Dear cousin, I charge you by the Lord, to observe these things. Pray over them, weep over them, read them again and again; do not pass them over as slight and ordinary things. Your soul is at stake; it is your salvation which is concerned in them; think not that I am in jest with you. I travel in birth with you, till Christ be formed in you. Why should you die? Oh repent and live, lay hold on eternal life, win Christ, and you win all. Oh be thankful to the Lord, that now you are fatherless and friendless, yet you have one remembrancer to warn you to flee from the wrath to come. God forbid that I should find you at last in the place of torments, for your not embracing these counsels. To conclude, I charge you as a minister, as a father, take heed of these three things: 1. _Lest the gain of the world prove the loss of your soul_: 2. _Lest company draw you from God_: 3. _Lest a lofty or a worldly heart should thrust you out of the kingdom of heaven._ Oh labour whatever you do for an humble heart. Be little, be vile in your own eyes; seek not after great things; be poor in spirit: without this, heaven will be no place for you. Your lot is fallen in a place of great wickedness, where your soul is in much danger, where your temptations are many, and your helps for heaven but few: where good examples are rare, and many will entice ♦you to sin and vanity. O! look about you, consider your danger, fear lest you should miscarry for ever. I can but warn you and pray for you: but though you have none to oversee you, remember the eye of God is upon you, to observe all your actions, and that he will surely bring all your practices into judgment. I commend you to the Lord, and remain, _Your loving and careful uncle_, JOS. ALLEINE. _August 19, 1668._ ♦ “yo” replaced with “you” LETTER XXVIII. _Dear friend_,