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{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steady}
Be steady and even in all your goings. Do not be off and on, in and out (Proverbs 4:25-27). “Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day” (Proverbs 23:17 ESV). Alone, in company, at home or away, in your religious duties, in your business, in your recreations, all day and every day, let tomorrow be as this day and the next day as tomorrow. When all the different parts are in due proportion to one another, the evenness and consistent quality of our lives show the beauty and comeliness of our lives. Let your ways be conformed to the Scriptures and let them be uniform. Imitate God in being unchangeable in virtues.
We appear to be almost as many different people as we have days in our lives, or as many different people as we have companions. We have more of the moon than the sun—little light, but many changes and spots. Do not let your way of life be so checkered. Let not Christians be speckled birds.363 Do not have so many blacks among your whites—sometimes something of God, sometimes as much of the flesh. What an ugliness it is in a new garment to have here and there places of old rotten patches: now a little of God, then as much as the devil; now in the Spirit, then in the flesh; now serious and savory, then frothy and vain; this hour engrossed in divine meditation, then the next in a fleshly frolic; now a little of godliness, then a patch of sensuality.
Be Christians and always be yourselves in Christ. Do not change your hearts with your companions. Do not be of those vain people who can cast themselves into any shape and can suit themselves to any time or companions. Do not be like those who can weep with those who weep, mourn with those who mourn, and pray with those who pray, but who can also laugh and be merry and jolly with those who do so.364 Let all your activities be always in the fear of, and established in, the Lord.
363speckled bird: a reference to Jeremiah 12:9. The interpretation of this verse is a matter of debate. But here Alleine seems to be referring to the fact that the bird is not pure white.
364In this sentence, Alleine neither condemns Christian charity and compassion, nor denigrates innocent merriment or laughter. God Himself laughs at the rebellious (Psalm 2:4); and we are made in His image. Rather, Alleine condemns the one who plays the Christian at one time, and at another time, the vain, worldly fool.
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