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George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling 1.9b

09 Friday Jul 2021

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C. Sin is their trade: “Thirdly, As many make the world their main work, and others superstition their principal occupation, so most make wickedness their chief, their constant trade and business.”

1. The wicked embrace sin more fervently than “sanctity” is received

While sanctity is but coldly entertained, but complimented with, sin is laid in the bosom and heartily embraced; the turnings and windings that are in the sinner’s way are not easily to be observed; the pains which he takes to bring forth and breed up those birds which will peck out his own eyes, can neither be fully described nor sufficiently lamented. 

a. Examples from Scripture

At this point he provides a number of quick illustrations taken from Scripture. He presumes far more biblical literacy than most preachers could expect from their congregation. I don’t know if this is simply an overestimation on his part, but I suspect that having few books if any: and if any book then a Bible; and having far fewer distractions, that the Bible would have had greater space to fill one’s imagination.

i. Those who ran after sin

In what haste and hurry is Absalom for a halter! 

Absalom led a rebellion and civil war against his father. He was eventually caught by his long hair (his great pride) in a tree while riding a donkey. 2 Samuel 13-15 

what work doth lust make in Amnon to waste his body, and send his soul to endless woe! 

Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar (Absalom’s full sister). He was eventually killed by Absalom. 2 Samuel 13

how fast doth Gehazi run after a leprosy, as if he might come too late! 

Gehazi was the servant of the prophet Elijah. A foreign general who suffered leprosy came to see Elijah to be cured. The general was miraculously cured after washing in a river. He offered a great deal of wealth to Elijah for the work of God. Elijah rejected the money. Gehazi secretly ran after the general and took payment. For his pangs, the leprosy of the general was visited upon Gehazi. 2 Kings 4

how sick and violent is Ahab for Naboth’s vineyard! 

King Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard. When Naboth refused to sell the vineyard, Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, had Naboth convicted and killed on false charges. Naboth safely murdered, Ahab ceased the vineyard. Ahab was then punished by God and was killed in battle. 1 Kings 21 & 2 Kings 9

how fiercely doth Balaam ride, even without reins, after the wages of unrighteousness! 

Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet was hired to curse Israel. Numbers 22

how eager and earnest were Pharaoh and his Egyptians to fight against God! what a stir, what ado they make to overtake destruction, and to ‘sink like lead in the midst of the mighty waters!’ 

Pharaoh having seen the power of God in the plagues brought through Moses, then attacked the Israelites camped on the banks of the Red Sea. God performed a miracle which permitted Israel to march through the parted sea. The army plunged into the sea floor chasing Israel. God brought the sea down upon the army drowning the whole. Exodus 14

ii. One who could not be deterred from sin.

Joshua could stop the sun in his course, but not Achan in his covetous career. 

This is an interesting example. God lengthened the day while Joshua and Israel was fighting their enemy so that Israel could fully defeat their enemy. Before God caused the walls of Jericho to fall, God instructed Israel to not take anything from Jericho. Achan having seen the remarkable works of God in defeating the enemies of Israel was willing to disobey a direct order of God. Joshua 6 & 7

iii. Paul before his conversion

Paul, before his conversion, as one observes, followed the saints with such close persecution, and was so mad upon it, that like a tired wolf, wearied in worrying the flock, he lay panting for breath, and yet still breathed out persecution; in one journey he travelled one hundred and sixty miles—namely, from Jerusalem to Damascus—as an inquisitor for private heresy. 

See Acts 9 for a description of his persecution of the church and his conversion

At Musselburgh-field many of the Scots ran away so fast that they fell down dead; truly so do men by sin run away apace from God, even to the tiring of themselves here, and tormenting themselves hereafter. They run as fast as if they feared that hell would be full before they came thither.

This is a reference to the Battle of Pinkie in 1547 in which the English soundly defeated the Scots. 

2. The wicked will exhaust themselves in the pursuit of sin. He begins with a general principle taken from Scripture, which he will elaborate. “Cark” means a burden or a trouble. A carking care would thus be a great burden or oppression. 

