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{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation}
Brethren, see to it that your hearts are so established with grace that you stand your ground and keep your way in such days of temptation. That you may hold out, hold on, and abide in the day of greatest trials, take this course of action:
Try Yourselves Well Beforehand
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Try Yourselves Well Beforehand}
First, try yourselves thoroughly beforehand. “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31 NASB). I cannot say that if we try ourselves, we will not be tried. But I can say that if we judge ourselves, we will be more likely to abide the trial of the Lord.
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Try Yourselves Well Beforehand
Try What You Are in General}
Try yourselves beforehand concerning what you are in the state of your souls in general according to the instruction I have already given you in this matter.
Try Your Duties and Active Obedience
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Try Yourselves Well Beforehand
Try Your Duties and Active Obedience}
Also try yourselves as to what you are in your duties and active obedience. The one who is not faithful in doing the will of God is not likely to be found suffering for the will of God. The one who carries himself as a true Christian in his present condition need not trouble himself with fears and doubts concerning how he will stand in any future condition into which he may be brought. When trouble comes upon us, the test will be whether we will be faithful in doing the will of God when we must suffer for it. Now concerning the one who neglects his duty and cannot hold his heart to a holy and conscientious course of life when he is in no danger and his Christianity is likely to cost him nothing—what is likely to become of this person’s godliness when it may cost him the loss of all? We read: “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days” (Daniel 6:10 NKJV). If Daniel had not been previously used to praying when praying would not bring him into danger, he doubtless would not have ventured on it in such a time when it was obvious to him that it was likely to cost him his life. Brethren, consider your present concerns and course of life. Do you pray now and fast now, withdrawing yourselves from the lusts and false liberties of the world? Do you now apply yourselves to a sober, serious, self-denying life? Are you now active for God and your souls? Have you been conscientious, watchful, and fruitful in advance where there is (was) nothing to molest or discourage you?
If you have been carnal, vain, and remiss in the exercises of Christianity during times when you could be as holy, strict, and zealous as you wished without any fear of suffering for it—if you have wasted away your encouragements and sunshine in a careless, unprofitable life—how do you think you will ever be useful or productive in the dark? If you cannot bear the pains of a godly life now, how do you think that you will bear both the pains and costs of it? If you only follow Christ a little in the plenty of all things, how do you think you will follow Him when it must be in hunger and thirst? Do you talk of suffering for Christ and righteousness, and hope that you will never forsake Him, whatever may come upon you—when your heart tells you how much you have slighted Christ, neglected your duty to Christ, and contented yourself with a cold, heartless, lukewarm profession without the power of Christianity? And all that was when you had no pretense of any possible damage or danger from your profession? Those of you who now keep at a distance from Christ in order to satisfy a lust have plenty of reason to fear that, if put to it, you will utterly forsake Him in order to save your life. You who in calm seas can ordinarily dispense with your Christianity in order to please a lazy heart will likely renounce your Christianity in a storm in order to quiet your fearful heart. He who can sell his conscience for a lust will hardly be persuaded to to buy a good conscience with the loss of all of his possessions. It may be that you would say, with Peter, that though you die with Him, you will not deny Him (Matthew 26:35). But do you deny yourself for Him now? Do you deny your sinful pleasures, ease, and companions now? Have you not many a time denied Him prayer or charity to others when He called for it? Can you watch with Christ (Matthew 26:38-45)? Do you walk with Christ as you ought? Do you live for Christ? Are you faithful in bringing forth fruit to Christ, the fruit of holiness and righteousness? If not, how do you think you will be able to suffer for Him? If the way of Christ is too narrow for you, you will find His burden too heavy. If you cannot bear His yoke, you will be less able to bear His cross.
