Imaginations or of the Lifeless motions in a Poppit-Play where there is much stir to little purpose till the Play be ended further than the Matters of God and of the Church and Mens everlasting concernments are comprehended in them The report of one Souls Conversion to God and of the Reformation of one Family City or Church and of the noble Operations of the blessed Spirit by which he brings up Souls to God and conquereth the World the Flesh and the Devil the Heavenly Communications of God unto Sinners for their Vivification Illumination and holy Love to God and to his Image are so far better than the Stories of these grand Murderers and Tyrants and their great Robberies and Murders called Conquests as the Diagnosticks of Health are than those of Sickness Or as it is more pleasant to read of the Building of Cities than of their ruins or of the Cures of a Physitian than of the hurts done by Robberies and Frays yea of the Healing of Immortal Souls than of the over-hasty destroying of mens Bodies which would quickly turn to Dust of themselves if these valiant Murderers had but the patience to stay the time And among all parts of Church-History the Lives of Wise and Holy Men do seem to be not least Useful and Delightful which is the reason why Satan hath so marvelously and successfully bestird himself to corrupt this part of History with so many impudent lies in the Popish Legends as might render all such Narratives afterwards Contemptible and Incredible and might destroy the Ends Therefore is the Sacred Scripture so much Historical and the Gospel it self is not a Volumn of well composed Orations or a Systeme or Encuclopaedia of the Sciences and Arts nor yet a great Volumn of unnecessary Laws but the History of the Life and Death of Christ and the wonderous Works of Himself and his Spirit in his Servants and a Record of those brief Laws and Doctrines which are needful to the Holiness and Happiness of Man In the Lives of Holy Men we see God's Image and the Beauties of Holiness not only in Precept but in Reality and Practice not Pictured but in the Substance And though the Precepts and Rules be more perfect in their kind as wanting no Degree or Part yet the real Impress and Holiness in the Soul is that living Image of God which is the end of the former and of which the Scripture is but the Instrumental cause And Holiness in visible Realities is apt to affect the World more deeply than in Portraiture and Precept only Therefore we find that Satan and his Instruments are used to do that against the Scriptures exemplified in the Godly which they have not done against the Scriptures in themselves They can bear the bare Precepts of a perfect Rule who cannot bear the very imperfect practice of them in a Holy Life Many have burnt Martyrs that could endure good Books Living Holiness most exciteth Malice Besides that the best of men have Imperfections which may be a pretence for Detraction Slander and Persecution when the Sacred Rule is not so boldly to be accused till they are ripened in Malignity and Audacity Many a one can read with Reverence the Life of a dead Saint who will neither imitate nor indure the Living And I doubt not but many can bear the Narrative of this holy persons Life who could not have endured to see themselves condemned in the Exercises of his present Holy Zeal And yet it is not to be denied but that Humane Nature yet containeth such Principles and Inclinations as give an honourable testimony to goodness For the exercises of prudent impartial equal Vertue and eminent holiness in a Heavenly Life and in the joyful Hopes of the invisible Blessedness and in servent Love to God and Man and in an innocent Life and Self-denying endeavours to do good to all do so much convince and awe Mans Nature and so powerfully command Approbation and Honour that Satan and bad Men could not resist them were it not that such excellent Persons are too Rare and that the far greater number of good Men are lamentably imperfect and tainted with many unlovely Faults And were it not 〈◊〉 for two great advantages that Satan layeth hold on that is Mens Strangeness and Disaecquaintance with those that are good and the Slanderous reports of them by others And whoever noteth it shall find that most that ever Hated and Persecuted men of eminent Holiness were such as never intimately knew them but only at a deceitful distance and such as heard them odiously described by lying Tongues And it is not a small benefit of this kind of History that the Weak and Lame Christians may see such excellent Examples for their imitation and the sluggish and distempered Christian may have so real and lively a reproof and the discouraged Christian may see that higher degrees of goodness are indeed attainable and that the dark and troubled Christian may see the Methods in which Gods Spirit doth work upon his Servants and see that a Genuine Christian life is a Life of the greatest joy on earth And that the sloathful Hypocrite may see that Religion is a serious Business And that the factious Christian may see that a man may be eminently Holy that is not of his Opinion Side or Party And that both the proud domineering Pharisee may see that eminent Piety is separated from his Traditions Formalities Ceremonies and Pomp And the Opinionative Hypocrite may see that Holiness consisteth of something else than in circumstantial and siding Singularities and in a condemning of other mens outward Expressions or Modes of Worship or a boisterous Zeal against the Opinions and Ceremonies of others And it is a notable benefit of this kind of History that it is fitted to Insinuate the Reverence and Love of Piety into young unexperienced Persons For before they can read much of Theological Treatises with understanding or delight Nature enclineth them to a pleasure in History and so their Food is sugard to their Appetites and Profit is entertained by delight And nothing taketh well with the Soul that is not pleasant to it nor did he ever know the true way of Educating Youth or doing good to any that knew not the way of drawing them to a pleasedness and love to goodness Omne 〈◊〉 punctum qui miscuit utile dulci. On such Accounts we may conclude that such men as Melchior Adamus Mr. Samuel Clark c. that have served the Church with this sort of History have done no small or useless Service which we the easilier perceive when we remember at what rates now the Church would purchase a full History of the Lives of all the Apostles and all the Eminent Pastors of the Churches for the first two hundred or three hundred Years yea or but of some few of them And how much of the History of the Times they lived in is contained in a just History of such mens Lives It were to be wished that
more than others you must look for no more than others If you should put off God with a common Obedience you must expect to be put off with common Mercies 3. Except you do more than others God will be dishonoured more by you than others I have been too long with you but I am earnestly desirous you should be sensible of Gods extraordinary Expectations from you And truly as God looks for more from his own than others so he looks for more from you than others even of his own because that he hath done more See that you be shining Christians that you be strong in the Grace of God that you press toward the Mark. But I must conclude I give my Loves among you all being able to add no more but that I am Yours in servent Loves and Longings JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester January 2. 