business that I have with you I came not hither to take tythes but to winn Soules The malevolent adversaries of the standing Ministry of England call us hirelings and it s a miracle of providence that we have our lives for a prey in the midst of such a blood-thirsty generation of unreasonable men but we so much more desire you than yours that if you would make this our hire to give up your selves to God by our Ministry that by taking heed unto our selves and to the doctrine we may save both our selves and them that hear us let them call us Divells and it should but adde unto our Crown while we all study to be what I desire to approve my selfe A Servant of Christ for the furtherance of your Salvation Richard Eedes To the Reader Reader BEhold I bring unto thee glad tidings of great joy That whatever thy life hath been for the time past and whatever thy sinnes unrepented of are for the present If God shall render thee teachable and willing to be counselled thou maist yet die happily if thou wilt but be perswaded to live holily for the short remainder of thy few and evill daies I desire to approve my selfe a true friend unto thy Soul in my indeavour to bring this to pass and nothing can hinder it if the Tempter do not still prevaile to make thee continue thine own greatest enemy If thou be young thou canst not set out upon such work too soon which is of everlasting concernment to thy Soul and tends to the sure-making of thy Salvation If thou be old and hast spent much time already in the service of sin it is more than time that thou shouldst awake out of that dead sleep least the sleep of death surprize thee and if thou should'st be taken out of the world by death before thou be taken out of the World by grace which God forbid it had been better that thou hadst never been born or hadst been created a Toade or Viper than a Man or Woman Deferr not a day not an houer not a moment longer to consider thy waies and to turne to God hearken to this call of God while it is called to day least deferring till to morrow it should be to late whiles the breath is yet in thy body and the Lord yet offers to breathe the breath of life into thy Soul let not the Divel World and Flesh so bewitch thee as to obstruct thy seasonable and serious closing with God upon a Covenant-accompt and with Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour So shalt thou breake off that Great Sin of Gospel-refusing and escape that Great Damnation that is due to it and attaine unto that Great Salvation which is here faithfully commended and heartily wished to thee by him who is Thy Soule Friend Richard Eedes To the Reader Reader IT is the glory and happiness of the Age and country in which thou livest to have the plaine and plentifull teachings of the Lord that while we see not God or the life to come with open face by immediate intuition to our full satisfaction we may yet see him in a glass by reason sanctifyed and guided and elevated by faith so far as to quicken our desires after more and to cheer and strengthen us as a fore-tast and earnest of the everlasting inheritance Though the invisible things of God may be so farr seen in the things that are made as to leave all those without excuse that know not God or glorify him not as God Rom. 1.20 21. yet is the Gospel the much clearer glass though not as to the sensible manner of Revelation yet as to the fullness and cleerness of Discovery In this glass thou maist certainly see on earth the things that will be done in Heaven and Hell to all Eternity Thou maist know if thou canst but know thy heart both where and in what case thou must live for ever Whether with God or Divells whether in joy or torments whether in the end I less sence of the love of God and in his Soul-ravishing vision and fruition and highest returnes of Love and praise with Christ and all the Heavenly Host or in the endless feeling of his confounding to wrath and pangs of conscience for thy former willfullness and folly and comfortless despairing lamentations of thy misery This certaine glass that from God foretelleth all these things is contained in the Holy Scriptures and daily held before thee by thy teachers who are commanded to call upon thee to try and know thy selfe hereby and to prevent the eternall misery fore-seen and set thy heart on the revealed glory and make out after it with the greatest care and desire of thy Soul that it may be thine for ever This glass is here held out unto thee by this faithfull Reverend Minister of Christ a member of our Association in these united Churches who hath judiciously and concisely yet seriously and pathetically told thee how great a Price is in thy hand if thou have but a heart to the blessedness to be procured by it and the improvement of it for that blessedness He hath told thee also what a sin and desperate folly it is to slight â—nd neglect this great Salvation and turne of that God that Heaven with a triâ—le or with the leaving of this contemptable World who is thy All and should have All and will have thy First and Best or nothing He hath told thee of that great Damnation that will certainely be thy Portion if thou go on to neglect this great Salvation Bless God for this seasonable call and admonition and harden not thy heart but hear if thou have but eares to hear Abuse not a God of Love that deserves not to be abused Turne not away from him that speaketh unto thee from Heaven Deny not thy Redeemer thy first and deepest thoughts and cares thy strongest love and most resolved labours that denyed thee not his blood his doctrine and his example Away with sin Man tread downe the World or use it for the World to come Crucify the flesh that hitherto thou hast served Heaven is before thee thou art made and redeemed to be equall with the Angels Dally not about so great a matter as everlasting joy or torment is God is not mocked and therefore do not mock thy selfe by preferring the tâ—yes of the World before him What needs all this adoe for thy daily bread Having food and rayment be therewith content Get well to Heaven and all is done and thou shalt never want lose that and lose all and thou wilt certainly lose it if thou seth it not first and give it not the chiefest roome in thy heart How thinkest thou to escape if thou neglect this Salvation Will a despised or neglected Christ be thy Saviour or a neglected Heaven be thine Inheritance Dost thou think to come back from the dead into this World to mend that which now thou dost amiss or canst thou escape against Gods will and word Reader
