Transcribed from the 1845 Thomas Nelson edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                    [Picture: Picture of John Bunyan]





                                   THE
                         JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED;
                                   OR,
                     GOOD NEWS FOR THE VILEST OF MEN


                    BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM.—Luke xxiv. 47.

THE whole verse runs thus: “And that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem.”

The words were spoken by Christ, after he rose from the dead, and they
are here rehearsed after an historical manner, but do contain in them a
formal commission, with a special clause therein.  The commission is, as
you see, for the preaching of the gospel, and is very distinctly inserted
in the holy record by Matthew and Mark.  “Go teach all nations,” &c.  “Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature.”  Matt.
xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15.  Only this cause is in special mentioned by
Luke, who saith, That as Christ would have the doctrine of repentance and
remission of sins preached in his name among all nations, so he would
have the people of Jerusalem to have the first proffer thereof.  Preach
it, saith Christ, in all nations, but begin at Jerusalem.

The apostles then, though they had a commission so large as to give them
warrant to go and preach the gospel in all the world, yet by this clause
they were limited as to the beginning of their ministry: they were to
begin this work at Jerusalem.  “Beginning at Jerusalem.”

Before I proceed to an observation upon the words, I must (but briefly)
touch upon two things: namely,

I.  Show you what Jerusalem now was.

II.  Show you what it was to preach the gospel to them.

I.  For the first, Jerusalem is to be considered, either,

1.  With respect to the descent of her people: or,

2.  With respect to her preference and exaltation: or,

3.  With respect to her present state, as to her decays.

_First_, As to her descent: she was from Abraham, the sons of Jacob, a
people that God singled out from the rest of the nations to set his love
upon them.

_Secondly_, As to her preference or exaltation, she was the place of
God’s worship, and that which had in and with her the special tokens and
signs of God’s favour and presence, above any other people in the world.
Hence the tribes went up to Jerusalem to worship; there was God’s house,
God’s high-priest, God’s sacrifices accepted, and God’s eye, and God’s
heart perpetually; Psalm lxxvi. 1, 2; Psalm cxxii.; 1 Kings ix. 3.  But,

_Thirdly_, We are to consider Jerusalem also in her decays; for as she is
so considered, she is the proper object of our text, as will be further
showed by and by.

Jerusalem, as I told you, was the place and seat of God’s worship, but
now decayed, degenerated, and apostatized.  The word, the rule of
worship, was rejected of them, and in its place they had put and set up
their own traditions; they had rejected also the most weighty ordinances,
and put in the room thereof their own little things, Matt. xv.; Mark vii.
Jerusalem was therefore now greatly backsliding, and become the place
where truth and true religion were much defaced.

It was also now become the very sink of sin and seat of hypocrisy, and
gulf where true religion was drowned.  Here also now reigned presumption,
and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane of souls.  Amongst
its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and blasphemy vented
itself against the power of godliness, in all places where it was espied;
as also against the promoters of it; yea, their Lord and Maker could not
escape them.

In a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very slaughter-shop
for saints.  This was the place wherein the prophets, Christ, and his
people, were most horribly persecuted and murdered.  Yea, so hardened at
this time was this Jerusalem in her sins, that she feared not to commit
the biggest, and to bind herself by wish under the guilt and damning evil
of it; saying, when she had murdered the Son of God, “His blood be upon
us and our children.”

And though Jesus Christ did, both by doctrine, miracles, and holiness of
life, seek to put a stop to their villanies, yet they shut their eyes,
stopped their ears, and rested not, till, as was hinted before, they had
driven him out of the world.  Yea, that they might, if possible, have
extinguished his name, and exploded his doctrine out of the world, they,
against all argument, and in despite of Heaven, its mighty hand, and
undeniable proof of his resurrection, did hire soldiers to invent a lie,
saying, his disciples stole him away from the grave; on purpose that men
might not count him the Saviour of the world, nor trust in him for the
remission of sins.

They were, saith Paul, contrary to all men: for they did not only shut up
the door of life against themselves, but forbade that it should be opened
to any else.  “Forbidding us,” saith he, “to preach to the Gentiles, that
they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway;” Matt. xxiii. 35; chap.
xv. 7–9; Mark vii. 6–8; Matt. iii. 7–9; John viii. 33, 41; Matt. xxvii.
18; Mark iii. 30; Matt. xxiii. 37; Luke xiii. 33, 34; Matt. xxvii. 25;
chap. xx. 11–16; 1 Thess. ii. 14–16.

This is the city, and these are the people; this is their character, and
these are their sins: nor can there be produced their parallel in all
this world.  Nay, what world, what people, what nation, for sin and
transgression, could, or can be compared to Jerusalem! especially if you
join to the matter of fact the light they sinned against, and the
patience which they abused.  Infinite was the wickedness upon this
account which they committed.

After all their abusings of wise men, and prophets, God sent unto them
John Baptist, to reduce them, and then his Son to redeem them; but they
would be neither reduced nor redeemed, but persecuted both to the death.
Nor did they, as I said, stop here; the holy apostles they afterwards
persecuted also to death, even so many as they could; the rest they drove
from them unto the utmost corners.

II.  I come now to show you what it was to preach the gospel to them.  It
was, saith Luke, “to preach to them repentance and remission of sins” in
Christ’s name; or, as Mark has it, to bid them “repent and believe the
gospel,” Mark i. 15; not that repentance is a cause of remission, but a
sign of our hearty reception thereof.  Repentance is therefore here put
to intimate, that no pretended faith of the gospel is good that is not
accompanied with it: and this he doth on purpose, because he would not
have them deceive themselves: for with what faith can he expect remission
of sins in the name of Christ, that is not heartily sorry for them?  Or
how shall a man be able to give to others a satisfactory account of his
unfeigned subjection to the gospel, that yet abides in his impenitency?

Wherefore repentance is here joined with faith in the way of receiving
the gospel.  Faith is that without which it cannot be received at all;
and repentance that without which it cannot be received unfeignedly.
When therefore Christ says, he would have repentance and remission of
sins preached in his name among all nations, it is as much as to say, I
will that all men every where be sorry for their sins, and accept of
mercy at God’s hand through me, lest they fall under his wrath in the
judgment.  For as I had said, without repentance, what pretence soever
men have of faith, they cannot escape the wrath to come.  Wherefore Paul
saith, God commands “all men every where to repent,” (in order to their
salvation), “because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained;” Acts xvii.
31.

And now to come to this clause, “Beginning at Jerusalem;” that is, that
Christ would have Jerusalem have the first offer of the gospel.

1.  This cannot be so commanded, because they had now any more right of
themselves thereto than had any of the nations of the world; for their
sins had divested them of all self-deservings.

2.  Nor yet, because they stood upon the advance-ground with the worst of
the sinners of the nations; nay, rather, the sinners of the nations had
the advance-ground of them: for Jerusalem was, long before she had added
this iniquity to her sin, worse than the very nations that God cast out
before the children of Israel; 2 Chron. xxxiii.

3.  It must therefore follow, that this clause, Begin at Jerusalem, was
put into this commission of mere grace and compassion, even from the
overflowings of the bowels of mercy; for indeed they were the worst, and
so in the most deplorable condition of any people under the heavens.

Whatever, therefore, their relation was to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob,
however they formerly had been the people among whom God had placed his
name and worship, they were now degenerated from God, more than the
nations were from their idols, and were become guilty of the highest sins
which the people of the world were capable of committing.  Nay, none can
be capable of committing of such pardonable sins as they committed
against their God, when they slew his Son, and persecuted his name and
word.

From these words, therefore, thus explained, we gain this observation:

That Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the
biggest sinners.

That these Jerusalem sinners were the biggest sinners that ever were in
the world, I think none will deny, that believes that Christ was the best
man that ever was in the world, and also was their Lord God.  And that
they were to have the first offer of his grace, the text is as clear as
the sun; for it saith, “Begin at Jerusalem.”  “Preach,” saith he,
“repentance and remission of sins” to the Jerusalem sinners: to the
Jerusalem sinners in the first place.

One would a-thought, since the Jerusalem sinners were the worst and
greatest sinners, Christ’s greatest enemies, and those that not only
despised his person, doctrine, and miracles, but that a little before had
had their hands up to the elbows in his heart-blood, that he should
rather have said, Go into all the world, and preach repentance and
remission of sins among all nations; and after that offer the same to
Jerusalem; yea, it had been infinite grace, if he had said so.  But what
grace is this, or what name shall we give it, when he commands that this
repentance and remission of sins, which is designed to be preached in all
nations, should first be offered to Jerusalem, in the first place to the
worst of sinners!

Nor was this the first time that the grace which was in the heart of
Christ thus shewed itself to the world.  For while he was yet alive, even
while he was yet in Jerusalem, and perceived even among these Jerusalem
sinners, which was the most vile amongst them, he still in his preaching
did signify that he had a desire that the worst of these worst should in
the first place come unto him.  The which he showeth, where he saith to
the better sort of them, “The publicans and harlots enter into the
kingdom of God before you;” Matt. xxi. 31.  Also when he compared
Jerusalem with the sinners of the nations, then he commands that the
Jerusalem sinners should have the gospel at present confined to them.
“Go not,” saith he, “into the way of the Gentiles, and into any of the
cities of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel;” Matt. x. 5, 6; chap. xxiii. 37; but go rather to
them, for they were in the most fearful plight.

These therefore must have the cream of the gospel, namely, the first
offer thereof in his lifetime: yea, when he departed out of the world, he
left this as part of his last will with his preachers, that they also
should offer it first to Jerusalem.  He had a mind, a careful mind, as it
seems, to privilege the worst of sinners with the first offer of mercy,
and to take from among them a people to be the first fruits unto God and
to the Lamb.

The 15th of Luke also is famous for this, where the Lord Jesus takes more
care, as appears there by three parables, for the lost sheep, lost groat,
and the prodigal son, than for the other sheep, the other pence, or for
the son that said he had never transgressed, yea, he shows that there is
joy in heaven, among the angels of God, at the repentance of one sinner,
more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance;
Luke xv.

After this manner therefore the mind of Christ was set on the salvation
of the biggest sinners in his lifetime.  But join to this, this clause,
which he carefully put into the apostles’ commission to preach, when he
departed hence to the Father, and then you shall see that his heart was
vehemently set upon it; for these were part of his last words with them,
Preach my gospel to all nations, but see that you begin at Jerusalem.

Nor did the apostles overlook this clause when their Lord was gone into
heaven: they went first to them of Jerusalem, and preached Christ’s
gospel to them: they abode also there for a season and time, and preached
it to no body else, for they had regard to the commandment of their Lord.

And it is to be observed, namely, that the first sermon which they
preached after the ascension of Christ, it was preached to the very worst
of these Jerusalem sinners, even to these that were the murderers of
Jesus Christ, Acts ii. 23, for these are part of the sermon: “Ye took
him, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him.”  Yea, the next
sermon, and the next, and also the next to that, was preached to the
self-same murderers, to the end they might be saved; Acts iii. 14–16;
chap. iv. 10, 11; chap. v. 30; chap. vii. 52.

But we will return to the first sermon that was preached to these
Jerusalem sinners, by which will be manifest more than great grace, if it
be duly considered.

For after that Peter, and the rest of the apostles, had, in their
exhortation, persuaded these wretches to believe that they had killed the
Prince of life, and after they had duly fallen under the guilt of their
murder, saying, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” he replies, by an
universal tender to them all in general, considering them as Christ’s
killers, that if they were sorry for what they had done, and would be
baptized for the remission of their sins in his name, they should receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost; Acts ii. 37, 38.

This he said to them all, though he knew that they were such sinners.
Yea, he said it without the least stick or stop, or pause of spirit, as
to whether he had best to say so or no.  Nay, so far off was Peter from
making an objection against one of them, that by a particular clause in
his exhortation, he endeavours, that not one of them may escape the
salvation offered.  “Repent,” saith he, “and be baptized every one of
you.”  I shut out never a one of you; for I am commanded by my Lord to
deal with you, as it were, one by one, by the word of his salvation.  But
why speaks he so particularly?  Oh! there were reasons for it.  The
people with whom the apostles were now to deal, as they were murderers of
our Lord, and to be charged in the general with his blood, so they had
their various and particular acts of villany in the guilt thereof, now
lying upon their consciences.  And the guilt of these their various and
particular acts of wickedness, could not perhaps be reached to a removal
thereof, but by this particular application.  Repent every one of you; be
baptized every one of you, in his name, for the remission of sins, and
you shall, every one of you, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

_Object_.  But I was one of them that plotted to take away his life.  May
I be saved by him?

_Peter_.  Every one of you.

_Object_.  But I was one of them that bare false witness against him.  Is
there grace for me?

_Peter_.  For every one of you.

_Object_.  But I was one of them that cried out, Crucify him, crucify
him; and desired that Barabbas the murderer might live, rather than him.
What will become of me, think you?

_Peter_.  I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of
you, says Peter.

_Object_.  But I was one of them that did spit in his face when he stood
before his accusers.  I also was one that mocked him, when in anguish he
hanged bleeding on the tree.  Is there room for me?

_Peter_.  For every one of you, says Peter.

_Object_.  But I was one of them that in his extremity said, give him
gall and vinegar to drink.  Why may not I expect the same when anguish
and guilt is upon me?

_Peter_.  Repent of these your wickednesses, and here is remission of
sins for every one of you.

_Object_.  But I railed on him, I reviled him, I hated him, I rejoiced to
see him mocked at by others.  Can there be hopes for me?

_Peter_.  There is for every one of you.  “Repent and be baptised every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”  Oh! what a blessed “Every one
of you,” is here!  How willing was Peter, and the Lord Jesus, by his
ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the gospel, that they
might be made monuments of the grace of God!  How unwilling, I say, was
he, that any of these should escape the hand of mercy!  Yea, what an
amazing wonder it is to think, that above all the world, and above every
body in it, these should have the first offer of mercy!  “Beginning at
Jerusalem.”

But was there not something of moment in this clause of the commission?
Did not Peter, think you, see a great deal in it, that he should thus
begin with these men, and thus offer, so particularly, this grace to each
particular man of them?

But, as I told you, this is not all; these Jerusalem sinners must have
this offer again and again; every one of them must be offered it over and
over.  Christ would not take their first rejection for a denial, nor
their second repulse for a denial; but he will have grace offered once,
and twice, and thrice, to these Jerusalem sinners.  Is not this amazing
grace?  Christ will not be put off.  These are the sinners that are
sinners indeed.  They are sinners of the biggest sort; consequently such
as Christ can, if they convert and be saved, best serve his ends and
designs upon.  Of which more anon.

But what a pitch of grace is this!  Christ is minded to amaze the world,
and to shew, that he acteth not like the children of men.  This is that
which he said of old.  “I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath, I
will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man;” Hos. xi.
9.  This is not the manner of men; men are shorter winded; men are soon
moved to take vengeance, and to right themselves in a way of wrath and
indignation.  But God is full of grace, full of patience, ready to
forgive, and one that delights in mercy.  All this is seen in our text.
The biggest sinners must first be offered mercy; they must, I say, have
the cream of the gospel offered unto them.

But we will a little proceed.  In the third chapter we find, that they
who escaped converting by the first sermon, are called upon again, to
accept of grace and forgiveness, for their murder committed upon the Son
of God.  You have killed, yea, “you have denied, the holy one and the
just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the
Prince of life.”  Mark, he falls again upon the very men that actually
were, as you have it in the chapters following, his very betrayers and
murderers, Acts iii. 14, 15; as being loath that they should escape the
mercy of forgiveness; and exhorts them again to repent, that their sins
might “be blotted out;” verses 19, 20.

Again, in the fourth chapter, he charges them afresh with this murder,
ver. 10; but withal tells them, salvation is in no other.  Then, like a
heavenly decoy, he puts himself also among them, to draw them the better
under the net of the gospel; saying, “There is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved;” ver. 12.

In the fifth chapter you find them railing at him, because he continued
preaching among them salvation in the name of Jesus.  But he tells them,
that that very Jesus whom they had slain and hanged on a tree, him God
had raised up, and exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give
repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins: ver. 29–31.  Still
insinuating, that though they had killed him, and to this day rejected
him, yet his business was to bestow upon them repentance and forgiveness
of sins.

’Tis true, after they began to kill again, and when nothing but killing
would serve their turn, then they that were scattered abroad went every
where preaching the word.  Yet even some of them so hankered after the
conversion of the Jews, that they preached the gospel only to them.  Also
the apostles still made their abode at Jerusalem, in hopes that they
might yet let down their net for another draught of these Jerusalem
sinners.  Neither did Paul and Barnabas, who were the ministers of God to
the Gentiles, but offer the gospel, in the first place, to those of them
that for their wickedness were scattered like vagabonds among the
nations; yea, and when they rendered rebellion and blasphemy for their
service and love, they replied, it was necessary that the word of God
should first have been spoken to them; Acts i. 8; chap. xiii. 46, 47.

Nor was this their preaching unsuccessful among these people: but the
Lord Jesus so wrought with the word thus spoken, that thousands of them
came flocking to him for mercy.  Three thousand of them closed with him
at the first; and afterwards two thousand more; for now they were in
number about five thousand; whereas before sermons were preached to these
murderers, the number of the disciples was not above “a hundred and
twenty;” Acts i. 15; chap. ii. 41; chap. iv. 4.

Also among these people that thus flocked to him for mercy, there was a
“great company of the priests;” chap. vi. 7.  Now the priests were they
that were the greatest of these biggest sinners; they were the
ringleaders, they were the inventors and ringleaders in the mischief.  It
was they that set the people against the Lord Jesus, and that were the
cause why the uproar increased, until Pilate had given sentence upon him.
“The chief priests and elders,” says the text, “persuaded (the people)
the multitude,” that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus; Matt.
xxvii. 20.  And yet behold the priests, yea, a great company of the
priests, became obedient to the faith.

Oh the greatness of the grace of Christ, that he should be thus in love
with the souls of Jerusalem sinners! that he should be thus delighted
with the salvation of the Jerusalem sinners! that he should not only will
that his gospel should be offered them, but that it should be offered
unto them first, and before other sinners were admitted to a hearing of
it.  “Begin at Jerusalem.”

Were this doctrine well believed, where would there be a place for a
doubt, or a fear of the damnation of the soul, if the sinner be penitent,
how bad a life soever he has lived, how many soever in number are his
sins?

But this grace is hid from the eyes of men; the devil hides it from them;
for he knows it is alluring, he knows it has an attracting virtue in it:
for this is it that above all arguments can draw the soul to God.

I cannot help it, but must let drop another word.  The first church, the
Jerusalem church, from whence the gospel was to be sent into all the
world, was a church made up of Jerusalem sinners.  These great sinners
were here the most shining monuments of the exceeding grace of God.

Thus you see I have proved the doctrine; and that not only by showing you
that this was the practice of the Lord Jesus Christ in his lifetime, but
his last will when he went up to God; saying, Begin to preach at
Jerusalem.

Yea, it is yet further manifested, in that when his ministers first began
to preach there, he joined his power to the word, to the converting of
thousands of his betrayers and murderers, and also many of the
ringleading priests to the faith.

