Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	jesus_n	sin_n	sinner_n	3,659	5	7.4408	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23622	The life & death of Mr. Joseph Alleine, late teacher of the church at Taunton, in Somersetshire, assistant to Mr. Newton whereunto are annexed diverse Christian letters of his, full of spiritual instructions tending to the promoting of the power of Godliness, both in persons and families, and his funeral sermon, preached by Mr. Newton.	Alleine, Theodosia.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Alleine, Joseph, 1634-1668. Christian letters full of spiritual instructions.; Newton, George, 1602-1681. Sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Joseph Alleine.	1672 (1672)	Wing A1013_PARTIAL; Wing N1047_PARTIAL; ESTC R19966	231,985	333

you prize the Promises more and hug and imbrace them with greater dearness and live more upon them Tenthly If you grow of a more publick 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 intended 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 abruply 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 Prison at Juelchester Octob. 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 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 value as a great mercy not in order to myself if I know my own heart but in order to your benefit as 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 bespoken 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 Bruits 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 strictness 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 prosane 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 cou'd 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 our his hands toward you O sinners cast your selves into his Arms 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 Lord 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 drists 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 nor profaneness swallow you up let not an almost Christianity deceive you orignorance carry you blindfold to perdition

goodness which he had in himself Whoever they were that came to visit or to be 〈◊〉 with him it was their own fault if they got not by him so much good as to be for ever the better for him It was hardly possible to be in his company and not to hear such things from him as if well weighed might have been enough to make one out of conceit with Sin and in love with Vertue as long as one lived Though he did not say as Titus once yet by his actions we may judge he thought that he had even quite lost a day when none had gained somewhat by him He lived as if he had been quickned with that saying which I have somewhere met with in Tertullian Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest To what purpose is it to live and not to live to some good purpose But this was that this ardent love to the Souls of men that quickly depriv'd us of his company it carried him down into the Countrey where how he demeaned and carried himself let others speak CHAP. III. A brief Character of him by that Reverend Person Mr. R. A. who was nearly related to him shewing how eminently he wus qualified for the Ministerial Service and Warfare unto which he was called OF his Extract I shall say little He was the Son of a godly Father Mr. Tobie Allein sometime of the Devizes an understanding affectionate prudent and signally humble and experienced Christian who died suddenly but sweetly his Son surviving him not above a year or two He having been languishing for some time at length he seemed to be upon eecovery and went about his House on the morning before he died he arose about four about 10 or 11 he came down out of his Closet and called for something to eat which being prepared he gave Thanks but could not eat any thing His Wife perceiving a sudden change in him perswaded him to go to his Bed He answered No but I will die in my Chair and I am not afraid to die He sat down and only said My Life is hid with Christ in God and then he closed his Eyes with his own hands and died immediately No more of the Father Concerning his Son I shall speak What he was and what his temper and behaviour was As a Man As a Christian. As a Minister 1. As a Man He was 1. Of quick natural parts and great acquired Abilities concerning which I shall need say no more there being a fuller Account given by another Hand 2. Of a composed grave and serious temper and behaviour not at all morose but full of candour free affable chearful and courteous 2. As a Christian. He was for exemplary Holiness and Heavenliness of mind and life much elevated above the ordinary Rank He lived much in delightful Communion with God his Soul was greatly exercised in Divine Contemplation and he would sometimes speak to provoke others whom he wished the same delights to the same exercise what ineffable pleasure sweetness and satisfaction his Soul had found in his stated Meditations on the Divine Attributes distinctly one by one In his Discourses he would speak much and passionately to the commending and exalting of the Divine Goodness and of the inexpressible dearness and tenderness of the Divine Love In Prayer he was not ordinarily so much in confession or complaining of Corruption and Infirmities though he expressed a due sense of these as in the admiring and praising of God in his Infinite Glorious Perfections in the mention of his wonderful Works particularly of those Wonders of his Love revealed in Jesus Christ. In some of his Letters to me when he had been speaking of the Grace and Goodness of God to him of the sense whereof he would seem to be even quite swallowed up he would break off with some such Expressions as