PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pharisee and the Publican
Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 · 57,188 words · 70 reading sections
Part 1
Transcribed from the 1845 Thomas Nelson “Works of the Puritan Divines (Bunyan)” edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org…
20 wordsSECTION 2THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.
_Two men went up into the temple to pray_; _the one a Pharisee_, _and the other a Publican_. _The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself_; _God_, _I thank thee_, _that I am not as other men are_, _extortioners_, _unjust_, _adulterers_, _or even as this Publican_. _I fast twice in the week_, _I give tithes of all …
841 wordsSECTION 3Part 3
_Secondly_, As to their conditions (I do not mean by condition, so much a habit of mind, as the state that they had each of them put themselves into by that mind.) “The one,” says the text, “was a Pharisee, the other a Publican.” A Pharisee: that is, one that hath chosen to himself such a course of life. A Publican:…
846 wordsSECTION 4Part 4
We therefore can make no judgment of men upon the outward appearance of them. Who would have thought, but that the Pharisee had been a good man? for he was righteous; for he prayed. And who could have thought, that the other had been a good man? for he was a Publican; a man, by good men and bad men, joined with the w…
895 wordsSECTION 5Part 5
The Publican then was a Jew, a kind of a renegade Jew, that through the love that he had to unjust gains, fell off in his affections from his brethren, adhered to the Romans, and became a kind of servant to them against their brethren, farming the heathenish taxations at the hand of strangers, and exacting of them upon…
875 wordsSECTION 6Part 6
Now, that this Levi, or James the son of Alpheus, was a Jew, his name doth well make manifest. Besides, had there been among the apostles any more Gentiles save Simon the Canaanite, or if this Levi James had been here, I think the Holy Ghost would, to distinguish him, have included him in the same discriminating chara…
896 wordsSECTION 7Part 7
The Pharisee, then, was a man of another complexion, and good as to his own thoughts of himself; yea, and in the thoughts of others also, upon the highest and better ground by far. The Publican was a notorious sinner: the Pharisee was a reputed righteous man. The Publican was a sinner out of the ordinary way of sinni…
740 wordsSECTION 8Part 8
First, then, a man that is righteous, must have negative holiness; that is, he must not live in actual transgressions; he must not be an extortioner, unjust, an adulterer, or as the Publican was. And this the apostle intends, when he saith, “Flee fornication,” “Flee youthful lusts,” “Flee from idolatry;” and, “Little …
587 wordsSECTION 9Part 9
The Pharisee, therefore, as to the general description of righteousness, made his definition right; but as to his person and personal righteousness, he made his definition wrong. I do not mean he defined his own righteousness wrong; but I mean his definition of true righteousness, which standeth in negative and positi…
834 wordsSECTION 10Part 10
It is therefore a very fallacious and deceitful arguing of the Pharisee, thus to speak before God in his prayers: I am righteous, because I have not hurt my neighbour, and because I have acted in ceremonial duties. Nor will that help him at all to say, he gave tithes of all that he possessed. It had been more modest t…
622 wordsSECTION 11Part 11
I also observe, that this _extempore_ prayer of the Pharisee was performed by himself, or in the strength of his own natural parts; for so the text implieth. “The Pharisee,” saith the text, “stood and prayed thus with himself,” or “by himself,” and may signify, either that he spoke softly, or that he made this prayer …
835 wordsSECTION 12Part 12
3. The spiritually enlightened understanding hath also thereby received knowledge, that these excellent supernatural things of the Spirit are given by covenant in Christ to those that love God, and are beloved of him. “Now we have received,” says Paul, “not the spirit of the world (that the Pharisee had), but the Spi…
857 wordsSECTION 13Part 13
Besides, in this high prayer of the Pharisee, he fathered that upon God which he could by no means own; to wit, that he being so good as he thought himself to be, was through distinguishing love and favour of God—“God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are.” I thank thee, that thou hast made me better than othe…
707 wordsSECTION 14Part 14
1. By this prayer the Pharisee doth appropriate to himself conversion; he challengeth it to himself and to his fellows. “I am not,” saith he, “as other men;” that is, in unconversion, in a state of sin, wrath, and death: and this must be his meaning, for the religion of the Pharisee was not grounded upon any particul…
764 wordsSECTION 15Part 15
3. By these words, the Pharisee seems to put the goodness of his condition upon the goodness of God. I am not as other men are, and I thank God for it. “God (saith he), I thank thee, that I am not as other men are.” He thanked God, when God had done nothing for him. He thanked God, when the way that he was in was …
750 wordsSECTION 16Part 16
_First_, Prithee, when didst thou begin to be righteous? Was it before or after thou hadst been a sinner? Not before, I dare say; but if after, then the sins that thou pollutedst thyself withal before, have made thee incapable of acting legal righteousness: for sin, where it is, pollutes, defiles, and makes vile the …
878 wordsSECTION 17Part 17
Why, Pharisee, God hath appointed, that by the righteousness of his Son, and by that righteousness only, men shall be justified in his sight from the curse of the law. Wherefore, take heed, and at thy peril, whatever thy righteousness is, confront not the righteousness of Christ therewith. I say, bring it not in, let …
