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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

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

not what thanks to render to you nor to God for You for all the unexpressable love which I have found in you toward me and not terminatively to me but to Christ in me for I believe it is for his sake as I am a Messenger and Embassador of his to You that you have loved me and done so much every way for me and I think I may say of Taunton as the Psalmist of Jerusalem If I forget thee let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth I would not my dear Brethren that You should be dejected or discouraged at the Late disappointments For through the goodness of God I am not but rather more satisfied than before and this I can truly say nothing doth sadden me more than to see so much sadness in your faces As on the contrary nothing doth comfort me so much as to see your Chear and Courage Therefore I beseech you Brethren faint not because of my Tribulation nor of Gods delays but strengthen the hands and the feeble knees And the Lord bolster up your hands as they did the hands of Moses that they may not fall down till Israel do prevail Let us fear lest there be some evil among us that God being angry with us doth send this farther tryal upon us Pray earnestly for me lest the eye of the most jealous God should discern that in me which should render me unfit for the mercy You desire And let every one of you search his heart and search his house to see if there be not 〈◊〉 there Let not these disappointments make you to be nevertheless in love with Prayers but the more out of love with sin Let us humble our selves under the mighty hand of God and he shall exalt us in due time And for the Enemies of God you must know also that their foot shall slide in due time Let the Servants of God encourage themselves in their God for in the things wherein they deal proudly he is above them Therefore fret not your selves because of evil-doers commit your Cause to him that judgeth righteously Remember that you are bid if you see oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgment and Justice in a Province not to marvel at the matter Verily there is a God that Judgeth in the Earth And you have the liberty of Appeals Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him and fret not your selves because of the men that bring wicked devises to pass take heed that none of you do with Peter begin to sink now you see the waters rough and the winds boysterous these things must not weaken your Faith nor cool your Zeal for they are great Arguments for the strengthning of it What clearer evidence can there be for the future Judgment and Perdition of the ungodly and Coronation of the Just in another life than the most unjust proceedings that are here upon Earth Shall not the Judge of all the Earth see right to be done We see here nothing but confusion and disorder the wicked receiveth according to the work of the Righteous and the Innocent according to the work of the Wicked The Godly perish and the Wicked flourish these do prosper and they do suffer What! Can it be ever thus No doubtless there must be a day when God will Judg the World in Righteousness and rectifie the present disorders and reverse the unrighteous Sentences that have been passed against his Servants And this evidence is so clear that many of the Heathen Philosophers have from this very Argument I mean the unrighteous usage of the Good concluded that there must certainly be Rewards and Punishments adjudged by God in mother World Nor yet lose your Zeal Now is the time that the love of many doth wax cold but I bless God it is not so with you I am sure your love to me is as true Friends should be like the Chimneys warmest in the Winter of Adversity and I hope your love to God is much more and I would that You should abound yet more and more Where else should you bestow your Loves Love ye the Lord ye his Saints and cling about him the faster now ye see the World is striving to separate you from him How many are they that go to knock off your fingers O methinks I see what tugging there is The World is plucking and the Devil is plucking Oh hold fast I beseech you hold fast that no man take your Crown Let the Water that is sprinkled yea rather poured upon your Love make it to flame up the more Are you not betrothed unto Christ Oh Remember Remember your Marriage-Covenant Did you not take him for Richer for Poorer for better for worse Now prove your love to Christ to have been a true Conjugal love in that you can love him when most slighted despised undervalued blasphemed among men Now acquit your selves not to have followed Christ for the Loaves Now confute the Accuser of the Brethren who may be ready to suggest of the best of You as he did of Job Doth he serve the Lord for nought And let it be seen that You loved Christ and Holiness purely for their own sakes that You can love a naked Christ when there is no hopes of worldly advantage or promoting of self-interest in following him Yet beware that none of you do stick to the wayes of Christ and Religion upon so carnal an Account as this because this is the Way that you have already taken up and you count it a shame to recede from your Principles I am very jealous lest some Professors should miss of their Reward for this Least they should be accounted Turn-coats and Hypocrites therefore they will shew a 〈◊〉 of spirit in going on since they have once begun and