speak a little to that. 1. Justice has measures and rules to go by; unto
which measures and rules, if thou comest not up, justice can do thee no
good. Come then, O thou blind Pharisee, let us pass away a few minutes
in some discourse about this. Thou demandest justice, because God hath
said, that the man that doth these things shall live in and by them. And
again, the doers of the law shall be justified, not in a way of mercy,
but in a way of justice: “He shall live by them.” But what hast thou
done, O blind Pharisee? What hast thou done, that thou art emboldened to
venture to stand and fall to the most perfect justice of God? Hast thou
fulfilled the whole law, and not offended in one point? Hast thou purged
thyself from the pollutions and motions of sin that dwell in thy flesh,
and work in thy own members? Is the very being of sin rooted out of thy
tabernacle? And art thou now as perfectly innocent as ever was Jesus
Christ? hast thou, by suffering the uttermost punishment that justice
could justly lay upon thee for thy sins, made fair and full satisfaction
to God, according to the tenor of his law, for thy transgressions? If
thou hast done all these things, then thou mayst plead something, and yet
but something, for thyself, in a way of justice. Nay, in this I will
assert nothing, but will rather inquire: What hast thou gained by all
this thy righteousness? (We will now suppose what must not be granted:)
Was not this thy state when thou wast in thy first parents? Wast thou
not innocent, perfectly innocent and righteous? And if thou shouldst be
so now, what hast thou gained thereby? Suppose that the man that had,
forty years ago, forty pounds of his own, and had spent it all since,
should yet be able now to shew his forty pounds again; what has he got
thereby, or how much richer is he at last than he was when he first set
up for himself? Nay, doth not the blot of his ill living betwixt his
first and his last, lie as a blemish upon him, unless he should redeem
himself also, by works of supererogation, from the scandal that justice
may lay at his door for that.
But, I say, suppose, O Pharisee, this should be thy case, yet God is not
bound to give thee in justice that eternal which by his grace he
bestoweth upon those that have redemption from sin, by the blood of his
Son. Injustice, therefore, when all comes to all, thou canst require no
more than an endless life in an earthly paradise; for there thou wast set
up at first; nor doth it appear from what hath been said, touching all
that thou hast done or canst do, that thou deservest a better place.
Did I say, that thou mayst require justly an endless life in an earthly
paradise? Why, I must add to that saying this proviso, If thou
continuest in the law, and in the righteousness thereof; else not.
But how dost thou know that thou shalt continue therein? Thou hast no
promise from God’s mouth for that; nor is grace or strength ministered to
mankind by the covenant that thou art under. So that still thou standest
bound to thy good behaviour; and in the day that thou dost give the
first, though ever so little a trip, or stumble in thy obedience, thou
forfeitest thine interest in paradise (and in justice), as to any benefit
there.
But alas! what need is there that we should thus talk things, when it is
manifest that thou hast sinned, not before thou wast a Pharisee, but when
after the most strictest sect of thy religion thou livest also a
Pharisee; yea, and now in the temple, in thy prayer there, thou shewest
thyself to be full of ignorance, pride, self-conceit, and horrible
arrogancy, and desire of vain glory, &c., which are none of them the seat
or fruits of righteousness, but the seat of the devil, and the fruit of
his dwelling, even at this time in thy heart.
Could it ever have been imagined, that such audacious impudence could
have put itself forth in any mortal man, in his approach unto God by
prayer, as has shewed itself in thee? “I am not as other men,” sayst
thou! But is this the way to go to God in prayer? “The prayer of the
upright is God’s delight.” But the upright man glorifies God’s justice,
by confessing to God the vileness and pollution of his state and
condition: he glorifies God’s mercy, by acknowledging, that that, and
that only, as communicated of God by Christ to sinners, can save and
deliver from the curse of the law.
This, I say, is the sum of the prayer of the just and upright man, Job.
i. 8; xl. 4; Acts xiii. 22; Psalm xxxviii.; li.; 2 Sam. vi. 21, 22; and
not as thou most vain-gloriously vauntest with thy, “God, I thank thee, I
am not as other men are.”
