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A38163 Great salvation by Jesus Christ tenderd to the greatest of sinners and in particular to such as have been refusers of it, if God shall now at last make them willing to receive it / by Richard Eedes ... Eedes, Richard, d. 1686. 1659 (1659) Wing E243; ESTC R17583 114,819 292

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the ancient Aegyptians that in their great feasts they caused a Deaths head to be carryed about the Table to put them in mind of their mortality a frolick that the Epicures and Belly-gods of our times that sit-down to eat and drink and rise up to play are not acquainted with it s reported of one of the Fathers and I think it is Hierome That he seemed alwaies to hear that saying sounding in his ear Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement The meditations of death and judgement are excellent corosives to eat out the heart of sin and no less Soveraign preservatives to keep us upright If we adde two more unto them which this Scripture prompts us to take in it will be more than a double fence it wil be a double bar to keep out sin and a double cord to draw to God and duty The second that my Text adds are Hell and Heaven Salvation and Damnation and these four put together are quatuor novissima the four last things and will furnish us with excellent matter for profitable meditation Some advise to meditate of Death some to think of Judgement some advise that we should remember Hell others that above all we should not forget Heaven but if they are of such force single to kill sin and quicken grace to help the Spirit and mortifie the flesh vis unita fortior when they joyn forces they will do their work more effectually I shall therefore lay and leave them before you as the fittest subjects of daily serious Meditation 1. Death shal be the first in order because it is first in time the great Statute of the Churches Magna Charta the Scriptures is recorded thus Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto all men once to dye The Scriptures tell us examples tell us all former generations tell us experience tells us our own infirmities tell us that there is not that man living that shall not see death O what should dying men have to do with sin surely not to hugg it in their bosomes and lodge it next their hearts and let it reign in their mortal bodies and serve it in the lusts of it but to kill and crucifie and mortifie it to kill it before they dye to kill it which otherwise will kill them sin is the sting of death and it makes death to be the King of fears to a man in his sins O death how bitter is thy remembrance to such a one We dare not dye in our sins Balaam that lived the life of the wicked did choose to dye the death of the righteous sin unrepented of is the worst pillow that a mans head can lye upon on a dying bed and sinners if they can by the help of a seared or flattering conscience make a shift to dye quietly that no bonds appear in their death no desperate horrour open them an entrance into Hell yet the wicked shall not be able to stand in the Judgement nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous they may elude humane justice or out-face and out-brave it in mens courts greatness may carry them off with power or poverty with pitty but righteous judgement shall be there dispensed by the searcher of hearts to high and low according to their works And this is certain that no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ther 's no Purgatory to scour such as dye polluted but as death leaves them so shall Judgement find them Ther 's no knowledge nor wisdom nor invention in the grave saith Solomon O that they were wise to consider this that they would remember their latter end saith Moses on the behalf of Israel noting what David saith the onely way to apply a mans heart to wisdom is to pray to God to teach him to number his daies Psal 90.12 And in another place the Prophet notes that Jerusalems filthiness was in her skirts because she remembred not her latter end Lament 1.9 The onely way to have all in a readiness at death to have calling and election made sure and to have nothing to do but to dye when death comes is to write it in our memories and to be often drawing it out by meditation and conference some will wear a ring with a deaths-head upon their fingers some will keep a dead mans scull in t●eir studyes or closets some will have death pictured on their walls or windows some will have their Coffins in their chambers some will write Memento mori upon their books as their Motto remember death all to help our dulness and slowness of heart in believing that our end is near and our dissolution at hand but those that have gotten it deeply rooted in their hearts and are carefull to keep the memory of death alive and quick in their meditations are the onely champions that are like to give death a valiant encounter and to come