1663. LETTER XXII Christian Care Faith Self-denial To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians THe reason why my Letters have not of late come so thick as formerly to you is not because I forget to love you and to care for you but because I have been busily taken up in other Labors of sundry kinds for you I am yours and love to be so being ambitious not to have dominion over your faith but to be a helper of your Joy Christs Officers are so your Rulers in the Lord as yet to Preach not themselves but the Lord Jesus Christ and themselves your Servants for Jesus sake I have no greater felicity under God than to serve the good of Souls Brethren beloved How fares it with your Souls Are they in Health Do they prosper I wish your Temporal prosperity It is a joy to me to hear when your Trade doth flourish But these are but very little things if we look into Eternity Brethren my ambition for you is that you should be Cedars among the Shrubs that from you should found out the Word of the Lord and that in every place your Faith to God-ward should be spread abroad That Taunton should be as a Field that the Lord hath blessed That you should not onely have the Name but the Spirit Life Power Heat Growth Vigour of Christianity among you Let not Taunton onely have the Name to live and be noted for the Profession of Religion but see to it my Brethren that the Kingdom of God be with you Oh that every one of your Souls might be a Temple of God! Oh that every one of your Families might be a Church of God! Beloved look to it that every one that nameth the Name of Christ among You do depart from Iniquity secret as well as open of the Heart as well as of the Life Let no man think that to make an out-cry upon the Wickedness of the Times and to be of the Professing Party will serve his turn many go to Hell in the company of the wise Virgins That no man may be a Self-deceiver let every man be a Self-Searcher He that keeps no Day-Book in his Shop and no Account no Record in his Conscience his Estate and his Soul will thrive both alike Beloved I would that You should remember whither You are a going If a man be after a few Months to be Transported into another Countrey never to Return more he will send over whatever he can and make the best Provision that he may against he comes into another Countrey Dear Brethren You are Strangers and Pilgrims here and have but a few Months abode in this Countrey see that you Traffique much with Heaven Christ is our Common Factor O send over to him what possible you can Give Alms plentifully Pray continually be much in Meditation and Consideration Reckon with your selves daily Walk with God in Your Callings Do all the Duties of your Relations as unto God Live not one day to your selves but unto Christ Set forth continually in his Name so shall you be continually Transporting into another World and laying up Treasure in Heaven And O the blessed Store that You shall find there after a few Years diligence in such a holy Course Beloved while You are here in this World You are but like a Merchants Ship in a strange Port the day for your Return is set and You are to stay no longer then till your Fraight is ready Be wise know your season improve your time You are made or mar'd for ever as You speed in this one Voyage There is no returning again to this Countrey to mend a bad Market God will call in all his Talents Time shall be no longer Oh? come in come and buy now while the Market is open that You that want may have Grace and You that have may have it more abundantly Go and plead with the Lord Jesus that he hath bid You come buy and eat without Mony and without Price that he hath counselled You to come buy of him Gold Raiment and Eye-salve tell Him You are come according to his call and wait upon him for Grace for Righteousness for Light and Instruction Lay hold on his Word plead it live upon it he is worthy to be Believed worthy to be Trusted go out of your selves to him unlearn your selves There is a threefoold Foot that Carnal-self stands upon our own Wisdome our own Righteousness our own Strength these three Feet must be Cut off and we must learn to have no subsistence in our selves but only in Christ and to stand only on his bottom Study the excellent Lesson of Self-denial Self-annihilation A true Christian is like a Vine that cannot stand of it self but is wholly supported by the Prop it leans on It is no small thing to know our selves to be nothing of no might of no worth of no understanding nor reality to look upon our selves as helpless worthless foolish empty shadows This holy Littleness is a great matter when we find that all our Inventory amounts to nothing but Folly Weakness and Beggery when we set down our Selves for Cyphers our Gain for loss our Excellencies for very Vanities then we shall learn to live like Believers A true Saint is like a Glass without a Foot that set him where you will is ready to fall every way till you set him to a Prop Let Christ be the only Support you lean unto When you are throughly Emptied and Nullified and see all comeliness to be but as a withered Flower dead dried and past Recovery then You will be put upon the happy necessity of going out to Christ for all The Messengers haste forceth me Abruptly to end here I can add no more by my Prayers to my Counsels and so commending you to God and the Word of his Grace I rest The fervent Well-willer of your Souls JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juel-Chester April 16. 1663. LETTER XXIII Right Reasons in Suffering To my dearly Beloved the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most loving and dearly Beloved I Know
the dangerous place you stand in and look about you with trembling Methinks I see Satan watching for your souls as the Dragon did for the seed of the Woman waiting to devour it as soon as she should be delivered Know you not that you must wrestle with Principalities and Powers Methinks I see temptations surrounding you and beleaguering you as the enemy about the walls of the treacherous party within you I mean carnal affections and corruptions complotting how to deliver up the castle Know you not that your fleshly lusts do war against your souls and that your own hearts are not true to you but deceitful above all things Lord what need have you to bestir your selves and to flie unto Jesus to distrust your selves and to trust onely in him and his righteousness Oh work out your salvation with fear and trembling Do you ever think to escape these mighty enemies to conquer the power and 〈◊〉 the plots and snares of those potent adversaries without most painful diligence O cry to heaven for help watch and pray fear left 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 devour 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 temprations wherewith you are encompassed I would not have you over-careful for the things of this life though I commend your laudable care and diligence that you may not be burdensom to any man but I commend to you a better and more necessary care and that is that which the Apostle speaks of the Virgins care The unmarried saith he careth for the things of the Lord. Ah let this be your care 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 accept you be displeased with your selves else God will not be pleased with you condemn your selves that God may acquit you The leven of pride will sowr 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 resutrection 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 Cousins 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 〈◊〉 no more but with my own and dear Wifes love to you I commend you to God and rest Your loving and careful uncle JOSEPH 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 continued upon me five Months and to this day so much weaknes remains in my arms that I am not able to put off or on my own clothes Your Letter was exceeding welcom 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 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 onely 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 fain 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 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. 4. 24. I verily perceive I am an eternal 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 onely 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