‘The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,’ Job 15:20. A wicked man’s whole course is spent in carking care, as the LXX read it. He hath many sharp throes, bitter pangs, before he can bring forth that hideous, horrible monster, sin. 

a. An illustration and comparison

Some women are very long in labour, several days in pain; but a wilful, wicked man travaileth with pain all his days; he works himself weary in digging descents into hell, and labours harder at it than many do for heaven. 

By the use of an illustration, he takes what would possibly be an abstraction, the burden of the sinner, and makes it tangible: the painful labor of a woman, which would have been very familiar to everyone in a day before babies were delivered in operating rooms at a hospital.

b. An illustration and comment from history:

I remember Buntingus [Heinrich Bunting 1545-1606] in his Itinerarium totius Sacræ Scripturæ, when he comes to the travels of Antiochus Epiphanius, that fierce enemy of God’s people, first relates the tedious journeys, (in all eight thousand one hundred and fifty-three miles,) various hazards, desperate dangers and difficulties which this wicked wretch underwent to satisfy his malice, and gratify his revengeful spirit, and then concludes thus:  “We see that the wicked, with more sorrows, troubles, and vexations, gain eternal damnation, than the just, though they suffer grievous affliction, obtain everlasting salvation.”

For amongst all the patriarchs, good princes, and prophets, there is not found any that had so many long and tedious journeys as this Antiochus, who continually oppressed his mind and conscience with unprofitable vanities and wicked thoughts, and at length had a miserable and terrible end.

c. An epigram This concluding line summarizes his proposition in a single pithy line:

Though God hath few diligent servants, yet the devil hath many drudging slaves, that work hard at grinding in his mill all their days. 

This is a great line which warrants some examination: First note that balance between the first two clauses and their contrasts

Though God hath few Diligent Servants, 

yet the devil hath many Drudging Slaves, 

God – Devil

Few – many

Diligent – Drudging

Servants – Slaves

There is also a vowel rhyme which ties the last clause to the second:

Though God hath few diligent servants, 

yet the devil hath many drudging slaves, 

that work hard at grinding in his mill all their days.

3. Eight Aspects of how sin takes over the life of the wicked

a. Sin is their trade

Their calling is a trade of corruption, which they follow with diligence and constancy. 

Having offered the proposition, he proves the point with a quotation from Scripture:

‘They plough iniquity, sow wickedness, and reap the same,’ Job 4:8.

He elaborates on the metaphor. Notice the alliteration on the P throughout the paragraph. First, the judgment:

Alas! what pains do they take 

to pollute themselves spiritually, 

and perish eternally! 

A consideration of ploughing:

They plough iniquity. 

Ploughing is no easy, lazy work. 

We say of such works as require much pains, 

a man were as good go to plough all day; 

He now names them and contrasts their work for the Satan with the service of the Savior:

these sons of Belial, 

that will not stoop to the easy yoke of the Saviour, 

can submit their proud necks to the hard yoke of Satan, 

and follow his plough willingly. 

b. Sin is their diet

He provides a text for developoing this metaphor:

Sin is their diet, their meat and drink: ‘They eat the bread of violence, and drink the wine of deceit,’ Prov. 4:17. Nay, it is their dainties, their delicates; ‘Let me not eat of their dainties,’ Ps. 141:4. 

These apish monkeys, who now and then act the part of Christians without a principle of Christianity, feed on spiders, on poison. 

c. Sin take their sleep

Further, it is not only their nourishment in the day, but their refreshment in the night: ‘They cannot sleep unless they cause some to fall,’ Prov. 4:16. 

Till their stomachs are gorged and glutted with the sweetmeats of sin, and thereby their heads filled with filthy fumes and vapours arising thence, they can take no rest. 

They love sin above sleep; and let them but riot, they will lose their rest. 

He then proves the point with examples of the crime which is committed during the night. In English law at this time, burglary required the commission of breaking into a house at night. When you consider the manner of life before easy nighttime lighting, night could be very dangerous.

