The works of George Swinnock, M.A

Eleventhly, If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness, Suppress sin in the beginning. This foul Bird is easiest killed in the egg. When a fire is first broke out in a Chimney it may with much less labour be quenched, then when it hath seized the Timber of the House; What small beginnings had those fires which have conquered stately Palaces, and turned famous Cities into ruinous heaps? An Hair is but a little thing, yet some have been choked with it; If the Tetter be not killed, it will come to be a Ring-worm. Passion at the first kindling may be quenched, but if let alone, sends such a smoke into the understanding, which thickens into a cloud, and hinders us from the sight of our selves and our duties. The Tree may soon be pulled up, before it hath taken root, but then it may be too hard for the strongest man. A prick with a Pin, or a Thorn, being let alone, hath sometimes caused the cutting off of a limb, nay, the loss of life. Minutes to sin, are like Cyphers to a figure, which quickly increase it to vast sums. Sin increaseth by degrees, Jam. 1. 14, 15. First it surpriseth the heart in a thought, then it stealeth into the affections for approbation, then the affections plead with the will for its consent, and then that commandeth the act of it, and frequent acts cause an habit, and custom in sin causeth despair, despair causeth men to defend sin, their defence of sin a boasting and glorying in it, and the next step is Hell. Sin is therefore fitly by the Prophet compared to a Chain, for one link draweth another.

Eleventhly, If thou wouldst exercise thy self to godliness, Suppress sin in the beginning. This foul Bird is easiest kild in the egge. When a fire is first broke out in a Chimny it may with much less labour be quenched, then when it hath seised the Timber of the House; What small beginnings had those fires which have conquered stately Pallaces, and turned famous Cities into ruinous heaps? An Hair is but a little thing, yet some have been choaked with it; If the Tetter be not killed, it will come to be a Ring-worm. Passion at the first kindling may be quenched, but if let alone, sends such a smoke into the understanding, which thickens into a cloud, and hinders us from the sight of our selves and our duties. The Tree may soon be pulled up, before it hath taken root, but then it may be too hard for the strongest man. A prick with a Pin, or a Thorn, being let alone, hath sometimes caused the cutting off of a limb, nay, the loss of life. Minutes to sin, are like Cyphers to a figure, which quickly increase it to vast sums. Sin increaseth by degrees,