urn HhI- W ill i n 5 l from f^e feifirarg of (professor ^amuef (UXiffer in (gtemorp of 3ubge ^amuef (tttiffer QSrecftinrtbge (preeenfeb 6g ^amuef (OXiffer QBrecfttnribge &ong to f0e £i6rar£ of (prtncefon £#eofogicaf ^emtnarj BR 75 .B73 1846 v. 1 Bunyan, John, 1628-1688. Works of the Puritan Divines THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN: THE TRINITY AND A CHRISTIAN: THE LAW AND A CHRISTIAN: &.C. &C. JOHN BUINYAN: TO VVHiCK IS APPENDED, AN EXHORTATION TO PEACE AND UNITY. WITH LIFE OF BUNY/fN, BY THE REV. JAMES HAMILTON, Scotch Church, Regent Square, London. NEW YORK: WILEY & PUTNAM 161 BROADWAY. M DCCC XLYI. C0NTENT8. 1. Preface. 2. Life of Btjntan. 1 3. The Jerusalem Sinner Savea, ... .1 4. The Pharisee and the Publican, ... 93 5 The Trinity and a Christian, , 245 6. The Law and a Christian, .... 251 7. Bunyan's Last Sermon., i t j> 257 8. Bunyan's Dying Sayings, .... 267 9. An Exhortation to Peace and Unity* . . .277 PREFACE. The Editor has but little to prefix to this volume by w>f brass, in the continual sound of which I went for several months together." The anxious casuistry in which lie sought relief, and the alter- nation of wistful hope and blank despair, in which for many a dismal day he was tossed to and fro, none but himself can pro- perly describe. They are deeply affecting, and to some may prove instructive. " Then began I, with sad and careful heart, to consider of the nature and largeness of my sin, and to search into the word of God, if in any place I could espy a word of promise, or any en- couraging sentence by which I might take relief. Wherefore I began to consider that of Mark in., ' All manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, wherewith soever they shall blaspheme :' which place, methought, at a biush, did contain a large and glorious promise for the pardon of high offences. But considering the place more fully, 1 thought it was rather to be understood as relating more chiefly to those who had, while in a natural state, committed such things as there are mentioned ; but not to me, wh'o had not only received light and mercy, but that had, both after and also contrary to that, so slighted Christ as I had done. I feared, therefore, that this wicked sin of mine might be that sin unpardonable, of which he there thus speaketh, ' But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.' " And now was I both a burden and a terror to myself ; nor did I ever so know as now what it was to be weary of my life and yet afraid to die. how gladly would I have been anybody but myself ! anything but a man ! and in any condition but my own ! for there was nothing did pass more frequently over my mind, than that it was impossible for me to be forgiven my transgres- sion, and to be saved from wrath to come." He set himself to compare his sin with that of David and Peter, but saw that there were specialties in his guilt which made it far greater. The only case which he could compare to his own was that of Judas. " About this time I did light on the dreadful story of thai mi- XV111 LIFE OF BUN Y AX. serable mortal, Francis Spira. Every sentence in that book, every groan of that man, with all the rest of Ins actions in his dolors, as his tears, his prayers, his gnashing of teeth, his wring- ing of hands, his twisting, and languishing, and pining away, un- der the mighty hand of God that was upon him, was as knives and daggers to my soul ; especially that sentence of his was frightful to me, ' Man knows the beginning of sin, but who bounds the issues thereof ?' Then would the former sentence, as the conclusion of all, fall like a hot thunderbolt again upon my conscience, ' For you know how, that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected ; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.' Then should I be struck into a very great trembling, insomuch that at sometimes I could, for whole days together, feel my very body, as well as my mind, to shake and totter under the sense of this dreadful judgment of God. " Now I should find my mind to flee from God as from the face of a dreadful judge ; yet this was my torment, I could not escape his hand. ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' But blessed be his gi'ace, that scripture in these flying fits would call as i*unning after me, — ' I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins ; return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.' This, I say, would come in upon my mind when I was fleeing from the face of God; for 1 did flee from his face, that is, my mind and spirit fled before him: by reason of his highness I could not endure. Then would that text cry, Return unto me; it would cry aloud, with a very great voice, Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Indeed this would make me make a little stop, and, as it were, look over my shoulder behind me, to see if I could discern that the God of grace did follow me with a pardon in his hand. " Once as I was walking to and fro in a good man's shop, be- moaning of myself in my sad and doleful state, afflicting myself with self-abhorrence for this wicked and ungodly thought ; la- menting also this hard hap of mine, for that I should commit so great a sin, greatly fearing I should not be pardoned ; praying also in my heart, that if this sin of mine did differ from that acrainst the Holy Ghost, the Lord would shew it me ; and being now ready to sink with fear, suddenly there was as if there hn'i rushed in at the window the noise of wind upon me, but very pleasant, and as if I heard a voice speaking, — • Didst ever refuse LIFE OF BUNYAN. XIX to be justified by the blood of Christ?' And withal my whole life of profession past was in a moment opened to me, wherein I was made to see that designedly I had not ; so my heart an- swered groaningly, No. Then fell with power that word of God upon me, See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. This made a strange seizure upon my spirit : it brought light with it, and commanded a silence in my heart of all those tumultuous thoughts that before did rise, like masterless hell-hounds, to roar and bel* low, and make a hideous noise within me. It shewed me also that Jesus Christ had yet a word of grace and mercy for me ; that he had not, as I feared, quite forsaken and cast off my soul : Yea, this was a kind of check for my proneness to desperation ; a kind of threatening of me if I did not, notwithstanding my sins and the heinousness of them, venture my salvation upon the Son of God. But as to my determining about this strange dispensa- tion, what it was, I know not. I have not yet in twenty years' time been able to make a judgment of it. I thought then what here I should be loath to speak. But verily, that sudden rushing wind was as if an angel had come upon me ; but both it and the salvation, I will leave until the day of judgment. Only this I say, it commanded a great calm in my soul. It persuaded me there might be hope ; it shewed me, as I thought, what the sin unpar- donable was, and that my soul had yet the blessed privilege to flee to Jesus Christ for mercy. But I say concerning this dis- pensation, I know not what yet to say unto it. I leave it to be thought on by men of sound judgment. I lay not the stress of my salvation thereupon, but upon the Lord Jesus in the promise ; yet seeing I am here unfolding of my secret things, I thought it might not be altogether inexpedient to let this also shew itself, though I cannot now relate the matter as then I did experience it. This lasted in the savour thereof about three or four days, and then I began to mistrust and despair again." No solid peace can enter the soul except that which is brought by the Comforter. It is not the word read and heard, but the word revealed by the Spirit, which is saving and assuring. There is undoubtedly a divine operation on the mind wher- ever any special impression is produced by the truths of God ; and whether that impression should be made with audible and vi- sible manifestations accompanying it— as on the day of Pente- cost — or should be so vivid as to convert a mental perception into a bodily sensation, as we are disposed to think was the case XX LIFE OF BONY AN. with some of the remarkable sights and heavenly voices which good men have recorded, is really of little moment. In Bunyan's case, so warm was his imagination, that every clear perception was sure to be instantaneously sounding in his ear, or standing out a bright vision before his admiring eyes. This feature of his mental conformation has been noticed already ; but this may be the proper place to allude to it again. After the short breathing time we just noticed, Bunyan began to sink in the deep waters again. It was in vain that he asked the prayers of God's people, and equally in vain that he imparted his grief to those who had passed through the same conflicts with the devil. One " ancient Christian," to whom he stated his fear that he had committed the sin for which there is no forgiveness, thought so too. " Thus was I always sinking, whatever I did think or do. So one day I walked to a neighbouring town, and sat down upon a settle in the street, and fell into a very deep panic about the most fearful state my sin had brought me to ; and after long musing, I lifted up my head ; but meth ought I saw as if the sun that shineth in the heavens did grudge to give light ; and as if the very stones in the street, and tiles upon the houses, did bend themselves against me : methought that they all com- bined together to banish me out of the world ; I was abhorred of them, and unfit to dwell among them, or be partaker of their be- nefits, because I had sinned against the Saviour. Then breaking out in the bitterness of my soul, I said to my soul, with a grievous sigh, ' How can God comfort such a wretch as I am ?' I had no sooner said it, but this returned upon me, as an echo doth answer a voice, ' This sin is not unto death.' At which I was as if raised out of the grave, and cried out again, ' Lord, how eouldst thou find out such a word as this ?' for I was filled with admira- tion at the fitness and at the unexpectedness of the sentence. The fitness of the word ; the Tightness of the timing of it ; the power and sweetness and light and glory that came with it also, were marvellous to me to find. I was now for the time out of doubt as to that about which I was so much in doubt before. I seemed now to stand upon the same ground with other sinners, and to have as good right to the word and prayer as any of them.'' In coming to this conclusion, he had made a great step in ad- vance. His misery had hitherto been occasioned by a device of the devil, which keeps many anxious souls from comfort He re- garded his own case as a special exception to which a gospel, other- LIFE OF BUNYAN. XXI wise general, did not apply ; but this snare was now broken, and, though with halting pace, he was an the way to settled rest and joy. Frequently he would feel that his transgressions had cut him off from Christ, and left him " neither foot-hold nor hand- hold among all the props and stays in the precious word of life ;" but presently he would find some gracious assurance — he knew not how — sustaining him. At one time he would appear to him- self like a child fallen into a mill-pond, " who thought it could make some sliift to sprawl and scramble in the water," yet, as it could find nothing to which to cling, must sink at last ; but by and by he would perceive that an unseen power was buoying him up, and encouraging him to cry from the depths. At another time he would be so discouraged and daunted, that he scarcely dared to pray, and yet in a sort of desperation beginning, he found it true that " men ought always to pray and not to faint." On one occa- sion, whilst endeavouring to draw near the throne of grace, the tempter suggested " that neither the mercy of God, nor yet the blood of Christ, at all concerned him, nor could they help him by reason of his sin ; therefore it was vain to pray." Yet he thought with himself, " I will pray." " But," said the tempter, "your sin is unpardonable." "Well," said he, "I will pray." "It is to no boot," said the adversary. And still he answered, " I will pray." And so he began his prayer, " Lord, Satan tells me that neither thy mercy, nor Christ's blood, is sufficient to save my soul. Lord, shall I honour thee most by believing thou wilt and canst ? or him, by believing thou neither wilt nor canst ? Lord, I would fain honour thee by believing thou canst and thou wiliest." And whilst he was thus speaking,"as if some one had clapped him on the back," that scripture fastened on his mind, " man great is thy faith." Relief came slowly but steadily, and was the more abiding, be- cause he had learned by experience to distrust any comfort which did not come from the word of God. Such passages as these, " My grace is sufficient for thee," and " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out," greatly lightened his burden ; but he derived still stronger encouragement from considering that the Gospel, with its benignity, is much more expressive of the mind and disposition of God than the law with its severity. " Mercy rejoiceth over judgment. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious ? For if the ministration of condemna- tion be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious, had no XXU LIFE OF BUNYAN. glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth." Or, as the same truth presented itself to his mind in an aspect more arresting to a mind like his, " And Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here ; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say, for he was sore afraid. And there was a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him." " Then I saw that Moses and Elias must both vanish, and leave Christ and his saints alone." We have now arrived at the happy time when these doubts and distractions were exchanged for songs of deliverance. We relate it in the words of Bunyan's own narrative : — " One day as I was passing into the field, and that too with some dashes on my con- science, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, ' Thy righteousness is in heaven ;' and me- thought withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand ; there, I say, was my righteousness ; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, ' He wants my righteousness,' for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse ; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, ' the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed ; I was loosed from my afflictions and my irons ; my temptations also fled away ; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble me. Now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God ; so when I came home I looked to see if I could find that sentence, ' Thy righteousness is in heaven,' but could not find such a saying ; wherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my remembrance, ' He is made unto us of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption ;' by this word I saw the other sentence time. For, by this scrip- ture, I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as he is distinct from us as touching his bodily presence, so he is our righteousness and santification before God. Here, therefore, I lived for some time very sweetly at peace with God through Christ. Oh ! me- thought, Christ, Christ ! There was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes. I was not now for looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as of his blood, burial, or resur- LIFE OF BUNYAN. XXlli. rection, but considering him as a whole Christ, as he is when all these, and all other his virtues, relations, offices, and operations met together, and that he sat on the right hand of God in heaven, "f was glorious to me to see his exaltation, and the worth and pre- vaJency of all his benefits ; and that because now I could look from myself to him, and would reckon that all those graces of God that now were green on me, were yet but like those cracked groats and fourpence -halfpennies that rich men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their trunks at home: Oh! I saw my gold was in my trunk at home ! in Christ my Lord and Saviour. Now Christ was all ; all my righteousness, all my sanetification, and all my redemption. " Further, the Lord did also lead me into the mystery of union with the Son of God ; that I was joined to him, that 1 was ' flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone' (Eph. v. 30) ; and now was that word of St Paul sweet to me. By this also was my faith in him as my righteousness the more confirmed in me ; for if he and I were one, then his righteousness was mine, his merits mine, his victory also mine. Now could I see myself in heaven and earth at once : in heaven by my Christ, by my head, by my righteous- ness and life ; though on earth by my body or person. Now I saw Christ Jesus was looked upon of God, and should also be looked upon by us, as that common or public person, in whom all the whole body of his elect are always to be considered and rec- koned ; that we fulfilled the law by him, rose from the dead by him, got the victory over sin, death, the devil, and hell by him ; when he died, we died ; and so of his resurrection. * Thy dead men shall live ; together with my dead body shall they arise,' saith he : and again, ' After two days he will revive us, and the third day we shall live in his sight :' which is now fulfilled by the sitting down of the Son of Man on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, according to that to the Ephesians, ' He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' Ah ! these blessed considerations and scriptures, with many others of like nature, were in those days made to spangle in mine eye, so that I have cause to say, ' Praise ye the Lord God in his sanctuary ; praise him in the fir- mament of his power ; praise him for his mighty acts : praise him according to his excellent greatness.' " Extricated from the Slough of Despond, Bunyan went on his •vay rejoicing ; and though sometimes interrupted by disquieting XXIV LIFE OF BUWYAH. thoughts and strong temptations, his subsequent career was a path of growing comfort and prevailing peace. At the age of twenty- six he was admitted a member of that Baptist church of which Mr Gifford was the faithful pastor,— a rare man, who, in angry times, and in a small communion, preserved his catholicity. Hold- ing that " union with Christ," and not agreement concerning any ordinances or things external, is the foundation of Christian fel- lowship, with his dying hand he addressed a letter to his beloved people, in which the following sentence occurs, the utterance of a heart enlarged by Christian magnanimity, and bent on those ob- jects which alone look important when the believer is waiting on the top of Pisgah: — "Concerning separation from the Church about baptism, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, psalms, or any other externals, 1 charge every one of you respectively, as you will give an account of it to our Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge both quick and dead at his coming, that none of you be found guilty of this great evil, winch some have committed, and that through a zeal for God, yet not according to knowledge. They have erred from the law of the love of Christ, and have made a rent in the true Church, which is but one." If our Baptist brethren are justly proud that the burning and shining light of Bunyan was set upon their candlestick, they have equal reason to boast of the torch at which his bland and diffussive light was kindled. John Bunyan doubtless owed to John Gifford the peculiar type of his Christianity, its comprehensiveness, and its sect-forgetting zeal for the things of Jesus Christ. He had not long been a member of the church when he was called to exercise its actual ministry. Gifford was gone to his everlasting rest ; and as a substitute for his labours, it was put upon a few of the brethren to speak the word of exhortation to the rest. Of these Bunyan was one. At first he did not venture farther than to address his friends in their more private meetings, or to follow up, with a brief application, the sermons delivered by others in their village-preaching. But these exercises having afforded the utmost satisfaction to his judicious though warm- hearted hearers, he was urged forward to more public services. These he was too humble to covet, and too earnest to refuse- Though his education was suffici litly rude, God had given him from the first a strong athletic mind and a glowing heart, — that downright logic and teeming fancy, whose bold strokes and burn- ing images heat the Saxon temper to the welding point, and make LIFE OP BUNYAN. XXV the popular orator of our English multitude. Then his low ori- ginal ami rough wild history, however much they might have subjected him to scorn had he exchanged the leathern apron for a silken one, or scrambled from the hedge-side into the high places of the church, entailed no suspicion, and awakened much surprise, when the Bedford townsmen saw their blaspheming neighbour a new man, and in a way so disinterested preaching the faith which he once destroyed. The town turned out to hear, and though there was some mockery, many were deeply moved. His own account of it is : — " At first I could not believe that God should speak by me to the heart of any man, still counting myself unworthy ; yet those who were thus touched, would love me, and have a particular respect for me ; and though I did put it from me, that they should be awakened by me, still they would confess it and affirm it before the saints of God. . . . Wherefore, seeing them in both their words and deeds to be so constant, and also in their hearts so earnestly pressing after the knowledge of Jesus Christ, rejoicing that ever God did send me where they were, then 1 began to conclude it might be so, that God had owned in his work such a foolish one as I ; and then came that word of God to my heart with such sweet refreshment : f The blessing of them that were ready to perish is come upon me ; yea, 1 caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.' At this, there- fore, 1 rejoiced ; yea, the tears of those whom God had awakened by my preaching would be both solace and encouragement to me. 1 thought on those sayings, * Who is he that maketh me glad, but the same that is made sorry by me V And again, ' Though I be not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am unto you : for the seal of my apostleship are ye in the Lord.' " There was a solemnizing and subdting power in Buuyan's ministry, because it was heart-felt. So far as the truths he ut- tered were capable of becoming subjects of personal conscious- ness, he had experienced them ; and so far as they were subjects of intellectual conviction, he was not only fully persuaded of them, but saw them so clear and evident, that his realizations were continually quickening into sensations. He thus begau with a John- Baptist ministry, to which succeeded a Pentecostal evan- gel ; and at last it grew into the Pauline amplitude and complete- ness, " the whole counsel of God." u In my preaching of the word, I took special notice of this one thing, namely, that the Lord did lead me to begin where the word begins with sinners ; c XXVI LIFE OF BUNYAN. that is, to condemn all flesh, and to open and allege that the cnrse of God by the law doth belong to and lay hold on all men as they come into the world, because of sin. Now this part of my work I fulfilled with great sense; for the terrors of the law, and guilt for my transgressions, lay heavy on my conscience. I preached what I felt, what 1 smartingly did feel ; even that under which my poor soul did groan and tremble to astonishment. In- deed I have been as one sent to them from the dead ; I went my- self hi chains to preach to them in chains ; and earned that fire in my own conscience that I persuaded them to be aware of Thus I went on for the space of two years, crying out against men's sins, and their fearful state because of them. After which the Lord came in upon my own soul with some sure peace and comfort through Christ ; for he did give me many sweet discoveries of his blessed grace through him. Wherefore now I altered in my preaching (for still I preached what I saw and felt). Now, there- fore, I did much labour to hold forth Jesus Christ in all his offices, relations, and benefits, unto the world, and did strive also to dis- cover, to condemn, and remove those false supports and props on which the world doth both lean, and by them fall and perish. On these things also 1 staid as long as on the other. After this, God led me into something of the mystery of union with Christ ; wherefore, that I discovered and shewed to them also. And when I had travelled through these three chief points of the word of God, I was caught in my present pr-actice, and cast into prison, where I have lain alone as long again to confirm the truth by way of suffering, as I was before in testifying of it, according to the scriptures, in a way of preaching." Banyan's preaching was no incoherent rant. Words of truth and soberness formed the staple of each sermon; and his burning words and startling images were only the electric scintillations along the chain of his scriptural eloquence. Though the com- mon people heard him most gladly, he had occasional hearers of a higher class. Once on a week-day he was expected to preach in a parish church near Cambridge, and a concourse of people had already collected in the churchyard. A gay student was riding past, when he noticed the crowd, and asked what had brought them together. He was told that the people had come out to hear one Bunyan, a tinker, preach. lie instantly dismounted, and gave a boy twopence to hold his horse, for he declared he was de- termined to hear the tinker prate. So he went into the church, LIFE OF BUNYAN. XXVll ami beai'd the tinker ; but so deep was the impression which that sermon made on the scholar, that he took every subsecment