The murderer riseth with the light to cut asunder the silver thread of his neighbour’s life. 

The drunkard, that hellish good husband, can be all night drinking healths to others, whilst he leaves none to himself; how often doth his brains crow before break of day!

 The thief and adulterer love and long for darkness to cover and countenance their cursed deeds, Job 24:14–16; Prov. 7:9.

d. Sin is their ornament

Once more, as sin is their nourishment, their food and sleep, so it is their garment, their ornament. 

Notice that having made multiple elaborations on his theme, he recounts the most recent examples as way of keeping the reader oriented.

‘Pride compasseth them about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment,’ Ps. 73:6. A chain of pearl doth not better become their necks, nor the richest robes adorn their backs, than sin doth, in their judgments, become and suit their souls; they glory in their shame. 

This last illustration is so often true: Think of how many boast of their wickedness something of which they should be ashamed.

Plato saith of Protagoras, that he boasted, whereas he had lived sixty years, he had spent forty years in corrupting youth. They brag of that which they ought to bewail.

e. They cannot cease from planning sin

They plot sin with their heads; ‘they conceive mischief,’ Ps. 7:14. Again he supports his metaphor with the use of the illustration in Scripture.

They affect sin with their hearts; ‘their hearts are after their covetousness,’ Ezek. 33. They act with their hands what their heads forge and their hearts favour; they ‘do evil with both hands earnestly,’ Micah 7:3. They work so hard till they are weary; ‘Thou hast wearied thyself in the multitude of thy counsels,’ Isa. 47:13. Pliny saith of the scorpion, that there is not one minute wherein he doth not put forth his sting; these cannot cease from sin, 2 Pet. 2; they do even contend which of them shall exceed in sin, as unhappy boys strive who shall go farthest in the dirt.

f. When they are stopped, they rage the harder to gain their sin.

All the rubs which are laid in their way do rather increase their rage than hinder their riot. 

A fine epigram, consider it again and how it is balanced around an alliterative R

All the rubs 

which are laid in their way [note the internal rhyme: laid/way]

do rather increase their rage 

than hinder their riot. 

He then provides five examples which begin with “When X”. This use of various rhetorical devices keeps the writing interesting and avoids the tedium of repeatedly use the same formula:

When God would stop the stream of their lusts by his prohibitions, laws, judgments, like waters dammed up, they swell the more, and like the possessed person, break all those cords in pieces. 

When Paul chides the Ephesians for their idolatry, they cry out for it with the greater vehemency. 

When Stephen had reproved the Jews for their cruelty, ‘they were cut to the heart, and gnash upon him with their teeth,’ Acts 7:54, 57.

When Ahaz was hampered in affliction, like a mad dog he bites at his chain, and ‘sins yet more in his distress against the Lord.’ 

When the sinner’s tide of nature is thwarted and crossed by the winds of reproof, or some judgment, what a storm is presently raised! how doth he, like the sea, presently discover and ‘foam out his own shame.’ 

g. Sin is a disease which cannot be cured

This is a rather balanced set of observations, which have been broken down into clauses to better see the technique:

Though God command, entreat, persuade, threaten, promise, yet all this physic doth often but move and stir, not remove nor purge away their ill-humours. 

Oh 

how deadly is that disease which no physic can cure! 

and how tough is that wood which no wedge can cleave! 

The bird will beware of the pitfall in which she hath been caught, 

and the beast of the snare in which he hath been taken; 

but brutish man, more foolish than beasts, 

will not be parted from sin, though he hath been sharply punished for it.

One odd thing about this paragraph is that he does not provide a Scriptural reference for sin as a disease, which is odd in this section of the chapter, since the other 7 examples all begin with a verse. 

h. They sin from birth

‘The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely,’ Ps. 58:3–5. 

