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
Trespasses Others have escaped the gross pollutions of the world but stick in the form of Godliness and content themselves with a negative Righteousness that they are no Drunkards nor Swearers c. or at best with an outward conformity to the duties of Religion or some common workings instead of a saving O I am jealous for you that you should not lose the things that you have wrought and miss you reward for want of sincerity for the Lords sake put on and beware of perishing in the Suburbs of the City of Refuge beg of God to make through-work with you and be jealous for your selves get a right understanding of the difference between a Hypocrite and a sincere Christian and try you estates much but only with those marks that you are sure from the Scripture will abide Gods tryal But for you that fear the Lord in sincerity I have nothing but good and comfortable words I have proclaimed your happiness in the last Token I sent to the Town I mean the abstract for the Covenant of Grace upon the Priviledges comforts mercies there summed up and set before you May your souls ever live what condition can you devise wherein there will not be abundance of comfort and matter of joy unspeakable to you O Beloved know your own happiness and live in that holy admiring commending adoring praisings of your gracious God that becomes the people of his praise I have been long yet methinks I have not emptied half my heart unto you I trespass much I fear upon the Bearer therefore in haste I commend you to God The good will of him that dwelt in the Bush be with you all The Lord Create a defence upon you and Deliverance for you the Lord cover you all the day and make you to dwell between his shoulders I desire your constant instant earnest Prayers for me and rest From the common Goale in Juelchester July 4th 1663. A willing Labourer and thankful Sufferer for you JOS. ALLEINE LETTER V. Trust God and be sincere To my most endeared Friends the Servants of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most dearly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown MY hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that yoâ—… may be saved I know that you are the But of mens rage and malice but you may satisfie your selves as Dapid in his patient sustaining of Shemei's sury and curses It may be the Lord will look upon our affâ—…ction and require good for their cursing this day But however it be for that be sure to hold on your way your name indeed is cast forth as evil and you are hated of all men for Christs-sake for your profession of his Gospel and cleaving to his ways and servants but let not this discourage you for you are now more than ever blessed onely hold fast that no man take your Crown Let not any that have begun in the Spirit end in the flesh Do not forsake God till he forsake you he that endureth to the end shall be saved The Promise is to him that overcometh therefore think not of looking back Now you have set your hands to Christ's Pow though you labour hard and suffer long the Crop will pay for all now the Lord is trying what credit he hath in the World and who they be that will trust him The unbelieving World are all for present pay they must have ready money something in hand and will not follow the Lord when there is like to be any great hazard and hardship in his service But now is the time for you my Beloved to prove your selves Believers when there is nothing visible but present hazard and expence and difficulty in your Makers service Now it will be seen who can trust the Lord and who trusts him not Now my Brethren bear you up stand fast in the Faith quit you like men be strong now give glory to God by believing If you can trust in his Promises for your reward now when nothing appears but the displeasure of Rulers and Bonds and losses and tribulation on every side this will be somewhat like Believers Brethren I beseech you to reckon upon no other but crosses here Let none of you dream of an Earthly Paradise or flatter your selves with dreams of sleeping in your ease and temporal Prosperity and carrying Heaven too Think not to keep your Estates and liberties and consciences too Count not upon rest till you come to the Land of Promise Not that I would have any of you to run upon hazards uncalled No we shall meet them soon enough in the way of our duty without we will balk it and shamefully turn aside but I would have you cast over-board your Worldly hopes and count not upon an earthly felicity but be content to wait till you come on the other side the Grave Is it not enough to have a whole eternity of happiness yet behind If God do throw in the comforts of this life too into the bargain I would not have you throw them back again or despise the goodness of the Lord but I would my Brethren that you should use this World as not abusing it that you should be crucified to the world and the world to you that you should declare plainly that you seek a Countrey a better Countrey which is an Heavenly Ah! my dear Brethren I beseech you carry it like Pilgrims an strangers I beseech you abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your Souls for what have we to do with the customes and courses and fashions of this world who are strangers in it Be contented with Travellers lots know you not that you are in a strange Land all is well as long as it is well at home I pray you Brethren daily and srequently to consider your condition and station do you not remember that you are in an Inn and what though your be but poorly attended and meanly accommodated though you â—…are hard and lie hard Is this a strange thing what should Travellers look sor else will you set forth in a Journey and promise your selves nothing but sair way and fair weather Shall a man put forth to Sea and reckon upon nothing but the calm If you were of the World the World would love his own But now God hath chosen you and called you out of the world therefore the World hateth you But remember my Brethren it is your duty to love them even while they hate you and to pray for mercy for them that will shew no mercy nor do no Justice for us This I desire you to observe as a great duty of the present times And let not any so far forget their duty and pattern as to wish evil to them that do evil to us or to please themselves with the thoughts of being even with them Let us commit our selves to him that judgeth righthously and shew our selves the children of the most High who doth good to his Enemies and is kind to the unkind and
