left poor starvling Flocks and we thought that the Countrey had been now stript and yet GOD hath provided for them Thus hath the Lord been pleased to furnish us with Arguments for our Faith against we come to the next distress Though you should be called forth to leave your Flocks destitute you that are my Brethren in the Ministry and others their Families destitute yet doubt not but GOD will provide remember your Bonds upon all occasions Whensoever you are in distress remember your old Friend remember your tryed Friend Thirdly Let Divine Mercy be as Oyl to the flame of your Love O love the Lord all ye his Saints Brethren this is the Language of all GOD's dealings with you they all call upon you to love the Lord your God with all your hearts with all your Souls with all your strength What hath GOD been doing ever since you came to this Prison All that he hath been doing since you came hither hath been to pour Oyl into the flames of your Love thereby to encrease and heighten them GOD hath lost all these Mercies upon you if you do not love him better then you did before You have had supplies to what purpose is it unless you love GOD the more If they that be in want love him better than you it were better you had been in their case You have had health here but if they that be in sickness love GOD better than you it were better you had been in sickness too See that you love your Father that hath been so tender of you What hath GOD been doing but pouring out his Love upon you How were we mistaken For my part I thought that GOD took us upon his Knee to Whip us but he took us upon his Knee to Dandle us We thought to have felt the strokes of his Anger but he hath stroked us as a Father his Children with most dear Affection Who can utter his loving Kindness What my Brethren shall we be 〈◊〉 than Publicans the Publicans will love those that love them Will not you return Love for so much Love Far be this from you Brethren you must not only exceed the 〈◊〉 but the Pharisees too therefore surely you must love him that loveth you This is my Business now to bespeak your love to GOD to unite your hearts to him Blessed be God for this Occasion for my part I am unworthy of it Now if I can get your Hearts nearer to GOD than they were then happy am I and blessed are you Fain I would that all these Experiences should knit our Hearts to GOD more and endear us for ever to him What So much bounty and kindness and no returns of Love At least no further returns I may plead in the behalf of the Lord with you as they did for the Centurion He loveth our Nation say they and hath built us a Synagogue So I may say here He hath loved you and poured out his Bounty upon you How many friendly Visits from those that you could but little expect of Whence do you think this came It is GOD that hath the Key of all these Hearts He secretly turned the Cock and caused them to pour forth kindness upon you There is not a motion of love in the Heart of a Friend towards you but it was GOD that put it in Fourthly Keep your Manna in a Golden Pot and forget not him that hath said so often Remember me You have had Manna rained plentifully about you be sure that something of it be kept Do not forget all the Sermons that you have heard here O that you would labour to repeat them over to live them over You have had such a Stock that you may live upon and your Friends too if you be communicative a great while together If any thing have been wanting time for the Digesting hath been wanting See that you well Chew the Cud and see that you especially remember the Feasts of Love Do not you know who hath said to you so often Remember me How often have you heard that sweet Word since you came hither What Do you think it is enough to remember him for an hour No but let it be a living and lasting remembrance Do not you write that Name of his in the Dust that hath written your Names upon his Heart Your High Priest hath your Names upon his Heart and therewith is entered into the Holy Place and keeps them there for a Memorial before the Lord continually O that his Remembrance might be ever written upon your Hearts written as with a Pen of a Diamond upon Tables of Marble that might never be worn out That as Aristotle saith of the cutious Fabrick of Minerva that he had so ordered the Fabrick that his Name was written in the midst that if any went to take that out the whole Fabrick was dissolved So the Name of Jesus should be written upon the substance of your Souls that they should pull all 〈◊〉 before they should be able to pull it out Fifthly Let the Bonds of your Affliction strengthen the Bonds of your Affection Brethren GOD hath sent us hither to teach us among other things the better to Love one another Love is lovely both in the sight of GOD and Men and if by your Imprisonment you have profited in Love then you have made an acceptable proficiency O Brethren look within Are you not more indeared one to another I bless the Lord for that Union and Peace that hath been ever among you but you must be sensible that we come very far short of that Love that we owe one to another we have not that love that indearedness that tenderness that complacency that compassion towards each other that we ought to have Ministers should be more indeared one to another and Christians should be more dear to each other then they were before We have eaten and drunk together and lived on our Fathers Love in one Family together we have been joyned together in one common Cause and all put into one Bottom O let the Remembrance of a Prison and of what hath passed here especially those Uniting Feasts ingage you to love one another Sixthly Let present Indulgence fit you for future hardships and do not look that your Father should be alwayes dandling you on his Knee Beloved GOD hath used you like Fondlings now rather than like Sufferers What shall I say I am at a loss when I think of the tender indulgence and the yearnings of the Bowels of our Heavenly Father upon us But my Brethren do not look for such Prisons again Affliction doth but now play and sport with you rather than Bite you but do you look that Affliction should hereafter fasten its Teeth on you to purpose And do you look that the Hand that hath now gently stroked you may possibly buffet you and put your Faith hard to it when you come to the next Tryal This fondness of your Heavenly Father is to be expected only while
Be strong in the Lord my Brethren 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 forced hither for the the testimony of the Gospel I shall embrace you with both arms Fare you well my most dearly Beloved be perfect 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 Joseph Aleine From the common Gaol at Juelchester September 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 with you and who can but love where they have received so much love and continually do as I have from you the Lord require 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 fold more serviceable to their Makers Glory are left to perish in their fins 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 short 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 and the fruition of him than any than all the goods of this World If so then 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 Mire 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 yea 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 thus preferred that ever nothing should be thus dignified that ever rottenness should be thus advanced a Clod a shaddow Potsheard should be thus glorified Oh Brethren study I beseech you not to require or retaliate there 's impossibility and blaspemy in such a thought but to admire and imitate his love Let love constrain you let love put you upon doing and prepare you for suffering forget not a love so memorable undervalue not a love so unvaluable I would have you all the captives of love may the cords of love draw you towards and knit you to your Redeemer may the divided streams be united in him Alas that our souls are so narrow that the Waters are so shallow with us how little how very little would our love be it he had it all infinitely less than the Glow-worm to the Sun 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 All that all our little powers were ingaged for him Brethren here is no excess oh love the Lord ye his Saints he is worthy for whom you shall do this Do but think what love hath done for you and think if you can what it means to do for you This is the love that yarned upon you when in your Blood no eye pitying you This is the love that took you up when you were Robbed and wounded and left for dead and poured in Wine and Oyl into your wounds This is that love that reprieved and spared and pardoned when the Law had condemned you and Justice would have had you delivered up and your Self-condemning consciences gave up all for lost concluding there was no hope This is the love the expensive 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 for 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 aud are found 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 Songs 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
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-hand Oh the fair advantages that we have lost what time what Sabboths Sormons 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 Veslels richly laden while our Souls are empty Oh the rich Booties the golden Prizes that some have won while we have solded the hands to sleep have not many of our own standing in Religion lest 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 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 goods 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 cries for respire till he had recovered a little more strength Fifthly Consider how little it will avail you to thrive in your Estates and not thrive in your Souls Poor Gehazi what did he get by it when he gained Naamans Talents and came off with his Leprofie Sixthly Consider how short your time for gathering in probability is the Israelites gathered twice so much Manna against the Sabbath 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 proficient 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 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 desires 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 your Pulses meat more even Are you still off and on hot and cold Or is there 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 duties 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 conversion and salvation do you manage your talk and your Trade by the rules of Religion Do you eat 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 conseiencious 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 Religion be more easie sweet and delightful to you Do you take more delight in the Word than ever are you more in love with secret Prayer and more abundant in it cannot you be content with your 〈◊〉 dinary 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 often darting up your souls Heaven-wards Is it meat and drink of 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 stronger guard upon your Tongues have you a more jealous eye upon your hearts Sevently If you grow more vile in your own eyes Pride is such a choaking Weed that nothing will prosper naer 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 others preferred before you can you heartily value and love them that think meanly of you Eighthly If you grow more quick of sense more tender of sinning more sensible 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
