02 1Pe 2:1-25

A Practical Commentary upon the First Epistle of Peter

Robert Leighton

CHAPTER II. Ver. 1. Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies; and envies, and all evil speakings, Ver. 2. As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. The same power and goodness of God that manifests itself in giving being to His creatures, appears likewise in sustaining and preserving them. To give being is the first, and to support it is the continued effect of that power and goodness. Thus it is both in the first creation, and in the second. In the first, the creatures to which He gave life, He provided suitable nourishment to uphold that life;1 so here, in the close of the former chapter, we find the doctrine of the new birth and life of a Christian, and in the beginning of this, the proper food for that life. And it is the same word by which we there find it to be begotten, that is here the nourishment of it; and therefore Christians are here exhorted by the Apostle so to esteem and so to use it; and that is the main scope of the words. Observe in general—The word, the principle, and the support of our spiritual being, is both the incorruptible seed and the incorruptible food of that new life of grace, which must therefore be an incorruptible life; and this may convince us that the ordinary thoughts, even of us who hear this word, are far below the true excellence and worth of it. The stream of custom and our profession brings us here, and we sit out our hour under the sound of this word; but how few consider and prize it as the great ordinance of God for the salvation of souls, the beginner and the sustainer of the Divine life of Grace within us! And certainly, until we have these thoughts of it, and seek to feel it thus ourselves, although we hear it most frequently, and let slip no occasion, yea, hear it with attention and some present delight, yet, still we miss the right use of it, and turn it from its true end, while we take it not as the engrafted word which is able to save our souls.2 Thus ought those who preach to speak it; to endeavor their utmost to accommodate it to this end, that sinners may be converted, begotten again, and believers nourished and strengthened in their spiritual life; to regard no lower end, but aim steadily at that mark. Their hearts and tongues ought to be set on fire with holy zeal for God and love to souls, kindled by the Holy Spirit, who came down on the Apostles in the shape of fiery tongues. And those who hear should remember this as the purpose of their hearing, that they may receive spiritual life and strength by the word. For though it seems a poor despicable business, that a frail sinful man like yourselves should speak a few words in your hearing, yet, look upon it as the way by which God communicates happiness to those who believe, and works that believing unto happiness, alters the whole frame of the soul, and makes a new creation, as it begets it again to the inheritance of glory—consider it thus, which is its true notion; and then what can be so precious? Let the world disesteem it as they will, you know that it is the power of God unto salvation.3 The preaching of the cross is to those who perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God,4 says the Apostle; and if you would have the experience of this, if you would have life and growth by it, you must look above the poor worthless messenger, and call in His almighty help, who is the Lord of life. As the Philosophers affirm, that if the heavens should stand still, there would be no generation or flourishing of anything here below, so it is the moving and influence of the Spirit that makes the Church fruitful. If you would but do this before you come here, present the blindness of your minds, and the deadness of your hearts to God, and say, "Lord, here is an opportunity for You to show the power of Your word. I would find life and strength in it; but neither can I who hear, nor he who speaks, make it thus unto me—that is Your prerogative; say the word and it shall be done." God said, Let there be light; and there was light.5 In this exhortation to the due use of the word, the Apostle continues the resemblance of that new birth he mentioned in the preceding chapter. As new-born babes.] Don’t be satisfied with yourselves until you find some evidence of this new, this supernatural life. There are delights and comforts in this life, in its lowest condition, that would persuade us to look after it if we knew them; but as most cannot be made aware of these, consider therefore the end of it. Better never to have been, than not to have been partaker of this new being. Except a man be born again, says our Savior, he cannot see the kingdom of God.6 Surely those who are not born again, shall one day wish they had never been born. What a poor wretched thing is the life that we have here! a very heap of follies and miseries! Now if we would share in a happier being after it, in the life that doesn’t end, it must begin here. Grace and glory are one and the same life, only with this difference, that the one is the beginning, and the other the perfection of it; or, if we do call them two several lives, yet the one is the undoubted pledge of the other. It was a strange word for a heathen to say, that that day of death we fear so—aeterni natalis est—is the birthday of eternity. Thus it is indeed to those who are here born again: this new birth of grace is the sure earnest and pledge of that birthday of glory. Why do we not then labor to make this certain by the former? Is it not a fearful thing to spend our days in vanity, and then lie down in darkness and sorrow forever; to disregard the life of our soul, while we may and should be making provision for it, and then, when it is going out, cry, Quo nunc abibis?—Where are you going, O my soul? But this new life puts us out of the danger and fear of that eternal death. We have passed from death unto life,7 says St. John, speaking of those who are born again; and being passed, there is no re-passing, no going back from this life to death again. This new birth is the same that St. John calls the first resurrection, and he pronounces them blessed who partake of it; Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power.8 The weak beginnings of grace, in comparison to the further strength attainable even in this life, are sometimes expressed as the infancy of it; and so believers should not continue to be infants: if they do, it is reprovable in them, as we see, Ephesians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 2:2; 1 Corinthians 14:20; Hebrews 5:12. Though the Apostle writes to new converts, and so may possibly imply the tenderness of their beginnings of grace, yet I think that infancy is here to be taken in such a sense as corresponds to a Christian in the whole course and best state of his spiritual life here below. So, likewise, the milk here recommended is suitable to this sense of infancy; and not to the former, (as it is in some of those cited places, where it means the easiest and first principles of religion, and so is opposed to the higher mysteries of it, as to strong meat;) but here it signifies the whole word of God, and all its wholesome and saving truths, as the proper nourishment of the children of God. And so the Apostle’s words are a standing exhortation for all Christians of all degrees. And the whole state and course of their spiritual life here is called their infancy, not only as opposed to the corruption and