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 trembleth at my word' (Isa 66:2). 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 stumbling-blocks out of the way of God's people; and forewarning of them, that they lay the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their faces; and [of those] that are for presuming upon God's mercy; and let them look to themselves (Eze 14:6–8).
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 them, 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 fast29 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 on him, and that sincerely come to him, by Christ, for mercy (Nahum 1:7).
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 return, but not to the most High.' They turned 'feignedly' (Jer 3:10; Hosea 7:14,16). Thus doing, his soul hates [them]; but the penitent, humble, broken-hearted 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 1:18; 66:2).
Seventh, 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 eyes 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 7:41,42).
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. There 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 an 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 sin, 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? (Exo 22:22,23). It is not the number, but the true sense of the abominable nature of sin, that makes the cry for pardon lamentable. 30 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 their 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 Reuben's, and, for his foolishness, given to the sons of Joseph, yet Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the Messiah (1 Chron 5:1,2). 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 27:35). 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 his mercy; for, verily, so they are never like to have it; for such words declare, that such an 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. The comparison, then, of little and great sinners, is to go for good sense among men. But to plead the fewness of thy sins, or the comparative harmlessness 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 thus 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 sinner in the world but thyself. Also cry out, as if thou wast but 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, multiplying 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 18:10–14). 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,'31 be he a sinner little or great (Prov 28:13).
Eighth, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners? Then this shows 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 of offence. 'Behold,