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death_n	brethren_n	know_v	life_n	4,656	5	5.3920	4	false

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

thou fully signified thy mind already to me I had never gone so far as I have Well the Lord whose we are and whom we serve do with us as it shall seem good unto him We are always as mindful as is possible of thee here both together and apart Captain Luke desired me to intreat thee to meet him one two Hours in a Day for the 〈◊〉 of Mercies upon the twenty third Day of every Month. Send word to me of their Resolution at Taunton in two Letters least possibly one should miscarry though never a one did yet I dare not think of settling under sixty Pound at Taunton and surely it cannot be less I have Written as well as I could on a suddeu my Mind to thee I have been so large in delivering my Judgement that I must thrust up my Affections into a Corner Well though they have but a corner in my Letter I am sure they have room enough in my heart But I must conclude The Lord keep thee my Dear and cherish thee for ever in his Bosom Farewell mine own Soul I am as ever Thine own Heart JOSEPH ALLEINE Oxon May 27. 〈◊〉 LETTER II. Prepare for Suffering To my dearly beloved the Flock of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most dear Christians MY 〈◊〉 straights of time will now force me to bind my long loves in a few short lines yet I could not tell how to leave you unsaluted nor chuse but write to you in a few words that you should not be dismayed neither at our present sufferings or at the evil tidings that by this time I doubt not are come unto you Now Brethren is the time when the Lord is like to put you upon the trial now is the hour of temptation come Oh! be faithful to Christ to the death and he shall give you a Crown of life Faithful is he that hath called you and he will not suffer you upon his faithfulness to be tempted above what you are able Give up your selves and your All to the Lord with resolution to follow him fully and two things be sure of and lay up as sure grounds of everlasting consolation 1. If you seek by prayer and study to know the mind of God and do resolve to follow it in uprightness you shall not fail either of direction or pardon Either God will shew you what his pleasure is or will certainly forgive you if you miss your way Brethren fix upon your Souls the deep and lively affecting apprehensions of the most gracious loving merciful sweet 〈◊〉 tender nature of your Heavenly Father which is so great that you may be sure he will with all readiness and love accept of his poor Children when they endeavour to approve themselves in sincerity to him and would fain know his mind and do it if they could but clearly see it though they should unwillingly mistake 2. That as sure as God is faithful if he do see that such or such a temptation with the forethought of which you may be apt to disquiet your selves lest you should fall away when thus or thus tried will be too hard for your Graces he will never suffer it to come upon you Let not my dear Brethren let not the present tribulations or those impending move you This is the way of the Kingdom persecution is one of your 〈◊〉 self-denial and taking 〈◊〉 the Cross is your ABC of Religion you have learnt nothing that have not begun at Christs-Cross Brethren the Cross of Christ is your Crown the reproach of Christ is your riches the shame of Christ is your glory the damage attending strict and holy diligence your greatest advantage sensible you should be of what is coming but not discouraged humbled but not dismayed having your hearts broken and yet your spirits unbroken humble your selves mightily under the mighty 〈◊〉 of God but fear not the face of man may you even be 〈◊〉 in humility but high in courage little in your own apprehensions of your selves but great in holy fortitude 〈◊〉 and holy magnanimity lying in the dust before your God yet triumphing in faith and hope and boldness and confidence over all the power of the enemies Approve your selver 〈◊〉 good Souldiers of Jesus Christ with No Armour but that of righteousness No Weapons but strong crying and tears looking for no Victory but that of Faith nor hope to overcome but by patience now for the faith and patience of the Saints now for the harness of your suffering Graces O gird up the loyns of your mind and be sober and hope to the end Fight not but the good fight of Faith here you must contend and that earnestly Strive not but against sin and here you may resist even unto blood now see that you chuse life and embrace affliction rather than sin Strive together mightily and frequently by prayer I know you do but I would you should abound more and more Share my loves among you and continue your earnest prayers for me and be you assured that I am and shall be through Grace a willing thankful Servant of your Souls concernments From the common Gaole May 28. 