Richard Eedes (d.1686) on Christ as a Willing Advocate

"But if you may yet be prevailed with before your breath be stopped, and the pit shut her mouth upon you, to embrace Christ whom you have long slighted, and accept of that mercy which you have unworthily refused, and receive the Gospel which you have neglected, there is yet hope in Israel concerning this: O for the Lord's sake, and for your Souls sake, stand out no longer, refuse not mercy that may yet be had, be not accessory to your own everlasting undoing, do not tire a long-suffering God out of patience, and provoke him that swears he takes no delight in the death of a sinner, to swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his rest. Do not make him your judge who is willing to be your advocate, nor turn the Lamb of God into a Lion Rampant. O grieve not the Spirit, which would be your comforter, and remember who said, when he was waiting upon a rebellious people, My spirit shall not always strive with flesh, O send not back Christ's Ambassadors to their master to tell him with tears that you will not believe their report, and put them not upon that diabolical employment to be your accusers to God, and swift witnesses against you at the bar of Christ; make not the word be the savour of death, which was ordained to be the savour of life to the heirs of Salvation. Let not the Sermons, that you have heard, and the books that you have, or might have read, and this that you are now reading rise up in judgment against you: what should I say more, the Lord knows how willing I am to say all that I can possibly invent that may win upon you, and all that he shall put into my mouth, if he will open your ears and hearts to counsel, who opens and none can shut, this may be enough to prevail with you that hath been already spoken; but if he will shut, or will not open, though I could speak with the tongues of men and Angels, I should be but as a Sounding brass or a tinkling Cymbal. O consider this and the Lord give you understanding in all things."

Richard Eedes, Great Salvation by Jesus Christ Tendered to the Greatest of Sinners (London: Printed by T W for the Author, 1659), 155-156. This work has a forward by Richard Baxter.

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