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George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.7

01 Thursday Apr 2021

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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

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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, 1.4b

25 Thursday Feb 2021

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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.

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

17 Wednesday Feb 2021

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CHAPTER IV

What it is for a man to make religion his business, or to exercise himself to godliness

I proceed to the second particular promised, that is, To shew what it is for a man to exercise himself to godliness. It implieth these three things:

The outline

A. Precedence in all actions

B. Pursue it with “industry”

C. Persevere

A. Precedence in all actions

1. General Statement

2. Categories of Conduct

3. Response to Hinderances

4. Attendance to Worship

5. Exhortation/encouragement

6. Conclusion

First, To give it the precedency in all our actions. That which a man maketh his business, he will be sure to mind, whatsoever he omits. 

1. Swinnock first provides an example to make the standard comprehensible. He is also dealing with a potential objection by using something which he assumes would not entail the same objection. The illustration merely says, Give godliness the same level of attention you do work. But there is an implied argument: One might think, you can’t possibly expect me to devote my primary attention to this. Answer, you willingly devote yourself to your business pursuits. You won’t goof off before you got your work done. Implied argument: Godliness is more important than money. Conclusion: Therefore, you should give godliness this level of attention.

This argument and illustration would have greater force in a world without the excess resources available today in the West. When ruin and starvation were real threats for the reader, the force of you would work hard has a more emphatic effect.

A good husband will serve his shop before his sports, and will sometimes offer a handsome and warrantable kind of disrespect to his friends, that his calling may have his company; he will have some excuse or other to avoid diversions, and force his way to his trade through all opposition, and all because he makes it his business: he that makes religion his business, carrieth himself towards his general, as this man doth towards his particular, calling. 

Then he provides a summary statement. Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you have told them. 

In his whole life he walks with God, and is so mannerly and dutiful, as to give God the upper hand all the way. 

2. Categories: These points will be developed at much greater length in the remainder of the book. What Swinnock does here is to provide the specific categories of conduct: worship, family, work:

He knoweth that his God must be worshipped, that his family must be served, and that his calling must be followed, (for religion doth not nullify, only rectify his carriage towards his earthly vocation;) but each in their order,—that which is first in regard of excellency is first in regard of his industry. 

An illustration with an implied argument

Children > Cattle

Savior > World

He will fulfill the most necessary, even if it costs him elsewhere:

He is not so unnatural as to serve his cattle before his children, nor so atheistical as to serve his body and the world before his soul and his Saviour. He is so sensible of his infinite engagements to the blessed God, that he allotteth some time every day for his religious duties; and he will be sure to pay God home to the utmost of his ability, whosoever he compounds with, or pays short.

3. Hinderances

The use of a sea voyage as a metaphor for the difficulties of life was a commonplace during this time in England. And again, the metaphor involves an argument: Just as a mariner in a storm would not give place to distractions which would keep from coming to port, so a godly man will not allow distractions to keep him from heaven:

As he sails along through the tempestuous sea of this world towards his eternal haven of rest, he hath many temporal affairs in his company, but he is specially careful that they keep their distance, and strike sail through the whole voyage. 

If the other calls upon his time will not keep to their place, then they simply must go. The applicable story of Hagar is found in Genesis 21:

If his worldly businesses offer, like Hagar, to jostle or quarrel for pre-eminence with their superior, religion, he will, if possible, chide them into subjection, and cause them to submit; but rather cast them out than suffer them to usurp authority over their mistress.

That is a rather complicated series of clauses:

If his worldly businesses offer, 

                        like Hagar, 

            to jostle or quarrel for pre-eminence 

                        with their superior, 

                                    religion, 

he will, 

            if possible, 

chide them into subjection, 

and cause them to submit; 

but rather cast them out 

            than suffer them to usurp authority over their mistress.

He then enters into a counter argument, although this is not clearly explained. If someone follows in godliness, but does not really have a desire for it, will follow after distractions. The Gadarenes: In Matthew 8, Jesus, in the land of the Gadarenes, heals a man filled with demons. The demons move from the man into the swine. The people of the land are more upset by the death of the pigs, than they are pleased with the salvation of a man:

He that minds religion by the by, will, if other things intervene, put it back, and be glad of an excuse to waive that company, to which he hath no love; nay, he doth in the whole course of his life prefer his swine, as the Gadarenes, before his soul; set the servant on horseback and suffer the master to go on foot. 

He here uses three illustrations from Scripture. This was a common use of Scripture as illustration among the Puritans. But what needs to be noted is that the passages are not used as prooftexts or as exegesis: 

In the first, just as a hardhearted wealthy man ignores the life of the poor and speaks rudely to him. This images works well for his point. The second involves Jacob (Gen. 48) where he blesses the second-born over the first born, and so one who prioritizes anything over godliness has their priorities in the wrong order. The second image is not as successful, because Jacob’s decision was the correct one in his case. The third is an oblique reference to Esau

His voice to religion is like the Jews’ to the poor man in vile raiment, ‘Stand thou there, or sit thou here under my footstool;’ and his words to the world are like theirs to the man in goodly apparel, ‘Come up hither, or sit thou here in a good place,’ James 2:2, 3.  

He doth, like Jacob, lay the right hand of his care and diligence upon the youngest son, the body, and the left hand upon the first-born, the soul. 

That which was Esau’s curse is esteemed by him as a blessing, that the elder serves the younger: 

Swinnock ends the three illustrations with a characterization of one who leaves off godliness. The first element is the stupidity of preferring the lesser before the greater; the last three elements all involve his rebellion against God:

he is 

[1]so unwise as to esteem lying vanities before real mercies; 

[2]often so unworthy as to forget God, 

            [a]whosoever he remembereth; 

[3]and so uncivil at best as to give God the world’s leavings, 

[4]and to let the almighty Creator dance attendance till he pleaseth to be at leisure. 

What this practice looks like:

If he be in the midst of his devotion, he makes an end upon the smallest occasion; and is like the patriarch, who ran from the altar, when he was about his office, to see a foal new fallen from his beloved mare.

