thou sluggard she layeth up her meat in the Summer Happy man that can say to his Soul on good grounds what he vainly spake Thou hast much good laid up for many years Who will not Victual the Castle against the Siege and the Ship against the Voyage Fourthly Consider you will find all little enough when you come to die the Wise among the Virgins have no Oyl to spare at the coming of the Bridegroom distress and temptations and death will put all your Graces to it How much ado have many poor Saints had at last to put into this harbour David cties for respite till he had recovered a little more strength Fifthly Consider how little it will avail you to thrive in your Estates and not thrive iâ—… your Souls Poor Gehazi what did he get by it when he gained Naamans Talents and came off with his Leprosie Sixthly Consider how short your time for gathering in probability is the Israelites gathered twice so much Manna against the Sabboth as they did at other times because at that time there was no Manna fell Brethren you know not how long you have to lay in for Seventhly Consider Gods expectations are great from you he hath been lopping and pruning you and now he looks for more fruit he hath had you for some time under his more severer Discipline and therefore expects you should be better proficients he hath tried new means with you and is come to you with a Rod and he will be angry with a witness if he do not find you now to mend Times of Afflictions use to be gaining times to Gods People God forbid that you alone should be losers Do you ask for marks how you may know your souls to be in a thriving case First If your appetites be more strong Do you thirst after God and after grace more than heretofore do your cares for and desire after the World abate and do you hunger and thirst after righteousness whereas you were wont to come with an ill-will to holy duties do you come to them as a hungrie stomach to its meats Secondly If pour Pulses beat more even Are you still off and on hot and cold Or is the a more even spun thred of holiness through your whole course do you make good the ground from which you were formerly often beaten off Thirdly If your natural heat do grow more vigorous and your digestion more quick Do you take more notice of God in every thing than heretofore and let none of his works nor words pass without some careful attention and observation do you ponder upon and pray over his Word and his Providences Fourthly If you do look more to the Compass and latitude of Religion and mind more than ever the carrying on together the dâ—…s of both Tables Do you not only look to the keeping if your own Vineyards but do you begin to look more abroad and to lay out your selves for the good of others and are filled with zealous desires for their conversation and salvation do you manage your talk and your Trade by the rules of Religion Do you ear and sleep by rule doth Religion form and mould and direct your carriage towards Husband Wife Parents Children Masters Servants do you grow more universally consciencious Is piety more diffusive than ever with you doth it come more abroad with you out of your Clossets into your Houses your Shops your Fields doth it journey with you and buy and sell for you hath it the casting voice in all you do Fifthly If the duties of Râ—…ligion be more easie sweet and delightful to you Do you take more delinht in the Word than ever are you more in love with secret Prayer and more abundant in it cannot you be content with your ordinary Seasons but are ever and anon making extraordinary visits to Heaven and upon all occasions turning aside to talk with God in some short Ejaculations are you oâ—…en darting up your souls Heaven-wards Is it meat and drink for you to do the Will of God do you come off more freely with God and answer his Calls and open at his knocks with more Alacrity and readiness of mind Sixthly If you are more abundant in those duties which are most displeasing to the Flesh. Are you more earnest upon the duty of Mortification are you more strict and severe than ever in the duty of daily Self-examination and holy Meditation do you hold the Reigns harder upon the Flesh than ever do you keep a stricter watch upon your Appetites do you set a stroâ—…r guard upon your Tongues have you a more jealâ—…s eye upon your hearts Seventhly If you grow more viâ—…e in your own eyes Pride is such a choaking Weed that nothing will prosper near it Do you grow more out of love with mens esteem and set less by it are you not marvellous tender of being slighted can you rejoyce to see othâ—…rs preferred before you can you heartily value and love them that think meanly of you Eightly If you grow more quick of sense more tender of sining more sensiâ—… of Divine influences or withdrawings Are you more affraid of sin than ever are your sins a greater pain to you than heretofore are your very infirmities your great afflictions and the daily workings of corruption a continual grief of mind to you Ninthly If you are acted more by love to God and Faith in these Promises Fear is a slavish principle do you find that you are acted less by fear and more by love do you look more frequently to the things not seen than ever and doth the World abate in your esteem do you go more out of your selves do you live upon Christ as the Spring of your life and make more use of him upon all occasions than ever do you prize the Promise more and hug and imbrace them with greaâ—…er dearness and live more upon them Tenthly If you grow of a more publisk Spirit A selfish spirit is unworthy of a Christian are the common concernments of Gods Glory and the prosperity of the Church much upon your hearts will it no way content you to dwell in plenty peace and safety your selves except you may see peace upon Israel do the wounds in Gods Name and Glory go deep into you are the sins of others your sorrows Time and room and strength fails to add means too as I inteuded I have trespassed in length already may these be helps to you to put you forward and to help you in discerning your growth I must conclude abruptly and commend you to God with my dear loves to you all I take leave and can only tell you that I am Yours in the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE From the common Goale at Juelchester Octo. 31. 1663. LETTER XV. Perswasion to Sinners and comfort to Saints To my dearly Beloved the Inhabitants of the Town of Taunton Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Most dearly Beloved I Have been through mercy many years with
men and see what apprehensions they have of the World if any should come â—…o such as these and tell them here is such and such prâ—…ferments for you you shall have such titles of honour and delights if you will now disown Religion or subscribe to iniquity do you think such a motion would be embraced Brethren why should we not be wise in time why should we not now be of the mind of which we know we shall be all shortly woe to them that will not be wise till it be to no purpose woe to them whose eyes nothing but Death and Judgement will open woe to them that though they have been warned by others and have heard the Worlds greatest Darlings in Death to cry out of its vanity worthlessness and deceitfulness and have been told where and how it would leave them yet would take no warning but only must serve themselves to for warnings to others Ah my Beloved beware there be no worldly Professors among you that will part rather with their part in Paradise than their part in Paris that will rather part with their Consciences than with their Estates that have secret reserves in hearts to save themselves whole when â—…t comes to the pinch and not to be of the Religion that will undo them in the World Beware that none of you have your hearts where your Feet should be and love your Mammon before your Maker It is time for you to learn with Paul to be Crucified to the World But it is time for me to remember that 't is a Letter and contain my self within my limits The God of all Grace stablish strengthen and settle you in these shaking times and raise your hearts above the fears of the worlds threats and above the ambition of its favours My dearest loves to you all with my servent desire of your Prayers May the Lord of Hosts be with you and the God of Jacob your refuge Farewell my dear Brethren Farewel and be strong in the Lord I am From the common Gaole at Juelchester June 31. 1663. Yours to serve you in the Gospel whether by Doing or Suffering JOS. ALLEINE LETTER VII First Christian Marks 2. Duties To the Beloved my most endearing and endeared Friends the Flock of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown I Must say of you as David did of Jonathan Very pleasant have you been unto me and your love to me is wonderful And as I have formerly taken great content in that my Lot was cast among you so through grace I rejoyce in my present Lot that I am called to approve my love to you by suffering for you for you I say for you know that I have not sought yours but you and that for doing my duty to your souls I am here in these Bonds which I do cheerfully accept through the grace of God that strengtheneth me Oh! that your Souls might be quickened and enlarged by these my Bonds that your hands might be strengthened and your hearts encouraged in the Lord your God by our sufferings See to it my dearly Beloved that you stand fast in the power of the Holy Doctrine which we have Preached from the Pulpit preached at the Bar preached from the Prison to you It is a Gospel worth the suffering for see that you follow after holiness without which no man shall see God Oh! the madness of the blind World that they should put from them the only Plank upon which they can scape to Heaven Surely the Enemies of Holiness are their own Enemies Alas for them they know not what they do What would not these foolish Virgins do at last when it is too late for a little of the Oyl of the wise Oh for one dram of that Grace which they have scorned and despised But let not any of you my dear People be wise too late Look diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God Beware that none of you be cheated through the subtlety of Satan and deceitfulness of your hearts with counterfeit grâ—… There is never a grace but hath its counterfeit and there is nothing in all the World that is more common or more easie than to mistake common and counterfeit Grace for true and saving and remember you are undone for evermore if you should die in such a mistake Not that I would shake the confidence of any sound Believer who upon often and through searce into the Scripture and his own heart and putting himself upon Gods tryal hath gotten good evidence that his Graces are of the right kind Build your confidenee sure See that you get the knowledge of the certain and infallible marks of Salvation and make sure by great observing your own hearts that these marks be in you and then you cannot be too confident But as you love your souls take heed of a groundless confidence Take heed of â—…ing confident before you have tried Dear Brethren I would fain have you all secured against the day of Judgement I would that the state of your souls were all well setled Oh how comfortably might you think of any troubles if you were but sure of your pardons Were your Salvation out of doubt no matter though other things were in hazard I beseech you whatever you neglect look to this I am afraid there are among you that have not made your peace with God yet that are not yet acquainted with that great work of Conversion such I would warn and charge before the living God to speed into Christ and without any more disputes or delayes to put away their iniquities and to come in and deliver up themselves to Jesus Christ that they may be saved It is not your Profession nor performing external duties nor partaking of external Priviledges that will save you No no you must be converted or condemned It is not enough that you have some love and liking to Gods ways and people and are willing to venture something for them all this will not prove you sound Christians have your hearts been changed have you been soundly convinced of your sins of your daâ—…nable and undone condition in your selves and your utter inaâ—…lity to lick your selves whole again by your own duties have you been brought at least to such a sight and sense of sin as that there is no sin though agreeable to your constitution though a support to your gain but you do heartily abhor it and utterly disallow of it are you brought to such a sense of the beauty of holiness and of the Laws and ways of God as that you do desire to know the whole mind of God and would not excuse your selves by ignorance from any duty and that you do not allow your selves in the ordinary neglect of any thing that conscience charges upon you as a duty are your very hearts set upon the glorifying and enjoying of God as your greatest happiness which you desire more than Corn and Wine and Oyl had you rather be the
God that with many of you this work is not yet to do but this set solemn resignation to the Lord is to be done more than once and to be followed with an answerable practice when it is done See that you walk worthy of the Lord but how in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost let these two go together So shall you adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour and experience the Heavenly felicity of a Christians life While Holiness is made the But of others Persecution do you make it the white the mark of your prosecution that you live it up as much as others cry it down O watch and keep your Garments about you the plain but comely clothing of humility the seamless Coat of Christian unity the strait and close Garment of strictness mortification and self-denial the warm Winter-garment of love and charity this Garment will keep you warm in the Winter love will not be quenched by the Waters nor cooled by the nipping Frosts of persecution and opposition Cleave fast to Christ never let go your hold cling the faster because so many are labouring to knock off your fingers and loosed your hold Hold fast your Profession hold fast your Integrity hold â—…ast the beginning of your confidence stedfast to the end If you do but keep your hold and make goud your ground and keep your way all that the World can do and all that the powers of darkness can do can never do you harm Keep your own Vinyard with constant care and watchfulness and be sure that there be no Inroad made upon your consciences that the Enemy do not get between you and home between your souls and God and then let who or what will assail you without you need not fear let this be your daily exercise to keep your consciences void of offence keep fair weather at home however it be abroad But I would not only that you should walk holily but that you should walk comfortably But I need say the less to this because the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost do lie together On the provision God hath made for your continual joy and comfort dear Brethren do but understand your own blessedness happy men that you are if you did but know and consider it who would count himself poor and miserable that hath all the fulness of the Godhead for his sound in this deep can you find any bottom take the heighth of the Divine Perfections if you can till then you cannot tell your own felicity Take a servey of Immensity tell me the longitude or latitude of infinite goodness and mercy of the Eternal Diety if you can do this you may guess at your own happiness Oh Christians live like your selves live worthy of your Portion of your Priviledge and your glorious prerogatives I am in haste and it is time for me to end however that you may walk worthy of your glorious hopes and may live answerably to the mercies you have received from above is the great desire of From the Prison at Juelchester September 18. 