cold But now my Brethren I shall not with Paul call upon You so much to remember the Resurrection of Christ as the 〈◊〉 of Christ Behold He cometh in the Clouds and every Eye shall see him Your Eyes and mine Eyes and all the Tribes of the Earth shall mourn because of him But we shall lift up our heads because the Day of our Redemption draweth nigh This is the Day I look for and wait for and have laid up all my hopes in If the Lord return not I 〈◊〉 my self undone my Preaching is vain and my suffering is vain and the Bottom in which I have intrusted all my hopes is for ever miscarried But I know whom I have trusted We are built upon the Foundations of that sure Word we are not built upon the sand of Mortality Nor do we run so as uncertainly but the Word of the Lord abideth for ever upon which word do we hope How fully doth this word assure us that this same Jesus that is gone up into Heaven shall so return and that he shall appear the Second time unto Salvation to them that look for him Oh how sure 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 2 Day wherein he will judge the World by that man whom he hath 〈◊〉 The manner of it is revealed Behold the Lord 〈◊〉 with ten thousand of his Saints The Attendants are appointed and nominated The Son 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 pretious 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 onely known but seen and felt the Truth of his promises And will he come Tremble then ye Sinners Triumph ye Saints Clap your hands all ye that look for the Confolation 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 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 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. 1666. 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 somethink 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 upon 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 〈◊〉 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 forget 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 and 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 Blessed 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 thou 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 alwaies 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 alwaies 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 to 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 to Professors of their Danger To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most dear Friends MY top Joy is that my Beloved is mine and I am his but next to that I have no Joy so great as that You are mine and I am yours and You are Christs My Relation to Christ is above all He is my Life and my Peace my Riches and my Righteousness He is my Hope and my Strength and mine Inheritance and my Rejoycing In him will I please my self for ever and in him 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 overmuch pleased neither can the Christian exceed his Bounds in overvaluing 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 invaluable Mercy that ever he called me to be an Embassadour 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 and down the Corporation without any Questioning me Onely 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
doubt not but you will grow up speedily to a settled assurance and 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 abilitie 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 in 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 Graces Experiences Communion and Prison-attainments 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 JOS. ALLEINE Jan. 10. 1664. LETTER XL. Directions to the Ministers of Somersetshire and Wistshire 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 too slender a return to the most High 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 and 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 shore 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 deliverauce 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 sitting 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 are 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 Hearts of his Children towards him Sir You cannot pleasure us in any thing so much as in this 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 〈◊〉 for our length but the love of Christ constraineth us 〈◊〉 we hope you will pass by an error of Love While we have been deyifing what to do for our God we thought we could no way better serve him than by provoking such as you are to set up his great Name with us We love and Honour you not onely 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 it 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 knowledg 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 Ghrist 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 the People be publikely and privately instructed about the high necessity and great usefulness of this Dutie 2. That these Catechisms be freely given to all that will promise to use them 3. That you would be pleased
be of one Religion c. in twelves 39. The true Catholick and Catholick Church described in twelves c. 40. The successive visibility of the Church of which Protestants are the foundest Members c. in octavo 41. A Sermon of Repentance 42. Of Right Rejoycing 43. A Sermon of Faith before the King 44. A Treatise of Death 45. The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite c. in several Sermons preached at the Abbey in Westminster in twelves 46. Two Sheets for poor Families c. 47. Short Instructions for the Sick a sheet 48. A Saint or a Bruit c. in quarto 49. The mischief of Self-Ignorance and benefit of Self-acquaintance in octavo 50. Universal Concord c. in octavo 51. The last Work of a Believer c. in twelves 52. The Divine Life in three Treatises The first Of the Knowledge of God The second Of Walking with God The third Of Conversing with God in Solitude in quarto 53. The Reasons of the Christian Religion c. 54. Directions for weak distempered Christians to grow up into a confirmed state of Grace c. 2. The Characters of a sound confirmed Christian written to imprint on Man's Mind the true Idea or Conception of Godliness and Christianity in octavo 55. Now or Never in twelves 56. The Life of Faith in three parts in quaerto 57. The Cure of Church-Divisions or Directions for week Christians to keep them from being Dividers and Troublers of the Church in octavo 58. A defence of the Principles of Love which are necessary to the Unity and Concord of Christians and are delivered in a Book called the Cure of Church Divisions in octavo 59. A second Admonition to Mr. Edward Bagshaw written to call him to Repentance for many false Doctrines Crimes and especially fourscore palpable Untruths in matter of Fact deliberately published by him in two small Libels in which he exemplifieth the Love-killing and depraving Principles of Church-Dividers And telleth the World to what Men are hastning when they sinfully avoid Communion with true Churches and Christians for tolerable faults in octavo 60. The Difference between the Power of Magistrates and Church Pastors and the Roman Kingdom and Magistracy under the Name of Church and Church Government usurped by the Pope as liberally given him by Popish Princes in quarto 61. The Church Told of Mr. Edward Bagshaws Scandals and warned of the dangerous snares of Satan now laid for them in his Love-killing Principles in quarto 62. The Duty of Heavenly Meditation in quarto 63. How far Holiness is the Design of Christianity in 4to 64. God's goodness Vindicated with respect to the Doctrine of Reprobation and Damnation in twelves 65. The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day in octavo 66. More Reasons for the Christian Religion and no Reason against it in twelves There is now extant another Treatise of Mr. Jos. Allens Entituled An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners with many Practical Cases of Conscience in octavo There is now in the Press and will in a few Months be Published A CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY Or sum of Practical Divinity With the Pertinent Cases of Conscience BEING A Promptuary and Help for 1. Young Preachers 2. Masters of Families 3. Private Christians in their daily Practice And some performance of the request of many Foreign Divines long since made to A. Bp. Usher and published by Mr. Dury By Richard Baxter In Folio Books Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings-Arms in the Poultry Folio PRins New History of the Kings of England Stapletons Translation of Juvenal Quarto Mount Pisgah or a Prospect of Heaven Being an Exposition on the Fourth Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians by Tho. Case The Real Christian or a Treatise of Effectual Calling wherein the Work of God in drawing the Soul to Christ being opened according to the Holy Scriptures some things required by our late Divines as necessary for a right preparation for Christ and a true closing with Christ which hath caused and doth still cause great trouble to some serious Christians are with due respects to those Worthy Men brought to the Ballance of the Sanctuary there weighed and accordingly judged by Giles Fermin The Christian Man's Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones Business wherein the Christian is directed how he may perform it in his Religious Duties in Natural Actions in his Particular Vocation in his Family Directions and in his own Recreations By George Swinnock late Preacher at Great Kingbal in the County of Bucks An Exposition of the Song of Solomon by James Durham late Minister at Glasgow with a Preface prefixed by Doctor Owen Mr. Caryls Exposition of the Book of Job The Sinners Sanctuary or a Discovery made of those Glorious Priviledges offered unto the Penitent and Faithful under the Gospel being forty Sermons on the Eighth Chapter of the Romans by Hugh Binning The Quakers Spiritual Court Proclaimed Doctor Robert Wilds Letter to a Friend in London upon the receipt of his Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience together with his Poetica Licentia or a Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist Octavoes and Twelves Heaven on Earth or the best Friend in the worst of Times To which may be added A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of Thomas Mosely an Apothecary with a full account of his Conversion drawn up by his own hand before his death and published by James Janeway Minister of the Gospel A Token for Children Being an Exact Account of the Holy and Exemplary Lives and Joyful Deaths of several Young Children in two Parts by James Janeway Memorials of God's Judgments Spiritual and Temporal being Sermons preached in London during the late Visitation by Nicholas Lockier Lazarus Redivivus or a Discovery of the Tryals and Triumphs that accompany the Work of God in and about his People laid open in several Sermons by N. Blakie Fenners four Sermons against Popery Bishop Ushers Life and Death A Plat for 〈◊〉 or the Seamans Preacher delivered in several Sermons on Jonah's Voyage to Niniveh by John Rither Preacher of God's Word at Wapping THE Life Death Of that Excellent Minister of Christ Mr. JOSEPH ALLEIN Late Teacher of the Church at Taunton in Somerset-shire Assistant to worthy Mr. Newton CHAP. I. The Introduction AS History is both Useful and Delightful to Man-kind so Church-History above all hath the preheminence in both for it Treateth of the greatest and most necessary Subjects It is most eminently Divine as Recording those Works of God in which he most Graciously condescendeth unto Man and those Actions of Men in which they have most nearly to do with God and Treating of those Holy Societies Events and Businesses in which God's Holiness is most conspicuous and his Honour most concerned in the World The Narratives of the great Victories and large Dominions of Alexander Caesar Tamberlain or such others are but the Portraiture of Phantasms and the Relation of the Dreams of Vagrant