I shall now proceed, and shall show you,

1.  The reasons of the point:

2.  And then make some application of the whole.

The observation, you know, is this: Jesus Christ would have mercy
offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem
sinners: “Preach repentance, and remission of sins, in my name, among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

The reasons of the point are:

First, Because the biggest sinners have most need thereof.  He that has
most need, reason says, should be helped first.  I mean, when a helping
hand is offered, and now it is: for the gospel of the grace of God is
sent to help the world; Acts xvi. 9.  But the biggest sinner has most
need.  Therefore, in reason, when mercy is sent down from heaven to men,
the worst of men should have the first offer of it.  “Begin at
Jerusalem.”  This is the reason which the Lord Christ himself renders,
why in his lifetime he left the best, and turned him to the worst; why he
sat so loose from the righteous, and stuck so close to the wicked.  “The
whole,” saith he, “have no need of the physician, but the sick.  I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance;” Mark ii. 15–47.

Above you read, that the scribes and pharisees said to his disciples,
“How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?”
Alas! they did not know the reason: but the Lord renders them one, and
such an one as is both natural and cogent, saying, These have need, most
need.  Their great necessity requires that I should be most friendly, and
show my grace first to them.

Not that the other were sinless, and so had no need of a Saviour; but the
publicans and their companions were the biggest sinners; they were, as to
view, worse than the scribes; and therefore in reason should be helped
first, because they had most need of a Saviour.

Men that are at the point to die have more need of the physician than
they that are but now and then troubled with an heart-fainting qualm.
The publicans and sinners were, as it were, in the mouth of death; death
was swallowing of them down: and therefore the Lord Jesus receives them
first, offers them mercy first.  “The whole have no need of the
physician, but the sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance.”  The sick, as I said, is the biggest sinner, whether he
sees his disease or not.  He is stained from head to foot, from heart to
life and conversation.  This man, in every man’s judgment, has the most
need of mercy.  There is nothing attends him from bed to board, and from
board to bed again, but the visible characters, and obvious symptoms, of
eternal damnation.  This therefore is the man that has need, most need;
and therefore in reason should be helped in the first place.  Thus it was
with the people concerned in the text, they were the worst of sinners,
Jerusalem sinners, sinners of the biggest size; and therefore such as had
the greatest need; wherefore they must have mercy offered to them, before
it be offered any where else in the world.  “Begin at Jerusalem,” offer
mercy first to a Jerusalem sinner.  This man has most need, he is
farthest from God, nearest to hell, and so one that has most need.  This
man’s sins are in number the most, in cry the loudest, in weight the
heaviest, and consequently will sink him soonest: wherefore he has most
need of mercy.  This man is shut up in Satan’s hand, fastest bound in the
cords of his sins: one that justice is whetting his sword to cut off; and
therefore has most need, not only of mercy, but that it should be
extended to him in the first place.

But a little further to show you the true nature of this reason, to wit,
That Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the
biggest sinners.

First, Mercy ariseth from the bowels and compassion, from pity, and from
a feeling of the condition of those in misery.  “In his love, and in his
pity, he saveth us.”  And again, “The Lord is pitiful, very pitiful, and
of great mercy;” Isa. lxiii. 9; James v. 11.

Now, where pity and compassion is, there is yearning of bowels; and where
there is that, there is a readiness to help.  And, I say again, the more
deplorable and dreadful the condition is, the more directly doth bowels
and compassion turn themselves to such, and offer help and deliverance.
All this flows from our first scripture proof; I came to call them that
have need; to call them first, while the rest look on and murmur.

“How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?”  Ephraim was a revolter from God, a
man that had given himself up to devilism: a company of men, the ten
tribes, that worshipped devils, while Judah kept with his God.  “But how
shall I give thee up, Ephraim?  How shall I deliver thee, Israel?  How
shall I make thee as Admah?  How shall I set thee as Zeboim? (and yet
thou art worse than they: nor has Samaria committed half thy sins); Ezek.
xvi. 46–51.  My heart is turned within me, and my repentings are kindled
together;” Hos. xi. 8.

But where do you find that ever the Lord did thus yearn in his bowels for
and after any self-righteous man?  No, no; they are the publicans and
harlots, idolaters and Jerusalem sinners, for whom his bowels thus yearn
and tumble about within him: for, alas! poor worms, they have most need
of mercy.

Had not the good Samaritan more compassion for that man that fell among
thieves (though that fall was occasioned by his going from the place
where they worshipped God, to Jericho, the cursed city) than we read he
had for any other besides?  His wine was for him, his oil was for him,
his beast for him; his penny, his care, and his swaddling bands for him;
for alas! wretch, he had most need; Luke x. 30–35.

Zaccheus the publican, the chief of the publicans, one that had made
himself the richer by wronging of others; the Lord at that time singled
him out from all the rest of his brother publicans, and that in the face
of many Pharisees, and proclaimed in the audience of them all, that that
day salvation was come to his house; Luke xix. 1–8.

The woman also that had been bound down by Satan for eighteen years
together, his compassions putting him upon it, he loosed her, though
those that stood by snarled at him for so doing; Luke xiii. 11–13,

And why the woman of Sarepta, and why Naaman the Syrian, rather than
widows and lepers in Israel, but because their conditions were more
deplorable, (for that) they were most forlorn, and farthest from help;
Luke iv. 25, 27.

But I say, why all these, thus named? why have we not a catalogue of some
holy men that were so in their own eyes, and in the judgment of the
world?  Alas if at any time any of them are mentioned, how seemingly
coldly doth the record of scripture present them to us?  Nicodemus, a
night professor, and Simon the pharisee, with his fifty pence; and their
great ignorance of the methods of grace, we have now and then touched
upon.

Mercy seems to be out of his proper channel, when it deals with
self-righteous men; but then it runs with a full stream when it extends
itself to the biggest sinners.  As God’s mercy is not regulated by man’s
goodness, nor obtained by man’s worthiness; so not much set out by saving
of any such.  But more of this anon.

And here let me ask my reader a question: suppose that as thou art
walking by some pond side, thou shouldst espy in it four or five children
all in danger of drowning, and one in more danger than all the rest,
judge which has most need to be helped out first?  I know thou wilt say,
he that is nearest drowning.  Why, this is the case; the bigger sinner,
the nearer drowning; therefore the bigger sinner the more need of mercy;
yea, of help by mercy in the first place.  And to this our text agrees,
when it saith, “Beginning at Jerusalem.”  Let the Jerusalem sinner, says
Christ, have the first offer, the first invitation, the first tender of
my grace and mercy, for he is the biggest sinner, and so has most need
thereof.

_Secondly_, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners, because when they, any of them, receive it, it
redounds most to the fame of his name.

Christ Jesus, as you may perceive, has put himself under the term of a
physician, a doctor for curing of diseases: and you know that applause
and fame, are things that physicians much desire.  That is it that helps
them to patients, and that also that will help their patients to commit
themselves to their skill for cure, with the more confidence and repose
of spirit.  And the best way for a doctor or physician to get himself a
name, is, in the first place, to take in hand, and cure some such as all
others have given off for lost and dead.  Physicians get neither name nor
fame by pricking of wheals, or pricking out thistles, or by laying of
plaisters to the scratch of a pin; every old woman can do this.  But if
they would have a name and a fame, if they will have it quickly they
must, as I said, do some great and desperate cures.  Let them fetch one
to life that was dead; let them recover one to his wits that was mad; let
them make one that was born blind to see; or let them give ripe wits to a
fool; these are notable cures, and he that can do thus, and if he doth
thus first, he shall have the name and fame he desires; he may lie a-bed
till noon.

Why, Christ Jesus forgiveth sins for a name, and so begets of himself a
good report in the hearts of the children of men.  And therefore in
reason he must be willing, as also he did command, that his mercy should
be offered first to the biggest sinners.

“I will forgive their sins, iniquities, and transgressions,” says he,
“and it shall turn to me for a name of joy, and a praise and an honour,
before all the nations of the earth;” Jer. xxxiii. 8, 9.

And hence it is, that at his first appearing he took upon him to do such
mighty works: he got a fame thereby, he got a name thereby; Matt. iv. 23,
24.

When Christ had cast the legion of devils out of the man of whom you
read, Mark v., he bid him go home to his friends, and tell it: “Go home,”
saith he, “to thy friends, and tell them how great things God has done
for thee, and has had compassion on thee;” Mark v. 19.  Christ Jesus
seeks a name, and desireth a fame in the world; and therefore, or the
better to obtain that, he commands that mercy should first be proffered
to the biggest sinners, because, by the saving of one of them he makes
all men marvel.  As ’tis said of the man last mentioned, whom Christ
cured towards the beginning of his ministry: “And he departed,” says the
text, “and began to publish in Decapolis, how great things Jesus had done
for him; and all men did marvel,” ver. 20.

When John told Christ, that they saw one casting out devils in his name,
and they forbade him, because he followed not with them, what is the
answer of Christ?  “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a
miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.”  No; they will
rather cause his praise to be heard, and his name to be magnified, and so
put glory on the head of Christ.

But we will follow a little our metaphor: Christ, as I said, has put
himself under the term of a physician; consequently he desireth that his
fame, as to the salvation of sinners, may spread abroad, and that the
world may see what he can do.  And to this end, he has not only
commanded, that the biggest sinners should have the first offer of his
mercy, but has, as physicians do, put out his bills, and published his
doings, that things may be read and talked of.  Yea, he has moreover, in
these his blessed bills, the holy scriptures I mean, inserted the very
names of persons, the places of their abode, and the great cures that, by
the means of his salvations, he has wrought upon them to this very end.
Here is, _Item_, such a one, by my grace and redeeming blood, was made a
monument of everlasting life; and such a one, by my perfect obedience,
became an heir of glory.  And then he produceth their names.

_Item_, I saved Lot from the guilt and damnation that he had procured to
himself by his incest.

_Item_, I saved David from the vengeance that belonged to him for
committing of adultery and murder.

Here is also Solomon, Manasseh, Peter, Magdalen, and many others, made
mention of in this book.  Yea, here are their names, their sins, and
their salvations recorded together, that you may read and know what a
Saviour he is, and do him honour in the world.  For why are these things
thus recorded, but to show to sinners what he can do, to the praise and
glory of his grace?

And it is observable, as I said before, we have but very little of the
salvation of little sinners mentioned in God’s book, because that would
not have answered the design, to wit, to bring glory and fame to the name
of the Son of God.

What should be the reason, think you, why Christ should so easily take a
denial of the great ones, that were the grandeur of the world, and
struggle so hard for hedge-creepers and highwaymen (as that parable, Luke
xiv., seems to import he doth), but to show forth the riches of the glory
of his grace to his praise?  This I say, is one reason to be sure.

They that had their grounds, their yoke of oxen, and their marriage joys,
were invited to come; but they made their excuse, and that served the
turn.  But when he comes to deal with the worst, he saith to his
servants, Go ye out and bring them in hither.  “Go out quickly, and bring
in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind.”  And they did
so: and he said again, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel
them to come in, that my house may be filled;” Luke xiv. 18, 19, 23.
These poor, lame, maimed, blind, hedge-creepers and highwaymen, must come
in, must be forced in.  These, if saved, will make his merits shine.

When Christ was crucified, and hanged up between the earth and heavens,
there were two thieves crucified with him; and behold, he lays hold of
one of them and will have him away with him to glory.  Was not this a
strange act, and a display of unthought of grace?  Were there none but
thieves there, or were the rest of that company out of his reach?  Could
he not, think you, have stooped from the cross to the ground, and have
laid hold on some honester man if he would?  Yes, doubtless.  Oh! but
then he would not have displayed his grace, nor so have pursued his own
designs, namely, to get to himself a praise and a name: but now he has
done it to purpose.  For who that shall read this story, but must
confess, that the Son of God is full of grace; for a proof of the riches
thereof, he left behind him, when upon the cross he took the thief away
with him to glory.  Nor can this one act of his be buried; it will be
talked of to the end of the world to his praise.  “Men shall speak of the
might of thy terrible acts, and will declare thy greatness; they shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy
righteousness.  They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of
thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the
glorious majesty of his kingdom;” Psalm cxlv. 6–12.

When the word of God came among the conjurers and those soothsayers that
you read of, Acts xix., and had prevailed with some of them to accept of
the grace of Christ, the Holy Ghost records it with a boast, for that it
would redound to his praise, saying, “And many of them that used curious
arts, brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and
counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
So mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed;” Acts xix. 19, 20.  It
wrenched out of the clutches of Satan some of those of whom he thought
himself most sure.

“So mightily grew the word of God.”  It grew mightily, it encroached upon
the kingdom of the devil.  It pursued him, and took the prey; it forced
him to let go his hold: it brought away captive, as prisoners taken by
force of arms, some of the most valiant of his army: it fetched back
from, as it were, the confines of hell, some of those that were his most
trusty, and that with hell had been at an agreement: it made them come
and confess their deeds, and burn their books before all men: “So
mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed.”

Thus, therefore, you see why Christ will have mercy offered in the first
place to the biggest sinners; they have most need thereof; and this is
the most ready way to extol his name that rideth upon the heavens to our
help.  But,

_Thirdly_, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners, because by their forgiveness and salvation, others
hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to him for life.

For the physician, by curing the most desperate at the first, doth not
only get himself a name, but begets encouragement in the minds of other
diseased folk to come to him for help.  Hence you read of our Lord, that
after, through his tender mercy, he had cured many of great diseases, his
fame was spread abroad, “They brought unto him all sick people that were
taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed
with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy,
and he healed them.  And there followed him great multitudes of people
from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond
Jordan;” Matt. iv. 24, 25.

See here, he first by working gets himself a fame, a name, and renown,
and now men take encouragement, and bring from all quarters their
diseased to him, being helped, by what they had heard, to believe that
their diseased should be healed.

Now, as he did with those outward cures, so he does in the proffers of
his grace and mercy: he proffers that in the first place to the biggest
sinners, that others may take heart to come to him to be saved.  I will
give you a scripture or two, I mean to show you that Christ, by
commanding that his mercy should in the first place be offered to the
biggest of sinners, has a design thereby to encourage and provoke others
to come also to him for mercy.

“God,” saith Paul, “who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  But why did he do
all this?  “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus;” Eph. ii.
4–7.

See, here is a design; God lets out his mercy to Ephesus of design, even
to shew to the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace, in his
kindness to them through Christ Jesus.  And why to shew by these the
exceeding riches of his grace to the ages to come, through Christ Jesus,
but to allure them, and their children also, to come to him, and to
partake of the same grace through Christ Jesus?

But what was Paul, and the Ephesian sinners? (of Paul we will speak
anon).  These Ephesian sinners, they were men dead in sins, men that
walked according to the dictates and motions of the devil; worshippers of
Diana, that effeminate goddess; men far off from God, aliens and
strangers to all good things; such as were far off from that, as I said,
and consequently in a most deplorable condition.  As the Jerusalem
sinners were of the highest sort among the Jews, so these Ephesian
sinners were of the highest sort among the Gentiles; Eph. ii. 1–3, 11,
12; Acts xix. 35.

Wherefore as by the Jerusalem sinners, in saving them first, he had a
design to provoke others to come to him for mercy, so the same design is
here set on foot again, in his calling and converting the Ephesian
sinners, “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of
his grace,” says he, “in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.”
There is yet one hint behind.  It is said that God saved these for his
love; that is, as I think, for the setting forth, for the commendations
of his love, for the advance of his love, in the hearts and minds of them
that should come after.  As who should say, God has had mercy upon, and
been gracious to you, that he might shew to others, for their
encouragement, that they have ground to come to him to be saved.  When
God saves one great sinner, it is to encourage another great sinner to
come to him for mercy.

He saved the thief, to encourage thieves to come to him for mercy; he
saved Magdalen, to encourage other Magdalens to come to him for mercy; he
saved Saul, to encourage Sauls to come to him for mercy; and this Paul
himself doth say, “For this cause,” saith he, “I obtained mercy, that in
me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern
to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting;” 1
Tim. i. 16.

How plain are the words!  Christ, in saving of me, has given to the world
a pattern of his grace, that they might see and believe, and come, and be
saved; that they that are to be born hereafter might believe on Jesus
Christ to life everlasting.

But what was Paul?  Why, he tells you himself; I am, says he, the chief
of sinners: I was, says he, a blaspheme; a persecutor, an injurious
person; but I obtained mercy; 1 Tim. i. 14, 15.  Ay, that is well for
you, Paul; but what advantage have we thereby?  Oh, very much, saith he;
for, “for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ
might shew all long-suffering for a pattern to them which shall believe
on him to life everlasting.”

Thus, therefore, you see that this third reason is of strength, namely,
that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the
biggest sinners, because, by their forgiveness and salvation, others,
hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to him for mercy.

It may well therefore be said to God, Thou delightest in mercy, and mercy
pleases thee; Mich. vii. 18.

But who believes that this was God’s design in shewing mercy of
old—namely, that we that come after might take courage to come to him for
mercy; or that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place
to the biggest sinners, to stir up others to come to him for life?  This
is not the manner of men, O God!

But David saw this betimes; therefore he makes this one argument with
God, that he would blot out his transgressions, that he would forgive his
adultery, his murders, and horrible hypocrisy.  Do it, O Lord, saith he,
do it, and “then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall
be converted unto thee;” Psalm li. 7–13.

He knew that the conversion of sinners would be a work highly pleasing to
God, as being that which he had designed before he made mountain or hill:
wherefore he comes, and he saith, Save me, O Lord; if thou wilt but save
me, I will fall in with thy design; I will help to bring what sinners to
thee I can.  And, Lord, I am willing to be made a preacher myself; for
that I have been a horrible sinner: wherefore, if thou shalt forgive my
great transgressions, I shall be a fit man to tell of thy wondrous grace
to others.  Yea, Lord, I dare promise, that if thou wilt have mercy upon
me, it shall tend to the glory of thy grace, and also to the increase of
thy kingdom; for I will tell it, and sinners will hear on’t.  And there
is nothing so suiteth with the hearing sinner as mercy, and to be
informed that God is willing to bestow it upon him.  “I will teach
transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.”

Nor will Christ Jesus miss of his design in proffering of mercy in the
first place to the biggest sinners.  You know what work the Lord, by
laying hold of the woman of Samaria, made among the people there.  They
knew that she was a town sinner, an adulteress, yea, one that after the
most audacious manner lived in uncleanness with a man that was not her
husband: but when she, from a turn upon her heart, went into the city,
and said to her neighbours, “Come,” Oh how they came! how they flocked
out of the city to Jesus Christ!  “Then they went out of the city, and
came to him.”  “And many of the Samaritans (people perhaps as bad as
herself) believed on him, for the saying of the woman, which testified,
saying, he told me all that ever I did;” John iv. 39.

That word, “He told me all that ever I did,” was a great argument with
them; for by that they gathered, that though he knew her to be vile, yet
he did not despise her, nor refuse to shew how willing he was to
communicate his grace unto her; and this fetched over, first her, then
them.

This woman, as I said, was a Samaritan sinner, a sinner of the worst
complexion: for the Jews abhorred to have ought to do with them, ver. 9;
wherefore none more fit than she to be made one of the decoys of heaven,
to bring others of these Samaritan wild-fowls under the net of the grace
of Christ.  And she did the work to purpose.  Many, and many more of the
Samaritans believed on him; ver. 40–42.  The heart of man, though set on
sin, will, when it comes once to a persuasion that God is willing to have
mercy upon us, incline to come to Jesus Christ for life.

