that are folded up in the connective particle "Wherefore?" This word looks backward to the statements in the 22d and 23d verses of the last chapter: "You have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren," and "You have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of the Lord, which liveth and abideth forever;" and forward to the clause, "As new-born babes," which is equivalent to 'being new-born babes.' The meaning of these statements has already been explained. It is their force as motives to the duties here enjoined that we are now to illustrate. The general statement is, "You have lately become the children of God both as to state and character, by the belief of the truth, under the influence of the Holy Spirit." The force of this statement as a source of motives will be made plainer by resolving it into its elements: You are as new-born babes; you are the children of God; you are brethren as being the children of God, members of the same family; you became so by obedience to the truth; you became so under the influence of the Spirit.' Every one of these propositions, all of them, evidently included in the statements referred to in the connective term "Wherefore," is instinct with impulsive energy, replete with powerful motives. (1.) You are little children, lay then aside malignity and craft. These, hateful wherever they appear, are monstrous in an infant. They are quite incongruous with the childlike character that belongs to genuine Christians. Like little children, too, desire growth, and for this purpose desire your appropriate nourishment. It is natural for a child to grow, and to wish to grow. It is unnatural for a child to be stationary, and to have no desire for growth; and so it is with the spiritual babe. The child is born to grow, and has an instinctive desire to grow. A Christian not making progress, not desiring to make progress, is something quite out of the natural course of the spiritual world. And as the mother's milk is the natural, the needful means of nutriment to the infant, so is the pure truth the natural and needful means of progressive holiness to the regenerate soul.

1

(2.) You are the children of God; you should then be like your Father in heaven, who is infinitely benignant and truthful. If you were malicious, guileful, and envious, would you not falsify your profession of divine sonship? Would you not prove yourself the children of a very different father, even of him who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning? It is the same argument which the Apostle Paul puts so strongly in his Epistle to the Philippians: “Do all things without murmurings and disputings; that ye may be blameless and harmless as the sons of God, without rebuke," and which our Lord urges in a still more forcible form in the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." It is the same principle of motive as in these words: "Be ye holy, for I am holy;" "Be followers of God

1 Phil. ii. 15.

2

2 Matt. v. 44-48.

as dear children.” 1 And if you are the children of God, you should desire to grow, for it is thus, thus only, you can honor your Father: "Herein is my Father glorified, in that ye bring forth much fruit" 2———— that is, grow, make rapid progress in holy attainment. And you should desire the sincere milk of the word, you should seek to understand and practically to improve divine truth, for it is the revelation of the mind of your Father. "As obedient children," you should seek to know the will of your Father, that ye may do the will of your Father. He is an unnatural, undutiful child who acts otherwise.

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(3.) Then you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and of course form one spiritual brotherhood. This is a new aspect of the statement, full of additional motive to the duties enjoined. There can be no doubt that Christians are not permitted to indulge in malice, guile, envying, or evil-speaking," in reference to any class of men; but there can be as little, that in the passage before us, there is a direct reference to the conduct of Christians to each other, and that those evil tempers and habits are condemned as opposed to that pure fervent love of the brethren, which had been enjoined in the close of the preceding chapter. The bearing of this consideration, that they are all brethren, on the dissuasive exhortation, is direct and powerful. Brothers should treat one another with an ingenuous openness. If there is to be malice or deceit in the family circle, where is true sincerity to dwell? Love one another. Surely malice, deceit, hypocrisies, envyings, and evil-speakings, are peculiarly out of place among those who have all been "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible:" who have been bound by ties of a brotherhood that neither time nor eternity can dissolve, and who have "purified their souls, through the truth by the Spirit, to the unfeigned love of the brethren." It is substantially the same motive that is brought forward in these exhortations: "Love as brethren. Put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, which is the same thing as evil-speaking; lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man, who is corrupt in his deeds; and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him." "Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for ye are members one of another." Confraternity, in its very nature, and especially such a confraternity, implies an obligation to kindness and sincerity on the part of the members. This motive also strongly urges to compliance with the persuasive exhortation; for spiritual growth is not only necessary to individual happiness, but to the prosperity of the body. The same idea that is expressed by Christians being represented as brethren, is still more strikingly expressed by their being represented as mutually connected as members of one body. The growth of every member is necessary to the welfare of the whole body. The more individual growth, the more general prosperity. It is by every member growing up to him that is the Head, that "the whole body fitly joined maketh increase." 4 It is by becoming wiser, better, and happier myself, that I increase the wisdom, and holiness, and peace, of the body to which I belong.

