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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 Kingdome of glory 1. We are saved to the state or Kingdome of grace we are brought into Jerusalem the Holy and led through it into Ierusalem the happy we are conducted through holyness into happiness and made to pass through the porch of grace into the palace of glory 1. Salvation bestows upon us the first grace It s therefore called a Creation which we call regeneration and this as well as the first creation is ex nihilo the creating of grace where there was none before If any be in Christ saith the Apostle he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and David prayes create in me a clean heart O God Psal 51.10 And the promise is A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart that is your body and I will give you an heart of flesh Ez. 36.26 2. It causes us to increase in grace 1. By Addition adding grace unto grace and proceeding from vertue to vertue observe the Apostles direction 2. Pet. 1.5 giving all diligence adde unto faith vertue and unto vertue knowledge and unto knowledge temperance and unto temperance patience and unto patience godliness and unto godliness brotherly kindness and unto brotherly-kindness love there is no grace that a gracious Soul would want 2. By Multiplication heaping grace upon grace knowledge upon knowledge faith upon faith repentance upon repentance obedience upon obedience indeavouring to advance to higher degrees in grace labouring that grace may not not only be in us but that it may abound in us 2 Pet. 1.8 As there is no grace for kind so there is no degree of grace for measure that a gracious Soul would want 3. And it doth not only prevent us with grace by giving us the first grace and enabling us to will and bestow upon us the second grace by assisting us with grace and enabling us to do as well as to will according to that saying Nolentem praevenit deus ut velit volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit God prevents us with his grace to make willing and God followes us with his grace to make able But it also keepes us in grace Paul gloryed that he had kept the faith which was by being kept in the faith according to that of Peter Yee are kept by the power of God through faith unto Salvation 1. Pet. 1.5 2. By this great Salvation we are saved to the Kingdome of glory as well as to that of grace Christ teacheth us to pray for both at once in that Petition Thy Kingdome come 1 let the Kingdome of sin and Satan be domolished in us and others and let thy Kingdome of grace come in the room of it and let us and others be kept in it and do thou also hasten the Kingdome of glory David mentions both by way of promise Psal 84.11 The Lord will give grace and glory and therefore he makes mention of both in his prayer Lord guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to glory which is as much as if he had said Lord lead me through thy Kingdome of grace into thy Kingdome of glory Now as David said of the Jerusalem upon Earth we may much more of the Heavenly Jerusalem Many excellent things are spoken of thee thou City of God We may more easily give you a Negative description of it by telling you what is not there than a positive by telling you what is there yet take somwhat though but a touch of both 1 Negatively 1. There shall be no sin no unclean thing can enter into that Kingdome 1 Cor. 6.9 The Angells at the last day shall gather out of Christs mixt Kingdome the Churchmilitant all things that offend and that worke iniquity Mat. 13.41 that nothing but what is pure and undefiled may be gathered into the Church triumphant the Kingdome of glory 2. There shall be no labour that is called the rest that remaines for the people of God Earth was their place of labour and there was nothing else though some be so strong that they live to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow labour and labour labour upon labour labour for the body and labour for the Soul but blessed are the dead that die in the Lord even so saith the spirit that they rest from their labours Heaven is their resting place and there shall be nothing but rest rest upon rest rest from their body labours and rest from their soul-labour only they shall be restles in the prayses of their God but that restlesness is the best part of heavens rest they shall not cease in ascribing praise and glory and honour and power and dominion and thanksgiving unto him that sits upon the throne to the Lamb for ever and ever 3. There shall be no sufferings as they shall cease from their labours and all sweat shall be wiped from their browes so they shall rest from their sufferings and all tears shall be wiped from their eyes there shall be nothing of want and weakness there no corruption nothing of infirme nature that which was sowne in dishonour corruption weakness nature shall be raised in honour incorruption power and spirit 1. Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2 Positively 1. There shall be fullness of joy joy not capable of addition or augmentation Christ told his disciples that their joy should be full Iohn 15.11 2. There shall be pleasures for evermore not only joy uncapable of augmentation but pleasures uncapable of diminution and therefore our Saviour in the same breath that he told them their joy should be full he also promised them that their joy should no man take from them John 16.22 All that the World could present them with were but shells without kernels a few mock-consolations which brought them much labour in geting more care in keeping and most sorrow in losing such things as they could not enjoy themselves with them In a word they were empty and transitory but the joyes of Heaven are commended to us by 2 most lovely and contrary qualities two They are full as opposite to the Worlds emptiness 2. They are lasting everlasting and so opposed to the Worlds transitoriness 3. Gods saved-ones shall not only enjoy a Kingdome of prepared pleasures but they shall enjoy God with them that they shall enjoy a Kingdome of prepared pleasures read Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed children of my father receive the Kingdome prepared for you must not that be the confluence of all Beatitudes which hath taken up the love and wisedome of God in preparing them And that they shall enjoy God with them read 1 Thes 4.17 so shall we be for ever with the Lord the Apostle desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 It s the misery of unbeleevers upon earth that they are without Christ and without God in the World Eph. 2.12 but it shall be the imcomparable happiness of believers in Heaven that they shall