True, when a man is accused by his neighbours, by a brother, by an enemy,
and the like, if he be clear (and he may be so, as to what they shall lay
to his charge), then let him vindicate, justify, and acquit himself, to
the utmost that in justice and truth he can; for his name, the
preservation whereof is more to be chosen than silver and gold; also his
profession, yea, the name of God too, and religion may now lie at stake,
by reason of such false accusations, and perhaps can by no means (as to
this man) be covered and vindicated from reproach and scandal, but by his
justifying of himself. Wherefore, in such a work, a man serveth God, and
saves religion from hurt; yea, as he that is a professor, and has his
profession attended with a scandalous life, hurteth religion thereby, so
he that has his profession attended with a good life, and shall suffer it
notwithstanding to lie under blame by false accusations, when it is in
the power of his hand to justify himself, hurteth religion also. But the
case of the Pharisee is otherwise. He is not here a-dealing with men,
but God; not seeking to stand clear in the sight of the world, but in the
sight of heaven itself; and that too, not with respect to what men or
angels, but with respect to what God and his law could charge him with,
and justly lay at his door.
This therefore mainly altereth the case; for a man here to stand thus
upon his point, it is death; for he affronteth God, he giveth him the
lie, he reproveth the law; and, in sum, accuseth it of bearing false
witness against him; he doth this, I say, even by saying, “God, I thank
thee, I am not as other men are;” for God hath made none of this
difference. The law condemneth all man as sinners; testifieth that every
imagination of the thought of the heart of the sons of men is only evil,
and that continually; wherefore they that do as the Pharisee did, to wit,
seek to justify themselves before God from the curse of the law by their
own good doings, though they also, as the Pharisee did, seem to give God
the thanks for all; yet do most horribly sin, even by their so doing, and
shall receive a Pharisee’s reward at last. Wherefore, O thou Pharisee,
it is a vain thing for thee either to think of, or to ask for, at God’s
hand, either mercy or justice. Because mercy thou canst not ask for,
from sense of want of mercy, because thy righteousness, which is by the
law, hath utterly blinded thine eyes; and complimenting with God doth
nothing: and as for justice, that can do thee no good; but the more just
God is, and the more by that he acteth towards thee, the more miserable
and fearful will be thy condition, because of the deficiency of thy so
much, by thee, esteemed righteousness.
What a deplorable condition then is a poor Pharisee in! For mercy he
cannot pray; he cannot pray for it with all his heart, for he seeth
indeed no need thereof. True, the Pharisee, though he was impudent
enough, yet would not take all from God; he would still count, that there
was due to him a tribute of thanks: “God, I thank thee,” saith he: but
yet not a bit of this for mercy; but for that he had let him live (for I
know not for what he did thank himself), till he had made himself better
than other men. But that betterment was a betterment in none other’s
judgment than that of his own; and that was none other but such an one as
was false. So then the Pharisee is by this time quite out of doors: his
righteousness is worth nothing, his prayer is worth nothing, his thanks
to God are worth nothing; for that what he had was scanty and imperfect,
and it was his pride that made him offer it to God for acceptance; nor
could his fawning thanksgiving better his case, or make his matter at all
good before God.
But I will warrant you, the Pharisee was so far off from thinking thus of
himself, and of his righteousness, that he thought of nothing so much as
of this, that he was a happy man: yea, happier by far than other his
fellow rationals: yea, he plainly declares it, when he saith, “God, I
thank thee, I am not as other men are.”
O what a fool’s paradise was the heart of the Pharisee now in, while he
stood in the temple praying to God! God, I thank thee, said he; for I am
good and holy; I am a righteous man; I have been full of good works; I am
no extortioner, unjust, nor adulterer, nor yet as this wretched Publican.
I have kept myself strictly to the rule of mine order, and my order is
the most strict of all orders now in being: I fast, I pray, I give tithes
of all that I possess. Yea, so forward am I to be a religious man, so
ready have I been to listen after my duty, that I have asked both of God
and man the ordinances of judgment and justice; I take delight in
approaching to God. What less now can be mine than the heavenly kingdom
and glory?
Now the Pharisee, like Haman, saith in his heart, To whom would the king
delight to do honour more than to myself? Where is the man that so
pleaseth God, and, consequently, that in equity and reason should be
beloved of God like me? Thus like the prodigal’s brother, he pleadeth,
saying, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee; neither transgressed I at
any time thy commandments,” Luke xv. 29. O brave Pharisee! but go on in
thine oration—“Nor yet as this Publican.”
Poor wretch, quoth the Pharisee to the Publican, What comest thou for?
Dost think that such a sinner as thou art shall be heard of God? God
heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshipper of God (as I am, as I
thank God I am), him he heareth. Thou, for thy part, hast been a rebel
all thy days: I abhor to come nigh thee, or to touch thy garments. Stand
by thyself, come not near me, for I am more holy than thou; Isa. lxv. 5.
