Spiritual MILK FOR Boston Babes. In either ENGLAND: Drawn out of the breasts of both TESTAMENTS for their Souls nourishment. But may be of like use to any CHILDREN.
By John Cotton, B. D. Late Teacher to the Church of Boston in New-England.
Printed at BOSTON, 1684.
MILK FOR BABES.
Quest, WHat hath God done for you?
A. God hath made me▪ Psal 119:73 & 120:4—8 Isa 63:1 He keepeth me, and he can save me.
Q. Who is God?
A God is a Spirit of Joh 4:44 Exod 3:14 himself, and for himself.
Q. How many Gods be there?
A. There is but one God in three Persons, 1 Cor 8:6: 1 John 5:7 the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Q. How did God make you?
A. In my first Parents Gen 1:2 [...], 2 [...] Eccles 7:29 holy and righteous.
Q. Are you then born holy and righteous?
A. No, my first Father Isa 43:27: Rom 12:19 sinned and I in him.
[Page 2]Q. Are you then born a sinner?
A. I was conceived in sin and Psal. 51.5 born in iniquity.
Q What is your birth sin?
A. Adams sin imputed to me, Rom 5.12 1 [...].14 Eph. 4.12 and a corrupt nature dwelling in me.
Q. What is your corrupt nature?
A. My corrupt nature is empty Rom 7.7, 18 Gen 6.9. of grace, bent unto sin, and only unto sin, and that continually.
Q What is sin?
1 Joh 3.4. A. Sin is the Transgression of the Law.
Q. How many Commandments of the Law be there?
A Deut 4.13 Ten.
Q What is the first Commandment?
A. Thou shalt HAVE no other Gods but Exod. 20.8 ME.
Q What is the meaning of this Commandment?
A. That we should Mat. 4.10 worship the only true God, and no other beside him.
Q. What is the second Commandment?
A Thou shalt not MAKE to thy self any graven IMAGE, Exod 20.4, 5 &c.
[Page 3]Q VVhat is the meaning of this Commandment?
A. That we should worship the true Joh 4.24 Deut 12.32 Mat 15.19 God with true WORSHIP, such as God hath ordained, not such as man hath invented.
Q. What is the third Commandment?
A Thou shalt not take the NAME of the Lord thy God in vain, &c.
Q. What is here meant by the name of God?
A. God Deut 28.58 Exod 33 19, with [...]4.6: 1 King 9.3. Psal 138.2 Job. 1.21. himself and the good things of God, whereby he is known as a man by his name, as his Attributes, Worship, Word, and Works
Q VVhat is it not to take his Name in vain?
A. To make use of God, and the good things of God to his glory and our 2 Kings 1.3, Lev. 10 3 Job 26.21. 1 Cor 10.13 Iob 5 27 Deut. 8.16 Jer 2.10 Lev. 26.5 Heb 4.2 good, not vainly, not unreverently, not unprofitably.
Q. What is the fourth Commandment?
A Remember that thou keep holy the Exod 20.8, 9 10, 11 SABBATH-day, &c.
Q. VVhat is the meaning of this Commandment?
A. That we should rest from labour [Page 4] and much more from play on Isa 58.12, 13 Exod 32.6. the Lords day, that we may draw nigh to God in holy duties.
Q. VVhat is the fifth Commandment?
A. HONOUR thy Father and thy Mother, Exod 20.12 that thy dayes may be long in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Q. VVho are here meant by Father and Mother?
A. All our Superiours whether in Prov 13:22 1 King 5.13. & 2.12 1 Cor. 4.15 2 Cor 22.18 1 Tim. 5.1 1 Sam. 25 8. Gen 4.20, 21. Family, School, Church, and common wealth
Q. VVhat is the honour due unto them?
A. Reverence Mal 1 6 Heb 12.9. Eph. 6▪ 1 1 Tim. 5.4. Obedience, and (when I am able) Recompence
Q VVhat is the sixth Commandment?
A. Thou shalt do no Exod 29.13 MURTHER.
Q VVhat is the meaning of this Commandment?
A. That we should not shorten the Mat 5.22 2 Cor 7.10 1 Sam 16:24. Mark 3:4 life or health of our selves or others, but preserve both.
[Page 5] Q. What is the seventh Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not commit Exod 20.1: ADULTERY.
Q. VVhat is the sin here forbidden?
A. To defile our selves or others, Gen 9.10 Lev. 18:24 with unclean Lusts.
Q▪ VVhat is the duty here Commanded?