4. Attendance to Worship

Here we have proposition (God first), example, (Abraham’s steward), application (godliness is an errand):

But every saint, like Solomon, first builds a house for God, and then for himself. Whoever be displeased, or whatever be neglected, he will take care that God be worshipped. 

Abraham’s steward, when sent to provide a wife for Isaac, though meat were set before him, refused to eat till he had done his errand, Gen. 24:33. 

Godliness is the errand about which man is sent into the world; now, as faithful servants, we must prefer our message before our meat, and serve our master before ourselves.

What this means to make godliness his chief errand.  In this instance, he states that godliness must be the element which begins the day:

He that makes godliness his business gives it the first of the day, and the first place all the day. He gives it the first of the day: 

Now he gives examples to prove the point:

Jesus Christ was at prayer ‘a great while before day,’ Mark 1:35.

Abraham ‘rose up early in the morning to offer sacrifice,’ Gen. 22:1;

so did Job, chap. 1:5.

David crieth out, ‘O God, my God, early will I seek thee,’ Ps. 63:1. ‘In the morning will I direct my prayer to thee, and look up,’ Ps. 5:3.

The next two examples contain an implicit argument: If the pagan will rise early to worship a false god, then certainly you should rise early to worship the true:

The Philistines in the morning early offered to their god Dagon. The Persian magi worshipped the rising sun with their early hymns. 

He then repeats the original proposition together with a flourish. This sort of construction is quite common in Swinnock:

Proposition

Illustration

Application

Proposition recap

The saint in the morning waits upon heaven’s Majesty. As soon as he awakes he is with God; one of his first works, when he riseth, is to ask his heavenly Father’s blessing. Like the lark, he is up early, singing sweetly the praise of his Maker; and often, with the nightingale, late up, at the same pleasant tune.

This final repetition and recap would do better if the first line were dropped. It seems out of place:

He finds the morning a greater friend to the Graces than it can be to the Muses. Naturalists tell us that the most orient pearls are generated of the morning dew. Sure I am, he hath sweet communion with God in morning duties.

5. Exhortation/encouragement

Reader, let me tell thee, if religion be thine occupation, thy business, God will hear from thee in the morning; one of the first things after thou art up will be to fall down and worship him. Thy mind will be most free in the morning, and thine affections most lively, (as those strong waters are fullest of spirits which are first drawn;) and surely thou canst not think but that God, who is the best and chiefest good, hath most right to them, and is most worthy of them.

Contemporary style in exegetical preaching is to put all the application or encouragement in a separate section at the end. I find that a fault, because it elevates a sense of structure over the reality of recipient. Swinnock has been pretty strict about the duty to be done. In the words of the catechism, this is to “Glorify God.” But this duty is not meant to be a drudge: the remainder of the catechism’s answer is to “enjoy Him forever.” Swinnock’s exhortation is not merely do because must; it is do, also, because it will be your joy. 

We fail in godliness often times because it seems joy rests elsewhere. The dour Puritanism of Hawthorne has nothing to Swinnock’s religion. Perhaps the way to square the two is that the one who does not know God cannot enjoy God; and such a one’s outward conduct can only be drudgery, because he must give up the (deceiving) joys of sin and gains nothing in return. I suppose a man would rather have a mirage of water than none at all.

He provides a second exhortation and encouragement, this time he basis upon the Christian’s nature: you were born to greater things than sin:

As a godly man gives religion the precedency of the day, so he gives it the precedency in the day. The Jews, some say, divide their day into prayer, labour, and repast, and they will not omit prayer either for their meat or labour. Grace (as well as nature) teacheth a godly man not to neglect either his family or body; but it teacheth him also to prefer his soul and his God before them both. Seneca, though a heathen, could say, I am greater, and born to greater things, than to be a drudge to, and the slave of, my body. A Christian’s character is, that he is not carnal, or for his body, but spiritual, or for his soul, Rom. 8. It was a great praise which Ambrose speaks of Valentinian, Never man was a better servant to his master, than Valentinian’s body was to his soul.

6. Summary

This is the godly man’s duty, to make heaven his throne, and the earth his footstool. 

This is an allusion to Isaiah 66:1

Thus says the Lord

Heaven is my throne

The earth is my footstool.

It is the exposition which one gives upon those words, ‘Subdue the earth,’ Gen. 1:28, that is, thy body, and all earthly things, to thy soul. 

This is an interesting exposition of the command from Genesis. In context, this plainly applies to giving order to the physical creation, making it a garden. This sort of application is not a “grammatical-historical-literary” exposition. This would be an “analogical” or “spiritual” level of exegesis. 

ANAGOGICAL. This is one of the four senses in which Scripture may be interpreted, viz. the literal, allegorical, anagogical, and tropological. The anagogical sense is given when the text is explained with regard to the end which Christians should have in view, that is, eternal life: for example, the rest of the Sabbath, in the anagogical sense, corresponds to the repose of everlasting blessedness.

Richard Watson, “Anagogical,” A Biblical and Theological Dictionary (New York: Lane & Scott, 1851), 52.

He ends with an argument for the precedence of godliness: the purpose of our life is where we are going. This teleological sense is interesting in how it plays out. There is an attitude that one may ignore this world, because there will be a New Heaven and New Earth; this life thus becomes unimportant. But note what Swinnock said above: godliness entails worship of God, care for our family, attention to our vocation. Godliness entails the manner of living here, but with an eye to the result of that work. It is not an abandonment of the world.

Our earthly callings must give way to our heavenly; we must say to them, as Christ to his disciples, ‘Tarry you here, while I go and pray yonder.’ 

And truly godliness must be first in our prayers—‘Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,’ before ‘Give us this day our daily bread;’ and first in all our practices—‘Seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, and all other things shall be added to you,’ Mat. 6:33.

George Swinnock, The Sinner’s Last Sentence, 1.4

04 Thursday Feb 2021

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The Anchor of Hope will then be broken.

Secondly, I shall speak to the properties of this departure from Christ, or loss therein.