Christians, consider what are your ways and doings at this time. If you find the Lord helping you to walk in all good conscience now, you need not doubt that you will be enabled to witness for a good conscience when called to it. If you keep the Word and do the works of the Lord, you may expect His help in bearing His burden. If you are faithful in your lives, you are more likely to be faithful to the death. “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10 NKJV).368
Try What You Are under Smaller Crosses
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Try Yourselves Well Beforehand
Try What You Are under Smaller Crosses}
That you may hold out, hold on, and abide in the day of greatest trials, also evaluate what you are like during the ordinary and smaller crosses that come upon you daily. There is no one who lives who does not meet with his crosses, which, although there are many of them, most are only light and inconsiderable things. They are beneath the spirit of a Christian to be upset by them, but sadly, we can see at what a loss people can be at them. Every little wind raises a storm, every little cross puts us out of our course. What breaches are often made upon our consciences, what interruptions of duties, what abatement of our comforts, and how much we are made distant from Christ and our holy interaction with Him, and all that merely for something of little importance.369 We cannot bear an unkindness from a friend, an injury from an enemy, the provocation of an evil tongue, a scoff, or a slander, without our spirits becoming instantly in an uproar and there are such inner tumults raised in us that for a time we forget that we are Christians. Duties, comforts, Christ, conscience, souls, eternal concerns, and all that pertain to them are laid aside and kicked out the door. Faith, patience, meekness, and moderation are either silenced or cannot be heard due to all the noise of our passions and agitation. And, sometimes it is for such trivial matters that when we come to our senses, we are quite ashamed of ourselves.
Brethren, considering such failings due to smaller temptations, I must wonder if they make our hearts shake at the foresight of greater. If every small patrol that the Adversary sends out against us puts to a rout, how will we stand when he comes upon us with his full platoon? If we are overcome by footmen, how will we contend with horsemen (Jeremiah 12:5)? If a rod or little finger so disturbs us, how will we bear the weight of the loins or scorpion stings (2 Chronicles 10:10–11)? If we cannot bear an unkindness, a nod,370 a scoff, or a slander, what will become of us if we are called upon to resist to the point of shedding our blood (Hebrews 12:4)?
Beloved, it is of greater importance to Christians than they are aware of, to watch themselves daily and their conduct in these lower things, and also to inure themselves to patience and meekness of spirit under them. Although it is no great virtue to be patient when there is basically no real provocation, there may yet be great benefit from it. If we could shame ourselves out of this folly and childishness of spirit by which we are apt to be moved with every trifle, and if we would reason and pray ourselves into such a fixed calm and quietness of spirit, that we could keep to our way by overlooking such disturbances, our lives would be both more comfortable and more honorable in the present, and we would be better prepared for any harder things that might come later. If we know how to be Christians among briars and thorns, we will be better able to continue so among spears and arrows.
Try What You Are in Prosperity
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Try Yourselves Well Beforehand
Try What You Are in Prosperity}
That you may hold out, hold on, and abide in the day of greatest trials, also evaluate what you are like during prosperity. The world is a Christian’s enemy; it expresses its enmity in its temptations, and the purpose of all its temptations is to pull us away from God. Its temptations are of two kinds: either of prosperity or affliction, and both kinds of temptations have the same goal, but use different methods.
Prosperity allures, entices, and flatters us away from God. It steals our hearts away from God, like Absalom stole the hearts of Israel from David (2 Samuel 15:6). By pleasant speech and an attractive and smiling face, prosperity draws us into neglect and forgetfulness of God. It makes us grow cold and remiss in our duty to God and causes us to let drop our love and affection for God and care of our Christianity.
Afflictions tend to frighten us away from God by dealing with us as the Rabshakeh did with Israel (2 Kings 18:17-35) when he sought to alienate them from Hezekiah by his threatening and great words: “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” (Isaiah 36:12 NASB). Afflictions are apt to weary people out of the ways of God, to starve them out of their Christianity, to persecute them out of their consciences, and to make godliness too hot for them.
Nonetheless, of these two types of temptations, affliction and prosperity, the stronger and more dangerous are the temptations of prosperity. The world flatters more people from Christ than it can ever frighten from Christ.
