[47] Mark iv. 24.
[48] Read chap. iii. direct. i. And against unbelief, part. i.
[49] 1 Cor. ii. 10, 12; xii. 8-10.
CHAPTER XXI.
DIRECTIONS FOR READING OTHER BOOKS.
Because God hath made the excellent, holy writings of his servants, the singular blessing of this land and age; and many a one may have a good book, even any day or hour of the week, that cannot at all have a good preacher;[50] I advise all God's servants to be thankful for so great a mercy, and to make use of it, and be much in reading: for reading, with most, doth more conduce to knowledge than hearing doth, because you may choose what subjects and the excellentest treatises you please; and may be often at it, and may peruse again and again what you forget, and may take time as you go to fix it on your mind: and with very many it doth more than hearing also to move the heart, though hearing of itself in this hath the advantage; because lively books may be easilier had than lively preachers. Especially these sorts of men should be much in reading: 1. Masters of families, that have more souls to care for than their own. 2. People that live where there is no preaching, or as bad or worse than none. 3. Poor people, and servants, and children, that are forced on many Lord's days to stay at home, whilst others have the opportunity to hear. 4. And vacant persons that have more leisure than others have. To all these, but especially masters of families, I shall here give a few directions.
Direct. I. I presuppose that you keep the devil's books out of your hands and house. I mean cards, and idle tales, and play-books, and romances or love-books, and false, bewitching stories, and the seducing books of all false teachers, and the railing or scorning books which the men of several sects and factions write against each other, on purpose to teach men to hate one another, and banish love: for where these are suffered to corrupt the mind, all grave and useful writings are forestalled; and it is a wonder to see how powerfully these poison the minds of children, and many other empty heads. Also books that are written by the sons of Korah, to breed distastes and discontents in the minds of the people against their governors, both magistrates and ministers. For there is something in the best rulers, for the tongues of seditious men to fasten on, and to aggravate in the people's ears; and there is something even in godly people, which tempteth them too easily to take fire and be distempered before they are aware; and they foresee not the evil to which it tendeth.
Direct. II. When you read to your family, or others, let it be seasonably and gravely, when silence and attendance encourage you to expect success; and not when children are crying or talking, or servants bustling to disturb you. Distraction is worst in the greatest businesses.
Direct. III. Choose such hooks as are most suitable to your state, or to those you read to.[51] It is worse than unprofitable to read books for comforting troubled minds, to those that are blockishly secure, and have hardened, obstinate, unhumbled hearts. It is as bad as to give medicines or plasters contrary to the patient's need, and such as cherish the disease. So is it to read books of too high a style or subject, to dull and ignorant hearers. We use to say, That which is one man's meat, is another man's poison. It is not enough that the matter be good, but it must be agreeable to the case for which it is used.
Direct. IV. To a common family begin with those books, which at once inform the judgment about the fundamentals, and awaken the affections to entertain them and improve them. Such as are treatises of regeneration, conversion, or repentance: to which purpose I have written myself, The Call to the Unconverted;—The Treatise of Conversion;—Directions for a Sound Conversion;—A Treatise of Judgment;—A Sermon against making Light of Christ;—True Christianity;—A Sermon of Repentance;—Now or Never;—A Saint or a Brute; with others; which I mention, not as equalling them with others, but as those which I am more accountable for. On this subject these are very excellent: Mr. R. Allen's Works;—Mr. Whateley on the New Birth;—Mr. Swinnock of Regeneration;—Mr. Pinks's five Sermons;—most of Mr. Hooker's Sermons;—Mr. J. Rogers's Doctrine of Faith;—Mr. Dent's Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven;—most of Mr. Perkins's and Mr. Bolton's Works, and many the like.