In this short chapter he lays out aspects of the loss of Christ for eternity, which will be end of those without godliness. The purpose of this review is create a rationale and desire to pursue godliness, which will be the focus of the treatise. 

This first paragraph is interesting in its ontology: he impliedly gives his understanding of the functioning of the soul.

1. It [the loss of Christ] is spiritual [loss]. It is a loss peculiar to the soul or spirit of man, and a loss of that good that is most suitable to the soul or spirit of man. No mercies are like soul-mercies, Eph. 1:3, and Job 4:4; no miseries are like soul-miseries. 

This proposition is something which is not intuitive for someone reading the work today. The social imaginary is something along the lines of naturalism and materialism. The soul, at best, is a bare conception meant to express our self-awareness. 

He then provides an image to back up his argument. This analogy is unlikely to be persuasive in an age of leveling – perhaps he would have to speak of a celebrity being made unhappy!

For, the nobler any being is, the better that is which advantageth it, and the worse that is that injureth it. It is one thing to relieve or abuse a distressed prince, and another thing to relieve or abuse a distressed subject. The soul of man is the prince, the chief and noblest part of man, and it is principally the subject, as chiefly sensible of this departure. 

What he means here: Since nothing can be actually away from God’s presence (there is no existence apart from God), the soul cannot be apart from God in a spatial sense; there is not some place for the soul to get to. However, there is a psychological distance which can be had. I may be sitting next to you on a bench; but I can be very hard away in terms of “connection.”

It is true the soul cannot depart from God locally, but it can and doth morally here in its affections and conversation. 

Here makes an emphatic argument. Having logically laid out his case, that the spiritual loss of Christ is the greatest loss which can befell one, he here makes an argument to raise an emotional response to the proposition. There is a kind of preacher or teacher who thinks that in spiritual matters what one needs is information. That information conveyed in a dull manner is then understood to have truly expressed what needs to be known.

Such a thought is false. Part of the information is the manner in which the information affects the hearer. A warning given in dull, quiet tones is conveying a meaning contrary to the words: Yes, there is a fire, but it is not really dangerous. Yes you must exit the building, but don’t worry about it.

This is a good display of rhythm and sound to underscore the meaning. I have broken it down into clauses to better see the work. Notice in this paragraph, the repetition of sounds, particularly the first “p” in words. Notice also how the clauses are balanced. Notice the repetition of words at the beginning of clauses to underscore the balance: “Other losses”, “and the portion”; the contrast of words: Pinch-pierceth; practice/pleasure – torment/punishment. Notice how “torment” and “punishment” rhyme to draw the concepts closer together.

How does he construct such a careful argument? First, by much exposure to such structures. There is a part of this which is intuitive, assimilated from much reading and hearing. Part of it is the result of practice and effort. Part of it is from editing and re-writing. A good place to start thinking of this is “Why Johnny Can’t Preach”. 

But that which is now its practice and pleasure, 

will then be their torment and punishment. 

Other losses pinch the flesh, 

but this pierceth the spirit. 

Other losses are castigatory, 

    and the portion of children; 

but this is damnatory, 

     and the portion of devils. 

Here is another stanza, if you will, which again uses rhetorical structures to make the concept clearer and more emphatic. Notice the use of w’s and s’s; the use of r’s and d’s within a line: revive/refresh; dismal/doleful/death/depart.

Ah, how will the soul pine and wither away, 

when it shall take its farewell of that Sun, 

who alone could revive and refresh it! 

What a dismal, doleful death must it undergo, 

when it shall depart from him who is its only life! 

Such a wounded spirit who can bear? 

His last point then draws the whole together: the soul’s greater reality means that the pain I have expressed will be felt more exquisitely, than pain is experienced by the body.

The soul hath more exquisite sense, and more curious feeling, than the body; therefore its loss of its own peculiar suitable satisfying good will cut deep, and fill it with bitter horror.

Next he considers the nature of the departure:

2. It will be a total departure. Here they depart in part from God, but then totally. 

In this world they have departed in part; in eternity there will be no reconciliation. To prove his point, he argues by analogy from the lesser (a departure in this life) to the greater (the eternal departure).  His first argument is from the experience of Cain. The point being that if this is a trial for the wicked in this life, how much more in the life to come.

Here Cain complains, if not allowed God’s presence in ordinances, though he had his presence in many ways of ordinary favour: ‘Behold, thou hast driven me this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid,’ Gen. 4:14. But, alas! Low doth he complain there, where he is wholly deprived of the divine presence in any way of favour; where he hath not the least glimpse of the light of his countenance. 

Next he provdes three examples from the godly, Job, David, Heman. The nature of the argument is that if the temporary departure of God experientially for the godly is such a trial; what must be the eternal despair of those who are eternally distanced from the gracious presence of God? What hellish void must that be?

The partial departures of God have forced sad complaints from them that are godly: Job 13:24, ‘Why hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?’ saith Job. I can bear the withdrawings of men, and their absence; I can bear the strangeness of my friends, and the unkindness of relations, but I cannot bear thy strangeness to me, thy withdrawings from me. ‘Why hidest thou thy face?’ Job, though a strong stout man, able to overcome the strong one, the devil, yet was ready to faint away and die at this. 

David crieth out mournfully at it: Ps. 10:1, ‘Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in time of trouble?’ 

Poor Heman is distracted, and almost dead with it: Ps. 88:14, 15, ‘Lord, why hidest thou thy face? I am afflicted and ready to die; while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted.’ 

Here, having given the examples, he explains the nature of the examples. Again this is good practice in preaching. I have sat through many sermons where a number of examples or cross references were read but it was never clear what was the point of these many example? 

If these partial departures, which had much love in them and with them, cast down the friends of God so heavily, oh what will his total departures out of pure wrath cause to his enemies? That world must needs be dolesome and darksome indeed, to whom this Sun is wholly set, and totally eclipsed.

He takes the same point and now recasts it in terms of the sheer duration: forever. It is thus a hopeless state, because it cannot be remedied.