that are saved there are not a few of you who are the joy of your Ministers and the Glory of Christ. But it cannot be dissembled that far the greater number give little ground to hope that they are in the state of Salvation And must not this be a pinching thought to a compassionate Teacher to think that he cannot for his heart perswade men but that the most of them will wilfully throw away themselves Is it not a wosul sight to behold the Devils driving a great part of our miserable Flocks as they did once the Herd of Swine the Keepers themselves amazed looking on I say driving them violently down the hill till they be choaked in the Water and drowned irrecoverably in the Gulf of endless Perdition Ah mserable spectacle What through the wilful blindness of some what through the loseness and sensuality of others what through the halving and Cold and customary Religion of others how great a number of our poor Flocks is Satan like to carry utterly away from us after all that hath been done to save them Yet I cannot but call after them Hearken unto me O ye Children How long will ye love Vanity and follow after leasing and trust in lying Words As the Lord liveth you are lost except you turn Wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ah how Mercy woeth you How it waiteth to be gracious to you Hear O sinners hear See you not how the merciful Saviour of the World stretcheth forth his hands all the day long and spreadeth forth his Wings and calleth you as a Hen doth her Chickens hear you not the soundings of his Bowels He had no need of you Yet how do his compassions melt over perishing sinners his heart is turned within him and shall not this turn your hearts his repentings are kindled together and shall not this lead you to repentance Behold he standeth at the door and knocketh O man wilt thou keep â—…esus at the door and lodge Barrabas in thy bosom and prefer thy cruel Lusts before thy Compassionate Lord Oh his melting love to sinners He calleth after them Isa. 55. 1. He weepeth over them Luke 19. 41 42. He crieth to them Prov. 1. 21 22 23. How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity Will you not be made clean When shall it once be Why will you die Turn you at my Reproof Behold I will pour out my Spirit upon you Sinner art thou not yet melted Oh come in at his loving Calls Come out from thy sins Touch the Scepter of Grace and live Why shouldest thou be dashed in pieces by his Iron Rod Kiss the Son Why shouldst thou perish in the way Set up Jesus as thy King lest he count thee sor â—…is Enemy because thou wouldst not that he should Reign over thee and so thou be called forth and slain before him Oh how dreadful will this Case be to perish under the pittiful Eyes of his Mercy and to die by the hand of a Saviour Oh double hell to have thy Redeemer become thine Executioner And the hand that was so long stretched forth to save thee to be now stretched forth to slay thee And the merciful heart of Christ himself hardned against thee so as that he should call thee forth and with his own hand hew thee in pieces as Samuel did Agag before the Lord. But I have been too too long in prefacing to what I intended forthwith to have fallen upon Indeed I am apt to run out in matters that do so nearly touch upon your greatest Concernments Beloved I despair of ever bringing you to Salvation without Sanctification Or possessing You with Happiness without perswading you to Holiness God knows I have not the least hope ever to see one of your Faces in Heaven except You be Converted and Sanctified and exercise your selves unto Godliness This is that I drive at I beseech you study to further Personal Godliness and Family Godliness 1. Personal Godliness Let it be your first care to set up Christ in your Hearts See that you make all your worldly Interests to stoop to him that You be entirely and unreservedly devoted unto him If You wilfully and deliberately and ordinarily harbour any sin You are undone See that You unfeignedly take the Laws of Christ as the rule of your words thoughts and actions and subject â—…our whole man members and mind faithfully to him If You haâ—…e a true respect to all Gods Commandments you are sound at heart Oh study to get the Image and impress of Christ upon you within Begin with your hearts else you build without a foundation Labour to get a saving change within or else all external performances will be to no purpose And then study to shew forth the power of Godliness in the life Let Piety be your first and great business 'T is the highest point of Justice to give God his due Beware that none of you be a Prayerless person sor that is a most certain discovery of a Christless and a graceless person of one that is a very stranger to the fear of God Suffer not your Bibles to gather dust See that you converse daily with the Word That man can never lay claim to Blessedness whose delight is not in the Law of the Lord. Let â—…editation and self-examination be your daily exercise else the Papists yea the Pagans will condemn us That the short questions which I have given you as a help to self-examination may be daily perused by you is the matter of my passionate request unto you If ever you come to any growth in Holiness without the constant use of â—…his practice I am grosly deceived And therefore I would beseech yea even charge you by the Lord that you would daily examine your selves by these questions till you have found a better help to this duty But Piety without Charity is but the half of Christiaâ—…y or rather impious Hypocrisie We may not divide the Tables See therefore that you do justly and love mercy and let Equity and Charity run like an even Thred throughout all your dealings Be you temperate in all things and let Chastity and and Sobriety be your undivided Companions Let truth and Purity Seriousness and modesty Heavenliness and gravity be the constant ornaments of your speech Let patience and humility simplicity sincerity shine out in all the parts of your conversations See that you sorget sorgive wrongs and requiâ—…e them with kindness as you would be found children of the most high Be merciful in your Censures and put the most favourable construction upon our Brethrens carriage that their actions will reasonably bear â—…e slow in promising punctual in fulfilling Let meekness and inâ—…ocency Affableness Yieldingness and Curtâ—…sie comâ—…end your conversations to all men Let none of your Relations want that love and loyalty that reverence and duty that tenderness care and vigilancy which their several places and capacities call for This is throughout Godliness I charge you before the most high God
