A26694:546
Remains of that excellent minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Joseph Alleine being a collection…Remaines of that excellent minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Joseph Alleine being a collection…
Remains of that excellent minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Joseph Alleine being a collection of sundry directions, sermons, sacrament-speeches, and letters, not heretofore published ...Remaines of that excellent minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Joseph Alleine being a collection of sundry directions, sermons, sacrament-speeches, and letters, not heretofore published ...
London: printed for Peter Parker, 1674
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Letters › Letter: To the dearly beloved the flock of Christ in Taunton, Salvation.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
My time is gone, and my labour done, but my Oil is wasted in the work of God. I ⟨p. 254⟩have spent my Fathers allowance in my Fathers business. This will make you to arise and say, I will go to my Father, with boldness and confidence: and not as the Prodigal, (when he had spent the portion of goods which his Father had allotted him) with diffidence, and fears of his being rejected. You know my business is but to bespeak you for Christ. I have four requests to present you for him. Thus are my requests, but his Commands.
My time is gone, and my labor done, but my Oyl is wasted in the work of God. I ⟨p. 254⟩have spent my Fathers allowance in my Fathers business. This will make you to arise and say, I will go to my Father, with boldness and confidence: and not as the Prodigal, (when he had spent the portion of goods which his Father had allotted him) with diffidence, and fears of his being rejected. You know my business is but to bespeak you for Christ. I have four requests to present you for him. Thus are my requests, but his Commands.
First, Let the balance be turned by Christ. Let Christ and his interest turn the scale against all the world. Let him be the Pearl, and the world the dung. Let Jesus be King, and Mammon as a despised broken Idol, or as the stamped Calf. Let Christ be the prize, & the rest but loss. Let gain give way to godliness. Let credit crack rather than Conscience stretch, be no body with the world rather than dishonour Christ, to keep up your reputation with men. Let all the flowers of pleasures wither, the paint fall off this harlots face, when set by Christ. Let the silver shrines and great Diana be as Nehushtan. 2. Kings 18. 4. And the crown fall from the head of honour, and the great Idol to come down into the dust before Jesus Christ, and lye like Dagon before the Ark, with head and hands broken off upon the threshold. Keep the world at your feet as a servant, or rather under foot as an enemy. But if it hath the heart you are undone. Where Christ hath not the swaying-interest all is rotten at the bottom.