more did as Thuanus at large or as Scultetm in his Curriculum vitae suae at least or yet as Junius and many others that give us a Breviate of the most considerable Passages of their own lives Because no man knoweth usually those intimate Transactions of God upon mens Souls which are the Life of such History or at least no useless part But men are commonly supposed to be so selfishly partial and apt to over-value all their own and to fish for applause and it is so meet to avoid appearances of Pride and Ostentation that few think meet to take this course And the next desirable is That their intimate Friends would write their Lives at large who are best able as Camerarius hath done Melancthons and Beza Calvins and as the Lives of Bucholtzer Chytreaas and many more are written But none of all this must be expected concerning this our Brother Because he was young and taken away before any had thoughts of gathering up his Words or Actions for any such use Those that have done this little being his Fathers and Seniors who looked to have died long before him And because he lived in a time of Trouble and Division and Suspition in which every man had great concernments of his own to mind and in which men are afraid of praising the Holy Servants of God lest it offend those that in some things differed from them The special Excellency of this Worthy Man lay chiefly in the Harmony and Compleatness of such particular Gifts and all of them in a high Degree as use to exalt the fame of others in whom some one or few of them is found And all these in a man so young as unless in one Job Picus Mirandula one Keckerman one Pemble in a Countrey is rarely to be found Do you desire the Preparatives of Languages and Philosophy In these he was Eximious as his Treatise de Providentia Licensed for the Press of which more anon doth shew with several other Manuscripts of like nature How throughly had he searched the Writings of Philosophers How fully had he found out how much Natural Reason doth attest and speak for the Attributes and Providence of God and the Principles of a Godly Life And how much Super-natural Revelation presupposeth and findeth ready to entertain it and befriend it in the Light and Law of Nature How excellently able was he to deal with the Naturalist at his own Weapons aud to shame them that call Religion an unproved or unreasonable thing No doubt it was an excellent help to his own Faith to have so clear and full a sight of all those Subsidiary natural Verities which are known propriae luce and are out of the reach of those malignant Suggestions by which the Tempter is often questioning Supernatural Truths Few Christians and too few Divines do dig so deep and proceed so wisely as to take in all these natural helps but overpassing those presupposed Verities do ost leave themselves open to the subtil affaults of the Tempter who knoweth where the Breach is and will some times urge such Objections on them as need a Solution 〈◊〉 those helps which they are ignorant of Do you look for an high degree of Zeal In this he was Marvellous being a living Fire continually burning in the love of God and Man still mounting upward and kindling all that were capable about him As prone to Fervour and Activity as earthen Natures to Cold and Idleness not weary of well doing not speaking slightly and with indifferent affection of the great Jehovah and of holy things but with the reverence and seriousness as became one that by Faith still saw the Lord Not doing God's Work with an unwilling or a sluggish heart as if he did it not nor as those that fear being losers by God or of giving him more than he deserveth or getting Salvation at too dear a rate But as a Soul that was Kin to Angels which are active Spirits and a flame of Fire that came from God the Lord of Life and Father of Spirits and liveth in God and is working and passing up to God As one that knew that none other work was worthy of a Man and approveable by any Reason save that which is made a Salve to sense except onely the Souls Resignation Obedience and Love to God and the seeking of the Heavenly durable Felicity in the use of all those Means which God in Nature and Scripture hath appointed for the obtaining of it It is too common to find men that are long and deep Students in Philosophy and the Doctrinals and Methods of Theologie to be found none of the most Zealous or serious Divines and for the learnedst Doctors to be but of the coursest and weakest sort of Christians Because they exercise the Head almost alone and take little pains to work what Truths they know upon their Hearts As if the head were more diseased with sin than the Heart is and the Heart had not as much need of a Cure Or as if God's Grace did not as much dwell in the Will as in the Understanding and the Heart had not the noblest Work to do Life Light and Love are the Inseparable Influences and Effects of the Sanctifying Spirit But yet sometimes the Indisposition of the Receiver may keep out one of them more than the rest Light alone may be profitable to the Church by breeding Light in others But Life and Love also are as suitable means to produce their like as Light is And without them it is not a flashy Light and frigid Knowledge that will save the Soul And on the other side alass how ordinary is it for Zeal to make a bussle in the Dark and for those that are very earnest to be very blind And strong Affections not to God himself but about the exercise of Religious Duties to be guided by a weak Understanding And so for such well-meaning Persons to make most haste when they are out of the way and to divide and trouble the Church and Neighbourhood by their fervency in Errour till late Experience hath ripened them to see what mischief their Self-conceitedness hath done O! how happy were the Church of God if great Understanding and fervent Zeal were ordinarily as well conjoyned as they were in this worthy Man And many have much Reading and plentiful Materials for Learning who yet were never truly Learned as being Injudicious and never having well digested what they Read into the habits of solid Understanding But so was it not with this our Brother as his very Letters fully witness How clearly and solidly doth he resolve that great Question which he speaketh to As one that had Theologie not in his Books only but in his Head and Heart And I account it no small part of his Excellency that his Judgment led him to dwell so much on the great Essentials of Godliness and Christianity the Love of God and a holy just and sober Life And that he laid not out his
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
to Instruct and Catechise their Families 3. We may 〈◊〉 them to the strict Sanctifying the Lord's Day 4. If they are poor we may draw forth the Hand of our 〈◊〉 towards them 5. If we know any evil by them we may take them aside privately shewing them the sinfulness of their practice and ingaging them to promise reformation 6. We should leave with them some few particulars of greatest weight often repeating them till they remember them ingaging them to mind them till we shall Converse with them again 7. Our dealing with them must be in that manner that may most prevail and win upon their hearts 1. With Compassion being kindly affectioned to them Charging Exhorting Comforting every one of them as a Father his Children 2. With Prudence warning and teaching them in all Wisdom applying our selves to the several Cases and Capacities 1. To the Rich in this World shewing more respect as their places require charging upon them those Duties that are required of them in special 2. To the poor you may be more plain and free pressing upon them those Duties that are most proper to their condidition 3. To the Aged we must be more reverent labouring to root out of them the love of the World shewing them the dangerousness of Covetousness and the necessity of making speedy preparations for Eternity 4. The Men are to be exhorted to Temperance and Sobriety diligence in their Callings c. 5. Women to Meekness Humility Subjection to their Husbands and constant infusing good Principles into their Children 3. With Patience being gentle to all Men in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves bearing with their dulness rudeness and disrespectfulness waiting for their repentance 4. With all faithfulness giving no occasion of offence that our Ministry be not blamed 5. With Zeal as Apollo fervent in Spirit teaching diligently the things of the Lord c. 6. With plainness not betraying their Souls to Hell and ours with them for want of faithfulness and closeness in our dealing with them it being not sufficient in general that no Drunkard c. shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but telling them plainly and particularly such is your looseness your ignorance that I fear you are in an unconverted state 7. With Authority dealing with them in the power and demonstration of the Spirit 8. With Humility Not lording it over God's Heritage but condescending to men of low Estates Nor disdaining to go into the Houses of the meanest The sort of Directions are more special respecting the several sorts of our People who may be ranked into four Heads the Ignorant Prophane Formal Godly First For the Ignorant Our Work with them will be 1. To convince them that are Ignorant which may be done by shewing their inability to answer some plain familiar Questions 2. To shew them the dangerous yea the damnable nature of ignorance 3. To Press them with all possible