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 Shild 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 JOS. 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 my self Beloved I am without a Complement the devoted servant of your souls prosperity and the interest of Christ in you way 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 lost 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 to too really lost I beseech you take heed here you are careful about many things but beware that other things do not put out this which should be the main of your cares to wit the spendin 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 to 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 ar 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 God 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 sha I not the Vessel be for the use of the Potter that made it Shall not the servant Trade for his Master with whose goods he is entrusted do yot not fetch all your bread from Gods door Is not he the Rock that begat you the Author of your being and well-being is not this he that can crucifie you or release you can save you or damn you at his pleasure Is it not from him that you fetch every breath your interest obliges you to please him Why should Beltshazzars charge be against you that the God in whose hand your breach is and whose are all your ways you have not glorified Dan. 5. 23. Fourthly Do not only intend God as the general end of your course but in every solemn action actually mind your end Though a man need not cannot think of his Journeys-end at every step yet with care he might come to this in every solemn action particularly and expresly to mind his end a man cannot nor need he think at every bit that he puts into his mouth I will eat this for God yet he might every time he sits down to his Table remember to eat and drink not to gratifie his flesh but to glorifie God by getting strength for his work you cannot think of it in every step in your Journey but without intending some glory to God by serving his will in your place and station and so in your visits and labours Fifthly Every morning let this be your first and firm resolution I will set
up in other labors of sundry kinds for you I am yours and love to be so being ambitious not to have dominion over your faith but to be a helper of your Joy Christs Officers are so your Rulers in the Lord as yet to Preach not themselves but the Lord Jesus Christ and themselves your servants for Jesus sake I have no greater felicity under God than to serve the good of souls Brethren beloved how fares it with your souls are they in health do they prosper I wish your temporal prosperity It it a joy to me to hear when your trade doth florish but these are but very little things if we look into Eternity Brethren my ambition for you is that you should be Cedars among the Shrubs that from you should sound out the Word of the Lord and that in every place your Faith to God-ward should be spread abroad That Taunton should be as a field that the Lord hath blessed that you should not only have the Name but the Spirit Life Power Heat Growth Vigour of Christianity among you Let not Taunton onely have the name to live and be noted for the profession of Religion but see to it my Brethren that the Kingdom of God be with you Oh that every one of your souls might be a Temple of God! Oh that every one of your Families might be a Church of God! Beloved look to it that every one that nameth the name of Christ among you do depart from Iniquity secret as well as open of the heart as as well as of the life Let no man think that to make an out-cry upon the Wickedness of the times and to be of the Professing Party will serve his turn many go to Hell in the company of the wise Virgins That no man may be a Self-deceiver let every man be a Self-searcher He that keeps no Day-book in his Shop and no Account no Record in his Conscience his Estate aud his Soul will thrive both alike Beloved I would that you should remember whither you are a going If a man be after a few Months to be Transported into another Countrey never to return more he will send over whatever he can and make the best Provision that he may against he comes into another Countrey Dear Brethren you are Strangers and Pilgrims here and have but a few Months abode in this Countrey see that you Traffique much with Heaven Christ is our Common Factor O send over to him what possible you can Give Alms plentifully pray continually be much in Meditation and Consideration Reckon with your selves daily Walk with God in your Callings do all the duties of your Relations as unto God live not one day to your selves but unto Christ Set forth continually in his Name so shall you be continually Transporting into another World and laying up Treasure in Heaven And O the blessed store that you shall find there after a few Years diligence in such a holy course Beloved while you are here in this World You are but like a Merchants Ship in a strange Port the day for your return is set and you are to stay no longer then till your Fraight is ready Be wise know your season improve you time you are made or mar'd for ever as you speed in this one Voyage There is no returning again to this Countrey to mend a bad Market God will call in all his Talents time shall be no longer Oh come in come and buy now while the Market is open that you that want may have grace and you that have may have it more abundantly Go and plead with the Lord Jesus that he hath bid you come buy and eat without Money and without Price that he hath counselled you to come buy of him Gold Raiment and Eye-salve tell him you are come according to his call and wait upon him for Grace for Righteousness for Light and Instruction Lay hold on his Word plead it live upon it he is worthy to be believed worthy to be trusted go out of your selves to him unlearn your selves There is a threefold Foot that caâ—…al-self stands upon our own Wisdom our own Righteousness our own Strength these three Feet must be cut off and we must learn to have no subsistence in our selves but onely in Christ and to stand onely on his bottom Study the excellent Lesson of Self-denial Self-annihilation A true Christian is like a Vine that cannot stand of it self but is wholly supported by the Prop it leans on It is no small thing to know our selves to be nothing of no might of no worth of no understanding nor reality to look upon our selves as helpless worthless foolish empty shadows This holy littleness is a great matter when we find that all our Inventory amounts to nothing but folly weakness and beggery when we set down our selves for Cyphers our gain for loss our excellencies for very vanities then we shall learn to live like Believers A true Saint is like a Glass without a Foot that set him where you will is ready to fall every way till you set him to a Prop Let Christ be the only support you lean unto When you are throughly emptied and nullified and see all comeliness to be but as a withered Flower dead dried and past recovery then you will be put upon the happy necessity of going out to Christ for all The Messengers haste forceth me Abruptly to end here I can add no more but my Prayers to my Counsels and so commending you to God and the Word of his Grace I rest The fervent Well-willen of your Souls JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Ap'il 16. 1663. LETTER XXIII Right Reasons in Suffering To the most loving and best beloved the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most loving and dearly Beloved I Know not what thanks to render to you nor to God for you for all the unexpressable love which I have found in you towards me and not terminatively to me but to Christ in me for I believe it is for his sake as I am a Messenger and Embassador of his to you that you have loved me and done so much every way for me and I think I may say of Taunton as the Psalmist of Jerusalem If I forget thee let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth I would not my dear Brethren that you snould be dejected or discouraged at the late disappointments for through the goodness of God I am not but rather more satisfied than before and this I can truly say nothing doth sadden me more than to see so much sadness in your faces As on the contrary nothing doth comfort me so much as to see your chear and courage Therefore I beseech you Brethren faint not because of my Tribulation nor of Gods delays but strengthen the hands and the feeble knees And the Lord bolster up your hands as they did the hands of Moses that
