John Flavel - Keeping the heart when sufferings for religion are laid upon us

Is not the public interest of Christ and his cause infinitely more important than any interest of your own, and should you not prefer his glory and the welfare of his kingdom before everything else? Should any temporary suffering, or any sacrifice which you can be called to make, be suffered to come into competition with the honour of his name?

... Can I look Christ in the face at the day of judgment, if I desert him now?

He that is ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels, Mark 8:38. Yet a little while, and you shall see the sign of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; the last trump shall sound, the dead, both small and great, even all that sleep in the dust, shall awake, and come before that great white throne, on which Christ shall sit in that day. And now, do but imagine thou sawest the trembling knees, and quivering lips of guilty sinners; imagine thou heardest the dreadful sentence of the judge upon them, go, ye cursed, &c. and then a cry. Oh! the weeping, wailing, and wringing of hands that there shall be. Wouldst thou desert Christ now, to protract a poor miserable life on earth? If the word of God be true, if the sayings of Christ be sealed and faithful, this shall be the portion of the apostate. It is an easy thing to stop the mouth of conscience now, but will it be easy to stop the mouth of the judge then? Thus keep thy heart, that it depart not from the living God.

- John Flavel (A Saint Indeed/Keeping the Heart, Part 3)