Joseph Alleine

Joseph Alleine was an English Nonconformist pastor and author, baptised on 8 April 1634 and dead by 17 November 1668, after a short life spent in study, preaching, and religious writing. He was born at Devizes early in 1634, the fourth child in a large family. His family had roots in Suffolk, with ancestors settled in Wiltshire around Calne and Devizes as early as 1430. His father was Tobie Alleine of Devizes, and one early turning point in Joseph’s life came through loss: his elder brother Edward, a clergyman, died in 1645, and Joseph asked that he be educated to succeed him in the ministry.

Alleine entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in April 1649, then became a scholar of Corpus Christi College on 3 November 1651. On 6 July 1653 he took the degree of Bachelor of Divinity and became tutor and chaplain of Corpus Christi, choosing that work over a fellowship. In 1654 he declined offers of high preferment in the state. The next year, George Newton of St Mary Magdalene, Taunton, invited him to serve as assistant, and Alleine accepted. Around the time of his ordination as associate pastor, he married Theodosia Alleine, daughter of Richard Alleine. Theodosia opened a boarding school at George Newton’s house, where there were said to be twenty and sometimes thirty boarders.

His mind was formed by both learning and devotion. Alleine continued his studies even while serving in Taunton. One part of that work was his lost manuscript Theologia Philosophica, an effort to harmonize revelation and nature that was admired by Richard Baxter. He also associated on equal terms with founders of the Royal Society. Yet the scientific studies stayed second to his religious work. The pattern of his life was clear: scholarship mattered, but preaching, pastoral care, and conversion were at the center.

The political and church conflicts of seventeenth-century England pressed hard on him. After the Uniformity Act of 1662, Alleine was among the ejected ministers. With another ejected nonconformist minister, John Westley, he traveled and preached. For this he was imprisoned, indicted at sessions, bullied, and fined. In 1663 he was imprisoned, and Theodosia stood by him at Ilchester during that year; he was released on 26 May 1664. After the Five Mile Act of 1665, expelled ministers were required to move at least five miles, and the Alleines moved to an obscure place at Wellington, near Taunton. Harassment continued, and after further moves and a secret service, Joseph was arrested again.

Alleine’s chief literary work was An Alarm to the Unconverted, published in 1672 and also known as The Sure Guide to Heaven. It had an enormous circulation, went through numerous editions and abridgements in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and appeared in Welsh, Gaelic, and German, with editions in Scotland and North America. John Wesley later abridged and printed it, and it was sold through Methodist catalogues and booksellers. Worn out by continued persecution, Alleine died in November 1668. Mourners remembered his own words, “If I should die fifty miles away, let me be buried at Taunton,” and he was buried in St Mary’s chancel. His writing still speaks because it came from a life tested by study, conviction, prison, and pastoral care.