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

things, all the churches of the Gentiles. “They were of one heart, and of
one soul, neither said any of them, that aught of the things that they
possessed was their own.” “Neither was there any among them that
lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them,
and brought the price of the things that were sold, and laid them down
at the apostles’ feet,” &c.; Acts iv. 32–35. Now, shew me such another
pattern if you can. But why did these do thus? Oh! they were Jerusalem
sinners. These were the men that but a little before had killed the
Prince of Life; and those to whom he did, that notwithstanding, send
the first offer of grace and mercy. And the sense of this took them up
betwixt the earth and the heaven, and carried them on in such ways and
methods as could never be trodden by any since. They talk of the
church of Rome, and set her in her primitive state, as a pattern and
mother of churches; when the truth is, they were the Jerusalem sinners,
when converts, that out-did all the churches that ever were.
Seventhly, Christ Jesus would have mercy offered, in the first place, to the
biggest sinners; because grace when it is received by such, finds matter
to kindle upon more freely than it finds in other sinners. Great sinners
are like the dry wood, or like great candles, which burn best and shine
with biggest light. I lay not this down, as I did those reasons before, to
shew, that when great sinners are converted, they will be
encouragement to others, though that is true; but to shew that Christ
has a delight to see grace, the grace we receive, to shine. We love to see
things that bear a good gloss; yea, we choose to buy such kind of matter
to work upon, as will, if wrought up to what we intend, cast that lustre
that we desire.
Candles that burn not bright, we like not: wood that is green will rather
smother, and sputter, and smoke, and crack, and flounce, than cast a
brave light and a pleasant heat: wherefore great folks care not much,
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