op- portunity to attend Bunyan's ministry, and himself became a re- nowned preacher of the gospel in Cambridgeshire. Still he felt that his errand was to the multitude, and liis great anxiety was to penetrate the darkest places of the land, and preach to the most abandoned people. In these labours of unostentatious heroism, he sometimes excited the jealousy of the regular parish ministers, and even under the tolerant rule of the Pi'otector, was in some danger of imprisonment. However, it was not till the Restoration that he was in serious jeopardy ; but thereafter he was among the first victims of the grand combination betwixt priests and rulers to exterminate the gospel in England. On the 12th of November 1660, he had promised to meet a little congregation in a private house at Samsell in Bedfordshire. Before the hour of meeting he was apprised that a warrant was out to seize him ; but he felt that he owed it to the gospel not to run away at such a time. Accordingly when the people were assembled with no weapons but their Bibles, the constable en- tered and arrested the preacher. He had only time to speak a few words of counsel and encouragement to his hearers, " You see we are prevented of our opportunity to speak and hear the word of God, and are likely to suffer for the same. But be not discouraged. It is a mercy to suffer for so good a cause. We might have been apprehended as thieves or murderers, or for other wickedness ; but blessed be God, it is not so. We suffer as Christians for well doing ; and better be the persecuted than the persecutors." After being taken before a justice, he was com- mitted to gaol till the ensuing sessions should be held at Bed- ford. There an indictment was preferred — " That John Bunyan, of the town of Bedford, labourer, being a person of such and such conditions, he hath since such a time devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church to hear divine service ; and is a common upholder of several unlawful meetings and conven- ticles, to the great disturbance and distraction of the good sub- jects of this kingdom, contrary to the laws of our sovereign lord the King," &c Of course he was convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment, with certification, that if he did not conform within a given period, he would be banished out of the kingdom. After Bunyan ceases to be his own biographer, our materials become exceeding scanty. This is the less to be lamented when XXV111 LIFE OF BUXYAS. we reflect that the history of his " hidden life'' is already told. The processes have now been related which formed and developed the inner man ; and the few external events that befel him, and the few important tilings that he did, during the remaining eight- and-twenty years of his mortal pilgrimage, may be recorded in a single page. His imprisonment was protracted from sessions to sessions, till he had measured out twelve weary years in Bedford gaol. Per- haps we should not call them weary. They had then* alleviations. His wife and children were allowed to visit him. His blind and most beloved daughter was permitted to cheer his solitude and her own. He had his Bible, and his " Book of Martyrs." He had his imagination, and his pen. Above all, he had a good con- science. He felt it a blessed exchange to quit the " iron cage" of despair for a " den" oft visited by a celestial comforter ; and which, however cheerless, did not lack a door to heaven. Whether it was the man's own humanity, or whether it was that God who assuaged Joseph's captivity, gave Bunyan special favour in the eyes of the keeper of his prison, the fact is certain, that he met with singular indulgence at the least likely hands. Not only was he allowed many a little indulgence in his cell, but he was suffered to go and come with a freedom which could hardly have been exceeded had the county gaol been his own hired house. For months together he was a constant attender of the church-meetings of his brethren in Bedford, and was actually chosen pastor during the period of his incarceration. On one occasion some of the bishops who had heard a rumour of the unusual liberty conceded to him, sent a messenger from London to Bedford to ascertain the truth. The officer was in- structed to call at the prison during the night. It was a night when Bunyan had received permission to stay at home with his family ; but so uneasy did he feel, that he told his wife he must go back to his old quarters. So late was it that the gaoler blamed him for coming at such an untimely hour ; but a little afterwards the messenger arrived. " Are all the prisoners safe?" "Yes." " Is John Bunyan safe ?" "Yes." "Let me see him." Bunyan was called, and the messenger went his way ; and when he was gone the gaoler told him, " Well, you may go out again just when you think proper ; for you know when to return better than I can tell you.'' But the best alleviations of his captivity were those wonderful LIFE OP BUNTAN. XX 'X works which he there projected or composed. Some of these were controversial ; but one of them was his own life, under the title, " Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners," and another was the " Pilgrim's Progress." In 1672 he obtained his liberty, and his friends immediately built for him a large meeting-house, where he continued to preach with little interruption till his death. Once a year he visited London, and was there so popular, that twelve hundred people would gather together at seven in the morning of a winter's working-day to hear him. Amongst the admiring listeners, Dr Owen was frequently found ; and once when Charles the Second asked how a learned man like him could sit down to hear a tinker prate, the great theologian is said to have answered, " May it please your Majesty, could I possess the tinker's abilities for preaching, I would most gladly relinquish all my learning." But popular as he was, he was not fond of praise. One day after he had concluded an im- pressive discourse, his friends pressed round to thank him for his " sweet sermon." " Aye," he bluntly answered, " you need not remind me of that ; for the devil told me as much before I left the pulpit." He had numbered sixty years, and written as many books, when he was released from his abundant labours. A young gentleman, his neighbour, had fallen under his father's displea- sure, and was much concerned at his father's estrangement as well as at the prospect of being disinherited. He begged Mr Bunyan's friendly interposition to propitiate his father, and pre- pare the way for his return to parental favour and affection. The kind-hearted man undertook the task, and having success- fully achieved it, was returning from Reading to London on horseback, when he was thoroughly drenched with excessive rains. He arrived cold and wet at the house of Mr Strudwick, a grocer on Snow Hill. Here he was seized with fits of shivering, which passed off in violent fever, and after ten days' sickness, on the 31st of August 1688, his pilgrimage ended, and he went in by the gate into the city. XXX LIFE OF BUNTAN. As the most appropriate introduction to the following selec- tions from the practical writings of Bunyan, we would close this rapid history of the Man, with a few remarks on the Theolo- gian and the Author. I. Bunyan's theological merits we rank very high. No one can turn over his pages without noticing the abundance of his Scriptural quotations ; and these quotations no one can examine without perceiving how minutely he had studied, and how deeply he had pondered, the word of God. But it is possible to be very textual, and yet by no means very scriptural. A man may have an exact acquaintance with the literal Bible, and yet entirely miss the great Bible message. He may possess a dexterous com- mand of detached passages and insulated sentences, and yet be entirely ignorant of that peculiar scheme which forms the great gospel revelation. But this was Bunyan's peculiar excellence. He was even better acquainted with the Gospel as the scheme of God, than he was familiar with the Bible-text ; and the conse- quence is, that though he is sometimes irrelevant in his refer- ences, and fanciful in interpreting particular passages, his doc- trine is almost always according to the analogy of faith. The doctrine of a free and instant justification by the imputed right- eousness of Christ, none even of the Puritans could state with more Luther-like boldness, nor defend with an affection more worthy of Paul. In his last and best days, Coleridge wrote, " I know of no book, the Bible excepted, as above all comparison, which I, according to my judgment and experience, could so safely recommend as teaching and enforcing the whole saving truth, according to the mind that was in Christ Jesus, as the Pilgrim's Progress. It is in my conviction the best Summa Theologies Erangelicce ever produced by a writer not miracu- lously inspired."* Without questioning this verdict, we woidd include in the encomium some of his other writings, which pos- sibly Coleridge never saw. Such as the Tracts contained in this volume. They exhibit Gospel-truths in so clear a light, and state them in such a frank and happy tone, that he who runs may- read, and he who reads in earnest will rejoice. The Pilgrim is a peerless guide to those who have already passed in at the wicket-gate ; but those who are still seeking peace to their ti'ou- * Remains, vol. iii. p. 391. LIFE OP BTJNYAN. XXXI bled souls, will find the best directory in " The Jerusalem Sinner Saved." ' II. Invaluable as a theologian, Bunyan stands alone as a con- tributor to theological literature. In recent times no man has done so much to draw the world's delighted attention to the sub- jects of supreme solicitude. No production of a mortal pen has found so many readers as one work of his ; and none has awakened so frequently the sighing behest, " Let me die the death of the righteous." None has painted the beauty of holiness in taints more lovely, nor spoken in tones more thrilling to the heart of universal hu- manity. At first the favourite of the vulgar, he is now the won- der of the learned ; and from the obscurity, not inglorious, of smoky cupboards and cottage chimneys, he has been escorted up to the highest places of classical renown, and duly canonized by the pontiffs of taste and literature. The man, whom Cowper praised anonymously, " Lest so despised a name should move a sneer,* has at last extorted emulous plaudits from a larger host of writers than ever conspired to praise a man of genius, who was also a man of God. Johnson and Franklin, Scott, Coleridge, and Southey, Byron and Montgomery, Macintosh and Macaulay, have exerted their philosophical acumen and poetic feeling to analyze his va- rious spell, and account for his unequalled fame ; and though the round-coraered copies, with their diverting woodcuts, have not disappeared from the poor man's ingle, illustrated editions blaze from the shelves of every sumptuous library, new pictures, from its exhaustless themes, light up the walls of each annual exhibi- tion ; and amidst the graceful litter of the drawing-room table, you are sure to take up designs from the Pilgrim's Progress. So universal is the ascendancy of the tinker-teacher, so world-wide the diocese of him whom Whitefield created Bishop Bunyan, that probably half the ideas which the outside-world entertains re- garding experimental piety, they have, in some form or other, derived from him. One of the most popular preachers in his day, in his little treatises, as well as in his longer allegories, he preaches to countless thousands still. The cause of this unexampled popu- larity is a question of great practical moment. And, first of all, Bunyan speaks to the whole of man,— to his XXX11 LIFE OP BUXYAN. imagination, his intellect, his heart. He had in himself all these ingredients of full-formed humanity, and in his hooks he lets all of them out. French writers and preachers are apt to deal too exclu- sively in the one article — fancy ; and though you are amused for the moment with the rocket-shower of brilliant and many-tinted ideas which fall sparkling around you, when the exhibition is ended, you are disappointed to find that the whole was momen- tary , and that from all the ruby and emerald rain scarcely one gem of solid thought remains.* Scottish writers and pi*eachers are apt to indulge the argumentative cacoethes of their country, and cramming into a tract or sermon as much hard-thinking as the Bramah -pressure of hydrostatic intellects can condense into the iron paragraphs, they leave no room for such delicate materials as fancy or feeling, illustration, imagery, or affectionate appeal ;f whilst Irish authors and pulpit-orators are so surcharged with their own exuberant enthusiasm, that their main hope of making you think as they think, is to make you feel as they feel. The heart is their Aristotle ; and if they cannot win you by a smile or melt you by a tear, they would think it labour lost to try a syllo- gism. Bunyan was neither French, nor Scotch, nor Irish. He embodied in his person, though greatly magnified, the average mind of England — playful, affectionate, downright. His intellec- tual power comes chiefly out in that homely self-commending sense — the brief b isiness-like reasoning, which might be termed Saxon logic, and of which Swift in one century, and Cobbett in another, are obvious instances. His premises are not always true, nor his inferences always legitimate ; but there is such evi- dent absence of sophistry, and even of that refining and hair-split- ting which usually beget the suspicion of sophistry — his statements are so sincere, and his conclusions so direct, the language is so perspicuous, and the appeal is made so honestly to each reader's understanding, that his popularity as a reasoner is inevitable. We need not say that the author of the Filgrim possessed imagina- tion ; but it is important to note the service it rendered to his preaching, and the charm which it still imparts to his miscellaneous * Pascal was an exception. D'Aubigne, so far as writing in French makes a Frenchman, is another. Their works are full of fancy, but it is the fancy which gives to truth its wings. The rocket is charged, not with coloured spark*, but burning jewels. t Here, again, exceptions occur, and the greatest of our Scottish preach- ers is a contradiction to the characteristic 6tyle of his country. LIFE OF BUNYAN. XXX111 works. The pictorial power he possessed in a rare degree. His mental eye perceived the truth most vividly. Some minds arc mov- ing in a constant mystery. They see men like trees walking. The different doctrines of the Bible all wear dim outlines to them, jostling and jumbling ; and after a perplexing morrice of bewil- dering hints and half discoveries, they vanish into the misty back-ground of nonentity. To Bunyan's bright and broad- waking eye all things were clear. The men w Iked and the trees stood still. Everything was seen in sharp relief and definite out- line — a reality. And besides the pictorial, he possessed in highest perfection the illustrative faculty. Not only did his own mind perceive the truth most vividly, but he saw the very way to give others a clear perception of it also. This is the great secret of successful teaching. Like a man who has clambered his diffi- cult way to the top of a rocky eminence, but who, once he has reached the summit, perceives an easier path, and directs his companions along its gentler slopes, and gives them a helping-hand to lift them over the final obstacles ; it was by giant struggles over the debris of crumbling hopes, and through jungles of de- spair, and up the cliffs of apparent impossibility, that Bunyan forced his way to the pinnacle of his eventual joy ; but no sooner was he standing there, than his eagle-eye detected the easier path, and he made it the business of his benevolent ministry to guide others into it. Though not the truth, an illustration is a stepping-stone towards it ; an indentation in the rock which makes it easier to climb. No man had a happier knack in hewing out these notches in the cliff, and no one knew better where to place them, than this pilgrim's pioneer. Besides, he rightly judged that the value of these suggestive similes — these illustrative stepping-stones — depends very much on their breadth and frequency. But Bunyan appeals not only to the intellect and imagination, but to the hearts of men. There was no bitterness in Bunyan He was a man of kindness and compassion. How sorry he is for Mr Badman ! and how he makes you sympathize with Christian and Mr Ready-to-halt and Mr Feeble-mind and all the other interesting companions of that eventful journey ! And in his sermons how piteously he pleads with sinners for their own souls ! and how impressive is the undisguised vehemencyof his yearning affections ! In the same sentence Bunyan has a word for the man of sense, and another for the man of fancy, and a third for the man of feeling ; and by thus blending the intellec- XXXIV LIFE OF BUNTAN. tual, the imaginative, and the affectionate, he speaks home to the whole of man, and has made his works a lesson-book for all man- kind. Another secret of Bun van's popularity is the felicity of his style. His English is vernacular, idiomatic, universal ; varying with the subject ; homely in the continuous narrative ; racy and pungent in his lively and often rapid discourse ; and. when oc- casion requires, " a model of unaffected dignity and rhythmical flow ;" but always plain, strong, and natural. However, in speaking of his style, we do not so much intend his words as his entire mode of expression. A thought is like a gem ; but like a gem it may be spoiled in the setting. A careless artist may chip it and grievously curtail its dimensions ; a clumsy craftsman, in his fear of destroying it, may not sufficiently polish it ; or in his solicitude to shew off its beauty, may overdo the accompanying ornaments. Bunyan was too skilful a workman so to mismanage the matter. His expression neither curtails nor encumbers the thought, but makes the most of it ; that is, presents it to the reader as it is seen by the writer. Though there is a great ap- pearance of amplitude about his compositions, fe%v of his words could be wanted. Some styles are an ill-spun thread, full of inequalities, and shaggy from beginning to end with projecting fibres which spoil its beauty, and add nothing to its strength ; but in its easy continuousness and trim compactness, the thread of Bunyan's discourse flows firm and smooth from first to last. Its fulness regales the ear, and its felicity aids the understanding. 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 man- ner, 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 clause is in special mentioned by Luke, who saith, That as Christ would have the doctrine of re- pentance 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 wan-ant 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, 9 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. I. Show you what Jerusalem now was. II. Show you what it was to prelfch 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 backslid- ing, 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 aguinst 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 JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 3 the very slaughter-shop for saints. This was the place where- in 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 hind 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 remis- sion 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 pro- duced 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 4 TI1E JERUSALEM SIKXEK SAVED. 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, salth 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 there- fore here put to intimate, that no pretended faith of the gos- pel is good that is not accompanied with it : and this he doth on purpose, because he would not have them deceive them- selves : 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 Clirist 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 Jerusa- lem ;" that is, that Christ would have Jerusalem have the first offer of the gospel. 1. This cannot be so commanded, because they had now THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 5 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 lwr 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 commit- ting. Nay, none can be capable of committing of such par- donable sins as they committal 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," eaith he, " repentance and remission of sins" to the Jerusa- lem 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 6 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. miracles, but that a little before had had their hands up to the elbows in his heart-blood, that he should rather have said, Co into all the world, and preach repentance and re- mission 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 Jerusa- lem, 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 com- pared 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, THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 7 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, hut 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 V he replies, by an universal 8 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 objec- tion against one of them, that by a particular clause in his exhortation, he endeavours, that rot 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 ge- neral with his blood, so they had their various and parti- cular 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. Ofjcct. But I was one of them that cried out, Crucify him, crucify him ; and desired that Barabbas the uiua-derei might live, rather than him. What will become of me, think ; Peter, . I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of you. says Peter. THE JERUSALEM SINNER, SAVED. 9 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 anguii tree. Is there room for roe ? 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 baptized 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 1 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 1 But, as I told you, this is not all ; these Jerusalem sin- ners 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 re- pulse 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 10 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 them- selves 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 chap- ters 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, salva- tion 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, be- cause he continued preaching among them salvation in the name of Jesus. But he tells them, that that very Jesus whom thev bad slain and hanged on a tree, him God had THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. U 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 con- version of the Jews, that they preached the gospel only to them. Also the apostles still made their abode at Jerusa- lem, 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 vaga- bonds among the nations ; yea, and when they rendered re- bellion 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 be- fore sermons were preached to these murderers, the num- ber 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 12 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 offer- ed 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 gos- pel 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 mi- nisters 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 sin- THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. ]3 ners, to the Jerusalem sinners : " Preach repentance, and remission of sins, in my name, among all nations, begin- ning 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. There- fore, 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. 15-17. 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, be- cause 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 swal- lowing of them down : and therefore the Lord Jesus re- ceives 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 '*ck, as I said, is the biggest sinner, whether he sees his 14 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. disease or not. He is stained from head to foot, from heart to life and conversation. This man, in every man's judg- ment, has the most need of mercy. There is nothing at- tends 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 : where- fore 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 time 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 com- passion turn themselves to such, and offer help and de- liverance. 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, Eohraim V Ephraim was a THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 15 revolter from God, a man that had given himself up to devilism : a company of men, the ten tribes, that worship- ped 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 1 (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 ? JNo, 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 oc- casioned by his going from the place where they worship- ped 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 1 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 Phari- sees, 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 be- cause their conditions were more deplorable, (for that) they were most forlorn, and farthest from help; Luke iv. 25, 27. 