The Jerusalem-sinner saved, or, Good news for the vilest of men being a help…

And here let me ask my Reader a Question: Suppose that as thou art walking by some Pond-side, thou shouldst espy in it, four or five Children all in danger of drowning, and one in more danger than all the rest; judge which has most need to be helped out first? I know thou wilt say, he that is nearest drowning: Why, this is the case; the bigger Sinner, the nearer d•o•ning; therefore the bigger sinner, the more need of mercy; yea, of help by mercy in the first place. And to this our Text agrees, when it saith, Beginning at Jerusalem. Let the Jerusalem Sinner, says Christ, have the first offer, the first invitation, the first tender of my grace and mercy, for he is the biggest sinner, and so has most need thereof.

Secondly, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners, because when they, any of them, receive it, it redound, most to the fame of his Name.

Christ Jesus, as you may perceive, has, put himself under the term of a Physician, a Doctor for curing of Diseases: ⟨p. 30⟩And you know that Applause, and a Fame, is a thing that Physicians much desire. That is it that helps them to Patients, and that also that will help their Patients to commit themselves to their Skill for Cure, with the more confidence and repose of Spirit. And the best way for a Doctor or Physician to get themselves a Name, is in the first place to take in hand, and Cure some such as all others have given off for lost and dead. Physician• get neither Name nor Fame by pricking of Wheals or pi•king out Thistles, or by laying of Plasters to the scratch of a P•n. Every old Woman can do this. But if they will have a Name and a Fame, if they will have it quickly, they must, as I said, do some great and desperate Cures. Let them fetch one to Life that was Dead; let them recover one to his Wits, that was Mad; let them make one that was born Blind, to See; or let them give ripe Wits to a Fool; these are roable Cures; and he that can do ths, and if he doth thus first, he shall have the Name and Fame he desires; he may lye a Bd till Noon.