with you and who can but love where they have received so much love and continually do as I have from you the Lord requiâ—…e your love which is great and if compared with his but little with his which is infinite this is a love worthy of your ambition worthy of your adoration and admiration This is the Womb that bore you from eternity and out of which have burst forth all the Mercies Spiritual and Temporal that you enjoy This was the love that chose you when less Offenders and those that being converted might have been a hundred sold more serviceable to their Makers Glory are lâ—…ft to perish in their sins May your souls be filled with the sense of this love But it may be you will say how shall I know if I am an object of Electing love least an unbelieving thought should damp your joy know in snort that if you have chosen God he hath certainly chosen you Have you taken him for your blessedness and do you more highly prize and more diligently seek after conformity to him aâ—…d the fruâ—…tion of him than any than all the goods of this World If so theu away with doubts for you could not have loved and have chosen him unless he had loved you first Now may my Beloved dwell continually in the thoughts the views the tastes of the love Get you down under its shadows and taste its pleasant fruits Oh the Provisions that love hath made for you before the Foundation of the World Ah silly dust that ever thou shouldest be thought upon so long before thou wast that the contrivances of the infinite Wisdom should be taken up about thee that such a Crawling thing such a Mite a Flea should have the consultations of the Eternal Diety exercised about thee verily his love to thee is wonderful Lord what is man thou tellest us he is Dust and Vanity a Worm nothing less than nothing how then dost thou love him oh wonderful be astonished yea Heavens at this be moved ye strong foundation of the Earth Fall down yeaâ—… Elders strike up ye Heavenly Quires and sing yet again Glory to God in the highest for all our strings would crack to reach the Notes of love praise and admiration that this love doth call for Oh that ever emptiness and vanity should be thus prized that Jehovah should make account of so worthless so useless a thing as man that ever baseness should be thuâ—… preferred that ever nothing should be thus dignified thaâ—… ever rottenness should be thus advanced a Clod a shaddow Potsheard should be thus glorified Oh Brethren study beseech you not to require or retaliate there 's impossibility and blasphemy in such a thought but to admire and imâ—…tate his love Let love constrain you let love put you upoâ—… doing and prepare you for suffering forget not a love sâ—… memorable undervalue not a love so unvaluable I would have you all the captives of love may the cords of love draâ—… you towards and knit you to your Redeemer may the â—…vided streams be united in him Alas that our souls are sâ—… narrow that the Waters are so shallow with us how little how very little would our love be if he had it all infinitâ—… less than the Glow-worm to the Suu or the Attome to the Universe and have we any of this little to spare for him oh that we might love him with our little Ah! that all oâ—… little powers were ingaged for him Brethren here is no exâ—…cess oh love the Lord ye his Saints he is worthy for whoâ—… you shall do this Do but think what love hath done for yoâ—… and think if you can what it means to do for you This is thâ—… love that yarned upon you when in your Blood no eye pitying you This is the love that took you up when you werâ—… robbed and wounded and left for dead and poured in Winâ—… and Oyl into your wounds This is that love that reprieved and spared and pardoned when the Law had condemneâ—… you and Justice would have had you delivered up anâ—… your Self-condemning consciences gave up all for lost coâ—…cluding there was no hope This is the love the expensivâ—… love that bought you from the power of darkness from the eternal burnings the devouring fire in which you must otherwise have dwelt Do you not remember how you were hungry and it fed you naked and it cloathed you strangers and it took you in sick and it visited you in Prison and it came unto you you were dead and are alive you were lost and are found And me thinks I see how love runs to meet you and falls upon your necks and kisseth the Lips that deserve to be loathed and rejoyces over you and makes a Festival and as it were a Holiday in Heaven to you inviting Angels to rejoyce And if the friends do rejoyce how much more doth the father for saith he These my Sons were dead and are alive were lost and are sound Oh melting love ah Brethren how strange is this that our recovery should be Heavens triumph the joy of God and Angels That this love should feast us and feast over us and our Birth-day should be kept in Heaven that this should be the round at Heavens Table and the burden of the Song above For this my Son was dead and is alive and well what remains but that you should be another manner of People than ever yet you have been more holy more humble more even more resolved more lively more active where is your Zeal for the Lord of Hosts will slender returns suffice you in answer to such a love God forbid But necessity calls me off from going any further May the love that chose you and redeemed you for ever dwell in you and overshaddow you and bear you safe to the Kingdom In the Holy Arms of Divine Love I desire to leave you May you live under its daily Influences and be melted and overcome with its warming Beams with its quickning piercing powerful Rays My most dear love to you all See that you live not in a dull fruitless liveless course Be patient be watchful instant in Prayer fervent in Spirit serving the Lord I am very healthful and chearful through grace See that none of these things move you that befal us Fare you well my dear Brethren farewel in the Lord I am From the Prison at Juelchester October 25. 1663. Yours in the strongest Bonds of Affection and Affliction Joseph Alleine LETTER XI Remember Christ Crucified and crucifie Sin To the Faithful and Well-beloved People the servants of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most dear Christians I Am by Office a Remembrancer the Lords Remembrancer for you and your Remembrancer in the behalf of Christ. My business is with the Apostle to stir up your pure minds by way of Remembrance And what or whom should I remember you of but your mindful Friend your Intercessour with the Father who hath you always in remembrance appearing in the
teaching every man that I might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Oh that Impenitent sinners would yet remember the Invitations and the obsecrations and the obtestations that they have had have they not been sought unto have they not been intreated have they not been followed from the Publick to their own Houses hath not the VVord been brought to their Doors Hath not Mercy wooed them have they uot been called under the VVings of Mercy And yet they would not Oh that they would consider it now in the latter dayes Jer. 23. 20. Oh that they would remember and repent that there might be yet an after Harvest That they would yet come in and live Are you yet willing to turn hear how Wisdom calls after you Prov. 11. How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity and fools hate knowledge turn you at my reproof But if they will not hear good were it for them that they had never been born It shall be more and better fot Sodom and Gomorrah then for them But for you that have taken upon you the Profession of strict Godliness I shall only press you to follow on and press towards the Mark You have much work yet to do and God hath given you no time to Loyter in I beseech you to put on That Person that sits down when he hath gotten to that pitch that he thinks will bring him to Heaven is never like to come thither Grace is one of those things that saith It never hath enough Let me urge upon you the Apostles Counsel Heb. 12. 14. Follow after Holiness First Holiness is the choicest Ornament it is an adorning in the sight of God of great prize It is the Glory of God and will you count it your shame Exod. 15. God is glorious in Holiness and Grace is called Glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we may now cry out as the Psalmist in his complaint O ye sons of men how long will ye turn my Glory into shame Ps. 4. 2. But be of good comfort the shame of Holiness is real Glory how confidently doth Paul shake his Chain Acts 28. 20. We read of some that did glory in their shame in a sad sense that is in that which was real ground of shame to wit their sin Phil. 3. 19. But we meet with others that in a happy sense did glory in their shame that is in the shame of Religion which is indeed a Crown of Glory So did Peter and John Acts 5. 41. Secondly Holiness is the safest Muniment Grace is not onely for Ornament but for Use. Righteousness is a Brest-plate that keeps the Vitals and is a sure defence from any mortal wounds Ephes. 6. 14. When the Politicians have done their best with all their politick fetches it is he that walketh uprightly that walketh surely Prov. 10. 19. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me saith David Psal. 25. Last I desire no other Protection than Innocency I desire to be no longer safe than these can preserve me when I must let go my Integrity or my safety I will chuse the danger rather than the sin and yet will never doubt but my Integrity will save me harmless and prevent me for ever coming off a Loser Never perswade me that that man doth choose wisely or will consult in his own safety that runs upon the displeasure of the infinite God who is a devouring fire to flie the danger of mans displeasure Did you ever read or hear of a man so mad as to run upon the Swords point to avoid the scratch of a Pin or to run upon a roaring Canon rather than danger his being wetshod why this is the best wisdom of the distracted World who will sin rather than suffer and to save themselves harmless in the World will run upon God even upon his neck and the thick Bosses of his Buckler Job 15. 25. 26. Thirdly Holiness will be found to be your real happiness Eat of this Tree and you shall be indeed as God Godliness is Gods likeness The beauty of Holiness is this very Image Sin is the disease of which Holiness is the Cure Pride is the Timpany passion the Feavour of the mind how restlesly raging is the mind where they reign holiness humility meekness are a present ease a present Cure if the Patient can take but enough O what peace and tranquility doth Holiness work in the Mind Great peace have they that love thy Commandments and nothing shall offend them Psalm 19. 165. Read Isa 48. 18. 22. and 26. 3. and 32. 17. holiness wâ—…ll be a treasure of Riches Jam. 2. 5. and a Crown of honour Acts 17. 11. A Paradise of pleasure to you Prov. 3 〈…〉 a word Holiness is the perfection of mans nature 〈…〉 〈…〉 The Communication of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4 The earnest of Glory Mat. 5. 8. And the very entrance of Heaven Phil. 3. 20. Let me say now to every one of you as our Saviour to Martha John 11. 26. Believed thou this If you do live like Believers and do you follow after Holiness as others follow their Trades or Studies Let Religion be your business and not a thing by the by with you follow as hard upon the pursuit of Grace as if you did indeed believe riches and honour were in it Count your selves well as long as you keep within the line of your duty Let holiness sit in your Lips and season all your Speech with grace Profess it own it plead stoutly and resolve for it be you Advocates for Holiness in an Adulterous and wicked Generation wear it as a Robe of honour when the spightful World cast the dung of their Reproaches at you for it let it dwell in your hearts Let it adorn your Houses let it be your Companion in your Closets Let it Travel with you in your Journies let it lie down and rise up with you let it close your eyes in the Evening and call you out of your Beds in the Morning Be you the votaries of Holiness keep her and she shall keep you I shall close with my loves to you all only because I know you love to hear of my well-fare I must tell you that goodness and mercy do follow me perpetually every day and every night Glory to God in the highest Dear Brethren Fare you well in the Lord I am Your Devoted Servant in the Gospel whether a Bond-man or a Free JOS. ALLEINE From the common Gaole at Juelchester December 3. 1663. Most Dearly Beloved This was intended for you a Week sooner then it comes to be communicated I purposely write in the middle of the Week that if any Opportunity be suddenly offered I may have somewhat ready for you but last week I failed of a Conveyance I shall not add anything further now but that I shall follow my Counsels with my Prayers and shall be an humble Intercessor night and day before God for you to him I commend you and to the Word of his Grace Remaining