off with victory and triumph Oh death where is thy sting Oh grave where is thy victory These are likelyest to give Paul's farewell to the world I have fought I have finished I have kept c. henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any other creature shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus The frequent Meditation of death is an excellent means to make us dye daily 2. Judgement is the second because it is deaths second after death cometh the judgement and it is sure that we must all come to judgement as that we must once dye We must all appear before the judgement Seat of Christ to receive according to things done in the flesh whether they be good or evil The word of God is abundant in setting this before us with all appurtenances that do accommodate it as 1. The Judge and his throne and attendants and his work 2 Thes 1.7 8. The Judge the the Lord Jesus 2. His throne Heaven shall be revealed from heaven 3. His attendants with his mighty Angels 4. His work of justice to render vengeance in flaming fire to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gracious work to be made glorious in them that believe 2. The books by which we must b● judged of Scripture and Conscience Revel 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened i. e. of Scripture and Conscience and another book was opened i. e. the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 3. The causes that must be heard and tryed good and bad just and unjust Ecles 12.14 God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or evil 4. The whole process and final sentence Gods dealing with the good and evil to convict the one of sin unto Damnation
as ever thou hast the Reason of a man see that thou soberly bethink thee of this matter and rest not till thou canst solidly answer this question How shall I escape Death and Hell are a little before thee if thou be an unsanctifyed person and how wilt thou escape them Neither Policy nor power riches nor reputation formality or false presumptuous hopes will procure thine escape It must be by God the Father by Christ by the Holy Spirit or by none and it must be by a God most dearly loved and by a Christ most highly valued and received and by the Holy Ghost entertained into thy heart and obeyed for a God a Christ a Spirit finally neglected will never save thee Take this warning and additionall Testimony from A Friend of thy immortall Soul Richard Baxter A PREFATORY POEM OF THE AUTHOR' 's GReat Structures should have Porches but you 'l say This F●brick is not great and well you may And yet t is so a Riddle but no Cheat The volum's little but the Title 's great The Workman's low but yet the Building 's tall The Matter great though Modell be but small Much treasure lies in little room and things When it consists in jewells and in rings This work is like the Ocean which you know Is still the same at ebbe as t is at flow Or like the Sun that Magazine of light The same in Clouds as shining in its might Or like a Map where points and lines do stand For Rivers and for Counties Sea and Land Though in Octavo written you must know The Subjects are the largest Folio Though Book and Price be small excuse that wrong The names are short but yet the Things are long Salvation and Damnation Oh the height And depth of these expressions Oh the weight Of what they signify Oh who can tell The height of Heaven or the depth of Hell That 's high that hath no topp you will confess And sure that pitt is deep that 's bottomless Salvation Sin Damnation are not Theames For sleepy sluggards or for men in dreames Sin 's cl●ath'd in Scarlet like a man of Blouds Damnation doggs it like devouring flouds Cast from the Dragons mouth Salvation stands Like to a Refuge City on all hands Sin like a Sodom to destruct on tends Damnation's like a fire whose smoak ascends Salvation's like a Zoar Soules like Lot Fly for your life make hast and linger not God and your Teachers lowdly call and cry Oh sensless sinners wherefore will ye die Soules stop and turne oh turne oh sweetest breath God sayes and sweares he joyes not in your death O hearken for the Call of this ●ill voice Sets Life and Death before the sinners choice Reader wilt live or die Consider well And then Resolve it 's more than time to tell Thy thoughts to God If he should snatch thee hence Thy best would prove a very poor defence Depart thou must into a state forlorne Will make thee wish thou never hadst been born Eternity will all thy Thoughts confound It 's such a Depth no Intellect can sound We may the World and Witts out-run yet be But at the Entrance of Eternity Now wrastle and prevaile for who can tell But Jacob may be Christened Israel Chaff now is sold for Wheat and every dream Which is but Froth is now nick-named Cream Now Hereticks and each Blasphemer vents And greedy Doggs lick up their Excrements The Presse opprest g●ves out like Lotteries Too manj Blanks for one poor single