these I am full of the Mercies of the Lord O Love the Lord for me O praise the Lord for my sake O help me help me to praise the Lord. His whole Life was adorned and beautified with the admirable lustre of his particular personal Graces 1. He was a Man of Love His sweet amicable and courteous converse was such as made him the deliciae of his Acquaintance and made way for the entertainment both of his serious Counsels and severer Reproofs He grew dear unto the Saints that knew him because they saw in his very face and all his Carriages how very dear they were to him His compassion to those in distress his bounty to those in want wherein he abounded beyond his ability his forbearance in case of offences his affectionate Language and Carriage his readiness to all obliging Offices of Love to his Relations to his Friends to Strangers to Enemies did evidently declare how he loved them Especially his Love was let forth in fuller streams upon the Congregation where he exercised his Ministry The People of his Care were the People of his Delight His ardent longing for their Souls his rejoycing in their Souls prosperity his bleedings and breakings of Soul under any of their falls or infirmities his uncessant labours among them both publickly and from House to House his frequent and affectionate Letters to them when he was absent his earnest desire to live and die and be buried amongst them declaring to them That if he died within fifty miles of Taunton his will was to be brought and buried there that his Bones might be laid with their Bones his Dust mingled with their Dust these all declare how greatly they were in his Heart 2. He was a Man of Courage 1. He feared no dangers in the way of his Duty knowing that He that walks uprightly walks surely In cases less clear he was very inquisitive to understand his way and then he fixed without fear 2. He feared not the faces of Men but where occasion was he was bold in admonishing and faithful in reproving which ungrateful Duty he yet managed with such prudence and such expressions of Love and compassion to Souls as made his way into hearts more easie and his work more succesful 3. He was a Son of Peace Both a zealous Peace-maker among differing Brethren in case of personal Quarrels and Contentions and he was also of sober and peaceful Principles and an healing Spirit as to Parties or Factions upon the account of Religion He had an awful and reverend regard to Magistrates abhorring all provoking and insolent expressions or mutinous and tumultous Actions against them 4. He was a Man of Truth and Righteousness Both as to his own personal practice and also was much in pressing it upon others especially professors of Religion to be examplarily just in their dealings and true in their words to be wary in promising and punctual in performing O how often and passionately have I heard him bewailing the Sins of Promise-breaking and deceitful dealing whereof such as he hath known to be guilty have understood both by Word and Writing how

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 damnable and undone condition in your selves and your utter inability 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 holiest than the richest and greatest in the World and is your greatest delight ordinarily and when you are your selves in the thoughts of God and in your conversings with God in Holy Exercises Is Christ more precious than all the World to you and are you willing upon the through consideration of the strictness and holiness and self-denying Nature of his Laws yet to take them all for the rule of your thoughts words and actions and though Religoin may cost you dear do you resolve if God will assist you by his Grace to go through with it let the cost be what it will happy the man that is in such a case This is a Christian indeed and whatever you be and do short of this all is unsound But you that bear in your souls the marks of the Lord Jesus above mentioned upon you I should lay no other burden but to hold fast and make good your ground and to press forward towards the mark Thankfully acknowledge the distinguishing grace God to your souls and live rejoycingly in the hopes of the glory of God the hopes that shall never make you ashamed live daily in the praises of your Redeemer be much in admiring God and study the worthiness excellency and glory of his Attributes let your souls be much taken up in contemplating and commending his glorious perfection and blessing your selves in the goodly Portion you have in him live like those that have a God and then be disconsolate if you can If there be not more in an infinite God to comfort you than in a Prison or Poverty or other affliction to deject you our Preaching is vain and your Faith is vain Let the thoughts of God be your daily repast and never be satisfied till your hearts run out as freely naturally constantly unweariedly after God as others do after the World a little force upon your hearts for a while to turn them into this holy Channel may quickly come so to habituate your minds to holiness that they may naturally run that way But it is time to shut up Farewel my dear Brethren the Lord God Almighty be a protection to you and your exceeding great reward Farewel in the Lord. I am Just now I received your meking Letter to which I am not able now to return an answer but shall with speed your very great affections for me cannot but move me and make me ready to repeat again the first words of my Letter above The Lord inable me to return something to you for your great loves I am sensible I have come very short of my duty to you but I must needs tell you my Bowels are moved with your loves which I hope I shall greatly prize once more Farewel My dear Brother Norman remembers you with much love desiring that you may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye should shine as lights in the World Yours in the Bowels of the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Septemb. 