they that are but now and then troubled with a heart-fainting qualm.
The publicans and sinners were, as it were, in the mouth of death;
death was swallowing of them down:8 and, therefore, the Lord Jesus
receives them first; offers them mercy first. ‘The whole have no need
of the physician, but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, but
the sinners to repentance.’ The sick, as I said, is the biggest sinner,
whether he sees his disease or not. He is stained from head to foot,
from heart to life and conversation. This man, in every man’s judgment,
has the most need of mercy. There is nothing attends him from bed to
board, and from board to bed again, but the visible characters, and
obvious symptoms, of eternal damnation. This, therefore, is the man
that has need, most need; and, therefore, in reason, should be helped
in the first place. Thus it was with the people concerned in the text;
they were the worst of sinners, Jerusalem sinners, sinners of the
biggest size; and, therefore, such as had the greatest need; wherefore
they must have mercy offered to them, before it be offered to anywhere
else in the world. ‘Begin at Jerusalem,’ offer mercy first to a
Jerusalem sinner. This man has most need, he is furthest from God,
nearest to hell, and so one that has most need. This man’s sins are in
number the most, in cry the loudest, in weight the heaviest, and,
consequently, will sink him soonest; wherefore he has most need of
mercy. This man is shut up in Satan’s hand, fastest bound in the cords
of his sins: one that justice is whetting his sword to cut off; and,
therefore, has most need, not only of mercy, but that it should be
extended to him in the first place.
But a little further to show you the true nature of this reason, to
wit, That Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to
the biggest sinners.
First, Mercy ariseth from the bowels and compassion, from pity, and
from a feeling of the condition of those in misery. ‘In his love, and
in his pity, he redeemed them.’ And again, ‘The Lord is pitiful, very
pitiful, and of tender mercy’ (Isa 63:9; James 5:11).
Now, where pity and compassion is, there is yearning of bowels; and
where there is that, there is a readiness to help. And, I say again,
the more deplorable and dreadful the condition is, the more directly
doth bowels and compassion turn themselves to such, and offer help and
deliverance. All this flows from our first scripture proof, I came to
call them that have need; to call them first, while the rest look on
and murmur.
‘How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?’ Ephraim was a revolter from God, a
man that had given himself up to devilism; a company of men, the ten
tribes that worshipped devils, while Judah kept with his God. But ‘how
shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How
shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? [and yet
thou art worse than they, nor has Samaria committed half thy sins (Eze
16:46-51)] Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled
together’ (Hosea 11:8).
But where do you find that ever the Lord did thus rowl9 in his bowels
for and after any self-righteous man? No, no; they are the publicans
and harlots, idolaters and Jerusalem sinners, for whom his bowels thus
yearn and tumble about within him: for, alas! poor worms, they have
most need of mercy.
Had not the good Samaritan more compassion for that man that fell among
thieves (though that fall was occasioned by his going from the place
where they worshipped God, to Jericho, the cursed city), than we read
he had for any other besides? His wine was for him, his oil was for
him, his beast for him; his penny, his care, and his swaddling bands
for him; for, alas! wretch, he had most need (Luke 10:30-35).
Zaccheus the publican, the chief of the publicans, one that had made
himself the richer by wronging of others; the Lord at that time singled
him out from all the rest of his brother publicans, and that in the
face of many Pharisees, and proclaimed in the audience of them all,
that that day salvation was come to his house (Luke 19:1-8).
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 13:11-13).
And why the woman of Sarepta, and why Naaman the Syrian, rather than
widows and lepers of Israel, but because their conditions were more
deplorable; for that they were most forlorn, and furthest from help
(Luke 4:25,27).
But I say, why all these, thus named? Why have we not a catalogue of
some holy men that were so in their own eyes, and in the judgment of
the world? Alas! if, at any time, any of them are mentioned, how
seemingly coldly doth the record of scripture present them to us?
Nicodemus, a night professor, and Simon the Pharisee, with his fifty
pence, and their great ignorance of the methods of grace, we have now
and then touched upon.