Hold, stop there, go no further: fie, Pharisee, fie! dost thou know
before whom thou standest, to whom thou speakest, and of what the matter
of thy silly oration is made? Thou art now before God, thou speakest now
to God, and therefore in justice and honesty thou shouldst make mention
of his righteousness, not of thine; of his righteousness, and of his
only.
I am sure Abraham, of whom thou sayst he is thy father, never had the
face to do as thou hast done, though, it is to be presumed, he had more
cause so to do than thou hast, or canst have. Abraham had whereof to
glory, but not before God; yea, he was called God’s friend, and yet would
not glory before him; but humbleth himself, was afraid, and trembled in
himself, when he stood before him acknowledging of himself to be but dust
and ashes; Gen. xviii. 27, 30, 22; Rom. iv. 1, 2; but thou, as thou hadst
quite forgot that thou wast framed of that matter, and after the manner
of other men, standest and pleadest thy goodness before him? Be ashamed,
Pharisee! dost thou think that God hath eyes of flesh, or that he seeth
as man sees? Are not the secrets of thy heart open unto him Thinkest
thou with thyself that thou, with a few of thy defiled ways, canst cover
thy rotten wall, that thou has daubed with untempered mortar, and so hide
the dirt thereof from his eyes; or that these fine, smooth, and oily
words, that come out of thy mouth, will make him forget that thy throat
is an open sepulchre, and that thou within art full of dead men’s bones,
and all uncleanness? Thy thus cleansing of the outside of the cup and
platter, and thy garnishing of the sepulchres of the righteous, is
nothing at all in God’s eyes, but things that manifest that thou art an
hypocrite and blind, because thou takest no notice of that which is
within, which yet is that which is most abominable to God. For the
fruit, alas! what is the fruit of the tree, or what are the streams of
the fountain? Thy fountain is defiled; yea, a defiler, and so that which
maketh the whole self, with thy works, unclean in God’s sight.
But, Pharisee, how comes it to pass that the poor Publican is now so much
a mote in thine eye, that thou canst not forbear, but must accuse him
before the judgment-seat of God—for in that thou sayst, that thou art not
even as this Publican, thou bringest in an accusation, a charge, a bill,
against him? What has he done? Has he concealed any of thy
righteousness? or has he secretly informed against thee, that thou art an
hypocrite and superstitious? I dare say, the poor wretch has neither
meddled nor made with thee in these matters.
But what aileth thee, Pharisee? Doth the poor Publican stand to vex
thee? Doth he touch thee with his dirty garments? or doth he annoy thee
with his stinking breath? Doth his posture of standing so like a man
condemned offend thee? True, he now standeth with his hand held up at
God’s bar; he pleads guilty to all that is laid to his charge.
He cannot strut, vapour, and swagger as thou dost; but why offended at
this? Oh, but he has been a naughty man, and I have been righteous!
sayst thou. Well, Pharisee, well, his naughtiness shall not be laid to
thy charge, if thou hast chosen none of his ways. But since thou wilt
yet bear me down that thou art righteous, shew now, even now, while thou
standest before God with the Publican, some, though they be but small,
yea, though but very small, fruits of thy righteousness. Let the
Publican alone, since he is speaking for his life before God. Or, if
thou canst not let him alone, yet do not speak against him; for thy so
doing will but prove that thou rememberest the evil that the man has done
unto thee; yea, and that thou bearest him a grudge for it too, and while
you stand before God.
But, Pharisee, the righteous man is a merciful man, and while he standeth
praying, he forgiveth; yea, and also crieth to God that he will forgive
him too; Mark xi. 25, 26; Acts vii. 60. Hitherto then thou hast shewed
none of the fruits of thy righteousness. Pharisee, righteousness would
teach thee to love this Publican, but thou shewest that thou hatest him.
Love covereth the multitude of sins; but hatred and unfaithfulness
revealeth secrets.
Pharisee, thou shouldst have remembered this thy brother in this his day
of adversity, and shouldst have shewed that thou hadst compassion on thy
brother in this his deplorable condition; but thou, like the proud, the
cruel, and the arrogant man, hast taken thy neighbour at the advantage,
and that when he is even between the straits, and standing upon the
pinnacle of difficulty, betwixt the heavens and the hells, and hast done
what thou couldst, what on thy part lay, to thrust him down to the deep,
saying, “I am not even as this Publican.”