eyes that he attained to the right temperament of the Christian Religion and to a truly Evangelical frame of Spirit suitable to the glorious hopes of Faith and to the wonderful love of our Redeemer And when most Christians think that they have done much if they can but weep and groan over their Corruptions and can abstain from the lustful Pollutions of the World in the midst of many doubts and fears LOVE and JOY and a HEAVENLY MIND were the Internal part of his Religion and the large and fervent PRAISES of God and THANKS GIVING for his Mercies especialiy for CHRIST and the SPIRIT and HEAVEN were the External Exercises of it He was not negligent in confessing Sin nor Tainted with any Antinomian Errours but PRAISE and THANKSGIVING were his Natural Strains his frequentest longest and heartiest Services He was no despiser of a broken Heart but he had attained the blessing of a healed joyful Heart The following Narratives the strain of his Letters but above all the admirations of his nearest Friends will tell him that will enquire how his tryumphant Discourses of the Hopes of Glory and his frequent and fervent Thanksgiving and Praise were the Language which he familiarly spake and the very business of his Heart and Life And O how amiable is it to hear the Tongue employed seriously and frequently in that which it was made for even in the praise of him that made it And to see a man passing with joyful hopes towards Immortality And to live as one that seriously believeth that he must quickly be in the Heavenly Church and live with God and Christ for ever O how comely is it to see a man that saith he believeth that Christ hath redeemed him from Hell and reconciled him to God and made him an Adopted Heir of Glory to live like one that was so strangely saved from so great a misery and with the most affectionate gratitude to honour the Purchaser of all this Grace And how uncomely a thing is it to hear a man say That he believeth all this Grace of Christ this Heavenly Glory this Love of God and yet to be inclined to no part of Religion but fears and complainings and scarce to have any words of Praises or Thanksgiving but a few on the by which are heartless affected and constrained O did Christians yea Ministers but Live with the Joy and Gratitude and Praise of Jehovah which beseemeth those that believe what they believe and those that are entring into the Coelestial Chore they would then be an honour to God and their Redeemer and would win the World to a love of Faith and Holiness and make them throw away their worldly Fool-games and come and see what it is that these Joyous Souls have found But when we shew the World no Religion but Sighing and Complaining and live a sadder life than they and yet talk of the glad-Tydings of Christ and Pardon and Salvation we may talk so long enough before they will believe us that seem no more to be Believers our selves or before they will leave their fleshly pleasures for so sad and dreadful a Life as this And as this kind of Heavenly Joyful Life is an honour to Christ and a wonderful help to the Converting of the World so is it a Reward to him that hath it which made this Holy Person live in such a vigour of Duty such fervour of holy Love and such continual Content in God so that the Kingdom of God in him was Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost which others think consisteth in Meats Drinks and Dayes in Shadows and Circumstances in Sidings and in singular Conceits Rom. 14. Col. 2. 16. It was not a Melancholy Spirit that acted him nor did he tempt his People into such an uncomfortable state and strein But in the multude of his thoughts within him the comforts of God did delight his Soul His Meditation of God and his Redeemer was sweet and he rejoyced in the Lord. He delighted in the Law of the Lord and when delight invited him no wonder if it were his Meditation day and night Psal. 1. 2. 104. 34. 119. 103. 94. 19. And how great a Solace was this in his Sufferings when he could be in a Goal and in Heaven at once When he could after the terrible torment of Convulsions have the foresight and taste of Heavenly Pleasures Nihil Crus sentit in Nervo cum Animus est in Coelo saith Tertul. And as he lived so he died in Vigorous Joyful Praises and Thanksgivings Reviving out of his long speechless Convulsion into those fervent Raptures as if he had never been so impatient of being absent from the Lord as when he was just passing into his Presence or rather as if with Stephen he had seen Heaven opened and Christ in his Glory and could not but speak of the unutterable things which he had seen I deny not but his vigorous active Temper might be a great help to all his holy Alacrity and Joy in his healthful State But when that frame of Nature was broken by such Torments and was then dissolving to hear a dying Man about sixteen hours together like the ferventest Preacher in the Pulpit pour out his Soul in Praises and Thanskgiving and speak of God of Christ of Heaven as one that could never speak enough of them and that with a Vivacity and Force as if he had been in former Health and to tryumph in Joy as one that was just laying hold upon the Crown surely in this there was something that was the Reward of all his former Praise and Thankfulness and that which must needs tell the Auditors the diference not onely between the death of a Righteous Believer and the wicked Unbeliever but the weak and distempered Believer also the difference between a sound and a diseased Christian and between the tryumphant Faith and Hopes of one that saw the God and World invisible and the staggering Faith and trembling Hopes of a feeble and distrustful Soul and between the death of one that had been used to converse in Heaven and to make Thanksgiving and Praise his Work and of one that had been used to cleave to Earth and make a great matter of the concernments of the Flesh and to rise but little higher in Religion then a course of outward Duty animated most with troublesome Fears Though he died not in the Pulpit yet he died in Pulpit-Work And I must also note how great an advantage it was to himself and to his Ministerial Works that he was possessed deeply with this true sentiment That the PLEASING of GOD is the proper ultimate end of Man not doubting but it includeth the notion of glorifying him for thus his heart was rightly principled and all his Doctrine and Duties rightly animated And as in all his Ministry he was extraordinarily addicted to open to the Hearers the Covenant of Grace and to explain Religion in the true Notion of Covenanting with God and
goodness which he had in himself Whoever they were that came to visit or to be 〈◊〉 with him it was their own fault if they got not by him so much good as to be for ever the better for him It was hardly possible to be in his company and not to hear such things from him as if well weighed might have been enough to make one out of conceit with Sin and in love with Vertue as long as one lived Though he did not say as Titus once yet by his actions we may judge he thought that he had even quite lost a day when none had gained somewhat by him He lived as if he had been quickned with that saying which I have somewhere met with in Tertullian Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest To what purpose is it to live and not to live to some good purpose But this was that this ardent love to the Souls of men that quickly depriv'd us of his company it carried him down into the Countrey where how he demeaned and carried himself let others speak CHAP. III. A brief Character of him by that Reverend Person Mr. R. A. who was nearly related to him shewing how eminently he wus qualified for the Ministerial Service and Warfare unto which he was called OF his Extract I shall say little He was the Son of a godly Father Mr. Tobie Allein sometime of the Devizes an understanding affectionate prudent and signally humble and experienced Christian who died suddenly but sweetly his Son surviving him not above a year or two He having been languishing for some time at length he seemed to be upon eecovery and went about his House on the morning before he died he arose about four about 10 or 11 he came down out of his Closet and called for something to eat which being prepared he gave Thanks but could not eat any thing His Wife perceiving a sudden change in him perswaded him to go to his Bed He answered No but I will die in my Chair and I am not afraid to die He sat down and only said My Life is hid with Christ in God and then he closed his Eyes with his own hands and died immediately No more of the Father Concerning his Son I shall speak What he was and what his temper and behaviour was As a Man As a Christian. As a Minister 1. As a Man He was 1. Of quick natural parts and great acquired Abilities concerning which I shall need say no more there being a fuller Account given by another Hand 2. Of a composed grave and serious temper and behaviour not at all morose but full of candour free affable chearful and courteous 2. As a Christian. He was for exemplary Holiness and Heavenliness of mind and life much elevated above the ordinary Rank He lived much in delightful Communion with God his Soul was greatly exercised in Divine Contemplation and he would sometimes speak to provoke others whom he wished the same delights to the same exercise what ineffable pleasure sweetness and satisfaction his Soul had found in his stated Meditations on the Divine Attributes distinctly one by one In his Discourses he would speak much and passionately to the commending and exalting of the Divine Goodness and of the inexpressible dearness and tenderness of the Divine Love In Prayer he was not ordinarily so much in confession or complaining of Corruption and Infirmities though he expressed a due sense of these as in the admiring and praising of God in his Infinite Glorious Perfections in the mention of his wonderful Works particularly of those Wonders of his Love revealed in Jesus Christ. In some of his Letters to me when he had been speaking of the Grace and Goodness of God to him of the sense whereof he would seem to be even quite swallowed up he would break off with some such Expressions as these I am full of the Mercies of the Lord O Love the Lord for me O praise the Lord for my sake O help me help me to praise the Lord. His whole Life was adorned and beautified with the admirable lustre of his particular personal Graces 1. He was a Man of Love His sweet amicable and courteous converse was such as made him the deliciae of his Acquaintance and made way for the entertainment both of his serious Counsels and severer Reproofs He grew dear unto the Saints that knew him because they saw in his very face and all his Carriages how very dear they were to him His compassion to those in distress his bounty to those in want wherein he abounded beyond his ability his forbearance in case of offences his affectionate Language and Carriage his readiness to all obliging Offices of Love to his Relations to his Friends to Strangers to Enemies did evidently declare how he loved them Especially his Love was let forth in fuller streams upon the Congregation where he exercised his Ministry The People of his Care were the People of his Delight His ardent longing for their Souls his rejoycing in their Souls prosperity his bleedings and breakings of Soul under any of their falls or infirmities his uncessant labours among them both publickly and from House to House his frequent and affectionate Letters to them when he was absent his earnest desire to live and die and be buried amongst them declaring to them That if he died within fifty miles of Taunton his will was to be brought and buried there that his Bones might be laid with their Bones his Dust mingled with their Dust these all declare how greatly they were in his Heart 2. He was a Man of Courage 1. He feared no dangers in the way of his Duty knowing that He that walks uprightly walks surely In cases less clear he was very inquisitive to understand his way and then he fixed without fear 2. He feared not the faces of Men but where occasion was he was bold in admonishing and faithful in reproving which ungrateful Duty he yet managed with such prudence and such expressions of Love and compassion to Souls as made his way into hearts more easie and his work more succesful 3. He was a Son of Peace Both a zealous Peace-maker among differing Brethren in case of personal Quarrels and Contentions and he was also of sober and peaceful Principles and an healing Spirit as to Parties or Factions upon the account of Religion He had an awful and reverend regard to Magistrates abhorring all provoking and insolent expressions or mutinous and tumultous Actions against them 4. He was a Man of Truth and Righteousness Both as to his own personal practice and also was much in pressing it upon others especially professors of Religion to be examplarily just in their dealings and true in their words to be wary in promising and punctual in performing O how often and passionately have I heard him bewailing the Sins of Promise-breaking and deceitful dealing whereof such as he hath known to be guilty have understood both by Word and Writing how