Graces Experiences Communion and Prisonartainments may shine most brightly to all beholders I wish your Prison may be a Paradice of Peace and a Patmos of Divine discoveries Lord Jesus set to thy Amen I am Sir Your unworthy Brother and Companion in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus JOâ—… ALLEINE Jan. 10. 1664. LETTER XL. Directions to the Ministers of Somersetshire and Wiltshire for the instructing of Families by way of Catechising Sir THis Letter cometh to you like the men of Macedonia to Paul crying to you Come and help us O how insufficient do we find our selves for the praises of God! what reason have we to call upon our selves and to call upon all our Friends and yet we foresee that all will be too little a Sacrifice at last and to slender a return to the most High God God who hath made us such wonders of Mercy and such signal instances of his Divine Power and rich Grace You are not ignorant of our Estate how the Sentence of death had passed upon us how our flesh and our hearts failed and friends an Physicians gave up their hopes but God that raised the Dead was pleased to make us the Monuments of his wondrous mercy O that the same God would make us the special instruments of his praise and glory Of a Truth Sir we perceive our hearts are too little our Tongues are too short our expressions are too low either to conceive or utter what we owe to the great God O help help bless the Lord O our souls bless the Lord O our friends O that all that have wrestled with God for us might joyn hand in hand to make some suitable returns to the God of our lives and may bring in every one his Sacrifice and all contribute to make one common stock of Praises that many thanksgivings may abound to God on our behalfs O what hath Prayer done for us while we live we must honour Prayer and admire the power of Prayer we owe our limbs and our lives to prayer O that a goodly crop of praise may grow up unto God as a return for his Mercies that the seed of prayers and showers of tears may procure sheaves of joy and songs of deliverance But O what shall we render wherewithall shall we come before the Lord or bow our selves to the most high God O where shall we find a fitting sacrifice Verily we will give our selves and our all to him But alas what are we and what is this little that we call our All Therefore have we found in our hearts to write to you and others that we might excite you to the Divine praises with us And O that the Lord might be loved the better and glorified the more for our sakes Will you tell us wherein we may shew our love to him wherein we may best please and serve him O that you would herein assuredly you would most highly gratifie us O that we might do some singular thing for God for certainly they aré not common things that he hath done for us We pray you call upon those that fear the Lord to help us in celebrating his loving kindness O how it pleaseth our very hearts to think that God should be loved and honoured the better for us that we may be instruments if it be but for the blowing up of one flash nay the kindling of one spark of Divine love in the heart of his Children towards him Sir you cannot pleasure us in any thing so much as in thâ—…s to love and admire God and spread his praise more and more that what is wanting through our weakness may be made up in your abundance But we have need to crave your pardon for our length but the love of Christ constraineth us and we hope you will pass by an error of love While we have been devising what to do for our God we thought we could no way better him than by providing such as you are to set up his great Name with us We love and honour you not only as you are a Member but a Minister of Christ Jesus our Lord and therefore deserve to be doubly dear unto us And because we could think of no more pleasing a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving we have stirred up our selves and friends with us to send to you a Prophet in the name of a Prophet this poor token of love which though but small yet we trust will be a sweet savour unto God and will be accepted with you being our two Mites cast into God's Treasury But look not upon your self as obliged to us hereby but put it upon the account of Christ to whose precious Name we dedicate and from whom although he be so much already before hand with us yet we expect a recompence at the Resurrection of the Just. And being further desirous to promote the work of God in our low and slender capacities we have been bold to provoke your self with other our Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry to set about that necessary and much neglected work of Catechising not a little pleasing our selves in the sweet hope that by your means we may be instrumental to spread the sweet savour of the knowledge of our God in every place and being well perswaded of your readiness to forward so blessed a work we have stirred up our selves and our friends to expend a considerable sum of money to furnish Ministers with Catechisms a hundred whereof we have sent unto you beseeching you to use your best prudence and utmost diligence for the spreading of them and for others improvement by them that our labour and charge in so good a work prove not at last of no effect Sir we shall humbly propose unto you but not impose upon you But let us be bold with you in Christ to lay our requests before you as touching this concernment they being indeed what judicious friends and brethren have thought fit to propound 1. That that people be publikely and privately instructed about the high necessity and great usefulness of this duty 2. That the Catechisms be freely given to all that will promise to use them 3. That you would be pleased to acquaint your self with all the Schools that are within your Verge and that you would do your utmost to engage the Teachers thereof to teach their Scholars this Catechism and that you would furnish all their Scholars that are capable and willing to learn 4. That you will endeavour from house to house to engage the Master or Mistress of every Family for the forwardsng of this work 5. That you will appoint set-times wherein to take an account of the proficiency of all such as have promised to learn and that if it may be they may be engaged to learn weekly a proportion according to their Capacities 6. That you would favour us so far as to let us know as speedily as you may of the receit of these lines and if we may presume so far upon you we pray you to indulge us some assurance under your hand that you will to your power promote this happy design and that by our Lady-day next you will acquaint Mr. Bernard what progress is made Sir our souls will even travel in Birth for the success of this undertaking and therefore we request you for the love of God and by the respect which we are perswaded you bare to us that you will labour to comfort and encourage us in our endeavours for God which you can no way in the World do so well as by letting us see that there is some blessed fruit of our cost and pains and that we have not run in vain nor laboured in vain If there be any of these Catechisms remaining in your hands that you cannot dispose of by our Lady-day be pleased to send them to Mr. Bernard or to Mr. Rositer in Taunton If you should need any more give us speedy notice and you shall not fail to be furnished with what number you desire Thus upon the bended knees of our thankful souls we commend our poor sacrifices together with your self to the eternal God and remain Christs devoted Servants and your Friends JOS. BERNARD and JOS. ALLEINE FINIS
God that with many of you this work is not yet to do but this set solemn resignation to the Lord is to be done more than once and to be followed with an answerable practice when it is done See that you walk worthy of the Lord but how in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost let these two go together So shall you adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour and experience the Heavenly felicity of a Christians life While Holiness is made the But of others Persecution do you make it the white the mark of your prosecution that you live it up as much as others cry it down O watch and keep your Garments about you the plain but comely clothing of humility the seamless Coat of Christian unity the strait and close Garment of strictness mortification and self-denial the warm Winter-garment of love and charity this Garment will keep you warm in the Winter love will not be quenched by the Waters nor cooled by the nipping Frosts of persecution and opposition Cleave fast to Christ never let go your hold cling the faster because so many are labouring to knock off your fingers and loosed your hold Hold fast your Profession hold fast your Integrity hold â—…ast the beginning of your confidence stedfast to the end If you do but keep your hold and make goud your ground and keep your way all that the World can do and all that the powers of darkness can do can never do you harm Keep your own Vinyard with constant care and watchfulness and be sure that there be no Inroad made upon your consciences that the Enemy do not get between you and home between your souls and God and then let who or what will assail you without you need not fear let this be your daily exercise to keep your consciences void of offence keep fair weather at home however it be abroad But I would not only that you should walk holily but that you should walk comfortably But I need say the less to this because the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost do lie together On the provision God hath made for your continual joy and comfort dear Brethren do but understand your own blessedness happy men that you are if you did but know and consider it who would count himself poor and miserable that hath all the fulness of the Godhead for his sound in this deep can you find any bottom take the heighth of the Divine Perfections if you can till then you cannot tell your own felicity Take a servey of Immensity tell me the longitude or latitude of infinite goodness and mercy of the Eternal Diety if you can do this you may guess at your own happiness Oh Christians live like your selves live worthy of your Portion of your Priviledge and your glorious prerogatives I am in haste and it is time for me to end however that you may walk worthy of your glorious hopes and may live answerably to the mercies you have received from above is the great desire of From the Prison at Juelchester September 18. 1663. Your Souls fervent well wisher in the bonds of affliction and tribulation JOS. ALLEINE LETTER IX Easie Sufferings To the most Loving and Beloved my Christian Friends at â—…aunton Salvation DEarly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown for whom I am an Embassadour in Bonds what thanks to render to God in your behalf I know not for your fervent charity towards me and all the servants of my Lord for all your labours of love for all your diligence and boldâ—…ess and resolution in owning the despised way and hared serâ—…ants of the Lord Jesus in an evil day The Lord is not unrighteous to forget this Is not this upon record with him and â—…aled up among his Treasures surely the Lord will have mercy upon Tauntou I have no doubt but that the God of â—…our Mercies hath yet a choice blessing in store for you be not weakned by my Bonds Glory be to God in the Highest that he hath accounted me worthy not only to Preach the Gospel to you but also to confirm it by the paâ—…ing with my much valued liberty so dear a People so sweeâ—… Relations comforts conveniencies which I enjoyed in all aâ—…dance when I was with you When I look back upon all the circumstances of the late Providence I must say as they of Christ upon his Miracles He hath done all things well it is all as I would have it I am fully satisfied in my Fathers good pleasure Verily there is no little honour and happiness no little peace and priviledge in these Bonds Verily all is true that I have told you of the All-sufficiency of God of the fulness of Christ of the satisfactoriness of the promises of the peace tranquility content and security that is to be had in a life of Faith Surely methinks I should be content to seal to these things at a much dearer rate than this but my gracious Father will not put me to the hardest Lesâ—…on at first oh what reason have I to speak good of his name what else should I do all my days but love and fear and preach and praise so good a God when I look back upon the gentle dealings of God with me I often think he hath brought me up as indulgently as David did Adoniâ—…ah of whom it is said His Father had not displeased him I have received nothing but good at the hands of the Lord all my days and now he doth begin to afflict I see so much Mercy in this very Goal that I must be more thankful for this than for my prosperity Surely the name of the place is The Lord is here Surely it may be called Peniel Be strong in the Lord my Breâ—…hren be patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh In nothing be terrified by your adversaries Now let those that fear the Lord be often speaking one to another I hear that Satan is practising to send more of you after me I desire and pray for your liberty but if any of you be sorced hither for the testimony of the Gospel I shall embrace you with both arms Fare you well my most dearly Beloved be perfect and be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you My Brethren in Bonds salute you with much affection rejoycing to behold your order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ share my heart among you and know that I am The willing Servant of your Faith and Joy JOS. ALLEINE From the common Gaole at Juelchester Sept. 28. 1663. LETTER X. The Love of Christ. To my Beloved in the Lord the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most Loving and best Beloved MY heart is with you my affections are espoused to you And methinks I could even say with the Apostle you are in my heart to live and die
the main work go on do your souls prosper This is my care beware that you Flag not that you faint not now in the evil day I understand that your dangers grow upon you may your Faith and courage and resolution grow accordingly and much more abundantly to overtop them Some of your enemies I hear are in great hopes to satisfie their lusts upon you well be not discouraged my dear Brethren but bless the Lord who of his abundant Mercy hath so remarkably preserved you so long beyond all expectation Let it not be a strange thing to you if the Lord do now call you to some difficulty forsake not the Assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is I plainly see the Coal of Religion will soon go out unless it have some better helps to cherish it then a Carnal Ministrie and lifeless Administration Dear Brethren now is the time for you that fear the Lord to speak often one to another manage your duties with what prudence you â—…an but away with that Carnal prudence that will decline duty to avoid danger Is the Communion of Saints worth the venturing for Shut not up your doors against Godly Meetings I am told that it is become a hard matter when a Minister is willing to take pains with you to get place â—…ar be this from you my Brethren What shut out the Wor d suppose there be somewhat more danger to him that gives the Minister entertainment Is there not much more advantage accordingly did not Oâ—…ed Edom and his House get the blessing by entertaining the Ark there or do you think God hath never a blessing for those that shall with much Self-denial entertain his Messengers his Sainâ—…s his Worship are you believers and yet are affraid you shall be loosers by Christ do you indeed not know that he that runs most hazard for Christ doth express most love to Christ and shall receive the greatest reward away with that unbelief that prefers the present safety before the future glory I left you some helps for daily Examination I am jealous least you should grow slack and slight and carâ—…less in that duty Let me ask you in the name of the Lord doth never a day pass you but you do solemnly and seriously call your selves to an account what your â—…arriage hath been to God and Men speak conscience Is there never an one within the hearing of this Letter that is a neglecter of this duty dotâ—… every one of your Consciences acquit you Oh that they did oh that they could tell me would not some of you be put shrewdly to it if I should ask you when you read or thought over the questions that were given you for your help and would you not be put to a blush to give me an answer and will you not be much more ashamed that God and conscience should find you tardy not that I would necessarily bind you up to that very Method only till you have found a way more profitable I would desire you yea methinks I cannot but deeply charge you to make daily use of that Awake conscience and do thou fall upon that Soul that thou findest careless in this work and never let him be at rest till thou canst witness for him that he is a dâ—…ily and strict observer of himself and doth live in the constant practice of this duty What shall neither Gods charge nor your promise nor profit hold you to your work yet I may not doubt but some of you do daily perform this duty The Lord incourage you in it yet give me leave to ask you what you have gained are you grown more universally consciâ—…ncious more strict more humble and more sensible of your many and great defects then you were before If so blessed are you of the Lord if otherwise this duty hath been performed but slightly by you What can you say to this question doth your care of your ways abate or doth it incrâ—… by the constant use of this duty If it abate remember from whence you are fallen and repent as good not do it at all as not to the purpose My Pen is apt to run when I am writing unto you I beseech you that my Letters may not be as so much waste Paper to you may they be provocations to your duty and Medicines to any corruptions that they mâ—…et with Oh that they might find out mens sins and excite their graces I have run much farther than I thought I should have done but now I am called upon and must shur up The Lord God be a Sun and a Shield to you My most dear Love to you all fare you well in the Lord I am Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE From the common Goal at Juelchester Octob. 