1663. Your Souls fervent well wisher in the bonds of affliction and tribulation JOS. ALLEINE LETTER IX Easie Sufferings To the most Loving and Beloved my Christian Friends at â—…aunton Salvation DEarly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown for whom I am an Embassadour in Bonds what thanks to render to God in your behalf I know not for your fervent charity towards me and all the servants of my Lord for all your labours of love for all your diligence and boldâ—…ess and resolution in owning the despised way and hared serâ—…ants of the Lord Jesus in an evil day The Lord is not unrighteous to forget this Is not this upon record with him and â—…aled up among his Treasures surely the Lord will have mercy upon Tauntou I have no doubt but that the God of â—…our Mercies hath yet a choice blessing in store for you be not weakned by my Bonds Glory be to God in the Highest that he hath accounted me worthy not only to Preach the Gospel to you but also to confirm it by the paâ—…ing with my much valued liberty so dear a People so sweeâ—… Relations comforts conveniencies which I enjoyed in all aâ—…dance when I was with you When I look back upon all the circumstances of the late Providence I must say as they of Christ upon his Miracles He hath done all things well it is all as I would have it I am fully satisfied in my Fathers good pleasure Verily there is no little honour and happiness no little peace and priviledge in these Bonds Verily all is true that I have told you of the All-sufficiency of God of the fulness of Christ of the satisfactoriness of the promises of the peace tranquility content and security that is to be had in a life of Faith Surely methinks I should be content to seal to these things at a much dearer rate than this but my gracious Father will not put me to the hardest Lesâ—…on at first oh what reason have I to speak good of his name what else should I do all my days but love and fear and preach and praise so good a God when I look back upon the gentle dealings of God with me I often think he hath brought me up as indulgently as David did Adoniâ—…ah of whom it is said His Father had not displeased him I have received nothing but good at the hands of the Lord all my days and now he doth begin to afflict I see so much Mercy in this very Goal that I must be more thankful for this than for my prosperity Surely the name of the place is The Lord is here Surely it may be called Peniel Be strong in the Lord my Breâ—…hren be patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh In nothing be terrified by your adversaries Now let those that fear the Lord be often speaking one to another I hear that Satan is practising to send more of you after me I desire and pray for your liberty but if any of you be sorced hither for the testimony of the Gospel I shall embrace you with both arms Fare you well my most dearly Beloved be perfect and be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you My Brethren in Bonds salute you with much affection rejoycing to behold your order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ share my heart among you and know that I am The willing Servant of your Faith and Joy JOS. ALLEINE From the common Gaole at Juelchester Sept. 28. 1663. LETTER X. The Love of Christ. To my Beloved in the Lord the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most Loving and best Beloved MY heart is with you my affections are espoused to you And methinks I could even say with the Apostle you are in my heart to live and die
with you and who can but love where they have received so much love and continually do as I have from you the Lord requiâ—…e your love which is great and if compared with his but little with his which is infinite this is a love worthy of your ambition worthy of your adoration and admiration This is the Womb that bore you from eternity and out of which have burst forth all the Mercies Spiritual and Temporal that you enjoy This was the love that chose you when less Offenders and those that being converted might have been a hundred sold more serviceable to their Makers Glory are lâ—…ft to perish in their sins May your souls be filled with the sense of this love But it may be you will say how shall I know if I am an object of Electing love least an unbelieving thought should damp your joy know in snort that if you have chosen God he hath certainly chosen you Have you taken him for your blessedness and do you more highly prize and more diligently seek after conformity to him aâ—…d the fruâ—…tion of him than any than all the goods of this World If so theu away with doubts for you could not have loved and have chosen him unless he had loved you first Now may my Beloved dwell continually in the thoughts the views the tastes of the love Get you down under its shadows and taste its pleasant fruits Oh the Provisions that love hath made for you before the Foundation of the World Ah silly dust that ever thou shouldest be thought upon so long before thou wast that the contrivances of the infinite Wisdom should be taken up about thee that such a Crawling thing such a Mite a Flea should have the consultations of the Eternal Diety exercised about thee verily his love to thee is wonderful Lord what is man thou tellest us he is Dust and Vanity a Worm nothing less than nothing how then dost thou love him oh wonderful be astonished yea Heavens at this be moved ye strong foundation of the Earth Fall down yeaâ—… Elders strike up ye Heavenly Quires and sing yet again Glory to God in the highest for all our strings would crack to reach the Notes of love praise and admiration that this love doth call for Oh that ever emptiness and vanity should be thus prized that Jehovah should make account of so worthless so useless a thing as man that ever baseness should be thuâ—… preferred that ever nothing should be thus dignified thaâ—… ever rottenness should be thus advanced a Clod a shaddow Potsheard should be thus glorified Oh Brethren study beseech you not to require or retaliate there 's impossibility and blasphemy in such a thought but to admire and imâ—…tate his love Let love constrain you let love put you upoâ—… doing and prepare you for suffering forget not a love sâ—… memorable undervalue not a love so unvaluable I would have you all the captives of love may the cords of love draâ—… you towards and knit you to your Redeemer may the â—…vided streams be united in him Alas that our souls are sâ—… narrow that the Waters are so shallow with us how little how very little would our love be if he had it all infinitâ—… less than the Glow-worm to the Suu or the Attome to the Universe and have we any of this little to spare for him oh that we might love him with our little Ah! that all oâ—… little powers were ingaged for him Brethren here is no exâ—…cess oh love the Lord ye his Saints he is worthy for whoâ—… you shall do this Do but think what love hath done for yoâ—… and think if you can what it means to do for you This is thâ—… love that yarned upon you when in your Blood no eye pitying you This is the love that took you up when you werâ—… robbed and wounded and left for dead and poured in Winâ—… and Oyl into your wounds This is that love that reprieved and spared and pardoned when the Law had condemneâ—… you and Justice would have had you delivered up anâ—… your Self-condemning consciences gave up all for lost coâ—…cluding there was no hope This is the love the expensivâ—… love that bought you from the power of darkness from the eternal burnings the devouring fire in which you must otherwise have dwelt Do you not remember how you were hungry and it fed you naked and it cloathed you strangers and it took you in sick and it visited you in Prison and it came unto you you were dead and are alive you were lost and are found And me thinks I see how love runs to meet you and falls upon your necks and kisseth the Lips that deserve to be loathed and rejoyces over you and makes a Festival and as it were a Holiday in Heaven to you inviting Angels to rejoyce And if the friends do rejoyce how much more doth the father for saith he These my Sons were dead and are alive were lost and are sound Oh melting love ah Brethren how strange is this that our recovery should be Heavens triumph the joy of God and Angels That this love should feast us and feast over us and our Birth-day should be kept in Heaven that this should be the round at Heavens Table and the burden of the Song above For this my Son was dead and is alive and well what remains but that you should be another manner of People than ever yet you have been more holy more humble more even more resolved more lively more active where is your Zeal for the Lord of Hosts will slender returns suffice you in answer to such a love God forbid But necessity calls me off from going any further May the love that chose you and redeemed you for ever dwell in you and overshaddow you and bear you safe to the Kingdom In the Holy Arms of Divine Love I desire to leave you May you live under its daily Influences and be melted and overcome with its warming Beams with its quickning piercing powerful Rays My most dear love to you all See that you live not in a dull fruitless liveless course Be patient be watchful instant in Prayer fervent in Spirit serving the Lord I am very healthful and chearful through grace See that none of these things move you that befal us Fare you well my dear Brethren farewel in the Lord I am From the Prison at Juelchester October 25. 1663. Yours in the strongest Bonds of Affection and Affliction Joseph Alleine LETTER XI Remember Christ Crucified and crucifie Sin To the Faithful and Well-beloved People the servants of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most dear Christians I Am by Office a Remembrancer the Lords Remembrancer for you and your Remembrancer in the behalf of Christ. My business is with the Apostle to stir up your pure minds by way of Remembrance And what or whom should I remember you of but your mindful Friend your Intercessour with the Father who hath you always in remembrance appearing in the
presence of God for you May his memory ever live in our hearts though mine should die Oh remember his Love more than Wine remember in what a case he found you and yet nothing could anihilate his heart nor divert the purpose of his Love from you He loathed not your Rags nor your Rottenness he found you in a loathsome vomit and filthiness in a nasty and verminous tatters think not these expressions too odious no Pen can describe no heart can imagine the odiousness of sin in his sight in which you lay and rolled your selves as the filthy Swine in the mire yet he pitied you his Bowels were moved and his Compassions were kindled when one would have thought his wrath should have boiled and his indignation have burned down to Hell against you he loathed not but loved you and washed you from your sins in his own Blood Ah monstrous and polluted Captives ah vile and putrid Carkases that ever the holy Jesus should take the hands of you and shouâ—…d his own self wash you and wrinse you merhâ—…nks I see him weeping over you and yet it was a more costly Bath by which he cleansed you Ah Sinners look upon the streaming Blood flowing out warm from his blessed Body to setch out the ingrained filthiness that you by sin had contracted Alas what a horrid filthiness in sin that nothing but the blood of the Covenant could wash away and what a love is Christs than when no Sope nor Nitre could suffice to cleanse us when a whole Ocean could not wash nor purifie us would open every vein of his heart to do the work look upon your crucified Lord do you not see a sacred stream flowing out of every Member ah how those holy hands those unerring Feet do run a stream to purge us Alas how that innocent Back doth bleed with cruel scourgings to save ours how the great drops of blood fall to the ground from his sacred Face in his miraculous sweat in his bitter and bloody Agony to wash and beautifie ours how his wounded hearts and side twice pierced first with love and pity and then with Souldiers cruelty do pour out their healthful and saving Flouds upon us Lord how do we make a shift to forget such a love as this ah mirrors or rather monsters of ingratitude that can be unmindful of suâ—…h a Friend do we thus requite him is this our kindness to such an obliging friend Christians where are you affections to what use do you put your faculties what have you memories for but to remember him what have you the power of loving for but that you should love him wherefore serves joy or desire but to long for him and delightfully to embrace him may your souls and all their Powers be taken up with him may all the little doors of your souls be set open to him Here â—…ix your thoughts heâ—…e terminate your desire here you may light your Candle and kindle your fire when almost out Rub and chafe your hearts well with the deep consideration of the love of Christ and it is a wonder if they do not get fome warmth The Lord shed abroad his love in your hearts by the H. Ghost Oh that this love might constrain you Brethren what will you do now for Jesus Christ. Have you never a Sacrifice to lay upon his Altar come and I will shew you what you shall do let your hands be in the blood of your sins fall foul with them search them out with diligence search your hearts and your houses whatever iniquitâ—…es you find there out with them put them far from your Tabernacles if you crucifie them not you are not Jesus his Friends Godforbid that there should be a lying Tongue or any way of deceit in your Shops That his service should give place to the World in your Families Far be it from any of you my Brethrâ—…n that you should be careful to teach your children and servants the way of your Trades and Callings and neglâ—…t to instruct them in the way of Life Is weekly Caâ—…echising up in every one of your Families The Lord convince any of you that may be guilty of this neglect Oh set up God in your Houses and see that you be not slovenly in Closet performances beware of serving the Lord negligently serve not the Lord with that which cost you nothing look to it that you content not your selves with a cheap and easie Religioâ—… Put your flesh to it be well assured that the Religion that costs you nothing will yeeld you nothing keep up the life of Religion in your Family and Closet duties Fear nothing like a customary and careless performance of Gods service Judge your own selves whether lazie wishes idie complaints and yawning Prayers are like to carry you through the mighty difficulties that you must get through if ever you come to Heaven When you find your selves going on in a liftless liveless heartless course and have no mind to your work ask your selves is this to take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence or can I hope to win it without see that you sacrifice your selves to the Lord that you deliver up your selves to him that now you live to Christ himself As Christ hath made over his life and death to you so let it be your care to live and die to him labour to forget your selves and look upon all your enjoyments as Christs goods upon your time parts strength as his Talents look upon your selves onely in the quality of Servants and Stewards that are to husband all these for your Lords advantage and as those that must give an account And pray for me that I may take the Counsel that I give I â—…ss the Lord I want nothing but the opportunity of being â—…ceable unto you and to enjoy you but I hope the Lord will make my bonds for you to be useful to your edification that is the White I aim at if I may glorifie God and serve your Souls best by being here I shall never wish to come out though I confess liberty of its self is very precious Finally Brethren Farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you I The ready Servant of your Faith and Joy JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Octob. 14. 1663. My dear Brother Norman salutes you tenderly desiring you to be patient to stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh LETTER XII For daily Self-Examination To the most Beloved People the Flock of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most dear Brethren I Would my time were as long as my heart that I might open my self to you but I was not without some discontent diverted when I was setting my self to have Written at large to you Now I am pinched however I could not leave my dear charge altogether unvisited but must needs salute you in a few Lines Brethren how stands it with you doth
