Letter XXX
To the most beloved people, the servants of God in Taunton, salvation.
Most dearly beloved and longed for,
my joy and crown.
MY heart’s desire and prayer for you is, that you may be saved. This is that which I have been praying and studying, and preaching for these many years: and this is the end of my suffering, and writing at this present time. I seek not other gifts, give me your hearts, let me but part between your sins and you: suffer me but to save you; give me leave to carry you over to Jesus Christ, and I will not ask you any more. I will serve you gladly, I will suffer for you thankfully, so I may but save you. Do not wonder why I follow you so pressingly, why I call upon you so frequently; let not my importunity be grievous to you, all this is but to save you. Christ did not think his blood, and shall I think my breath too dear in order to your salvation; what pity is it, that any of you should miscarry at last, under the power of ignorance, or by a profane negligence, or a formal and lifeless profession of strict godliness?
Beloved, I am afraid of you, lest (as to many of you) I have run in vain. I cannot but thankfully acknowledge, that there are not a few of you who are the joy of your ministers, and the glory of Christ. But it cannot be dissembled, that far the greater number give little ground to hope, they are in the state of salvation. And must not this be a pinching thought to a compassionate teacher, that he cannot persuade men, but that the most of them will wilfully throw away themselves? Is it not a woeful sight, to behold the devils driving a great part of our miserable flocks, (as they did once the herd of swine) violently down the hill, till they be choaked in the water, drowned in the gulph of endless perdition? Ah miserable spectacle! What through the wilful blindness of some, the looseness and sensuality of others, the halving, and cold, and customary religion of others, how great a number of our poor flocks, is Satan like to carry utterly away from us, after all that hath been done to save him?
Yet I cannot but call after them. Hearken unto me, O ye children. How long will ye love vanity, and trust in lying words? As the Lord liveth, you are lost, except you turn: wherefore turn yourselves and live ye. Ah how mercy wooeth you! How it waiteth to be gracious? Hear, O sinners, hear. See you not how the merciful Saviour of the world stretcheth forth his hands all the day long, and spreadeth forth his wings, and calleth you as a hen doth her chickens! Hear you not the sounding of his bowels? He hath no need of you: Yet how do his compassions melt over perishing sinners? His heart is turned within him, and shall not this turn your hearts? His repentings are kindled together, and shall not this lead you to repentance? Behold, he standeth at the door and knocketh. O man, wilt thou keep Jesus at the door, and lodge Barabbas in thy bosom? Oh his melting love to sinners! He calleth after them, he weepeth over them, he crieth to them. How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity? Will you not be made clean? When shall it once be? Why will you die? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you. Sinner, art thou not yet melted? Oh come in at his loving calls. Come out from thy sins: touch the scepter of grace and live: Why shouldst thou be dashed in pieces by his iron rod? Kiss the Son: Why shouldst thou perish in the way? Set up Jesus as thy king, lest he count thee for his enemy, because thou would not that he should reign over thee, and so thou be called forth and slain before him. Oh how dreadful will this case be, to die by the hand of a Saviour! Oh double hell, to have thy Redeemer become thy executioner! And the hand that was so long stretched forth to save thee, to be now stretched forth to slay thee! And the merciful heart of Christ himself hardened against thee, so that he should call thee forth, and hew thee in pieces, as Samuel did Agag before the Lord.
*Beloved, I despair of ever bringing you to salvation, without sanctification: or possessing you with happiness without persuading you to holiness. God knows I have not the least hope ever to see one of your faces in heaven, except you be sanctified, and exercise yourselves unto godliness. This is that I drive at, I beseech you study to further personal godliness, and family godliness.
*1. Personal godliness. Let it be your first care to set up Christ in your hearts. See that you make all your worldly interests stoop to him, that you be entirely and unreservedly devoted to him. If you deliberately and ordinarily harbour any sin, you are undone. See that you unfeignedly take the laws of Christ, as the rule of your words, thoughts and actions; and subject your whole man, faithfully to him. If you have a true respect unto all God’s commandments, you are sound at heart. O study to get the image and impress of Christ upon you within. Begin with your hearts, else you build without a foundation. Labour to get a saving change within, or else all external performances will be to no purpose. And then study to shew forth the power of godliness in your life. Let piety be your business. ’Tis the highest point of justice, to give God his due. Beware that none of you be a prayerless person: for that is a certain discovery of a Christless, and a graceless person. Suffer not your bibles to gather dust. See that you converse daily with the word. That man can never lay claim to blessedness, whose delight is not in the law of the Lord. Let meditation and self-examination be your daily exercise, else the Papists, yea the Pagans will condemn us. If ever you come to any growth in holiness, without the constant use of this practice, I am grossly deceived. And therefore I beseech, yea even charge you by the Lord, that you would daily examine yourselves.
