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THERE IS ROOM IN CHRIST FOR ALL.

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skin wrinkled for very age.
betwixt these sinners also.
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.

And we must put a difference
For can it be, that a child of

Now, I say, if there be room for the first sort, for those of the greatest 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 forgive great sinners, he surely has grace enough to save little ones. If he can forgive five hundred pence, for certain he can forgive fifty. Luke vii. 41, 42.

Object. But you said, that the little sinners must stand by until the great ones have received their grace; and that's discouraging.'

I answer, There are two sorts of little are so, and such as feign themselves so.

sinners; such as

There are those

there; and not

that feigned themselves so, that I intended 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, real and apparent; greatness, by reason of the number, and greatness, by reason of thorough 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 greatest 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 greatest sinner, is he that soonest findeth mercy.

The offer then is to the greatest sinner, to the greatest sinner first; and the mercy is first obtained by him that first truly confesseth himself to be such a 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 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. 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. The offer is to the greatest sinner, to the greatest sinner first; but if he forbear to cry, the sinner that is a sinner less by far than he, both as to the number and nature of transgressions, may get the blessing first, if he shall have grace to bestir himself well;

DO NOT EXTENUATE YOUR SINS.

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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 thinking 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.

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 quality before God, argueth no sound knowledge of the nature of thy sins, 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 labor 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 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 of it. Luke xviii. 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 covereth his sins shall not

prosper," be he a sinner little or great.

Eighthly, Would Jesus Christ have mercy offered in the first place to the greatest 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 I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence." Not that Satan careth for the Father or the Spirit more than he careth for the Son; but he can let men alone with their notions of the Father and the Spirit; for he knows they shall never enjoy the Father nor the Spirit, if indeed they receive not the merits of the Son. "He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life," however they may boast themselves of the Father and Spirit. Again, "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God; he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, hath both the Father and the Son."

Christ, and Christ only, is he that can make us capable of enjoying God with life and joy to all eternity. Hence he calls himself, 'the way' to the Father; the true and living way. For we cannot come to the Father but by him. Satan knows this; therefore he hates him. Deluded persons are ignorant of this; and therefore they are so led up and down by the nose, as they are by Satan.

There are many things by which Satan has taken occasion to greaten his rage against Jesus Christ.

As, first, his love to man, and then the many expressions of that love. He hath taken man's nature upon him; he

OPPOSITION OF SATAN.

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hath in that nature fulfilled the law to bring in righteousness for man, and hath spilt his blood for the reconciling of men to God; he hath broken the neck of death, put away sin, destroyed the works of the devil, and got into his own hands the keys of death: and all these are heinous things to Satan. He cannot abide Christ for this. Besides, he hath eternal life in himself, and that to bestow upon us; and we in all likelihood are to possess the very places from which the Satans by transgression fell, if not places more glorious. Wherefore he must needs be angry. And is it not a vexatious thing to him, that we should be admitted to the throne of grace by Christ, while he stands bound over in chains of darkness, to answer for his rebellions against God and his Son, at the terrible day of judgment. Yea, we poor dust and ashes must become his judges, and triumph over him for ever; and all this of Jesus Christ; for he is the meritorious cause of all this.

Now, though Satan seeks to be revenged for this, yet he knows it is in vain to attack the person of Christ, who has overcome him. Therefore he tampers with a company of silly men, that he may vilify him by them. And they, bold fools as they are, will not spare to spit in his face. They will rail at his person, and deny the very being of it: they will rail at his blood, and deny the merit and worth of it. They will deny the very end, why he accomplished the law, and by tricks, and quirks, which he helpeth them to, they set up fond names and images in his place, and give the glory of a Saviour to them. Thus Satan worketh under the name of Christ, and his ministers under the name of the ministers of righteousness. And by his wiles and stratagems he undoes a world of men.

But there is a seed chosen of God, and they shall serve him, and it shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. These shall see their sins and that Christ is the way to hap

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