But perhaps you have no taste for this despised book; perhaps plays, romances, and books of polite entertainment, suit your taste better: if this be your case, give me leave to tell you, your taste is vitiated, and unless corrected by the Spirit and word of GOD, you shall never enter into his heavenly kingdom: for unless you delight in GOD here, how will you be made meet to dwell with him hereafter. Is it a sin then, you will say, to read useless impertinent books; I answer, Yes: And that for the same reason, as it is a sin to indulge useless conversation, because both immediately tend to grieve and quench that Spirit, by which alone we can be sealed to the day of redemption. You may reply, How shall we know this? Why, put in practice the precept in the text; search the scripture in the manner that has been recommended, and then you will be convinced of the danger, sinfulness, and unsatisfactoriness of reading any others than the book of GOD, or such as are wrote in the same spirit. You will then say, when I was a child, and ignorant of the excellency of the word of GOD, I read what the world calls harmless books, as other children in knowledge, though old in years, have done, and still do; but now I have tasted the good word of life, and am come to a more perfect knowledge of CHRIST JESUS my LORD, I put away these childish, trifling things, and am determined to read no other books but what lead me to a knowledge of myself and of CHRIST JESUS.
Search, therefore, the scriptures, my dear brethren; taste and see how good the word of GOD is, and then you will never leave that heavenly manna, that angel’s food, to feed on dry husks, that light bread, those trifling, sinful compositions, in which men of false taste delight themselves: no, you will then disdain such poor entertainment, and blush that yourselves once were fond of it. The word of GOD will then be sweeter to you than honey, and the honey-comb, and dearer than gold and silver; your souls by reading it, will be filled as it were, with marrow and fatness, and your hearts insensibly moulded into the spirit of its blessed Author. In short, you will be guided by GOD’s wisdom here, and conducted by the light of his divine word into glory hereafter.