is the thing how near is the time how glorious will his appearing be The thing is sure the Day is set God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World by that man whom he hath ordained the manner of it is revealed Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints The Attendants are appointed and nominated The Soâ—… of Man shall come in his Glory and all his holy Angels with him The thing you see is established and every circumstance is determined How sweet are the words that dropped from the precious Lips of our departing Lord What generous Cordials hath he left us in his parting Sermons and his last Prayer and yet of all the rest those are the sweetest I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there you may be also What need you any further witness you have heard him your selves assuring you of his return Doubtless he cannot deceive you you have not only known but seen and felt the truth of his promises And will he come tremble then ye sinners triumph yâ—… Saints clap your hands all ye that look for the consolation of Israel O sinners where will you then appear how will you look upon him whom you have pierced whom you have persecuted whose great Salvation you have neglected and despised Wo unto you that ever you were born unless you should then be found to be New-born But you O Children of the most high how will you forget your travel and be melted into joy This is he in whom you have believed whom having not seen ye loved But how will love and joy be working if I may so speak with pangs unutterable when you shall see him and hear his sweet voice commending applauding approving of you and owning you by name before all the World Brethren thus it must be the Lord hath spoken it See that you stagger not at the Promise but give Glory to God by believing Again the time is near Yet a little while and he that shall come will come Behold I come quickly saith he And again The Lord is at hand Sure you are that death cannot be far off O Christian thou dost not know but the next year nay possibly the next week thou mayest be in Heaven Christ will not long endure thine absence but will have thee up to him till the time of his general appearing when he will take us up altogether and so we shall be ever with the Lord. Soul believest thou this If thou dost indeed what remains but that thou shouldest live a life of love and praise studying to do all the good thou canst till thou come to Heaven and waiting all the days of thine appointed time till thy change shall come O my Soul look out and long O my Brethren be you as the Mother of Sisera looking out at the Windows and watching at the Latices saying why are his Chariot-wheels so long a coming Though the time till you shall see him be but very short yet love and longing make it seem tedious My Beloved comfort your hearts with these Words look upon these things as the greatest reallities and let your affections be answerable to your expectations I would not have told you these things unless I had believed them for it is for this hope that I am bound with this Chain The blessing of the Holy Trinity be upon you I am yours and will be The God of Peace be with you I rest Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester August 5. 1663. LETTER XXVIII Of the Love of Christ. To his most endeared Friends the servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved MEthinks my Brests are not easie unless I do let them forth unto you Methings there is something still to do and my Weeks work is not ended unless I have given my Soul vent and imparted something to the Beloved flock that I have left behind And Oh that my Letters in my absence might be useful to you Assuredly it is my joy to serve you and my love to you is without dissimulation witness my twice lost liberties and my impaired health all which I might have preserved had it not been for my readiness to minister to you But what do I speak of my love it is the sense of the infinite love of God your Father that I would have to dwell upon you Forget me so you remember him Let me be very little so he be very lovely in your eyes Let him be as the Bucket that goes up though I be as the Bucket that goes down Bury me so that you do but set the Lord always before you Let my name be written in the dust so his Name be written deep up all your Souls O Lord I am thy Servant truly I am thy servant Glorifie thine own Name by me and thou shalt have my hand to it that I will be content to be hid in obscurity and to disappear through the overcoming lustre and brightness of thy Glory Brethren understand mine Office I Preach not my self but the Lord Jesus Christ and my self your Servant for Jesus sake Give him your hearts and I have my Errand I am but the Friend of the Bridegroom and my business is but to give you to understand his love and to gain your hearts unto him He is an Object worthy of my Commendations and of your affections His Love is worth the writing of and worth the thinking of and worth the speaking of O my Brethren never forgeâ—… I beseech you how he loveth you He is in Heaven and you are on Earth he is in Glory and you in Rags he is in the shining Throne aâ—…d you in dirty flesh and yet he loveth you His heart is infinitely tender of you even now while he is at the right hand of the Majesty on High How feelingly doth he cry out at the hurt of his poor Members on Earth Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Oh of what quick sense is the sense of our dear Lord unto us when we are touched on Earth he feels it in Heaven Brethren Christ is real in all that he speaks unto you He is not like a flourishing Lover who fills up his Letters with Rhetorick and hath more care of the dress of his Speech than of the Truth Who ever gave demonstration of the reallity of his love at so dear a rate as Christ hath done Men do not use to die in jest Who will impoverish himself to enrich his Friend and divest himself of his honour to advance him and debase himself to admiration below his own degree to contract affinity with him and all this but to make him believe that he loves him Brethren possess your very hearts with this that Christs love doth go out with infinite dearness towards you Even now while he is in all his Glory he earnestly remembers you still This is the High Priest that now is entred into the Holy of Holies doth bear your names
particularly remembring every poor believer by name He bears your names but where upon his Brest-plate upon his heart saith the Text Exod. 28. 29. Ah Christians I may salute you as the Angel did Mary Hail you that are highly favoured Blessâ—…d are you among men Sure your Lot is fallen in an happy place what in the bosom of Christ yea and verily you may believe and doubt not I may apply that of Gabriel O Daniel thoâ—… art greatly beloved unto you you are beloved indeed to have your Names written upon the very heart of Christ now he is in Glory Oh let his Name be written then on your hearts Do not write his Name in the Sand when he hath written yours upon his own Brest Do not forget him who hath taken such care that while he is he may never forget you having recorded your names not onely on his Book but on his Flesh and set you as a Seal upon his heart He hath you upon his heart but why For a memorial before the Lord continually so saith the Text. Beloved your Lord is so far from forgetting you in all his Greatness and Glory that he is gone into Heaven on purpose there to present you before the Lord that you may be always in remembrance before him O Beloved Glory yea and Triumph in his love Doubtless it must go well with us Who shall condemn It is Christ that died and rose again and is now making Intercession His interest is potent He is always present Our Advocate is never out of Court Never did cause miscarry in his hand Trust you safely in him Happy is that man for whom he shall undertake to speak Oh the Riches of Christs love he did not think it enough to die for you His love and care doth not end with his natural life on Earth but he ever liveth to make Intercession for us His love is like his life ever ever knowing no remission in degree nor intermission of time no cessation of working but is ever ever in motion towards us But when shall I end if I suffer my soul to run out its length and my running Pen te enlarge according to the demensions of this boundless Field of Divine Love If the Pens of all the World were imployed to write Volumes of love if the tongues of all the living were exercised in nothing else but talking of this love If all the Hearts that be were made up of love and all the powers and affections of the mind were turned into one to wit the power of love yet this were no less than infinitely too little either to conceive or to express the greatness of Christs love O my dearly beloved may your souls be swallowed up in this love Think and think while you will you can never think how much you are beloved See that ye love again by way of Gratitude though not of Requital what though your souls be but narrow and your powers but little yet love him with all you have Love him with all your hearts and all your strength To the Meditations and to the Embraces of Divine love I leave you thinking it now not worth while to tell you of my Love Remaining Yours in the bonds of your most dear Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE August 11. 