Prize Authors neglected lie and sleep as dead Except than others taller by the head And Bookes in such a crowd of short and long Like London Cries are vended for a Song He 'is the best Artist now that best can tell How to make Bookes and then to make them sell As in Samaria's seige the ruder throng Are f●d with Asses heads and Cabbs of dung How often have I dugge to find out Ore In swarming Pamphlets but alas how poore And full of Rubbish little little gaines And often less than nothing for my paines When they should feed and feed and feed agen And hold out Milk for Babes and meat for Men And draw out new and old from their full store And should with Milk and Hony feed the poore Their Entertainments like a Witches feast A shew that feeds not but deludes the guest How should Babes thrive in a Step-mothers lap When Nurses give them poison in their papp Oh that some Zealous powers would conspire To sentence all such Stubble to the fire The whole is out of Order Church and State In my Prognosticks this is Englands Fate The Land will mourne and Men will find it true Till Caesar come who will give God his due Think not kind Reader that its my designe To clowd the Sun that my dim Starr may shine It is a task for Eagles not for Wrens To staine the beauty of deserving Penns This Iron age such Authors can rehearse Whose golden penns deserve a Golden verse Works should commend their Authors this being scan'd As it deserves so let me fall or stand I never lik't those Complements at Feasts That wish the best were better for the guests Those that in midst of plenty w sh for more And guilty of exceedings call it poore I ever thought the worst dish there too much The Coursest Morsell much too good for such If here a Feast of fat things you do meet Give God the praise and eat and drink the sweet If any failing here or leaness be Take you the best and leave the worst to me Christ bids his Shepards feed and feed and feed His Lambs and Sheep lo here is for your need And fill serv'd in First Second and Third Messe All wholesome food though but in homely dresse Eat drink and feast your selves my Friends but stay When that is done do not rise up to play If you will eat to live and live to die Joyne strictest Practise with the Theory Though naked Truth be best yet Fancies qua●nt Esteem the face the fairer for the paint And if we will mens queasy palates woo Our meat must wholesome be and toothsome too Most are like Children and refuse to eat Unless the dish be gaudy as the meat Even Curious palates feed as they would wish When wholesome food is in a garnisht dish When pleasure is with profit twin'd it s sed Its like the bristle that draws in the thred Austine delighting Ambrose for to hear His heart was led to Heav'n by his Ear And men must be indulged in this or we Our Books with dust and Cobwebs clad may see If Musick dwell in discords here are three That make a Unity in Trinity Or if Variety delight your braine Trichotomize that Unity againe But I am word-bound starv'd in midst of store My subject is too rich my Muse too poore Reader proceed thou lt not thy labour lose If halting Verse go more upright in prose T is to catch precious Soules to God that I Do
will let fly against the oversights of such overseers O you caterers for the Devil your houses should have been nurseries for the Church and they have been sties and kennels to breed up hel-hounds in you should have brought up your children in the fear and nurture and admonition of the Lord and done your indevour to make your servants Gods servants you should have read the word of God to them and talked of it with them at your down-lying and uprising you should have sought God early and late with them and for them and according to the Commandment should have preserved the Sabbath in your Families as well as observed it in your selves But there was nothing but Prayerlesness all the week and profaneness all the Sabbath when you hired us you gave us your carelesness for our earnest and now have brought upon your selves and us Damnation for our wages The neglected wife will say to the neglecting husband as Zipora once to Moses Thou hast been a bloody husband to me and the graceless child to the graceless father thou hast been a bloody Butcher to me and the unprofitable servant to the ungodly Master thou hast been a cruel Master to me God will say to careless Brethren The voice of your Brothers blood cries for vengeance and those that live here as neighbours and friends in their dull carnal way of neighbour-hood friendship will cry sin and shame upon one another as the greatest foes and most cruel enemies O the heart-burnings that hell-fire shall kindle the everlasting grudges that shall find Fomentations there 's the malice that burns and boyls in that fiery lake in the breasts of the damned 'T was not for nothing that Dives desired his brethren should be kept out of that place of torment one reason amongst the rest may