wickedness of the old man, but likewise as signifying the weakness and imperfection of it at its best in this life, compared with the perfection of the life to come—for the weakest beginnings of grace are by no means so far below the highest degree of it possible in this life, as that highest degree falls short of the state of glory; so that, if one measure of grace is called infancy in comparison to another, much more is all grace infancy in comparison to glory. And surely, as for duration, the time of our present life is far less compared to eternity, than the time of our natural infancy is to the rest of our life; so that we may be still called but new or lately born. Our best pace and strongest walking in obedience here, is but as the stepping of children when they begin to go by hold, compared to the perfect obedience in glory when we shall follow the Lamb wherever he goes. All our knowledge here is but as the ignorance of infants, and all our expressions of God and of His praises but as the first stammerings of children, in comparison of the knowledge we shall have of Him hereafter, when we shall know as we are known, and of the praises we shall then offer Him, when that new song shall be taught us. A child has in it a reasonable soul, and yet, by the indisposedness of the body, and abundance of moisture, it is so bound up, that its difference from the beasts in partaking of a rational life, is as apparent as afterwards; and thus the spiritual life that is from above infused into a Christian, although it acts and works in some degree, yet it is so clogged with the natural corruption still remaining in him, that the excellence of it is much clouded and obscured; but in the life to come, it shall have nothing at all encumbering and indisposing it. And this is the Apostle St. Paul’s doctrine.9 And this is the wonder of Divine grace, which brings such small beginnings to a height of perfection that we are not able to conceive of—that a little spark of true grace, which is not only indiscernible to others, but often to the Christian himself, should yet be the beginning of that condition in which they shall shine brighter than the sun in the firmament. The difference is great in our natural life, in some persons especially; that those who in infancy were so feeble and wrapped up as others in swaddling clothes, yet afterwards come to excel in wisdom and in the knowledge of sciences, or to be commanders of great armies, or to be kings; but the distance is far greater and more admirable between the weakness of these newborn babes, the small beginnings of grace, and our after-perfection, that fullness of knowledge that we look for, and that crown of immortality which all those are born to, who are born of God. But as in the faces or actions of some children, some characters and presages of their after-greatness have appeared, (as a singular beauty in Moses’ face, as they write of him, and as Cyrus was made king among the shepherds’ children with whom he was brought up, &c.,) so also, certainly in these children of God there will be some characters and evidences that they are born for Heaven by their new birth. The holiness and meekness, the patience and faith, that shine in the actions and sufferings of the saints, are characters of their Father’s image, and show their high origin, and foretell their glory to come; such a glory, as does not only surpass the world’s thoughts, but the thoughts of the children of God themselves. Now, that the children of God may grow by the word of God, the Apostle requires these two things of them: 1. The innocence of children; 2. The appetite of children. For this expression, as newborn babes, as I think, is relative not only to the desiring of the milk of the word, ver. 2, but to the former verse, the putting off malice. So the Apostle Paul exhorts, Howbeit in malice be you children.10 Wherefore laying aside.] This signifies that we are naturally prepossessed with these evils, and therefore we are exhorted to put them off. Our hearts are by nature nothing more than cages of those unclean birds—malice, envy, hypocrisies, &c. The Apostles sometimes name some of these evils, and sometimes others of them, but they are inseparable,—all one garment, and all included under that one word, the old Man 1:11 which the Apostle exhorts Christians to put off—and here it is pressed as a necessary evidence of their new birth, and furtherance of their spiritual growth, that these base habits be thrown away; ragged, filthy habits, unbecoming the children of God. They are the proper marks of an unrenewed mind, the very character of the children of Satan, for they are his image. He has his names from enmity, and envy, and slandering; and he is that grand hypocrite and deceiver, who can transform himself into an angel of light.12 So, on the contrary, the Spirit of God who dwells in His children is the Spirit of meekness, and love, and truth. That dovelike Spirit which descended on our Savior, is communicated from Him to believers. It is the grossest impudence to pretend to be Christians, and yet to entertain hatred and envyings upon whatever occasion; for there is nothing more recommended to them by our Savior’s own doctrine, nothing more impressed upon their hearts by His Spirit, than love. Kakia may be taken generally, but I conceive it intends that which we particularly call malice. Malice and envy are but two branches growing out of the same bitter root; self-love and evil-speakings are the fruit they bear. Malice is properly the procuring or wishing another’s evil, envy the repining at his good; and both these vent themselves by evil speaking. This infernal fire within smokes and flashes out by the tongue, which St. James says, is set on fire of hell,13 and fires all about it; misjudging the actions of those they hate or envy, aggravating their failings, and detracting from their virtues, taking all things by the left ear; for (as Epictetus says,) Every thing has two handles. The art of taking things by the better side, which charity always does, would save much of those janglings and heart-burnings that so abound in the world. But folly and perverseness possess the hearts of most people, and therefore their discourses are usually the vent of these; For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.14 The unsavory breaths of men show their inward corruption. Where shall a man come, almost, in societies, but his ears shall be beaten with the unpleasant noise (surely it is so to a Christian mind) of one detracting and disparaging another? And yet this is extreme baseness, and the practice only of false counterfeit goodness, to make up one’s own esteem out of the ruins of the good name of others. Real virtue neither needs nor can endure this dishonest shift; it can subsist of itself, and therefore ingenuously commends and acknowledges what good is in others, and loves to hear it acknowledged: and neither readily speaks nor hears evil of any, but rather, where duty and conscience require not discovery, casts a veil upon men’s failings to hide them: this is the true temper of the children of God. These evils of malice, and envies, and evil speakings, and such like, are not to be overlooked by us, in ourselves, and conveyed under better appearances, but to be cast away; not to be covered, but put off; and therefore that which is the upper garment and cloak of all other evils, the Apostle here commands us to cast that off too, namely, hypocrisies. What avails it to wear this mask? A