A94156:192
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.
This is Soul-work: As soul woe is the heaviest woe, and soul-wants are the greatest wants, so soul-work is the weightest work; the dangers of a soul are the deepest dangers, the loss of the soul is the dreadfullest loss, the neglect of the soul is the dolefullest neglect: The consequence of the action is frequently specified from the excellency of the person or subject concerned in it. The soul of man is a most excellent piece, both in regard of the spirituality and immortality of its substance, as also in regard of that divine image imprinted on it, those heavenly qualities with which it was at first endowed. Princes stamp not their image (except in cases of necessity) on brass, or tin, or leather, but on gold and silver, the chiefest and most excellent metals; therefore though those affairs which concern the body are but of ordinary respect, yet those that concern the soul are of unconceivable weight and regard. One soul is more worth then ten thousand bodies, then ten thousand worlds.
This is Soul-work: As soul wo is the heaviest wo, and soul-wants are the greatest wants, so soulwork is the weightest work; the dangers of a soul are the deepest dangers, the loss of the soul is the dreadfullest loss, the neglect of the soul is the dolefullest neglect: The consequence of the action is frequently specified from the excellency of the person or subject concerned in it. The soul of man is a most excellent piece, both in regard of the spirituality and immortality of its substance, as also in regard of that divine image imprinted on it, those heavenly qualities with which it was at first endowed. Princes stamp not their image (except in cases of necessity) on brass, or tynn, or leather, but on gold and silver, the chiefest and most excellent mettals; therefore though those affairs which concern the body are but of ordinary respect, yet those that concern the soul are of unconceivable weight and regard. One soul is more worth then ten thousand bodies, then ten thousand worlds.
The greatest thing (saith one) in this world is Man, and the greatest thing in man is his Soul. It is an abridgement of the invisible world, as the body is of the visible: The body though no mean work considered absolutely, yet of ordinary worth considered comparatively to the soul. It is a mud wall inclosing a rich treasure; as a common mask