And truly, as God looks for more from his own than others, so he looks for more from you than others, even of his own, because he hath done more: see that you be shining Christians, that you be strong in the grace of God, that you press towards the mark. But I must conclude; I give my love among you all, being able to add no more, but that I am
Your’s in fervent love and longings,
JOS. ALLEINE.
LETTER XVI.
To the servants of God in Taunton, salvation.
Most endeared Christians,
I AM your’s, and love to be so, being ambitious not to have dominion over your faith, but to be a helper of your joy. Christ’s officers are so your rulers in the Lord, as yet to preach not themselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ, and themselves your servants for Jesus’s sake. I have no greater felicity under God, than to serve the good of souls. Brethren, how fares it with your souls? Are they in health? Do they prosper? It is a joy to me to hear when your trade flourishes: but these are very little things if we look into eternity. Brethren, my ambition for you is, that you should be cedars among the shrubs; that from you should sound out the word of the Lord, and that in every place your faith to God-ward should be spread abroad. That ye should be as a field that the Lord hath blessed: that you should not only have the name, but the spirit, life, power, heat, growth, vigour of Christianity among you. Let not Taunton only have the name to live: but to see to it, that the kingdom of God be with you: Oh that every one of your souls might be a temple of God! Oh that every one of your families might be a church of God! Beloved, look to it, that every one that nameth the name of Christ among you depart from iniquity, secret as well as open, of the heart as well as of the life. Let no man think that to make an out-cry upon the wickedness of the times, will serve his turn; many go to hell in the company of the wise virgins. That no man may be a self-deceiver, let every man be a self-searcher. He that keeps no day-book in his shop, and no account in his conscience, his estate and his soul will thrive both alike. Beloved, I would that you should remember whither you are going. If a man be after a few months to be transported into another country, never to return, he will send over whatever he can, and make the best provision he may against he come into that country. Brethren, you are strangers and pilgrims here, and have but a few month’s stay in this country; see that you traffic much with heaven. Christ is our common factor. O send over to him what possibly you can. Give alms plentifully, pray continually, be much in meditation and consideration; reckon with yourselves daily: walk with God in your callings. Do all the duties of your relations as unto God: live not one day to yourselves, but unto Christ: so shall you be continually transporting into another world, and laying up treasure in heaven: and O the blessed store that you shall find there after a few years diligence! *Beloved, while you are here in this world, you are but like a merchant’s ship in a strange port; the day for your return is set, and you are to stay no longer than ’till your freight is ready. Be wise, know your season, improve your time, you are made or marred forever, as you speed in this one voyage. There is no returning to this country to mend a bad market. God will call in all his talents, time shall be no longer. Oh, come in, come and buy now, while the market is open, that you who want may have grace, and you that have, may have it more abundantly. Go and plead with the Lord Jesus, that he hath bid you come, buy and eat without money, and without price: that he hath counselled you to come buy of him, gold, raiment, and eye-salve; tell him you are come according to his call, and wait upon him for grace, for righteousness, for light and instruction: lay hold on his word, plead it, live upon it; he is worthy to be believed, worthy to be trusted, go out of yourselves to him, unlearn yourselves. There is a threefold foot that we naturally stand upon, our own wisdom, our own righteousness, and our own strength; these three feet must be cut off, and we must learn to have no subsistence but in Christ, and to stand only on his bottom. Study the excellent lesson of self-denial, self-annihilation. A true Christian is like a vine that cannot stand of itself, but is wholly supported by the prop it leans on. It is no small thing to know ourselves to be nothing, of no might, of no worth, of no understanding; to look upon ourselves as helpless, worthless, foolish, empty shadows. This holy littleness is a great matter; when we find that all our inventory amounts to nothing but folly, weakness, and beggary: when we set down ourselves for cyphers, our gain for loss, our excellencies for very vanities, then we shall learn to live like believers. A true saint is like a glass without a foot, that set him where you will, is ready to fall every way till you set him to a prop: let Christ be the only support you lean on. When you are throughly emptied, and see all your comeliness to be but as a withered flower, dead, dried, past recovery, then you will be put upon the happy necessity of going out to Christ for all.
I can add no more but my prayers to my counsels, and so commending you to God, and the word of his grace, I rest
The fervent well-wisher of your souls,