3. It will be an eternal departure. They must leave God for ever. Though it had been spiritual and total, yet if but temporal, there had been somewhat to have allayed their sorrows; but to suffer so great a loss, and that wholly and for ever too, must needs pierce to the quick. 

There is a way in which this argument contains a presupposition. The wicked do not want to see Jesus now – why would he want to see him forever? Because that is the only hope for the despair he faces. Even if that knowledge is now buried under a seared conscience or a dull heart, the proposition remains true. Notice how this is also an ‘altar call’ moment. He is holding out Christ as altogether lovely. In this, notice how rather than merely piling adjectives, he uses pictures: a bridge, a gate, a gulf. These would not have been strange pictures to the original audience. 

The sinner shall see the blessed Jesus no more for ever. He must depart from the tenderest father, lovingest friendship, richest treasure, choicest good, greatest glory, sweetest pleasure, and that for ever: Jude 13, ‘To whom is reserved blackness of darkness for ever.’ 

The sentence once denounced, ‘Depart from me,’ will be like the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be altered: 2 Thes. 1:8, 9, ‘Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.’ 

The anchor of hope will then be broken, 

the bridge of grace will then be drawn, 

the gate of mercy will then be shut, 

and the gulf between Christ and the wicked never to be passed over.

Again notice the careful construction of the clauses: there is a balance of sound and rhythm. He then proves his point with quotations flow naturally into the structure of his argument.

They may cry out in truth, what the psalmist in unbelief, ‘Will the Lord cast off for ever? will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever?’ Ps. 77:7, 8. Alas! they are cast off for ever; he will be favourable to them no more. They may roar out in vain, How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? shall I never be remembered? Ps. 13:1.

Finally, this loss can never be remedied in space or time. There is no god from the machine to rescue, because the God of Creation has ruled.

4. It is an irreparable loss, such a loss as nothing can make up. 

He then draws a psychological reserve which may act to protect someone from the full danger of what is faced. Well, there are other good things which I have lost and yet not all was lost. Maybe there was discomfort, but there was not despair. Swinnock takes aim at that reserve:

There are many good things which we may do well without, because the want of them may be supplied by other things; but Christ is the one thing necessary, the one thing excellent, the want of whom no good thing in heaven or earth can make up. 

When the soul departs from Christ it departs from all good, because nothing is good without him, and nothing can be had in the room of him.

He then offers a homely picture. Notice how again and again, he offers a proposition, explains it, illustrates it, and then returns to the proposition with Scriptural support. 

If some kind of food be wanting, another kind may possibly do as well; so if some sort of drugs or herbs for physic be wanting, there may be others found of the same virtue and operation; but if once the soul be sentenced to depart from Christ, there is nothing to compensate this loss. 

He is the Saviour, and indeed the only Saviour, Acts 4:12; he is the mediator between a righteous God and a guilty creature, and indeed the only mediator: 1 Tim. 2:5, ‘For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling 1.3 (What is Godliness)

23 Saturday Jan 2021

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CHAPTER III

What godliness is

To begin his discussion of godliness, Swinnock looks to the word “religion”. He considers three possibilities, but it is the third of these which draws his attention, so we will begin here: Religion means to bind or knit two things together: 

Austin and Lactantius (to whom I rather incline) derive it à religando, from binding or knitting, because it is the great bond to join and tie God and man together. As the parts of the body are knit to the head by the nerves and sinews, so man is knit to God by religion. 

From this word he draws out the concept:

Sin and irreligion separate God and man asunder; ‘Your iniquities have separated between you and your God’ Isa. 59:2.

This then leads us to godliness:

Godliness and religion unite God and man together; ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people,’ 2 Cor. 6:16. 

He then brings the thoughts together

Atheism is a departing or going away from God, Eph. 4:18; Heb. 3:12. Religion is a coming or returning unto God, Heb. 10:22; Jer. 3:1. 

He then repeats the concept, but this time by bringing an application:

The great misery of man by his fall is this, he is far from God; and the great felicity of man by favour is this, he draweth nigh to God, Ps. 73:2 ult.; James 4:8. Irreligion is a turning the back upon God, but religion is a seeking the face of God, and a following hard after him, Ps. 2:3, 27:8, and 63:8. By ungodliness, men wander and deviate from God; by godliness, men worship, and are devoted to God, Ps. 119:150.

Swinnock turns from the Latin source for the English “religion” to the Greek equivalents (which are used in the New Testament):

The Grecians call it θρησκέια [thrêskiéa], Beza thinks, from Orpheus, a Thracian, who first taught the mysteries of religion among his countrymen. The word in the text is ἐυσέβεια [eusebeia], which in a word signifieth right or straight worship, according to which I shall describe it thus:

Godliness is a worshipping the true God in heart and life, according to his revealed will.

At this point, Swinnock breaks the topic down into its logical aspects which here essentially tracks the linguistic structure:

In this description of godliness, I shall observe four parts. First, The act, it is a worship. Secondly, The object of this act, the true God. Thirdly, The extent of this worship, in heart and life. Fourthly, The rule, according to his revealed will.

He here develops the elements: A Definition of “Worship”:

First, For the act, godliness is a worship. Worship comprehends all that respect which man oweth and giveth to his Maker.

He then describes this honor in terms of the relationship of subject and sovereign. As one who lived his life solely in a republic, this sort of language has not intuitive effect. I understand the words, but I do not have a experienced analog:

 It is that service and honour, that fealty and homage, which the creature oweth and tendereth to the fountain of his being and happiness.3 It is the tribute which we pay to the King of kings, whereby we acknowledge his sovereignty over us, and our dependence on him. ‘Give unto the Lord the honour due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,’ Ps. 29:2.

To worship God is to give him the glory which is due to him. It is a setting the crown of glory on God’s head. To render him due honour is true holiness; to deny this, is atheism and irreligion. 

The language of “atheism” follows in the line of Charnock’s “practical atheism”: not an intellectual rejection but a practice of living life as if there were no God.

All that inward reverence and respect, and all that outward obedience and service to God, which the word enjoineth, is included in this one word worship.