20. 1668. LETTER XIII Motives and Marks of Growth To the most Loving and best Beloved the servants of Christ in â—…aunton Grace and Peace Most dear and tender Friends WHose I am and whom under God I desire to serve to build you up in Holiness and comforts hath been through grace my great ambition This is that which I laboured for this is that which I suffer for and in short the end of all my applications to you and to God for you How do your souls prosper are they in a thriving case what progress do you make in Sanctification doth the House of Saul grew weaker and weaker and the house of David stronger and stronger beloved I desire to be jealous of you with a Godly jealousie lest any of you should lose your ground in these declining times and therefore cannot but be often calling upon you to look to your standing and to watch and hold fast that no man take your Crown Ah! how suâ—…ely shall you reap in the end if you faint not take heed therefore that you lose not the things you have wrought but as you have begun well so go on in the strength of Christ. and give diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end 't is your thriving I tell you I drive at Do you need Motives 1. How much are you behind-band Oh the fair advantages that we have lost what time what Sabboths Sermons Sacraments are upon the matter lost how much work have we yet to do are you sure of Heaven yet are you fit to die yet surely they that are in so much Poverty under so many great wants had need to set upon some more thriving courses Secondly Consider what others have gained whilst we it may be sit down by the loss Have we not met many Vessels richly laden while our Souls are empty Oh the rich Booties the golden Prizes that some have won while we have folded the hands to sleep have not many of our own standing in Religion left us far behind them Thirdly Consider what a spending time there is coming Affliction and Tribulation seem to be not far from you had you not need to be well stocked against such a day go to the Ant
they may not fall down till Israel do prevail Let us fear lest there be some evil among us that God being angry with us doth send this farther tryal upon us Pray earnestly for me lest the eye of the most jealous God should discern that in me which should render me unfit for the mercy you desire And let every one of you search his heart and search his house to see if there be not cause there Let not these disappointments make you to be nevertheless in love with Prayers but the more out of love with sin Let us humble our selves under the mighty hand of God and he shall exalt us in due time And for the enemies of God you must know also that their foot shall slide in due time Let the Servants of God encourage themselves in their God for in the things wherein they deal proudly he is above them therefore fret not your selves because of evil doers commit your cause to him that judgeth righteously Remember that you are bid if you see oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgement and Justice in a Province not to marvel at the matter verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth and you have the liberty of appeals rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him and fret not your selves because of the men that bring wicked devises to pass take heed that none of you do with Peter begin to sink now you see the waters rough and the winds boysterous these things must not weaken your Faith nor cool your Zeal for they are great arguments for the strengthning of it What clearer evidence can there be for the future judgment and perdition of the ungodly and Coronation of the Just in another life than the most unjust proceedings that are here upon Earth shall not the Judge of all the Earth see right to be done We lee here nothing but confusion and disorder the wicked receiveth according to the work of the righteous and the Innocent according to the work of the wicked The Godly perish and the wicked flourish these do prosper and they do suffer What can it be ever thus no doubtless there must be a day when God will Judge the world in righteousness and rectifie the present disorders and reverse the unrighteous Sentences that have been passed against his servants And this evidence is so clear that many of the Heathen Philosephers have from this very Argument I mean the unrighteous usage of the good concluded that there must certainly be rewards and punishments adjudged by God in another World Nor yet lose your Zeal now is the time that the love of many doth wax cold but I bless God it is not so with you I am sure your love to me is as true Friends should be like the Chimneys warmest in the Winter of Adversity and I hope your love to God is much more and I would that You should abound yet more and more Where else should you bestow your Loves Love ye the Lord ye his Saints and cling about him the faster now ye see the world is striving to separate you from him How many are they that go to knock off your fingers O methinks I see what tugging there is The World is plucking and the Devil is plucking Oh hold fast I beseech you hold fast that no man take your Crown Let the Water that is sprinkled yea rather poured upon your love make it to flame up the more Are you not betrothed unto Christ Oh rcmember remember your Marriage Covenant did you not take him for Richer for Poorer for better for worse now prove your love to Christ to have been a true conjugal love in that you can love him when most slighted despised undervalued blasphemed among men Now acquit your selves not to have followed Christ for the Loaves now confute the Accuser of the Brethren who may be ready to suggest of the best of you as he did of Job Doth he serve the Lord for nought And let it be seen that you loved Christ and holiness purely for their own sakes that you can love a naked Christ when there is no hopes of worldly advantage or promoting of self-interest in following him Yet beware that none of you do stick to the wayes of Christ and Religion upon so carnal an account as this because this is the way that you have already taken up and you count it a shame to recede from your Principles I am very jealous lest some Professors should miss of their reward for this least they should be accounted Turn-coats and Hypocrites therefore they will shew a stoutness of spirit in going on since they have once begun and cannot with honour retreat Would you chose holiness and strictness if it were to do again would you enter your selves among Gods poor people if it were now first to do Would you have taken up the Profession of Christ though you had foreseen all this that is come and coming This will do much to evidence your sincerity But I forget â—…hat I am writing a Letter being prone to pass all bounds when I have thus to do with you The Lord God remember and reward you and your labours of love The Eternal God be your refuge and put under you his everlasting Arms. The Peace of God that passeth all understanding keep your hearts Christs Legacy of Peace I leave with you and rest with my dear affections to you all Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXIV Councel for Salvation To the most beloved People the servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians MY continual solicitude for your State will not suffer me to pass in quiet one week without Writing to you unless I am extraordinarily hindred Your sincerity stedfastness and proficiency in the grace of God is the matter of my earnest desire and that which I should account my self happy in I have a longing desire to see the Faces of you all and besides mine expectation shall I trust speedily have the opportunity to see you at the approaching Assizes which I shall greatly rejoyce in notwithstanding our coming may be otherwise attended with many Inconveniencies In the mean time I send you a few Prison Counsels As 1. To improve for Eternity the Advantages of your present State Though you are at many disadvantages with respect to the publick Ordinances yet you have many wondrous and most happy Priviledge which Spiritual Wisdom would make no small improvement of Oh what a mercy have you that you may serve God while you will in your Families That you may be as much as you will with God in secret Prayer and holy Meditation and Self-examination I beseech you consider what a Blessing you have above others that have your Health and a Competency of the Comforts of this life and are free from those continual pains or Heart-eating Cares that others are disabled by from looking after God and their Souls as you may do Oh consider what a blessed Seed-time
upon those dangerous Rocks upon which so many Professors have been split There are three things which I beseech you carefully to beware of First Lest while Christ is in your mouths the world run away with your hearts There is many a seeming Professor that will be fòund a meer Idolater Many a Soul goes down to Hell in this sin in the midst of his Profession and never discerns it till it be too late Remember I beseech You that the Oxen the Farm Wife Merchandize all of them lawful Comforts did effectually keep men from a sound and saving closing with Christ as the vilest lusts of the worst of men Whatever you find your hearts very much pleased in and in love with among these earthly Comfoâ—…ts set a mark upon that thing and remember that there lies your greatest danâ—…r What you love most you must fear most and think ofâ—…en wiâ—…h your selves This if any thing is like to be my 〈…〉 multitudes of Professors that perish for ever by 〈…〉 â—…and of this mortal Enemy I mean the overvalâ—…ing of Earthly things The hearers compared to the thornâ—… Ground did not openly fall away and cast off their Profession as the stony ground did but while others withered away the blade of Profession was as green and fresh as ever and yet their inordinate aâ—…ection to the things of this life did secretly undo all at last Little do most Professors think of this while they please themselves in their estates while they delight themselves so freely in their Children in their Wives in their habitations and possessions that these be the things that â—…re like to undo them for ever How little is that Scripture thought of which speaks so dreadfully to worldly Professors Love not the World for if any man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him Are there not many among us who though they do keep up Prayer and other holy Duties yet the strength and vigour of their hearts goeth out after earthly things And these are their chief care and their chief joy Such must know that they are none of Christs and they were better to understand it now and seek to be renewed by Repentance then hereafter when there shall be no place for Repentance 2. Lest while Iniquity doth abound your love to Christ doth wax cold Remember what an Abomination Laodicea was to Christ because she grew so luke-warm and what a controversie he had with Ephesus a sound Church because she did but flacken and grow more remiss in her love A friend is born for adversity and now is the time if you will prove the sincerity of your love and friendship to Jesus Christ by following him zealously resolvedly sully now he is more rejected and opposed Thirdly Lest you keep up a barren and fruitâ—…ss Profession withâ—…ut Progression See to it my Brethren that you be not onely Professors but proficients Many Professors think all is well because they keep on in the exercises of Religion but alas You may keep on praying aâ—…d hearing all the Week long and yet be not one jot the further Many there are that keeâ—… going but it is like the Horse in the Mill that is going all day but yet is no further than when he first began Nay it oft times happens in the Trade of Religion as it doth in trading in the World where many keep on in trading still till for want of care and caution and examining their accounts whether they go forward or backward they trade themselves out of all Oh look to it my Brethren that none of you rest in the doing of duties but examine what comes of them Otherwise as you may trade your selves into Poverty so you may hear and pray your selves into hardness of heart and desperate security and formality This was the very case of wretched Laodicia who kept up the trade of religious duties and verily thought that all was well because the trade still went on and that she was increased in spiritual goods and in a gaining way but when her accounts were cast up at last all comes to nothing and ends in wretchedness poverty and nakedness Most dear Brethren I wish and pray for the prosperity of you all but above all I wish your Souls prosperity with which after my most dear Loves to you all having already exceeded the bounds of an Epistle I commend you to the living God Remaining Your fervent well wisher and Embassador in Christ JOS. ALLEINE Devises June 22. 