[3.] The next cause is necessity. We should take delight in the word of God for its excellency, though we stood in no need of it. But our necessity is very great, and this awakens desire. The word is not only compared to things which make for conveniency of life, as to wine and honey, but is compared also to things that are of absolute necessity, bread and water. It is called ' bread of life,' and ' water of life.' Bread of life ; we cannot live without it : Job xxiii. 12, ' I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food.^ Food is that which keeps us in life, and enables us to action and work. And as water : Isa. xii. 3, ' With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.' This is as water to a fainting traveller. Christian, the soul is better than the body, and eternal life is to be preferred before life natural ; therefore the necessities of the soul are greater, and should be more urging than the necessities of the body. The famine of the word is threatened as a very great evil, Amos viii. 11. Now because the necessities of the saints are so great, therefore have they their hearts carried out with such longing after the statutes of God. And this necessity is not only at first, when they are weak, but it continueth with them as long as the imperfection continueth with them, and till they come to heaven. Every grace in a child of God needs increase and support; there is something that is lacking to their faith, to their love, to their knowledge : 1 Thes. iii. 10, the apostle saith, ' That I miglit perfect that which is lacking to your faith.' They that are above ordinances are not acquainted with their own hearts, they are not men of spiritual experience, they do not know the weaknesses and languishings a child of God is incident to ; it is wholly inconsistent to the nature of grace. Wherever there is life there must be food, because of the constant depastion of the natural heat upon the natural moisture. Though the stomach be never so full at present, yet anon it will be hungry again. So because of the constant combat that is between the flesh and spirit, wherever there is spiritual life it will be sensible of the necessity of food. Well,
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then, it is hunger and necessity that sharpens appetite ; being sensible of spiritual languishing, and need to repair strength daily, therefore are their hearts carried out. Thus you see the reasons of this vehe- ment affection.
Secondly, The reasons of the constancy of this respect.
1. Because it is natural and kindly to the regenerate ; therefore, as it is vehement, so it is constant. For it is not a light motion, but such as is deeply rooted ; not a good liking, but a thorough bent of heart ; it is that which settleth into another nature. Now that which is as a nature to us is known by its uniformity and constancy.
2. They love the word for its own sake, as it is God's word ; there- fore they ever love it. Other men love it for foreign reasons, as out of novelty, which is an adulterous affection ; or out of public coun- tenance, as it is in fashion and repute, and therefore are soon weary of it. He that loves a woman for foreign reasons, as beauty and por- tion, when these cease, his love cease th.
Use 1. Is to reprove the coldness and cursed satiety and loathing of the Avord of God that is abroad. There is a plenty of means, even to a surfeit. Men are gospel-glutted, Christ-glutted, and sermon- glutted ; and therefore are at a very great indifferency, and under a mighty coldness as to the word of God. Usually we are more sensible of the benefit of the word in the want of it than we are in the enjoy- ment of it : 1 Sam. iii. 1, ' The word of the Lord was precious in those days ; there was no open vision.' When the public ministry of the prophets was rare and scarce, then it was precious and sweet. When the Papists denied the use of the scripture in the vulgar tongue, oh ! what would we give then for a little scrap and fragment of the word of God in English ! — a load of hay for a chapter in James. So in times of restraint, how savoury is a godly sermon ! But now visions are open, men begin to surfeit of the word. In semet ipsam, saith Tertullian, semper abundantia conhimcliosa est — plenty lesseneth the price of things. As in Solomon's time, gold and silver were as dirt in the streets, 1 Kings x. 32, so the word of God, though it be so precious and excellent, yet when we have plenty of it, line upon line, 2:»recept upon precept, by God's indulgence, then we begin to be glutted. People grow wanton when they have abundance of means. This is the temper of English professors at this day ; they are guilty of sur- feiting of the word, and that is very dangerous, either of a people or person. Now, that there is such a fulness and satiety appears partly —