the time his lot was, “The whole multitude of the people were praying
without;” Luke i. 9, 10. They left him where he was, near to God,
between God and them, mediating for them; for the offering of incense by
the chief-priest was a figurative making of intercession for the people,
and they maintained their distance.
It is a great matter in praying to God, not to go too far, nor come too
short, in that duty, I mean in the duty of prayer; and a man is very apt
to do one or the other. The Pharisee went so far; he was too bold; he
came into the temple making such a ruffle with his own excellencies, that
there was in his thoughts no need of a Mediator. He also went up so nigh
to God, that he took up the room and place of the Mediator himself; but
this poor Publican, he knows his distance, and keeps it, and leaves room
for the High-priest to come and intercede for him with God. He stood
afar off: not too far off; for that is the room and place of unbelievers;
and in that sense this saying is true, “For, lo, they that are far from
thee shall perish;” Psalm lxxiii. 27; that is, they whose unbelief hath
set their hearts and affections more upon their idols, and that have been
made to cast God behind their backs, to follow and go a-whoring after
them.
Hitherto, therefore, it appears, that though the Pharisee had more
righteousness than the Publican, yet the Publican had more spiritual
righteousness than the Pharisee; and that though the Publican had a baser
and more ugly outside than the Pharisee, yet the Publican knew how to
prevail with God for mercy better than he.
As for the Publican’s posture of standing in prayer, it is excusable, and
that by the very Father of the faithful himself: for Abraham stood
praying when he made intercession for Sodom; Gen. xviii. 22, 23. Christ
also alloweth it, where he saith, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if
ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may
forgive you your trespasses;” Mark xi. 25. Indeed there is no stinted
order prescribed for our thus behaving of ourselves in prayer, whether
kneeling, or standing, or walking, or lying, or sitting; for all these
postures have been used by the godly. Paul “kneeled down and prayed;”
Acts xx. 36. Abraham and the Publican stood and prayed. David prayed as
he walked; 2 Sam. xv. 30, 31. Abraham prayed lying upon his face; Gen.
xvii. 17,18. Moses prayed sitting; Exod. xvii. 12. And indeed prayer,
effectual fervent prayer, may be, and often is, made unto God under all
these circumstances of behaviour: for God has not tied us up to any of
them; and he that shall tie himself, or his people, to any of these, doth
more than he hath warrant for from God: and let such take care of
innovating; it is the next way to make men hypocrites and dissemblers in
those duties in which they should be sincere.
True, which of those soever a man shall choose to himself for the
present, to perform this solemn duty in, it is required of him, and God
expects it, that he should pray to him in truth, and with desire,
affection, and hunger, after those things that with his tongue he maketh
mention of before the throne of God. And indeed without this, all is
nothing. But alas! how few be there in the world whose heart and mouth
in prayer shall go together? Dost thou, when thou askest for the Spirit,
or faith, or love to God, to holiness, to saints, to the word, and the
like, ask for them with love to them, desire of them, hungering after
them? Oh! this is a mighty thing! and yet prayer is no more before God,
than as it is seasoned with these blessed qualifications. Wherefore it
is said, that while men are praying, God is searching of the heart, to
see what is the meaning of the Spirit (or whether there be the Spirit and
his meaning in all that the mouth hath uttered, either by words, sighs,
or groans), because it is by him, and through his help only, that any
make prayers according to the will of God; Rom. viii. 26, 27. Whatever
thy posture therefore shall be, see that thy prayers be pertinent and
fervent, not mocking of thine own soul with words, while thou wantest,
and art an utter stranger to, the very vital and living spirit of prayer.
Now, our Publican had and did exercise the very spirit of prayer in
prayer. He prayed sensibly, seriously, affectionately, hungering,
thirsting, and with longing after that for which with his mouth he
implored the God of heaven; his heart and soul was in his words, and it
was that which made his prayer PRAYER; even because he prayed in PRAYER;
he prayed inwardly as well as outwardly.
David tells us, that God heard the voice of his supplication, the voice
of his cry, the voice of his tears, and the voice of his roaring. For
indeed are all these acceptable. Affection and fervent desire make them
sound well in the ears of God. Tears, supplications, prayers, cries, may
be all of them done in formality, hypocrisy, and from other causes, and
to other ends, than that which is honest and right in God’s sight: for
God would search and look after the voice of his tears, supplications,
roarings, prayers, and cries.