11. 1663. LETTER VIII How to shew love to Ministers and live joyfully To the most Loving and dearly Beloved my Christian Friends in Taunton Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Most endeared Brethren I Have received your moving melting Letter and could not look over such tender expressions of your working affections without some commotions in my own I may confidently say I spent more Tears upon those Lines than ever you did Ink Your deep sense of my labours in the Ministry I cannot but thankfully acknowledge and take notice of yet withal heartily and unseingedly confessing that all was but the duty which I did owe to your precious and immortal Souls which God knows are very much short of my duty The omissions imperfections defects deadness that accompanied my duties I do own I must and will own and the Lord humble me for them But all that was of God and that was all that was good be sure that you give to God alone To him I humbly ascribe both the Will and the Deed to whom alone be Glory for ever My dear Brethren my business as I have often told you is not to gain your hearts or turn your eyes towards me but to Jesus Christ his Spokesman I am will you give your hearts to him will you give your hands your names to him will you subscribe to his Laws and consent to his Offices and be at through defiance with all his Enemies This do and I have my Errant Who will follow Christs Colours who will come under his Banner this shall be the man that shall be my Friend this is he that will oblige me for ever Do these Letters come to none that are yet unsanctified to do loose sinner to no ignorant sinner to no unfound professor Oh that there were none such indeed oh that I had left no such behind me but would they do me a kindness as I believe they would oh then let them come away to Jesus Christ at this call lie no longer O sinner in thy swill be no more in love with darkness stick no longer in the skirts and outside of Religion demure no longer dispute not and waver no more halt no further but strike in throughly with Jesus Christ except nothing reserve nothing but come off throughly to the Lord and follow him fully And then happy man that thou shalt be for thou wilt be made for ever and joyful man that I shall be for I shall save a Soul from death The earnest and pittiful beggings of a poor Prisoner do use to move some Bowels hear O Friends will you do nothing for a Minister of Christ Nothing for a Prisoner

of Jesus Christ methinks I hear you answer yea rather what will we not do he shall never want while we have it he shall need no office of Love but we will run and Ride to do it Yea but this is not that I beg of you will you gratifie me indeed then come in kiss the Son bow to the Name of Jesus not in a Complement with Cap and Knee but let your Souls bow let all your Powers bend Sail and do him homage Let that Sacred Name be Graven into the substance of your hearts and lie as a bundle of Mirrh between your Breasts Let me freely speak for him for he is worthy for whom you shall do this thing worthy to be beloved of you worthy to have your very hearts worthy to be admired adored praised served glorified to the uttermost by you and every Creature worthy for whom you should lay down all leave all Can any thing be too much for him can any thing be too good for him Or too great for him come give up all Resign all lay it at the Feet of Chrlst Jesus offer all as a Sacrifice to him see that you be universally the Lords keep nothing from him I know through the goodness of 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 Butt 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 loosen your hold Hold fast your Profession hold fast your Integrity hold fast the beginning of your confidence stedfast to the end If you do but keep your hold and make good 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 Eremy 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 Oh 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 Your Souls fervent well wisher in the bonds of affliction and tribvlation JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester September 18. 1663. LETTERS IX Easie Sufferings To the most Loving and Beloved my Christian Friends at Taunton 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 servent charity towards me and all the servants of my Lord for all your labours of love for all your diligence and boldness and resolution in owning the despised ways and hated servants of the Lord Jesus in an evil day The Lord is not unrighteous to forget this Is not this upon record with him and sealed up among his Treasures surely the Lord will have mercy upon Taunton I have no doubt but that the God of your 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 parting with my much valued liberty so dear a People so sweet Relations comforts conveniencies which I enjoyed in all abundance 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 Privilidge 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 gratious Father will not put me to the hardest Lesson 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 Adonijah 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 Gaol 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