16 THE JERUSALEM SINKER SAVED; 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 ? Nicode- mus, 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 he out of his proper channel, when it deals with self-righteous men ; hut then it runs with a full stream when it extends itself to the higgest sinners. As God's mercy is not regulated hy man's goodness, nor ob- tained hy man's worthiness ; so not much set out hy saving of any such. But more of this anon. And here let me ask my reader a question : suppose that as thou art walking hy 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 he helped out first ? I know thou wilt say, he that is nearest drowning. Why, this is the case ; the higger sinner, the nearer drowning ; therefore the higger sinner the more need of mercy ; yea, of help by mercy in the first place. x\nd to this our text agrees, when it saith, " Be- ginning 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 higgest 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 tWit physicians much desire. That, is it that helps them v patients, and that also that will help their patients to com- mit themselves to their skill for cure, with the more confi- dence and repose of spirit. And the best way for a doctor THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 17 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 ;" J or. 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 tilings 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. 18 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. When John told Christ, that they saw one casting out devils in his name, and they forbade him, because he fol- lowed not with them, what is the answer of Christ? " For- bid 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 ; con- sequently 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 com- manded, that the biggest sinners should have the first offer ef 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 per- sons, 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 everlast- ing 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 1 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 o the name of the Son of God. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 19 What should he 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 highway -men (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 1 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 highway- men, 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 1 Yes, doubtless. Oh ! but then he would not have displayed his grace, nor so have pur- sued 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 way with him to glory. Nor can this one act of his be juried ; 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 20 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 pre- vailed 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 prevail- ed ;" 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 bum 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, Third!)/, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, because by their forgive- ness 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 en- couragement in the minds of other diseased folk to come to him for help. Hence £'Ou read of our Lord, that after, THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 21 through his tender mercy, he had cured many of great diseases, his fame -was spread abroad, " They brought unto him all sick people that \yere 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 multi- tudes 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 rmickened 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 1 " 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 1 But what was Paul, and the Ephesian sinners 1 (of Paul we will speak anon). These Ephesian sinners, they were 22 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. men dead in sins, men that walked according to the dictates and motions of the devil ; worshippers of Diana, that ef- feminate goddess ; men far off from God, aliens and strangers to all good things ; such as were far oif from that, as I said, and consequently in a most deplorable condition. As the Jerusalem sinners were of the highest bote 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 Magda- lens 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 be- lieve 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 blasphemer, THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 23 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 1 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. 13. 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, God ! But David saw this betimes ; therefore he makes this one argument with God, that he would blot out his trans- gressions, that he would forgive his adultery, his murders, and horrible hypocrisy. Do it, 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 de- signed before he made mountain or hill : wherefore he comes, and he saith, Save me, 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 trans- gressions, 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 E 24 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. with the hearing sinner as mercy, and to be informed that God is willing to bestow it upon him. " I will teach trans- gressors 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 Sa- maria, 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 sa-id to her neigh- bours, " 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 Samari- tans (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 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 25 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 un- willing 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 1 (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 com- pany had laid siege against a fort, that so long as the be- sieged were persuaded their foes would shew them no fa- vour, 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 big- gest 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 26 THE JERUSALEM SINGER SAVED. conquered, and his kingdom will be weak. When Ishbo- sheth 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 break- ing 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 di- rect way to destroy it, is first to deal with such sinners by the word of his gospel, and by the merits of his pas- sion. 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 hor- ribly 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 JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 27 the town, house, or family, where such sin-breeding persona 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 youth- ful 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 re- formation 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. xxxiiL 2. This, therefore, is another reason why Jesus would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, be- cause 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 28 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED, 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 oi 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 con- verted, 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 con- verts 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 can- not 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 de- stroyed, 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 JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 20 the vile ones find at first, but when at the opening of hearts, the one finds himself to he 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 bam some time in pro- fession ; but the vile man meets with his at the beginning. Wherefore he, when the other is doivn, 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 gn-at 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 1 Thou horrible wretch, dost not know, that thou hast sinned thy- self 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 1 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 fur me, and for joy that I was come home unto him. 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 sug- gestions 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 con- 30 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. version ; wherefore thus also they are preptired 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 re- joice to see a bit of dust and ashes to overcome principali- ties and powers, and mightj 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 coining 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 ex- ceeding 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 excel- lently 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. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 31 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 prin- cipal 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 big- gest 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 con- verted, are usually the best helps in the church against temp- tations, 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 obli- gations 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. 32 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 in- fluence upon their minds, though heathens, that they re- turned 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 ob- tain 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 1 The love of Christ, says he. It was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. As who should say, 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. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 33 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 im- posed 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 ; hea- ven doth know that I was a sinner ; the world also knows that I was a sinner, a sinner of the greatest size ; but I ob- tained mercy ; 1 Tim i. 15, 16. Shall not this lay obligation upon me 1 Is not love of the greatest force to oblige 1 Is it not strong as death, cruel as the grave, and hotter than the coals of juniper ? Hath it not a most vehement flame 1 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 i 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 Chri-st 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 34 THE JERUSALEM IINN^E SAVED. 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, aa 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. T 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 wan- ton 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 pre- ciseness 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 V 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. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 35 This done, away she goes, not with her sister Martha, hut as much unobserved as she could, to the sermon, or rather to see the preacher. The hour and preacher being come, and she having ob- served 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. Wei* Jesus addresseth himself to his sermon, and she looks ear- nestly 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 re- penteth ; 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 -lay ? 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, 36 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 oint- ment. When Simon the Pharisee perceived what the woman did, and being ignorant of what it was to be for- given much (for he never was forgiven more than fifty pence), he began to think within himself, that he had been iflistaken 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 igno- rant 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 1 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 1 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 cir- cumstance, I beg pardon of those that can correct me. It is three or four and twenty years since I saw the book : THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 37 yet T 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 sav- ing 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 con- trition 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 -1 1 ; 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 38 THE JERUSALEM SIXXER SAVED. 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 bum 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 uuon : but in the THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 39 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 rug- gedness 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 to- gether, they do make shining Christians : but I say, when grace and a great sinner meet, and when grace shall sub- due 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 hav- ing 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 1 When the Jewish Pharisees dallied with the gospel, Christ threatened to take it from them, and to give it to 40 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 per- mission : 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 ad- mirers 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 de- bauched 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 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 41 Jerusalem, were become either high and famous for hypo- crisy, 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 be- fore nor since, that cuuld 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 fur 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 de- baucheries of our age 1 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, 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 1 Even idolatrous Ephraim, and back- sliding 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 42 TIIE JERUSALEM SINKEB SAVED. threateneth thorn with the heaviest and sum-test 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 big- gest 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 im- penitence ; Job xv. 22. But what did he speak to them 1 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 prac- tice, 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 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 43 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 1 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, ! 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 Abra- ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the king- dom 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 king- dom 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 thou- sand 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 tha* was saved on the cross 44 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. stand by, as clothed with beauteous glory, what farther can he he 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 great- ness of their sins, or to say that they were discouraged by his word from repentance, because of the heinous- ness 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 the Shechemites, and Aaron 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 that great backslider, and Manasseh that man of blood and a witch. Time would fail me to tell you of the woman of Canaan's daughter, of Mary 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 THE JERUSALEM SINNEIt SAVED. 45 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 hy 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 con- cerning 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 1 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 1 — 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 re- deeming blood of Jesus 1 Why did I not humbly cast my soul at his blessed footstool for mercy 1 Why did I judge of his ability to save me by the voice of my shallow reason, and the voice of a guilty conscience 1 Why betook not I myself to the holy word of God 1 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 befure the 46 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 un- derstood. See Luke x. 8-12. This reason, therefore, standeth fast ; namely, that Christ, by offering mercy in the first place to the biggest sinners 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 equitable- ness, 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 con- viction of the righteous judgment of God upon them, and of their deserts of hell-fire, that they shall in themselves con- clude 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. Tn- TIIE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 47 deed we hare 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 be- ginning 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 lavish- ingly. 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, 48 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. if you get any from him ; he is not so free as man} sup- pose, nor is he so willing to save as some pretended gos- pellers 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 for- giveness 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 mer- cifulness 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 ima- gine 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 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 49 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 de- claring 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 con- sider 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 1 It declares, that 50 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 breth- ren, that through this man (this man's merits) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins : and by him all that be- lieve 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 suffi- ciency of the blessed merits of thy Saviour. If lie had not been able to have reconciled the biggest sinners to his Fa- ther 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 the 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 aide 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 handfiils of guineas, you would conclude, that either he is wonderful rich, or must straiten his hand, or will soon be at the bot- tom 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 in- tent to have mercy on them. Now, the biggest sinners cannot be saved but by abundance of grace ; it is not a THE JERUSALEM SINXEK SAVED. 51 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 lie 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 Jeru- salem 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 encourage- ment 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 Jeru- salem." 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 52 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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. Ansio. 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 wick- edness. 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 1 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 hell and thee ; " Be- gin 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 Jeru- salem were not such, whose sins, I dare say, were such, both for bigness and heinousness, as thou art incapable of committing beyond them ; unless now, after thou hast re- ceived conviction that the Lord Jesus is the only Saviour THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. ,03 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. Tins is trampling under foot the Son of God, and count- ing his blood an unholy thing. This did they of Jerusalem ; but they did it ignorantly in unbelief, and so were yet ca- pable 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; ITim. 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 lie 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 repent- ance, and offereth himself unto thee freely, as thou stand- est among the Jerusalem sinners. Take therefore encouragement, man, mercy is, by the text, held forth to the biggest sinners ; yea, put thyself in- to 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 sin- ners 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 64 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 had as the worst. But be- lieve 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 great- est bulk and heaviest weight ! one that cannot stand long without sinking into hell, without thy supporting hand ! " Be not thou far from me, Lord ! 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 con- dition 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, THE JERUSALEM SINKER SAVED. 66 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 thy- self ; I know thou wilt find it hard work to do thus ; espe- cially 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 is 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 1 come man, thy call should give thee authority to come. " Begin at Jerusalem," is thy call and authority to come ; wherefore up and shoul- der it, man ; say, Stand away, devil, Christ calls me ; stand away unbelief, Christ calls me ; stand away all ye my dis- couraging 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 1 The Jerusalem sinner is first in thought, first in commission, first in the record of names ; and there- fore should give attendance with expectation, that he is first to receive mercy of God. Ob THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 con- firm 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 Je- rusalem sinner that stands there behind come to. me. Wherefore, since Christ says, Come, to thee, let the 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 1 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 1 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 com- pared 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 ? THE JERUSALEM SIGNER SAVED. 57 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 Sa- viour. 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 thy- self 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 eter- nally 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 af- fliction 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 hav- ing 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 1 Poor man ! thy state is to be lamented. Hast no judgment 1 Art not able to con- clude, that to be saved is better than to burn in hell ? and that eternal life, with God's favour, is better than a tem- poral life in God's displeasure 1 Hast no affection but what is brutish ? what, none at all 1 no affection for the God that made thee 1 what ! none for his loving Son that has shewed his love, and died for thee ? Is not heaven worth thy affection ? poor man ! which is strongest thinkest thou, God or thee 1 If thou art not able to over- come him, thou art a fool for standing out against him ; Matt. v. 25, 26. " It is a fearful thing to fall into the 58 THE JERUSALEM SIN2TER SAVED, hands of the living God." He will gripe hard ; his fist is stronger than a lion's paw ; take heed of him, lie will be angry if you despise his Son ; and will you stand guilty in your trespasses, when he offereth you his grace and favour 1 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 1 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 1 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 the 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 after- ward. 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 bur- then of their sins. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 59 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 1 yea, why should not man des- pair of getting to heaven by his own abilities ? I there- fore 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 be- cause thou certainly knowest that Christ will not, or can- not 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 1 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 1 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. CO THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 al- ready, 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 1 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 1 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 thres- hold of hell-gates. For them that are there, let them despair and spare not ; but as for thee, thou hast no THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. CI 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 re- deeming 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 invi- tation, undervalues the proffer of grace. Despair under- values 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, my soul ! this is not the place of despair ; this is not the time to despair in : as 62 THE JERUSALEM SINNEB SAVED. 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. li. 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 thy- self to faith, to prayer, to wait for God, and to hope, in despite of ten thousand doubts. And for thy encourage- ment, take yet (as an addition to what has already been said) the following scripture ; " The Lord taketh plea- sure 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 THE JERUSALEM SIGNER SAVED. 63 mercy : for lie 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." ' Per- haps 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. " fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the pro- phets have spoken !'•' Luke xxiv. 25. Mark you here, slow- ness 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 64 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. they are distinguished from the other hy 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 presumptuousness is a very heinous thing in the eyes of God : " The soul," saith he, " that doeth ought pre- sumptuously (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 re- mission 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 re- pentance, 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 pre- sumption and not hearkening to God's word are put to- gether ; Deut. xvii. 12. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 65 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 sumciencly 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 abu- sers 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 pre- sented to the Jerusalem sinners. I have therefore these things to propound to that Jeru- salem 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 1 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 thee : 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 66 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 be- lieving 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 hoaest humble soul say, that they have been afraid that theii faith has been presumption. Why should Satan molest ths>se whose ways he knows will bring them to him 1 And vho can think that he should be quiet when men take th? right course to escape his hellish snares 1 This, therefore, is the reason why the truly humbled is opposed, while the pre- sumptuous 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 1 Upon thee the pro- mise 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 tLe 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 obser- vation 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 vti«n of the penitent, TIIE JERUSALEM SIXXER SAVFD. (17 yet it is fast enough barred and bolted against the presump- tuous sinner. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, what- soever 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 trans- gressions 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 1 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 68 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 them- selves so may wait long enough before they obtain for- giveness. 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 ; great- ness 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 tills 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 crv ten times harder to God for mercv. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 69 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 abomi- nable nature of sin, that makes the cry for pardon lament- able. 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 mat- ter. " 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 trans- gression, 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 sin- 70 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. ful thought ; and so worthily calls for the damnation of tin soul. The comparison, then, of little and great sinners, is to go for good sense among men. But to plead the fewness ot thy sins, or the comparative hannlessness 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 tlms 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 sin- ner 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, multi- plying 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 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 71 of offence. " Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and a reck 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. 1 2. 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 enjo}' 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 can- not 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 occa- sion 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 righteous- ness for man ; and hath spilt his blood for the reconciling of men to God ; he hath broke t&e 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 h 72 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 accom- plished 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 allow- ance, 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. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 73 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 mi'dst of all this, the Lord Jesus sends forth his herald to pro- claim 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 every- where. 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, 74 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. Satan, so I am, I am a sinner of the biggest size, and there- fore 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, " Re- sist 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 Jerusa- lem 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 Je- sus 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 thvselfwell. TIIE JERUSALEM SIN NEK SAVED. 75 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 exer- cise. 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 re- ceiving, 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 the good man, " I am afraid, I will trust in thee ;" Psal. lvi. 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 Jeru- salem 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 deansed 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 76 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 1 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 1 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 re volte th 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 re- corded 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 concern- ing 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 V 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 THE JERUSALEM SOWER SAVED. 7} her that halteth, is best expressed by the Prophet Elijah ; iMic. 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 will- ing to accept them if they return to him again. Perhaps they may never be after that of any great es- teem in the house of God, but if the Lord will admit them to favour and forgiveness : 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 revolt- ers, and, therefore, perhaps not me. Answer. Art thou returning to God ? If thou art re- turning, thou art the man ; " Return ye backsliding chil- dren, 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 1 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 hor- rible 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 78 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. them all that while, as we read of, the least remorse or re- gret 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 re- pentance 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 mi- nisters 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 par- take 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 T1IK JERUSALEM SIKtflEB SAVED. 79 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 1 Why not fami- liar 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 1 Why not go to the poor man's house, and give him a penny, and a Scripture to think upon 1 AVhy 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 salva- tion 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, " wdio 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 80 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. the love of duty. Practical love is best. Many love Christ with nothing but the lick of the tongue. Alas ! Christ Je- sus 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 pro- voking 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 ten- der of his name ; and then we shew ourselves tender of his name when we are afraid to break any the least of his com- mandments. 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 as- serted 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 unbe- lievers, to think that this is a doctrine that leads to loose- ness, 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 g Is, 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? THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 81 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 un- worthy 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 there- of, 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 1 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 chil- dren, among the wheat ; Luke xiii. 6 ; Matth. xiii. 37-40. And that was the devil. But why doth the devil do thus 1 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 dam- sel 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 Gos- pel, and to make the world think that it came from the same hand as did her soothsaying and witchery ; verse 16- 18 ; " Holiness, 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 82 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 Je- rusalem 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, scndeth out to his rebel- lious 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 con- sidered with reference to this or that man, is ofttimes un- discerned 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-suf- fering 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 Ixv. 12-16; chap. lxvi. 4 ; Zech. vii. 11-13. Secondly, Another thing to be considered is this, viz. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 83 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 re- jected ; and suppose that Isaac was three years old before he was weaned, that was but the seventeenth year of Ish- mael ; 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 con\e, 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 care- fully 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 ; Prow xvii. 16. Let these things, therefore, be a further caution to those b-i THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 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 1 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, stragglings, and strivings with thy spirit to persuade thee of the vanity of what vain things thou lovest, and to win THE JERUSALEM SINXER SAVED. 85 thee in thy soul to a choice of Christ Jesus and his heavenly things ? Take heed and rehel 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 manperceiveth it not ; in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, inslumberingsupon 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 Tvhat 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 moun- tains ; 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 86 TUE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. upon thee to turn thee. Consider, I say, has he made a hedge and a wall to stop thee 1 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; Hum. 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 pro- digal 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 be- took 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 thou 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 spi- rit ; yea, though it stays but one moment with thee ] 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 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 87 thorough salvation ? Wouldst thou he saved from guilt and filth too ? Wouldst thou he the servant of thy Sa- viour 1 Art thou indeed weary of the service of thy old master the devil, sin, and the world 1 And have these desires put thy soul to flight 1 Hast thou through de- sires betaken thyself to thy heels ? Dost fly to him that is a Saviour from the wrath to come, for life 1 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 de- liver to his master," says he, " the servant which is es- caped 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 es- caped 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 attend- ance 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 thy fears, whatever they are, let that be I 88 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. supposed which is supposed before, and they are ground- less, and so of no weight. Object. But I am afraid I am not elected, or chosen to sal- vation, though you called me fool a little before for so fearing. Ans. Though election is, in order, before calling, as tc God, yet the knowledge of calling must go before the be- lief 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 con- dition 1 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 1 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 la- bour 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. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 89 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 ar- mour 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 fmdest 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 unpar- donable, 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 has* 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 frus- trated : 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 mus1> 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. 90 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 2. But again, he that has sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost cannot come, has no heart to come, can by no means he 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, can- not 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 con- temning, 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 ac- cursed, crucified him to himself, or counted him one hang- ed, as one o/ 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 re- demption, even the blood of the everlasting covenant, he counteth an unholy thing, or that which has no more vir- tue 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 sacri- fices, 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 Messias, or that he was the Saviour of the world. THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. 91 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 gos- pel 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 1 Aiisw. It is called " the sin against the Holy Ghost," be- cause such count the works he did, which were done by the Spirit of God, the works of the spirit of the devil. Also be- cause 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. 92 THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. Sinner, this is the sin against the Holy Ghost. What say st thou ? Hast thou committed it ? Nay, I know thou hast not, if thou wourdst he saved hy Christ, Yea, it is impossible that thou shouldst have done it, if indeed thou wouldst he saved hy him. No man can desire to be saved hy him, whom he yet judgeth to he an impostor, a magician, a witch. No man can hope for redemption hy that blood which he yet count- eth 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 igno- rantly 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. THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. Two men went up into the temple to pray ,• the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself; God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. — Luke, xviii. 10-13. In the beginning of this chapter you read of the reason of the parable of the unjust judge and the poor widow ; namely, to encourage men to pray. " He spake a parable to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint ;" and a most sweet parable for that purpose it is : for if through importunity, a poor widow woman may prevail with an un- just judge, and so consequently with an unmerciful and hard-hearted tyrant, how much more shall the poor, afflicted, distressed, and tempted people of God, prevail with, and obtain mercy at the hands of, a loving, just, and merciful God 1 The unjust judge would not hearken to, nor regard the cry of, the poor widow, for a while : " But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man ; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." " Hark," saith Christ, " what the unjust judge saith." " And shall 96 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him '? — I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." This is therefore a very comfortahle parable to such of the saints as are under hard usage by reason of evil men, their might and tyranny : for by it we are taught to be- lieve and expect, that God, though for a while he seemeth not to regard, yet will, in due time and season, arise and set such in safety from them that puff at them ; Psalm xii. 4. Let the good Christian pray always ; let him pray, and not faint at seeming delays ; for if the widow by impor- tunity prevailed with the unjust judge, how much more shall he with his heavenly Father. " I tell you," says Christ, " that he will avenge them speedily." But now, forasmuch as this parable reacheth not (so di- rectly) the poor Publican in the text, therefore our Lord begins again, and adds to that other parable,' this parable which I have chosen for my text ; by which he designeth two things : First, The conviction of the proud and self- conceited Pharisee : Secondly, The raising up and healing of the cast down and dejected Publican. And observe it, as by the first parable he chiefly designeth the relief of those that are under the hands of cruel tyrants, so by this he designeth the relief of those that lie under the load and burden of a guilty and disquieted conscience. This therefore is a parable that is full of singular com- fort to such of the sinners in the world that are clogged with guilt and sense of sin ; and that lie under the appre- hensions of, and that are driven to God by the sense of the judgment that for sin is due unto them. In my handling of this text, I shall have respect to these things — 1. To the persons in the text. 2. To the condition of the persons in the text. 3. To the conclusion that Christ makes upon them both. First, For the persons. They were, as you see, far one from another in their own apprehension of themselves ; one good, the other bad ; but yet in the judgment of the THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 97 law, both alike, both the same, both sinners ; for they both stood in need of mercy. True, the first mentioned did not see it, as the other poor sinner did ; but that altereth not the case : he that is in the judgment of the law a sinner, is in the judgment of the law for sin condemned, though in his own judgment he be ever so righteous. Men must not be judged, or justified, according to what themselves do think, but according to the verdict and sen- tence that cometh out of the mouth of God about them. Now, the sentence of God is, " All have sinned :" " There is none righteous, no, not one ;" Rom. iii. It is no matter, then, what the Pharisee did think of himself ; God by his word hath proclaimed him a sinner : a sinner, by reason of original sin ; a sinner, by reason of actual transgression. Personally, therefore, with reference to the true nature of their state, they both were sinners, and both by the law under condemnation. True, the Publican's leprosy was outward ; but the Pharisee's leprosy was inward : his heart, his soul, his spirit, was as foul, and had as much the plague of sin, as had the other in his life or conversation. Secondly, As to their conditions (I do not mean by con- dition, so much a habit of mind, as the state that they had each of them put themselves into by that mind.) " The one," says the text, " was a Pharisee, the other a Publican." A Pharisee : that is, one that hath chosen to himself such a course of life. A Publican : that is, one that hath chosen to himself such a course of life. These terms, therefore, shew the divers courses of life that they had put themselves into. The Pharisee, as he thought, had put himself into a condition for heaven and glory ; but the Publican was for this world and his lusts. Wherefore when the Pharisee stands in the temple, he boasteth of himself and good condition, but con- demneth the Publican, and bitterly inveigheth against him. But, as I said, their personal state, by the law, was not at all changed. The Pharisee made himself never the better ; the Publican also abode in his place. Indeed the Publican is here found to recant, and repent of his condition, and of the condition that he had put him- 98 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. self into ; and the Pharisee to boast of his. But the Pub- lican's repentance was not of himself, but of. God, who can also, yea, and sometimes it is evident (Acts ix.) he doth, make Pharisees also repent of that condition that they have chosen to be in themselves ; Phil. iii. 3-8. The Pharisee, therefore, in commending of himself, makes himself never the better ; the Publican also, in condemning of himself, makes himself never the worse. Nay, contrariwise, the Pharisee, by commending of himself, makes himself much the worse, ver. 14 ; and the Publican, by condemning of himself, makes himself much the better. " I tell you (says Christ) this man went down to his house justified rather than the other ; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased : and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." But, I say, as to men's commending of themselves, yea, though others should commend them also, that availeth, to God- ward, nothing at all. " For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." So then, men in " measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise ;" 2 Cor. x. 12. Now, this was the way of the Pharisee ; I am not, saith he, as other men : I am no extortioner, nor unjust, no adul- terer, nor yet as this Publican. " Two men went up into the temple to pray ;" and they two, as I said, as opposite one to the other, as any two men that ever went thither to pray. One of them was over righteous, and the other wicked over much. Some would have thought, had they not by the word of Christ been otherwise described, that they had been both of the same religion ; for they both went up into the temple to pray ; yea, both to pray, and that at the same time, as if they did it by appointment, by agreement ; but there was no such thing. The one was a Pharisee, the other a Pub- lican : for so saith the after words : and therefore persons as opposite as light and darkness, as fire and water ; I mean, as to their apprehensions one of another. The Pharisee could not abide the Publican, nor could the Publican brook TiJE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 90 tlie Pharisee ; and yet both went up into the temple to pray. It is strange to see, and yet it is seen, that men cross in their minds, cross in their principles, cross in their ap- prehensions ; yea, and cross in their prayers too, should yet meet together in the temple to pray. " Two men ;" men not of the middle sort, and them too picked out of the best and worst that was : two men, a Pharisee, and a Publican. To be a Pharisee was in those days counted honourable for religion, and for holiness of life. A Pharisee was a man of esteem and repute among the Jews, though it is a term of reproach with us ; else Paul would not at such a time as he did it, have said, " Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee ;" Acts xxiii, 6 ; Phil. iii. 5. For now he stood upon his purgation and justification, es- pecially it appears so by the place first named. And far be it from any to think, that Paul would make use of a colour of wickedness, to save thereby himself from the fury of the people. A Publican was in those days counted one of the vilest of men, as is manifest ; because when they are in the word, by way of discrimination, made mention of, they are ranked with the most vile and base ; therefore they are joined with sinners — " He eateth with publicans and sinners," and " with harlots." " Publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven." Yea, when our Lord Christ would have the rebellious professor stigmatized to purpose, he saith, "Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a pub- lican." We therefore can make no judgment of men upon the outward appearance of them. Who would have thought, but that the Pharisee had been a good man ? for he was righteous ; for he prayed. And who could have thought, that the other had been a good man ? for he was a Publican ; a man, by good men and bad men, joined with the worst of men, to wit, with sinners, harlots, heathens. The Pharisee was a sectarian ; the Publican was an officer. The Pharisee, even because he was a sectarian, 100 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. was had the more in esteem ; and the Publican, because he was an officer, was had the more in reproach. To speak a little to both these : 1. The Pharisee was a sectarian ; one that deviated, that turned aside in his worshipping from the way of God, both in matter and manner of worship ; for such, an one I count a sectarian. That he turned aside from the matter, which is the rule of worship, to wit, the written word, it is evi- dent ; for Christ saith, that they rejected the command- ments of God, and made them of no effect, that they might keep their own traditions. That they turned aside also as to their manner of worship, and became sectarians, there is with no less authority asserted — "For all their works they do for to be seen of men ;" Acts xxvi. 5 ; Mark vii. 9-13 ; Matt, xxiii. 5. Now this being none of the order or ordinance of Christ, and yet being chosen by, and stuck to of these sort of men, and also made a singular and necessary part of worship, became a sect, or bottom for those hypocritical factious men to adhere unto, and to make of others disciples to them- selves. And that they might be admired, and rendered venerable by the simple people to their fellows, they loved to go in long robes ; they loved to pray in markets, and in the corners of the streets ; they shewed great zeal for the small things of the law, but had only great words for things that were substantial — "They made broad their phylacteries, and enlarged the borders of their garments ;" Matt, xxiii. When I say the Pharisee was a sectarian, I do not mean that every sectarian is a Pharisee. There were the sects of the llerodians, of the Alexandrians, and of the Sadducees, with many others ; but to be a Pharisee, was to be of the straitest sect : " After the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." That, therefore, of all the sects, was the most strait and strict. Therefore, saith he, in another place, " I was 'taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers." And again, " Touching the law, a Pharisee ;" Acts xxii. 3 ; xxvi. 4-6 ; Phil. iii. 5. The Pharisee, therefore, did carry the bell, and wear the garland THE niARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 101 for religion ; for he outdid, he went beyond all other secta- rians in his day. lie was strictest, he was the most zea- lous ; therefore Christ, in his making of this parable, waived all other sects then in being, and pitched upon the Pharisee as the man most meet, by whose rejection he might shew forth s.nd demonstrate the riches of his mercy in its exten- sion to sinners : " Two men went up into the temple to pray ; the one a Pharisee :" such a brave man as you have heard. 