Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	life_n	lord_n	sin_n	8,978	5	4.5107	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

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 〈◊〉 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 Brethen in the everlasting Arms and rest From the common 〈◊〉 at Juelchester June 13th 1663. Your Embassador in bonds Joseph Alleine LETTERS 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 to work a mutual affection between me and you I remember the Tears and Prayers that you have sent me hither with and how I saw your hearts in your eyes How can I forget how you poured out your Souls upon me And truly you are a People much upon my heart whose welfare is the matter of my continual prayers care and study And oh that I knew how to do you good Ah? how certainly should never a son of you miscarry if I knew how to save you Ah! how it pities me to think how that so many of you should remain in your sins after so many and so long endeavours to convert and bring them in Once more Oh! my Beloved once more hear the call of the most high God unto yon The Prison Preaches to you the same Doctrine that the Pulpit did Hear O People hear he that hath an ear let him hear The Lord of Life and of Glory offers you all Mercy and Peace and Blessedness Oh why should you die whosoever will let him take of the Waters of Life freely what miss of life when it is to be had for the taking God forbid O my Brethren my Soul yerns for you and my bowels towards you Ah! that I did but know what Arguments to use with you who shall chuse my words for me that I may prevail with sinners not to reject their own Mercy how shall I get within them How shall I reach them Oh! that I did but know the words that would pierce them That I could but get between their sins and them Beloved Brethren the Lord Jesus hath made me most unworthy his Spokesman to bespeak your hearts for him And oh that I knew but how to 〈◊〉 for him that I might prevail these eight years have I been calling and yet how great a part do remain visibly in their sins and how few alas how few souls have I gained to Christ by sound conversion Once more I desire with all possible earnestness to apply my self to you I have thought it may be a Sermon out of a Prison might do that which I could not do after my long striving with you but have left undone 〈◊〉 then O Friends and let us reason together Many among you remain under the power of Ignorance Ah! how often have I told you the dangerous yea damnable estate that such are in Never make excuses nor flatter your selves that you shall be saved though you go on in this I have told you often and now tell you again God must be false of his Word if ever you be saved without being brought out of the state of Ignorance If ever you enter in at the door of Heaven it must be by the Key of Knowledge you cannot be saved except you be brought to the knowledge of the Truth A people that remain in gross ignorance that are without understanding the Lord that made them will not have mercy on them O why will you flatter your selves and wilfully deceive your own selves when the God of Truth hath said you shall surely die if you go on in this estate Oh for the love of God and of your Souls I beseech you awake and bestir your selves to get the saving knowledge of God you that are capable of learning a Trade to live by are you not capable of learning the way to be saved yea I doubt not but you are capable if you would but beat your heads about it and take pains to get it And is it not pity that you should perish for ever for want of a little pains and study and care to get the knowledge of God Study the Catechism if possible get it by heart if not read it often or get it read to you cry unto God for knowledge improve the little you have by living answerable Search the Scripture daily get them read to you if you cannot read them Improve your Sabbaths diligently and I doubt not but in the use of these means you will sooner arrive to the knowledge of Christ than of a Trade But for thee O hardned sinner that wilt make thy excuses that thou hast not time nor abilities to get knowledge and to sit still without it I pronounce unto thee that thou shalt surely perish And I challenge thee to tell me if thou canst how thou wilt answer it before the most High God when he shall fit in judgement upon thee that thou wouldest be contented to undergo a seven years Apprentiship to learn how to get thy living and that thou mightest have got the knowledge of the principles of Religion in half the time but thou wouldest not beat thy head about it Many are swallowed up in meer profaneness Alas that there should be any such in a place of such means and mercies but it cannot be concealed Many of them proclaim their sin like Sodom and carry their deadly Leprosie in their foreheads I am ashamed to think that in Taunton there should be so many Alehouse-haunters and Tiplers so many lewd Gamesters and Rioters and debauched livers so many black mouthed Swearers who have Oaths and Curses for their common language so many Raylers at Godliness and Prosane Scoffers so many Lyars and deceitful Dealers and unclean and wanton Wretches O what a long list will these and such like make up if put together it saddens me to mention such as these O how crimsen is their guilt how often have you been warned and yet are still unreformed yea loose and profane Yet one warning more have I sent after you from the Lord to repent Return O finners what will you run into everlasting burnings with your eyes open Repent O Drunkards or else you

