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George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.9a

06 Tuesday Jul 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in George Swinock, Worship, Worship

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George Swinnock, Regulative Principle, Regulatory Principle, The Christian Man's Calling, Worship

CHAPTER IX

The complaint continued, that this calling is so much neglected, when superstition and sin are embraced and diligently followed

Swinnock has been addressing the issue: if men are not busy making godliness their calling, then what are they busy to do? The first issue, which was addressed in a previous post noted that we are busy to acquire stuff: “wealth and earthly things.” In this chapter he says that we are also busy after superstition and third plain “wickedness”.

[II.        THREE ASPECTS 

This complaint is urged with a threefold consideration.]

B.        Men make superstition their religion

By superstition, Swinnock primarily means false religious practices and beliefs. He is not aiming primarily at carrying a rabbit’s foot for luck as he is in worshipping idols or tormenting one’s own body.

1. What is the basic manner in which superstition is exercised? By inventing religious practice.

Of use here is the notice that Swinnock being the reformed tradition, holds to the regulative or the regulatory principle when it comes to worship: worship is only what the Bible specifies. This is stated in the Belgic Confession as follows:

Art. VII

We believe that these Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation, is sufficiently taught therein. For since the whole manner of worship which God requires of us is written in them at large, it is unlawful for any one, though an Apostle, to teach otherwise than we are now taught in the Holy Scriptures; nay, though it were an angel from, heaven, as the Apostle Paul saith. For since it is forbidden to add unto or take away any thing from the Word of God, it doth thereby evidently appear that the doctrine thereof is most perfect and complete in al respects. Neither may we compare any writings of men, though ever so holy, with those divine Scriptures; nor ought we to compare custom, or the great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times or persons, or councils, decrees, or statutes, with the truth of God, for the truth is above all: for all men are of themselves liars, and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore we reject with all our hearts whatsoever doth not agree with this infallible rule, which the Apostles have taught us, saying, Try the spirits whether they are of God; likewise, If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house.

Art. XXXV

Therefore, we reject all mixtures and damnable inventions, which men have added unto and blended with the Sacraments, as profanations of them, and affirm that we ought to rest satisfied with the ordinance which Christ and his Apostles have taught us, and that we must speak of them in the same manner as they have spoken.

Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The Evangelical Protestant Creeds, with Translations, vol. 3 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882), 389, 431.

Secondly, How do men make superstition and idolatry their business? 

Notice that he makes superstition an equivalent of idolatry:

“All worshipping, honoring, or service invented by the brain of man in the relgion of God without his own express commandment is idolatry….All honoring or service of God whereunto is added wicked opinion is abomination.” (John Knox, quoted from Between Wittenberg and Geneva, Kolb & Trueman, p. 224)

a. Men are zealous for their own traditions.

Though they are careless about divine institutions, yet they are zealous for human traditions. How zealous were the pharisees for the inventions of their elders! they called them Mashlamathath, completions or perfections, esteeming them both helpful to the observation of the law of God, and also to the perfection of it. 

b. The psychological motivation for false worship

i.  They think it will please God.

Superstitious persons do naturally think that their postures, gestures, ceremonies, and additions, do render the worship of God more comely and more complete; but truly such embrace a cloud instead of Juno, worship the shadow of Christ, whilst the prince himself goeth unsaluted. 

ii. They think it will make much of their own effort.

Men are exceeding prone to, and earnest for, such vain and false ways and worship, partly because it is pleasing to corrupt spirits, who naturally love a fair show in the flesh; a pompous holiness suits best with a proud heart; partly because these traditions were received from their ancestors; and as Austin observed in his time, men were resolved, right or wrong, to be followers of their fathers. 

This second point is critical for understanding Swinnock’s overall theology: the grace of God saves the unsavable: Not even repentance is the basis of salvation. In terms of the order of salvation, “God calls us, produces regeneration in us, so that we respond with repentance, faith, and obedience.” 

But we have an inherent need to be the causative agent in our salvation: We have a natural desire to make our relationship to God hinge upon what we decide and do. Swinnock is arguing that the desire to be the principal agent of our salvation leads us into idolatry.

iii. An example from Cicero

Suitable to which, Cicero said, I will never forsake that way of divine service which I have received from my forefathers, for any man’s pleasure, or by any man’s persuasion; no, not though Christ himself died to redeem them from their ‘vain conversations, received by tradition from their fathers,’ 1 Pet. 1:18, 19. Hence, though they are so backward where God commands, yet they are forward when men command. 

2. The intensity of those who engage in false worship.

The story of Micah is found in Judges 17-18. Laban chases down his household gods in Genesis 31. Gideon tears an altar of Baal which brings the wrath of the village down upon him in Judges 6. His point is that people will drive themselves to extremes in false worship.

What an outcry doth Micah make for his idol! What a privy search doth Laban make for his image! Gideon must die for throwing down the altar of Baal. 

a.  An observation on the intensity.

Having provided an example of how false worship drives men, Swinnock provides an observation. This is useful as a technique: give an example and explain what the example illustrates. The image of being scalded by the boil of their zeal is striking.

How earnest are many for priests, tapers, altars, sacrifices, days, meats, consecrations, the holy of holies, crossings and cringings! In these their zeal is hot, boiling over to the scalding of themselves and others. 

Though this fervency is aptly compared to a ship without ballast, overtired with sails, which in a storm casts away all aboard her, they disesteem their estates and possessions in comparison of idolatry and superstition. Such persons are not only liberal, but lavish. 

b. More biblical examples

Jeroboam will be at great cost for his idols; they must be not iron or brazen, no, not silver, but golden calves; not gilded over, but massy, molten gold. ‘They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god, and they fall down and worship it,’ Isa. 46:6. The Israelites will spare their jewels for their idols, Exod. 32:3. Micah’s mother, to make molten and graven images, will lay out eleven hundred shekels of silver, Judges 17:2, 3. 

3. Polemic

At this point, Swinnock sets his sights on Roman Catholics, “Indians of Ceylon”, Muslims, and returns to Jesuits. This style of apologetics or preaching is not much in fashion in our day. It is interesting to consider the context in which he is making this argument. Armed conflicts over religion were still not over in Europe, particularly since religion and politics were intimately intwined. The War of the Spanish Succession which enveloped all of Western Europe was still in the future. The American armistice whereby we give civil space to one-another was still in the future (although Cromwell did bring a certain measure of toleration).

It is difficult for us to hear this section in the way in which would have sounded to Swinnock.

In addition, we must also understand that Swinnock’s vehemence on this matters was because he is contending this is an absolute matter of life and death. If you saw a friend take up a bottle of poison falsely believing it to be medicine, you would stringently warn him and seek to dissuade him.

So, the question we should ask is the persuasiveness of such arguments. In the case of Swinnock, there is very little chance that any of his readers would be likely to become Hindu or Muslim. However, the question of Roman Catholicism, or more particularly “high church” Anglicanism would be a matter of possible concern.

The papists are so prodigal,—though it is the less wonder in them, because they hold such actions meritorious of salvation, (and what would not a man give or do to be saved?)—that not only their churches, but even cloisters, are stuck and stuffed with costly, pearly presents to their supposed saints. 

The Indians in the isle of Ceylon, having a consecrated ape’s tooth got from them, offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it. How many zealots, that will hardly give a penny to the relief of a poor Christian, throw away pounds for the maintenance of superstition!

They slight their relations to further their idolatrous devotion. The superstitious Jews would sacrifice their children to Moloch, 2 Kings 17:17. The Carthaginians at one time,1 (after they had received an overthrow by Agathocles,) sacrificed two hundred of their prime nobility to appease their incensed deity. Good God! whither is man fallen, to be more cruel than a beast to the children of his own body! What slavery is it to serve Satan, and what liberty to serve thee!

Nay, they will sacrifice not only their estates and children, but their lives and all their outward comforts, to superstition. How did the worshippers of Baal cut and lance themselves! Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that smote him, 2 Chron. 28:23; so fervent he was that he chose rather in the service of false gods to be scourged, than in the service of the true God to be saved.2

Among the Mohammedans are a sect called the dervises,3 whose sharp and strict penances exceed those of the papists; they live on the tops of hills, solitary, for contemplation; fast, till nature be almost decayed; have no clothes but to cover their nakedness; wear such massy fetters of iron upon their legs that they can scarce stir, and yet go as fast as they can with them many miles, to visit the sepulchres of their deluded saints. The Turks willingly lay down their lives in their wars to propagate their religion, which their prophet hath taught them must be done, non disputando, sed pugnando, not by disputing with, but by destroying others. 

When he returns to Roman Catholics in the peson of this “unhappy Jesuit,” we cannot miss that someone advocating Roman Catholicism was not seen as advancing personal liberty of conscience, but rather advocating for overthrow of the crown.

The unhappy Jesuit, though his religion be a heap of formalities, as the Turks’ a bundle of fooleries, is yet so zealous for it, that Campian could impudently, in a letter to Queen Elizabeth’s council, affirm, that as long as there was one Jesuit left for Tyburn, they had vowed never to desist endeavours to set up their religion in this nation. Oh devout ungodliness, or ungodly devotion! how few take such pains to go to heaven, as many do to go to hell!

4. A final plea to leave off false worship

In this final section, Swinnock makes a more emotional appeal than logic argument (albeit this is not illogical). Seeing that he is seeking to induce emotion, he proceeds by figures of expansion, using repetition, alliteration. 

He does this by three examples: First, he laments how men destroy their bodies in false worship. Second, he laments those who undertake needless tasks, such as pilgrimages, for the salvation of their soul.

The following paragraph has been broken down into clauses to more easily see the structures:

Alas! 

what sorrow doth this call for 

and command! 

that men should be so hot and fiery in will-worship, 

in false worship, 

wasting their wealth, 

cutting and carving their bodies 

as if they were made only to be their slaves, 

and themselves to be the tyrants over them, 

laying out so much cost, 

and exercising so much cruelty, 

for that which is worse than nothing, 

for that which will not only not profit them, 

but extremely and eternally prejudice them; 

notice how he breaks up the movement when he comes to Christ.

and in the interim 

the easy yoke of Christ is scorned, 

the power of godliness slighted, 

which might be minded with much more mildness and mercy to their outward and inward man. [note the alliteration in his last clause]

The needless tasks men undertake:

It was a good meditation of a fore-quoted author, Those that travel in long pilgrimages to the Holy Land, what a number of weary paces they measure! what a number of hard lodgings and known dangers they pass! and at last, when they are come within view of their journey’s end, what a large tribute they pay at the Pisan Castle to the Turks! and when they are come thither, what see they but the bare sepulchre wherein their Saviour lay, and the earth that he trod upon, to the increase of a carnal devotion! 

As he did with the example of those who torment their body, he ends with a counter. Following the lament, he holds an offer of peace to be found in true worship.

What labour should I willingly undertake in my journey to the true land of promise, the celestial Jerusalem, where I shall see and enjoy my Saviour himself! What tribute of pain or death should I refuse to pay for my entrance, not into his sepulchre, but his palace of glory, and that not to look upon, but to possess it?


1 Diodor. Sic.

2 Verberari a dæmone mallebat quam a Deo coronari.—Mendoz. in 1 Sam. 8

3 Purch. Pilgrim., p. 1478.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.8c

19 Wednesday May 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in George Swinnock, George Swinock

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Diligence, George Swinnock, godliness, The Christian Man's Calling, Vanity

6. A contrast of Callings

In this section, Swinnock returns to an expansive rather than argumentative style. Rather than make his persuasion by means of example-analogy, or application of a proposition, Swinnock also relies upon argument founded in imagery, repetition, and sound. These elements (as we can see) he places toward the beginning of the end of argument. This moving between fundamental styles and techniques does two things: (a) It keeps the argument from becoming tedious. Too much emotional repetition soon loses its effect. (b) It balances appeal to both intellect and emotion. Persuasion theory explains that some persuasion takes place through deliberation, other persuasion through an emotional response. By aiming at both “routes”, Swinnock makes his argument as persuasive as possible:

O Lord, what a foolish, silly thing is man, [This reminds me of Shakespeare, O Lord, what fools these mortals be]

to prize and take pains for husks before bread, [Luke 15:16]

vanity before solidity, [Eccl. 1:2]

a shadow before the substance, [Ps. 39:6]

the world’s scraps before the costly feast, 

the dirty kennels before the crystal water of life, [Rev. 22:1]

an apple before paradise, [Gen. 3]

a mess of pottage before the birthright, [Gen. 25:29-34]

and the least fleeting and inconstant good 

before the greatest, truest, and eternal good. 

