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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

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〈◊〉 of teeth They that do nothing else but laugh in this world shall do nothing else but weep in that to come And all their carnal joy will prove crackling of thorns under a pot soon in and soon out and flashes of Lightning before Eternal fire Use 3. And therefore in the third place since there are times to grieve and to express our grief in tears let this be a Caveat to us not to look for too much joy in this world Let us not cast too much upon it lest we be disappointed and deceived It 's that we are very apt to cozen and delude our selves about when we are on a merry pin and flourish in a prosperous estate it is our manner to conclude that we shall never have a storm again and that this happy time will never end And so we run upon a double inconvenience we grow remiss in making preparations for a time of sorrow and when it comes upon us unexpected it cuts the deeper and disquiets us the more How often shall you hear it from the mouths of some when any heavy Cross befals them alas they never dream'd of this they never look'd to see this doleful day The weaker and unwiser they Did they not know what they are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward so that they have a natural tendency to it That they are wandring in a vale of tears in which they must look out for many storms It was a pretty Speech of Seneca Dolor voluptas inhicem cedunt brevior voluptas Joy and sorrow have still their turns and entercourses here but Joy most commonly hath the speediest dispatch And therefore in the midst of Joy let us be wisely casting upon times of sorrow and making preparation and provision for them And that you may not saint either in the sence and feeling or in the apprehension and expectation of them I shall drop down a few Cordials 1. The times of tears and sorrow are better for us then the times of mirth and laughter And hence saith Solomon in the fore-alledged Scriptures Eceles 7. 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting Is it not a more pleasing good but is it a more profitable good though it be not more delightful yet it is more beneficial to be where there are tears and lamentations then to be where there is nothing else but laughter And that upon these two Accounts 1. Times of grief and tears prepare for grace They fit us for the work of holiness upon our souls They settle us and fix us and make us capable of good impressions When there is nothing else but mirth we have light and 〈◊〉 spirits our fancies rove our thoughts and our imaginations wander But when the Lord presenteth nothing else before our eyes but tears and lamentations this calleth home our thoughts It renders us unto our selves and makes us fit for holy motions We see it by experience that the very men who when they are upon a merry pin are sensless and incapable of any good they have such vain and foolish hearts when they are brought into a melting frame then they are mild and time as Lambs then they are pliable and flexible and tractable so that a little child may lead them If you visit them if you counsel and advise them for their good then you shall have their ears and hearts too 2. And as the times of grief and tears prepare for grace so they increase and further grace Grace will spring and grow the more for such showers as these are It prospers better in a 〈◊〉 and watred then in a dry and barren soyl And if you search the sacred Story you will find the greatest weepers to have been the greatest Saints As David Peter yea our Saviour Christ himself Indeed this precious Seed delights to have such dews as these the Seed of Prayer of Repentance yea that Immortal Seed the Word of God doth best when it is sown in tears When we repent in tears our hearts relent and melt most When we preach and pray in tears we move our selves and others most Si vts me flere dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi This Seed when it is watred thus springs up the faster and bringeth forth the more plentiful increase 2. These times of grief and tears will end at last and end in joy You shall weep saith Christ to his Apostles but your sorrow shall be turned into joy They that sow in tears shall reap in joy and he that goes forth weeping bearing precious Seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him There is no doubt no question to be made of that and therefore it is bound with an Asseveration which takes away all scruple from it he shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him It is the custome every where to have good chear and to be merry when they reap So it was among the Jews as you may see Deut. 16. 13 14. And therefore this is used in Scripture to express the greatest joy Isa. 9. 3. They shall rejoyce before thee according to the joy of harvest So though the Christian sows in rainy weather in a weeping time all shall be sweet and calm and fair when the reaping time comes He shall fit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven feeding on the hidden Manna and drinking of the pure and Crystal River of Water of Life proceeding from the Throne of God and of the Lamb and there they shall be merry all together When once he comes to God's immediate presence he shall have joy full joy yea the fulness of joy Psal. 16. last In his presence is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore 3. The joy that is to come will pay for all It will be such so plentiful and overflowing that it will make a full amends for all your present tears and sorrow It will quite overcome the sense and the remembrance of them Alas our trouble here is nothing in comparison it is a light and easie Burthen Our affliction is but short it continues but a moment but the time is drawing nigh when this little light sorrow shall be wholly swallowed up in endless and unutterable joy This short affliction which lasteth but a moment shall end in everlasting and unmixed pleasures 2 Cor. 4. 17. It worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Oh what transporting comfort is there many times in reaping the first fruits of the Spirit that we are ready to cry out if the first fruits be so sweet what will the Harvest be If the earnest be so great what will the Possession be When we shall be filled and satisfied with the delights that heaven yields to all eternity I could say as Peter once It is good to be here let us build Tabernacles here But I must hasten to another Observation Doct. 2. That we are
