The works of George Swinnock, M.A

Thou wouldst condemn that Mariner of folly, who seeing a Fish in the water, should leap into the Sea to catch it, which together with his life he loseth; What a fool art thou for mortal comforts to lose an immortal crown! The women of Corinth, saith an ancient Father, did set up Tapers at the birth of every child, with proper names upon each of them, and that Taper which lasted longest in burning, had its proper name transferred to the Child. God himself gives the highest and richest, though conceited worldling, his name; Thou fool, this night, &c. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.

Thou wouldst condemn that Mariner of folly, who seeing a Fish in the water, should leap into the Sea to ca•ch it, which together with his life he loseth; What a fool art thou for mortal comforts to lose an immortal crown! The women of Corinth, saith an ancient Father, did set up Tapers at the birth of every child, with proper names upon each of them, and that Taper which lasted longest in burning, had its proper name transferred to the Child. God himself gives the highest and richest, though conceited worldling, his name; Thou fool, this night, &c. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.

The plain truth is, the world is the ruin and destruction of men. Its pleasures and honours make the sinner merry and jolly, as the herb Sardonia the eater, who eating dyeth; They that will be rich, fall into temptations and snares, and many hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition, 1 Tim. 6. 9. The world serveth its darlings as that tyrannous Emperor did his servants, let them through a sliding floor into a Chamber •ull of Roses, that being smothered in them, they might meet the bitterness of death in sweetness; O do not spend thy strength for that which is not bread, but ⟨p. 838⟩hearken to Christ, and thou shalt eat that which is good, and thy soul shall delight it self in fatness,