man may indeed in the sight of men act his part handsomely under it, and pass so for a time; but know we not that there is an Eye who sees through it, and a Hand that, if we will not pull off this mask, will pull it off to our shame, either here in the sight of men, or, if we should escape all our life, and go fair off the stage under it, yet that there is a day appointed in which all hypocrites shall be unveiled, and appear what they are indeed before men and angels? It is a poor thing to be approved and applauded by men while God condemns, to whose sentence all men must stand or fall. Oh! seek to be approved and justified by Him, and then, who shall condemn?15 It is doesn’t matter who does. How easily may we bear the mistakes and dislikes of the entire world, if He declares Himself well pleased with us! It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment; he who judges me is the Lord,16 says the Apostle. But these evils are here particularly to be put off, as contrary to the right and profitable receiving of the word of God; for this part of the exhortation (Laying aside) looks to that which follows (Desire, &c.), and is especially so to be considered. There is this double task in religion—when a man enters upon it he is not only to be taught true wisdom, but he is also, yea, first of all, to be untaught the errors and wickedness that are deep-rooted in his mind, which he has not only learned by the corrupt conversation of the world, but brought the seeds of them into the world with him. They improve and grow indeed by the favor of that example which is round about a man, but they are originally in our nature as it is now; they are inherent to us, besides continual custom, which is another nature. No one comes to the school of Christ suiting the Philosopher’s word, ut tabula rasa—as blank paper—to receive his doctrine: but, on the contrary, all scribbled and blurred with such base habits as these, malice, hypocrisies, envies, &c. Therefore, the first work is to raze out these, to cleanse and purify the heart from these blots, these foul characters, so that it may receive the impression of the image of God. And because it is the word of God that both begins and continues this work, and draws the lineaments of that Divine image on the soul, therefore, in order to receive this word rightly, and to be properly affected by it, the conforming of the soul to Jesus Christ, which is the true growth of the spiritual life, it is required beforehand that the hearts of those who hear it be purged of these and other such impurities. These dispositions are so opposite to the profitable receiving of the word of God, that while they possess and rule the soul, it cannot at all embrace these Divine truths; while it is filled with such guests, there is no room to entertain the word. They cannot dwell together, because of their contrary nature; the word will not mix with these. The saving mixture of the word of God in the soul is what the Apostle speaks of, and he assigns the lack of it as the cause of unprofitable hearing of the word—not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.17 For by that the word is concocted into the nourishment of the life of grace united to the soul, and mixed with it, by being mixed with faith, as the Apostle’s expression means: that is the proper mixture it requires. But with the qualities here mentioned it will not mix; there is a natural antipathy between them, as strong as in those things in nature, that cannot be brought by any means to agree and mingle together. Can there be any thing more contrary than the good word of God,18 as the Apostle calls it, and those evil speakings? than the word, which is of such excellent sweetness, and the bitter words of a malignant tongue? than the word of life, and words full of deadly poison? For so slanders and defamings of our brethren are termed. And is not all malice and envy most opposite to the word, which is the message of peace and love? How can the gall of malice and this milk of the word agree? Hypocrisy and guile stand in direct opposition to the name of this word, which is called the word of truth; and here the very word shows this contrariety, sincere milk, and a double, insincere mind. These two are necessary conditions of good nourishment: 1st, That the food be good and wholesome; 2ndly, That the inward constitution of those who use it be so too. And if this fails, the other profits not. This sincere milk is the only proper nourishment of spiritual life, and there is no defect or undue quality in it; but the greatest part of hearers are inwardly unwholesome, diseased with the evils here mentioned, and others of the same nature; and, therefore, either have no kind of appetite to the word at all, but rather feed upon such trash as suits with their distemper (as some kind of diseases incline those who have them to eat coals or lime, &c.), or, if they are in any way desirous to hear the word, and seem to feed on it, yet the noxious humors that abound in them make it altogether unprofitable, and they are not nourished by it. This evil of malice and envying, so ordinary among men (and, which is most strange, amongst Christians), like an overflowing of the gall, possesses their whole minds; and not only are they not nourished by the word they hear, but are made the worse by it; their disease is fed by it, as an unwholesome stomach turns the best meat it receives into that bad humor that abounds in it. Don’t they do so, who observe what the word says, in order to be better enabled to discover the failings of others, and speak maliciously and uncharitably of them, and vent themselves, as is too common—This word met well with such a one’s fault, and this with another’s?—Is not this to feed these diseases of malice, envy, and evil speakings, with this pure milk, and make them grow, instead of growing by it ourselves in grace and holiness? Thus, likewise, the hypocrite turns all that he hears of this word, not to the inward renovation of his mind, and redressing what is amiss there, but only to the composing of his outward carriage, and to enable himself to act his part better—to be more cunning in his own faculty, a more refined and expert hypocrite; not to grow more a Christian indeed, but more in appearance only, and in the opinion of others. Therefore it is a very necessary admonition, considering these evils are so natural to men, and so contrary to the nature of the word of God, that they be purged out, so that it might be profitably received. A very similar exhortation to this has the Apostle St. James, and some of the same words, but in another metaphor: Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word.19 He compares the word to a plant of excellent virtue, the very tree of life, the word that is able to save your souls; but the only soil in which it will grow is a heart full of meekness, a heart that is purged of those luxuriant weeds that grow so rank in it by nature; they must be plucked up and thrown out to make place for this word. And there is such a necessity for this, that the most approved teachers of wisdom, in a human way, have required of their scholars that, to the end their minds may be capable of it, they should be purified from vice and wickedness. For this reason the Philosopher considers young men unsuitable hearers of moral philosophy, because of their abundant and unbridled passions, granting that, if those were composed and ordered, they might be admitted. And it was Socrates’ custom, when they asked him a question, seeking to be informed by him,—before he would answer them, he asked them concerning their own qualities and course of life. Now, if men require a calm and purified disposition of mind to make it capable of their doctrine, how much more is it suitable and necessary for learning the doctrine of God, and those deep mysteries that His word opens up! It is well expressed in that Apocryphal book of Wisdom, that Froward thoughts separate from God, and into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter:20 no, indeed, that is a very unfit dwelling for it; and even a heathen (Seneca) could say, The mind that is impure is not capable of God and Divine things. Therefore we see the strain of that book of Proverbs that speaks so much of this wisdom; it requires, in the first chapter, that those who would hear it, do retire themselves from all ungodly customs and practices. And, indeed, how can the soul apprehend spiritual things, that is not in some measure refined from the love of sin, which abuses and bemires the minds of men, and makes them unable to arise to heavenly thoughts? Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God,21 says our Savior: not only shall they see Him perfectly hereafter, but so far as they can receive Him, He will impart and make Himself known unto them here. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.22 What makes the word obscure is the filthy mists within; whereas, on the contrary, He will in just judgment hide Himself, and the saving truth of His word, from those who entertain and delight in sin; the very sins in which they delight shall obscure and darken the light of the Gospel to them, so that though it shines clear as the sun at noonday, they shall be as those who live in a dungeon—they shall not discern it. And as those who have the evils here mentioned reigning and in full strength within them, receive no benefit by the word, so with those who are indeed born again, the more they retain of these evils, the less shall they find the influence and profit of the word; for this exhortation concerns them. Some of them may possibly have a great remainder of these corruptions unmortified; therefore they are exhorted to lay aside entirely those evils, all malice, hypocrisies, &c., else, although they hear the word often, yet they will be in a spiritual atrophy; they will eat much, but grow nothing by it; they will find no increase of grace and spiritual strength. If we want to know the main cause of our fruitless hearing of the word, here it is; men do not bring meek and guileless spirits to it, not minds emptied and purified to receive it, but stuffed with malice, and hypocrisy, and pride, and other such evils; and where should the word enter, when all is so taken up? And if it did enter, how should it prosper amongst so many enemies, or at all abide amongst them? Either they will turn it out again, or choke and kill the power of it. We think religion and our own lusts and secret heart-idols should agree together, because we would have it so—but this is not possible. Therefore labor to entertain the word of truth in the love of it, and lodge the mystery of faith in a pure conscience,23 as the Apostle St. Paul speaks. Join those together with David, I hate vain thoughts: but your law do I love.24 And as here our Apostle, Lay aside all malice, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings, and so receive the word, or else look for no benefit by it here, nor for salvation by it hereafter; but cast out all impurity, and give your whole heart to it; so desire it, that you may grow, and then, as you desire, you shall grow by it. Every real believer has received a life from Heaven, far more excelling our natural life than that excels the life of the beasts. And this life has its own peculiar desires and delights, which are the proper actings, and the certain characters and evidence of it: amongst others this is one, and a main one, corresponding to the like desire in natural life—namely, a desire for food; and because it is here still imperfect, therefore the natural end of this is, not only nourishment, but growth, as it is here expressed. The sincere milk of the word.] The life of grace is the proper life of a reasonable soul, and without it the soul is dead, as the body is without the soul; so that without untruth this may be rendered reasonable milk, as some read it; but certainly that reasonable milk is the word of God, The milk of the word. It was before called the immortal seed, and here it is the milk of those who are born again, and thus it is nourishment very agreeable to their spiritual life, according to the saying, Iisdem alimur ex quibus constamus.25 As the milk that infants draw from the breast is the most suitable food for them, being of that same substance that nourished them in the womb; so, when they are brought forth, that food follows them as it were for their supply, in the way that is provided in nature for it; by certain veins it ascends into the breasts, and is there fitted for them, and they are by nature directed to find it there. Thus, as a Christian begins to live by the power of the word, so he is by the nature of that spiritual life directed to that same word as its nourishment. To follow the resemblance further in the qualities of milk, after the monkish way, that runs itself out of breath in allegory, I conceive is neither solid nor profitable; and to speak freely, the curious searching of the similitude in other qualities of milk, seems to wrong the quality here given it by the Apostle, in which it is so well resembled by milk, namely, the simple pureness and sincerity of the word; besides that the pressing of comparisons of this kind too far, proves often so constrained before they have finished it, that by too much drawing they bring forth blood instead of milk. Pure and unmixed, as milk drawn immediately from the breast; the pure word of God without the mixture, not only of error, but of all other composition of vain unprofitable subtleties, or affected human eloquence, such as become not the majesty and gravity of God’s word. If any man speak, says our Apostle, let him speak as the oracles of God.26 Light conceits and flowers of rhetoric wrong the word more than they can please the hearers: the weeds among the corn make it look gay, but it were all the better they were not amongst it. Nor can those mixtures be pleasing to any but carnal minds. Those who are indeed the children of God, as infants who like their breast-milk best pure, do love the word best so, and wherever they find it so, they relish it well; whereas natural men cannot love spiritual things for themselves, desire not the word for its own sweetness, but would have it sauced with such conceits as possibly spoil the simplicity of it; or at the best, love to hear it for the wit and learning which, without any wrongful mixture of it, they find in one delivering it more than another. But the natural and genuine appetite of the children of God is to the word for itself, and only as milk, sincere milk; and where they find it so, from whomever or in whatever way delivered to them, they feed upon it with delight. Before 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 once born again, then it is the milk itself that 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 doesn’t care whether it obtains it, but a vehement desire, as the word signifies, and as the resemblance clearly bears; as a child who will not be stilled till it