and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Oh! what a blessed
"Every one of you," is here! How willing was Peter, and the Lord
Jesus, by his ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the
gospel, that they might be made monuments of the grace of God! How
unwilling, I say, was he, that any of these should escape the hand of
mercy! Yea, what an amazing wonder it is to think, that above all
the world, and above every body in it, these should have the first
offer of mercy! "Beginning at Jerusalem."

But was there not something of moment in this clause of the
commission? Did not Peter, think you, see a great deal in it, that
he should thus begin with these men, and thus offer, so particularly,
this grace to each particular man of them?

But, as I told you, this is not all; these Jerusalem sinners must
have this offer again and again; every one of them must be offered it
over and over. Christ would not take their first rejection for a
denial, nor their second repulse for a denial; but he will have grace
offered once, and twice, and thrice, to these Jerusalem sinners. Is
not this amazing grace? Christ will not be put off. These are the
sinners that are sinners indeed. They are sinners of the biggest
sort; consequently such as Christ can, if they convert and be saved,
best serve his ends and designs upon. Of which more anon.

But what a pitch of grace is this! Christ is minded to amaze the
world, and to shew, that he acteth not like the children of men.
This is that which he said of old. "I will not execute the
fierceness of my wrath, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I
am God and not man;" Hos. xi. 9. This is not the manner of men; men
are shorter winded; men are soon moved to take vengeance, and to