they may not fall down till Israel do prevail Let us fear lest there be some evil among us that God being angry with us doth send this farther tryal upon us Pray earnestly for me lest the eye of the most jealous God should discern that in me which should render me unfit for the mercy you desire And let every one of you search his heart and search his house to see if there be not cause there Let not these disappointments make you to be nevertheless in love with Prayers but the more out of love with sin Let us humble our selves under the mighty hand of God and he shall exalt us in due time And for the enemies of God you must know also that their foot shall slide in due time Let the Servants of God encourage themselves in their God for in the things wherein they deal proudly he is above them therefore fret not your selves because of evil doers commit your cause to him that judgeth righteously Remember that you are bid if you see oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgement and Justice in a Province not to marvel at the matter verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth and you have the liberty of appeals rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him and fret not your selves because of the men that bring wicked devises to pass take heed that none of you do with Peter begin to sink now you see the waters rough and the winds boysterous these things must not weaken your Faith nor cool your Zeal for they are great arguments for the strengthning of it What clearer evidence can there be for the future judgment and perdition of the ungodly and Coronation of the Just in another life than the most unjust proceedings that are here upon Earth shall not the Judge of all the Earth see right to be done We lee here nothing but confusion and disorder the wicked receiveth according to the work of the righteous and the Innocent according to the work of the wicked The Godly perish and the wicked flourish these do prosper and they do suffer What can it be ever thus no doubtless there must be a day when God will Judge the world in righteousness and rectifie the present disorders and reverse the unrighteous Sentences that have been passed against his servants And this evidence is so clear that many of the Heathen Philosephers have from this very Argument I mean the unrighteous usage of the good concluded that there must certainly be rewards and punishments adjudged by God in another World Nor yet lose your Zeal now is the time that the love of many doth wax cold but I bless God it is not so with you I am sure your love to me is as true Friends should be like the Chimneys warmest in the Winter of Adversity and I hope your love to God is much more and I would that You should abound yet more and more Where else should you bestow your Loves Love ye the Lord ye his Saints and cling about him the faster now ye see the world is striving to separate you from him How many are they that go to knock off your fingers O methinks I see what tugging there is The World is plucking and the Devil is plucking Oh hold fast I beseech you hold fast that no man take your Crown Let the Water that is sprinkled yea rather poured upon your love make it to flame up the more Are you not betrothed unto Christ Oh rcmember remember your Marriage Covenant did you not take him for Richer for Poorer for better for worse now prove your love to Christ to have been a true conjugal love in that you can love him when most slighted despised undervalued blasphemed among men Now acquit your selves not to have followed Christ for the Loaves now confute the Accuser of the Brethren who may be ready to suggest of the best of you as he did of Job Doth he serve the Lord for nought And let it be seen that you loved Christ and holiness purely for their own sakes that you can love a naked Christ when there is no hopes of worldly advantage or promoting of self-interest in following him Yet beware that none of you do stick to the wayes of Christ and Religion upon so carnal an account as this because this is the way that you have already taken up and you count it a shame to recede from your Principles I am very jealous lest some Professors should miss of their reward for this least they should be accounted Turn-coats and Hypocrites therefore they will shew a stoutness of spirit in going on since they have once begun and cannot with honour retreat Would you chose holiness and strictness if it were to do again would you enter your selves among Gods poor people if it were now first to do Would you have taken up the Profession of Christ though you had foreseen all this that is come and coming This will do much to evidence your sincerity But I forget â—…hat I am writing a Letter being prone to pass all bounds when I have thus to do with you The Lord God remember and reward you and your labours of love The Eternal God be your refuge and put under you his everlasting Arms. The Peace of God that passeth all understanding keep your hearts Christs Legacy of Peace I leave with you and rest with my dear affections to you all Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXIV Councel for Salvation To the most beloved People the servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians MY continual solicitude for your State will not suffer me to pass in quiet one week without Writing to you unless I am extraordinarily hindred Your sincerity stedfastness and proficiency in the grace of God is the matter of my earnest desire and that which I should account my self happy in I have a longing desire to see the Faces of you all and besides mine expectation shall I trust speedily have the opportunity to see you at the approaching Assizes which I shall greatly rejoyce in notwithstanding our coming may be otherwise attended with many Inconveniencies In the mean time I send you a few Prison Counsels As 1. To improve for Eternity the Advantages of your present State Though you are at many disadvantages with respect to the publick Ordinances yet you have many wondrous and most happy Priviledge which Spiritual Wisdom would make no small improvement of Oh what a mercy have you that you may serve God while you will in your Families That you may be as much as you will with God in secret Prayer and holy Meditation and Self-examination I beseech you consider what a Blessing you have above others that have your Health and a Competency of the Comforts of this life and are free from those continual pains or Heart-eating Cares that others are disabled by from looking after God and their Souls as you may do Oh consider what a blessed Seed-time
is the thing how near is the time how glorious will his appearing be The thing is sure the Day is set God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World by that man whom he hath ordained the manner of it is revealed Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints The Attendants are appointed and nominated The Soâ—… of Man shall come in his Glory and all his holy Angels with him The thing you see is established and every circumstance is determined How sweet are the words that dropped from the precious Lips of our departing Lord What generous Cordials hath he left us in his parting Sermons and his last Prayer and yet of all the rest those are the sweetest I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there you may be also What need you any further witness you have heard him your selves assuring you of his return Doubtless he cannot deceive you you have not only known but seen and felt the truth of his promises And will he come tremble then ye sinners triumph yâ—… Saints clap your hands all ye that look for the consolation of Israel O sinners where will you then appear how will you look upon him whom you have pierced whom you have persecuted whose great Salvation you have neglected and despised Wo unto you that ever you were born unless you should then be found to be New-born But you O Children of the most high how will you forget your travel and be melted into joy This is he in whom you have believed whom having not seen ye loved But how will love and joy be working if I may so speak with pangs unutterable when you shall see him and hear his sweet voice commending applauding approving of you and owning you by name before all the World Brethren thus it must be the Lord hath spoken it See that you stagger not at the Promise but give Glory to God by believing Again the time is near Yet a little while and he that shall come will come Behold I come quickly saith he And again The Lord is at hand Sure you are that death cannot be far off O Christian thou dost not know but the next year nay possibly the next week thou mayest be in Heaven Christ will not long endure thine absence but will have thee up to him till the time of his general appearing when he will take us up altogether and so we shall be ever with the Lord. Soul believest thou this If thou dost indeed what remains but that thou shouldest live a life of love and praise studying to do all the good thou canst till thou come to Heaven and waiting all the days of thine appointed time till thy change shall come O my Soul look out and long O my Brethren be you as the Mother of Sisera looking out at the Windows and watching at the Latices saying why are his Chariot-wheels so long a coming Though the time till you shall see him be but very short yet love and longing make it seem tedious My Beloved comfort your hearts with these Words look upon these things as the greatest reallities and let your affections be answerable to your expectations I would not have told you these things unless I had believed them for it is for this hope that I am bound with this Chain The blessing of the Holy Trinity be upon you I am yours and will be The God of Peace be with you I rest Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester August 5. 1663. LETTER XXVIII Of the Love of Christ. To his most endeared Friends the servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved MEthinks my Brests are not easie unless I do let them forth unto you Methings there is something still to do and my Weeks work is not ended unless I have given my Soul vent and imparted something to the Beloved flock that I have left behind And Oh that my Letters in my absence might be useful to you Assuredly it is my joy to serve you and my love to you is without dissimulation witness my twice lost liberties and my impaired health all which I might have preserved had it not been for my readiness to minister to you But what do I speak of my love it is the sense of the infinite love of God your Father that I would have to dwell upon you Forget me so you remember him Let me be very little so he be very lovely in your eyes Let him be as the Bucket that goes up though I be as the Bucket that goes down Bury me so that you do but set the Lord always before you Let my name be written in the dust so his Name be written deep up all your Souls O Lord I am thy Servant truly I am thy servant Glorifie thine own Name by me and thou shalt have my hand to it that I will be content to be hid in obscurity and to disappear through the overcoming lustre and brightness of thy Glory Brethren understand mine Office I Preach not my self but the Lord Jesus Christ and my self your Servant for Jesus sake Give him your hearts and I have my Errand I am but the Friend of the Bridegroom and my business is but to give you to understand his love and to gain your hearts unto him He is an Object worthy of my Commendations and of your affections His Love is worth the writing of and worth the thinking of and worth the speaking of O my Brethren never forgeâ—… I beseech you how he loveth you He is in Heaven and you are on Earth he is in Glory and you in Rags he is in the shining Throne aâ—…d you in dirty flesh and yet he loveth you His heart is infinitely tender of you even now while he is at the right hand of the Majesty on High How feelingly doth he cry out at the hurt of his poor Members on Earth Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Oh of what quick sense is the sense of our dear Lord unto us when we are touched on Earth he feels it in Heaven Brethren Christ is real in all that he speaks unto you He is not like a flourishing Lover who fills up his Letters with Rhetorick and hath more care of the dress of his Speech than of the Truth Who ever gave demonstration of the reallity of his love at so dear a rate as Christ hath done Men do not use to die in jest Who will impoverish himself to enrich his Friend and divest himself of his honour to advance him and debase himself to admiration below his own degree to contract affinity with him and all this but to make him believe that he loves him Brethren possess your very hearts with this that Christs love doth go out with infinite dearness towards you Even now while he is in all his Glory he earnestly remembers you still This is the High Priest that now is entred into the Holy of Holies doth bear your names
particularly remembring every poor believer by name He bears your names but where upon his Brest-plate upon his heart saith the Text Exod. 28. 29. Ah Christians I may salute you as the Angel did Mary Hail you that are highly favoured Blessâ—…d are you among men Sure your Lot is fallen in an happy place what in the bosom of Christ yea and verily you may believe and doubt not I may apply that of Gabriel O Daniel thoâ—… art greatly beloved unto you you are beloved indeed to have your Names written upon the very heart of Christ now he is in Glory Oh let his Name be written then on your hearts Do not write his Name in the Sand when he hath written yours upon his own Brest Do not forget him who hath taken such care that while he is he may never forget you having recorded your names not onely on his Book but on his Flesh and set you as a Seal upon his heart He hath you upon his heart but why For a memorial before the Lord continually so saith the Text. Beloved your Lord is so far from forgetting you in all his Greatness and Glory that he is gone into Heaven on purpose there to present you before the Lord that you may be always in remembrance before him O Beloved Glory yea and Triumph in his love Doubtless it must go well with us Who shall condemn It is Christ that died and rose again and is now making Intercession His interest is potent He is always present Our Advocate is never out of Court Never did cause miscarry in his hand Trust you safely in him Happy is that man for whom he shall undertake to speak Oh the Riches of Christs love he did not think it enough to die for you His love and care doth not end with his natural life on Earth but he ever liveth to make Intercession for us His love is like his life ever ever knowing no remission in degree nor intermission of time no cessation of working but is ever ever in motion towards us But when shall I end if I suffer my soul to run out its length and my running Pen te enlarge according to the demensions of this boundless Field of Divine Love If the Pens of all the World were imployed to write Volumes of love if the tongues of all the living were exercised in nothing else but talking of this love If all the Hearts that be were made up of love and all the powers and affections of the mind were turned into one to wit the power of love yet this were no less than infinitely too little either to conceive or to express the greatness of Christs love O my dearly beloved may your souls be swallowed up in this love Think and think while you will you can never think how much you are beloved See that ye love again by way of Gratitude though not of Requital what though your souls be but narrow and your powers but little yet love him with all you have Love him with all your hearts and all your strength To the Meditations and to the Embraces of Divine love I leave you thinking it now not worth while to tell you of my Love Remaining Yours in the bonds of your most dear Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE August 11. 1665. LETTER XXIX Warning tâ—… Professors of their Danger To the Beloved â—…ople the Inhabitants of the Town of 〈…〉 Grace and Peace Most dear 〈…〉 MY 〈…〉 my beloved is mine and I am his but 〈…〉 â—…ave no joy so great as that you are mine and I 〈…〉 â—…ou are Christs My Relation to Christ is aboâ—… 〈…〉 life and my peace my riches and my righteoâ—… 〈…〉 my hope and my strength and mine Inheritance 〈…〉 â—…ycing In him will I please my self for ever and 〈…〉 will I glory I esteem my self most happy and rich and safe in him though of my self I am nothing In him I may boast without Pride and glory without vanity Here is no danger of being over much pleased neither can the Christian exceed his bounds in over-valuing his own riches and happiness in Christ. I am greatly pleased with the Lot that is fallen to me the Lord hath dealt bountifully with me and none shall stop this my confidence of boasting in Christ. But as my lot in him is above all so I will assure you it is no small content to me that my lot is fallen with you And though many difficulties have fallen to my lot among you for I have broken my health and lost my liberty once and again for your sakes yet none of these things move me I wish nothing more then to spend and to be spent upon the service of your Faith I bless the Lord for it as an invalnable mercy that ever he called me to be an Embassador of the Lord Jesus Christ to you-wards In this station I desire to approve my self to him and that I am withdrawn from my Work for a season it is but that I may return to you refreshed and inabled for my work among you You may not think that I have forgotten you and consulted my own ease and pleasure but if God prosper my intentions I shall be found to have been daily serving you in this retirement I will assure you I am very tender of preserving all that little strength that God doth add to me entirely for your sakes being resolved not so much as once to broach the Vessel till I draw forth to you I bless the Lord I am in great tranquility here in this Town and walk up down the Corporation without any Questioning me Only it hath pleased the Lord to add to my Affliction since my coming by taking away my dear Father the day of whose glorious Translation was the day after my arriving here But I bless the Lord I do believe and expect the return of the Redeemer with all his Saints and the most glorious Resurrection of my own dead Body with all Believers and this makes me to rest in Hope and fills me with unspeakle more Joy than the death of my self or any other Saint can with grief And now I make it my business to be rendred serviceable to you and do by this return you my hearty thanks for your earnest Prayers and Intercessions to God in my behalf for it is he that must do the Cure I seem to my self to be retired to this place as a Vessel rent and shatter'd and torn in the Service that it come to recruit in the Harbour And here I am as it were rigging and repairing and Victualling to put sorth again in the Service which I shall do with the first Wind as soon as I am ready What is my life uâ—…less I am serviceable And though I must for the present forbear my wonted Labour yet I shall not cease to exhort you and call upon you while I am absent from you to stand sast and to grow up in your holy Faith Be warned my dearly Beloved that you fall not