Witness those turn-aways from God that you also read of in Jeremiah; for
after they had heard three or four times over, that God had mercy for
backsliders, they broke out, and said, “Behold, we come unto thee, for
thou art the Lord our God.”  Or as those in Hosea did, “For in thee the
fatherless find mercy;” Jer. iii. 22; Hos. xiv. 1–3.

Mercy, and the revelation thereof, is the only antidote against sin.  It
is of a thawing nature; it will loose the heart that is frozen up in sin;
yea, it will make the unwilling willing to come to Jesus Christ for life.
Wherefore, do you think, was it that Jesus Christ told the adulterous
woman, and that before so many sinners, that he had not condemned her,
but to allure her, with them there present, to hope to find favour at his
hands?  (As he also saith in another place, “I came not to judge, but to
save the world.”)  For might they not thence most rationally conclude,
that if Jesus Christ had rather save than damn an harlot, there was
encouragement for them to come to him for mercy.

I heard once a story from a soldier, who with his company had laid siege
against a fort, that so long as the besieged were persuaded their foes
would shew them no favour, they fought like madmen; but when they saw one
of their fellows taken, and received to favour, they all came tumbling
down from their fortress, and delivered themselves into their enemies’
hands.

I am persuaded, did men believe that there is that grace and willingness
in the heart of Christ to save sinners, as the word imports there is,
they would come tumbling into his arms: but Satan has blinded their
minds, that they cannot see this thing.  Howbeit, the Lord Jesus has, as
I said, that others might take heart and come to him, given out a
commandment, that mercy should in the first place be offered to the
biggest sinners.  “Begin,” saith he, “at Jerusalem.”  And thus I end the
third reason.

_Fourthly_, Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners, because that is the way, if they receive it, most to
weaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it lowest in every age of the
world.  The biggest sinners, they are Satan’s colonels and captains, the
leaders of his people, and they that most stoutly make head against the
Son of God.  Wherefore let these first be conquered, and his kingdom will
be weak.  When Ishbosheth had lost his Abner, his kingdom was made weak:
nor did he sit but tottering then upon his throne.  So when Satan loseth
his strong men, them that are mighty to work iniquity, and dexterous to
manage others in the same, then is his kingdom weak; 2 Sam. iii.
Therefore, I say, Christ doth offer mercy in the first place to such, the
more to weaken his kingdom.  Christ Jesus was glad to see Satan fall like
lightning from heaven, that is, suddenly or head long; and it was,
surely, by casting of him out of strong possessions, and by recovering of
some notorious sinners out of his clutches; Luke x. 17–19.

Samson, when he would pull down the Philistines temple, took hold of the
two main pillars of it, and breaking them, down came the house.  Christ
came to destroy the works of the devil, and to destroy by converting
grace, as well as by redeeming blood.  Now sin swarms, and lieth by
legions, and whole armies, in the souls of the biggest sinners, as in
garrisons: wherefore the way, the most direct way to destroy it, is first
to deal with such sinners by the word of his gospel, and by the merits of
his passion.

For example, though I shall give you but a homely one: suppose a family
to be troubled with vermin, and one or two of the family to be in chief
the breeders, the way, the quickest way to clear that family, or at least
to weaken the so swarming of those vermin, is, in the first place, to
sweeten the skin, head, and clothes of the chief breeders; and then,
though all the family should be apt to breed them, the number of them,
and so the greatness of that plague there, will be the more impaired.

Why, there are some people that are in chief the devil’s sin-breeders in
the towns and places where they live.  The place, town, or family where
they live, must needs be horribly verminous, as it were, eaten up with
vermin.  Now, let the Lord Jesus, in the first place, cleanse these great
breeders, and there will be given a nip to those swarms of sins that used
to be committed in such places throughout the town, house, or family,
where such sin-breeding persons used to be.

I speak by experience: I was one of these verminous ones, one of these
great sin-breeders; I infected all the youth of the town where I was
born, with all manner of youthful vanities.  The neighbours counted me
so; my practice proved me so: wherefore Christ Jesus took me first, and
taking me first, the contagion was much allayed all the town over.  When
God made me sigh, they would hearken, and enquiringly say, What is the
matter with John?  They also gave their various opinions of me: but, as I
said, sin cooled, and failed, as to his full career.  When I went out to
seek the bread of life, some of them would follow, and the rest be put
into a muse at home.  Yea, almost the town, at first, at times would go
out to hear at the place where I found good; yea, young and old for a
while had some reformation on them; also some of them, perceiving that
God had mercy upon me, came crying to him for mercy too.

But what need I give you an instance of poor I; I will come to Manasseh
the king.  So long as he was a ring-leading sinner, the great idolater,
the chief for devilism, the whole land flowed with wickedness; for he
“made them to sin,” and do worse than the heathen that dwelt round about
them, or that was cast out from before them: but when God converted him,
the whole land was reformed.  Down went the groves, the idols, and altars
of Baal, and up went true religion in much of the power and purity of it.
You will say, The king reformed by power.  I answer, doubtless, and by
example too; for people observe their leaders; as their fathers did, so
did they; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 2.

This, therefore, is another reason why Jesus would have mercy offered in
the first place to the biggest sinners, because that is the best way, if
they receive it, most to weaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it poor
and low.

And do you not think now, that if God would but take hold of the hearts
of some of the most notorious in your town, in your family, or country,
that this thing would be verified before your faces?  It would, it would,
to the joy of you that are godly, to the making of hell to sigh, to the
great suppressing of sin, the glory of Christ, and the joy of the angels
of God.  And ministers should, therefore, that this work might go on,
take advantages to persuade with the biggest sinners to come into Christ,
according to my text, and their commissions; “Beginning at Jerusalem.”

_Fifthly_, Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to
the biggest sinners; because such, when converted, are usually the best
helps in the church against temptations, and fittest for the support of
the feeble-minded there.  Hence, usually, you have some such in the first
plantation of churches, or quickly upon it.  Churches would do but
sorrily, if Christ Jesus did not put such converts among them: they are
the monuments and mirrors of mercy.  The very sight of such a sinner in
God’s house, yea, the very thought of him, where the sight of him cannot
be had, is ofttimes greatly for the help of the faith of the feeble.

“When the churches (said Paul) that were in Judea, heard this concerning
me, that he which persecuted them in time past, now preached the faith
which once he destroyed, they glorified God in me;” Gal. i. 20–24.

“Glorified God.”  How is that?  Why, they praised him, and took courage
to believe the more in the mercy of God; for that he had had mercy on
such a great sinner as he.  They glorified God “in me;” they wondered
that grace should be so rich, as to take hold of such a wretch as I was;
and for my sake believed in Christ the more.

There are two things that great sinners are acquainted with, when they
come to divulge them to the saints, that are a great relief to their
faith.

1.  The contests that they usually have with the devil at their parting
with him.

2.  Their knowledge of his secrets in his workings.

For the _first_, The biggest sinners have usually great contests with the
devil at their partings; and this is an help to saints: for ordinary
saints find afterwards what the vile ones find at first, but when at the
opening of hearts, the one finds himself to be as the other, the one is a
comfort to the other.  The lesser sort of sinners find but little of
this, till after they have been some time in profession; but the vile man
meets with his at the beginning.  Wherefore he, when the other is down,
is ready to tell that he has met with the same before; for, I say, he has
had it before.  Satan is loath to part with a great sinner.  What my true
servant (quoth he), my old servant, wilt thou forsake me now? having so
often sold thyself to me to work wickedness, wilt thou forsake me now?
Thou horrible wretch, dost not know, that thou hast sinned thyself beyond
the reach of grace, and dost think to find mercy now?  Art not thou a
murderer, a thief, a harlot, a witch, a sinner of the greatest size, and
dost thou look for mercy now?  Dost thou think that Christ will foul his
fingers with thee?

’Tis enough to make angels blush, saith Satan, to see so vile a one knock
at heaven-gates for mercy, and wilt thou be so abominably bold to do it?
Thus Satan dealt with me, says the great sinner, when at first I came to
Jesus Christ.  And what did you reply? saith the tempted.  Why, I granted
the whole charge to be true, says the other.  And what, did you despair,
or how?  No, saith he, I said, I am Magdalen, I am Zaccheus, I am the
thief, I am the harlot, I am the publican, I am the prodigal, and one of
Christ’s murderers: yea, worse than any of these; and yet God was so far
off from rejecting of me (as I found afterwards), that there was music
and dancing in his house for me, and for joy that I was come home unto
him.  O blessed be God for grace (says the other), for then I hope there
is favour for me.  Yea, as I told you, such a one is a continual
spectacle in the church, for every one to behold God’s grace and wonder
by.

_Secondly_, And as for the secrets of Satan, such as are suggestions to
question the being of God, the truth of his word, and to be annoyed with
devilish blasphemies; none more acquainted with these than the biggest
sinners at their conversion; wherefore thus also they are prepared to be
helps in the church to relieve and comfort the other.

I might also here tell you of the contests and battles that such are
engaged in, wherein they find the besettings of Satan, above any other of
the saints.  At which times Satan assaults the soul with darkness, fears,
frightful thoughts of apparitions; now they sweat, pant, cry out, and
struggle for life.

The angels now come down to behold the sight, and rejoice to see a bit of
dust and ashes to overcome principalities and powers, and might, and
dominions.  But, as I said when these come a little to be settled, they
are prepared for helping others, and are great comforts unto them.  Their
great sins give great encouragement to the devil to assault them; and by
these temptations Christ takes advantage to make them the more helpful to
the churches.

The biggest sinner, when he is converted, and comes into the church, says
to them all, by his very coming in, Behold me, all you that are men and
women of a low and timorous spirit, you whose hearts are narrow, for that
you never had the advantage to know, because your sins are few, the
largeness of the grace of God.  Behold, I say, in me, the exceeding
riches of his grace!  I am a pattern set forth before your faces, on whom
you may look and take heart.  This, I say, the great sinner can say, to
the exceeding comfort of all the rest.

Wherefore, as I have hinted before, when God intends to stock a place
with saints, and to make that place excellently to flourish with the
riches of his grace, he usually begins with the conversion of some of the
most notorious thereabouts, and lays them as an example to allure others,
and to build up when they are converted.

It was Paul that must go to the Gentiles, because Paul was the most
outrageous of all the apostles, in the time of his unregeneracy.  Yea,
Peter must be he, that after his horrible fall, was thought fittest, when
recovered again, to comfort and strengthen his brethren.  See Luke xxii.
31, 32.

Some must be pillars in God’s house; and if they be pillars of cedar,
they must stand while they are stout and sturdy sticks in the forest,
before they are cut down, and planted or placed there.

No man, when he buildeth his house, makes the principal parts thereof of
weak or feeble timber; for how could such bear up the rest? but of great
and able wood.  Christ Jesus also goeth this way to work; he makes of the
biggest sinners bearers and supporters to the rest.  This then, may serve
for another reason, why Jesus Christ gives out in commandment, that mercy
should, in the first place, be offered to the biggest sinners: because
such, when converted, are usually the best helps in the church against
temptations, and fittest for the support of the feeble-minded there.

_Sixthly_, Another reason why Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in
the first place to the biggest sinners, is, because they, when converted,
are apt to love him most.

This agrees both with Scripture and reason.  Scripture says so: “To whom
much is forgiven, the same loveth much.  To whom little is forgiven, the
same loveth little;” Luke vii. 47.  Reason says so: for as it would be
the unreasonablest thing in the world to render hatred for love, and
contempt for forgiveness; so it would be as ridiculous to think, that the
reception of a little kindness should lay the same obligations upon the
heart to love, as the reception of a great deal.  I would not disparage
the love of Christ; I know the least drachm of it, when it reaches to
forgiveness, is great above all the world; but comparatively, there are
greater extensions of the love of Christ to one than to another.  He that
has most sin, if forgiven, is partaker of the greatest love, of the
greatest forgiveness.

I know also, that there are some, that from this very doctrine say, “Let
us do evil that good may come;” and that turn the grace of our God into
lasciviousness.  But I speak not of these; these will neither be ruled by
grace nor reason.  Grace would teach them, if they know it, to deny
ungodly courses; and so would reason too, if it could truly sense the
love of God; Titus ii. 11, 12; Rom. xi. 1.

Doth it look like what hath any coherence with reason or mercy, for a man
to abuse his friend?  Because Christ died for men, shall I therefore spit
in his face?  The bread and water that was given by Elisha to his
enemies, that came into the land of Israel to take him, had so much
influence upon their minds, though heathens, that they returned to their
homes without hurting him: yea, it kept them from coming again in a
hostile manner into the coasts of Israel; 2 Kings vi. 19–23.

But to forbear to illustrate till anon.  One reason why Christ Jesus
shews mercy to sinners, is, that he might obtain their love, that he may
remove their base affections from base objects to himself.  Now, if he
loves to be loved a little, he loves to be loved much; but there is not
any that are capable of loving much, save those that have much forgiven
them.  Hence it is said of Paul, that he laboured more than them all; to
wit, with a labour of love, because he had been by sin more vile against
Christ than they all; 1 Cor. xv.  He it was that persecuted the church of
God, and wasted it; Gal. i. 13.  He of them all was the only raving
bedlam against the saints: “And being exceeding mad,” says he, “against
them, I persecuted them, even to strange cities;” Acts xxvi. 11.

This raving bedlam, that once was so, is he that now says, I laboured
more than them all, more for Christ than them all.

But Paul, what moved thee thus to do?  The love of Christ, says he.  It
was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.  As who should say, O
grace!  It was such grace to save me!  It was such marvellous grace for
God to look down from heaven upon me, and that secured me from the wrath
to come, that I am captivated with the sense of the riches of it.  Hence
I act, hence I labour; for how can I otherwise do, since God not only
separated me from my sins and companions, but separated all the powers of
my soul and body to his service?  I am therefore prompted on by this
exceeding love to labour as I have done; yet not I, but the grace of God
with me.

Oh!  I shall never forget his love, nor the circumstances under which I
was, when his love laid hold upon me.  I was going to Damascus with
letters from the high-priest, to make havock of God’s people there, as I
had made havock of them in other places.  These bloody letters were not
imposed upon me.  I went to the high-priest and desired them of him; Acts
ix. 1, 2; and yet he saved me!  I was one of the men, of the chief men,
that had a hand in the blood of his martyr Stephen; yet he had mercy on
me!  When I was at Damascus, I stunk so horribly like a blood-sucker,
that I became a terror to all thereabout.  Yea, Ananias (good man) made
intercession to my Lord against me; yet he would have mercy upon me, yea,
joined mercy to mercy, until he had made me a monument of grace!  He made
a saint of me, and persuaded me that my transgressions were forgiven me.

When I began to preach, those that heard me were amazed, and said, “Is
not this he that destroyed them that called on this name in Jerusalem,
and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound to the
high-priest?”  Hell doth know that I was a sinner; heaven doth know that
I was a sinner; the world also knows that I was a sinner, a sinner of the
greatest size; but I obtained mercy; 1 Tim i. 15, 16.

Shall not this lay obligation upon me?  Is not love of the greatest force
to oblige?  Is it not strong as death, cruel as the grave, and hotter
than the coals of juniper?  Hath it not a most vehement flame? can the
waters quench it? can the floods drown it?  I am under the force of it,
and this is my continual cry, What shall I render to the Lord for all the
benefits which he has bestowed upon me?

Ay, Paul! this is something; thou speakest like a man, like a man
affected, and carried away with the love and grace of God.  Now, this
sense, and this affection, and this labour, giveth to Christ the love
that he looks for.  But he might have converted twenty little sinners,
and yet not found, for grace bestowed, so much love in them all.

I wonder how far a man might go among the converted sinners of the
smaller size, before one could find one that so much as looked any thing
this wayward.  Where is he that is thus under pangs of love for the grace
bestowed upon him by Jesus Christ?  Excepting only some few, you may walk
to the world’s end, and find none.  But, as I said, some there are, and
so there has been in every age of the church, great sinners, that have
had much forgiven them; and they love much upon this account.

Jesus Christ therefore knows what he doth, when he lays hold on the
hearts of sinners of the biggest size.  He knows that such an one will
love more than many that have not sinned half their sins.

I will tell you a story that I have read of Martha and Mary; the name of
the book I have forgot; I mean of the book in which I found the relation;
but the thing was thus: Martha, saith my author, was a very holy woman,
much like Lazarus her brother; but Mary was a loose and wanton creature;
Martha did seldom miss good sermons and lectures, when she could come at
them in Jerusalem; but Mary would frequent the house of sports, and the
company of the vilest of men for lust: And though Martha had often
desired that her sister would go with her to hear her preachers, yea, had
often entreated her with tears to do it, yet could she never prevail; for
still Mary would make her excuse, or reject her with disdain for her zeal
and preciseness in religion.

After Martha had waited long, tried many ways to bring her sister to
good, and all proved ineffectual, at last she comes upon her thus:
“Sister,” quoth she, “I pray thee go with me to the temple to-day, to
hear one preach a sermon.”  “What kind of preacher is he?” said she.
Martha replied, “It is one Jesus of Nazareth; he is the handsomest man
that ever you saw with your eyes.  Oh! he shines in beauty, and is a most
excellent preacher.”

Now, what does Mary, after a little pause, but goes up into her chamber,
and with her pins and her clouts, decks up herself as fine as her fingers
could make her.

This done, away she goes, not with her sister Martha, but as much
unobserved as she could, to the sermon, or rather to see the preacher.

The hour and preacher being come, and she having observed whereabout the
preacher would stand, goes and sets herself so in the temple, that she
might be sure to have the full view of this excellent person.  So he
comes in, and she looks, and the first glimpse of his person pleased her.
Well, Jesus addresseth himself to his sermon, and she looks earnestly on
him.

Now, at that time, saith my author, Jesus preached about the lost sheep,
the lost groat, and the prodigal child.  And when he came to shew what
care the shepherd took for one lost sheep, and how the woman swept to
find her piece which was lost, and what joy there was at their finding,
she began to be taken by the ears, and forgot what she came about, musing
what the preacher would make of it.  But when he came to the application,
and shewed, that by the lost sheep was meant a great sinner; by the
shepherd’s care, was meant God’s love for great sinners; and that by the
joy of the neighbours, was shewed what joy there was among the angels in
heaven over one great sinner that repenteth; she began to be taken by the
heart.  And as he spake these last words, she thought he pitched his
innocent eyes just upon her, and looked as if he spake what was now said
to her: wherefore her heart began to tremble, being shaken with affection
and fear; then her eyes ran down with tears apace; wherefore she was
forced to hide her face with her handkerchief; and so sat sobbing and
crying all the rest of the sermon.