1665. LETTER XXIX Warning tâ—… Professors of their Danger To the Beloved â—…ople the Inhabitants of the Town of 〈…〉 Grace and Peace Most dear 〈…〉 MY 〈…〉 my beloved is mine and I am his but 〈…〉 â—…ave no joy so great as that you are mine and I 〈…〉 â—…ou are Christs My Relation to Christ is aboâ—… 〈…〉 life and my peace my riches and my righteoâ—… 〈…〉 my hope and my strength and mine Inheritance 〈…〉 â—…ycing In him will I please my self for ever and 〈…〉 will I glory I esteem my self most happy and rich and safe in him though of my self I am nothing In him I may boast without Pride and glory without vanity Here is no danger of being over much pleased neither can the Christian exceed his bounds in over-valuing his own riches and happiness in Christ. I am greatly pleased with the Lot that is fallen to me the Lord hath dealt bountifully with me and none shall stop this my confidence of boasting in Christ. But as my lot in him is above all so I will assure you it is no small content to me that my lot is fallen with you And though many difficulties have fallen to my lot among you for I have broken my health and lost my liberty once and again for your sakes yet none of these things move me I wish nothing more then to spend and to be spent upon the service of your Faith I bless the Lord for it as an invalnable mercy that ever he called me to be an Embassador of the Lord Jesus Christ to you-wards In this station I desire to approve my self to him and that I am withdrawn from my Work for a season it is but that I may return to you refreshed and inabled for my work among you You may not think that I have forgotten you and consulted my own ease and pleasure but if God prosper my intentions I shall be found to have been daily serving you in this retirement I will assure you I am very tender of preserving all that little strength that God doth add to me entirely for your sakes being resolved not so much as once to broach the Vessel till I draw forth to you I bless the Lord I am in great tranquility here in this Town and walk up down the Corporation without any Questioning me Only it hath pleased the Lord to add to my Affliction since my coming by taking away my dear Father the day of whose glorious Translation was the day after my arriving here But I bless the Lord I do believe and expect the return of the Redeemer with all his Saints and the most glorious Resurrection of my own dead Body with all Believers and this makes me to rest in Hope and fills me with unspeakle more Joy than the death of my self or any other Saint can with grief And now I make it my business to be rendred serviceable to you and do by this return you my hearty thanks for your earnest Prayers and Intercessions to God in my behalf for it is he that must do the Cure I seem to my self to be retired to this place as a Vessel rent and shatter'd and torn in the Service that it come to recruit in the Harbour And here I am as it were rigging and repairing and Victualling to put sorth again in the Service which I shall do with the first Wind as soon as I am ready What is my life uâ—…less I am serviceable And though I must for the present forbear my wonted Labour yet I shall not cease to exhort you and call upon you while I am absent from you to stand sast and to grow up in your holy Faith Be warned my dearly Beloved that you fall not
am now ready with joy to say with David Soul return unto thy rest But alas that such things should disturb me I would live above this lower region that no passages or providence whatsoever might put me out of frame nor disquiet my soul and unsettle me from my desirest rest I would have my heart fixed upon God so as no occurrences might disturb my tranquility but I might be still in the same quiet and even frame Well though I am apt to be unsettled and quickly set off the hinges yet methinks I am like a Bird out of the nest I am never quiet till I am in my old way of Communion with God like the needle in the Compass that is restless till it be turned towards the Pole I can say through grace with the Church with my soul have I desired thee in the night and with my Spirit within me have I sought thee early my heart is early and late with God and 't is the business and delight of my life to seek him But alas how long shall I be a seeking how long shall I spend my days in wishing and desiring when my glorified Brethren spend theirs in rejoycing and enjoying look as the poor imprisoned captive sighs under the burdensome clog of his Irons and can only pear through the Grace and think of and long for the sweetness of that liberty which he sees others enjoy such methinks is my condition I can only look through the Grate of this Prison my flesh I see Abraham and Isaac and Jâ—…ob sitting down in the Kingdom of God but alas I my self must stand without longing striving fighting running praying waiting for what they are enjoying Oh happy thrice happy pouls when shall these Fetters of mine be knocked off when shall I be set at liberty from this Prison of my body you are clothed with glory when I am clothed with dust I dwell in flesh in a House of Clay when you dwell with God in a House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens I must be continually clog'd with the cumbersome burden of this Dung-hill Body that had it not a soul dwelling in it like Salt as it were to preserve it would soon turn to puâ—…faction and corruption and be as odious and loathsom as the filthiest Carrion when you have put on incorruption and immortality What continual molestation am I subject to by reason of this flesh What pains doth it cost me to keep this earthen vessel from breaking it must be fed it must be clothed it must be exercised recreated and which is worst of all cherished with time-devouring â—…ep so that I live but little of the short time I have allotted me here but oh blessed souls you are swallowed up of immortality and life your race is run and you have received your Crown How â—â—â—rious must I beâ—…to keep me from dangers how apt am I to be troubled with the cares and fears of this life molesting my self with the thoughts of what I shall eat and what I shall put on and wherewithal I shall provide for my self and mine when your souls are taken with nothing but God and Christ and 't is your work to be still contemplating and admiring that love that redeemed you from all this Alas how am I encompast with infirmities and still carry about me Death in my bosom what pains and cost must I be at to repair the rotten and ruinous building of this earthly Tabernacle which when I have done I am sure will shortly fall about my ears when you are got far above mortality and are made equal with the Angels Oh I groan earnestly to be cloathed upon with my house which is from Heaven being willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord Oh when shall I come and appear before him When shall I receive the purchase of my Saviour the fruit of my prayers the harvest of my labours the end of my Faith the Salvation of my soul Alas what do I here this is not my resting place My treasure is in Heaven and my heart is in Heaven Oh when shall I be where my heart is woe is me that I sojour in Mesech and dwell in the Tents of Kâ—…dar Oh that I had wings like a Dove that I might flie away and be at rest Then would I hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest and be out of the reach of fears disturbances and distractions How long shall I live at such a distance from my God at such a distance from my Countrey Alas how can I be merry how can I sing the Lord Song in a strange Land no I will hang my Harp upon the Willows and sit down and weep when I remember Sion But yet my flesh â—…hall rest in hope and I will daily bath my soul in the sweet thoughts of my blessed home I will rejoyce in hopes of what I do not yet enjoy and content my self with the taste of what I shall shortly have my fill of But stay this Pen runs not beyoud thy Commission Alas now I â—…ceive what I have gotten I perceive I have set down what I would be rather than what I am and wrote more of my dears heart than my own penning rather a Copy for my self than a Copy of my self Well I thank God I haue got some heat by it for all the Lord grant thou mayst get a thousand times more The Lord grant the request I daily pour out before him and make us helps and furtherances to each others soul that we may quicken and promote and forward one another in his ways Help me by thy Prayers as thou dost always The God of all peace and comfort be with thee my sweet love Farewel Thine beyond Expression JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXVII God is a satisfying Portion My most dear Pylades HAd not my right hand long since forgot her cunning and the Almighty shook the Pen out of my hand I should long ere this have been writing to thee but it is a wonder of Divine Power and goodness that my soul had not before this time dwelt in silence and that death had not put the long period to all my writing and converse O my Pylades what shall I say unto thee now I begin to write where shall I begin when shall I end methinks I am as a full Bottle quite inverted where the forward pressing of the overhasty liquor makes the evacuatin more flow and my thoughts are like a thronging croud sticking in the door Long is the song of love that I have to tell thee I rejoice in the constancie of thy love that the waters of so long a silence and so great a distance have not yet quenched it but thy desires are towards me and thy heart is with me though providence hath hindred me from thy much desired company I will assure thee it hath been a pleasure to my heart a good part of this summer to hope that I should come one half