But piety without charity is but the half of Christianity, or rather impious hypocrisy. See therefore that you do justly, and love mercy, and let equity, and charity run like an even thread, through all your dealings. Be you temperate in all things, and let chastity and sobriety be your undivided companions. Let truth and purity, seriousness and modesty, heavenliness and gravity, be the constant ornaments of your speech. Let patience and humility, simplicity and sincerity shine in all parts of your conversation. See that you forget and forgive wrongs, and requite them with kindness. Be merciful in your censures, and put the most favourable construction upon your brethren’s carriage. Be slow in promising, punctual in fulfilling. Let meekness, innocency, affableness, yieldingness, and courtesy, commend your conversation to all men. Let none of your relations want that love and loyalty, that reverence and duty, that tenderness, care, and vigilancy, which their several places and capacities call for. This is true godliness. I charge you before the most high God, that none of you be found a swearer, or a liar, a lover of evil company, or a scoffer, or malicious, or covetous, or a drunkard, or a glutton, unrighteous in his dealing, unclean in his living, or a quarreller, or a thief, or backbiter, or a railer: for I denounce unto you from the living God, that damnation is the end of all such.
2. Family godliness. He that hath set up Christ in his heart, will be sure to study to set
him up in his house. Let every family with you be a Christian church; every house a house of prayer; every houshold a houshold of faith. Let every housholder say, with Joshua, I, with my house, will serve the Lord, and with David, I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
First, Let religion be in your families, not as a matter by the by, but the standing business of the house. Let them have your prayers as duly as their meals. Is there any of your families, but have time for their taking food? *Wretched man! Canst thou find time to eat, and not time to pray?
*Secondly, Settle it upon your hearts, that your souls are bound up in the souls of your family. They are committed to you, and (if they be lost through your neglect) will be required at your hands: Sirs, if you do not, you shall know that the charge of souls is a heavy charge, and that the blood of souls is a heavy guilt. O man, hast thou a charge of souls to answer for, and dost thou not yet bestir thyself for them, that their blood may not be found in thy skirts? Wilt thou do no more for immortal souls, than thou wilt do for the beasts that perish? What dost thou do for thy children, and servants? Thou providest meat and drink for them, and dost thou not the same for thy beasts? Thou givest them medicines, and cherishest them when they are sick, and dost thou not so much for thy swine? More particularly.
1. Let the solemn reading of the word, and singing of psalms, be your family exercises. See Christ singing with his family, his disciples, Matthew xxvi. 30. Luke ix. 18.
2. Let every person in your family be duly called to an account of their profiting by the word heard or read, as they are about doing your own business. This is a duty of consequence unspeakable, and would be a means to bring those under your charge to remember and profit by what they receive.
3. Often take account of the souls under your care, concerning their spiritual estates. Make enquiry into their conditions, insist much upon the sinfulness and misery of their natural estate, and upon the necessity of regeneration, in order to their salvation. Admonish them gravely of their sins; encourage beginnings. Follow them earnestly, and let them have no quiet for you, till you see in them a saving change. This is a duty of high consequence, but fearfully neglected by some. Doth not conscience say, Thou art the man?
4. Look to the strict sanctifying of the sabbath by all of your housholds. Many poor families have little time else. O improve but your sabbath days as diligently in doing your Maker’s work, as you do the other days in doing your own work, and I doubt not but you may come to some proficiency.
5. Let the morning and evening sacrifice of solemn prayer, be daily offered up in all your families. Beware they be not found among the families that call not upon God’s name; for why should there be wrath from the Lord upon your families? O miserable families without God in the world, that are without family prayer! What have you so many family sins, family wants, family miseries; what, and yet no family prayers? How do you pray with all prayer and supplication if you do not with family prayer? Say not I have no time. What hast thou all thy time on purpose to serve God and save thy soul, and is this that for which thou can’st find no time? Pinch out of your meals and sleep, rather than want for prayer. *Say not, my business will not give leave. This is thy greatest business, to save thyself, and the souls committed to thee. In a word, the blessing of all is to be got by prayer. And what is thy business without God’s blessing? Say not, I am not able. Use thy one talent, and God will increase it. Helps are to be had till thou art better able.
*6. Put every one in your families upon private prayer. Observe whether any perform it. Get them the help of a form, if they need it, till they are able to go without. Direct them how to pray, by minding them of their sins, wants, and mercies, the materials of prayer.
