The biggest sinner, when he is converted and comes into the church,
says to them all by his very coming in, "Behold me, all you that are
men and women of a low and timorous spirit, you whose hearts are
narrow--for that you have never had the advantage to know, because
your sins are few, the largeness of the grace of God--behold, I say,
in me the exceeding riches of his grace. I am a pattern set forth
before your faces, on whom you may look and take heart." Christ
Jesus makes of the biggest sinners bearers and supporters to the
rest.
Christ saved the thief, to encourage thieves to come to him for
mercy; he saved Magdalen, to encourage other Magdalens to come to
him for mercy; he saved Saul, to encourage Sauls to come to him for
mercy; and this Paul himself doth say: "For this cause," saith he,
"I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting."
When Christ was crucified and hanged up between the earth and
heavens, there were two thieves crucified with him; and behold, he
lays hold of one of them and will have him away with him to glory.
Was not this a strange act and a display of unthought of grace? Were
there none but thieves there, or were the rest of that company out
of his reach? Could he not, think you, have stooped from the cross
to the ground, and have laid hold of some honester man, if he would?
Yes, doubtless.
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