A94156:527
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.
2. Apply the Word to thine own soul: The Word is a salve of sovereign virtue. Some talk of the Weapon-salve, that it heals at a distance; but the Word will not; it must be applied to the sore, or it will never cure. The Word is seed, preaching is the sowing of this seed; application of it to thy heart, is the harrowing of this seed into the earth: If the seed be thrown on the ground, and not harrowed in, we can expect no harvest.
2. Apply the Word to thine own soul: The Word is a salve of soveraign vertue. Some talk of the Weapon-salve, that it heals at a distance; but the Word will not; it must be applied to the sore, or it will never cure. The Word is seed, preaching is the sowing of this soed; application of it to thy heart, is the harrowing of this seed into the earth: If the seed be thrown on the ground, and not harrowed in, we can expect no harvest.
A good hearer is said to eat the Word: Thy words were found by me, and I did eat them, Jer. 15.16. Eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled, Prov. 9.5. It is not the ⟨p. 227⟩bread in the cupboard of the Bible, or on the table of a Sermon, which will nourish thy soul, unless it be by application of it to thy self, eaten and taken down into thy stomach: The glass of wine in thine hand, will not make thy heart glad; the precious promises in thine ears will not rejoice thee, they must by application be drunk down, then they will refresh and comfort thy Conscience.
A good hearer is said to eat the Word: Thy words were found by me, and I did eat them, Jer. 15.16. Eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled,