The Divine Armory of Holy Scripture

Eci 27, 12

Mt 10, 22

Lu 9, 62

11. CONSTANCY AND PERSEVERANCE

NECESSARY FOR SALVATION.

A holy man continueth in hast, that no man take thy wisdom as the sun but a crown.-He that shall overfool is changed as the moon. come, I will make him a pilHe that shall persevere lar in the Temple of My God: unto the end, he shall be and he shall go out no more; saved. and I will write upon him No man putting his hand the Name of My God, and to the plough, and looking the name of the City of My back, is fit for the Kingdom God, the new Jerusalem, of God. which cometh down out of Jn 15,9-10 Abide in My love. If you Heaven from My God, and keep My commandments, My new Name.-To him that you shall abide in My love : shall overcome, I will give to as I also have kept My sit with Me in My Throne: Father's commandments, and as I also have overcome, and do abide in His love. am sit down with My Father

1 C 15,58 My beloved brethren, be in His Throne.

ye steadfast and unmoveable: Brethren, be not weary in 2 T3, 13 always abounding in the well-doing.

in the Lord.

work of the Lord, knowing We desire that every one He 6, 11that your labour is not vain of you show forth the same carefulness to the accomplishGa 6, 9-10 In doing good, let us not ing of hope unto the end :fail. For in due time we That you become not slothshall reap, not failing.-ful, but followers of them, Therefore whilst we have who through faith and patitime, let us work good to all ence shall inherit the promen, but especially to those mises.

Ph 4, 1

the Faith.

who are of the Household of Be steadfast in thy cove- Eci11,21-
nant, and be conversant
My dearly beloved breth- therein, and grow old in the
ren, and most desired, my work of thy commandments.
joy and my crown: so stand -Abide not in the works of
fast in the Lord, my dearly sinners, but trust in God, and
beloved.
stay in thy place.

Ap 2, 10, Be thou faithful until In that hour he that shall Lu 17, 31
26-27 death, and I will give thee be on the housetop, and his
the Crown of Life.-And he goods in the house, let him
that shall overcome and keep not go down to take them
My works unto the end, I away, and he that shall be
will give him power over the in the field, in like manner,
nations. And he shall rule let him not return back.
them with a rod of iron, and
as the vessel of a potter,
they shall be broken.
4p 3, 11- Behold I come quickly
12, 21 hold fast that which thou

Remember Lot's wife. Lu 17, 32 Know the justices and Eci 17, 24 judgments of God, and stand firm in the lot set before thee, and in prayer to the

Most High God.

strengthened; seek His face

Ps 104, 4

Seek ye the Lord, and be evermore.

Ep 4, 14

12.-EXHORTATIONS TO PERSEVERANCE.

Henceforth let us be no doctrine of Christ, hath not more children, tossed to and God. He that continueth in fro, and carried about with the doctrine, the same hath every wind of doctrine by the both the Father and the wickedness of men, by cun- Son.

ning craftiness, by which Perfect the same which Ps 79, 16 they lie in wait to deceive. Thy right hand hath planted:

He 13,8-9 Jesus Christ, yesterday and and upon the son of man to-day and the same for whom Thou hast confirmed

2 Pt 3,17

Ju 3, 2021

2J8-9

ever. Be not led away with for Thyself.

various and strange doc- The just man shall hold Jb 17,9
trines. For it is best that on his way, and he that

the heart be established hath clean hands shall be
with grace, not with meats: stronger and stronger.

which have not profited Be steadfast in the way of Eci 5, 12
those that walk in them. the Lord and in the truth of

You, brethren, knowing thy judgment, and in knowthese things before, take ledge, and let the word of heed, lest being led aside by peace and justice keep with the error of the unwise, you thee.

Ph 1,6

fall from your own stead- If you continue in My Jn 8,31
fastness.
Word, you shall be My dis-
Dearly beloved, taking all ciples indeed,
care to write unto you con- Being confident of this
cerning your common salva- very thing, that He Who
tion, I was under a necessity hath begun a good work in
to write unto you: to beseech you, will perfect it unto the
you to contend earnestly for day of Christ Jesus.
the Faith once delivered to Persevere under chastise- He 12, 7
the Saints. But you, my ment. God dealeth with you
beloved, building yourselves as with His sons.

2J8

upon your Most Holy Faith, Look to yourselves that
praying in the Holy Ghost, you lose not the things
-Keep yourselves in the which you have wrought:
love of God, waiting for the but that you may receive a
mercy of our Lord Jesus full reward.
Christ unto Life Everlast- He that shall overcome, Ap 3,5
ing.
shall thus be clothed in

Look to yourselves, that white garments, and I will
you lose not the things which not blot out his name out of
you have wrought: but that the Book of Life, and I will
you
may receive a full confess his name before My
reward. Whosoever revolt- Father, and before His
eth, and continueth not in the Angels.

Jb 4, 5

Ga 3, 3-4

Ga 5,7-8

Ap 2, 5

Ps 16, 5

Ps 50, 13

Ps 50, 14

Ps 67, 29

Jn 15, 4

Lu 8, 13

13.-CENSURES ON THOSE WHO DO NOT

PERSEVERE.

Now the scourge is come| He shall be blasted as a Jb 15, 33
upon thee, and thou faintest: vine when its grapes are in
it hath touched thee, and the first flower, and as an
thou art troubled.
olive-tree that casteth its
Are you so foolish, that flowers.
whereas you began in the The inhabitants of them Is 37, 27
Spirit, you would now be were weak of hand, they
made perfect by the flesh ?-trembled, and were con-
Have you suffered so great founded: they became like
things in vain ? If it be yet the grass of the field, and the
in vain.
herb of the pasture, and like

You did run well who the grass of the house-tops,
hath hindered you that you which withered before it was
should not obey the truth? ripe.
This persuasion is not from
Him that calleth you.