soon What doth he wish that he were back again with you Hath he his everlasting Rest too soon His glorious Recompence too soon Brethren he wrought a pace you know while he had strength and finished the work that God had given him to do betime So that it is no wonder though he hath his wages early sooner then such dull heavy Slugs as we are His life was short indeed though filled up with Grace and Duty and God hath made but an exchange of an Eternal one for it He was a burning and a shining light burning with enflamed Affections till the Oyl was spent and shining in an exemplary Conversation But this Lamp is not extinguished but only lighted up to flame and shine in a more glorious place And there he shall shine forth as the Sun for ever and ever So that I may say still weep not for him 2. But you will ask me For whom shall we weep then I answer for your selves and for your Children 1. Weep for your selves The Lord you see hath made a woful breach upon you as it is said of 〈◊〉 1 Sam 6. 8. And that your hearts remain unbroken they are unsutable to this heavy dispensation God hath remov'd his holy faithful servant not into a blind corner but into a dark pit The Grave hath newly shut her mouth upon him he is gone hence to be no more in this world You shall behold him now no more in the Land of the Living Your eyes shall see your Teacher here no more for ever You shall now be no more enlightened with his clear instructions No more enliven'd with his zealous Exhortations No more quickned with his fervent Prayers No more warm'd with his heavenly Discourses No more chear'd with his sweet Consolations No more guided by his holy Example The Lord hath made him up among his Jewels because indeed we were not worthy of such a precious Gemme as he was He hath in anger and displeasure pluckt away one of our Pillars as if he meant the House should fall And shall we be insensible of such a stroke Shall we have tears enough to waste upon our petty Losses and not to have a tear to spend on this Inestimable and Irreparable one Brethren you are allow'd to weep here though not for him yet for your selves And that especially in two respects 1. For the sins that you have done for they have made this sad work They are the true and real cause of all your Losses They are your sins that binder good things that they come not to you or take them quite away when they are come If God carry you a side into a Wilderness and strip you naked there of any mercy as if he meant to 〈◊〉 you to the purpose Your waies and your doing I have procured you these things such is your wickedness Believe it you have sinned some way or other against the Mercy which the Lord takes from you They are our sins against the Ordinances of the Lord that cause the Lord to take away our Ordinances from us They are our sins against the Ministers of Christ in that capacity as Ministers that provoke him to remove our Ministers from us yea many times to take away the Candlestick and Light together You may take up the Lamentation of the Church this day The Crown is faln from our heads wo to us for we have sinned They are our sins that 〈◊〉 and Impair and Kill our Ministers who are indeed the Churches Crown and the glory of Christ. Sometimes we overvalue them and then we kill them with kindness Sometimes we undervalue them and then we kill them with neglect and 〈◊〉 them do their work with grief Sometimes we are 〈◊〉 and unthankful and unfruitful and God calls away his Workmen out of the Vineyard that will yield no better Fruit. Nay sometimes we decline and grow remiss and cold and slat we lose our love to God and Christ and then he takes away our Beloved comforts from us And let me tell you some of you have backslidden grievously and sensibly abated of your former Zeal and Holiness and strictness in the Waies of God Yea sinned scandalously to the dishonour of Religion and the Gospel This grieved our dear Brother who will grieve no more now I had it from his Mouth and Pen how tenderly he took some late miscarriages and how near they went to him These things brought him low among you who was low enough before and made him to bewail many who have manifestly sinned and have not repented as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 12. 21. Oh how it wounded him after so many Labours and so many Sufferings for your establishment and confirmation to see such declinations and backslidings He might have said with the Apostle 1 Thes. 3. 