Notice that he ends the section with a repetition of “good”: inconstant good/eternal good.

a. Particular and General Callings:

Here he considers “particular” and “general” callings: Particular would have to do with the individual human. General are things applicable to all people:

Their particular callings are but about earth

—the lowest, meanest, and vilest of all the elements in these callings; 

they deal but with men and brutes; 

their gains here at best cannot be large, 

because their lives here cannot be long; [two lines end with the same phrase]

and yet how eagerly are they pursued! [break]

how closely are they followed! [note the repetition of “How C—]

how constantly are they busied about them!            

We spend our primary effort on temporary, often trivial or even grotesque matters. No matter who much we gain, it will never be very much and will not be kept. The best we can acquire is an appearance but never the substance. 

General Callings: what is our duty toward God. The repetition of “their” does a great deal to hold this following complex sentence together:

Their general callings are about their souls, 

their eternal salvations; 

in these they have to do with the blessed God, 

the lovely Saviour, 

in communion with whom is heaven upon earth; 

their gains here are above their thoughts, 

and beyond their most enlarged desires, 

no less than infinite and eternal! 

This next section praises the value of godliness. It relies primarily upon a quote from Job, which is itself quite beautiful:

The profit of godliness is invaluable above price.

‘It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof: 

It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it, 

and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.

No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, 

for the price of wisdom is above rubies. 

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, 

neither shall it be valued with pure gold,’ Job 28:15–20; 

The movement of these three clauses is excellent. The first clause is longer, with accents upon “L” and “C”. The section and third lines are much shorter. The second line repeats the “L”, the third line the “C”.

yet how lingeringly is this calling entered upon, 

how lazily is it followed, 

and how quickly cast off. 

He concludes with a rebuke, alluding to Galatians 3:1:

O foolish man, who hath bewitched thee, 

that thou dost thus dislike and disobey the truth?

7.         Concluding Contrasts

a.        Compared to a Hen

Having made the comparison to a hen, he then applies the image to human life with a series of seven consecutive clauses which begin with the form “The [noun]” Each clause is something ignored. He ends the whole with a comparison to a mole, which forms an inclusion to hen.

I cannot more fitly resemble man than to a silly hen, 

which, though much good corn lie before her, takes little notice of it, but still scrapes in the earth. 

The favour of God, 

the promises of the gospel, 

the covenant of grace, 

the blood of Christ, 

the embroidery of the Spirit, 

the life of faith, 

the hope of heaven, 

joy in the Holy Ghost, are laid before man;

 yet he overlooks them all, 

and lives like a mole, 

digging and delving in the earth.

b. Though men see:

This is a remarkably complex sentence, built around two long sections introduced by “though” and the verb “to see” which leads to a “yet” which concludes the whole. Though men see the danger yet they will take no warning.

Though men see:

Though men see before their eyes a period and end of all earthly perfections, 

that the beauty, 

bravery of all earthly things is 

but like a fair picture drawn on ice, 

quickly perishing; 

that their riches and estates are but like snow, 

which children take much pains to rake and scrape together to make a ball of, which upon the sun’s shining on, 

            it presently melteth away; 

though they see daily

though they see daily men that hoarded up silver, 

and wrought hard for wealth, [Prov. 2:1-6]

hurried away into the other world, 

leaving all their heaps behind them; 

yet they will take no warning:

yet they will take no warning, 

but, as the silly lark, 

still play with the feather in the glass till they are caught 

and destroyed by the fowler. 

This is an ironic allusion to Proverbs 1:17, “For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird” – a bird can see the net and won’t be caught.

c. Failing to seek

There is a theme in the Bible of our need to seek. We are to seek wisdom: Proverbs 2:1. Jesus says that if we seek, we shall find. Matt. 7:7, et cetera. God expects us to seek. But some draw the wrong conclusion from all things not being made available without effort:

Men wrong themselves, and misconstrue God, who, as if he had hidden those things because he would have them sought, and laid the other open for neglect, bend themselves only to the seeking of those earthly commodities, and do no more mind heaven than if there were none. If we would imagine a beast to have reason, how could he be more absurd in his choice?

d. Three concluding examples:

At best, we are like a king bound in golden chains:

What a beast is he to love his silver above his soul, and lose his God for a little corruptible gold. While he lives, like the king of Armenia, by Marc. Anton., he is a close prisoner in golden fetters; and when he dieth, this worldling may say to his darling, as Cornelius Agrippa to his familiar spirit near his end, Abi, perdita bestia, quæ me perdidisti, Begone, thou wicked wretch, thou hast undone me.

If a king would consider this, how much more the rest of us:

It was good counsel which was given John, the third king of Portugal, to meditate a quarter of an hour every day on that divine sentence, (and oh that, reader, I could persuade thee to it!) ‘What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’ Mat. 16. 

A philosopher and a blacksmith:

I have read of a philosopher, who, living near a blacksmith, and hearing him up every morning at his hammer and anvil, before he could get out of his bed to his book, professed himself much ashamed that such an ignoble trade as a smith’s should be more diligently attended than his more serious and excellent studies. 

This final application is interesting. Throughout, he has been addressing the reader almost as if the reader was one who rarely sought godliness. But here in the end, he makes a direct appeal: Why are we so easily distracted as they are?

What sayest thou, reader; dost thou not blush to think that worldlings are more busy and laborious about the low things, the rattles and trifles of this life, than thou art about the high affairs of God and thy soul, the noble and serious concernments of eternity?

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling 1.8a

18 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in George Swinnock, George Swinock, Spiritual Disciplines

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George Swinnock, godliness, Laziness, Preaching, Rhetoric, The Christian Man's Calling

CHAPTER VIII

A complaint that this trade is so dead, and the world’s trade so quick [lively]

The use which I shall make of this doctrine, shall be either by way of complaint or counsel.

Lament Over the Neglect of Godliness:

First, By way of lamentation. 

I.         INTRODUCTION TO THE LAMENT

If godliness ought to be every one’s principal business, How sadly should it be lamented that this calling is so exceedingly neglected! 

A.        Compare the efforts in trade to effort in godliness

This argument is first laid-out in an A1-B1-A2-B2 structure: Commerce, Christ – Commerce, Christ. This provides a basis for the lamentation: we are so taken with making money and so neglectful of the things of God.

1.         The Loss of Trade

What one man is there of many that doth follow this trade, and exercise himself to godliness? Men generally cry out, trading is dead, their particular callings are gone; they make no considerable returns, they stand in their shops all the day idle. 

But may not God rather complain, the holy heavenly trade is decayed and dead; general callings are left and lost; why stand ye all the day idle, and refuse to work in my vineyard? 

2.         The Abundance of Earthly Trade Contrasted with the Dearth of Heavenly Trade

This return to commerce is interesting: In the first example, he addresses those who lack work. In the second, he addresses those who have abundant work. This is not a contradiction: one always desires more work – even if things are going well at the moment. But here it serves his argument is follows: Are you complaining about no work, then think of the heavenly trade which goes missing. Look at how diligent you are going after worldly trade, when heavenly trade go missing.

The structure of this paragraph is well done: There are three parallel introductory clauses built around alliteration followed by a contrasting four short clauses. The move from alliteration to known also creates another element of contrast. This is extraordinarily fine writing.

a.        The Devil has Droves     

i.         While the devil has whole droves to do his drudgery, 

the flesh [has] vast flocks to flatter its fancies, 

and the world many millions to admire and adore its vanities, 

ii.        ‘The ways of Zion mourn, 

they are unoccupied, 

none come to the solemn feasts, 

all her gates are desolated.’ 

b.        The Lawyer’s Closet

i.         While the lawyer’s closet is filled with clients for counsel about their estates, 

the physician’s chamber with patients about their bodily health, 

and the tradesman’s shop crowded with customers,

ii.        Jesus Christ is left alone; 

though he offereth wares which are of infinite worth, 

and stretcheth out his hand all the day long, 

yet no man regardeth.

B.        We fail in this effort, because we love the wrong things.

Swinnock does not state this matter in terms of love, but does so by means of illustrations.

1.         Too Much Trouble

It is reported of some Spaniards that live near the place where is store of fish, that they will rather go without them than take the pains to catch them. Heaven and happiness, Saviour and salvation, are near men, they are brought to their very doors; and yet men will rather lose than labour for them, rather go sleeping to hell, than sweating to heaven. ‘All seek their own, and none the things of Jesus Christ.’

2.         It is of no use to me

Offer a crust to a dog and he will catch at it, offer him a crown and he will contemn it; offer these men the crusts of vanity, and how greedily are they embraced, while the crown of glory is most unworthily despised; like beastly swine, they trample this pearl under their feet, and love to wallow in the mire.

C.        Answering an Objection

This is an important aspect of making any argument wherein only one person is speaking. When preaching, the auditors has no ability to interrupt and ask a question. Therefore, the preacher (or teacher) should anticipate objections and provide an answer. Spurgeon did this particular skill by combining this work with the introductory phrase “Someone here will be thinking” or “Someone will say”.

This objection is “Maybe you are overstating the case and there actually are many who do this – but you just haven’t noticed”.

But possibly you may say that there are many that make religion their business, only they are so near me that (according to the rule of optics, which requires a due distance between the faculty and the object) I cannot behold them; they abound in every country, parish, family; all are Christians, and make the worship of God their main work.

1.         Answer: the real thing is rare.

I must answer as he did when he saw the vast army of Antiochus, There are many men, but few soldiers; many mouths, but few hands: there are many nominal, but few real Christians; many that flourish like fencers, beating only the air, but few that fight in earnest the good fight of faith. 

a.        They provide only outward show.

Godliness hath many complimental servants, that will give her the cap and the knee, a few good words and outward ceremonies; but godliness hath few faithful friends, that make her the mistress of their affections, that give her the command of their hearts, and that wait upon her, and walk with her all the day long. 

b.        They have no real love or relationship

Pretenders to her service are indeed like the sand of the sea, numerous; but practitioners or faithful servants are like the pearl of the sea, rare and precious; many court her, but few marry her; for indeed men generally deal with godliness as the Germans with the Italians, or the Dutch with the Spaniards, hold a fair outward correspondency, enough to serve for mutual trade and traffic, but enter not into a near familiarity; they have no great intimacy with godliness; it is rather a stranger to them, whom now and then they bestow a visit on for fashion sake, than an indweller or constant inhabitant.

2.         An illustration and diagnosis

This answer begins with an illustration, which is then followed by the argument. This sort of illustration to assertion contains within it an unstated premise: that laziness (not rest, but actual failure to work) is dangerous and defective. He does this by means of using a soldier who wished not to soldier. This would unvirtuous because he would not be what was suitable to his position. Likewise, the Christian who will not seek godliness is also unvirtuous.

Lepidus Major, a loose Roman, when his comrades were exercising themselves in the camp, would lay himself down to sleep in the shade, and cry out, Utinam hoc esset laborare, Would this were all the duty I were to do. 

Such soldiers are many who pretend to fight under Christ’s banner; when they should be watching their souls, and warring with Satan and sin, they are sleeping and snoring, as if that were the way to work out their salvations. 

Reader, I must acquaint thee with the physician’s rule, that Spontaneæ lassitudines morbos loquuntur, Weariness without some apparent cause is a sign of a diseased body; so thy laziness doth speak a very unsound soul.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.7

01 Thursday Apr 2021

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By Force, George Swinnock, godliness, The Christian Man's Calling, Violence

CHAPTER VII

Thirdly, Godliness must be made our principal business, our main work, because otherwise we shall lose our reward. 

He immediately proves up the point with a proverb. The proverb works because it notices a point which is incontrovertible. You read it and think, “Of course that is true.” He then applies the proverb to the instant situation:

We say, As good never a whit, as never the better. Piety without much pains will redound to little or no profit.

First, a look at the structure of these proverbs (the original and his applied version). The original proverb has two lines of six syllables, each which with begins with a comparative “As”. The word “never” is repeated in both lines. The word “good” is repeated as the comparative “better”. The second line contains a near rhyme: never-better.

As good never a whit

As never the better

The second proverb, coined by Swinnock, is slightly less compact. The two lines are of different length. The first line is seven syllables. The second, 10. The effect of the uneven lengths is to make the second an answer to the first. The primary musical effect comes from the alliterative “P” Piety pains profit, which are the primary points of his argument:

Piety without much pains

Will redound to little or no profit.