has 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 breaks for the longing that it has unto your judgments;27 as a child likely to break its heart with crying for want of the breast. And again, because natural, it is, 3. Constant. The infant is not cloyed or 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 has 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 breaks for the longing that it has unto your judgments at all times. And then this law was his meditation day and night.28 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 while we should wonder at God’s singular goodness to us, and therefore prize His word all the more, that very thing makes us despise it—while others, our brethren, have bought this milk with their own blood, we have it upon the easiest terms that could be wished, only for the desiring, without the hazard of bleeding for it, and scarcely at the pains of sweating for it. That you may grow thereby.] This is not only the purpose for which God has provided His children with the word, and moves them to desire it, but that 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, who 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, Job 34:2,) but you know that meat which goes no further than the mouth cannot nourish. Neither should you desire the word only to satisfy a custom; it would be a great folly to make such superficial a thing the purpose of so serious a work. Again, to hear it only to stop the mouth of conscience, that it may not clamor more for the gross impiety of condemning it, this is to hear it, not 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 who find it so, and so be a means to advance the end; but the end it is not. To seek no more than a present delight, which vanishes with the sound of the words that die in the air, is not to desire the word as meat, but as music, as God tells the prophet Ezekiel of his people.29 And, lo, you are to them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear your words, but 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 growth, yet, take it as going no further, it is not the true end of the word. Nor is 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 skillful speaking of the word, severed from the growth here mentioned, misses the true end of the word. If anyone’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, who 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. Appropriate to their case is Epictetus’s comparison of the sheep; they return not what they eat in grass, but in wool. David, in that 119th Psalm, which is wholly spent upon this subject, the excellence and use of the word of God, expresses, ver. 15, 16, 24, his delight in it, his earnest desire to be further taught, and to know more of it; his readiness to speak of it, ver. 13, 27; but withal, you know, he joins his desire and care to keep it, to hide it in his heart, ver. 5, 11; to make it the man of his counsel, to let it be as the whole assembly of his private counselors, and to be ruled and guided by it; and with him to use it so, is indeed to grow by it. If we know what this spiritual life is, and of what 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. And as the word is the means of begetting this spiritual life, so likewise of its increase. 1. This will appear, if we consider the nature of the word in general, that it is spiritual and Divine, treats of the highest things, and therefore has 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 does to those who are much in it, and apply their minds to study it. Doubtless, such kind of things as are frequent with men, have an influence on 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 this 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 are 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 does (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 does 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; shows it the strength of the new covenant, 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 has admission into the soul, the more it hates sin, sin being the more discovered and the better known in its own native color: as the more light there is in a house, the more any thing that is unclean or deformed is seen and disliked. Likewise it increases love to God, by opening up still more and more of His infinite excellence and loveliness. 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 who alone deserves to be loved. Thus might it be instanced in respect to all other graces. But above all other considerations, this is observable in the word as the increaser of grace, that it holds forth Jesus Christ to our view to look upon not only as the perfect pattern, but also as the full fountain of all grace, from whose fullness we all receive. The contemplation 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 expresses excellently30 speaking of the ministry of the Gospel revealing Christ, that beholding in him (as it is, ch. 4 ver. 6, 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 that might be said of this spiritual growth, but I will add only a few. First, in the judging of this growth, some persons conclude too rigidly against themselves, that they grow not by the word, because their growth is not so sensible to them as they desire. But, 1. It is well known, that in all things that grow, this growth is not discerned in motu, sed in termino,31 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 you grow more self-denying and humble in the sense of your slowness, all is not lost; although the branches shoot not up so fast as you wish, yet, if the root grow deeper, and fasten more, it is a useful growth. He who is still learning to be more in Jesus Christ, and less in himself, to have all his dependence and comfort in Him, is doubtless a growing believer. On the other side, a far greater number conclude wrong in their own favor, imagining that they do grow, if they gain ground in some of those things we mentioned above, namely, more knowledge and more faculty of discoursing; if they find often some present stirrings of joy or sorrow in hearing of the word; if they reform their life, grow more civil and blameless, &c.; yet all these and many such things may be in a natural man, who notwithstanding grows not, for that is impossible; he is not, in that state, a subject capable of this growth, for he is dead, he has none of the new life to which this growth relates. Herod heard gladly, and obeyed many things.32 Consider, then, what true delight we might have in this. You find a pleasure when you see your children grow, when they begin to stand and walk, and so forth; you love well to perceive your estate or your honor grow: but for the soul to be growing more like God, and nearer Heaven, if we know it, is a pleasure far beyond them all: to find pride, earthliness, and vanity abating, and faith, and love, and spiritual-mindedness increasing; especially if we reflect that this growth is not as our natural life, which is often cut off before it reaches full age, as we call it, and, if it attain that, falls again to move downwards, and decays, as the sun, being at its meridian, begins to decline again; but this life shall grow on in whomever it is, and come certainly to its fullness; after which, there is no more need for this word, either for growth or nourishment,—no death, no decay, no old age, but perpetual youth, and a perpetual spring; ver aeternum; fullness of joy in the presence of God, and everlasting pleasures at His right hand.33 Ver. 3. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Our natural desire for food arises principally from its necessity for that end which nature seeks, viz. the growth, or at least the nourishment of our bodies. But there is, besides, a present sweetness and pleasantness in the use of it that serves to sharpen our desire, and is placed in our nature for that purpose. Thus the children of God, in their spiritual life, are naturally carried to desire the means of their nourishment and of their growth, being always here in a growing state; but besides, there is a spiritual delight and sweetness in the word, in that which it reveals concerning God, and this adds to their desire, stirs up their appetite towards it. The former idea is expressed in the preceding verse, the latter in this. Nature sends the infant to the breast; but when it has once tasted of it, that is a new superadded attraction, and makes it desire after it the more earnestly. So here, The word is fully recommended to us by these two, usefulness and pleasantness: like milk, (as it is compared here,) which is a nourishing food, and also sweet and delightful to the taste: by it we grow, and in it we taste the graciousness of God. David, in that Psalm which he dedicates wholly to this subject, gives both of these as the reason for his appetite. He passionately expresses his love for it (119:97-102), O how love I your law! It follows, that by it he was made wiser than his enemies,—than his teachers,—and than the ancients; taught to refrain from every evil way; taught by the Author of that word, the Lord Himself, to grow wiser and warier, and holier in his ways; and then, ver. 103, he adds this other reason, How sweet are your words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! We shall speak, I. Of the goodness or graciousness of the Lord; II. Of this taste; and III. Of the inference from both. I. The goodness of God: The Lord is gracious; or, of a bountiful, kind disposition. The Hebrew word in Psalms 34:8, whence this is taken, signifies good. The Septuagint renders it by the same word as is used here by our Apostle. Both the words signify a benignity and kindness of nature. It is one of love’s attributes,34 that it is kind, chresteuomai, ever compassionate, and helpful as it can be in straits and distresses, and still ready to forget and pass by evil, and to do good. In the largest and most comprehensive sense must we take the expression here, and yet still we shall speak and think infinitely below what His goodness is. He is naturally good, yea, goodness is His nature; He is goodness and love itself. He who loves not knows not God; for God is love.35 He is primitively good; all goodness is derived from Him, and all that is in the creature comes forth from none other than that ocean; and this Graciousness is still larger than them all. There is a common bounty of God, in which He does good to all, and so the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.36 But the goodness that the Gospel is full of,—the particular stream that runs in that channel, is His peculiar graciousness and love to His own children, that by which they are first enlivened, and then refreshed and sustained in their spiritual being. It is this that is here spoken of. He is gracious to them in freely forgiving their sins, in giving no less than Himself to them; He frees them from all evils, and fills them with all good. He satisfies your mouth with good things and so it follows with good reason, that He is merciful and gracious; and His graciousness is further expressed in His gentleness and slowness to anger, His bearing with the frailties of His own, and pitying them like as a father pities his children.37 No friend is so kind and friendly (as this word signifies), and none so powerful. He is a very present help in trouble,38 ready to be found: whereas others may be far off, He is always at hand, and His presence is always comfortable. Those who know God, still find Him a real useful good. Some things and some persons are useful at one time, and others at another, but God at all times. A well-furnished table may please a man while he has health and appetite, but offer it to him in the height of a fever, how unpleasant would it be then! Though never so lavishly prepared, it is then not only useless, but hateful to him; but the kindness and love of God is then as seasonable and refreshing to him, as in health, and possibly more; he can find sweetness in that, even on his sickbed. The bitter choler abounding in the mouth, in a fever, does not make distasteful this sweetness; it transcends and goes above it. Thus all earthly enjoyments have but some time (as meats) when they are in season, but the graciousness of God is always sweet; the taste of that is never out of season. See how old age spoils the relish of outward delights, in the example of Barzillai,39 but it makes not this distasteful. Therefore the Psalmist prays, that when other comforts forsake him and wear out, when they ebb from him and leave him on the sand, this may not; that still he may feed on the goodness of God: Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength fails.40 It is the continual influence of His graciousness that makes them still grow like a cedar in Lebanon, that makes them still bring forth fruit in old age, and be fat and flourishing; to show that the Lord is upright, as it is there added, that He is (as the word imports) still like Himself, and His goodness is ever the same.41 Full chests or large possessions may seem sweet to a man, until death presents itself; but then (as the Prophet speaks of throwing away their idols of silver and gold to the bats and moles, in the day of calamity,42) then he is forced to throw away all he possesses, with disdain for it and for his former folly in doting on it—at that time, the kindness of friends, and wife, and children, can do nothing but increase his grief and their own—but then is the love of God the good indeed and abiding sweetness, and it best relishes when all other things are most unsavory and uncomfortable. God is gracious, but it is God in Christ; otherwise we cannot find Him so: therefore this is here spoken in particular of Jesus Christ, (as it appears by that which follows,) through whom all the peculiar kindness and love of God is conveyed to the soul, for it can come no other way; and the word here mentioned is the Gospel,43 of which Christ is the subject. Though God is mercy and goodness in Himself, yet we cannot find or apprehend Him so to us, but as we are looking through that medium the Mediator. That main point of the goodness of God in the Gospel, which is so sweet to a humbled sinner, the forgiveness of sins, we know we cannot taste of, but in Christ—In whom we have redemption.44 And all the favor that shines upon us, all the grace that we receive, is of his fullness;45 all our acceptance with God, our being taken into grace and kindness again, is in Him—He has made us accepted in the beloved.46 His grace appears in both, as it is there expressed, but it is all in Christ. Let us therefore never leave Him out in our desires of tasting the graciousness and love of God; for otherwise we shall not only dishonor Him, but also disappoint ourselves. The free grace of God was given to be tasted, in the promises, before the coming of Christ in the flesh; but being accomplished in His coming, then was the sweetness of grace made more sensible; then was it more fully broached, and let out to