This man began to build, Lu 14, 30 and was not able to finish.

He that contemneth small Eci 19, 1 things, shall fall by little

Be mindful from whence
thou art fallen: and do pe-
nance, and do the first works. and little.

Or else I come to thee, and Waters wear away the Jb 14, 19
will move thy candlestick stones, and with inundation

out of its place. except thou the ground by little and littl
do penance.
is washed away.

14. THE CRIES OF A SOUL CRAVING FOR
PERSEVERANCE; EXAMPLES. (In Paraphrase.)
Perfect Thou my goings those] who believe for a
in Thy paths that my foot-while, and in time of tempta-
steps be not moved.
tion, fall away.

Cast me not away from Turn me not away to be Ps 89, 3
Thy face; and take not Thy brought low and Thou hast
Holy Spirit from me. said: Be converted, O ye
sons of men.

Restore unto me the joy
of Thy Salvation, and My justification, which I J6 27,6
strengthen me with a perfect have begun to hold, I will
Spirit.
not forsake.

Command Thy strength,
O God: confirm, O God, what
Thou hast wrought in us.

Abide in Me, and I in you:
As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, unless it abide
in the vine, neither can you
unless you abide in Me.

Who shall separate me Ro 8, 35 from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation ? or distress, or famine ? or nakedness ? or the sword.

Perfect the same which Ps 79, 16 Thy right hand hath planted: and upon the son of man whom Thou hast confirmed of for Thyself.

[Let me not be, O Good Jesus, of the number

Eci 33, 5

15.-INCONSTANCY OF SINNERS.

The heart of a fool is as a The wicked are like the Is 57, 20 wheel of a cart and his raging sea, which cannot

thoughts are like a rolling rest, and the waves thereof
cast up dirt and mire.

axle-tree.
Eci 27, 12 A holy man continueth in
wisdom as the sun: but the
fool is changed as the moon.

Pv 27, 8

Jb 4, 18

Ju 8, 44

Ju 6

La 1, 8

Ja 1, 8
Je 14, 10

Jd 7, 17

Your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.

Os 6, 4

As a bird that wandereth What went you out into Mt 11, 7 from her nest, so is a man the desert to see? a reed that leaveth his place. shaken with the wind?

16.-INCONSTANCY FOUND EVEN IN TH

ANGELS.

Behold they that serve He hath reserved
Him are not steadfast, and darkness

under

in everlasting
in His Angels He found chains, unto the judgment
wickedness.
of the great day.

He was a murderer from How art thou fallen from Is 14, 12
the beginning, and he stood Heaven, O Lucifer, who
not in the Truth.
didst rise in the morning?
The Angels who kept not thou art fallen to the earth,
their principality, but for- that didst wound the na-
sook their own habitation tions.

17.-INCONSTANCY A CONSEQUENCE OF SIN;

FORBIDDEN AND PUNISHED BY GOD.

Jerusalem hath grievously ties, and visit their sins.
sinned, therefore is she be-
come unstable.

A double-minded man is
inconstant in all his ways.

Winnow not with every Eci 5, 11wind, and go not into every way for so is every sinner proved by a double tongue. Thus saith the Lord to -Be steadfast in the way this people, that have loved of the Lord, and in the truth to move their feet, and have of thy judgment, and in not rested, and have not knowledge, and let the word pleased the Lord: He will of peace and justice keep now remember their iniqui- with thee.

18.-EXAMPLES OF INCONSTANCY.

We call to witness [said city into the hand of the
the Bethulians] this day army of Holofernes, that our
Heaven and earth, and the end many be short by the
God of our fathers, Wholedge of the sword, which is
taketh vengeance upon us made longer by the drought
according to our sins, con- of thirst.
juring you to deliver now the

They quickly forsook the Jg 2,17-19

Je 30, 11

Jb 10, 17

Jb32, 13

Eci 11, 14

way in which their fathers them and adoring them.
had walked and hearing the They left not their own in-
commandments of the Lord, ventions, and the stubborn
they did all things contrary. way, by which they were
-And when the Lord raised accustomed to walk.
them up judges, in their days

Demas hath left me, loving 2 Ti 4,9
He was moved to mercy, and this world, and is gone to
heard the groanings of the Thessalonica.

afflicted, and delivered them Alexander the coppersmith 2 Ti 14, 15
from the slaughter of the op- hath done me much evil :
pressors. But after the judge the Lord will reward him
was dead, they returned, and according to his works;
did much worse things than whom do thou also avoid, for
their fathers had done, fol- he hath greatly withstood
lowing strange gods, serving our words.

19.

TRIBULATION SENT BY GOD; AND THE

CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.

I will chastise thee in judg-part from the unjust, and ment that thou mayst not evils shall depart from thee. seem to thyself innocent. -My son, sow not evils in

Thou renewest Thy wit- the furrows of injustice, and
nesses against me, and multi-thou shalt not reap them
pliest Thy wrath upon me, sevenfold.

and pains war against me. Wo is me for my destruc- Je 10, 19
[This I say] lest you should tion, my wound is very griev-
say: We have found wisdom, ous. But I said: Truly this
God hath cast him down, not is my own evil, and I will
bear it.

man.

Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God."

Ba 28, 29 As it was your mind to go astray from God, so when you return again you shall seek Him ten times as much. -For He that hath brought| evils upon you, shall bring you everlasting joy again with your salvation.