A94156:455
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.
1. Watching for an answer: Pious prayers are precious commodities; and who, unless a mad man or a fool, will throw away what is of value and worth? When thou hast shot thine arrow, observe ⟨p. 186⟩where it lights, and how near it flew to the mark. Wise men when they have delivered their petitions to their Prince, watch and wait sometimes a year together, all the while longing and looking for an answer: Thy requests to God are of infinite concernment, thy Heaven, thy eternal happiness is involved in them; with what holy impatience then shouldst thou desire an answer? In the morning I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up, Psa. 5.3. The words discover Davids posture in prayer, and his practice after prayer: His posture in prayer, I will direct my prayer unto thee. 1The word is an allusion to an Archer, or to a General, as some observe on it.
- 1Disponam tibi Calvin.
1. To an Archer, and then the meaning is, I will be up betimes, and take as good aim as I can possibly at the mark, and so draw my bow, and direct my arrow that I may hit it.
2. To a General, and then it importeth thus much, I will rise early, and set my requests to God, as Soldiers in Battalia, in rank and file, in good array: I will so marshal them, that they be not routed by being out of order: I will see that they stand in their places, and keep their ground; and what then? his practice after prayer, And will look up: I will observe what became of the arrow I shot. Or the word being an allusion to a Watchman, as the former word to a Commander in chief of an Army, speaketh this, When I have marshalled my prayers in good array, and sent them forth to fight against my spiritual Enemies, and to wrestle with God himself for his grace and love, I will get up to my