the elect world, when He was pierced on the cross, and His blood poured out for our redemption. Through those holes of His wounds may we draw, and taste that the Lord is gracious, says St. Augustine. II. As to this taste: You have tasted.] There is a tasting exercised by temporary believers spoken of, Hebrews 6:4. Their highest sense of spiritual things, (and it will be far higher in some than we easily think,) yet is but a taste, and is called so in comparison of the truer, fuller sense that true believers have of the grace and goodness of God, which, compared with a temporary taste, is more than tasting. The former is merely tasting, rather an imaginary taste than real; but this is a true feeding on the graciousness of God, yet it is called but a taste in respect of the fullness to come. Though it is more than a taste, as distinguishable from the hypocrite’s sense, yet it is no more than a taste, compared with the great marriage-feast that we look for. Jesus Christ being all in all47 to the soul, faith, apprehending Him, is all the spiritual senses: it is the eye that beholds His matchless beauty, and so kindles love in the soul, and can speak of Him as having seen Him, and taken particular notice of Him:48 it is the ear that discerns His voice.49 It is faith that smells His name as ointment poured forth;50 faith that touches Him and draws virtue from Him; and faith that tastes Him;51 and so here, If you have tasted. In order to this there must be, 1. A firm believing of the truth of the promises in which the free grace of God is expressed and exhibited to us. 2. A particular application or attraction of that grace to ourselves, which is the drawing of those breasts of her consolations,52 namely, the promises contained in the Old and New Testaments. 3. A sense of the sweetness of that grace, being applied or drawn into the soul, and that is properly this taste. No unrenewed man has any of these in truth, not the highest kind of temporary believer; he cannot have so much as a real lively assent to the general truth of the promises; for if he had that, the rest would follow. But as he cannot have the least of these in truth, he may have the counterfeit of them all, not only of assent but of application, yea, and a false spiritual joy arising from it; and all these so drawn to the life, that they may much resemble the truth of them. To give clear characters of difference is not so easy as most persons imagine; but doubtless the true living faith of a Christian has in itself such a particular stamp, as brings with it its own evidence, when the soul is clear, and the light of God’s face shines upon it. Indeed, in the dark we cannot read, nor distinguish one mark from another; but when a Christian has light to look upon the work of God in his own soul, although he cannot make another sensible of that by which he knows it, yet he himself is assured, and can say confidently in himself, "This I know, that this faith and taste of God I have is true; the seal of the Spirit of God is upon it;" and this is the reading of that new name, in the white stone, which no man knows saving he that receives it.53 There is, in a true believer, such a constant love to God for Himself, and such a continual desire after Him, simply for His own excellence and goodness, as no other can have. On the other side, if a hypocrite would deal truly and impartially by himself, he would readily find out something that would reveal him more or less to himself. But the truth is, men are willing to deceive themselves, and herein arises the difficulty. One man cannot make another sensible of the sweetness of Divine Grace: he may speak to him of it very excellently, but all he says in that kind is an unknown language to a natural man; he hears many good words, but he cannot tell what they mean. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned.54 A spiritual man himself does not fully comprehend this sweetness that he tastes of; it is an infinite goodness, and he has but a taste of it. The peace of God, which is a main fruit of this His goodness, passes all understanding,55 says the Apostle, not only all natural understanding, (as some modify it,) but all understanding, even the supernatural understanding of those who enjoy it. And as the godly man cannot comprehend it all, so as to that which he understands, he cannot express it all, and that which he does express, the carnal mind cannot conceive of by his expression. But he who has indeed tasted of this goodness, O how tasteless are those things to him that the world calls sweet! As when you have tasted something that is very sweet, it disrelishes other things after it. Therefore a Christian can so easily either lack, or use with indifference the delights of this earth. His heart is not upon them: for the delight that he finds in God carries it unspeakably away from all the rest, and makes them in comparison seem sapless to his taste. Solomon tasted of all the delicacies, the choicest dishes that are in such esteem amongst men, and not only tasted, but ate largely of them, and yet see how he goes over them, to let us know what they are, and passes from one dish to another. This also is vanity, and of the next, This also is vanity, and so through all, and of all in general, All is vanity and vexation of spirit, or feeding on the wind, as the word may be rendered.56 III. We come in the third place to the inference: If you have tasted, &c., then lay aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking, ver. 1; for it looks back to the whole exhortation. Surely, if you have tasted of that kindness and sweetness of God in Christ, it will compose your spirits, and conform them to Him; it will diffuse such a sweetness through your soul, that there will be no place for malice and guile; there will be nothing but love, and meekness, and singleness of heart. Therefore those who have bitter malicious spirits, prove that they have not tasted of the love of God. As the Lord is good, so those who taste of His goodness are made like Him. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.57 Again, if you have tasted, then desire more. And this will be the truest sign of it: he who is in a continual hunger and thirst after this graciousness of God has surely tasted of it. My soul thirsts for God, says David. He had tasted before; he remembers, that he went to the house of God, with the voice of joy.58 This is that happy circle in which the soul moves: the more they love it, the more they shall taste of this goodness; and the more they taste, the more they shall still love and desire it. But observe, if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, then, desire the milk of the word. This is the sweetness of the word, that it has in it the Lord’s graciousness, and gives us the knowledge of His love. Those who have spiritual life and senses find this in it, and those senses are exercised to discern good and evil; and this engages a Christian to further desire of the word. They are fantastical deluding tastes, which draw men from the written word, and make them expect other revelations. This graciousness is first conveyed to us by the word; there first we taste it, and therefore there still we are to seek it; to hang upon those breasts that cannot be drawn dry; there the love of God in Christ streams forth in the several promises. The heart that cleaves to the word of God, and delights in it, cannot but find in it, daily, new tastes of His goodness; there it reads His love, and by that stirs up its own to Him, and so grows and loves, every day more than the former, and thus is tending from tastes to fullness. It is but little we can receive here, some drops of joy that enter into us; but there we shall enter into joy, as vessels put into a sea of happiness. Ver. 4. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ver. 5. You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The spring of all the dignities of a Christian, and therefore the great motive of all his duties, is his near relation to Jesus Christ. There it is, that the Apostle makes that the great subject of his doctrine, both to represent to his distressed brethren their dignity in that respect, and to press by it the necessary duties he exhorts to. Having spoken of their spiritual life and growth in Him, under the resemblance of natural life, he prosecutes it here by another comparison very frequent in the Scriptures, and therefore makes use in it of some passages of those Scriptures, that were prophetical of Christ and His Church. Though there be here two different similitudes, yet they have so near a relation one to another, and meet so well in the same subject, that he joins them together, and then illustrates them severally in the following verses; a temple, and a priesthood, comparing the Saints to both: the former in these words of this verse. We have in it, 1. The nature of the building: 2. The materials of it: 3. The structure or way of building it. 1. The nature of it; it is a spiritual building. Time and place, we know, received their being from God, and He was eternally before both; He is therefore styled by the Prophet, The high and lofty One who inhabits eternity.59 But having made the world, He fills it, though not as contained in it, and so the whole frame of it is His palace or temple, but after a more special manner, the higher and statelier part of it, the highest Heaven; therefore it is called His holy place, and the habitation of His holiness and glory.60 And on earth, the houses of His public worship are called His houses; especially the Jewish temple in its time, having in it such a relative typical holiness, which others have not. But besides all these, and beyond them all in excellence, He has a house in which He dwells more peculiarly than in any of the rest, even more than in Heaven, taken for the place only, and that is this spiritual building. And this is most suitable to the nature of God. As our Savior says of the necessary conformity of His worship to Himself, God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,61 so it holds of His house; He must have a spiritual one, because He is a Spirit; so God’s temple is His people. And for this purpose chiefly did He make the world, the heaven, and the earth, that in it He might raise this spiritual building for Himself to dwell in forever, to have a number of His reasonable creatures to enjoy Him, and glorify Him in eternity. And from that eternity He knew what the dimensions, and frame, and materials of it should be. The continuation of this present world, as it now is, is but for the service of this work, like the scaffolding about it; and therefore, when this spiritual building shall be fully completed, all the present frame of things in the world, and in the Church itself, shall be taken away, and appear no more. This building is, as the particular designation of its materials will teach us, the whole invisible Church of God, and each good man is a stone of this building. But as the nature of it is spiritual, it has this privilege (as they speak of the soul), that it is Tota in toto, et tota in qualibet parte:62 the whole Church is the spouse of Christ, and each believing soul has the same title and dignity to be called so: thus each of these stones is called a whole temple, the temple of the Holy Ghost;63 though taking the Temple or Building in a more complete sense, each one is but a part, or a stone of it, as it is here expressed. The whole excellence of this building is comprised in this, that it is spiritual, distinguishing it from all other buildings, and preferring it above them. And inasmuch as the Apostle speaks immediately after of a priesthood and sacrifices, it seems to be called a spiritual building, particularly in opposition to that material temple in which the Jews gloried, which was now null, regarding its former use, and was quickly after entirely destroyed. But while it stood, and the legal use of it stood in its fullest vigor, yet in this respect still it was inferior, that it was not a spiritual house made up of living stones, as this, but of a similar matter with other earthly buildings. This spiritual house is the palace of the Great King, or His temple. The Hebrew word for palace and temple is one. God’s temple is a palace, and therefore must be full of the richest beauty and magnificence, but such as agrees with the nature of it, a spiritual beauty. In that Psalm which wishes so many prosperities, one is, that our daughters may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.64 Thus is the Church: she is called the King’s daughter; but her comeliness is invisible to the world, she is all glorious within.65 Through sorrows and persecutions, she may be smoky and black, to the world’s eye, as the tents of Kedar;66 but as to spiritual beauty, she is comely as the curtains of Solomon.67 And in this the Jewish temple resembles it rightly, which had most of its riches and beauty on the inside. Holiness is the gold of this spiritual house, and it is inwardly enriched with that. The glory of the Church of God consists not in stately buildings of temples, and rich furniture, and pompous ceremonies; these agree not with its spiritual nature. Its true and genuine beauty is, to grow in spirituality, and so to be more like itself, and to have more of the presence of God, and His glory filling it as a cloud. And it has been observed, that the more the Church grew in outward riches and state, the less she grew, or rather the more sensibly she abated, in spiritual excellences. But the spirituality of this building will better appear in considering particularly, 2ndly, The materials of it, as here expressed To whom coming, &c., you also, as lively stones, are, &c. Now the whole building is Christ mystical, Christ together with the entire body of the elect: He, as the foundation, and they as the stones built upon Him; He, the living stone, and they likewise, by union with Him, living stones; He, having life in himself, as He speaks,68 and they deriving it from Him; He, primitively living, and they, by participation. For therefore is He called here a living stone, not only because of His immortality and glorious resurrection, being a Lamb that was slain and is alive again forever,69 but because He is the principle of spiritual and eternal life to us, a living foundation that transfuses this life into the whole building, and every stone of it, In whom (says the Apostle) all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord.70 It is the Spirit that flows from Him, which enlivens it, and knits it together, as a living body; for the same word is used, Ephesians 4:16, for the Church under the similitude of a body. When it is said, Ch. 20, to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, it only refers to their doctrine concerning Christ; and therefore it is added, that He, as being the subject of their doctrine, is the chief corner-stone. The foundation, then, of the Church, lies not in Rome, but in Heaven, an