cannot with honour retreat Would you chose holiness and strictness if it were to do again Would you enter yourselves among Gods poor people if it were now first to do Would you have taken up the Profession of Christ though you had foreseen all this that is come and coming This will do much to evidence your sincerity But I forget that I am writing a Letter being prone to pass all bounds when I have thus to do with you The Lord God remember and reward you and your Labours of Love The Eternal God be your Refuge and put under you his everlasting Arms. The Peace of God that passeth all understanding Keep your Hearts Christs Legacy of Peace I leave with you and Rest with my dear affections to You all Your Embassador in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE LETTER XXIV Councel for Salvation To the most Beloved the Servants of Christ in Taunton Salvation Most endeared Christians MY continual Solicitude for your State will not suffer me to pass in quiet one week without Writing to you unless I am extraordinarily hindred Your Sincerity Stedfastness and Proficiency in the Grace of God is the matter of my

every prophane 〈◊〉 every prayerless Soul and every prayerless family and convince them of their miserable condition while without thee in the world Set thy Image upon their Souls set up thy Worship in their Families Let not pride ignorance or slothfulness keep them in neglect of the means of Knowledge Let thine eyes be over the place of my desires for good from one end of the year to the other end thereof Let every House therein be a Seminary of Religion and let those that cast their eyes upon these lines find thee sliding in by the secret influence of thy Grace into their hearts and irresistably engaging them to do thy pleasure Amen Amen LETTER XXXII He that endureth to the end shall be saved To the Loving and Well-Beloved the Servants of Christ in Huntington Grace and Peace Most dear Christians I Do thankfully acknowledge both to God and You that I am many ways obliged to love and serve you and surely when the Lord shall turn our Captivity I will through his Grace endeavour to shew my self thankful wherein I may unto You. I am the more sensible of your great love because I cannot be insensible how little I have deserved such a Mercy and how little I have been able to do to oblige You. Able I say for I am sure I have been willing to be much more serviceable to you But now Letters and Prayers are all that I have for you of these I shall be ready to be prodigal Your love to me hath been very bountiful I may not forget the liberal Supplies that you have sent many of you even out of your poverty to me and not to me only but to the whole Family of my Brethren and Fellow-Prisoners who do all bless you and send by these with me their thankful respects unto you I servently pray and do not doubt to speed that you may reap in Grace and Glory what you have sown to us in bounty Verily there is a reward for the Righteous Ah how sure is it And how great and how near is it Come on my dear Brethren and Fellow-Travellers Stir up your selves and set to your race See that you loiter not but speed apace in your holy Course What tire by the way or think of looking back when Heaven is the prize God forbid To him that soweth righteousness there shall be a sure reward What though it should seem slow As long as it is so sure and so great never be discouraged In the end you shall reap if you faint not Wait but a while and you shall have a blessed Harvest The Lord speaks to the Christian as he to his Creditor in another Case Have patience with me and I will pay thee all Oh now for Faith and Patience How safely how sweetly would these carry us to our Home and Harbour through all difficulties Brethren beloved be ye followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises It is want of Patience that undoes the world Patience I mean not so much in the bearing the inflicted evil as in waiting for the deferred good If the Reward of Religion would be presently in hand who would not be Religious Who but the deceitful world count it doubtful and distant and they are all for something in hand and so take up with a present felicity The Lord deals all upon trust and upon that account is but little dealt with You must have Patience and be content to plow and sow and wait for the return of all at the Harvest when this life is ended They that like not Religion upon these terms may see where they can mend their Markets But you my Brethren be stedfast unmoveable abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Wait a little there is but a short life between you and the blessed inheritance of the endless Glory Ah wretched unbelievers How worthy are you to be shut for ever out of the Kingdom that did so undervalue all the Glory that God had promised as not to count it sufficient to pay them for a little waiting Beloved lift up your Eyes and behold your Inheritance the good Land that is beyond the Jordan and that goodly Mountain The Promises are a Map of Heaven Do but view it believingly and considerately as it is darkly drawn there and tell me what think you of that worthy portion that goodly Heritage Will not all this make you 〈◊〉 for your stay Why then act like Believers Never bethink the pains nor expences of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall come off a loser What though You are much upon the spending 〈◊〉 I might tell you God but I would have you that God hath laid out upon You but who can tell what he hath