External Worship:

This worshipping God is either external or internal. God is to be worshipped with the body. Joshua fell on his face and worshipped, Josh. 5:14. Moses bowed his head and worshipped, Exod. 4:31. Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and prayed, John 17:1. David lifted up his hands to God, Ps. 63:4. The bodies of saints shall be glorified with God hereafter, and the bodies of saints must glorify God here, Phil. 3:21; Rom. 12:1.

Inward worship:

Inward worship is sometimes set forth by loving God, James 2:5; sometimes by trusting him, Ps. 16:1; sometimes by delighting in him, Ps. 37:3; sometimes by sorrow for offending him, Ps. 51:3, because this worship of God (as one piece of gold containeth many pieces of silver) comprehendeth all of them. 

At this point, Swinnock turns aside to press home exhortation. We cannot worship by halves:

All the graces are but so many links of this golden chain. As all the members of the natural body are knit together, and walk always in company, so all the parts of the new man are joined together, and never go but as the Israelites out of Egypt, with their whole train. If there be one wheel missing in a watch, the end of the whole is spoiled. If once grace should be wanting in a saint, he would be unsainted. There is a concatenation of graces, as well as of moral virtues. Those that worship God give him their hottest love, their highest joy, their deepest sorrow, their strongest faith, and their greatest fear; as Abraham gave Isaac, he gives God all.

A synecdoche is a part standing for a whole:

What Moses calls fearing God, Deut. 6:13, our Saviour quoting, calls worshipping God, (Mat. 4:9, 10,) by a synecdoche, because the former is both a part and a sign of the latter. 

Here is an outstanding word picture which turns his doctrine into an image which can then be understood affectively:

As when the guard are watching at the court-gate, or on the stairs, and examining those that go in, it is a sign the king is within; so when the fear of God stands at the door of the heart, to examine all that go in, lest the traitor sin should steal in slily, it is a sign that God is within, that he sits upon the throne of the soul, and is worshipped there.

Second point: To whom is the worship directed:

Secondly, The object, the true God. All religion without the knowledge of the true God is a mere notion, an airy, empty nothing.

Here provides argumentative support for his proposition:

Divine worship is one of the chiefest jewels of God’s crown, which he will by no means part with. God alone is the object of the godly man’s worship, Exod. 20:2. His hope is in God, Ps. 39:7; his dependence is on God, Ps. 62:8; his dread is of God, Ps. 119:122; his love is to God, Ps. 10:1; God is the only object of his prayers, Ps. 5:3, and 44:20; and of God alone are all his praises, Ps. 103:1; God alone is to be worshipped, because he alone is worthy of worship, ‘Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things,’ Rev. 4:11.

Having made the affirmative point, he defines is position further by contrasting the true and proper object of worship with the false:

To hold anything in opinion, or to have anything in affection for God, which is not God, is idolatry. To worship either men, as the Samaritans did Antiochus Epiphanes, (styling him the mighty god;) or the host of heaven, as the Ammonites; or the devil, as the Indians; or the belly, as the glutton; or riches, as the covetous; or the cross, as the papist; is unholiness.

A final contrast. The use of “worship” at the time of Swinnock would have covered the giving of civil honor, which addresses:

There is a civil worship due to men, Gen. 48:11, but sacred worship is due only to God; and he is a jealous God, who will not give his glory to strangers, nor his praise to images.

After a short digression (omitted) on heathen idols, we comes to the comprehensive nature of worship:

Thirdly, The extent, in heart and life. Godliness is the worshipping God in the inward motions of the heart, and the outward actions of the life; where the spring of the affections is clear, and the stream of the conversation runs clear, there is true godliness. ….His heart is suitable to God’s nature, and his life is answerable to God’s law, and thence he is fitly denominated a godly man.

Here, Swinnock makes an exhortation by means of a rebuke. He calls hypocrisy blasphemy in practice:

In heart, hypocrisy is a practical blasphemy; ‘I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews and are not.’ God’s eye taketh most notice of the jewel of spiritual devotion; the eyes of men, of the cabinet of outward adoration. 

Here a development on the nature of the heart:

‘My son, give me thy heart,’ saith God, Prov. 23:26. The heart is the king in the little world, man; which giveth laws both to the inward powers and outward parts, and reigneth and ruleth over them at pleasure.

And there in the heart must lie our worship:

The life of godliness lieth much more in the heart than in the life; and the saints’ character is from their inward carriage towards God; ‘They worship God in the spirit,’ Phil. 3:3. … The deeper the belly of the lute is, the pleasanter the sound; the deeper our worship comes from the heart, the more delightful it is in God’s ears.

The life of the heart is the life of the entire man:

And life-godliness, as it sets God on the throne of the conscience, so it walks with God in the conversation [conduct]. Though the spiritual (as the natural) life begins at the heart, yet it doth not end there, but proceeds to the hands; the same water appeareth in the bucket which is in the well. 

As when the heart is like a dunghill, full of filth, it sends forth a noisome and unsavoury stench in the life; so when the heart is like a box of musk, it perfumes and scents the tongue, and eyes, and ears, and hands, and whatsoever is near it, with holiness. 

This is not directly in the stream of Swinnock’s argument. But he does make an exhortation which flows from the elements of his preceding argument: (1) fear of God demonstrates the presence of God in the heart; (2) what is in the heart flows out to the life: Therefore, the godly life of a Christ gives evidence of God.

Worship is called the name of God, Ps. 29, and worshipping, a praising him, 2 Chron. 7:3. Because as a man by his name, so God by his worship is known in the world; and those that worship him in their practices, do before the eyes of the world give him praise.

This was an element which was particularly a matter of contention in 16th and 17th Century. The Puritan position was that worship may consist only in what is prescribed in Scripture. There were others who held that which is consistent with Scripture and is not forbidden is permitted:

Fourthly, The rule, according to his revealed will. Every part of divine worship must have a divine precept. As the first command teacheth us what God is to be worshipped, so the second command teacheth in what way he will be worshipped. … 

Our work is not to make laws for ourselves or others, but to keep the laws which the great prophet of his church hath taught us; that coin of worship which is current amongst us must be stamped by God himself. We are to be governed as the point in the compass, not by the various winds, (the practices of former ages, or the fashions of the present generation, which are mutable and uncertain,1) but by the constant heavens. Our devotion must be regulated exactly according to the standard of the word. 