He here provides an illustration which is based upon faulty information. But living in England in the 17th Century, he would have only heard of snake-charmers at 3rd or 4th hand and the inexplicable scene in the original would become even stranger when memory and editorial comment were added:

The serpent, when she begins to feel the charmer, clappeth one ear presently to the ground, and stoppeth the other ear with her tail, although by hearkening to the charmer, as some observe, she would be provoked to spit out her poison, and renew her age. 

He here concludes with a general elaboration on the extent to which one will chase after sin. As I write these notes, a famous athlete is watching a fine career be destroyed by foolish and sinful choices, so this is always a timely proposition. This paragraph, coming a crescendo is made up of complex, well balanced sentences of varying length and rhythm. Again, to see the technique, I have broken up the clauses into separate lines:

So hot is man upon his harlot sin, 

[four refusals]

that he is deaf to all that would counsel him to the contrary; 

he stoppeth his ear, 

hardeneth his heart,

stiffeneth his neck 

against 

[four warnings]

the thunders of the law, 

the still voice of the gospel,

 the motions of the Spirit,

 and the convictions of his own conscience. 

When sin calls, they run through thick and thin for haste; 

when the world commands, 

how readily do they hearken, 

how quickly do they hear, 

how faithfully do they obey! 

but 

when the blessed God crieth to them,

 chargeth them by his unquestionable authority, 

beseecheth them for their own unchangeable felicity, 

they,

like statues of men rather than living creatures, 

stand still and stir not at all. 

Other things move swiftly to their centres; 

stones fall tumbling downward, 

sparks fly apace upward, 

coneys run with speed to their burrows, 

rivers with violence to the ocean, 

and yet silly man hangs off from his Maker—

that neither entreaties, 

nor threatenings, 

nor the word, 

nor the works of God, 

nor hope of heaven, 

nor fear of hell, 

can quicken or hasten him to his happiness. 

Who would imagine that a reasonable soul should act so much against sense and reason? 

Where is the saint that is not shamed by the very damned? 

Sinners drive furiously, like Jehu, against their God, their sovereign; 

but saints, like Egyptians, drive heavily, though they are marching in the road to the heavenly Canaan. 

Ah, who presseth towards the mark for the prize of high calling? 

Who works so hard to be preferred to the beatifical vision, as wicked men do to be punished with eternal, destruction? 

They sweat at sowing in the devil’s field, when all they shall reap thereby will be damnation, and thou freezest in seeking God’s favour, when the fruit thereof will be everlasting salvation.

4. An Exhortation

This is a note which I have heard rarely if at all: to sorrow over the sin of the world and lack of fervor in the saint. Rather than dunking on the world, he is calling the reader to repentance: When we have something so much better than the wicked’s sin, 

O reader, 

consider and mourn, 

that the deceitful world (who will leave their lovers in the greatest danger) should have such hot and violent wooers; 

that superstition should be so greedily caught at, though, like hemlock, it makes them run mad that eat it, and ends often in desperation;

nay, that the loathsome monster sin—

whose father is the devil, 

whose service is perfect slavery, 

whose jointure is blackness of darkness for ever—

should have so many and such eager, earnest suitors; 

and yet godliness, 

whose birth is noble from heaven, 

whose person is lovely, the beautiful image of the blessed God, 

whose portion is large, 

no less than eternal life, 

should be by most wholly slighted, 

and at best but coldly courted. 

Surely this ought to be for a lamentation. 

Good God! whither did man go when he departed away from thee!

The ancient men wept when they saw the foundation of the second temple laid, considering how far it came short of the glory and beauty of the first, Ezra 3:12. What cause have we then to weep floods of tears when we ponder how short man is, nay, how contrary man is to his primitive purity and perfection! Godliness was then his business, but is now his burden; sin was then loathed as his bane, but is now loved as his daily bread.

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

06 Tuesday Jul 2021

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CHAPTER IX

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

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

[II.        THREE ASPECTS 

This complaint is urged with a threefold consideration.]

B.        Men make superstition their religion

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

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

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

Art. VII

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

Art. XXXV

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

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

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

Notice that he makes superstition an equivalent of idolatry:

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

a. Men are zealous for their own traditions.