Apostle Peter to say 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye were not redeamed with corruptible things as gold and silver but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemlish and without spot now if we look back upon the great righteousness and sufferings of God the Son which were ingredient into our Salvation we need not doubt to call it great Salvation 3 In the third place we come to the third person and to shew what proceeds from that person that proceeds from the Father and the Son towards this great Salvation and that is 1 The Revelation of the spirit It is the spirit of God that hath brought Salvation to light through the Gospel The word is but the letter the spirit is the inditer and penman of it all Scripture being given by divine inspiration 2. Tim. 3.16 And therefore as it is called the sword of the spirit so it may be called the word of the spirit It s true that men were the penmen of Scripture or rather the penns in the hand of a ready writer as the Apostle said he was Gods pen to write Gods Epistle in the fleshly tables of the hearts of the Corinthians 2. Cor. 3.2 3. And therefore it s said that no prophesy of Scripture is of any private interpretation but holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1.21 And in the beginning of this Epistle to the Hebrews The writer of it saith God at sundry times and in diverse manners spake to our fathers by his servants the prophets c. but especially take notice of the verse that follows my text How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that hear him God also bearing them witness both with signes and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will it was the Holy Ghost that sealed up the truth of the Gospel by diverse miracles The Apostle therefore calleth the spirit the great Teacher 1 Ioh. 2.27 Ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things 1. Ioh. 2.27 And the spirit is said to reveale that in the word to the spirituall man which the word without the spirit cannot make the naturall man to understand 1 Cor 2.9 10. Eye hath not seen nor care heard neither hath entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And the Apostle prayes that God would come in with the spirit of wisedome upon the word of wisedome and with the spirit of revelation upon the word of revelation to his Ephesians Eph. 1 17. 2 The Application of the spirit As this Salvation is from the spirits revelation so hath it its efficacy from the spirits application It s the spirit that must bring our hearts to the word as well as the word to our hearts that must speak us through and say to our blind eyes deafe eares and dead hearts be opened see and hear and understand and be converted and he healed It s the spirit that must perswade us to recieve entertaine and embrace Christ that must say to our understandings and wills and hearts lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye opened ye everlasting dores that the King of glory may enter in when the dead letter of the word and a dead heart meet there can be but dead worke till the spirit of life that free wind that blowes where it lists do blow through that word upon the Soul that spirit that indited the word can make it the savour of life and that spirit that formed the heart and searcheth the heart can say unto dead hearts live In this respect it is that we are said to be drawne to Christ Iohn 6.44 and to be made beleevers by the exceeding greatness of his power and according to the working of his mighty power Eph. 1.19 Now in that the Gospel needed so glorious a revelation and so powerfull an application and both by the spirit our Salvation wrought by it must be confessed to be great Salvation 3. Next we come to things in subordination that do subserve under God in Trinity towards this great Salvation and here I might enter upon a large field of matter but for brevites sake I shall only point out the hid treasures that so knowing where they lie you may digg after them And the things whose instrumentality the great God of our Salvation uses towards the effecting of this great Salvation may be laid before us in two paires 1. The First pair is 1. graces 2. duties 2. The Second pair is 1. ordinances 2. providences I thus joyne them together because God joyneth them together 1. Grace and duty grace being the principle of duty and duty being but the acting of grace 2. Ordinances and providences which usually go hand in hand for our conversion aedification and Salvation 1. We begin with grace The word saith Titus 2.12 The grace of God which bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live holily justly and soberly in this present World where the Apostle teacheth us that it is grace that makes us to abound in duty and therefore to that end that we may abound in the worke of the Lord which the Apostle presses 1. Cor. 15. ult we are taught by the Apostle Peter to abound in grace 2. Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. giving all dilligence adde unto your faith c. and then it follows If these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Note the graces of faith vertue knowledge temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness love must not only be in us but they must abound in us in order to this great Salvation And the fruits of the spirit that the heyres of Salvation must indeavour to abound in are laid downe in another cluster Gal. 5.22 23. The fruits of the spirit are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance these and all the rest of the traine of heavenly graces do accompany Salvation and it must needes be great Salvation that is so greatly graced 2. Dutie is the next wherein as you heard before they must no less abound than they must in grace The Apostles exhortation is 1. Cor. 15. ult My bretheren be ye stedfast and unmovable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. And it was not only his precept but his practise to he did not like the Scribes and Pharises bind heavy burdens to lay upon others shoulders but he taught them by his own example to bear them too Phil. 3.13 14. This one thing I