watchful observers you may now much more be carried away in such a place and among such company as now you may be likely to be in Sir I beseech you to be assured that nothing but the conscience of my duty hath engaged me now you have been so many years a stranger to me and are at so many thousand miles distance from me to write notwithstanding to you And I beseech you bear a little with me Is it wisdom after you have begun in the Spirit to end in the flesh you did run well who hath hindred you I remember your strict walkings your holy converse your many tears will you-lose the things that you have wrought have you found out another a nearer way to Heaven do you hope to get in at the wide Gate in the broad way need I to mind you that it had been better for you never to have known the way of Life then after you have known it to turn aside from the Holy Commandment can you ever enter into Gods Hill without you be of clean hands and a pure heart I know you are not ignorant That strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it and will you yet do as the most and decline the way of strictness and whole self-denial and give the flesh the reins what when God that cannot lie hath said If you live after the fleshe you shall die Do you not know that you do in vain name the name of the Lord Jesus Christ except you depart from iniquity I am sure you know it Oh Sir consider it improve it Oh have you so learnt Christ as to think â—…at the way of carnal liberty and loosness the way of evil company and fleshliness is the way to eternal life I am not for tying up Salvation to this or that Opinion but certainly let men be of what opinion they will without strâ—…ess self-denial and holy diligence they cannot be saved Mat. 16. 42. Mat. 11. 12. 1 Pet. 15 16. Once you could say with 〈…〉 I am companion to all them that 〈…〉 is it so now O Sir let not the wicked entice you Hath not God said A Companion of fools shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 20. That you must forfake the foolish if you desire to live Prov. 9. 6. Sir I have no more hopes ever to meet you more on Earth O that I might meet you in Heaven let us tread the same path of Holiness and then we shall doubtless meet there But surely you must deeply and timely repent of and return from your grievous back-slidings or else I desire never to meet in your Heaven But why should not we that have so often met in serious and holy Prayer together we that have so often met at the Lords Table together we that have so often eat together and fasted together meet in glory together I beseech your dear Sir if the Lord hath not already smitten you to the dust and broken you and reduced to the ways of holiness now consider your ways and turn your â—…eet to his Testimonies Oh remember that The back-slider in heart shall be filled with his own ways God hath said it and who shall reverse it If any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him And once again when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity shall he live In his Trespass that he hath trespassed shall he not diâ—… I know Prayers can reach you though at so vast a distance I shall add to them these Counsels and commit you to God remaining Yours real Friend in Christ JOS. ALLEINE Juelchester May 18th 1664. LETTER XXXV Good Counsel to his Wise. My most dear Theodosia THou seemest to have been long from me let nothing any longer detain thee but my Sisters necessity or Fathers Authority I am very sorry that thou should lose two Sacraments I am in a comfortable state of health through Divine goodness to which be glory for ever See that thou love and admire that Fountain of our life and peace and be ever mindful that 't is all thy business to love and serve and praise thy Creator and Redeemer I have no other business but this to write to thee about but this is all our business What be use to call business is but vanity and pastime and some by matter in comparison of this Remember and forget not that 't is thy chief end to glorifie God and enjoy him for ever Learn well that Lesson and know that it is the only thing necessary Every morning remember that thy serving and pleasing of God is the whole business of that day and therefore set out accordingly with an express design and intention to please God in thy eating drinking visiting conversing calling and duties of thy Relations throughout the day My most dear heart I have nothing in the world that doth concern thee or me so much to write of to thee as this is Oh that thou mayst still be laying up in Heaven still furthering thy account still adding to the heap and encreasing thy glorious reward nothing is done for God but thou shalt hear of it again Whatever is not done for God is but so much lost Those things which others do being led by their natural affections and desires those things do thou do with holy aims for spiritual ends and then God will put it on the account as so much done for him So it is my dearest God keeps a true account See that thou believe it and so plow in hope and sowe in hope pray and hear with an eye to the sure reward Let thy hopes be strong and lively and then thy hands will be strong and thy resolutions and affections will be strong My time is very precious and I would not lose any inch of it See thou to it that my time in writing this letter be not lost time Love God the more and set thine heart the straighter towards him and do but practice this one thing in every solemn action to look to thy ends and then I have got well and thou better by these Counsels My dearest I love thee in truth and tenderness but my love signifies little unless it serve thine eternal good I rest thine own JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXVI To his Wife Desires after Heaven My dear Heart MY heart is now a little at rest to write to thee I have been these three days much disturbed and set out of frame Strong solicitations I have had from several hands to accept very honourable preferment in several kinds some friends making a Journey on purpose to propound it but I have not found the invitations though I confess very honourable and such as are or will be suddenly embraced by men of far greater worth and eminency to suit with the inclinations of my own heart as I was confident they would not with thine I have sent away my friends satisfied with the reasons of my refusal and
Graces Experiences Communion and Prisonartainments may shine most brightly to all beholders I wish your Prison may be a Paradice of Peace and a Patmos of Divine discoveries Lord Jesus set to thy Amen I am Sir Your unworthy Brother and Companion in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus JOâ—… ALLEINE Jan. 10. 1664. LETTER XL. Directions to the Ministers of Somersetshire and Wiltshire for the instructing of Families by way of Catechising Sir THis Letter cometh to you like the men of Macedonia to Paul crying to you Come and help us O how insufficient do we find our selves for the praises of God! what reason have we to call upon our selves and to call upon all our Friends and yet we foresee that all will be too little a Sacrifice at last and to slender a return to the most High God God who hath made us such wonders of Mercy and such signal instances of his Divine Power and rich Grace You are not ignorant of our Estate how the Sentence of death had passed upon us how our flesh and our hearts failed and friends an Physicians gave up their hopes but God that raised the Dead was pleased to make us the Monuments of his wondrous mercy O that the same God would make us the special instruments of his praise and glory Of a Truth Sir we perceive our hearts are too little our Tongues are too short our expressions are too low either to conceive or utter what we owe to the great God O help help bless the Lord O our souls bless the Lord O our friends O that all that have wrestled with God for us might joyn hand in hand to make some suitable returns to the God of our lives and may bring in every one his Sacrifice and all contribute to make one common stock of Praises that many thanksgivings may abound to God on our behalfs O what hath Prayer done for us while we live we must honour Prayer and admire the power of Prayer we owe our limbs and our lives to prayer O that a goodly crop of praise may grow up unto God as a return for his Mercies that the seed of prayers and showers of tears may procure sheaves of joy and songs of deliverance But O what shall we render wherewithall shall we come before the Lord or bow our selves to the most high God O where shall we find a fitting sacrifice Verily we will give our selves and our all to him But alas what are we and what is this little that we call our All Therefore have we found in our hearts to write to you and others that we might excite you to the Divine praises with us And O that the Lord might be loved the better and glorified the more for our sakes Will you tell us wherein we may shew our love to him wherein we may best please and serve him O that you would herein assuredly you would most highly gratifie us O that we might do some singular thing for God for certainly they aré not common things that he hath done for us We pray you call upon those that fear the Lord to help us in celebrating his loving kindness O how it pleaseth our very hearts to think that God should be loved and honoured the better for us that we may be instruments if it be but for the blowing up of one flash nay the kindling of one spark of Divine love in the heart of his Children towards him Sir you cannot pleasure us in any thing so much as in thâ—…s to love and admire God and spread his praise more and more that what is wanting through our weakness may be made up in your abundance But we have need to crave your pardon for our length but the love of Christ constraineth us and we hope you will pass by an error of love While we have been devising what to do for our God we thought we could no way better him than by providing such as you are to set up his great Name with us We love and honour you not only as you are a Member but a Minister of Christ Jesus our Lord and therefore deserve to be doubly dear unto us And because we could think of no more pleasing a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving we have stirred up our selves and friends with us to send to you a Prophet in the name of a Prophet this poor token of love which though but small yet we trust will be a sweet savour unto God and will be accepted with you being our two Mites cast into God's Treasury But look not upon your self as obliged to us hereby but put it upon the account of Christ to whose precious Name we dedicate and from whom although he be so much already before hand with us yet we expect a recompence at the Resurrection of the Just. And being further desirous to promote the work of God in our low and slender capacities we have been bold to provoke your self with other our Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry to set about that necessary and much neglected work of Catechising not a little pleasing our selves in the sweet hope that by your means we may be instrumental to spread the sweet savour of the knowledge of our God in every place and being well perswaded of your readiness to forward so blessed a work we have stirred up our selves and our friends to expend a considerable sum of money to furnish Ministers with Catechisms a hundred whereof we have sent unto you beseeching you to use your best prudence and utmost diligence for the spreading of them and for others improvement by them that our labour and charge in so good a work prove not at last of no effect Sir we shall humbly propose unto you but not impose upon you But let us be bold with you in Christ to lay our requests before you as touching this concernment they being indeed what judicious friends and brethren have thought fit to propound 1. That that people be publikely and privately instructed about the high necessity and great usefulness of this duty 2. That the Catechisms be freely given to all that will promise to use them 3. That you would be pleased to acquaint your self with all the Schools that are within your Verge and that you would do your utmost to engage the Teachers thereof to teach their Scholars this Catechism and that you would furnish all their Scholars that are capable and willing to learn 4. That you will endeavour from house to house to engage the Master or Mistress of every Family for the forwardsng of this work 5. That you will appoint set-times wherein to take an account of the proficiency of all such as have promised to learn and that if it may be they may be engaged to learn weekly a proportion according to their Capacities 6. That you would favour us so far as to let us know as speedily as you may of the receit of these lines and if we may presume so far upon you we pray you to indulge us some assurance under your hand that you will to your power promote this happy design and that by our Lady-day next you will acquaint Mr. Bernard what progress is made Sir our souls will even travel in Birth for the success of this undertaking and therefore we request you for the love of God and by the respect which we are perswaded you bare to us that you will labour to comfort and encourage us in our endeavours for God which you can no way in the World do so well as by letting us see that there is some blessed fruit of our cost and pains and that we have not run in vain nor laboured in vain If there be any of these Catechisms remaining in your hands that you cannot dispose of by our Lady-day be pleased to send them to Mr. Bernard or to Mr. Rositer in Taunton If you should need any more give us speedy notice and you shall not fail to be furnished with what number you desire Thus upon the bended knees of our thankful souls we commend our poor sacrifices together with your self to the eternal God and remain Christs devoted Servants and your Friends JOS. BERNARD and JOS. ALLEINE FINIS
