The works of George Swinnock, M.A

The Heart of man is like the Spring of the Clock, which causeth the wheels to move right or wrong, well or ill; Hence it is that Gods precept is to this, Make you a new heart and a new spirit; and his promise of this, I will put my fear into their hearts, and they shall never depart away from me. The fear of God in the heart will bind thee fast to God in thy life. If the heart be throughly drawn to him, the tongue ⟨p. 697⟩and hand will not depart from him. If the heart once set forward for God, all the members will follow after; the mouth will praise, the ears will attend to him, the eye will watch him, the feet will go after him; all the parts, like dutiful handmaids, in their places will wait on their Mistress. There was a great Master among the Jews, which bid his Scholars to consider and tell him, What was the best thing, or the best way, in which a man should always keep: One said, A good Companion was the best thing in the world; another said, A good Neighbour was the best thing he could wish; A third said, A wise man, or one that could for esee future things; A fourth said, A good eye, that is, a liberal disposition; At last came one Eleazer, and he said, A good heart is better then them all. True, said the Master, thou hast comprehended in two words all that the rest have said; For a good heart will make a man both contented, and a good companion, and a good neighbour, and help him to foresee things that are to come, that he may know what is on his part to be done. Indeed without this there can be no godliness; all professions and performances are but a show, a shadow; and where there is this, there is all godliness in all manner of conversation. As the King of France said of Dover, that it was the key of England; and if his son, who then invaded the Britons, had not that, he had nothing; So it may be said of the heart, It is the key of the whole man; it opens and shuts the door to Godliness and Wickedness; and if grace hath not this, it hath nothing. The Philosopher when he would persuade the King to settle his residence in the midst of his Dominions, and thereby keep all his people the better ⟨p. 698⟩in subjection, took a Bulls hide ready tanned, upon which when he stood on any side of it, still it rose up on the other; but when he stood on the middle, he kept down all alike. The only way to subdue sin, is to do it in the heart; that commands all;