consider how much he did out of a little Estate and therefore may seem strange to others Moreover when he had received any more than ordinary Mercy at the Hand of GOD his manner was to set apart some considerable Portion out of his Estate and dedicate it to the Lord as a Thank-offering to be laid out for his Glory in pious and charitable Uses When I have begged him to consider himself and me he would answer me He was laying up and GOD would repay him That by liberal things he should stand when others might fall that censured him that if he sowed sparingly he should reap so if bountifully he should reap bountifully And I must confess I did often see so much of GOD in his dealings with us according to his Promises that I have been convinc'd and silenc'd God having often so strangely and unexpectedly provided for us And notwithstanding all he had done he had at last somewhat to dispose of to his Relations and to his Brethren besides comfortable provision for me Thus his whole Life was a continual Sermon holding forth evidently the Doctrines he Preached Humility Self-denyal Patience Meekness Contentation Faith and holy Confidence 〈◊〉 in him with most dear Love to God and his Church and People and where he longed and panted to be he is now shiniug in Heaven singing Praises to God and to the 〈◊〉 which Work he much delighted in whilst here on Earth CHAP. VII Some Notes from another whose House he Lodged in Mr. F. The Narrative of his most Constant Tender Compassionate dealing with ignorant and bad People in the places when he came frequently giving them Money with his Exhortations is mentioned before AS for such as feared God already he was still seeking their Edification and stirring them up to a Holy Life Very much pressing them to intend God as their end and to do whatever they did for God When the Week began he would say Another Week is now before us let us spend this Week for God And in the Morning he would say Come now let this day be spent for God Now let us live this one day well Could we resolve to be more than ordinary circumspect but for one day at a time and so on we might live at extraordinary 〈◊〉 In the day time he would seasonably ask People How did you set out to day Did you set out for God to day What were your Morning Thoughts In the Week time he would often ask the Servants for the Heads of the Sermon which they had heard on the Lord's-Day before As he walked about the House he would make some Spiritual use of what-ever did occur and still his Lips did drop like the Hony-Comb to all that were about him to do any Offices for him in his Weakness were all well requited To give a few Instances of his savoury words To one that had done well There are two things said he that we must specially look to after well doing and the special tast of the Love of God 1. That we grow not proud of it and so lose all 2. That we grow not secure and so give the Tempter new Advantages Speaking of the Vanity of the World he said It is as good be without the World and to bear that state as beseemeth a Christian as to enjoy the World though it were never so well imployed If a Man hath Riches and layeth them out for God and for his Servants yet is it as happy a state to receive Alms of another so we bear our Poverty aright and are chearful and thankful in our low Estate Though yet it is true that Riches may be used to the good of others and it is more honourable to give than to receive Another time he was saying How necessary a Duty it is for a Child of God placidly to suit with all God's Dispensations and that a Christian must not onely quietly submit to God in all his dealings but ever to be best pleased with what God doth as knowing that he is infinitely Wise and Good And O how unbecoming a Christian is it to do otherwise To which one answering How short we ordinarily fall as to that temper He replyed We have much ground to go yet but so it must be but we shall never be well indeed till we come to Heaven Another time said he O what an alteration will be shortly made upon us Now we are the Sons of God but yet it doth not appear to sight what we shall be Did we imagine onely that we shall shine as the Sun in the Firmament it were too low a Conception of our 〈◊〉 hereafter Another Morning as he was Dressing he said O what a shout will there be when Christ shall come in his Glory I contribute to that shout Another time I bless the Lord I delight in nothing in this World further than I see God in it Another time in his weakness saith he There are three things which must be unlearned as being mistakes among men 1. Men think that their happiness lyeth in having the World when it is much more in contemning the World 2. Men think that the greatest contentment lyeth in having their Wills when indeed it lyeth in crossing mortifying and subduing their wills to the Will of God 3. Men think it their business and benefit to seek themselves when indeed it is the denying of themselves Another time this was his advice 1. Value precious time while time doth last and not when it is irrevocably lost 2. Know the worth of things to come before they come or are present and the worth of things present before they are past 3. Value no Mercy as it serveth to content the flesh but as it is serviceable for God and to things eternal Such was his talk at the Table where he would be still raised in gratitude for God's Bounty and used to eat his meat with much chearfulness and comfort as savouring of a sweeter good He took one that was watching with him by the hand and said I hope to pass an Eternity with thee in the praises of our God In the mean time Let us live a life of praise while we are here for it is sweet to us and delightful to God It is harmony in his Ears our failings being pardoned and we and our praise accepted through Christ. Such discourse is I hope no great rarity with good men in the chearfulness of prosperity in health but for a man on the Bed of tedious languishing it is more rare The night before he went to Bath where he died he said to the same Person O how much more hath God done for you than for all the World of unconverted Persons in that he hath wrought his Image on your heart and will bring you at last to his Coelestial Glory See now that you acknowledge the Grace of God and give him the praise of it For my part I bless the Lord I am full of his Mercy Goodness and Mercy have followed
marvelling at GOD's infinite goodness in the Gift of his Son our Saviour Neither did he so gaze upon and adore Christ his Redeemer and his Redemption as to forget to sound forth Praises of GOD the Creator for often he hath been heard with admiration and praise to take notice of the Divine Power and Wisdom in the Works of Creation and therefore in the open Air in the private retirement of some Field or Wood he delighted to address himself to God in praise that his eyes might affect his heart and awake his glory And here often he hath been heard to say That Man was the Tongue of the whole Creation appointed as the Creatures Interpreter to speak forth and make articulate the Praises which they but silentlently intimate He much delighted in Vocal Musick and especially in singing Psalms and Hymns particularly Mr. Bartons witness his constant practice after Dinner else-where related In him it may be said in as high a degree as of most Saints on Earth That each Thought was to him a Prayer each Prayer a Song each Day a Sabbath each Meal a Sacrament a Fore-taste of that Eternal Repast to which he hath now Arrived His Time-redeeming Thrist To conclude That he might effect all the excellent purposes of a Holy Life he set a high value on his most precious Time and did with so Wise and Holy Fore-cast each day redeem and fill it up that he did not onely not do nothing but also not little though in a little and short time All Companies did hear him proclaim the Price of Time and how excellently and advantagiously he did it in publick before his Ejection in several most useful Sermons on Ephes 〈◊〉 16. many that heard him do to this day to their great comfort and profit remember And the more remarkable was this his Holy Thrist because prophetical of his short 〈◊〉 here on Earth His diligence and holiness in this his Sphere of Action was a presage of his speedy Translation as with Enoch to the Sphere of Vision and Fruition for a reward of his singular Piety it being not probable that he who made so great a haste to dispatch his Heavenly Work should be long without his desired Recompence CHAP. X. A few Additions to the former Character by his Reverend and Intimate Friend Mr. R. F. HE was a Person with whom for many years I was well acquainted and the more I knew him the more I loved and admired the rich and exceeding Grace of GOD in him I looked on him as one of the most elevated refined choice Saints that ever I knew or expect while I live to know and that because among others I observed these things of him 1. A most sincere pure and absolute consecration of himself to GOD in CHRIST JESUS his Soul had first practised the Covenant-Dedication which his hand afterward prescribed as a Patern to others in his Father-in-Laws Book There seemed no sinister end or false affection to move or sway him in his way But the good pleasure of the LORD the edification of his Church and the Salvation of Souls were the only marks his eye seemed at all to regard in his Designs and Acts I know no other mans heart but thus he appeared to my most attentive observation and so I fully believe concerning him as much as of any Person I ever saw 2. In this his dedication to God he was carried with the highest and purest flame of Divine Love that ever I observed in any And that Love arising from a clear vision of the Beauty of Divine Perfections especially his Gospel Love the sight of which Beauty and Excellency seemed perpetually to possess and ravish his Soul This Love seemed wholly unmixed from all that carnal heat that would carry him into Fantastick or Indecent Expressions but his mind seemed to be alwayes ascending with its might in the greatest calmness and satisfaction Thus have I oft observed him in frequent and silent elevation of Heart manifested by the most genuine and private lifting up of his eyes and joyned with the sweetest smile of his Countenance when I am confident he little thought of being seen by any Thus have I oft heard him flow in Prayer and Discourse with the clearest conviction and dearest taste of divine Excellency and Goodness and the fullest highest and most pleased expression of his being overcome by it and giving up his ALL in esteem to it but this Love in the greatest demonstration appeared by his perpetual greedy and unsatiable spending of his whole self for the Glory of God good of the Church and Salvatio of Souls His Head was ever contriving his Tongue 〈◊〉 and his whole Man acting some design for these so he lived and so he dyed He laboured and suffered himself into the Maladies which ended him And when he was at Bath like a perfect Skeleton and could move neither Hand nor Foot when his Physitians had 〈◊〉 him all Preaching and diswaded him from Vocal Praying as being above his strength yec then would he almost daily be carried in his Bath-Chair to the Alms-Houses and little Childrens Schools and there give them Catechisms teach them the meaning of them and call them to an account how they remembred and understood And he died designing a way how every poor Child in Somersetshire might Have Learn and be instructed in the Assemblies Catechism yea and at the expression of his affection I cannot but mention the frequentest Extasies or Raptures of Spirit wherein he lay on his Bed when his Body was even deprived of all power of its own motion but with no great pain in consideration of Divine Love to him in general and in particular that he felt no great pain Never heard I God so loved and thanked in the highest confluences of pleasing providences by others as he was by him in his affliction for not inflicting great pain upon him though he was otherwayes so sad a Spectacle of weakness and looked so like death that some great Ladies oft hindered his coming into the Bath the gastliness of his look did so afright them 3. His pure and sacred Love wrought in him a great Spirit of Charity and Meekness to Men of other Judgements and Perswasions and great affection towards all such in whom he found any Spiritual good His Zeal was all of a building and no destroying nature he had too much wisdom to esteem his own thoughts to be the Standard of all other Mens His clear Light and pure Heat made him of a more discerning substantial and divine temper than to reject any in whom Charity could see any thing of a new nature for differing from him in the Modes or Forms of Discipline or Worship or Disputable Points 4. Suitably to his high degree of Holiness and Divine Communion he enjoyed the richest assurance of Divine Love to himself in particular and his saving interest in Christ. I believe few Men were ever born that attained to so clear satisfied and powerful
