The Pharisee and the Publican

And as they are more odious and abominable in the sight of God (as they needs must, if what is said be true, as it is), so they are more dangerous to the life and soul of man; for that they always appear unto him in whom they dwell, and to him that trusteth in them, not to be sins and transgressions, but virtues and excellent things; not things that set a man further off, but the things that bring a man nearer God, than those that want them are or can be.

This therefore is the dangerous estate of those that go about to establish their own righteousness, that neither have, nor can, while they are so doing, submit themselves to the righteousness of God; Rom. x. 3.  It is far more easy to persuade a poor wretch, whose life is debauched, and sins are written in his forehead, to submit to the righteousness of God (that is, to the righteousness that is of God’s providing and giving), than it is to persuade a self-righteous man to do it; for the profane is sooner convinced of the necessity of righteousness to save him, as that he has none of his own, and accepteth of, and submitteth himself to the help and salvation that is in the righteousness and obedience of another.

And upon this account it is that Christ saith the publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before the scribes and Pharisees; Matt. xxi. 31.  Poor Pharisee, what a loss art thou at? thou art not only a sinner, but a sinner of the highest form.  Not a sinner by such sins (by such sins chiefly) as the second table doth make manifest; but a sinner chiefly in that way as no self-righteous man did ever dream of.  For when the righteous man or Pharisee shall hear that he is a sinner, he replieth, “I am not as other men are.”

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 righteousness is condemned, slighted, and accounted nothing worth, then he fretteth and fumeth, and would kill the man that so slighteth and disdaineth his goodly righteousness; but Christ, and the true gospel-teacher still go on, and condemn all his righteousness as menstruous rags, as an abomination to God, and nothing but loss and dung.

Now menstruous rags, things that are an abomination and dung, are not fit matter to make a garment of to wear when I come to God for life, much less to be made my friend, my advocate, my mediator and spokesman, when I stand betwixt heaven and hell; Isa. lxiv. 6; Luke xvi. 15; Phil. iii. 6–8, to plead for me that I might be saved.

Perhaps some will blame me, and count me also worthy thereof, because I do not distinguish betwixt the matter and the manner of the Pharisee’s righteousness.  And let them condemn me still for saving the holy law, which is neither the matter nor manner of the Pharisee’s righteousness, but rather the rules (if he will live thereby) up to which he should completely come in every thing that he doth.  And I say again, that the whole of the Pharisee’s righteousness is sinful, though not with and to men, yet with and before the God of heaven.  Sinful, I say it is, and abominable, both in itself, and also in its effects.

1.  In itself; for that it is imperfect, scanty, and short of the rule by which righteousness is enjoined, and even with which every act should be; for shortness here, even every shortness in these duties, is sin and sinful weakness; wherefore the curse taketh hold of the man for coming short; but that it could not justly do, if his coming short was not his sin: Cursed is every one that doth not, and that continueth not to do all things written in the law; Deut. xxvii. 26; Gal. iii. 10.

2.  It is sinful; because it is wrought by sinful flesh; for all legal righteousness is a work of the flesh; Rom. iv. 1, &c.; Phil. iii. 3–8.

A work, I say, of the flesh; even of that flesh, who, or which also committeth the greatest enormities; for the flesh is but one, though its workings are divers: sometimes in a way most notoriously sensual and devilish, causing the soul to wallow in the mire.

But these are not all the works of the flesh; the flesh sometimes will attempt to be righteous, and set upon doing actions that in their perfection would be very glorious and beautiful to behold.  But because the law is only commanding words, and yieldeth no help to the man that attempts to perform it; and because the flesh is weak, and cannot do of itself that, therefore this most glorious work of the flesh faileth.

But, I say, as it is a work of the flesh it cannot be good, forasmuch as the hand that worketh it is defiled with sin; for in a good man, one spiritually good, that is “in his flesh, there dwells no good thing,” but consequently that which is bad; how then can the flesh of a carnal, graceless man (and such a one is every Pharisee and self-righteous man in the world), produce, though it joineth itself to the law, to the righteous law of God, that which is good in his sight.

If any shall think that I pinch too hard, because I call man’s righteousness which is of the law, of the righteous law of God, flesh, let them consider that which follows: to wit, That though man by sin is said “to be dead in sin and trespasses,” yet not so dead but that he can act still in his own sphere; that is, to do, and choose to do, either that which by all men is counted base, or that which by some is counted good, though he is not, nor can all the world make him, capable of doing any thing that may please his God.

Man, by nature, as dead as he is, can, and that with the will of his flesh, will his own salvation.  Man, by nature, can, and that by the power of the flesh, pursue and follow after his own salvation; but then he wills it, and pursues or follows after it, not in God’s way, but his own; not by faith in Christ, but by the law of Moses.  See Rom. ix. 16, 31; x. 3, 7.