earnestness to labour after knowledge 4. To answer their carnal Pleas for their ignorance when wilful Secondly For the Prophane It would be necessary to deal with them convincingly shewing the certain damnation they are running upon Thirdly For the Formal With these we must deal searchingly and shew them 1. How easily Men may mistake the Form of Godliness for the Power 2. The undoing danger of resting in being almost a Christian 3. The most distinguishing differences between an Hypocrite and a sincere Christian. Fourthly For the Godly To these we must draw forth the Breasts of the Promises opening to them the riches and 〈◊〉 of Christ inquiring into their growth in Grace quickning them to labour after assurance to be stedfast in the Faith patient in suffering diligent in doing the Will of Christ 〈◊〉 of good Works alwayes abounding more and more There is one thing more in which his self-denyal and other Graces were very exemplary Namely his faithfulness in reproving the miscarriages of Professors sparing none whether High or Low whether Ministers or Private Christians yea although they had been never so dear in his affections and never so obliging in their carriage to him yet if he found in them any thing that was reproveable and blame-worthy he would deal with them faithfully and plainly about it whatsoever the issue and event were One time when he was going about such a Work he told a Christian Friend with whom he was very intimate and familiar Well sayes he I am going about that which is like to make a very dear and obliging Friend to become an Enemy But however it cannot be omitted it is better to lose mans favour than GOD's But GOD was pleased then as well as divers other times besides when he went about business of this nature to order things for him better than he could have expected and so to dispose of the heart of the Person with whom he had to deal that he was so far from becoming his Enemy for his consciencious faithfulness to him that he loved him the better ever after as long as he lived As to his judgment about the Arminian Controversies as far as I can perceive who have discoursed with him about them it was much-what the same with Doctor Davenants and Mr. Baxters He was a Man of a very calm and peaceable Spirit one that loathed all tumultuous carriages and proceedings he was far from having any other design in his Preaching than the advancement of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus by the conversion and salvation of Souls This was the mark that he had in his eye this was that for which he laboured and ventured and suffered and for which he thought he could never lay out himself enough Though he were but a young Man yet in his carriage he was exceeding serious and grave and 〈◊〉 very humble courteous and affable condescending to discourse with the poorest and meanest Persons for their spiritual good as soon as with the greatest and richest And indeed so unblameable and convincing was he in the whole of his conversation that there were very few religious and sober Persons that knew him either in Town or Country either Ministers or People yea though some of them differing in judgment from him but did highly approve of him And for his Brethren in the Ministry here in these parts such was his holy and discreet deportment amongst them that he had as great an influence upon them as few others had the like He was full of holy projects often bethinking himself by what wayes and means he might more effectually promote the honour of Christ and the benefit of Souls and whatsoever he apprehended to be conducing to these highest ends he would prosecute with that wisdom and vigour that he seldom failed of bringing it to a comfortable and successful issue Of which Projects this is one which I shall here insert Having considered how much the Conscientious and frequent performance of the duty of Self-Examination might tend to the bringing down of Sin and furtherance of Holiness both in heart
he was not onely contented but joyful to suffer for the Name of Jesus and his Gospel which was so dear to him Intimating that God had given him much more time than he expected or askt of him and that he accounted it cause of rejoycing and his honour that he was one of the first called forth to suffer for his name Although he was very suddenly surprised yet none could discern him to be in the least moved He pitied the condition of his Enemies requesting for them as the Martyr Stephen did for those that stoned him That God would not lay this sin of theirs to their charge The greatest harm that he did wish to any of them was That they might throughly be Converted and Sanctified and that their Souls might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus He was very urgent with those that were Unconverted to look with more care after their Salvation now they were removed from them that longed for it and had watched for their Souls using this as an Argument often That now they were fallen into the hands of such many of which if not most of them had neither Skill nor Will to save Souls And setting home upon them with most tender Affections what miserable Creatures they were while Unregenerate telling them how his Heart did yearn for them and his Bowels turned within him for them how he did pray and weep for them while they were asleep and how willingly he had suffered a years Imprisonment Nay how readily he could shed his Blood to procure their Salvation His Counsels and Directions were many and suited to the several states of those he thus Conversed with both as to their degree and place and their sins and wants and would be too long to recite though I can remember many of them To his fellow Prisoners he said The Eyes of GOD and Angels are upon you and the eyes of Men are upon you now you will be critically observed Every one will be looking that you should be more Holy than others that are called forth to this his glorious Dignity to be the Witnesses of Christ Jesus with the loss of your Liberties He was eminently free from harsh censuring and judging of others and was ready to embrace all in Heart Arms and 〈◊〉 Civil and Religious any that prosessed saving 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ and did not overthrow that Profession by some Fundamental Error in Doctrine or Wickedness of Life and Conversation And yet they accused him of being at a Riotous Assembly though there were no Threats nor dangerous Words no Staves nor Weapons no Fear so much as pretended to be struck into any man nor any other Business met about then Preaching and Prayer Here he was much abused receiving many scorns and scoffs from the Justices and their Associa es who were met to hear his Examination also from the Ladies and other Gentlemen who called him often Rogue and told him he deserved to be Hang'd and if he were not they would be Hang'd for him With many such like scurrilous Passages which my Husband received with much patience and seeming as they apprehended by his Countenance to slight their Threatnings they were more inraged at him They urged him much to accuse himself which they seeing they could not bring him to and having no evidence as appeared after yet did make his Mittimus for to go to the Goal on Monday Morning after they had detained him till twelve at Night abusing him beyond what I do now distinctly remember or were fit to express As soon as he returned it being so late about two a Clock he lay down on the Bed in his Clothes where he had not slept above two or three hours at the most but he was up spending his time in Converse with God till about eight a Clock by which hour several of his Friends were come to Visit him But he was so watched and the Officer had such a charge that he was not suffered to Preach all that Sabbath but spent the day in discoursing with the various Companies that came flocking in from the Town and Villages to visit him Praying often with them as he could be permitted He was exceeding chearful in his Spirit full of admirations of the Mercies of God and incouraging all that came to be bold and venture for the Gospel and their Souls notwithstanding what was come upon him for their sakes For as he told them he was not at all moved at at nor did not in the least repent of any thing he had done but accounted himself happy and under that Promise Christ makes to his in the 5th of Matthew That he should be doubly and trebly blessed now he was to suffer for his sake And was very