evidence that his sins were pardoned and his Person accepted in Jesus into eternal Life and had more glorious fore-tastes of Heaven I remember once coming in when he was kneeling down to Family Prayer his Heart was in that Duty carried forth into such expressions of love and praise for the sealings of everlasting Love and Life as I never heard before or since and such as I am fully satisfied none could express but who had received the White Stone with the new Name in it But this was not accidental to him or unusual for whatever Clouds he might possibly have though I know of none yet I am sure for a good time before his death he lived in the very dawning to Glory both in the full assurance of it as his Portion and a Spirit of Sanctity Love and Praise like unto it And though in the very hour of his dying his Disease had heat his Head and in his Raptures he had Expressions which at another time his Grace and Reason would not have used yet all the Copies I have seen of those Transports in the substance of them speak only fuller assurance of God's Love to him and his highest returns of love to Christ again And I do not at all wonder that a Person shining so much with the Divine Image and living so uninterruptedly in the clearest and nearest Divine Communion should enjoy such assurance of God's everlasting Love and be filled so with Joy therein and making such returns of Love and Praise thereto CHRISTIAN LETTERS FULL OF Spiritual Instructions TENDING To the Promoting of the Power of Godliness both in Persons and Families Anno Dom. 1672. CHRISTIAN LETTERS Full of SPIRITUAL INSTUCTIONS Tending To the Promoting of the Power of Godliness both in Persons and Families LETTER 1. To his Wife to Dispose her to his Acceptance of Taunton on small Maintenance My Dear Heart BY this time I hope thou hast received mine by Martin and also an Answer touching their Resolution at Taunton My thoughts have been much upon that Business of late so small as the outward Incouragements in point of Maintenance are and methinks I find my heart much Inclining that way I will tell thee the Principles upon which I go First I say this for a Foundation That a mans Life consisteth not in the Abundance of the things that he possesseth It was accounted a wise Prayer that 〈◊〉 put up of old that he might only be Fed with Food convenient for him And certain it is that where men have least of the World they esteem it least and live more by Faith and in dependance upon God casting their care and burden upon him O the sweet breathings of Davids soul the strong actings of his Faith and Love that we find come from him when his condition was low and mean in the World How closely doth he cling How fully doth he Relie upon God The Holy Ghost seems to make it a Priviledge to be brought to a necessity of living by Faith as I think I have formerly hintted thee out of Deut. 11. 10. 11. where Canaan is prefer'd before AEgypt in regard of its dependance upon God for the former and latter Rain which in AEgypt they could live without and have supplies from the River And certainly could we that are unexperienced but feel the Thorns of those cares and troubles that there are in gathering and keeping much and the danger when Riches increase of setting our hearts upon them we should prize the happiness of a middle condition much before it Doubtless Godliness with contentment is great gain Seekest thou great things for thy self saith the Prophet to Baruch seek them not Certainly a good Conscience is a continual Feast and enough for a happy Life no man that Wareth intangleth himself with the affairs of this Life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier We should be but little Incumbred with the things of this World and withal free from a World of Intanglements which in a great place committed wholly to our charge would be upon our Consciences as no small Burden Secondly I take this for an undoubted truth that a dram of Grace is better than a Talent of Wealth and therefore such a place where our Consciences would be free and we had little to do in the World to take off our hearts and thoughts from the things of Eternity and had the advantage of abundance of means and the daily opportunities of warming our hearts with the 〈◊〉 Society and Conference of Heavenly Christians and no temptations to carry us away nor discouragements in our walking with God and the due performance of our duty is if we pass a true and Spiritual Judgement as the Holy Ghost in Scripture would without comparison before another place void of those Spiritual helps and advantages Let us think with our selves what though our Purses our Estates may thrive better in a place of a larger maintenance yet where are our graces our souls like to thrive any way answerable to what they are in this We should have but little in the World and we could live hereafter but alas what is this if it be made up to us as it will surely be in Communion with God and his People If we thrive in Faith and Love Humility and Heavenly mindedness as above all places I know we are likely to do there what matter is it though we do not raise our selves in the World the thing it may well be accounted but mean but alas let us look upon it with a spiritual Eye and then we shall pass another Judgement of it Oh! who would leave so much Grace and so much comfort in Communion with Christ and his Saints as we may gain there for the probabilities of living with a little more gentility and handsomness in the world 'T is a strange thing to see how Christians generally do judge so carnally of things looking to the things that are seen and Temporal and not the things that will stick by us to Eternity What is it worth a year is the Maintenance certain and sure What charges are there like to be these are the questions we commonly ask first when we speak of setling But alas though those things are duly to be considered too yet what good am I like to do what good am I like to get Both which questions I think might be as comfortably Answered concerning this as any place in England These should be the main Interrogatories and the chief things we should judge of a place to settle in by What if we have but a little in the World Why then we must keep but a short Table and shall make but a little noise in the World and must give the meaner entertainments to our Friends O but will not this be abundantly made up if we have more outward and inward Peace as we may well count we shall have One dram of saving Grace will weigh down all this Let others 〈◊〉 themselves in
stay for me and so I must here shut up my Letter as Jude 〈◊〉 his Ye Beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith Praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal life Unto his Grace I commend you all and shall add nothing but to share my loves among you and so rest Your Embassador is Bonds JOS. ALLEINE Juelchester November 22. 1663. LETTER XVIII The Worth of Holiness To the Beloved People the Flock of God in Taunton Grace and Peace Most dear Friends and Brethren I Am now a Prisoner of the Lord for you Gentiles and therefore have sent these few Lines to beseech you by these Bonds which I gladly endure for your sakes to hold forth and hold fast the Profession of your Faith without wavering The Lord make you stedfast in the Holy Doctrine wherein you have been taught I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole Counsel of God O remember that by the space of eight years I ceased not to warn you every one and kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have taught you publickly and from House to House warning every man and 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 Word been brought to their Doors Hath not Mercy wooed them have they not been called under the Wings of Mercy And yet they would not Oh that they would consider it now in the latter days 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 bate 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 for Sodom and Gomorah 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 and 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 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 Psa. 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 Integrety or my sasety I will chose the danger rather than the fin 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 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 indanger 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 likewise 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 119. 165. Read Isa. 48. 18 22. and 26. 3. and 32. 17. Holiness will be a Treasure of Riches Jam. 2. 5. and a Crown of honour Acts 17. 11. a Paradise of Pleasure to you Prov. 3. 17. In a word holiness is the perfection of mans nature Heb. 12. 21. the Communication of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. the earnest of Glory Matt. 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 onely 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 Prison at Juelshester Decemb. 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 any thing 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 Yours while I am J. A. LETTER XIX 1. Try 2. Rejoyce To the most Loving and best Beloved the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most endeared Friends MY heart is solicitous for You Your Spiritual and Eternal welfare is the matter of my desires and designes Let not my Beloved think they were forgotten by me because you heard not from me the last Week sleep departed from my eyes to write to you at large but in the morning I concluded it best to defer the imparting of it to You for a season that you might have it a better way Can a woman forget her Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb Yea they may forget but Christ will earnestly remember You still Natural Parents may be so far unnatural spiritual Parents may be so far carnal as to forget their own Children I would have you count nothing as certain but Christs love and care This you may build upon You need not fear lest time and distance should wear out the remembrance of you with him Your names are inrolled in the everlasting Decrees of Heaven and a whole Eternity hath not been able to wear them out Do any of you Question whether you are so happy as to have your Names recorded above I shall bring it to a speedy issue Do you Question whether Christ hath taken your Names Whether you are upon his heart Let me ask you Is Heaven upon your Hearts Is the Name of Jesus deeply engraven upon your Souls Is his Image and Superscription there If you can find that Heaven is the main of your cares that your hearts are set upon it as your home and your Countrey and that it is your great business to seek it and to secure it then never doubt if your hearts be chiefly upon Heaven your Names are unquestionably written in Heaven Again hath Christ recorded his Name in your hearts Is the Name of Jesus the Beloved name with you precious above all next to your Hearts Is there no other Name under Heaven so dear and sweet to you What room hath Christ in you If any thing be deeper in your hearts than he is you are unsound As the Father hath given him so do your hearts give him a Name above every Name Is Christ uppermost with you in your estimations and affections Then rejoyce and leap for joy for your Names are most pretious with Christ if his Name be above all dear to You. Once more hath Christ drawn out his own similitude upon You Is Christ within You doth he dwell in your Hearts Then be sure You have a room in his heart The Image of Christ is in holiness Is this that which your very hearts are set upon Do You thirst for Holiness Do You follow after Holiness Do you prize it above all Prosperity and worldly Greatness Do You hate every sin and long to be rid of it as your most irksome burden and use all Gods means against it as far as you know them If it be thus with you Christ hath set his stamp upon your hearts and so you may be sure he hath set You as a Seal upon his heart Rejoyce then O Christians and bless your selves in the happy priviledge that you have in being under Christs care Fear not little Flock Stronger is he that is with you than he that is against you What though Satan should raise all his Militia against you adhere to Christ in a patient doing and suffering his pleasure and he shall secure you The Lord will not forsake you because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people God hath entrusted you with his Son You are his Care and his Charge Many will be listing at you many will be plucking at you but fear not you shall not be moved none shall pluck you out of Christs hand he hath all power Mat. 28. 