do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto the things that are before I press towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus whereupon one of the Fathers call'd him insatiabilis dei cultor an unsatisfied greedy worshipper of the Lord Jesus Gods workmen should be the best and good workmen can never want worke did not our God lay enough upon them in the duties of holiness righteousness and sobriety which is the Epitome of the morall Law Did not Christ lay enough upon them in charging them to keep his Commandemeuts out of love and that their faith work by love which is the Epitome both of Law and Gospel Their own deceitfull hearts will find them enough The alluring world the enticing flesh and suggesting devill will afford them but a little breathing redit labor actus in Orbem their worke is never at an end till death give them a quietus est blessed are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit that they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 What betwixt reading and hearing and studying and meditating and praying and mourning and searching and watching and praising and all those laborious and painfull duties that are of absolute necessity in order to the attainment of this great Salvation it is plentifully attested to be great Salvation 3. Next for Ordinances what tendency have all these but the furtherance of this Salvation The word that Converting and edifying ordinance is it not the word of life and Salvation May I not say unto you Men and brethren children of the generation of Abraham and whosoever among you feareth God to you is the word of this Salvation sent Is not the gospell our Law of life and the law our rule of life leading to this Salvation doth not Evangelicall grace fit us for legall duty Consult that Scripture Tit. 2.12 and you shall find it so And for the sealing ordinances of Baptisme and the Supper their tendency can be no other but as seales to a deed to the sure-making of this Salvation The Ministry we may say of it as the word doth of the Sabboth that it was made for man and therefore it s reckoned to the Churches charter 1 Cor. 3.22 All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephus c. And the Apostle to the Ephes speaking of the extraordinary Ministry of Prophets Evangelists and Apostles and the ordinary of pastors teachers tells us that it was for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Eph. 4.12 13. Wherefore hath God given us his Sabboth but that we should make it our delight if Salvation be our delight wherefore hath he appointed the ordinance of prayer as a Catholicon as universall food and Phisick for our Soules as necessary as our daily bread and daily pardon as the fourth and fift Petition of the Lords prayer note yea the very discipline of the Church Christian reprooses and rebukes and excommunication it selfe aimes at the reformation of the unruly at the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 4. Lastly for Providences how strangely doth God worke for the heires of Salvation though the word be the ordinary means for the conversion of a sinner yet how ordinarily is some afflictive providence singled out to set it home to weane unbelevers and such as stick at a halfe conversion like a child in the birth and to make them more then all-most Christians when souls do hang in aequilibrio and do as it were halt betwixt God and the world or flesh it s usually some pinching affliction that turnes the scales and causes the sinner to turne his heart and feet unto Gods testimonies Those that keep Catalogues of providences can draw out choice of experiences out of their full quivers They can tell you with David who delivered them out of the paw of the Lion and Bear 1 Sam. 17.37 and can with Paul record unto Gods glory he hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will also yet deliver 2 Cor. 2.10 Cannot Gods people tell you when they were dead and he put life into them as the prodigalls Father said of his Son so can they say of their soules this my soul was dead and is alive againe he was lost and is found Cannot they tell when they were asleep and he awaked them when they were in deepes and he succoured them when they were rushing upon sin like a horse into the battle and he withheld them as he did David from hurting Nabal by the providence of Abigal yea they can record thankfully the very ordinances and providences wherein God appeared to them It were endless to enumerate all let experient Christians supply the rest out of their own store while weaker Christians do make use of those weake helpes to further their understandings in comprehending this truth And now being come to the uttermost of their reason let us look back and gather up the severall branches into one bundle which we need not doubt to call the bundle of life in which all saved soules are bound up 1 The wisedome and love of God the Father who is the God of our Salvation 2 The sufferings and righteousness of God the Son who is the Author and finisher of our Salvation 3 The revelation and application of the spirit who is the furtherer of our Salvation 4 Graces and duties which bear the name of saving graces and saving duties 5 Ordinances and Providences which are all things that do accompany Salvation And none of these can be left out but our Salvation will miscarry they are all of absolute necessity and for all these gospel Salvation must be confessed to be great Salvation and a mighty engine that is carried with so many and mighty wheels 1 USE Shall be of Consideration wherein I shall commend unto your serious consideration this Salvation with its dimensions as great and so great Salvation so that you are to hear 1 What it is 2 How great it is What it is take in this short account which containes the substance of all that goes before It s the dear purchase of our Soveraigne Lord Redeemer freely bestowed upon Gods elect whereby they are by a strong hand and mighty meanes freed from sin and eternall misery and advanced to grace and everlasting happiness You may read a breviary of it Iohn 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only bogotten Son that whosoever beleiveth in him might not perish but have everlasting life It s this Salvation that denominates the Gospel to be glad tidings for can there be gladder tidings then life from the dead then eternall life from eternall death judge how