Bargain If we seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness in the first place and leave other things to him God will not stand with us for these outwards though we never ask them we shall have them as over measure God will throw them in as the Vantage And to this suits the experience of our dear Honorathius and indeed saith he speaking of God Honorathius finds that his only hiding place and refuge and a place of succour from the storms that fall upon him and hath had such helps at dead lift there that he is engaged for ever to trust theâ—…e For when he hath been lowest and in the greatest straights he hath gone and made his moan Heaven-ward with free submission to the rightful disposer of all things and he hath been so liberally supplied as makes him very confident the best way to obtain any Mercy or supply is to be content to be without it And he is perswaded nothing set Gods Mercies farther off than want of free suhmission to want them Certainly God will never be behind hand with us Let our care be to build his House and let him alone to build ours Fourthly That none ever was or ever shall be a loser by Jesus Christ. Many have lost much for him but never did never shall any lose by him Take this for a certainty whatsoever probabilities of outward comforts we leave whatsoever outward advantages we balk that we may glorifie him in our Services and enjoy him in his Ordinances more than otherwhere we could we shall receive an hundred fold in this life 'T is a sad thing to see how little Christ is trusted or believe in the World Men will trust him no farther then they can see him and will leave no work for Faith Alas hath he not a thousand ways both outward and inward to make up a little outward disadvantage to us What doth our Faith serve for Have any ventured themselves upon him in his way but he made good every word of the Promise to them let us therefore exercise our Faith and stay our selves upon the Promise and see if ever we are ashamed of our hope Fifthly That what is wanting in the means God will make up in the blessing This I take for a certain truth while a man commits himself and his affairs to God and is in a way that God put him into Now if a man have but a little income if he have a great Blessing that 's enough to make it up Alas we must not account Mercies by the Bulk What if another have a pound to my Ounce if mine be gold for his silver I will never change with him As 't is not Bread that keeps men alive but the Word of Blessing that proceedeth out of his mouth of God so 't is not the largerness of the means but the blessing of the Lord that maketh rich Oh! if men did but believe this they would not grasp so much of the world as they do Well let others take their course and we will take ours to wait upon God by Faith and Prayer and rest in his Promise and I am confident that is the way to be provided for Let others toyl to enlarge their income but alas they will find they go not the right way to work we will bless God to enlarge our blessing and I doubt not but we shall prove the Gainers Sixthly That every Condition hath its Snares Crosses and Troubles and therefore we may not expect to be without them where ever we be only that condition is most eligible that hath fewest and least I cannot object any thing against the proposal of Taunton but the meaness of the maintenance but if our income be but short we can I hope be content to live answerably we must fare the meaner that will be all the inconvenience that I know and truly I hope we are not of the nature of that Animal that hath his Heart in his Belly I know how Daniel thrived by his Water and pulfe and think a mean Diet is as wholesome to the body yea and far less hurtful than a full and libéral is and perswade my self it would be no such hard matter for us contentedly to deny our flesh in this respect But let us consider how little and utterly inconsiderable this inconvenience is in comparison of those we must reckon upon meeting with if God cast us into another place and whether this be not a great deal less than the trouble we shall have for want of comsortable and Christian Society for want of the frequent and quickening means we shall here have in wrangling and contending with the Covetous or else losing our dues in the Railings and scandalous and malicious Reports that are we see raised upon the best by the wicked in most places in their contentions about their right to the Sacraments in our intanglement in the cares and troubles of this life c. all which we should be here exempted from Upon these and the like considerations I find my heart very much inclined to accept of their offer at Taunton I beseech thee to weigh and throughly consider the matter and tell me impartially thy thoughts and which way thy Spirit inclines â—…or I have always resolved the place I settled in should be thy choice and to thy content The least intimation of thy will to the contrary shall overballance all my thoughts of settling there for I should account it the greatest unhappiness if I should thus settle and thou shouldst afterwards be discontented at the straightness of our condition But I need not have Wrote this hadst not thou fully signified thy mind already to me I had never gone so far as I have Well the Lord whose we are and whom we serve do with us as it shall seem good unto him We are alwayes as mindful as is possible of thee here both together and apart Captain Luke desired me to intreat thee to meet him one two hours in a day for the Commemoration of Mercies upon the twenty third day of every Month. Send word to me of their Resolution at Taunton in two Letters least possibly one should miscarry though never a one did yet I dare not think of settling under sixty Pound at Taunton and surely it cannot be less I have Written as well as I could on a sudden my mind to thee I have been so large in delivering my Judgement that I must thrust up my Afâ—…ctions into a Corner Well though they have but a corner in my Letter I am sure they have room enough in my heart But I must conclude The Lord keep thee my Dear and cherish thee for ever in his Bosom Farewel mine own Soul I am as ever thine own Heart JOS. ALLEINE Oxon May 27. 1659. LETTER II. Prepare for Suffering To my dearly beloâ—…ed the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most dear Christians MY extream straights of time will now force me to bind my long loves in a few
and leave them in eternal darkness they shall go to the generation of their Fathers they shall never see light like sheep they shall be laid in their Graves and the upright shall have Dominion over them in the morning But for my Brethren I am jealous that none of you should come short of the Glory of God I am ambitious for you that you should be all the heirs of an endless life the living hopes of the Saints the inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fades not away Ah my Brethren why should not you be all happy I am jealous for you with a Godly jealousie lest a promise being left you of entering into his rest any of you should come short of it O look diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God Alas how it pities me to see this Rest neglected How it grieves me that any of you should fall short of mercy at last That any of that flock over which the holy Ghost hath made be in part overseer should perish when Christ hath done so much for you and when his under Officers through his Grace for we are not sufficient of our selves have done somewhat to recover and save them Ah dear Brethren I was in great earnest with you when I besought you out of the Pulpit many a time to give a Bill of Divorce to your sins and to accept of the match and the mercy that in the name of God Almighty I did there offer to you Alas how it pitied me to look over so great a Congregation and to think that I could not for my life I could not perswade them one quarter of them in likelihood to be saved how it moved me to see your diligence in flocking not only to the stated Exercises but to the Repetitions and to most hazardous opportunities for which you are greatly to be commended since the Law forbad my publick Preaching and yet to think that many of you that went so far were like to perish for ever for want of going further I must praise your diligent attendance on all opportunities Blessed be God that made a willing ministry and a willing people for I remember how I have gone furnished with a Train How I went with the multitude to the House of God with the voice of joy and praises with the multitude that kept Holy-days The remembrance of which moves my soul but O my flock my most dear flock how fain would I carry you farther then the external and outward profession O! how loath am I to leave you there How troubled to think that any of you should go far and hazard much for Religion and yet miscarry for ever by the hand of some unmortified lust as secret pride or untamed passion or an unbridled tongue or which I fear most of all a predominate love of the World in your hearts Alas must it be so and is there no remedy but I must carry you to Heavens-gate and leave you there Oh that I should leave the work of your Souls but half done and bring you no farther than the almost of Christianity Hear O my people hear although I may command you upon your utmost peril in the Name of the Lord Jesus that shall shortly judge you I beseech you I warn you as a Father doth his Children to look to the setling and securing of your everlasting condition and for life take heed of your resting in the outter-part of Religion but to be restless till you find the through-change of Regeneration within that you are quite new in the frame and bent of your hearts for here is the main of Religion in the hidden man of the heart for Christs sake for your Soul-sake look to it that you build upon the Rock that you be sure in the Foundation work that you do unfeignedly deliver over your selves to the Lord to be under his command and at his dispose in all things see that you make no exceptions no reserve that you cast over board all your worldly hopes and count upon parting with all for Christ that you take him alone for your whole happiness Wonder not that I often inculcate this If it be well here it is well all if unsound here the error is in the foundation and you are undone Brethren I see great tryals coming when we shall see Professors fall like leaves in the Autumn unless they be well setled therefore is it that I would so fain have you look to your standing and to secure the main And for you whose Souls are soundly wrought upon O make sure whatever you do get and keep your evidences clear How dreadful would your temptations be if you should be called to part with all for Christ and not be sure of him neither get a right and clear understanding of the terms of life which I have set before you in that form of Covenanting with God in Christ that I commended to you I would that none of you should be without a Copy of it be much in observing your own hearts both in duties and out-crying mightily to God for assurance If you cannot discern your estate your selves go to some body that is albe and faithful and fully open your Case your Evidences and doubts and be extraordinary strict and watchful in your whole course and I doubt not but you will quickly grow up to assurance I cannot tell how to make an end methinks I could write all the day to you but my straights of time are great and my Letter already too long yet I cannot conclude till I have given you my unfeigned thanâ—… for your most kind and gracious Letter Surely it shall be in store with me and laid up among my Treasures that God is pleased so to unite your hearts to me and to make use of me for your edification is matter of highest joy unto me as also to see your stedfasâ—…ness in Christ your unshaken resolutions notwithstanding all the Tempters wiles Go on my dearly Beloved and the Lord strengthen your hands and your hearts and lift you up above the fears of men My most dear Brother Norman salutes you with manifold Loves and Respects earnestly wishing that you may wear the Crown of perseverance as also Brother Turner The Lord strengthen establish settle you and after you have suffered a while make you perfect I leave my Brethren in the everlasting Arms and rest From the common Goale at Juelchester June 13th 1663. Your Embassador in bonds Joseph Alleine LETTER IV. A Call to the Unconverted To the Beloved People the Inhabitants of the Town of Taunton Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Most endeared and beloved Friends I Do most readily acknowledge my self a Debtor to you all and a Servant of all and therefore I have sent these few Lines to salute you all My Lines did fall in a fair place when the Lord did cast my lot among you for which I desire to be thankful God hath been pleased
unthankful And what though they do hate us Their love and good-will were much more to be feared than their hatred and a far worse sign Brethren keep your selves in the love of God here is Wisdom O happy souls that are his Favourites For the Lords sake look to this make sure of something look to your sincerity above all things in the World let not any of you conclude that because you are of the suffering party therefore all is well Look to the Foundation that your hearts be soundly taken off from every sin and set upon God above as your Blessedness Beware that none of you have only a name to love and be no more than almost Christians For the love of your Souls make a diligent search and try upon what ground you stand for it heartily pities me to think that any of you should be in so deep and hazard so much as these must do that will now cleave to the hated ways of the people of God and yet lose all at last for want of being thorow and sound in the main work I mean conversion and Regeneration None so miserable in all the world as an unsound Professor of Religion now is for he shall be hated and persecuted of the World because he takes up a Profession and yet rejected of God too because he sticks in a Profession but when once you bear the marks of Gods favour you need not fear the Worlds frowns Cheer up therefore Brethren be strong in the Lord and of good courage under the Worlds usage Fear not in our Fathers House there is bread enough and room enough this is sufficient to comfort us under all the inconveniences of the way that we have so happy a Home so worthy a Portion so ready a Father so goodly an Heritage so sure a Tenure Oh comfort one another with these words let God see that you can trust in his Word let the world see that you can live upon a God I shall share my Prayers and loves among you all and commit you to the Almighty God the Keeper of Israel that never flumbereth nor sleepeth be your Watchman and Keeper to the end Farewel I am From the common Goal at Juelchester July 24. 1663. A fervent well-wisher of your Temporal and Eternal Happiness Joseph Alleine LETTER VI. Look out of your Graves upon the World To my most dearly Beloved Friends the chosen of God in Taunton Grace and Peace Most endeared Christian MY heart is with you though I am Absent as to my Bodily presence from you and therefore as I have often already so I have now written to you to stir up your pure minds by way of Remembrance and to call upon you for your stedfast continuing and vigorous proceeding in the ways of God Dear Friends and fellow Souldiers under Christ the Captain of our Salvation consider your calling and Station and approve your selves as good Souldiers of Jesus Christ as men of resolution and courage be discouraged with no difficulties of your present Warfare As for humane affairs it would have you to be as you are Men of Peace I would have you Armed not for resisting God forbid but for Suffering onely as the Apostle hints You should resist even to the uttermost striving against Sin Here you must give no quarter for if you spare but one Agag the life of your Souls must go for the life of your sins you must make no Peace for God will not smile on that Soul that smiles on Sin nor have any Peace with him that is at peace with his Enemy Other Enemies you must forgive and love and pray for which I again desire you to mind as one special duty of the times but for these Spiritual Enemies all your affections and all your Prayers must be engaged against them yea you must admit no Parley It 's dangerous to dispute with Temptations Remember what Eve lost by Parleying with Satan you must flie from Temptations and put them off at first with a Peremptory denial If you will but hear the Devils Arguments and the Fleshes Pleas and fair Pretences it is an hundred to one but you are insnared by his Sophistry And for this present evil World the Lord deliver you from its Snares Surely you had need watch and be sober and use your spiritual Weapons dexterously aâ—…d diligently or else this World is like to undo you and destroy yoâ—… I have often warned you not to build upon an External happiness and that you should promise yoâ—…r selves nothing but hardship here Oh still remember your station Souldiers must not count upon Rest and Fulness but Hunger and Hardness Labour to get right apprehâ—…sions of the World Do not think these things necessary one thing is needâ—…ul You may be happy in the want of all outward comfâ—…s Do not think your selves undone if brought to Want or Poverty study Eternity and you will see it to be little material to you whether you are Poor or Rich and that you may have never such an opportunity for your advantage in all your lives as when you put all to hazard and seem to run the Vessel upon the Rocks Set your enemies one against the other Death against the World no such way to get above the World as to put your selves into the possession of Death Look often upon your Dust that you shall be reduced to and imagine you saw your bones tumbled out of your Graves as they are like shortly to be and men handling your Skulls and enquiring whose is this Tell me of what account will the World be then what good will it do you put your selves often into your Graves and look out from thence upon the World and see what Judgement you have of it then Must not you shortly be forgot among the Dead your places will know you no more and your Memory will be no more among men and then what will it profit you to have lived in fashion and repute and to have been Men of esteem one serious walk over a Church-yard as one speaks might make a man morâ—…ified to the World Think upon how many you Tread but you know them not no doubt they had their Estates their Friends their Trades their businesses and kept as much stir in the World as others do now But alas what are they the better for any for all this know you not that this must be your own case very shortly Oh the unhappiness of deceived man how miserably is he bewitched and befooled that he should expend himself for that which he knows shall for ever leave him Brethren I beseech you lay no stress upon these perishing things but labour to be at a Holy indifferency about them Is it for one that is in his wits to sell his God his conscience his soul for thiâ—…gs that he is not sure to keep a week nor a day and which he is sure after a â—…ew sleepings and wakings more to leave behind him for ever go and talk with dying
