Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	covenant_n	hope_v	inculcate_v	26	3	17.0083	5	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

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

Zeal diseasedly and unproportionably upon those outward Circumstances where the noise doth call off the minds of too many from the inward life of Communion with God His Sermons his Conference his Letters were not about Mint and Commin but about the Knowledge of God in Christ which is the Life Eternal Yet that he did not prostitute his Conscience to the Interest of the Flesh nor subject God to the World nor deny Self-denyal and the Cross of Christ nor Hypocritically resolve to shift off the costly part of Religion on pretence of Indifferency or Smallness of any thing which he thought God forbad him you need no other proof than the following History And he was not one of those weak well-meaning Ministers who think that their meer Honesty is enough to deserve the esteem of worthy Pastors nor was he one of those proud and empty Persons who think that the Dignity of their Function is enough to oblige all to bow to them and to be Ruled by them without any personal Wisdom Holiness or Ministerial Abilities suitable to their Sacred Office But so great was his Ministerial Skilfulness in the publick Explication and Application of the Holy Scriptures so Melting and Winning Convincing and Powerful his unaffected sacred Oratory so wise and serious his private dealing with particular Families and Souls that it is no wonder if God blessed him with that great success which is yet visible among the People where he lived and which many of his Brethren wanted For he did not by slovenly Expressions nor immethodical Extravagances nor unsound injudicious erroneous Passages nor by jocular Levities or by nauseous Tautologies make Sermons or Prayers become a scorn nor give advantage to carnal captious Hearers who for every hair not only abhominate the wholsomest Food but also write Books to breed their own Disease in others Nor yet did he by an affected unnatural curiosity of Jingling Words and starched Phrases make Sermons like Stage-plays and destroyed the Peoples Edificacion or their reverence of Holy Things But he spake as one that spake from God in the Name of Christ for mens Renovation and Salvation in a manner suitable to the Weight and Holiness of the Matter And his servent Zeal and Thirst for the Peoples Conversion and Salvation was a great advantage to his Success For 〈◊〉 mens Parts be never so great I seldom have known any man do much good that was not earnestly desirous to do good If he long not for mens Conversion he is seldom the means of Converting many For there is a certain lively seriousness necessary in all our Studies to make our Sermons suitable to their ends and in all our Preaching to make them fit to reach mens Hearts without which they are as a blunted Knife or as a Bell that 's crackt or any other unmeet Instruments unable for their proper use And though God can work Miracles and therefore can work without means or without their fitness yet that is not his ordinary way and therefore is not to be expected And his great diligence from House to House in private was a great promoter of his Successes I never knew Minister who prudently and diligently took that course to be unprosperous in his Work but by them that have wisely and faithfully used it I have known that done that before seemed incredible And truly when I think of some men yet living and some few too few places great places which by the great Abilities and excellent Preaching the Personal Exhortations and Catechizing the 〈◊〉 Pains and the extraordinary Charity to the Poor the the holy exemplary Lives of their Pastors I can scarce forbear naming four or five of my Acquaintance have been so generally seasoned with Piety that the great Market Towns have become as Religious as the selected Members which some think onely fit for Churches it makes me conclude that it is principally for want of such a Ministry that the World is so bad and that greater things are not done among us And that for another sort of men to cry out of the Peoples Ignorance and Prophaness and obstinate Wickedness while their 〈◊〉 Sloath Miscarriage and Negligence is the cause is as little honour to them as to the Physitian or Surgeon that when he can skilfuller but few doth cast the blame upon the Patient when skilfuller men do cure the like And his great humility in stooping to the meanest and conversing with the poorest of the 〈◊〉 and not affecting things above him nor 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 into men of worldly Wealth and Power no doubt helps on his great Successes though it was not the way to Preferments Honours no nor Safety and Quietness to the Flesh. Had Balaam 〈◊〉 throughout sincerely it had been a very honourable and comfortable word to him from King Balack Num. 24. 