He provides a proverb, which although obscure to us would have been instantly understood in the 17th Century. Here are some examples of the same proverb:

William Gurnall (d. 1679)

The foolish virgins made as great a blaze with their lamps, and did expect as good a day when Christ should come, as the wise virgins; but, alas! their lamps are out before he appeared, and as good never a whit as never the better. The stony ground more forward than the best soil; the seed comes up immediately, as if a crop should soon have been reaped, but a few nipping frosts turn its hue, and the day of the harvest proves a day of desperate sorrow. All these instances and many more in Scripture do evince, that nothing short of solid grace, and a principle of divine life in the soul, will persevere. 

William Gurnall and John Campbell, The Christian in Complete Armour (London: Thomas Tegg, 1845), 186.

William Gouge (d 1653)

Unless this inward reverence and due respect of a husband be first placed in the heart of a wife, either no outward reverence and obedience will be performed at all, or if it be performed, it will be very unsound, only in shew, hypocritical and deceitful: so that as good never a whit as never the better. For according to ones inward affection and disposition will the outward action and conversation be framed.

Domestical Duties

Matthew Henry (d. 1714) on Jude 11:

Trees they are, for they are planted in the Lord’s vineyard, yet fruitless ones. Observe, Those whose fruit withereth may be justly said to be without fruit. As good never a whit as never the better. It is a sad thing when men seem to begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh, which is almost as common a case as it is an awful one. The text speaks of such as were twice dead.

He follows up the proverbial statement with an example: Why would you start that which you do not finish:

How foolish is that builder who, in setting up a house, hath been at much cost, and yet loseth all, because he will be at no further charge. Many ‘lose what they have wrought,’ 2 John 8. Their works, because not their business, are not perfect, and so to small purpose. ‘The slothful roasts not what he took in hunting,’ Prov. 12:27. He was at some labour to catch the beast, but was loath to be at any more in dressing it, and so all was lost; laboriousness to godliness is as the soul to the body, which, being separated from it, godliness dieth and quickly becomes unsavoury.

He then changes the course of the argument slightly: rather than the foolishness of stopping before receiving the benefit, he turns to the value of the end: great things are worth great effort. The of godliness is of worth surpassing effort; therefore, we should expend any and all effort to obtain that end. 

The reward of godliness is of infinite worth, the end of holiness (as of hope) is the salvation of the soul, the eternal and immediate enjoyment of God in heaven. Now, who can think to attain the place of such ravishing pleasures without much pains? Iter per angusta ad augusta.

He supports this contention from a number of angles. First, precious things are found only with great effort:

Things that are most delicate cannot be had without the greatest difficulty; they that will enjoy large diadems must run through many deaths and dangers, and use much diligence. Nature herself will not bestow her precious treasure without much unwearied labour. Dust and dirt lie common in streets, but the gold and silver mines are buried in the bowels of the earth, and they must work hard and dig deep that will come at them. Ordinary stones may be had in every quarry, but pearls are secret in the bottom of the sea, and they must dive low, and hazard their lives, that will fetch up the oysters in which they breed, and enjoy them.

Turning from stones to the “secrets” of nature, what we would not refer to as scientific discovery. New information requires new work:

When did we ever find nature so prodigal of her gifts, as to bestow skill and excellency in any art or science, without industry and diligence. Doth she not force her students to beat their brains, to waste their bodies, to break their sleep, to burn up their strength, before she will permit them to pry into her secrets, to pick the lock of her curious cabinet, and gain any considerable knowledge of her wealth and richness? 

Then analogy: if it is so in nature, how much more with God:

And can we think the God of nature will give men to know him, as they are known of him—will bestow on them the unspeakable gift, the pearl of price, the Holy of holies, such things as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither man’s heart conceived, while they lie lazying on the bed of idleness?

Mountains as symbols of achieving the divine:

Heaven is not unfitly compared to a hill; among heathens to Olympus, among Christians to Mount Zion. They that will climb up to it must pant and blow and sweat for it. 

At this point, Swinnock wishes to make a point about Elijah in a chariot of fire. However, he pauses to make this aside which does not advance his argument. It is a fine paragraph, but would be the sort of thing cut by an editor:

Elijah’s translation to the place of bliss was much more speedy and facile than ordinary. We see no panting heart, no trembling hands, no quivering lips, no ghastly looks to be the forerunners of his passage into eternal life. Where the union is near and natural, there the separation is hard and painful, but behold here the marriage-knot betwixt body and soul is not untied. Those loving relations, like husband and wife, ride triumphantly together in a stately chariot to the heavenly court; yet even in this rapture God would teach us that the virgin inheritance must be ravished: ‘There appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven,’ 2 Kings 2:11. 

Here is the point which Swinnock wished to raise concerning Elijah, as a word-picture of effort to obtain heavenly ends:

Why a chariot of fire, but to note that heaven must be stormed and taken by force. Fire is the most active inanimate creature; hereby is figured that laborious action is the way to the beatifical vision. The chariot is made of fire, the wheels upon which it runs are a whirlwind. Activeness and violence are the only way to the blessed inheritance. 

Having given his word-picture, Swinnock turns to the proposition. This matter of taking heaven by force was a theme emphasized in 17th Century English Puritans (and it is a matter which I cannot recall being raised in this way except in passing among my contemporaries; I cannot recall preaching on this particular theme myself). Thomas Watson published, The Christian Soldier or Heaven Taken by Taking Storm.

For instance Richard Sibbes preached a sermon “Victorious Violence” which contains this doctrine: “Doct. The violent, and only the violent, and all the violent, do at length certainly obtain what they strive for, the kingdom of heaven.” He then elaborates on that point in a manner which is consistent with Swinnock’s theme here, “And again, Only the violent, because only they can prize it when they have it. They only can prize grace and heaven. They know how they come by it. It cost them their pleasures and profits, it cost them labour, and danger, and loss of favour with men; and this pains, and cost, and loss, it endears the state of grace and glory to them; for God will never bring any man to heaven till he have raised his affections to that pitch, to value grace and glory above all things in the world. Therefore only those shall take it by violence; for only those shew that they set a right price on the best things. They weigh them ‘in the balance of the sanctuary,’ Dan. 5:27. They value things as God would have them valued.”

Many more examples could be given:

Whoever entered into heaven with ease? They that will be knighted must kneel for it; they that will wear the crown must win it. ‘A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully,’ that is, strenuously, 2 Tim. 2:5. He that will be saved must ‘work out his salvation, and that with fear and trembling,’ Phil. 2.

Christ, who first bought the purchase, hath already set the price upon which, and no other, the sons of men may come to the possession. There is, indeed, a twofold price of a thing, a natural price, when so much is laid down as is commensurate or proportionable to the thing bought; so the price of heaven was the blood of Christ, Heb. 10:19.

This point is rather out of step with the purpose-driven life theology, or the (near) universalist theology which forms much of contemporary Christianity:

A pactional price [the price according to contract, a “pact”], when so much is laid down, (though inferior to the commodity,) upon which the seller is contented that you enjoy the thing desired; so labour, knocking, working, is the price of heaven, Isa. 55:3. This price is made of man’s future felicity, and Christ is resolved not to abate the least farthing. 

‘Strive,’ saith he, ‘to enter in at the strait gate; for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able,’ Luke 13:24. As if he had said, There will be many seekers, many that will both cheapen heaven by a profession, and bid somewhat by performances, but they shall miss the place for want of more pains; ‘they shall not be able.’ If ye, therefore, have any love to your souls, be not only seekers but strivers; do not only cheapen and offer a little, but come up to the price. Put forth all your strength, as wrestlers do that strive for masteries, as ever you would enjoy those eternal pleasures. Men were as good bid nothing, as not come up to the seller’s price.

‘All run in a race, but one receiveth the prize; so run that ye may obtain,’2 1 Cor. 9:24. They that intend for the crown do beforehand diet themselves, breathe their bodies, and when they run for the conquest, strive and stretch themselves to the utmost; he that loitereth, is as sure to lose as if he sat still.

Now a question arises: How does this doctrine of striving square with salvation by grace through faith? Is this merely making a works-righteousness argument? Swinnock solves this by speaking of the nature of faith. He does not articulate this difficulty well, but it is apparent in this explanation: True faith, which lays hold of salvation, is not a vague assent that a thing may be true. To ‘believe’ unto salvation is not come to the conclusion that it is 51% likely that Jesus rose from the dead. True faith is a life-changing event. We can see this when we look at the various groups who “believed” Jesus mentioned in John’s Gospel, who soon went away. True faith flows out in a manner of life (however imperfectly lived). It is not merely putting a bucket down into a well, it is also drawing it up (which would take far more effort):

The lazy world, because Christ sends chapmen [merchant] up and down with his wares, to offer them to every house, to every heart, think to have them at their own ordinary rates: but they shall find that grace, which is many degrees short of glory, is not to be had by sloth and idleness; there must be lifting up the heart, lending the ears, seeking, searching, begging, digging, attention of the outward, intention of the inward man, before men can ‘understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God,’ Prov. 2:3–5. Though it be easy to let the bucket into the well, yet it is hot work and hard labour to draw water out of the well of salvation. The laborious bee only is laden with honey.

Richard Sibbes answers this same question in a slightly different manner:

“Obj. But is not the kingdom of heaven and grace free? Therefore what needs violence to a thing that is free, and freely offered?

Ans. I answer, Because it is free, therefore it is violently taken. For, alas! if it were offered to us upon condition of our exact performing of the law, it might damp the spirits of men, as indeed usually such, if they be not better informed, they end their days in despair. But being freely offered, ‘the publicans and harlots,’ saith Christ, ‘go into the kingdom of God before the proud Pharisees,’ Mat. 21:31. Because it is free, it is free to sinners that feel the burden of their sins. ‘Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,’ &c., Mat. 11:28. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: they shall be satisfied,’ Mat. 5:3–6. Thereupon he that hath a guilty conscience, he makes haste, and offers violence, when he hears of free pardon. What makes the condition of the devils so desperate? There is no hope of free pardon to them. What makes men so eagerly to embrace the gospel, notwithstanding their sins? Because it is freely offered. Thereupon it was that the Gentiles were so glad of it, that had been sinners and under Satan’s kingdom before; and that makes miserable persons, that are humbled with afflictions and abasement in the world, glad of it—it being so great a thing, the kingdom of heaven, the favour of God, and freedom from misery, and so freely offered. It is so far from hindering violence because it is free, that therefore the humble afflicted souls that desire grace are the more eager after it. The proud Pharisees thought the kingdom of heaven belonged only to them; and therefore they despised Christ, and despised the gospel, because it was propounded to sinners, and to such mean persons that they thought were viler than themselves. But now when the meaner sort of people, and others that were abased with crosses in the world, saw what a kind of gospel it was, what great matters were offered, and that it was offered freely, they justified wisdom, Mat. 11:19, and the counsel of God which others despised, and pressed for it with violence, Luke 7:29, 30.

“….Therefore when he saith, ‘the violent take it by force,’ it is to encourage us. The violent, eager, strong endeavours of a Christian in the ways of God, in the means of salvation, they are no successless endeavours.”

I remember a song when I was a child, “you can’t get to heaven in a rocking chair.” It’s a silly song, but it at this point makes the same general point which Swinnock makes with more care:

‘The desire of the slothful killeth him, because his hands refuse to labour,’ Prov. 21:5. He is full of wishing, but far from working. As the cat, he would fain have the fish, but is unwilling to wet his feet; his desires are destitute of suitable endeavours, and therefore rather harm him than help him. Like Ishbosheth, he lazieth on his bed till he is deprived of his life. He thinketh to be hurried in haste to heaven, to be carried as passengers in a ship, asleep in their cabins to their haven, but is all the while in a deceitful dream. There is no going to those heavens where Christ is in his glory, as the sick man came to the house where Christ was in his estate of ignominy, let down in a bed.

He now concludes this portion of his argument (that we must exert true effort in godliness if we will receive our end) as he began, with a series of epigrams:

He that will be but almost a Christian, must be content to go but almost to heaven.

Idleness is the burial of our persons, and negligence is the burial of our actions. 

Writing on the sand is easy, but soon worn out, it is marred with a small breath of wind; but writing on marble, as it is more permanent, so it costeth more pains. 