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 you 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 sreely 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 snall 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 wooe 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 come 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 felves 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 carâ—… 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 sit 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 prosaneness Alas that there should be any such in a place of such means and mercieâ—… but it cannot be concealed Many of them proclaim theâ—…r sin like Sodom and carry their deadly â—…prosie in their forâ—…-heads I am ashamed to think that in Tâ—…unton there should be so many Ale-house-haunâ—…ers 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 Prcfane 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 sinners what will you run into everlasting burnings with your eyes open Repent O Drunkards or else you shall be shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Repent O swearers else you shall fall into condemnation James 5. 12. Repent O lyars put away lying and speak every one truth to his neighbour else you shall have your part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 20. 8. Repent O company-keepers forsake the foolish and live but a Companion of the wicked shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 20. Repent you Deceivers of your unrighteous dealings or else you shall have no Inheritance in the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. The Lord that made us knows my earnest desire for your conversion and Salvation and that I speak not this to you out of any evil will toward you for I will lie at your feet to do you good but out of a sense of your deplorable estate while you remain in your sins I know there is mercy for you if you do soundly repent and reform and bow to the Righteousness and Government of the Lord Christ but if you go on and say you shall yet have peace I pronounce unto you that there is no escape but the Lord will make his wrath to smoak against you he will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his
unthankful And what though they do hate us Their love and good-will were much more to be feared than their hatred and a far worse sign Brethren keep your selves in the love of God here is Wisdom O happy souls that are his Favourites For the Lords sake look to this make sure of something look to your sincerity above all things in the World let not any of you conclude that because you are of the suffering party therefore all is well Look to the Foundation that your hearts be soundly taken off from every sin and set upon God above as your Blessedness Beware that none of you have only a name to love and be no more than almost Christians For the love of your Souls make a diligent search and try upon what ground you stand for it heartily pities me to think that any of you should be in so deep and hazard so much as these must do that will now cleave to the hated ways of the people of God and yet lose all at last for want of being thorow and sound in the main work I mean conversion and Regeneration None so miserable in all the world as an unsound Professor of Religion now is for he shall be hated and persecuted of the World because he takes up a Profession and yet rejected of God too because he sticks in a Profession but when once you bear the marks of Gods favour you need not fear the Worlds frowns Cheer up therefore Brethren be strong in the Lord and of good courage under the Worlds usage Fear not in our Fathers House there is bread enough and room enough this is sufficient to comfort us under all the inconveniences of the way that we have so happy a Home so worthy a Portion so ready a Father so goodly an Heritage so sure a Tenure Oh comfort one another with these words let God see that you can trust in his Word let the world see that you can live upon a God I shall share my Prayers and loves among you all and commit you to the Almighty God the Keeper of Israel that never flumbereth nor sleepeth be your Watchman and Keeper to the end Farewel I am From the common Goal at Juelchester July 24. 1663. A fervent well-wisher of your Temporal and Eternal Happiness Joseph Alleine LETTER VI. Look out of your Graves upon the World To my most dearly Beloved Friends the chosen of God in Taunton Grace and Peace Most endeared Christian MY heart is with you though I am Absent as to my Bodily presence from you and therefore as I have often already so I have now written to you to stir up your pure minds by way of Remembrance and to call upon you for your stedfast continuing and vigorous proceeding in the ways of God Dear Friends and fellow Souldiers under Christ the Captain of our Salvation consider your calling and Station and approve your selves as good Souldiers of Jesus Christ as men of resolution and courage be discouraged with no difficulties of your present Warfare As for humane affairs it would have you to be as you are Men of Peace I would have you Armed not for resisting God forbid but for Suffering onely as the Apostle hints You should resist even to the uttermost striving against Sin Here you must give no quarter for if you spare but one Agag the life of your Souls must go for the life of your sins you must make no Peace for God will not smile on that Soul that smiles on Sin nor have any Peace with him that is at peace with his Enemy Other Enemies you must forgive and love and pray for which I again desire you to mind as one special duty of the times but for these Spiritual Enemies all your affections and all your Prayers must be engaged against them yea you must admit no Parley It 's dangerous to dispute with Temptations Remember what Eve lost by Parleying with Satan you must flie from Temptations and put them off at first with a Peremptory denial If you will but hear the Devils Arguments and the Fleshes Pleas and fair Pretences it is an hundred to one but you are insnared by his Sophistry And for this present evil World the Lord deliver you from its Snares Surely you had need watch and be sober and use your spiritual Weapons dexterously aâ—…d diligently or else this World is like to undo you and destroy yoâ—… I have often warned you not to build upon an External happiness and that you should promise yoâ—…r selves nothing but hardship here Oh still remember your station Souldiers must not count upon Rest and Fulness but Hunger and Hardness Labour to get right apprehâ—…sions of the World Do not think these things necessary one thing is needâ—…ul You may be happy in the want of all outward comfâ—…s Do not think your selves undone if brought to Want or Poverty study Eternity and you will see it to be little material to you whether you are Poor or Rich and that you may have never such an opportunity for your advantage in all your lives as when you put all to hazard and seem to run the Vessel upon the Rocks Set your enemies one against the other Death against the World no such way to get above the World as to put your selves into the possession of Death Look often upon your Dust that you shall be reduced to and imagine you saw your bones tumbled out of your Graves as they are like shortly to be and men handling your Skulls and enquiring whose is this Tell me of what account will the World be then what good will it do you put your selves often into your Graves and look out from thence upon the World and see what Judgement you have of it then Must not you shortly be forgot among the Dead your places will know you no more and your Memory will be no more among men and then what will it profit you to have lived in fashion and repute and to have been Men of esteem one serious walk over a Church-yard as one speaks might make a man morâ—…ified to the World Think upon how many you Tread but you know them not no doubt they had their Estates their Friends their Trades their businesses and kept as much stir in the World as others do now But alas what are they the better for any for all this know you not that this must be your own case very shortly Oh the unhappiness of deceived man how miserably is he bewitched and befooled that he should expend himself for that which he knows shall for ever leave him Brethren I beseech you lay no stress upon these perishing things but labour to be at a Holy indifferency about them Is it for one that is in his wits to sell his God his conscience his soul for thiâ—…gs that he is not sure to keep a week nor a day and which he is sure after a â—…ew sleepings and wakings more to leave behind him for ever go and talk with dying