8. Now I live if you stand fast in the Lord if not I die and dead he is Oh my dear Friends What have your sins done What hath your barrenness and your unfruitfulness and your backsliding done I know you lov'd him with a very high affection and have made it to appear in many outward declarations to your great praise But the best way to shew your love to the true Ministers of Christ Who seek not yours but you who seek not profit and applause but Fruit is to bear their just reproofs and to be amended by them to hear and obey them in their regular directions to follow all their good Examples For the Ministers of Christ are Samplers to the flock and Samplers must be wrought after And in a word to bring them in the return of all their Labours in Holiness and holy Walking that they may see the travel of their souls and be satisfied Nothing but this will satisfie them and make them do their work with Joy I know you lov'd him as there was cause enough you should but say in truth have you Improv'd him I am assur'd that many of you a considerable number have Improv'd him to the utmost of your power That you have made the most you could of his Indefatigable and Incessant pains among you That you have gather'd up the very Fragments of the Bread of Life and pick'd up the very Crums that nothing might be lost That you have eyed his exemplary Conversation and walked according to your pattern And this I make no question is no small comfort to you in this doleful day But have you all done this Are there no secret Stitches at the Hearts of any of you upon this consideration He spent his strength indeed among you he wasted and consumed himself that you might flourish But tell mee have there been answerable Fruits among you of Holiness and Obedience When he Fed you have you prosper'd He got a poor lean wither'd Body that you might have fat Souls And are you all fat and well liking Oh what lean Souls have some of you who have attended on his Ministry even to his dying day How hath your rich and fat Pasture been

eyes that he attained to the right temperament of the Christian Religion and to a truly Evangelical frame of Spirit suitable to the glorious hopes of Faith and to the wonderful love of our Redeemer And when most Christians think that they have done much if they can but weep and groan over their Corruptions and can abstain from the lustful Pollutions of the World in the midst of many doubts and fears LOVE and JOY and a HEAVENLY MIND were the Internal part of his Religion and the large and fervent PRAISES of God and THANKS GIVING for his Mercies especialiy for CHRIST and the SPIRIT and HEAVEN were the External Exercises of it He was not negligent in confessing Sin nor Tainted with any Antinomian Errours but PRAISE and THANKSGIVING were his Natural Strains his frequentest longest and heartiest Services He was no despiser of a broken Heart but he had attained the blessing of a healed joyful Heart The following Narratives the strain of his Letters but above all the admirations of his nearest Friends will tell him that will enquire how his tryumphant Discourses of the Hopes of Glory and his frequent and fervent Thanksgiving and Praise were the Language which he familiarly spake and the very business of his Heart and Life And O how amiable is it to hear the Tongue employed seriously and frequently in that which it was made for even in the praise of him that made it And to see a man passing with joyful hopes towards Immortality And to live as one that seriously believeth that he must quickly be in the Heavenly Church and live with God and Christ for ever O how comely is it to see a man that saith he believeth that Christ hath redeemed him from Hell and reconciled him to God and made him an Adopted Heir of Glory to live like one that was so strangely saved from so great a misery and with the most affectionate gratitude to honour the Purchaser of all this Grace And how uncomely a thing is it to hear a man say That he believeth all this Grace of Christ this Heavenly Glory this Love of God and yet to be inclined to no part of Religion but fears and complainings and scarce to have any words of Praises or Thanksgiving but a few on the by which are heartless affected and constrained O did Christians yea Ministers but Live with the Joy and Gratitude and Praise of Jehovah which beseemeth those that believe what they believe and those that are entring into the Coelestial Chore they would then be an honour to God and their Redeemer and would win the World to a love of Faith and Holiness and make them throw away their worldly Fool-games and come and see what it is that these Joyous Souls have found But when we shew the World no Religion but Sighing and Complaining and live a sadder life than they and yet talk of the glad-Tydings of Christ and Pardon and Salvation we may talk so long enough before they will believe us that seem no more to be Believers our selves or before they will leave their fleshly pleasures for so sad and dreadful a Life as this And as this kind of Heavenly Joyful Life is an honour to Christ and a wonderful help to the Converting of the World so is it a Reward to him that hath it which made this Holy Person live in such a vigour of Duty such fervour of holy Love and such continual Content in God so that the Kingdom of God in him was Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost which others think consisteth in Meats Drinks and Dayes in Shadows and Circumstances in Sidings and in singular Conceits Rom. 14. Col. 2. 