himself a Jew, of the seed of Abraham, of the nation of Israel. He was
born, he lived, he died amongst them. All the great affairs of his
birth, his life, his ministry, his death and resurrection, were
transacted in their country, and in the midst of them. It was fit the
benefit thereof should be first offered to them.
If this gospel of Christ had been first preached to the gentiles, while
it was kept silent and secret amongst the Jews, there might have been
reason to suspect that there was some fraud or falsehood at the bottom,
and that this doctrine would not bear the light in the country where
these things were done, and that it would not stand the test of
examination in the land of Judea, and therefore the story was told first
among strangers: And thus the gentiles might have found some difficulty
to receive it, and been prejudiced against the belief of it. But now,
when it is published through all the land of Israel, and the apostles
appeal to their own countrymen for the truth of these transactions; when
it has stood the test of public examination there, where the things were
transacted, it goes forth to the rest of the nations with brighter
evidence and glory.
IV. I might add in the last place, that it was fit it should be first
published to the Jews, who seemed to have the first claim to it; that
since they refused it, it might be offered to the poor gentile nations
with greater justice and equity, even the Jews themselves being judges.
Such are the frequent hints given by St. Paul; Acts xiii. 46. _It was
necessary that the word of God should have been first spoke to you; but
seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting
life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Be it known therefore unto you, that
the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it_;
Acts xxviii. 28.
When we think of that poor unhappy nation, the Jews, scattered abroad
among all the kingdoms of the earth, banished from their own promised
land for their rejection of Christ, and yet hardened in their unbelief,
methinks we should send out a groan of pity for them; for they are the
sons and daughters of Abraham, the first favourites of our God. Jesus
our Saviour was their Messiah, their kinsman, and their rightful king.
We should send up a kind wish to heaven upon their account, “How long, O
Lord, how long shall Israel be cast off? How long wilt thou be angry
with the children of Abraham, thy friend? When shall the day come for
the opening of their eyes, that they may _look on Jesus whom they
pierced_, and believe _and mourn_? When shall _the veil be taken off
from their hearts_, that they may read the books of Moses, and trust in
Jesus of Nazareth, whom their fathers crucified?”
When we see one and another of the Jewish nation in this great city, and
think of their blindness and their zeal for the idle traditions of their
teachers, and observe their ignorant rage against our blessed Saviour:
when we behold the vain superstitions of their worship, the thick
darkness that hangs upon them under the brightest beams of gospel-light,
and their wide distance from salvation, we should let our eyes affect
our hearts, and drop a tear of compassion upon their souls. “These were
they to whom the promises of salvation did first belong, and to whom the
first news was brought, that _Jesus the Saviour is born_. These are they
to whom the gospel was first preached. God himself dwelt in the midst of
them, and the Son of God was their brother, their flesh and their blood.
Though they are for a season cast off for their infidelity, yet God has
told us, that he has a secret love for that nation still for their
father Abraham’s sake; Rom. xi. 28. and this love shall break forth in
its full glory one day. Make haste, _O deliverer_, who didst _come out
of Zion_, make haste to fulfil thy promises, and _turn away ungodliness
from Jacob_. Let the _fulness of the Gentiles be brought in, and let all
Israel be saved_. Bring them back from all the lands whither thine anger
hath scattered them. Release thy ancient people from their long
captivity to Satan, and their bands of thick darkness. Be thou, O
_Jesus, who art the light of the Gentiles_, be thou also _the glory of
thy people Israel_.”
But I would endeavour to make a larger improvement of this general head
of discourse.
Does the gospel bring salvation to every one that believes without
exception: to all ranks and characters, and degrees, and orders of men?
then let this grace be spread far abroad: And let not the more polite
and nicer hearers grow tired, or drowsy, or disdainful, while I amplify
a little and diffuse my thoughts into various particulars, pointing out
the variety of the subjects of this grace; for I would, as it were,
mention every sinner by name, that they may not be left only to
unaffecting general notions, but being especially addressed they may all
come and partake of this salvation by believing this gospel.
