he justified them by it, by virtue of the suretyship of him that was to
bring it in. Christ became surety for us, and by his suretyship laid
himself under an obligation for those for whom he became a surety to
bring in this everlasting and justifying righteousness, and by virtue of
this, those of his elect that came into and went out of the world before
he came to perform his work were saved though the forbearance of God.
Wherefore, before the Lord came, they were saved for the Lord’s sake, and
for the sake of his name. And they that were spiritually wise understood
it, and pleaded it as their necessities required, and the Lord accepted
them; Heb. vii. 22; Rom. iv. 24; Dan. ix. 17; Psalm xxv. 11.
7. Righteousness by imputation must be first, that justification may be
certain; “Therefore it is of faith (of the righteousness that faith
layeth hold on), that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might
be sure to all the seed;” Rom. iv. 16. “That the promise,”—What promise?
The promise of remission of sins, &c., might be sure.
Now a promise of remission of sins supposeth a righteousness going
before; for there is no forgiveness of sins, nor promise of forgiveness,
for the sake of righteousness that shall be by us, but that already found
in Christ as head, and so imputed to the elect for their remission. “God
for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you,” Eph. iv. 32; For Christ’s sake;
that this, for the sake of the righteousness of Christ. Imputed
righteousness must be first; yea, it must be before forgiveness, and
forgiveness is extended by God then when we lie in our blood, though to
us it is manifested afterwards. Therefore it is _of_ faith; he saith not
_by_ it, respecting the act of faith, but of, respecting the doctrine or
word which presenteth me with this blessed imputed righteousness: they
that are of faith are the children of faithful Abraham. They that are of
the doctrine of faith, for all the elect are the sons of that doctrine in
which is this righteousness of Christ contained; yea, they are begotten
by it of God to this inheritance, to their comfortable enjoyment of the
comfort of it by faith.
That the promise might be sure to all the seed, to all them wrapped up in
the promise, and so begotten and born. That it might be sure, implying
that there is no certain way of salvation for the elect but this; because
God can never by other means reconcile us to himself, for his heavenly
eyes perceive, yea, they spy faults in the best of our gospel
performances; yea, our faith is faulty, and also imperfect: how then
should remission be extended to us for the sake of that? But now the
righteousness of Christ is perfect, perpetual and stable as the great
mountains; wherefore he is called the rock of our salvation, because a
man may as soon tumble the mountains before him, as sin can make invalid
the righteousness of Christ, when, and unto whom, God shall impute it for
justice; Psalm xxxvi. In the margin it is said to be like the mountain
of God; to wit, called Mount Zion, or that Moriah on which the temple was
built, and upon which it stood; all other bottoms are fickle, all other
righteousnesses are so feeble, short, narrow, yea, so full of
imperfections; for what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh, Christ did for us in the similitude of sinful-flesh. But what
could not the law do? Why, it could not give us righteousness, nor
strengthen us to perform it. It could not give us any certain, solid,
well-grounded hope of remission of sin and salvation.
Wherefore this righteousness being imputed, justice findeth no fault
therewith, but consenteth to the extending to the sinner those blessings
that tend to perfect his happiness in the heavens.
8. Righteousness by imputation must be first, that in all things Christ
may have the pre-eminence. Christ is head of the church, and therefore
let him have the highest honour in the soul; but how can he have that, if
any precede as to justification before his perfect righteousness be
imputed? If it be said, grace may be in the soul, though the soul doth
not act it until the moment that justifying righteousness shall be
imputed:
I ask, What should it do there before, or to what purpose is it there, if
it be not acted? And again, how came it thither, how got the soul
possession of it while it was unjustified? or, How could God in justice
give it to a person, that by the law stood condemned, before they were
acquitted from that condemnation? And I say, nothing can set the soul
free from that curse but the perfect obedience of Christ; nor that
either, if it be not imputed for that end to the sinner by the grace of
God.
