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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, by John Bunyan
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Jerusalem Sinner Saved
+       or, Good News for the Vilest of Men
+
+
+Author: John Bunyan
+
+
+
+Release Date: April 17, 2015  [eBook #3270]
+[This file was first posted on March 6, 2001]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED***
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED***
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