1663. Joseph Aleine LETTER III. Warning to Professors To my most dearly beloved my Christian Friends in Taunton Salvation Most loving 〈◊〉 I Shall nover forget your old kindnesses and the entire affections that you have shed upon me not by drops but by floods would I never so fain forget them yet I could not they are so continually renowned for there is never a day but I hear of them may more than hear of them I feel and taste them The God that hath promised to them that give to a Prophet though but a cup of cold Water shall receive a Prophets reward he will recompence your labour of love your servent prayers and constant cryes your care for my wellfare your bountiful supplies who have given me not a cup of cold water but the Wine of your loves with the sense and tidings whereof I am coutinually refreshed I must I do and will bless the Lord as long as I live that he hath-cast my lot in so fair a place to dwell in your communion and especially to go in and out before you and to be the Messenger of the Lord of Host to you to proclaim his Law and to Preach his Excellencies to be his Spokesman to you and to wooe for him and to espouse you to one Husband and to present you as a chaste Virgin unto Christ. Lord how unworthy am I everlastingly unworthy of this glorious Dignity which I do verily believe the most brightest Angels in Heaven would be glad of if the Lord saw it fit to imploy them in this work Well I do not I cannot repent notwithstanding all the difficulties and inconveniences that do attend his despised Servants and hated ways and that are like to attend them for we have but sipped yet of the Cup but I have set my hand to his plow my Ministry I took up with

be shortly forgot among the Dead your places will know you no more and your Memory will be no more among men and then what will it profit you to have lived in fashion and repute and to have been Men of esteem one serious walk over a Church-yard as one speaks might make a man mortified to the World Think upon how many you Tread but you know them not no doubt they had their Estates their friends their Trades their businesses and kept as much stir in the World as others do now But alas what are they the better for any for all this know you not that this must be your own case very shortly oh the unhappiness of deceived man how miserably is he bewitched and befooled that he should expend himself for that which he knows shall for ever leave him Brethren I beseech you lay no stress upon these perishing things but labour to be at a Holy indifferencie about them Is it for one that is in his wits to sell his God his conscience his soul for things that he is not sure to keep a week nor a day and which he is sure after a few sleepings and wakings more to leave behind him for ever go and talk with dying men and see what apprehensions they have of the World if any should come to such as these and tell them here is such and such preferments for you you shall have such titles of Honour and delights if you will now disown Religion or subscribe to iniquity do you think such a motion would be embraced Brethren why should we not be wise in time why should we not now be of the mind of which we know we shall be all shortly woe to them that will not be wise till it be to no purpose woe to them whose eyes nothing but Death and Judgement will open woe to them that though they have been warned by others and have heard the Worlds greatest Darlings in Death to cry out of its vanity worthlesness and deceitfulness and have been told where and how it would leave them yet would take no warning but only must serve themselves to for warnings to others All my Beloved beware there be no worldly Professors among you that will part rather with their part in Paradise than their part in Paris that will rather part with their Consciences than with their Estates that have secret reserves in hearts to save themselves whole when it comes to the pinch and not to be of the Religion that will undo them in the World Beware that none of you have your hearts where your Feet should be and love your Mammon before your Maker It is time for you to learn with Paul to be Crucified to the World But it is time for me to remember that 't is a Letter and contain my self within my Limits The God of all Grace stablish strengthen and settle you in these shaking times and raise your hearts above the fears of the Worlds Threats and above the Ambition of its favours My dearest loves to you all with my servent desire of your Prayers May the Lord of Hosts be with you and the God of Jacob your refuge Farewel my dear Brethren Farewel and be strong in the Lord I am Yours to serve you in the Gospel whether by Doing or Suffering Joseph Alleine From the common Gaole at Juelchester June 31. 1663. LETTER VII First Christian Marks 2. Duties To the Beloved my most endearing and endeared Friends the Flock of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown I Must say of you as David did of Jonathan Very pleasant have you been unto me and your love to me is wonderful And as I have formerly taken great content in that my Lot was cast among you so through grace I rejoyce in my present Lot that I am called to approve my love to you by suffering for you for you I say for you know that I have not sought yours but you and that for doing my duty to your souls I am here in these Bonds which I do cheerfully accept through the grace of God that strengtheneth me Oh! That your Souls might be quickened and enlarged by these my Bonds that your hands might be strengthened and your hearts encouraged in the Lord your God by our sufferings See to it my dearly Beloved that you stand fast in the power of the Holy Doctrine which we have Preached from the Pulpit preached at the Bar preached from the Prison to you It is a Gospel worth the suffering for see that you follow after Holiness without which no man shall see God Oh! the madness of the blind World that they should put from them the only Plank upon which they can scape to Heaven Surely the Enimies of Holiness are their own Enemies Alas for them they know not what they do What would not these foolish Virgins do at last when it is too late for a little of the Oyl of the Wise Oh for one dram of that Grace which they have scorned and despised But let not any of you my dear People be wise too late Look diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God Beware that none of you be cheated through the