earnest with his Brethren in the Ministry that came to see him That they would not in the least desist when he was gone that there might not be one Sermon the less in Taunton and with the People to attend the Ministry with greater Ardency Diligency and courage than before assuring them how sweet and comfortable it was to him to consider what he had done for God in the months past And that he was going to Prison full of Joy being confident that all these things would turn to the furtherance of the Gospel and the Glory of God But he not being satisfied to go away and not leave some exhortations with his People he appointed them to meet him about one or two a Clock in the Night to which they shewed their readiness though at so unseasonable a time There was of Young and Old many hundreds he Preached and Prayed with them about three hours And so with many yearnings of his Bowels towards them and theirs toward him they took their farewel of each other a more affectionate Parting could not well be About nine a Clock he with two or three Friends that were willing to accompany him set out for Ilchester The Streets were lined on both sides with People and many followed him a foot some miles out of the Town with such lamentations that he told me after did so affect him that he could scarce bear them but the Lord so strengthned him that he passed through them all with great Courage and Joy labouring both by his chearful Countenance and Expressions to encourage them He carried his Mittimus himself and had no Officer with him but when he came there he found the Goaler absent and took that opportunity to Preach before he went into the Prison which was accounted by his Adversaries a great addition to his former Crime As soon as the Goaler came he delivered his Mittimus and was clapped up in the Bridewel Chamber which was over the common Goal When he came to the Prison he found there Mr. John Norman late Minister of Bridgwater who for the like cause was Apprehended and Committed a few dayes before him a Man who for his singular Abilities in Preaching his fervent Zeal and Holy Boldness in the Cause of
evidence that his sins were pardoned and his Person accepted in Jesus into eternal Life and had more glorious fore-tastes of Heaven I remember once coming in when he was kneeling down to Family Prayer his Heart was in that Duty carried forth into such expressions of love and praise for the sealings of everlasting Love and Life as I never heard before or since and such as I am fully satisfied none could express but who had received the White Stone with the new Name in it But this was not accidental to him or unusual for whatever Clouds he might possibly have though I know of none yet I am sure for a good time before his death he lived in the very dawning to Glory both in the full assurance of it as his Portion and a Spirit of Sanctity Love and Praise like unto it And though in the very hour of his dying his Disease had heat his Head and in his Raptures he had Expressions which at another time his Grace and Reason would not have used yet all the Copies I have seen of those Transports in the substance of them speak only fuller assurance of God's Love to him and his highest returns of love to Christ again And I do not at all wonder that a Person shining so much with the Divine Image and living so uninterruptedly in the clearest and nearest Divine Communion should enjoy such assurance of God's everlasting Love and be filled so with Joy therein and making such returns of Love and Praise thereto CHRISTIAN LETTERS FULL OF Spiritual Instructions TENDING To the Promoting of the Power of Godliness both in Persons and Families Anno Dom. 1672. CHRISTIAN LETTERS Full of SPIRITUAL INSTUCTIONS Tending To the Promoting of the Power of Godliness both in Persons and Families LETTER 1. To his Wife to Dispose her to his Acceptance of Taunton on small Maintenance My Dear Heart BY this time I hope thou hast received mine by Martin and also an Answer touching their Resolution at Taunton My thoughts have been much upon that Business of late so small as the outward Incouragements in point of Maintenance are and methinks I find my heart much Inclining that way I will tell thee the Principles upon which I go First I say this for a Foundation That a mans Life consisteth not in the Abundance of the things that he possesseth It was accounted a wise Prayer that 〈◊〉 put up of old that he might only be Fed with Food convenient for him And certain it is that where men have least of the World they esteem it least and live more by Faith and in dependance upon God casting their care and burden upon him O the sweet breathings of Davids soul the strong actings of his Faith and Love that we find come from him when his condition was low and mean in the World How closely doth he cling How fully doth he Relie upon God The Holy Ghost seems to make it a Priviledge to be brought to a necessity of living by Faith as I think I have formerly hintted thee out of Deut. 11. 10. 11. where Canaan is prefer'd before AEgypt in regard of its dependance upon God for the former and latter Rain which in AEgypt they could live without and have supplies from the River And certainly could we that are unexperienced but feel the Thorns of those cares and troubles that there are in gathering and keeping much and the danger when Riches increase of setting our hearts upon them we should prize the happiness of a middle condition much before it Doubtless Godliness with contentment is great gain Seekest thou great things for thy self saith the Prophet to Baruch seek them not Certainly a good Conscience is a continual Feast and enough for a happy Life no man that Wareth intangleth himself with the affairs of this Life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier We should be but little Incumbred with the things of this World and withal free from a World of Intanglements which in a great place committed wholly to our charge would be upon our Consciences as no small Burden Secondly I take this for an undoubted truth that a dram of Grace is better than a Talent of Wealth and therefore such a place where our Consciences would be free and we had little to do in the World to take off our hearts and thoughts from the things of Eternity and had the advantage of abundance of means and the daily opportunities of warming our hearts with the 〈◊〉 Society and Conference of Heavenly Christians and no temptations to carry us away nor discouragements in our walking with God and the due performance of our duty is if we pass a true and Spiritual Judgement as the Holy Ghost in Scripture would without comparison before another place void of those Spiritual helps and advantages Let us think with our selves what though our Purses our Estates may thrive better in a place of a larger maintenance yet where are our graces our souls like to thrive any way answerable to what they are in this We should have but little in the World and we could live hereafter but alas what is this if it be made up to us as it will surely be in Communion with God and his People If we thrive in Faith and Love Humility and Heavenly mindedness as above all places I know we are likely to do there what matter is it though we do not raise our selves in the World the thing it may well be accounted but mean but alas let us look upon it with a spiritual Eye and then we shall pass another Judgement of it Oh! who would leave so much Grace and so much comfort in Communion with Christ and his Saints as we may gain there for the probabilities of living with a little more gentility and handsomness in the world 'T is a strange thing to see how Christians generally do judge so carnally of things looking to the things that are seen and Temporal and not the things that will stick by us to Eternity What is it worth a year is the Maintenance certain and sure What charges are there like to be these are the questions we commonly ask first when we speak of setling But alas though those things are duly to be considered too yet what good am I like to do what good am I like to get Both which questions I think might be as comfortably Answered concerning this as any place in England These should be the main Interrogatories and the chief things we should judge of a place to settle in by What if we have but a little in the World Why then we must keep but a short Table and shall make but a little noise in the World and must give the meaner entertainments to our Friends O but will not this be abundantly made up if we have more outward and inward Peace as we may well count we shall have One dram of saving Grace will weigh down all this Let others 〈◊〉 themselves in
