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_, JOS. ALLEINE. LETTER XVII. _To the servants of God in |Taunton|, salvation._ _Most endeared Christians_, I SEND you a few prison counsels.