Here is the point of his argument:

It is idolatry to worship a false god, or the true God in a false manner….

He ends with various instances of the contrary.

3 Cultus religiosus est obsequium supremum illi soli debitum qui est principium et autor tam creationis quam beatificationis nostræ.—Daven. Determ.

1 Traditioni humanæ nomen religionis applicant, ut religio appellatur, cum sit sacrilegium; quia quod contra authorem est sacrilega mente inventum est.—Amb. in Col. 2.

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling 1.2

20 Wednesday Jan 2021

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CHAPTER II

The opening of the text and the doctrine

At this point, Swinnock begins to lay out his exposition. In addition to what he considers, there are some useful points here about how to develop a persuasive, informative piece. First, he merely notes the parts of the text to be considered. It is not a difficult process, but many sermons go wildly astray by not first performing this simple task:

 Timothy is to be considered as a member of Christ, or in his general calling; and so this exhortation belongs to every Christian.

In it we may observe these three parts:

1.         The act, exercise.

2.         The subject of that act, thyself.

3.         The object about which it was to be conversant, unto godliness; ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness.’

At this point, he makes some initial notes on interpreting each element. We will take these in parts.

First the verb: to exercise. There are two parts to how he develops this initial examination. Here he simply considers the meaning:

I shall briefly open the terms in the text, and then lay down the doctrinal truth.

Exercise, γύμναζε.] The word signifieth, strip thyself naked; it is a metaphor from runners or wrestlers, who being to contend for the prize, and resolved to put forth all their strength and power, lay aside their clothes which may hinder them, and then bestir themselves to purpose; as if Paul had said, O Timothy, let godliness be the object of all thy care and cost. 

Often preachers tell the congregation what the Greek “really means.” A remarkable number of times, they are wrong. When they are not wrong, the point is often trivial. But here, Swinnock has done something useful. The verb in Greek does mean to strip naked. It was applied to athletes exercise (naked exercising seems uncomfortable, but the Greeks did it). We get the word “gym” from this verb gymnazo. At this point, the information is perhaps interesting but still not important. But Swinnock uses the metaphor to develop his exhortation. He plays on the words of Hebrews 12:1 to lay aside any encumbrance. 

He uses the “really means” of the verb to pick up the rather striking metaphor and then use that metaphor to make an exhortation. If he did not begin with the Greek “really means”, his exhortation would be bizarre. “Paul says exercise yourself godliness. You should take off your clothes ….” He uses the original not to show off or to contradict the translation (because exercise is the right English equivalent) but he works out an application. 

He then turns that into an exhortation:

Follow thy general calling with the greatest industry; pursue it diligently, do not loiter but labour about it; lay aside what may hinder, lay hold of what may further, and mind it as the main and principal work which thou hast to do in this world.

He now comes to the next point. In this one, he quotes the Greek but does not put it to any advantage. Perhaps it would have been better to lay it aside on this point. What he does do is create a striking series of images built around a single conceit (to warm):

Thyself, σεαυτόν.] A Christian’s first care must be about his own spiritual welfare. Religion commands us to be mindful of and helpful to our neighbours and relations; the sun rayeth out his refreshing beams, and the spring bubbleth up her purling streams for the good of others. Fire in the chimney warmeth the whole room, but it is burning hot on the hearth. Grace in a saint will make him useful to sinners, but chiefly, though not solely, to his own soul. Timothy, be not like a burning-glass, to put others into a flame, whilst thou thyself remainest unfired, but work hard to exalt holiness in thine own heart; exercise thyself.

This exhortation also answers a potential objection someone might have to the text: Isn’t this self centered to be concerned so with yourself? If Spurgeon were making this point, he would say, “Someone here will say, I think this exercising yourself is conceited. Shouldn’t he say show your love? Isn’t Christianity expansive and something which brings in love of others? This sounds like self-centered monks alone in a cell in the desert! No my friends, this is not self-centered. It is not self centered for the one at the hearth to stir the flame and put on the wood to churn up the fire. Yes, ….”

This last point “to godliness” he develops at more length. He could have made use o the word “godliness” here because there are few possible Greek originals for the English, but he does not pick up that strand

Unto godliness, πρὸς εὐσέβειαν.] Godliness is taken in Scripture either strictly or largely.

He lets us know that the concept has some breadth in Scripture:

(1.)      Strictly, and then it includeth only the immediate worship of God, or obedience to the first table, and it is distinguished from righteousness, Tit. 2:11, 12; so ungodliness is distinct from unrighteousness, Rom. 1:18.

 Text has hyperlinks. Swinnock’s original congregation did not have such, but a Christian of some time in the faith should have hyperlinks in our memory! Now for the broader concept

(2.)      Largely, and then it comprehendeth our duty to our neighbour, as well as to God, and obedience to the second as well as the first table; so righteousness is religion, and in our dealings with men we may do our duty to God; it is taken thus 1 Tim. 6:6, and in the text. 

Here is one of the delights and values in reading Swinnock: he turns his propositions in to images. Rather than leaving the proposition as an abstraction, he turns it into a movie:

The good husbandman [farmer, caretaker] makes no balks in the field of God’s precepts. Timothy must make it his trade to pay God and men their clue. He must not, like the pharisees, seem as tender of the first table as of the apple of his eye, and trample the second as dirt under his feet; they prayed in God’s house all day, to prey upon the widow’s house at night; nor as some (whom the world call honest men) who will not wrong their neighbours of the least mite, and yet wickedly rob God of many millions; they steal from him both time and love, and trust and bestow them on earthly trifles. 