An idle servant is in God’s esteem an evil servant; 

he doth not distinguish betwixt a slothful and an unfaithful man: his word tells us that he hath bonds for those hands that are folded in the bosom, when they should be working for a blessing; 

that he hath fetters for those feet that stand still, and stick fast in the mire and mud of sinful pleasures, when they should be running the way of his precepts; nay, that he hath utter darkness for them that will not walk and work while they enjoy the light, Mat. 25:26, 30. He that takes his ease in this world must travel in the next.

At this point, he changes the argument slightly and answers the question: What difficulty lies in the way of godliness? Why must we expend such efforts?

Two things shew a necessity that godliness must be made our business, if ever we would make anything of it.

These are (1) the opposition we will meet; and (2) the greatness of the work to be done. First the opposition: the Flesh, the World, and the Devil. In his exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, Peter Abelard wrote, “Tria autem sunt quae nos tentant, caro, mundus, diabolus.” This theological truism lies behind Swinnock’s discussion of the opposition we will meet in this world

First, Because of the opposition we meet with in the way of religion. 

He supports this general proposition with a pair of word-pictures: difficulty at sea and difficulty on land:

When the wind and tide are both with the mariner, he may hoist up his sail and sit still, but when both are against him, he must row hard, or never think to come to his haven. 

The way to heaven is like Jonathan’s passage against the Philistines, betwixt two rocks,—the one Bozez, dirty; the other Seneb, thorny; the men of the world will be ever diligent, either with dirt to bespatter their credits, or with thorns to wound and pierce their consciences, that walk in this path; he must therefore have a mind well resolved to take pains, and his feet well shod with patience, that will go this way to paradise. 

First, the world:

The way of this world is like the vale of Siddim, slimy and slippery, full of lime-pits and stumbling-blocks to maim or mischief us. Saints are princes in all lands; but as princes that pass through a country in disguise meet with many affronts, so do Christians.

Second, the Devil:

The flesh is like bird-lime, which, when the spirit would at any time mount up to heaven with the wings of faith and meditation, hampers and hinders it; it is the holy soul’s prison, wherein it is fettered and fastened, that it cannot, as it would, walk at liberty, and seek God’s precepts. 

Third, the Devil. He will develop this theme at greater length than the first two:

The devil, both a serpent for craft and a lion for cruelty, doth, out of his hatred to God, make it his constant business by his power and policy to hinder godliness. As the panther, because he cannot come at the person, he tears the picture wherever he finds it: ‘We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers,’ Eph. 6:12.

While Satan reigneth in a creature, all may be quiet and calm; but if he be once cast out, he will rage and roar to purpose. 

He then proves up this point with examples from examples from Scripture: Israel, Christ, the Church:

[Israel] While Israel serveth the Egyptians, carrying their crosses, bearing their burdens, doing their drudgery, all is well; but when once they shake off Pharaoh’s yoke, turn their backs upon Egypt, and set out for Canaan, with what force and fury are they pursued to be brought back to their former bondage! 

[Christ] Christ was no sooner baptized than buffeted; he went, as it were, out of the water of baptism into the fire of temptation. And if the prince were all his time persecuted, his subjects must not expect to be wholly privileged. The cross is tied as a tag to the profession of Christianity, Mat. 10:30. 

When he comes to the Church, he notes that the Church must follow in the suffering of Christ:

One article in the indenture which all apprentices must seal to, that will call Christ master, is to bear the cross daily, Mat. 16. The saints are as vessels floating on the waters of Meribah, where (omne quod flat aquilo est, as Tertullian saith of Pontus) no wind blows but what is sharp and keen. 

The Hebrews were no sooner ‘enlightened’ to their conversion, but they ‘endured a sharp fight of affliction;’ their lightning was accompanied with a grievous storm, Heb. 10:32. 

Having provided his examples and proofs, Swinnock returns to the general proposition. This is a very effective way to teach: Proposition, illustration, proof, repeat and restate proposition:

Holiness is usually followed with much hatred and hardship. The enemies of man’s salvation are impudent and incessant, ever raging, never resting. 

What the Carthaginian commander said of Marcellus, may be truly spoken by us in regard of them, That we have to do with those who will never be quiet, either conquerors or conquered; but conquerors they will pursue their victory to the utmost, and conquered, labour to recover their loss. 

He then adds a final note on Satan:

Satan especially is both wrathful and watchful to undermine souls.

He is fitly called Beelzebub, the master-fly, because as a fly he quickly returns to the bait from which he was but now beaten. Though emperors may turn Christians, saith Austin, yet the devils will not.

Here he answers an implied question: Will it really be this difficult? Often in Puritan works this would be marked explicitly as an “objection”. Swinnock does not provide a specific title of “objection”, but he does answer the question which someone may have at the end of a section of argument:

Doth not this fully speak the necessity of making godliness our business? Can such difficulties be conquered without much diligence? Who can eat his way, like Hannibal, through such Alps of opposition without hot water and hard work? 

If, like Samson, we would break all these cords of opposition in sunder, we must awake out of sleep, and put forth all our strength. 

He here returns in a related manner to the question of taking heaven by force. But rather than emphasizing storming heaven, he here uses the image to speak of fighting our way through the hazards.

Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress gives this picture:

Then the Interpreter took him, and led him up towards the door of the palace; and behold, at the door stood a great company of men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at a little distance from the door, at a table-side, with a book and his inkhorn before him, to take the names of them that should enter therein; he saw also that in the doorway stood many men in armor to keep it, being resolved to do to the men that would enter, what hurt and mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to write, saying, “Set down my name, sir;” the which when he had done, he saw the man draw his sword, and put a helmet on his head, and rush towards the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, Matt. 11:12; Acts 14:22; he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace; at which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace, saying,

“Come in, come in,

Eternal glory thou shalt win.”

So he went in, and was clothed with such garments as they. Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the meaning of this:

Saints are all called to be soldiers; our whole life is a warfare, ‘All the days of my appointed time,’ Job 14:14; an expositor reads it, ‘All the days of my warfare I will wait till my change come.’ 

The soldier’s life is no lazy life; armies are wholly for action, especially when they deal with such subtle strong adversaries, that assault them day and night without ceasing. Who can conquer three such mighty monarchs as flesh, world, and devil are, or force his way through their temptations and suggestions, unless he fight in earnest, and make it his business? 

That fire, if ever any, had need to be hot, that must melt and overcome such hard metal; and that hand, if ever any, had need to work hard, that will remove and level such high mountains. If the silly hare, pursued by such a pack of hounds, offer once to stand still or lie down, she is sure to be torn in pieces and devoured. 

There is a time, saith the holy bishop, when kings go not forth to warfare; our spiritual war admits no intermission, it knows no night, no winter; abides no peace, no truce; this calls us not into garrison, where we may have ease and respite, but into pitched fields continually; we see our enemies in the face always, and are always seen and assaulted; ever resisting, ever defending, receiving, and returning blows; if either we be negligent or weary, we die. 

He gives a final warning:

We can never have safety and peace but in victory; there must our resistance be courageous and constant, where both yielding is death, and all treaties of peace mortal.

The second reason that godliness requires such extraordinary effort: it comprises the whole of life. It would be an easier matter if God required some rite or sacrifice which could be paid and segregated from the remainder of life. But the question of godliness something which can be compartmentalized: it entails the whole of one’s life:

Secondly, There is a necessity of making it our main work, because of the multiplicity of business that is incumbent on every Christian. That stream had need to run freely, and with full force, that must be divided into many channels. That estate had need to be large, that must be parted among many children. 

Note how Swinnock turns the abstraction – duties – into a picture: wading, mocking:

Who can count the variety of works that every Christian must be engaged in? how many dangers he must wade through? how many snares must he avoid? how many taunts and mocks must he abide? how many temptations must he conquer? how many graces must he exercise? how many lusts must he mortify? how many duties must he perform? 

Every relation, every condition calls for answerable duty and diligence; every ordinance must be improved by him, every providence must be sanctified to him. Mercies must, like a ladder, mount him nearer to heaven; misery must, like the famine to the prodigal, force him to hasten to his father’s house. 

Having said that it is every relation, he then specifies relations to make the point clear:

His wife, his children, his servants, his neighbours, his friends, his enemies, his shop, his closets, his visits, his journeys, do all require suitable service; and who can perform it that is not diligent and sedulous?

His “religious” duties:

Consider him in reference to God’s immediate worship; he must pray, hear, read, meditate, watch, fast, sanctify sabbaths, sing psalms, receive the sacrament, and in all walk humbly, reverently, and uprightly with his God. 

The protestant work-ethic entails specific duty to those who have less and have honesty in all his dealings:

Consider him in reference to poor men; he must love mercy, and supply their necessities according to his ability, and not, like a muck-heap, good for nothing till carried forth; whatever men he deals with, he must do justly, love his neighbour as himself, and as God gives him opportunity, provoke them to mind grace and sanctity; as musk, perfume, if possible, all that he comes near. 

Godliness entails one’s internal psychological state:

Consider him in reference to himself; he must live soberly, vigilantly; his heart is like a subtle, sturdy thief, ever seeking to break the jail, and therefore must have a strong guard; his corrupt nature is like fire, and his whole man like thatch, and therefore he must keep a narrow watch; his senses are the outworks, which Satan is ever assaulting, by them to gain the royal fort of the soul, that he must defend them with care and courage day and night. What is said of the husbandman, is true of every Christian. 

It is comprehensive. Notice how he applies godliness to the most mundane, even earthy- of labors: dunging a field, weeding a field:

His work is never at an end; the end of one work is but the beginning of another; he must always be employed, either in dunging, dressing, ploughing, sowing, harrowing, weeding, or reaping his ground; he hath no leisure to be idle and lazy, who hath so much work lying upon his hand. 

He hear turns to two historical examples as illustrations, which he sums up with pithy sayings:

Seneca thought philosophy cut him out so much work, that he was necessitated to spend every day, and part of the nights, in making it up. Christianity, a nobler mistress, as she gives better wages, so she commands greater work; that her servants may say well with the emperor, Let no day pass without a line; and with Solomon’s housewife, not let their candle go out by night, Prov. 30.

The French Duke d’Alva could say, when he was asked by Henry the Fourth whether he had seen the eclipse of the sun, that he had so much business to do upon earth, that he had no time to look up to heaven. 

Sure I am, the Christian may say with more truth and conscience, That he hath so much business to do for heaven, that he hath no time to mind vain or earthly things. 

Here is his final exhortation, which I have broken out into phrase to better see the structure. 

That servant who doth 

ponder the strictness of his master, 

consider the shortness of his time, 

conceive the largeness of his task, 

and believe the weightiness of his work, 

            how it must be done, 

                        or he is undone for ever, 

will be easily convinced 

that it very nearly concerns him, 

that it highly behoves him, 

            to shake off sloth and sluggishness, 

            to gird up the loins of his mind, 

            to give it the precedency in all his actions, 

            to pursue it with industry against all opposition, 

            to persevere in it with constancy to his dissolution, 

and, in a word, 

            to make it

                        his main business, 

                        his principal work.


2 Sic notat diligentiam et celeritatem.—Cor. A Lapid.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.6a

23 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in George Swinnock, George Swinock

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George Swinnock, godliness, life, The Christian Man's Calling

Proposition:

Secondly, Godliness ought to be every man’s main business, because it is a work of the greatest concernment and weight. 

He here argues that the proposition is true. First, he restates it. This is “the tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you have told them.”

Things that are of most stress call for our greatest strength. Our utmost pains ought to be laid out upon that which is of highest price: man’s diligence about any work must be answerable to the consequence of the work. 

Varying the form of his argumentation, he here argues from the negative and does so in a mildly mocking manner. The first two examples are of people putting in tremendous effort to achieve a very small reward. The third example does not concern a wholly trivial event: at least you could eat the cooked egg. The example works by showing a complete mismatch between the effort expended and the result.

Also notice the structuring: he prefaces each example with a proverb or epigram: I have underscored the introductory proverb to make the structure clear: 

The folly of man seldom appears more than in being very busy about nothing, in making a great cry where there is little wool; like that empty fellow that shewed himself to Alexander—having spent much time, and taken much pains at it beforehand—and boasted that he could throw a pea through a little hole, expecting a great reward; but the king gave him only a bushel of peas for a recompense suitable to his diligent negligence or his busy idleness. 