they may not fall down till Israel do prevail Let us fear lest there be some evil among us that God being angry with us doth send this farther tryal upon us Pray earnestly for me lest the eye of the most jealous God should discern that in me which should render me unfit for the mercy you desire And let every one of you search his heart and search his house to see if there be not cause there Let not these disappointments make you to be nevertheless in love with Prayers but the more out of love with sin Let us humble our selves under the mighty hand of God and he shall exalt us in due time And for the enemies of God you must know also that their foot shall slide in due time Let the Servants of God encourage themselves in their God for in the things wherein they deal proudly he is above them therefore fret not your selves because of evil doers commit your cause to him that judgeth righteously Remember that you are bid if you see oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgement and Justice in a Province not to marvel at the matter verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth and you have the liberty of appeals rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him and fret not your selves because of the men that bring wicked devises to pass take heed that none of you do with Peter begin to sink now you see the waters rough and the winds boysterous these things must not weaken your Faith nor cool your Zeal for they are great arguments for the strengthning of it What clearer evidence can there be for the future judgment and perdition of the ungodly and Coronation of the Just in another life than the most unjust proceedings that are here upon Earth shall not the Judge of all the Earth see right to be done We lee here nothing but confusion and disorder the wicked receiveth according to the work of the righteous and the Innocent according to the work of the wicked The Godly perish and the wicked flourish these do prosper and they do suffer What can it be ever thus no doubtless there must be a day when God will Judge the world in righteousness and rectifie the present disorders and reverse the unrighteous Sentences that have been passed against his servants And this evidence is so clear that many of the Heathen Philosephers have from this very Argument I mean the unrighteous usage of the good concluded that there must certainly be rewards and punishments adjudged by God in another World Nor yet lose your Zeal now is the time that the love of many doth wax cold but I bless God it is not so with you I am sure your love to me is as true Friends should be like the Chimneys warmest in the Winter of Adversity and I hope your love to God is much more and I would that You should abound yet more and more Where else should you bestow your Loves Love ye the Lord ye his Saints and cling about him the faster now ye see the world is striving to separate you from him How many are they that go to knock off your fingers O methinks I see what tugging there is The World is plucking and the Devil is plucking Oh hold fast I beseech you hold fast that no man take your Crown Let the Water that is sprinkled yea rather poured upon your love make it to flame up the more Are you not betrothed unto Christ Oh rcmember remember your Marriage Covenant did you not take him for Richer for Poorer for better for worse now prove your love to Christ to have been a true conjugal love in that you can love him when most slighted despised undervalued blasphemed among men Now acquit your selves not to have followed Christ for the Loaves now confute the Accuser of the Brethren who may be ready to suggest of the best of you as he did of Job Doth he serve the Lord for nought And let it be seen that you loved Christ and holiness purely for their own sakes that you can love a naked Christ when there is no hopes of worldly advantage or promoting of self-interest in following him Yet beware that none of you do stick to the wayes of Christ and Religion upon so carnal an account as this because this is the way that you have already taken up and you count it a shame to recede from your Principles I am very jealous lest some Professors should miss of their reward for this least they should be accounted Turn-coats and Hypocrites therefore they will shew a stoutness of spirit in going on since they have once begun and cannot with honour retreat Would you chose holiness and strictness if it were to do again would you enter your selves among Gods poor people if it were now first to do Would you have taken up the Profession of Christ though you had foreseen all this that is come and coming This will do much to evidence your sincerity But I forget â—…hat I am writing a Letter being prone to pass all bounds when I have thus to do with you The Lord God remember and reward you and your labours of love The Eternal God be your refuge and put under you his everlasting Arms. The Peace of God that passeth all understanding keep your hearts Christs Legacy of Peace I leave with you and rest with my dear affections to you all Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXIV Councel for Salvation To the most beloved People the servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians MY continual solicitude for your State will not suffer me to pass in quiet one week without Writing to you unless I am extraordinarily hindred Your sincerity stedfastness and proficiency in the grace of God is the matter of my earnest desire and that which I should account my self happy in I have a longing desire to see the Faces of you all and besides mine expectation shall I trust speedily have the opportunity to see you at the approaching Assizes which I shall greatly rejoyce in notwithstanding our coming may be otherwise attended with many Inconveniencies In the mean time I send you a few Prison Counsels As 1. To improve for Eternity the Advantages of your present State Though you are at many disadvantages with respect to the publick Ordinances yet you have many wondrous and most happy Priviledge which Spiritual Wisdom would make no small improvement of Oh what a mercy have you that you may serve God while you will in your Families That you may be as much as you will with God in secret Prayer and holy Meditation and Self-examination I beseech you consider what a Blessing you have above others that have your Health and a Competency of the Comforts of this life and are free from those continual pains or Heart-eating Cares that others are disabled by from looking after God and their Souls as you may do Oh consider what a blessed Seed-time
it is intollerable carelesness of your everlasting welfare if you do not bring your selves to the Trial by these marks What are your hands filled with Books and your ears filled with Sermons that tell you so plainly from the Word of God how you shall know whether you are in Christ and are you still to seek Oh stir up your own selves Take heed lest a Promise being left of entring into his rest any of you fall short of it at last by unbelief You are a professing People you pray and you hear and you run upon some Adventures for Jesus Christ But O look to your sinceâ—…ity Look to your Principles look to your ends else you may lose all at last Examine not only what is done but whence 't is done look to the root as well as to the Fruit. Eye not only your Actions but your aims Remember what a strict and severy eye you are under The Lord Jesus makes strict observation upon all your works and ways He observes who of you be fruitful and who be barren and unprofitable He knows who of you be thriving and who be declining He observes who be warm and who lukewarm who be sound Christians and who of you have only a name to live Return O backsliding Christians you have lost your former convictions and lost your former Affections You are grown remiss in your watch and your Zeal is turned into a kind of indifferencie and your diligence into negligence Your care is turned into security and your tenderness into senselessness Oh your case is dangerous The Lord Jesus hath a great controversie with you Oh remember whence you are fallen and repent and do your first works Strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die Oh rub and chafe your swooning souls and ply them with warm applications and rousing considerations till they recover their former heat And know ye from the Lord that the backsliders in heart shall be filled with his own ways Oh ye barren and fruitless trees behold the Axe is lifted up to fell you to the ground except you bring forth fruits and those worthy of Repentance May not Christ say to some among you Behold these three years have I come seeking fruit and findig none How is it then that you read not the Sentence passed on the fruitless Tree O sleepy Professors how long will you drive on in this heavy course how long will you continue in an unprofitable and customary profession would you be the joy of our Lord why know ye that the thriving Plant is the Masters praise and his hearts delight Christians put on press towards the Mark be adding to your Faith Virtue and to virtue knowledge c. See that you grow extensively in being abundant in all sorts of good works Be pitiful be courteous gentle easily to be entreaâ—…ed Be slow to anger soon reconciled Be patient be ye tâ—…mperate be ye chearful Study not every one onely his own things but the good of his Neighbor Think it not enough to look to your own souls but watch for other souls Pray for them warn them be kind to them study to oblige them that by any means you may win them and gain their souls Labour to grow intensively to do better the things that you did before to be more servent in Prayer more free and willing in all the ways of the Lord to hear with more profit to examine your selves more thorowly to mind Heaven more frequently than heretofore And you O carnal and unsound Professors that reckon your â—…elves to be in Christ but are not new Creatures that because you have the good opinion of the Godly and are outwardly conformable to the ways of God perswade your selves you are in a good condition although your hearts have not yet to this day been renewed O repent speedily Repent and be converted What though we cannot distinguish the Tares from the Wheat yet the Lord of the Harvest can Christ will find you out and condemn you for rotten and unsound unless you be soundly renewed by repentance and effectually changed by converting Grace Brethren I fervently wish your Salvation and to this while I am able I shall bend my ardent endeavours I am now taking advice for my