A94156:548
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
Treatise › Chapter 17: Of the Christians duty after Hearing.
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.
There are two things which God requireth of thee after hearing and reading the Word, namely, Prayer and Practice.
1. Prayer; Petition for a blessing upon the Word, and Thanksgiving for the blessing of the Word.
Petition for a blessing upon the Word: After the seed is sown, the influence of Heaven must cause it to spring up and ripen, or otherwise there will be no harvest. Paul may plant, and Apollo water, but God must give the increase, 1 Cor. 3.6. The Minister preacheth, thou hearest, but it is the Lord who teacheth to profit. Thou mayest, like Mary, have Christ before thee in a Sermon, and yet not know him, till he discover himself to thee. The Eunuch could read of Christ in the Prophet, but could not reach Christ till God came to his Chariot. There is a twofold light requisite to a bodily ⟨p. 236⟩vision, light in the eye, and light in the air, the former cannot (as we experience in the night) do it without the latter. There is also a twofold light necessary to Spiritual sight; beside the light of understanding which is in a man, there must be Illumination from the Spirit of God, or there will be no beholding the Lord in the glass of the Word.
Petition for a blessing upon the Word: After the seed is sown, the influence of Heaven must cause it to spring up and ripen, or otherwise there will be no harvest. Paul may plant, and Apollo water, but God must give the encrease, 1 Cor. 3.6. The Minister preacheth, thou hearest, but it is the Lord who teacheth to profit. Thou mayest, like Mary, have Christ before thee in a Sermon, and yet not know him, till he discover himself to thee. The Eunuch could read of Christ in the Prophet, but could not reach Christ till God came to his Chariot. There is a twofold light requisite to a bodily