*ALTHOUGH I am forced at the present, to be at a distance from you, yet I would not have you ignorant, that the care of your eternal welfare is always living upon my heart. Therefore as my beloved friends I warn you, and cease not to stir you up by way of remembrance, being jealous for you with a godly jealousy, that no man take your crown. I know you have many enemies, and above all I fear your bosom enemies: and as the watchman of the Lord I give you careful warning, and exhort you all not to be high-minded, but fear. Blessed is the man that feareth always. Look diligently, lest any of you fail of the grace of God. You have made long profession of the name of Jesus Christ: Oh, see upon what ground you stand. You must, every one of you, stand shortly before the judgment-seat of Christ, and be tried for your lives: Oh, try yourselves throughly first. ’Tis easy to mistake a partial reformation and external obedience, for true sanctification. Therefore I beseech you every one, to examine whether you are in the faith. Prove your ownselves. Tell not me, you hope you are sincere, you hope you shall go to heaven: never put it off with hopes, but pray, and try, and search, till you know you are passed from death unto life, and that you have a building, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Suppose I should ask you one by one, where are your evidences for heaven? Could you make out your claim? Can you bring me scripture proof? Can you shew me the marks of the Lord Jesus? What mean you to live at uncertainties? Brethren, it is an intolerable ignorance for any of you in these days of glorious light, not to be able to tell the distinguishing marks of a sound believer. And it is intolerable [♦]carelessness, if you do not bring yourselves to the trial by these marks. What! Are your hands filled with books, and your ears with sermons, that tell you so plainly from the word of God, how you shall know whether you are in Christ, and are you still to seek? Oh, stir up yourselves. Take heed, lest a promise being left of entering into his rest, any of you fall short of it at last. You are a professing people; you pray, and you hear; but oh, look to your sincerity. Look to your principles, look to your ends; else you may lose all at last. Examine not only what is done, but whence ’tis done; look to the root as well as to the fruit. Eye not only your actions, but your aims. Remember what a strict eye you are under. The Lord Jesus makes strict observation upon all your works and ways. He observes who of you are fruitful, and who are barren and unprofitable. He knows who are thriving, and who declining. He observes who are warm, and who lukewarm: who are sound Christians, and who have only a name to live.
[♦] “carelesness” replaced with “carelessness”
Christians, put on, press towards the mark, be adding to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. See that you grow extensively, being abundant in all sorts of good works. Be pitiful, be courteous, gentle, easy to be intreated. Be slow to anger, soon reconciled. Be patient, be temperate, be chearful. Study not every one only his own things, but also the good of his neighbour. Think it not enough to look to your own souls but watch for the souls of others. Pray for them, warn them, be kind to them, study to oblige them, that by any means you may win them, and gain your souls.
Labour to grow intensively, to do better the things that you did before, to be more fervent in prayer, more free and willing in all the ways of the Lord, to hear with more profit, to examine yourselves more thoroughly, to mind heaven more frequently.
I commend myself to your prayers, and you to the grace of God, remaining
Your’s in the Lord Jesus,
JOS. ALLEINE.
Dorchester,
July 7, 1663.