The Jerusalem Sinner Saved; or Good News for the Vilest of Men by John Bunyan 1689

more of the Samaritans believed on him; ver. 40–42. The heart of man,
though set on sin, will, when it comes once to a persuasion that God is
willing to have mercy upon us, incline to come to Jesus Christ for life.
Witness those turn-aways from God that you also read of in Jeremiah;
for after they had heard three or four times over, that God had mercy
for backsliders, they broke out, and said, “Behold, we come unto thee,
for thou art the Lord our God.” Or as those in Hosea did, “For in thee the
fatherless find mercy;” Jer. iii. 22; Hos. xiv. 1–3.
Mercy, and the revelation thereof, is the only antidote against sin. It is
of a thawing nature; it will loose the heart that is frozen up in sin; yea, it
will make the unwilling willing to come to Jesus Christ for life.
Wherefore, do you think, was it that Jesus Christ told the adulterous
woman, and that before so many sinners, that he had not condemned
her, but to allure her, with them there present, to hope to find favour at
his hands? (As he also saith in another place, “I came not to judge, but
to save the world.”) For might they not thence most rationally conclude,
that if Jesus Christ had rather save than damn an harlot, there was
encouragement for them to come to him for mercy.
I heard once a story from a soldier, who with his company had laid siege
against a fort, that so long as the besieged were persuaded their foes
would shew them no favor, they fought like madmen; but when they
saw one of their fellows taken, and received to favor, they all came
tumbling down from their fortress, and delivered themselves into their
enemies’ hands.
I am persuaded, did men believe that there is that grace and willingness
in the heart of Christ to save sinners, as the word imports there is, they
would come tumbling into his arms: but Satan has blinded their minds,
that they cannot see this thing. Howbeit, the Lord Jesus has, as I said,
that others might take heart and come to him, given out a
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