11. I thought to promote thee to great honour but 〈◊〉 the Lord hath kept thee back from honour It is more honourable and comfortable to be kept from honour by God and a good Conscience than to be honoured by men on sinful terms And the moderation and peaceableness of this holy Man was very exemplary and amiable which I the rather mention because in these distempered times of Temptation too many think that the excellency of Zeal lyeth in going to the furthest from those they differ from and suffer by And because some will think that knew no more of him but onely how oft and long he lay in the Common Goal that sure he was some violent unpeaceable Zealot No his Zeal was for Peace and Quietness for Love and for good Works He was not used to inflame men against Dissenters nor to Back-bite others nor to make those odious that were willing enough to have made him so He fled from one extream with fear and suspition of the other He was indeed himself a Silenced Minister in a Place and among a People who had his heart and who had been blessed with his fruitful Labours and his Judgment was That it is Sacriledge for a Minister Consecrated to God to alienate himself and violate that Covenant and Ministerial Dedication by giving over his Work as long as he hath ability and opportunity and the peoples Souls have a true necessity And therefore he chose that long Imprisonment rather than voluntarily to Surcease But whilst he had Liberty he went oft to the publick Assembles and was a Hearer where he was wont to be a Teacher and encouraged the People to do the like He spake not evil of Dignities nor kindled seditious Principles or Passions in the Peoples minds nor disaffected them against Authority nor aggravated his own Sufferings to exasperate their minds against such as he suffered by though how great they were as to the Effect the Sequel will acquaint you In all he did in patience possess his Soul and learned still more patience by the things which he suffered and taught others what he learned himself But above all it is his highest excellency in my

morning then making their resolves and piously fore-casting the Work of the day following and by an impartial survey and examination in the evening of their Compliance or Non-compliance with their foregoing Prescriptions unto themselves whether they obtained their designs and ends and how they acquitted themselves in the day foregoing His delight in Self-examination Thus by pointing at the two extreams in each day he happily secured the middle He tacitely convinced them by his own example and great growth in Piety hereby and expresly by many other eminent instances how advantagious a course he had recommended to them To this end he much applauded those two no less excellent than common Books the Practice of Piety and Scudders daily Walk By this course he had taught himself and others as by constant though small gains to arrive to great acquests in Christianity by constant and short accounts the more accurately to know the state of their Souls and the more easily to discern their Progress or Declinings so as the more to rejoyce in and promote the one and the sooner to put limits to and redress the other Also he much inculcated on each Christian that important duty of fore-appointing and fixing his ends not onely in the general but as much as might be particularly and explicitely before each action of the day but especially each solemn Action revolving and conceiving such a Thought and Resolve as this in his Mind His frequent and generous Designs This or this will I do for GOD c. By which heedful course he assured the Observer that he would hallow all his Actions and reap this treble advantage to say no more both of espousing the Divine Direction and Blessing and of obtaining a surer Testimony of his sincerity and also a stronger motive to Diligence and an awful circumspectness in the right discharge of what he undertook In complyance with this his excellent Exhortation unto others he knew not a day wherein he arose without some Heavenly design of promoting GOD's Glory and the good of Souls accounting it a shame that the Covetous should arise with such anxious projects of compassing his desired Wealth the Ambitious his aiery Honours and Grandeur the Voluptuous his vain Pleasures and that the Religious who have so glorious a Prize and Trophies before their eyes should be Men of no Projects or Designs If of any it may be affirmed of him that according to his frequent and vehement Exhortation thereunto he made Religion his business Which worthy advice in the same words he did so often inculcate that a Gentleman meeting a plain honest Countrey Man and discoursing of Mr. Allein cavil'd at this passage which he had often heard from him as appearing unto him absur'd and unintelligible not knowing how any thing as he said could be called a Man's business unless that which is secular so foolishly ignorant of the just Interest and Power of Religion is an unhallowed heart and so apt to quarrel with that wholesome advice and loth to be in earnest in any thing unless in the pursuit of Vanity or Vice His Delight in Meditation Neither did onely the frequent and faithful performance of the two great difficulties of Christianity viz. Reproof and Self-Examination consisting of so many complicated Self-denyals proclaim and