you and should be willingly so many years a Prisoner for you so I might eminently and effectually further your salvation I must again yea again and again thank you for your abundant and intire affections to me which I value as a great mercy not in order to my self if I know my own heart but in order to your benefit and I may thereby be a more likely Instrument to further your good Surely so much as I do value your love which is not a little yet had I rather if I am not unacquainted with my self be forgotten and forsaken of you all and buried in oblivion So that your eyes and hearts might be hereby fixed on Christ and sincerely engaged to him Brethren I have not be spoken your affections for my self O that I might win your hearts universally to Jesus Christ though I had lost them for ever O that I might be instrumental to convert you to him though you were diverted from me I am perswaded that I should much rather choose to be hated of all so this might be the means to have Christ honoured and set up savingly in the hearts of you all And indeed there is nothing great but in order to God nothing is much material or considerable as it is terminated in us It matters not whether we are in Riches or poverty in sickness or health in honour or disgrace so Christ may be by us magnified in the condition we are in Welcome Prison and poverty welcome scorn and envy welcome pains or contempt if by these Gods glory may be most promoted What are we for but for God what doth the Creature signifie separated from his God why just so much as the Cypher separated from the Figure or the letter from the Syllable we are nothing or nothing worth but in reference to God and his ends Better were it that we had never been than that we should not be to him Better that we were dead than we should live and not to him Better that we had no understandings than that we should not know him Better that we were Blocks and Bruis than that we should not use our reason for him What are our Interests unless as they may be subservient to his Interest or our esteem or reputation unless we may hereby glorifie him do you love me I know you do but who is there that will leave his sins for me I mean at my requests with whom shall I prevail to give up himself in strictnese and self-denial to the Lord who will be intreated by me to set upon neglected duties or reform accustomed sins O wherein may you rejoyce me in this in this my Brethren in this you shall befriend me if you obey the voice of God by me if you be prevailed with to give your selves up throughly to the Lord would you lighten my burden would you loosen my bonds would you make glad my heart let me hear of your owning the ways and servants of the Lord in adversity of your coming in of your abiding and patient continuing in the ways of holiness O that I could but hear that the prayerless Souls the prayerless families among you were now given to prayer that the profane sinner would be awakened and be induced by the Preaching of these Bonds which heretofore would not be prevailed with to leave their drunkenness their loose company their lying and deceit and Wantonness by all the threatnings of God that could be pronounced against them nor all the beseechings wooings and entreaties that I was able to use with them will you not be made clean when shall it once be how long shall the patience of God wait for you how long shall the Lord Jesus stretch out his hands toward you O sinners cast your selves into his Arm Why should you die why will you forsake your own mercy will you perish when mercy wooes you confess and forsake your sins and you shall find mercy will you part with Christ and sell your souls to perdition for a little ease and delight to your flesh or a little of the gain of unrighteousness or a little Ale or vain mirth or loose company why these are the things that part between sinners and Christ. I know many are spun with a finer thred and are not so far from the Kingdom of God as the prayerless ignorant Sabbath-breaking intemperate sort are But I must once again warn you of staying in the suburbs of the City of Refuge O what pity is it that any should perish at the Gates that any should escape the pollutions of the world and do many things yea and suffer it may be too and yet should fall short of the glory of God for want of a through work of grace Oh you halting Christians that halt between Christ and the World that are as Ephraim like a Cake not turned dow-baked Professors that have Lamps without Oyl that cry Lord Lotd but do not the will of our Father which is in Heaven how long will you stay in the place of the breaking forth of Children and stick between the womb and the World your Religion will carry you among the profane despisers of Godliness but do own the people of the Lord and do love the Ministers and ordinances therefore all is well I tell you Godliness is a heart-work it goes deep and spreads far unless the frame of your hearts and the drifts of your course be changed unless you be universally conscientious and unreservedly delivered up to the Lord for all times and conditions whatever be the cost you are none of Christs how far soever you go in common workings and external performances Hear then O people and let not profaneness swallow you up let not an almost Christianity deceive you or ignorance carry you blindfold to perdition Oh the thousands and ten thousands that have been undone by one of these Ah how often have you been warned against them least you should split against these dangerous Rocks O Jerusalem Jerusalem said Christ and O Taunton Taunton may I say from him 〈…〉 who can tell how often would Gods 〈…〉 â—…thered you and you would not many very many 〈…〉 would not But will you now will you yet come in I 〈…〉 forbear once more even out of the Prison to 〈…〉 or sinners and make one tender of mercy more O 〈…〉 to the waters of Life wash you make you clean read 〈…〉 diligent observation the melting passages Prov. 1. 22. to the end Isa. 1. 16 21. Isa. 55. 6 10. Oh obdurate sinners if none of these things move you But for you whose very hearts are set against every sin and are deliberately resolved for God and Holiness â—…re all the worlds delight you that have experience of a thorow change and are brought to have respect to all Gods Commandments who will have none but God for your happiness none but Christ for your Treasure that must and will have him come what will come blessed are you of the Lord O happy Souls
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 ouâ—… 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 hâ—…nger and thirst after it 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 that 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 â—…re you among men though you are but poor and despised and like little Benjamin among the thousands of Judah you carry away 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 Kingdom of Heaven All that the Scripture speaks of that Kingdom of Glory that Kingdom of Peace of Righteousness that Everlasting Kingdom 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 noâ—… 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 â—…hall set you at his own right hand Then shall the King say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom 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 noâ—…bid you be Thankful only believe Do this and do all Belieâ—… and joy will rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glorâ—… Believe and you will be fruitful and shew your Faith by yoâ—… works Believe and you will Love for Faith worketh by lovâ—… In a word keep these things upon your hearts by daily anâ—… lively consideration and this will bring Heaven into yoâ—… souls and ingage you to all manner of holy conversation anâ—… Godliness This will morâ—…ifie you to the World the graâ—… enemy which I advise nay I charge you to beware of Wheâ—… Saul had gotten his Kingdom he left off taking care for thâ—… Asses O remember yours is the Kingdom what are yoâ—… the better that you have all this in your Bibles if you do noâ—… weigh it by frequent and serious consideration and pondâ—… these sayings in your hearts Beloved I have written thâ—… things to you that your joy may be full And now Peace leave with you I am Christs Embassador to you an Embasâ—…dor of Peace his Peace I pronounce unto you In hiâ—… Name I bless you Farewel in the Lord I am The fervent Well-willer of your Soâ—… JOS. ALLEINE Devises June 29. 1666. LETTER XXVII Oâ—… the Second coming of Christ. To the Faithful and Beloved the Servants of God iâ—… Taunton Grace and Peace Loving and most dearly Beloved THough I trust my Bonds do preach to you yet methink 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 remembeâ—… 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 brighâ—… but very cold But now my Brethren I shall not with Paul call upon you so much to remember the resurrection of Christ as the Return of Christ Behold He cometh in the Clouds and every Eâ—…e 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 profess my self undone my Preaching is vain and my suffering is vain and the bottom in which I have intrusted all my hopeâ—… is for ever miscarried But I know whom I have trusted We are built upon the foundation 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
upon those dangerous Rocks upon which so many Professors have been split There are three things which I beseech you carefully to beware of First Lest while Christ is in your mouths the world run away with your hearts There is many a seeming Professor that will be fòund a meer Idolater Many a Soul goes down to Hell in this sin in the midst of his Profession and never discerns it till it be too late Remember I beseech You that the Oxen the Farm Wife Merchandize all of them lawful Comforts did effectually keep men from a sound and saving closing with Christ as the vilest lusts of the worst of men Whatever you find your hearts very much pleased in and in love with among these earthly Comfoâ—…ts set a mark upon that thing and remember that there lies your greatest danâ—…r What you love most you must fear most and think ofâ—…en wiâ—…h your selves This if any thing is like to be my 〈…〉 multitudes of Professors that perish for ever by 〈…〉 â—…and of this mortal Enemy I mean the overvalâ—…ing of Earthly things The hearers compared to the thornâ—… Ground did not openly fall away and cast off their Profession as the stony ground did but while others withered away the blade of Profession was as green and fresh as ever and yet their inordinate aâ—…ection to the things of this life did secretly undo all at last Little do most Professors think of this while they please themselves in their estates while they delight themselves so freely in their Children in their Wives in their habitations and possessions that these be the things that â—…re like to undo them for ever How little is that Scripture thought of which speaks so dreadfully to worldly Professors Love not the World for if any man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him Are there not many among us who though they do keep up Prayer and other holy Duties yet the strength and vigour of their hearts goeth out after earthly things And these are their chief care and their chief joy Such must know that they are none of Christs and they were better to understand it now and seek to be renewed by Repentance then hereafter when there shall be no place for Repentance 2. Lest while Iniquity doth abound your love to Christ doth wax cold Remember what an Abomination Laodicea was to Christ because she grew so luke-warm and what a controversie he had with Ephesus a sound Church because she did but flacken and grow more remiss in her love A friend is born for adversity and now is the time if you will prove the sincerity of your love and friendship to Jesus Christ by following him zealously resolvedly sully now he is more rejected and opposed Thirdly Lest you keep up a barren and fruitâ—…ss Profession withâ—…ut Progression See to it my Brethren that you be not onely Professors but proficients Many Professors think all is well because they keep on in the exercises of Religion but alas You may keep on praying aâ—…d hearing all the Week long and yet be not one jot the further Many there are that keeâ—… going but it is like the Horse in the Mill that is going all day but yet is no further than when he first began Nay it oft times happens in the Trade of Religion as it doth in trading in the World where many keep on in trading still till for want of care and caution and examining their accounts whether they go forward or backward they trade themselves out of all Oh look to it my Brethren that none of you rest in the doing of duties but examine what comes of them Otherwise as you may trade your selves into Poverty so you may hear and pray your selves into hardness of heart and desperate security and formality This was the very case of wretched Laodicia who kept up the trade of religious duties and verily thought that all was well because the trade still went on and that she was increased in spiritual goods and in a gaining way but when her accounts were cast up at last all comes to nothing and ends in wretchedness poverty and nakedness Most dear Brethren I wish and pray for the prosperity of you all but above all I wish your Souls prosperity with which after my most dear Loves to you all having already exceeded the bounds of an Epistle I commend you to the living God Remaining Your fervent well wisher and Embassador in Christ JOS. ALLEINE Devises June 22. 1666. LETTER XXX An Admiration of the Love of God To the most Loving and best Beloved the servants of God in Taunton Salvation My most dear Friends I Love you and long for you in the Lord and I am weary with forbearing that good and blessed work that the Lerd hath committed to me for the surtherance of your Salvation How long Lord how long shall I dwell in silenâ—… How long shall my Tongue cleave to the Rooâ—… of my Mouth When will God open my Lips that I may stand up and praise him But it is my Fathers good pleasure yet to keep me in a total disability of publishing his Name among you unto him my Soul shall patiently subscribe I may not I cannot complain that he is hard to me or useth me with Rigour I am full of the Mercies of the Lord yea Brimful and running over And shall I complain Far be it from me But though I may not murmur meâ—…hinks I may mourn a little and sit down and wish O if I may not have a Tongue to speak would I had but Hands to Write that I might from my Pen drop some heavenly Councels to my Beloved People Methinks my feeble Fingers do even Itch to Write unto you but it cannot be alas my right-hand seems to have forgot her cunning and hath much ado with trembling to lift the Bread unto my Mouth Do you think you should have had so little to shew under my Hand to bear Witness of my Care for You and love to you if God had not shock my Pen as it were out of my Hand Buâ—… all that he doth is done well and wisely and therefore I submit I have purposed to borrow Hands wherewith to write unto my Beloved rather then to be silent any longer But where shall I begin or when should I end If I think to speak of the Mercies of God towards me or mine enlarged affections towards you methinks I feel already how strait this Paper is like to be and how insignificant my Expressions will be found and how insufficient all that I can say will prove at last to utter what I have to tell you but shall I say nothing because I cannot utter all this must not be neither Come then all ye that fear the Lord come and I well tell you what he hath done for my Soul O help me to love that precious Name of his which is above all my Praises O love the Lord all ye his Saints and fear before him