16. It was not a Melancholy Spirit that acted him nor did he tempt his People into such an uncomfortable state and strein But in the multude of his thoughts within him the comforts of God did delight his Soul His Meditation of God and his Redeemer was sweet and he rejoyced in the Lord. He delighted in the Law of the Lord and when delight invited him no wonder if it were his Meditation day and night Psal. 1. 2. 104. 34. 119. 103. 94. 19. And how great a Solace was this in his Sufferings when he could be in a Goal and in Heaven at once When he could after the terrible torment of Convulsions have the foresight and taste of Heavenly Pleasures Nihil Crus sentit in Nervo cum Animus est in Coelo saith Tertul. And as he lived so he died in Vigorous Joyful Praises and Thanksgivings Reviving out of his long speechless Convulsion into those fervent Raptures as if he had never been so impatient of being absent from the Lord as when he was just passing into his Presence or rather as if with Stephen he had seen Heaven opened and Christ in his Glory and could not but speak of the unutterable things which he had seen I deny not but his vigorous active Temper might be a great help to all his holy Alacrity and Joy in his healthful State But when that frame of Nature was broken by such Torments and was then dissolving to hear a dying Man about sixteen hours together like the ferventest Preacher in the Pulpit pour out his Soul in Praises and Thanskgiving and speak of God of Christ of Heaven as one that could never speak enough of them and that with a Vivacity and Force as if he had been in former Health and to tryumph in Joy as one that was just laying hold upon the Crown surely in this there was something that was the Reward of all his former Praise and Thankfulness and that which must needs tell the Auditors the diference not onely between the death of a Righteous Believer and the wicked Unbeliever but the weak and distempered Believer also the difference between a sound and a diseased Christian and between the tryumphant Faith and Hopes of one that saw the God and World invisible and the staggering Faith and trembling Hopes of a feeble and distrustful Soul and between the death of one that had been used to converse in Heaven and to make Thanksgiving and Praise his Work and of one that had been used to cleave to Earth and make a great matter of the concernments of the Flesh and to rise but little higher in Religion then a course of outward Duty animated most with troublesome Fears Though he died not in the Pulpit yet he died in Pulpit-Work And I must also note how great an advantage it was to himself and to his Ministerial Works that he was possessed deeply with this true sentiment That the PLEASING of GOD is the proper ultimate end of Man not doubting but it includeth the notion of glorifying him for thus his heart was rightly principled and all his Doctrine and Duties rightly animated And as in all his Ministry he was extraordinarily addicted to open to the Hearers the Covenant of Grace and to explain Religion in the true Notion of Covenanting with God and

he could not for many Weeks bear the scent of any Flesh-meat nor retain any Liquors or Broths so that he consumed so fast that his Life seemed to draw to an end But the Lord did so bless the means that he recovered out of this Distemper after two months time but so lost the use of his Arms from October till April that he could not put off nor on his Clothes nor often write either his Notes or any Letters but as I wrote for him as he dictated to me He was by all Physitians and by my earnest beseechings often diswaded from Preaching but would not be prevailed with but did go on once and sometimes twice a Sabbath and in his private Visiting all that Winter in the Spring the use of his Arms returned for which he was exceeding thankful to the Lord and we had great hopes of his Recovering and making use of further Remedies he was able to go on with more freedom in his Work And the Summer following by the use of Mineral-Waters in Wiltshire near the Devises where he was born his strength was much increased he finding great and sensible good by them But he venturing too much on what he had obtained his weakness returned frequently upon him the next Winter and more in the Spring following being seised as he was at the first But it continued not long at a time so that he did Preach often to his utmost strength nay I may say much beyond the strength he had both at Home and Abroad going into some remote parts of the Countrey where had been no Meetings kept all that time the Ministers had been out which was two Years And there he ingaged several of his Brethren to go and take their turns which they did with great success He had also agreed with two of his Brethren to go into Wales with them to spread the Gospel there but was prevented in that by his weakness increasing upon him It was much that he did but much more that he desired to do He was in this time much Threatned and Warrants often out for him and he was so far from being disturbed at it that he rejoyced that when he could do but little for God because of his Distempers God would