no concern about religious truth: it lies outside, in the external memory merely, and is never taken up into the affections to be nourished there; hence false persuasions, the fowls of the air, devour the seed and leave the man as a hard and barren soil. Stony places are such as have a little concern about truth, but not for its own sake; they do not reduce it to practice: it serves for knowledge but not for life, and having no inward concern about it, the seed, for want of depth of earth or depth of affection to nourish it, springs up only to wither away under the scorching sun of his own self-love. The thorns are those who receive the truths in the midst of their evil concupiscences, when the cares, pleasures, and deceitfulness of riches choke the mind, and the Truth becomes as a thing of naught. It is only in the good ground that the seed is productive; for when Truth is received in the heart, and nourished by the love of God and man, it then springs up, puts forth its blossoms, and bears those fruits in the life, which send forth eternal praises to the Sower for the gift of the seed.
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