Sermon being done, up she gets, and away she goes, and withal inquired
where this Jesus the preacher dined that day? and one told her, At the
house of Simon the Pharisee.  So away goes she, first to her chamber, and
there strips herself of her wanton attire: then falls upon her knees to
ask God forgiveness for all her wicked life.  This done, in a modest
dress she goes to Simon’s house, where she finds Jesus sat at dinner.  So
she gets behind him, and weeps, and drops her tears upon his feet like
rain, and washes them, and wipes them with the hair of her head.  She
also kissed his feet with her lips, and anointed them with ointment.
When Simon the Pharisee perceived what the woman did, and being ignorant
of what it was to be forgiven much (for he never was forgiven more than
fifty pence), he began to think within himself, that he had been mistaken
about Jesus Christ, because he suffered such a sinner as this woman was,
to touch him.  Surely, quoth he, this man, if he were a prophet, would
not let this woman come near him, for she is a town-sinner (so ignorant
are all self-righteous men of the way of Christ with sinners.)  But lest
Mary should be discouraged with some clownish carriage of this Pharisee
and so desert her good beginnings, and her new steps which she now had
begun to take towards eternal life, Jesus began thus with Simon.
“Simon,” saith he, “I have somewhat to say unto thee.  And he saith,
Master, say on.  There was,” said Jesus, “a certain creditor had two
debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.  And when
they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.  Tell me therefore
which of them will love him most?  Simon answered and said, I suppose
that he to whom he forgave most.  And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly
judged.  And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this
woman?  I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet;
but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of
her head.  Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman, since the time I came
in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.  My head with oil thou didst not
anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.  Wherefore I
say unto thee, Her sins which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much;
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.  And he said unto
her, Thy sins are forgiven;” Luke vii. 36–50.

Thus you have the story.  If I come short in any circumstance, I beg
pardon of those that can correct me.  It is three or four and twenty
years since I saw the book: yet I have, as far as my memory will admit,
given you the relation of the matter.  However Luke, as you see, doth
here present you with the substance of the whole.

Alas!  Christ Jesus has but little thanks for the saving of little
sinners.  “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”  He gets
not water for his feet, by his saving of such sinners.  There are
abundance of dry-eyed Christians in the world, and abundance of dry-eyed
duties too; duties that never were wetted with the tears of contrition
and repentance, nor ever sweetened with the great sinner’s box of
ointment.  And the reason is, such sinners have not great sins to be
saved from; or if they have, they look upon them in the diminishing glass
of the holy law of God.  But I rather believe, that the professors of our
days want a due sense of what they are; for, verily, for the generality
of them, both before and since conversion, they have been sinners of a
lusty size.  But if their eyes be holden, if convictions are not shewn,
if their knowledge of their sins is but like to the eye-sight in
twilight; the heart cannot be affected with that grace that has laid hold
on the man; and so Christ Jesus sows much, and has little coming in.

Wherefore his way is ofttimes to step out of the way, to Jericho, to
Samaria, to the country of the Gadarenes, to the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon, and also to Mount Calvary, that he may lay hold of such kind of
sinners as will love him to his liking; Luke xix. 1–11; John iv. 3–11;
Mark v. 1–21; Matt. xv. 21–29; Luke xxiii. 33–44.

But thus much for the sixth reason, why Christ Jesus would have mercy
offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, to wit, because such
sinners, when converted, are apt to love him most.  The Jerusalem sinners
were they that outstripped, when they were converted, in some things, all
the churches of the Gentiles.  “They were of one heart, and of one soul,
neither said any of them, that aught of the things that they possessed
was their own.”  “Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as
many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the
price of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’
feet,” &c.; Acts iv. 32–35.  Now, shew me such another pattern if you
can.  But why did these do thus?  Oh! they were Jerusalem sinners.  These
were the men that but a little before had killed the Prince of Life; and
those to whom he did, that notwithstanding, send the first offer of grace
and mercy.  And the sense of this took them up betwixt the earth and the
heaven, and carried them on in such ways and methods as could never be
trodden by any since.  They talk of the church of Rome, and set her in
her primitive state, as a pattern and mother of churches; when the truth
is, they were the Jerusalem sinners, when converts, that out-did all the
churches that ever were.

_Seventhly_, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered, in the first place,
to the biggest sinners; because grace when it is received by such, finds
matter to kindle upon more freely than it finds in other sinners.  Great
sinners are like the dry wood, or like great candles, which burn best and
shine with biggest light.  I lay not this down, as I did those reasons
before, to shew, that when great sinners are converted, they will be
encouragement to others, though that is true; but to shew that Christ has
a delight to see grace, the grace we receive, to shine.  We love to see
things that bear a good gloss; yea, we choose to buy such kind of matter
to work upon, as will, if wrought up to what we intend, cast that lustre
that we desire.

Candles that burn not bright, we like not: wood that is green will rather
smother, and sputter, and smoke, and crack, and flounce, than cast a
brave light and a pleasant heat: wherefore great folks care not much, not
so much for such kind of things, as for them that will better answer
their ends.

Hence Christ desires the biggest sinner; in him there is matter to work
by, to wit, a great deal of sin; for as by the tallow of the candle, the
fire takes occasion to burn the brighter; so by the sin of the soul,
grace takes occasion to shine the clearer.  Little candles shine but
little, for there wanteth matter for the fire to work upon; but in the
great sinner, here is more matter for grace to work by.  Faith shines,
when it worketh towards Christ, through the sides of many and great
transgressors, and so does love, for that much is forgiven.  And what
matter can be found in the soul for humility to work by so well, as by a
sight that I have been and am an abominable sinner?  And the same is to
be said of patience, meekness, gentleness, self-denial, or of any other
grace.  Grace takes occasion by the vileness of the man to shine the
more; even as by the ruggedness of a very strong distemper or disease,
the virtue of the medicine is best made manifest.  Where sin abounds,
grace much more abounds; Rom. v. 20.  A black string makes the neck look
whiter; great sins make grace burn clear.  Some say, when grace and a
good nature meet together, they do make shining Christians: but I say,
when grace and a great sinner meet, and when grace shall subdue that
great sinner to itself, and shall operate after its kind in the soul of
that great sinner, then we have a shining Christian; witness all those of
whom mention was made before.

Abraham was among the idolaters when in the land of Assyria, and served
idols with his kindred on the other side of the flood; Jos. xxiv. 2; Gen.
xi. 31.  But who, when called, was there in the world, in whom grace
shone so bright as in him?

The Thessalonians were idolaters before the word of God came to them; but
when they had received it, they became examples to all that did believe
in Macedonia and Achaia; 1 Thess. i. 6–10.

God the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, are for having things seen, for
having the word of life held forth.  They light not a candle that it
might be put under a bushel, or under a bed, but on a candlestick, that
all that come in may see the light; Matt. v. 15; Mark iv. 21; Luke viii.
16; chap. xi. 33.

And, I say, as I said before, in whom is light like so to shine, as in
the souls of great sinners?

When the Jewish Pharisees dallied with the gospel, Christ threatened to
take it from them, and to give it to the barbarous heathens and
idolaters.  Why so?  For they, saith he, will bring forth the fruits
thereof in their season: “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof;” Matt. xxi. 41–43.

I have often marvelled at our youth, and said in my heart, What should be
the reason that they should be so generally at this day debauched as they
are?  For they are now profane to amazement; and sometimes I have thought
one thing, and sometimes another; that is, why God should suffer it so to
be.  At last I have thought of this: How if the God, whose ways are past
finding out, should suffer it so to be now, that he might make of some of
them the more glorious saints hereafter.  I know sin is of the devil, but
it cannot work in the world without permission: and if it happens to be
as I have thought, it will not be the first time that God the Lord hath
caught Satan in his own design.  For my part, I believe that the time is
at hand, that we shall see better saints in the world than has been seen
in it this many a day.  And this vileness, that at present does so much
swallow up our youth, is one cause of my thinking so: for out of them,
for from among them, when God sets to his hand, as of old, you shall see
what penitent ones, what trembling ones, and what admirers of grace, will
be found to profess the gospel to the glory of God by Christ.

Alas! we are a company of worn-out Christians, our moon is in the wane;
we are much more black than white, more dark than light; we shine but a
little; grace in the most of us is decayed.  But I say, when they of
these debauched ones that are to be saved shall be brought in, when these
that look more like devils than men shall be converted to Christ (and I
believe several of them will), then will Christ be exalted, grace adored,
the word prized, Zion’s path better trodden, and men in the pursuit of
their own salvation, to the amazement of them that are left behind.

Just before Christ came into the flesh, the world was degenerated as it
is now: the generality of the men in Jerusalem, were become either high
and famous for hypocrisy, or filthy base in their lives.  The devil also
was broke loose in a hideous manner, and had taken possession of many:
yea, I believe that there was never generation before nor since, that
could produce so many possessed with devils, deformed, lame, blind, and
infected with monstrous diseases, as that generation could.  But what was
the reason thereof, I mean the reason from God?  Why one (and we may sum
up more in that answer that Christ gave to his disciples concerning him
that was born blind) was, that the works of God might be made manifest in
them, and that the Son of God might be glorified thereby, John ix. 2, 3;
chap. xi. 4.

Now if these devils and diseases, as they possessed men then, were to
make way and work for an approaching Christ in person, and for the
declaring of his power, why may we not think that now, even now also, he
is ready to come by his Spirit in the gospel to heal many of the
debaucheries of our age?  I cannot believe that grace will take them all,
for there are but few that are saved; but yet it will take some, even
some of the worst of men, and make blessed ones of them.  But, O how
these ringleaders in vice will then shine in virtue!  They will be the
very pillars in churches, they will be as an ensign in the land.  “The
Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people:
for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon
his land;” Zech. ix. 16.  But who are these?  Even idolatrous Ephraim,
and backsliding Judah; ver. 13.

I know there is ground to fear, that the iniquity of this generation will
be pursued with heavy judgments: but that will not hinder what we have
supposed.  God took him a glorious church out of bloody Jerusalem, yea,
out of the chief of the sinners there, and left the rest to be taken and
spoiled, and sold, thirty for a penny, in the nations where they were
captives.  The gospel working gloriously in a place, to the seizing upon
many of the ringleading sinners thereof, promiseth no security to the
rest, but rather threateneth them with the heaviest and smartest
judgments; as in the instance now given, we have a full demonstration;
but in defending, the Lord will defend his people; and in saving, he will
save his inheritance.

Nor does this speak any great comfort to a decayed and backsliding sort
of Christians; for the next time God rides post with his gospel, he will
leave such Christians behind him.  But I say, Christ is resolved to set
up his light in the world; yea, he is delighted to see his graces shine;
and therefore he commands that his gospel should to that end be offered,
in the first place, to the biggest sinners; for by great sins it shineth
most; therefore he saith, “Begin at Jerusalem.”

_Eighthly_, and lastly, Christ Jesus will have mercy to be offered in the
first place to the biggest sinners; for that by that means the impenitent
that are left behind will be at the judgment the more left without
excuse.

God’s word has two edges; it can cut back-stroke and fore-stroke: if it
doth thee no good, it will do thee hurt; it is the savour of life unto
life to those that receive it, but of death unto death to them that
refuse it; 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.  But this is not all; the tender of grace
to the biggest sinners in the first place, will not only leave the rest,
or those that refuse it, in a deplorable condition, but will also stop
their mouths, and cut off all pretence to excuse at that day.  “If I had
not come and spoken unto them,” saith Christ, “they had not had sin; but
now they have no cloak for their sin,” for their sin of persevering in
impenitence; Job xv. 22.

But what did he speak to them?  Why, even that which I have told you; to
wit, That he has in special a delight in saving the biggest sinners.  He
spake this in the way of his doctrine; he spake this in the way of his
practice, even to the pouring out of his last breath before them; Luke
xxiii. 34.

Now, since this is so, what can the condemned at the judgment say for
themselves, why sentence of death should not be passed upon them?  I say,
what excuse can they make for themselves, when they shall be asked why
they did not in the day of salvation come to Christ to be saved?  Will
they have ground to say to the Lord, Thou wast only for saving of little
sinners; and therefore because they were great ones, they durst not come
unto him? or that thou hadst not compassion for the biggest sinners,
therefore I died in despair?  Will these be excuses for them, as the case
now standeth with them?  Is there not every where in God’s book a flat
contradiction to this, in multitudes of promises, of invitations, of
examples, and the like?  Alas, alas! there will then be there millions of
souls to confute this plea; ready, I say, to stand up, and say, O!
deceived world, heaven swarms with such, as were, when they were in the
world, to the full as bad as you.

Now, this will kill all plea or excuse, why they should perish in their
sins; yea, the text says, they shall see them there.  “There shall be
weeping, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the
prophets in the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves thrust out.  And
they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and
from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God;” Luke xiii. 28,
29.  Out of which company it is easy to pick such as sometimes were as
bad people as any that now breathe on the face of the earth.  What think
you of the first man, by whose sins there are millions now in hell?  And
so I may say, What think you of ten thousand more besides?

But if the world will not stifle and gag them up (I speak now for
amplification’s sake), the view of those who are saved shall.

There comes an incestuous person to the bar, and pleads, That the bigness
of his sins was a bar to his receiving the promise.  But will not his
mouth be stopped as to that, when Lot and the incestuous Corinthian shall
be set before him; Gen. xix. 33–37; 1 Cor. v. 1, 2.

There comes a thief, and says, Lord, my sin of theft, I thought, was such
as could not be pardoned by thee!  But when he shall see the thief that
was saved on the cross stand by, as clothed with beauteous glory, what
further can he be able to object?  Yea, the Lord will produce ten
thousand of his saints at his coming, who shall after this manner execute
judgment upon all, and so convince all that are ungodly among them, of
all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
And these are hard speeches against him, to say that he was not able or
willing to save men, because of the greatness of their sins, or to say
that they were discouraged by his word from repentance, because of the
heinousness of their offences.

These things, I say, shall then be confuted: he comes with ten thousand
of his saints to confute them, and to stop their mouths from making
objections against their own eternal damnation.

Here is Adam, the destroyer of the world; here is Lot, that lay with both
his daughters; here is Abraham, that was sometime an idolater, and Jacob,
that was a supplanter, and Reuben, that lay with his father’s concubine,
and Judah that lay with his daughter-in-law, and Levi and Simeon that
wickedly slew thee Shechemites, and Aaron that great backslider, and
Manassah that man of blood and that made an idol to be worshipped, and
that proclaimed a religious feast unto it.  Here is also Rachab the
harlot, and Bathsheba that bare a bastard to David.  Here is Solomon a
witch.  Time would fail me to tell you of the woman of Canaan’s daughter,
Magdalen, of Matthew the publican, and of Gideon and Sampson, and many
thousands more.

Alas! alas!  I say, what will these sinners do, that have, through their
unbelief, eclipsed the glorious largeness of the mercy of God, and gave
way to despair of salvation, because of the bigness of their sins?

For all these, though now glorious saints in light, were sometimes
sinners of the biggest size, who had sins that were of a notorious hue;
yet now, I say, they are in their shining and heavenly robes before the
throne of God and of the Lamb, blessing for ever and ever that Son of God
for their salvation, who died for them upon the tree; admiring that ever
it should come into their hearts once to think of coming to God by
Christ; but above all, blessing God for granting of them light to see
those encouragements in his testament; without which, without doubt, they
had been daunted and sunk down under guilt of sin and despair, as their
fellow-sinners have done.

But now they also are witnesses for God, and for his grace against an
unbelieving world; for, as I said, they shall come to convince the world
of their speeches, their hard and unbelieving words, that they have
spoken concerning the mercy of God, and the merits of the passion of his
blessed Son Jesus Christ.

But will it not, think you, strangely put to silence all such thoughts,
and words, and reasonings of the ungodly before the bar of God?
Doubtless it will; yea and will send them away from his presence also,
with the greatest guilt that possibly can fasten upon the consciences of
men.

For what will sting like this?—I have, through mine own foolish, narrow,
unworthy, undervaluing thoughts, of the love and ability of Christ to
save me, brought myself to everlasting ruin.  It is true, I was a
horrible sinner; not one in a hundred did live so vile a life as I: but
this should not have kept me from closing with Jesus Christ: I see now
that there are abundance in glory that once were as bad as I have been:
but they were saved by faith, and I am damned by unbelief.

Wretch that I am! why did not I give glory to the redeeming blood of
Jesus?  Why did I not humbly cast my soul at his blessed footstool for
mercy?  Why did I judge of his ability to save me by the voice of my
shallow reason, and the voice of a guilty conscience?  Why betook not I
myself to the holy word of God?  Why did I not read and pray that I might
understand, since now I perceive that God said then, he giveth liberally
to them that pray, and upbraideth not; Jam. i. 5.

It is rational to think, that by such cogitations as these the
unbelieving world will be torn in pieces before the judgment of Christ;
especially those that have lived where they did or might have heard the
gospel of the grace of God.  Oh! that saying, “It shall be more tolerable
for Sodom at the judgment than for them,” will be better understood.  See
Luke x. 8–12.

This reason, therefore, standeth fast; namely, that Christ, by offering
mercy in the first place to the biggest sinner now, will stop all mouths
of the impenitent at the day of judgment, and cut off all excuse that
shall be attempted to be made (from the thoughts of the greatness of
their sins) why they came not to him.

I have often thought of the day of judgment, and how God will deal with
sinners at that day; and I believe it will be managed with that
sweetness, with that equitableness, with that excellent righteousness, as
to every sin, and circumstance, and aggravation thereof; that men that
are damned, before the judgment is over shall receive such conviction of
the righteous judgment of God upon them, and of their deserts of
hell-fire, that they shall in themselves conclude that there is all the
reason in the world that they should be shut out of heaven, and go to
hell-fire: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment;” Matt. xxv.
46.

Only this will tear them, that they have missed of mercy and glory, and
obtained everlasting damnation through their unbelief; but it will tear
but themselves, but their own souls; they will gnash upon themselves; for
in that mercy was offered to the chief of them in the first place, and
yet they were damned for rejecting of it; they were damned for forsaking
what they had a sort of propriety in; for forsaking their own mercy.

And thus much for the reasons.  I will conclude with a word of
application.




THE APPLICATION.


_First_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to the
biggest sinners? then this shews us how to make a right judgment of the
heart of Christ to men.  Indeed we have advantage to guess at the
goodness of his heart, by many things; as by his taking our nature upon
him, his dying for us, his sending his word and ministers to us, and all
that we might be saved.  But this of beginning to offer mercy to
Jerusalem, is that which heightens all the rest; for this doth not only
confirm to us, that love was the cause of his dying for us, but it shews
us yet more the depth of that love.  He might have died for us, and yet
have extended the benefit of his death to a few, as one might call them,
of the best conditioned sinners, to those who, though they were weak, and
could not but sin, yet made not a trade of sinning; to those that sinned
not lavishingly.  There are in the world, as one may call them, the
moderate sinners; the sinners that mix righteousness with their
pollutions; the sinners that though they be sinners, do what on their
part lies (some that are blind would think so) that they might be saved.
I say, it had been love, great love, if he had died for none but such,
and sent his love to such: but that he should send out conditions of
peace to the biggest of sinners; yea, that they should be offered to them
first of all; (for so he means when he says, “Begin at Jerusalem;”) this
is wonderful! this shews his heart to purpose, as also the heart of God
his Father, who sent him to do thus.

