108 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. ministry, he had laid in richly, so now he laid out liberally. His sermons were grave, judicious, and appropriate ; and his applications, by a sweet eloquence, fervent zeal, and love to souls, were addressed to the hearts of his hearers. He did not serve God with that which cost him nothing, but laboured much in his preparations for the pulpit. His con- stant motto was, " I am willing to spend and be spent." In time of sickness, the physician observing that he might live longer if he would preach less, he said, " Alas ! if I may not labour I cannot live. What good will life do me, if I he hindered from the end of living ?" When labouring under the infirmities of old age, he would not desistfrom his beloved work, but often preached when with the utmost difficulty he could scarcely walk to the house of God; and even then his sermons were delivered with his usual vivacity.. %Ie fed his flock, not with airy notions and vain speculations, but with the substantial provision of the gospel. He provided milk for babes, and strong meat for men. Notwithstanding his excellent endowments, and the high admiration in which he was held by all who knew him, he was not lifted up with pride, but walked in all humility before God and men. He is said to have been the first who brought extemporary prayer into use in that part of the country, in which exercise lie greatly excelled. He laboured in the ministry, with very little interruption, above forty-seven years. During this period he was the means of bringing many wandering sinners to Christ. Once, indeed, the bishop put a stop to his Tuesday lecture ; but it is said, " God was pleased so to order it, that the lecture was soon revived, and the bishop who interrupted it was cast out of his office."t During a life of nearly seventy-five years, he witnessed many changes in the church of Christ. Nor was lie without his sufferings in the civil wars. Rude soldiers tyrannized over him in his own house, not permitting him to be quiet in his study. There they followed him with drawn swords, vowing his Instant death, for not joining them in their bloody cause. The Lord, however, was pleased to deliver him from the rage of his enemies. Mr. Crook, during his last sickness, often protested that the doctrine he had taught was the truth of God, as he should answer at the tribunal of Christ, to which he was hastening. He received the sentence of his approaching death with cheerfulness ; and seeing lie had no prospect of Clark's Lives annexed to his martyroiogie, v. 202-206. P Ibid. p. 206-208.
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