What cruelty can be greater, what rage more furious, and what spite and
hatred more damnable and implacable, than to follow, or take a man while
he is asking of mercy at God’s hands, and to put in a caveat against his
obtaining of it, by exclaiming against him that he is a sinner? The
master of righteousness doth not so: “Do not think (saith he) that I will
accuse you to the Father.” The scholars of righteousness do not do so.
“But as for me (said David), when they (mine enemies) were sick (and the
Publican here was sick of the most malignant disease), my clothing was of
sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer (to wit, that I
made for them) returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though
he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that
mourneth for his mother;” John v. 45; Psalm xxxv. 13, 14.
Pharisee, dost thou see here how contrary thou art to righteous men? Now
then, where shall we find out one to parallel thee, but by finding him
out that is called “the dragon;” for he it is that accuseth the poor
sinners before God? Zech. iii.; Rev. xii.
“I am not as this Publican.” Modesty should have commanded thee to have
bit thy tongue as to this. What could the angels think, but that revenge
was now in thine heart, and but that thou comest up into the temple
rather to boast of thyself and accuse thy neighbour, than to pray to the
God of heaven; for what petition is there in all thy prayer, that gives
the least intimation that thou hast the knowledge of God or thyself?
Nay, what petition of any kind is there in thy vain-glorious oration from
first to last? Only an accusation drawn up, and that against one
helpless and forlorn; against a poor man, because he is a sinner; drawn
up, I say, against him by thee, who canst not make proof of thyself that
thou art righteous; but come to proofs of righteousness, and thou art
wanting also. What, though thy raiment is better than his, thy skin may
be full as black; yea, what if thy skin be whiter than his, thy heart may
be yet far blacker. Yea, it is so, for the truth hath spoken it; for
within, you are full of excess and all uncleanness; Matt. xxiii.
Pharisee, these are transgressions against the second table, and the
Publican shall be guilty of them; but there are sins also against the
first table, and thou thyself art guilty of them.
The Publican, in that he was an extortioner, unjust and an adulterer,
made it thereby manifest that he did not love his neighbour; and thou by
making a god, a saviour, a deliverer, of thy filthy righteousness, dost
make it appear, that thou dost not love thy God; for as he that taketh,
or that derogateth from his neighbour in that which is his neighbour’s
due, sinneth against his neighbour; so he that taketh or derogateth from
God, sinneth against God.
Now, then, though thou hast not, as thou dost imagine, played at that low
game as to derogate from thy neighbour; yet thou hast played at that high
game as to derogate from thy God; for thou hast robbed God of the glory
of salvation; yea, declared, that as to that there is no trust to be put
in him. “Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted
in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his
wickedness;” Psalm lii. 7.
What else means this great bundle of thy own righteousness, which thou
hast brought with thee into the temple? yea, what means else thy
commending of thyself because of that, and so thy implicit prayer, that
thou for that mightst find acceptance with God?
All this, what does it argue, I say, but thy diffidence of God? and that
thou countest salvation safer in thine own righteousness than in the
righteousness of God? and that thy own love to, and care of thy own soul,
is far greater, and so much better, than is the care and love of God?
And is this to keep the first table; yea, the first branch of that table,
which saith, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God?” for thy thus doing
cannot stand with love to God?
How can that man say, I love God, who from his very heart shrinketh to
trust in him? Or, how can that man say, I would glorify God, who in his
very heart refuseth to stand and fall by his mercy?
Suppose a great man should bid all the poor of the parish to his house to
dinner, and should moreover send by the mouth of his servant, saying, My
lord hath killed his fatlings, hath furnished his table, and prepared his
wine, nor is there want of anything; come to the banquet: Would it not be
counted as an high affront to, great contempt of, and much distrust in,
the goodness of the man of the house, if some of these guests should take
with them, out of their own poor store, some of their mouldy crusts, and
carry them with them, lay them on their trenchers upon the table before
the lord of the feast and the rest of his guests, out of fear that he yet
would not provide sufficiently for those he had bidden to the dinner that
he had made?