And if men had less care to please men, and more to please God, in the
matter and manner of praying, the world would be at a better pass than it
is. But this is not in man’s power to help and to amend. When the Holy
Ghost comes upon men with great conviction of their state and condition,
and of the use and excellency of the grace of sincerity and humility in
prayer, then, and not till then, will the grace of prayer be more prized,
and the specious, flounting, complimentary lips of flatterers, be more
laid aside. I have said it already, and will say it again, that there is
now-a-days a great deal of wickedness committed in the very duty of
prayer; by words of which men have no sense by reaching after such
conclusion and clenshes therein, as make their persons be admired; by
studying for, and labouring after, such enlargements as the spirit
accompanieth not the heart in. O Lord God, make our hearts upright in
us, as in all points and parts of our profession, so in this solemn
appointment of God! “If I regard iniquity in my heart,” said David, “the
Lord will not hear my prayer.” But if I be truly sincere, he will; and
then it is no matter whether I kneel, or stand, or sit, or lie, or walk;
for I shall do none of these, nor put up my prayers under any of these
circumstances, lightly, foolishly, and idly, but to beautify this gesture
with the inward working of my mind and spirit in prayer; that whether I
stand or sit, walk or lie down, grace and gravity, humility and
sincerity, shall make my prayer profitable, and my outward behaviour
comely in his eyes, with whom (in prayer) I now have to do.
And had not our Publican been inwardly seasoned with these, Christ would
have taken but little pleasure in his modes and outward behaviour: but
being so honest inwardly, and in the matter of his prayer, his gestures
by that were made beauteous also; and therefore it is that our Lord so
delightfully delateth upon them, and draweth them out at length before
the eyes of others.
I have often observed, that which is natural and so comely in one, looks
odiously when imitated by another. I speak as to gestures and actions in
preaching and prayer. Many, I doubt not, but will imitate the Publican,
and that both in the prayer and gestures of the Publican, whose persons
and actions will yet stink in the nostrils of him that is holy and just,
and that searcheth the heart and the reins.
Well, the Publican stood and prayed; he stood afar off, and prayed, and
his prayers came even to the ears of God.
“And the Publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes
to heaven,” &c.
We are now come to another of his postures. He would not, says the text,
so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. Here, therefore, was another
gesture added to that which went before; and a gesture that a great while
before had been condemned by the Holy Ghost himself. “Is it such a fast
that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow
down his head as a bulrush?” Isa. lviii. 5.
But why condemned then, and smiled upon now? Why? Because done in
hypocrisy then, and in sincerity now. Hypocrisy, and a spirit of error,
that he shall take no pleasure in them; but sincerity, and honesty in
duties, will make even them comely in the sight of men—may I not say
before God? The Rechabites were not commanded of God, but of their
father, to do as they did; but, because they were sincere in their
obedience thereto, even God himself maketh use of what they did, to
condemn the disobedience of the Jews; and, moreover, doth tell the
Rechabites at last, that they should not want a man to stand before him
for ever. “And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus
saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, because ye have obeyed the
commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done
according unto all that he hath commanded you; therefore, thus saith the
Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not
want a man to stand before me for ever.”
He would not lift up his eyes to heaven. Why? Surely because shame had
covered his face. Shame will make a man blush and hang his head like a
bulrush; shame for sin is a virtue, a comely thing; yea, a beauty-spot in
the face of a sinner that cometh to God for mercy.
God complains of the house of Israel, that they could sin, and that
without shame; yea, and threateneth them too with sore repeated
judgments, because they were not ashamed; it is in Jer. viii. Their
crimes in general were, they turned every one to his course, as the horse
runneth into the battle. In particular, they were such as rejected God’s
word; they loved this world, and set themselves against the prophets,
crying, “Peace, peace,” when they cried, “Judgment, judgment!” And were
not ashamed when they had committed abomination; “Nay, they were not at
all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore shall they fall among
them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down,
saith the Lord;” ver. 12. Oh! to stand, or sit, or lie, or kneel, or
walk before God in prayer, with blushing cheeks for sin, is one of the
most excellent sights that can be seen in the world.
Wherefore the church taketh some kind of heart to herself in that she
could lie down in her shame; yea, and makes that a kind of an argument
with God to prove that her prayers did come from her heart, and also that
he would hear them; Jer. iii. 22–25.
Shame for sin argueth sense of sin, yea, a right sense of sin, a godly
sense of sin. Ephraim pleads this when under the hand of God: I was
(saith he) “ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the
reproach of my youth.” But what follows? “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he
a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember
him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have
mercy upon him, saith the Lord;” Jer. xxxi. 19, 20.
I know that there is a shame that is not the spirit of an honest heart,
but that rather floweth from sudden surprisal, when the sinner is
unawares taken in the act—in the very manner. And thus sometimes the
house of Israel were taken: and then, when they blushed, their shame is
compared to the shame of a thief. “As the thief is ashamed when he is
found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their
princes, and their priests, and their prophets.”
But where were they taken, or about what were they found? Why, they were
found “saying to a stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, thou hast
brought me forth.” God catched them thus doing; and this made them
ashamed, even as the thief is ashamed when the owner doth catch him
stealing his horse.