health and hope in some few Weeks to be restored to you In the mean time I commend me to your Prayers and you to the grace of God remaining Yours in the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE Dorchester July 7th 1666. LETTER XXVI The Character and priviledges of true Believers To the loving and most beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Grace and Peace Most Dearly Beloved I Longed to hear of your Welfare but by reason of the Carryers intermitting his journeys could not till now obtain my desires neither had I opportunity till the last week of writing to you I rejoyce to hear by Mr. Ford of Gods continual goodness towards you he is your Shepherd and therefore it is that you do not want Me you have not alwaies but he is ever with you his Rod and his Staff shall comfort you Nay more then all this you may hence conclude comfortably for all times yea for the whole Eternity to come Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow you all the daies of your lives and you shall dwell in the House of the Lord for ever In this my dear Brethren in this rejoyce and again I say rejoyce that God is ingaged in so near and so sweet relation to you Doubtless your Souls shall lodge in goodness and be provided for carefully and lie down in everlasting safety that have the Almighty for our Shepherd Blessed are the Flock of his hands and the Sheep of his Pasture happy is the People that is in such a case But who are Christs Sheep Not all Professors I beseech you take heed how you rest in Profession It is not Profession but Conversion that turns a man from a Swine to a Sheep Let none of you be deceived nor flatter your selves that because you bear the name of Christians and do many things and have escaped the open gross pollutions of the VVorld therefore you are surely among the number of Christs true Sheep All this you may attain to and yet be but washed Swine here must be an inward deep and thorow and universal Change upon your Natures Dispositions Inclinations or else you are not Christs Sheep In a word If you will be put out of doubt whether you are his sheep or not you must trie it by this certain Mark that Christ sets upon all his Sheep even your Sanctification you that will stand to the trial answer me truly and deliberately to these Questions Do you hate every sin as the sheep doth the Mire Do you regard no Iniquity in your hearts Do you strive against and oppose all sin though it may seem never so necessary never so natural to you or have you not your secret haunts of evil For every Swine will have his swill Do
magnifie the Lord with me aud let us exalt his Name together he hath remembred my low estate because his Mercy endureth for ever O blessed be you of the Lord my dearly Beloved O thrice blessed may you be for all your remembrances of me before the Lord you have wrestled with the Lord for me you have wrestled me out of the very Jaws of Death it self O the strength of Prayer Surely it is stronger than death See that you even honour the power and Prevalenâ—… of Prayer Oh be in love with Prayer and have high and venerable thoughts of it What distresses diseases Deathts can stand before it Surely I live by Prayer Prayer hath given a Resurrection â—…o this Body of mine when Physicians and friends had given up their hopes Ah my dearly Beloved methinks it delights me to tell the story of your love how much more of the love of God towards me I have not forgotten O my dearly Beloved I have not forgotten your tender love in all my distresses I remember your kindness to me in my Bonds when once and again I was delivered up to a Prison for your sakes I remember with much delight how you refreshed and comforted me in my Tribulations how open your hearts were and your hands were not straightned neither for I was in want of nothing I may not I must not forget what painful Journies you took to visit me when in places remote the hand of the Lord had touched me and though my long sickness almost incredible expensive to me yet your Supplies did not a little lighten my Burthen And though I put it last yet I do not mind it least that you have been so ready in returning Praises to God in my behalf your thanksgiving to God my dear Brethren do administer abundant cause to me of my giving thanks unto you And now my heart methinks is big to tell you a little of my love to you surely you are dear unto me but though it be sweet to tell the story of love yet in this I will restrain my sâ—…lf For I fear least as the wise man saith of the beginning of strife so I should find of the beginning of love that it is like the letting forth of the Water and the rather I do â—…orbear because I hope you have better Testimonies than Words to bear witness here unto you But if I sing the song of love O let Divine Love overcarry the praise I found my self in straights when I began to speak of the natural love between my dear people and an unworthy Minister of Christ to them and it seemed that all that I have said was much too little but now I have to speak of the love God it seems to be by far too much O infinite love never to be Comprehended but ever to be admired magnified and adored by every Creature O let my heart be filled let my Mouth be filled let my papers be filled ever ever filled with the thankful Commemoration of this matchless love O turn your eyes from other objects O bury me in forgetfulness and let my love be no more mentioned nor had in remembrance among you so that you may be throughly possessed and inflamed with the love of God This my Beloved this is that love which is ever to be commended and extolled by you See that you studie this love fill your souls with wonder and feast your souls with joy and be ravished with rich contentment in this Divine Love Take your daily walk and lose your selves in the Field of Love Drink O Friends yea drink abundantly O Beloved fear no excess O that your souls may be drencht and drowned in the love of Christ till you can every one say with the ravisht Spouse I am sick of love Marvel not that I wander here and seem to forget the bounds of a Letter this love obligeth me yea rather constraineth me Who in all the Earth should admire and commend this love if I should not I feel it I taste it the sweet savour thereof reviveth my soul it is light to mine eyes and life to mine heart the warm Beams of this blessed Sun O how have they comsorted me ravished and refreshed me both in Body and Soul my benumbed Limbs my withered hands my feeble knees my bones quite naked of flesh do yet again revive through the quickning healing and raising influence of Divine Grace and Love Now my own hands can feed me and my own seet can bear me my appetite is quick my sleep comfortable and God is pleased to give some increase continually though by insensible Degrees and shall not I praise that love and grace that hath done all this for me yea what is this to all I have to tell you My heart is enlarged but I told you Paper could not hold what I have to speak of the goodness of the All-Gracious God in which I live I am forced to end least you should not bear my length My dearly Beloved I send my heart unto you divide my love amongst you all and particularly tender it to your Reverend and Faithful Pastour whose presence with you and painfulness and watchfulness over you and Zeal and courage for you in so dangerous a time is matter of my great Joy and Thanksgivings unto God The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all Fare you well in the Lord I remain Your unworthy Minister and servent Well-wisher in the Lorâ—… JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXI To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown MY hearts desire and Prayer for you is that you may be saved This is that which I have been Praying and studying and Preaching for these many Years and this is the end of my Venturing and Suffering and Writing at this present time God that knoweth all things he knoweth that this is my wish Oh that I could but come at their Souls And that this is the prize and the gain that I run for that I might win souls I seek not other gifts give me your hearts let me but part between your sins and you suffer me but to save you give me leave to carry you over to Jesus Christ and I will not ask you any more I will serve you gladly I will suffer for you thankfully so I may but save you Do not wonder why I follow you so pressingly why I call upon you so frequently let not my importunity be grievous to you all this is but to save you Christ did not bethink his Blood and shall I think my Breath or Ink too dear in order to your salvation what pitie is it that any of you should miscarry at last under the power of Ignorance or by a prophane negligence or a formal and lifeless profession of strict Godliness Beloved I am afraid of you lest as to many of you I have run in vain I cannot but most thankfully acknowledge that considering the paucity of those