so far honour him that he should go and suffer for him in a Prison He would often with chearfulness say They could not do him a greater kindness But the Lord was yet pleased to preserve him from their rage seeing him not then fit for the inconveniencies of a Prison The five Mile Act coming in force he removed to a place called Wellington which is reckoned five miles from Taunton to a Dyers House in a very obscure place where he preached on the Lord's-Dayes as he was able But the vigilant Eyes of his old Adversaries were so watchful over him that they soon found him out and resolved to take him thence and had put a Warrant into the Constables hand to apprehend him and sent for our Friend and threatned to send him to Goal for entertaining such persons in his House So my Husband returned to the House of Mr. John Mallack a Merchant who lived about a mile from Taunton who had long solicited him to take his House for his Home We being in such an unsetled state my Husband thought it best to accept of his courteous offer But many of his Friends were willing to enjoy him in the Town and so earnest that he did to satisfie them go from one to another staying a fortnight or three weeks or a month at each House but still took Mr. Mallacks for his Home This motion of his Friends he told me though it was troublesome for us to be so unsetled he was willing to embrace because he knew not how soon he might be carried again from them to Prison and he should have opportunity to be more intimately acquainted with them and the state of their Souls and of their Children and Servants and how they perform their Duties each to other in their Families He went from no House without serious Counsels Comforts or Reproofs as their Conditions called for dealing with all that were capable both Governours and others particularly acquainting them faithfully and most affectionately what he had seen amiss in any of them He went from no House that was willing to part with him nor had he opportunity to answer the requests of half that invited us to their Houses So that he would often bless God and say with holy Mr. Dod That he had a hundred Houses for one that he had parted with and though he had no Goods he wanted nothing his Father cared for him in every thing that he lived a far more pleasant life than his Enemies who had turned him out of all He was exceedingly taken with God's Mercy to him in Mr. Mallacks entertaining him and me so bountifully the House and Gardens and Walks being a very great delight to him being so Pleasant and Curious and all Accommodations within suitable so that he would often say That he did as Dives fare deliciously every day But he hoped he should improve it better than he did and that God had inclined him to take care for many Poor and for several of his Brethren in the Ministry and now God did reward him by not suffering him to be at the least expence for himself or me He was a very strict observer of all Providences of every day and did usually reckon them up to me before we went to sleep each night after he came into his Chamber and Bed to raise his own Heart and Mind to praise the Lord and to trust him whom we had such experience of from time to time The time of the Year being come for his going to the Waters he was desirous to set one day apart for thanksgiving to God for all his Mercies to him and them and so to take his leave of them Accordingly on the 10th of July 1665. divers of his Brethren in the Ministry and many of his Friends of Taunton met together to take their leave of him before his departure at the House of Mr. Mallack then living about a mile out of the Town Where after they had been a while together came two Justices and several other Persons attending them brake open the Doors by force though they might have unlatched them if they had pleased and with Swords came in among them After much deriding and menacing Language which I shall not here relate having taken their Names committed them to the custody of some Constables whom they charged to bring them forth the next day at the Castle Tavern in Taunton before the Justices of the Peace there The next day the Prisoners appeared and answered to their Names and after two dayes tedious attendance were all Convicted of a Conventicle and Sentenced to pay three Pounds a piece or to be committed to Prison threescore dayes Of the Persons thus Convicted but few either paid their Fines or suffered their

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

