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.