1 Eph. v. 1.

3 1 Pet. iii. 8. Col. iii. 9. Eph. iv. 25.

(4.) Then still farther, you became the children of God, and were formed into a spiritual brotherhood, "by obeying the truth." Wherefore, put away all those evil habits, which can be retained only by disobeying, resisting, the influence of the truth. Every evil temper or action is a practical lie; an implied denial of, and opposition to, the truth; and thus is very inconsistent in those who profess to have submitted to " the truth," to have received it into their hearts as the animating, regulating principle of their souls. And as it was by the influence of the truth you were made holy, so it is by the continued, increased influence of the truth, that you are to continue holy, to become more and more holy. Therefore, "desire the sincere milk of

the word, that ye may grow thereby."

(5.) Finally here, you became the children of God under the influence of the Spirit; therefore, you should put off "malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings," and all those other evil tempers and habits; for these are the fruits, not of the Spirit, but of the flesh. The fruit of the Spirit is in all "goodness"-benignity, "righteousness, and truth." You would "grieve the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption,” if you “put not away from you all bitterness, and wrath, and clamor, and evilspeaking, with all malice." "If ye live in the Spirit, see that ye walk in the Spirit." And therefore, too, should you desire the sincere milk of the word; for it is by the word, understood and believed, that the Spirit carries on his sanctifying work. It is presumptuous folly to expect to be sanctified or guided by the Spirit, without the word. The Spirit leads to the word; and it is through the word that he enables us to "put off the old man who is corrupt in his deeds, and put on the new man, who, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness." Such are the variety and force of appropriate motive which is folded up in the connective particle "wherefore," with which

our text commences.

§ 2.—Motives from having tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Let us now examine the motive which is unfolded in the statement with which our text closes. "If so be," or rather, seeing "ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." There can be no doubt that the ordinary usage of the language favors the rendering of our version, "If so be." If it be admitted, the meaning is, If you have indeed tasted that the Lord is gracious, you are peculiarly bound to "lay aside those evil habits," and to "desire the sincere milk of the world;" and if you do not lay them aside, and desire the sincere milk, then it is a plain proof that, whatever profession you make, you have not "tasted that the Lord is gracious." The particle, however, admits of being rendered "since," taking for granted, not throwing into doubt, their having "tasted that the Lord is gracious." It is the same word that in 2 Thess. i. 6, is rendered, and with obvious propriety, "seeing." "We glory in you, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which you endure; a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be accounted worthy of the Eph. v. 9; iv. 30, 31. Gal. v. 25.

1

seeing it is a righteous

kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: thing with God to recompense tribulation to them who trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us." 1 This mode of rendering the particle here, better accords with the whole strain of the epistle, in which the persons addressed are always spoken of as Christians, and gives greater point and directness to the motives, "Lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings," and "desire the sincere milk of the word, since ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

To bring out the force of the motive, it is necessary to inquire, Who is meant by "the Lord?" What is meant by his being gracious? What is meant by tasting that he is gracious? And then, How the having tasted that the Lord is gracious, affords grounds for the exhortations, "Lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings," and "desire the sincere milk of the word ?"

(1.) The Lord" here is plainly the Lord Jesus. This is evident from what follows: for without doubt he is "the living stone" on whom, as a foundation, Christians, "as living stones, are builded into a holy temple.” It is to him that the passage cited from the prophet Isaiah certainly refers.