A. Chastity to possess Tit. 2 5. 1 Pet 3.2 1 Thes 4.4, 4 our vessels in holiness and honour.
Q. VVhat is the eighth Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not Exod 20.15 STEAL.
Q. What is the Stealth here forbidden?
A. To take away Luk 19.8 1 Thes 4.6 Prov 21.20 another mans goods without his leave: or to spend our own without benefit to our selves or others,
Q. What is the duty here Commanded?
A. To get our goods Prov 13:11 John 6:12 Luk 19.16 & 15:15 honestly, to keep them safely, & to spend them thriftily.
Q. What is the ninth Commandment
[Page 6] A. Thou Exod 20:16 shalt not bear false WITNES against thy Neighbour.
Q. What is the sin here forbidden?
A. To Eph 4:25 Jer. [...]4.5 Josh 9.22 Prov 13:7. LIE falsly, to think or speak UNTRULY of our selves or others.
Q. What is the duty here required?
A. Truth Eph 24.25 Mat 23.23 and Faithfulness,
Q. What is the tenth Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not COVET, &c.
Q. VVhat is the Coveting here forbidden?
Exod 20.17 Rom 7:7 Heb 13:5 A. LUST after the things of other men, and want of contentment with our own.
Q VVhether have you kept all these Commandments?
A. Rom 7:14 & 3:23 No, I and all men are sinners.
Q VVhat is the wages of Sin?
A Joh 8:23 & 12:8, 9 Death and Damnation.
Q. How look you then to be saved?
A. Act 4:18 Only by Jesus Christ.
Q. VVho is Jesus Christ?
[Page 7] A. The Eternal Son of God, who for our sakes 1 Joh 3:22 Pro 8:23—25 Joh 1:14 2 Cor 2.8, 9 Luk 1:68, 69, & 2:12 became man, that he might redeem and save us.
Q How doth Christ redeem and save us?
A By his righteous life and bitter death and glorious resurrection to life Gal: 4:4, 5 Mat 24:28 Phil 2:7, 8 Rom 4:25 again.
Q How do we come to have part and fellowship with Christ and his Death and Resurrection?
A By the power of his Ioh 17.20, 21 2 Cor 5.10 1 Cor 6:17 2 Tim 3:15, 16 word and Spirit, which bring us to Christ and keep us in him.
Q VVhat is his word
A. The Rom: 3:10 Gal 3:10, 24 Rom 7:9, 10 Holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles, the Old and New Testament, Law and Gospel.
Q. How doth the Ministry of the Law bring you towards Christ?
A. By bringing me to know my sin, and the wrath of God against me for it.
Q. What are you thereby the nearer to Christ?
A. Gal 3:10—24 So I come to feel my cursed estate, and the need of a Saviour.
[Page 8]Q. How doth the Ministry of the Gospel help you in this cursed Estate?
A. By humbling me Luk 3.4, 5, 6 yet more, and then raising me up out of this Estate.
Q. How doth the Ministry of the Gospel humble you more?
A. By revealing the 2 Tim 1.10 1 Tim 1.15 Joh. 16.7, 9 & 6.4 [...] Luk 19.10 Grace of the Lord Jesus in dying to save Sinners, and yet convincing me of my sin, in not believing on him, and of my utter insufficiency to come to him▪ and so I feel my self utterly lost.
Quest. How then doth the Ministry of the Gospel raise you up out of this lost Estate to come unto Christ?
A. By Joh 12.32 2 Cor 5.19, 20 Can 5.10, to 16 with 11 2 Cor: 3.28 Luk 19.10 Mat 9.13 Gal 3:5 Rom 10:17 & 1.16: teaching me the value and vertue of the death of Christ, and the riches of Grace to lost Sinners, by revealing the promise of Grace to such, and by ministring the Spirit of Grace, to apply Christ and his promise of Grace unto my self, and to keep me in him.
Q. How doth the spirit of Grace [Page 9] apply Christ and his promise of Grace unto you and keep you in him?
A. By begetting in me Rom 10:17 & 10 15 Rom 12.26 2 Cor 10:4, 5. Faith to receive him: Prayer to call upon him Repentance to mourn after him, and new obedience to serve him.
Q. What is Faith?
A. Faith is a Grace of the Phil 1:29 2 Cor 4.13 Phil 3.8, 9 Spirit, whereby I deny my self, and believe on Christ for righteousness and salvation.
Q. What is Prayer?
A. It is a calling upon God Mat 6.9 Joh. 16.23 Rom 8.26, 27 1 Joh 5:14 in the name of Christ, by the help of the Holy Ghost, according to the will of God.