8. Can Omnipotence secure you He is all Treasures Col. 2. 3. Can unsearchable Riches suffice you In a word he is all Fulness Col. 1. 21. Can all Content you Can Fulness fill you if so you are blessed and shall be blessed Beloved We lose unutterably for want of considering for want of viewing our own Priviledges and Blessedness O Man is Christ thine and yet dost thou live at a low rate and Comfort Is thy name written in Heaven and yet dost thou not rejoyce Shall the Children of the Kingdom the Candidates of Glory the chosen Generation the Royal Priesthood be like other men O Christians Remember who and whence you are consider your Obligations put on a better pace Bestir your selves run and wrestle and be strong for the Lord of Hosts and earnestly yet peaceably contend for the Faith once delivered to his Saints What shall we make nothing of all that God hath said and done for us Christians shall he that hath gotten an inriching Office boast of his Booty or he that hath obtained the Kings Patent for an Earldome glory in his Riches and Honour And shall the Grant of Heaven signifie little with thee Or Christs Patent for thy Sonship and Partnership with himself be like a Cypher Shall Haman come home from the Banquet with a glad heart and glorying in the greatness of his Riches the multitude of his Children and all the things wherein the King had promoted him above the Princes And shall we turn over our Bibles and read the Promises and find it under Gods own hand that he intends the Kingdome for us that he will be a Father to us that he gives and grants all his infinite perfections to us and yet not be moved Beloved Christians live like your selves let the World see that the Promises of God and Priviledges of the Gospel are not empty sounds or a meer
Crack Let the Heavenly cheerfulness and the restless diligence and the holy raisedness of your Conversations prove the reallity excellency and beauty of your Religion to the World Forget not your Prisener Labour earnestly for me in your Prayers who am night and day labouring and suffering for you I can never bless God enough for his most tender and indulgent care for you which appears so wonderfully in his Fatherly Protection and his Fatherly Provision See that you receive not the Grace of God in vain Remember with trembling that of our Lord To whom much is given of him much shall be required With my most Dear Loves to you all I commend you to your Father and my Father your God and my God remaining Yours in all manner of Obligations JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester January 20th 1663. LETTER XX. The Felicity of Believers To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians I Have longed and waited for a little breathing time wherein I might write unto you but I have been oppressed hitherto with so many cares and such a throng of business that till now and scarcely now I have had no time of respiration wherein I might sufficiently reflect on you or my self But although so great a part of Taunton be translated to Juelchester with me yet I may not I cannot forget you that are behind Alas poor Taunton how should I bewail thee did I look upon thee onely with the Eye of sense Alas for thy wonted Liberties for thy former plenty and variety wherewith the Lord hath blessed thee He had spread a Table for thee in the midst of thine Enemies Bread hath been given thee and thy Waters have been sure But now a Famine seems to threaten thee and the Comforters that should relieve thy Soul are far from thee Thy Shepheards are removed Thou seest not thy Signs nor thy Prophets and thy wonted helpers are now disabled from giving thee supplies Alas how do thine Enemies triumph and thy Teachers and thine Inhabitants are become their Captives and how great is the Cry of thy Poor and thine oppressed Such would be the Language of Sense if that were suffered to be the Speaker But Faith will speak in another Dialect And therefore amongst my other Counsels that I shall send you this shall be the first Judge not of the present Providences by the conduct of Sense but by the eye of Faith Faith will see that we are then most Honoured when we are most vilified and reproached and set at nought for the sake of Christ and that we are then most happy when the World hath done its worst to make us miserable Faith will tell you that GOD is a very present help when you seem quite to fail of Help and will shew you the Well of Water that is near when the Water in the Bottle is spent What though you seem to have lost Ministers Husbands Friends for a Season Faith will tell you that they are well bestowed and that it will be both your and their Advantage in the Day of Retribution Brethren what are you for Are you for the present World or for that to come Are you for your Temporal enjoyments or do you seek for Glory Honour and Immortallty If you are for this World you have made a very imprudent choice in taking up the Profession of Godliness and cleaving to and owning the hated ways of the Lord But if you are for Glory and for Eternity then be of good Chear all these things do make for us You are Witnesses how often I have told you of these things and I can say with the Apostle I believed therefore have I spoken and therefore I am nothing moved with all these things nor with the things that do yet further abide me I believed and therefore I told you that you should never be losers by Jesus Christ. Nay do I say I told it you You know the Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed you that the Persecuted are doubly blessed that such should rejoice and leap for joy because great is their Reward in Heaven Hath not God said that if we suffer with him we shall also Reign with him and that these light afflictions work for us a weight of Glory And if this be true I pray you tell me whether GOD heth not dealt well with us in counting us worthy of this little Tribulation for his Name Indeed the Sufferings is but little but verily the Reward will not be little I know whom I have trusted I am well assured the Glasse is turned up and ever hour reckoned of our imprisonment and every Scorn and Reproach of our Enemies is kept in Black and White I believe therefore do I speak GOD is infinitely tender of us my Brethren though a Poor and despicable Generation I value not the pop-gun threats of a frowning World 't is well with us we are GODS Favourites Come by Beloved let us sit down under his Shadow Here is safety and rest if God be for us who can be against us Verily he Bottles all our Tears and tells all our Wandrings He numbers all our hairs whosoever toucheth us shall not be Innocent Know you not that we are the Apple of his Eye Hath not he reproved the greatest for his Peoples sakes saying reproach not mine anointed And so we forget how he loved us Are not we his Jewells Doth he not own us for his Members for his Children Ah what a Block doth Unbelief make of man What do you think that all this doth signifie nothing Can you forget your Children Will you suffer your Jewells to lie in the Dirt or make no reckoning of them whether they are lost Verily I write not this without shaming reflectious upon my own stupidity What Beloved of God adopted by God! What a Member of Christ Jesus A vessel of Mercy An heir of Glory What and not yet swallowed up in the sense of Gods infinite love Blush Oh my Soul and be confounded before the most High cover thy face with shame I remember what the Heathen Seneca writes observing the expressions of Gods love to man in his common Providence Verum est usque in delicias amamur that is it is a very truth we are beloved of God even as his darlings My Brethren Have Faith in God Believe his Promises Walk in the sense of his love Comfort your selves in Gods love towards You under all the hatred and envy of men and the contradiction of sinners that You meet with Be strong and of a good courage God is for You. Be assured that he that walketh uprightly walketh surely Forsake not the assembling of your selves together Now see that You speak often to one another and build up each other in the holy Faith God knows I cannot do for you as I would I would have been larger to You but I cannot My most dear Loves I desire You to share among you I am greatly Yours The Peace that
passeth all Understanding keep your Hearts and minds I am Yours to serve you and for you with all readiness of mind JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester July 28th 1665. LETTER XXI What do you more than others To the most Dearly Beloved the Servants in Taunton Grace and Peace Most loving and entirely Beloved YOu are a great Joy to me I know not what thanks to render to the Lord for you when I hear of your Constancy and Pidelity and Zeal in adhering to him and his Ways even in such a time as this you are highly favoured Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that he hath regarded the low Estates of his Servants That he should ever Indulge you as he hath and Hover over you even as the Eagle stirreth up her Nest and fluttereth over her Young spreadeth abroad her Wings taketh them beareth them on her Wings for so hath the Lord your God dealt with You He hath kept you as the Apple of his Eye and since the Streams of Cherith were dried up yet to this day he hath not suffered the handful of Meal to wast nor the Oyl in the Cruse to fail but though you have no certainty to trust to hath continually provided for you to the full How should I love and bless the Lord for this his great Grace towards you while I live Now I beseech you my Brethren that you consider the Kindness of the Lord for the Lord your God is he that careth for you and that you love the Lord your God and fear him for ever for he is your Life and the Length of your Daies And as Job had a holy fear of his Children least they should have offended So my most dearly Beloved I am jealous of you with a Godly jealousie lest any of you should receive this Grace of God in vain I must not cease to put you in mind that God doth look for no small matters from You. Remember my most endeared Charge that the Lord doth look for singular things from you that there be not a barren Tree nor a Dwarf Christian among you where the Lord doth strow much he looks to gather much and where he soweth much he expects to reap accordingly Whose account my Beloved is like to be so great as yours O look about you and think of the Master coming to Reckon with you for his Talents when he will expect no small increase Beloved what can you do How much are you grown What spoil have you made upon your Corruptions What progress in Grace Suppose Christ should put that awakening Question to you What do you more than others Beloved God doth expect more of his People than of any others in the World besides And well he may For First He hath bestowed more on them than on others Now where much is given much shall be required Can you think of that without trembling He hath bestowed on them singular Love more than on others You only have I known of all the Families on Earth He hath a distinguishing Love and Favour for his People and he looks that his Love should be a constraining Argument to Obedience Again he hath laid out a singular care on his People more than on others He cares for no man for nothing in all the World in comparison of them He reproveth