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

b. The psychological motivation for false worship

i.  They think it will please God.

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

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

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

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

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

iii. An example from Cicero

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

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

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

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

a.  An observation on the intensity.

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

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

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

b. More biblical examples

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

3. Polemic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. A final plea to leave off false worship

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

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

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

Alas! 

what sorrow doth this call for 

and command! 

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

in false worship, 

wasting their wealth, 

cutting and carving their bodies 

as if they were made only to be their slaves, 

and themselves to be the tyrants over them, 

laying out so much cost, 

and exercising so much cruelty, 

for that which is worse than nothing, 

for that which will not only not profit them, 

but extremely and eternally prejudice them; 

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

and in the interim 

the easy yoke of Christ is scorned, 

the power of godliness slighted, 

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

The needless tasks men undertake:

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

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

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

1 Diodor. Sic.

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

3 Purch. Pilgrim., p. 1478.

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

19 Wednesday May 2021

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6. A contrast of Callings

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

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

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

vanity before solidity, [Eccl. 1:2]

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

the world’s scraps before the costly feast, 

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

an apple before paradise, [Gen. 3]

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

and the least fleeting and inconstant good 

before the greatest, truest, and eternal good. 

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

a. Particular and General Callings:

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

Their particular callings are but about earth

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

they deal but with men and brutes; 

their gains here at best cannot be large, 

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

and yet how eagerly are they pursued! [break]

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

how constantly are they busied about them!            

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

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

Their general callings are about their souls, 

their eternal salvations; 

in these they have to do with the blessed God, 

the lovely Saviour, 

in communion with whom is heaven upon earth; 

their gains here are above their thoughts, 

and beyond their most enlarged desires, 

no less than infinite and eternal! 

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

The profit of godliness is invaluable above price.

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

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

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

No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, 

for the price of wisdom is above rubies. 

The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, 

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

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

yet how lingeringly is this calling entered upon, 

how lazily is it followed, 

and how quickly cast off. 

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

O foolish man, who hath bewitched thee, 

that thou dost thus dislike and disobey the truth?

7.         Concluding Contrasts

a.        Compared to a Hen

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

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

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

The favour of God, 

the promises of the gospel, 

the covenant of grace, 

the blood of Christ, 

the embroidery of the Spirit, 

the life of faith, 

the hope of heaven, 

joy in the Holy Ghost, are laid before man;

 yet he overlooks them all, 

and lives like a mole, 

digging and delving in the earth.

b. Though men see:

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

Though men see:

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

that the beauty, 

bravery of all earthly things is 

but like a fair picture drawn on ice, 

quickly perishing; 

that their riches and estates are but like snow, 

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

            it presently melteth away; 

though they see daily

though they see daily men that hoarded up silver, 

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

hurried away into the other world, 

leaving all their heaps behind them; 

yet they will take no warning:

yet they will take no warning, 

but, as the silly lark, 

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

and destroyed by the fowler. 

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

c. Failing to seek

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

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

d. Three concluding examples:

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

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

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

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

A philosopher and a blacksmith:

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

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

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

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

19 Wednesday May 2021

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II.        THREE ASPECTS 

This complaint is urged with a threefold consideration.

A.        “First, How eager is the worldling for wealth and earthly things!”

1.         Contrasting effort and neglect

Though they loiter about the meat which endureth to eternal life, 

yet they can labour for the meat that perisheth; 

though they are so negligent about the kingdom of heaven, 

yet the kingdom of earth suffereth violence. 

The point of this passage is to impress upon the reader the extraordinary efforts which are made to obtain wealth. To make this impression, Swinnock uses a number of repetitions. He begins with three “What” sentences. On the third, he shifts to a number of dependent clauses to describe the work of the husbandman. This ends with “all for earthly mammon”. He then contrasts this with a conclusion: he neglects heavenly things. To see this more clearly, the sentence is broken down into clauses:

What pains do the mariners take for treasure! 

