XL Their duty- He teaches them,
1 . What they are to put away, as mjurious to their welfare —
[The unconverted man, though he may appear righteous before men, is in reality full of the most abominable evils. He may not indulge in any gross sins ; but he is full of " malice'^ towards those who have injui'ed him in any tender point ; and would feel gratified, rather than pained, at any evil that should befal him. His whole converse with mankind, too, is for the most part little better than one continued system of " guile and hypocrisy," which are the two chief constituents of what is called politeness. If a rival surpass him in any thing on which his heart is set, and gain the honours which he panted for, he will soon find that the spirit which is in him lusteth to " envy." Moreover, whether he be more or less guarded in his general conversation, he will find in himself a propensity to " evil-speaking," as if he felt himself more elevated in proportion as others are depressed. Now these dispositions are more or less dominant in the na- tural man, as St. Paul has strongly and repeatedly de- clared^ and, after a person is converted to the faith
of Christ, he needs to watch and pray against them with all imaginable care : for as inveterate disorders in the constitu- tion will impede the growth and destroy the vigour of the body, so will these hateful dispositions " war against," and, if not subdued and mortified, prevail to the destruction of the soul. These things therefore must be " put away."]
1. What they must seek after, as conducive to their growth —
[As " the word is the incorruptible seed of which they are born^," so is it the food, upon which, as " new-born babes," they must subsist. In the Inspired Volume, they have truth without any mixture of error. The writings of men take partial views of things, and all more or less savour of human infirmity. Nor can the soul live upon them. If we have read a hmnan composition two or three times, we are weary of it : but this is not the case with the word of God : that is ever new, and ever sweet to the taste of a regenerate soul. A little infant affects nothing so much as its mother's breast. From day to day it prefers that before every thing else that can be offered to it : and it thrives with that, better than with any food that human ingenuity can devise. So in the " sincere " and unadulterated " milk of the word," there
is ' Eph. ii. 3. Tit. iii. 3. ^ Ch. i. 23.