Advice to an Only Child, Chapter 26 – Chapter 27
CAAP. XXVI. Of Deſiring the Sincere Milk of the Word.
AS a New-Born Babe deſire the Sincere Milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. The Word is as Milk, go then to it as Children to the Breaſt, with an Appetite, but be ſure it be Milk that you deſire, and not Froth, Power and Virtue, not the Froth of empty words of Rhetorick, which are not to be accounted as Sermon Milk, it's plain ſong always that makes the beſt Muſick. Deſire that Milk alway which is moſt wholſom, not that which is moſt luſcious, and beſt pleaſes a dainty or curious Pallat.
2. Do not ſatisfie your ſelf with ſome weak Velleities and faint wiſhings, or whimperings after the Breaſts of the Word, but let your deſires after this ſincere Milk, be ſtrong and earneſt, accompanyed with Diligent Endeavours after it, and ſuck the Breaſts well, that you may have it, deſire it by the effectual fervent Prayer of Faith. This is indeed that real and ſpiritual ſucking, which is required of Newborn Babes in Chriſt. The Prayer of Faith is the Mouth, or the two Lips, whereby we ſuck Spiritual Milk, and draw in Heavenly influences, and Divine Sweetneſs from the Word. Ask and ye ſhall have, Math. 7.7, 8. but then this asking muſt be in Faith. The Mother opens the Breaſt when the Child Cryes after it. If you thirſt after this Heavenly Milk of the Word, God will give it, his Spirit will Communicate ſweet Inflows to your Soul; he ſometimes lays Wormwood to the Breaſts of Providence, to wean us from Creature-Comforts, but he would never have us wean'd from the Milk of the Word, while we are in this Life, but would have us lye continually at the Breaſt of the two Teſtaments. Children while they are in health, are almoſt continually Sucking, and never ſatisfied, but while they are at the Breaſt. If your Soul be in a good healthy Condition, you will not be well ſatisfied, but while you are lying at the Dugs of Ordinances, at theſe Spiritual Milk-pales, as Job calls the Breaſts.
3. If after you have lyen long at the Breaſts, waited long at the Ordinances, you find nothing come, no Inflows, no virtue, no refreſhments or comfort from them, ſo that they ſeem to be dry Breaſts, yet give them not over, as ſome are too apt to do, thinking it in vain to wait any longer, when as the fault is in themſelves, not in the Word and Ordinances, they are full Breaſts, but theſe poor Creatures cannot act faith to draw. God may ſee cauſe ſometime to with-hold this Spiritual Milk, to withdraw his influences, and put forth no virtue or efficacy in the Word, yet do not give over waiting; continue ſtill in the diligent uſe of the means of Grace, he will pleaſe to let down this Milk in the end; what you do not find at one time, you may at another; he will at length ſmile on you in the Ordinances, and let you have Evangelical Fruitions. If you did live much by Faith, you would find theſe full Breaſts flow plentifully.
4. Think that while you are in this World, you will have need of this Milk of the Word, need of Ordinances. There are ſome fond Chriſtians, that think they are above Ordinances, which are only for Babes and Punies, that they are paſt the Milk of the Word, and are grown too old to ſuck the breaſts. I wiſh they were ever new-born Babes in Chriſt, which is to be feared they never were, tho' they conceit themſelves to be tall and perfect Men and Women in Chriſt. I have read of one Philinus, that never fed of any other meat or drink all his life but only Milk. All the true Children of God, muſt certainly while they live here, feed on no other food but only Scripture-milk. God will not nouriſh our Souls by immediate influences, and communications from himſelf, till we come to the heavenly Land, that flows with Milk and Honey, and to ſit at God's own Table at the Supper of the Lamb in the Kingdom of Glory. When the new-born Babes are grown to a perfect ſtature, and are perfectly wean'd from the World, which will not be till this Mortal ſhall have put on Immortality; then, and not till then ſhall we have immediate communion with God, which is the very ſweet of Heaven. The Pot of Manna muſt continue in the Ark of the Church, till we come to the Celeſtial Canaan.
