are ready enough to hear; and perhaps, like Ezekiel's hearers, are pleased with the sound of the Gospel, as j'ou would be with some delightful music® : but are you careful to apply to yourselves what you hear? Do you examine yourselves by it? Do you labour to treasure it up in your hearts ? Do you pray over it? Do you make it the subject of your conversation with your families, and of your meditations in the hours of retirement ? Do you not, on the contrary, find, that, through your neglecting to harrow in the seed, " the birds of the air come and take it away ;" or that, " through the cares and pleasures of this world, it is so choked that it never gTows up to perfection ? Yes ; this is the reason of that slow progress which people make in divine knowledge : this is the reason that persons, who would account themselves idiots if they received so little benefit from instructions in any other branch of know- ledge, continue mere "babes" throughout their whole lives.]
Having found the reason of men's unprofitableness under the ministry of the Gospel, we proceed to,
II. Shew the sad consequences arising from it —
The misimprovement of this talent is greatly over- looked among the sins we commit, or the evils we deplore. But,
1. It incapacitates men for receiving instructions —
[" Babes " must have food suited to their age : if " strong meat" were administered to them, they could not receive it : instead of being profited by the deeper mysteries of the Gospel, or by a full exhibition of the divine life as it exists and ope- rates in the hearts of more advanced Christians, they would very probably be injured: the display of light would be too bright for their organs ; oi', to use the metaphor in the text, the meat would be too strong for their digestive faculties. What a loss then is this to the persons themselves ! What a loss too to many who would be greatly benefited by the stronger food, but who must have only milk presented to them, lest others, unable to partake of their repast, should be deprived of what is absolutely necessary for their subsistence !
Let this be duly considered; and it will surely prove an effectual incentive to diligence !]
2. It imposes a restraint on their instructors —
[" We have many things to say, and hard to be uttered :" not that the difficulty lies in expressing them : but in reducing them to the comprehension of persons who are so "dull of
^ Ezek. xxxiii. 32.