Now beloved, if you have stood your ground against against the temptations of prosperity, you may with more confidence encounter the temptations of afflictions. One who has been holy in prosperity will be holy in affliction. One who knows how to abound will be better able to know how to lack. A person’s spirit is not likely to be sunk under the world’s frowns and threatening if, against all the boot-licking371 and flattery of the world, he has kept close to God, kept up his love, and kept on his way. The God who has preserved you from being lulled asleep by the warm sun will also preserve you from being withered by the scorching sun.
Mortify the Flesh and the Lusts of It
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Mortify the Flesh and the Lusts of It}
It is sinfulness that makes affliction tedious and dangerous. Unmortified lusts372 will make afflictions sharper and also increase the temptations due to affliction.
Unmortified lusts will make affliction sharper and more painful. A Christian who is composed of two men—the old man and the new man373—has two tender parts that are apt to be stung and cause pain at every little thing that offends his conscience and his lust. That which offends conscience and makes it sting is sin; that which offends lust and causes pain is affliction. If conscience has become dead or numbed, sin never troubles it. But if lusts are dead, afflictions never trouble one. Kill your lusts, and at once you kill all your adversaries and afflictions.
What makes contempt and disgrace so troubling? Why, it is the pride of our hearts. What makes poverty and want so grievous? It is the covetousness and greediness of our hearts. The appetite will be quarreling that it lacks its dainties. The wanton mind will be vexed that it is deprived of its fine clothing and rich attire. Carnal fears and worldly cares come in, along with their vexations. Kill these lusts and you give immediate ease to your hearts; it is sin that makes suffering sting.374
Unmortified lusts also make afflictions to be sources of greater temptations. The more afflictions pain us, the more strongly they persuade us to take heed of the source of the afflictions and to comply with that which will give us ease or relief. Every pang and throb that comes upon us for godliness’ sake will be clamoring and crying out against godliness: “Away with it! Away with it!” This witnessing, praying, and precise walking has undone me. This conscience of mine has broken my back, lost me my estate, liberty, and friends. It has bereft me of all my comforts, credit, and quiet. It has created all these fears, sorrows, and vexations that are upon me. Will abandoning my zeal and conscience throw off my cares, make me whole, and save me all this harm and loss? Why then should I thus torment myself when I have a way open to escape all this?
Brethren, would you be secure from such temptations? Then get your lusts slain; they put an edge on your temptations. Cut off all provisions for the flesh (Romans 13:14) that let the temptations of the flesh impinge on your heart. Do not allow yourselves liberty to live a sensual life. While you have opportunity, bring yourselves under voluntary restraint and abase yourselves before God abases you. Deny yourselves before God comes to deny you.375 Bridle your appetites before God comes and takes away that which you desire and constrains you to less. Restrain yourselves from undue delicacies before God comes and narrows your choices. Strip yourselves of your wanton habits before God strips you. Starve your lusts to death so that the Lord does not come and violently attack them. If all of the lusts by which tribulations cause even more trouble are no longer there, the tribulations will be easier to bear.
Get your hearts so low that the contempt of men cannot bring you lower and the plunderers cannot make you poorer than your hearts have made you already. Give all you have to God: your ease, pleasures, liberty, and estates.376 Give away all you have from lust to God, and then you will not be disquieted at whatever messengers He sends to fetch it away.
When this is done, what hurt can tribulation do to you? What temptation will it be to you? You will then dare to follow the Lord against all the world. You will not fear loss because you have nothing to lose; you have given it all away already.377 You will not fear prison because you hearts have carried you there already.378 You will not fear disgrace or contempt because your hearts have already brought you so low that the pride of men cannot make you lower. You will not fear torments when your flesh is dead and can feel no pain.379
Be Convinced of the Dreadfulness of Apostasy and of the Misery of Apostates and Backsliders
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Be Convinced of the Dreadfulness of Apostasy}
Remember Lot’s wife (Genesis 19:26). God has left many pillars of salt before our eyes to warn us against looking back.380
In Matthew 7:27, Jesus, speaking of the house built on sand, said that the fall of that house was great, that is, it was a dreadful and terrible fall. When it was assaulted by the winds and floods of persecution, it fell because it had no foundation. Thus, its fall was great or dreadful as it fell from a house to a heap.
“Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38 NKJV). Let him go. Whoever wants to, take him. Take him, world or take him, devil, for I do not regard him. You may go wherever you wish; you are gone from your God, so you must look to yourself and shift for yourself as you can. God has no further favor for you; His soul has turned you loose.
“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame” (Revelation 16:15 NKJV). This describes a blessed person: one who keeps his faith, conscience, Christianity, and holy profession with which he is clothed.381 He keeps his garments clean, lest they become polluted, and has not defiled them. He keeps them safe, lest they be snatched away. He has not lost his garments. He has neither defiled his profession, nor lost his Christianity and conscience. This person is blessed.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7 NASB). “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it” (Revelation 2:17 NASB). “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21 NASB).382 By “overcome” is meant to hold out to the end. Hold out, and you overcome. Overcome and you will reign and eat of the Tree of Life and of the hidden manna.
Now brethren, if a blessing is the portion of the one who keeps his garments, faith, and conscience, what will be the portion of the one who has lost all and thrown away all? The one who has lost his holy garments has woven to himself clothing of curses, not of blessings. If only the one who overcomes will sit on the throne and eat of the Tree of Life, then what will he eat or where must he sit that is overcome? He will eat the fruit of his own doings, of his lies, hypocrisy, and pretenses. He will feed on death and wrath and death will feed upon him, and he will have nothing else to eat. There is food and a place prepared for him, such as it is; his place will not be on the throne, but under the footstool.
Now put all this together and you may see the woeful state of apostate professors. They are monuments of vengeance. Although they have lost their savor, they will serve as pillars of salt, a standing dread and terror, and a warning to others. On their foreheads is written, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12 ESV). They are clothed with curses, must feed upon fire, and have their dwelling under the footstool in scorn and everlasting contempt.
Apostates are the worst of people. Those who have lost their Christianity have lost by their Christianity: “For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them” (2 Peter 2:21 NASB). Christianity, which is a wing to saints by which they rise up into Glory, becomes a weight to hypocrites to sink them so much the deeper in wrath. Of all people, apostates are the worst off.
Apostates are the worst in God’s account. The Lord has a double quarrel with them, not only because they march under the enemy’s colors, but because such scoundrels had previously marched under His colors. God has a quarrel with them for their profession and prayers in which they have done nothing but abuse His Name and Gospel. God and His ways have suffered more from such renegade disciples than from anyone else.
Among people, both good and bad, apostates are deemed the worst. None can speak well of renegades. They are the sorrow of saints and the sport of sinners. They are good people’s shame and evil people’s scorn, and have the hatred of all.
But especially, they are the worst and most miserable of people considered in themselves. They have not only lost their Christianity, but they have armed it against themselves. All of their profession and prayers, together with all the hopes, joys, and comforts that once seemed to grow up out of them, will be as so many arrows in their livers and stings in their hearts. This will even be true of the memories of these things, assuming they ever come to remember them.
All their hopes, joys, and comforts have given up the ghost, and these ghosts haunt and torment them with such thoughts as these: Wretched creature that I am, where am I? What kind of exchange have I made? Light for darkness, wisdom for folly, righteousness for wickedness, godliness for worldly gain, conscience for reputation, and Heaven for Hell! I was once, so I thought, in the way of life, and I had hopes that I would see life. I made profession of Christianity and took pleasure in Christianity. I walked after the Lord, and the thoughts of God were precious to me. I found comfort in Christ. I took sweet counsel with the saints and went to the house of God with them in company. Sabbaths were a delight. Ordinances were refreshing to me. I have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come. While it was so with me, I had great peace and was full of hope that I would come to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.383 But woe is me; where am I now? How has my treacherous heart, which I never suspected, turned me aside from God and plundered me of all my hopes and comforts! I must now say goodbye to them all. Farewell, profession. Farewell, Christianity. Farewell, conscience. Farewell, duties, Sabbaths, ordinances, saints, and the sweet delights I took in them. Farewell, joys and hopes forever. Welcome, drunkards, foul-mouthed, and liars. Welcome, Muslim, Pope, or devil; I must now be at your side and take up my lot with you forever. Oh, to what have I fallen?