Mercy seems to be out of its proper channel when it deals with
self-righteous men; but then it runs with a full stream when it extends
itself to the biggest sinners. As God’s mercy is not regulated by man’s
goodness, nor obtained by man’s worthiness, so not much set out by
saving of any such. But more of this anon.
And here let me ask my reader a question: Suppose that, as thou art
walking by some pond side, thou shouldst espy in it four or five
children, all in danger of drowning, and one in more danger than all
the rest; judge which has most need to be helped out first? I know thou
wilt say, he that is nearest drowning. Why, this is the case; the
bigger sinner, the nearer drowning; therefore, the bigger sinner, the
more need of mercy; yea, of help, by mercy, in the first place. And to
this our text agrees, when it saith, ‘Beginning at Jerusalem.’ Let the
Jerusalem sinner, says Christ, have the first offer, the first
invitation, the first tender of my grace and mercy; for he is the
biggest sinner, and so has most need thereof.
Second, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered, in the first place, to
the biggest sinners, because when they, any of them, receive it, it
redounds most to the fame of his name.
Christ Jesus, as you may perceive, has put himself under the term of a
physician, a doctor for curing of diseases; and you know that applause
and fame are things that physicians much desire. That is it that helps
them to patients; and that, also, that will help their patients to
commit themselves to their skill, for cure, with the more confidence
and repose of spirit. And the best way for a doctor or physician to get
himself a name, is, in the first place, to take in hand, and cure, some
such as all others have given up for lost and dead. Physicians get
neither name nor fame by pricking of wheals,10 or picking out thistles,
or by laying of plasters 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 for 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 be to me a
name of joy, a praise and an honour, before all the nations of the
earth’ (Jer 33:8,9).
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
4:23,24).
When Christ had cast the legion of devils out of the man of whom you
read (Mark 5), he bid him go home to his friends, and tell it. ‘Go
home,’ saith he, ‘to thy friends, and tell them how great things God
hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee’ (Mark 5:19).
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 it is 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’ (Mark
5:20).
When John told Christ, that they saw one casting out devils in his
name, and they forbade him, because he followed not with them, what is
the answer of Christ? ‘Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall
do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me’ (Mark
9:39). No; they will rather cause his praise to be heard, and his name
to be magnified, and so put glory on the head of Christ.
But we will follow, a little, our metaphor. Christ, as I said, has put
himself under the term of a physician; consequently, he desireth that
his fame, as to the salvation of sinners, may spread abroad, that the
world may see what he can do. And to this end, has not only commanded
that the biggest sinners should have the first offer of his mercy, but
has, as physicians do,11 put out his bills, and published his doings,
that things may be read and talked of. Yea, he has, moreover, in these,
his blessed bills, the holy scriptures I mean, inserted the very names
of persons, the places of their abode, and the great cures that, by the
means of his salvation, he has wrought upon them to this very end. Here
is, Item, such an one, by my grace and redeeming blood, was made a
monument of everlasting life; and such an 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 for 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, Magdalene, and many others, made mention of in this
book. Yea, here are their names, their sins, and their salvations
recorded together, that you may read and know what a Saviour he is, and
do him honour in the world. For why are these things thus recorded, but
to show to sinners what he can do, to the praise and glory of his
grace? And it is observable, as I said before, we have but very little
of the salvation of little sinners mentioned in God’s book, because
that would not have answered the design, to wit, to bring glory and
fame to the name of the Son of God.
What should be the reason, think you, why Christ should so easily take
a denial of the great ones that were the grandeur of the world, and
struggle so hard for hedge-creepers12 and highwaymen, as that parable
seems to import he doth, but to show forth the riches of the glory of
his grace, to his praise? (Luke 14). 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 the 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
14:18,19,23). These poor, lame, maimed, blind, hedge-creepers, and
highwaymen, must come in, must be forced in. These, if saved, will make
his merit shine.
