say so much in their own favour as he could : he could appeal to God that he was not guilty of such sins as were common in the world, and that, on the contrary, he was observant of many religious duties, " fasting twice every week, and giving tithes of all that he possessed." Yet, because he viewed his state with self-confidence and self-complacency, he was dismissed without any blessing ; whilst the self-abasing Publican was par- doned and justified from all his sins ''. But thus it ever will be : " God will fill the hungry with good things, but the rich he will send empty away ^ : " he will resist the proud, but give grace unto the humble^."]
III. Of intolerant bigotry —
[There are not wanting those who imagine that all religion consists in zeal for their own particular sect or party in the Church. Amongst the papists, this error prevails to an awful extent : and happy would it be if it were confined to them ; but it is found in protestants also, who are as bitter in pro- scribing each other, as the papists are in anathematizing them. At what a fearful distance are the churchmen and dissenters separated from each other, from the mere circumstance of their not adopting the same external form of Church government, even whilst they are perfectly agreed in sentiment as to all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity ! From the spirit with which they view each other, one would be ready to think that Christ did indeed come to introduce division, not accidentally, but intentionally ; not by a separation of his people from the world, but by an alienation of heart from each other. Who has not seen and mourned over the mutual accusations of the two parties, each rejoicing in any evil that can be found in the other, and each wishing the conversion, perhaps I should rather say, the extermination, of the other? And as men hate each other on account of outward forms, so no less are they em- bittered against each other by a difference in their internal principles ; the Arminian hating Calvinists ; and the Calvinist despising Arminians ! Need I say how much some persons value themselves on the opposition they give to what they call enthusiasm, but what, in fact, is " pure and undefiled religion?" Verily, in persecuting the truth, they think that they do God service : and well pleased they are to render him a service so congenial with the malignity of their own hearts. St, Paul before his conversion was of this very spirit : and our Lord has told us, that in every age such would prove the persecutors and tormentors of his Church ''. But whoever may be wrong, it is not possible for persons of this description to be right: the very spirit which they breathe shews " whose they are, and
^ Lukexviii. 11 — 14. f Luke i. 53.
s 1 Pet. V. 5. ii John xvi. 2.