2. The Publican also went up thither to pray. The Publican, I told you before, was an officer : an officer that served the Romans and himself too ; for the Romans at that time were possessors of the land of Jewry (the lot of Israel's inheritance), and the emperor Tiberius Csesar placed over that land four governors, to wit, Pilate, Herod, Philip, and Lysanias ; all these were Gentiles, heathens, in- fidels ; and the publicans were a sort of inferior men, to whom was let out to farm, and so men that were employed by these to gather up the taxes and customs that the heathens had laid upon the Jews to be paid to the emperor ; Luke ii. 1 ; iii. 1, 2, 12, 13. But they were a generation of men that were very inju- rious in the execution of their office. They would exact and demand more than was due of the people ; yea, and if their demands were denied, they would falsely accuse those that so denied them to the governor, and by false accusation obtain the money of the people, and so wickedly enrich themselves, Luke iii. 13, 14 ; xix. 2, 8. This was there- fore grievous to the Jews, who always counted themselves a free people, and could never abide to be in bondage to any. And this was something of the reason, that they were so generally by all the Jews counted so vile and base, and reckoned among the worst of men, even as our in- formers and bum-bailiffs are with us at this day. But that which heightened the spirit of the people against them, and that made them so odious and filthy in their eyes, Avas for that (at least so I think) these publicans were not, as the other officers, aliens, heathens, and Gentiles, but men 102 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. of their own nation, Jews, and so the brethren of those that they so abused. Had they been Gentiles, it had not been wondered at. The Publican then was a Jew, a kind of a renegade Jew , that through the love that he had to unjust gains, fell off in his affections from his brethren, adhered to the Romans, and became a kind of servant to them against their breth- ren, farming the heathenish taxations at the hand of strangers, and exacting of them upon their brethren with much cruelty, falsehood, and extortion. And hence, as I said, it was, that to be a publican, was to be so odious a thing, so vile a sinner, and so grievous a man in the eyes of the Jews. Why, this was the Publican ! he was a Jew, and so should have abode with them, and have been con- tent to share with his brethren in their calamities ; but contrary to nature, to law, to religion, reason, and honesty, he fell in with the heathen, and took the advantage of their tyranny to poll, to rob, and impoverish his brethren. But for proof that the Publican was a Jew. 1. Publicans are, even then, when compared with, yet distinguished from, the heathen ; " Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican," Matt, xviii. ; which two terms, I think, must not here be applied to one and the self-same man, as if the heathen was a publican, or the publican a heathen ; but to men of two distinct nations, as that publican and harlot is to be understood of sinners of both sexes. The Publican is not an harlot, for he is a man, &c, and such a man as has been described before. So bv publicans and sinners, is meant publicans and such sinners as the Gentiles were ; or such as, by the text, the Publican is distinguished from : where the Pharisee saith he was not an extortioner, unjust, adulterer, or even as this Publican. Nor can he by lt heathen man" intend the person, and by the term publican, the office or place, of the heathen man ; but by publican is meant the renegade Jew, in such a place, &c, as is yet further manifested by that which fol- lows. For — 2. Those publicans, even every one of them that by name THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAX. 103 are made mention of in the New Testament, have such names put upon them ; yea, and other circumstances thereunto annexed, as doth demonstrate them to be Jews. I remem- ber the names of no more but three, to wit, Matthew, Levi, and Zaccheus, and they were all Jews. (1.) Matthew was a Jew, and the same Matthew was a publican ; yea, and also afterwards an apostle. He was a Jew, and wrote his gospel in Hebrew : he was an apostle, and is therefore found among the twelve. That he was a publican too, is as evident by his own words ; for though Mark and Luke, in their mentioning of his name and apos- tleship, do forbear to call him a publican (Mark iii. 18 ; Luke vi. 15) ; yet when this Matthew comes to speak of himself, he calls himself Matthew the publican (Matth. x. 3) ; for I count this the self-same Matthew that Mark and Luke make mention of, because I find no other Matthew among the apostles but he : Matthew the publican, Mat- thew the man so deep in apostacy, Matthew the man of that ill fame among his brethren. Love, in Mark and Luke, when they counted him among the apostles, did cover with silence this his publican state (and it is meet for Pe- ter to call Paul his beloved brother, when Paul himself shall call himself the chief of sinners) ; but faithfulness to the world, and a desire to be abased, that Christ thereby, and grace by him, might be advanced, made Matthew, in his evangelical writings, call himself by the name of Matthew the publican. Nor has he lost thereby ; for Christ again to exalt him (as he hath also done by the apostle Paul), hath set, by his special providence, the testimony that this Matthew hath given of his birth, life, death, doctrine, an^ miracles, in the front of all the New Testament. (2.) The next publican that I find by the Testament of Christ, made mention of by name, is Levi, another of the apostles of Jesus Christ. This Levi also, by the Holy Ghost in holy writ, is called by the name of James : not James the brother of John, for Zebedee was his father ; but James the son of Alpheus. Now I take this Levi also to be an- other than Matthew ; First, because Matthew is not called 104 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. the son of Alpheus ; and because Matthew and Levi, or James the son of Alpheus, are distinctly counted where the names of the apostles are mentioned (Matt. x. 3) for two distinct persons : and that this Levi, or James the apostle, was a publican, as was the apostle Matthew, whom we. mentioned before, is evident ; for both Mark and Luke do count him such. First, Mark saith, Christ found him when he called him, as he also found Matthew, sitting at the re- ceipt of custom ; yea, Luke words it thus : " He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said unto him, Follow me ;" Mark ii. 14 ; Luke v. 27. Now, that this Levi, or James the son of Alpheus, was a Jew, his name doth well make manifest. Besides, had there been among the apostles any more Gentiles save Simon the Canaanite, or if this Levi James had been here, I think the Holy Ghost would, to distinguish him, have included him in the same discriminating character as he did the other, when he called him " Simon the Canaanite ;" Matt. x. 4. Matthew, therefore, and Levi or James, were both pub- licans, and, as I think, called both at the same time ; were both publican Jews, and made by grace the apostles of Jesus Christ. (3.) The next publican that I find by name made men- tion of in the Testament of Christ, is one Zaccheus. And he was a publican ; yea, for ought I know, the master of them all. " There was a man," saith Luke, " named Zac- cheus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich," Luke xix. 2. This man, Christ saith, was a son of Abraham, that is, as other Jews were ; for he spake to stop the mouths of their Pharisaical cavillations. Besides, the Publican shewed himself to be such an one, when un- der a supposition of wronging any man, he had respect to the Jewish law of restoring four-fold ; Exod. xxii. 1 ; 2 Sam. xii. 6. It is further manifest that he was a Jew, because Christ puts him among the lost ; to wit, among the lost sheep of THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 105 the house of Israel, ver. 10 ; and Mat^ xv. 24 ; for Zacchcus was one that might properly be said to be lost, and that in the Jews' account : lost, I say, and that not only in the most common sense, by reason of transgression against the law, hut for that he was an apostate Jew, not with reference to heathenish religion, but as to heathenish, cruel, and bar- barous actions ; and therefore he was, as the other, by his brethren, counted as bad as heathens, Gentiles, and harlots. But salvation is come to this house, saith Christ, and that notwithstanding his publican practice, forasmuch as he also is the son of Abraham. 3. Again, Christ, by the parable of the lost sh#ep, doth plainly intimate, that the Publican was a Jew. " Then drew near all the publicans and sinners for to hear him, and the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man re- ceiveth sinners, and eateth with them." But by what answer doth Christ repel their objections 1 Why, he saith, " What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find it ?" Doth he not here, by the lost sheep, mean the poor publican ? plenty of whom, while he preached this sermon, were there, as objects of the Pharisees' scorn, but of the pity and compassion of Jesus Christ : he did without doubt mean them. For, pray, what was the flock, and who Christ's sheep under the law, but the house and people of Israel ? Ezek. xxxiv. 11. So then, who could be the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but such as were Mat- thew, James, Zaccheus, and their companions in their and such like transgressions % 4. Besides, had not the publicans been of the Jews, how easy had it been for the Pharisees to have objected, that an impertinency was couched in that most excellent parable of the lost sheep ? They might have said, We are offended, because thou receivest the publicans, and thou for vindica- tion of thy practice propoundest a parable of lost sheep ; but they are the sinners of the house of Israel, and the publicans are aliens and Gentiles. I say, how easily 106 TBjk PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. might they thus have objected 1 but they knew full well, that the parable was pertinent, for that the publicans were of the Jews, and not of the aliens. Yea, had they not been Jews, it cannot, it must not be thought, that Christ (in sum) should call them so ; and yet he did do so, when he called them " lost sheep." Now, that these publicans were Jews, what follows but that for this they were a great deal the more abominated by their brethren ; and (as I have also hinted before) it is no marvel that they were ; for a treacherous brother is worse than an open enemy, Psalm lv. 12, 13 ; for, if to be debauched in an open and common transgression is odious, how odious is it for a brother to be so ; for a brother in nature and religion to be so. I say again, all this they did, as both John insinuates, and Zaccheus confesses. The Pharisee, therefore, was not so good, but the Publi- can was as bad. Indeed the Publican was a notorious wretch, one that had a way of transgressing by himself ; one that could not be sufficiently condemned by the Jews, nor coupled with a viler than himself. It is true, you find him here in the temple at prayer ; not because he retained, in his apostacy, conscience of the true religion ; but God had awakened him, shewed him his sin, and bestowed upon him the grace of repentance, by which he was not only fetched back to the temple and prayer, but to his God, and to the salvation of his soul. The Pharisee, then, was a man of another complexion, and good as to his own thoughts of himself ; yea, and in the thoughts of others also, upon the highest and better ground by far. The Publican was a notorious sinner : the Pharisee was a reputed righteous man. The Publican was a sinner out of the ordinary way of sinning ; and the Pha- risee was a man for righteousness in a singular way also. The Publican pursued his villanies, and the Pharisee pur- sued his righteousness ; and yet they both met in the temple to pray : yea, the Pharisee stuck to, and boasted in, the law of God: but the Publican did forsake it, and hard- ened his heart against his way. THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 107 Thus diverse were they in their appearances : the Phari- see very good, the Puhlican very had : but as to the law of God, which looked upon them with reference to the state of their spirits, and the nature of their actions, by that they were both found sinners ; the Publican an open, outside one, and the Pharisee a filthy, inside one. This is evident, because the best of them was rejected, and the worst of them was received to mercy. Mercy standeth not at the Publican's badness, nor is it enamoured with the Pharisee's goodness : it suffereth not the law to take place on both, though it findeth them both in sin, but graciously embraceth the most unworthy, and leaveth the best to shift for him- self. And good reason that both should be dealt with after this manner ; to wit, that the word of grace should be justified upon the soul of the penitent, and that the other should stand or fall to that which he had chosen to be his master. There are three things that follow upon this discourse. 1. That the righteousness of man is not of any esteem with God, as to justification. It is passed by as a thing of naughtiness, a thing not worth the taking notice of. There was not so much as notice taken of the Pharisee's person or prayer, because he came into the temple mantled up in his own good things. 2. That the man that has nothing to commend him to God, but his own good doings, shall never be in favour with him. This also is evident from the text : the Pharisee had his own righteousness, but had nothing else to commend him to God ; and therefore could not by that obtain favour with God, but abode still a rejected one, and in a state of condemnation. 3. Wherefore, though we are bound by the law of charity to judge of men according as in appearance they present themselves unto us ; yet withal, to wit, though we do so judge, we must leave room for the judgment of God. Mercy may receive him that we have doomed to hell, and justice may take hold on him, whom we have judged to be bound up in the bundle of life. And both 108 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. these things are apparent by the persons under considera- tion. We, like Joseph, are for setting of Manasseh before Ephraim ; but God, like Jacob, puts his hands across, and lays his right hand upon the worst man's head, and his left hand upon the best (Gen. xlviii.), to the amazement and wonderment even of the best of men. " Two men went up into the temple to pray ; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself ; God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." In these words many things are worth the noting. As, First, The Pharisee's definition of righteousness ; the which standeth in two things : 1. In negatives ; 2. In positives. 1. In negatives ; to wit, what a man that is righteous must not be : "I am no extortioner, no unjust man, no adulterer, nor yet as this Publican." 2. In positives ; to wit, what a man that is righteous must be : "I fast twice a-week, I give tithes of all that I possess," &c. That righteousness standeth in negative and positive holiness is true ; but that the Pharisee's definition is, not- withstanding, false, will be manifest by and by. But I will first treat of righteousness in the general, because the text leadeth me to it. First, then, a man that is righteous, must have negative holiness ; that is, he must not live in actual transgressions ; he must not be an extortioner, unjust, an adulterer, or as the Publican was. And this the apostle intends, when he saith, " Flee fornication," " Flee youthful lusts," " Flee from idolatry ;" and, " Little children keep yourselves from idols ;" 1 Cor. vi. 18 ; x. 14 ; 2 Tim. ii. 22; 1 John v. 21. For it is a vain thing to talk of righteousness, and that ourselves are righteous, when every observer shall find us in actual transgression. Yea, though a man shall mix his THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 109 want of negative holiness with some good actions, that will not make him a righteous man. As suppose, a man that is a swearer, a drunkard, an adulterer, or the like, should, notwithstanding this, be open-handed to the poor, be a great executor of justice in his place, be exact in his buy- ing, selling, keeping his promise with his friend, or the like ; these things, yea, many more such, cannot make him a righteous man ; for the beginning of righteousness is yet wanting in him, which is this negative holiness : for ex- cept a man leave off to do evil, he cannot be a righteous man. Negative holiness is therefore of absolute necessity to make one in one's self a righteous man. This therefore condemns them, that count it sufficient if a man have some actions that in themselves, and by virtue of the command, are good, to make him a righteous man, though negative holiness is wanting. This is as saying to the wicked, Thou art righteous, and a perverting of the right way of the Lord : negative holiness, therefore, must be in a man before he can be accounted righteous. 2. As negative holiness is required to declare one a righteous man ; so also positive holiness must be joined therewith, or the man is unrighteous still. For it is not what a man is not, but what a man does, that declares him a righteous man. Suppose a man be no thief, no liar, no unjust man ; or, as the Pharisee saith, no extortioner, nor adulterer, &c, this will not make a righteous man ; but there must be joined to these, holy and good actions, before he can be declared a righteous man. Wherefore, as the apostle, when he pressed the Christians to righteousness, did put them first upon negative holiness, so he joineth thereto an exhortation to positive holiness ; knowing, that where positive holiness is wanting, all the negative holiness in the whole world cannot declare a man a righteous man. When therefore he had said, " But thou, man of God, flee these things" (sin and wickedness), he adds, " and fol- low after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness," &c. ; 1 Tim. vi. 11. Here Timothy is exhorted to negative holiness, when he is bid to flee sin. Here also 110 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. he is exhorted to positive holiness, when he is bid to folio>» after righteousness, &c. ; for righteousness can neither stand in negative nor positive holiness, as severed one from another. That man then, and that man only, is, as to ac- tions, a righteous man, that hath left off to do evil, and hath learned to do well, Isa. i. 16, 17 ; that hath cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. " Flee youthful lusts (said Paul), but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart ;" 2 Tim. ii. 22. The Pharisee, therefore, as to the general description of righteousness, made his definition right ; but as to his person and personal righteousness, he made his definition wrong. I do not mean he defined his own righteousness wrong ; but I mean his definition of true righteousness, A r hich standeth in negative and positive holiness, he made to stoop to justify his own righteousness, and therein he played the hypocrite in his prayer : for although it is true righteousness that standeth in negative and positive holi- ness ; yet that this is not true righteousness that standeth, but in some pieces and ragged remnants of negative and positive righteousness. If then the Pharisee would, in his definition of personal righteousness, have proved his own righteousness to be good, he must have proved, that both his negative and positive holiness had been universal ; to wit, that he had left off to act in any wickedness, and that he had given up himself to the duty enjoined in every commandment : for so the righteous man is described ; Job i. 8 ; ii. 3. As it is said of Zacharias and Elisabeth his wife, " They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blame- less ;" Luke i. 5, 6. Here the perfection, that is, the uni- versality, of their negative holiness is implied, and the universality of their positive holiness is expressed ; they walked in all the commandments of the Lord ; but that they could not do, if they had lived in any unrighteous thing or way. They walked in all blamelessly, that is, sincerely, with upright hearts. The Pharisee's right- THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. Ill eousness, therefore, even by his own implied definition of righteousness, was not good, as is manifest these two ways — 1. His negative holiness was not universal. 2. His positive holiness was rather ceremonial than moral. 1. His negative holiness was not universal. He saith indeed, he was not an extortioner, nor unjust, no adulterer, nor yet as this Publican : but none of these expressions apart, nor all, if put together, do prove him to be perfect as to negative holiness ; that is, they do not prove him, should it be granted, that he was as holy with this kind of holiness, as himself of himself had testified. For, (I.) What though he was no extortioner, he might yet be a covetous man ; Luke xvi. 14. (2.) What though, as to dealing, he was not unjust to others, yet he wanted honesty to do justice to his own soul ; Luke xvi. 15. (3.) What though he was free from the act of adultery, he might yet be made guilty by an adulterous eye, against which the Pharisee did not watch (Matt. v. 28), of which the Pharisee did not take cognizance. (4.) What though he was not like the Publican, yet he was like, yea was, a downright hypocrite ; he wanted in those things wherein he boasted himself, sincerity ; but without sincerity no action can be good, or accounted of God as righteous. The Pharisee, therefore, notwithstand- ing his boast, was deficient in his righteousness, though he would fain have shrouded it under the right definition thereof. (5.) Nor doth his positive holiness help him at all, for- asmuch as it is grounded mostly, if not altogether, in cere- monial holiness : nay, I will recollect myself, it was grounded partly in ceremonial and partly in superstitious holiness, if there be such a thing as superstitious holiness in the world ; this paying of tithes was ceremonial, such as came in and went out with the typical priesthood. But what is that to positive holiness, when it was but a small 112 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. pittance by the by. ITad the Pharisee argued plainly and honestly ; I mean, had he so dealt with that law, by which now he sought to be justified, he should have brought forth positive righteousness in morals, and should have said and proved it too, that as he was no wicked man with reference to the act of wickedness, he was indeed a righteous man in acts of moral virtues. He should, I say, have proved him- self a true lover of God, no superstitious one, but a sincere worshipper of him ; for this is contained in the first table (Exod. xx.), and is so in sum expounded by the Lord Christ himself (Mark xii. 30). He should also, in the next place, have proved himself truly kind, compassionate, libe- ral, and full of love and charity to his neighbour ; for that is the sum of the second table, as our Lord doth expound it, saying, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;" Mark xii. 31. True, he says, he did them no hurt ; but did he do them good 1 To do no hurt, is one thing ; and to do good, is an- other ; and it is possible for a man to do neither hurt nor good to his neighbour. What then, is he a righteous man because he hath done him no hurt ? No, verily ; unless, to his power, he hath also done him good. It is therefore a very fallacious and deceitful arguing of the Pharisee, thus to speak before God in his prayers : I am righteous, because I have not hurt my neighbour, and be- cause I have acted in ceremonial duties. Nor will that helj him at all to say, he gave tithes of all that he possessed. It had been more modest to say, that he had paid them ; foi they, being commanded, were a due debt ; nor could they go before God for a free gift, because, by the commandment, the} r were made a payment ; but proud men and hypocrites love so to word it both with God and man, as at least to imply, that they are more forward to do, than God's com- mand is to require them to do. The second part of his positive holiness was supersti- tious ; for God had appointed no such set fasts, neither more nor less but just twice a-week : " I fast twice a-week." Ay, but who did command thee to do so, other than by THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 113 thy being put upon it by a superstitious and erroneous conscience, doth not, nor canst thou make to appear. This part, therefore, of this positive righteousness, was positive superstition, and abuse of God's law, and a gratification of thy own erroneous conscience. Hitherto, therefore, thou art defective in thy so seemingly brave and glorious right- eousness. Yet this let me say, in commendation of the Pharisee, in my conscience he was better than many of our English Christians; for many of them are so far off from being at all partakers of positive righteousness, that neither all their ministers, Bibles, and good books, good sermons, nor yet God's judgments, can persuade them to become so much as negatively holy, that is, to leave off evil. The second thing that I take notice of in this prayer of the Pharisee, is his manner of delivery, as he stood praying in the temple : " God, I thank thee," said he, " that I am not as other men are." He seemed to be at this time in more than an ordinary frame, while now he stood in the presence of the divine Majesty : for a prayer made up of praise, is a prayer made up of the highest order, and is most like the way of them that are now in a state beyond prayer. Praise is the work of heaven ; but we see here, that an hy- pocrite may get into that vein, even while an hypocrite, and while on earth below. Nor do I think that this prayer of his was a premeditated stinted form, but a prayer extem- pore, made on a sudden according to what he felt, thought, or understood of himself. Here therefore we may see, that even prayer, as well as other acts of religious worship, may be performed in great hypocrisy; although I think, that to perform prayer in hypocrisy, is one of the most daring sins that are commit- ted by the sons of men. For by prayer, above all duties, is our most direct and immediate personal approach into the presence of God ; as there is an uttering of things before him, especially a giving to him of thanks for things received, or a begging that such and such things might be bestowed upon me. But now, to do these things in hypocrisy (and it 114 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. is easy to do them so, when we go up into the temple to pray), must needs be intolerable wickedness, and it argueth infinite patience in God, that he should let such as do so arise alive from their knees, or that he should suffer them to go away from the place where they stand, without some token or mark of his wrath upon them. I also observe, that this extempore prayer of the Pharisee was performed by himself, or in the strength of his own natural parts ; for so the text implieth. " The Pharisee," saith the text, " stood and prayed thus with himself," or " by himself," and may signify, either that he spoke softly, or that he made this prayer by reason of his natural parts. " I will pray with the Spirit," said Paul ; 1 Cor. adv. 15. " The Pharisee prayed with himself," said Christ. It is at this day wonderfully common for men to pray extempore also ; to pray by a book, by a premeditated set form, is now out of fashion. He is counted nobody now, that can- not at any time, at a minute's warning, make a prayer of half an hour long. I am not against extempore prayer, for I believe it to be the best kind of praying ; but yet I am jealous, that there are a great many such prayers made, especially in pulpits and public meetings, without the breathing of the Holy Ghost in them ; for if a Pharisee of old could do so, why not a Pharisee do the same now 1 Wit and reason, and notion, are not screwed up to a very great height ; nor do men want words, or fancies, or pride, to make them do this thing. Great is the formality of religion this day, and little the power thereof. Now, where there is a great form, and little power (and such there was among the Jews, in the time of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ), there men are most strangely under the temptation to be hypocrites ; for nothing doth so properly and direetty op- pose hypocrisy, as the power and glory of the things we profess. And so, on the contrary, nothing is a greater temptation to hypocrisy, than a form of knowledge of things without the savour thereof. Nor can much of the power and savour of the things of the gospel be seen at this day upon professors (I speak not now of all), if their no- THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 115 tions and conversations be compared together. How proud, how covetous, how like the world in garb and guise, in words and actions, are most of the great professors of this our day ! But when they come to divine worship, espe- cially to pray, by their words and carriage there, one would almost judge them to be angels in heaven. But such things must be done in hypocrisy, as also the Pharisee's was. " The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself." And in that it is said he prayed with himself, it may signify, that he went in his prayer no further than his sense and reason, feeling and carnal apprehensions went. True Christian prayer ofttimes leaves sense and reason, feeling and carnal apprehensions, behind it ; and it goeth forth with faith, hope, and desires to know what at present we are ignorant of, and that unto which our sense, feeling, reason, &c, are strangers. The apostle indeed doth say, " I will pray with the understanding ;" 1 Cor. xiv. 15 ; but then it must be taken for an understanding spiritually enlightened. I say, it must be so understood, because the natural understanding, as such, receiveth not the things of God, therefore cannot pray for them ; for they to such are foolish things ; 1 Cor. ii. 14. Now, a spiritually enlightened understanding may be officious in prayer these ways — 1. As it has received conviction of the truth of the being of the Spirit of God ; for to receive conviction of the truth and being of such things, comes from the Spirit of God, not from the law, sense, or reason ; 1 Cor. ii. 10-12. Now the understanding having, by the Holy Ghost, received convic- tion of the truth of things, draweth out the heart to cry in prayer to God for them. Therefore he saith, he would pray with the understanding. 2. The spiritually enlightened understanding hath also received, by the Holy Ghost, conviction of the excellency and glory of the things that are of the Spirit of God, and so inflameth the heart with more fervent desires in this duty of prayer ; for there is a supernatural excellency in the things that are of the Spirit : " For if the ministration of 116 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. death (to which the Pharisee adhered), written and en- graven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away ; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious ? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory : for even that which was made glorious hath no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth ;" 2 Cor. iii. 7-10. And the Spirit of God sheweth, at least, some things of that excellent glory of them to the understanding that it enlighteneth ; Eph. i. 17-19. 3. The spiritually enlightened understanding hath also thereby received knowledge, that these excellent superna- tural things of the Spirit are given by covenant in Christ to those that love God, and are beloved of him. " Now we have received," says Paul, "not the spirit of the world (that the Pharisee had), but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God ;" 1 Cor. ii. 12. And this knowledge, that the things of the Spirit of God are freely given to us of God, puts yet a greater edge, more vigour, and yet further confidence, into the heart to ask for what is mine by gift, by a free gift of God in his Son. But all these things the poor Pharisee was an utter stranger to ; he knew not the Spirit, nor the things of the Spirit, and therefore must neglect faith, judg- ment, and the love of God, Matt, xxiii. 23 ; Luke xi. 42, and follow himself only, as to his sense, feeling, reason, and carnal imagination in prayer. He stood and prayed thus " with himself." He prayed thus, talking to himself ; for so also it may (I think) be understood. It is said of the unjust judge, " He said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man," &c, Luke xviii. 4 ; that is, he said it to himself. So the Pharisee is said to pray with himself : God and the Pharisee were not together, there was only the Pharisee and himself. Paul knew not what to pray for without the Holy Ghost joined himself with him, and helping him THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 117 with groans unutterable ; but the Pharisee had no need of that ; it was enough that lie and himself were together at this work ; for he thought without doubting that he and himself together could do. How many times have I heard ancient men, and ancient women at it with themselves, when all alone in some private room, or in some solitary path ; and in their chat they have been sometimes reason- ing, sometimes chiding, sometimes pleading, sometimes praying, and sometimes singing ; but yet all has been done by themselves when all alone ; but yet so done, as one that has not seen them must needs have concluded that they were talking, singing, and praying with com- pany, when all that they had said, they did it with them- selves, and had neither auditor nor regarder. So the Pharisee was at it with himself ; he and himself performed, at this time, the duty of prayer. Now I ob- serve, that usually when men do speak to or with them- selves, they greatly strive to please themselves : therefore it is said, there is a man "that flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful ;" Psalm xxxvi. 2. He flattereth himself in his own way, according as his sense and carnal reason dictate to him ; and he might do it as well in prayer as in any other way. Some men will so hear sermons and apply them that they may please themselves ; and some men will pray, but will refuse such words and thoughts in prayer as will not please them- selves. how many men speak all that they speak in prayer, rather to themselves, or to their auditory, than to God that dwelleth in heaven. And this I take to be the manner, I mean something of the manner, of the Pharisee's praying. Indeed, he made mention of God, as also others do ; but he prayed with himself to himself, in his own spirit, and to his own pleasing, as the matter of his prayer doth mani- fest. For was it not pleasant to this hypocrite, think you, to speak thus well of himself at this time 1 Doubtless it was. Also children and fools are of the same temper with hypocrites, as to this : they also love, without ground, as 118 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. the Pharisee, to flatter themselves in their own eyes ; " Btrt not he that commendeth himself is approved." " God, I thank thee, I am not as other men are, extor- tioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican," &c. Thus he begins his prayer ; and it is, as was hinted be- fore, a prayer of the highest strain. For to make a prayer all of thanksgiving, and to urge in that prayer the cause of that thanksgiving, is the highest manner of praying, and seems to be done in the strongest faith, &c, in the greatest sense of things. And such was the Pharisee's prayer, only he wanted substantial ground for his thanks- giving ; to wit, he wanted proof of that he said, He was not as other men were, except he had meant, as he did not, that he was even of the worst sort of men : For even the best of men by nature, and the worst, are all alike. " What, then, are we better than they ? (saith Paul), No, in nowise ;" Rom. iii. 9. So then he failed in the ground of his thankfulness, and therefore his thankfulness was grounded on untruth, and so became feigned and self- flattering, and could not be acceptable with the God of heaven. Besides, in this high prayer of the Pharisee, he fathered that upon God which he could by no means own ; to wit, that he being so good as he thought himself to be, was through distinguishing love and favour of God — " God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are." I thank thee, that thou hast made me better than others ; I thank thee that my condition is so good, and that I am so far ad- vanced above my neighbour. There are several things flow from this prayer of the Pharisee that are worth our observation : as — 1. That the Pharisees and hypocrites do not love to count themselves sinners, when they stand before God. They choose rather to commend themselves before him for virtuous and holy persons, sometimes saying, and oftener thinking, that they are more righteous than others. Yea, it seems by the word to be natural, hereditary, and so com- mon for hypocrites to trust to themselves that they are THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 119 righteous, and then to condemn others : this is the founda- tion upon which this very parable is built : " He spake this parable (saith Luke) unto certain which trusted in themselves as being righteous," or " that they were " so, " and despised others," ver. 9. I say, hypocrites love not to think of their sins, when they stand in the presence of God j but rather to muster up, and to present him with their several good deeds, and to venture a standing or falling by them. 2. This carriage of the Pharisee before God informs us, that moral virtues, and the ground of them, which is the law, if trusted to, blinds the mind of man that he cannot for them perceive the way to happiness. While Moses is read (and his law and the righteousness thereof trusted to), the vail is upon their heart ; and even unto this day (said Paul) the vail . remaineth " untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is up- on their heart ;" 2 Cor. iii. 14, 15. And this is the reason so many moral men, that are adorned with civil and moral righteousness, are yet so ignorant of themselves, and the way of life by Christ. The law of works, and the righteousness of the flesh, which is the righteousness of the law, blinds their minds, shuts up their eyes, and causeth them to miss of the righteous- ness that they are so hotly in the pursuit of. Their minds were blinded, saith the text. Whose minds ? Why those that adhered to, that stood by, and that sought righteous- ness of the law. Now, The Pharisee was such an one ; he rested in the law, he made his boast of God, and trusted to himself that he was righteous; aU this proceeded of that blindness and ignor- ance that the law had possessed his mind withal ; for it is not granted to the law to be the ministration of life and light, but to be the ministration of death, when it speaks ; and of darkness, when trusted unto, that the Son of God might have the pre-eminence in all things : therefore it is L 120 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. said when the heart " shall turn to him, the vail shall be taken away ;" 2 Cor. iii. 16. 3. We may see by this prayer, the strength of vain con- fidence ; it will embolden a man to stand in a lie before God ; it will embolden a man to trust to himself, and to what he hath done ; yea, to plead his own goodness, instead of God's mercy, before him. For the Pharisee was not only a man that justified himself before men, but that jus- tified himself before God ; and what was the cause of his so justifying himself before God, but that vain confidence that lie had in himself and his works, which were both a cheat and a lie to himself ? But I say, the boldness of the man was wonderful, for he stood to the lie that was in his right hand, and pleaded the goodness of it before him. But besides these things, there are four things more that are couched in this prayer of the Pharisee. 1. By this prayer the Pharisee doth appropriate to him- self conversion ; he challengeth it to himself and to his fel- lows. " I am not," saith he, " as other men ;" that is, in uncon version, in a state of sin, wrath, and death : and this must be his meaning, for the religion of the Pharisee was not grounded upon any particular natural privilege : I mean not singly, not only upon that, but upon a falling in with those principles, notions, opinions, decrees, traditions, and doctrines that they taught distinct from the time and holy doctrines of the prophets. And they made to themselves disciples by such doctrine, men that they could captivate by those principles, laws, doctrines, and traditions : and therefore such are said to be of the sect of the Pharisees : that is, the scholars and disciples of them, converted to them and to their doctrine. ! it is easy for souls to appro- priate conversion to themselves, that know not what con- version is. It is easy, I say, for men to lay conversion to God, on a legal, or ceremonial, or delusive bottom, on such a bottom that will sink under the burden that is laid upon it ; on such a bottom that will not stand when it is brought under the touchstone of God, nor against the rain, wind, THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 121 and floods that are ordained to put it to the trial, whether it is true or false. The Pharisee here stands upon a sup- posed conversion to God ; " I am not as other men ;" but both he and his conversion are rejected by the sequel of the parable : " That which is highly esteemed among men" (Luke xvi. 15) " is abomination in the sight of God." That is, that conversion, that men, as men, flatter themselves that they have, is such. But the Pharisee will be a con- verted man, he will have more to shew for heaven than his neighbour — " I am not as other men are ;" to wit, in a state of sin and condemnation, but in a state of conversion and salvation. But see how grievously this sect, this reli- gion, beguiled men. It made them twofold worse the chil- dren of hell than they were before, and than their teachers were, Matth. xxiii. 15 ; that is, their doctrine begat such blindness, such vain confidence, and groundless boldness in their disciples, as to involve them in that conceit of conver- sion that was false, and so if trusted to, damnable. 2. By these words, we find the Pharisee, not only ap- propriating conversion to himself, but rejoicing in that con- version : " God, I thank thee," saith he, " that I am not as other men ;" which saying of his gives us to see that he gloried in his conversion ; he made no doubt at all of his state, but lived in the joy of the safety that he supposed his soul, by his conversion, to be in. Oh ! thanks to God, says he, I am not in the state of sin, death, and damnation, as the unjust, and this Publican is. What a strange delusion, to trust to the spider's web, and to think that a few, or the most fine of the works of the flesh, would be sufficient to bear up the soul in, at, and under the judgment of God .' " There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness." This text can be so fitly applied to none as the Pharisee, and to those that tread in the Pharisee's steps, and that are swallowed up with his conceits, and with the glory of their own right- eousness. So again, " There is a way" (a way to heaven) " which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways 122 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. of death ;" Prov. xxx. 12 ; xiv. 12. This also is fulfilled in these kind of men ; at the end of their way is death and hell, notwithstanding their confidence in the goodness of their state. Again, " There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing ;" Prov. xiii. 7. What can be more plain from all these texts, than that some men that are out of the way think themselves in it ; and that some men think them- selves clean, that are yet in their filthiness, and that think themselves rich for the next world, and yet are poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked. Thus the poor, blind, naked, hypocritical Pharisee thought of him- self, when God threatened to abase him : yea, he thought himself thus, and joyed therein, when indeed he was going down to the chambers of death. 3. By these words, the Pharisee seems to put the good- ness of his condition upon the goodness of God. I am not as other men are, and I thank God for it. " God (saith he), I thank thee, that I am not as other men are." He thanked God, when God had done nothing for him. He thanked God, when the way that he was in was not of God's prescribing, but of his own inventing. So the persecutor thanks God that he was put into that way of roguery that the devil had put him into, when he fell to rending and tearing of the church of God ; " Their possessors slay them (saith the prophet), and hold themselves not guilty : and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich ;" Zech. xi. 5. I remember that Luther used to say, " In the name of God begins all mischief." All must be fathered upon God : the Pharisee's conversion must be fathered upon God ; the right, or rather the villany of the outrageous per- secution against God's people, must be fathered upon God. " God, I thank thee," and, " Blessed be God," must be the burden of the heretic's song. So again, the free-wilier, he will ascribe all to God ; the Quaker, the Ranter, the Soci- nian, &c, will ascribe all to God. " God, I thank thee," is in every man's mouth, and must be entailed to every error, delusion, and damnable doctrine that is in the world : but THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 123 *he name of God, and their doctrine, worship, and way, Jiangeth together, as the Pharisee's doctrine ; that is to say, by nothing at all : for God hath not proposed their prin- ciples, nor doth he own them, nor hath he commanded them, nor doth he convey by them the least grace or mercy to them ; but rather rejecteth them, and holdeth them for his ■enemies, and for the destroyers of the world. 4. We come, in the next place, to the ground of all this, und that is, to what the Pharisee had attained ; to wit, that he was no extortioner, no unjust man, no adulterer, nor even as this Publican, and for that he fasted twice a-week, and paid tithes of all that he possessed. So that you see he pretended to a double foundation for his salvation, a moral «,nd a ceremonial one ; but both very lean, weak, and feeble : for the first of his foundation, what is it more, if all be true that he saith, but a being removed a few inches from the vilest men in their vilest actions ? a very slender matter to build my confidence for heaven upon. And for the second part of his ground for life, what is it but a couple of ceremonies, if so good ? the first is ques- tioned as a thing not founded in God's law ; and the se- cond is such, as is of the remotest sort of ceremonies, that teach and preach the Lord Jesus. But suppose them to be the best, and his conformity to them the thoroughest, they never were ordained to get to heaven by, and so are become but a sandy foundation. But any thing will serve some men for a foundation and support for their souls, and to build their hopes of heaven upon. I am not a drunkard, says one, nor a liar, nor a swearer, nor a thief, and there- fore I thank God, I have hopes of heaven and glory. I am not an extortioner, nor an adulterer ; not unjust, nor yet as this Publican ; and therefore do hope I shall go to hea- ven. Alas, poor men ! will your being furnished with these things save you from the thundering claps and vehe- ment batteries that the wrath of God will make upon sin and sinners in the day that shall burn like an oven ? No, no ; nothing at that day can shroud a man from the hot rebukes of that vengeance, but the very righteousness of 124 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. God, which is not the righteousness of the law, however christened, named, or garnished with all the righteousness of man. But, thou blind Pharisee ! since thou art so confident that thy state is good, and thy righteousness is that that will stand when it shall be tried with fire (1 Cor. iii. 13), let me now reason with thee of righteousness. My terror shall not make thee afraid ; I am not God, but a man as thou art ; we both are formed out of the clay. First, Prithee, when didst thou begin to be righteous ? Was it before or after thou hadst been a sinner ? Not be- fore, I dare say ; but if after, then the sins that thou pol- lutedst thyself withal before, have made thee incapable of acting legal righteousness : for sin, where it is, pollutes, defiles, and makes vile the whole man ; therefore thou canst not by after acts of obedience make thyself just in the sight of that God thou pretendest now to stand praying unto. Indeed thou mayst cover thy dirt, and paint thy sepulchre ; for that acts of after obedience will do, though sin has gone before. But, Pharisee, God can see through the white of this wall, even to the dirt that is within : God can also see through the paint and garnish of thy beauteous sepulchre, to the dead men's bones that are within ; nor can any of thy most holy duties, nor all when put together, blind the eye of the all-seeing Majesty from beholding ail the un- cleanness of thy soul (Matt, xxiii. 27.) Stand not there- fore so stoutly to it, now thou art before God ; sin is with thee, and judgment and justice is before him. It becomes thee, therefore, rather to despise and abhor this life, and to count all thy doings but dross and dung, and to be content to be justified with another's righteousness instead of thy own. This is the way to be secured. I say, blind Phari- see, this is the way to be secured from the wrath which is to come. There is nothing more certain than this, that as to justi- fication from the curse of the law, God has rejected man's righteousness, for the weakness and unprofitableness there- of, and hath accepted in the room of that the glorious Tight- THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 125 eousness of his Son ; because indeed that, and that only, is universal, perfect, and equal with his justice and holiness. This is in a manner the contents of the whole Bible, and therefore must needs be more certainly true. Now then, Mr Pharisee, methinks, what if thou didst this, and that while thou art at thy pikers, to wit, cast in thy mind what doth God love most 1 and the resolve will be at hand. The best righteousness, surely the best righteousness ; for that thy reason will tell thee : This done, even while thou art at thy devotion, ask thyself again, But who has the best righteousness 1 and that resolve will be at hand also ; to wit, he that in person is equal with God, and that is his Son Jesus Christ ; he that is separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, and that is his Son Jesus Christ ; he that did no sin, nor had any guile found in his mouth ; and there never was any such he in all the world but the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Now, Pharisee, when thou hast done this, then, as thou art at thy devotion, ask again, But what is this best right- eousness, the righteousness of Christ, to do ? and the answer will be ready. It is to be made by an act of the sovereign grace of God over to the sinner that shall dare to trust thereto for justification from the curse of the law. " He is made unto us of God, righteousness." " He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." " For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth ;" 1 Cor. i. 30 ; 2 Cor. v. 2] ; Rom. x. 4. This done, and concluded on, then turn again, Pharisee, and say thus with thyself — Is it most safe for me to trust in this righteousness of God, this righteousness of God-man, this righteousness of Christ ? Certainly it is ; since, by the text, it is counted the best, and that which is best pleaseth God ; since it is that which God hath appointed, that sin- ners shall be justified withal. For " in the Lord have we righteousness" if we believe: and, "in the Lord we are justified, and do glory ;" Isa. xlv. 24, 25. Nay, Pharisee, suppose thine own righteousness should 126 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. be as long, as broad, as high, as deep, as perfect, as good, even every way as good, as the righteousness of Christ ; yet since God has chosen, by Christ, to reconcile us to him- self, canst thou attempt to seek by thy own righteousness to reconcile thyself to God, and not attempt (at least) to confront this righteousness of Christ before God ; yea, to challenge it by acceptance of thy person contrary to God's design % Suppose, that when the king has chosen one to be judge in the land, and has determined that he shall be judge in all cases, and that by his verdict every man's judgment shall stand ; I say, suppose, after this, another should arise, and of his own head resolve to do his own business himself. Now, though he should be every whit as able, yea, and sup- pose he should do it as justly and righteously too, yet his making of himself a judge, would be an affront to the king, and an act of rebellion, and so a transgression worthy of punishment. Why, Pharisee, God hath appointed, that by the right- eousness of his Son, and by that righteousness only, men shall be justified in his sight from the curse of the law. Wherefore, take heed, and at thy peril, whatever thy righteousnesss is, confront not the righteousness of Christ therewith. I say, bring it not in, let it not plead for thee at the bar of God, nor do thou plead for that in his court of justice; for thou canst not do this and be innocent. If he trust to his righteousness, he hath sinned, says Ezekiel. Mark the text, " When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live ; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remem- bered : but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it ;" Ezek. xxxiii. 13. Observe a few things from this text ; and they are these that follow. 1. Here is a righteous man ; a man with whom we do not hear that the God of heaven finds fault. 2. Here is a promise made to this man, that he shall surelv live • but on this condition, that he trust not to his THE PHARISEE AND r /HE PUBLICAN. 127 own righteousness. Whence it is manifest, that the promise of life to this righteous man, is not for the sake of his righteousness, hut for the sake of something else ; to wit, the righteousness of Christ. 1. Not for the sake of his own righteousness. This is evident, because we are permitted, yea, commanded, to trust in the righteousness that saveth us. The righteousness of God is unto us all, and upon all that believe ; that is, trust in it, and trust to it for justification. Now therefore, if thy righteousness, when most perfect, could save thee, thou mightst, yea oughtst, most boldly to trust therein. But since thou art forbidden to trust to it, it is evident it cannot save ; nor is it for the sake of that, that the righteous man is saved; Rom. iii. 21, 22. 2. But for the sake of something else, to wit, for the sake of the righteousness of Christ, " Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the jus- tifier of him that believeth in Jesus ;" Rom. iii. 25, 26 ; see Phil. iii. 6-8. " If he trust to his own righteousness, and commit ini- quity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered ; but for his iniquity that he hath committed (in trusting to his own righteousness), he shall die for it." Note hence further. 1. That there is more virtue in one sin to destroy, than in all thy righteousness to save thee alive. If he trust, if he trust ever so little, if he do at all trust to his own right- eousness, all his righteousness shall be forgotten ; and by, and for, and in, the sin that he hath committed, in trusting to it, he shall die. 2. Take notice also, that there are more damnable sins than those that are against the moral law. By whioh of the ten commandments is trusting to our own righteous- ness forbidden ? Yet it is a sin : it is a sin therefore for- bidden by the gospel, and is included, lurketh close in, yea, 128 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. is the very root of, unbelief itself ; " He that believes not shall be damned." But he that trusteth in his own right- eousness doth not believe, neither in the truth, nor suffi- ciency of the righteousness of Christ to save him, therefore he shall be damned. But how is it manifest, that he that trusteth to his own righteousness, doth it through a doubt, or unbelief of the truth or sufficiency of the righteousness of Christ ? I answer, because he trusteth to his own. A man will never willingly choose to trust to the worst of helps, when he believes there is a better as near, and to be had as soon, and that too, upon as easy, if not more easy terms. If he that trusteth to his own righteousness for life, did believe that there is indeed such a thing as the righteousness of Christ to justify, and that this righteousness of Christ has in it all-sufficiency to do that blessed work, be sure he would choose that, thereon to lay, lean, and venture his soul, that he saw was the best, and most sufficient to save ; especially when he saw also (and see that he must, when he sees the righteousness of Christ), to wii, that that is to be obtained as soon, because as near, and to be had on as easy terms : nay, upon easier than man's own righteousness. I say, he would sooner choose it, because of the weight of salvation, of the worth of salvation, and of the fearful sor- row that to eternity will overtake him that in this thing shall miscarry. It is for heaven, it is to escape hell, wrath, and damnation, saith the soul ; and therefore I will, I must, I dare not but choose that, and that only, that I be- lieve to be the best and most sufficient help in so great a concern as soul-concern is. So then he that trusteth to his own righteousness, does it of unbelief of the sufficiency of the righteousness of Christ to save him. Wherefore this sin of trusting to his own righteousness is a most high transgression ; because it contemneth the righteousness of Christ, which is the only righteousness that is sufficient to save from the curse of the law. it also disalloweth the design of heaven, and the excellency of the mvsterv of the wisdom of God, in designing this way of THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 129 salvation for man. What shall I say, It also seeketh to rob God of the honour of the salvation of man. It seeketh to take the crown from the head of Christ, and to set it upon the hypocrite's head ; therefore, no marvel that this one sin he of that weight, virtue, and power, as to sink that man and his righteousness into hell, that leaneth thereon, or trusteth unto it. But, Pharisee, I need not talk thus unto thee ; for thou art not the man that hath that righteousness that God findeth not fault withal ; nor is it to be found, but with him that is ordained to he the Saviour of mankind ; nor is there any such one besides Jesus, who is called Christ. What madness then has brought thee into the temple, there in an audacious manner to stand and vaunt before God, saying, " God, I thank thee, I am not as other men are ?" Dost thou not know, that he that breaks one, breaks all the commandments of God ; and consequently, that he that keeps not all, keeps none at all of the commandments of God ? Saith not the scripture the same 1 " For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all ;" Jam. ii. 10. Be confounded then, be con- founded. Dost thou know the God with whom now thou hast to do ? He is a God that cannot (as he is just) accept of an half righteousness for a whole ; of a lame righteousness for a sound ; of a sick righteousness for a well and healthy one ; Mai. i. 7, 8. And if so, how should he then accept of that which is no righteousness ? I say, how should he accept of that which is none at all, for thine is only such ? And if Christ said, " When you have done all, say, We are unprofitable," how earnest thou to say, before thou hadst done one thing well, I am better, more righteous than other men 1 Didst thou believe, when thou saidst it, that God knew thy heart ? Hadst thou said this to the Publican, it had been a high and rampant expression ; but to say this be- fore God, to the face of God, when he knew that thou wert vile, and a sinner from the womb, and from the conception, 130 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. spoils all. It was spoken to put a check to thy arrogancy, when Christ said, " Ye are they that justify yourselves he- fore men ; but God knoweth your hearts ;" Luke xvi. 15. Hast thou taken notice of this, that God judgeth the fruit by the heart from whence it comes ? "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good ; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil ;" Luke vi. 45. Nor can it be otherwise concluded, but that thou art an evil man, and so that all thy supposed good is nought but badness ; for that thou hast made it to stand in the room of Jesus, and hast dared to commend thyself to the living God thereby : for thou hast trusted in thy shadow of right- eousness, and committed iniquity. Thy sin hath melted away thy righteousness, and turned it to nothing but dross ; or, if you will, to the early dew, like to which it goeth away, and so can by no means do thee good, when thou shalt stand in need of salvation and eternal life of God. But, further, thou sayst thou art righteous ; but they are but vain words. Knowest thou not that thy zeal, which is the life of thy righteousness, is preposterous in many things 1 What else means thy madness, and the rage thereof, against men as good as thyself. True, thy being ignorant that they are good, may save thee from the commission of the sin that is unpardonable ; but it will never keep thee from spot in God's sight, but will make both thee and thy righteousness culpable. Paul, who was once as brave a Pharisee as thou canst be, calleth much of that zeal which he in that estate was pos- sessed with, and lived in the exercise of, madness ; yea, ex- ceeding madness (Acts xxvi. 9-11 ; Phil, iii. 5, 6); and of the same sort is much of thine, and it must be so ; for a lawyer, a man for the law, and that resteth in it, must be a persecutor ; yea, a persecutor of righteous men, and that of zeal to God ; because by the law is begotten, through the weakness that it meeteth with in thee, sourness, bitterness of spirit, and anger against him that rightfully condemneth thee of folly, for choosing to trust to thy own righteous- TIIE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 131 ness when a better is provided of God to save us ; Gal. iv. 28-31. Thy righteousness therefore is deficient ; yea, thy zeal for the law, and the men of the law, has joined madness with thy moral virtues, and made thy righteous- ness unrighteousness : how then canst thou be upright be- fore the Lord ? Further, has not the pride of thy spirit in this hot- headed zeal for thy Pharisaical notions run thee upon think- ing that thou art able to do more than God hath enjoined thee, and so able to make thyself more righteous than God requireth thou shouldst be ? What else is the cause of thy adding laws to God's laws, precepts to God's precepts, and traditions to God's appointment ? Mark vii. Nay, hast thou not, by thus doing, condemned the law of want of perfec- tion, and so the God that gave it, of want of wisdom and faithfulness to himself and thee 1 Nay, I say again, hath not thy thus doing charged God with being ignorant of knowing what rules there needed to be imposed on his creatures to make their obedience com- plete ? And doth not this madness of thine intimate, more- over, that if thou hadst not stepped in with the bundle of thy traditions, righteousness had been imperfect, not through man's weakness, but through impediment in God, or in his ministering rules of righteousness unto us 1 Now, when thou hast thought on these things, fairly answer thyself these few questions. Is not this arrogancy ? Is not this blasphemy ? Is not this to condemn God, that thou mightst be righteous ? And dost thou think, this is indeed the way to be righteous ? But again, what means thy preferring of thine own rules, laws, statutes, ordinances, and appointments, before the rules, laws, statutes, and appointments of God ? Thinkest thou this to be right? Whither will thy zeal, thy pride, and thy folly carry thee ? Is there more reason, more equity, more holiness in thy tradition, than in the holy, and just, and good commandments of God] Rom. vii. 12. Why then, I say, dost thou reject the commandment of God, to keep thine own tradition ? Yea, why dost thou 132 THE PIIARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. rage, and rail, and cry out, when men keep not thy law, or the rule of thine order, and tradition of thine elders, and yet shut thine eyes, or wink with them, when thou thyself shalt live in the breach of the law of God ? Yea, why wilt thou condemn men, when they keep not thy law, but study for an excuse, yea, plead for them that live in the breach of God's? Mark vii. 10-13. Will this go for righteous- ness in the day of God Almighty ? Nay, rather, will not this, like a mill-stone about thy neck, drown thee in the deeps of hell 1 the blindness, the madness, the pride, that dwells in the hearts of these pretended righteous men ! Again, What kind of righteousness of thine is this that standeth in a mis-esteeming of God's commands ? Some thou settest too high, and some too low ; as in the text, thou hast set a ceremony above faith, above love, and above hope in the mercy of God ; when as it is evident, the things last mentioned, are the things of the first rate, the weightier matters ; Matt, xxiii. ] 7. Again, Thou kast preferred the gold above the temple that sanctifieth the gold ; and the gift above the altar that sanctifieth the gift ; Matt, xxiii. 17. I say again, What kind of righteousness shall this be called ? What back will such a suit of apparel fit, that is set together to what it should be ? Nor can other righteous- ness proceed, where a wrong judgment precedeth it. This misplacing of God's laws cannot, I say, but produce misplaced obedience. It indeed produceth a monster, an ill-shaped thing, unclean, and an abomination to the Lord. For " see," saith he (if thou wilt be making), " that thou make all things according to the pattern shewn thee in the mount." Set faith, where faith should stand ; a moral, where a moral should stand ; and a ceremony, where a cere- mony should stand : for this turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. And wilt thou call this thy righteousness ? yea, wilt thou stand in this ? wilt thou plead for this ? and venture an eternal concern in such a piece of linsey-woolsey as this ? fools, and blind ! THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. J33 But, further, let us come a little closer to the point. blind Pharisee, thou standest to thy righteousness : what dost thou mean 1 Wouldst thou have mercy for thy right- eousness, or justice for thy righteousness. If mercy, what mercy I Temporal things God giveth to the unthankful and unholy : nor doth he use to sell the world to man for righteousness. The earth hath he given to the children of men. But this is not the thing : thou wouldst have eternal mercy for thy righteousness ; thou wouldst have God think upon what an holy, what a good, what a righteous man thou art and hast been. But Christ died not for the good and righteous, nor did he come to call such to the banquet that grace hath prepared for the world. " I came not, — I am not come (saith Christ) to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance ;" Mark ii. ; Rom. v. Yet this is thy plea ; Lord, God, I am a righteous man ; therefore grant me mercy, and a share in thy heavenly kingdom. What else dost thou mean when thou sayst, " God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are ?" Why dost thou rejoice, why art thou glad that thou art more righteous (if indeed thou art) than thy neighbour, if it is not because thou thinkest that thou hast got the start of thy neighbour, with reference to mercy ; and that by thy righteousness thou hast insinuated thyself into God's affections, and procured an interest in his eternal favour ? But, What, what hast thou done by thy righteousness ? I say, What hast thou given to God thereby ? And what hath he received of thy hand '? Perhaps thou wilt say, righteous- ness pleaseth God : but I answer no, not thine, with respect to justification from the curse of the law, unless it be as perfect as the justice it is yielded to, and as the law that doth command it. But thine is not such a righteousness : no, thine is speckled, thine is spotted, thine makes thee to look like a speckled bird in his eye-sight. Thy righteousness has added iniquity, because it has kept thee from a belief of thy need of repentance, and because it has emboldened thee to thrust thyself audaciously into the 134 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. presence of God, and made thee even before his holy eyes, which are so pure, that they cannot look on iniquity (Hab. i. 13), to vaunt, boast, and brag of thyself, and of thy tot- tering, ragged, stinking uncleanness ; for all our righteous- nesses are as menstruous rags, because they How from a thing, a heart, a man, that is unclean. But, Again, Wouldst thou have mercy for thy righteous- ness ? For whom wouldst thou have it : for another, or for thyself ? If for another (and it is most proper that a right- eous man should intercede for another by his righteousness, rather than for himself), then thou thrustest Christ out of his place and office, and makest thyself to be a saviour in his stead ; for a mediator there is already, even a mediator between God and man, and he is the man Christ Jesus. But dost thou plead by thy righteousness for mercy for thyself 1 Why, in doing so, thou impliest — 1. That thy righteousness can prevail with God more than can thy sins ; I say, that thy righteousness can prevail with God to preserve thee from death more than thy sins can prevail with him to condemn thee to it. And if so, what follows, but that thy righteousness is more, and has been done in a fuller spirit than ever were thy sins ? But thus to insinuate, is to insinuate a lie ; for there is no man but, while he is a sinner, sinneth with a more full spirit than a good man can act righteousness withal. A sinner, when he sinneth, he doth it with all his heart, and Avith all his mind, and with all his soul, and with all his strength ; nor hath he in his ordinary course any thing that bindeth. But with a good man it is not so ; all and every whit of himself, neither is, nor can be, in every good duty that he doth. For when he would do good, evil is present with him. And again, " The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these arc contrary one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ;" Gal. v. 17. Now, if a good man cannot do good things with that oneness and universalness of mind, as a wicked man doth gin with, then is his sin heavier to weigh him down to hell than is his righteousness to buoy him up to the heavens. THE PHARISEE AND TnE PUBLICAN. 135 And again, I say, if the righteousness of a good man comes short of his sin, both in number, weight, and mea- sure, as it doth (for a good man shrinks and quakes at the thoughts of God's entering into judgment with him, Psalm cxliii. 2) ; then is his iniquity more than his righteousness. And I say again, if the sin of one that is truly gracious, and so of one that hath the best of principles, is heavier and mightier to destroy him than is his righteousness to save him, how can it be that the Pharisee, that is not gra- cious, but a mere carnal man (somewhat reformed and painted over with a few lean and low formalities), should with his empty, partial, hypocritical righteousness counter- poise his great, mighty, and weighty sins, that have cleaved to him in every state and condition of his, to make him odious in the sight of God ? 2. Dost thou plead by thy righteousness for mercy for thyself ? Why in so doing thou impliest, that mercy thou deservest ; and that is next door to, or almost as much as to say, God oweth me what I ask for. The best that can be put upon it is, thou seekest security from the direful curse of God, as it were by the works" of the law, Rom. ix. 31-33 ; and to be sure, betwixt Christ and the law, thou wilt drop into hell. For he that seeks for mercy, as it were, and but as it were, by the works of the law, doth not altogether trust thereto. Nor doth he that seeks for that righteousness that should save him as it were by the works of the law, seek it only wholly and solely at the hands of mercy. So then, to seek for that that should save thee, neither at the hands of the law, nor at the hands of mercy, is to be sure to seek it where it is not to be found ; for there is no medium betwixt the righteousness of the law and the mercy of God. Thou must have it either at the door of the law, or at the door of grace. But sayst thou, I am for having of it at the hands of both. I will trust solely to neither. I love to have two strings to my bow. If one of them, as you think, can help me by itself, my reason tells me that both can help me better. Therefore will I be M 136 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. righteous and good, and will seek by my goodness to Le commended to the mercy of God : for surely he that hath something of his own to ingratiate himself into the fa- vour of his prince withal, shall sooner obtain his mercy and favour, than one that comes to him stripped of all good. I answer, But there are not two ways to heaven : there is hut one new and living way which Christ hath conse- crated fur us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh ; and besides that one, there is no more ; Heb. x. 19-24. Why then dost thou talk of two strings to thy bow 1 What be- came of him that had, and Avould have two stools to sit on ? yea, the text says plainly, that therefore they obtained not righteousness, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. See here, they are dis- owned by the gospel, because they sought it not by faith, that is, by faith only. Again, the law, and the righteous- ness thereof, flies from them (nor could they attain it, though they follow after it), because they sought it not by faith. Mercy then is to be found alone in Jesus Christ. Again, the righteousness of the law is to be obtained only by faith of Jesus Christ ; that is, in the Son of God is the righteous- ness of the law to be found ; for he, by his obedience to his Father, is become the end of the law for righteousness. And for the sake of his legal righteousness (which is also called the righteousness of God, because it was God in the flesh of the Lord Jesus that did accomplish it), is mercy and grace from God extended to whoever dependeth by faith upon God by this Jesus his righteousness for it. And hence it is, that we so often read, that this Jesus is the way to the Father ; that God, for Christ's sake, forgiveth us ; that by the obedience of one many are made righteous, or justified ; and that through this man is preached to us the forgiveness of sins ; and that by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be jus- tified by the law of Moses. Now, though I here do make mention of righteousness THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 13? and mercy, yet I hold there is but one way, to wit, to eter- nal life ; which way, as I said, is Jesus Christ ; for he is the new, the only new and living way to the Father of mercies, for mercy to make me capable of abiding with him in the heavens for ever and ever. But sayst thou, I will be righteous in myself that I may have wherewith to commend me to God, when I go to him for mercy ? I answer, But thou blind Pharisee, I tell thee thou hast no understanding of God's design by the gospel, which is, not to advance man's righteousness, as thou dreamest, but to advance the righteousness of his Son, and his grace by him. Indeed, if God's design by the gospel was to exalt and advance man's righteousness, then that which thou hast said would be to the purpose ; for what greater dig- nity can be put upon man's righteousness, than to admit it? I say then, for God to admit it, to be an advocate, an in- tercessor, a mediator ; for all these are they which prevail with God to shew me mercy. But this God never thought of, much less could he thus design by the gospel ; for the text runs flat against it. Not of works, not of works of righteousness, which we have done ; " Not of works, lest any man should boast," saying, Well, I may thank my own good life for mercy. It was partly for the sake of my own good deeds that I obtained mere}'- to be in heaven and glory. Shall this be the burden of the song of heaven 1 or is this that which is composed by that glittering heavenly host, and which we have read of in the holy book of God ? No, no ; that song runs upon other feet — standeth in far better strains, being composed of far higher and truly hea- venly matter : for God has " predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Be- loved : in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace ;" Eph. i. And it is requisite that the song be framed accord- 13 3 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. ingly ; -wherefore he saith, that the heavenly song runs thus — " Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof ; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests ; and we shall reign on the earth ;-" Rev. v. 9, 10. He saith not that they have redeemed, or helped to re- deem and deliver themselves ; but that the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain ; the Lamb only was he that re- deemed them. Nor, saith he, that they had made them- selves kings and priests unto God to offer any oblation, sacrifice, or offering whatsoever, but that the same Lamb had made them such : for they, as is insinuated by the text, were in, among, one with, and no better than the kindreds, tongues, nations, and people of the earth. Bet- ter ! " No, in no wise," saith Paul (Rom. iii. 9) ; there- fore their separation from them was of mere mercy, free grace, good will, and distinguishing love ; not for, or because of works of righteousness which any of them have done ; no, they were all alike. But these, because beloved when in their blood (according to Ezek. xvi.), were sepa- rated by free grace ; and as another scripture hath it, " redeemed from the earth," and from among men by blood ; Rev. xiv. 3, 4. Wherefore deliverance from the ireful wrath of God must not, neither in whole nor in part, be ascribed to the whole law, or to all the