1666. LETTER XXX An Admiration of the Love of God To the most Loving and best Beloved the servants of God in Taunton Salvation My most dear Friends I Love you and long for you in the Lord and I am weary with forbearing that good and blessed work that the Lerd hath committed to me for the surtherance of your Salvation How long Lord how long shall I dwell in silenâ—… How long shall my Tongue cleave to the Rooâ—… of my Mouth When will God open my Lips that I may stand up and praise him But it is my Fathers good pleasure yet to keep me in a total disability of publishing his Name among you unto him my Soul shall patiently subscribe I may not I cannot complain that he is hard to me or useth me with Rigour I am full of the Mercies of the Lord yea Brimful and running over And shall I complain Far be it from me But though I may not murmur meâ—…hinks I may mourn a little and sit down and wish O if I may not have a Tongue to speak would I had but Hands to Write that I might from my Pen drop some heavenly Councels to my Beloved People Methinks my feeble Fingers do even Itch to Write unto you but it cannot be alas my right-hand seems to have forgot her cunning and hath much ado with trembling to lift the Bread unto my Mouth Do you think you should have had so little to shew under my Hand to bear Witness of my Care for You and love to you if God had not shock my Pen as it were out of my Hand Buâ—… all that he doth is done well and wisely and therefore I submit I have purposed to borrow Hands wherewith to write unto my Beloved rather then to be silent any longer But where shall I begin or when should I end If I think to speak of the Mercies of God towards me or mine enlarged affections towards you methinks I feel already how strait this Paper is like to be and how insignificant my Expressions will be found and how insufficient all that I can say will prove at last to utter what I have to tell you but shall I say nothing because I cannot utter all this must not be neither Come then all ye that fear the Lord come and I well tell you what he hath done for my Soul O help me to love that precious Name of his which is above all my Praises O love the Lord all ye his Saints and fear before him
I engaged so earnestly to call upon you as one that watcheth for your soul to arise speedily and to set roundly to your work Oh consider your danger and work out your Salvation with fear and trembling away with these lazie Prayers away with these cold and heartless Professions away with this drowsie liveless â—…less Religion bestir your self to purpose for your soul before it be too late search your conscience as with Candles be jealous of your self consider now is your time what you do you must do quickly the patience of God is waiting Christ is knocking the Spirit of God is striving and death is at the door Oh now take your opportunity and take heed lest a â—…thful heart and the cares of this World or a presumptuous confidence that all is well and safe already should at last shut you out of the Kingdom of God I cannot write distinctly to your Husband but I beseech you to call upon him to set his heart to these Counsels which I havee written to you I earnestly entreat him to make Religion his business and to look heedfully to it that the gain of the World prove not the loss of his soul. I desire him that Closer and Family Prayers and weekly Catechising of his Houshold and strict sanctifying of the Sabbath and reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms repeating of Sermons and diligent attendance upon powerful Preaching may be his continual exercises that so his house may be a little Church and God may delight to dwell in his Family pray give me to understand what is done of these things for I have a zeal for your welfare and that you and your houshould should serve the Lord that you may enter into his rest and carry children and servants and friends and all to Heaven with you As to my own estate I have lost all my limbs and about this twelve Months useless and been agaâ—…â—…nd again under the sentence of death but was brought in 〈…〉 â—…-litter to Bath where God hath wonderfully restored me so that I can feed my self and go alone and speak with a little more freedom Oh love the Lord praise the Lord for me notwithstanding I continue weak and have not strength to write yet I could not tell how to die in silence from you but have made use of a friendly hand to send these counsels and calls after you which I beseech you to accept in the fear of God for it is not unlike that they may be my last to you that ever you may receive I now commend you to the Lord and with mide own and my dear Wivet love to you both Rest Your loving and careful Uncle JOS. ALLEINE Octob. 21. 1668. LETTER XXXV The Concernments of our Souls especially to be regarded Dear Cousin YOu may think you are forgotten with me because you have not heard so long a time from me but this may let you know That though God hath taken away your Father and suffered your Mother to be helpless to you Yet you have one friend on earth that careth for you The welfare of your immortal soul is dear to me and is the matter of my sollicitons care and prayer Dear Cousin methinks I feel a Godly jealousie of you within my heart lest you should lose your soul amongst a croud of worldly cares and business O remember the story of him in the Book of the Kings who relates that he had a Soldier committed to his keeping upon condition that he should lose his life if he did let him go But while thy servant went hither and thither the man escaped But the King replies presently Even so shall thy judgement be thy life shall go for his life Ah Cousin take earnest heed lest while you are going hither and thither minding many things 〈…〉 in a hurry of worldly affairs the enemy run not away with your soul. Oh beware that the World doth not secretly steal away your heart Consider that whatever your business be you must and will have an eating time and a sleeping time Oh be as sollicitous every day to keep your praying times which are a thousand times more necessary than a time to eat in or sleep Be sure that there doth not a morning or evening pass over your head in which you have not perfumed your Closer with solemn and fervent prayer And take heed it you love your salvation lest Saran beguile you with the bare outward performance of duties aâ—…d ouâ—…ward acts of Religion See to it that you do not rest in a Worldly Religion to give God your knee while the World carries away your heart You may praâ—… hear and read and all to no purpose except your very Soul be employed and engaged in these duties and the â—…ife vigour and strength of your affections be found to go after God in them If therefore you will have Christ and Heaven see that you renounce the world You must cast overboard your worldly hopes and take up with God with a naked Christ as your whâ—… happiness both for this life and that which is to come There is no hopes of your Salvation without a sound mortification to the world you must be mortified to your worldly expectations look not for much from tbe world promise not your self much from the world seek not great things for your self say unto God So I may have thee for my portion and thy Kingdom for my inheritance give or deny me what thou wilt poverty or riches any thing or nothing I will be contented with my Lot Say unto your soul So I may but have Christ so I may but carry it for the other world let this world go which way it will I must be converted or condemned I must be born again or else would I had never been born but of this present world there is no such necessity I may be poor and yet happy but wo unto me if I remain unsanctified I must have grace or perish for ever Dear Cousin if I live you shall find me a friend to your worldly prosperity but whether I live or die I charge you by the Lord that you be infinitely tender of your immortal souls everlasting concernments Will you not spin a fair thread of it if while you are pursuing after earthly things you lose your soul in the throng While I live I shall pray and care for you Farewel in the Lord. I am Your truly loving and careful uncle JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXVI Godly Counsels Dear Cousin THE welcome tydings of your safe arrival at Barbadoes is come to my ears as also the News of your escape from a perillous sickness for which I bless the Lord and desire to be thankful with you for I am not without a care for your well being but do look upon my self as really concerned in you I have considered that God hath beâ—…est you of a careful Father and that your Mother takes but little care for you so that you have none nearer than my self to
men and see what apprehensions they have of the World if any should come â—…o such as these and tell them here is such and such prâ—…ferments for you you shall have such titles of honour and delights if you will now disown Religion or subscribe to iniquity do you think such a motion would be embraced Brethren why should we not be wise in time why should we not now be of the mind of which we know we shall be all shortly woe to them that will not be wise till it be to no purpose woe to them whose eyes nothing but Death and Judgement will open woe to them that though they have been warned by others and have heard the Worlds greatest Darlings in Death to cry out of its vanity worthlessness and deceitfulness and have been told where and how it would leave them yet would take no warning but only must serve themselves to for warnings to others Ah my Beloved beware there be no worldly Professors among you that will part rather with their part in Paradise than their part in Paris that will rather part with their Consciences than with their Estates that have secret reserves in hearts to save themselves whole when â—…t comes to the pinch and not to be of the Religion that will undo them in the World Beware that none of you have your hearts where your Feet should be and love your Mammon before your Maker It is time for you to learn with Paul to be Crucified to the World But it is time for me to remember that 't is a Letter and contain my self within my limits The God of all Grace stablish strengthen and settle you in these shaking times and raise your hearts above the fears of the worlds threats and above the ambition of its favours My dearest loves to you all with my servent desire of your Prayers May the Lord of Hosts be with you and the God of Jacob your refuge Farewell my dear Brethren Farewel and be strong in the Lord I am From the common Gaole at Juelchester June 31. 1663. Yours to serve you in the Gospel whether by Doing or Suffering JOS. ALLEINE LETTER VII First Christian Marks 2. Duties To the Beloved my most endearing and endeared Friends the Flock of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown I Must say of you as David did of Jonathan Very pleasant have you been unto me and your love to me is wonderful And as I have formerly taken great content in that my Lot was cast among you so through grace I rejoyce in my present Lot that I am called to approve my love to you by suffering for you for you I say for you know that I have not sought yours but you and that for doing my duty to your souls I am here in these Bonds which I do cheerfully accept through the grace of God that strengtheneth me Oh! that your Souls might be quickened and enlarged by these my Bonds that your hands might be strengthened and your hearts encouraged in the Lord your God by our sufferings See to it my dearly Beloved that you stand fast in the power of the Holy Doctrine which we have Preached from the Pulpit preached at the Bar preached from the Prison to you It is a Gospel worth the suffering for see that you follow after holiness without which no man shall see God Oh! the madness of the blind World that they should put from them the only Plank upon which they can scape to Heaven Surely the Enemies of Holiness are their own Enemies Alas for them they know not what they do What would not these foolish Virgins do at last when it is too late for a little of the Oyl of the wise Oh for one dram of that Grace which they have scorned and despised But let not any of you my dear People be wise too late Look diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God Beware that none of you be cheated through the subtlety of Satan and deceitfulness of your hearts with counterfeit grâ—… There is never a grace but hath its counterfeit and there is nothing in all the World that is more common or more easie than to mistake common and counterfeit Grace for true and saving and remember you are undone for evermore if you should die in such a mistake Not that I would shake the confidence of any sound Believer who upon often and through searce into the Scripture and his own heart and putting himself upon Gods tryal hath gotten good evidence that his Graces are of the right kind Build your confidenee sure See that you get the knowledge of the certain and infallible marks of Salvation and make sure by great observing your own hearts that these marks be in you and then you cannot be too confident But as you love your souls take heed of a groundless confidence Take heed of â—…ing confident before you have tried Dear Brethren I would fain have you all secured against the day of Judgement I would that the state of your souls were all well setled Oh how comfortably might you think of any troubles if you were but sure of your pardons Were your Salvation out of doubt no matter though other things were in hazard I beseech you whatever you neglect look to this I am afraid there are among you that have not made your peace with God yet that are not yet acquainted with that great work of Conversion such I would warn and charge before the living God to speed into Christ and without any more disputes or delayes to put away their iniquities and to come in and deliver up themselves to Jesus Christ that they may be saved It is not your Profession nor performing external duties nor partaking of external Priviledges that will save you No no you must be converted or condemned It is not enough that you have some love and liking to Gods ways and people and are willing to venture something for them all this will not prove you sound Christians have your hearts been changed have you been soundly convinced of your sins of your daâ—…nable and undone condition in your selves and your utter inaâ—…lity to lick your selves whole again by your own duties have you been brought at least to such a sight and sense of sin as that there is no sin though agreeable to your constitution though a support to your gain but you do heartily abhor it and utterly disallow of it are you brought to such a sense of the beauty of holiness and of the Laws and ways of God as that you do desire to know the whole mind of God and would not excuse your selves by ignorance from any duty and that you do not allow your selves in the ordinary neglect of any thing that conscience charges upon you as a duty are your very hearts set upon the glorifying and enjoying of God as your greatest happiness which you desire more than Corn and Wine and Oyl had you rather be the