I engaged so earnestly to call upon you as one that watcheth for your soul to arise speedily and to set roundly to your work Oh consider your danger and work out your Salvation with fear and trembling away with these lazie Prayers away with these cold and heartless Professions away with this drowsie liveless â—…less Religion bestir your self to purpose for your soul before it be too late search your conscience as with Candles be jealous of your self consider now is your time what you do you must do quickly the patience of God is waiting Christ is knocking the Spirit of God is striving and death is at the door Oh now take your opportunity and take heed lest a â—…thful heart and the cares of this World or a presumptuous confidence that all is well and safe already should at last shut you out of the Kingdom of God I cannot write distinctly to your Husband but I beseech you to call upon him to set his heart to these Counsels which I havee written to you I earnestly entreat him to make Religion his business and to look heedfully to it that the gain of the World prove not the loss of his soul. I desire him that Closer and Family Prayers and weekly Catechising of his Houshold and strict sanctifying of the Sabbath and reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms repeating of Sermons and diligent attendance upon powerful Preaching may be his continual exercises that so his house may be a little Church and God may delight to dwell in his Family pray give me to understand what is done of these things for I have a zeal for your welfare and that you and your houshould should serve the Lord that you may enter into his rest and carry children and servants and friends and all to Heaven with you As to my own estate I have lost all my limbs and about this twelve Months useless and been agaâ—…â—…nd again under the sentence of death but was brought in 〈…〉 â—…-litter to Bath where God hath wonderfully restored me so that I can feed my self and go alone and speak with a little more freedom Oh love the Lord praise the Lord for me notwithstanding I continue weak and have not strength to write yet I could not tell how to die in silence from you but have made use of a friendly hand to send these counsels and calls after you which I beseech you to accept in the fear of God for it is not unlike that they may be my last to you that ever you may receive I now commend you to the Lord and with mide own and my dear Wivet love to you both Rest Your loving and careful Uncle JOS. ALLEINE Octob. 21. 1668. LETTER XXXV The Concernments of our Souls especially to be regarded Dear Cousin YOu may think you are forgotten with me because you have not heard so long a time from me but this may let you know That though God hath taken away your Father and suffered your Mother to be helpless to you Yet you have one friend on earth that careth for you The welfare of your immortal soul is dear to me and is the matter of my sollicitons care and prayer Dear Cousin methinks I feel a Godly jealousie of you within my heart lest you should lose your soul amongst a croud of worldly cares and business O remember the story of him in the Book of the Kings who relates that he had a Soldier committed to his keeping upon condition that he should lose his life if he did let him go But while thy servant went hither and thither the man escaped But the King replies presently Even so shall thy judgement be thy life shall go for his life Ah Cousin take earnest heed lest while you are going hither and thither minding many things 〈…〉 in a hurry of worldly affairs the enemy run not away with your soul. Oh beware that the World doth not secretly steal away your heart Consider that whatever your business be you must and will have an eating time and a sleeping time Oh be as sollicitous every day to keep your praying times which are a thousand times more necessary than a time to eat in or sleep Be sure that there doth not a morning or evening pass over your head in which you have not perfumed your Closer with solemn and fervent prayer And take heed it you love your salvation lest Saran beguile you with the bare outward performance of duties aâ—…d ouâ—…ward acts of Religion See to it that you do not rest in a Worldly Religion to give God your knee while the World carries away your heart You may praâ—… hear and read and all to no purpose except your very Soul be employed and engaged in these duties and the â—…ife vigour and strength of your affections be found to go after God in them If therefore you will have Christ and Heaven see that you renounce the world You must cast overboard your worldly hopes and take up with God with a naked Christ as your whâ—… happiness both for this life and that which is to come There is no hopes of your Salvation without a sound mortification to the world you must be mortified to your worldly expectations look not for much from tbe world promise not your self much from the world seek not great things for your self say unto God So I may have thee for my portion and thy Kingdom for my inheritance give or deny me what thou wilt poverty or riches any thing or nothing I will be contented with my Lot Say unto your soul So I may but have Christ so I may but carry it for the other world let this world go which way it will I must be converted or condemned I must be born again or else would I had never been born but of this present world there is no such necessity I may be poor and yet happy but wo unto me if I remain unsanctified I must have grace or perish for ever Dear Cousin if I live you shall find me a friend to your worldly prosperity but whether I live or die I charge you by the Lord that you be infinitely tender of your immortal souls everlasting concernments Will you not spin a fair thread of it if while you are pursuing after earthly things you lose your soul in the throng While I live I shall pray and care for you Farewel in the Lord. I am Your truly loving and careful uncle JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXVI Godly Counsels Dear Cousin THE welcome tydings of your safe arrival at Barbadoes is come to my ears as also the News of your escape from a perillous sickness for which I bless the Lord and desire to be thankful with you for I am not without a care for your well being but do look upon my self as really concerned in you I have considered that God hath beâ—…est you of a careful Father and that your Mother takes but little care for you so that you have none nearer than my self to
trembling Do you ever think to escape these mighty enemies to conquer the power and avoid the plots and snares of those potent adversaries without most painful diligence O cry to Heaven for help watch and pray fear lest a promise being left of entring into rest either of you should come short of it My dear Neeces you have many do watch for your souls to devoor them but I doubt too few except my self do watch for your Souls to save them therefore I look upon my self who am now upon the matter your only Monitor to be the more concerned to awaken my self to your help and to look after you and to watch for you left by any means you should miscarry by the deceits and temptations wherewith you are encompassed I would not have you over-careful for the things of this lise though I commend your laudable care and diligence that you may not be burdensome to any man but I commend to you a better aâ—…d more necessary care and that is that which the Aposâ—…le speaks of the Virgins care The unmarried saith he careth for the things of the Lord. Ah let this be your eare seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and then all these things shall be added you have Gods sure promise for it If the Lord give me to live and prosper you shall see and know that I am not a friend only in words to you but however that shall be see that you embrace the Counsels of God from me Oh make sure of Heaven betimes walk humbly with God beware of a proud heart and a lofty spirit abhor your selves else God will not be pleased with you condemn your selves that God may acquit you The leven of pride will sowre the whole lump and mar all your Profession and Religion and render your Persons and Prayers and all an abomination to the Lord if it prevail in you Oh therefore be not high minded but fear and by prayer and watchfulness restrain and root up this wretched corruption of pride which is a sin so natural to you that you had need to use an infinite care and caution to keep it under As to my self these may acquaint you That I have been often at the very gates of death I have lost all my limbs but prayer hath redeemed me from my extremities and God hath blessed the use of the Bath to me Oh praise the Lord praise him for my sake and give glory to the God of my Life Love him honour and glorifie him whose favour and friendship hath filled my Soul with comfort and given a resurection to my body I can now walk alone and feed my self but am altogether unable to write which is the reason why these come to you in another hand Dear Cousin you may think me too tedious but you must pardon me if I erre in my love and zeal for your welfare And now I shall trespass no more but with my own and dear Wives love to you I commend you to God and rest Your loving and careful uncle JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXXVIII Do all in reference to God and his Glory Dear Friend I Have received yours of the 19th of September but it came to me in the time of my sickness in which I was much a stranger to writing it conâ—…nued upon me five months and to this day so much weakness remains in my arms that I am not able to put off or on my own clothes Your Letter was exceeding welcome to me not only as reviving the remembrance of our old friendship but also as bringing me news of some spiritual good that you received by me which is the best