By JOSEPH ALLEINE, Late Minister of the Cospel at TAUNTON, in Somersetshire. LONDON: PRINTED FOR A. MILLAR, W. LAW, & R. CATER ; and WILSON, SPENCE, & MAWMAN, YORK, Anno 1793 The DIGNITY of the SOUL, Arising from its IM MORTALITY. THE eternal Salvation of one Soul is of greater importance, and big with greater events, than the salvation of a whole kingdom, for any limited time, though it were for the space of ten thousand ages : Because there will come up a point, an instant in eternity, when that one foul shall have existed as many ages, as all the individuals of a whole kingdom, ranged in close succession, will, in the whole, have exifted in the space of ten thousand ages. Therefore, one foul is capable of a larger share of happiness or misery, throughout an endless eternity (for that will still be before it), than a whole king. dom is capable of in ten thousand ages. a ButR/GRAD TO THE R E A D A D E , R. READER, OU are here presented with a book, which was Y you in thodism was known in the world, which it may be proper to remind you of, in order to remove any unfavourable prejudice arising from that quarter. What I would recommend to you is, to read it with attention, examination, and prayer, as the most ef. fectual method you can take to render it a blessing to your own soul. The author seems to have made use of every possible argument to win upon your ingenuity, to awaken conscience, and to direct the way everlasting. I charge you as in the presence of the living God, now to do your part, and give it a faithful reading : I beg of you by every endearing motive of love and affection to your precious and immortal foul, that you will look upon this book as calculated to promote your present and everlasting happiness; and I beg of God, that he would be pleased fo to accompany your reading of it with his divine and heavenly grace, as to afford you matter of thanksgiving, gratitude, and praise to his holy name, for ever and ever. Man, by nature and practice, is a sinner before God; a charge of guilt is faftened upon him ; this, in words, he readily acknowledges; but being blinded with prejudice, and having wrong conceptions both of the nature of God and fin, he flatters hime self that all will be well at last, and that a merciful God will not finally condemn him ; this lulls him asleep in Satan's arms, and makes him secure and easy under all the denunciations of God's wrath against him. One grand design of the author in this book is to dispel that gross darkness, to rectify those false conceptions he has of God and fin, and to convince him that, notwithstanding all his vain pretensions, without true repentance, the fentence of wrath stands in full force against him ftill. Jesus Christ is set forth in fcripture as the Saviour of fioners, the nelper of the helpless; the only sure bottom upon which man is to anchor the hope of eternal salvation, To this Lord and Saviour is the awakened finner directed in this book; a free and a full falvation is offered him under every possible as. surance, that if he closes with it, his fins shall be pardoned, his person and future services accepted; and, from being a brand of hell, he shall become an heir of eternal glory. Reader, the former character either is, or has been thine own: if it is thine at this present reading, remember thy darger ; take the alarm, and flee from the wrath to come: If it has been thine for, merly, and thou art truly converted to God, by Je. sus Chrift, give him all the glory, rejoice in the happy exchange ; walk worthy of thy high calling, and thou art made for ever. 1 aby ready servant in the Lor). AN ADMONITION TO UNCONVERTED SINNERS. An EARNEST. INVITATION 10 SINNERS to turn to God, in order to their ETERNAL SALVATION. D EARLY beloved and longed-for, I gladly acknowledge myself a debtor to you all, and am concerned, as I would be found a good steward to the household of God, to give to every one his portion : but the physician is most solicitous for those patients, whose case is most doubtful and hazardous; and the father's bowels are especially turned towards his dying child ; The numbers of unconverted souls, among you, call for my most earnest compassions and hafty diligence to pluck them out of burning, Jude 23. And therefore, to these first I shall apply myself in these lines. But whence shall I fetch my argument ? or how Thall I choose my words ? Lord, wherewith shall A 3 |