Kings for their sakes He will give Nations and Kingdomes for their Ransome So precious are they in his sight and so dearly Beloved that he will give men for them and People for their Life He withdraweth not his Eyes from the Righteous he will not indure them out of his sight The Eyes of the Lord are upon the Righteous and first the Eye of his more accurate Observation God can wink at others as it were and overlook what they do with little notice but he hath a most curious eye upon his People he marketh their steps and booketh their words he weigheth their Actions and pondereth all their goings And should not they walk more cautiously and charily than any alive that are under so exact and curious an Eye Secondly the Eye of special Care and Protection Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him I will guide thee with mine Eye And should not they be infinitely tender and careful how to please the Lord who have his singular Care laid out on them In short God hath bestowed on them singular Priviledges more than others These are a peculiar Treasure to him above all People a Kingdome of Priests an Holy Nation a singular separated People they dwell alone they are diverse from all People When the whole World lies in wickedness these are Called and Chosen and Faithful Washed and justified and Sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God The rest are the Refuse These the Jewels These are taken and they are left Shall not Gods Priests be Cloathed with Righteousness and shall not Princes Live above the rate of Peasants Secondly He hath intrusted them with more than others Not onely with the Talents of his Grace for the increase whereof they must give a strict account but also with the Jewel of his Glory How tenderly should they walk that are entrusted with such a Jewel Remember your Makers Glory is bound up in your fruitful walking Thirdly He hath qualified them more than others He hath put into them a Principle of Life having quickned them together with Christ. He hath set up a Light in their Minds when others lie in Darkness He hath given them other Aids than others have even his Spirit to help their Infirmities when others lie like Vessels that are Windbound and cannot stir Fourthly He hath provided for them other manner of things than for others These are the little Flock to whom it is his good pleasure to give the Kingdom great are the preparations for them The Father hath prepared the Kingdome for them from the Foundations of the World The Son is gone to Heaven on purpose to prepare a place for them The Spirit is preparing them and making them meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And should these be like other People Brethren beloved God and Men do expect you should do more than others see that that you be indeed singular For 1. If you do no more for God than others he will do more against you then others You onely have I known therefore will I punish you The barren Tree in the Vineyard must down whereas had he been in the Common he might have stood much longer God looked for Grapes from his Vineyard on which he had bestowed such Care and Cost more than ordinary but when they bring forth wild Grapes he will lay them waste in a worse manner than the Forrest When Christ came to the Figg-tree seeking Fruit and met with none he Curst it from the Root whereas had it been a Thorn or Bramble it might have stood as before 2. If you do no
more than others you must look for no more than others If you should put off God with a common Obedience you must expect to be put off with common Mercies 3. Except you do more than others God will be dishonoured more by you than others I have been too long with you but I am earnestly desirous you should be sensible of Gods extraordinary Expectations from you And truly as God looks for more from his own than others so he looks for more from you than others even of his own because that he hath done more See that you be shining Christians that you be strong in the Grace of God that you press toward the Mark. But I must conclude I give my Loves among you all being able to add no more but that I am Yours in servent Loves and Longings JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester January 2. 1663. LETTER XXII Christian Care Faith Self-denial To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians THe reason why my Letters have not of late come so thick as formerly to you is not because I forget to love you and to care for you but because I have been busily taken 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 is a joy to me to hear when your Trade doth flourish 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 found 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 onely 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 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 and 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 your 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 Mony 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 threefoold Foot that Carnal-self stands upon our own Wisdome 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 only in Christ and to stand only 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 by my Prayers to my Counsels and so commending you to God and the Word of his Grace I rest The fervent Well-willer of your Souls JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juel-Chester April 16. 1663. LETTER XXIII Right Reasons in Suffering To my dearly 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 toward 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 should 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 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 〈◊〉 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 Judgment 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 see 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 Judg 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 Philosophers 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 mother 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 Remember 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 〈◊〉 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 yourselves 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 that 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 the Servants of Christ 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
in Profession It is not Profession but Converson that turns a man from a Swine to a Sheep Let none of you be deceived nor flatter your selves that because you beat the Name of Christians and do many things and have escaped the open gross pollutions of the World therefore you are surely among the number of Christs true Sheep All this you may attain to and yet be but washed Swine here must be an inward deep and thorow and universal Change upon your Natures Dispositions Inclinations or else you are not Christs Sheep In a word If you will be put out of doubt whether you are his Sheep or not you must trie it by this certain Mark that Christ sets upon all his Sheep even your Sanctification you that will stand to the trial answer me truly and deliberately to these Questions Do you hate every sin as the Sheep doth the Mire Do you regard no Iniquity in your Hearts Do you strive against and oppose all Sin though it may seem never so necessary never so natural to you or have you not you secret Haunts of evil For every Swine will have his swill Do you abstain from sin out of fear or out of dislike Are You at peace with no sin or do you not hide some Iniquity as a sweet morsel under your Tongue Is there not some practice that You are not willing to know is a sin for fear you should be forced to leave it Do you love the Commandment that forbids your sin or do you not wish it out of the Bible as that evil man wished God had never made the Seventh Commandment Again how do You stand affected towards Holiness Do you love it Do you choose it Do You hunger and thirst after it and desire it more than any Temporal good Have You chosen the way of Gods Precepts and had rather live Holily than be allowed to live in your sins Do You in your very Hearts prefer a Godly strict Life in communion with and conformity to God before the greatest prosperity of the World Do You chose Holiness not out of bare necessity because You cannot go to Heaven without it but out of love to it and from a deep sense that You have of the surpassing Excellency and Loveliness and Beauty of it If it be thus with You You are the Persons that the Lord Jesus hath marked for his Sheep And now Come ye Blessed all that have this Mark upon You come and understand your happiness You are marked out for preservation and let it go how it will with the rest this I know it shall go well with you that fear the Lord that fear before him You are the separated Ones the sealed Ones Upon whom the Angel hath set the Seal of the Living God and so you are redeemed unto God from among men being the First-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb and have your Fathers Name written in your Fore-heads Hear O beloved Flock I may give you the Salutation of the Angels Hail You are highly favoured of the Lord Blessed are you among men though you are but poor and despised and like little Benjamin among the thousands of Judah You carry away the the Blessing and the Priviledge from all the rest God hath done more for the least of you than for the whole World of Mankind besides put all their mercies together Fear not little Flock it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Blessed are you of the Lord for yours is the Kingdome of Heaven All that the Scripture speaks of that Kingdome of Glory that Kingdome of Peace of Righteousness that Everlasting Kingdome It speaks it all to you Behold your Inheritance See that you believe What know you not your own selves You are the Sons of God Inheritours of the Kingdom of Heaven Joint Heirs with Christ the Lord of Glory Do you believe this Take heed you make not God a Lyar His Word is nigh you Have you not the Writings in your hands Do I speak any thing but what God hath spoken Shall I tell you of the thing which shall be hereafter Why thus it shall be The Son of man shall come in his Glory and all his holy Angels with him Then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory and he shall separate you as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats and he shall set you at his own right hand Then shall the King say Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you Do you believe yet Do you throughly believe If so then my work is done then I need not bid you Rejoyce nor bid you be Thankful onely believe Do this and do all Believe and you will rejoyce with Joy unspeakeable and full of Glory Believe and you will be Fruitfull and shew your Faith by your works Believe and you will Love for Faith worketh by love In a word keep these things upon your Hearts by daily and lively Consideration and this will bring Heaven into your Souls and ingage you to all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness This will mortifie you to the World the grand Enemy which I advise nay I charge you to beware of When Saul had gotten his Kingdome he left off taking Care for the Asses O Remember yours is the Kingdom What are You the better that You have all this in your Bibles if you do not weigh it by frequent and serious Consideration and ponder these sayings in your Hearts Beloved I have written these things to you that your joy may be full And now Peace I leave with you I am Christs Embassador to you an Embassador of Peace his Peace I pronounce unto you In his Name I bless you Farewell in the Lord I am The fervent Well-willer of your Souls JOS. ALLEINE Devises June 29. 1666. LETTER XXVII Of the Second coming of Christ. To the Faithful and Beloved the Servants of God in Taunton Grace and Peace Loving and most dearly Beloved THough I trust my Bonds do preach to You yet methinks that doth not suffice me but the Conscience of my Duty and the workings of my Heart towards You are still calling upon me to stir You up by way of Remembrance notwithstanding You know and be established in the present Truth And if Paul do call upon so great an Evangelist as Timothy to Remember that Jesus was raised from the dead according to the Gospel why should not I be often calling upon my self and upon you my dearly Beloved to remember and meditate upon and closely apply the great and weighty Truths of the Gospel which You have already received And in truth I perceive in my self and you another manner of heat and warmth in the insisting upon the plainest Principles of Christianity and the setting them home upon mine own heart and yours than in dwelling upon any more abstruse Speculations in the clearest handling of which the Preacher may seem to be too much like the Winter nights very bright but very