would set up and maintain this duty in your families Have you done it all accordingly Cannot your consciences witness cannot your families 〈◊〉 you have not Well I thought my parting words would have done something with you I hoped the fervent request of a dying Minister would have prevailed for such a small matter with you What to this day without solemn catechizing in your houses 〈◊〉 what a discouragement to your teacher is this Brethren shall I yet prevail with you Will you reject me now also O let me perswade you before you take off your eyes from 〈◊〉 lines to resolve to set upon the constant exerise of this duty Surely I have done and suffered more for you then this comes to will you deny me I 〈◊〉 you let me find if ever God do bring me again to visit your houses that the words of a suffering Minister have some power with you I have sent you an help on purpose what shall all my perswasions be but speaking in the wind and all my pains but labouring in the fire Beloved you have no dread of the Almighties charge That you should teach these things diligently to your children and talk of them as you sit in your houses c. Deut. 6. 6 7 8. 9. and 4. 9 10. and 11. 18 19 20. and train them up in the way they should go Prov. 22. 6. the Margin Hath God so commended Abraham that he would teach his children and houshold Gen. 18. 19. and that he had so many instructed servants Gen. 14. 14. the Margin and given such a promise to him thereupon and will not you put in for a share neither in the praise nor the promise Hath Christ honoured catechizing with his presence Luke 2. 46. and will not you own it with your practise Say not they are careless and will not learn What have you your Authority for if not to use it for God and the good of their souls You will call them up and force them to do your work and should you not at least be as zealous in putting them upon Gods work Say not they are dull and are not capable If they be dull God requires of you the more pains and patience but so dull as they are you will make them learn how to work and can they not learn as well how to live Are they capable of the mysteries of your trade and are they not capable of the plain principles of Religion well as ever you would see the growth of Religion the cure of ignorance the remedy of prophaness the downfal of error fulfil you my joy in going through with this duty I have been too long already and yet I am afraid my letter will be ended before my work be done how loath am I to leave you before I have prevailed with you to set to the work to which you are here directed will you pass your promise will you give me your hands Oh that you would you cannot do me a greater pleasure Ask what you will of me See if I will not do as much for you Oh that your Families might be a joy to me as that twice noble Ladies to John who professes he had no greater joy then to find her children walking in the truth Beloved why should you hot give the hand one to another and mutually engage each to other for more vigorous and diligent endeavours in promoting family godliness I must tell you God looks for more than ordinary from you in such a day as this He expects that you should do both in your hearts and in your houses somewhat more than ever under these his Extraordinary dispensations My most dearly beloved mine own howels in the Lord will you satisfie the longings of a travelling Minister Will you answer the Calls of Divine Providence Would you remove the Incumbent or prevent the impending Calamities Would you plant Nurseries for the Church of God Would you that God should build your Houses and bless your Substance would you that your Children should bless you that Your Father should bless You Oh then set up Piety in your Families as ever you would be blessed or be a blessing let your Hearts and your Houses be the Temples of the living God in which his worship according to all the forementioned directions may be with constancy reverently performed Pardon my prolixity and importunity in so earnest pursuing of You I am yet afraid I have done too soon and shall end without my Erranil The Lord God perswade you To him I turn me for I am well assured he can prevail with you O Father of Spirits that hath set me over thy Flock to watch for their Souls as one that must give an account I have long studied thy Will and taught in thy Name and do unfeiguedly bless thee that any have believed my Report I have given unto them the Words which thou gavest me and they have received them I have manifested thy Name unto them and they have kept thy Word And now I am no more with them but I come unto thee Holy Father keep them through thine own Name for they are thine As they have kept the Word of thy Patience so keep thou them in the hour of Temptation They are but a flock a little and a helpless flock but thou art their Shepheard suffer them not to want Do thou feed them and fold them Let thy Rod and thy Staff comfort them and let not the Beasts of prey fall upon them to the spoiling of their Souls But what shall I do for them that will not be gathered I have called after them but they would not answer I have charged them in thy Name but they would not hear I have studied to speak perswasively to them but I cannot prevail Then I said I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet I cannot give them over much less may I give thee over Lord perswade Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. Lord compel them to come in and lay the hands of mercy upon them as thou didst on lingring Lot and bring them forth that they may escape for their lives and not be consumed Lord I pray thee open their eyes that they may see and lay hold upon their hearts by thy Omnipotent Grace Do thou turn them and they shall be turned O bring back the miserable 〈◊〉 and suffer not the Enemy of Mankind to drive away the most of the flock before mine eyes and to 〈◊〉 the fruitless endeavours of thy Laborers and boast over them that he can do more with them though he seek to ruine them than all the beseechings counsels 〈◊〉 charges of thy Servants that seek to save them Lord if I could find out any thing that would pierce them that would make its way into their hearts thou 〈◊〉 if would 〈◊〉 it But I have been many years pleading thy Cause in vain O let not these endeavors also be lost O God find out every ignorant
comparison with thine experienced love I cannot entertain the thoughts of this without some disdain But thy needful cautions are acceptable to me I desire to foresee and provide for manifold changes and storms I know I am not yet in the Harbor O pray with me that I enter not into Temptation for I am very weak in Spirit as well as in body God knoweth But there is no end with me somewhere or other I must break off and thou wilt say it is time to shut up for once onely know that I am thy daily Orator and will be whilest I am and yet once more I must have room to add my thankful acknowledgement of thine and thy costly kindness and so with our most dear affections to you both I commend you to the God of love still abiding Thy fast and sure Orestes Bath Octob. 13. 