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
you and my Testimony I finished with you though I thought I had espoused you till death and when I was entred into that Sacred Office which through rich Grace I was imployed in I told you in the close of what I spake before the laying of the holy Hands upon me most gladly do I take up this Office with all the persecution affliction difficulties an tribulation and inconveniencies that do and may attend it and blessed be God I am through his goodness of the same mind still and my tribulations for Christ do to him be Glory for to me belongs nothing but shame and confusion of face confirm my choice and my resolution to serve him with much more than my labours Verily Brethren it is a good choice that I have commended to you Oh! that there might not one be found among you that hath not made Maries choice I mean of that good part which shall never be taken away from you Brethren let them take up with the world that have no better portion be content that they should carry the Bell and bear away the riches and perferments and glory and splendor of the World Alas you have no reason to envy them verlly they have a lye in their right hand Ah! how soon will their hopes fail them how soon will the crackling blast be out and leave them in eternal darkness they shall go to the generation of their Fathers they shall never see light like sheep they shall be laid in their Graves and the upright shall have Dominion over them in the morning But for my Brethren I am jealous that none of you should come short of the Glory of God I am ambitious for you that you should be all the heirs of an endless life the living hopes of the Saints the inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fades not away Ah my Brethren why should not you be all happy I am jealous for you with a Godly jealousie left a promise being left you of entring into his rest any of you should come short of it O look diligently left any man fail of the Grace of God Alas how it pities me to see this Rest neglected How it grieves me that any of you should fall short of mercy at last That any of that flock over which the holy Ghost hath made me in part overseer should perish when Christ hath done so much for you and when his under Officers through his Grace for we are not sufficient of our selves have done somewhat to recover and save them Ah dear Brethren I was in great earnest with you when I besought you out of the 〈◊〉 many a time to give a Bill of Divorce to your sins and to accept of the match and the mercy that in the name of God Almighty I did there offer to you Alas how it pitied me to look over so great a Congregation and to think that I could not for my life I could not perswade them one quarter of them in likelihood to be saved how it moved me to see your diligence in flocking not only to the stated Exercises but to the Repetitions and to most hazardous opportunities for which you are greatly to be commended since the Law forbad my publike Preaching and yet to think that many of you that went so far were like to perish for ever for want of going further I must praise your diligent attendance on all opportunities Blessed be God that made a willing ministry and a willing people for I remember how I have gone furnished with a Train How I went with the multitude to the House of God with the voice of joy and praises with the multitude that kept Holy-days The remembrance of which moves my soul but O my flock my most dear flock how fain would I carry you farther then the external and outward profession O! how loath am I to leave you there How troubled to think that any of you should go far and hazard much for Religion and yet miscarry for ever by the hand of some unmortified lust as secret pride or untamed passion or an unbridled tongue or which I fear most of all a predominate love of the World in your hearts Alas must it be so and is there no remedy but I must carry you to Heavens-gate and leave you there Oh that I should leave the work of your Souls but half done and bring you no 〈◊〉 than the almost of Christianity Hear O my people hear although I may command you upon your utmost peril in the Name of the Lord Jesus that shall shortly judge you I beseech you I warn you as a Father doth his Children to look to the setling and securing of your everlasting condition and for life take heed of your resting in the outter-part of Religion but to be restless till you find the through-change of Regeneration within that you are quite new in the frame bent of your hearts for here is the main of Religion in the hidden man of the heart For Christs-sake for your Soul-sake look to it that you build upon the Rock that you be sure in the Foundation-work that you do 〈◊〉 deliver over your selves to the Lord to be under his command and at his dispose in all things see that you make no exceptions no reserve that you cast over-board all your worldly hopes and count upon parting with all for Christ that you take him alone for your whole happiness Wonder not that I so often inculcate this If it be well here it is well all if unfound here the ertor is in the Foundation and you are undone Brethren I see great tryals coming when we shall see Professors fall like leaves in the Autumn unless they be well setled therefore is it that I would so fain have you look to your standing and to secure the main And for you whose Souls are soundly wrought upon O make sure whatever you do get and keep your evidences clear How dreadful would your temptations be if you should be called to part with all for Christ and not be sure of him neither get a right and clear understanding of the terms of life which I have set before you in that form of 〈◊〉 with God in Christ that I commended to you I would that none of you should be without a Copy of it be much in observing your own hearts both in duties and out-crying mightily to God for assurance If you cannot discern your estate your selves go to some body that is able and faithful and fully open your Case your Evidences and doubts and be extraordinary strict and watchful in your whole course and I doubt not but you will quickly grow up to assurance I cannot tell how to make an end methinks I could write all the day to you but my straights of time are great and my Letter already too long yet I cannot conclude till I have given you my unfeigned thanks for your most kind and gracious Letter Surely it shall be in store with me