tidings that I can receive for what do I live for but to be useful to souls in my generation I desire to know no other business than to please and honour my God and serve my generation in that short allowance of time that I have here before I go hence and shall be seen no more Shall I commend to you the Lesson that I am about to learn But why should I doubt of your acceptance who have so readily embraced me in all our converses The Lesson is To be entirely devoted unto the Lord that I may be able to say after the Apostle To me to live is Christ. I would not be serving God only for a day in the week or an hour or two in the day but every day and all the day I am ambitious to come up towards that of our Lord and Master To do always those things that please God I plainly see that self-seeking is self-undoing and that then we do promote our selves best when we please God most I find that when I have done all if God be not pleased I have done nothing and if I can but approve my self to God my work is done I reckon I do not live that time I do not live unto God I am â—…ain to cut off so many hours from my days and so many years from my life so short as it is as I have lived unto my self I find no enemy so dangerous as my self and O that others might take warning by my hurt O that I had lived wholly unto God! then had every day and every hour that I have spent been found upon my account at that great day of our appearing before God then I had been rich indeed in treasure laid up there whither I am apace removing then I had been every day and hour adding to the heap and encreasing the reward which God of his meer grace hath promised even to the meanest work that is done to him Col. 3. 24. I verily perceive I am an external loser by acting no more as for God for what is done to my self is lost but what is done for God is done for ever and shall receive an everlasting reward Verily if there be another world to come and an eternal state after this short life it is our only wisdom to be removing and as it were transplanting and transporting what we can from hence into that Countrey to which we are shortly to be removed that what we are now doing we may be reaping the fruit of for ever more The world think themselves wise but I will pawn my soul upon it that this is the true wisdom Well let us be wholly swallowed up in the concerns of Religion and know no other interest but Jesus Christs I cannot say I have already attained but this is that my heart is set to learn That in all that I do whether sacred or civil actions still I may be doing but one work and driving on one design That God may be pleased by me and he glorified in me that not onely my Praying Preaching Alms c. may be found upon my account but even my eating drinking sleeping visits discourses because they are all done as unto God Too often do I take a wrong aim and miss my mark but I will tell you what be the rules I set my self
you and should be willingly so many years a Prisoner for you so I might eminently and effectually further your salvation I must again yea again and again thank you for your abundant and intire affections to me which I value as a great mercy not in order to my self if I know my own heart but in order to your benefit and I may thereby be a more likely Instrument to further your good Surely so much as I do value your love which is not a little yet had I rather if I am not unacquainted with my self be forgotten and forsaken of you all and buried in oblivion So that your eyes and hearts might be hereby fixed on Christ and sincerely engaged to him Brethren I have not be spoken your affections for my self O that I might win your hearts universally to Jesus Christ though I had lost them for ever O that I might be instrumental to convert you to him though you were diverted from me I am perswaded that I should much rather choose to be hated of all so this might be the means to have Christ honoured and set up savingly in the hearts of you all And indeed there is nothing great but in order to God nothing is much material or considerable as it is terminated in us It matters not whether we are in Riches or poverty in sickness or health in honour or disgrace so Christ may be by us magnified in the condition we are in Welcome Prison and poverty welcome scorn and envy welcome pains or contempt if by these Gods glory may be most promoted What are we for but for God what doth the Creature signifie separated from his God why just so much as the Cypher separated from the Figure or the letter from the Syllable we are nothing or nothing worth but in reference to God and his ends Better were it that we had never been than that we should not be to him Better that we were dead than we should live and not to him Better that we had no understandings than that we should not know him Better that we were Blocks and Bruis than that we should not use our reason for him What are our Interests unless as they may be subservient to his Interest or our esteem or reputation unless we may hereby glorifie him do you love me I know you do but who is there that will leave his sins for me I mean at my requests with whom shall I prevail to give up himself in strictnese and self-denial to the Lord who will be intreated by me to set upon neglected duties or reform accustomed sins O wherein may you rejoyce me in this in this my Brethren in this you shall befriend me if you obey the voice of God by me if you be prevailed with to give your selves up throughly to the Lord would you lighten my burden would you loosen my bonds would you make glad my heart let me hear of your owning the ways and servants of the Lord in adversity of your coming in of your abiding and patient continuing in the ways of holiness O that I could but hear that the prayerless Souls the prayerless families among you were now given to prayer that the profane sinner would be awakened and be induced by the Preaching of these Bonds which heretofore would not be prevailed with to leave their drunkenness their loose company their lying and deceit and Wantonness by all the threatnings of God that could be pronounced against them nor all the beseechings wooings and entreaties that I was able to use with them will you not be made clean when shall it once be how long shall the patience of God wait for you how long shall the Lord Jesus stretch out his hands toward you O sinners cast your selves into his Arm Why should you die why will you forsake your own mercy will you perish when mercy wooes you confess and forsake your sins and you shall find mercy will you part with Christ and sell your souls to perdition for a little ease and delight to your flesh or a little of the gain of unrighteousness or a little Ale or vain mirth or loose company why these are the things that part between sinners and Christ. I know many are spun with a finer thred and are not so far from the Kingdom of God as the prayerless ignorant Sabbath-breaking intemperate sort are But I must once again warn you of staying in the suburbs of the City of Refuge O what pity is it that any should perish at the Gates that any should escape the pollutions of the world and do many things yea and suffer it may be too and yet should fall short of the glory of God for want of a through work of grace Oh you halting Christians that halt between Christ and the World that are as Ephraim like a Cake not turned dow-baked Professors that have Lamps without Oyl that cry Lord Lotd but do not the will of our Father which is in Heaven how long will you stay in the place of the breaking forth of Children and stick between the womb and the World your Religion will carry you among the profane despisers of Godliness but do own the people of the Lord and do love the Ministers and ordinances therefore all is well I tell you Godliness is a heart-work it goes deep and spreads far unless the frame of your hearts and the drifts of your course be changed unless you be universally conscientious and unreservedly delivered up to the Lord for all times and conditions whatever be the cost you are none of Christs how far soever you go in common workings and external performances Hear then O people and let not profaneness swallow you up let not an almost Christianity deceive you or ignorance carry you blindfold to perdition Oh the thousands and ten thousands that have been undone by one of these Ah how often have you been warned against them least you should split against these dangerous Rocks O Jerusalem Jerusalem said Christ and O Taunton Taunton may I say from him 〈…〉 who can tell how often would Gods 〈…〉 â—…thered you and you would not many very many 〈…〉 would not But will you now will you yet come in I 〈…〉 forbear once more even out of the Prison to 〈…〉 or sinners and make one tender of mercy more O 〈…〉 to the waters of Life wash you make you clean read 〈…〉 diligent observation the melting passages Prov. 1. 22. to the end Isa. 1. 16 21. Isa. 55. 6 10. Oh obdurate sinners if none of these things move you But for you whose very hearts are set against every sin and are deliberately resolved for God and Holiness â—…re all the worlds delight you that have experience of a thorow change and are brought to have respect to all Gods Commandments who will have none but God for your happiness none but Christ for your Treasure that must and will have him come what will come blessed are you of the Lord O happy Souls