1668. LETTER XXXVII To a person of Quality to be constant Most Honoured Sir MAny charges have passed over both you and my self since my last Writing to you but I am glad to hear that in that great change of your condition you have made so wise and happy a choice Mine unfeigned desire to God is for your Temporal and Spiritual prosperity and that the blessings of both Worlds may be heaped up upon you Yet I should desire you not to expect too much here nor to count it a strange thing if you meet with disappointments It is enough if you have the Lord for your portion and Heaven for your Inheritance though the World should not answer your expectations I doubt not but you will be likely as well we to meet with manifold temptations the Lord make you when you have done all to stand Hold out a while in faith patience and self-denial and you shall be as sure as God can make you of the Crown Now arise and shine and hold forth the power of holiness in all your converse We have lived in times when Religion was the way to credit and esteem and then it was more difficult to discern the sincerity of ones profession because men might be drawn to it upon worldly ends But now is the time when God will prove us if we will appear for him and own his ways when they are the common scorn of the World Oh Sir think it not hard if God do call you forth to own him in such a time as this when few of your rank and quality will bear you company but look upon it as a special advantage to prove your sincerity and your fidelity to the Lord your Maker The holy and blessed life of that noble Marquess Galeacius I should much commend to your reading and Imitation Court not the world nor its preferments Moses his self-denying choice which the World would have branded for unparalled folly when he voluntarily left all the Court-preferments and pleasures the wisest Judge commends for the greatest Wisdom If Religion will make you vile resolve with that Royal Worthy that you will be yet more vile Remember who accounted the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt Verily it is a greater honour to you to be vilified for Christ than to be dignified with the highest Titles that the greatest on Earth can confer and to be call'd Puritan or Phanatique for the bold and constant owning of the power of Christianity than to have whole Pages filled up with the honourable offices and marks of Dignity that earthly Princes can bestow Now then is your time to get the true honour Few of your places and dignity will take this way to get it But he that can but use the prospective of Faith and look as far as the approaching Judgment will easily see the vanity of the worlds riches and slattering preferments and the everlasting glory and honour wherewith the dispised Saints shall surely be Crowned Fix your eyes and Meditations here and that will set you above the worlds temptations when by its offers or threatnings it would make you to warp and to let go your hold-fast of Eternal life Now is the time for you to make Heaven sure and when that is done you are prepared for the worst that can come I desire you to accept of my service and respects and my Wives which I do hereby present unto you and to your most deserving yoak-fellow whom I unfeignedly honour though I never saw her not so much for her noble blood which yet calls for great respects as for her far more noble qualifications and priviledges of her second birth Pardon my boldness with you in troubling you so long I am Sir Your most Oblidged Friend and Servant JOS. ALLEINE Feb. 26. 1661. LETTER XXXVII Dear Couzin THough I have been in the valley of the shadow of death though I have had more than one foot in the Grave and have been in deaths often yet the love and remembrance of you ever liveth on my heart I have long had neither feet to walk nor hands to write yet I have borrowed hands as you see rather than I would stay any longer from warning and admonishing of you Dear Couzin that soul of yours that precious immortal soul is of no light value with me I pray hard for its Salvation I have a Godly fear for you lest your soul should miscarry in a crowd of worldly business and of earthly cares Ah my dear Niece it comforts me that you are so setled for this world and are in want of nothing I bless the Lord for this but me thinks this doth not satisfie me Oh that I could be sure that you were once safe setled in Christ though you are I trust comfortably furnished with earthly things yet in this you are but half provided for have you a Treasure in Heaven have you laid hold on eternal life have you made sure work for everlasting have you past the straits of the New-Birth do your bear upon you the marks of the Lord Jesus If you shall pass by a sumptuous Fabrick and a great Lordship and should lay claim to all as your inheritance and please your self with the hopes of enjoying all this when you had nothing to shew no Writing no Evidence to produce as a ground for any such hope would not every one say this were a piece of strange vanity and imprudence much greater folly is it to promise our selves a part in Paradise and rest satisfied in a meer perswasion that we are the Heirs of Heaven when we cannot prove our Title from the Book of God nor produce from within our selves the sure and certain marks of the children of God Ah Dear Couzin Rouze up your self make conscience to deal plainly and freely with your soul say within your self I have hopes for Heaven but where are my grounds and my Evidences do I not build without a foundation do I venture my Salvation upon meer uncertainties What have I what do I more than others I pray I hear I read but may not a meer Hypocrite do all this I
concernments Will you not spin a fair thread of it if while you are pursuing after earthly things you lose your soul in the 〈◊〉 While I live I shall pray and care for you Farewel in the Lord. I am Your truly loving and careful Uncle JOSEPH ALLEINE LETTER XXXVI Godly Counsels Dear Cousin THE welcom tidings 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 bereft 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 watch for your soul and to charge and admonish you in the Lord and to take care of you But yet Dear Cousin be not discouraged by these things but look to Heaven flie unto Jesus put away every known sin set upon the conscientious performance of every known duty make Christ your choice embrace him upon his own terms deliver up your self body and soul to him see that you have no reserves nor limitations in your choice of him give him your very heart cast away your worldly hopes and expectations make Religion your very business O Cousin these things do and you shall be sure of a Friend in Heaven to take the care of you and if I may be any comfort to you you shall not fail while I live to have one friend on earth to take care for you You are gone far from me even to the uttermost parts of the earth but I have sent these Letters to call even thither after you yea not onely to call but to cry in your ears O what is like to become of your soul Where is that immortal soul of yours like to be lodged for ever amongst Devils or amongst Angels upon a bed of Flames or in the joys of Paradise Dear Cousin go aside by your self in secret retire from the noise of the world and say to your self Oh my soul whether art thou going do not I know in my very heart that I must be converted or condemned that I must be sanctified or can never be saved Oh my soul what seekest thou what designs do I drive at what is my chief care which way do I bend my course Is it for this world or for the world to come Do I first seek the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof Do I think Heaven will drop into my mouth that glory and immortality will be gotten with a wet finger with cold prayers and heartless wishes while the world carries the main of my heart Do I think to be crowned and yet never fight to get the race and never run to enter at the strait gate and never strive to overcome Principalities and Powers and never wrestle No no say within your self Oh my soul either lay by the hopes of Heaven for ever or else rouse up thy self put forth thy strength in seeking after God and glory either lay by thy worldly hopes or thy hopes of immortality away with thy sins or thou must let Christ go for ever think not to have Chrst and the world too to serve God and Mammon it cannot be If thou follow the world as thy chief desire and delight if thou live after the flesh thou must die count upon it the Lord hath spoken it and all the world can never reverse it Thus reason the case with your own soul and give not rest to your self night nor day till you are gotten off from the world broken off from the wilful practice of every known sin and gotten safe into Christ. Dear Cousin I charge you by the Lord to observe these things pray over them weep over them read them again and again do not pass them over as slight and ordinary things your soul is at stake it is your salvation is concerned in them think not I am in jest with you Ah Cousin I travel in birth with you till Christ be formed in you Why should you die Oh repent and live lay hold on eternel life win Christ and you win all O be thankful to the Lord that now you are fatherless and friendless yet you have one Remembrancer to warn you to flie from the wrath to come God forbid that I should find you at last in the place of Torments for your not embracing the godly Counsels To conclude in short I charge you as a Minister as a Friend as a Father to you Take heed of these three things 1. Left the gain of the world prove the loss of your soul 2. Left the snare of evil company withdraw you from God and so prove your final ruine 3. Left a lofty and a worldly heart should thrust you out of the Kingdom of Heaven God abhors that the proud should come near him Oh labour whatever you do for an humble heart be little be vile in your own eyes seek not after great things be poor in spirit without this Heaven will be no place for you God will be no friend to you Dear Cousin your lot is fallen as I fear in a place of great wickedness where your soul is in much danger where your temptations are many and your helps for Heaven but few where godly examples are rare and many will entice you to sin and vanity O! if you love me or love your soul look about you consider your danger fear lest you should miscarry for ever by worldly loss and vain company which proves to so many the fearful cause of their eternal perdition I can but warn you and pray for you but though you have none to oversee you remember the strict and severe eye of God is upon you to observe all your actions and that he will surely bring all your practices into his Judgment Your Aunt with my self commend our dear love to you and I commend you to the Lord and remain Your loving and careful uncle JOSEPH ALLEINE August 19. 