The Pharisee and the Publican

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.

Suppose a man sick of an apoplexy unto death, and should for his remedy make use only of those things that are good against the second ague, would not this demonstrate that this man was not sensible of the nature and danger of this disease?  The same may be said of every sinner that shall make use only of those means to justify him before God, that can hardly make him go for a good Christian before judicious men.  But the poor Publican, he knew the nature and the danger of his disease; and knew also, that nothing but mercy, infinite mercy, could cure him thereof.

5.  This confession of the Publican declareth, that he himself was borne up now by an almighty though invisible hand.  For sin, when seen in its colours, and when appearing in its monstrous shape, frighteth all away from God.  This is manifest by Cain, Judas, Saul, and others, who could not stand up before God under the sense and appearance of their sin, but fled before him, one to one fruit of despair, and one to another.  But now this Publican, though he apprehends his sin, that himself was one that was a sinner, yet he beareth up, cometh into the temple, approaches the presence of an holy and sin-revenging God, stands before him, and confesses that he is that man that sin had defiled, and that had brought him into the danger of damnation thereby.

This therefore was a mighty act of the Publican.  He went against the voice of conscience, against sense and feeling, against the curse and condemning verdict of the law: he went, as I may say, upon hot burning coals to one that to sin and sinners is a consuming fire.

Now then, did the Publican this of his own head, or from his own mind?  No, verily; there was some super-natural power within that did secretly prompt him on, and strengthen him to this more noble venture.  True, there is nothing more common among wicked men, than to trick and toy, and play with this saying of the Publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner:” not at all being sensible either what sin is, or of their need of mercy.  And such sinners shall find their speed in the Publican’s prayer far otherwise than the Publican sped himself; it will happen unto them much as it happened unto the vagabond Jews, exorcists, who took upon them to call over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus; that were beaten by that spirit, and made fly out of that house naked and wounded, Acts xix. 13.  Poor sinner, thou wilt say the Publican’s prayer, and make the Publican’s confession, and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  But hold; dost thou do it with the Publican’s heart, sense, dread, and simplicity?  If not, thou dost but abuse the Publican and his prayer, and thyself and his God; and shalt find God rejecting of thee and thy prayers, saying, The Publican I know; his prayers and godly tears I know; but who or what art thou? and will send thee away naked.  They are the hungry that he filleth with good things, but the rich (and the senseless) he sendeth empty away.

For my part, I find it one of the hardest things that I can put my soul upon, even to come to God, when warmly sensible that I am a sinner, for a share in grace and mercy.  Oh! methinks it seems to me as if the whole face of the heavens were set against me.  Yea, the very thought of God strikes me through; I cannot bear up, I cannot stand before him; I cannot but with a thousand tears say, “God be merciful to me a sinner;” Ezra ix. 15.