not what thanks to render to you nor to God for You for all the unexpressable love which I have found in you toward me and not terminatively to me but to Christ in me for I believe it is for his sake as I am a Messenger and Embassador of his to You that you have loved me and done so much every way for me and I think I may say of Taunton as the Psalmist of Jerusalem If I forget thee let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth I would not my dear Brethren that You should be dejected or discouraged at the Late disappointments For through the goodness of God I am not but rather more satisfied than before and this I can truly say nothing doth sadden me more than to see so much sadness in your faces As on the contrary nothing doth comfort me so much as to see your Chear and Courage Therefore I beseech you Brethren faint not because of my Tribulation nor of Gods delays but strengthen the hands and the feeble knees And the Lord bolster up your hands as they did the hands of Moses that they may not fall down till Israel do prevail Let us fear lest there be some evil among us that God being angry with us doth send this farther tryal upon us Pray earnestly for me lest the eye of the most jealous God should discern that in me which should render me unfit for the mercy You desire And let every one of you search his heart and search his house to see if there be not 〈◊〉 there Let not these disappointments make you to be nevertheless in love with Prayers but the more out of love with sin Let us humble our selves under the mighty hand of God and he shall exalt us in due time And for the Enemies of God you must know also that their foot shall slide in due time Let the Servants of God encourage themselves in their God for in the things wherein they deal proudly he is above them Therefore fret not your selves because of evil-doers commit your Cause to him that judgeth righteously Remember that you are bid if you see oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgment and Justice in a Province not to marvel at the matter Verily there is a God that Judgeth in the Earth And you have the liberty of Appeals Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him and fret not your selves because of the men that bring wicked devises to pass take heed that none of you do with Peter begin to sink now you see the waters rough and the winds boysterous these things must not weaken your Faith nor cool your Zeal for they are great Arguments for the strengthning of it What clearer evidence can there be for the future Judgment and Perdition of the ungodly and Coronation of the Just in another life than the most unjust proceedings that are here upon Earth Shall not the Judge of all the Earth see right to be done We see here nothing but confusion and disorder the wicked receiveth according to the work of the Righteous and the Innocent according to the work of the Wicked The Godly perish and the Wicked flourish these do prosper and they do suffer What! Can it be ever thus No doubtless there must be a day when God will Judg the World in Righteousness and rectifie the present disorders and reverse the unrighteous Sentences that have been passed against his Servants And this evidence is so clear that many of the Heathen Philosophers have from this very Argument I mean the unrighteous usage of the Good concluded that there must certainly be Rewards and Punishments adjudged by God in mother World Nor yet lose your Zeal Now is the time that the love of many doth wax cold but I bless God it is not so with you I am sure your love to me is as true Friends should be like the Chimneys warmest in the Winter of Adversity and I hope your love to God is much more and I would that You should abound yet more and more Where else should you bestow your Loves Love ye the Lord ye his Saints and cling about him the faster now ye see the World is striving to separate you from him How many are they that go to knock off your fingers O methinks I see what tugging there is The World is plucking and the Devil is plucking Oh hold fast I beseech you hold fast that no man take your Crown Let the Water that is sprinkled yea rather poured upon your Love make it to flame up the more Are you not betrothed unto Christ Oh Remember Remember your Marriage-Covenant Did you not take him for Richer for Poorer for better for worse Now prove your love to Christ to have been a true Conjugal love in that you can love him when most slighted despised undervalued blasphemed among men Now acquit your selves not to have followed Christ for the Loaves Now confute the Accuser of the Brethren who may be ready to suggest of the best of You as he did of Job Doth he serve the Lord for nought And let it be seen that You loved Christ and Holiness purely for their own sakes that You can love a naked Christ when there is no hopes of worldly advantage or promoting of self-interest in following him Yet beware that none of you do stick to the wayes of Christ and Religion upon so carnal an Account as this because this is the Way that you have already taken up and you count it a shame to recede from your Principles I am very jealous lest some Professors should miss of their Reward for this Least they should be accounted Turn-coats and Hypocrites therefore they will shew a 〈◊〉 of spirit in going on since they have once begun and cannot with honour retreat Would you chose holiness and strictness if it were to do again Would you enter yourselves among Gods poor people if it were now first to do Would you have taken up the Profession of Christ though you had foreseen all this that is come and coming This will do much to evidence your sincerity But I forget that I am writing a Letter being prone to pass all bounds when I have thus to do with you The Lord God remember and reward you and your Labours of Love The Eternal God be your Refuge and put under you his everlasting Arms. The Peace of God that passeth all understanding Keep your Hearts Christs Legacy of Peace I leave with you and Rest with my dear affections to You all Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXIV Councel for Salvation To the most Beloved the Servants of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians MY continual Solicitude for your State will not suffer me to pass in quiet one week without Writing to you unless I am extraordinarily hindred Your Sincerity Stedfastness and Proficiency in the Grace of God is the matter of my