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 unspeakable 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 Intercessiors to God in my behalf for it is he that must do the Cure I seem to my self to be ritired to this place as a Vessel rent and shatter'd and torn in the Service that is come to recruit in the Harbour And here I am as it were rigging and repairing and Victualling to put forth again in the Service which I shall do with the first Wind as soon as I am ready What is my life unless 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 fast and to grow up in your holy Faith Be warned my dearly Beloved that You fall not upon these 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 found a meer Idolater Many a Soul goes down to Hell in this sin in the midst of his Profession and never 〈◊〉 it till it be too late Remember I beseech You that the Oxen the Farm Wife Merchandize all of them lawful Comforts did as effectually keep men from a sound and saving closing with Christ as the vilest lufts of the worst of men Whatever You find your hearts very much pleased in and in love with among these earthly Comforts set a mark upon that thing and remember that there lies your greatest danger What you love most you must fear most and think often with your selves This if any thing is like to be my ruine Oh the multitudes of Professors that perish for ever by the secret hand of this mortal Enemy I mean the over-valuing of Earthly things The hearers compared to the thorny 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 affection 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 are 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 those are their chief Care and their chief Joy Such must know and 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 Secondly Lest while iniquity doth abound your love to Christ doth wax cold Remember what an Abomination Laodicoa was to Christ because she grow so luke-warm and what a controversie he had with Ephesus a sound Church because she did but slacken 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 fully now he is most rejected and opposed Thirdly Lest you keep up a 〈◊〉 and fruitless Profession without 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 and hearing all the Week long and yet be not one jot the further Many there are that keep 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 Laodicea 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 loving and most Dearly 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 Lord hath committed to me for the furtherance of your Salvation How long Lord how long shall I dwell in silence How long shall my Tongue cleave to the Roof 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 methinks 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
Converse O my Pylades what shall I say unto thee now I begin to write where shall I begin when shall I end methinks I am as a full Bottle quite inverted where the forward pressing of the overhasty Liquor makes the evacuation more flow and my thoughts are like a thronging croud sticking in the door Long is the Song of Love that I have to tell thee I rejoice in the constancie of thy Love that the waters of so long a silence and so great a distance have not yet quenched it but thy desires are towards me and thy heart is with me though Providence hath hindred me from thy much desired Company I will assure thee it hath been a pleasure to my heart a good part of this summer to hope that I should come one half 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 servent love Methinks I see it and feel how it runs through all the Veins of every Letter nay every Line I needed not so chargeable a Testimony as thy golden Token with which I was something displeased because I thought thou needest more than my self but the love there-by 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 looked 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 ruuning 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 take of him and write of him with perpetual pleasure Through grace I can say methinks I am now in my Element fince I have begun to make mention of him I am rich in him and happy in him and my soul saith unto him with David Thou hast made me most blessed for evermore and happy is the hour that ever I was born to be made partaker of so blissful 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 sacrets of my Soul and 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 my mind who said one to another when they had eat and drunk and carried away silver and gold and rayment and went and hid it we do not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace It is fit 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 exalt 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 fatness 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 sancie 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 mayest 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 a little the better loved for 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 Busides I find some jealous passages in thy last lines unto us but cast thou think that 〈◊〉 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
very subject to misplace our grief and to mistake the Ground and Object of our sorrow So did these Daughters of Jerusalem you see they wept where they should not and they wept not where they should And therefore Christ Corrects their Sorrow in the Text Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your Children A great part of the sin and corruption that hath invaded humane nature consists in the disorder and distemper of our passions and affections lies especially in two things either when we miss the right object or transgress the just measure When they are either ill placed or ill proportioned When we mistake in either of them When we are troubled where we should not or too much troubled where we should we are much to be condemned And both of these we are very subject to The first is pertinent to our purpose we are extreamly apt to grieve and to be troubled where we should not It is no wonder that we find Esau faulty here mistaken in the object of his sorrow He sought Repentance and sought it carefully with tears as you may see Heb. 12. 17. But what Repentance did he seek with tears Alas he missed his mark he sought not his own but his Fathers Repentance feign he would have his Father to Repent of his pouring out the blessing on his younger brother Jacob and consequently to revoke it and to call it back again But when he saw that was not to be done and heard his Father say I have blessed him and he shall be blessed he lifted up his voice and wept Gen. 27. 38. Yea the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour Christ himself mistook in this that they misapplyed their sorrow They were extreamly grieved and troubled that Christ was ready to depart and to withdraw his fleshly presence from them Whereas he tells them plainly It is expedient for you that I go away John 16. 7. It is not only expedient for me but it is expedient for you so that here was no real cause of grief and sorrow And hence our Saviour puts a stop upon it John 14. 1. Let not your hearts be troubled q d. I see that you misplace your grief Come it must not be so I will not have it to be so lot not your hearts be troubled Poor Mary was greatly at a loss in this particular she stood besides the sepulcher of Christ Weeping John 11. 20. Why what 's the matter The Body of the Lord is gone Had she found him dead there it seems she had been very well content So that her grief and sorrow was in deed although she did not understand it and intend it so that Christ was Risen She should have wept over an unbelieving heart that doubted of the Resurrection of her Saviour and not over an empty Grave from which his Body was deliver'd God having loosed the pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it Acts 2. 24. I might add other instances but these may satisfie to clear the point That we are very subject to misplace our grief and to mistake the ground and object of our sorrow And there are two especial causes of it viz. Either because our understanding is 〈◊〉 or our Affections are mislaid Reas. 1 Sometimes we are very subject to misplace our grief because our understanding is misled We do not Judg aright of that which is indeed the only or the greatest cause of trouble Some apprehend their tears are fitter to be spent on their Afflictions then their sins They see no great hurt in sin but they feel much in Affliction Affliction is a grievous thing to them but corruption is not so There is a principle in Nature which makes a man averse from penal evil but there is none at all that maketh him averse from sinful evil so that a man needs nothing else but Nature to make him sensible of penal evils of Afflictions but he needs more then Nature to make him sensible of sin And hence it is because the greater part of men have nothing else but Nature in them that they are so exceedingly affected with the one and so regardless of the other Now these affections follow apprehensions as they always do They are mistaken in their judgments and so they misapply their passions They look upon their sins as small matters but they amplifie their troubles and afflictions as he in the Poet I am ten times twenty times an hundred times miserable And hence they weep for their afflictions and will not be comforted while they have not a tear to spend upon their sins And this in probability was Israels case Ier. 30. 15. They were extreamly troubled at the miseries that were upon them but they were little troubl'd at their sins They cryed because of their Afflictions they did not only sigh and mourn and grieve and weep but more then so they cry'd aloud which shews extremity of sorrow But we hear nothing of any sorrow for their sins And therefore God comes in and interrupts them why what 's the matter with you can you tell why you take on in this fashion Why criest thou for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine Iniquitie because thy sins are increased And so for penal evils they mistake there too They think that Temporal Judgments are greater and heavier then spiritual judgments They take the bodily plague to be worse then the plague of the heart a famine of Corn then the famine of the word and so they grieve more for the one then for the other and they had rather lose their Saviour then their 〈◊〉 That is the first reason then why we misplace our grief Because our understanding is misled 2. The second is Because our Affection is misled I mean our love for love is the commander of our other passions It is the first and great wheel of the soul that carries all the rest about and governs them as it pleaseth Love is the strongest of the passions and Affections and therefore all the rest yield to it and are greatly sway'd by it And by this means it comes to pass that if we misplace our Love we are in danger to misplace our sorrow For we shall surely grieve for that most which we love best whether it be best or not Oh what a deal of vain unnecessary sorrow do many throw themselves into by misapplying this Affection Their love is setled where it should not be or it is stronger then it ought to be to such a friend to such a comfort to such a relation and when they find a disappointment by the removall or the change of that which they have set their hearts too much upon their grief is answerable to their love Strong affections especially when they miscarry in the object of them do cast men into strong Afflictions Oh how was David overcome with the death of Absalom though yet indeed the cutting of him off was