Things that are vain and empty are unworthy of our care and industry. The man that by hard labour and hazard of his life did climb up to the top of the steeple to set an egg on end, was deservedly the object of pity and laughter. 

We shall think him little better than mad that should make as great a fire for the roasting of an egg as for the roasting of an ox.

He then pivots on the argument by stating it as a positive matter: we should give our best efforts to the most important ends. The illustration is curious, because rather than being an illustration which contains an argument in favor of our position, it is a picture of great burdens (and thus ends) requiring a great effort:

On the other side, the wisdom of men never presenteth itself to our view in livelier colours than in giving those affairs which are of greatest concernment precedency of time and strength. 

Of brutes man may learn this lesson: When the cart is empty, or hath but little lading, the team goeth easily along, they play upon the road; but when the burden is heavy, or the cart stuck, they pull, and draw, and put forth all their strength.

Notice how his many illustrations do not all function in same manner. This varying of the function of the illustrations helps by both avoiding tedium but also by addressing different readers. I find some illustrations more compelling or useful than others. But not all readers will have my personal response to the illustration.

He now applies the general proposition (our greatest effort should be directed to our greatest concern) to the question of godliness. He contends that godliness is our chief concern, because godliness effects not just our immediate existence, but rather eternal life. We 

Now godliness is, amongst all man’s works, of the greatest weight. The truth is, he hath no work of weight but this; this is the one thing necessary, and in this one thing are man’s all things. 

Our unchangeable weal or woe in the other world is wrapped up in our diligence or negligence about this; our earthly businesses, be they about food or raiment, about honours or pleasures, or whatsoever, are but toys and trifles, but baubles and butterflies, to this. As candles before the sun, they must all disappear and give place to this.

It is Your Life To prove the importance of godliness, Swinnock notes that this work of godliness is a matter of our life. To prove this he takes an argument taken from Moses’ Farewell Address. At the the end of Moses’ time with he ends with the note that the commandments set before them “is your life.”

Moses, a pious and tender father, when leaving them, in his swan-like song, gives savoury advice to his children. We need not doubt but his spiritual motions were quickest when his natural motions were slowest; that the stream of grace ran with full strength when it was to empty itself into the ocean of glory. Mark what special counsel he gives them who were committed to his special care: Deut. 32:46, ‘Set your hearts to all the words which I command you this day; for it is not a vain thing; because it is your life.’ 

In which words we have, 1. A commandment; and, 2. An argument. 

Here Swinnock draws Moses’ commandments to Swinnock’s thesis: the commandments are the instructions in godliness. Thus, to do the commandments is to exercise themselves to godliness:

The commandment is, ‘Set your hearts to all the words which I command you this day;’ that is, ‘Exercise yourselves to godliness.’ 

Here he presses on the point which marks many: I hear and understand but I do not do.

He doth not say, lend them your ears, to listen to them slightly; or let them have your tongues, to speak of them cursorily. No; it is not, set your heads, but set your hearts, to all the words, &c. He doth not say, Let your works be according to these words, or let your feet ever make them your walk; no, it is not set your hands, but set your hearts to the words that I speak unto you. Make it your business, and then your ears and tongues, your feet, your heads, your hands, and all will be employed about them to the purpose. 

The commandments are a matter of life and death:

But what special argument doth Moses urge for the enforcement of this great work? Surely that which I am speaking of, the weight of it: ‘Set your hearts to all the words which I command you this day; for it is not a vain thing; because it is your life,’ ver. 47.

Swinnock here uses an image to understand Moses’ work. If the heart of Israelites were wood, then it is very hard wood to split indeed.

(Mr. August Vogel Chops Wood)

Moses had experience that the hearts of the Israelites were exceeding knotty wood, and therefore he useth a heavy beetle to drive home the wedge: it is not a vain thing; it is life. As if he had said, Were it a matter of small moment, ye might laze and loiter about it; but it behoves you to bestir yourselves lustily to follow it, laboriously to set your hearts to it; for it is as much worth as your lives; that pearl of matchless price is engaged and at stake in your pursuit of godliness. 

At this point he gives a number of examples of how people will act to save their life. The implication is that if we would work so hard for our natural life, should we not work 

Life, though but natural, is of so much value that men will sacrifice their honours and pleasures, their wealth and liberty, and all to it.

The Egyptians parted with their costly jewels willingly to redeem their lives, as Calvin observeth. The widow in the Gospel spared none of her wealth to obtain health, which is much inferior to life: ‘Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for his life.’ 

Throw but a brute [an animal] into the water to drown it, how will it labour, and toil, and sweat, to preserve its life! View a man on his death-bed, when a distemper is, like a strong enemy, fighting to force life out of the field, how doth nature then, with all the might and strength it hath, strive and struggle to keep its ground! What panting and breathing, what sweating and working of all the parts do you behold! 

Here he applies the analogy: We work so hard to preserve our natural life which we must lose no matter the effort, then we should take greater care to preserve not the union of soul and body, but the union of our life and our Savior:

And no wonder—the man laboureth for life. If there be such labour for a natural life, that is but umbra vitæ, a shadow to this the substance, which is but the union of the body and soul, and lieth under a necessity of dissolution; what labour doth a spiritual life deserve, that consisteth in the soul’s union and communion with the blessed Saviour, and which neither men nor devils, neither death nor hell, shall ever deprive a believer of, but in spite of all it will grow and increase till it commence eternal life? 

Here he returns to his original proposition: It is your life:

Well might Moses expect that such a heavy weight as this should make great impression, and sink deep into their affections: ‘For it is not a vain thing; because it is your life.’

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.5

17 Wednesday Mar 2021

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Aristotle, Final Cause, George Swinnock, image of God, Imago Dei, The Christian Man's Calling, Worship

In this fifth chapter, Swinnock contends that the purpose of our creation was to worship God. Hence, our final cause must be godliness.

I come in the third place to the reasons, Why godliness should be every man’s main and principal business.

God created us for the purpose of godliness: this was the ‘final cause’ for our creation. Although not explicitly set forth here, Aristotle’s fourth cause sets the basis for this argument. Aristotle broke causation down into four elements: For instance, if someone were to carve a statue, the artist, the hammer, and the stone would all contribute to the creation of the final statue: each would be a cause of what was created. But there is a fourth cause, the final cause which is the point of the whole thing. The point of God’s creation is to Glorify God and enjoy him forever. 

First, Because it is God’s chief end in sending man into, and continuing him in, this world.  It is without question, that the work should be for that end to which it is appointed, and for which it is maintained by a sovereign and intelligent workman. 

Analogous principle: a servant has a duty to fulfill that end whichhas been set out by his master. We are not our own master, and we are not at liberty to determine our own actions. 

Where the master hath authority to command, there his end and errand must be chiefly in the servant’s eye. Zeno well defines liberty to be ἐξουσία αὐτοπραγίας [authority over one’s own conduct] a power to act and practise at a man’s own pleasure; opposite to which, servitude must be a determination to act at, and according to, the will of another. 

A servant is, as the orator saith well, nomen officii, a word that speaks one under command; he is not one that moveth of himself, but the master’s living instrument, according to the philosopher, to be used at his pleasure. 

Now he applies the principle: If God has authority over us then our obedience must correspond to his authority:

According to the title or power which one hath over another, such must the service be. Where the right is absolute, the obedience must not be conditional; God having therefore a perfect sovereignty over his creatures, and complete right to all their services, his end and aim, his will and word, must be principally minded by them. Paul gathers this fruit from that root: ‘The God whose I am, and whom I serve,’ Acts 27:23. His subjection is founded on God’s dominion over him.

Having established the principle that a servant owes due obedience to his master, Swinnock returns to the principle of this chapter:

Now the great end to which man is designed by God, is the exercising himself to godliness.

God erected the stately fabric of the great world for man, but he wrought the curious piece of the little world [man] for himself. Of all his visible works he did set man apart for his own worship. 

Here is an important move in the argument. By being made for godliness, human beings were made for something more than the world. The world was made for human beings, but human beings were made for God. Godliness will then entail something more than merely getting by in the world on such terms are convenient or acceptable to us.

The force of this argument is apparent when it is raised in the opposite direction. When a standard for godly living is raised, we can object to it on the ground that it does not seem to create problems or have negative consequences. Such an argument would sound like this, “Why do you think X is wrong, who does it hurt?” Such an argument has implicit it in the proposition that the only final cause for a human being is oneself, and that only final cause for a rule must be ease or immediate good. This is incidentally, similar to the nature of therapy: The purpose of therapy is help you feel good about whatever you are doing. As long as you do not violate the right of consent in another person, you have fulfilled your moral obligations. 

The nature of godliness will not correspond to the therapeutic, consent-based morality. The final cause, the purpose of godliness is not that you should feel good right now. There may be some immediate pleasure or happiness from godliness, but 

godliness will not necessary entail immediate goods. Restraint, humility, kindness, chastity are not considered immediate goods.

The trouble is that our subjective emotional response is not identical to the ends for which God has created human beings. 

Swinnock’s argument that we are made for something more than this world, explains why immediate emotional response may not be a good indicator of highest end. To the extent our judgment is based upon an evaluation of what is best for me right now, my judgment will be impaired. He needs to establish this point early on, because the course of godliness will not always match my feelings or subjective evaluation.

Man, saith one, is the end of all in a semicircle, intimating that all things in the world were made for man, and man was made for God. It is but rational to suppose that if this world was made for us, we must be made for more than this world. 

It is an ingenious observation of Picus Mirandula, God created the earth for beasts to inhabit, the sea for fish, the air for fowls, the heavens for angels and stars, man therefore hath no place to dwell and abide in, but the Lord alone.

The great God, according to his infinite wisdom, hath designed all his creatures to some particular ends, and hath imprinted in their natures an appetite and propensity towards that end, as the point and scope of their being.2

He here gives a great many examples from nature showing a conformity of all things to their purpose.

Yea, the very inanimate and irrational creatures are serviceable to those ends and uses in their several places and stations. Birds build their nests exactly, bringing up their young tenderly. Beasts scramble and scuffle for their fodder, and at last become man’s food. The sun, moon, and stars move regularly in their orbs, and by their light and influence advantage the whole world. The little commonwealth of bees work both industriously and wonderfully for the benefit of mankind. 

Flowers refresh us with their scents; trees with their shade and fruits; fire moveth upward; earth falleth downward, each by nature hastening to its centre; thunder and winds, being exhalations drawn up from the earth by the heavenly bodies, are wholly at, though stubborn and violent creatures, the call and command of the mighty possessor of heaven and earth; and with them, as with besoms, he sweeps and purifieth the air; fish sport up and down in rivers; rivers run along, sometimes seen, sometimes secret, never ceasing or tiring till they empty themselves into the ocean; the mighty sea, like a pot of water, by its ebbing and flowing purgeth itself, boileth and prepareth sustenance for living creatures. 

Through this womb of moisture, this great pond of the world, as Bishop Halltermeth it, men travel in moveable houses, from country to country, transporting and exchanging commodities [ships and trading]. Thus the almighty Creator doth, γεωμετρεῖν, as Plato saith, observe a curious comely order in all his work, and appoints them to some use according to their nature. 

Since all created things are suitable to their ends, it must be so with human beings:

Surely much more is man, the point in which all those lines meet, designed to some noble end, suitable to the excellency of his being; and what can that be, but to worship the glorious and blessed God, and the exercising himself to godliness?

‘The Lord made all things for himself,’ Prov. 16:4. God made things without life and reason to serve him passively and subjectively, by administering occasion to man to admire and adore his Maker; but man was made to worship him actively and affectionately, as sensible of, and affected with, that divine wisdom, power, and goodness which appear in them.

Here Swinnock expressly raises the question of Aristotle’s causes:

As all things are of him as the efficient cause [God is the agent of causation] , so all things must necessarily be for him as the final cause [the end of everything which God makes is God’s glory]. 

But man in an especial manner is predestinated and created for this purpose: Isa. 43:1, 7, ‘Thou art mine; I have created him for my glory; I have formed him, yea, I have made him.’ There is both the author and the end of our creation: the author, ‘I have created him;’ the end, ‘for my glory.’ As man is the most exact piece, on which he bestowed most pains, so from him he cannot but expect most praise. Lactantius accounteth religion the most proper and essential difference between men and beasts.[1] The praises which beasts give God are dumb, their sacrifices are dead; but the sacrifices of men are living, and their praises lively.