917 wordsSECTION 18Part 18
Wherefore this sin of trusting to his own righteousness is a most high transgression; because it contemneth the righteousness of Christ, which is the only righteousness that is sufficient to save from the curse of the law. It also disalloweth the design of heaven, and the excellency of the mystery of the wisdom of God…
911 wordsSECTION 19Part 19
Further, has not the pride of thy spirit in this hotheaded zeal for thy Pharisaical notions run thee upon thinking that thou art able to do more than God hath enjoined thee, and so able to make thyself more righteous than God requireth thou shouldst be? What else is the cause of thy adding laws to God’s laws, precepts…
719 wordsSECTION 20Part 20
If mercy, what mercy? Temporal things God giveth to the unthankful and unholy: nor doth he use to sell the world to man for righteousness. The earth hath he given to the children of men. But this is not the thing: thou wouldst have eternal mercy for thy righteousness; thou wouldst have God think upon what an holy, w…
908 wordsSECTION 21Part 21
2. Dost thou plead by thy righteousness for mercy for thyself? Why in so doing thou impliest, that mercy thou deservest; and that is next door to, or almost as much as to say, God oweth me what I ask for. The best that can be put upon it is, thou seekest security from the direful curse of God, as it were by the work…
823 wordsSECTION 22Part 22
I say then, for God to admit it, to be an advocate, an intercessor, a mediator; for all these are they which prevail with God to shew me mercy. But this God never thought of, much less could he thus design by the gospel; for the text runs flat against it. Not of works, not of works of righteousness, which we have done…
887 wordsSECTION 23Part 23
3. But wilt thou yet plead thy righteousness for mercy? Why, in so doing thou takest away from God the power of giving mercy. For if it be thine as wages, it is no longer his to dispose of at pleasure; for that which another man oweth me, is in equity not at his, but at my disposal. Did I say that by this thy plea t…
881 wordsSECTION 24Part 24
But, _secondly_, If thy plea be not for mercy, but for justice, then to 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. …
879 wordsSECTION 25Part 25
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 ch…
924 wordsSECTION 26Part 26
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 ser…
877 wordsSECTION 27Part 27
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 Public…
916 wordsSECTION 28Part 28
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 …
934 wordsSECTION 29Part 29
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 r…
808 wordsSECTION 30Part 30
Wherefore it is no error to say, that a man naturally has will, and a power to pursue his will, and that as to his own salvation. But it is a damnable error to say, that he hath will and power to pursue it, and that in God’s way: for then we must hold that the mysteries of the gospel are natural; for that natural men,…
846 wordsSECTION 31Part 31
And this leads me to another thing, and that is, to tell thee, O thou blind Pharisee, that thou canst not be in a safe condition, because thou hast thy confidence in the flesh, that is, in the righteousness of the flesh. “For all flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of the field;” and the flesh, and t…
926 wordsSECTION 32Part 32
The just man, therefore, must die, if he has not faith in another righteousness than that which is of the law, called his own: I say, he must die, if he has none other righteousness than that which is his own by the law. Thus also Paul confesses of himself: “I (saith he) know nothing by myself,” either before conversi…
745 wordsSECTION 33Part 33
Now, the earnest desire of the righteous to be found in God’s righteousness, ariseth from strong conviction of the imperfections of their own, and the knowledge that was given them of the terror that will attend men at the day of the fiery trial; to wit, the day of judgement. For although men can now flatter themselves…
907 wordsSECTION 34Part 34
The second is, That he that doth righteousness is righteous, as Christ is righteous. _First_, He that doth righteousness; that is, righteousness which the gospel calleth so, is righteous; that is, precedent to, or before he doth that righteousness. For he doth not say, he shall make his person righteous by acts of ri…
892 wordsSECTION 35Part 35
Now, as he is, so are we; not by way of natural righteousness, but by way of resemblance thereunto. Had Christ, in order to his working of righteousness, a two fold righteousness inherent in himself?—the Christian, in order to his working of righteousness, had belonging to him a twofold righteousness. Did Christ’s tw…
719 wordsSECTION 36Part 36
Now this obediential righteousness of Christ consisteth of two parts. 1. In a doing of that which the law commanded us to do. 2. In a paying that price for the transgression thereof, which justice hath said shall be required at the hand of man; and that is the cursed death. “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou …
851 wordsSECTION 37Part 37
_Secondly_, There is righteousness put into them, before they act righteous things. A righteousness, I say, put into them; or I had rather that you should call it a principle of righteousness; for it is a principle of life to righteousness. Before man’s conversion, there is in him a principle of death to sin; but whe…
822 wordsSECTION 38Part 38
The prophet Ezekiel also shews us this, where, by the similitude of the wretched infant, and of the manner of God’s receiving it to mercy, he shews how he received the Jews to favour. First, saith he, “I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness.” There is justification; “I covered thy nakedness.” But wha…