What perils doth the soldier undergo for plunder! 

What labour and industry doth the husbandman use for profit!

he riseth early, 

sits up late, 

denieth himself, 

loseth his sleep, 

rides and runs to and fro, 

all opportunities, 

is eaten up almost with cares and fears, 

all for the earthly mammon; 

whilst the heavenly mansions are like the unknown part of the world, which no man regardeth or looketh after; 

2.         The misdirected diligence of men compared to animals

Although the break here is in the middle of a sentence, the tone changes here. It is darker and the desire for money is described in bestial terms: 

they ‘pant after the dust of the earth,’ as greedily as hot creatures do after the air to cool their scorched entrails, Amos 2:7.

The Authorized Version (KJV) at Amos 2:7 contains the condemnation of those “That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor.” The ESV has “those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth.”          

The serpent’s curse is entailed on that poisonous brood; the dust is their diet, they feed on ashes, Gen. 3:14; Amos 7.

The animal imagery is based upon Serpent in the Garden. In the next sentence he uses “trample upon difficulties” – which recalls the trampling of the serpent in Genesis 3:15. I don’t know whether Swinnock is deliberately using the allusion in an ironic sense.

They laugh at dangers, and trample upon difficulties, they force their way through darkness and the shadow of death, through stifling damps and overflowing floods, through rocks and mountains, in the pursuit of earthly treasures, Job 28:9–11. 

The reference to Job is that men engage in this diligent search throughout the earth – but do not find wisdom by digging in the ground. We then get this sigh, Why do we work so hard for this, but so little to obtain heaven?

It is said of the Dutch, they are so industrious at navigation, that, if it were possible to sail in ships to heaven, they would not come short of that haven. Ah, what pity is it that this jewel should hang in a swine’s snout, which would so well become the Christian’s finger; that this diligence, this violence, should be exercised about men’s earthly and particular, which would so well suit their heavenly and general, calling. 

The panther is understood as a strange animal among the British writers, their only knowledge coming from Aristotle and Pliny, “Pliny saids, all beasts are strangely allured by this sent, but frighted by the mishapen head, which hee therefore hides.” (A description of the nature of four-footed beasts with their figures en[graven in brass] / written in Latin by Dr. John Johnston ; translated into English by J.P.)

The ambitious person, like the panther, is so greedy of the poisonous aconite (hung up by the hunters purposely in vessels above their reach) of air and honour, that he never leaves leaping and straining thereat till he breaks and bursts himself in sunder.

Here the covetous man is made less than a horse and is in service to his horse:

The covetous man, saith one, that hath more than enough, yet perplexeth himself with his own wants, look how like a fool he goeth, leading his horse in his hand, and carrying his saddle on his back, till he be pickled in his own sweat, and killed with cares, when his horse would with ease carry him and his saddle. The voluptuous man, like the drone, is busy about the glass of water baited with honey; in it he labours and wearieth himself, even till he be drowned.

3.         Allusions to Exodus

At this point, he draws on allusions and illustrations from Exodus. Perhaps the word “drowned” suggested the drowning the Egyptian army to Swinnock’s mind. The use of these images has the suggestion that striving after wealth is like being a slave to the Egyptians rather than take the Exodus out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land:

How do men, like the Israelites in the Egyptian bondage, travel up and down, and even weary themselves to gather straw! What pains do they take to hew unto themselves broken cisterns! [Jer. 2:13]

This is a biting line:

Their chief strife is, with the toads, who shall fall asleep with most earth in their paws, who shall leave this world with most wealth in their hands; 

They think themselves wiser than everyone else and in the end they die with only “earth in their paws” having used their life to acquire that they cannot keep.

their parts and gifts, their time and talents, are all improved to help forward their earthly trade; they are ‘wiser in their generation than the children of light.’

Oh how lamentable is it that the onions and garlic of Egypt are preferred before the milk and honey of Canaan!

