A94156:435
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.
God hath promised spiritual things absolutely, therefore thou mayest desire them absolutely: For ⟨p. 178⟩pardon, and the image of God, and the blood of Christ, and fullness of joy in the other World, thou mayst be as earnest (so humble and reverent) as thou wilt. And O! what a mercy is it that God, though, like a wise father, he deny us leave to cry for the candle, which would burn, and the thorns which would prick our fingers; yet he giveth us liberty to, nay commandeth us to besiege and storm Heaven, to follow him up and down, to cry day and night, to give him no rest, to be instant, urgent, and fervent with him, that our persons may be justified, our natures sanctified, and our souls and bodies glorified eternally.
God hath promised spiritual things absolutely, therefore thou mayest desire them absolutely: For ⟨p. 178⟩pardon, and the image of God, and the blood of Christ, and fulness of joy in the other World, thou mayst be as earnest (so humble and reverent) as thou wilt. And O! what a mercy is it that God, though, like a wise father, he deny us leave to cry for the candle, which would burn, and the thorns which would prick our fingers; yet he giveth us liberty to, nay commandeth us to besiege and storm Heaven, to follow him up and down, to cry day and night, to give him no rest, to be instant, urgent, and fervent with him, that our persons may be justified, our natures sanctified, and our souls and bodies glorified eternally.
Fourthly, Thy prayers must be constant: Thy duty is to give thy self to prayer, as a servant devoted to, and at the command of his noble Master. This fire, like that on the Altar, must never go out day nor night; Night and day praying exceedingly, 1 Thess. 3.10. Paul speaks, as if his practice had been nothing but prayer; he did that so much, that he seemed to do nothing else. Prayer is a Saints breath, which he constantly draweth,