There is nothing more incident to men that are awake in their souls, than
to have wrong thoughts of God; thoughts that are narrow, and that pinch
and pen up his mercy to scanty and beggarly conclusions, and rigid legal
conditions; supposing that it is rude, and an intrenching upon his
majesty, to come ourselves, or to invite others, until we have scraped
and washed, and rubbed off as much of our dirt from us as we think is
convenient, to make us somewhat orderly and handsome in his sight.  Such
never knew what these words meant, “Begin at Jerusalem:” yea, such in
their hearts have compared the Father and his Son to niggardly rich men,
whose money comes from them like drops of blood.  True, says such, God
has mercy, but he is loath to part with it; you must please him well, if
you get any from him; he is not so free as many suppose, nor is he so
willing to save as some pretended gospellers imagine.  But I ask such, if
the Father and Son be not unspeakably free to shew mercy, why was this
clause put into our commission to preach the gospel?  Yea, why did he
say, “Begin at Jerusalem:” for when men, through the weakness of their
wits, have attempted to shew other reasons why they should have the first
proffer of mercy; yet I can prove (by many undeniable reasons) that they
of Jerusalem (to whom the apostles made the first offer, according as
they were commanded) were the biggest sinners that ever did breathe upon
the face of God’s earth, (set the unpardonable sin aside), upon which my
doctrine stands like a rock, that Jesus the Son of God would have mercy
in the first place offered to the biggest sinners: and if this doth not
shew the heart of the Father and the Son to be infinitely free in
bestowing forgiveness of sins, I confess myself mistaken.

Neither is there, set this aside, another argument like it, to shew us
the willingness of Christ to save sinners; for, as was said before, all
the rest of the signs of Christ’s mercifulness might have been limited to
sinners that are so and so qualified; but when he says, “Begin at
Jerusalem,” the line is stretched out to the utmost: no man can imagine
beyond it; and it is folly here to pinch and pare, to narrow, and seek to
bring it within scanty bounds; for he plainly saith, “Begin at
Jerusalem,” the biggest sinner is the biggest sinner; the biggest is the
Jerusalem sinner.

It is true, he saith, that repentance and remission of sins must go
together, but yet remission is sent to the chief, the Jerusalem sinner;
nor doth repentance lessen at all the Jerusalem sinner’s crimes; it
diminisheth none of his sins, nor causes that there should be so much as
half a one the fewer: it only puts a stop to the Jerusalem sinner’s
course, and makes him willing to be saved freely by grace; and for time
to come to be governed by that blessed word that has brought the tidings
of good things to him.

Besides, no man shews himself willing to be saved that repenteth not of
his deeds; for he that goes on still in his trespasses, declares that he
is resolved to pursue his own damnation further.

Learn then to judge of the largeness of God’s heart, and of the heart of
his Son Jesus Christ, by the word; judge not thereof by feeling, nor by
the reports of thy conscience; conscience is oftentimes here befooled and
made to go quite beside the word.  It was judging without the word that
made David say, I am cast off from God’s eyes, and shall perish one day
by the hand of Saul; Psalm xxxi. 22; 1 Sam. xxvii. 1.

The word had told him another thing; namely, that he should be king in
his stead.  Our text says also, that Jesus Christ bids preachers, in
their preaching repentance and remission of sins, begin first at
Jerusalem, thereby declaring most truly the infinite largeness of the
merciful heart of God and his Son, to the sinful children of men.

Judge thou, I say, therefore, of the goodness of the heart of God and his
Son, by this text, and by others of the same import; so shalt thou not
dishonour the grace of God, nor needlessly fright thyself, nor give away
thy faith, nor gratify the devil, nor lose the benefit of his word.  I
speak now to weak believers.

_Secondly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem sinners? then, by this also, you
must learn to judge of the sufficiency of the merits of Christ; not that
the merits of Christ can be comprehended, for that they are beyond the
conceptions of the whole world, being called the unsearchable riches of
Christ; but yet they may be apprehended to a considerable degree.  Now,
the way to apprehend them most, is, to consider what offers, after his
resurrection, he makes of his grace to sinners; for to be sure he will
not offer beyond the virtue of his merits; because, as grace is the cause
of his merits, so his merits are the basis and bounds upon and by which
his grace stands good, and is let out to sinners.

Doth he then command that his mercy should be offered in the first place
to the biggest sinners?  It declares, that there is sufficiency in his
blood to save the biggest sinners.  The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
from all sin.  And again, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and
brethren, that through this man (this man’s merits) is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from
all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses;”
Acts xiii. 38.

Observe then thy rule to make judgment of the sufficiency of the blessed
merits of thy Saviour.  If he had not been able to have reconciled the
biggest sinners to his Father by his blood, he would not have sent to
them, have sent to them in the first place, the doctrine of remission of
sins; for remission of sins is through faith in his blood.  We are
justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in
the blood of Christ.  Upon the square, as I may call it, of the
worthiness of the blood of Christ, grace acts, and offers forgiveness of
sin to men; Eph. i. 7; chap. ii. 13, 14; Col. i. 20–22.

Hence, therefore, we must gather, that the blood of Christ is of infinite
value, for that he offereth mercy to the biggest of sinners.  Nay,
further, since he offereth mercy in the first place to the biggest
sinners, considering also, that this first act of his is that which the
world will take notice of and expect it should be continued unto thee
end.  Also it is a disparagement to a man that seeks his own glory in
what he undertakes, to do that for a sport, which he cannot continue and
hold out in.  This is our Lord’s own argument, “He began to build,” saith
he, “but was not able to finish;” Luke xiv. 28.

Shouldst thou hear a man say, I am resolved to be kind to the poor, and
should begin with giving handfuls of guineas, you would conclude, that
either he is wonderful rich, or must straiten his hand, or will soon be
at the bottom of his riches.  Why, this is the case: Christ, at his
resurrection, gave it out that he would be good to the world; and first
sends to the biggest sinners, with an intent to have mercy on them.  Now,
the biggest sinners cannot be saved but by abundance of grace; it is not
a little that will save great sinners; Rom. v. 17.  And I say again,
since the Lord Jesus mounts thus high at the first, and sends to the
Jerusalem sinners, that they may come first to partake of his mercy, it
follows, that either he has unsearchable riches of grace and worth in
himself, or else he must straiten his hand, or his grace and merits will
be spent before the world is at an end.  But let it be believed, as
surely as spoken, he is still as full as ever.  He is not a jot the
poorer for all the forgivenesses that he has given away to great sinners.
Also he is still as free as at first; for he never yet called back this
word, Begin at the Jerusalem sinners.  And, as I said before, since his
grace is extended according to the worth of his merits, I conclude, that
there is the same virtue in his merits to save now, as there was at the
very beginning.

Oh! the riches of the grace of Christ!  Oh! the riches of the blood of
Christ!

_Thirdly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners, then here is encouragement for you that think, for
wicked hearts and lives, you have not your fellows in the world, yet to
come to him.

There is a people that therefore fear lest they should be rejected of
Jesus Christ, because of the greatness of their sins; when, as you see
here, such are sent to, sent to by Jesus Christ to come to him for mercy,
“Begin at Jerusalem.”  Never did one thing answer another more fitly in
this world, than this text fitteth such kind of sinners.  As face
answereth face in a glass, so this text answereth the necessities of such
sinners.  What can a man say more, but that he stands in the rank of the
biggest sinners? let him stretch himself whither he can, and think of
himself to the utmost, he can but conclude himself to be one of the
biggest sinners.  And what then?  Why the text meets him in the very
face, and saith, Christ offereth mercy to the biggest sinners, to the
very Jerusalem sinners.  What more can be objected?  Nay, he doth not
only offer to such his mercy, but to them it is commanded to be offered
in the first place; “Begin at Jerusalem.”  Preach repentance and
remission of sins among all nations.  “Begin at Jerusalem.”  Is not here
encouragement for those that think, for wicked hearts and lives, they
have not their fellows in the world?

_Object_.  But I have a heart as hard as a rock.

_Answ_.  Well, but this doth but prove thee a bigger sinner.

_Object_.  But my heart continually frets against the Lord.

_Answ_.  Well, this doth but prove thee a bigger sinner.

_Object_.  But I have been desperate in sinful courses.

_Answ_.  Well, stand thou with the number of the biggest sinners.

_Object_.  But my grey head is found in the way of wickedness.

_Answ_.  Well, thou art in the rank of the biggest sinners.

_Object_.  But I have not only a base heart, but I have lived a debauched
life.

_Answ_.  Stand thou also among those that are called the biggest sinners.
And what then?  Why the text swoops you all; you cannot object yourselves
beyond the text.  It has a particular message to the biggest sinners.  I
say, it swoops you all.

_Object_.  But I am a reprobate.

_Answ_.  Now thou talkest like a fool, and of that thou understandest
not: no sin, but the sin of final impenitence, can prove a man a
reprobate; and I am sure thou hast not arrived as yet unto that;
therefore thou understandest not what thou sayest, and makest groundless
conclusions against thyself.  Say thou art a sinner, and I will hold with
thee; say thou art a great sinner, and I will say so too; yea, say thou
art one of the biggest sinners, and spare not; for the text yet is beyond
thee, is yet betwixt he and thee; “Begin at Jerusalem,” has yet a smile
upon thee; and thou talkest as if thou wast a reprobate, and that the
greatness of thy sins do prove thee so to be, when yet they of Jerusalem
were not such, whose sins, I dare say, were such, both for bigness and
heineousness, as thou art incapable of committing beyond them; unless
now, after thou hast received conviction that the Lord Jesus is the only
Saviour of the world, thou shouldst wickedly and despitefully turn
thyself from him, and conclude he is not to be trusted to for life, and
so crucify him for a cheat afresh.  This, I must confess, will bring a
man under the black rod, and set him in danger of eternal damnation; Heb.
vi. 6: chap. x. 29.  This is trampling under foot the Son of God, and
counting his blood an unholy thing.  This did they of Jerusalem; but they
did it ignorantly in unbelief; and so were yet capable of mercy: but to
do this against professed light, and to stand to it, puts a man beyond
the text indeed; Acts iii. 14–17; 1 Tim. i. 13.

But I say, what is this to him that would fain be saved by Christ?  His
sins did, as to greatness, never yet reach to the nature of the sins that
the sinners intended by the text, had made themselves guilty of.  He that
would be saved by Christ, has an honourable esteem of him; but they of
Jerusalem preferred a murderer before him; but as for him, they cried,
Away, away with him, it is not fit that he should live.  Perhaps thou
wilt object, That thyself hast a thousand times preferred a stinking lust
before him: I answer, Be it so; it is but what is common to men to do;
nor doth the Lord Jesus make such a foolish life a bar to thee, to forbid
thy coming to him, or a bond to his grace, that it might be kept from
thee; but admits of thy repentance, and offereth himself unto thee
freely, as thou standest among the Jerusalem sinners.

Take therefore encouragement, man, mercy is, by the text, held forth to
the biggest sinners; yea, put thyself into the number of the worst, by
reckoning that thou mayst be one of the first, and mayst not be put off
till the biggest sinners are served; for the biggest sinners are first
invited; consequently, if they come, they are like to be the first that
shall be served.  It was so with Jerusalem; Jerusalem sinners were they
that were first invited, and those of them that came first (and there
came three thousand of them the first day they were invited; how many
came afterwards none can tell), they were first served.

Put in thy name, man, among the biggest, lest thou art made to wait till
they are served.  You have some men that think themselves very cunning,
because they put up their names in their prayers among them that feign
it, saying, God, I thank thee I am not so bad as the worst.  But believe
it, if they be saved at all, they shall be saved in the last place.  The
first in their own eyes shall be served last; and the last or worst shall
be first.  The text insinuates it, “Begin at Jerusalem;” and reason backs
it, for they have most need.  Behold ye, therefore, how God’s ways are
above ours; we are for serving the worst last, God is for serving the
worst first.  The man at the pool, that to my thinking was longest in his
disease, and most helpless as to his cure, was first healed; yea, he only
was healed; for we read that Christ healed him, but we read not then that
he healed one more there!  John v. 1–10.

Wherefore, if thou wouldst soonest be served, put in thy name among the
very worst of sinners.  Say, when thou art upon thy knees, Lord, here is
a Jerusalem sinner! a sinner of the biggest size! one whose burden is of
the greatest bulk and heaviest weight! one that cannot stand long without
sinking into hell, without thy supporting hand!  “Be not thou far from
me, O Lord!  O my strength, haste thou to help me!”

I say, put in thy name with Magdalen, with Manasseh, that thou mayst fare
as the Magdalen and the Manasseh sinners do.  The man in the gospel made
the desperate condition of his child an argument with Christ to haste his
cure: “Sir, come down,” saith he, “ere my child die;” John iv. 49, and
Christ regarded his haste, saying, “Go thy way; thy son liveth;” ver. 50.
Haste requires haste.  David was for speed; “Deliver me speedily;” “Hear
me speedily;” “Answer me speedily;” Psalm xxxi. 2; lxix. 17; cii. 2.  But
why speedily?  I am in “the net;” “I am in trouble;” “My days are
consumed like smoke;” Psalm xxxi. 4; lxix. 17; cii. 3.  Deep calleth unto
deep, necessity calls for help; great necessity for present help.

Wherefore, I say, be ruled by me in this matter; feign not thyself
another man, if thou hast been a filthy sinner, but go in thy colours to
Jesus Christ, and put thyself among the most vile, and let him alone to
put thee among the children; Jer. iii. 19.  Confess all that thou knowest
of thyself; I know thou wilt find it hard work to do thus; especially if
thy mind be legal; but do it, lest thou stay and be deferred with the
little sinners, until the great ones have had their alms.  What do you
think David intended when he said, his wounds stunk and were corrupted,
but to hasten God to have mercy upon him, and not to defer his cure?
“Lord,” says he, “I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning
all the day long.”  “I am feeble and sore broken, by reason of the
disquietness of my heart;” Psalm xxxviii. 3–8.

David knew what he did by all this; he knew that his making the worst of
his case, was the way to speedy help, and that a feigning and dissembling
the matter with God, was the next way to a demur as to his forgiveness.

I have one thing more to offer for thy encouragement, who deemest thyself
one of the biggest sinners; and that is, thou art as it were called by
thy name, in the first place, to come in for mercy.  Thou man of
Jerusalem, hearken to thy call; men do so in courts of judicature, and
presently cry out, Here, Sir; and then they shoulder and crowd, and say,
Pray give way, I am called into the court.  Why, this thy case, thou
great, thou Jerusalem sinner; be of good cheer, he calleth thee; Mark x.
46–49.  Why sitttest thou still? arise: why standest thou still? come
man, thy call should give thee authority to come.  “Begin at Jerusalem,”
is thy call and authority to come; wherefore up and shoulder it, man;
say, Stand away, devil, Christ calls me; stand away unbelief, Christ
calls me; stand away all ye my discouraging apprehensions, for my Saviour
calls me to him to receive of his mercy.  Men will do thus, as I said, in
courts below; and why shouldst not thou approach thus to the court above?
The Jerusalem sinner is first in thought, first in commission, first in
the record of names; and therefore should give attendance with
expectation, that he is first to receive mercy of God.

Is not this an encouragement to the biggest sinners to make their
application to Christ for mercy? “Come unto me all ye that labour and are
heavy laden,” doth also confirm this thing; that is, that the biggest
sinner, and he that has the biggest burden, is he who is first invited.
Christ pointeth over the heads of thousands, as he sits on the throne of
grace, directly to such a man; and says, Bring in hither the maimed, the
halt, and the blind; let the Jerusalem sinner that stands there behind
come to me.  Wherefore, since Christ says, Come, to thee, let thee angels
make a lane, and let all men give place, that the Jerusalem sinner may
come to Jesus Christ for mercy.

_Fourthly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to
the biggest sinners?  Then come thou profane wretch, and let me a little
enter into an argument with thee.  Why wilt thou not come to Jesus
Christ, since thou art a Jerusalem sinner?  How canst thou find in thy
heart to set thyself against grace, against such grace as offereth mercy
to thee?  What spirit possesseth thee, and holds thee back from a sincere
closure with thy Saviour?  Behold God groaningly complains of thee,
saying, “But Israel would none of me.”  “When I called, none did answer;”
Psl. lxxxi. 11; Isa. lxvi. 4.

Shall God enter this complaint against thee?  Why dost thou put him off?
Why dost thou stop thine ear?  Canst thou defend thyself?  When thou art
called to an account for thy neglects of so great salvation, what canst
thou answer? or doest thou think thou shalt escape the judgment?  Heb.
ii. 3.

No more such Christs!  There will be no more such Christs, sinner!  Oh,
put not the day, the day of grace, away from thee! if it be once gone, it
will never come again, sinner.

But what is it that has got thy heart, and that keeps it from thy
Saviour?  “Who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the
sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?”  Psl. lxxxix. 6.  Hast
thou, thinkest thou, found anything so good as Jesus Christ?

Is there any among thy sins, thy companions, and foolish delights, that
like Christ can help thee in the day of thy distress?  Behold, the
greatness of thy sins cannot hinder; let not the stubbornness of thy
heart hinder thee, sinner.

_Object_.  But I am ashamed.

_Answ_.  Oh!  Do not be ashamed to be saved, sinner.

_Object_.  But my old companions will mock me.

_Answ_.  Oh!  Do not be mocked out of eternal life, sinner.

Thy stubbornness affects, afflicts the heart of thy Saviour.  Carest thou
not for this?  Of old he beheld the city, and wept over it.  Canst thou
hear this, and not be concerned?  Luke xix. 41, 42.  Shall Christ weep to
see thy soul going on to destruction, and wilt thou sport thyself in that
way?  Yea, shall Christ, that can be eternally happy without thee, be
more afflicted at the thoughts of the loss of thy soul, than thyself, who
art certainly eternally miserable if thou neglectest to come to him.

Those things that keep thee and thy Saviour, on thy part asunder, are but
bubbles; the least prick of an affliction will let out, as to thee, what
now thou thinkest is worth the venture of heaven to enjoy.

Hast thou not reason?  Canst thou not so much as once soberly think of
thy dying hour, or of whither thy sinful life will drive thee then?  Hast
thou no conscience? or having one, is it rocked so fast asleep by sin, or
made so weary with an unsuccessful calling upon thee, that it is laid
down, and cares for thee no more?  Poor man! thy state is to be lamented.
Hast no judgment?  Art not able to conclude, that to be saved is better
than to burn in hell? and that eternal life, with God’s favour, is better
than a temporal life in God’s displeasure?  Hast no affection but what is
brutish? what, none at all? no affection for the God that made thee?
what! none for his loving Son that has shewed his love, and died for
thee?  Is not heaven worth thy affection?  O poor man! which is strongest
thinkest thou, God or thee?  If thou art not able to overcome him, thou
art a fool for standing out against him; Matt. v. 25, 26.  “It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  He will gripe
hard; his fist is stronger than a lion’s paw; take heed of him, he will
be angry if you despise his Son; and will you stand guilty in your
trespasses, when he offereth you his grace and favour?  Exod. xxxiv. 6,
7; Heb. x. 29–31.

Now we come to the text, “Beginning at Jerusalem.”  This text, though it
be now one of the brightest stars that shineth in the Bible, because
there is in it, as full, if not the fullest offer of grace that can be
imagined, to the sons of men; yet to them that shall perish from under
this word, even this text will be to such, one of the hottest coals in
hell.

This text, therefore, will save thee or sink thee: there is no shifting
of it: if it saves thee, it will set thee high; if it sinks thee, it will
set thee low.

But, I say, why so unconcerned?  Hast no soul? or dost think thou mayst
lose thy soul, and save thyself?  Is it not pity, had it otherwise been
the will of God, that ever thou wast made a man, for that thou settest so
little by thy soul?

