Sequestered from

The presence of thy mate: Whose doom was just,

For casting off my fear,

And me so soon,

Hence thy rejectings were.

Thou 'st been to me,
Garden of nuts so hard,
So dry, such husks,
Couldst not be opened.
Kernel there was,

But none upon it fed :

Thy unbelief

Did thy return retard; And slighting me,

Thy prayer was not heard.

At last, I hear,

A rattling of the bones,

As if they'd come
Together suddenly.;

Thy God will come,

And see how all things lie.

Thy neck, O Sion, is a tower

Of whitest ivory:

No more to bear the pinching yoke
Of force and tyranny.

The irons of unscripture modes,

And men-imposed forms,

No more shall gall thy flesh and soul,

I'll free thee from those storms.

The idols now betake themselves
To clifts of craggy rocks;
Thy God is risen, light is come,
And life's a paradox.

Arise and shine: O Sion, dress thee,

It is a pleasant day,

And I thy God am come to bless thee; Send all thy fears away.

Oh, let thy stately neck bear up,
Thy head, advance it higher;
Now all thy yokes are burst and burnt,
Put on thy best attire.

Admit my easy yoke, and think
Thyself a freeman there;

Chained to my laws, my saints and me,
Thy neck receives no scar.

III.

"Thine eyes are like the fish-pools in Heshbon, by the gate af Bath-rabbim.”— CHAP. vii. 4.

Water thy plants, Jerusalem, Salvation 's at the door; Unseal thy latent fountains, weep Till thou canst weep no more.

AND

THE SPIRIT NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS
IN HIS GIFTS AND GRACES.
A Sermon

BY REV. HENRY CROOKE.

"The vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith. I cannot, for it is sealed: and the book is delirered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned."-Isa. xxix. 11, 12.

GoD is not man, nor are his ways as our ways. We are changeable, never in one stay; God is the same, yesterday, to day, and for ever; confined to no particular modes or ways of acting, nor subject to any law but that of his own will. He varies his ways of providence as his wisdom directs, all tending to the good of his creatures. And in the revelation of his will to man, though he might vary in the method or manner of doing it, as he did of old, yet the end and design was always the same, namely, the recovery of fallen man, with a view to make him happy.

Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, all centered in that one point, that great and generous act of publishing abroad God's good will to a lost world. It was first declared March, 1845.]

to Adam in paradise; Noah preached it while the ark was in building; and after the law was given from mount Sinai, God was pleased to reveal it to his prophets,sometimes after one manner and sometimes after another. Moses is said to speak to God face to face; Samuel heard the word by a voice speaking unto him; and with the mantle of Elijah, the Spirit of the JereLord descended upon Elisha. miah, Zechariah, and others of the prophets received the word of God under shadows and representations. Daniel's commission from heaven was delivered by the mouth of the angel Gabriel. The divine goodness was declared to Ezekiel by a vision of dry bones raised to life. And the prophet before us had his visions which he saw concerniug Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Sometimes the prophets were to denounce the judgments of heaven against incorrigible sinners; at other times they were to speak comfortably, to heal the broken-hearted, and to promise a gathering together of the dispersed of God's people. They were also commissioned to give the strongest assurance of farther degrees of mercy to the humble and thankful, while the ungrateful, they who

H

66

:

made no improvement of God's good ness, were threatened that the mercies they enjoyed should be taken from them, and their stony, unrelenting hearts made still harder, by drawing over their minds a spirit of slumber. Stay yourselves and wonder,' says the prophet, a little before my text, cry ye out," says he, and cry; they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink; for the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned." In these words, as in a looking-glass, we may see the black, frightful complexion of every unconverted soul, learned or unlearned. Like a drunken man, they reel to and fro, between their vices and corruptions, and stagger from their God like the drunkard from his cups: destruction is before them, the pit of heil is near them, and yet, like the thoughtless drunkard, they apprehend no danger, but press forward, not knowing where they go. Stay yourselves, therefore, (says the prophet,) and wonder." As if he had said, Stop, ye serious ones, and behold these men; wonder at their ignorance, their spiritual ignorance, and stand amazed at the depth of their folly.

66

God would have done them good, but they refused; they slighted his mercy, and thought lightly of his loving-kindness (I wish the same charge may not lay against many of us). Upon this their offended God withdrew his favours; he put out the candle of their understanding (the light of his Spirit), and left them to

themselves, to grope their way in the dark uncertain steps of spiritual blindness. "The Lord poured out upon then the spirit of deep sleep, and closed their eyes." And, to complete their misery, it was no better with their leaders and teachers, whose eyes God also closed; as is expressed in these words—" The prophets, and your rulers, the seers also hath he covered." They were all alike spiritually blind, learned and unlearned.

The visions of the prophets (or what God's servants saw in visions, and declared to the people) were like the words of a book that is sealed, when the vision was told, viz., the true spiritual sense and meaning of it was as much hid from the soul, as the contents of a book that is sealed is hid from the eye. And if a book is sealed, and not to be opened, no man can be the better for it, though it is written in the most accurate style, with the greatest propriety, the quickest thought, or the strongest chain of arguments. In like man. ner, though the Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvationthough they bring tidings of great joy-such as the death of Christ, the shedding his most precious blood, God reconciled, man forgiven, and the Spirit promised in his gifts and graces, to sanctify us throughout (in soul and body), and to inspire us with such knowledge from above as may guide and conduct us from this to the world to come (I say, though the Scriptures are thus filled with good news from Heaven, and contain such matter of the greatest joy) yet no man can be the better for those sacred truths, nor his heart at all comforted by them, till the seal of a prejudiced corrupt nature is broken off, and a thorough change made in the whole man All old things past away, and all things become new.'