thou sluggard she layeth up her meat in the Summer Happy man that can say to his Soul on good grounds what he vainly spake Thou hast much good laid up for many years Who will not Victual the Castle against the Siege and the Ship against the Voyage Fourthly Consider you will find all little enough when you come to die the Wise among the Virgins have no Oyl to spare at the coming of the Bridegroom distress and temptations and death will put all your Graces to it How much ado have many poor Saints had at last to put into this harbour David cties for respite till he had recovered a little more strength Fifthly Consider how little it will avail you to thrive in your Estates and not thrive iâ—… your Souls Poor Gehazi what did he get by it when he gained Naamans Talents and came off with his Leprosie Sixthly Consider how short your time for gathering in probability is the Israelites gathered twice so much Manna against the Sabboth as they did at other times because at that time there was no Manna fell Brethren you know not how long you have to lay in for Seventhly Consider Gods expectations are great from you he hath been lopping and pruning you and now he looks for more fruit he hath had you for some time under his more severer Discipline and therefore expects you should be better proficients he hath tried new means with you and is come to you with a Rod and he will be angry with a witness if he do not find you now to mend Times of Afflictions use to be gaining times to Gods People God forbid that you alone should be losers Do you ask for marks how you may know your souls to be in a thriving case First If your appetites be more strong Do you thirst after God and after grace more than heretofore do your cares for and desire after the World abate and do you hunger and thirst after righteousness whereas you were wont to come with an ill-will to holy duties do you come to them as a hungrie stomach to its meats Secondly If pour Pulses beat more even Are you still off and on hot and cold Or is the a more even spun thred of holiness through your whole course do you make good the ground from which you were formerly often beaten off Thirdly If your natural heat do grow more vigorous and your digestion more quick Do you take more notice of God in every thing than heretofore and let none of his works nor words pass without some careful attention and observation do you ponder upon and pray over his Word and his Providences Fourthly If you do look more to the Compass and latitude of Religion and mind more than ever the carrying on together the dâ—…s of both Tables Do you not only look to the keeping if your own Vineyards but do you begin to look more abroad and to lay out your selves for the good of others and are filled with zealous desires for their conversation and salvation do you manage your talk and your Trade by the rules of Religion Do you ear and sleep by rule doth Religion form and mould and direct your carriage towards Husband Wife Parents Children Masters Servants do you grow more universally consciencious Is piety more diffusive than ever with you doth it come more abroad with you out of your Clossets into your Houses your Shops your Fields doth it journey with you and buy and sell for you hath it the casting voice in all you do Fifthly If the duties of Râ—…ligion be more easie sweet and delightful to you Do you take more delinht in the Word than ever are you more in love with secret Prayer and more abundant in it cannot you be content with your ordinary Seasons but are ever and anon making extraordinary visits to Heaven and upon all occasions turning aside to talk with God in some short Ejaculations are you oâ—…en darting up your souls Heaven-wards Is it meat and drink for you to do the Will of God do you come off more freely with God and answer his Calls and open at his knocks with more Alacrity and readiness of mind Sixthly If you are more abundant in those duties which are most displeasing to the Flesh. Are you more earnest upon the duty of Mortification are you more strict and severe than ever in the duty of daily Self-examination and holy Meditation do you hold the Reigns harder upon the Flesh than ever do you keep a stricter watch upon your Appetites do you set a stroâ—…r guard upon your Tongues have you a more jealâ—…s eye upon your hearts Seventhly If you grow more viâ—…e in your own eyes Pride is such a choaking Weed that nothing will prosper near it Do you grow more out of love with mens esteem and set less by it are you not marvellous tender of being slighted can you rejoyce to see othâ—…rs preferred before you can you heartily value and love them that think meanly of you Eightly If you grow more quick of sense more tender of sining more sensiâ—… of Divine influences or withdrawings Are you more affraid of sin than ever are your sins a greater pain to you than heretofore are your very infirmities your great afflictions and the daily workings of corruption a continual grief of mind to you Ninthly If you are acted more by love to God and Faith in these Promises Fear is a slavish principle do you find that you are acted less by fear and more by love do you look more frequently to the things not seen than ever and doth the World abate in your esteem do you go more out of your selves do you live upon Christ as the Spring of your life and make more use of him upon all occasions than ever do you prize the Promise more and hug and imbrace them with greaâ—…er dearness and live more upon them Tenthly If you grow of a more publisk Spirit A selfish spirit is unworthy of a Christian are the common concernments of Gods Glory and the prosperity of the Church much upon your hearts will it no way content you to dwell in plenty peace and safety your selves except you may see peace upon Israel do the wounds in Gods Name and Glory go deep into you are the sins of others your sorrows Time and room and strength fails to add means too as I inteuded I have trespassed in length already may these be helps to you to put you forward and to help you in discerning your growth I must conclude abruptly and commend you to God with my dear loves to you all I take leave and can only tell you that I am Yours in the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE From the common Goale at Juelchester Octo. 31. 1663. LETTER XV. Perswasion to Sinners and comfort to Saints To my dearly Beloved the Inhabitants of the Town of Taunton Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Most dearly Beloved I Have been through mercy many years with
up in other labors of sundry kinds for you I am yours and love to be so being ambitious not to have dominion over your faith but to be a helper of your Joy Christs Officers are so your Rulers in the Lord as yet to Preach not themselves but the Lord Jesus Christ and themselves your servants for Jesus sake I have no greater felicity under God than to serve the good of souls Brethren beloved how fares it with your souls are they in health do they prosper I wish your temporal prosperity It it a joy to me to hear when your trade doth florish but these are but very little things if we look into Eternity Brethren my ambition for you is that you should be Cedars among the Shrubs that from you should sound out the Word of the Lord and that in every place your Faith to God-ward should be spread abroad That Taunton should be as a field that the Lord hath blessed that you should not only have the Name but the Spirit Life Power Heat Growth Vigour of Christianity among you Let not Taunton onely have the name to live and be noted for the profession of Religion but see to it my Brethren that the Kingdom of God be with you Oh that every one of your souls might be a Temple of God! Oh that every one of your Families might be a Church of God! Beloved look to it that every one that nameth the name of Christ among you do depart from Iniquity secret as well as open of the heart as as well as of the life Let no man think that to make an out-cry upon the Wickedness of the times and to be of the Professing Party will serve his turn many go to Hell in the company of the wise Virgins That no man may be a Self-deceiver let every man be a Self-searcher He that keeps no Day-book in his Shop and no Account no Record in his Conscience his Estate aud his Soul will thrive both alike Beloved I would that you should remember whither you are a going If a man be after a few Months to be Transported into another Countrey never to return more he will send over whatever he can and make the best Provision that he may against he comes into another Countrey Dear Brethren you are Strangers and Pilgrims here and have but a few Months abode in this Countrey see that you Traffique much with Heaven Christ is our Common Factor O send over to him what possible you can Give Alms plentifully pray continually be much in Meditation and Consideration Reckon with your selves daily Walk with God in your Callings do all the duties of your Relations as unto God live not one day to your selves but unto Christ Set forth continually in his Name so shall you be continually Transporting into another World and laying up Treasure in Heaven And O the blessed store that you shall find there after a few Years diligence in such a holy course Beloved while you are here in this World You are but like a Merchants Ship in a strange Port the day for your return is set and you are to stay no longer then till your Fraight is ready Be wise know your season improve you time you are made or mar'd for ever as you speed in this one Voyage There is no returning again to this Countrey to mend a bad Market God will call in all his Talents time shall be no longer Oh come in come and buy now while the Market is open that you that want may have grace and you that have may have it more abundantly Go and plead with the Lord Jesus that he hath bid you come buy and eat without Money and without Price that he hath counselled you to come buy of him Gold Raiment and Eye-salve tell him you are come according to his call and wait upon him for Grace for Righteousness for Light and Instruction Lay hold on his Word plead it live upon it he is worthy to be believed worthy to be trusted go out of your selves to him unlearn your selves There is a threefold Foot that caâ—…al-self stands upon our own Wisdom our own Righteousness our own Strength these three Feet must be cut off and we must learn to have no subsistence in our selves but onely in Christ and to stand onely on his bottom Study the excellent Lesson of Self-denial Self-annihilation A true Christian is like a Vine that cannot stand of it self but is wholly supported by the Prop it leans on It is no small thing to know our selves to be nothing of no might of no worth of no understanding nor reality to look upon our selves as helpless worthless foolish empty shadows This holy littleness is a great matter when we find that all our Inventory amounts to nothing but folly weakness and beggery when we set down our selves for Cyphers our gain for loss our excellencies for very vanities then we shall learn to live like Believers A true Saint is like a Glass without a Foot that set him where you will is ready to fall every way till you set him to a Prop Let Christ be the only support you lean unto When you are throughly emptied and nullified and see all comeliness to be but as a withered Flower dead dried and past recovery then you will be put upon the happy necessity of going out to Christ for all The Messengers haste forceth me Abruptly to end here I can add no more but my Prayers to my Counsels and so commending you to God and the Word of his Grace I rest The fervent Well-willen of your Souls JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Ap'il 16. 1663. LETTER XXIII Right Reasons in Suffering To the most loving and best beloved the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most loving and dearly Beloved I Know not what thanks to render to you nor to God for you for all the unexpressable love which I have found in you towards me and not terminatively to me but to Christ in me for I believe it is for his sake as I am a Messenger and Embassador of his to you that you have loved me and done so much every way for me and I think I may say of Taunton as the Psalmist of Jerusalem If I forget thee let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth I would not my dear Brethren that you snould be dejected or discouraged at the late disappointments for through the goodness of God I am not but rather more satisfied than before and this I can truly say nothing doth sadden me more than to see so much sadness in your faces As on the contrary nothing doth comfort me so much as to see your chear and courage Therefore I beseech you Brethren faint not because of my Tribulation nor of Gods delays but strengthen the hands and the feeble knees And the Lord bolster up your hands as they did the hands of Moses that