A glorious and extensive gospel indeed, and a wide-spreading salvation?
To _every one who believes_! None excluded from this blessing!
1. It is not confined to one nation, or one family, not to one tribe or
kindred of mankind, as the law of Moses was. _Go preach the gospel_,
says our Lord, _to every creature_; Mark xvi. 15. _Preach repentance and
remission of sins in my name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem_;
Luke xxiv. 47. To the Jew first, but let not this grace be confined to
them: Publish this blessed doctrine also to the sinners among the Greeks
and Gentiles. You that are afar off from God, even in the _ends of the_
earth, ye are called to _look unto Christ: and be saved_; Is. xlv. 22.
It is no matter, O sinner! what thy father was, or what thy kindred are!
if thou art but a believer in Christ, thy soul is happy, thy sins are
pardoned, _the gospel is the power of God to thy salvation_.
2. It is not confined to one sex only, or to one age. The children are
called as well as the fathers, and men and women are invited to partake
of this blessing together in Christ. _There is neither male nor female_,
neither young nor old, neither Greek nor Jew, that have any distinction
put upon them, to exclude them from this grace; _they are all one in
Christ Jesus_; Gal. iii. 28. Children, have you seen the evil of your
sins, and the danger of hell? Do you long for pardoning and saving
grace, and are you willing that Christ should make your peace with God,
that he should enable you to serve him upon earth, and prepare you for
heaven? Come then, trust in this gospel, give up yourselves to Jesus
Christ the Saviour in the manner I have spoken, and the salvation is
yours. Nor let old sinners thrust away this mercy from them, under a
pretence that they have long abused it. You are now under the joyful
sound of the gospel; you sit now under the language of inviting love:
Are you willing to be made new creatures before you die, and to accept
of a deliverance from hell, though you are upon the very borders of it?
Behold power enough in this gospel to deliver you: The blood of Christ
can wash out stains of the longest continuance; The Spirit of Christ can
change the skin of an old Ethiopian, and create an old inveterate
transgressor into holiness. This gospel could save the thief upon the
cross, and ensure paradise to him. It can rescue a dying rebel from
eternal death; for it gives life and salvation to every one that
believes.
3. It is not limited to one rank or condition of men in the civil life,
but reaches to persons of every circumstance. The rich and the poor, the
master and the servant, the prince and the peasant, must partake of
salvation by the same faith in the Son of God. The barbarian and the
Scythian, who seem to be born for slaves, and the Romans who are lords
of the earth, _the bond and the free_, have all an equal call to receive
this salvation; Col. iii. 11. Ye are all rich enough to obtain it: There
is no purchase of these blessings by any other price but that of the
blood of Jesus. Silver and Gold, and the treasure of kings, are all
contemptible offers in so sacred a concernment as this is. The benefit
is too valuable to be bought at any meaner rate: Christ, who paid for
it, will bestow it freely on all. If the rich will receive it, they must
come without money, and without price, and accept of the free gift of
God, as humble petitioners at his footstool; and the poor _that have no
money, come ye and buy_; Is. lv. 1, 2. Let the vilest, meanest creature
come to this treasury of grace, and with thankfulness receive the
salvation, for it is bought already. You are called only to trust in
this gospel, to surrender yourselves to this Saviour, and the salvation
shall be yours. Ye that are mean and low and base in this world, there
are many of your brethren already joined in the fellowship of this
gospel: Come, enter yourselves into the blessed fraternity. _To the poor
the gospel is preached_, and the poor receive it. But there are some
noble, there are some great, there are some rich, that have felt the
power of it too: There is Philemon the master, and his servant Onesimus,
joined in the same faith, and partakers of the same salvation; Philem.
16.