Sinner, take the invitation; thou art called upon to come to Christ: nor
art thou called upon but by order from the Son of God though thou
shouldst happen to come of the biggest sinners; for he has bid us offer
mercy, as to all the world in general, so, in the first place, to the
sinners of Jerusalem, or to the biggest sinners.

_Fifthly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in thee first place, to
the biggest sinners? then this shews how unreasonable a thing it is for
men to despair of mercy: for those that presume, I shall say something to
them afterward.

I now speak to them that despair.

There are four sorts of despair.  There is the despair of devils; there
is the despair of souls in hell; there is the despair that is grounded
upon men’s deficiency; and there is the despair that they are perplexed
with that are willing to be saved, but are too strongly borne down with
the burthen of their sins.

The despair of devils, the damned’s despair, and that despair that a man
has of attaining of life because of his own deficiency, are all
unreasonable.  Why should not devils and damned souls despair? yea, why
should not man despair of getting to heaven by his own abilities?  I
therefore am concerned only with the fourth sort of despair, to wit, with
the despair of those that would be saved, but are too strongly borne down
with the burden of their sins.

I say, therefore, to thee that art thus, And why despair?  Thy despair,
if it were reasonable, should flow from thee, because found in the land
that is beyond the grave, or because thou certainly knowest that Christ
will not, or cannot save thee.

But for the first, thou art yet in the land of the living; and for the
second, thou hast ground to believe the quite contrary; Christ is able to
save to the uttermost them that come to God by him; and if he were not
willing, he would not have commanded that mercy, in the first place,
should be offered to the biggest sinners.  Besides, he hath said, “And
let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely;” that is, with all my heart.  What ground now is here for
despair?  If thou sayst, The number and burden of my sins; I answer, Nay;
that is rather a ground for faith: because such an one, above all others,
is invited by Christ to come unto him, yea, promised rest and forgiveness
if they come; Matt. xi. 28.  What ground then to despair?  Verily none at
all.  Thy despair then is a thing unreasonable and without footing in the
word.

But I have no experience of God’s love; God hath given me no comfort, or
ground of hope, though I have waited upon him for it many a day.

Thou hast experience of God’s love, for that he has opened thine eyes to
see thy sins: and for that he has given thee desires to be saved by Jesus
Christ.  For by thy sense of sin thou art made to see thy poverty of
spirit, and that has laid thee under a sure ground to hope that heaven
shall be thine hereafter.

Also thy desires to be saved by Christ, has put thee under another
promise, so there is two to hold thee up in them, though thy present
burden be never so heavy, Matt. v. 3, 6.  As for what thou sayst, as to
God’s silence to thee, perhaps he has spoken to thee once or twice
already, but thou hast not perceived it; Job xxxiii. 14, 15.

However, thou hast Christ crucified, set forth before thine eyes in the
Bible, and an invitation to come unto him, though thou be a Jerusalem
sinner, though thou be the biggest sinner; and so no ground to despair.
What, if God will be silent to thee, is that ground of despair?  Not at
all, so long as there is a promise in the Bible that God will in no wise
cast away the coming sinner, and so long as he invites the Jerusalem
sinner to come unto him John vi. 37.

Build not therefore despair upon these things; they are no sufficient
foundations for it, such plenty of promises being in the Bible, and such
a discovery of his mercy to great sinners of old; especially since we
have withal a clause in the commission given to ministers to preach, that
they should begin with the Jerusalem sinners in their offering of mercy
to the world.

Besides, God says, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles; but perhaps it may
be long first.  “I waited long,” saith David, “and did seek the Lord;”
and at length his cry was heard: wherefore he bids his soul wait on God,
and says, For it is good so to do before thy saints; Psalm xl. 1; lxii.
5; lii. 9.

And what if thou waitest upon God all thy days?  Is it below thee?  And
what if God will cross his book, and blot out the hand-writing that is
against thee, and not let thee know it as yet?  Is it fit to say unto
God, Thou art hard-hearted?  Despair not; thou hast no ground to despair,
so long as thou livest in this world.  It is a sin to begin to despair
before one sets his foot over the threshold of hell-gates.  For them that
are there, let them despair and spare not; but as for thee, thou hast no
ground to do it.  What! despair of bread in a land that is full of corn!
despair of mercy when our God is full of mercy! despair of mercy, when
God goes about by his ministers, beseeching of sinners to be reconciled
unto him!  2 Cor. v. 18–20.

Thou scrupulous fool, where canst thou find that God was ever false to
his promise, or that he ever deceived the soul that ventured itself upon
him?  He often calls upon sinners to trust him, though they walk in
darkness, and have no light; Isa. 1. 10.

They have his promise and oath for their salvation, that flee for refuge
to the hope set before them; Heb. vi. 17, 18.

Despair! when we have a God of mercy, and a redeeming Christ alive!  For
shame, forbear: let them despair that dwell where there is no God, and
that are confined to those chambers of death which can be reached by no
redemption.

A living man despair when he is chid for murmuring and complaining!  Lam.
iii. 39.  Oh! so long as we are where promises swarm, where mercy is
proclaimed, where grace reigns, and where Jerusalem sinners are
privileged with the first offer of mercy, it is a base thing to despair.

Despair undervalues the promise, undervalues the invitation, undervalues
the proffer of grace.  Despair undervalues the ability of God the Father,
and the redeeming blood of Christ his Son.  Oh unreasonable despair!

Despair makes man God’s judge; it is a controller of the promise, a
contradicter of Christ in his large offers of mercy: and one that
undertakes to make unbelief the great manager of our reason and judgment,
in determining about what God can and will do for sinners.

Despair!  It is the devil’s fellow, the devil’s master; yea, the chains
with which he is captivated and held under darkness for ever: and to give
way thereto in a land, in a state and time that flows with milk and
honey, is an uncomely thing.

I would say to my soul, O my soul! this is not the place of despair; this
is not the time to despair in: as long as mine eyes can find a promise in
the Bible, as long as there is the least mention of grace, as long as
there is a moment left me of breath or life in this world; so long will I
wait or look for mercy, so long will I fight against unbelief and
despair.

This is the way to honour God and Christ; this is the way to set the
crown on the promise; this is the way to welcome the invitation and
inviter; and this is the way to thrust thyself under the shelter and
protection of the word of grace.  Never despair so long as our text is
alive, for that doth sound it out,—that mercy by Christ is offered, in
the first place, to the biggest sinner.

Despair is an unprofitable thing; it will make a man weary of waiting
upon God; 2 Kings vi. 33; it will make a man forsake God, and seek his
heaven in the good things of this world; Gen. iv. 13–18.  It will make a
man his own tormentor, and flounce and fling like a wild bull in a net;
Isa. ii. 20.

Despair! it drives a man to the study of his own ruin, and brings him at
last to be his own executioner; 2 Sam. xvii. 23; Matt. xxvii. 3–5.

Besides, I am persuaded also, that despair is the cause that there are so
many that would fain be Atheists in the world: For because they have
entertained a conceit that God will never be merciful to them; therefore
they labour to persuade themselves that there is no God at all, as if
their misbelief would kill God, or cause him to cease to be.  A poor
shift for an immortal soul, for a soul who liketh not to retain God in
its knowledge!  If this be the best that despair can do, let it go, man,
and betake thyself to faith, to prayer, to wait for God, and to hope, in
despite of ten thousand doubts.  And for thy encouragement, take yet (as
an addition to what has already been said) the following scripture; “The
Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his
mercy;” Psal. cxlvii. 11.

Whence note, They fear not God, that hope not in his mercy: also God is
angry with them that hope not in his mercy: for he only taketh pleasure
in them that hope.  He that believeth, or hath received his testimony,
“hath set to his seal that God is true,” John iii. 33; but he that
receiveth it not hath made him a liar, and that is a very unworthy thing;
1 John v. 10, 11.  “Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy
on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly multiply pardons.”
Perhaps thou art weary of thy ways, but art not weary of thy thoughts, of
thy unbelieving and despairing thoughts; now, God also would have thee
cast away these thoughts, as such which he deserveth not at thy hands;
for he will have mercy upon thee, and he will abundantly pardon.

“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have
spoken!” Luke xxiv. 25.  Mark you here, slowness to believe is a piece of
folly.  Ay! but sayst thou, I do believe some, and I believe what can
make against me.  Ay, but sinner, Christ Jesus here calls thee fool for
not believing all.  Believe all, and despair if thou canst.  He that
believes all, believes that text that saith, Christ would have mercy
preached first to the Jerusalem sinners.  He that believeth all,
believeth all the promises and consolations of the word; and the promises
and consolations of the word weigh heavier than do all the curses and
threatenings of the law; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.  Wherefore
believe all, and mercy will to thy conscience weigh judgment down, and so
minister comfort to thy soul.  The Lord take the yoke from off thy jaws,
since he has set meat before thee; Hos. xi. 4; and help thee to remember
that he is pleased in the first place to offer mercy to the biggest
sinners.

_Sixthly_, Since Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place
to the biggest sinners, let souls see that they lay right hold thereof,
lest they, notwithstanding, indeed come short thereof.  Faith only knows
how to deal with mercy; wherefore put not in the place thereof
presumption.  I have observed, that as there are herbs and flowers in our
gardens, so there are their counterfeits in the field; only they are
distinguished from the other by the name of wild ones.  Why, there is
faith, and wild faith; and wild faith is this presumption.  I call it
wild faith, because God never placed it in his garden, his church; it is
only to be found in the field, the world.  I also call it wild faith,
because it only grows up and is nourished where other wild notions
abound.  Wherefore take heed of this, and all may be well; for this
presumuptuousness is a very heinous thing in the eyes of God: “The soul,”
saith he, “that doeth ought presumptuously (whether he be born in the
land, or a stranger), the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall
be cut off from among his people;” Numb. xv. 30.

The thoughts of this made David tremble, and pray that God would hold him
back from presumptuous sins, and not suffer them to have dominion over
him; Psal. xix. 13.

Now this presumption, then, puts itself in the place of faith, when it
tampereth with the promise for life, while the soul is a stranger to
repentance.  Wherefore you have in the text, to prevent doing thus, both
repentance and remission of sins to be offered to Jerusalem; not
remission without repentance: for all that repent not shall perish, let
them presume on grace and the promise while they will; Luke xiii. 1–3.

Presumption, then, is that which severeth faith and repentance,
concluding, that the soul shall be saved by grace, though the man was
never made sorry for his sins, nor the love of the heart turned
therefrom.  This is to be self-willed, as Peter has it; and this is a
despising the word of the Lord, for that has put repentance and faith
together; Mark i. 15.  And “because he hath despised the word of the
Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut
off: his iniquity shall be upon him.”  Numb. xv. 31.

Let such therefore look to it, who yet are, and abide in their sins; for
such, if they hope, as they are, to be saved, presume upon the grace of
God.  Wherefore presumption and not hearkening to God’s word are put
together; Deut. xvii. 12.

Again, Then men presume when they are resolved to abide in their sins,
and yet expect to be saved by God’s grace through Christ.  This is as
much as to say, God liketh sin as well as I do, and careth not how men
live, if so be they lean upon his Son.  Of this sort are they that build
up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity; that judge for reward,
and teach for hire, and divine for money, and lean upon the Lord; Mic.
iii. 10, 11.  This is doing things with an high hand against the Lord our
God, and a taking him, as it were, at the catch.  This is, as we say
among men, to seek to put a trick upon God, as if he had not sufficiently
fortified his proposals of grace by his holy word, against all such kind
of fools as these.  But look to it.

Such will be found at the day of God, not among that great company of
Jerusalem sinners that shall be saved by grace, but among those that have
been the great abusers of the grace of God in the world.  Those that say,
Let us sin that grace may abound, and let us do evil that good may come,
their damnation is just.  And if so, they are a great way off of that
salvation that is by Jesus Christ presented to the Jerusalem sinners.

I have therefore these things to propound to that Jerusalem sinner that
would know, if he may be so bold as to venture himself upon this grace.

_First_, Dost thou see thy sins?

_Secondly_, Art thou weary of them?

_Thirdly_, Wouldst thou with all thy heart be saved by Jesus Christ?  I
dare say no less, I dare say no more.  But if it be truly thus with thee,
how great soever thy sins have been, how bad soever thou feelest thy
heart, how far soever thou art from thinking that God has mercy for
these: thou art the man, the Jerusalem sinner, that the Word of God has
conquered, and to whom it offereth free remission of sins, by the
redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

When the jailor cried out, “Sirs, What must I do to be saved?”  The
answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
He that sees his sins aright, is brought to his wit’s end by them; and he
that is so, is willing to part from them, and to be saved by the grace of
God.

If this be thy case, fear not, give no way to despair; thou presumest
not, if thou believest to life everlasting in Jesus Christ: yea, Christ
is prepared for such as thou art.

Therefore take good courage and believe.  The design of Satan is to tell
the presumptuous, that their presuming on mercy is good; but to persuade
the believer, that his believing is impudent bold dealing with God.  I
never heard a presumptuous man in my life say that he was afraid that he
presumed; but I have heard many an honest humble soul say, that they have
been afraid that their faith has been presumption.  Why should Satan
molest those whose ways he knows will bring them to him?  And who can
think that he should be quiet when men take the right course to escape
his hellish snares?  This, therefore, is the reason why the truly humbled
is opposed, while the presumptuous goes on by wind and tide.  The truly
humble Satan hates, but he laughs to see the foolery of the other.

Does thy hand and heart tremble?  Upon thee the promise smiles.  “To this
man will I look,” says God, “even to him that is poor, and of a contrite
spirit, and trembles at my word;” Isa. lxvi. 2.

What, therefore, I have said of presumption concerns not the humble in
spirit at all.  I therefore am for gathering up the stones, and for
taking the stumblingblocks out of the way of God’s people: and
forewarning of them that lay the stumblingblock of their iniquity before
their faces, and that are for presuming upon God’s mercy; and let them
look to themselves; Ezek. xiv. 6–8.

Also our text stands firm as ever it did, and our observation is still of
force, that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners.  So then let none despair, let none presume; let
none despair that are sorry for their sins, and would be saved by Jesus
Christ; let none presume that abide in the liking of their sins, though
they seem to know the exceeding grace of Christ; for though the door
stands wide open for the reception of the penitent, yet it is fast enough
barred and bolted against the presumptuous sinner.  Be not deceived, God
is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, that he shall reap.  It cannot be
that God should be wheedled out of his mercy, or prevailed upon by lips
of dissimulation; he knows them that trust in him, and that sincerely
come to him by Christ for mercy; Nahum i. 7.

It is then not the abundance of sins committed, but the not coming
heartily to God by Christ for mercy, that shuts men out of doors.  And
though their not coming heartily may be said to be but a sin, yet it is
such a sin as causeth that all thy other sins abide upon thee unforgiven.

God complains of this.  “They have not cried unto me with their heart;
they turned, but not to the most High.  They turned feignedly;” Jer. iii.
10; Hos. vii. 14, 16.

Thus doing, his soul hates; but the penitent, humble, brokenhearted
sinner, be his transgressions red as scarlet, red like crimson, in number
as the sand; though his transgressions cry to heaven against him for
vengeance, and seem there to cry louder than do his prayers, or tears, or
groans for mercy, yet he is safe.  To this man God will look; Isa. i. 18;
chap lxvi. 2.

_Seventhly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners?  Then here is ground for those that, as to practice,
have not been such, to come to him for mercy.

Although there is no sin little of itself; because it is a contradiction
of the nature and majesty of God; yet we must admit of divers numbers,
and also of aggravations.  Two sins are not so many as three; nor are
three that are done in ignorance so big as one that is done against
light, against knowledge and conscience.  Also there is the child in sin,
and a man in sin that has his hairs gray, and his skin wrinkled for very
age.  And we must put a difference betwixt these sinners also.  For can
it be that a child of seven, or ten, or sixteen years old, should be such
a sinner—a sinner so vile in the eye of the law as he is who has walked
according to the course of this world, forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy
years?  Now the youth, this stripling, though he is a sinner, is but a
little sinner, when compared with such.

Now, I say, if there be room for the first sort, for those of the biggest
size, certainly there is room for the lesser size?  If there be a door
wide enough for a giant to go in at, there is certainly room for a dwarf.
If Christ Jesus has grace enough to save great sinners, he has surely
grace enough to save little ones.  If he can forgive five hundred pence,
for certain he can forgive fifty; Luke vii. 41, 42.

But you said before, that the little sinners must stand by until the
great ones have received their grace, and that is discouraging!

I answer, there are two sorts of little sinners, such as are so, and such
as feign themselves so.  They are those that feign themselves so, that I
intended there, and not those that are indeed comparatively so.  Such as
feign themselves so may wait long enough before they obtain forgiveness.

But again, a sinner may be comparatively a little sinner, and sensibly a
great one.  There are then two sorts of greatness in sin; greatness by
reason of number; greatness by reason of thoroughness of conviction of
the horrible nature of sin.  In this last sense, he that has but one sin,
if such a one could be found, may in his own eyes find himself the
biggest sinner in the world.  Let this man or this child therefore put
himself among the great sinners, and plead with God as great sinners do,
and expect to be saved with the great sinners, and as soon and as
heartily as they.

Yea, a little sinner, that comparatively is truly so, if he shall
graciously give way to conviction, and shall in God’s light diligently
weigh the horrible nature of his own sins, may yet sooner obtain
forgiveness for them at the hands of the heavenly Father, than he that
has ten times his sins, and so cause to cry ten times harder to God for
mercy.

For the grievousness of the cry is a great thing with God; for if he will
hear the widow, if she cries at all, how much more if she cries most
grievously?  Exod. xxii. 22, 23.

It is not the number, but the true sense of the abominable nature of sin,
that makes the cry for pardon lamentable.  He, as I said, that has many
sins, may not cry so loud in the ears of God as he that has far fewer;
he, in our present sense, that is in his own eyes the biggest sinner, is
he that soonest findeth mercy.

The offer then is to the biggest sinner; to the biggest sinner first, and
the mercy is first obtained by him that first confesseth himself to be
such an one.

There are men that strive at the throne of grace for mercy, by pleading
the greatness of their necessity.  Now their plea, as to the prevalency
of it, lieth not in the counting up of the number, but in the sense of
the greatness of their sins, and in the vehemency of their cry for
pardon.  And it is observable, that though the birthright was Ruben’s,
and, for his foolishness, given to the sons of Joseph, yet Judah
prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the Messias; 1 Chron. v. 1,
2.

There is a heavenly subtilty to be managed in this matter.  “Thy brother
came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.”  The blessing
belonged to Esau, but Jacob by his diligence made it his own; Gen. xxvii.
33.  The offer is to the biggest sinner, to the biggest sinner first; but
if he forbear to cry, the sinner that is a sinner less by far than he,
both as to number and the nature of transgression, may get the blessing
first, if he shall have grace to bestir himself well; for the loudest cry
is heard furthest, and the most lamentable pierces soonest.

I therefore urge this head, not because I would have little sinners go
and tell God that they are little sinners, thereby to think to obtain
mercy; for, verily, so they are never like to have it: for such words
declare, that such a one hath no true sense at all of the nature of his
sins.

