Alleine

Alleine, JOSEPH, next to Baxter the most widely read of the Puritan writers, was born at Devizes early in 1634. He was educated at Lincoln and Corpus Christi colleges, Oxford, where he was noted for the severity of his studies, and was ordained in 1654. He began his ministry at Taunton in the same year, and laboured here until his ejection with the two thousand in 1662. Together with the grandfather of the Wesleys, he now became an itinerant preacher, and was in consequence frequently fined and imprisoned. His last years were dark and troubled, but death brought him relief, 17th November 1668. He was buried according to his wish in the chancel of his old church at Taunton. His Alarm to the Unconverted, of which 20,000 copies were sold at once on its appearance (1672), and 50,000 on its republication under a new title three years later, is still deservedly read. His interesting Remains were published in 1674.