This allusion is to the complaint of the freed slaves in the Wilderness: When they faced any difficulty, they grew romantic about their slavery and wished they were in Egypt.

 Luther tells us of a nobleman at Vienna, in the time of his abode there, which made a great supper, and in the midst of his mirth belched out this windy and blasphemous speech, If God will leave me this world to live and enjoy my pleasure therein but a thousand years, then let him take his heaven to himself. 

This man spake what most men think; the bramble of their bodies reigneth, and fire ariseth out of it to consume the cedar of their souls. [Judges 9:15] Their efforts to meaningless things will destroy their better ends, like a fire which starts in the weeds and ends up burning the forest.

Their chief strife is, with the toads, who shall fall asleep with most earth in their paws, who shall leave this world with most wealth in their hands. 

4.         Observations from the Classical World

The heathen have admired and bemoaned man’s industry about earth; they have wondered what made man, who is of an erect countenance looking up to heaven, thus to bow down and bury himself alive in the earth. 

That is a striking phrase. A consul was a preeminent political position. To become a consul took enormous effort and often great expense. Why would you do so much to have a single year’s “joy”?

Tertullian stood amazed at the folly of the Romans, who would undergo all manner of hazards and hardships to be consul, which he fitly calls one year’s fleeting joy. 

“A thing of nought” is a worthless thing. A concept he finds in the prophets, he illustrates by means of a pagan moralist:

The prophet tells such that they ‘rejoice in a thing of nought,’ Amos 7. Nay, the forementioned moralist tells us, that such worldlings, operose nihil agunt, take a great deal of pains to do nothing. That their whole life is but a laborious loitering, or at most a more painful kind of playing; their account will be nothing but ciphers; like children, they run up and down, and labour hard to catch a gaudy butterfly, which, when caught, will foul their fingers and fly from them. O mortal men, ‘how long will ye love vanity, and follow after leasing?’ Ps. 4.

Is it not sad, that so noble a being as man’s soul should be wholly taken up with such mean, sordid things? That phrase in Ps. 24:5, ‘That hath not lift up his soul unto vanity,’ is read by Arius Montanus, ‘He that hath not received his soul in vain.’ Oh how many receive their souls in vain, making no more use of them than the swine, of whom the philosopher observes, Cujus anima pro sale, their souls are only for salt to keep their bodies from stinking. Who would not grieve to think that so choice a piece should be employed about so vain a use!

5.         Illustrations from Kingship: the equating here is with the infinite value of an eternal soul.

Reader, if one should be entrusted with the education of a great prince, (who was descended of the blood-royal, and heir to a large empire,) and should set him only to rake in dunghills, or cleanse ditches, thou wouldst exceedingly condemn such a governor. Wouldst thou not think, It is pity, indeed, that so noble a person should be busied about such low, unworthy projects? 

The above-illustration would gain ready acceptance. He now turns to apply the principle to the reader: If this absurd in a king, isn’t it absurd in you? 

God hath entrusted thee with a precious soul, descended highly, even from God himself, claiming kindred with the glorious angels, and capable of inheriting that kingdom, to which the most glorious empires of the world are but muck-heaps. 

Art thou not one of them that employ this princely soul altogether about unsuitable and earthly practices, and causing it (as the lapwing, though it have a coronet on its head) to feed on excrements? 

That puts a point on the argument.

It was one cause of Jeremiah’s sad lamentation, that ‘the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold,’ should be esteemed as ‘earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter;’ that they which were ‘brought up in scarlet,’ should ‘embrace dunghills,’ Lam. 4:2, 5.

The point is then made more broadly. Consider this argument in light of the many political arguments that made by someone such as Marx, about how the laborer is abused and neglected and treated as merely a means to an end. Swinnock makes a broader point: Marx would have the worker be satisfied with a “fair” share of the total. Swinnock says the billionaire is no better off and may have even been more absurd in the use of his life.