doubt not but you will grow up speedily to a settled assurance and know and feel that peace of God that passeth all understanding and this will be somewhat worth your carrying out of Prison But I return to your self But what shall I say I have more need to receive from you than abilitie to give only I will tell you my wishes for you I wish that your body may prosper as your soul also prospereth I wish That you may see the travel of your Soul that you may find your People thriving under your hands in all manner of holy conversation and godliness that whosoever converses with them may see and hear by them that God is in them of a Truth I wish your enlargement from your bonds and your enlargement in them That your Prison may be but the Lanthorn through which your Graces Experiences Communion and Prison-attainments may shine most brightly to all beholders I wish your Prison may be a Paradice of Peace and a Patmos of Divine discoveries Lord Jesus set to thy Amen I am SIR Your unworthy Brother and Companion in the Kingdom and Patience of JESUS JOS. ALLEINE Jan. 10. 1664. LETTER XL. Directions to the Ministers of Somersetshire and Wistshire for the instructing of Families by way of Catechising SIR THIS Letter cometh to you like the men of Macedonia to Paul crying to you Come and help us O how insufficient do we find our selves for the Praises of GOD What Reason have we to call upon our selves and to call upon all our Friends and yet we foresee that all will be too little a Sacrifice at last and too slender a return to the most High God who hath made us such wonders of Mercy and such signal instances of his Divine Power and Rich Grace You are not ignorant of our Estate how the Sentence of Death had passed upon us how our Flesh and our Hearts failed and Friends and Physicians gave up their Hopes But God that raised the Dead was pleased to make us the Monuments of his wondrous Mercy O that the same God would make us the special instruments of his Praise and Glory Of a Truth Sir we perceive our Hearts are too little our Tongues are too shore our Expressions are too low either to conceive or utter what we owe to the Great God O help help Bless the Lord O our Souls Bless the Lord O our Friends O that all that have Wrestled with God for us might joyn Hand in Hand to make some suitable returns to the God of our lives and may bring in every one his Sacrifice and all contribute to make one common stock of Praises that many Thanksgivings may abound to God on our behalfs O what hath Prayer done for us while we live we must Honour Prayer and admire the Power of Prayer we owe our limbs and our lives to Prayer O that a goodly crop of praise may grow up unto God as a return for his Mercies that the seed of Prayers and showers of tears may procure sheaves of joy and Songs of deliverauce But O what shall we render wherewithall shall we come before the Lord or bow our selves to the Most High God O where shall we find a sitting sacrifice Verily we will give our selves and our All to him But alas what are we and what is this little that we call our All Therefore have we found in our hearts to write to you and others that we might excite you to the Divine Praises with us And O that the Lord might be loved the better and glorified the more for our sakes Will you tell us wherein we may shew our love to Him wherein we may best please and serve Him O that you would Herein assuredly you would most highly gratifie us O that we might do some singular thing for God for certainly they are not common things that he hath done for us We pray you call upon those that fear the Lord to help us in celebrating his loving kindness O how it pleaseth our very Hearts to think that God should be Loved and Honoured the better for us That we may be instruments if it be but for the blowing up of one flash nay the kindling of one spark of Divine Love in the Hearts of his Children towards him Sir You cannot pleasure us in any thing so much as in this To love and admire God and spread his Praise more and more that what is wanting through our weakness may be made up in your abundance But we have need to crave your 〈◊〉 for our length but the love of Christ constraineth us 〈◊〉 we hope you will pass by an error of Love While we have been deyifing what to do for our God we thought we could no way better serve him than by provoking such as you are to set up his great Name with us We love and Honour you not onely as you are a Member but a Minister of Christ Jesus our LORD and therefore deserve to be doubly dear unto us And because we could think of no more pleasing