887 wordsSECTION 39Part 39
Again, If they are made righteous by this righteousness, then also they are passive as to their first privilege by it; for they are made righteous by it; they do not make themselves righteous by it. Imputation is also the act of God. “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth ri…
820 wordsSECTION 40Part 40
But these things, as I have often said, the poor Pharisee was ignorant of, when so swaggeringly he, with his “God, I thank thee,” came into the temple to pray. And, indeed, in that which hath been said is something of the mystery of God’s will in his way with his elect; and such a mystery it is, that it lieth hid for …
773 wordsSECTION 41Part 41
Let God then put the righteousness of his Son upon me; and by virtue of that, let the second blessing of God come into me; and by virtue of that, let me be made to see myself a sinner, and Christ’s righteousness, and my need of it, in the doctrine of it, as it is revealed in the scriptures of truth. Let me then believ…
682 wordsSECTION 42Part 42
But, alas! who knows (the many straits, and as I may say, the stress of weather, I mean) the cold blasts of hell, with which the poor soul is assaulted, betwixt its receiving of grace, and its sensible closing with Jesus Christ? None, I dare say, but it and its fellows. “The heart knows its own bitterness; and a stra…
826 wordsSECTION 43Part 43
The second is, that Christ is of God our shelter as to this very thing. Hence his name is said to be “a strong tower,” and that the righteous run into it, and are safe, Prov. xviii. 10. That also of David in the fifty-sixth Psalm is very pregnant to this purpose; “Mine enemies,” saith he, “would daily swallow me up; f…
868 wordsSECTION 44Part 44
But if man is so prone to boast, when yet there is no pound of boasting in him, nor yet in what he doth; how would he have boasted had he been permitted by the God of heaven to have done something, though that something had been but a very little something, towards his justification? But God has prevented boasting by …
842 wordsSECTION 45Part 45
I suppose again, that thou shalt conclude with me, that justifying righteousness, I mean that which justifies from the curse of the law, resideth only in the obedience of the Son of God; and that the principle of grace that is in thee is none of that righteousness, no, not then when thou hast to the utmost walked with …
763 wordsSECTION 46Part 46
I answer, He did then deal with sinners even as he dealeth with them now; 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 justi…
860 wordsSECTION 47Part 47
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…
872 wordsSECTION 48Part 48
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, b…
830 wordsSECTION 49AND 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 no…
857 wordsSECTION 50Part 50
“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…
814 wordsSECTION 51Part 51
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-fir…
688 wordsSECTION 52Part 52
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 Publi…
775 wordsSECTION 53Part 53
_First_, There is a great proneness in us to be partial, and not thorough and plain in our confessions. We are apt to make half confessions; to confess some, and hide some; or else to make feigned confessions, flattering both ourselves, and also God, while we make confession unto him; or else to confess sin, as our ow…
864 wordsSECTION 54Part 54
This will give a sense of what the soul must expect at that day for sin, and so will drive to an hearty acknowledgement of it, and strong cries for a deliverance from it. For thus will the soul argue that expecteth the judgment-day, and that believes that it must count for all. O my heart! it is in vain now to dissem…
869 wordsSECTION 55Part 55
The terror of the Lord, how will it appear, while the angels at his command shall gather the wicked to burn them! “As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather together out of his kingdom all things that of…
775 wordsSECTION 56Part 56
(2.) A second reason is, Because God doth expect that the penitent confessors should not only confess, but bear their shame on them: yea, saith God, “Be thou confounded also, and bear thine own shame:” when God takes away thine iniquity, thou shalt “be confounded, and never open thy mouth more, because of thy shame;” …
904 wordsSECTION 57Part 57
When Elisha had taken the Syrian captives, some were for using severities towards them; but he said, “Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master;” and they did so. And what follows? “So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel,”—he conquered their malice with hi…
898 wordsSECTION 58Part 58
Justification cannot be where God has not passed a pardon. A pardon, then, is the first thing to be looked after by the sinner. This the Pharisee did not; therefore he went down to his house unjustified; he set the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face when he went to inquire of the Lord; and as he neglecte…
856 wordsSECTION 59Part 59
1. That it might be conspicuous to all that the Publican has need of mercy. This is for the glory of the justice of God, because it vindicates it in its goings out against the Publican. God loveth to do things in justice and righteousness, when he goeth out against men, though it be but such a going out against them…
803 wordsSECTION 60Part 60
2. He takes the ready way to please God: for God takes more delight in shewing of mercy than in any thing that we can do; Hos. vi. 6; Matt. ix. 13; xii. 7. Yea, and that also is the man that pleaseth him, even he that hopes in his mercy; Psalm cxlvii. 11. The Publican, therefore, whatever the Pharisee might think, s…
908 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.