Required reading
Sure Guide to Heaven (Puritan Paperbacks) by Joseph Alleine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Chapter 2 (point 6 to the end of the chapter).
My notes and thoughts
Alleine is really challenging in point 6: 'There is no surer evidence of an unconverted state than to have the things of the world uppermost in our aim, love and estimation.' By systematically listing what we should have turned from when we became a Christian he strikes fear into the heart of any that do not hold God above sin, the devil, the world and their own righteousness. For Alleine every Christian must have experienced, and continue to experience, a turning away from that which was previously cherished.
Then after telling us what we should have turned from Alleine now tells us what we have turned to, Christ and his laws: 'The unsound convert takes Christ by halves. He is all for the salvation of Christ, but he is not for sanctification. He is for the privileges, but does not appropriate the person of Christ.'
The importance of a delight in holiness for its own sake rather than for salvation very clear: 'Here the hypocrite's rottenness may be discovered. He desires holiness, as one well said, only as a bridge to heaven, and inquires earnestly wha is the least that will serve his turn; and if he can get but so much as may bring him to heaven, this all he cares for. But the sound convert desires holiness for holiness' sake, and not merely for heaven's sake.' Great to be reminded of this fact.
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