subtlety of Satan and deceitfulness of your Hearts with counterfeit grace There is never a grace but hath its counterfeit and there is nothing in all the World that is more common or more casie than to mistake common and counterseit Grace for true and saving and remember you are undone for evermore if you should die in such a mistake Not that I would shake the confidence of any sound Believer who upon often and through search into the Scripture and his own heart and putting himself upon Gods tryal hath gotten good evidence that his Graces are of the right kind Build your confidence sure See that you get the knowledge of the certain and infallible marks of Salvation and make sure by great observing your own hearts that these marks be in you and then you cannot be too confident But as you love your souls take heed of a groundless confidence Take heed of being confident before you have tried Dear Brethren I would fain have you all secured against the day of Judgement I would that the states of your souls were all well setled Oh how comfortably might you think of any troubles if you were but sure of your pardons Were your Salvation out of doubt no matter though other things were in hazard I beseech you whatever you neglect look to this I am afraid there are among you that have not made your peace with God yet that are not yet acquainted with that great work of Conversion such I would warn and charge before the living God to speed into Christ and without any more disputes or delayes to put away their iniquities and to come in and deliver up themselves to Jesus Christ that they may be saved It is not your Profession nor performing external duties nor

Oh the thousands and ten thousands that have been undone by one of these Ah how often have you been warned against them least you should split against these dangerous Rocks O Jerusalem Jerusalem said Christ and O Taunton Taunton may I say from him how often who can tell how often would Gods servants have gathered you and you would not many very many of you would not But will you now will you yet come in I cannot forbear once more even out of the Prison to call after poor Sinners and make one tender of mercy more O come to the Waters of Life wash you make you clean read with diligent observation the melting passages Prov. 1. 22. to the end Isa. 1. 16 21. Isa. 55. 6 10. Oh obdurate Sinners if none of these things move you But for you whose very hearts are set against every sin and are deliberately resolved for God and Holiness before all the Worlds delight you that have experience of a thorow change and are brought to have respect to all Gods Commandments who will have none but God for your happiness none but Christ for your Treasure that must and will have him come what will come blessed are you of the Lord O happy Souls rejoyce in the Lord and again I say Rejoyce let your Souls magnifie the Lord and your spirits rejoyce in God your Saviour Live you a life of praise you are highly favoured of the Lord your Lines are fallen in a pleasant place only stick you fast to your choice Beware lest any man beguile you of your reward watch and keep your Garments about you lest you walk naked and men see your shame Many will be plucking to pull you out of Christs hands but the harder they pluck the harder do you cling and cleave to him and the better hold fast do you take of him Blessed is he that overcometh And now the God of Heaven fill you all with himself and make all Grace to abound in you and toward you and that he may be a Sun to comfort you and a Shield of protection to you and shine with his happy Beams of Grace and Glory on you all Farewel in the Lord I am Yours in the Bonds of the Gospel JOSEPH ALLEINE August 28. 1663. LETTER XVI How to live to God To the Beloved People the Inhabitants of the Town of Taunton Grace and Peace Most endeared Christians TO tell you I love and long for you seems somewhat needless I cannot doubt of your confidence that you have a deep share in my tenderest affections for this let my labours among you and the hazards for you speak rather that I 〈◊〉 self Beloved I am without a Complement the devoted servant of your souls prosperity and the interest of Christ in you may the Lord Jesus be set up higher in your hearts may his name ever live in you and be magnified by you and I have what I ask If this work be not promoted among you I shall account all my letters but waste Paper and all my pains but last labour Brethren I beseech you that none of you live to your selves for this were directly to cross the very end of Christ's death for therefore he died that you should not live to your selves 2 Cor. 5. 15. Oh live to him that died for you live to him that is the God of your life live to him that bought your lives with the expense of his own To him that bought you from destruction and not only so but bought your names into the eternal Inheritance reserved in the Heavens for you Will a man be easily perswaded to lose his life how infinitely tender are men here And yet in the worst sence the most of men do lose their lives yea lose them for nothing Beloved consider I beseech you that life is lost that is not lived unto God If you would not loss your lives that you live see to him who is the end of your lives Oh remember this and reckon that day lost which you have not lived unto God! Brethren how great a part of our lives have we really alas too too really lost I beseech you take heed here you are careful about many things but be beware that other things do not put out this which should be the main of your cares to wit the spending your days and strength for him that made you Would it not be dreadful for a man to find