xi. 12.

"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son... "Col.1:13

William Huntington (1745-1813)

AFTER many rambling about the country, I went and settled at last at Mortlake, in Surrey, where the effectual work of drawing me from the world began to operate on my soul. I had lost my child by sudden death, as is related in the BANK or FAITH. My wife went to nurse a lying-in woman at Barnes, at a little distance from Mortlake; and, during her stay at that place, I was left entirely alone, both at my work and at home.

As I was one day at my labor, I was reflecting on the many sicknesses, soul troubles, extreme poverty, and disappointments, which I had met with in the course of my life. I considered the poor, tried, a troubled state I was then in, together with the loss of my child, and my being almost an utter stranger in a strange place; and, upon a proper view of the whole, I murmured and fretted at my hard fate; and thought I might adopt the language of good old Jacob, and say," Few and evil have my days been." 

But suddenly it was impressed with power on my mind, that all these evils were brought upon me for my sin: and that I neither knew, feared, loved, nor served, God as I ought to do, and therefore had brought these trials on myself; and that it was a great mercy God did not take me instead of the infant. This impression was attended with an uncommon flow of contrition: insomuch that I was, at times, overwhelmed with a sorrowful spirit; and so dissolved into meekness, that I went weeping and mourning all day long, until "my soul was as a weaned child."

This frame of spirit was attended chiefly with self-pity; because I had, by sin, exposed myself to so many hardships in this life, and, for aught I then knew, to more in the next. I was however at times a little tinctured with godly sorrow, to think I had so much offended the Almighty; and this was accompanied with a fear that he would not be pacified toward me.

Under these workings of mind, I began secretly to "call on the name of the Lord" in prayer and embraced every opportunity that offered itself. My petitions were such as I had learned out of books, with some expressions of my own, which I used in confession; as no form seemed to be sufficient to suit the complicated diseases of my troubled mind. This heavy, gloomy frame of soul was attended with a twofold blessing; for my heart being pregnant with compunction, drove me perpetually to God in prayer; and in pouring out my soul before God I found I had ease in my mind, until I got under a fresh reflection-of past offenses, and a future view of the effects as the just rewards of sin. Then my heart conceived again her fresh burden, and I evidently found that there was no release to be had but on my knees before God, where I could speak so as to be eased.

The other blessing that attended me under this oppression of soul was, that it weaned me from company. I was naturally of a cheerful disposition, which entangled me in the company of many acquaintances; but, when I began to be a little habituated to these gloomy regions of death, I found that all my anxiety after, love to, and delight in, company, was quite blasted, so that my spirit withered, like the green herb, to all the joys of mortals. Rural retirement seemed most agreeable to me, as it best suited my bewildered state of mind; till at length I began to detest all company, and fly from all my acquaintances: I dwelt "like a sparrow alone on the housetops, or like the pelican of the wilderness, or an owl of the desert."

Finding my spirit dead to all society, and no ease to my soul but on my knees before God in private, I earnestly solicited the Almighty to keep me from all fellowship with the wicked; having as I thought, accumulated guilt enough already. In answer to this, it was suggested, as a voice to my best attention, that I must quit that place in which I dwelt, with all my companions, and never more have fellowship with any worldly company whatsoever. This impression sunk so deep in my mind, that it never could be erased by all the frowns or smiles of the children of men, nor do I believe it ever will.

Under this impulse I went to Barnes, to inform my wife of my determination to leave that place and forsake all my companions, and that forever; and I gave her several reasons for this determination, but concealed the worst of the matter. Her answer was, "Do just as you will; I am ready to go with you to any place you choose."

I have often since thought of good old Jacob's sending for Rachel and Leah into the field to him, to inform them of their father's conduct toward him, of God's vision that was opened to him, and of the Lord's commanding him to return into his own country; whose submissive answer was," Now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do," Gen. xxxi. 16. A sweet submissive reply, well becoming a pious help-mate.

I now watched the hand of God, to see if an opportunity offered for my departure; but every door seemed for a time to be shut. However, I kept close to my church, endeavored to shun all company, embraced every opportunity that offered itself to pour out my soul in prayer, and to show God my trouble; Psal. cxliii. 2. Nor did the deep concern I was under in the least abate; but heaviness of spirit, meekness, and humbling sorrow, perpetually pursued me, and my mind was immersed in the meditations of futurity.

After my wife had returned from her nursery, she had an awful dream, which in the morning she related to me, It was this - that "the devil had appeared to her in her sleep, with a most formidable aspect, and was going to lay hold of her; but she cried out, and he immediately left her, and made a violent seizure of me." I had not, at that time, told her much of my distress of mind; therefore she knew not how much the narrative of her dream contributed to the anguish of my spirit. I laid her words up and pondered them over in my heart. And, as I believed her to be a very pious soul, I was fully persuaded I should, ere long, feel the effects of her dreadful vision; which (God knows) I soon did, as my reader will observe in the sequel.

I had no thoughts of a violent temptation, by divine permission, a sailing me, that should strip me of fleshly confidence; but what I expected was, that death, judgment, and eternal damnation, would be the dreadful result of her dream.

Finding fresh troubles increase daily upon me, I longed to get out of the place I was then in, fearing that my companions would some time or other entangle me, and get me out a pleasure-taking on the Lord's day; for, as I found that my power against sin was little worth, I wanted to shun even the appearance of temptation. I went over to Mr. Low's, a nurseryman at Hampton Wick, and asked him to employ me; which he accordingly did. It was now late in the autumn, but he promised to employ me till he could provide for me in another way. I endeavored to get a ready-furnished lodging at Kingston, but could not: I was therefore determined to walk to and fro, from Kingston to Mortlake, every day, rather than stay in that place, where I had contracted an intimacy with several persons whose company I did not relish. I continued in this situation for about a fortnight; but at length got a lodging at Kingston. I was now determined never to get acquainted with any person unless he seemed to be religious; and, being in a strange place, where I was not known, I had not so many temptations to draw me into company.

I now took to reading any book that I could get; kept close to the church; kept up private and family prayer with my wife, and labored to recommend myself to the favour of God. I learned several little short prayers to repeat on the road as I walked, or at my labor, or on my bed, which I judged was redeeming lost time. However, I had one great difficulty to grapple with here, which was, that we were obliged to go to a public house on a Saturday evening to receive our wages, where each laborer was compelled to spend four pence. This I could not avoid, though I found it a snare to me; because I was compelled to wait till the foreman had paid me, which sometimes would be as late as eight or nine o'clock; during this time I was obliged to hear all the songs that were sung, and all their filthy conversation.

This I found scattered all my religious thoughts and made many breaches in that poor false peace which I had been patching up by the mere dint of hard labor: however, to close up these gaps, I generally worked harder, said more prayers, read more, and got up earlier in the morning, in order to perform a greater task; and so, by these means, I pacified conscience with a double portion of dead works; Heb. ix. 14.