Having drawn out the image in terms of the Pharisee, he then gives more homely images:

The bird that would fly well must use both wings; the waterman, if he would have his boat move rightly, must ply both oars; the Christian, if he would make anything of his heavenly trade, must mind both tables.

He repeats what he has covered. I was taught by a fine lawyer while a clerk: Tell them what you are going to say, say it, tell them what you said. It is excellent advice.

The truth that I shall draw from the text is this:

That godliness ought to be minded as every one’s main and principal business. ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness.’

He here ends with a general exhortation:

Religion must be our chief occupation. The great trade that we follow in this world must be the trade of truth.

He then turns this into a more direct exhortation:

It is observable that the more noble and singular a being is, the more it is employed in a suitable working. God, who is the highest in perfections, is not only the holiest, but the most constant and diligent in his operations. ‘Hitherto my Father worketh, and I work,’ John 5:17. His work indeed is without weariness, his labour without the least lassitude, (as they say of heaven, Cœli motus quies,) all God’s working days are Sabbaths, days of rest; but he is a pure act, and he is every moment infinitely active from and for himself. 

He is pure act is a reference back to Thomas Aquinas and is a basis for arguing that God is impassible. The book Does God Suffer by Weinandy explains this point very cogently. 

Next he proves the point:

Angels are next to God in being, and so are next to him in working. They do God the most service, and they do him the best service; they serve God without sin, and they serve him without ceasing; ‘He makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire,’ Heb. 1:7. Spirits are the most active creatures with life, fire is the most active creature without life, a flame is the most operative part of the fire: thus active are angels in working for God. Some by fire understand lightnings, by spirits winds. As winds and lightnings presently pass through the earth, so angels presently fulfil God’s holy will.

He then draws out work:

Now as he hath given man a more excellent being than the rest of the visible world, so hath he called him to follow after and abound in the most excellent work. God hath appointed contemplation or vision to be man’s reward in heaven, to see God as he is, and to know him as he is known of him; but service and action to be his work on earth, to exercise himself to godliness.

Now he develops the concept of “work”

Some read that, Job 5:7, thus, ‘Man is born to work, as the sparks fly upward.’ Indeed it is the decreed lot of all mankind to labour. Adam was called to industry in his state of innocency, Gen. 2:15, and since man’s fall his work, which was before his pleasure, is now his punishment; if he eat not his bread in the sweat of his brow or his brains, he steals it. 

He that, like a bodylouse, lives upon others’ sweat, is like Jeremiah’s girdle, good for nothing. 

The bodylouse is a marvelous image.

Now he conjoins work and godliness:

But the main work which God commandeth and commendeth to the children of men, is to glorify him upon earth, by exercising themselves to godliness. This is God’s precept, and this hath been the saints’ practice. This is God’s precept, ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,’ Phil. 2:12. In which words we have the Christian’s end—eternal life, salvation; and the means to attain it—diligent labour, work out your salvation; he had need to labour hard that would attain heaven. Godliness must not be πάρεργον, his by-business, but τὸ ἔργον, his main business.

This last point is something which is rarely stressed in any sermon I have heard. Godliness is something that I always think to join to my work, I should be more godly in x or y. But Swinnock is right, it is not an addition but the main point.

Again, he turns his exhortation into something you can see. He gives a picture then makes an application:

The Jews have a proverb, (alluding to manna, which was to be gathered the sixth day for the seventh, because on the seventh none fell from heaven,) He that gathereth not food on the Sabbath eve, shall fast on the Sabbath day. Intimating thereby, that none shall reign in heaven but such as have wrought on earth.

Here is yet another image, this one built around trade:

This hath been the saints’ practice, ‘Our conversation is in heaven,’ Phil. 3:18. Though our habitations be on earth, yet our πολὶτευμα, our negotiation, is in heaven. As a merchant that lives in London drives a great trade in Turkey, or the remotest part of the Indies; so Paul and the saints traded and trafficked afar off in the other world above, even when their abodes were here below. Godliness was their business, Christianity was minded and followed as their principal trade and calling. 

He then expands the image: wherever we are in this work, we each do our part:

It is the calling of some to plough, and sow, and reap: the Christian makes and follows it as his calling, to ‘plough up the fallow-ground of his heart; to sow in righteousness, that he may reap in mercy,’ Hosea 10:12. The trade of others is to buy and sell; the godly man is the wise merchant, trading for goodly pearls, that sells all to buy the field where the pearl of great price is, Mat. 13:43.

He now lays out his plan for what follows:

For the explication of this truth, that religion or godliness ought to be every one’s principal business, I shall speak to these three things:

First, What religion or godliness is.

Secondly, What it is for a man to make religion his business, or to exercise himself to godliness.

Thirdly, Why every Christian must mind godliness as his main business.

Swinnocks works are available at Banner of Truth and electronically through Logos. (I get no money from the pitch.)

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling 1.1

19 Tuesday Jan 2021

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George Swinnock was an English Puritan Minister of whom rather little is known beyond the outline of his biography. This work, “The Christian Man’s Calling” is an extensive treatise on the practical life of a Christian. He begins with a disarming short text for a work which expounds over 2.5 volumes of his collected works: 

“But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself unto godliness. Exercise thyself unto godliness”.—1 TIM. 4:7.

As is common among English Puritans, Swinnock begins his explanation of the text by putting into context. The first chapter makes some observations concerning the first sentence. The second sentence, “Exercise thyself unto godliness” will take up the remainder of the project. This will be a summary of his work, which is so very long that the gems will easily be unknown unless they are dug up and made plain. 

 Here, begins by a general consideration of the question of “the spring of ungodliness” which flows  

into two main cursed channels, atheism and superstition; in one of which all the children of men swim by nature, and very many, as the silly fish, down the streams of Jordan, till they descend into the lake of Sodom, the dead sea of hell, and perish. Which of these two passages are most fatal and perilous, seems worth our inquiry. The waters in the former stream are deepest; atheism denieth the very being of God, but to prevent sinking in these waters, nature herself hath provided some skin-deep bladders; for though there be many atheists in practice, yet there be no atheists in principles. The being of a deity was so fairly written on the tables of man’s heart at first, that though it be exceedingly blotted and blurred by the fall, yet it is still legible….