at last when he comes to his account with God that his whole life or at least the main of it had been but damnable self-seeking That a man should have so many years allowed him by God and he should at last be found to have been but a false and wicked servant that had set up for himself with his Masters stock and alienated his goods and turned them to his own use Well that you may throughly learn the grand lesson of living unto God take these Counsels First Settle it upon your heart that it is the sum of all your business and blessedness to live unto God 'T is your business for his pleasure you are and were created what have you else to do but to serve your Maker in your general and particular Callings what was the Candle made for saith one but to be burnt beloved what else have you strength for but for God doth he maintain servants and shall not he look for their Work Would you endure it that the servants that you find with meat and wages should set up for themselves that they should eat your bread and all the while do their own work beloved Gods service is your business and he made you and keeps you for no other end and it is your blessedness too Labour to be under the rooted conviction of this principle that your very happiness lies in pleasing and honouring of God Let the sense of this live fresh upon your hearts and it will regulate your whole course Secondly Remember what a dangerous yea damnable thing it is to live your selves To make it our main care and business to please and gratifie our selves or to have applause from and reputation with others or to grow rich in the world and greaten our selves and posterity is the certain evidence of a graceless heart And though the Godly do make God their principle end in general yet they must know that for so much of their lives as is spent besides this end which is too too much they shall suffer loss Thirdly Labour to keep alive upon your selves a deep sense of your strong obligations to Good Often think with your selves what a righteous what a reasonable thing it is that you should with all that you have serve the Lord. Beloved shall not the Vessel be for the use of the Porter that made it Shall not the servant Trade for his Master with whose goods he is entrusted do you not fetch all your bread from Gods door Is not he the Rock that begat you the Author of your being and well-being

stand Look to your sincerity You must every one of you stand shortly before the Judgment Seat of Christ and be tried for your lives Oh try your selves throughly first 'T is easie to mistake Education for Regeneration and common Conviction and Illumination for Conversion and a partial Reformation and external Obedience for true Sanctification Therefore I beseech you every one to examine whether you are in the Faith Prove your own selves Tell not me you hope you are sincere you hope you shall go to Heaven Never put it off with Hopes but pray and try and search till you are able to say yea and know you are passed from Death to Life and that you know you have a Building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Suppose I should ask you one by one Where are your Evidences for Heaven Could you make out your Claim Can you bring me Scripture-proof Can you shew me the Marks of the Lord Jesus What mean you to live at Uncertainties Brethren it is an intollerable Ignorance for any of you in these dayes of glorious Light not to be able to tell the distinguishing Marks of a sound Believer And it is intollerable carelesness of your everlasting Welfare if you do not bring your selves to the Trial by these Marks What are your hands filled with Books and your ears filled with Sermons that tell you so plainly from the word of God how you shall know whether you are in Christ and are you still to seek Oh stir up your own selves Take heed lest a Promise being left of entring into his Rest any of you fall short of it at last by Vnbelief You are a Professing People you pray and you hear and you run upon some Adventures for Jesus Christ But O look to your sincerity Look to your Principles look to your Ends else you may lose all at last Examine not onely what is done but whence 't is done look to the Root as well as to the Fruit. Eye not onely your Actions but your Aims Remember what a strict and severe Eye you are under The Lord Jesus makes strict observation upon all your works and wayes He observes who of you be fruitful and who be barren and unprofitable He knows who of you be thriving and who be declining He observes who be warm and who lukewarm who be sound Christians and who of you have onely a name to live Return O backsliding Christians You have lost your former Convictions and lost your former Affections You are grown remiss in your watch and your Zeal is turned into a kind of indifferencie and your diligence into negligence Your Care is turned into Security and your tenderness into senslessness Oh your case is dangerous The Lord Jesus hath a great Controversie with you Oh remember whence you are fallen and repent and do your first works Strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die Oh rub and chafe your swooning Souls and ply them with warm applications and rousing considerations till they recover their former heat And know ye from the Lord that the backsliders in heart shall be filled with his own wayes O ye barren and fruitless trees Behold the Axe is lifted up to fell you to the ground except you bring forth fruits and those worthy of Repentance May not Christ say to some among you Behold these three years have I come seeking fruit and finding none How is it then that you read not the Sentence passed on the fruitless Tree O sleepy