magnifie the Lord with me aud let us exalt his Name together he hath remembred my low estate because his Mercy endureth for ever O blessed be you of the Lord my dearly Beloved O thrice blessed may you be for all your remembrances of me before the Lord you have wrestled with the Lord for me you have wrestled me out of the very Jaws of Death it self O the strength of Prayer Surely it is stronger than death See that you even honour the power and Prevalenâ—… of Prayer Oh be in love with Prayer and have high and venerable thoughts of it What distresses diseases Deathts can stand before it Surely I live by Prayer Prayer hath given a Resurrection â—…o this Body of mine when Physicians and friends had given up their hopes Ah my dearly Beloved methinks it delights me to tell the story of your love how much more of the love of God towards me I have not forgotten O my dearly Beloved I have not forgotten your tender love in all my distresses I remember your kindness to me in my Bonds when once and again I was delivered up to a Prison for your sakes I remember with much delight how you refreshed and comforted me in my Tribulations how open your hearts were and your hands were not straightned neither for I was in want of nothing I may not I must not forget what painful Journies you took to visit me when in places remote the hand of the Lord had touched me and though my long sickness almost incredible expensive to me yet your Supplies did not a little lighten my Burthen And though I put it last yet I do not mind it least that you have been so ready in returning Praises to God in my behalf your thanksgiving to God my dear Brethren do administer abundant cause to me of my giving thanks unto you And now my heart methinks is big to tell you a little of my love to you surely you are dear unto me but though it be sweet to tell the story of love yet in this I will restrain my sâ—…lf For I fear least as the wise man saith of the beginning of strife so I should find of the beginning of love that it is like the letting forth of the Water and the rather I do â—…orbear because I hope you have better Testimonies than Words to bear witness here unto you But if I sing the song of love O let Divine Love overcarry the praise I found my self in straights when I began to speak of the natural love between my dear people and an unworthy Minister of Christ to them and it seemed that all that I have said was much too little but now I have to speak of the love God it seems to be by far too much O infinite love never to be Comprehended but ever to be admired magnified and adored by every Creature O let my heart be filled let my Mouth be filled let my papers be filled ever ever filled with the thankful Commemoration of this matchless love O turn your eyes from other objects O bury me in forgetfulness and let my love be no more mentioned nor had in remembrance among you so that you may be throughly possessed and inflamed with the love of God This my Beloved this is that love which is ever to be commended and extolled by you See that you studie this love fill your souls with wonder and feast your souls with joy and be ravished with rich contentment in this Divine Love Take your daily walk and lose your selves in the Field of Love Drink O Friends yea drink abundantly O Beloved fear no excess O that your souls may be drencht and drowned in the love of Christ till you can every one say with the ravisht Spouse I am sick of love Marvel not that I wander here and seem to forget the bounds of a Letter this love obligeth me yea rather constraineth me Who in all the Earth should admire and commend this love if I should not I feel it I taste it the sweet savour thereof reviveth my soul it is light to mine eyes and life to mine heart the warm Beams of this blessed Sun O how have they comsorted me ravished and refreshed me both in Body and Soul my benumbed Limbs my withered hands my feeble knees my bones quite naked of flesh do yet again revive through the quickning healing and raising influence of Divine Grace and Love Now my own hands can feed me and my own seet can bear me my appetite is quick my sleep comfortable and God is pleased to give some increase continually though by insensible Degrees and shall not I praise that love and grace that hath done all this for me yea what is this to all I have to tell you My heart is enlarged but I told you Paper could not hold what I have to speak of the goodness of the All-Gracious God in which I live I am forced to end least you should not bear my length My dearly Beloved I send my heart unto you divide my love amongst you all and particularly tender it to your Reverend and Faithful Pastour whose presence with you and painfulness and watchfulness over you and Zeal and courage for you in so dangerous a time is matter of my great Joy and Thanksgivings unto God The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all Fare you well in the Lord I remain Your unworthy Minister and servent Well-wisher in the Lorâ—… JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXI To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown MY hearts desire and Prayer for you is that you may be saved This is that which I have been Praying and studying and Preaching for these many Years and this is the end of my Venturing and Suffering and Writing at this present time God that knoweth all things he knoweth that this is my wish Oh that I could but come at their Souls And that this is the prize and the gain that I run for that I might win souls I seek not other gifts give me your hearts let me but part between your sins and you suffer me but to save you give me leave to carry you over to Jesus Christ and I will not ask you any more I will serve you gladly I will suffer for you thankfully so I may but save you Do not wonder why I follow you so pressingly why I call upon you so frequently let not my importunity be grievous to you all this is but to save you Christ did not bethink his Blood and shall I think my Breath or Ink too dear in order to your salvation what pitie is it that any of you should miscarry at last under the power of Ignorance or by a prophane negligence or a formal and lifeless profession of strict Godliness Beloved I am afraid of you lest as to many of you I have run in vain I cannot but most thankfully acknowledge that considering the paucity of those
that are saved there are not a few of you who are the joy of your Ministers and the Glory of Christ. But it cannot be dissembled that far the greater number give little ground to hope that they are in the state of Salvation And must not this be a pinching thought to a compassionate Teacher to think that he cannot for his heart perswade men but that the most of them will wilfully throw away themselves Is it not a wosul sight to behold the Devils driving a great part of our miserable Flocks as they did once the Herd of Swine the Keepers themselves amazed looking on I say driving them violently down the hill till they be choaked in the Water and drowned irrecoverably in the Gulf of endless Perdition Ah mserable spectacle What through the wilful blindness of some what through the loseness and sensuality of others what through the halving and Cold and customary Religion of others how great a number of our poor Flocks is Satan like to carry utterly away from us after all that hath been done to save them Yet I cannot but call after them Hearken unto me O ye Children How long will ye love Vanity and follow after leasing and trust in lying Words As the Lord liveth you are lost except you turn Wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ah how Mercy woeth you How it waiteth to be gracious to you Hear O sinners hear See you not how the merciful Saviour of the World stretcheth forth his hands all the day long and spreadeth forth his Wings and calleth you as a Hen doth her Chickens hear you not the soundings of his Bowels He had no need of you Yet how do his compassions melt over perishing sinners his heart is turned within him and shall not this turn your hearts his repentings are kindled together and shall not this lead you to repentance Behold he standeth at the door and knocketh O man wilt thou keep â—…esus at the door and lodge Barrabas in thy bosom and prefer thy cruel Lusts before thy Compassionate Lord Oh his melting love to sinners He calleth after them Isa. 55. 1. He weepeth over them Luke 19. 41 42. He crieth to them Prov. 1. 21 22 23. How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity Will you not be made clean When shall it once be Why will you die Turn you at my Reproof Behold I will pour out my Spirit upon you Sinner art thou not yet melted Oh come in at his loving Calls Come out from thy sins Touch the Scepter of Grace and live Why shouldest thou be dashed in pieces by his Iron Rod Kiss the Son Why shouldst thou perish in the way Set up Jesus as thy King lest he count thee sor â—…is Enemy because thou wouldst not that he should Reign over thee and so thou be called forth and slain before him Oh how dreadful will this Case be to perish under the pittiful Eyes of his Mercy and to die by the hand of a Saviour Oh double hell to have thy Redeemer become thine Executioner And the hand that was so long stretched forth to save thee to be now stretched forth to slay thee And the merciful heart of Christ himself hardned against thee so as that he should call thee forth and with his own hand hew thee in pieces as Samuel did Agag before the Lord. But I have been too too long in prefacing to what I intended forthwith to have fallen upon Indeed I am apt to run out in matters that do so nearly touch upon your greatest Concernments Beloved I despair of ever bringing you to Salvation without Sanctification Or possessing You with Happiness without perswading you to Holiness God knows I have not the least hope ever to see one of your Faces in Heaven except You be Converted and Sanctified and exercise your selves unto Godliness This is that I drive at I beseech you study to further Personal Godliness and Family Godliness 1. Personal Godliness Let it be your first care to set up Christ in your Hearts See that you make all your worldly Interests to stoop to him that You be entirely and unreservedly devoted unto him If You wilfully and deliberately and ordinarily harbour any sin You are undone See that You unfeignedly take the Laws of Christ as the rule of your words thoughts and actions and subject â—…our whole man members and mind faithfully to him If You haâ—…e a true respect to all Gods Commandments you are sound at heart Oh study to get the Image and impress of Christ upon you within Begin with your hearts else you build without a foundation Labour to get a saving change within or else all external performances will be to no purpose And then study to shew forth the power of Godliness in the life Let Piety be your first and great business 'T is the highest point of Justice to give God his due Beware that none of you be a Prayerless person sor that is a most certain discovery of a Christless and a graceless person of one that is a very stranger to the fear of God Suffer not your Bibles to gather dust See that you converse daily with the Word That man can never lay claim to Blessedness whose delight is not in the Law of the Lord. Let â—…editation and self-examination be your daily exercise else the Papists yea the Pagans will condemn us That the short questions which I have given you as a help to self-examination may be daily perused by you is the matter of my passionate request unto you If ever you come to any growth in Holiness without the constant use of â—…his practice I am grosly deceived And therefore I would beseech yea even charge you by the Lord that you would daily examine your selves by these questions till you have found a better help to this duty But Piety without Charity is but the half of Christiaâ—…y or rather impious Hypocrisie We may not divide the Tables See therefore that you do justly and love mercy and let Equity and Charity run like an even Thred throughout all your dealings Be you temperate in all things and let Chastity and and Sobriety be your undivided Companions Let truth and Purity Seriousness and modesty Heavenliness and gravity be the constant ornaments of your speech Let patience and humility simplicity sincerity shine out in all the parts of your conversations See that you sorget sorgive wrongs and requiâ—…e them with kindness as you would be found children of the most high Be merciful in your Censures and put the most favourable construction upon our Brethrens carriage that their actions will reasonably bear â—…e slow in promising punctual in fulfilling Let meekness and inâ—…ocency Affableness Yieldingness and Curtâ—…sie comâ—…end your conversations to all men Let none of your Relations want that love and loyalty that reverence and duty that tenderness care and vigilancy which their several places and capacities call for This is throughout Godliness I charge you before the most high God
am apt to pass the bounds of a Letter yet I promise my self now an easie pardon for so loving a trespass With my dear Loves to you all I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace Though I have done writing yet not praying I will promise where my Letter ends my Prayers shall begin Farewel dear Brethren Fare you well in the Lord I am An unworthy Embassador of Jesus in Bond JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Octob. 29. 