improve his great Piety but also his so great acquaintance with the delightsome Work of Heavenly Meditation A Specimen of his profitable managery of this Work and his great Heights herein he often gave in some of his most excellent devotional and contemplative Discourses both dropt from his Mouth and committed to Writing And as was his delight so were his Converses with those Authors who did encrease his contemplative Pleasure but particularly he delighted in Mr. Baxters Platform of Meditation on the Heavenly Felicity in the close of his Saints Everlasting Rest great part whereof he so digested as often to cite it with great pleasure prefacing his Citations with these words Most divinely saith that Man of GOD Holy Mr. Baxter c. And indeed had not his zeal for GOD's Glory and the Salvation of Souls engaged him so much to an Active Life he could have even lived and dyed wholly in Divine Contemplation and Adoration so much did he delight to shrink within himself and to abandon the view of the desperate Adventures and Antick Motions of a mad World that so being shut to these he might onely open his Soul to GOD and Glory displaying it to the glorious Beams of the Sun of Righteousness Therefore did he often delight in his devotions to converse with the Fowls of the Air and the Beasts of the Field since these were more innocent and less degenerate than Man With Streams and Plants did he delight to walk and all these did utter to his attentive Ear the Praise and Knowledge of his Creator and in his unsetled sojournings from place to place he did often to use his Words look back with sweetness and great content on the places of his former pleasant retirements setting as it were a Mark upon those which had marvellously pleased him in his Solitudes by administring to his contemplative delight His delight in Praising c. In the Close His great perfection in holiness was manifest in that he loved so much and lived a life of Praise and Thanksgiving Being arrived to some perfection he desired and designed to antedate the Work and Songs of Spirits made perfect Thus David much proclaimed his perfection in Piety by his so great heights in this Heavenly Employment And its Evident that Saints most devoted to this Heavenly repast are most perfect because the more Men adore and praise the less they want for sad and constant Complaints and pensive Thoughts are the Attendants of great wants and the less men want the more is their perfection His Exhortations to Christians did frequently design to raise them to that sublime life of Praise and Thanksgiving Often hath he reproved Christians charging them with the greatest folly and ingratitude in so much neglecting this so pleasing and profitable duty and in interessing it so little in their Religious Exercises He much condemned them for that too general practice in thrusting so enlarging a part of their Devotions into so narrow a Room as only the close of their Prayers Especially did he excite Christians to this Duty on the Lord's Day as the most proper Work for so Divine a Festival Shaming them with the excellent Example of the Primitive Christians who welcomed in the Sun that brought so glorious a Day as the Christian Sabbath with their Heavenly Hymnes to their Creator and Redeemer And reproving them for so little considering and observing the proper end of its Institution But as he respects his own practice a great yea and sometimes the greatest part of his Prayer was Thanks-giving and indeed he was never so much in his Element either in Prayer or in Preaching as when he was extolling and adoring the Love of Christ and

shall be shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven 〈◊〉 Cor. 6. 9 10. Repent O Swearers else you shall fall into condemnation 〈◊〉 12. Repent O Lyars put away lying and speak every one truth to his neighbour else you shall have your part in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone Rev. 20. 8. Repent O Company-keepers forsake the foolish and live but a Companion of the wicked shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 20. Repent you Deceivers of your unrighteous dealings or else you shall have no Inheriance in the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. The Lord that made us knows my earnest desire for your conversion and Salvation and that I speak not this to you out of any evil will toward you for I would 〈◊〉 at your feet to do you good but out of a sense of your deplorable estate while you remain in your sins I know there is mercy for you if you do soundly repent and reform and bow to the Righteousness and Government of the Lord Christ but if you go on and say you shall yet have peace I pronounce unto you that there is no escape but the Lord will make his wrath to smoak against you he will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his Trespasses Others have escaped the gross pollutions of the World but stick in the form of Godliness and content themselves with a negative Righreousness that they are no Drunkards nor Swearers c. or at best with an outward conformity to the duties of Religion or some common workings instead of