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 how often who can tell how often would Gods servants have gathered you and you would not many very many of you would not But will you now will you yet come in I cannot forbear once more even out of the Prison to call after poor Sinners and make one tender of mercy more O come to the Waters of Life wash you make you clean read with 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 before 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 rejoyce in the Lord and again I say Rejoyce let your Souls magnifie the Lord and your spirits rejoyce in God your Saviour Live you a life of praise you are highly favoured of the Lord your Lines are fallen in a pleasant place only stick you fast to your choice Beware lest any man beguile you of your reward watch and keep your Garments about you lest you walk naked and men see your shame Many will be plucking to pull you out of Christs hands but the harder they pluck the harder do you cling and cleave to him and the better hold fast do you take of him Blessed is he that overcometh And now the God of Heaven fill you all with himself and make all Grace to abound in you and toward you and that he may be a Sun to comfort you and a Shield of protection to you and shine with his happy Beams of Grace and Glory on you all Farewel in the Lord I am Yours in the Bonds of the Gospel JOSEPH ALLEINE August 28. 1663. LETTER XVI How to live to God To the Beloved People the Inhabitants of the Town of Taunton Grace and Peace Most endeared Christians TO tell you I love and long for you seems somewhat needless I cannot doubt of your confidence that you have a deep share in my tenderest affections for this let my labours among you and the hazards for you speak rather that I 〈◊〉 self Beloved I am without a Complement the devoted servant of your souls prosperity and the interest of Christ in you may the Lord Jesus be set up higher in your hearts may his name ever live in you and be magnified by you and I have what I ask If this work be not promoted among you I shall account all my letters but waste Paper and all my pains but last labour Brethren I beseech you that none of you live to your selves for this were directly to cross the very end of Christ's death for therefore he died that you should not live to your selves 2 Cor. 5. 15. Oh live to him that died for you live to him that is the God of your life live to him that bought your lives with the expense of his own To him that bought you from destruction and not only so but bought your names into the eternal Inheritance reserved in the Heavens for you Will a man be easily perswaded to lose his life how infinitely tender are men here And yet in the worst sence the most of men do lose their lives yea lose them for nothing Beloved consider I beseech you that life is lost that is not lived unto God If you would not loss your lives that you live see to him who is the end of your lives Oh remember this and reckon that day lost which you have not lived unto God! Brethren how great a part of our lives have we really alas too too really lost I beseech you take heed here you are careful about many things but be beware that other things do not put out this which should be the main of your cares to wit the spending your days and strength for him that made you Would it not be dreadful for a man to find at last when he comes to his account with God that his whole life or at least the main of it had been but damnable self-seeking That a man should have so many years allowed him by God and he should at last be found to have been but a false and wicked servant that had set up for himself with his Masters stock and alienated his goods and turned them to his own use Well that you may throughly learn the grand lesson of living unto God take these Counsels First Settle it upon your heart that it is the sum of all your business and blessedness to live unto God 'T is your business for his pleasure you are and were created what have you else to do but to serve your Maker in your general and particular Callings what was the Candle made for saith one but to be burnt beloved what else have you strength for but for God doth he maintain servants and shall not he look for their Work Would you endure it that the servants that you find with meat and wages should set up for themselves that they should eat your bread and all the while do their own work beloved Gods service is your business and he made you and keeps you for no other end and it is your blessedness too Labour to be under the rooted conviction of this principle that your very happiness lies in pleasing and honouring of God Let the sense of this live fresh upon your hearts and it will regulate your whole course Secondly Remember what a dangerous yea damnable thing it is to live your selves To make it our main care and business to please and gratifie our selves or to have applause from and reputation with others or to grow rich in the world and greaten our selves and posterity is the certain evidence of a graceless heart And though the Godly do make God their principle end in general yet they must know that for so much of their lives as is spent besides this end which is too too much they shall suffer loss Thirdly Labour to keep alive upon your selves a deep sense of your strong obligations to Good Often think with your selves what a righteous what a reasonable thing it is that you should with all that you have serve the Lord. Beloved shall not the Vessel be for the use of the Porter that made it Shall not the servant Trade for his Master with whose goods he is entrusted do you not fetch all your bread from Gods door Is not he the Rock that begat you the Author of your being and well-being

