conversion, wit or eloquence may draw a man to the word, and possibly prove a happy bait to catch him, as St. Augustine reports of his hearing St. Ambrose; but when once he is born again, then it is the milk itself, he desires for itself.

Desire the sincere milk.] Not only hear it because it is your custom, but desire it because it is your food, and it is, 1. A natural desire (as the infant's of milk) not upon any external respect or inducement, but from an inward principle and bent of nature; and because natural, therefore, 2. Earnest, not a cold indifferent willing, that cares not whether it obtain or no, but a vehement desire, as the word signifies, and the resemblance clearly bears: as a child that will not be stilled till it have the breast; offer it what you will, silver, gold, or jewels, it regards them not, these answer not its desire, and that must be answered. Thus David, My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments; as a child like to break its heart with crying for want of the breast and again, because natural, it is, 3. Constant: the infant is not cloyed nor wearied with daily feeding on the breast, but desires it every day, as if it had never had it before; thus the child of God hath an unchangeable appetite for the word, it is daily new to him, he finds still fresh delight in it; thus David as before. cited, My soul breaketh for the longing it hath for thy judgments at all times. And then this law was his meditation day and night. Whereas a natural man is easily surfeited of it, and the very commonness and cheapness of it makes it contemptible to him. And this is our case; that wherein we should wonder at God's singular goodness to us, and therefore prize his word the more, that very thing makes us despise it: whereas others our brethren, have bought this milk with their own blood, we have it upon the easiest terms that can be wished, only for the desiring, without the hazard of bleeding for it, and scarce need we to be at the pains of sweating for it.

e

That ye may grow thereby.] This is not only the end for which God hath provided his children with the word, and moves them to desire it; but which they are to intend in their desire and use of it, and, answerable to God's purpose, they are therefore to desire it, because it is proper for this end, and that by it they may attain this end, to grow thereby. And herein indeed these children differ from infants in the natural life, that are directed to their food beside their knowledge, and without intention of its end; but this rational milk is to be desired by the children of God in a rational way, knowing and intending its end, having the use of natural reason renewed, and sanctified by supernatural grace.

Now the end of this desire is growth. Desire the word, not that you may only hear it; that is to fall very far short of its true end; yea, it is to take the beginning of the work for the end of it: the ear is indeed the mouth of the mind, by which it receives the word, as Elihu compares it', but meat that goes no further than the mouth (you know) cannot nourish. Neither ought this desire of the word to be only to satisfy a custom; it were an exceeding folly to make so superficial a thing the end of so serious a work. Again, to hear it only to stop the mouth of conscience, that it may not clamour more for the gross impiety of contemning it; this is not to hear it out of desire, but out of fear: to desire it only for some present pleasure and delight that a man may find in it, is not the due use and end of it; that there is delight in it, may help to commend it to those that find it so, and so be a mean to advance the end; but the end it is not. To seek no more but a present delight that vanisheth with the sound of the words, that die in the air, is not to desire the word as meat, but as musick, as God tells the prophet Ezekiel of his people. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well upon an in

f Job xxxiv. 2.

g Ezek. xxxiii. 32.

strument; for they hear thy words, and they do them not. To desire the word for the increase of knowledge (although this is necessary and commendable, and being rightly qualified, is a part of spiritual accretion) yet take it as going no further, it is not the true end of the word; nor the venting of that knowledge in speech and frequent discourse of the word and the divine truths that are in it; which, where it is governed with christian prudence, is not to be despised, but commended: yet certainly the highest knowledge, and the most frequent and skilful speaking of the word, severed from the growth here mentioned, misses the true end of the word. If any one's head or tongue should grow apace, and all the rest stand at a stay, it would certainly make him a monster; and they are no other, that are knowing and discoursing christians, and grow daily in that, but not at all in holiness of heart and life, which is the proper growth of the children of God. Apposite to their case is Epictetus's comparison of the sheep, they return not what they eat in grass, but in wool. David in that cxix. Psalm, that is wholly spent upon this subject, the excellency and use of the word of God, expresseth his delight in it, his earnest desire to be further taught, and to know more of it; his readiness to speak of it. But withal, you know he joins his desire and care to keep it, to hide it in his heart, &c. To make it the man of his counsel, to be as the whole assembly of his privy counsellors, and to be ruled and guided by it; and with him, to use it so, is indeed to grow by it.