Study well the misery of such people, and let that be a warning to you.
[A note from the editor: Does the above describe and sting you? Then repent and return to Christ! (Isaiah 57:15). Out of many apparent permanent apostates, there are some few who, for a time have left Christ, but later repented and returned to their Lord and Savior, the Blessed Jesus Christ. Like the father of the truly repentant prodigal son (Luke 15:21), your Heavenly Father will joyously receive you. But please do not put off the matter; God may never give you another chance.]
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Walk Circumspectly}
Be circumspect. See that you do not unnecessarily pull suffering on yourselves; especially look to it that you do not suffer as evildoers. If your sin leads you into sufferings, God may leave you in them, and then what is likely to become of you?
There is suffering for our faults, there is suffering for our righteousness without our faults, and there is suffering for our righteousness through our faults. We sometimes get ourselves in trouble when we need not, such as when, by our unwary and imprudent management and conduct in some good work, we lay ourselves open to those sufferings that a little prudence might have prevented. We must be wise as well as innocent. Christians should never ordinarily expose themselves to suffering until God has so closed off all lawful ways of escape that they must either suffer or sin.384
Be so wary in your course of life that, through your own fault, you do not suffer for the good that is in you. But especially see to it that you do not suffer as evildoers or for the sinful nature that is in you. To this purpose, be careful:
Be Careful to Do Nothing Rashly
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Walk Circumspectly
Be Careful to Do Nothing Rashly}
Be careful that you do not speak or do anything in matters of religion rashly. [Because of the courtesy of Paul and his companions,] it was good counsel that the town clerk gave to the Ephesians when they were in a tumult and uproar about their goddess Diana [Artemis]: “And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, ‘Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky? Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess’” (Acts 19:35-37 ESV). Christians should be considerate and well advised in what they speak or do. They themselves should consider and weigh their words and actions, in the knowledge that others will carefully observe them also.
Be Careful to Do Nothing Obstinately
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Walk Circumspectly
Be Careful to Do Nothing Obstinately}
Be careful to not speak, do, or refuse to do, anything obstinately, or out of resentment or animosity. Do not let your life be guided by passion or a spirit of contradiction, but by conscience and meekness of spirit. Do not be self-willed, and do nothing through strife or the like (Isaiah 58:4). Be steadfast, but not stubborn. Be faithful, but not willful. Be zealous, but not contentious.
Be Careful to Do Nothing Proudly
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Walk Circumspectly
Be Careful to Do Nothing Proudly}
Be careful that you neither do nor suffer anything out of pride or vainglory. As the apostle exhorts: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3 NASB). Do nothing, therefore suffer nothing, out of strife or vainglory. Take heed that a love of popular applause does not motivate you. Beware of trying to be thought of as active, bold, or resolved Christians; do not let such motivate you. Your pride may cost you much, but it will never pay the bill. Your pride may get you in trouble, but it will never get you out of trouble.
Be Careful to Do Nothing Ignorantly
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Walk Circumspectly
Be Careful to Do Nothing Ignorantly}
Be careful that you do nothing ignorantly or by mistake. Be clear in your mind, especially in those things that may be costly. Study your duty thoroughly and labor to see your way plainly before you, to see the pillar of fire and the cloud going before you (Exodus 13:21). Give heed to the Word of the Scriptures, which are a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Psalm 119:105). When you see clearly, you will be bold, but take heed of suffering for a mistake. Otherwise, your troubles are likely to open your eyes, show you your mistake, put out your lights, and destroy your supports and comforts.
Be Careful to Not Be Quarrelsome
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Walk Circumspectly
Be Careful to Not Be Quarrelsome}
Do not be quarrelsome while you suffer and do not suffer due to quarrelsomeness. Be patient and you will be peaceable.