When this is done, the book will be easily read; the scripture will be rightly understood; as much of it as is

is necessary to salvation; but till then, till this change, this new creation of the Spirit is wrought in us, the scriptures will be as the words of a book that is sealed, which none can read, neither learned nor unlearned. If men deliver this sealed book to one that is learned, saying, Read this I pray thee; the answer is, I cannot, for it is sealed that is, the contents of the book is hid from him, as the word of God, in its true spiritual sense and meaning, most certainly is, till the mind and understanding are enlightened from above. And, on the other hand, when the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee, an excuse is as ready, for he saith, I am not learned.

This is the true character of men in a natural unconverted state; it shows their ignorance in things spiritual: and in respect of true saving knowledge, it puts the learned upon the same footing as the unlearned. To

64

the one, that is, the learned, spiritual truths are often sealed truths; such truths as the wisdom of this world knows nothing of, nor can all the art of man find them out. They are spiritually discerned-they belong to, and proceed from the Spirit of God; and as such the Spirit of God must unfold them to us. No other help can do it; for, as no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God," that is, He, and he only, knows the things of God, whose nature is changed into that of the pure and holy Jesus; and, whose mind and understanding being spiritually enlightened, is taught of God. Or, as the Apostle expresses it, "he receives the Spirit which is of God, that thereby he may know the things that are freely given to him of God. Which things we speak (says St. Paul) not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."

In these words two different teachings are mentioned, the one by man's wisdom, the other by the Holy Ghost; and as are the teachings, so are the persons taught the one quite differ. ent from the other. The worldlywise know not God, nor, indeed, are many of them called; whereas those taught by the Spirit know spiritual things-they have a true taste and relish for them; "for the Spirit searcheth all things (says the Apos tle), yea, the deep things of God; and God (says he) hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." Nothing can be more to the purpose than these words (and they are the words of God himself) to show the truth and necessity of an inward teaching; without which all other learning will serve to no purpose, except it be to puff men up with pride and conceit.

Whole systems of philosophy in the head will avail nothing, without the love of God shed abroad in the heart; and if we have not a saving experimental knowledge of Christ, and him crucified, we shall be no better for our knowledge could we know all besides.

The Spirit is the only master to teach us true saving knowledge; he must put to his hand and give the finishing stroke to whatever we do. Nay, all our works must begin, continue, and end in him, they must be tinctured with his purity, and his influence must guide and direct them, and these our works, though thus conducted by the Spirit, must be unto us, not as our righteousness or justification, but as witnesses of our faith, or as so many evidences to attest (for a truth) that Christ is in us.

If men are not taught of the Spirit, whatever depths of human learning they may have besides, it is most certain that things spiritual will be to them as the words of a book that is sealed; they see the outside of the book, but the contents are under zeal and cover. So men may be taught arts and sciences, their minds may

be richly stocked with the politest of both natural and acquired accomplishments, and from childhocd they may be regularly trained up in a plausible appearance of an outside religion. By this kind of education they may become well acquainted with the mode, or manner of worship, they may be daily, constant attenders at it, and, probably, it may be their great pleasure sometimes to hear and talk of the beauty of holiness; but if a real and thorough change is not wrought in their hearts-if the life of holiness is not created within them, nor the power of godliness felt in their souls, all their religion is no better than a hearsay religion, taken up upon the credit of an early formal education. Their fair outward show is only a specious form, and when they talk of the beauty of holiness as though they admired it, it is quite foreign to the spirit or true beauty of holiness; very much like him who admires the beauty of a well bound book, and is pleased with the art of the workman while he knows nothing of the author, nor one word of its contents, because it is sealed. The book he sees, and the title he may probably read upon the back of the book, but not one word can he tell within, till the seal is broken off, and the book opened.

So, and in respect of the word of God (called the Bible, or Book) we see its outside (the bare letter of it), and we know its great titles, that it is called the Word of Life, the Gospel, Good Tidings of great Joy to all People, the Revelation of God's good will towards men, and the like. I say, we may see the letter, or outside of the bible, and may read its great titles, and yet, like a book that is sealed, we shall never come at the true spiritual sense, or meaning, of its deep and holy contents, till Christ, by his Spirit, breaks off the seal, and opens the book to our understanding. Ah! this is the reason, the very reason, why men in a natural uncon

verted state, though of great parts and abilities, are so extremely ignorant in spiritual things.

It is a known maxim, that the mind determines according to evidence; therefore it is, their evidence being carnal, sensual, and after the wisdom of the world, that men, in a natural state, draw such false conclusions concerning sions concerning things spiritual. And in this great aflair, both learned and unlearned are pretty much the same; for, while the learned and unlearned speak of the things of the Spirit as the words of a book that is sealed, if you ask the unlearned, saying, tell me, I pray thee, what these things mean, they will answer and say, I cannot, for I am not learned. Here, the vulgar, or common people among the unconverted, excuse their ignorance of things spiritual, by intimating as though nothing could comprehend them but the narrow circle of human learning. By this means they, in fact, shut out Christ from their souls, not considering how much he delights to dwell with the humble, in their heart, though there may not be the knowledge of one single letter in the head. For (as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. i. 27) "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are."

Now, this method that God thus chooses whereby to make known his Son to poor despised men and women, looked upon in the eyes of the world as foolish, weak, base, and contemptible, is to let us know that his grace is free, and that he gives it to whom, after what manner, and at what time soever he pleases; That no flesh should glory (be puffed up with their own accomplishments) in his pre

sence.

But of him (says the Apostle speaking to the despised servants