Sin, as I said, in the nature of it, is horrible, though it be but one
single sin as to act; yea, though it be but a sinful thought; and so
worthily calls for the damnation of the soul.

The comparison, then, of little and great sinners, is to go for good
sense among men.  But to plead the fewness of thy sins, or the
comparative harmlessness of their quantity before God, argueth no sound
knowledge of the nature of thy sin, and so no true sense of the nature or
need of mercy.

Little sinner, when therefore thou goest to God, though thou knowest in
thy conscience that thou, as to acts, art no thief, no murderer, no
whore, no liar, no false swearer, or the like, and in reason must needs
understand that thus thou art not so profanely vile as others; yet when
thou goest to God for mercy, know no man’s sins but thine own, make
mention of no man’s sins but thine own.  Also labour not to lessen thy
own, but magnify and greaten them by all just circumstances, and be as if
there was never a sinner in the world but thyself.  Also cry out, as if
thou wast the only undone man; and that is the way to obtain God’s mercy.

It is one of the comeliest sights in the world to see a little sinner
commenting upon the greatness of his sins, multiplying and multiplying
them to himself, till he makes them in his own eyes bigger and higher
than he seeth any other man’s sins to be in the world; and as base a
thing it is to see a man do otherwise, and as basely will come on it;
Luke xviii. 10–14.

As, therefore, I said to the great sinner before, let him take heed lest
he presume; I say now to the little sinner, let him take heed that he do
not dissemble: for there is as great an aptness in the little sinner to
dissemble, as there is in the great one.  “He that hideth his sins shall
not prosper,” be he a sinner little or great; Prov. xxviii. 13.

_Eighthly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to
the biggest sinners?  Then this shews the true cause why Satan makes such
head as he doth against him.

The Father and the Holy Spirit are well spoken of by all deluders and
deceived persons; Christ only is the rock of offence.  “Behold I lay in
Zion a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence;” Rom. ix. 33.  Not that
Satan careth for the Father or the Spirit more than he careth for the
Son, but he can let men alone with their notions of the Father and the
Spirit, for he knows they shall never enjoy the Father nor the Spirit, if
indeed they receive not the merits of the Son.  “He that hath the Son,
hath life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not life,” however they
may boast themselves of the Father and the Spirit; 1 John v. 12.  Again,
“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath
not God: he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, hath both the Father
and the Son;” 2 John i. 9.

Christ, and Christ only, is he that can make us capable to enjoy God with
life and joy to all eternity.  Hence he calls himself the way to the
Father, the true and living way; John xiv. 6; Heb. x. 19, 20; for we
cannot come to the Father but by him.  Satan knows this, therefore he
hates him.  Deluded persons are ignorant of this, and, therefore, they
are so led up and down by Satan by the nose as they are.

There are many things by which Satan has taken occasion to greaten his
rage against Jesus Christ.

As, first, his love to man, and then the many expressions of that love.
He hath taken man’s nature upon him; he hath in that nature fulfilled the
law to bring in righteousness for man; and hath spilt his blood for the
reconciling of men to God; he hath broke the neck of death, put away sin,
destroyed the works of the devil, and got into his own hands the keys of
death: and all these are heinous things to Satan.  He cannot abide Christ
for this.  Besides, he hath eternal life in himself; and that to bestow
upon us; and we in all likelihood are to possess the very places from
which the Satans by transgression fell, if not places more glorious.
Wherefore he must needs be angry.  And is it not a vexatious thing to
him, that we should be admitted to the throne of grace by Christ, while
he stands bound over in chains of darkness, to answer for his rebellions
against God and his Son, at the terrible day of judgment.  Yea, we poor
dust and ashes must become his judges, and triumph over him for ever: and
all this long of Jesus Christ; for he is the meritorious cause of all
this.

Now though Satan seeks to be revenged for this, yet he knows it is in
vain to attack the person of Christ; he has overcome him: therefore he
tampers with a company of silly men, that he may vilify him by them.  And
they, bold fools as they are, will not spare to spit in his face.  They
will rail at his person, and deny the very being of it; they will rail at
his blood, and deny the merit and worth of it.  They will deny the very
end why he accomplished the law, and by jiggs, and tricks, and quirks,
which he helpeth them to, they set up fond names and images in his place,
and give the glory of a Saviour to them.  Thus Satan worketh under the
name of Christ; and his ministers under the name of the ministers of
righteousness.

And by his wiles and stratagems he undoes a world of men; but there is a
seed, and they shall serve him, and it shall be counted to the Lord for a
generation.  These shall see their sins, and that Christ is the way to
happiness.  These shall venture themselves, both body and soul, upon his
worthiness.

All this Satan knows, and therefore his rage is kindled the more.
Wherefore, according to his ability and allowance, he assaulteth,
tempteth, abuseth, and stirs up what he can to be hurtful to these poor
people, that he may, while his time shall last, make it as hard and
difficult for them to go to eternal glory as he can.  Oftentimes he
abuses them with wrong apprehensions of God, and with wrong apprehensions
of Christ.  He also casts them into the mire, to the reproach of
religion, the shame of their brethren, the derision of the world, and
dishonour of God.

He holds our hands while the world buffets us; he puts bear-skins upon
us, and then sets the dogs at us.  He bedaubeth us with his own foam, and
then tempts us to believe that that bedaubing comes from ourselves.

Oh! the rage and the roaring of this lion, and the hatred that he
manifests against the Lord Jesus, and against them that are purchased
with his blood!  But yet, in the midst of all this, the Lord Jesus sends
forth his herald to proclaim in the nations his love to the world, and to
invite them to come in to him for life.  Yea, his invitation is so large,
that it offereth his mercy in the first place to the biggest sinners of
every age, which augments the devil’s rage the more.

Wherefore, as I said before, fret he, fume he, the Lord Jesus will divide
the spoil with this great one; yea, he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was
numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors; Isa. liii. 12.

_Ninthly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners?  Let the tempted harp upon this string for their
help and consolation.  The tempted wherever he dwells, always thinks
himself the biggest sinner, one most unworthy of eternal life.

This is Satan’s master-argument: thou art a horrible sinner, a hypocrite,
one that has a profane heart, and one that is an utter stranger to a work
of grace.  I say this is his maul, his club, his master-piece; he doth
with this as some do with their most enchanting songs, sings them
everywhere.  I believe there are but few saints in the world that have
not had this temptation sounding in their ears.  But were they but aware,
Satan by all this does but drive them to the gap out at which they should
go, and so escape his roaring.

Saith he, thou art a great sinner, a horrible sinner, a profane hearted
wretch, one that cannot be matched for a vile one in the country.

And all this while Christ says to his ministers, offer mercy, in the
first place, to the biggest sinners.  So that this temptation drives thee
directly into the arms of Jesus Christ.

Were therefore the tempted but aware, he might say, Ay, Satan, so I am, I
am a sinner of the biggest size, and therefore have most need of Jesus
Christ; yea, because I am such a wretch, therefore Jesus Christ calls me;
yea, he calls me first: the first proffer of the Gospel is to be made to
the Jerusalem sinner: I am he, wherefore stand back Satan; make a lane,
my right is first to come to Jesus Christ.

This now will be like for like.  This would foil the devil: this would
make him say, I must not deal with this man thus; for then I put a sword
into his hand to cut off my head.

And this is the meaning of Peter, when he saith, “Resist him stedfast in
the faith;” 1 Pet. v. 9.  And of Paul, when he saith, “Take the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked;” Eph. vi. 16.

Wherefore is it said, “Begin at Jerusalem,” if the Jerusalem sinner is
not to have the benefit of it?  And if I am to have the benefit of it,
let me call it to mind when Satan haunts me with the continual
remembrance of my sins, of my Jerusalem sins.  Satan and my conscience
say I am the biggest sinner,—Christ offereth mercy, in the first place,
to the biggest sinners.  Nor is the manner of the offer other but such as
suiteth with my mind.  I am sorry for my sin; yea, sorry at my heart that
ever sinful thought did enter, or find the least entertainment in my
wicked mind; and might I obtain my wish, I would never more that my heart
should be a place for ought but the grace, and spirit, and faith of the
Lord Jesus.

I speak not this to lessen my wickedness; I would not for all the world
but be placed by mine own conscience in the very front of the biggest
sinners, that I might be one of the first that are beckoned by the
gracious hand of Jesus the Saviour, to come to him for mercy.

Well, sinner, thou now speakest like a Christian, but say thus in a
strong spirit in the hour of temptation, and then thou wilt, to thy
commendation and comfort, quit thyself well.

This improving of Christ in dark hours, is the life, though the hardest
part of our Christianity.  We should neither stop at darkness, nor at the
raging of our lusts, but go on in a way of venturing and casting the
whole of our affairs for the next world at the foot of Jesus Christ.
This is the way to make the darkness light, and also to allay the raging
of our corruption.

The first time the Passover was eaten, was in the night; and when Israel
took courage to go forward, though the sea stood in their way like a
devouring gulf, and the host of the Egyptians follow them at the heels;
yet the sea gives place, and their enemies were as still as a stone till
they were gone over; Exod. xii. 8; chap. xiv. 13, 14, 21, 22; chap. xv.
16.

There is nothing like faith to help at a pinch; faith dissolves doubts as
the sun drives away the mists.  And that you may not be put out, know
your time, as I said, of believing it always.  There are times when some
graces may be out of use, but there is no time wherein faith can be said
to be so.  Wherefore faith must be always in exercise.

Faith is the eye, is the mouth, is the hand, and one of these is of use
all day long.  Faith is to see, to receive, to work, or to eat; and a
Christian should be seeing or receiving, or working, or feeding all day
long.  Let it rain, let it blow, let it thunder, let it lighten, a
Christian must still believe: “At what time,” said thee good man, “I am
afraid, I will trust in thee;” Psal. vi. 2, 3.

Nor can we have a better encouragement to do this, than is by the text
set before us, even an open heart for a Jerusalem sinner.  And if for a
Jerusalem sinner to come, then for such an one when come.  If for such a
one to be saved, then for such a one that is saved.  If for such a one to
be pardoned his great transgressions, then for such a one who is pardoned
these, to come daily to Jesus Christ, too, to be cleansed and set free
from his common infirmities, and from the iniquities of his holy things.

Therefore let the poor sinner that would be saved labour for skill to
make the best improvement of the grace of Christ to help him against the
temptations of the devil and his sins.

_Tenthly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners?  Let those men consider this, that (have, or) may in
a day of trial have spoken or done what their profession or conscience
told them they should not, and that have the guilt and burden thereof
upon their consciences.

Whether a thing be wrong or right, guilt may pursue him that doth
contrary to his conscience.  But suppose a man should deny his God, or
his Christ, or relinquish a good profession, and be under the real guilt
thereof; shall he therefore conclude he is gone for ever?  Let him come
again with Peter’s tears, and no doubt he shall obtain Peter’s
forgiveness.  For the text includes the biggest sinners.

And it is observable, that before this clause was put into this
commission, Peter was pardoned his horrible revolt from his Master.  He
that revolteth in the day of trial, if he is not shot quite dead upon the
place, but is sensible of his wound, and calls out for a surgeon, shall
find his Lord at hand to pour wine and oil into his wounds, that he may
again be healed, and to encourage him to think that there may be mercy
for him: besides what we find recorded of Peter, you read in the Acts,
some were, through the violence of their trials, compelled to blaspheme,
and yet are called saints; Acts xxvi. 9–11.

Hence you have a promise or two that speak concerning such kind of men,
to encourage us to think that at least some of them shall come back to
the Lord their God.  “Shall they fall,” saith he, “and not arise?  Shall
they turn away, and not return?” Jer. viii. 4.  “And in that day I will
assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that was driven out, and
her that I have afflicted.  And I will make her that halteth a remnant,
and her that was cast off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over
them in Mount Zion for ever.”  What we are to understand by her that
halteth, is best expressed by the Prophet Elijah; Mic. iv. 6, 7; Zeph.
iii. 19; 1 Kings xviii. 21.

I will conclude, then, that for them that have halted, or may halt, the
Lord has mercy in the bank, and is willing to accept them if they return
to him again.

Perhaps they may never be after that of any great esteem in the house of
God, but if the Lord will admit them to favour and forgiveness: O
exceeding and undeserved mercy!  See Ezekiel xliv. 10–14.

Thou, then, that mayst be the man, remember this, that there is mercy
also for thee.  Return therefore to God, and to his Son, who hath yet in
store for thee, and who will do thee good.

But perhaps thou wilt say, he doth not save all revolters, and,
therefore, perhaps not me.

_Answr_.  Art thou returning to God?  If thou art returning, thou art the
man; “Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings;”
Jer. iii. 22.

Some, as I said, that revolt, are shot dead upon the place, and for them,
who can help them?  But for them that cry out of their wounds, it is a
sign they are yet alive, and if they use the means in time, doubtless
they may be healed.

Christ Jesus has bags of mercy that were never yet broken up or unsealed.
Hence it is said, he has goodness laid up; things reserved in heaven for
his.  And if he breaks up one of these bags, who can tell what he can do!

Hence his love is said to be such as passeth knowledge, and that his
riches are unsearchable.  He has, no body knows what; for no body knows
whom: he has by him in store for such as seem in the view of all men to
be gone beyond recovery.  For this the text is plain.  What man or angel
could have thought that the Jerusalem sinners had been yet on this side
of an impossibility of enjoying life and mercy?  Hadst thou seen their
actions, and what horrible things they did to the Son of God; yea, how
stoutly they backed what they did with resolves and endeavours to
persevere, when they had killed his person, against his name and
doctrine; and that there was not found among them all that while, as we
read of, the least remorse or regret for these their doings; couldst thou
have imagined that mercy would ever have took hold of them, at least so
soon!  Nay, that they should, of all the world, be counted those only
meet to have it offered to them in the very first place!  For so my text
commands, saying, “Preach repentance and remission of sins among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

I tell you the thing is a wonder, and must for ever stand for a wonder
among the sons of men.  It stands also for an everlasting invitation and
allurement to the biggest sinners to come to Christ for mercy.

Now since, in the opinion of all men, the revolter is such a one; if he
has, as I said before, any life in him, let him take encouragement to
come again, that he may live by Christ.

_Eleventhly_, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to
the biggest sinners?  Then let God’s ministers tell them so.  There is an
incidence in us, I know not how it doth come about, when we are
converted, to contemn them that are left behind.  Poor fools as we are,
we forget that we ourselves were so; Tit. iii. 2, 3.

But would it not become us better, since we have tasted that the Lord is
gracious, to carry it towards them so, that we may give them convincing
ground to believe, that we have found that mercy which also sets open the
door for them to come and partake with us.

Ministers, I say, should do thus, both by their doctrine, and in all
other respects.

Austerity doth not become us, neither in doctrine nor in conversation.
We ourselves live by grace; let us give as we receive, and labour to
persuade our fellow-sinners which God has left behind us, to follow
after, that they may partake with us of grace.  We are saved by grace,
let us live like them that are gracious.  Let all our things (to the
world) be done in charity towards them; pity them, pray for them, be
familiar with them for their good.  Let us lay aside our foolish,
worldly, carnal grandeur; let us not walk the streets, and have such
behaviours as signify we are scarce for touching of the poor ones that
are left behind, no not with a pair of tongs.  It becomes us not thus to
do.

Remember your Lord, he was familiar with publicans and sinners to a
proverb; “Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, a friend of
publicans and sinners;” Matt. xi. 19.  The first part, concerning his
gluttonous eating and drinking, to be sure, was an horrible slander; but
for the other, nothing was ever spoke truer of him by the world.  Now,
why should we lay hands cross on this text: that is, choose good
victuals, and love the sweet wine better than the salvation of the poor
publican?  Why not familiar with sinners, provided we hate their spots
and blemishes, and seek that they may be healed of them?

Why not fellowly with our carnal neighbours?  If we do take occasion to
do so, that we may drop, and be yet distilling some good doctrine upon
their souls?  Why not go to the poor man’s house, and give him a penny,
and a Scripture to think upon?  Why not send for the poor to fetch away
at least the fragments of thy table, that the bowels of thy fellow-sinner
may be refreshed as well as thine?

Ministers should be exemplary; but I am an inferior man, and must take
heed of too much meddling.  But might I, I would meddle with them, with
their wives, and with their children too.  I mean not this of all, but of
them that deserve it, though I may not name them.

But, I say, let ministers follow the steps of their blessed Lord, who by
word and deed shewed his love to the salvation of the world, in such a
carriage as declared him to prefer their salvation before his own private
concern, For we are commanded to follow his steps, “who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth.”

And as I have said concerning ministers, so I say to all the brethren,
carry it so, that all the world may see, that indeed you are the sons of
love.

Love your Saviour; yea, shew one to another that you love him, not only
by a seeming love of affection, but with the love of duty.  Practical
love is best.  Many love Christ with nothing but the lick of the tongue.
Alas!  Christ Jesus the Lord must not be put off thus: “He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them,” saith he, “he it is that loveth me;”
John xiv. 21.

Practical love, which stands in self-denial, in charity to my neighbour,
and a patient enduring of affliction for his name; this is counted love.

Right love to Christ is that which carries in it a provoking argument to
others of the brethren; Heb. x. 24.

Should a man ask me how he should know that he loveth the children of
God?  The best answer I could give him, would be in the words of the
Apostle John; “By this,” saith he, “we know we love the children of God,
when we love God, and keep his commandments;” 1 John, v. 2.

Love to God and Christ is then shewn when we are tender of his name; and
then we shew ourselves tender of his name when we are afraid to break any
the least of his commandments.  And when we are here, then do we shew our
love to our brother also.

Now, we have obligation sufficient thus to do, for that our Lord loved
us, and gave himself for us, to deliver us from death, that we might live
through him.

The world, when they hear the doctrine that I have asserted and handled
in this little book; to wit, that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered
in the first place to the biggest sinners, will be apt, because
themselves are unbelievers, to think that this is a doctrine that leads
to looseness, and that gives liberty to the flesh; but if you that
believe love your brethren and your neighbours truly, and as you should,
you will put to silence the ignorance of such foolish men, and stop their
mouths from speaking evil of you.

And, I say, let the love of Christ constrain us to this.  Who deserveth
our heart, our mouth, our life, our goods, so much as Jesus Christ, who
has bought us to himself by his blood, to this very end, that we should
be a peculiar people, zealous of good works?

There is nothing more seemly in the world, than to see a Christian walk
as becomes the Gospel; nor any thing more unbecoming a reasonable
creature, than to hear a man say, I believe in Christ, and yet see in his
life debauchery and profaneness.  Might I, such men should be counted the
basest of men; such men should be counted by all unworthy of the name of
a Christian, and should be shunned by every good man, as such who are the
very plague of profession.

For so it is written, we should carry it towards them.  Whoso have a form
of godliness, and deny the power thereof, from such we must turn away.

It has ofttimes come into my mind to ask, by what means it is that the
gospel profession should be so tainted with loose and carnal gospellers?
and I could never arrive to better satisfaction in the matter than
this,—such men are made professors by the devil, and so by him put among
the rest of the godly.  A certain man had a fruitless fig-tree planted in
his vineyard; but by whom was it planted there?  Even by him that sowed
the tares, his own children, among the wheat; Luke xiii. 6; Matt. xiii.
37–40.  And that was the devil.  But why doth the devil do thus?  Not of
love to them, but to make of them offences and stumblingblocks to others.
For he knows that a loose professor in the church does more mischief to
religion than ten can do to it that are in the world.