Crack Let the Heavenly cheerfulness and the restless diligence and the holy raisedness of your Conversations prove the reallity excellency and beauty of your Religion to the World Forget not your Prisener Labour earnestly for me in your Prayers who am night and day labouring and suffering for you I can never bless God enough for his most tender and indulgent care for you which appears so wonderfully in his Fatherly Protection and his Fatherly Provision See that you receive not the Grace of God in vain Remember with trembling that of our Lord To whom much is given of him much shall be required With my most Dear Loves to you all I commend you to your Father and my Father your God and my God remaining Yours in all manner of Obligations JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester January 20th 1663. LETTER XX. The Felicity of Believers To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians I Have longed and waited for a little breathing time wherein I might write unto you but I have been oppressed hitherto with so many cares and such a throng of business that till now and scarcely now I have had no time of respiration wherein I might sufficiently reflect on you or my self But although so great a part of Taunton be translated to Juelchester with me yet I may not I cannot forget you that are behind Alas poor Taunton how should I bewail thee did I look upon thee onely with the Eye of sense Alas for thy wonted Liberties for thy former plenty and variety wherewith the Lord hath blessed thee He had spread a Table for thee in the midst of thine Enemies Bread hath been given thee and thy Waters have been sure But now a Famine seems to threaten thee and the Comforters that should relieve thy Soul are far from thee Thy Shepheards are removed Thou seest not thy Signs nor thy Prophets and thy wonted helpers are now disabled from giving thee supplies Alas how do thine Enemies triumph and thy Teachers and thine Inhabitants are become their Captives and how great is the Cry of thy Poor and thine oppressed Such would be the Language of Sense if that were suffered to be the Speaker But Faith will speak in another Dialect And therefore amongst my other Counsels that I shall send you this shall be the first Judge not of the present Providences by the conduct of Sense but by the eye of Faith Faith will see that we are then most Honoured when we are most vilified and reproached and set at nought for the sake of Christ and that we are then most happy when the World hath done its worst to make us miserable Faith will tell you that GOD is a very present help when you seem quite to fail of Help and will shew you the Well of Water that is near when the Water in the Bottle is spent What though you seem to have lost Ministers Husbands Friends for a Season Faith will tell you that they are well bestowed and that it will be both your and their Advantage in the Day of Retribution Brethren what are you for Are you for the present World or for that to come Are you for your Temporal enjoyments or do you seek for Glory Honour and Immortallty If you are for this World you have made a very imprudent choice in taking up the Profession of Godliness and cleaving to and owning the hated ways of the Lord But if you are for Glory and for Eternity then be of good Chear all these things do make for us You are Witnesses how often I have told you of these things and I can say with the Apostle I believed therefore have I spoken and therefore I am nothing moved with all these things nor with the things that do yet further abide me I believed and therefore I told you that you should never be losers by Jesus Christ. Nay do I say I told it you You know the Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed you that the Persecuted are doubly blessed that such should rejoice and leap for joy because great is their Reward in Heaven Hath not God said that if we suffer with him we shall also Reign with him and that these light afflictions work for us a weight of Glory And if this be true I pray you tell me whether GOD heth not dealt well with us in counting us worthy of this little Tribulation for his Name Indeed the Sufferings is but little but verily the Reward will not be little I know whom I have trusted I am well assured the Glasse is turned up and ever hour reckoned of our imprisonment and every Scorn and Reproach of our Enemies is kept in Black and White I believe therefore do I speak GOD is infinitely tender of us my Brethren though a Poor and despicable Generation I value not the pop-gun threats of a frowning World 't is well with us we are GODS Favourites Come by Beloved let us sit down under his Shadow Here is safety and rest if God be for us who can be against us Verily he Bottles all our Tears and tells all our Wandrings He numbers all our hairs whosoever toucheth us shall not be Innocent Know you not that we are the Apple of his Eye Hath not he reproved the greatest for his Peoples sakes saying reproach not mine anointed And so we forget how he loved us Are not we his Jewells Doth he not own us for his Members for his Children Ah what a Block doth Unbelief make of man What do you think that all this doth signifie nothing Can you forget your Children Will you suffer your Jewells to lie in the Dirt or make no reckoning of them whether they are lost Verily I write not this without shaming reflectious upon my own stupidity What Beloved of God adopted by God! What a Member of Christ Jesus A vessel of Mercy An heir of Glory What and not yet swallowed up in the sense of Gods infinite love Blush Oh my Soul and be confounded before the most High cover thy face with shame I remember what the Heathen Seneca writes observing the expressions of Gods love to man in his common Providence Verum est usque in delicias amamur that is it is a very truth we are beloved of God even as his darlings My Brethren Have Faith in God Believe his Promises Walk in the sense of his love Comfort your selves in Gods love towards You under all the hatred and envy of men and the contradiction of sinners that You meet with Be strong and of a good courage God is for You. Be assured that he that walketh uprightly walketh surely Forsake not the assembling of your selves together Now see that You speak often to one another and build up each other in the holy Faith God knows I cannot do for you as I would I would have been larger to You but I cannot My most dear Loves I desire You to share among you I am greatly Yours The Peace that