Here Swinnock plays on the idea of the natural world as a theater of God’s Glory. The world as theater is certainly well known from Shakespeare. But the matter of a theater for God’s glory goes at least back to Calvin: “Therefore, however fitting it may be for man seriously to turn his eyes to contemplate God’s works, since he has been placed in this most glorious theater to be a spectator of them, it is fitting that he prick up his ears to the Word, the better to profit.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 72.

God did indeed set up the admirable house of the visible world (flooring it with the earth, watering it with the ocean, and ceiling it with the pearly heavens) for his own service and honour; but the payment of this rent[2] is expected from the hands of man, the inhabitant. He was made and put into this house upon this very account, that he might, as God’s steward, gather his rents from other creatures, and pay in to the great landlord his due and deserved praise. 

Note again this understanding of the image of God: We could look to the image in terms of the capacity to reflect God. But Swinnock here emphasizes the natre of image as the reflection (rather than the capacity to reflect):

Man is made as a glass, to represent the perfections that are in God. A glass can receive the beams of the sun into it, and reflect them back again to the sun. The excellencies of God appear abundantly in his works; man is made to be the glass where these beams of divine glory should be united and received, and also from him reflected back to God again.

A return to the final cause argument: If the human being is capable of worship and reflection, then the final cause of the human being must be congruent with that capacity. If we were merely fit for animal-actions, then there would have been no need to have made us as we are:

Oh, how absurd is it to conceive that God should work a body so ‘curiously in the lowest parts of the earth,’ embroider it with nerves, veins, variety and proportion of parts, (miracles enough, saith one, between head and foot to fill a volume,) and then enliven it with a spark of his own fire, a ray of his own light, an angelical and heaven-born soul, and send this picture of his own perfections, this comely creature, into the world, merely to eat, and drink, and sleep, or to buy, and sell, and sow, and reap. Surely the only wise God had a higher end and nobler design in forming and fashioning man with so much care and cost.

The upright figure of man’s body, as the poetical heathen could observe, may mind him [put him in mind to do so] of looking upward to those blessed mansions above; and that fifth muscle in his eye, whereby he differeth also from other creatures, who have only four—one to turn downward, another to hold forwards, a third to turn the eye to the right hand, a fourth to turn the eye to the left; but no unreasonable creature can turn the eye upward as man can—may admonish him of viewing those superior glories, and exercising himself to godliness, it being given him for this purpose, saith the anatomist, that by the help thereof he might behold the heavens.

Conclusion: we were made for the purpose of godliness:

Thus the blessed God, even by sensible demonstrations, speaks his mind and end in making man; but the nature of man’s soul being a spiritual substance, doth more loudly proclaim God’s pleasure, that he would have it conversant about spiritual things. He made it a heavenly spark, that it might mount and ascend to heaven.

Living at the time Swinnock, it was simply known that human beings were made to fit into a particular place in the world. 

A philosopher may get riches, saith Aristotle, but that is not his main business; a Christian may, nay, must follow his particular calling, but that is not his main business, that is not the errand for which he was sent into the world. God made particular callings for men, but he made men for their general callings. 

It was a discreet answer of Anaxagoras Clazamenius to one that asked him why he came into the world; That I might contemplate heaven.[3]

Heaven is my country, and for that is my chiefest care. May not a Christian upon better reason confess that to be the end of his creation, that he might seek heaven, and be serviceable to the Lord of heaven, and say, as Jerome, I am a miserable sinner, and born only to repent. [See, Phil. 3:2, “But our citizenship is in heaven.”]

The Jewish Talmud propounds this question, Why God made man on the Sabbath eve? and gives this answer: That he might presently enter upon the command of sanctifying the Sabbath, and begin his life with the worship of God, which was the chief reason and end why it was given him.


2 The ancient philosophers, and the old divines among the pagans, did portray their gods in wood and stone with musical instruments, not that they believed the gods to be fiddlers, or lovers of music, but to shew that nothing is more agreeable to the nature of God, than to do all in a sweet harmony and proportion.—Plutarch.

[1]

“It follows that I show for what purpose God made man himself. As He contrived the world for the sake of man, so He formed man himself on His own account, as it were a priest of a divine temple, a spectator of His works and of heavenly objects. For he is the only being who, since he is intelligent and capable of reason, is able to understand God, to admire His works, and perceive His energy and power; for on this account he is furnished with judgment, intelligence, and prudence. On this account he alone, beyond the other living creatures, has been made with an upright body and attitude, so that he seems to have been raised up for the contemplation of his Parent. On this account he alone has received language, and a tongue the interpreter of his thought, that he may be able to declare the majesty of his Lord. Lastly, for this cause all things were placed under his control, that he himself might be under the control of God, their Maker and Creator. If God, therefore, designed man to be a worshipper of Himself, and on this account gave him so much honour, that he might rule over all things; it is plainly most just that he should worship Him who bestowed upon him such great gifts, and love man, who is united with us in the participation of the divine justice.”

Lactantius, “A Treatise on the Anger of God,” in Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, and Liturgies, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. William Fletcher, vol. 7, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 271.

[2] For this same idea, see, “The setting forth of his glory is a rent due to him from all creatures. We are to praise him both in word and deed, in mind, and heart, and practice, which we can never do unless we understand the dignity of his person.” Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 1 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1870), 432.

[3] “When some one asked him if the hills at Lampsacus would ever become sea, he replied, “Yes, it only needs time.” Being asked to what end he had been born, he replied, “To study sun and moon and heavens.” To one who inquired, “You miss the society of the Athenians?” his reply was, “Not I, but they miss mine.”” Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, ed. R. D. Hicks (Kansas City Missouri: Harvard University Press, November 1, 2005), 141. ἐρωτηθείς ποτε εἰς τί γεγέννηται, “εἰς θεωρίαν,” ἔφη, “ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης καὶ οὐρανοῦ.” Diogenes Laertius, “Lives of Eminent Philosophers,” ed. R. D. Hicks (Kansas City Missouri: Harvard University Press, November 1, 2005), 140.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.4e

11 Thursday Mar 2021

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George Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling

The prior post in this series may be found here.

C. True Godliness Perseveres 

1. It is like a man’s labor.

2. They start and finish strong.

3.  They are constant in their work.

Thirdly, To exercise ourselves to godliness, implieth to persevere in it with constancy to our dissolution. 

1. It is like a man’s labor.

Here he again uses an analogy of one’s work to both illustrate and prove his point. It is interesting in considering this analogy for a modern reader, because we are directed not to working until we end or our life, but rather to retire. 

Men follow their trades, and open their shops, till death shut their eyes, and gives them a writ of ease; men pursue their earthly works, till death sound a retreat, and command their appearance in the other world. Many a one hath breathed out his last in the midst of his labour: his life and his labour have ended together.

This verse is a passage which I have to realize does not reference one’s vocation but the calling in the service of the Lord. 

 ‘Let every man abide in the calling whereto he is called,’ saith the apostle, 1 Cor. 7:24.

Then cites to an interesting passage from Psalm 104. There are number of instances of the Lord’s management of the natural world, the moon and sun, the night animals, and then the sun rising and the animals returning. Finally, “Man goes out to his work and to his labor until evening.”

They who make religion their business, are constant, immoveable, and do ‘always abound in the work of the Lord.’ Their day of life is their day of labour;’ the sun ariseth, and man goeth to his labour until the evening,’ Ps. 104:23. 

Death only is their night of resting, when they die in the Lord; then, and not till then, they ‘rest from their labours.’ 

2. They start and finish strong. 

Saints are compared to palm-trees, because they flourish soon; to cedars, because they continue long; they often set out with the first, but always hold on to the last.2 The philosopher being asked in his old age why he did not give over his studies, answered, When a man is to run a race of forty furlongs, he will not sit down at the thirty-ninth, and lose the prize. The pious soul is faithful unto death, and enjoyeth a crown of life. As Cæsar, he is always marching forward, and thinks nothing done whilst anything remains undone.

3. They are constant in their work.

He begins this aspect of perseverance with a quotation from the letters to the Church of Revelation. The Lord addresses seven churches, which he either praises or chastises for various points of their conduct. The first church addressed, which begisn with a commendation: their “toil and patient endurance”; their labor in which they have “not grown weary”. 

As they are fervent in their work, so they are constant at their work. The church of Ephesus had letters testimonial from heaven; ‘For my name’s sake thou hast laboured, and hast not fainted,’ Rev. 2:3.

His reference to “baths” must be to warm springs of some sort. While the physics in the end is mistaken (there is nothing in the water of the springs which makes them warm: they merely have a constant supply of heat from the earth beneath), the analogy is plain. It is in the nature of spring to be warm. It is thus in the nature of a godly man to be constant setting toward godliness. 

Water in the baths is always warm; as long as there is water, there is heat. Not so our ordinary water; though this may be warmed by the fire at present, yet if taken off it returns to its former coldness, nay, it is colder than before, because the spirits which kept it from the extremity of cold, are by the fire boiled out of it. The reason is plain; the heat of the baths is from an inward principle, and therefore is permanent; the heat of the latter is from an external cause, and therefore is inconstant.

At this point, he begins a series of comparisons and contrasts. The gist of these comparisons is that an action which does not flow from an “inward principle” will not be continuous in its operation. 

First comparison: a godliness based upon conscience:

That warmth of piety which proceeds from an inward principle of a purified conscience, is accompanied with perseverance; but that profession which floweth from an outward motive, where men, as chameleons, take their colour from that which stands next them, their religion from those they have their dependence upon, is of short duration.

A constancy based upon sincerity:

A man that minds religion by the by is like Nebuchadnezzar’s image, he hath a head of gold, but feet of clay. His beginning may be like Nero’s first five years, full of hope and encouragement, but afterwards, as a carcase, he is more filthy and unsavoury every day than other. His insincerity causeth his inconstancy. Trees unsound at the root, will quickly cease their putting forth of fruit. Such men, if godliness enjoy a summer of prosperity, may like a serpent creep on the ground, and stretch themselves at length, to receive the warmth of the sun, but if winter come he will creep into some ditch or dunghill, lest he should take cold.

A godliness must be based upon a calling or settled desire. If I go out to sea merely for pleasure, I will turn around at any difficulty. If I set out for some greater task, I will suffer a great deal of difficulty. If godliness is based merely some immediate ease, it will not last. It must be a means to an end sufficient to weather the conflict it will bring.

He phrases this in three consecutive images of one setting out on a path which may meet with difficulty. Because the end of the journey is of sufficient merit and importance, they are willing to fight through the conflicts. Although he does not use the image here, this is quite similar to Bunyan’s use of the picture of man who puts on armor to fight his way into a palace: violent men are taking heaven by force:

Travellers that go to sea merely to be sea-sick, or in sport, if there arise a black cloud or storm, their voyage is at an end, they hasten to the harbour; they came not to be weather-beaten, or to hazard themselves amongst the boisterous billows, but only for pleasure: but the merchant that is bound for a voyage, whose calling and business it is, is not daunted at every wave and wind, but drives through all with resolution. 

The implied argument could also be understood: If a man will risk his live and ease for money, why will he not do so for heaven? This is contrasted to those who stop short. Like Pliable in Pilgrim’s Progress, they stop their travel when it becomes unpleasant:

He that only pretends towards religion, if a storm meet him in the way to heaven, he leaves it, and takes shelter in the earth; as a snail, he puts out his head to see what weather is abroad, (what countenance religion hath at court, whether great men do smile or frown upon the ways of God,) and if the heavens be lowering, he shrinks into his shell, esteeming that his only safety. 

But they that make godliness their business, do not steer their course by such cards—they follow their trade, though they meet with many trials; as resolved travellers, whether the ways be fair or foul, whether the weather be clear or cloudy, they will go on towards their heavenly Canaan; ‘They go from strength to strength, till they appear before God in Sion,’ Ps. 84:8.

When men follow godliness by the by and in jest, they take it to farm, and accept leases of it for a time; but if the times come to be such, that in their blind judgments it prove a hard pennyworth, they throw it up into their landlords’ hands—Vadat Christus, as he said, cum suo evangelio; but men that make religion their business, take it as their freehold, as their fee-simple, which they enjoy, and esteem it their privilege so to do, for the whole term of their lives; ‘I have chosen thy statutes as my heritage for ever: I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always unto the end,’ Ps. 119:11, 12.

This final argument varies the illustration by referring to the inward principle, not the external circumstances, which motivate the apparent acts of godliness. When godliness is motivated by something that can be obtained by a show of piety, the godliness will end as soon as the external motivation is exhausted. 

