Great Salvation by Jesus Christ, Dedication 2 – To the reader 1
To my indeered Friends Mr. JOSEPH, JONATHAN, and ISAAK BLACKWELL, Grace and Peace.
SIRS,
AMong the variety of ſenſes which the learned have put upon Chriſts threefold Paſce to Peter, Iohn. 21.15, 16, 17, feed, feed, feed my Lambes and ſheep, I find this to be one, 1 Paſce dictis, feed them with your Sermons, 2 Paſce exemplis, feed them with your exemplary converſation, 3 Paſce ſcriptis, feed them with your writings. 1 How I have fed this people by preaching, aetatem habent, they are able to tell you; How by Example, aliorum ſit judicium, others muſt judge who have known my converſation here and elſewhere. 3 And that I have alſo a deſire to feed them with my Writings, which may ſpeak to them when I am dead, I think my ſelf concern'd to give you ſome accompt, and to leave it upon record with you as three faithfull witneſſes. The right of preſenting an incumbent into this Living is ſo mixed in two of you, who pro tempore are the Patrons of its Miniſter and maintenance, and by whoſe manuduction I was here ſeated, that I know not which to Challenge for my Patron, or if I did, I ſhould think my ſelfe a loſer, and therefore rather than I would leave out a ſecond, I have indeavoured to make the moſt of you, and taken in a third.
As the wiſe diſpoſer of your habitations hath ſeated you triangular in the World, and made you Citizens of three famous Cities, London, Briſtol, and Hanburgh, ſo are you ſeated triangular in my heart, which deſires unfeignedly that you may all meet in one City, that new Jeruſalem, which is above, and may have Gaius his proſperity heaped upon you, internall, and eternall, as well as externall.
It is not ſo much the confidence of my entertainment as of your candid acceptance that emboldens me to invite you to the reading, and owning of this little Treatiſe, yet you will find that I have here apportioned my entertainment to my gueſts, and provided you firſt, ſecond, and third courſe, all good, plain food, which I preſume will be the more toothſome to you, becauſe it is ſo wholſome.
Though you have temporalls dealt out unto you with a liberall hand, yet I have cauſe to have ſome confidence that the Churches ordinary will be more taking with you than the Worlds g…dies.
Yet I would not have you think that in this trichotomy I have carved to each his ſeverall portion, but intend to each of you more than a Beniamin's meſs, and dedicate my book, as I do my ſelf, all to each, deſiring that the doctrine herein taught may be in you like the Soul in the body, Tota in toto, & tota in qualibet parte.
Your memorable Father my predeceſſor had a large ſtock a going in this place upon this ſaving accompt, what his returnes were upon the people of his charge, is not ſo viſible as I could wiſh it were, but ſuch as run may read that his prayers were plentifully returned into his own boſome.
He had three Sonns ſeparated to the Miniſtry, one is, and two are not, and your ſelves that yet ſurvive are witneſſes to that great truth, that the ſeed of the righteous ſhall be bleſſed; it's ſeldom ſeen that the Houſhold of faith hath been ſupplyed with ſo many plants out of one nurſery; and whether I were not called hither on the accompt of his prayers, who can tells; This I well remember, that my acceſs hither was paved with ſuch remarkable providences, that it looked very like the returne of prayer.
Many in this part of the Vale are gotten out of the Vale of darkneſs and the ſhadow of death, ſince your Father and ſome few more entred into this part of the harveſt, and if readineſs to hear be a promiſing prognoſtick (as undoubtedly it is) more are ready to break priſon, and to ſeek the way to Ziou with their faces thitherward. Oh let not the building ceaſe for want of hands, but whenſoever ever I ſhall pay my debt to nature, be carefull to provide a faithfull waterer, that your Fathers plantation and mine may be like a field which the Lord hath bleſſed; So ſhall you have favour both with God and men.
Theſe meditations were firſt digeſted, and calculated for the people of mine own paſtorall Charge, but may ſerve indifferently for this Goſpel-glutted Age and Land we live in. That it may find acceptance with the godly to further it with their Prayers, and with the ungodly to further their Converſion, and with all in order to their Salvation, is the hearts deſire and prayer of,
Your Friend and ſervant for Chriſts ſake RICHARD EEDES.
To my beloved People the Inhabitants of the Pariſh of Beckford.
Dear Soules
MY hearts deſire, and prayer to God for you is, that you may be ſaved, you of this place may ſay (and few villages can ſay the like) that the Goſpel hath dwelt here in power as long as you; How many pariſhes in England have deſired to hear the things that you have heard, and have not heard them, & to enjoy the meanes that you have enjoyed, and have not had them?
My painfull Predeceſſor (now with God) was a faithfull labourer in this vineyard above forty years, and ſhall it be ſaid of you, as it was once ſaid of gainſaying and refuſing Iſrael, forty years long was I grieved with this generation? And I have been here a waterer where he had planted now full as many yeares as there are Articles in your Creed, and yet cannot make it an article of mine, that many have received our …eport, or that the arme of the Lord hath been revealed but to a few.
What ſucceſſe the Goſpel hath had with your Soules, I muſt leave to your own conſciences, and to the ſearcher of hearts; I am loath to print my thoughts, leaſt I ſhould be conſtrained to ſpeak the Apoſtles language, 1 Cor. 15.34. Some have not the knowledge of God, I ſpeake this to your ſhame.
If you have embraced the Goſpel, you have bought the field in which the hid treaſure is, and though you are never ſo poor, and mean of birth, you are richer far, and more honourable than graceleſs Kings, and Chriſtleſs Monarchs.
If you have refuſed the Goſpel to imbrace the World, you will find it the worſt match that ever you made, when you ſhall underſtand that you have pleaſed the fleſh, and gratifyed the Divel, and made God your enemy, and if you had never ſo much pelfe, it will not profit in the day of wrath, and you are but baſe and beggarly, ſo long as you are without Chriſt, and without God in the World.
Oh perſiſt not in refuſing this great Salvation, you have had many offers, and one muſt be the laſt, and the more are paſt, the neerer the laſt is, and who knowes if this be not the laſt that ever ſhall be made to ſome of you? I wiſh that theſe words which come from my very heart-root may reach to yours.
To eſpouſe you to Chriſt is all the 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 its 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