Again, 4. It is not confined to persons whose intellectual excellencies
are superior to their neighbours, or who exceed others in understanding
and the acquirements of the mind. St. Paul was _debtor both to the wise
and the unwise_; to the learned Greek, and to the ignorant and
unpolished barbarian; Rom. i. 14. He preached the gospel to all of them:
For Christ had a chosen number amongst them all. If the witty, and the
wise, and the learned will lay down their pride, and submit to the
doctrine of Christ crucified, and not call it foolishness: If they will
humble their understandings to receive the sacred mysteries of our
religion, _God manifest in the flesh_, and put to death for the sins of
men, and will place the concerns of their eternal welfare into the hands
of him who hung bleeding upon the cross: If they are willing to _be
converted and become as little children_, there is a door for them to
enter into the kingdom of heaven. And as for you, whose understandings
are weak and unpolished with human learning, this is a doctrine and a
gospel exactly fitted for your character: It is no business of great
sagacity, no ingenious matter to become a christian. Believe the truths
that are plainly revealed concerning your own sin and misery, and the
power of Jesus Christ to save you; bewail your own wretchedness and
guilt, and entrust yourselves in the arms of his grace, that ye may be
made holy and happy, and ye also shall become possessors of the same
kingdom. _Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that though
these things may be hidden from the wise and the prudent, yet thou hast
revealed them to babes_; Mat. xi. 25, 26.
But I pursue the distributions of this grace yet farther:
5. No particular tempers or constitutions of men, no different qualities
of soul or body, can exclude those that believe from the grace or
blessings of this gospel. _Let not the strong man glory in his
strength_, nor the comely figures of human nature boast themselves in
their beauty. Let not the weak be overwhelmed with despair, nor the
deformed or uncomely stand afar off and abandon their hopes; the same
Saviour proposes the riches of his grace to all. Learn therefore to look
upon all your natural advantages, and all your natural discouragements,
with a negligent eye in the matter of your salvation. If you would be
strong to win heaven, you must borrow all your strength from Christ and
the gospel. If you would appear comely and honourable before the face of
God, you must be clothed in _the robe of righteousness, and the garments
of salvation_, which he has prepared; Is. lxi. 10.
Nor can any difference in the natural qualities of the soul forbid any
person who believes in Christ to hope for this salvation. Those who are
by nature proud or peevish, sullen or passionate, angry or revengeful,
have been made partakers of this grace, as well as those who by the
complexion of their animal frame, and the original temper of their
minds, have had more of the natural virtues belonging to them; such as
gentleness, meekness of spirit, good-humour and kindness. Those who have
something in their very frame that is sly and crafty, or covetous,
wanton, and intemperate, have felt the power of this gospel, as well as
those that have been generous and sincere, modest, chaste, and
abstemious; for the grace of the gospel, which was typified by the ark
of Noah, takes in all manner of animals, clean and unclean, and saves
them from the deluge of divine wrath that shall come upon an ungodly
world. But there is this blessed difference, that the brutes went out of
the ark with the same nature they brought in: but those who come under
the protection and power of this gospel by faith, they are in some
measure changed, they are refined, they are sanctified. The wolf that
came in, is turning into a lamb, and the raven by degrees becomes a
dove, surely, the gospel has begun to make them so, for it has begun
their salvation.
I will grant indeed, that the perverse temper of blood and spirits, and
the very make of the man, as to his natural and vicious qualities, is
seldom entirely altered by the grace of God here on earth. There will be
some sallies of animal nature, some out-breakings of the irregular fire
that is pent up in the constitution; and these will too often mix
themselves with our conduct, and interline our acts of virtue and duty.
But the holy soul, who believes in Christ, will be humble, will mourn,
will accuse and chide itself before God in secret, and will be
importunate and restless in prayer for the victory. The christian will
not suffer himself to be carried away willingly by the stream of vicious
inclinations; for _he that is born of God sinneth not_; 1 John v. 18.
and it is in vain to talk of the gospel and salvation of faith and
grace, if we give up the reins to vicious nature, and bid a careless
farewell to any one virtue.
But to proceed yet farther in reckoning up the various characters of
men, whom the gospel makes christians by the grace of faith.