all things that are written in the booke of the Law to do them Deut. 27.26 It s this malediction that makes sin to be the sting of death and makes the hornet of an accusing conscience to sting self-condemned sinners like the pangs of death This put Adam upon that impossibility to run away and hide himselfe from God and made Cain to be à corde suo fugitivum a runnagate if it had been possible from himselfe This curse of the law sets the never-dying worme a gnawing and layes upon evill doers that intolerable burden of a wounded conscience which none can bear Cursed is the impenitent Drunkard Swearer Sabboth-breaker Lier Whoremonger prayerless Christless person saith the Law but I am such and such saith the conscience therefore thou art cursed thou art the man saith right reason in the conclusion It was the dreadfull impulse of this evill spirit that drave Judas first to despair and then to the gallows and furiously poasted him through an hell internall into an hell eternall T was this that doom'd despairing Spira to an hell above ground and fill'd him so brimfull with hellish horrour that he was the very monster of his time and the most dreadfull spectacle of the age he lived in Nay to come neerer to the quick It was the consciousness of this curse that set David upon the rack and put his bones out of joynt and brought him into a consumption that he complaines that his flesh was dryed up for want of fatness and his moisture was like the droughth in Summer These terrours of the Law and plunges of conscience were the stormes and flouds and mire and deepes that he so deeply complained of and made one deep to call upon another the deep of his misery to the deep of Gods mercy T was this venome that so pointed those arrows of the allmighties wrath that drank up Jobs spirits And made Hezekia to mourne like a dove and chatter like a Craine and complaine that from morning to evening God made an end of him T was this that pickled up Peter in his bitter tears and put blessed Paul so to it that he cryed aloud to Heaven for a deliverer Me miserum quis liberabit O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and this curse we are saved from by this great Salva 3. It saves from the tyranny and dominion of Satan Its mans hell above ground to be under the divells dominion and principality The Apostle notes that the unbeleveing and impenitent are held captive by Satan at his will 2. Tim. 2.26 and the Ephesians while they were dead in trespasses and sinns were said to be acted by the Prince of the power of the ayre the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience Eph. 2.2 Satan is therefore called The God of this World 2. Cor. 4.4 who blinds the minds of them that beleeve not least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them He goes about like a roring Lion seeking whom he may devour 1. Pet 5.8 And compasses the earth Job 1.7 yea he goes about with great wrath knowing that his time is but short Revel 12.12 He is called therefore the strong man armed that keepes peaceable possession till the stronger come Luke 11.21 but when that stronger comes and God and Christ come in with this mighty Salvation when the grace of God which brings Salvation once appeares then the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal but mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds When he that hath the key of David will open ther 's none that can keep shutt As the graves must open to his Surgite mortui and the Earth and Sea must give up their dead at his word of command so when he will give sinners their blessed part in the first Resurrection the Divel World and Flesh shall not be able to detaine their Captives If God will but give Paul a commission to go to the Gentiles he shall open their Eyes and translate them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God Act. 26.17 18. When God will shine upon the labours of his planting and watering servants and come in with that increase which the Apostle calls the increase of God then not only gates of brass and barrs of Iron shall fly open and breake in sunder as they did before Cyrus when God would use him as an instrument towards his peoples enlargement but even the chaines of darkness shall snap asunder before the mighty word and almighty spirit of the Churches great Redemer like Sampsons cords when the Philistins were upon him And here is the comfort of all comforts they that are set at liberty by this great Salvation have so full a rescue that they shall never be led captive more though they have been pulled like brands out of the fire like the prey out of the paw of the Lion rampant out of the hands of the strong man by a stronger yet now they are in safe hands because there cannot come a stronger Christ saith none can take his sheep out of his hand and his father that gave them him is greater than all and none can take them out of his fathers hand Iohn 10.28 29. Though he consider and study Job Job 1.8 and resist Josua Zech. 3.1 Though be desire to have the Apostles to winnow them Luke 22.31 and wresties with beleivers about Heavenly things Eph. 6.11 12. Though he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devices plots machinations stratagems 2 Cor. 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiles methods snares laid at unawares way layings as the word properly signifies traps artificially set to catch the prey and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 2.24 the depths of Satan those poor deluded Soules like those in our times that are under strong delusions and the efficacy of error called their opinions the deep things of God in allusion probably unto that expression 1 Cor. 2.10 The spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God and there the spirit tells them they were the deep things of the divel and not of God they were not fetcht from Heaven but from the depth of hell and though he hath such weapons as the word calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6 16. The fiery darts of the Divel yet though he set all his infernall powers on worke and imploy all his heads and hornes all his stratagems and strength and joyne his serpentine subtilty with his Lyon-like power yet the least of God's little ones shall be saved from him though the Dragon cast Flouds out of his mouth after the woman and the remnant of her seed yet they shall have a hiding place provided They have a Captain generall that is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The cheife Captain and Finisher of their Faith Heb. 12.2 Who in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted h◠is ble to succour them that are tempted Heb.
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 tâ—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 bâ— 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