Brethren, see that you are thus well advised, meek, humble, peaceable, and clear in the causes of your sufferings. And then …
{The Application
Application for the Godly
Four General Directions for a Conclusion of the Whole
Be Steadfast
What Is the Best Way to Prevent Apostasy in Tribulation
Be sure you stand on good ground, and then resolve to stand your ground against all the world. Follow God and do not fear people. Are you godly? Then do not turn away from it no matter what your Christianity costs you. Let sinners repent, but not saints. Let saints repent of their faults, but not of their faith, of their iniquities, but not of their righteousness. The psalmist, as holy a man as he was, said that he was almost brought to leaving his faith and his feet had almost slipped when he considered the prosperity of the wicked and his own afflictions (Psalm 73:2). “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence” (Psalm 73:13 ESV).
Look to yourselves that you stand and take heed lest you fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). You who stand in integrity, take heed lest you fall away by your turning away from Christianity.
Do not repent of your righteousness, lest you afterward repent of your repentance. Do not repent of your righteousness, your zeal, your ardor, or your activity in the holy ways of the Lord. It may be that your zeal has put you in the front of the battle, where you receive the first and hottest charge of your enemies’ reproaches, and persecutions. At the same time, others may have kept themselves safer, been more remiss, been hidden in the crowd, and have been more out of range of gunshots. Yet, you yourselves have not taken a step backward, been a cubit lower in your stature in the grace of God, or left anything undone; in this, God will say, “Well done.”
Do not turn away from, or give up, your zeal. Do not think of retreat. Do not imitate the king of Israel and hide yourselves under a disguise (1 Kings 22:30–34). Do not pretend to be worse than you are, hoping to escape the consequences of being a Christian. The arrow may find you even if you are hidden. Let none of you who have been confessors of Christ return to being only His midnight disciples (John 3:1–2).
Do not forsake the Lord.385
Christians, know when you are well off and hold your own. Do not be betrayed out of your refuge. If you must suffer, suffer for that which will pay you your wages. Do not suffer for your sins, but for your Christianity. Do not suffer for the shadow or the name, but for the substance of Christianity. If anything in the world will keep you innocent during your sufferings and make good the cost of all your expenses, it is substantial goodness. If there are any honorable scars, they are the marks of the Lord Jesus that we bear in our bodies (Galatians 6:17).386 If there is any shame that has glory in it, it is the reproach of Christ (Hebrews 11:26) and the shame that you suffer for His Name. If there is any cross that is a crown, it is the Cross of Christ. If there is any cross that can be undoubtedly called the Cross of Christ (Galatians 6:12), it is the Holy Cross, or suffering for holiness. Those martyrs who suffered under the popish tyranny for witnessing against the abomination of the Mass and the rest of their idolatries and superstitions, did not have a clearer and more glorious cause and crown that you have, who suffered for the power of holiness.
If there is anything in the world that God strongly acknowledges, and in which His honor is closely concerned, it is holiness. Whenever the devil has shown himself to be the devil, it is in opposing holiness. If he ever showed himself a devil in print, it is in those works containing reproaches and mockery written against purity. If he ever showed himself a devil in basic essence, it is when his hands have been dyed with the blood of saints.
Brethren, if you want to resist the devil, and if you want to be on the Lord’s side, be on the side of holiness. If you want to stand for anything, and if you do not wish to be fickle, inconsistent, shaken reeds (1 Kings 14:15), tossed up and down with every wind (Ephesians 4:14; James 1:6), and if you want to be stable, embrace substantial godliness.
This is the great controversy between Heaven and Hell, between the godly seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent,387 between the professing world and the heathen world: it is concerning the substance and power of godliness. There are some quarrels and contests concerning the shadows and incidentals of Christianity, matters merely circumstantial. But whatever noise there is about such things, the bottom of the controversy lie deeper: holiness is about the body of Christianity, not the edges of its garments. And, the one who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus does, and must, suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).