The godliness of an unsound professor is like the light of a candle, fed with gross and greasy matter, as profit and honour and pleasure, which continueth burning till that tallowy substance be wasted, but then goeth out and leaves a stench behind it; the holiness of a true Christian is like the light of the sun, which hath its original in heaven, and is fed from above, and thereby ‘shines brighter and brighter to perfect day,’ Prov. 4:18.


2 True saints in youth always prove angels in age.—B. Hall Medit. cent. 1.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.4d

02 Tuesday Mar 2021

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George Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling

2. He Takes Advantage of All Opportunties

Statement of the proposition:

The industry of a man about his calling, or whatsoever he makes his business, appeareth in his taking all advantages for the furtherance thereof. 

Illustration:

A tradesman that minds his employment, doth not only in his shop, but also abroad, and when he is from home, drive forward his trade. Indeed, when he is in his shop, his eyes are most about him to see what is wanting, that it may be supplied, to take care that all his customers may be satisfied, and to order things so, that by his buying and selling his stock may be increased; but if he walk from home, he doth not wholly leave his trade behind him. 

If he visit his friends or acquaintance, and there be any likelihood of doing any good, you may observe him questioning the price of such and such commodities, inquiring at what rates they are afforded in those parts; and if they be cheap, possibly furnishing himself from thence; if dear, it may be, put off a considerable quantity of his own. 

Having developed the illustration, he here applies the illustration to his proposition:

Because he makes it his business, his mind runs much upon it, that wherever he is, he will be speaking somewhat of it, if occasion be offered, whereby he comes now and then to meet with such bargains as tend much to his benefit; 

so the Christian that makes religion his business, is industrious to improve all opportunities for the furtherance of his general calling. 

Second application: He here takes uses some allusions to Scripture to flesh out the application. The first allusion is based upon Psalm 102:7, “I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.” (ESV) The basis of the allusion is “I like awake.” Thus, I am constantly watching, like David’s sparrow.           

As his time (for he is God’s servant) so his trade goeth forward every hour; he is, David-like, as a sparrow upon the house-top, looking on this side and that side, to see where he may pick up some spiritual food. 

He doth not only in the church and in his closet, but also in all his converses [his interactions, broader than merely speaking] with men, walk with his God. If God prosper him, as the ship mounts higher according to the increase of the tide, so his heart is lifted up the nearer to God, as God’s hand is enlarged towards him. If God afflict him, as the nipping north wind purifies the air, so the besom of affliction doth sweep the dust of sin out of his heart. As his pulse is ever beating, so his heavenly trade is ever going forward. 

Note that last epigram: As his pulse is ever beating, so his heavenly trade is ever going forward. It is a well balanced line. The beats are not identical on both sides of the pause, but the concepts “rhyme” and clauses “pulse is ever beating” and “trade is every going” does balance perfect. Thus the “forward” drops one more metrical “foot.”

Again, such epigrams work particularly well at the beginning or end of an idea as a way to summarize and recall the whole.

His visits to his friends are out of conscience as well as out of courtesy; and his endeavour is, either by some savoury Scripture expression, or some sober action, to advantage his company. He will watch for a fit season to do his own and others’ souls service, and catch at it as greedily, and improve it as diligently, as Benhadad’s servants did Ahab’s words.

A few things which this last paragraph. Benhadad’s servants are referenced in 1 Kings 20. The allusion is ironic, because they were “diligent” in an evil matter. Again, note how he uses repetition – with an increase information (not a mere repetition of synonyms):

His visits to his friends are 

out of conscience 

as well as out of courtesy; 

and his endeavour is, 

either by some savoury Scripture expression, 

or some sober action, 

to advantage his company.

There are two main verbs: visit/endeavor. Each verb is modified by two clauses, each marked with alliteration. There is a result clause: to the advantage of his company. Such rhetorical structures are not overdone; they are not gaudy – even non-rhetorical age. They make it easier to understand are more affective than something such as: He makes it is his habit to to do his best to speak and act like a godly man whenever he is in company. 

This next section has an allusion to “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31. He applies the principle to eating, commerce, and socializing. 

If he be eating or drinking, the salt of grace is ever one dish upon the table to season all his diet. He will raise his heart from the daily bread to the bread that came down from heaven. He eateth, is full, and blesseth the Lord. Before he begins he asketh God’s leave, while he feeds he tasteth God’s love, and when he hath done he giveth God thanks.

If he be buying or selling, he is very willing that God should be a witness to all his bargains; for he prayeth to God as if men heard him, and he tradeth with men as if God saw him. His shop, as well as his chapel, is holy ground.

If he be amongst his relations, he is both desirous and diligent to further religion. His endeavour is that those that are nigh him in the flesh may be nigh God in the spirit. He is careful that both by his precepts and pattern he may do somewhat for their profit. His house, as well as his heart, is consecrated to God.

He here shifts a bit on the nature of his exhortation: rather than focusing on someone whose does a certain thing, Swinnock explains the godly man in terms of nature: this is a thing he is (not merely a thing he does):

As Cæsar’s image was stamped on a penny, as well as on a greater piece, Mat. 22:20, so godliness, which is the image of the King of kings, is imprinted not only on his greater and weightier, but also upon his lesser and meaner practices.

He returns to the question of conduct:

Godliness is not his physic, which he only now and then (as at spring and fall) makes use of, but his food, which he daily dealeth about; besides his set times for his set meals of morning and evening devotion, he hath many a good bait by the by in the day-time. ‘Evening, morning, and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud,’ Ps. 55:17. ‘Oh, how love I thy law; it is my meditation,’ not some part, but ‘all the day.’ 

Whether the actions he be about be natural or civil, he makes them sacred; whether the company he be in be good or bad, he will mind his holy calling; whether he be riding or walking, whether it be at home or abroad; whether he be buying or selling, eating or drinking, whatsoever he be doing, or wheresoever he be going, still he hath an eye to further godliness, because he makes that his business. 

And now back to ontology. This switch back-and-forth, detracts a bit from the structure. In a day of long-hand writing, I assume he completed one section (godliness as conduct) switched to godliness as being, and then thought of another section, added it, and then returned to his subject. Note that the second of the above-sections repeats the concept from above about eating and buying. 

What the philosopher said of the soul in relation to the body—The soul is whole in the whole body, and whole in every part of it1—is true of godliness, in reference to the life of a Christian; godliness is whole in his whole conversation, and whole in every part of it. 

As the constitution of man’s body is known by his pulse; if it beat not at all, he is dead; if it beat and keep a constant stroke, it is a sign the body is sound. Godliness is the pulse of the soul; if it beat not at all, the soul is void of spiritual life; if it beat equally and constantly, it speaks the soul to be in an excellent plight.

He ends this question of godliness as matter of constant attention and action by means of a contrast between the example of the Lord and the one who shifts to circumstance:

It was the practice of our Saviour, who left us a blessed pattern therein, to be always furthering godliness. When bread was mentioned to him, upon it he dissuaded his disciples from the leaven of the pharisees, Mat. 16:5, 6. When water was denied him by the Samaritan woman, he forgets his thirst, and seeks to draw her to the well-spring of happiness, John 4:10. When people came to him for bodily cures, how constantly doth he mind the safety of their souls: ‘Thou art made whole, go sin no more,’ or, ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee.’ He went about doing good; in the day-time working miracles and preaching, in the night-time he often gave himself to meditation and prayer.

The example of the Lord is useful in two ways. First, this is the supreme example of what is required. Second, there is a reference back to his prior description: the godly man is concerned with godliness while he is eating or drinking. 

Now we turn to the contrast, who reminds on of Mr. By-Ends in Pilgrim’s Progress:

Money-Love: Alas! Why did they not stay, that we might have had their good company? for they, and we, and you, Sir, I hope, are all going on pilgrimage.

By-ends: We are so, indeed; but the men before us are so rigid, and love so much their own notions, and do also so lightly esteem the opinions of others, that let a man be never so godly, yet if he jumps not with them in all things, they thrust him quite out of their company.

Save-All: That is bad, but we read of some that are righteous overmuch; and such men’s rigidness prevails with them to judge and condemn all but themselves. But, I pray, what, and how many, were the things wherein you differed?

By-ends: Why, they, after their headstrong manner, conclude that it is duty to rush on their journey all weathers; and I am for waiting for wind and tide. They are for hazarding all for God at a clap; and I am for taking all advantages to secure my life and estate. They are for holding their notions, though all other men are against them; but I am for religion in what, and so far as the times, and my safety, will bear it. They are for religion when in rags and contempt; but I am for him when he walks in his golden slippers, in the sunshine, and with applause.

He that minds religion by the by doth otherwise; he can, Proteus-like, turn himself into any shape which is in fashion. As the carbuncle, a beast which is seen only by night, having a stone in his forehead, which shineth incredibly and giveth him light whereby to feed; but when he heareth the least noise, he presently lets fall over it a skin, which he hath as a natural covering, lest its splendour should betray him; so the half Christian shines with the light of holiness by fits and starts; every fright makes him hold in and hide it. The mark of Antichrist was in his followers’ hands, which they can cover or discover at their pleasure; but the mark of Christ’s disciples was in their foreheads, visible at all times.

A note on the fabulous beasts and events referenced by our ancestors. When we look at back at these things, we can think: How credulous they were. But think for a moment. 


1 Anima est tota in toto et tota in qualibet parte.

George Swinnock, The Godly Man’s Picture 1.4c

26 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in George Swinnock, George Swinock

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Diligent, George Swinnock, Heedful, Puritan, The Godly Man's Picture, zeal

1. He is laborious in the work of godliness.

a. He makes godliness his chief concern

b. He is diligent

c. He is heedful

d. He is zealous

e. He is careful

This sort of a list should not be read over as if it were mere information. To be properly understood, it is necessary to also ask, “Is this me?” It is also best read with a Bible in one’s hand to check to consider the passages cited.

Thus he that makes religion his business is industrious and laborious in the work of the Lord. 

a. He makes godliness is his chief concern

The heart of his ground, the strength of his inward man, is spent about the good corn of religion, not about the weeds of earthly occasions. 

To prove this point, Swinnock lists six ways in which this chief concern are apparent. I have broken-up this paragraph and have added numbering to make these elements apparent.

i. He makes haste to keep God’s commandments, knowing that the lingering, lazy snail is reckoned among unclean creatures, Lev. 11:30; 

This use of a seemingly unimportant and certainly obscure  element from the law to illustrate a proposition is a characteristic of the English Puritan. The word translated “snail” in the KJV is now understood to refer to a sand lizard of some sort.

ii. and he is hot and lively in his devotion, knowing that a dull, drowsy ass (though fit enough to carry the image of Isis, yet) was no fit sacrifice for the pure and active God, Exod. 13:13. 

iii. He giveth God the top, the chief, the cream of all his affections, as seeing him infinitely worthy of all acceptation; 

This is a proposition that was famously developed by Jonathan Edwards, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. Swinnock plainly hopes to stir up affections from the manner of his writing. He does not treat people as merely lacking some generally knowledge: he is constantly seeking to cause the reader to be taken up and to desire these things which he is being encouraged unto.

iv. he is ‘not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit,’ when he is ‘serving the Lord,’ Rom. 12:11. 

v. He believeth that to fear God with a secondary fear is atheism; that to trust God with a secondary trust is treason; that to honour God with a secondary honour is idolatry; and to love God with a secondary love is adultery; 

This is a biting observation. It is our nature that we settle for having some fear, some trust, some honor, some love. That is not merely insufficient, it is dangerous.

vi. therefore he loveth (and he feareth and trusteth and honoureth) ‘the Lord his God, with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength,’ Mat. 22:36, 37.

(vi.) 1. His love to God ‘is a labour of love, as strong as death; the coals thereof are coals of juniper,’ which do not only burn long, (some say twelve months together,) but burn with the greatest heat. 

(vi.) 2. His measure of loving God is without measure.

Illustrations. He here provides two historical illustrations:

The Samseans in Epiphanius were neither Jews, Gentiles, nor Christians, yet preserved a fair correspondency with all: a hypocrite is indifferent to any, never fervent in the true religion.

It is reported of Redwald, king of the east Saxons, the first prince of this nation that was baptized, that in the same church he had one altar for the Christian religion, another for the heathenish sacrifices. The true believer doth otherwise; he that makes religion his work, gives God the whole of his heart, without halting and. without halving.

b. He is diligent:

Set him about any duty, and he is diligent in it. 