and Suffering and Writing at this present time God that knoweth all things he knoweth that this is my 〈◊〉 Oh that I could but come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souls And that this is the Pride and the Gain that I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I might 〈◊〉 Souls I seek 〈◊〉 other Gifts give 〈◊〉 your Hearts let me but part between your sins and You 〈◊〉 me but to save You give me 〈◊〉 to carry you 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ and I will not ask you any more I will 〈◊〉 You 〈◊〉 I will suffer for You thankfully so I may but save You. Do not wonder why I follow you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I call upon you so frequently 〈◊〉 not my 〈◊〉 be grievous to You all this is but to save You. Christ did not bethink his Blood and shall I bethink my Breath or Ink too 〈◊〉 in order to your Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is it that any of You should miscarry 〈◊〉 under the power of Ignorance 〈◊〉 a prophane Negligence or a formal and 〈◊〉 Profession of strict God liness Beloved I am afraid of You lest as to many of You I have run in vain I cannot but most thankfully acknowledg 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 woful 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 miserable spectacle What through the wilful blindness of some what through the 〈◊〉 and sensuality of others what through the halving and Cold and customary Religion of others how great a number of our poor Flocks is 〈◊〉 like to carry utterly away from us after all that hath been done to save 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 but call after them Hearken unto me Oye Children How long will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and follow 〈◊〉 Leasing and trust in lying Words As the Lord 〈◊〉 You are lost except you turn Wherefore turn your 〈◊〉 and live ye Ah how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you How it 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to you Hear O Sinners hear See 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the merciful Saviour of the World 〈◊〉 forth his hands all the day long and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wings and 〈◊〉 you as a Hen doth her 〈◊〉 hear you not the 〈◊〉 of his Bowels He hath 〈◊〉 of You Yet How do his Compassions melt over perishing Sinners his he 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 within him And shall not this 〈◊〉 your 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are kindled together and that not this 〈◊〉 You 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Door and 〈◊〉 O man wilt thou keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and lodge 〈◊〉 as in 42. He crieth to them Prov. 1. 21 22 23. How long ye simple ones will you love 〈◊〉 Will you not be made clean When shall it once be Why will you die Turn you at my Reproof Behold I wll pour out my Spirit upon you Sinner art thou not yet melted Oh come in at his loving Calls Come out from thy 〈◊〉 Touch the Scepter of Grace and live Why shouldest thou 〈◊〉 dashed in 〈◊〉 by his Iron Rod Kiss the Son Why shouldst thou 〈◊〉 in the way Set up Jesus as thy King lest he count thee for his Enemy because thou wouldst not that he should Reign 〈◊〉 thee and so thou be called forth and slain before him Oh how dreadful will this Case be to perish under the pitiful Eyes of his Mercy and to 〈◊〉 by the hand of a 〈◊〉 Oh double hell to have thy Redeemer become thine 〈◊〉 And the hand that was so long stretched forth to save thee to be now stretched forth to slay thee 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 Beloved I despair of ever bringing You to Salvation 〈◊〉 Sanctification Or possessing You with Happiness without perfwading 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 〈◊〉 Godliness This is that I drive at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You study to further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Family Godliness 1. Personal Godliness Let it be your 〈◊〉 care to set up Christ in your Hearts See that you make all your worldly Interests to stoop to him that You be 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 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 your 〈◊〉 man members and mind faithfully to him If You have a true respect to all Gods Commandments you are 〈◊〉 at heart Oh study to get the image and impress of Christ upon you within Begin with your hearts 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 in the life Let piety be your first and great business 〈◊〉 the highest point of Justice to give God his due Beware that none of you be a Prayerless person for 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 dayly with the Word That man can never lay claim to Blessedness whose delight is not in the law of the Lord. Let meditation 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 dayly 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 this 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 christianity 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