Imputed, that is, reckoned or accounted to him. And why should it not be
accounted to him for righteousness? What did Christ bring it into the
world for? for the righteous or for sinners? No doubt for sinners. And
how must it be reckoned to them? Not in circumcision, but in
uncircumcision; not as righteous, but as sinners. And how are they to
consider of themselves, even then when they first are apprehensive of
their need of this righteousness? Are they to think that they are
righteous, or sinners?
And again, How are they to believe concerning themselves, then when they
put forth the first act of faith towards this righteousness for
justification? Are they to think that they are righteous, or sinners?
Sinners, doubtless, they are to reckon themselves, and as such to reckon
themselves justified by this righteousness. And this is according to the
sentence of God, as appeareth by such sayings.
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly.”
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.”
“For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of
his Son,” &c., Rom. v.
Out of these words I gather these three things.
1. That Christ by God’s appointment died for us.
2. That by his death he reconciled us to God.
3. That even then, when the very act of reconciliation was in
performing, and also when performed, we were ungodly, sinners, enemies.
Now, the act by which we are said to be reconciled to God, while ungodly,
while sinners, and while enemies, was Christ’s offering himself a
sacrifice for us, which is, in the words above mentioned, called his
death. Christ died for the ungodly; Christ died for us while sinners;
Christ reconciled us to God by his death. And as Christ is said to die
for us, so the Father is said to impute righteousness to us; to wit, as
we are without works, as we are ungodly. “Now to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness.” He worketh not, but is ungodly, when this gracious
act of God, in imputing the righteousness of Christ to him, is extended;
when he shall believe, his faith is counted to him for righteousness.
And why should we not have the benefit of the righteousness, since it was
completed for us while we were yet ungodly? Yea, we have the benefit of
it: “For when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of
his Son.”
When I say the benefit, I mean that benefit that we are capable of, and
that is justification before God; for that a man may be capable of while
he is in himself ungodly, because this comes to him by the righteousness
of another. True, were it to be his own righteousness by which he was to
be justified, he could not: but the righteousness is Christ’s, and that
imputed by God, not as a reward for work, or of debt, but freely by his
grace; and therefore may be, and is so, while the person concerned is
without works, ungodly, and a sinner.
And he that denieth that we are capable of this benefit while we are
sinners and ungodly, may with the like reason deny that we are created
beings: for that which is done for a man without him, may be done for him
at any time which they that do it shall appoint. While a man is a
beggar, may not I make him worth ten thousand a-year, if I can and will:
and yet he may not know thereof in that moment that I make him so? yet
the revenue of that estate shall really be his from the moment that I
make him so, and he shall know it too at the rent-day.
This is the case: we are sinners and ungodly; there is a righteousness
wrought out by Jesus Christ which God hath designed we shall be made
righteous by: and by it, if he will impute it to us, we shall be
righteous in his sight; even then when we are yet ungodly in ourselves:
for he justifies the ungodly.
Now, though it is irregular and blameworthy in man to justify the wicked,
because he cannot provide and clothe him with a justifying righteousness,
yet it is glorious, and for ever worthy of praise, for God to do it:
because it is in his power, not only to forgive, but to make a man
righteous, even then when he is a sinner, and to justify him while he is
ungodly.
But it may be yet objected, that though God has received satisfaction for
sin, and so sufficient terms of reconciliation by the obedience and death
of his Son, yet he imputeth it not unto us, but upon condition of our
becoming good.
_Ans_. This must not be admitted: For,
1. The scripture saith not so; but that we are reconciled to God by the
death of his Son, and justified too, and that while or when we are
sinners and ungodly.
2. If this objection carrieth truth in it, then it follows that the Holy
Ghost, faith, and so all grace, may be given to us, and we may have it
dwelling in us, yea, acting in us, before we stand righteous in the
judgment of the law before God (for nothing can make us stand just before
God in the judgment of the law, but the obedience of the Son of God
without us.) And if the Holy Ghost, faith, and so, consequently, the
habit of every grace, may be in us, acting in us, before Christ’s
righteousness be by God imputed to us, then we are not justified as
sinners and ungodly, but as persons inherently holy and righteous before.
But I have shewed you that this cannot be, therefore righteousness for
justification must be imputed first. And here let me present the reader
with two or three things.