Have not we more cause of sorrow that men’s souls, the precious sons of God, should be put to no better use than earthen pitchers; that they which should be brought up delicately in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, should be busy about dross, and embrace dunghills; that thy precious soul should thus lackey after earth and vanity, when it should, like an angel, be always standing and waiting in the presence of God?

The point is brought home with ridiculous examples. He speaks of a king doing something absurd: The point is then applied: You are the king and acquiring dirt you cannot keep is equally absurd:

Who can read the stories how Domitian the king spent his time in catching flies; Solyman the Magnificent in making arrow-heads; Achmat the last in making strings for bows; Harcatius, the king of Persia, in catching moles; Caligula, the emperor, in playing the poet; Nero, the emperor, in fiddling; and not admire at their folly, that such great princes should busy themselves in things so infinitely below their places. 

Having gained agreement, he says, You are the one I am writing about:

But thy folly, reader, (if one of them I am writing of,) is far greater, in that thy practices are more below thy spiritual and heavenly principle. May I not say to thee, as Philip to Alexander, when he heard him singing, Art thou not ashamed, being a king’s son, to sing so well? Art thou not ashamed, being an immortal angelical substance, the offspring of God, and capable of his likeness and love, to be glued as a toad-stool to the earth, to spend thy time and strength, venture the perishing of thy mortal body, and immortal soul too, for that meat which perisheth? 

It would take great effort to be that good at singing. How have you taken so much time to do so?

It is storied of Pope Sixtus the Fifth that he sold his soul to the devil, for seven years’ enjoyment of the popedom. What fool ever bought so dear? what madman ever sold so cheap? yet every worldly person doth implicitly the same with this pope. He selleth what is more worth than all the world for a little wind. Ah, how costly is that treasure which makes him a beggar to all eternity!

O Lord, what a foolish, silly thing is man, to prize and take pains for husks before bread, vanity before solidity, a shadow before the substance, the world’s scraps before the costly feast, the dirty kennels before the crystal water of life, an apple before paradise, a mess of pottage before the birthright, and the least fleeting and inconstant good before the greatest, truest, and eternal good. 

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling 1.8a

18 Tuesday May 2021

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CHAPTER VIII

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

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

Lament Over the Neglect of Godliness:

First, By way of lamentation. 

I.         INTRODUCTION TO THE LAMENT

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

A.        Compare the efforts in trade to effort in godliness

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

1.         The Loss of Trade

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

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

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

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

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

a.        The Devil has Droves     

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

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

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

ii.        ‘The ways of Zion mourn, 

they are unoccupied, 

none come to the solemn feasts, 

all her gates are desolated.’ 

b.        The Lawyer’s Closet

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

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

and the tradesman’s shop crowded with customers,

ii.        Jesus Christ is left alone; 

though he offereth wares which are of infinite worth, 

and stretcheth out his hand all the day long, 

yet no man regardeth.

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

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

1.         Too Much Trouble

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

2.         It is of no use to me

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

C.        Answering an Objection

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

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

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

1.         Answer: the real thing is rare.

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

a.        They provide only outward show.

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

b.        They have no real love or relationship

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

2.         An illustration and diagnosis

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

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

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

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

George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, 1.7

01 Thursday Apr 2021

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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, 1.5

17 Wednesday Mar 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion: we were made for the purpose of godliness:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[1]

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

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

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

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

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

11 Thursday Mar 2021

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The prior post in this series may be found here.

C. True Godliness Perseveres 

1. It is like a man’s labor.

2. They start and finish strong.

3.  They are constant in their work.

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

1. It is like a man’s labor.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. They start and finish strong. 

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

3. They are constant in their work.

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

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

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

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

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

First comparison: a godliness based upon conscience:

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

A constancy based upon sincerity:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

02 Tuesday Mar 2021

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2. He Takes Advantage of All Opportunties

Statement of the proposition:

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

Illustration:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His visits to his friends are 

out of conscience 

as well as out of courtesy; 

and his endeavour is, 

either by some savoury Scripture expression, 

or some sober action, 

to advantage his company.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He returns to the question of conduct:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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