h

If we know what this spiritual life is, and wherein the nature of it consists, we may easily know what is the growth of it. When holiness increases, when the sanctifying graces of the Spirit grow stronger in the soul, and consequently act more strongly in the life of a christian, then he grows spiritually.

A v. 15. 16. 24. i v. 13. 27.

Psal. cxix. v. 5, 11.

And as the word is the mean of begetting this spiritual life, so likewise of its increase.

1. If we consider, the nature of the word in general, that it is spiritual and divine, treats of the highest things, and therefore hath in it a fitness to elevate men's minds from the earth, and to assimilate to itself such as are often conversant with it, as all kind of doctrine readily doth to those that are much in it, and apply their minds to study it. Doubtless such kind of things as are frequent with men, have an influence into the disposition of their souls. The Gospel is called light, and the children of God are likewise called light, as being transformed into its nature, and thus they are still the more, by more hearing of it, and so they grow.

2. If we look more particularly unto the strain and tenor of the word, it is most fit for increasing the graces of the Spirit in a christian; for there be in it particular truths relative to them, that are apt to excite them, and set them on work, and so to make them grow, as all habits do, by acting; it doth (as the Apostle's word may be translated) stir up the sparks, and blow them into a greater flame, make them burn clearer and hotter. This it doth both by particular exhortation to the study and exercise of those graces, sometimes pressing one, and sometimes another; and by right representing to them their objects. The word feeds faith, by setting before it the free grace of God, his rich promises, and his power and truth to perform them all; shews it the strength of the new covenart, not depending upon it, but holding in Christ, in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen; and drawing faith still to rest more entirely upon his righteousness. It feeds repentance, by making the vileness and deformity of sin daily more clear and visible; still as more of the word hath admission into the soul, the more it hates sin, being the more discovered, and the better known in its own native colour. As the more light is in a house, the more any thing in it that is uncleanly or deformed is seen and disliked,

Likewise it increaseth love to God, by opening up still more and more of his infinite excellency and loveliness and as it borrows the resemblance of the vilest things in nature to express the foulness and hatefulness of sin; so all the beauties and dignities that are in all the creatures are called together in the word, to give us some small scantling of that uncreated beauty, that alone deserves to be loved. Thus might instances be given in all other graces.

But above all other considerations, in this it is observeable, that the word is the increaser of grace, in that it holds forth Jesus Christ to our view to look upon, not only as the perfect pattern, but as the full fountain of all grace, from whose fulness we all receive. The contemplating of him, as the perfect image of God, and then drawing from him as having in himself a treasure for us, these give the soul more of that image, which is truly spiritual growth. This the Apostle expresseth excellently', speaking of the ministry of the gospel, revealing Christ, that beholding in him, as it is", In his face the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Not only that we may take the copy of his graces, but have a share of them.

There be many things might be said of this spiritual growth, but I will add only a few; 1. In the judging of this growth, some conclude too rigidly against themselves, that they grow not by the word, because it is not sensible to them as they desire.

But 1. This is known in all things that grow, that it is not discerned in motu, sed in termino, not in the growing, but when they are grown. 2. Besides, other things are to be considered in this, although other graces seem not to advance, yet if thou growest more self-denying, and humble in the sense of thy slowness, all is not lost; although the branches shoot not up so fast as thou wishest, yet if the root grow deeper, and fasten more, it is an useful m Chap. iv. v. 6.

2 Cor. iii. ult.