laid up for them that fear him And will you miss of all for want of Patience God forbid 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 What shall the Husbandman have more patience for the Fruits of the Earth than you for the pretious fruits of your Faith The Husbandman hath no such certainty is 〈◊〉 he hath but a probability of an harvest and yet he hath 〈◊〉 he is content to venture He is at great pains and much cost he is still laying out and hath nothing coming in and yet he is content to wait for his reimbursement till the Corn be grown But your harvest is must sure as sure as the irrevocable Decree the infallible Promise the immutable Oath of a God a God that cannot lie that knows no place for Repentance can make it Again the Husbandman hath no such increase to look for as you Oh if he were but sure that every Corn would bear a Crown with what exultation and joy rather than patience would he go through all his cost and labour Why Brethren such is a Believers increase Every Grain shall produce a Crown and every Tear shall bring forth a Pearl and every minute in pains or Prayers an age of Joy and Glory Besides the Husbandman hath long patience and will not you have a little patience It is not long patience that God doth expect of you for behold the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Will the Garrison yield when relief is at hand Or the Merchant sit down and give up his hopes when within sight of the Harbour Or will the Husbandman 〈◊〉 and give up all for lost when he sees the fields even white for the Harvest Or shall he do more for a crop of Corn than you will do for a crop of Glory Far be it Behold the Judge is even at Door The Lord is at hand He cometh quickly and his reward is with him He comes with the Crown in his hand to 〈◊〉 upon the head of patience Therefore cast not

away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward The Prisoners of the Lord your Brethren in the Patience of Jesus can tell you it is good suffering for such a Master We must tell you as they said to our Lord in another case He is worthy for whom you should do this God is beyond measure gracious to us here He shines bright into our prison blessed be his Name He waters us from heaven and earth As we trust you forgot not the poor Prisoners when you pray so we would that many thanksgivings should abound in our behalf And Prayer being the onely Key that can open our Prisons we trust that you will not slack nor let your hands be heavy but pray and not faint and doubtless Prayer will do it But I am apt to pass the bounds of a Letter yet I promise my self now 〈◊〉 pardon for lo 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 Farewell dear Brethren Fare you well in the Lord I am An unworthy Embassador of Jesus in Bonds JOS. ALLEINE From the Prison at Juelchester Octob. 〈◊〉 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 desray all our Charges and 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 〈◊〉 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 comfortable in spight of Earth and 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 of 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 gainfullest 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 slack not your pace but give dilligence 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 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 precious fruits of the Earth and hath long patience till he receive the early and later Rain Be ye allo 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 〈◊〉 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 Judg 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 for the Prisoners Farewel dear Brethren farewell in the Lord I am Yours in the Bonds of the Lord Jesus JOS. ALLEINE Octob. 11. 1665. LETTER XXXIV To a Back-stiding 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

love signifies little unless it serve thine Eternal good I rest thine own JOSEPH ALLEINE LETTER XXXVI To his Wife Desires after Heaven My Dear Heart MY heart is now a little at rest to write to thee I have been these three days much disturbed and set out of frame Strong solicitations I have had from several hands to accept very honourable preferment in several kinds some friends making a Journey on purpose to propound it but I have not found the invitations though I confess very honourble and such as are or will be suddenly embraced by men of far greater worth and eminency to suit with the inclinations of my own heart as I was confident they would not with thine I have sent away my friends satisfied with the reasons of my refusal and am now ready with joy to say with David Soul return unto thy rest But alas that such things should disturb me I would live above this lower region that no passages or providence whatsoever might put me out of frame nor disquiet my soul and unsettle me from my desired rest I would have my heart fixed upon God so as no occurrences might disturb my tranquility but I might be still in the same quiet and even frame Well though I am apt to be unsettled and quickly set off the hinges yet methinks I am like a Bird out of the nest I am never quiet till I am in my old way of Communion with God like the needle in the Compass that is restless till it be turned towards the the Pole I can say through grace with the Church with my soul have I desired thee in the night and with my Spirit within me have I sought thee early my heart is early and late with God and 't is the business and delight of