Was it not, think you, the devil that stirred up the damsel that you read
of in Acts xvi., to cry out, “These are the servants of the most high
God, that shew unto us the way of salvation!”  Yes it was, as is evident,
for Paul was grieved to hear it.  But why did the devil stir up her to
cry so? but because that was the way to blemish the Gospel, and to make
the world think that it came from the same hand as did her soothsaying
and witchery; verse 16–18; “Holiness, O Lord, becomes thy house for
ever.”

Let, therefore, whoever they be that profess the name of Christ, take
heed that they scandal not that profession which they make of him, since
he has so graciously offered us, as we are sinners of the biggest size,
in the first place, his grace to save us.

Having thus far spoken of the riches of the grace of Christ, and of the
freeness of his heart to embrace the Jerusalem sinners, it may not be
amiss to give you yet, as a caution, an intimation of one thing, namely,
that this grace and freeness of his heart is limited to time and day; the
which, whoso overstandeth, shall perish notwithstanding.

For as a king, who, of grace, sendeth out to his rebellious people an
offer of pardon, if they accept thereof by such a day, yet beheadeth or
hangeth those that come not in for mercy until the day or time be past;
so Christ Jesus has set the sinner a day, a day of salvation, an
acceptable time; but he who standeth out, or goeth on in rebellion beyond
that time, is like to come off with the loss of his soul; 2 Cor. vi. 2;
Heb. iii. 13, 16, 17, 18, 19; chap. iv. 7; Luke xix. 41, 42.

Since, therefore, things are thus, it may be convenient here to touch a
little upon these particulars.

_First_, That this day, or time thus limited, when it is considered with
reference to this or that man, is ofttimes undiscerned by the person
concerned therein, and always is kept secret as to the shutting up
thereof.

And this, in the wisdom of God, is thus to the end; no man, when called
upon, should put off turning to God to another time.  Now, and to-day, is
that and only that which is revealed in holy writ; Psal. 1. 22; Eccles.
xii. 1; Heb. iii. 13, 16.

And this shews us the desperate hazards which those men run, who when
invitation or conviction attends them, put off turning to God to be saved
till another, and, as they think, a more fit season and time.  For many,
by so doing, defer this to do till the day of God’s patience and
long-suffering is ended; and then, for their prayers and cries after
mercy, they receive nothing but mocks, and are laughed at by the God of
heaven; Prov. i. 20–30; Isaiah lxv. 12–16; chap. lxvi. 4; Zech. xii.
11–13.

_Secondly_, Another thing to be considered is this, viz. that the day of
God’s grace with some men begins sooner, and also sooner ends than it
doth with others.  Those at the first hour of the day, had their call
sooner than they who were called upon to turn to God at the sixth hour of
the day; yea, and they who were hired at the third hour, had their call
sooner than they who were called at the eleventh; Matt. xx. 1–6.

1.  The day of God’s patience began with Ishmael, and also ended before
he was twenty years old.  At thirteen years of age he was circumcised;
the next year after Isaac was born; and then Ishmael was fourteen years
old.  Now that day that Isaac was weaned, that day was Ishmael rejected;
and suppose that Isaac was three years old before he was weaned, that was
but the seventeenth year of Ishmael; wherefore the day of God’s grace was
ended with him betimes; Gen. xvii. 24, 25; chap. xxi. 2–11; Gal. iv. 30.

2.  Cain’s day ended with him betimes; for after God had rejected him, he
lived to beget many children, and build a city, and to do many other
things.  But alas! all that while he was a fugitive and a vagabond.  Nor
carried he any thing with him after the day of his rejection was come,
but this doleful language in his conscience, “From God’s face shall I be
hid;” Gen. iv. 10–15.

3.  Esau, through his extravagancies would needs go to sell his
birth-right, not fearing (as other confident fools) but that yet the
blessing would still be his, after which he lived many years; but all of
them under the wrath of God, as was, when time came, made appear to his
destruction; for “When he would have inherited the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it
carefully with tears;” Heb. xii. 14–16.

Many instances might be given as to such tokens of the displeasure of God
against such as fool away, as the wise man has it, the prize which is put
into their hand; Prov. xvii. 16.

Let these things, therefore, be a further caution to those that sit under
the glorious sound of the Gospel, and hear of the riches of the grace of
God in Christ to poor sinners.

To slight grace, to despise mercy, and to stop the ear when God speaks,
when he speaks such great things, so much to our profit, is a great
provocation.

He offereth, he calls, he woos, he invites, he prays, he beseeches us in
this day of his grace to be reconciled to him; yea, and has provided for
us the means of reconciliation himself.  Now, this despised must needs be
provoking; and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.

But some man may say unto me, Fain I would be saved, fain I would be
saved by Christ; but I fear this day of grace is past, and that I shall
perish, notwithstanding the exceeding riches of the grace of God.

_Answer_.  To this doubt I would answer several things.

_First_, With respect to this day.

_Secondly_, With respect to thy desires.

_Thirdly_, With respect to thy fears.

_First_, With respect to the day; that is, whether it be ended with a man
or no.

1.  Art thou jogged, and shaken and molested at the hearing of the Word?
Is thy conscience awakened and convinced then that thou art at present in
a perishing state, and that thou hast need to cry to God for mercy?  This
is a hopeful sign that this day of grace is not past with thee.  For
usually they that are past grace, are also, in their conscience, past
feeling, being “seared with an hot iron;” Eph. iv. 18, 19; 1 Tim. iv. 1,
2.

Consequently, those past grace must be such as are denied the awakening
fruits of the Word preached.  “The dead that hear,” says Christ, “shall
live;” at least while Christ has not quite done with them; the day of
God’s patience is not at an end with them; John v. 25.

2.  Is there in thy more retired condition, arguings, strugglings, and
strivings with thy spirit to persuade thee of the vanity of what vain
things thou lovest, and to win thee in thy soul to a choice of Christ
Jesus and his heavenly things?  Take heed and rebel not, for the day of
God’s grace and patience will not be past with thee till he saith his
“Spirit shall strive no more” with thee; for then the woe comes, when “he
shall depart from them;” and when he says to the means of grace, “Let
them alone;” Hos. iv. 17; chap. ix. 12.

3.  Art thou visited in the night-seasons with dreams about thy state,
and that thou art in danger of being lost?  Hast thou heart-shaken
apprehensions when deep sleep is upon thee, of hell, death, and judgment
to come?  These are signs that God has not wholly left thee, or cast thee
behind his back for ever.  “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man
perceiveth it not; in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep
falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the ears
of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his
purpose (his sinful purposes) and hide pride from man;” Job xxxiii.
14–17.

All this while God has not left the sinner, nor is come to the end of his
patience towards him, but stands at least with the door of grace a-jar in
his hand, as being loth as yet to bolt it against him.

4.  Art thou followed with affliction, and dost thou hear God’s angry
voice in thy afflictions?  Doth he send with thy affliction an
interpreter to shew thee thy vileness; and why, or wherefore, the hand of
God is upon thee, and upon what thou hast; to wit, that it is for thy
sinning against him, and that thou mightest be turned to him?  If so, thy
summer is not quite ended; thy harvest is not quite over and gone.  Take
heed, stand out no longer, lest he cause darkness, and lest thy feet
stumble upon the dark mountains; and lest, while you look for light, he
turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness; Jer. viii.
20; chap. xiii. 15–17.

5.  Art thou crossed, disappointed, and way-laid, and overthrown in all
thy foolish ways and doings?  This is a sign God has not quite left thee,
but that he still waits upon thee to turn thee.  Consider, I say, has he
made a hedge and a wall to stop thee?  Has he crossed thee in all thou
puttest thy hand unto?  Take it as a call to turn to him, for, by his
thus doing, he shews he has a mind to give thee a better portion.  For
usually when God gives up men, and resolves to let them alone in the
broad way, he gives them rope, and lets them have their desires in all
hurtful things; Hos. ii. 6–15; Psalm lxxiii. 3–13; Rom. xi. 9.

Therefore take heed to this also, that thou strive not against this hand
of God; but betake thyself to a serious inquiry into the causes of this
hand of God upon thee, and incline to think, it is because the Lord would
have thee look to that, which is better than what thou wouldst satisfy
thyself withal.  When God had a mind to make the prodigal go home to his
father, he sent a famine upon him, and denied him a bellyful of the husks
which the swine did eat.  And observe it, now he was in a strait, he
betook him to consideration of the good that there was in his father’s
house; yea, he resolved to go home to his father, and his father dealt
well with him; he received him with music and dancing, because he had
received him safe and sound; Luke xv. 14–32.

6.  Hast then any enticing thoughts of the word of God upon thy mind?
Doth, as it were, some holy word of God give a glance upon thee, cast a
smile upon thee, let fall, though it be but one drop of its savour upon
thy spirit; yea, though it stays but one moment with thee?  O then the
day of grace is not past!  The gate of heaven is not shut! nor God’s
heart and bowels withdrawn from thee as yet.  Take heed, therefore, and
beware that thou make much of the heavenly gift, and of that good word of
God of the which he has made thee taste.  Beware, I say, and take heed;
there may be a falling away for all this; but, I say, as yet God has not
left thee, as yet he has not cast thee off; Heb. vi. 1–9.

_Secondly_, With respect to thy desires, what are they?  Wouldst thou be
saved!  Wouldst thou be saved with a thorough salvation?  Wouldst thou be
saved from guilt and filth too?  Wouldst thou be the servant of thy
Saviour?  Art thou indeed weary of the service of thy old master the
devil, sin, and the world?  And have these desires put thy soul to
flight?  Hast thou through desires betaken thyself to thy heels?  Dost
fly to him that is a Saviour from the wrath to come, for life?  If these
be thy desires, and if they be unfeigned, fear not.  Thou art one of
those runaways which God has commanded our Lord to receive, and not to
send thee back to the devil thy master again, but to give thee a place in
his house, even the place which liketh thee best.  “Thou shalt not
deliver to his master,” says he, “the servant which is escaped from his
master unto thee.  He shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place
which he shall choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best; thou
shalt not oppress him;” Deut. xxiii. 15, 16.

This is a command to the church, consequently to the Head of the church;
for all commands from God come to her through her Head.  Whence I
conclude, that as Israel of old was to receive the runaway servant who
escaped from a heathen master to them, and should not dare to send him
back to his master again, so Christ’s church now, and consequently Christ
himself, may not, will not, refuse that soul that has made his escape
from sin, Satan, the world, and hell, unto him, but will certainly let
him dwell in his house, among his saints, in that place which he shall
choose, even where it liketh him best.  For he says in another place,
“And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.”  In no wise, let
his crimes be what they will, either for nature, multitude, or the
attendance of aggravating circumstances.

Wherefore, if thy desires be firm, sound, and unfeigned to become the
saved of Christ, and his servant, fear not, he will not, he will in no
wise put thee away, or turn thee over to thy old master again.

_Thirdly_, As to they fears, whatever they are, let that be supposed
which is supposed before, and they are groundless, and so of no weight.

_Object_.  But I am afraid I am not elected, or chosen to salvation,
though you called me fool a little before for so fearing.

_Ans_.  Though election is, in order, before calling, as to God, yet the
knowledge of calling must go before the belief of my election as to
myself.  Wherefore, souls that doubt of the truth of their effectual
calling, do but plunge themselves into a deeper labyrinth of confusion
that concern themselves with their election; I mean, while they labour to
know it before they prove their calling.  “Make your calling, and so your
election, sure;” 2 Pet. i. 4–11.

Wherefore, at present, lay the thoughts of thy election by, and ask
thyself these questions: Do I see my lost condition?  Do I see salvation
is nowhere but in Christ?  Would I share in this salvation by faith in
him?  And would I, as was said before, be thoroughly saved, to wit, from
the filth as from the guilt?  Do I love Christ, his Father, his saints,
his words, and ways?  This is the way to prove we are elect.  Wherefore,
sinner, when Satan, or thine own heart seeks to puzzle thee with
election, say thou, I cannot attend to talk of this point now, but stay
till I know that I am called of God to the fellowship of his Son, and
then I will shew you that I am elect, and that my name is written in the
book of life.

If poor distressed souls would observe this order, they might save
themselves the trouble of an unprofitable labour under these unreasonable
and soul-sinking doubts.

Let us therefore, upon the sight of our wretchedness, fly and venturously
leap into the arms of Christ, which are now as open to receive us into
his bosom, as they were when nailed to the cross.  This is coming to
Christ for life aright; this is right running away from thy master to
him, as was said before.  And for this we have multitudes of scriptures
to support, encourage, and comfort us in our so doing.

But now, let him that doth thus be sure to look for it, for Satan will be
with him to-morrow, to see if he can get him again to his old service;
and if he cannot do that, then will he enter into dispute with him, to
wit, about whether he be elect to life, and called indeed to partake of
this Christ, to whom he is fled for succour, or whether he comes to him
of his own presumptuous mind.  Therefore we are bid, as to come, so to
arm ourselves with that armour which God has provided; that we may
resist, quench, stand against, and withstand all the fiery darts of the
devil; Eph. vi. 11–18.

If, therefore, thou findest Satan in this order to march against thee,
remember then thou hadst this item about it; and betake thyself to faith
and good courage; and be sober, and hope to the end.

_Object_.  But how if I should have sinned the sin unpardonable, or that
called the sin against the Holy Ghost?

_Answer_.  If thou hast, thou art lost for ever; but yet before it is
concluded by thee that thou hast so sinned, know that they that would be
saved by Jesus Christ through faith in his blood, cannot be counted for
such.

1.  Because of the promise, for that must not be frustrated: and that
says, “And him that cometh to Christ, he will in no wise cast out.”  And
again, “Whoso will, let him take of the water of life freely;” John vi.
37; Rev. xxi. 6; chap. xxii. 17.

But I say, how can these scriptures be fulfilled, if he that would indeed
be saved, as before, has sinned the sin unpardonable?  The scriptures
must not be made void, nor their truth be cast to the ground.  Here is a
promise, and here is a sinner; a promise that says he shall not be cast
out that comes; and the sinner comes, wherefore he must be received:
consequently he that comes to Christ for life, has not, cannot have
sinned that sin for which there is no forgiveness.

And this might suffice for an answer to any coming soul, that fears,
though he comes, that he has sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost.

2.  But again, he that has sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost cannot
come, has no heart to come, can by no means be made willing to come to
Jesus Christ for life; for that he has received such an opinion of him,
and of his things, as deters and holds him back.

1.  He counteth this blessed person, the Son of God, a magician, a
conjuror, a witch, or one that did, when he was in the world, what he did
by the power and spirit of the devil; Matt. ix. 34; chap. xii. 24, 25,
&c.; Mark iii. 22–30.  Now he that has this opinion of this Jesus, cannot
be willing to cast himself at his feet for life, or to come to him as the
only way to God and to salvation.  And hence it is said again, that such
an one puts him to open shame, and treadeth him under foot, that is, by
contemning, reproaching, vilifying, and despising of him, as if he were
the vilest one, or the greatest cheat in the world: and has therefore, as
to his esteem of him, called him accursed, crucified him to himself, or
counted him one hanged, as one of the worst of malefactors; Heb. vi. 6;
chap. x. 29; 1 Cor. xii. 3.

2.  His blood, which is the meritorious cause of man’s redemption, even
the blood of the everlasting covenant, he counteth an unholy thing, or
that which has no more virtue in it to save a soul from sin than has the
blood of a dog; Heb. x. 29.  For when the Apostle says, “he counts it an
unholy thing,” he means, he makes it of less value than that of a sheep
or cow, which were clean according to the law; and therefore must mean,
that his blood was of no more worth to him in his account than was the
blood of a dog, an ass, or a swine, which always was, as to sacrifices,
rejected by the God of heaven, as unholy or unclean.

Now he who has no better esteem of Jesus Christ, and of his death and
blood, will not be persuaded to come to him for life, or to trust in him
for salvation.

3.  But further, all this must be done against manifest tokens to prove
the contrary, or after the shining of gospel light upon the soul, or some
considerable profession of him as the Messiah, or that he was the Saviour
of the world.

1.  It must be done against manifest tokens to prove the contrary; and
thus the reprobate Jews committed it when they saw the works of God,
which put forth themselves in him, and called them the works of the devil
and Beelzebub.

2.  It must be done against some shining light of the gospel upon them.
And thus it was with Judas, and with those who, after they were
enlightened, and had tasted, and had felt something of the powers of the
world to come, fell away from the faith of him, and put him to open shame
and disgrace; Heb. vi. 5, 6.

3.  It must also be done after, and in opposition to one’s own open
profession of him.  “For if after they have escaped the pollution of the
world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they
are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with
them than the beginning; for it had been better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn
from the holy commandment (which is the word of faith) delivered unto
them.”

4.  All this must be done openly, before witnesses, in the face, sight,
and view of the world, by word and act.  This is the sin that is
unpardonable; and he that hath thus done, can never, it is impossible he
ever should be renewed again to repentance, and that for a double reason;
for such an one doth say, he will not; and of him God says, he shall not
have the benefit of salvation by him.

_Object_.  But if this be the sin unpardonable, why is it called the sin
against the Holy Ghost, and not rather the sin against the Son of God?

_Answ_.  It is called “the sin against the Holy Ghost,” because such
count the works he did, which were done by the Spirit of God, the works
of the spirit of the devil.  Also because all such as so reject Christ
Jesus the Lord, they do it in despite of that testimony which the Holy
Ghost has given of him in the holy scriptures; for the scriptures are the
breathings of the Holy Ghost, as in all other things, so in that
testimony they bear of the person, of the works, sufferings,
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

Sinner, this is the sin against the Holy Ghost.  What sayst thou?  Hast
thou committed it?  Nay, I know thou hast not; if thou wouldst be saved
by Christ.  Yea, it is impossible that thou shouldst have done it, if
indeed thou wouldst be saved by him.

No man can desire to be saved by him, whom he yet judgeth to be an
impostor, a magician, a witch.  No man can hope for redemption by that
blood which he yet counteth an unholy thing.  Nor will God ever suffer
such an one to repent, who has, after light and profession of him, thus
horribly and devil-like contemned and trampled upon him.

True, words and wars and blasphemies against this Son of man are
pardonable; but then they must be done ignorantly and in unbelief.  Also
all blasphemous thoughts are likewise such as may be passed by, if the
soul afflicted with them indeed is sorry for them; 1 Tim. i. 13–15; Mar.
iii. 28.

All but this, sinner, all but this!  If God had said, he will forgive one
sin, it had been undeserved grace; but when he says he will pardon all
but one, this is grace to the height.

Nor is that one unpardonable otherwise, but because the Saviour that
should save them is rejected and put away.

We read of Jacob’s ladder; Christ is Jacob’s ladder that reacheth up to
heaven, and he that refuseth to go by this ladder thither, will scarce by
other means get up so high.

There is none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be
saved.  There is none other sacrifice for sin than this; he also, and he
only, is the Mediator that reconcileth men to God.  And, sinner, if thou
wouldst be saved by him, his benefits are thine; yea, though thou art a
great and Jerusalem transgressor.