5. The end of deſiring this Milk, muſt be that you may grow thereby. We are nouriſht and made to grow by the ſame things whereby we were firſt bred. The Milk by which the Infant is nouriſht, is but the blood of which it was framed in the womb, further concocted in the breaſts, and turn'd white there. So it is only the ſame Word by which we were ſpiritually begot, that doth cauſe us ſpiritually to grow: For indeed all the Ordinances, which are the Souls nouriſhment, are nothing elſe but the Word it ſelf in ſeveral forms, or the ſubject matter of the Word. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper, which was ſpecially appointed for the Souls nouriſhment, and growth in grace, is but the Word in a more ſenſible form, or as the ſame meat otherwiſe dreſt and cookt, to make another Diſh. The Sacrament is but the Word viſibly prepared to the Eye, by an exuberance of mercy, which was barely ſet forth to the Ear in Reading and Preaching, that our Eye might affect our Heart, and the whole Man might be fed with more apt and ſuitable congruity, by ſuch viſible ſigns. If you be new born, you muſt not ſatisfie your ſelf with that, but you muſt further look to it, that you grow up in Chriſt. It is a ſhrowd ſign, that that perſon is not in Chriſt, who is well contented with preſent grace, without endeavouring after growth therein. Be not like Luther's Changeling, ever ſucking, never thriving. Try then whether you grow in Holineſs. Do you perform duties with more heart and life than formerly? Are you now, not only for perſonal Holineſs, but Relation Holineſs?
CHAP. XXVII. Of Reading the Word.
REad every day ſome portion of Scripture either out of the Old or New Teſtament, but eſpecially out of the New: Make uſe of both theſe Breaſts for your ſpiritual nouriſhment; prize both Law and Goſpel; highly value and ſtudy both. The Child likes to lie ſometimes at the one breaſt, ſometimes at the other; but yet the Goſpel is the better breaſt, and Faith loves moſt to lie thereat; it finds moſt ſweetneſs in the Goſpel Honey-comb; it gets Honey in every little Cell of it, taſts ſweetneſs in every word or tittle of the Goſpel.
2. Read the Scripture underſtandingly; ſee when you read that you underſtand the ſubſtance and ſenſe, the drift and ſcope of the H. Ghoſt in that Scripture which you read, otherwiſe you read unprofitably. I ſpeak now of thoſe places of Scripture which contain either ſome Article of Faith, or matters of practical Godlineſs, ſuch as are incumbent upon Chriſtians, to learn to obſerve and practiſe. But as for thoſe places that contain meer ſpeculative and controverſial matter, or hard queſtionable Points in Divinity, an ordinary Chriſtian need not be curious for a diſtinct underſtanding of them.
3. When you begin to read any portion of Scripture, pray unto God, that he would enlighten you by his Spirit, that you may underſtand it, and read it with reverence as the Word of the moſt holy God; and when any thing affects you, pray to God, that he would work that particular paſſage on your heart before you read any further.
4. In reading take ſpecial notice of, and mark thoſe places of Scripture, which you find moſt ſuitable and beneficial to you, and read them over oftner than others. Let your heart, like a diligent Bee, ſit longeſt on thoſe Flowers that will afford you moſt Honey; and yet if you ſtay thereon as long as you can, you ſhall never get out all the ſweetneſs, you may afterwards return to read again and find more; and though the Soul have even laded her ſelf, ſhe leaves them, as the Bee her Flowers, as whole as ſhe found them. A good ſerious Chriſtian may perhaps have read a Chapter twenty times over before, yet afterwards in the reading of it, God may diſcover ſomething to him a new, ſo that he then gathers that thence, which he never did before, and taſts a new and freſh ſweetneſs there.
5. Read the Scriptures with this end and intent, that you may know what God would have you to do, and what he would have you forbear, that the word of God may dwell in you richly in all Wiſdom (as the Apoſtle ſpeaks, Col. 3.16.) i. e. that you may be ſo wiſe as know to apply it, to know how to uſe ſuch an Example, and ſuch a reproof. It's the Wiſdom of a Tradeſman, to know how to uſe ſuch a Tool, ſuch an Inſtrument or Engin, and of a Chriſtian to know how to uſe ſuch a portion of Scripture, to remember what Chriſt did in ſuch a Temptation, what Abraham, David and Job, did in ſuch a Caſe. Look into the Word of God, as into an excellent Glaſs, whereby to know how to dreſs your ſelf, Look into it, that you may ſee all your ſpots, and whatſoever is amiſs, and out of order, that you may amend and redreſs the ſame, yea, that you may behold in this Glaſs, the Glory of the Lord, and be changed into the ſame Image, as from Glory to Glory, i. e. into the Beauty of Holineſs, which this Glaſs is proper for, 2 Cor. 3.18.