righteousness that comes by it, but to this Lamb of God, Jesus, the Saviour of the world ; for it is he that delivered us from the wrath to come, and that according to God's appointment ; " for God hath not appointed us to wrath., but to obtain salvation by (or through) our Lord Jesus Christ ;" 1 Thess. i. 10 ; v. 9. Let every man, therefore, take heed what he doth, and whereon he layeth the stress of his salvation ; " For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;" 1 Cor. iii. 11. But dost thou plead still as thou didst before, and wilt thou stand thereto '? Why then, thy design must over- THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 139 come God, or God's design must overcome thee. Thy de- sign is to give thy good life, thy good deeds, a part of the glory of thy justification from the curse. And God's design is to throw all thy righteousness out into the street, into the dirt and dunghill, as to that thou art for glory, and for glorying here before God ; yea, thou art sharing in the glory of justification when that alone belongeth to God. And he hath said, " My glory will I not give to another." Thou wilt not trust wholly to God's grace in Christ for jus- tification ; and God will not take thy stinking righteous- ness in as a partner in thy acquitment from sin, death, wratji, and hell. Now the question is, Who shall prevail ? God, or the Pharisee 1 and whose word shall stand 1 his, or the Pharisee's ? Alas ! the Pharisee here must needs come down, for God is greater than all. Also, he hath said, that no flesh shall glory in his presence ; and that he will have mercy, and not sacrifice. And again, that it is not (or shall he) in him that wills, nor in him that runs, but in God that sheweth mercy. What hope, help, stay, or relief, then is there left for the merit-monger ] What twig, or straw, or twined thread, is left to be a stay for his soul 1 This besom will sweep away his cobweb : the house that this spider doth so lean upon, will now be overturned, and he in it, to hell- fire ; for nothing less than everlasting damnation is de- signed by God, and that for this fearful and unbelieving Pharisee : God will prevail against him for ever. 3. But wilt thou yet plead thy righteousness for mercy ? Why, in so doing thou takest away from God the power of giving mercy. For if it be thine as wages, it is no longer his to dispose of at pleasure ; for that which another man oweth me, is in equity not at his, but at my disposal. Did I say that by this thy plea thou takest away from God the power of giving mercy \ I will add, yea, and also of dis- posing of heaven and life eternal. And then, I pray you, what is left unto God, and what can he call his own 1 Not mercy, for that by thy good deeds thou hast purchased : not heaven, for that by thy good deeds thou hast purchased : 140 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. not eternal life, for that by thy good deeds thou hast pur- chased. Thus, Pharisee (0 thou self-righteous man), hast thou set up thyself above grace, mercy, heaven, glory ; yea, above even God himself, for the purchaser should in reason be esteemed above the purchase. Awake, man ! What hast thou done 1 Thou hast blas- phemed God ; thou has undervalued the glory of his grace ; thou hast, what in thee lieth, opposed the glorious design of heaven ; thou hast sought to make thy filthy rags to share in thy justification. Now, all these are mighty sins ; these have made thine iniquity infinite. What wilt thou do ? Thou hast created to thyself a world of needless miseries. I call them need- less, because thou hadst more than enough before. Thou hast set thyself against God in a way of contending, thou standest upon thy points and pantables ; thou wilt not bate. God an ace of what thy righteousness is worth, and wilt also make it worth what thyself shalt list : thou wilt be thine own judge, as to the worth of thy righteousness ; thou wilt neither hear what verdict the word has passed about it, nor wilt thou endure that God should throw it out in the matter of thy justification, but quarrelest with the doctrine of free grace, or else dost wrest it out of its place to serve thy Pharisaical designs ; saying, " God 1 thank thee, I am not as other men ;" fathering upon thy- self, yea,, upon God and thyself a stark lie ; for thou art as other men are, though not in this, yet in that ; yea, in a far worse condition than the most of men are. Nor will it help thee anything to attribute this thy goodness to the God of heaven ; for that is but a mere toying ; the truth is, the God that thou intendest is nothing but thy right- eousness ; and the grace that thou supposest is nothing but thine own good and honest intentions. So that, 4. In all that thou sayst thou dost but play the down- right hypocrite : thou pretendest indeed to mercy, but thou intendest nothing but merit : thou seemest to give the glory to God, but at the same time takest it all to thy- self : thou despisest others, and criest up thyself, and in con- THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 141 elusion, fatherest all upon God by word, and upon thyself in truth. Nor is there anything more common among this sort of men, than to make God, his grace, and kindness, the stalking-horse to their own praise, saying, " God, I thank thee," when they trust to themselves that they are righteous, and have not need of any repentance ; when the truth is, they are the worst sort of men in the world, be- cause they put themselves into such a state as God hath not put them into, and then impute it to God, saying, God, I thank thee, that thou hast done it ; for what greater sin than to make God a liar, or than to father that upon God which he never meant, intended, or did : and all this under a colour to glorify God, when there is nothing else designed, but to take all glory from him, and to wear it on thine own head as a crown, and a diadem, in the face of the whole world. A self-righteous man, therefore, can come to God for mercy no otherwise than fawningly : for what need of mercy hath a righteous man 1 Let him then talk of mercy, of grace, and goodness, and come in an hundred times with his, " God, I thank thee," in his mouth, all is but words ; there is no sense, nor savour, nor relish, of mercy and favour ; nor doth he in truth, from his very heart, under- stand the nature of mercy, nor what is an object thereof ; but when he thanks God, he praises himself: when he pleads for mercy, he means his own merit ; and all this is manifest from what doth follow ; for, saith he, I am not as this Publican : thence clearly insinuating, that not the good, but the bad, should be rejected of the God of heaven : that not the bad but the good, not the sinner, but the self- righteous, are the most proper objects of God's favour. The same thing is done by others in this our day : favour, mercy, grace, and, " God, I thank thee," is in their mouths, but their own strength, sufficiency, free-will, and the like, they are the things they mean by all such high and glorious expressions. But, secondly, If thy plea be not for mercy, but for jus- tice^ then to speak a little to that. 1. Justice has mea- ]42 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. sures and rules to go by ; unto which measures and rules, if thou comest not up, justice can do thee no good. Come then, thou blind Pharisee, let us pass away a few mi- nutes in some discourse about this. Thou demandest jus- tice, because God hath said, that the man that doth these things shall live in and by them. And again, the doers of the law shall be justified, not in a way of mercy, but in a way of justice : " He shall live by them." But what hast thou done, blind Pharisee ? What hast thou done, that thou art emboldened to venture to stand and fall to the most perfect justice of God 1 Hast thou fulfilled the whole law, and not offended in one point ? Hast thou purged thyself from the pollutions and motions of sin that dwell in thy flesh, and work in thy own members 1 Is the very being of sin rooted out of thy tabernacle 1 And art thou now as perfectly innocent as ever was Jesus Christ 1 Hast thou, by suffering the uttermost punishment that justice could justly lay upon thee for thy sins, made fair and full satis- faction to God, according to the tenor of his law, for thy transgressions ? If thou hast done all these things, then thou mayst plead something, and yet but something, for thyself, in a way of justice. Nay, in this I will assert no- thing, but will rather inquire : What hast thou gained by all this thy righteousness 1 (We will now suppose what must not be granted :) Was not this thy state when thou wast in thy first parents ? Wast thou not innocent, per- fectly innocent and righteous ? And if thou shouldst be so now, what hast thou gained thereby 1 Suppose that the man that had, forty years ago, forty pounds of his own, and had spent it all since, should yet be able now to shew his forty pounds again ; what has he got thereby, or how much richer is he at last than he was when he first set up for himself? Nay, doth not the blot of his ill living betwixt his first and his last, lie as a blemish upon him, unless he should redeem himself also, by works of supererogation, from the scandal that justice may lay at his door for that. But, I say, suppose, Pharisee, this should be thy case, yet God is not bound to give thee in justice that eternal THE PHARISEE AND TOE PUBLICAN. 143 life which by his grace he bestoweth upon those that have redemption from sin, by the blood of his Son. In justice, therefore, when all comes to all, thou canst require no more than an endless life in an earthly paradise ; for there thou wast set up at first ; nor doth it appear from what hath been said, touching all that thou hast done or canst do, that thou deservest a better place. Did I say, that thou mayst require justly an endless life in an earthly paradise ? Why, I must add to that say- ing this proviso, If thou continuest in the law, and in the righteousness thereof ; else not. But how dost thou know that thou shalt continue there- in ? Thou hast no promise from God's mouth for that ; nor is grace or strength ministered to mankind by the co- venant that thou art under. So that still thou standest bound to thy good behaviour; and in the day that thou dost give the first, though ever so little a trip, or stumble in thy obedience, thou forfeitest thine interest in paradise (and in justice), as to any benefit there. But alas ! what need is there that we should thus talk of things, when it is manifest that thou hast sinned, not only before thou wast a Pharisee, but when after the most strictest sect of thy religion thou livest also a Pharisee ; yea, and now in the temple, in thy prayer there, thou shewest thyself to be full of ignorance, pride, self-conceit, and horrible arrogancy, and desire of vain glory, &c, which are none of them the seat or fruits of righteousness, but the seat of the devil, and the fruit of his dwelling, even at this time in thy heart. Could it ever have been imagined, that such audacious impudence could have put itself forth in any mortal man, in his approach unto God by prayer, as has shewed itself in thee ? " I am not as other men," sayst thou ! But is this the way to go to God in prayer ? " The prayer of the up- right is God's delight." But the upright man glorifies God's justice, by confessing to God the vileness and pollu- tion of his state and condition : he glorifies God's mercy, by acknowledging, that that, and that only, as communi- 144 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. cated of God l>y Christ to sinners, can save and deliver from the curse of the law. This, I say, is the sum of the prayer of the just and upright man, Joh. i. 8 ; xl. 4 ; Acts xiii. 22 ; Psalm xxxviii. ; li. ; 2 Sam. vi. 21, 22 ; and not as thou most vain-gloriously vauntest with thy, " God, I thank thee, I am not as other men are." True, when a man is accused by his neighbours, by a brother, by an enemy, and the like, if he be clear (and he may be so, as to Avhat they shall lay to his charge), then let him vindicate, justify, and accmit himself, to the utmost that in justice and truth he can ; for his name, the preser- vation whereof is more to be chosen than silver and gold ; also his profession, yea, the name of God too, and religion may now lie at stake, by reason of such false accusations, and perhaps can by no means (as to this man) be covered and vindicated from reproach and scandal, but by his jus- tifying of himself. Wherefore, in such a work, a man serveth God, and saves religion from hurt ; yea, as he that is a professor, and has his profession attended with a scan- dalous life, hurteth religion thereby, so lie that has his pro- fession attended with a good life, and shall suffer it not- withstanding to lie under blame by false accusations, when it is in the power of his hand to justify himself, hurteth religion also. But the case of the Pharisee is otherwise. He is not here a-dealing with men, but God ; not seeking to stand clear in the sight of the world, but in the sight of heaven itself; and that too, not with respect to what men or angels, but with respect to what God and his law could charge him with, and justly lay at his door. This therefore mainly altereth the case ; for a man here to stand thus upon his point, it is death ; for he affronteth God, he giveth him the lie, he reproveth the law ; and, in sum, accuseth it of bearing false witness against him ; he doth this, I say, even by saying, " God, I thank thee, I am not as other men are ;" for God hath made none of this difference. The law condemneth all man as sinners ; testi- fied! that every imagination of the thought of the heart of THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 14.J the sons of men is only evil, and that continually ; where- fore they that do as the Pharisee did, to wit, seek to justify themselves before God from the curse of the law by their own good doings, though they also, as the Pharisee did, seem to give God the thanks for all ; yet do most horribly sin, even by their so doing, and shall receive a Pharisee's reward at last. Wherefore, thou Pharisee, it is a vain thing for thee either to think of, or to ask for, at God's hand, either mercy or justice. Because mercy thou canst not ask for, from sense of want of mercy, because thy right- eousness, which is by the law, hath utterly blinded thine eyes ; and complimenting with God doth nothing : and as for justice, that can do thee no good; but the more just God is, and the more by that he acteth towards thee, the more miserable and fearful will be thy condition, because of the deficiency of thy so much, by thee, esteemed right- eousness. What a deplorable condition then is a poor Pharisee in ! For mercy he cannot pray ; he cannot pray for it with all his heart, for he seeth indeed no need thereof. True, the Pharisee, though he was impudent enough, yet would not take all from God ; he would still count, that there was due to him a tribute of thanks : " God, I thank thee," saith he : but yet not a bit of this for mercy ; but for that he had let him live (for I know not for what he did thank him- self), till he had made himself better than other men. But that betterment was a betterment in none other's judgment than that of his own ; and that was none other but such an one as was false. So then the Pharisee is by this time quite out of doors : his righteousness is worth nothing, his prayer is worth nothing, his thanks to God are worth no- thing ; for that what he had was scanty and imperfect, and it was his pride that made him offer it to God for acceptance ; nor could his fawning thanksgiving better Ms case, or make his matter at all good before God. But I will warrant you, the Pharisee was so far off from thinking thus of himself, and of his righteousness, that he thought of nothing so much as of this, that he was a happy 14G THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. man : yea, happier by far than other his fellow rationals : yea, he plainly declares it, when he saith, " God, I thank thee, I am not as other men are." what a fool's paradise was the heart of the Pharisee now in, while he stood in the temple praying to God ! God, I thank thee, said he ; for I am good and holy ; I am a righteous man ; I have been full of good works ; I am no extortioner, unjust, nor adulterer, nor yet as this wretched Publican. I have kept myself strictly to the rule of mine order, and my order is the most strict of all orders now in being : I fast, I pray, I give tithes of all that I possess. Yea, so forward am I to be a religious man, so ready have I been to listen after my duty, that I have asked both of God and man the ordinances of judgment and justice ; I take delight in approaching to God. What less now can be mine than the heavenly kingdom and glory 1 Now the Pharisee, like Haman, saith in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself 1 Where is the man that so pleaseth God, and, con- sequently, that in equity and reason should be beloved of God like me 1 Thus like the prodigal's brother, he pleadeth, saying, " Lo, these many years do I serve thee ; neither transgressed I at any time thy commandments," Luke xv. 29. — brave Pharisee ! but go on in thine oration — " Nor yet as this Publican." Poor wretch, quoth the Pharisee to the Publican, What comest thou for 1 Dost think that such a sinner as thou art shall be heard of God 1 God heareth not sinners ; but if any man be a worshipper of God (as I am, as I thank God I am), him he heareth. Thou, for thy part, hast been a rebel all thy days : I abhor to come nigh thee, or to touch thy garments. Stand by thyself, come not near me, for I am more holy than thou ; Isa. lxv. 5. Hold, stop there, go no further : fie, Pharisee, fie ! dost thou know before whom thou standest, to whom thou speakest, and of what the matter of thy silly oration is made 1 Thou art now before God, thou speakest now to God, and therefore in justice and honesty thou shouldst THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 147 make mention of his righteousness, not of thine ; of his righteousness, and of his only. I am sure Abraham, of whom thou sayst he is thy fa- ther, never had the face to do as thou hast done, though, it is to he presumed, he had more cause so to do than thou hast, or canst have. Abraham had whereof to glory, but not before God ; yea, he was called God's friend, and yet would not glory before him ; but humbleth himself, was afraid, and trembled in himself, when he stood before him acknowledging of himself to be but dust and ashes ; Gen. xviii. 27, 30, 22 ; Rom. iv. 1, 2 ; but thou, as thou hadst quite forgot that thou wast framed of that matter, and after the manner of other men, standest and pleadest thy good- ness before him. Be ashamed, Pharisee ! dost thou think that God hath eyes of flesh, or that he seeth as man sees 1 Are not the secrets of thy heart open unto him 1 Thinkest thou with thyself that thou, with a few of thy denied ways, canst cover thy rotten wall, that thou has daubed with un- tempered mortar, and so hide the dirt thereof from his eyes ; or that these tine, smooth, and oily words, that come out of thy mouth, will make him forget that thy throat is an open sepulchre, and that thou w T ithin art full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness 1 Thy thus cleansing of the outside of the cup and platter, and thy garnishing of the sepulchres of the righteous, is nothing at all in God's eyes, but things that manifest that thou art an hypocrite and blind, because thou takest no notice of that which is within, which yet is that which is most abominable to God. For the fruit, alas ! what is the fruit of the tree, or what are the streams of the fountain ? Thy fountain is defiled ; yea, a denier, and so that which maketh the whole self, with thy works, unclean in God's sight. But, Pharisee, how comes it to pass that the poor Publi- can is now so much a mote in thine eye, that thou canst not forbear, but must accuse him before the judgment-seat of God — for in that thou sayst, that thou art not even as this Publican, thou bringest in an accusation, a charge, a bill, against him ? What has he done 1 Has he concealed 148 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. any of thy righteousness 1 or has he secretly informed against thee, that thou art an hypocrite and superstitious ? I dare say, the poor wretch has neither meddled nor made with thee in these matters. But what aileth thee, Pharisee 1 Doth the poor Publican stand to vex thee ? Doth he touch thee with his dirty gar- ments 1 or doth he annoy thee with his stinking breath ? Doth his posture of standing so likt a man condemned of- fend thee 1 True, he now standeth with his hand held up at God's bar ; he pleads guilty tc all that is laid to his charge. He cannot strut, vapour, and swagger as thou dost ; but why offended at this 1 Oh, hut he has been a naughty man, and I have been righteous ! sayst thou. Well, Pharisee, well, his naughtiness shall not be laid to thy charge, if thou hast chosen none of his ways. But since thou wilt yet bear me down that thou art righteous, shew now, even now, while thou standest before God with the Publican, some, though they be but small, yea, though but very small, fruits of thy righteousness. Let the Publican alone, since he is speaking for his life before God. Or, if thou canst not let him alone, yet do not speak against him ; for thy so doing will but prove that thou rememberest the evil that the man has done unto thee ; yea, and that thou bearest him a grudge for it too, and while you stand before God. But, Pharisee, the righteous man is a merciful man, and while he standeth praying, he forgiveth ; yea, and also crieth to God that he will forgive him too ; Mark xi. 25, 26 ; Acts vii. 60. Hitherto then thou hast shewed none of the fruits of thy righteousness. Pharisee, righteousness would teach thee to love this Publican, hut thou shewest that thou hatest him. Love covereth the multitude of sins ; but ha- tred and unfaithfulness revealeth secrets. Pharisee, thou shouldst have remembered this thy brother in this his day of adversity, and shouldst have shewed that thou hadst compassion on thy brother in this his deplorable condition ; but thou, like the proud, the cruel, and the ar- man. hast taken thy neighbour at the advantage, THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 149 and that when lie is even between the straits, and standing upon the pinnacle of difficulty, betwixt the heavens and the hells, and hast done what thou couldst, what on thy part lay, to thrust him down to the deep, saying, " I am not even as this Publican." What cruelty can be greater, what rage more furious, and what spite and hatred more damnable and implacable, than to follow, or take a man while he is asking of mercy at God's hands, and to put in a caveat against his obtaining of it, by exclaiming against him that he is a sinner ] The master of righteousness doth not so : " Do not think (saith he) that I will accuse you to the Father." The scholars of righteousness do not do so. " But as for me (said David), when they (mine enemies) were sick (and the Publican here was sick of the most malignant disease), my clothing was of sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting, and my pyayer (tcr wit, that I made for them) returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother : I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother ;" John v. 45 ; Psalm xxxv, 13, 14. Pharisee, dost thou see here how contrary thou art to righteous men ? Now then, where shall we find out one to parallel thee, but by finding him out that is called " the dragon ;" for he it is that accuseth the poor sinners before God ? Zech. iii. ; Rev. xii. " I am not as this Publican." Modesty should have com- manded thee to have bit thy tongue as to this. What could the angels think, but that revenge was now in thine heart, and but that thou comest up into the temple rather to boast of thyself and accuse thy neighbour, than to pray to the God of heaven ; for what petition is there in all thy prayer, that gives the least intimation that thou hast the know- ledge of God or thyself ? Nay, what petition of any kind is there in thy vain-glorious oration from first to last ? Only an accusation drawn up, and that against one helpless and forlorn ; against a poor man, because he is a sinner ; drawn up, I say, against him by thee, who canst not make proof 150 THE PHARtSEE AND THE PUBLICAN. of thyself that thou art righteous ; but come to proofs of righteousness, and thou art wanting also. What, though thy raiment is b< tter than his, thy skin may be full as black ; yea, what if thy skin be whiter than his, thy heart may be yet far blacker. Yea, it is so, for the truth hath spoken it ; for within, you are full of excess and all un- cleanness ; Matt xxiii. Pharisee, thei e are transgressions against the second table, and the Publican shall be guilty of them ; but there are sins also against the first table, and thou thyself art guilty of them. The Publican, in that he was an extortioner, unjust and an adulterer, made it thereby manifest that he did not love his neighbour ; and thou by making a god, a saviour, a deliverer, of thy filthy righteousness, dost make it appear, that thou dost not love thy God ; for as he that taketh, or that derogateth from his neighbour in that which is his neighbour's due, sinneth against his neighbour ; so he that taketh or derogateth from God, sinneth against God. Now, then, though thou hast not, as thou dost imagine, played at that low game as to derogate from thy neigh- bour ; yet thou hast played at that high game as to dero- gate from thy God ; for thou hast robbed God of the glory of salvation ; yea, declared, that as to that there is no trust to be put in him. " Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength ; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness ;" Psalm lii. 7. What else means this great bundle of thy own righteous- ness, which thou hast brought with thee into the temple ] yea, what means else thy commending of thyself because