When Christ was crucified, and hanged up between the earth and heavens,
there were two thieves crucified with him; and, behold, he lays hold of
one of them, and will have him away with him to glory. Was not this a
strange act, and a display of unthought-of grace? Were there none but
thieves there, or were the rest of that company out of his reach? Could
he not, think you, have stooped from the cross to the ground, and have
laid hold on some honester man, if he would? Yes, doubtless. Oh! but
then he would not have displayed his grace, nor so have pursued his own
designs, namely, to get to himself a praise and a name; but now he has
done it to purpose. For who that shall read this story, but must
confess, that the Son of God is full of grace; for a proof of the
riches thereof, he left behind him, when, upon the cross, he took the
thief away with him to glory. Nor can this one act of his be buried; it
will be talked of, to the end of the world, to his praise. ‘Men shall
speak of the might of thy terrible acts; and I will declare thy
greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great
goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness-They shall speak of the
glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons
of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom’ (Psa
145:6-12).
When the Word of God came among the conjurors and those soothsayers,
that you read of (Acts 19), and had prevailed with some of them to
accept of the grace of Christ, the Holy Ghost records it with a boast,
for that it would redound to his praise, saying, ‘Many of them also
which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them
before all men; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty
thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the Word of God, and
prevailed’ (Acts 19:19,20). It wrenched out of the clutches of Satan
some of those of whom he thought himself most sure. ‘So mightily grew
the Word of God.’ It grew mightily, it encroached upon the kingdom of
the devil. It pursued him, and took the prey; it forced him to let go
his hold! It brought away captive, as prisoners taken by force of arms,
some of the most valiant of his army. It fetched back from, as it were,
the confines of hell, some of those that were his most trusty, and
that, with hell, had been at an agreement. It made them come and
confess their deeds, and burn their books before all men. ‘So mightily
grew the Word of God, and prevailed.’ Thus, therefore, you see why
Christ will have offered mercy, 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 forgiveness and salvation,
others, hearing of it, will be encouraged the more to come to him for
life.
For the physician, by curing the most desperate at the first, doth not
only get himself a name, but begets encouragement in the minds of other
diseased folk to come to him for help. Hence you read of our Lord, that
after, through his tender mercy, he had cured many of great diseases,
his fame was spread abroad: ‘They brought unto him all sick people that
were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were
possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had
the palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes
of people from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and
from beyond Jordan’ (Matt 4:24,25). 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,’ said Paul, ‘who is rich in
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are
saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ But why did he do all this? ‘That in
the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his
kindness towards us through Christ Jesus’ (Eph 2:4-7). See, here is a
design; God lets out his mercy to Ephesus of design, even to show to
the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness to
them through Christ Jesus. And why, to show, 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 the
same grace through Christ Jesus?13
But what was Paul, and the Ephesian sinners? (of Paul we will speak
anon.) These Ephesian sinners, they were men dead in sins; men that
walked according to the dictates and motions of the devil; worshippers
of Diana, that effeminate goddess; men far off from God, aliens and
strangers to all good things; such as were far off from that, as I
said, and, consequently, in a most deplorable condition. As the
Jerusalem sinners were of the highest sort among the Jews, so these
Ephesian sinners were of the highest sort among the Gentiles (Eph
2:1-3,11,12; Acts 19:35). 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
show 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 great love’; that is, as I think,
for the setting forth, for the commendation 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 show 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 Magdalene, to encourage other Magdalenes 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 show forth all
long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on
him to life everlasting’ (1 Tim 1:16). 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, a persecutor, an injurious
person; but I obtained mercy (1 Tim 1:13,14). Ay, that is well for you,
Paul; but what advantage have we thereby? Oh, very much, saith he; for,
‘for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might
show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting’ (verse 16). 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 (Micah 7:18).
