Ah, sinners ! Shall a heathen do this, that had but a drop of mercy and compassion in him : and will not Christ do much more, that hath all fulness of grace, mercy, and glory in himself ? Surely his bowels do yearn towards the worst of rebels. Ah ! if you still but come in, you will find him ready to pardon, yea, one made up of pardoning mercy. Oh ! the readiness and willingness of Jesus Christ to receive to favour the greatest rebels ! The father of mercies did meet, embrace, and kiss that prodigal mouth which came from feeding with swine and kissing of harlots, Col. i. 19, ii 3, 4.2
Ephraim had committed idolatry, and was backslidden from God ; he was guilty of lukewarmness and unbelief, &c, yet saith God, ' Ephraim is my dear son, he is a pleasant child, my bowels are troubled for him, I will have mercy,' or rather as it is in the original, ' I will have mercy, mercy upon him, saith the Lord,'3
Well ! saith God, though Ephraim be guilty of crimson sins, yet he is a son, a dear son, a precious son, a pleasant child ; though he be black with filth, and red with guilt, yet my bowels are troubled for him ; I will have mercy, mercy upon him. Ah sinners, if these bowels of mercy do not melt, win, and draw you, justice will be a swift witness against you, and make you lie down in eternal misery for kicking against the bowels of mercy.
Christ hangs out still, as once that warlike Scythian did, a white flag of grace and mercy to returning sinners that humble themselves at his feet for favour ; but if sinners stand out, Christ will put forth his red
1 John Bodin died 1596 : for above see Universce Naturce Theatrum, &c, &c, 1579; and Les six Livres de la Republique, &c, 1593. — G.
2 Neb., ix. 15, Hebrew, But thou a God of pardons.
3 Hosea iv. 17 ; v. 3 ; vi. 8, 11 ; xii. 12, 14 ; xiii. 12. Vide Jer. xxxi. 20.
142 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
flag, his bloody flag, and they shall die for ever by a hand of justice. Sinners ! there is no way to avoid perishing by Christ's iron rod, but by kissing his golden sceptre.
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, to consider, That Jesus Christ liallt novhere in all the tier! /tin re excepted against the worst of sinners that are willing to receive him, to believe in him, to rest upon hvm for happiness amd blessedness. Ah ! sinners, why should you be more cruel and unmerciful to your own souls than Christ is ? Christ bath not excluded you from mercy, why should you exclude your i >\\ n souls from mercy ? Oh that you would dwell often upon that choice Scripture, John vi. o7, ' All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,' or as the original hath it, ' I will not not cast out.' Well! saith Christ, if any man will come, or is coming to me, let him be more sinful or less; more unworthy or less; let him be never so guilty, never so filthy, never so rebellious, never so leprous, &c, yet if he will but come, I will not not cast him off. So much is held forth in 1 Cor. vi. 9-11, 'Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you : 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.'
Ah ! sinners, do not think that he that hath received such notorious sinners to mercy will reject you. ' He is yesterday, and to-day, and the same for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8. Christ was born in an inn, to shew that he receives all comers ; his garments were divided into four parts, to shew that out of what part of the world soever we come, we shall be received. If we be naked, Christ hath robes to clothe us ; if we be harbourless, Christ hath room to lodge us. That is a choice scripture, Acts x. 34, 35, ' Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.'
The three tongues that were written upon the cross, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, John xix. 19, 20, to witness Christ to be the king of the Jews, do each of them in their several idiom avouch this singular axiom, that Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour; and ' a threefold cord is not easily broken.' The apostle puts this out of doubt: Heb. vii. 25, ' Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them/ Now, he were not an all-sufficient Saviour if he were not able to save the greatest, as [well as] the least of sinners. Ah ! sinners, tell Jesus Christ thai be hath not excluded you from mercy, and therefore you are resolved that yon will sit, wait, weep, and knock at the door of mercy, till he shall say, Souls, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven, your persons are justified, and your souls shall be saved.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is, to con- sider, That the greater aim ner thou art, the dearer iJtou wilt be to Christ, when he shall behold thee <ts the travail of his soid : Isa. liii. 11, ' He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.' The dearer we pay
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 143
for anything, the dearer that thing is to us. Christ hath paid most, and prayed most, and sighed most, and wept most, and bled most for the greatest sinners, and therefore they are dearer to Christ than others that are less sinful. Rachel was dearer to Jacob than Leah, because she cost him more ; he obeyed, endured, and suffered more by day and night for her than for Leah. Ah ! sinners, the greatness of your sins does but set off the freeness and riches of Christ's grace, and the fine- ness of his love. This maketh heaven and earth to ring of his praise, that he loves those that are most unlovely, that he shews most favour to them that have sinned most highly against him, as might be shev/ed by several instances in Scripture, as Paul, Mary Magdalene, and others. Who sinned more against Christ than these ? And who had sweeter and choicer manifestations of divine love and favour than these ?