The waters in the latter stream are not so deep, but they seem more dangerous; for nature is in some respect a friend to superstition, though an enemy to atheism; it would give God some worship, but it must be in its own way. Atheism denieth the being of a deity; superstition undermineth the authority of God. The atheist would have no God, the superstitious would be his own God; his will, not God’s word, is the rule of his worship. …

The text presenteth us with a caution against the poison of superstition…

And that is done by avoiding superstitious tales.

If thou wouldst not swim down with the tide of those apostatising times, take heed of steering thy course by profane, though ancient customs. Refuse them with scorn, reject them with anger; let thy spirit rise, and thy stomach turn at the very sight of such sins. 

In Pilgrim’s Progress, he illustrates this temptation by Christian’s conversation with Formalist and Hypocrisy. “Chr. But will it not be counted a trespass against the Lord of the city whither we are bound, thus to violate his revealed will?

Form. and Hyp. They told him, that as for that, he needed not to trouble his head thereabout: for what they did they had custom for, and could produce, if need were, testimony that would witness it for more than a thousand years.”

The command to avoid is matched by a command to act: 

Something he must also follow after; ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness.’ This is the special help which the skilful physician appointeth his beloved patient in those infectious times to preserve his soul in health. As a pestiferous air is very dangerous to the body, yet for a man to get, and make it his work to keep a sound constitution will be an excellent means to prevent infection. So an apostatising place or people is very dangerous to the soul; spiritual diseases are more catching and killing than corporal; but a spiritual habit of a real sanctity, with a constant care to continue and increase it, will be a sovereign means to preserve it in safety.

He then applies to this principal peculiarly to pastors who must not only provide correct doctrine but also be examples of a correct life

not only divide the word rightly, but also order his conversation aright. He must, as Nazianzen said of Basil, thunder in his doctrine, and lighten in his life. Singular holiness is required of those that minister about holy things; as painters, they must teach by their hands, by their lives, as well as by their lips.

Ministers must exercise themselves to godliness—that is, do their duties with the greatest diligence.

He then gives this charge: 

Our churches must not be turned into chapels of ease. Christ neglected his food, spent his strength, wrought so hard that he was thought to be beside himself. We are called fishers, labourers, soldiers, watchmen, all which are laborious callings. We are compared to clouds; the clods of the earth lie still, but the clouds of heaven are ever in motion, and dissolve themselves to refresh others.

But, alas! how many fleece their flocks, but never feed them, as if their benefices were sinecures. The green sickness is the maid’s, and laziness many ministers’ disease. Who is instant in season and out of season?

All Things to the Glory of God

02 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by in Glory, John Piper, Uncategorized

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In his book, The Pursuit of Godliness, Jerry Bridges defined godliness as devotion in action. Devotion he further defines as “an attitude toward God.”

Devotion is not an activity; it is an attitude toward God. This attitude is composed of three essential elements:

❖ the fear of God
❖ the love of God
❖ the desire for God

We will look at these elements in detail in chapter 2; but for now, note that all three elements focus upon God. The practice of godliness is an exercise or discipline that focuses upon God. From this Godward attitude arises the character and conduct that we usually think of as godliness. So often we try to develop Christian character and conduct without taking the time to develop God-centered devotion. We try to please God without taking the time to walk with Him and develop a relationship with Him. This is impossible to do.
Consider the exacting requirements of a godly lifestyle as expounded by the saintly William Law. Law uses the word devotion in a broader sense to mean all that is involved in godliness—actions as well as attitude:

Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted to God. He therefore is the devout [godly] man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life, parts of piety [godliness], by doing everything in the name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to his Glory.2

Note the totality of godliness over one’s entire life in Law’s description of the godly person. Nothing is excluded. God is at the center of his thoughts. His most ordinary duties are done with an eye to God’s glory. In Paul’s words to the Corinthians, whether he eats or drinks or whatever he does, he does it all for the glory of God.

Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness (Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1983), 14–15.

The application is obvious: Am I doing this to the glory of God? There are two difficulties in this application. First, is the training of oneself to constantly ask this question of oneself. The second trouble: How do I do this mundane task to the glory of God? What does that even mean? John Piper applies this to one of the most simple tasks, drinking orange juice:

Orange juice was “created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe the truth.” Therefore, unbelievers cannot use orange juice for the purpose God intended—namely, as an occasion for heartfelt gratitude to God from a truth heart of faith.

But believers can, and this is how they glorify God. Their drinking orange juice is “sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.” The word of Godteaches us that the juice, and even our strength to drink it, is a free gift of God (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:11). The prayer is our humble response of thanks from the heart. Believing this truth in the word, and offering thanks in prayer is one way we drink orange juice to the glory of God.

The other way is to drink lovingly. For example, don’t insist on the biggest helping. This is taught in the context of 1 Corinthians 10:33, “I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (RSV). “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Everything we do—even drinking orange juice—can be done with the intention and hope that it will be to the advantage of many that they may be saved.

The blessing of a godly life

09 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Paul Bayne, Paul Baynes, Uncategorized

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A godly habit of life is even the same, that is, an endeavoring to live after the word of God, which teaches us to believe that God will enable us thereto, and bless us therein.

So also living by faith is no other but relying upon the word of God, with full purpose to be guided by it, either by reflecting upon his promises or obeying his commandments: which life of faith is the most glorious and rich prerogative.

For by this we are confident and rest quiet about our salvation from time to time:
by this we walk in newness of life and all the parts of it;
by it we are assured in our prayers to be preserved;
to have the rage of our strong lusts weakened:
by this we are delivered from many sharp and bitter afflictions,
and have grace to bear the rest with great meekness and patience;
by it we go through our callings more easily.

And finally, we attain to that quiet estate and sweet peace,
which the carnal wisdom of man shall never find or enjoy:
without this, any life is most miserable.

Paul Baynes, Brief Directions Unto a Godly Life

1637.