durable profits and lasting pleasures and everlasting honours are made no account of The body and lust and sinne shall be satisfied when the soul and grace and glory are laid aside as not worth the minding we are ready to condemne Adam of monstrous madness that would looss Paradise for an apple and to cry out upon Esau as the foole of all fooles that would exchange his birthright for a mess of pottage and the very name of Judas the traitor in graine stinkes like rotteness that would sell his master for thirty pence but surely the World is full of such fooles and madmen and monsters Those that will please their appetite with Adam though they lose an Heavenly Paradise for so doing Those that will satisfy their craving flesh with Esau though they lose the glorious I berty of Gods Sonns and forfeit all the priviledges of the new birth-right Those that will have Balaams wages the wages of iniquity with curied Judas though they lose Soul and Saviour and Salvation and all If we do but look abroad in the World and take a view of the lives and behaviour of men and women old and young high and low rich and poor one with another We shall see that the multitude is like that heard of Swine possessed of the Legion running headlong to their own damnation Ambition carries away thousands voluptuousness ten thousands worldly-mindedness hundreds of thousands so that Millions are visibly in a perishing condition wickedness recting the wicked man to his teeth 〈◊〉 as Daved saith that there is no fear of God before his eyes and the abounding of iniquity makes proclamation that notwithstanding such great Salvation be brought to light yet there are but few that shall be saved Hell hath enlarged herselfe without measure and all the pompe and all multitude of secure and careless and senseless sinners shall fall into it This oh this is the condemnation that is come into the world that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light that a Saviour is come into the world and men will not come unto this Saviour that there should be a proclamation of so great Salvation and men will not leave their sinns and close with God through Christ that they may be saved yet let us take a further survey for as yet we have but stirr'd in the stinke of common sinners those that give up themselves to serve the Divell by a sensuall serving the flesh and worldly mindedness these do turne their backs upon God and do in their actions profess against the dominion of Christ that they will not have him ●o reigne over them let us look towards them that seeme to look towards Heaven and observe diligently what we can find there 1 Are not many of them meerly civiliz'd and no more though they will not wallow like Swine in the mire yet they are not carefull to keep clean their garments nor to keep themselves unspotted from the world though they will not tear Gods Name by Ruffian-like oathes yet they will pawae their faith and troth for small matters 2 Some that advance higher than meere Civility yet make a stand at formality and take up with a forme of Godliness short of the power of it knowledge and grace they would have and duty they will do but it is but some knowledge and some grace and some duty that its an easy conclusion that they desire it rather to save their credit than their Soules that they may be in esteem with men rather than in favour with God but our Saviour hath said enough to dash all this Matt. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes who had but a forme of knowledge and Pharises who had but a forme of Godliness ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven and Luke 8.18 From him thah hath not from him shall be taken away even all that he seemeth to have 3 Many do stick in halfe coversions like a child in the birth and there is not strength to bring forth like that man in the Gospel that started aside like a broken bow at a forsake all and chose rather to forsake Christ then to forgo his wealth Herod heard John Baptist gladly in many things but would not part with his Herodias and all such as these are but like Agrippa allmost perswaded to become Christians but if they come not up to Pauls measure alltogether such as he true Israelites indeed such in whom there is no guile they are but Godless and Christless and Spiritless and graceless Soules and will be reckoned in the number of the neglecters of this great Salvation How should the servants of the Lord that have his spirit dwelling in their hearts and have the fear of the Lord before their eyes knowing the terror of the Lord against all such as are out of Christ and out of Covenant how should they pitty these poor Soules and intreat and beseech them to pitty their own Soules and to come in and be reconciled to God and to be willing to embrace the things that belong to their Salvation before they shall he hidden from their eyes And if they continue refusers still how should we ply the throne of grace with our earnest intreaties that God would forgive them who know not what they do that he would take away their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh That he would deliver them up unto Satan for their Salvation not for their damnations I meane that he would cast them into an Hell of conscience and plead with them there and cause them to see and feel themselves to be the vessells of sin and bondslaves of Satan that they may spend the remainder of their few and evill dayes in mourning that their flesh and body of sin may be destryed and their Spirits may be saved in the day of the Lord. And to help forward this work if God will before I pass from this use afford your attention while I expostulate the case with stubborne sinners on their Soules behalfe that they may be snatcht as brands out of the fire and pull'd out of the paw of the Lion rampant that seekes to devour them if they be not such deafe Adders as refuse to hear the voice of the Charmer charme he never so wisely I will not aske them whether grace and glory be of no reckoning with them which Salvation doth advance unto as you have heard in the second reason I will not ask them if the wisdome and love of God the Father the sufferings and righteousness of God the Son the grace and communion of the spirit be of no account If graces and duties ordinances and providences are nothing set by it s a common thing with those whose eyes the God of this World hath blinded and with such as are wedded to world and enslaved to the flesh to overlook all these as if they were not worth the looking after But can they dwell with the devouring fire