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To my dearly beloved in Christ, the inhabitants of the Parish of Batcomb,18 in the county of Somerset.
My dearly beloved brethren:
Since the sermons which follow had their birth for your sakes, they are now offered to you. They come to you on the same important errand for which their author has been sent among you: to show you the path of [eternal]19 life, to bring you into that holy state [condition] and way that leads to everlasting blessedness, and to establish you in that state.
Sinners have an innate enmity against God and godliness that is rooted in their hearts. Next to that, the chief hindrances of sinners’ eternal happiness are their prejudices against, and their ignorance of, the good ways of the Lord.
By those volleys of reproaches and unreasonable slanders that they are continually shooting against holiness, Satan and his instruments have made it their business to render holiness an empty and contemptible thing in the judgment of the world. There are two things, among many others, with which they reproach holiness: First, that it is folly; whatever there may be in this godliness, it is attended with so many difficulties, dangers, and hazards. It will be such an intolerable detriment to all who will have much to do with it; it is a foolish thing to venture upon, given the hazards and disadvantages to it.20 It may be that this method of reproaching holiness will not work. The consciences of people may perceive and understand the real worth and excellency of holiness. They will therefore stand convinced that it is not folly, but wisdom, to venture any difficulties and to run any hazards for so glorious a prize. If so, then in comes the second reproach: that holiness is only a deceptive trick, a showy and deceptive artificial device to engage eager heads, amuse and divert the busy, and keep weak souls in awe. But notwithstanding its glorious pretenses, if inquired into, it will be found to be nothing but imagination, mere fantasy, and without reality in the heart of it.
In the following discourses, I have endeavored according to my might to wipe away these impressions from your hearts and from the hearts of those who read what you have heard.21 I hope you will see sufficient reasons in these discourses to put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. I hope to establish your hearts in a firm belief in holiness, a resolved embracing of holiness, and abundant encouragement to hold on to your holy course of life to the end.
The other hindrance of a godly life is people’s ignorance. They do not walk in the way of the Lord because they do not know the way of the Lord. They may possibly have some rude and dark notions of Christianity, but they cannot say what makes up the spirit and life of Godliness and how to set upon a holy and heavenly course. I have, in part, worked against this hindrance in the description I have given of a godly person and, more fully, in those directions I have appended for obtaining and carrying on a godly life.
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer for you is that what I have done may be effectively beneficial to your souls. I desire that you may be saved. And, as the apostle speaks,22 I desire that you may be brought into and established in the way of truth so that you may be found walking in the way of righteousness. If the Lord will be pleased to follow these endeavors of mine with His blessing so that they may contribute something to these purposes—if the Lord will so animate these otherwise dead words by His quickening Spirit so that some souls of those outside are added to the Church, or any cubits23 are added to the stature of those within the Church—it will be a crown to me and an exceeding cause of rejoicing. Let the Lord Almighty have the praise forever, both from all who will reap any benefit by this means, and also from the soul of
Your Servant in the Gospel,
Richard Alleine
18Batcomb is a village and civil parish located in Dorset County in Southwest England.
19Occasionally, when Alleine refers to eternal life by the single word “life,” the editor has inserted “[eternal]” for clarity. But this is not done in the vast majority of such cases. Similar to Scripture usage, when the reader is promised life, the reference is almost always to eternal, spiritual life.
20Alleine speaks not only of the Christian’s everyday self-denial, struggles against sin, and so on, but of persecution of various intensities. Alleine himself endured persecution for his stand for truth and Christ. For that matter, at the present time (2018) many Christians around the world are severely persecuted.
21These sermons were preached verbally, and then also printed.
22Possibly 2 Peter 1:12.
23cubit: biblical measurement of length, about 18 inches or 46 cm.
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