About the Author

Joseph Alleine (1634-1668), English Nonconformist preacher, who in his youth was a brilliant student who turned down promising careers in politics, science and academia for the work of the ministry, for his true interests were only spiritual:  “I have had,” he wrote to his parents, “to accept very honorable preferment in several kinds ... but I have not found the invitations to suit with the inclinations of my own heart.”   He was especially burdened for unbelievers, and it was said of his preaching that “he never preached without a long expostulation with the impenitent, vehemently urging them to come some good resolve before he and they parted, and to make their choice for life or death.”  Those who knew him best believed him to be a man of great piety, prayer, and service both to fellow ministers and those under his own ministry.  When persecution in England came in 1662, Alleine was one of many non-conformist ministers (including Richard Baxter, Thomas Manton, John Howe, Philip Henry, and John Flavel) forced to leave their churches and even spend time behind prison bars, where he and others would preach to their flocks who came to hear them.  His confinement was eventually to rob him of his health, but like John Bunyan, it was there that he would write his most famous work An Alarm to the Unconverted (also entitled A Sure Guide to Heaven) a classic work which had a profound influence on George Whitefield, C.H. Spurgeon, and many others.

by Joseph Alleine

Alleine's Opening Letter to His Readers

Conversion then, in short, lies in the thorough change both of the heart and life, in which:

The Danger of Hypocrisy

The Need for Self-Examination

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