He is diligent in his prayer and in receiving the sacraments.

In prayer, 

he laboureth in prayer, Col. 4:12;

he crieth to God, 1 Sam. 7:9;

he crieth mightily, Jonah 3:8;

he poureth forth his soul, Lam. 2:19;

he strives in supplication with God, Rom. 15:30; 

stirs up himself to lay hold on God, Isa. 27:5;

and even wrestleth with omnipotency, Gen. 32:14. 

There is the repetition of the “he” in five short phrases, each backed with biblical support. He then switches the form of phrase to conclude. Not also that the variation between each line is a verb. The verbs are not bare synonyms, but rather each phrase provides more information. When I hear contemporary preachers make an emphasis similar to this they repeat the “he” with a verb, but each line is merely a repetition not an addition.

He then ends with this epigram, which is fit to the previous statement and also is each to remember:

When the mill of his prayer is going, his fervent affections are the waters that drive it. 

The movement of image from water to fire works well:

There is fire taken from God’s own altar, (not the ordinary hearth of nature,) and put to his incense, whereby it becomes fragrant and grateful to God himself. 

He then provides an additional epigram:

His fervent prayer is his key to God’s treasury, and his endeavour is, that it rust not for want of use. 

When he goeth to the sacrament, he is all in a flame of affection to the author of that feast; with desire he desires to eat of the passover. 

He longs exceedingly for the time, he loves the table; but when he seeth the bread and wine, the waggons which the Lord Jesus hath sent for him, oh how his heart revives! 

When he seeth the sacraments, the body and blood of Christ in the elements, who can tell how soon he scents! how fast this true eagle flieth to the heavenly carcase.

c. He is heedful

In this section, Swinnock highlights two aspects of the godly man’s life: hearing and speaking. First, he heeds what he hears from the Word of God. Second, he speaks in such a way that others should do the same. To those who dishonor God, he corrects. But when he is counseling the one who willingly hears, he is gentle:

i) Listening:

At hearing he is heedful; he flieth to the salt-stone of the word with swiftness and care, as doves to their columbaries, Isa. 60:8. As the new-born babe, he desires the sincere milk of the word; and when he is attending on it, he doth not dally nor trifle, but as the bee the flower, and the child the breast, suck with all his might for some spiritual milk, Isa. 66:11; Deut. 28:1; he hearkeneth diligently to the voice of the Lord his God; 

ii) Speaking:

let him be in company, taking notice of some abominable carriage, he will rebuke cuttingly, Tit. 1:13. If he gives his bitter pill in sweet syrup, you may see his exceeding anger against sin, whilst you behold his love to the sinner; he is, though a meek lamb when himself, yet a lion when God, is dishonoured; his anger waxeth hot when men affront the Most High, Exod. 32:19. 

If he be counselling his child or friend to mind God and godliness, how hard doth he woo to win the soul to Christ! how many baits doth he lay to catch the poor creature! you may perceive his bowels working by his very words: how fervent, how instant, how urgent, how earnest is he to persuade his relation or acquaintance to be happy! He ‘provokes them to love, and to good works.’

d. He is Zealous

Set him about what religious exercise you will, and he is, according to the apostle’s words, ‘zealous’ (or fiery fervent) ‘of good works;’ like spring water, he hath a living principle, and thence is warm in winter, or, like Debris in Cyrene,1is seething hot.

As Augustus said of the young Roman, Quicquid vult, valde vult[2]; whatsoever he goeth about that concerns the glory of his Saviour, and the good of his soul, he doth it to purpose. 

Whatever God requires, the godly man will do. 

In this next section, Swinnock makes his argument from the Greek word diōkō. The word is translated as “follow after,” in the KJV. The ESV has “pursue”. It is a very strong word, which as Swinnock notes, is elsewhere translated as persecute or hunt. The idea here is that Paul is chasing after something to catch it. He puts this image to good use when he refers to persecutors as “industrious”:

As Paul saith of himself, ‘I follow after, if that I may apprehend’ Phil. 3:12. The word in the original is emphatical, διώκω, I prosecute it with all my strength and power, that I may attain if it be possible. The word is either an allusion to persecutors, Mat. 5:10–12, for it is used of them frequently; so Piscator takes it. Or to hunters, according to Aretius; take either, and the sense is the same, and very full. 

As persecutors are industrious and incessant in searching up and down for poor Christians, and hauling them to prison; and as huntsmen are up betimes at their sport, follow it all day, and spare for no pains, even sweating and tiring themselves at this their pleasure; so eager and earnest, so indefatigable and industrious was Paul, and so ought every one of us to be (the command is delivered to us, in the same word, Heb. 12:14) about godliness.

The reference to Hebrews 12:14: Pursue [same word, diōkō] peace with all men and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. In short, godliness requires the zeal of a hunter seeking prey or a persecutor seeking to capture another.

e. He is careful

In this section, Swinnock changes the nature of the argument. Rather than speaking first of what this element requires, he begins with the negative image: What is it to not be careful? It is interesting, because such a man willingly presumes upon God and in so doing makes an idol out of God. The God of his imagination is quite similar to the modern default God who cares for me, helps when I need it, and never judges anything. I found this negative portrait quite effect, because it captures presumption. A merely positive statement on all points could have the effect of making the standard sound purely aspirational: we’d all like to be like this. By using the negative at points, Swinnock catches our sloth in its burrow:

A man that minds godliness only by the by, looks sometimes to the matter, seldom to the manner, of his performances. Opus operatum [work working], the work done is a full discharge for him, how slightly or slovenly however it be done. If he stumble sometimes upon a good word, yet it is not his walk; and when he is in that way, he cares not how many steps he treads awry. 

It may be said of him as of Jehu, ‘He takes no heed to walk in the way of the Lord God of Israel with his heart,’ 2 Kings 10:31. 

He makes an idol of the blessed God, (he prays to him, and hears from him, as if he had eyes and saw not, as if he had ears and heard not, as if he had hands and wrought not,) and anything will serve an idol. 

Here he closes out the portrait with sarcasm:

How aptly and justly may God say to him after his duties, as Cæsar to the citizen after dinner, (who, having invited the emperor to his table, made but slight preparation and slender provision for him,) I had thought that you and I had not been so familiar.

What it is to be careful. Here, Swinnock 

But he that exerciseth himself to godliness hath a more awful and serious carriage towards God. The twelve tribes served God ‘instantly day and night,’ Acts 26:7, fervently, vehemently, to the utmost of their power; the word implieth both extension and intension; the very heathen could say that the gods must be worshipped, ἢ ὅλως ἢ μὴ ὅλως, [everything or nothing] either to our utmost withal, or not at all.


1 “Beyond it is the desert, and then Talgæ, a city of the Garamantes, and Debris, at which place there is a spring, the waters of which, from noon to midnight, are at boiling heat, and then freeze for as many hours until the following noon;” Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, ed. John Bostock (Medford, MA: Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, 1855), 1399.

[2] This is a line from Augustine’s Confessions, “Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt.” Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustine’s Confessions, Vol. 2, ed. T. E. Page and W. H. D. Rouse, trans. William Watts, The Loeb Classical Library (New York; London: The Macmillan Co.; William Heinemann, 1912), 149.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.4b

25 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in George Swinock, Preaching, Rhetoric

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Exhortation, George Swinnock, godliness, Preaching, Rhetoric, The Christian Man's Calling

This is a continuation of working through George Swinnock’s The Godly Man’s Picture. The previous post on this may be found here. In this post I primarily look at the introductory exhortation to pursue godliness with industry. It is a remarkable rhetorical exercise, demonstrating a great mastery over language. It is the sort of language which would make someone from a far future culture wonder if this constitutes “poetry”, in that the language is so compressed and controlled. Not only do I find such control of language fascinating, I also think that a great deal of preaching and teaching in the church would be improved by a greater ability to express propositions not merely with theological accuracy, but also with a passion which matches the content and helps the listener both understand and apply the exhortation. When the expression of the truth contradicts the purpose and content of the truth, we actually make it harder for the turth to have the desired effect. Yes, God can use the most incompetent speaker; but there is no reason we should strive to maximize our incompetence.

B.        Pursue Godliness With Industry:

1.         He is laborious in his efforts

2.         He takes advantage of all opportunity to be godly.

Secondly, To make religion one’s business, containeth [includes the concept] to pursue it with industry in our conversations. 

He then follows this proposition up with an expansion of the concept. I have broken it down by clauses and grouping so that the overall structure of this exhortation can be seen clearly. I will note the rhetorical elements below

A man that makes his calling his business 

is not lazy, but laborious about it; 

what pains will he take! 

what strength will he spend! 

how will he toil and moil at it early and late! 

The tradesman, 

the husbandman, 

eat not the bread of idleness, 

when they make their callings their business; 

if they be good husbands, 

they are both provident to observe their seasons, 

and diligent to improve them for their advantage; 

they do often even dip their food in their sweat, 

and make it thereby the more sweet. 

Their industry appears in working hard in their callings, 

and in improving all opportunities for the furtherance of their callings.

The rhetoric. This passage is extremely well constructed. He uses a variety devices to make the exhortation stirring and interesting. He does not over use one device. As you will see, he doubles but does not triple. We will start at the first stanza:

A man that makes his calling his business 

is not lazy, but laborious about it; 

The first line: Alliteration: man … makes . It is also iambic a MAN that MAKES. 

There is then the repetition of the his in parallel phrase “his business his calling” 

The second line is structured like a line of Anglo-Saxon poetry: there is a major break in the line. One either side of the break there is a strong accent which is matched by an alliterative strong accent on the other side of the line: is not LAZY, but LABORIOUS. The line is further helped by the lack of an “is” before Laborious. A perfectly parallel line would read, “is not lazy, but is laborious”. By dropping the “is”, the line gains speed and power. There is then the near rhyme: laborious about it. If you drop the “l” is it aborious about it. There is finally the “b” which marks the two line end words: “business/about”

Second stanza:

what pains will he take! 

what strength will he spend! 

how will he toil and moil at it early and late! 

The first two lines are near repetitions:

WHAT pains WILL HE take

WHAT strength WILL HE spend. 

Note also that “p” “t” are both plosives. Thus, will note a strict alliteration, it does create a parallel sound.  In the second line we have an alliterative “s” with a reversal of the order of the plosives. Note the structure of the sounds in the words which were not duplicated:

P   – T

ST- SP

In the third line we read:

how will he toil and moil at it early and late! 

Moil is a now-archaic word, which means work or drudgery and was common in this stock phrase, “toil and moil”. Looking at the Google N-gram, the word was quite rare in 1800, being primary found in dictionaries. By 1820, the word seems to have disappeared altogether. 

This third line repeats and rephrases the previous two lines in concept: the laborer will work very hard. But here he balances the line by means two stock phrases “toil and moil/early and late”. By running out this longer line and adding in the stock phrases, he slows the entire movement of the passage down. It has the effect of giving the reader’s “ear” a rest. 

In the third stanza he creates an “if-then” structure:

if they be good husbands, 

they are both provident to observe their seasons, 

and diligent to improve them for their advantage; 

they do often even dip their food in their sweat, 

and make it thereby the more sweet. 

The “then” conclusions are each a pair of clauses, both of which are marked with a “they”: they are both/they do often. The “if” clause likewise pivots on the word “they” If they be.

they are both provident to observe their seasons, 

and diligent to improve them for their advantage; 

they do often even dip their food in their sweat, 

and make it thereby the more sweet. 

The first of these paired clauses are both three beat lines: provident-observe-seasons/diligent-improve-advantage. The opening beat: provident/diligent rhyme which further strengths the parallel.

The second then clause: What is most striking if the near-rhyme: sweat/sweet. I don’t know precisely how Swinnock would have pronounced these words, but it is possible there were even closer in sound when he spoke them. In the first line there is the repeated “d” including the addition of the unnecessary “do” they DO often even DIP their fooD.

The final stanza is not nearly so musical as the previous stanzas: the lines are longer the effects are less. These two lines are marked by concluding both lines with the same phrase “their callings” (I have not named all the various effects. This particular device is called “epistrophe”. The names and uses of these devices can be found at the excellent webpage: http://rhetoric.byu.edu)

Their industry appears in working hard in their callings, 

and in improving all opportunities for the furtherance of their callings.

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