am apt to pass the bounds of a Letter yet I promise my self now an easie pardon for so loving a trespass With my dear Loves to you all I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace Though I have done writing yet not praying I will promise where my Letter ends my Prayers shall begin Farewel dear Brethren Fare you well in the Lord I am An unworthy Embassador of Jesus in Bond JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Octob. 29. 1663. LETTER XXXIII For Perseverance To my dear Friends the Servants of Christ in Luppit Salvation Beloved Christians HAving taken up a Resolution to Write to and to endeavour to confirm all the Places where I have gone up and down Preaching the Kingdom of God You were by no means to be omitted You were the People that were last upon-my heart before my taking up and had I not been made a Prisoner I think I had in a few hours after the time of my Apprehension been with you Now I can no way but by Prayers Letters and Councels visit you and so have sent these to let you know that you are upon my Heart and that your Welfare is dear unto me I bless the Lord to hear that his Work doth not cease among you It is the Joy of our Bonds Beloved to hear that the Word is not bound and that Satan hath not his design upon the People of God who doubtless intended by these Sufferings to have struck Terrour into them and to have made their Hands weak Know dear Christians that the Bonds of the Gospel are not tedious through Grace unto us that Christ is a Master worth a suffering for that there is really enough in Religion to defray all our Charges to quit all the Cost and Expence you can be at in or upon it That you may Build upon it that you can never be losers by Jesus Christ that Christs Prison is better than the Worlds Paradise that the Divine Attributes are alone an All-sufficient Livelihood that the Influences of Heaven and shines of Gods Countenance are sufficient to lighten the darksomest Dungeon and to perfume and sweeten the noisomest Prison to a poor Believer that if you can bring Faith and Patience and the Assurance of the Divine Favour with you to a Prison you will live comfortably in spight of Earth Hell These are Truths that the Prisoners of Christ can in a measure Seal unto and I would have you to be more soundly assured of and established in Brethren we are of the same mind in a Prison that we were os in the Pulpit that there is no life to a life of Holiness that Christ and his Yoak and his Cross are worthy of all acceptation that it is the best and wisest and safest and gainfulllest course in the World to stick close to Christ and his Ways and to adhere to them in all hazards Come on Beloved Christians come on stack not your pace but give diligence to the full assurance of Hope unto the end and be ye followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises Strengthen the hands that hang down and the feeble knees If you faint in the day of Adversity your strength is small Chear up my Brethren look what a Crown what a Kingdom here is What say you Is not here a worthy Portion a goodly Heritage Were it not pity to lose all this for want of Diligence and Patience Come dear Christians and fellow Travellers I pray you let us put on Pluck up the weary Limbs our Home is within sight Lift up your Eyes from the Pisga of the Promises You may see the Land of Rest. Will any of you think of returning into Egypt God forbid A little patience and Christ will come Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the Earth and hath long patience till he receive the early and later Rain Be ye also patient stablish your Hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh He is not a Christian indeed that cannot be content to tarry for his Preferment in another World Cast upon it my Brethren that your Kingdom is not of this World that here you must have Tribulations and that all is well as long as we are secured for Eternity Exhort one another daily strive together in Prayer unite your strength therein and pull a main Mercy will come sooner or later however we will be content to wait till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah how surely will he come He will render Tribulation to them that trouble us and to us that are troubled rest with him Onely believe and wait What not watch with him one hour Why the Judge is even at the door And how blessed will you be if you do but continue and hold fast till he come Watch therefore and stand fast quit you like men be Zealous and let your hearts be strong God is your Friend and you may trust him He is able to bear you out and bear you up faint not therefore but be stedfast unmoveable abounding in the works of the Lord. Speak often one to another provoke to love and to good Works Let the Bay of opposition against Godliness make the Torrent of your Zeal break over with the more violence But it 's time to end I have been bold to call upon you you see and to stir you up by way of remembrance May the Spirit of the most high God excite you encourage you enflame you may these poor lines be some quickning to you may the good-will of him that dwelt in the Bush dwell with you My dear loves to you all pray sor the Prisoners Farewel dear Brethren farewel in the Lord I am Yours in the Bonds of the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE Octob. 11. 1665. LETTER XXXIV To a Back-sliding Fellow Student Sir WHom this will find you or when or where I know not but I have shot this arrow at a venture Once you were an Associate with me in Corpus Christi where I remember your blameless Conversation and your zealous affection for and adhesion to the ways and people of God May you be still found in the same paths of holiness without which no man shall see God The vows of God are upon me which I confess I have been to slack to pay that I would put you in remembrance and in all Brotherly tenderness advise you to remember from whence you are sallen I was informed before your leaving of England of many unhappy miscarriages which the great reproach of your holy profession you had been too manifestly guilty of I am not without some hope that the Lord may have since recalled you and brought you back to himself and yet not without more fear lest if the power of corruption were so strong as to precipitate you with such violence at such a time as that was and in such a place as England as Oxon where you had so many encouragements and inducements examples and faithful friendly
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