a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving we have stirred up our selves and Friends with us to send to you a Prophet in the Name of a Prophet this poor Token of Love which though but small yet we trust will be a sweet savour unto God and will be accepted with you being our two Mites cast into God's Treasury But look not upon your self as obliged to us hereby but put it upon the Account of Christ to whose precious Name we dedicate it and from whom although he be so much already before hand with us yet we expect a recompence at the Resurrection of the just And being further desirous to promote the work of God in our low and slender Capacities we have been bold to provoke your self with other our Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry to set about that necessary and much neglected work of Catechising not a little pleasing our selves in the sweet hope that by your means we may be instrumental to spread the sweet savour of the knowledg of our God in every place and being well perswaded of your readiness to forward so blessed a work we have stirred up our selves and our Friends to expend a considerable Sum of Money to furnish Ministers with Catechisms a hundred whereof we have sent unto you beseeching you to use your best prudence and utmost diligence for the spreading of them and for others improvement by them that our labour and charge in so good a work prove not at last of no effect Sir we shall humbly propose unto you but not impose upon you But let us be bold with you in Ghrist to lay our requests before you as touching this concernment they being indeed what judicious friends and brethren have thought fit to propound 1. That the People be publikely and privately instructed about the high necessity and great usefulness of this Dutie 2. That these Catechisms be freely given to all that will promise to use them 3. That you would be pleased

yea or no. And it is perhaps some mercy that you are not quite uncovered Here spend your Tears and you shall not misplace your sorrow That is the first branch of Direction weep for your selves For the sins that you have done and for the Judgments that you may be like to suffer 2. There is a second yet behind and I have done Weep for your Children Weep not for me saith Christ but weep for your selves and for your Children And why for them Because their Children were to bear a share and suffer with them in the wrath that was about to come upon them as you may see Luke 19. 43. For the days shall come upon thee saith our Saviour that thine enemies shall cast 〈◊〉 Trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee eaven with the ground and thy Children with thee Brethren if you have any Tears left drop a few upon your Children You are not able to foresee what miseries your little ones may be reserved for And verily their danger is increased as well as yours by this stroke For you have lost a 〈◊〉 as well as a Preacher you know what care and pains he took and what a Gift and Faculty he had in instilling holy Knowledg into your Children and your little ones while he had liberty in Publick and strength with opportunity in Private He took a very great delight to tamper with them and to role them on to the holy Waies of God by all the means that he was able to devise It was his very last design As he was alwaies full of holy Projects to take some Course that Children might be more generall Principled in the Grounds and Fundamentals of Religiony then they are And I am very well assured that many of your Children have such Liquor poured into them by his means that they will relish of it as long as they have a day to live and it may be bless the Lord and him for it to all Eternity And therefore you have cause enough to 〈◊〉 that you have lost a Minister that was 〈◊〉 and apt to Teach not your selves only but your Children too and 〈◊〉 them know the way of the Lord. Not to feed the Sheep only but to lead the 〈◊〉 too and to 〈◊〉 them in his Bosom as the expression is Isa 40. 11. I have done with the Directions Weep for your selves and for your Children And now for the close of all 〈◊〉 again Weep not for him his sorrow certainly is turned 〈◊〉 Joy and therefore so let yours be also He hath receiv'd that Blessed Sentence Welt done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Masters Joy And let me tell you I speak it upon good assurance he went Triumphantly to Glory An Entrance was 〈◊〉 to him abundantly into the Heavenly Kingdom As he drew nearer Heaven till his disease prevailed against his reason he grew still more Heavenly When Grace and Glory were about to Joyn Grace in him was most Glorious Oh with what Extasie and Ravishments of Spirit did he flie away into the Bosom of his Saviour I have but one word to add and it is that of the Apostle Heb. 13. Remember him that had sometimes the Rule over you who hath spoken to you the word of the Lord whose Faith follow considering the end of his conversation And that was a blessed end indeed Remember him to follow him in all that was exemplary in him whether concerning Faith or Life that walking in the holy way that he did you may at last come to the happy End and Place where he is FINIS