1. That justification before God is one thing, and justification to the
understanding and conscience is another. Now, I am treating of
justification before God, not of it as to man’s understanding and
conscience: and I say, a man may be justified before God, even then when
himself knoweth nothing thereof; Isa. xl. 2; Mark ii. 5; and while he
hath not faith about it, but is ungodly.
2. There is justification by faith, by faith’s applying of that
righteousness to the understanding and conscience, which God hath of his
grace imputed for righteousness to the soul for justification in his
sight. And this is that by which we, as to sense and feeling, have peace
with God “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our
Lord Jesus Christ;” Rom. v. 1. And these two the apostle keepeth
distinct in the 10th verse: that “while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” He addeth, “And not only so,
but we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now
received the atonement,” verse 11. Here you see, that to be reconciled
to God by the death of his Son is one thing, and for us actually to
receive by faith this reconciliation is another: and not only so, but we
have “received the atonement.”
3. Men do not gather their justification from God’s single act of
imputing of righteousness, that we might stand clear in his sight from
the curse and judgment of the law; but from the word of God, which they
understand not till it is brought to their understanding by the light and
glory of the Holy Ghost.
We are not, therefore, in the ministry of the word to pronounce any man
justified, from a supposition that God has imputed righteousness to him
(since that act is not known to us), until the fruits that follow
thereupon do break out before our eyes; to wit, the signs and effects of
the Holy Ghost indwelling in our souls. And then we may conclude it,
that is, that such a one stands justified before God, yet not for the
sake of his inherent righteousness, nor yet for the fruits thereof, and
so not for the sake of the act of faith, but for the sake of Jesus Christ
his doing and suffering for us.
Nor will it avail to object, that if at first we stand justified before
God by his imputing of Christ’s righteousness unto us, though faith be
not in us to act, we may always stand justified so; and so what need of
faith? for therefore are we justified, first, by the imputation of God,
as we are ungodly, that thereby we may be made capable of receiving the
Holy Ghost and his graces in a way of righteousness and justice.
Besides, God will have those that he shall justify by his grace through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ to have the Holy Ghost, and so
faith, that they may know and believe the things not only that shall be,
but that already are freely given to us of God. “Now,” says Paul, “we
have received, not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of
God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God;” 1
Cor. ii. 12. To know, that is, to believe: it is given to you to
believe, who believe according to the working of his mighty power; “And
we have known and believed the love that God hath to us,” preceding to
our believing; John iv. 16. He then that is justified by God’s
imputation, shall believe by the power of the Holy Ghost; for that must
come, and work faith, and strengthen the soul to act it, because imputed
righteousness has gone before. He then that believeth shall be saved;
for his believing is a sign, not a cause, of his being made righteous
before God by imputation; and he that believeth not shall be damned.
AND THUS MUCH FOR THE PHARISEE, AND FOR HIS INFORMATION. AND NOW I COME
TO THAT PART OF THE TEXT WHICH REMAINS, AND WHICH RESPECTETH THE
PUBLICAN.
“And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his
eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to
me a sinner.”
What this Publican was, I have shewed you, both with respect to nation,
office, and disposition. Wherefore I shall not here trouble the reader
as to that. We now, therefore, come to his repentance in the whole and
in the parts of it; concerning which I shall take notice of several
things, some more remote, and some more near to the matter and life of
it.
But, first, let us see how cross the Pharisee and the Publican did lie in
the temple one to another, while they both were presenting of their
prayers to God.
1. The Pharisee he goes in boldly, fears nothing, but trusteth in
himself that his state is good, that God loves him, and that there was no
doubt to be made but of his good speed in this his religious enterprise.
But, alas! poor Publican, he sneaks, crawls into the temple, and when he
comes there, stands behind, aloof, off; as one not worthy to approach the
divine presence.
2. The Pharisee at his approach hath his mouth full of many fine things,
whereby he strokes himself over the head, and in effect calls himself one
of God’s dear sons, that always kept close to his will, abode with him,
or, as the prodigal’s brother said, “Lo, these many years do I serve
thee; neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment;” Luke xv. 29.