Professors how long will you drive on in this heavy course How long will you continue in an unprofitable and customary Profession Would you be the joy of our Lord why know ye that the thriving Plant is the Masters praise and his hearts delight Christians put on press towards the Mark be adding to your Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledge c. See that you grow extensively in being abundant in all forts of good works Be pitiful be courteous gentle easily to be entreated Be slow to anger soon reconciled Be patient be ye temperate be ye chearful Study not every one onely his own things but the good of his Neighbor Think it not enough to look to your own Souls but watch for others Souls Pray for them warn them be kind to them study to oblige them that by any means you may win them and gain their Souls Labour to grow intensively to do better the things that you did before to be more fervent in Prayer more free and willing in all the ways of the Lord to hear with more profit to examine your selves more thorowly to mind Heaven more frequently than heretofore And you O carnal and unsound Professors that reckon your selves to be in Christ but are not new Creatures that because you have the good opinion of the Godly and are outwardly conformable to the wayes of God perswade your selves you are in a good condition although your hearts have not yet to this day been renewed O Repent speedily Repent and be converted What though we cannot distinguish the Tares from the Wheat Yet the Lord of the Harvest can Christ will find you out and condemn you for rotten and unsound unless you be soundly renewed by repentance and effectually changed by converting Grace Brethren I fervently wish your Salvation and to this while I am able I shall bend my ardent endeavours I am now taking advice for my health and hope in some few Weeks to be restored to you In the mean time I commend me to Your Prayers and you to the Grace of God remaining Yours in the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE Dorchester July 7th 1666. LETTER XXVI The Character and Priviledges of true Believers To the Loving and Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most dearly Beloved I Longed to hear of your Welfare but by reason of the Carryers intermitting his Journeys could not till now obtain my desires neither had I Opportunity till the last Week of writing to you I rejoyce to hear by Mr. Ford of Gods continual goodness towards you he is your Shepherd and therefore it is that you do not want Me you have not alwayes but he is ever with you his Rod and his Staff shall comfort you Nay more then all this you may hence conclude comfortably for all times yea for the whole Eternity to come Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow you all the days of your Lives and you shall dwell in the House of the Lord for ever In this my dear Brethren in this rejoyce and again I say rejoyce that God is ingaged in so near and so sweet relation to you Doubtless your Souls shall Lodge in goodness and be provided for carefully and lie down in everlasting safety that have the Almighty for our Shepherd Blessed are the Flock of his Hands and the Sheep of his Pasture happy is the People that is in such a Case But who are Christs Sheep Not all Professers I beseech you take heed how you rest

be of one Religion c. in twelves 39. The true Catholick and Catholick Church described in twelves c. 40. The successive visibility of the Church of which Protestants are the foundest Members c. in octavo 41. A Sermon of Repentance 42. Of Right Rejoycing 43. A Sermon of Faith before the King 44. A Treatise of Death 45. The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite c. in several Sermons preached at the Abbey in Westminster in twelves 46. Two Sheets for poor Families c. 47. Short Instructions for the Sick a sheet 48. A Saint or a Bruit c. in quarto 49. The mischief of Self-Ignorance and benefit of Self-acquaintance in octavo 50. Universal Concord c. in octavo 51. The last Work of a Believer c. in twelves 52. The Divine Life in three Treatises The first Of the Knowledge of God The second Of Walking with God The third Of Conversing with God in Solitude in quarto 53. The Reasons of the Christian Religion c. 54. Directions for weak distempered Christians to grow up into a confirmed state of Grace c. 2. The Characters of a sound confirmed Christian written to imprint on Man's Mind the true Idea or Conception of Godliness and Christianity in octavo 55. Now or Never in twelves 56. The Life of Faith in three parts in quaerto 57. The Cure of Church-Divisions or Directions for week Christians to keep them from being Dividers and Troublers of the Church in octavo 58. A defence of the Principles of Love which are necessary to the Unity and Concord of Christians and are delivered in a Book called the Cure of Church Divisions in octavo 59. A second Admonition to Mr. Edward Bagshaw written to call him to Repentance for many false Doctrines Crimes and especially fourscore palpable Untruths in matter of Fact deliberately published by him in two small Libels in which he exemplifieth the Love-killing and depraving Principles of Church-Dividers And telleth the World to what Men are hastning when they sinfully avoid Communion with true Churches and Christians for tolerable faults in octavo 60. The Difference between the Power of Magistrates and Church Pastors and the Roman Kingdom and Magistracy under the Name of Church and Church Government usurped by the Pope as liberally given him by Popish Princes in quarto 61. The Church Told of Mr. Edward Bagshaws Scandals and warned of the dangerous snares of Satan now laid for them