is the thing how near is the time how glorious will his appearing be The thing is sure the Day is set God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World by that man whom he hath ordained the manner of it is revealed Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints The Attendants are appointed and nominated The Soâ—… of Man shall come in his Glory and all his holy Angels with him The thing you see is established and every circumstance is determined How sweet are the words that dropped from the precious Lips of our departing Lord What generous Cordials hath he left us in his parting Sermons and his last Prayer and yet of all the rest those are the sweetest I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there you may be also What need you any further witness you have heard him your selves assuring you of his return Doubtless he cannot deceive you you have not only known but seen and felt the truth of his promises And will he come tremble then ye sinners triumph yâ—… Saints clap your hands all ye that look for the consolation of Israel O sinners where will you then appear how will you look upon him whom you have pierced whom you have persecuted whose great Salvation you have neglected and despised Wo unto you that ever you were born unless you should then be found to be New-born But you O Children of the most high how will you forget your travel and be melted into joy This is he in whom you have believed whom having not seen ye loved But how will love and joy be working if I may so speak with pangs unutterable when you shall see him and hear his sweet voice commending applauding approving of you and owning you by name before all the World Brethren thus it must be the Lord hath spoken it See that you stagger not at the Promise but give Glory to God by believing Again the time is near Yet a little while and he that shall come will come Behold I come quickly saith he And again The Lord is at hand Sure you are that death cannot be far off O Christian thou dost not know but the next year nay possibly the next week thou mayest be in Heaven Christ will not long endure thine absence but will have thee up to him till the time of his general appearing when he will take us up altogether and so we shall be ever with the Lord. Soul believest thou this If thou dost indeed what remains but that thou shouldest live a life of love and praise studying to do all the good thou canst till thou come to Heaven and waiting all the days of thine appointed time till thy change shall come O my Soul look out and long O my Brethren be you as the Mother of Sisera looking out at the Windows and watching at the Latices saying why are his Chariot-wheels so long a coming Though the time till you shall see him be but very short yet love and longing make it seem tedious My Beloved comfort your hearts with these Words look upon these things as the greatest reallities and let your affections be answerable to your expectations I would not have told you these things unless I had believed them for it is for this hope that I am bound with this Chain The blessing of the Holy Trinity be upon you I am yours and will be The God of Peace be with you I rest Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester August 5. 1663. LETTER XXVIII Of the Love of Christ. To his most endeared Friends the servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved MEthinks my Brests are not easie unless I do let them forth unto you Methings there is something still to do and my Weeks work is not ended unless I have given my Soul vent and imparted something to the Beloved flock that I have left behind And Oh that my Letters in my absence might be useful to you Assuredly it is my joy to serve you and my love to you is without dissimulation witness my twice lost liberties and my impaired health all which I might have preserved had it not been for my readiness to minister to you But what do I speak of my love it is the sense of the infinite love of God your Father that I would have to dwell upon you Forget me so you remember him Let me be very little so he be very lovely in your eyes Let him be as the Bucket that goes up though I be as the Bucket that goes down Bury me so that you do but set the Lord always before you Let my name be written in the dust so his Name be written deep up all your Souls O Lord I am thy Servant truly I am thy servant Glorifie thine own Name by me and thou shalt have my hand to it that I will be content to be hid in obscurity and to disappear through the overcoming lustre and brightness of thy Glory Brethren understand mine Office I Preach not my self but the Lord Jesus Christ and my self your Servant for Jesus sake Give him your hearts and I have my Errand I am but the Friend of the Bridegroom and my business is but to give you to understand his love and to gain your hearts unto him He is an Object worthy of my Commendations and of your affections His Love is worth the writing of and worth the thinking of and worth the speaking of O my Brethren never forgeâ—… I beseech you how he loveth you He is in Heaven and you are on Earth he is in Glory and you in Rags he is in the shining Throne aâ—…d you in dirty flesh and yet he loveth you His heart is infinitely tender of you even now while he is at the right hand of the Majesty on High How feelingly doth he cry out at the hurt of his poor Members on Earth Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Oh of what quick sense is the sense of our dear Lord unto us when we are touched on Earth he feels it in Heaven Brethren Christ is real in all that he speaks unto you He is not like a flourishing Lover who fills up his Letters with Rhetorick and hath more care of the dress of his Speech than of the Truth Who ever gave demonstration of the reallity of his love at so dear a rate as Christ hath done Men do not use to die in jest Who will impoverish himself to enrich his Friend and divest himself of his honour to advance him and debase himself to admiration below his own degree to contract affinity with him and all this but to make him believe that he loves him Brethren possess your very hearts with this that Christs love doth go out with infinite dearness towards you Even now while he is in all his Glory he earnestly remembers you still This is the High Priest that now is entred into the Holy of Holies doth bear your names
particularly remembring every poor believer by name He bears your names but where upon his Brest-plate upon his heart saith the Text Exod. 28. 29. Ah Christians I may salute you as the Angel did Mary Hail you that are highly favoured Blessâ—…d are you among men Sure your Lot is fallen in an happy place what in the bosom of Christ yea and verily you may believe and doubt not I may apply that of Gabriel O Daniel thoâ—… art greatly beloved unto you you are beloved indeed to have your Names written upon the very heart of Christ now he is in Glory Oh let his Name be written then on your hearts Do not write his Name in the Sand when he hath written yours upon his own Brest Do not forget him who hath taken such care that while he is he may never forget you having recorded your names not onely on his Book but on his Flesh and set you as a Seal upon his heart He hath you upon his heart but why For a memorial before the Lord continually so saith the Text. Beloved your Lord is so far from forgetting you in all his Greatness and Glory that he is gone into Heaven on purpose there to present you before the Lord that you may be always in remembrance before him O Beloved Glory yea and Triumph in his love Doubtless it must go well with us Who shall condemn It is Christ that died and rose again and is now making Intercession His interest is potent He is always present Our Advocate is never out of Court Never did cause miscarry in his hand Trust you safely in him Happy is that man for whom he shall undertake to speak Oh the Riches of Christs love he did not think it enough to die for you His love and care doth not end with his natural life on Earth but he ever liveth to make Intercession for us His love is like his life ever ever knowing no remission in degree nor intermission of time no cessation of working but is ever ever in motion towards us But when shall I end if I suffer my soul to run out its length and my running Pen te enlarge according to the demensions of this boundless Field of Divine Love If the Pens of all the World were imployed to write Volumes of love if the tongues of all the living were exercised in nothing else but talking of this love If all the Hearts that be were made up of love and all the powers and affections of the mind were turned into one to wit the power of love yet this were no less than infinitely too little either to conceive or to express the greatness of Christs love O my dearly beloved may your souls be swallowed up in this love Think and think while you will you can never think how much you are beloved See that ye love again by way of Gratitude though not of Requital what though your souls be but narrow and your powers but little yet love him with all you have Love him with all your hearts and all your strength To the Meditations and to the Embraces of Divine love I leave you thinking it now not worth while to tell you of my Love Remaining Yours in the bonds of your most dear Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE August 11. 1665. LETTER XXIX Warning tâ—… Professors of their Danger To the Beloved â—…ople the Inhabitants of the Town of 〈…〉 Grace and Peace Most dear 〈…〉 MY 〈…〉 my beloved is mine and I am his but 〈…〉 â—…ave no joy so great as that you are mine and I 〈…〉 â—…ou are Christs My Relation to Christ is aboâ—… 〈…〉 life and my peace my riches and my righteoâ—… 〈…〉 my hope and my strength and mine Inheritance 〈…〉 â—…ycing In him will I please my self for ever and 〈…〉 will I glory I esteem my self most happy and rich and safe in him though of my self I am nothing In him I may boast without Pride and glory without vanity Here is no danger of being over much pleased neither can the Christian exceed his bounds in over-valuing his own riches and happiness in Christ. I am greatly pleased with the Lot that is fallen to me the Lord hath dealt bountifully with me and none shall stop this my confidence of boasting in Christ. But as my lot in him is above all so I will assure you it is no small content to me that my lot is fallen with you And though many difficulties have fallen to my lot among you for I have broken my health and lost my liberty once and again for your sakes yet none of these things move me I wish nothing more then to spend and to be spent upon the service of your Faith I bless the Lord for it as an invalnable mercy that ever he called me to be an Embassador of the Lord Jesus Christ to you-wards In this station I desire to approve my self to him and that I am withdrawn from my Work for a season it is but that I may return to you refreshed and inabled for my work among you You may not think that I have forgotten you and consulted my own ease and pleasure but if God prosper my intentions I shall be found to have been daily serving you in this retirement I will assure you I am very tender of preserving all that little strength that God doth add to me entirely for your sakes being resolved not so much as once to broach the Vessel till I draw forth to you I bless the Lord I am in great tranquility here in this Town and walk up down the Corporation without any Questioning me Only it hath pleased the Lord to add to my Affliction since my coming by taking away my dear Father the day of whose glorious Translation was the day after my arriving here But I bless the Lord I do believe and expect the return of the Redeemer with all his Saints and the most glorious Resurrection of my own dead Body with all Believers and this makes me to rest in Hope and fills me with unspeakle more Joy than the death of my self or any other Saint can with grief And now I make it my business to be rendred serviceable to you and do by this return you my hearty thanks for your earnest Prayers and Intercessions to God in my behalf for it is he that must do the Cure I seem to my self to be retired to this place as a Vessel rent and shatter'd and torn in the Service that it come to recruit in the Harbour And here I am as it were rigging and repairing and Victualling to put sorth again in the Service which I shall do with the first Wind as soon as I am ready What is my life uâ—…less I am serviceable And though I must for the present forbear my wonted Labour yet I shall not cease to exhort you and call upon you while I am absent from you to stand sast and to grow up in your holy Faith Be warned my dearly Beloved that you fall not
that are saved there are not a few of you who are the joy of your Ministers and the Glory of Christ. But it cannot be dissembled that far the greater number give little ground to hope that they are in the state of Salvation And must not this be a pinching thought to a compassionate Teacher to think that he cannot for his heart perswade men but that the most of them will wilfully throw away themselves Is it not a wosul sight to behold the Devils driving a great part of our miserable Flocks as they did once the Herd of Swine the Keepers themselves amazed looking on I say driving them violently down the hill till they be choaked in the Water and drowned irrecoverably in the Gulf of endless Perdition Ah mserable spectacle What through the wilful blindness of some what through the loseness and sensuality of others what through the halving and Cold and customary Religion of others how great a number of our poor Flocks is Satan like to carry utterly away from us after all that hath been done to save them Yet I cannot but call after them Hearken unto me O ye Children How long will ye love Vanity and follow after leasing and trust in lying Words As the Lord liveth you are lost except you turn Wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ah how Mercy woeth you How it waiteth to be gracious to you Hear O sinners hear See you not how the merciful Saviour of the World stretcheth forth his hands all the day long and spreadeth forth his Wings and calleth you as a Hen doth her Chickens hear you not the soundings of his Bowels He had no need of you Yet how do his compassions melt over perishing sinners his heart is turned within him and shall not this turn your hearts his repentings are kindled together and shall not this lead you to repentance Behold he standeth at the door and knocketh O man wilt thou keep â—…esus at the door and lodge Barrabas in thy bosom and prefer thy cruel Lusts before thy Compassionate Lord Oh his melting love to sinners He calleth after them Isa. 55. 1. He weepeth over them Luke 19. 41 42. He crieth to them Prov. 1. 