THE APPLICATION (4)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First, Dost thou see thy sins?

Secondly, Art thou weary of them?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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