in his Love-killing Principles in quarto 62. The Duty of Heavenly Meditation in quarto 63. How far Holiness is the Design of Christianity in 4to 64. God's goodness Vindicated with respect to the Doctrine of Reprobation and Damnation in twelves 65. The Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day in octavo 66. More Reasons for the Christian Religion and no Reason against it in twelves There is now extant another Treatise of Mr. Jos. Allens Entituled An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners with many Practical Cases of Conscience in octavo There is now in the Press and will in a few Months be Published A CHRISTIAN DIRECTORY Or sum of Practical Divinity With the Pertinent Cases of Conscience BEING A Promptuary and Help for 1. Young Preachers 2. Masters of Families 3. Private Christians in their daily Practice And some performance of the request of many Foreign Divines long since made to A. Bp. Usher and published by Mr. Dury By Richard Baxter In Folio Books Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings-Arms in the Poultry Folio PRins New History of the Kings of England Stapletons Translation of Juvenal Quarto Mount Pisgah or a Prospect of Heaven Being an Exposition on the Fourth Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians by Tho. Case The Real Christian or a Treatise of Effectual Calling wherein the Work of God in drawing the Soul to Christ being opened according to the Holy Scriptures some things required by our late Divines as necessary for a right preparation for Christ and a true closing with Christ which hath caused and doth still cause great trouble to some serious Christians are with due respects to those Worthy Men brought to the Ballance of the Sanctuary there weighed and accordingly judged by Giles Fermin The Christian Man's Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones Business wherein the Christian is directed how he may perform it in his Religious Duties in Natural Actions in his Particular Vocation in his Family Directions and in his own Recreations By George Swinnock late Preacher at Great Kingbal in the County of Bucks An Exposition of the Song of Solomon by James Durham late Minister at Glasgow with a Preface prefixed by Doctor Owen Mr. Caryls Exposition of the Book of Job The Sinners Sanctuary or a Discovery made of those Glorious Priviledges offered unto the Penitent and Faithful under the Gospel being forty Sermons on the Eighth Chapter of the Romans by Hugh Binning The Quakers Spiritual Court Proclaimed Doctor Robert Wilds Letter to a Friend in London upon the receipt of his Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience together with his Poetica Licentia or a Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist Octavoes and Twelves Heaven on Earth or the best Friend in the worst of Times To which may be added A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of Thomas Mosely an Apothecary with a full account of his Conversion drawn up by his own hand before his death and published by James Janeway Minister of the Gospel A Token for Children Being an Exact Account of the Holy and Exemplary Lives and Joyful Deaths of several Young Children in two Parts by James Janeway Memorials of God's Judgments Spiritual and Temporal being Sermons preached in London during the late Visitation by Nicholas Lockier Lazarus Redivivus or a Discovery of the Tryals and Triumphs that accompany the Work of God in and about his People laid open in several Sermons by N. Blakie Fenners four Sermons against Popery Bishop Ushers Life and Death A Plat for 〈◊〉 or the Seamans Preacher delivered in several Sermons on Jonah's Voyage to Niniveh by John Rither Preacher of God's Word at Wapping THE Life Death Of that Excellent Minister of Christ Mr. JOSEPH ALLEIN Late Teacher of the Church at Taunton in Somerset-shire Assistant to worthy Mr. Newton CHAP. I. The Introduction AS History is both Useful and Delightful to Man-kind so Church-History above all hath the preheminence in both for it Treateth of the greatest and most necessary Subjects It is most eminently Divine as Recording those Works of God in which he most Graciously condescendeth unto Man and those Actions of Men in which they have most nearly to do with God and Treating of those Holy Societies Events and Businesses in which God's Holiness is most conspicuous and his Honour most concerned in the World The Narratives of the great Victories and large Dominions of Alexander Caesar Tamberlain or such others are but the Portraiture of Phantasms and the Relation of the Dreams of Vagrant

with him for I feared none would do any thing about him with such ease neither would he suffer any one all the day to touch him but me or to give him any thing that he did receive by which I discerned it was most grateful to him and therefore so to me And I never found any want of my Rest nor did get so much as a Cold all that Winter though I do not remember that for 14 or 15 years before I could ever say I was one month free of a most violent Cough which if I had been molested with then would have been a great addition to his and my affliction and he was not a little taken with the goodness of God to me in the time of all his sickness but especially that Winter for he being not able to help himself in the least I could not be from him night nor day with any comfort to him or my self In this condition he kept his Bed till December the 18th And then beyond all expectation though in the depth of Winter began to revive and go out of his Bed but he could neither stand nor go nor yet move a finger having sense in all his Limbs but not the least motion As his strength did increase