The Pharisee and Publican.
LUKE xviii. 14.
_I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: For every one that exalteth himself, shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted._
THOUGH there be some who dare to deny the LORD JESUS, and disbelieve the revelation he has been pleased to give us, and thereby bring upon themselves swift destruction; yet I would charitably hope there are but few if any such among you, to whom I am now to preach the kingdom of GOD. Was I to ask you, how you expect to be justified in the sight of an offended GOD? I suppose you would answer, only for the sake of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. But, was I to come more home to your consciences, I fear that most would make the LORD JESUS but in part their Saviour, and go about, as it were, to establish a righteousness of their own. And this is not thinking contrary to the rules of christian charity: for we are all self-righteous by nature; it is as natural for us to turn to a covenant of works, as for the sparks to fly upwards. We have had so many legal and so few free-grace preachers, for these many years, that most professors now seem to be settled upon their lees, and rather deserve the title of _Pharisees_ than christians.
Thus it was with the generality of the people during the time of our LORD’s public ministration: and therefore, in almost all his discourses, he preached the gospel to poor sinners, and denounced terrible woes against proud self-justiciaries. The parable, to which the words of the text belong, looks both these ways: For the evangelist informs us (verse 9.) that our LORD “spake it unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.” And a notable parable it is; a parable worthy of your most serious attention. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” what JESUS CHRIST speaks to all visible professors in it.
Verse 10. “Two men went up to the temple to pray (and never two men of more opposite characters) the one a Pharisee and the other a Publican.” The Pharisees were the strictest sect among the _Jews_. “I was of the strictest sect, of the Pharisees,” says _Paul_. They prayed often; not only so, but they made long prayers; and, that they might appear extraordinary devout, they would pray at the corners of the street, where two ways met, that people going or coming, both ways, might see them. “They made broad (as our LORD informs us) the borders of their phylacteries,” they had pieces of parchment sown to their long robes, on which some parts of the Scripture were written, that people might from thence infer, that they were lovers of the law of GOD. They were so very punctual and exact in outward purifications, that they washed at their going out and coming in. They held the washing of pots, brazen vessels and tables, and many other such-like things they did. They were very zealous for the traditions of the fathers, and for the observation of the rites and ceremonies of the church, notwithstanding they frequently made void the law of GOD by their traditions. And they were so exceedingly exact in the outward observation of the sabbath, that they condemned our LORD for making a little clay with his spittle; and called him a sinner, and said, he was not of GOD, because he had given sight to a man born blind, on the sabbath-day. For these reasons they were had in high veneration among the people, who were sadly misled by these blind guides: they had the uppermost places in the synagogues, and greetings in the market-places (which they loved dearly) and were called of men, _Rabbi_; in short, they had such a reputation for piety, that it became a proverb among the _Jews_, that, if there were but two men saved, the one of them must be a Pharisee.
As for the Publicans, it was not so with them. It seems they were sometimes _Jews_, or at least proselytes of the gate; for we find one here coming up to the temple; but for the generality, I am apt to think they were _Gentiles_; for they were gatherers of the _Roman_ taxes, and used to amass much wealth (as appears by the confession of _Zaccheus_, one of the chief of them) by wronging men with false accusations. They were so universally infamous, that our LORD himself tells his disciples, “the excommunicated man should be to them as a heathen man, or a Publican.” And the Pharisees thought it a sufficient impeachment of our LORD’s character, that he was a friend to Publicans and sinners, and went to sit down with them at meat.