But this was not the Publican’s shame. This shame brings not a man into
the temple to pray, to stand willingly, and to take shame before God in
prayer. This shame makes one rather to fly from his face, and to count
one’s self most at ease when farthest off from God; Jer. ii. 26, 27.
The Publican’s shame, therefore, which he demonstrated by hanging down
his head, was godly and holy, and much like that of the prodigal, when he
said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no
more worthy to be called thy son;” Luke xv. 21. I suppose that his
postures were much the same with the Publican’s, as were his prayers, for
the substance of them. O however grace did work in both to the same end!
they were both of them, after a godly manner, ashamed of their sins.
“He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.”
He could not, he would not: which yet more fully makes it appear, that it
was shame, not guilt only, or chiefly, though it is manifest enough that
he had guilt; by his crying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” I say,
guilt was not the chief cause of hanging down his head, because it saith,
he _would_ not; for when guilt is the cause of stooping, it lieth not in
the will, or in the power thereof, to help one up.
David tells us, that when he was under guilt, his iniquities were gone
over his head: as an heavy burden, they were too heavy for him; and that
with them he was bowed down greatly. Or, as he says in another place,
“Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look
up;” Psalm xxxviii.; xl. I am not able to do it: guilt disableth the
understanding, and conscience; shame makes all willingly fall at the feet
of Christ.
He would not. He knew what he was, what he had been, and should be, if
God had not mercy upon him; yea, he knew also that God knew what he was,
had been, and would be, if mercy prevented not; wherefore, thought he,
Wherefore should I lift up the head? I am no righteous man, no godly
man, I have not served God, but Satan; this I know, this God knows, this
angels know, wherefore I will not lift up the head. It is as much as to
say, I will not be an hypocrite, like the Pharisee: for lifting up of the
head signifies innocency and harmlessness of life, or good conscience,
and the testimony thereof, under and in the midst of all accusations.
Wherefore this was the counsel of Zophar to Job—“If,” saith he, “thou
prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hand towards him; if iniquity
be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy
tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea,
thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear;” Job xi. 13–15.
This was not the Publican’s state: he had lived in lewdness and villany
all his days; nor had he prepared his heart to seek the Lord God of his
fathers; he had not cleansed his heart nor hands from violence, nor done
that which was lawful and right. He only had been convinced of his evil
ways, and was come into the temple as he was, all foul, and in his filthy
garments, and amidst his pollutions; how then could he be innocent, holy,
or without spot? and, consequently, how could he lift up his face to God?
I remember what Abner said to Asahel, “Turn thee aside (said he) from
following me, wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then
should I hold up my face to Joab, thy brother?” 2 Sam. ii. 22.
As if he had said, If I kill thee, I shall blush, be ashamed, and hang my
head like a bulrush the next time I come into the company of thy brother.
This was the Publican’s case: he was guilty, he had sinned, he had
committed a trespass; and now being come into the temple, into the
presence of that God whose laws he had broken, and against whom he had
sinned, how could he lift up his head? how could he do it? No, it better
became him to take his shame, and to hang his head in token of guilt; and
indeed he did, and did it to purpose too, for he would not lift up, no
not so much as his eyes to heaven.
True, some would have done it; the Pharisee did it; though if he had
considered that hypocrisy and the leaning to his own righteousness had
been a sin, he would have found as little cause to have done it as did
the Publican himself. But, I say he did it, and sped therein; he went
down to his house, as he came up into the temple, a poor unjustified
Pharisee, whose person and prayer were both rejected; because, like the
whore of whom we read in the Proverbs, after he had practised all manner
of hypocrisy, he comes into the temple and wipes his mouth, and saith, “I
have done no wickedness;” Prov. xxx. 20. He lifts up his head, his face,
his eyes, to heaven; he struts, he vaunts himself; he swaggers, he
vapours, and cries up himself, saying, “God I thank thee that I am not as
other men are.”
True, had he come and stood before a stock or stone, he might have said
thus, and not have been reprehended; for such are gods that see not, nor
hear, neither do they understand. But to come before the true God, the
living God, the God that fills heaven and earth by his presence, and that
knows the things that come into the mind of man, even every one of them;
I say, to come into his house, to stand before him, and thus to lift up
his head and eyes in such hypocrisy before him, this was abominable, this
was to tempt God, and to prove him, yea, to challenge him to know what
was in man, if he could, even as those who said, “How doth God (see)
know? can he judge through the dark cloud?” Job xxii. 13; Psalm lxxiii.
11.
But the Publican—no—he would not do this; he would not lift up so much as
his eyes to heaven. As who should say, O Lord, I have been against thee
a traitor and a rebel, and like a traitor and a rebel before thee will I
stand. I will bear my shame before thee in the presence of the holy
angels; yea, I will prevent thy judging of me by judging myself in thy
sight, and will stand as condemned before thee before thou passest
sentence upon me.