he learnt to go as he would say first by being led by two of us then by one and when he could go one turn in his Chamber though more weakly and with more fear than the weakest Child that ever I saw he was wonderfully taken with the Lord's Mercy to him By February he was able with a little help to walk in the Streets but not to feed himself nor to go up or down stairs without much help When he was deprived of the use of his Limbs looking down on his Arms as I held him up by all the strength I had He again listed up his Eyes from his useless Arms to Heaven and with a chearful countenance said The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken and blessed be the Name of the Lord. Being asked by a Friend How he could be so well contented to lie so long under such weakness He answered What is God my Father Jesus Christ my Saviour and the Spirit my sweet Friend my Comforter and Sanctifyer and Heaven my Inheritance Shall I not be content without Limbs and Health Through Grace I am fully satisfied with my Fathers pleasure To another that asked him the same he Answers I have chosen God and he is become mine and I know with whom I have trusted my self which is enough He is an unreasonable wretch that cannot be content with a God though he had nothing else My interest in God is all my joy His Friends some of Taunton coming to Dorcester to see him he was much revived and would be set up in his Bed and have all the Curtains drawn and desired them to stand round about the Bed and would have me take out his Hand and hold it out to them that they might shake him though he could not them as he used formerly to do when he had been absent from them And as he was able thus he spake to them O how it rejoyces my heart to see your Faces and to hear your Voices though I cannot speak as heretofore to you Methinks I am now like Old Jacob with all his Sons about him Now you see my weak estate thus have I been for many weeks since I parted with Taunton but God hath been with me and I hope with you your Prayers have been heard and answered for me many wayes the Lord return them into your own Bosoms My Friends Life is mine Death is mine in that Covenant I was preaching of to you is all my Salvation and all my desire although my Body do not prosper I hope through Grace my Soul doth I have lived a sweet Life by the Promises and I hope through Grace can Die by a Promise It is the Promises of God which are everlasting that will stand by us Nothing but God in them will stead us in a day of Affliction My dear Friends I feel the power of those Doctrines I Preached to you on my Heart Now the Doctrines of Faith of Repentance of Self-denyal of the Covenant of Grace of Contentment and the rest O that you would live them over now I cannot Preach to you It is a shame for a Believer to be cast down under Afflictions that hath so many glorious Priviledges Justification Adoption Sanctification and eternal Glory We shall be as the Angels of God in a little while Nay to say the truth Believers are as it were little Angels already that live in the power of Faith O my Friends Live like Believers trample this dirty World under your feet Be not taken with its Comforts nor disquieted with its Crosses You will be gone out of it shortly When they came to take their leaves of him he would Pray with them as his weak state would suffer him and in the words of Moses and of the Apostles Blessed them The same he alwayes used after a Sacrament The Lord bless you and keep you the Lord cause his Face to shine upon you and give you peace And the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen And then spake thus Farewell farewell my dear Friends Remember me to all Taunton I beseech you and them if I never see your faces more go Home and live over what I have preached to you and the Lord provide for you when I am gone O! let not all my labours and sufferings let not my wasted strength my useless Limbs rise up in judgment against you at the great Day of the LORD Another time some coming to Visit him there he spake thus to them O! my Friends let your whole Conversation be as becomes the Gospel of Christ whether I am present or absent live to what I have spoken to you in the Name of the Lord Now I cannot Preach to you let my wasted strength my useless Limbs be a Sermon to you Behold me I cannot move a finger all this is come upon me for your sakes and the Gospel It is for Christ and you that I have thus spent out my self I am afraid of you lest some of you after all that I have spoken to you should be lost in the World There are many Professors who can pray well and talk well whom we shall find at the left Hand of Christ another day You have your Trades your Estates your Relations be not taken with these but with God O live on him For the Lord's sake go Home and take heed of the World worldly Cares worldly Comforts worldly Friends c. Saying thus The Lord having given Authority to his Ministers to bless his People

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

