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{The Application
Application for the Godly
Directions for Carrying On a Constant Holy Course of Life
Pursue and Mind Your Purpose, God, and Your Own Salvation}
In your whole course of life, pursue your purpose in life, God, and your own salvation. As much as possible, keep these in view. Frequently consider for what purpose you live and what you it is you desire. And if your purpose and desire is that God may be honored and your souls saved, let this be pursued and prosecuted in all parts of your life. If a course or action does not have some tendency to serve this purpose, do not take or do it. That which does have such tendency, let it be directed to that glorious end. Let every arrow be pointed at your mark. The reason why the purpose is not more attained is that it is not more intended. It is not any wonder that we shoot short or beside our mark when our eye is not on it.
Keeping our purpose and goal in sight will both direct our course and enliven and encourage us on.
Set the Lord much before your eyes. Dwell on the contemplation of His glory and glorious excellencies. Consider how worthy the Lord is to be exalted and what an honor it is to poor creatures to be in any way serviceable to His Honor. And consider what a pity it is that any of your time or any of your strength should be spent on vanity when it might be used used to such a worthy and high purpose. Begrudge every minute of your time that is not bestowed on God.
Consider the blessedness of living forever in the presence and enjoyment of God. Look toward the Holy City. Enter by faith into the Holy of Holies.314 Set yourselves before the throne of God. To the extent that you are able at this distance, view that everlasting light, those blessed and glorious joys, those rivers of pleasure, and that exceeding eternal weight of glory that is possessed by the saints there. And then, say to your heart, “Come on, Soul, come on. Here is that for which you are praying. Here is that for which you are laboring. Here is the country, the kingdom, and the crown for which you have been fighting, wrestling, running, and suffering.”
Setting this glory before your eyes will both enliven and sweeten your holy course and take your hearts off any other courses. The end makes the means beautiful and makes ugly all of the hindrances to the attainment of the end. A sight of Heaven will make a holy life a beautiful life.
There are two things that make a holy life beautiful:
A holy life is the image of a heavenly life.
A holy life is the way to a heavenly life.
All the labors, difficulties, and sufferings of a godly life are therefore pleasant and beautiful because they are the way of the kingdom.
And on the other side, a sight of Heaven will make the ways of sin to be unpleasant, to be dark and black ways.
There are two grounds upon which sin is odious to the saints:
Sin is opposition and unlikeness to God; it bears the image of Hell on it, not of Heaven.
Sin obtrudes itself between the saints and their purpose and goal.
Nothing else besides sin can ever keep the saints from God. There is no danger of their falling short of everlasting blessedness, except from sin.315 Sin is the only chasm that is fixed between the saints and glory. And thus it is that the way of sin, with all its pleasures, ease, and delights, is a dark and dismal way to the saints. The pleasures of sin are black pleasures. The gains of sin are black gains. The joviality, liberty, and prosperity of sin are all dark and black in the eyes of saints. These clouds, whatever brightness seems to be in them, actually keep the sun from shining on them.
Oh, what progress you might make in the way of eternal life if holiness, with all its difficulties, were beautiful to you, and sin, with all its delights, odious to you. What would there then be lacking that might encourage you on? What would there then be left to hinder you? Why, let God and glory be more valuable in your sight, and then sin will be more odious and holiness more precious in your sight. You would then neither lack encouragements to lead you on, nor be encumbered by such temptations as now keep you back. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:11–13 NASB). “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18 NASB). Earlier (2 Corinthians 4:7–12), Paul had declared how hard it was with them: troubled, perplexed, persecuted, cast down, always bearing in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and so on. Notwithstanding, he says, “we do not lose heart,” while looking not at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen.
Brethren, look on the things not seen, and take from them both direction in your way and encouragement to go in it.
Take direction from Heaven. When you are traveling and you see before you the place to which you are going, your eyes will tell you the way. When you are entering into any course of action, look up and consider, “Is this my way to God?” When you are eagerly and greedily pursuing the world, ask your hearts, “Is this my way to Heaven? Am I now working out my salvation?” When you are walking in the way of carnal pleasure or liberty, then look up to the Lord and look into your heart and say, if you can, “Now Lord, I am hastening to you. Now soul, I am taking care of you. My sports, pleasures, and lusts are the way to make God and Heaven sure to me.” Can you say so? Will not your own heart tell you that it is not the way? If it is Heaven and salvation that I seek, then surely I am not on the way.
Look heavenward, and thus take encouragement to go on. View the glory that is above and consider what happy people you would be if you were now safely there. And let such thoughts press you to hasten on. Let such thoughts encourage you against all the labors and difficulties you must first pass through. When you are starting any duty, think with yourselves, “If I can get through this duty well, I will be one step nearer Heaven.” When you begin every day, think, “If I do well this day, I will be one day’s journey nearer home.” When you are falling into any trouble or affliction, think, “If I can cut my way through these waves doing well, I will be so much nearer my harbor.”
Every new degree added to your grace is another stone laid in the building of glory. Every holy duty you have rightly performed is another rung higher on Jacob’s ladder. Look how many days you have walked with God; by so many days’ journey you are nearer your rest. Look how many troubles and temptations you have gotten through in a Christlike way—so many chasms you have leaped and so many rocks you have passed by toward your harbor.
Oh, if such thoughts and considerations were continually on your hearts and before your eyes, how wonderfully they would enliven you and encourage you on your way. Consider Christians, and thus take courage: after a few days more, a few duties more, and a few waves more, you will be safely landed in your country. Lift up your eyes and see, and then lift up your heads and rejoice to see, how by every duty and difficulty your redemption draws near. A traveler316 on his journey who is almost spent and tired, if he comes in sight of home and is almost there, he adds new strength and life and hastens on again. Let your eye be more on your home and there will be less loitering or weariness in your way.
314Holy of Holies: that most holy place in the ancient tabernacle or temple behind the veil into which only the High Priest would enter once per year (Exodus 26:33; 1 Kings 16:16).
315Alleine’s use of “saints” here is not quite correct since those whom God has chosen to be saints must persevere to the end because He keeps them (John 10:28–29). But fear and trembling are appropriate here on earth for only God knows whom He has chosen (Philippians 2:12).
316traveler: a traveler on foot, the most common mode of transportation back then.
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