But who believes that this was God’s design in showing mercy of
old—namely, that we that come after might take courage to come to him
for mercy; or that Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first
place, to the biggest sinners, to stir up others to come to him for
life? This is not the manner of men, O God! But David saw this betimes;
therefore he makes this one argument with God, that he would blot out
his transgressions, that he would forgive his adultery, his murders,
and horrible hypocrisy. Do it, O Lord, saith he, do it, and ‘then will
I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto
thee’ (Psa 2:7-13). He knew that the conversion of sinners would be a
work highly pleasing to God, as being that which he had designed before
he made mountain or hill: wherefore he comes, and he saith, Save me, O
Lord; if thou wilt but save me, I will fall in with thy design; I will
help to bring what sinners to thee I can. And, Lord, I am willing to be
made a preacher myself, for that I have been a horrible sinner;
wherefore, if thou shalt forgive my great transgressions, I shall be a
fit man to tell of thy wondrous grace to others. Yea, Lord, I dare
promise, that if thou wilt have mercy upon me, it shall tend to the
glory of thy grace, and also to the increase of thy kingdom; for I will
tell it, and sinners will hear on’t. And there is nothing so suiteth
with the hearing sinner as mercy; and to be informed that God is
willing to bestow it upon him. ‘I will teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee.’
Nor will Christ Jesus miss of his design in proffering of mercy, in the
first place, to the biggest sinners. You know what work the Lord, by
laying hold of the woman of Samaria, made among the people there. They
knew that she was a town sinner, an adulteress; yea, one that, after
the most audacious manner, lived in uncleanness with a man that was not
her husband. But when she, from a turn upon her heart, went into the
city, and said to her neighbours, ‘Come,’ Oh, how they came! how they
flocked out of the city to Jesus Christ! ‘Then they went out of the
city, and came to him.’ ‘And many of the Samaritans of that city
(people, perhaps, as bad as herself) believed on him for the saying of
the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did’ (John
4:39). 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 show 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 (verse
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 (verse 40-42). The heart of man,
though set on sin, will, when it comes once to a persuasion that God is
willing to have mercy upon us, incline to come to Jesus Christ for
life. Witness those turn-aways from God that you also read of in
Jeremiah; for after they had heard, three or four times over, that God
had mercy for backsliders, they broke out, and said, ‘Behold, we come
unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.’ (Jer 3:22); or, as those in
Hosea did, ‘For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy’ (Hosea 14:1-3).
Mercy, and the revelation thereof, is the only antidote against sin.
’Tis of a thawing nature; ’twill loose the heart that is frozen up in
sin; yea, ’twill make the unwilling willing to come to Jesus Christ for
life. Wherefore, do you think, was it that Jesus Christ told the
adulterous woman, and that before so many sinners, that he had not
condemned her, but to allure her, with them there present, to hope to
find favour at his hands? As he also saith, in another place, ‘I came
not to judge, but to save the world.’ For might they not thence most
rationally conclude, that if Jesus Christ had rather save than damn an
harlot, there was encouragement for them [although great sinners] to
come to him for mercy.
I heard once a story from a soldier, who, with his company, had laid
siege against a fort, that so long as the besieged were persuaded their
foes would show them no favour, they fought like madmen; but when they
saw one of their fellows taken, and received to favour, they all came
tumbling down from their fortress, and delivered themselves into their
enemies’ hands. I am persuaded, did men believe that there is that
grace and willingness in the heart of Christ to save sinners, as the
Word imports there is, they would come tumbling into his arms: but
Satan has blinded their minds that they cannot see this thing. Howbeit,
the Lord Jesus has, as I said, that others might take heart and come to
him, given out a commandment, that mercy should, in the first place, be
offered to the biggest sinners. ‘Begin,’ saith he, ‘at Jerusalem’; and
thus I end the third reason.
Fourth, Jesus Christ would have mercy offered, in the first place, to
biggest sinners, because that is the way, if they receive it, most to
weaken the kingdom of Satan, and to keep it lowest in every age of the
world.
The biggest sinners, they are Satan’s colonels and captains, the
leaders of his people, and they that most stoutly make head against the
Son of God. Wherefore, let these first be conquered, and his kingdom
will be weak. When Ishbosheth had lost his Abner, the 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
3). 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 possession, and by
recovering of some notorious sinners out of his clutches (Luke
10:17-19).