But alas! poor Publican, thy guilt, as to these pleas, stops thy mouth;
thou hast not one good thing to say of thyself, not one rag of
righteousness; thy conscience tells thee so; yea, and if thou shouldst
now attempt to set a good face on it, and for thy credit say something
after the Pharisee in way of thine own commendations, yet here is God on
the one side, the Pharisee on the other, together with thine own heart,
to give thee a check, to rebuke thee, to condemn thee, and to lay thee
even to the ground for thy insolence.
3. The Pharisee in his approach to God, wipes his fingers of the
Publican’s enormities, will not come nigh him, lest he should defile
himself with his beastly rags: “I am not as other men are, nor yet as
this Publican.” But the poor Publican, alas for him! his fingers are not
clean, nor can he tell how to make them so; besides, he meekly and
quietly puts up with this reflection of the Pharisee upon him, and by
silent behaviour justifies the severe sentence of that self-righteous
man, concluding with him, that for his part he is wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and not worthy to come nigh,
or to stand by, so good, so virtuous, so holy, and so deserving a man as
our sparkling Pharisee is.
4. The Pharisee, as at feasts and synagogues, chose the chief and first
place for his person, and for his prayer, counting that the Publican was
not meet, ought not to presume to let his foul breath once come out of
his polluted lips in the temple, till _he_ had made his holy prayer.
And, poor Publican, how dost thou hear and put up this with all other
affronts, counting even as the Pharisee counted of thee, that thou wast
but a dog in comparison of him, and therefore not fit to go before, but
to come as in chains, behind, and forbear to present thy mournful
supplication to the holy God, till he had presented his, in his own
conceit, brave, gay, and fine oration?
5. The Pharisee, as he is numerous in his repeating his good deeds, so
is he stiff in standing to them, bearing up himself, that he hath now
sufficient foundation on which to bear up his soul against all the
attempts of the law, the devil, sin, and hell. But, alas, poor Publican!
thou standest naked, nay, worse than naked; for thou art clothed with
filthy garments, thy sins cover thy face with shame: nor hast thou in, or
of thyself, any defence from, or shelter against, the attempts, assaults,
and censures of thy spiritual enemies, but art now in thine own eyes
(though in the temple) cast forth into thine open field stark-naked, to
the loathing of thy person, as in the day that thou wast born, and there
ready to be devoured and torn in pieces for thy transgressions against
thy God.
What wilt thou do, Publican? What wilt thou do? Come, let us see; which
way wilt thou begin to address thyself to God? Bethink thyself: hast
thou any thing to say? speak out, man: the Pharisee by this time has
done, and received his sentence: make an “O yes;” let all the world be
silent; yea, let the angels of heaven draw near and listen; for the
Publican is come to have to do with God! yea, is come from the receipt of
custom into the temple to pray to him.
“And the Publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his
eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to
me a sinner.” And is this thy way, poor Publican! O cunning sinner! O
crafty Publican! thy wisdom has outdone the Pharisee; for it is better to
apply ourselves to God’s mercy than to trust to ourselves that we are
righteous. But that the Publican did hit the mark, yea, get nearer unto,
and more in the heart of God and his Son than the Pharisee, the sequel
will make manifest.
Take notice then of this profound speech of the Publican, “God be
merciful to me a sinner.” Yea, the Son of God was so delighted with this
prayer, that for the sake of it, he even as a limner draweth out the
Publican in his manner of standing, behaviour, gestures, &c., while he
makes this prayer to God: wherefore we will take notice both of the one
and of the other; for surely his gestures put lustre into his prayer and
repentance.
1. His prayer you see is this, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
His gestures in his prayer were in general three.
1. He “stood afar off.”
2. He “would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.”
3. He “smote upon his breast,” with his fist, saying, “God be merciful
to me a sinner.”
To begin first with his prayer. In this prayer we have two things to
consider of.
1. His confession: I am a sinner.
2. His imploring of help against this malady: “God be merciful to me a
sinner.”
