A94156:561
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.
It is reported of the Nobles of Polonia, that when the Gospel is read, they lay their hands upon their Swords, and begin to draw them; intimating thereby that they will defend it with the hazard of their lives: Saints must be ready to die for the Gospel, but a Christian may defend it as truly by an holy life, as by a bloody death. A scandalous conversation, is an offence to Religion, and openeth the mouths of its enemies; but as fire is a good defence to a man in a Wilderness, against the fury of ravenous beasts, so the heat of grace flaming, and the light of holiness shining in the lives of professors, defendeth the word against its opposers. A Sermon practiced, is a Sermon in print, and by it the hearer teacheth all the Week long.
It is reported of the Nobles of Polonia, that when the Gospel is read, they lay their hands upon their Swords, and begin to draw them; intimating thereby that they will defend it with the hazard of their lives: Saints must be ready to die for the Gospel, but a Christian may defend it as truely by an holy life, as by a bloody death. A scandalous conversation, is an offence to Religion, and openeth the mouths of its enemies; but as fire is a good defence to a man in a Wilderness, against the fury of ravenous beasts, so the heat of grace flaming, and the light of holiness shining in the lives of professors, defendeth the word against its opposers. A Sermon practiced, is a Sermon in print, and by it the hearer teacheth all the Week long.
The Romans were commended for obeying from the heart, 1the form of Doctrine delivered to them. Rom. 6.17. In the Original it is whereunto they were delivered; A good hearer, as I said before, is one that eats the word; now as meat eaten becomes one with the body, and takes the same form with it, the body and meat are so much the same, that ⟨p. 243⟩they are one, and you cannot know them asunder: So the Word is well heard, when it becomes one with the Christian, when they are both of the same form; the hearer is delivered up into the likeness and form of the Scripture; the Word of God may be read in every leaf, in every line of the volume of his life.