be conceived to be this that their sins being augmented by his and they hardned in them by his society and example his torments at their coming to hell should receive an augmentation 2. As there is no joy in hell there is Greif with a witness yea with a thousand thousand witnesses Men count it their Solomon upon earth to have fellow-sufferers but this will be no palliation to the pangs of hell but augmentations rather especially by the sins of others which have been made ours by accessoriness Here they would not greive with godly sorrow but there they shall greive though with sorrow as far from godly sorrow as the heaven is from hell How many with worldly sorrow have grieved themselves to death taking up Rachells Lamentation perhaps for children or some other relation in the flesh mourning refusing to be comforted But this hellish sorrow doth far exceed it every pang of it is a heart-breaking sorrow we usually say were it not for hope the heart would break and all the mourning in hell is mourning without hope Ezekiel makes mention of a book written within and without with Lamentations and mournings and We and the Damned have no other book to read in If they look to their book without the book of Scriptures by that they stand condemned and according to that sentence is past upon them If they look to the book of conscience the book within that contains nothing but matter of mourning and everlasting Lamentation nothing but what will cause Weeping and howling and gnashing of teeth 3. As there is no hope in hell so there is fear horour in such superabundant measure that like a thousand Milstones or Mountains of lead they would sink the Soul to the bottom of that Sea of wrath were it not bottomless They shall be raging mad with fear and desperate horrour at the fearful sights that their eyes shall see and the fearful things that their ears shall hear They had no fear of God before their eyes while they lived in the flesh they could fear the face and frowns of man who was but Dust and Ashes but the dreadful everliving God that ought to be feared he was not feared we could never bring them to the beginning of wisdom the fear of the Lord with all that we could say or do though we have studyed to speak words that might cut like swords and have preacht them Sermons as keen as Razors Though we have improved all our wit and skill in handling that Sacrificing knife that pierces to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit and Joynts and Marrow though we have in our severe denunciations of certain judgements spoken thunder claps and fire-brands and thrown he●l fire amongst them in many and many a Sermon yet they were so cross-grain'd and knotty that they were fearless in the midst of real fears though they could fear where no fear was but now the case is altered before they would not fear alwaies to purchase blessedness Pro. 28.14 and now they shall fear alwaies with Gods curse to boot now they shall fear vvith a vengeance and God shall set a marke upon them even Cain's marke a perpetual quaking not a horn in 's forehead as the Master of Fancy the Jewish Rabbies have some of them thought but a hornet in his conscience The curse that God threatned to the Rebellious children of disobedience Deut. 28.65 shal be inflicted upon them God shall give them a trembling heart They vvould not sanctifie the Lord in their hearts nor make him their fear and dread vvhen he vvould have undertaken to be for a Sanctuary against all other fear Isay 8.13 14. and therefore novv a confluence of all other fears shall flovv in upon them like the billovvs of the raging Sea which cannot rest one in the neck of another Here the very name of the Devil is like a Bug-bear to children if they have but thoughts of seeing him in their solitary vvalks especially vvhen they are in the dark they are ready to creep into corners to hide themselves If they do but dream of him how do their thoughts trouble them till they awake and if they see him indeed though he do not appear in the most formidable shape they are ready to fall dead or mad Oh what will they do when they shall be cast into the same prison with all the Devils in hell and they must continue shut up with them for ever What fear and trembling shall then come upon them what Tribulation and anguish shall fill their Souls to the very brim What horrour and desperation shall over-whelm the damned when the King of fears the death natural hath delivered them up unto the Second death when fear anguish is still coming upon them and they shall never know when Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost it shall all be so to the uttermost and all without end despairing Cain's Language differs now in the several readings one runs thus My punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4.13 the other thus Mine iniquity is greater than that it can be forgiven then both these shall be true of all the damned their Sins are