1663. LETTER XXXIII For Perseverance To my dear Friends the Servants of Christ in Luppit Salvation Beloved Christians HAving taken up a Resolution to Write to and to endeavour to confirm all the Places where I have gone up and down Preaching the Kingdom of God You were by no means to be omitted You were the People that were last upon-my heart before my taking up and had I not been made a Prisoner I think I had in a few hours after the time of my Apprehension been with you Now I can no way but by Prayers Letters and Councels visit you and so have sent these to let you know that you are upon my Heart and that your Welfare is dear unto me I bless the Lord to hear that his Work doth not cease among you It is the Joy of our Bonds Beloved to hear that the Word is not bound and that Satan hath not his design upon the People of God who doubtless intended by these Sufferings to have struck Terrour into them and to have made their Hands weak Know dear Christians that the Bonds of the Gospel are not tedious through Grace unto us that Christ is a Master worth a suffering for that there is really enough in Religion to defray all our Charges to quit all the Cost and Expence you can be at in or upon it That you may Build upon it that you can never be losers by Jesus Christ that Christs Prison is better than the Worlds Paradise that the Divine Attributes are alone an All-sufficient Livelihood that the Influences of Heaven and shines of Gods Countenance are sufficient to lighten the darksomest Dungeon and to perfume and sweeten the noisomest Prison to a poor Believer that if you can bring Faith and Patience and the Assurance of the Divine Favour with you to a Prison you will live comfortably in spight of Earth Hell These are Truths that the Prisoners of Christ can in a measure Seal unto and I would have you to be more soundly assured of and established in Brethren we are of the same mind in a Prison that we were os in the Pulpit that there is no life to a life of Holiness that Christ and his Yoak and his Cross are worthy of all acceptation that it is the best and wisest and safest and gainfulllest course in the World to stick close to Christ and his Ways and to adhere to them in all hazards Come on Beloved Christians come on stack not your pace but give diligence to the full assurance of Hope unto the end and be ye followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Strengthen the hands that hang down and the feeble knees If you faint in the day of Adversity your strength is small Chear up my Brethren look what a Crown what a Kingdom here is What say you Is not here a worthy Portion a goodly Heritage Were it not pity to lose all this for want of Diligence and Patience Come dear Christians and fellow Travellers I pray you let us put on Pluck up the weary Limbs our Home is within sight Lift up your Eyes from the Pisga of the Promises You may see the Land of Rest. Will any of you think of returning into Egypt God forbid A little patience and Christ will come Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the Earth and hath long patience till he receive the early and later Rain Be ye also patient stablish your Hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh He is not a Christian indeed that cannot be content to tarry for his Preferment in another World Cast upon it my Brethren that your Kingdom is not of this World that here you must have Tribulations and that all is well as long as we are secured for Eternity Exhort one another daily strive together in Prayer unite your strength therein and pull a main Mercy will come sooner or later however we will be content to wait till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah how surely will he come He will render Tribulation to them that trouble us and to us that are troubled rest with him Onely believe and wait What not watch with him one hour Why the Judge is even at the door And how blessed will you be if you do but continue and hold fast till he come Watch therefore and stand fast quit you like men be Zealous and let your hearts be strong God is your Friend and you may trust him He is able to bear you out and bear you up faint not therefore but be stedfast unmoveable abounding in the works of the Lord. Speak often one to another provoke to love and to good Works Let the Bay of opposition against Godliness make the Torrent of your Zeal break over with the more violence But it 's time to end I have been bold to call upon you you see and to stir you up by way of remembrance May the Spirit of the most high God excite you encourage you enflame you may these poor lines be some quickning to you may the good-will of him that dwelt in the Bush dwell with you My dear loves to you all pray sor the Prisoners Farewel dear Brethren farewel in the Lord I am Yours in the Bonds of the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE Octob. 11. 1665. LETTER XXXIV To a Back-sliding Fellow Student Sir WHom this will find you or when or where I know not but I have shot this arrow at a venture Once you were an Associate with me in Corpus Christi where I remember your blameless Conversation and your zealous affection for and adhesion to the ways and people of God May you be still found in the same paths of holiness without which no man shall see God The vows of God are upon me which I confess I have been to slack to pay that I would put you in remembrance and in all Brotherly tenderness advise you to remember from whence you are sallen I was informed before your leaving of England of many unhappy miscarriages which the great reproach of your holy profession you had been too manifestly guilty of I am not without some hope that the Lord may have since recalled you and brought you back to himself and yet not without more fear lest if the power of corruption were so strong as to precipitate you with such violence at such a time as that was and in such a place as England as Oxon where you had so many encouragements and inducements examples and faithful friendly
of the way to give thee a meeting but such is my weakness hitherto that I am forced to put off those hopes till the Spring when if God give me strength to ride I intend to see thee before mine own Home I thank thee for all the dear expressions of thy fervent love Methinks I see it and feel how it runs through all the veins of every â—…etter nay every Line I needed not so chargeable a Testomony as thy golden Token with which I was somthing displeased because I thought thou needest more than my self but the love thereby expressed is most dearly welcome to me What thou talkest of Retribution and of Justice doth not so well relish with me because the Phrases seem improper to the love profest between us I never lookt for any return from thee but love which is the paying of all thy Debts my expences have indeed been vast and almost incredible but surely goodness and mercy hath followed me and do follow me in every place and in every change of my condition so that as to temporals I have lack of nothing and as for spirituals I abound and superabound and the streams of my comforts have been full and running over the joy of the Lord hath been my strength at weakest and in the multitude of my thoughts within me his comforts have refresh'd my Soul I have found God a satisfying portion to me and have sat down under his shadow with full delights and his fruit is most sweet to my taste he is my strength and my Song for I will talke of him and write of him with perpetual pleasure Through grace I can say methinks I am now in my Element since I have begun to make mention of him I am rich in him and happy in him and my soul saith unto him with Divid Thou hast made me most Blessed for evermore and happy is the hour that ever I was born to be made partaker of so blisful a Treasure so endless a felicity so Angelical Prerogatives as I have in him O sweet are his converses how delightful it is to Triumph in his Love Suffer me to be free with thee where should I pour out my Soul if not into thy bosom did the poor woman call upon her friends and neighbours to rejoyce together with her at the finding of a lost Groat and shall not I tell to thee the keeper of the Secrets of my Soul the friend of my inmost Bosom what a friend is the Lord to me though an unworthy sinner shall not I run and tell thee what a treasure I have found And here methinks the story of the Lepers comes not unaptly to thy mind who said one to another when they had eat and drunk aâ—…d carried away silver and gold and raiment and went and hid it We do not well this day is a day of good tydings and we hold our peace It is sit that I should be cloathed with shame I acknowledge before God who trieth the hearts I am unworthy everlastingly unworthy but it is not fit that he should lose his praise nay rather let him be the more ador'd and magnifi'd and admir'd for ever and ever and let my Secrets say Amen Bless the Lord O my Soul bless the Lord O my Friend let us exhalt his Name together he is my solace in my solitude he is my standing comforter my tried friend my sure refuge my safe retreat he is my Paradise he is my Heaven and my heart is at rest in him and I will sit and sing under his shadow as a Bird among the Branches and whither should I go but unto him Shall I leave the faâ—…ness of the Olive and sweetness of the Fig-tree and of the Vine and go and put my trust under the shadow of the Bramble No I have made my everlasting choice this is my rest for ever he is my well Beloved in whom I am well pleased Suffer me to boast a little here I may Glory without Vanity and I can praise him without end or measure but I have nothing to say of my self I find thou dost overvalue me and magnifie me above my measure set the Crown upon the head of Christ let nothing be great with thee but him give him the glory but thy love pleaseth me only I have this exception that thou art in love with thine own Idol as Austin somewhere speaks to a friend of his that did too much magnifie him and magnifiest a Creature of thine own fancie and not thy poor Orestes God that knoweth all things knoweth my poverty how little how low and how mean I am and how short I come of the attainments of the Saints who yet do themselves come so exceedingly short of the Rule that God hath set before us I often think of the Complaint of the devout Monsier I feel my self very poor this week and very defective in the love of God if you would know wherein you may pleasure me love God more that what is wanting in me may be made up in the abundance of your love in this my Pylades in this thou maist most highly pleasure me love God a little the better praise him a little the more for my sake let me have this to please my self in that God is alittle the better loved sor me and that I have blowed up if it be but one flash nay but one spark of Divine Love in the bosom of my dearest friend towards him But why my Pylades why is thy stile towards me changed why hast thou lost the old and wonted strain of our former pleasing familiarity this I could not but observe with some disgust is it because thy heart is changed but this is a question in which I cannot ask any resolution I am satisfied and at rest in thy love but what this alterations means I know not art thou willing by degrees to grow strange it cannot be thou seest however that I cannot change my voice Besides I find some jealous passages in thy last lines unto us but canst thou think that T. B. can be put into the ballance against my old friend my own my Covenant Pylades or can a friend of words come into any competition or comparison with thine experienced love I cannot entertain the thoughts of this without some disdain But thy needful cautions are acceptable to me I desire to foresee and provide for manifold changes and storms I know I am not yet in the harbor O pray with me that I enter not into Temptation for I am very weak in Spirit as well as in body God knoweth But there is no end with me somewhere or other I must break off and thou wilt say it is time to shut up for once only know that I am thy daily Orator and will be whilest I am and yet once more I must have room to add my thankful acknowledgement of thine and thy costly kindness and so with our most dear affections to you both I commend you to the God of
and look out for his coming in which is all our hope 'T will be time enough for us to be preferred then We know before hand who shall then be uppermost Our Lord hath shewed us where our place shall be even at his own right hand and wâ—…at he will say to us Come ye Blessed c. Surely we shall stand in his Judgement He hath promised to stand our Friend Let us look for the joyful day As sure as there is a God this day will come and then it shall go well with us What if Bonds and Banishments abide us for a season This is nothing but what our Lord hath told us The â—…ld shall rejoyce but ye shall weep and lament You shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be tuâ—…ned into joy Oh how reviving are his words I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh away from you If that miserable wretch leapt chearfully off the Ladder saying I shall be a Queen in Hell With that joy should we do and suffer for God who have his Truth in pawn that we shall be Crown'd in Heaven Verily they are wonderful Preparations that are making for us The Lord prepare us apâ—…e and make us meet to be Partakers It was the highest Commendation that ever that worthy R. Baxter received which fell from the Pen of his scoffing Adversary Tilenus who saith of him Tâ—…tum Puritanismum totus spirat Oh that this may be true of us and ours Let your true Yoke-fellow and my Christian Friends with you in the Bonds of the Gospel have my hearty Commendations And these Counsels I pray You give them from me for the improving of their present state 1. To habituate themselves both as to their thoughts and discourses more throughly than ever unto Holiness Brethren I wou'd teach you the Lesson that I resolve to learn with you That your minds and tongues may as naturally run on the things of Heaven as others on the things of this World Why should it not be thus I am sure God and heaven do as well deserve to be thought on and talked of by us as froâ—…h and vanity can deserve of the World There are many that have in a great measure learnt this Lesson and why should not we be some of them What if it be hard at first Every thing is so to a beginner Besides is not ours a Religion of self denial Further if we do but force our selves a while to holy Thoughts and Heavenly Discourse it will â—…row habitual to us and then it will be most natural familiar and Heavenly sweet Oh what gainers will you be if you do but learn this Lesson Verily 't is the shame of Religion that Christians are so unlike themselves unless upon their knees Sirs our lives and language should tell the world what we are and whether we are going Christians let little things content you in the world but aspire after great things in the grace of God Many real Christians do little think what high frames of holiness they might grow up to even in this life with pains and diligence Sirs be you men of great designs think it not enough if you have wherewith to bear your charges to Heaven but aspire with an holy ambition to be great in the Court of Heaven favourites of the most High of tall growth great experience singular communion that you may burn and shine in your place and convince the world that you may savour of Heaven where ever you come and that there may be an even-spun thred of Holiness running through your whole course 'T is the disgrace of Profession that there is so little difference to be seen in the ordinary conversation of Believers from other men It is not a shame that when we are in company with others this should be all the difference that is to be seen only that we will not curse and swear as do the worst of men Christians if you will honour the Gospel bring forth your Religion out of your Closets the world can't see what you do there into your Shops Trades Visits c and exemplifie the rules of Religion in the management of all your Relations and in your ordinary converse Let there be no place or company that you come into in which you do not drop something of God this will be the glory of Religion and we shall never convince the world till we come to this May you come my Brethren out of your Prisons with your faces shining having your minds seasoned and your tongues tipt with holiness may your mouths be as a Well of Life from whence may flow the holy Streams of edifying discourse may you ever remember as you are sitting in your houses going by the way lying down rising up what the Lord doth then require of you Deut. 6. 7. 2. To improve their present retirements from the World for the setling of their spiritual Estates 'T is a common complaint amongst Christians that they want assurance Oh if any of you that wanted assurance when you came to Prison may carry that blessing our what hapâ—…y gainers would you be Now you are called more than ever to self-searching Now bring your Graces to the Touchstone Be much in self observation See what your hearts do with most love and delight go out unto what are your greatest hopes and your chief designs See whether God's Intrest be uppermost in you prove this and prove all Rest not in probable hopes Think not that is enough that you can say you hope 't is well God looks for extraordinary dispensation Be restless till you can say that you know 't is well that you know you are passed from death to life Think not that this is a priviledge that onely a few may expect Observe but these three things 1. To acquaint your selves throughly with the condition of Life and take heed of laying the marks of Salvation either too high or too low 2. To be much in observing the frame and bent and workings of your own hearts 3. To universally conscientious and to be constant in even and close walkings and then I doubt not but you will grow up speedily to a settled assurance nad know and feel that peace of God that passeth all understanding and this will be somewhat worth your carrying out of Prison But I return to your self But what shall I say I have more need to receive from you than ability to give only I will tell you my wishes for you I wish that your body may prosper as your soul also prospereth I wish that you may see the travel of your Soul that you may find your people thriving under your hands iu all manner of holy conversation and godliness that whosoever converses with them may see and hear by them that God is in them of a Truth I wish your enlargement from your bonds and your enlargement in them that your Prison may be but the Lanthorn through which your