JOSEPH

See also:

• JOSEPH ALLEINE (1634-1668)
• ALLEINE, RICHARD (1611-1681)

ALLEINE (1634-1668)  , English Nonconformist divine, belonged to a family originally settled in Suffolk . As early as 1430 some of them—sprung of Alan, lord of Buckenha]l —settled in the neighbourhood of Calne and Devizes, whence descended the immediate ancestors of " worthy Mr Tobie Alleine of Devizes," father of Joseph, who, the fourth of a large family, was born at Devizes early in 1634 . 1645 is marked in the title-page of a quaint old tractate, by an eye-witness, as the year of his setting forth in the Christian race . His elder brother Edward had been a clergyman, but in this year died; and Joseph entreated his father that he might be educated to succeed his brother in the ministry . In April 1649 he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, and on the 3rd of November 1651 he became scholar of Corpus Christi College . On the 6th of July 1653 he took the degree of B.D., and became a tutor and chaplain of Corpus Christi, preferring this to a fellowship . In 1654 he had offers of high preferment in the state, which he declined; but in 16J5 George Newton, of the great church of St Mary Magdalene, Taunton, sought him for assistant and Alleine accepted the invitation . Almost coincident with his ordination as associate pastor came his marriage with Theodosia Alleine, daughter of Richard Alleine . Friendships among " gentle and simple " ALLEINE of the former, with Lady Farewell, grand-daughter of the protector Somerset—bear witness to the attraction of Alleine's private life . His public life was a model of pastoral devotion . This is all the more remarkable as he found time to continue his studies, one monument of which was his Theologia Philosophica (a lost MS.), a learned attempt to harmonize revelation and nature, which drew forth the wonder of Baxter . Alleine was no mere scholar or divine, but a man who associated on equal terms with the founders of the Royal Society .

These scientific studies were, however, kept in subordination to his proper

work . The extent of his influence was, in so young a man, unique, resting on the earnestness and force of his nature . The year 1662 found senior and junior pastors like-minded, and both were among the two thousand ejected ministers . Alleine, with John Wesley (grandfather of the celebrated John Wesley), also ejected, then travelled about, preaching wherever opportunity was found . For this he was cast into prison, indicted at sessions, bullied and fined . His Letters from Prison were an earlier Cardiphonia than John Newton's . He was re-leased on the 26th of May 1664; and in spite of the Conventicle, or Five Mile Act, he resumed his preaching . He found himself again in prison, and again and again a sufferer . His remaining years were full of troubles and persecutions nobly borne, till at last, worn out by them, he died on the 17th of November 1668; and the mourners, remembering their beloved minister's words while yet with them, " If I should die fifty miles away, let me be buried at Taunton," found a grave for him in St Mary's chancel . No Puritan nonconformist name is so affectionately cherished as is that of Joseph Alleine . His chief literary work was An Alarm to the Unconverted (1672), otherwise known as The Sure Guide to Heaven, which had an enormous circulation . His Remains appeared in 1674 .

See Life, edited by Baxter; Joseph Alleine: his Companions and Times, by

Charles Stanford (1861); Wood's Athenae, iii . 819; Palmer's Nonc . Mem. iii . 208 .