6. As no persons are excluded because of their natural constitution, so
neither are any forbid the blessing of salvation because of their former
ill characters in the moral life. Not the greatest of sinners are shut
out from this blessing, if they repent and believe the gospel. Not the
Jews who crucified the Lord of glory: Not the Gentiles or Greeks, who
were slaves to superstition and idolatry, and drenched in most infamous
and abominable practices; the Greeks, who gave themselves up to work
uncleanness with greediness without God, and without hope in the world.
One gospel has saved them all. No former follies or faults, no, not the
greatest of sins against man, or against God himself, ought to shut up a
humble soul under despair; for _this is a faithful saying, and worthy of
all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came to save the chief of sinners_; 1
Tim. i. 15. And that is a word of most extensive grace which our Saviour
speaks; Mat. xii. 31. _All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men._
You who have enjoyed a happy education, and had pious parents to boast
of, as the Jews boasted of Abraham; you who have many shining works of
sobriety and righteousness, you are called to come and trust in this
gospel: But you must renounce all your pretended merit, and accept of
pardoning grace, or you can never be saved. And you that have nothing
that looks like a good work to glory in, sinners as bad as the worst of
Gentiles, come, and believe this gospel, and surrender yourselves to
Jesus the Prince and the Saviour; his blood is all-sufficient for the
pardon of your sins, his righteousness is all-sufficient for your
justification; and his Spirit can purify your sinful natures. _Where sin
has abounded, grace has much more abounded_; Rom. v. 20. It is to the
everlasting honour of _the gospel of Christ_, that it has appeared to be
_the power of God to the salvation_ of multitudes of such as you: _Such
were some of you_, saith the apostle to the _Corinthians_; _but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God_; 1 Cor. vi. 11.
And surely if great degrees of sin cannot exclude the penitent soul from
the benefit of the gospel; then, 7. Neither shall any person be excluded
because of the weak degrees of his faith; _Him that is weak in the
faith, receive ye; for Christ has received him_; Rom. xiv. 1-3. Read
that kind condescending promise, and believe it; Mat. xii. 20. _He will
not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax_, nor suppress,
nor despise the least, the lowest desires of grace: He will encourage
the youngest and the feeblest acts of sincere repentance and true faith,
though struggling under much sin and darkness, till it break out into
evident and active flame. The little tender seed of grace under his
heavenly influences shall bud, and blossom, and spring up into full
glory.
How large and glorious is the salvation that attends faith in this
gospel! How extensive is the grace of God our Saviour! How unsearchable
are the riches of his mercy! _O the heights and the depths, the lengths
and the breadths of the love of Christ, that pass all knowledge!_ None
of the sons or daughters of Adam the sinner, are excluded from this
salvation, where the gospel is preached, but those who exclude
themselves by stubbornness and unbelief. Persons of every kind, every
character, condition and quality, amongst men, have found this _gospel
become the power of God to their salvation_, when they have fled to this
refuge, and believed in this Saviour.
What improvement now shall I make of the last part of this discourse,
this wide extent of salvation bestowed on all who believe? Has every
single believer this salvation in some measure conferred on him, and
wrought in him? Then here is a plain and evident test, whereby to try
our faith, or a certain sign whereby we may judge, whether we are true
believers, or no.
The gospel is the manifestation of the power of God for the salvation of
every one that believes. What have you found of this salvation begun in
you? What have you felt of your own guilt and wretchedness by reason of
sin, and of your danger of eternal death? Have you seen the death of
Christ as an effectual atonement to procure the forgiveness of an
offended God? Have you beheld the power and grace of Christ sufficient
to renew your sinful natures, and to form them after the image of God in
righteousness and true holiness? Have you found your conscience resting
upon the sacrifice of Christ, and your souls humbly expecting pardon and
peace there? Are your hearts turned away from every sin? Is the temper
of your mind made divine and heavenly, and suited to the business and
blessedness of the upper world? This is the salvation of Christ which
the gospel proposes, and bestows upon all that believe.