In his confession divers things are to be taken notice of. As—
1. The fairness and simplicity of his confession; “A sinner:” I am a
sinner; “God be merciful to me a sinner.” This indeed he was, and this
indeed he confesses; and this, I say, he doth of godly simplicity. For a
man to confess himself a sinner, it is to speak all against himself that
can be spoken. And man, as degenerate, is too much an hypocrite, and too
much a self-flatterer, thus to confess against himself, unless made
simple and honest through the power of conviction upon his heart. And it
is worth your noting, that he doth not say he was, or had been, but that
at that time his state was such, to wit, a sinner. “God be merciful to
me a sinner,” or who am, and now stand before thee a sinner, in my sins.
Now, a little to shew you what it is to be a sinner; for every one that
sinneth may not in a proper sense be called a sinner. Saints, the
sanctified in Christ Jesus, do often sin, but it is not proper to call
them sinners: but here the Publican calls himself a sinner; and therefore
in effect calls himself an evil tree, one that beareth no good fruit; one
whose body and soul is polluted, whose mind and conscience is defiled;
one who hath walked according to the course of this world, and after the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: they having
their minds at enmity against God, and are taken captive by the devil at
his will; a sinner, one whose trade hath been in sin, and the works of
Satan all his days.
Thus he waives all pleas, and stoops his neck immediately to the block.
Though he was a base man, yet he might have had pleas; pleas, I say, as
well as the Pharisee, though not so many, yet as good. He was of the
stock of Abraham, a Jew, an Israelite of the Israelites, and so a
privileged man in the religion of the Jews, else what doth he do in the
temple? Yea, why did not the Pharisee, if he was a heathen, lay that to
his charge while he stood before God? But the truth is, he could not;
for the Publican was a Jew as well as the Pharisee, and consequently
might, had he been so disposed, have pleaded that before God. But he
would not, he could not, for his conscience was under convictions, the
awakenings of God were upon him; wherefore his privileges melt away like
grease, and fly from him like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor,
which the wind taketh up and scattereth as the dust; he therefore lets
all privileges fall, and pleads only that he us a sinner.
2. In this confession he judges and condemns himself: For a man to say,
I am a sinner, is as much as to say, I am contrary to the holiness of
God, a transgressor of the law, and consequently an object of the curse,
and an heir of hell. The Publican, therefore, goeth very far in this his
confession; For,
3. In the third place, To confess that there is nothing in him, done or
can be done by him, that should allure, or prevail with God to do any
thing for him: for a sinner cannot do good; no, not work up his heart
unto one good thought: no, though he should have heaven itself if he
could, or was sure to burn in hell-fire for ever and ever if he could
not. For sin, where it is in possession, and bears rule, as it doth in
every one that we may properly call a sinner, there it hath the mastery
of the man, hath bound up his senses in cords and chains, and made
nothing so odious to the soul as the things that are of the Spirit of
God. Wherefore it is said of such, that they are “Enemies in their
minds;” that “The carnal mind is enmity against God,” and that
“Wickedness proceedeth of the wicked;” and that the Ethiopian may as well
change his skin, or the leopard his spots, as they that are accustomed to
do evil may learn to do well; Col. i.; Rom. viii.; 1 Sam. xxiv. 13; Jer.
xiii. 23.
4. In this confession he implicitly acknowledgeth that sin is the worst
of things, forasmuch as it layeth the soul out of the reach of all remedy
that can be found under heaven. Nothing below or short of the mercy of
God can deliver a poor soul from this fearful malady. This the Pharisee
did not see. Doubtless he did conclude, that at some time or other he
had sinned; but he never in all his life did arrive to a sight of what
sin was: his knowledge of it was but false and counterfeit, as is
manifest by his cure; to wit, his own righteousness. For take this for a
truth undeniable, that he that thinks himself better before God, because
of his reformations, never yet had the true knowledge of his sin: But the
poor Publican he had it, he had it in truth, as is manifest, because it
drives him to the only sovereign remedy. For indeed, the right knowledge
of sin, in the filth, and guilt, and damning power thereof, makes a man
to understand, that not any thing but grace and mercy by Christ can
secure him from the hellish ruins thereof.