Crack Let the Heavenly cheerfulness and the restless diligence and the holy raisedness of your Conversations prove the reallity excellency and beauty of your Religion to the World Forget not your Prisener Labour earnestly for me in your Prayers who am night and day labouring and suffering for you I can never bless God enough for his most tender and indulgent care for you which appears so wonderfully in his Fatherly Protection and his Fatherly Provision See that you receive not the Grace of God in vain Remember with trembling that of our Lord To whom much is given of him much shall be required With my most Dear Loves to you all I commend you to your Father and my Father your God and my God remaining Yours in all manner of Obligations JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester January 20th 1663. LETTER XX. The Felicity of Believers To the most Beloved People the Servants of God in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians I Have longed and waited for a little breathing time wherein I might write unto you but I have been oppressed hitherto with so many cares and such a throng of business that till now and scarcely now I have had no time of respiration wherein I might sufficiently reflect on you or my self But although so great a part of Taunton be translated to Juelchester with me yet I may not I cannot forget you that are behind Alas poor Taunton how should I bewail thee did I look upon thee onely with the Eye of sense Alas for thy wonted Liberties for thy former plenty and variety wherewith the Lord hath blessed thee He had spread a Table for thee in the midst of thine Enemies Bread hath been given thee and thy Waters have been sure But now a Famine seems to threaten thee and the Comforters that should relieve thy Soul are far from thee Thy Shepheards are removed Thou seest not thy Signs nor thy Prophets and thy wonted helpers are now disabled from giving thee supplies Alas how do thine Enemies triumph and thy Teachers and thine Inhabitants are become their Captives and how great is the Cry of thy Poor and thine oppressed Such would be the Language of Sense if that were suffered to be the Speaker But Faith will speak in another Dialect And therefore amongst my other Counsels that I shall send you this shall be the first Judge not of the present Providences by the conduct of Sense but by the eye of Faith Faith will see that we are then most Honoured when we are most vilified and reproached and set at nought for the sake of Christ and that we are then most happy when the World hath done its worst to make us miserable Faith will tell you that GOD is a very present help when you seem quite to fail of Help and will shew you the Well of Water that is near when the Water in the Bottle is spent What though you seem to have lost Ministers Husbands Friends for a Season Faith will tell you that they are well bestowed and that it will be both your and their Advantage in the Day of Retribution Brethren what are you for Are you for the present World or for that to come Are you for your Temporal enjoyments or do you seek for Glory Honour and Immortallty If you are for this World you have made a very imprudent choice in taking up the Profession of Godliness and cleaving to and owning the hated ways of the Lord But if you are for Glory and for Eternity then be of good Chear all these things do make for us You are Witnesses how often I have told you of these things and I can say with the Apostle I believed therefore have I spoken and therefore I am nothing moved with all these things nor with the things that do yet further abide me I believed and therefore I told you that you should never be losers by Jesus Christ. Nay do I say I told it you You know the Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed you that the Persecuted are doubly blessed that such should rejoice and leap for joy because great is their Reward in Heaven Hath not God said that if we suffer with him we shall also Reign with him and that these light afflictions work for us a weight of Glory And if this be true I pray you tell me whether GOD heth not dealt well with us in counting us worthy of this little Tribulation for his Name Indeed the Sufferings is but little but verily the Reward will not be little I know whom I have trusted I am well assured the Glasse is turned up and ever hour reckoned of our imprisonment and every Scorn and Reproach of our Enemies is kept in Black and White I believe therefore do I speak GOD is infinitely tender of us my Brethren though a Poor and despicable Generation I value not the pop-gun threats of a frowning World 't is well with us we are GODS Favourites Come by Beloved let us sit down under his Shadow Here is safety and rest if God be for us who can be against us Verily he Bottles all our Tears and tells all our Wandrings He numbers all our hairs whosoever toucheth us shall not be Innocent Know you not that we are the Apple of his Eye Hath not he reproved the greatest for his Peoples sakes saying reproach not mine anointed And so we forget how he loved us Are not we his Jewells Doth he not own us for his Members for his Children Ah what a Block doth Unbelief make of man What do you think that all this doth signifie nothing Can you forget your Children Will you suffer your Jewells to lie in the Dirt or make no reckoning of them whether they are lost Verily I write not this without shaming reflectious upon my own stupidity What Beloved of God adopted by God! What a Member of Christ Jesus A vessel of Mercy An heir of Glory What and not yet swallowed up in the sense of Gods infinite love Blush Oh my Soul and be confounded before the most High cover thy face with shame I remember what the Heathen Seneca writes observing the expressions of Gods love to man in his common Providence Verum est usque in delicias amamur that is it is a very truth we are beloved of God even as his darlings My Brethren Have Faith in God Believe his Promises Walk in the sense of his love Comfort your selves in Gods love towards You under all the hatred and envy of men and the contradiction of sinners that You meet with Be strong and of a good courage God is for You. Be assured that he that walketh uprightly walketh surely Forsake not the assembling of your selves together Now see that You speak often to one another and build up each other in the holy Faith God knows I cannot do for you as I would I would have been larger to You but I cannot My most dear Loves I desire You to share among you I am greatly Yours The Peace that