Upon such solemn enquiries as these, I am persuaded there is many a soul
must take up this heavy complaint, “Alas! I fear I am no believer: I
have sat long under the sound of the gospel, and I have heard the
doctrine of Christ crucified many years to no purpose; for I have never
found this gospel attended with any such powerful impressions as to
begin salvation in me. I have been too thoughtless about the guilt of my
sins, and about the forgiveness of them in the court of heaven. Nor have
I found my sinful nature changed, nor my affections sanctified. I have
very little of these spiritual desires and delights which have been
before described as part of my salvation, I feel the inward workings of
my soul vain and carnal still; I am not prepared for the heavenly world,
and surely then I have never truly believed in Christ, nor received his
gospel.”
To such complaints as these, I would propose these three several
answers:
Answer I. It may be so indeed. All this complaint may be just and true;
and perhaps thou art an unbeliever still, dead in trespasses and sins,
and exposed every moment to the stroke of death, and to everlasting
misery. This is the case of many a thousand beside thyself: Even the
greatest part of those who are called christians, are yet afar off from
God and from salvation, and have no just ground to suppose that they are
believers in Christ. But it is of infinite concern for thee, O sinner,
to busy thyself about this enquiry. There is not any one act in thy
life, in which thou canst be engaged, that is of greater and more awful
importance than this; for thy heaven or thy hell depends upon it.
Some sit all their days under the gospel, and hear nothing but the
outward sound, always unmoved, unawakened, and unaffected; slumbering
and nodding upon the borders of eternal fire; while others hear the
voice of the Son of God, arise from the dead and receive a new, a divine
life. Some in the same family, perhaps of thy own kindred, thy flesh and
blood, or some that are upon the same seat in the public assembly, are
convinced and converted, believe in Christ, and are saved; while thou
remainest a hard and impenitent sinner under the voice of the same
grace, and the preaching of the same salvation.
And if this be thy case, it is a dreadful one indeed. Consider, how will
thy condemnation be aggravated, that thou hast heard the gospel
published with so much glorious evidence in such a land, and such an age
of light as this is, and yet thou abidest in the state of impenitence,
and unbelief, and death. Thou hast had the blessings of heaven offered
at thy door, and hast hitherto refused to receive them. Thou hast sat,
as it were, on the banks of the _river of life_, and never desired to
taste the _living water_. Thou hast dwelt near the shadow of the _tree
of life_, but art an utter stranger to the fruit. O! with what a stupid
and a careless ear hast thou heard the things of thy everlasting peace!
Think of it therefore, and be horribly afraid: If the gospel be not
powerful for the salvation of thy soul, it will become through thy own
impenitence, a powerful means to increase thy damnation, to make thy
hell hotter, and thy eternal sorrows more intolerable, _Wo to thee_,
Capernaum! _Wo to thee_ Bethsaida! Wo unto you, O sinners of Great
Britain, ye have been exalted to heaven in divine favours, and ye shall
be thrust down to hell, if ye continue in unbelief. _It shall be more
tolerable in the day of Judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for you_;
Mat. xi. 21.
But art thou indeed yet an unbeliever? Yet sleeping the sleep of death?
It may be this is thy awakening time: It may be this is the hour when
thou shalt begin to hear the voice of God in order to life. O cherish
such important thoughts as these. Let them arise with thee in the
morning, let them lie down at night with thee, and give thyself no rest,
nor give rest to the God of heaven, nor to Jesus Christ the Saviour,
till he has received thy soul into the arms of his love, forgiven thy
sins, and made thee a new creature, that the gospel may not be to thy
soul the savour of eternal death.
II. But perhaps the person who makes this complaint, may be some humble,
melancholy christian, some sincere believer in Christ, and yet under
dark and timorous apprehensions, concerning his own state. It may be,
poor trembling soul, that thou hast found the preaching of the gospel to
be the power of God to thy salvation, though thou art not able rightly
to evidence it to thy own conscience.