are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Verily Sir it is but a very little while that Prisons shall hold us or that we shall dwell in dirty flesh 〈◊〉 tells us of 〈◊〉 that he was ashamed to see himself in the Body to see a divine and immortal Soul in a 〈◊〉 of Flesh for so they held the body to be but the worst shackles are those of sin Well they must shortly off all together our Lord doth not long intend us for this lower Region Surely he is gone to prepare a place for us Doubtless it is so yea and he will come again and receive us to himself that where he is we may be also And what have we to do but to believe and wait and love and long and look out for his coming in which is all our hope 'T will be time enough for us to be preferred then We know before hand who shall then be uppermost Our Lord hath shewed us where our place shall be even at his own right hand and what he will say to us Come ye blessed c. Surely we shall stand in his Judgment He hath promised to stand our Friend Let us look for the joyful day As sure as there is a God this day will come and then it shall go well with us What if Bonds and Banishments abide us for a season This is nothing but what our Lord hath told us The world shall rejoyce but ye shall weep and lament You shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy Oh how reviving are his words I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you If that miserable wretch leapt chearfully off the Ladder saying I shall be a Queen in Hell With what joy should we do and suffer for God who have his Truth in pawn that we shall be Crown'd in Heaven Verily they are wonderful Preparations that are making for us The Lord prepare us apace and make us meet to be Partakers It was the highest Commendation that ever that Worthy R. Baxter received which fell from the Pen of his scoffing Adversary Tilenus who saith of him Totum Puritanismum totus spirat Oh that this may be true of us and ours Let your true yoke-fellow and my Christian Friends with you in the Bonds of the Gospel have my hearty Commendations And these Counsels I pray you give them from me for the improving of their present state 1. To habituate themselves both as to their thoughts and discourses more throughly than ever unto Holiness Brethren I would teach you the Lesson that I resolve to learn with you That your minds and tongues may as naturally run on the things of Heaven as others on the things of this world Why should it not be thus I am sure God and Heaven do as well deserve to be thought on and talked of by us as froth and vanity can deserve of the world There are many that have in a great measure learnt this lesson and why should not we be some of them What if it be hard at first Every thing is so to a beginner Besides is not ours a Religion of self-denial Further if we do but force our selves a while to holy Thoughts and Heavenly Discourse it will grow habitual to us and then it will be most natural familiar and heavenly sweet Oh what gainers will you be if you do but learn this Lesson Verily it 's the shame of Religion that Christians are so unlike themselves unless upon their knees Sirs our lives and language should tell the world what we are and whither we are going Christians let little things content you in the world but aspire after great things in the grace of God Many real Christians do little think what high frames of Holiness they might grow up to even in this life with pains and diligence Sirs be you men of great designs Think it not enough if you have wherewith to bear your charges to Heaven but aspire with an holy ambition to be great in the Court of Heaven Favourites of the most High of 〈◊〉 growth great experience singular communion that you may burn and shine in your places and convince the world that you may savour of Heaven where ever you come and that there may be an even-spun thred of Holiness running through your whole course 'T is the disgrace of Profession that there is so little difference to be seen in the ordinary coversation of Believers from other men Is it not a shame that when we are in company with others this should be all the difference that is to be seen onely that we will not curse and swear as do the worst of men Christians if you will honour the Gospel bring forth your Religion out of your Closets the world can't see what you do there into your Shops Trades Visits c. and exemplifie the rules of Religion in the management of all your Relations and in your ordinary converse Let there be no Place or Company that you come into in which you do not drop something of God This will be the glory of Religion and we shall never convince the World till we come to this May you come my Brethren out of your Prisons with your faces shining having your minds seasoned and your tongues 〈◊〉 with Holiness May your mouths be as a Well of Life from whence may flow the Holy Streams of Edifying Discourse May you ever remember as you are sitting in your Houses going by the Way lying down rising up what the Lord doth then require of you Deut 6. 7. 2. To improve their present retirements from the World for the settling of their spiritual estates 'T is a common complaint amongst Christians That they want Assurance Oh if any of you that wanted Assurance when you came to Prison may carry that blessing out what happy gainers would you be Now you are called more than ever to self-searching Now bring your Graces to the Touchstone Be much in Self Observation See what your hearts do with most love and delight go out unto what are your greatest hopes and your chief designs See whether God's Intrest be uppermost in you prove this and prove all Rest not in probable hopes Think not that is enough that you can say you hope 't is well God lookes for extraordinary things from you under such great helps such extraordinary Dispensations Be restless till you can say that You know 't is well that you know you are passed from Death to Life Think not that this is a priviledge that only a few may expect Observe but these three things 1. To acquaint your selves throughly with the conditions of Life and take heed of laying the marks of Solvation cither too high or too low 2. To be much in observing the frame and bent and workings of your own hearts 3. To universally conscientious and to be constant in even and close walkings and then I