7. Set up catechizing in your families, at least once every week. It was my parting, dying request, that you would set up and maintain this duty in your families. Have you all done it accordingly? Cannot your confidences witness, cannot your families witness you have not? Well, I thought my parting words would have done something with you: I hoped the fervent request of a dying minister, would have prevailed for such a small matter with you. To this day are you without solemn catechizing in your houses! Ah, what a discouragement to your teacher is this? Brethren shall I yet prevail with you? Will you reject me also? O let me persuade you before you take off your eyes from these lines, to resolve to set upon the constant exercise of this duty. Surely I have done and suffered more for you than this comes to: Will you deny me? I beseech you, let me find, if ever God brings me again to visit your houses, that the words of a suffering minister have some power with you. I have sent you help on purpose: What shall all my persuasions be but speaking to the wind? Beloved, have you no dread of the Almighty’s charge, that you should teach these things diligently to your children, and talk of them as you sit in your houses, and train them up in the way they should go? Hath God so commanded Abraham, that he would teach his children and his houshold, Genesis xviii. 19. and given such a promise to him thereupon, and will not you put in for a share of either in the praise or the promise? Say not, they are careless and will not learn. What have you your authority for, if not to use it for God, and the good of their souls? You will call them up, and force them to do their work; and should you not at least be as zealous in putting them upon God’s work? Say not, they are dull and not capable. If they be dull, God requires of you the more pains and patience; but dull as they are, you will make them learn how to work; and can they not learn how to live? Are they capable of the mysteries of your trade, and are they not capable of the plain principles of religion? Well, as ever you would see the growth of religion, the cure of ignorance, the remedy of profaneness, the downfal of error, fulfil ye my joy with going through with this duty.
I have been long and yet I am afraid my letter will be ended before my work is done: how loath am I to leave you, before I have prevailed with you to set to this work? Will you pass your promise, will you give me your hands? Oh that you would? You cannot do me a greater pleasure. Beloved, why should you not give the hand one to another, and mutually engage to each other, for more vigorous and diligent endeavours, in promoting family godliness? I must tell you, God looks for more than ordinary from you, in such a day as this. He expects that you should do both in your hearts and in your houses, somewhat more than ever, under these extraordinary dispensations. My most dearly beloved, mine own bowels in the Lord, will you satisfy the longings of a travelling minister? will you answer the calls of divine providence? Would you that your children should bless you? Oh, then set up piety in your families. As ever you would be blessed or be a blessing, let your heart, and your houses be the temples of the living God, in which his worship (according to the fore-mentioned directions) may be with constancy reverently performed.
OFATHER of Spirits, that hast set me over thy flock to watch for their souls as one that must give account: I have long studied thy will, and taught in thy name, and do unfeignedly bless thee, that any have believed my report. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them. I have manifested thy name unto them, and they have kept thy word. And now I am no more with them, but I come unto thee! Holy Father, keep them through thine own name; for they are thine. As they have kept the word of thy patience, so keep thou them in the hour of temptation. They are but a little and helpless flock: but thou art their shepherd, suffer them not to want. Do thou feed them, and fold them. Let thy rod and thy staff comfort them, and let not the beasts of prey fall upon them, to the spoiling of their souls.
But what shall I do for them that will not be gathered? I have called after them, but they would not answer; I have charged them in thy name, but they would not hear; I have studied to speak persuasively to them, but I cannot prevail. Then I said, I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nought, yet I cannot give them over, much less may I give thee over. Lord, persuade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem. Lord compel them to come in, and lay thy hands of mercy upon them, as thou didst on lingering Lot, and bring them forth, that they may escape for their lives, and not be consumed. Lord, I pray thee open their eyes that they may see, and lay hold upon their hearts by thy omnipotent grace. Do thou turn them, and they shall be turned: O bring back the miserable captives, and suffer not the enemy of mankind to drive a way the most of the flock before mine eyes, and to deride the fruitless endeavours of thy labourers, and boast over them, that he can do more with them, though he seek to ruin them, than all the beseechings, counsels, and charges of thy servants, that seek to save them. Lord, if I could find out any thing that would pierce them, that would make its way into their hearts, thou knowest I would use it. But I have been many years pleading thy cause in vain. O let not these endeavours also be lost. O God, find out every ignorant, every profane sinner, every prayerless soul, and every prayerless family, and convince them of their miserable condition while without thee in the world. Set thy image up in their souls, set up thy worship in their families. Let not pride, ignorance, or sloth 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 engaging them to do thy pleasure. Amen. Amen.
JOS. ALLEINE.