Let such therefore look to it, who yet are, and abide in their sins; for such, if they hope, as they are, to be saved, presume upon the grace of God. Wherefore presumption and not hearkening to God’s word are put together; Deut. xvii. 12.
Again, Then men presume when they are resolved to abide in their sins, and yet expect to be saved by God’s grace through Christ. This is as much as to say, God liketh sin as well as I do, and careth not how men live, if so be they lean upon his Son. Of this sort are they that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity; that judge for reward, and teach for hire, and divine for money, and lean upon the Lord; Mic. iii. 10, 11. This is doing things with an high hand against the Lord our God, and a taking him, as it were, at the catch. This is, as we say among men, to seek to put a trick upon God, as if he had not sufficiently fortified his proposals of grace by his holy word, against all such kind of fools as these. But look to it.
Such will be found at the day of God, not among that great company of Jerusalem sinners that shall be saved by grace, but among those that have been the great abusers of the grace of God in the world. Those that say, Let us sin that grace may abound, and let us do evil that good may come, their damnation is just. And if so, they are a great way off of that salvation that is by Jesus Christ presented to the Jerusalem sinners.
I have therefore these things to propound to that Jerusalem sinner that would know, if he may be so bold as to venture himself upon this grace.
_Thirdly_, Wouldst thou with all thy heart be saved by Jesus Christ? I dare say no less, I dare say no more. But if it be truly thus with thee, how great soever thy sins have been, how bad soever thou feelest thy heart, how far soever thou art from thinking that God has mercy for these: thou art the man, the Jerusalem sinner, that the Word of God has conquered, and to whom it offereth free remission of sins, by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.
When the jailor cried out, “Sirs, What must I do to be saved?” The answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” He that sees his sins aright, is brought to his wit’s end by them; and he that is so, is willing to part from them, and to be saved by the grace of God.