A94156:1063
The Christian-man's calling: or, A treatise of making religion ones business. Wherein the nature…
The Christian-man's calling: or, A treatise of making religion ones business. Wherein the nature and necessity of it is discovered. : As also the Christian directed how he may perform it in [brace] religious duties, natural actions, his particular vocation, his family directions, and his own recreations. / By George Swinnock ...
London: printed for T.P., 1662
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
If thou wantest a Wife, consider before thou choosest: Take heed whom thou takest into thy bed, into thy bosom, lest thou meetest with a Yoke-fellow that will draw as strongly towards Hell, as thou dost towards Heaven. It is rendered as the reason why one of the Kings of Israel was so wicked, because he had to Wife the daughter of Ahab. There is little work to be done, when the second horse in the teem is always drawing back. The Devil can make use of Eve, to draw thee to undo thy self and posterity: He can make use of the rib (saith the Father, alluding to that part of man out of which the woman was taken) to break thy head. The Heathen tell us, that every man when he marrieth, bringeth a good or an evil Spirit into his house, and thereby makes his house either a Heaven or a Hell.
If thou wantest a Wife, consider before thou choosest: Take heed whom thou takest into thy bed, into thy bosom, lest thou meetest with a Yoke-fellow that will draw as strongly towards Hell, as thou dost towards Heaven. It is rendred as the reason why one of the Kings of Israel was so wicked, because he had to Wife the daughter of Ahab. There is little work to be done, when the second horse in the teem is always drawing back. The Devil can make use of Eve, to draw thee to undo thy self and posterity: He can make use of the rib (saith the Father, alluding to that part of man out of which the woman was taken) to break thy head. The Heathen tell us, that every man when he marrieth, bringeth a good or an evil Spirit into his house, and thereby makes his house either a Heaven or a Hell.
Be sure that wickedness do not woo for thee: Do not send the unclean Spirits either of lust or covetousness, or pride, to make the match. When men do as those Sons of God, 1who saw the Daughters of men, that they were fair, and took them Wives of them, Gen. 6.1. hand over head; it is no wonder that they are married and marred together. Consider, a Wife or a Husband, is the greatest outward comfort or Cross in this World; and let prayer be the messenger thou employest about it: A