Why, Pharisee, this is the very case; thou hast been called to a banquet,
even to the banquet of God’s grace, and thou hast been disposed to go;
but behold, thou hast not believed that he would of his own cost make
thee a feast when thou comest: wherefore of thy own store thou hast
brought with thee, and hast laid upon thy trencher on his table thy
mouldy crusts in the presence of the angels, and of this poor Publican;
yea, and hast vauntingly said upon the whole, “God, I thank thee, I am
not as other men are.” I am no such needy man; Luke xviii. 11. “I am no
extortioner, nor unjust, nor adulterer, nor even as this Publican.” I am
come indeed to thy feast, for of civility I could do no less; but for thy
dainties, I need them not, I have of such things enough of mine own; Luke
xviii. 12. I thank thee therefore for thy offer of kindness, but I am
not as those that have, and stand in need thereof, “nor yet as this
Publican.” And thus feeding upon thine own fare, or by making a
composition of his and thine together, thou contemnest God, thou countest
him insufficient or unfaithful; that is, either one that has not enough,
or having it, will not bestow it upon the poor and needy; and, therefore,
of mere pretence thou goest to his banquet, but yet trustest to thy own,
and to that only.
This is to break the first table; and so to make thyself a sinner of the
highest form: for the sins against the first table are sins of an higher
nature than are the sins against the second. True, the sins of the
second table are also sins against God, because they are sins against the
commandments of God: but the sins that are against the first table, are
sins not only against the command, but against the very love, strength,
holiness, and faithfulness of God: and herein stands thy condition; thou
hast not, thou sayst, thou hast not done injury to thy neighbour; but
what of that, if thou hast reproached thy maker?
Pharisee, I will assure thee, thou art beside the saddle; thy state is
not good, thy righteousness is so far off from doing any good, that it
maketh thee to be a greater sinner, because it signifieth more
immediately against the mercy, the love, the grace, and goodness of God,
than the sins of other sinners, as to degree, do.
And as they are more odious and abominable in the sight of God (as they
needs must, if what is said be true, as it is), so they are more
dangerous to the life and soul of man; for that they always appear unto
him in whom they dwell, and to him that trusteth in them, not to be sins
and transgressions, but virtues and excellent things; not things that set
a man further off, but the things that bring a man nearer God, than those
that want them are or can be.
This therefore is the dangerous estate of those that go about to
establish their own righteousness, that neither have, nor can, while they
are so doing, submit themselves to the righteousness of God; Rom. x. 3.
It is far more easy to persuade a poor wretch, whose life is debauched,
and sins are written in his forehead, to submit to the righteousness of
God (that is, to the righteousness that is of God’s providing and
giving), than it is to persuade a self-righteous man to do it; for the
profane is sooner convinced of the necessity of righteousness to save
him, as that he has none of his own, and accepteth of, and submitteth
himself to the help and salvation that is in the righteousness and
obedience of another.
And upon this account it is that Christ saith the publicans and harlots
enter into the kingdom of heaven before the scribes and Pharisees; Matt.
xxi. 31. Poor Pharisee, what a loss art thou at? thou art not only a
sinner, but a sinner of the highest form. Not a sinner by such sins (by
such sins chiefly) as the second table doth make manifest; but a sinner
chiefly in that way as no self-righteous man did ever dream of. For when
the righteous man or Pharisee shall hear that he is a sinner, he
replieth, “I am not as other men are.”
And because the common and more ordinary description of sin is the
transgression against the second table, he presently replieth again, “I
am not as this Publican is;” and so shroudeth himself under his own lame
endeavours and ragged partial patches of moral or civil righteousness.
Wherefore, when he heareth that his righteousness is condemned, slighted,
and accounted nothing worth, then he fretteth and fumeth, and would kill
the man that so slighteth and disdaineth his goodly righteousness; but
Christ, and the true gospel-teacher still go on, and condemn all his
righteousness as menstruous rags, as an abomination to God, and nothing
but loss and dung.
Now menstruous rags, things that are an abomination and dung, are not fit
matter to make a garment of to wear when I come to God for life, much
less to be made my friend, my advocate, my mediator and spokesman, when I
stand betwixt heaven and hell; Isa. lxiv. 6; Luke xvi. 15; Phil. iii.
6–8, to plead for me that I might be saved.
Perhaps some will blame me, and count me also worthy thereof, because I
do not distinguish betwixt the matter and the manner of the Pharisee’s
righteousness. And let them condemn me still for saving the holy law,
which is neither the matter nor manner of the Pharisee’s righteousness,
but rather the rules (if he will live thereby) up to which he should
completely come in every thing that he doth. And I say again, that the
whole of the Pharisee’s righteousness is sinful, though not with and to
men, yet with and before the God of heaven. Sinful, I say it is, and
abominable, both in itself, and also in its effects.