1668. LETTER XXXVII Dear Cousins THough you are removed far from me out of my sight and the Seas as a great gulf are fixed betwixt you and me yet my prayers follow you and my good wishes for your present and everlasting welfare like the wings of a Dove take speedy flight I look upon my self now God hath removed my Brother to be as in the room of a Father to you yea and of a Mother too for I know you have but little help from her My dear Neeces my heart is careful for you and therefore I cannot cease while I am in being in this world to warn and admonish you as my children and to call upon you in the name of the Eternal God to awaken your selves with all godly fear and holy diligence lest by any means you should come short of the glory of God Let me mind you dear Cousins of
Yea she made a bath of tears in which she washed the feet of Christ Luke 7. 37. It is observed of the people of the Jews that when they had surveyed their monstious sins they drew forth water out of the Fountains of their guilty eyes and poured it before the Lord 1 Sam. 7. 6. When once their hard and rockie hearts were smitten with remorse they melted into tears They wept by Buckets not by Drops It is a woful frame of heart when men can sin but cannot sorrow 2. As sinning times are weeping times so suffering times are weeping times And that whether they be suffering times with others or our selves 1. Suffering times with others must be sorrowing times with us We must weep with them that weep The Holy Ghost himself takes notice of it as remarkable in Nehemiah Chap. 1. 4. that when he heard of the distresses of his Brethren he sat down as one astonied and wept and mourned certain dates And Jeremiah crieth out in such a ease Oh that my head were waters nothing else and mine eyes a fountain of tears both eyes one fountain that I might weep day and night without cessation for the slain of the Daughters of my People It is our duty to remember them that are in Bonds as bound with them and them that are Distressed and broken and undone as if we our selves were broken and undone with them Oh let not it be said of any of us that we swim in pleasures while our Brethren swim in tears That we have lain upon our costly Beds and stretched our selves upon our Couches that we have 〈◊〉 the Lambs out of the Flock and the Calves out of the Stall that we have chanted to the Viol and invented Instruments of Musick to our selves that we drink Wine in bowls but are not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph Amos 6. 4 5 6. 2. And as when others are afflicted so when we our selves are so it is a proper time to weep The poor distressed Church draws up a Catalogue of all her troubles Lamentations 1. 12 c. And then concludeth at the 16. Verse for these things I weep mine eye mine eye runneth down with water Yea she complains that she had wept so much that her eyes did fail with tears Lam. 2. 11. I might give other Scriptures where you shall find them flowing abundantly on such occasions But this may satisfie to shew you that it is not unlawful nor unfit sometimes to express our grief in tears And what those weeping times are Times of sinning and times of suffering either with others or with our selves Use 1. They are mistaken then who think it an unworthy and unmanly thing to weep to drop a rear at any time as if it argued feebleness of mind and imbecillity of spirit How many daring Gallants are there in the world who despise Gods mourners and look on such as weep for the abominatious or the desolations of the times as a company of poor weak low Souls And yet Hezekiah wept and David wept even till he 〈◊〉 himself in tears who notwithstanding was as gallant and as brave a man as ever lived The wise man tells us that there is a time to weep Ecles 3. 4. And where saith he of mourning thou art mad and of sorrow What is it that thou doest As he doth of joy and laughter Where do you find a blessing poured out on laughter as you do on tears and mourning There are but nine Beatitudes and this is one Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Mar. 5. 4. And therefore they deceive themselves who scorn mourners and labour to put on that Apathie and Idolence which is so much commended by the Stoicks Who think it is their Patience and insuperable Fortitude of mind to be disquiered with nothing neither sins 〈◊〉 sufferings so far at least as to shed tears Their Patience is it No 't is their senslesness I have smitten them and they have not grieved saith God of hardned Israel Jer. 5. 3. It is not Patience but Stupidity that he bewaileth there in that people Use 2. What shall we think of those who have no time for tears or sorrows They spend their days in mirth and pleasure and chase away all thoughts from their hearts be the occasion what it will or what it can These are merry men indeed I wish they would but sadly lay to heart these few Considerations and I shall pass on to the third Use. 1. It is a foolish thing to melt away in mirth and laughter especially at such a time when there is nothing upon every side but cause of sorrow No question they conceive it is their wisdome to be lively still however matters go and to drive away sorrow from their hearts But what saith Solomon the wisest man that ever lived Ecc'es 7. 4. The wise mans heart is in the house of 〈◊〉 If his body be not there yet his heart at least is there But on the other side the heart of Fools is in the house of mirth You know they use to paint Fools laughing and wise men with a serious grave composed look And surely there is something in it but the Fool hath not the wit to pick it out 2. As it is a foolish thing so it is a sinful thing to give our selves to mitch and laughter when God calleth us to sorrow It is a sin which God doth hardly if at all forgive we find that he hath sealed the Committers of it up to wrath and bound the guilt of this Iniquity upon their souls never to be removed again That is a damning sentence which we find Isa. 22. 12. They were formidable Judgments which the Lord had threatned and actually inflicted on the Jews And thereupon he looked they should have carried and demeaned themselves like Mourners like men that were extreamly sensible of his displeasure and much affected with his hand upon them But they despised and slighted all and gave themselves to mirth and pleasure and 〈◊〉 in a braving way And what was the event and issue of it Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die 3. And as it is a foolish and a sinful thing so it is a dangerous thing There is a fearful woe denounced to such as laugh for they shall mourn The Lord will one day turn their vain and foolish mirth to weeping and lamentation It will be Gall and Wormwood in the latter end They that are alwaies making mercy and never grieve at the distress of the church they shall go captive with the first as God denounceth Amos 6. 7. Whoever escape they shall be sure to have their portion The Lord will set them in the Front to undergo the sharpest brunt and the most fierce encounter of his Vengeance And though they bear it out a while the Lord will surely meet with them another day when they shall have their portion there where there is nothing else but Weeping and wailing and