my life to seek him But alas how long shall I be a seeking how long shall I spend my days in wishing and desiring when my glorified Brethren spend theirs in rejoycing and enjoying look as the poor imprisoned captive fighs under the burdensome clog of his Irons and can onely pear through the Grace and think of and long for the sweetness of that liberty which he sees others enjoy such methinks is my condition I can only look through the Grate of this Prison my flesh I see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob sitting down in the Kingdom of God but alass I my self must stand without longing striving fighting running praying waiting for what they are enjoying Oh happy thrice happy pouls when shall these Fetters of mine be knocked off when shall I be set at liberty from this Prison of my body you are cloted with glory when I am clothed with dust I dwell in flesh in a House of Clay when you dwell with God in a House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens I must be continually clog'd with the cumbersome burden of this Dung-hill Body that had it not a soul dwelling in it like Salt as it were to preserve it would soon turn to putrefaction and corruption and be as odious and loathsome as the filthiest Carrion when you have put on incorruption and immortaliey What continual molestation am I subject to by reason of this flesh what pains doth it cost me to keep this earthen Vessel from breaking it must be fed it must be clothed it must be exercised recreated and which is worst of all cherished with time-devouring sleep so that I live but little of the short time I have alotted me here but oh blessed souls you are swallowed up of immortality and life your race is run and you have received your Crown How cautious must I be to keep me from dangers how apt am I to be troubled with the cares and fears of this life molesting my self with the thoughts of what I shall eat and what I shall put on and wherewithal I shall provide for my self and mine when your souls are taken with nothing but God and Christ and 't is your work to be still contemplating and admiring that love that redeemed you from all this Alas how am I encompast with infirmities and still carry about me Death in my bosome what pains and cost must I be at to repair the rotten and ruinous building of this earthly Tabernacle which when I have done I am sure will shortly fall about my ears when you are got far above mortality and are made equal with the Angels Oh I groan earnestly to be clothed upon with my house which is from Heaven being willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord Oh when shall I come and appear before him When shall I receive the Purchase of my Saviour the fruit of my prayers the harvest of my labours the end of my Faith the Salvation of my soul Alas what do I here this is not my resting place My treasure is in Heaven and my heart is in Heaven Oh when shall I be where my heart is woe is me that I sojour in 〈◊〉 and dwell in the Tents of Kedar Oh that I had wings 〈◊〉 a Dove that I might flie away and be at rest Then would I hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest and be out of the reach of fears disturbances and distractions How long shall I live at such a distance from my God at such a distance from my Countrey Alas how can I be merry how can I sing the Lords Song in a strange Land no I will hang my Harp upon the Willows and sit down and weep when I remember Sion But yet my flesh shall rest in hope and I will daily bathe my soul in the sweet thoughts of my blessed home I will rejoyce in hopes of what I do not yet enjoy and content my self with the taste of what I shall shortly have my fill of But stay this Pen run not beyond thy Commission Alas now I receive what I have gotten I perceive I have set down what I would be rather than what I am and wrote more of my dears heart than my own penning rather a Copy for my self than a Copy of my self Well I thank God I have got some heat by it for all the Lord grant thou mayst get a thousand times more The Lord grant the request I daily pour out before him and make us helps and furtherances to each others soul that we may quicken and promote and forward one another in his ways Help me by thy Prayers as thou dost always The God of all peace and comfort be with thee my sweet love Farewel Thine beyond Expression Joseph Aleine LETTER XXXVII God is a satisfying Portion My most dear Pylades HAd not my right hand long since forgot her cunning and the Almighty shook the Pen out of my hand I should long ere this have been writing to thee but it is a wonder of Divine Power and goodness that my soul had not before this time dwelt in silence and that death had not put the long period to all my Writing and