a saving O I am jealous for you that you should not lose the things that you have wrought and miss your reware for want of sincerity for the Lords sake put on and beware of perishing in the Suburbs of the City of Refuge beg of God to make through-work with you and be jealous for your selves get a right understanding of the difference between a Hypocripe and a sincere Christian and try you estates much but only with those marks that you are sure from the Scripture will abide Gods trial But for you that fear the Lord in sincerity I have nothing but good and comfortable words I have proclaimed your happiness in the last Token I sent to the Town I mean the abstract of the Covenant of Grace upon the Priviledges comforts mercies there summed up and set before you May your souls ever live what condition can you devise wherein there will not be abundance of comfort and matter of joy unspeakable to you O Beloved know your own happiness and live in that holy admiring commending adoring praisins of your gracious God that becomes the people of his praise I have been long yet methinks I have not emptied half my heart unto you I trespass much I fear upon the Bearer therefore in haste I commend you to God The good will of him that dwelt in the Bush be with you all The Lord Create a defence upon you and Deliverance for you the Lord cover you all the day and make you to dwell between his shoulders I desire your constant instant earnest Prayers for me and rest A willing Labourer and thankful Sufferer for you JOS. ALLEINE From the common Goale in Juelchester July 4th 1663. LETTER V. Trust God and be sincere To my most endeared Friends the Servants of Christ in Taunton Grace and Peace Most dearly Beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown MY hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved I know that you are the But of mens rage and malice but you may satisfie your selves as David in his patient sustaining of 〈◊〉 fury and curses It may be the Lord will look upon our affliction and require good for their cursing this day But however it be for that be sure to hold on your way your name indeed is cast forth as evil and you are hated of all men for Christs-sake for your profession of his Gospel and clearing to his Ways and Servants but let not this discourage you for you are now more than ever blessed onely hold fast that no man take your Crown Let not any that have begun in the Spirit end in the flesh Do not forsake God till he forsake you he that endureth to the end shall be saved The Promise is to him that overcometh therefore think not of looking back Now you have set your hands to Christ's 〈◊〉 though you labour hard and suffer long the Crop will pay for all now the Lord is trying what credit he hath in the World and who they be that will trust him The unbelieving World are all for present Pay they must have ready Money something in hand and will not follow the Lord when there is like to be any great hazard and hardship in his Service But now is the time for you my Beloved to prove your selves Believers when there is nothing visible but present hazard and expence and difficulty in your Makers service Now it will be seen who can trust the Lord and who thrusts him not Now my Brethren bear you up stand fast in the Faith quit you like men be strong now give glory to God by believing If you can trust in his Promises for your reward now when nothing appears but the dispseasure of Rulers and Bonds and Losies and Tribulations on every side this will be somewhat like Believer Brethren I beseech you to reckon upon no other but crosses here Let none of you dream of an Earthly Paradise or flatter your selves with Dreams of sleeping in your ease and temporal Prosperity and carrying Heaven too Think not to keep your Estates and liberties and consciences too Count not upon rest till you come to the Land of Promise Not that I would have any of you to run upon hazards uncalled No we shall meet them soon enough in the way of our duty without we will balke it and shamefully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I would have you east over-board you worldly hopes and count not upon an Earthly felicity but be content 〈◊〉 till you come on the other side the Grave Is it not enough to have a whole eternity of Happiness yet behind If God do throw in the comforts of this life too into the bargain I would not have you throw them back again 〈◊〉 despite the goodness of the Lord But I would my 〈◊〉 that you should use this World as not 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 you should be 〈◊〉 to the world and the World 〈◊〉 that you should declare plainly that you seek a Countrey 〈◊〉 Countrey which is an Heavenly Ah! my dear 〈◊〉 I beseech you carry it like Pilgrims and strangers I 〈◊〉 you abstain from fleshly lusts which war against 〈◊〉 Souls for what have we to do with the customes and 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of this World who are strangers in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contented with Travellers Lots know you not that you are in a strange Land all is well as long as it is well