21 22 23. How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity Will you not be made clean When shall it once be Why will you die Turn you at my Reproof Behold I will pour out my Spirit upon you Sinner art thou not yet melted Oh come in at his loving Calls Come out from thy sins Touch the Scepter of Grace and live Why shouldest thou be dashed in pieces by his Iron Rod Kiss the Son Why shouldst thou perish in the way Set up Jesus as thy King lest he count thee sor â—…is Enemy because thou wouldst not that he should Reign over thee and so thou be called forth and slain before him Oh how dreadful will this Case be to perish under the pittiful Eyes of his Mercy and to die by the hand of a Saviour Oh double hell to have thy Redeemer become thine Executioner And the hand that was so long stretched forth to save thee to be now stretched forth to slay thee And the merciful heart of Christ himself hardned against thee so as that he should call thee forth and with his own hand hew thee in pieces as Samuel did Agag before the Lord. But I have been too too long in prefacing to what I intended forthwith to have fallen upon Indeed I am apt to run out in matters that do so nearly touch upon your greatest Concernments Beloved I despair of ever bringing you to Salvation without Sanctification Or possessing You with Happiness without perswading you to Holiness God knows I have not the least hope ever to see one of your Faces in Heaven except You be Converted and Sanctified and exercise your selves unto Godliness This is that I drive at I beseech you study to further Personal Godliness and Family Godliness 1. Personal Godliness Let it be your first care to set up Christ in your Hearts See that you make all your worldly Interests to stoop to him that You be entirely and unreservedly devoted unto him If You wilfully and deliberately and ordinarily harbour any sin You are undone See that You unfeignedly take the Laws of Christ as the rule of your words thoughts and actions and subject â—…our whole man members and mind faithfully to him If You haâ—…e a true respect to all Gods Commandments you are sound at heart Oh study to get the Image and impress of Christ upon you within Begin with your hearts else you build without a foundation Labour to get a saving change within or else all external performances will be to no purpose And then study to shew forth the power of Godliness in the life Let Piety be your first and great business 'T is the highest point of Justice to give God his due Beware that none of you be a Prayerless person sor that is a most certain discovery of a Christless and a graceless person of one that is a very stranger to the fear of God Suffer not your Bibles to gather dust See that you converse daily with the Word That man can never lay claim to Blessedness whose delight is not in the Law of the Lord. Let â—…editation and self-examination be your daily exercise else the Papists yea the Pagans will condemn us That the short questions which I have given you as a help to self-examination may be daily perused by you is the matter of my passionate request unto you If ever you come to any growth in Holiness without the constant use of â—…his practice I am grosly deceived And therefore I would beseech yea even charge you by the Lord that you would daily examine your selves by these questions till you have found a better help to this duty But Piety without Charity is but the half of Christiaâ—…y or rather impious Hypocrisie We may not divide the Tables See therefore that you do justly and love mercy and let Equity and Charity run like an even Thred throughout all your dealings Be you temperate in all things and let Chastity and and Sobriety be your undivided Companions Let truth and Purity Seriousness and modesty Heavenliness and gravity be the constant ornaments of your speech Let patience and humility simplicity sincerity shine out in all the parts of your conversations See that you sorget sorgive wrongs and requiâ—…e them with kindness as you would be found children of the most high Be merciful in your Censures and put the most favourable construction upon our Brethrens carriage that their actions will reasonably bear â—…e slow in promising punctual in fulfilling Let meekness and inâ—…ocency Affableness Yieldingness and Curtâ—…sie comâ—…end your conversations to all men Let none of your Relations want that love and loyalty that reverence and duty that tenderness care and vigilancy which their several places and capacities call for This is throughout Godliness I charge you before the most high God
am apt to pass the bounds of a Letter yet I promise my self now an easie pardon for so loving a trespass With my dear Loves to you all I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace Though I have done writing yet not praying I will promise where my Letter ends my Prayers shall begin Farewel dear Brethren Fare you well in the Lord I am An unworthy Embassador of Jesus in Bond JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Octob. 29. 1663. LETTER XXXIII For Perseverance To my dear Friends the Servants of Christ in Luppit Salvation Beloved Christians HAving taken up a Resolution to Write to and to endeavour to confirm all the Places where I have gone up and down Preaching the Kingdom of God You were by no means to be omitted You were the People that were last upon-my heart before my taking up and had I not been made a Prisoner I think I had in a few hours after the time of my Apprehension been with you Now I can no way but by Prayers Letters and Councels visit you and so have sent these to let you know that you are upon my Heart and that your Welfare is dear unto me I bless the Lord to hear that his Work doth not cease among you It is the Joy of our Bonds Beloved to hear that the Word is not bound and that Satan hath not his design upon the People of God who doubtless intended by these Sufferings to have struck Terrour into them and to have made their Hands weak Know dear Christians that the Bonds of the Gospel are not tedious through Grace unto us that Christ is a Master worth a suffering for that there is really enough in Religion to defray all our Charges to quit all the Cost and Expence you can be at in or upon it That you may Build upon it that you can never be losers by Jesus Christ that Christs Prison is better than the Worlds Paradise that the Divine Attributes are alone an All-sufficient Livelihood that the Influences of Heaven and shines of Gods Countenance are sufficient to lighten the darksomest Dungeon and to perfume and sweeten the noisomest Prison to a poor Believer that if you can bring Faith and Patience and the Assurance of the Divine Favour with you to a Prison you will live comfortably in spight of Earth Hell These are Truths that the Prisoners of Christ can in a measure Seal unto and I would have you to be more soundly assured of and established in Brethren we are of the same mind in a Prison that we were os in the Pulpit that there is no life to a life of Holiness that Christ and his Yoak and his Cross are worthy of all acceptation that it is the best and wisest and safest and gainfulllest course in the World to stick close to Christ and his Ways and to adhere to them in all hazards Come on Beloved Christians come on stack not your pace but give diligence to the full assurance of Hope unto the end and be ye followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Strengthen the hands that hang down and the feeble knees If you faint in the day of Adversity your strength is small Chear up my Brethren look what a Crown what a Kingdom here is What say you Is not here a worthy Portion a goodly Heritage Were it not pity to lose all this for want of Diligence and Patience Come dear Christians and fellow Travellers I pray you let us put on Pluck up the weary Limbs our Home is within sight Lift up your Eyes from the Pisga of the Promises You may see the Land of Rest. Will any of you think of returning into Egypt God forbid A little patience and Christ will come Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the Earth and hath long patience till he receive the early and later Rain Be ye also patient stablish your Hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh He is not a Christian indeed that cannot be content to tarry for his Preferment in another World Cast upon it my Brethren that your Kingdom is not of this World that here you must have Tribulations and that all is well as long as we are secured for Eternity Exhort one another daily strive together in Prayer unite your strength therein and pull a main Mercy will come sooner or later however we will be content to wait till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah how surely will he come He will render Tribulation to them that trouble us and to us that are troubled rest with him Onely believe and wait What not watch with him one hour Why the Judge is even at the door And how blessed will you be if you do but continue and hold fast till he come Watch therefore and stand fast quit you like men be Zealous and let your hearts be strong God is your Friend and you may trust him He is able to bear you out and bear you up faint not therefore but be stedfast unmoveable abounding in the works of the Lord. Speak often one to another provoke to love and to good Works Let the Bay of opposition against Godliness make the Torrent of your Zeal break over with the more violence But it 's time to end I have been bold to call upon you you see and to stir you up by way of remembrance May the Spirit of the most high God excite you encourage you enflame you may these poor lines be some quickning to you may the good-will of him that dwelt in the Bush dwell with you My dear loves to you all pray sor the Prisoners Farewel dear Brethren farewel in the Lord I am Yours in the Bonds of the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE Octob. 11. 1665. LETTER XXXIV To a Back-sliding Fellow Student Sir WHom this will find you or when or where I know not but I have shot this arrow at a venture Once you were an Associate with me in Corpus Christi where I remember your blameless Conversation and your zealous affection for and adhesion to the ways and people of God May you be still found in the same paths of holiness without which no man shall see God The vows of God are upon me which I confess I have been to slack to pay that I would put you in remembrance and in all Brotherly tenderness advise you to remember from whence you are sallen I was informed before your leaving of England of many unhappy miscarriages which the great reproach of your holy profession you had been too manifestly guilty of I am not without some hope that the Lord may have since recalled you and brought you back to himself and yet not without more fear lest if the power of corruption were so strong as to precipitate you with such violence at such a time as that was and in such a place as England as Oxon where you had so many encouragements and inducements examples and faithful friendly
of the way to give thee a meeting but such is my weakness hitherto that I am forced to put off those hopes till the Spring when if God give me strength to ride I intend to see thee before mine own Home I thank thee for all the dear expressions of thy fervent love Methinks I see it and feel how it runs through all the veins of every â—…etter nay every Line I needed not so chargeable a Testomony as thy golden Token with which I was somthing displeased because I thought thou needest more than my self but the love thereby expressed is most dearly welcome to me What thou talkest of Retribution and of Justice doth not so well relish with me because the Phrases seem improper to the love profest between us I never lookt for any return from thee but love which is the paying of all thy Debts my expences have indeed been vast and almost incredible but surely goodness and mercy hath followed me and do follow me in every place and in every change of my condition so that as to temporals I have lack of nothing and as for spirituals I abound and superabound and the streams of my comforts have been full and running over the joy of the Lord hath been my strength at weakest and in the multitude of my thoughts within me his comforts have refresh'd my Soul I have found God a satisfying portion to me and have sat down under his shadow with full delights and his fruit is most sweet to my taste he is my strength and my Song for I will talke of him and write of him with perpetual pleasure Through grace I can say methinks I am now in my Element since I have begun to make mention of him I am rich in him and happy in him and my soul saith unto him with Divid Thou hast made me most Blessed for evermore and happy is the hour that ever I was born to be made partaker of so blisful a Treasure so endless a felicity so Angelical Prerogatives as I have in him O sweet are his converses how delightful it is to Triumph in his Love Suffer me to be free with thee where should I pour out my Soul if not into thy bosom did the poor woman call upon her friends and neighbours to rejoyce together with her at the finding of a lost Groat and shall not I tell to thee the keeper of the Secrets of my Soul the friend of my inmost Bosom what a friend is the Lord to me though an unworthy sinner shall not I run and tell thee what a treasure I have found And here methinks the story of the Lepers comes not unaptly to thy mind who said one to another when they had eat and drunk aâ—…d carried away silver and gold and raiment and went and hid it We do not well this day is a day of good tydings and we hold our peace It is sit that I should be cloathed with shame I acknowledge before God who trieth the hearts I am unworthy everlastingly unworthy but it is not fit that he should lose his praise nay rather let him be the more ador'd and magnifi'd and admir'd for ever and ever and let my Secrets say Amen Bless the Lord O my Soul bless the Lord O my Friend let us exhalt his Name together he is my solace in my solitude he is my standing comforter my tried friend my sure refuge my safe retreat he is my Paradise he is my Heaven and my heart is at rest in him and I will sit and sing under his shadow as a Bird among the Branches and whither should I go but unto him Shall I leave the faâ—…ness of the Olive and sweetness of the Fig-tree and of the Vine and go and put my trust under the shadow of the Bramble No I have made my everlasting choice this is my rest for ever he is my well Beloved in whom I am well pleased Suffer me to boast a little here I may Glory without Vanity and I can praise him without end or measure but I have nothing to say of my self I find thou dost overvalue me and magnifie me above my measure set the Crown upon the head of Christ let nothing be great with thee but him give him the glory but thy love pleaseth me only I have this exception that thou art in love with thine own Idol as Austin somewhere speaks to a friend of his that did too much magnifie him and magnifiest a Creature of thine own fancie and not thy poor Orestes God that knoweth all things knoweth my poverty how little how low and how mean I am and how short I come of the attainments of the Saints who yet do themselves come so exceedingly short of the Rule that God hath set before us I often think of the Complaint of the devout Monsier I feel my self very poor this week and very defective in the love of God if you would know wherein you may pleasure me love God more that what is wanting in me may be made up in the abundance of your love in this my Pylades in this thou maist most highly pleasure me love God a little the better praise him a little the more for my sake let me have this to please my self in that God is alittle the better loved sor me and that I have blowed up if it be but one flash nay but one spark of Divine Love in the bosom of my dearest friend towards him But why my Pylades why is thy stile towards me changed why hast thou lost the old and wonted strain of our former pleasing familiarity this I could not but observe with some disgust is it because thy heart is changed but this is a question in which I cannot ask any resolution I am satisfied and at rest in thy love but what this alterations means I know not art thou willing by degrees to grow strange it cannot be thou seest however that I cannot change my voice Besides I find some jealous passages in thy last lines unto us but canst thou think that T. B. can be put into the ballance against my old friend my own my Covenant Pylades or can a friend of words come into any competition or comparison with thine experienced love I cannot entertain the thoughts of this without some disdain But thy needful cautions are acceptable to me I desire to foresee and provide for manifold changes and storms I know I am not yet in the harbor O pray with me that I enter not into Temptation for I am very weak in Spirit as well as in body God knoweth But there is no end with me somewhere or other I must break off and thou wilt say it is time to shut up for once only know that I am thy daily Orator and will be whilest I am and yet once more I must have room to add my thankful acknowledgement of thine and thy costly kindness and so with our most dear affections to you both I commend you to the God of
