The Reformed Fathers Speak

“The apostle does not here condemn those who need milk as though they were reprobate, but he distinguishes between those who are making progress and those who are standing still — nay, going backward. For when time should have brought maturity, if one is still weak and feeble, it is evident that he has miserably wasted his time.” Commentary on Hebrews 5:11

Calvin’s exposition of Hebrews is characteristically pastoral: he is not interested in condemning the weak but in rousing the sluggish. The High Priest after the order of Melchizedek has supplied everything for growth; the failure of growth is not a deficiency in Christ but in the church’s failure to press her members toward maturity.

In the Institutes (III.3), Calvin develops the twin movements of sanctification: mortification of the flesh and vivification of the spirit. These are not achieved by human effort but are the Spirit’s work through the means of grace. The believing soul advances in them not by striving in the flesh but by clinging to Christ in faith.

Read: Commentary on Hebrews (public domain) · Institutes Book III, Chapters 1–10

“Christ hath a mother’s tenderness for weak ones; but His design is ever to wean them, not to keep them at the breast forever. Let Christ be your all, and you shall want nothing.” Letters, CCCXLVII

“Grace groweth best in winter. Put your soul to the exercise of faith in hard providences. The same Lord who feeds the strong stoops to nourish the weak until their senses are exercised to discern good and evil by constant practice.” Letters, CCXII

No writer in the Scottish tradition more richly combines theological depth with pastoral tenderness than Samuel Rutherford. His Letters, written from his pastoral charge at Anwoth and later from his confinement in Aberdeen, are among the most nourishing volumes of experimental divinity in the English language.

Rutherford understood the “senses exercised” of Hebrews 5:14 to be inseparable from suffering and difficult providence. Solid food is not only found in the study but in the furnace. The soul that has been pressed through hardship with Christ emerges with senses more finely trained to distinguish good from evil.

Read: Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Banner of Truth edition recommended)

“The covenant of grace appoints means for growth: the Word, the seals of the covenant, and the fellowship of the saints. God hath not left His people to seek their nourishment in the air; He hath set a table, appointed ministers, and given a household. Those who forsake the household forsake the means of their own growth.” Treatise on Effectual Calling

Robert Rollock was the first principal of the University of Edinburgh and the foremost systematic theologian of early Scottish Presbyterianism. His covenant theology provided the framework within which later Scottish divines understood Christian growth as a covenant-keeping progression, not an individualistic spiritual journey.

For Rollock, the progression from milk to solid food is not accidental — it is the fulfillment of the New Covenant promise. God writes His law on transformed hearts through His appointed means. The soul that advances in sanctification does so because it clings to the covenant God in His covenant institutions.

Read: Select Works of Robert Rollock (Wodrow Society, public domain)

“The mark of a growing Christian is not that he hath no remaining sin, but that he mortifies it more readily, repents more quickly, and loves Christ more warmly than before. These are the evidences of senses trained by exercise.” David Dickson, Therapeutica Sacra

David Dickson’s Therapeutica Sacra is among the most searching works of Christian self-examination in the Reformed tradition. Its purpose is precisely the cultivation of Hebrews 5:14 discernment — training the conscience to distinguish true grace from its counterfeits, true conviction from false peace.

James Durham, his colleague and son-in-law, pursued the same aim in his exposition of the Song of Solomon and his practical divinity writings. For both men, the maturing Christian is one who knows the marks of Christ’s presence in the soul not by dramatic experience but by habitual, practiced, gracious walking before God.

Read: Dickson, Therapeutica Sacra (public domain) · Durham, Christ Crucified (Banner of Truth)

“The discipline of the church is not a weapon of oppression but an instrument of nourishment. Where elders faithfully rule, the flock advances; where discipline is absent, the flock feeds itself on what pleases it, and growth is stunted. Christ hath appointed His officers for the perfecting of the saints.” Aaron’s Rod Blossoming

George Gillespie was the youngest and perhaps most formidable of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. His great contribution was to demonstrate that Presbyterian church government is not merely a convenient arrangement but a Scripturally mandated structure for the welfare and growth of Christ’s people.

Gillespie understood the “senses exercised” of Hebrews 5:14 to require an institutional context: the visible church with her sessions and presbyteries, her preaching and discipline, is the gymnasium in which discernment is trained. The regulative principle of worship is not restrictive but protective — it guards the training ground from corruption.

Read: Aaron’s Rod Blossoming (public domain) · A Treatise of Miscellany Questions