Converse O my Pylades what shall I say unto thee now I begin to write where shall I begin when shall I end methinks I am as a full Bottle quite inverted where the forward pressing of the overhasty Liquor makes the evacuation more flow and my thoughts are like a thronging croud sticking in the door Long is the Song of Love that I have to tell thee I rejoice in the constancie of thy Love that the waters of so long a silence and so great a distance have not yet quenched it but thy desires are towards me and thy heart is with me though Providence hath hindred me from thy much desired Company I will assure thee it hath been a pleasure to my heart a good part of this summer to hope that I should come one half of the way to give thee a meeting but such is my weakness hitherto that I am forced to put off those hopes till the Spring when if God give me strength to ride I intend to see thee before mine own Home I thank thee for all the dear expressions of thy servent love Methinks I see it and feel how it runs through all the Veins of every Letter nay every Line I needed not so chargeable a Testimony as thy golden Token with which I was something displeased because I thought thou needest more than my self but the love there-by expressed is most dearly welcome to me What thou talkest of Retribution and of Justice doth not so well relish with me because the Phrases seem improper to the love profest between us I never looked for any return from thee but love which is the paying of all thy Debts my expences have indeed been vast and almost incredible but surely goodness and mercy hath followed me and do follow me in every place and in every change of my condition so that as to temporals I have lack of nothing and as for spirituals I abound and superabound and the streams of my comforts have been full and ruuning over the joy of the Lord hath been my strength at weakest and in the multitude of my thoughts within me his comforts have refresh'd my Soul I have found God a satisfying portion to me and have sat down under his shadow with full delights and his fruit is most sweet to my taste he is my strength and my Song for I will take of him and write of him with perpetual pleasure Through grace I can say methinks I am now in my Element fince I have begun to make mention of him I am rich in him and happy in him and my soul saith unto him with David Thou hast made me most blessed for evermore and happy is the hour that ever I was born to be made partaker of so blissful a Treasure so endless a felicity so Angelical Prerogatives as I have in him O sweet are his converses how delightful it is to triumph in his Love Suffer me to be free with thee where should I pour out my Soul if not into thy bosom did the poor woman call upon her friends and neighbours to rejoyce together with her at the finding of a lost Groat and shall not I tell to thee the keeper of the sacrets of my Soul and the friend of my inmost bosom what a friend is the Lord to me though an unworthy sinner shall not I run and tell thee what a treasure I have found And here methinks the story of the Lepers comes not unaptly to my mind who said one to another when they had eat and drunk and carried away silver and gold and rayment and went and hid it we do not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace It is fit that I should be cloathed with shame I acknowledge before God who trieth the hearts I am unworthy everlastingly unworthy but it is not fit that he should lose his praise nay rather let him be the more ador'd and magnifi'd and admir'd for ever and ever and let my Secrets say Amen Bless the Lord O my soul bless the Lord O my Friend let us exalt his Name together he is my solace in my solitude he is my standing comforter my tried friend my sure refuge my safe retreat he is my Paradise he is my Heaven and my heart is at rest in him and I will sit and sing under his shadow as a Bird among the Branches and whither should I go but unto him Shall I leave the fatness of the Olive and sweetness of the Fig-tree and of the Vine and go and put my trust under the shadow of the Bramble No I have made my everlasting choice this is my rest for ever he is my Well-beloved in whom I am well pleased Suffer me to boast a little here I may Glory without vanity and I can praise him without end or measure but I have nothing to say of my self I find thou dost overvalue me and magnifie me above my measure set the Crown upon the head of Christ let nothing be great with thee but him give him the glory but thy love pleaseth me only I have this exception that thou art in love with thine own Idol as Austin somewhere speaks to a friend of his that did too much magnifie him and magnifiest a Creature of thine own sancie and not thy poor Orestes God that knoweth all things knoweth my poverty how little how low and how mean I am and how short I come of the attainments of the Saints who yet do themselves come so exceedingly short of the Rule that God hath set before us I often think of the Complaint of the devout Monsier I feel my self very poor this week and very defective in the love of God if you would know wherein you may pleasure me love God more that what is wanting in me may be made up in the abundance of your love in this my Pylades in this thou mayest most highly pleasure me love God a little the better praise him a little the more for my sake let me have this to please my self in that God is a little the better loved for me and that I have blowed up if it be but one flash nay but one spark of Divine Love in the bosom of my dearest friend towards him But why my Pylades why is thy stile towards me changed why hast thou lost the old and wonted strain of our former pleasing familiarity this I could not but observe with some disgust is it because thy heart is changed but this is a question in which I cannot ask any resolution I am satisfied and at rest in thy love but what this alterations means I know not art thou willing by degrees to grow strange it cannot be thou seest however that I cannot change my voice Busides I find some jealous passages in thy last lines unto us but cast thou think that 〈◊〉 can be put into the ballance against my old Friend my own my Covenant Pylades or can a friend of words come into any competition or