trembling Do you ever think to escape these mighty enemies to conquer the power and avoid the plots and snares of those potent adversaries without most painful diligence O cry to Heaven for help watch and pray fear lest a promise being left of entring into rest either of you should come short of it My dear Neeces you have many do watch for your souls to devoor them but I doubt too few except my self do watch for your Souls to save them therefore I look upon my self who am now upon the matter your only Monitor to be the more concerned to awaken my self to your help and to look after you and to watch for you left by any means you should miscarry by the deceits and temptations wherewith you are encompassed I would not have you over-careful for the things of this lise though I commend your laudable care and diligence that you may not be burdensome to any man but I commend to you a better aâ—…d more necessary care and that is that which the Aposâ—…le speaks of the Virgins care The unmarried saith he careth for the things of the Lord. Ah let this be your eare seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and then all these things shall be added you have Gods sure promise for it If the Lord give me to live and prosper you shall see and know that I am not a friend only in words to you but however that shall be see that you embrace the Counsels of God from me Oh make sure of Heaven betimes walk humbly with God beware of a proud heart and a lofty spirit abhor your selves else God will not be pleased with you condemn your selves that God may acquit you The leven of pride will sowre the whole lump and mar all your Profession and Religion and render your Persons and Prayers and all an abomination to the Lord if it prevail in you Oh therefore be not high minded but fear and by prayer and watchfulness restrain and root up this wretched corruption of pride which is a sin so natural to you that you had need to use an infinite care and caution to keep it under As to my self these may acquaint you That I have been often at the very gates of death I have lost all my limbs but prayer hath redeemed me from my extremities and God hath blessed the use of the Bath to me Oh praise the Lord praise him for my sake and give glory to the God of my Life Love him honour and glorifie him whose favour and friendship hath filled my Soul with comfort and given a resurection to my body I can now walk alone and feed my self but am altogether unable to write which is the reason why these come to you in another hand Dear Cousin you may think me too tedious but you must pardon me if I erre in my love and zeal for your welfare And now I shall trespass no more but with my own and dear Wives love to you I commend you to God and rest Your loving and careful uncle JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXVIII Do all in reference to God and his Glory Dear Friend I Have received yours of the 19th of September but it came to me in the time of my sickness in which I was much a stranger to writing it conâ—…nued upon me five months and to this day so much weakness remains in my arms that I am not able to put off or on my own clothes Your Letter was exceeding welcome to me not only as reviving the remembrance of our old friendship but also as bringing me news of some spiritual good that you received by me which is the best tidings that I can receive for what do I live for but to be useful to souls in my generation I desire to know no other business than to please and honour my God and serve my generation in that short allowance of time that I have here before I go hence and shall be seen no more Shall I commend to you the Lesson that I am about to learn But why should I doubt of your acceptance who have so readily embraced me in all our converses The Lesson is To be entirely devoted unto the Lord that I may be able to say after the Apostle To me to live is Christ. I would not be serving God only for a day in the week or an hour or two in the day but every day and all the day I am ambitious to come up towards that of our Lord and Master To do always those things that please God I plainly see that self-seeking is self-undoing and that then we do promote our selves best when we please God most I find that when I have done all if God be not pleased I have done nothing and if I can but approve my self to God my work is done I reckon I do not live that time I do not live unto God I am â—…ain to cut off so many hours from my days and so many years from my life so short as it is as I have lived unto my self I find no enemy so dangerous as my self and O that others might take warning by my hurt O that I had lived wholly unto God! then had every day and every hour that I have spent been found upon my account at that great day of our appearing before God then I had been rich indeed in treasure laid up there whither I am apace removing then I had been every day and hour adding to the heap and encreasing the reward which God of his meer grace hath promised even to the meanest work that is done to him Col. 3. 24. I verily perceive I am an external loser by acting no more as for God for what is done to my self is lost but what is done for God is done for ever and shall receive an everlasting reward Verily if there be another world to come and an eternal state after this short life it is our only wisdom to be removing and as it were transplanting and transporting what we can from hence into that Countrey to which we are shortly to be removed that what we are now doing we may be reaping the fruit of for ever more The world think themselves wise but I will pawn my soul upon it that this is the true wisdom Well let us be wholly swallowed up in the concerns of Religion and know no other interest but Jesus Christs I cannot say I have already attained but this is that my heart is set to learn That in all that I do whether sacred or civil actions still I may be doing but one work and driving on one design That God may be pleased by me and he glorified in me that not onely my Praying Preaching Alms c. may be found upon my account but even my eating drinking sleeping visits discourses because they are all done as unto God Too often do I take a wrong aim and miss my mark but I will tell you what be the rules I set my self
and look out for his coming in which is all our hope 'T will be time enough for us to be preferred then We know before hand who shall then be uppermost Our Lord hath shewed us where our place shall be even at his own right hand and wâ—…at he will say to us Come ye Blessed c. Surely we shall stand in his Judgement He hath promised to stand our Friend Let us look for the joyful day As sure as there is a God this day will come and then it shall go well with us What if Bonds and Banishments abide us for a season This is nothing but what our Lord hath told us The â—…ld shall rejoyce but ye shall weep and lament You shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be tuâ—…ned into joy Oh how reviving are his words I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh away from you If that miserable wretch leapt chearfully off the Ladder saying I shall be a Queen in Hell With that joy should we do and suffer for God who have his Truth in pawn that we shall be Crown'd in Heaven Verily they are wonderful Preparations that are making for us The Lord prepare us apâ—…e and make us meet to be Partakers It was the highest Commendation that ever that worthy R. Baxter received which fell from the Pen of his scoffing Adversary Tilenus who saith of him Tâ—…tum Puritanismum totus spirat Oh that this may be true of us and ours Let your true Yoke-fellow and my Christian Friends with you in the Bonds of the Gospel have my hearty Commendations And these Counsels I pray You give them from me for the improving of their present state 1. To habituate themselves both as to their thoughts and discourses more throughly than ever unto Holiness Brethren I wou'd teach you the Lesson that I resolve to learn with you That your minds and tongues may as naturally run on the things of Heaven as others on the things of this World Why should it not be thus I am sure God and heaven do as well deserve to be thought on and talked of by us as froâ—…h and vanity can deserve of the World There are many that have in a great measure learnt this Lesson and why should not we be some of them What if it be hard at first Every thing is so to a beginner Besides is not ours a Religion of self denial Further if we do but force our selves a while to holy Thoughts and Heavenly Discourse it will â—…row habitual to us and then it will be most natural familiar and Heavenly sweet Oh what gainers will you be if you do but learn this Lesson Verily 't is the shame of Religion that Christians are so unlike themselves unless upon their knees Sirs our lives and language should tell the world what we are and whether we are going Christians let little things content you in the world but aspire after great things in the grace of God Many real Christians do little think what high frames of holiness they might grow up to even in this life with pains and diligence Sirs be you men of great designs think it not enough if you have wherewith to bear your charges to Heaven but aspire with an holy ambition to be great in the Court of Heaven favourites of the most High of tall growth great experience singular communion that you may burn and shine in your place and convince the world that you may savour of Heaven where ever you come and that there may be an even-spun thred of Holiness running through your whole course 'T is the disgrace of Profession that there is so little difference to be seen in the ordinary conversation of Believers from other men It is not a shame that when we are in company with others this should be all the difference that is to be seen only that we will not curse and swear as do the worst of men Christians if you will honour the Gospel bring forth your Religion out of your Closets the world can't see what you do there into your Shops Trades Visits c and exemplifie the rules of Religion in the management of all your Relations and in your ordinary converse Let there be no place or company that you come into in which you do not drop something of God this will be the glory of Religion and we shall never convince the world till we come to this May you come my Brethren out of your Prisons with your faces shining having your minds seasoned and your tongues tipt with holiness may your mouths be as a Well of Life from whence may flow the holy Streams of edifying discourse may you ever remember as you are sitting in your houses going by the way lying down rising up what the Lord doth then require of you Deut. 6. 7. 2. To improve their present retirements from the World for the setling of their spiritual Estates 'T is a common complaint amongst Christians that they want assurance Oh if any of you that wanted assurance when you came to Prison may carry that blessing our what hapâ—…y gainers would you be Now you are called more than ever to self-searching Now bring your Graces to the Touchstone Be much in self observation See what your hearts do with most love and delight go out unto what are your greatest hopes and your chief designs See whether God's Intrest be uppermost in you prove this and prove all Rest not in probable hopes Think not that is enough that you can say you hope 't is well God looks for extraordinary dispensation Be restless till you can say that you know 't is well that you know you are passed from death to life Think not that this is a priviledge that onely a few may expect Observe but these three things 1. To acquaint your selves throughly with the condition of Life and take heed of laying the marks of Salvation either too high or too low 2. To be much in observing the frame and bent and workings of your own hearts 3. To universally conscientious and to be constant in even and close walkings and then I doubt not but you will grow up speedily to a settled assurance nad know and feel that peace of God that passeth all understanding and this will be somewhat worth your carrying out of Prison But I return to your self But what shall I say I have more need to receive from you than ability to give only I will tell you my wishes for you I wish that your body may prosper as your soul also prospereth I wish that you may see the travel of your Soul that you may find your people thriving under your hands iu all manner of holy conversation and godliness that whosoever converses with them may see and hear by them that God is in them of a Truth I wish your enlargement from your bonds and your enlargement in them that your Prison may be but the Lanthorn through which your