(2.) Our Lord Jesus is "gracious," is kind. Benignity, holy love, is his leading moral attribute. His kindness is manifested in what he does, and in what he gives. "The grace" or kindness "of our Lord Jesus" is shown in that, "though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich."2 He bestows on man, utterly undeserving of anything but punishment, true knowledge, pardon, restoration to the divine favor, peace, holiness, abundant consolation, good hope, eternal life; in one word, happiness, perfection, suited to all the capacities of his nature, during the eternity of his being. And that he might do this, He who was in the form of God assumed the nature of man, the form of a servant, the likeness of a sinner; bore our sins, carried our sorrows; became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Herein is love." This is kindness. Verily, the Lord is gracious.3

(3.) To "taste" that the Lord is gracious, is a figurative expression. It seems borrowed from the words of the Psalmist, "O taste and see that God is good," where two of the bodily senses are employed to denote clear mental apprehension, along with appropriate mental affection. To taste that the Lord is gracious, is to know that the Lord is gracious; and to know this, not from the report of others, but from your own experience. This knowledge is derived primarily from the faith of the truth as to what the Lord is, and has proved himself to be, by his gifts; and secondarily, from the enjoyment of these gifts of his, on the possession of which we enter by the belief of this truth; and the measure of which enjoyment corresponds to the measure of our faith. He tastes that the Lord is gracious, who

1

1 This seems also the force of elπep in Rom. viii. 9. Such a use of strep can be supported by classical usage. Τὸ τύπτεσθαι ἀλγεινὸν, εἴπερ σαρκινοί. “Το be struck is painful” to men, "since they are made of flesh;" i. e. not of dead matter.-ARISTOT. Eth. Nic. iii. 9. 2 2 Cor. viii. 9. 3 Phil. ii. 6-8. 4 Psal. xxxiv. 8.

believes the love which the Lord has to sinful men; who counts it a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that he came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many; to save sinners, even the chief; and he tastes the graciousness, the kindness of our Lord, who, in the faith of this truth, has peace with God; has access to him; holy love; fervent gratitude; good hope; joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom he has received the reconciliation.1 Every believer of the truth thus tastes that the Lord is gracious; and he does so just in the measure of his faith. The man who does not know Christ to be kind, and his benefits to be precious, is not a believer; and he who does so, cannot, but in the degree in which he is a believer, trust in Christ as his Saviour, and rejoice in the benefits of his salvation. "That is to taste," says Luther, "when I with the heart believe that Christ has been sent for me, and is become mine own; that my miseries are his and his life mine; when this truth enters into the heart, then it is tasted.”2

It has been supposed by some, that the term is intended to intimate, not only that they have a true personal knowledge of Christ's kindness, but that that knowledge was as yet but very imperfect. They had tasted, but only tasted. They know, but they know but little, of that love that passeth knowledge. No doubt this is a truth; but we should hesitate to say it was in the apostle's mind when he used the words now before us.

(4.) It only remains that I endeavor to bring out the force of the motive to "lay aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil-speakings," and to "desire the sincere milk of the word;" which is afforded by the fact, that Christians have "tasted that the Lord is gracious." The love of God in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world to himself, known and believed, is the grand source of motive to holy obedience in all its forms. "The grace of God,” of which the kindness of the Lord is an expression, "which brings salvation to all," when the divine testimony regarding it is understood and believed, "teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.' “When the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man (his philanthropy) appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." It is this faithful saying respecting the kindness of the Lord, firmly believed, that makes men "careful to maintain good works." It is "the mercies of God" through Christ, known and believed, that induce men to "present their bodies living sacrifices, holy

1 1 John iv. 16. John i. 16. 1 Tim. i. 15. Rom. v. 1-11.

2 Xρnoròs & Kúpios. Dulcis est Dominus in contemplatione, ad meditandum, Cant. ii. 3; in aure spirituali ad audiendum, Cant. v. 13; in ore ad loquendum, Psal. cxix. 39; in prospectu ad videndum, Sir. xxiii. 27.-Jo. Hus.