This is now for a sinner to go to the end of things. For what is God’s
design in the work of conviction for sin, and in his awakening of the
conscience about it? What is his end, I say, but to make the sinner
sensible of what he hath done, and that he might unfeignedly judge
himself for the same. Now this our Publican doth; his will therefore is
now subjected to the word of God, and he justifies him in all his ways
and works towards him. Blessed be God for any experience of these
things.
“He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.” He knew by his
deeds and deservings that he had no portion there; nor would he divert
his mind from the remembering, and from being affected with the evil of
his ways.
Some men, when they are under the guilt and conviction of their evil
life, will do what they can to look any way, and that on purpose to
divert their minds, and to call them off from thinking on what they have
done; and by their thus doing, they bring many evils more upon their
souls; for this is a kind of striving with God, and a shewing a dislike
to his ways. Would not you think, if when you are shewing your son or
your servant his faults, if he should do what he could to divert and take
off his mind from what you are saying, that he striveth against you, and
sheweth dislike of your doings? What else mean the complaints of masters
and of fathers in this matter? “I have a servant, I have a son, that
doth contrary to my will.” “O but why do you not chide them for it?”
The answer is, “So I do; but they do not regard my words; they do what
they can, even while I am speaking, to divert their minds from my words
and counsels.” Why, all men will cry out, “This is base; this is worthy
of great rebuke; such a son, such a servant, deserveth to be shut out of
doors, and so made to learn better breeding by want and hardship.”
But the Publican would not divert his mind from what at present God was
about to make him sensible of, no, not by a look on the choicest object;
he would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven. They are but bad
scholars whose eyes, when their master is teaching of them, are wandering
off their books.
God saith unto men, when he is teaching them to know the evil of their
ways, as the angel said to the prophet when he came to shew him the
pattern of the temple, “Son of man,” says he, “behold with thine eyes,
and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew
thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought
hither;” Ezek. xl. 4. So to the intent that God might shew to the
Publican the evil of his ways, therefore was he brought under the power
of convictions, and the terrors of the law; and he also, like a good
learner, gave good heed unto that lesson that now he was learning of God;
for he would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.
Looking downwards doth ofttimes bespeak men very ponderous and deep in
their cogitations; also that the matter about which in their minds they
are now concerned hath taken great hold of their spirits. The Publican
hath now new things, great things, and long-lived things, to concern
himself about: his sins, the curse, with death, and hell, began now to
stare him in the face: wherefore it was no time now to let his heart, or
his eyes, or his cogitations, wander, but to be fixed, and to be
vehemently applying of himself (as a sinner) to the God of heaven for
mercy.
Few know the weight of sin. When the guilt thereof takes hold of the
conscience, it commands homewards all the faculties of the soul. No man
can go out or off now: now he is wind-bound, or, as Paul says, “caught:”
now he is made to possess bitter days, bitter nights, bitter hours,
bitter thoughts; nor can he shift them, for his sin is ever before him.
As David said, “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever
before me,”—in my eye, and sticketh fast in every one of my thoughts;
Psalm li. 3.
“He would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his
breast.” This was the third and last of his gestures; he “Smote upon his
breast,” to wit, with his hand, or with his fist. I read of several
gestures with the hand and foot, according to the working and passions of
the mind. It is said, “Balak smote his hands together,” being angry
because that Balaam had blessed and not cursed for him the children of
Israel.
God says also, that he had smitten his hands together at the sins of the
children of Israel. God also bids the prophet stamp with his feet, and
smite with his hand upon his thigh (Num. xxiv. 10; Ezek. xxii. 13; vi.
11; xxi. 12), upon sundry occasions, and at several enormities; but the
Publican here is said to smite upon his breast. And,
1. Smiting upon the breast betokeneth sorrow for something done. This
is an experiment common among men; and indeed, therefore (as I take it),
doth our Lord Jesus put him under this gesture in the act and exercise of
his repentance, because it is that which doth most lively set it forth.
Suppose a man comes to great damage for some folly that he has wrought,
and he be made sorrowful for (being and) doing such folly, there is
nothing more common than for such a man (if he may) to walk to and fro in
the room where he is, with head hung down, fetching ever and anon a
bitter sigh, and smiting himself upon the breast in his dejected
condition: “But smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a
sinner.”
2. Smiting upon the breast is sometimes a token of indignation and
abhorrence of something thought upon. I read in Luke, that when Christ
was crucified, those spectators that stood to behold the barbarous usage
that he endured at the hands of his enemies, smote their breasts and
returned. “And all the people (says Luke) that came together to that
sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts and
returned;” Luke xxiii. 48. Smote their breasts; that is, in token of
indignation against, and abhorrence of, the cruelty that was used to the
Son of God.