Q VVhat is Repentance?
A. Repentance is a Acts 5:31. Zech 12:10 Ezek 6:9 Jo [...] 42:6 2 Sam 24:10 Lev 26.40, 41 Prov 28.13 Zech 12.10 1 Sam 7.2 grace of the Spirit, whereby I loth my sins▪ and my self for them, and confess them before the Lord, and mourn after Christ for the pardon of them, and for grace to serve him in newness of life.
Q. VVhat is newness of life or new Obedience?
A. Newness of life is a Psal 51.1, 2, 10 grace of the Spirit, whereby I forsake my [Page 10] former lusts and vain company, and walk before the Lord in the light of his word▪ and in the communion of his Saints? Rom 7.6 1 Pet 42:34 Psal 116:9 & 119:9.101, 115: & 16:3,
Q. VVhat is the Communion of Saints?
A. It is 1 Cor 1:2 Phil 1.5 Act 2:47 Rom 9:4 1 Cor 12:13: the fellowship of the Church in the blessing of the Covenant of Grace and the Seals thereof.
Q. VVhat is the Church?
A It is a Congregation of Psalm 89 5 and 50:5, 16 Ezek: 20:37 Acts 2:42 Cor 14:23, 26Saints joyned together in the bond of the Covenant to worship the Lord, and to edifie one another in all his holy Ordinances.
Q What is the bond of the Covenant in which the Church is joyned together?
A. It is 2 Cor: 8:5 & 9:1 Gen 17:7 the profession of that Covenant which God hath made with his faithful people, to be a God unto them, and to their seed.
Q. What doth the Lord bind his People to in his Covenant?
A. To Josh 24:15 23, 24, 25 2 Cor 5:5, Eph 5:21 Neh 9:38: with 10:28:29 34 give up themselves and their Seed, first to the Lord to be his People, and then to the Elders and Brethren of the Church, to set forward the worship of God, and their mutual edification.
[Page 11] Q, How do they give up themselves and their Seed to the Lord?
A. By receiving through Joh 1:12 Gen 17:9: Isa 56: [...], 7 Gen: 18:19 Faith the Lord and his Covenant, to them selves, and to their Seed. And accordingly w [...]king themselves, and training up their Children in the wayes of his Covenant?
Q. How do they give up themselves and their Seed to the Elders and Brethren of the Church?
A. By confession Matth: 3:6: 2 Cor: 9:13: Act 2:38, 39: of their sins and profession of their Faith and of their subjection to the Gospel of Christ, and so they and their seed are received into fellowship of the Church and the seals thereof.
Q. What are the Seals of the Covenant now in the day [...]s of the Gospel?
A. Baptisme Rom: 4:11: with Col 2:11 12: 1 Cor: 11:25: Heb: 10:22: and 12▪ 24: John 3:5: Rom: 6:2, 3: Act: 22:16 Luk: 3:3: 1 Pet 3:20, 21 1 Cor: 15:2 [...] and the Lords Supper.
Q. What is done for you in Baptism?
A. In Baptisme, the washing with water is a sign and seal of my washing in the blood and spirit of Christ and thereby of my ingrafting into Christ, of the pardon and cleansing of my sins; of my raising up [Page 12] out of Affliction: and also of my resurrection from the dead at the last day.
Q. What is done for you in the Lords Supper?
A. In the Lords Supper, the receiving of the bread broken, and the 1 Cor 10:16 Mat. 26.26, 28 1 Cor 12:14 Psal 134:15 John 6:55 wine poured out, is a sign and seal of my receiving the Communion of the body of Christ broken for me, and of his blood shed for me; and thereby of my growth in Christ, of the pardon and healing of my sins, of the fellowship of his Spirit, Luke 22:27 29, 30 of my strengthening and quickening in grace, and of my sitting together with Christ on his Throne of Glory at the last Judgement.
Q. VVhat is the resurrection from the dead, which was sealed up to you in Baptisme?
A. When Joh 7.28, 29 Act 24:15 Christ shall come to his last Judgement, all that are in the graves shall arise again, both the just and the unjust.
Q. VVhat is the last Judgement, which is sealed up to you in the Lords Supper?
[Page 13]A. At the last 2 Cor 5:19 Mat 12:36 1 Cor 4:5 Eccles: 12:14 day we shall all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ to give an account of our works and to receive our reward according to them.
Q. What is the reward that shall then be given?
A. The Mat 26:34, 36 Righteous shall go unto life eternal, and the wicked shal be cast into everlasting fire with the Devil and his Angels.