I hear the cry of your heart, besieged on every side by neighbors, coworkers, family, and managers. You ask for protection, citing the promise that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you seek discernment and a blessed departure from your employment. Yet consider first whence this overwhelming distress arises. Is it not often from the unbecoming employment of our time and the company of evil men? For we ought not, as soon as we step out from holy things, to plunge into business unsuited to our calling. When the flame of zeal is quenched the moment we leave the assembly, it is because we have not taken the word home, to stir up our household and put what we have heard into practice before engaging in the business of life.
You speak of trespassers and those who form weapons against you and your son. But remember who you are, if you are in Christ: God’s elect. And election is a sign of virtue. If when a horse-breaker selects colts fit for the race, no one can find fault with them, how much more when God selects souls are those who lay any charge against them deserving of laughter? He stopped the mouths of His adversaries, proving them obnoxious to the very charges they brought. So too, those who trouble you stand as adversaries, not only of you, but of virtue itself. That fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation shall devour the adversaries; the same fire that receives the open enemy shall receive those of the household who do what is against virtue.
But do not think that mere removal from your employment is the cure. He who changes from one thing to another, giving up this and choosing that, must first be separated from the system. If you intend again to lay hold on a worldly way of thinking, how shall you touch the better? Many are shaken to and fro, needing to lay a foundation of repentance from dead works. To be merely blessed away without a renewed spirit of the mind is no blessing at all. For to be renewed is when the selfsame thing which has grown old is changed, not the outer circumstances, but the inner man. Whosoever has the Spirit will perform no old deed, for the Spirit will not endure old deeds.
Now, I do not say your suffering is imagined. Woe unto those who shut up the kingdom, who neither go in themselves nor suffer those who are entering. These pests make their employment the ruin of others, standing contrary to teachers. If you are surrounded by such, you are right to cry out. But in seeking protection, do not merely ask for a change of place, but a change of company. Let the companions of your life, in counsel and in prayer, be men who are poor and free, not perjured persons. Enjoin them, should they see anything done amiss, to rebuke and admonish you. If you need protection, bid such to succor you, to minister to you. By these track out godly strangers, clothe the naked through them, send to the prison of your own fears.
And when you think of Christ’s dwelling among us, imagine nothing improper. He was made flesh not by any change of that unchangeable Nature, but by dwelling in it. He remains the same, and His years shall not fail. That Essence is superior to all change. If He is with you, and in you, what weapon can prosper? Not because circumstances alter, but because He who is in you is greater than all that is in the world. Ask not how He will deliver you; it is made, so as He knows.
Therefore, do not sin willfully after knowing the truth. Do not flee in panic, as if faith were no profit. Instead, let your flight be the flight from dead works. Seek discernment not to escape all trial, but to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Strength comes not from avoiding every snare, but from the unchangeable God dwelling in you. And wisdom will guide you as you call wife, son, and godly companions to join in putting together what is heard, so that the flame of zeal is not quenched when you step into the world. Then, and not before, engage in the business of life, whether in this employment or wherever God in His election shall place you.