Are you godly? Stand fast here, and let this be your resolution:
I live in a world of quarrels and contentions, contentions about shadows and circumstances. I do not desire to be contentious or to perplex myself or others about such things. But I will not defile myself by practicing that which goes against my conscience. But by the grace of God:
God is a God of holiness. Holiness is in the image of God and is a great concern of God. God commanded: be holy (Leviticus 11:45). Follow holiness (Hebrews 12:14). Live righteously, soberly, and godly in this present world (Titus 2:11–12). These and similar Words of the Lord stand unrepealed. Therefore, by the grace of God, I will be a friend, advocate, confessor, and practitioner of holiness to the end of my days. This is my resolution, and in this resolution, I commit myself to God. And so, come on me what will.
368Alleine quotes the part of this verse as “keep you in the hour” instead of “keep you from the hour.” The latter version is well supported by the Greek and multiple translations. While this verse would not seem to directly and entirely support Alleine’s intent, believers do not pray “Lead us not into temptation” in vain, nor is 1 Corinthians 10:13 an empty promise.
369“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6 NASB).
370nod: some type of insulting movement of the head current in Alleine’s time.
371boot-licking: servile attention. Even those not particularly wealthy or powerful can be subject to this by advertisers and sales people, among others.
372lust: any inordinate desire of the flesh, such as sexual lust, gluttony, luxury, excessive entertainment, and so on.
373“And that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24 NJKV).
374This passage does not at all deny the pain of, for example, cold, hunger, sickness, and death of loved ones. The point is that lack of contentment with God’s providence robs us of peace and adds spiritual and mental pain to the affliction.
375Or, perhaps, comes to deny you your desires. But if, by our lives, we deny Christ, He will deny us if we do not repent.
376In other words, recognize deeply in your heart that Christians are mere stewards and not owners of themselves or anything that God has put into our hands.
377This comes of recognizing that God owns all of creation and we are mere bondslaves of God and stewards of that which is God’s and does not actually belong to us. To take this heart attitude is to give all we are and “own” to God.
378Christians are Christ’s bondslaves; they are not free to go or do as they please, but only according to the will of God.
379It cannot be pretended that the Christian life is easy. It takes a true and living faith to trust God that His will, providence, and plans are perfect, holy, wise, loving, and cannot be improved upon.
380See also Luke 9:62; Philippians 3:13; and Psalm 45:10. The warning is against an incomplete turning away from a past life of sin or from full improvement and growth in Christ. We must not even desire our old sins or consider them wistfully. But we are not precluded from learning from our past failures.
381Since “garments” is plural, this does not refer to the single “robe of righteousness” that is the imputed righteousness of Christ to the believer.
382Each message to each of the seven churches concludes with an admonition to listen to the message and a promise to the one who overcomes.
383Land of the Living: See Psalm 27:13
384“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12 ESV). Let the reader recall the times Jesus “hid himself” from or “passed through the midst” of a threat (Luke 4:30; John 8:59; 12:36). Also, recall the injunction to His disciples: “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 10:23 NKJV).
385Alleine has text here to the following effect: “Do not forsake the Lord until you can find a better captain; that is, until God ceases to be God and until the Lord says, ‘Shift for yourself; there is no help for you in your God.’ Do not retreat from holiness until you are sure you can retreat without loss; do not be false to Christianity until you find it false to you; if godliness ever leaves you in the lurch, renounce it and do not spare it; if Christianity ever costs you more than it is worth, throw it off as you wish.” The editor has moved these sarcastic/satirical sentences to a footnote due to the fact that the editor sees no way to adequately translate them from Alleine’s time and place to the present without some danger to some readers. In Alleine’s time and place, blatant and open atheism, agnosticism, and moral relativism were little known. Darwin, Hegel, Kant, Marx, and like ilk, and their foul and putrid ideas were centuries in the future. The existence of God, eternity, and the afterlife were rarely openly questioned, though not always deeply believed. Only on the assumptions of the existence of God, the afterlife, and eternal judgment can those sentences be read correctly and as Alleine intended. God cannot be false to His promises or His revealed Word. Contrary to typical modern thought, the infinite value of Christ and Christianity cannot be correctly evaluated apart from a believing study of the Scriptures.
386marks: scars or other visible evidence of beating, scourging, whipping, confinement, and so on that result from persecution for Christ’s sake.
387Genesis 3:15.
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