February 23

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.—Isaiah 1:3.

THERE is a universal ignorance and inconsiderateness of spiritual things in the nature of man; he takes less notice of his condition than the very brute beasts. "The stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow; but my people knoweth not the judgment of the Lord." The very dumb ass reproveth the madness of the prophet, as St. Peter speaks; 2 Peter 2:16. And for this reason it is, that we shall hear that frequent apostrophe of God in the prophets; when he had wearied himself with crying to a deaf and rebellious people, he turns his speech, and pleads before dumb and inanimate creatures; "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth:" nothing so far from the voice of the prophet as the heavens, nothing so dull and impenetrable as the earth; and yet the heavens likelier to hear, the earth likelier to listen and attend, than the obdurate sinners. "Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth." Nothing in the earth is so immovable as the mountains; nothing in the mountains so impenetrable as the foundations of the mountains, and yet these are made more sensible of God's pleadings and controversies, than the people whom it concerned. "The creatures groan," as the apostle speaks, under the burden and vanity of the sins of men; and men themselves, upon whom sin lies with a far heavier burden, boast, and glory, and rejoice in it. Of ourselves we have no understanding, but are "foolish and sotish," as the prophet speaks: we see nothing but by the light and the understanding which is given unto us; we can not have so much as a right thought of goodness. The apostle doth notably express the universal blindness which is in our nature: "Walk not as other Gentiles, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, or from a godly life, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." 1. Their minds are vain; the mind is the seat of principles, of supreme, primitive, and underived truths; but, saith he, their minds are destitute of all divine and spiritual principles. 2. Their understanding is darkened: the understanding, or dianoctical faculty, is the seat of conclusions; and that is unable to deduce from spiritual principles (if there were any in their minds) such sound and divine conclusions as they are apt to beget: so though they know God (which is a principle) yet this principle was vain in them; for they conceived of his glory basely, by the similitude of fourfooted beasts, and creeping things; they conceived him an idol god, as the Epicures; or a god subject to fate and necessity, as the Stoics; or a sinful, impure god, that by his example made uncleanness religious, as St. Cyprian speaks; one way or other they became vain in their imaginations of him. But though they knew him, yet the conclusions which they deduced from that principle, that he was to be worshipped, &c., were utterly unworthy his majesty; they worshipped him ignorantly, superstitiously, not as became God; "they changed his truth into a lie." 3. Suppose their principles to be sound, their conclusions from those principles to be natural and proper: yet all this is but speculation; they still are without the end of all this spiritual prudence; their hearts were blinded. The heart is the seat of knowledge practical; that, by the principles of the mind, and the conclusions of the understanding, doth regulate and measure the conversation: but that was unable, yea, averse from any such knowledge, for, "they held the truth of God in unrighteousness; they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," they served the lusts of their own hearts; were given up to vile affections; were filled with all unrighteousness, and had pleasure in evil works, even when they did things which they knew deserved death, and provoked judgment. This is that universal defect, which is in us by nature; and very much of this remains in the best of us. Here then, when we are not able to conceive the Lord's purpose in his word, though of itself it be all light; when we find with David, that "it is too excellent for us,"—let us learn to bewail that evil concupiscence of our nature, which still fills our understandings with mists, and puts a veil before our faces. The whole book of God is a precious mine, full of unsearchable treasures, and of all wisdom. There is no scoria, no refuse in it; nothing which is not of great moment, and worthy of special and particular observation: and therefore much are we still to bewail the unfaithfulness of our memories and understandings, which retain so little, and understand less than they do retain. If David were constrained to pray, "Open mine eyes," to see more wonders in thy law,—how much more are we to pray so too! If there were a damp of sin in David's heart, that did often make his light dim, and did make him "as a beast in understanding," as himself complains; how much darkness then and disproportion is there between us and that blessed light! Look upon heretics old and new, Marcion's two gods, a good and evil; Valentinian's thirty and one gods in several lofts and stories; worshippers of Cain; worshippers of Judas; worshippers of the Serpent; and a world of the like sottish impieties: nay, amongst men that pretend more light, to see the same Scriptures on both sides held, and yet opinions as diametrically contrary as light and darkness; one gospel in one place, and another gospel in another place, to speak nothing of those blemishes that are in the writings of the most rare and choicest instruments in God's church: all these are notable evidences of that radical blindness which is in our nature, and is never here quite removed; for if the light be not seen, it is not for want of evidence, but for want of sight.

"Expand thy wings, celestial Dove, And brooding o'er our nature's night, Call forth the ray of heavenly love, And let there in our souls be light; Illuminate the dark abyss With glorious beams of endless bliss.

"Let there be light, again command, And light there in our hearts shall be; We then through faith, shall understand Thy great mysterious majesty; And by the shining of thy grace, Behold in Christ thy glorious face."