My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
Ver. 19. Till Christ be formed] That you may seek for salvation by him alone. Together with the word there goes forth a regenerating power, James 1:18. It is not a dead letter and empty sound, as some have blasphemed. Only let us not, as Hosea's unwise son, stay in the place of breaking forth of children, proceed no further than to conviction; much less stifle those inward workings for sin, as harlots destroy their conceptions, that they may not bear the pain of childbirth.