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, or men by nature, may apprehend and know them, yea, and know them to be the only means by which they must obtain eternal life; for the understanding must act before the will; yea, a man must approve of the way to life by Jesus Christ, before his mind will budge, or stir, or move, that way: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God (of the gospel); for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

He receiveth not these things; that is, his mind and will lie cross unto them, for he counts them foolishness; nor can all the natural wisdom in the world cause that his will should fall in with them, because it cannot discern them.

Nature discerneth the law, and the righteousness thereof; yea, it discerneth it, and approveth thereof; that is, that the righteousness of it is the best and only way to life, and therefore the natural will and power of the flesh, as here you see in the Pharisee, do steer their course by that to eternal life; 1 Cor. ii. 14.

The righteousness of the law, therefore, is a work of the flesh, a work of sinful flesh, and therefore must needs be as filth, and dung, and abominable as to that for which this man hath produced it and presented it in the temple before God.

Nor is the Pharisee alone entangled in this mischief; many souls are by these works of the flesh flattered, as also the Pharisee was, into an opinion, that their state is good, when there is nothing in it.  The most that their conversion amounteth to is, the Publican is become a Pharisee; the open sinner is become a self-righteous man.  Of the black side of the flesh he hath had enough, now therefore with the white side of the flesh he will recreate himself.  And now, most wicked must he needs be that questioneth the goodness of the state of such a man.  He, of a drunkard, a swearer, an unclean person, a Sabbath-breaker, a liar, and the like, is become reformed, a lover of righteousness, a strict observer, doer, and trader in the formalities of the law, and a herder with men of his complexion.  And now he is become a great exclaimer against sin and sinners, denying to be acquaint with those that once were his companions, saying, “I am not even as this Publican.”

To turn therefore from sin to man’s righteousness, yea, to rejoice in confidence, that thy state is better than is that of the Publican (I mean, better in the eyes of divine justice, and in the judgment of the law); and yet to be found by the law, not in the spirit, but in the flesh; not in Christ, but under the law; not in a state of salvation, but of damnation, is common among men: for they, and they only, are the right men, “who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”  Where, by “flesh,” must not be meant the horrible transgressions against the law (though they are also called “the works of the flesh,” Gal. iv. 29); for they minister no occasion unto men to have confidence in them towards God: but that is that which is insinuated by Paul, where he saith, he had no “confidence in the flesh,” though he might have had it; as he said, “though I might also have confidence in the flesh.”  “If any other man,” saith he, “thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more,” Phil. iii. 3, 4; and then he repeats a twofold privilege that he had by the flesh.

1.  That he was one of the seed of Abraham, and of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, &c.

2.  That he had fallen in with the strictest men of that religion, which was such after the flesh, to wit, to be a Pharisee, and was the son of a Pharisee, had much fleshly zeal for God, and “touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless,” Phil. iii. 3, 5, 6.

But I say still, there is nothing but flesh; fleshly privileges and fleshly righteousness, and so, consequently, a fleshly confidence, and trust for heaven.  This is manifest; when the man had his eyes enlightened, he counted all loss and dung that he might be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

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 the glory of that being as weak as the grass, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, is but a weak business for a man to venture his eternal salvation upon.  Wherefore, as I also hinted before, the godly-wise have been afraid to be found in their righteousness, I mean their own personal righteousness, though that is far better than can be the righteousness of any carnal man: for the godly man’s righteousness is wrought by the Spirit and faith of Christ, but the ungodly man’s righteousness is of the flesh, and of the law.  Yet I say, this godly man is afraid to stand by his righteousness before the tribunal of God, as is manifest in these following particulars.

1.  He sees sin in his righteousness; for so the prophet intimates, when he saith, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. lxiv.); but there is nothing can make one’s righteousness filthy but sin.  It is not the poor, the low, the mean, the sickly, the beggarly state of man, nor yet his being hated of devils, persecuted of men, broken under necessities, reproaches, distresses, or any kind of troubles of this nature that can make the godly man’s righteousness filthy; nothing but sin can do it, and that can, doth, hath, and will do it.  Nor can any man, be he who he will, and though he watches, prays, strives, denies himself, and puts his body under what chastisement or hardships he can; yea, though he also get his spirit and soul hoisted up to the highest peg or pin of sanctity and holy contemplation, and so his lusts to the greatest degree of mortification; but sin will be with him in the best of his performances: with him, I say, to pollute and defile his duties, and to make his righteousness speckled and spotted, filthy and menstruous.

I will give you two or three instances for this.

(1.)  Nehemiah was a man (in his day), one that was zealous, very zealous, for God, for his house, for his people, and for his ways; and so continued, and that from first to last, as they may see that please to read the relation of his actions; yet when he comes seriously to be concerned with God about his duties, he relinquisheth a standing by them.  True, he mentioneth them to God, but confesseth that there are imperfections in them, and prayeth that God will not wipe them away.  “Wipe not out my good deeds, O my God, that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.”  And again, “Remember me, O my God, concerning this also (another good deed), and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy; and remember me, O my God, for good;” Neh. xiii.

I do not think that by these prayers he pleadeth for an acceptance of his person, as touching justification from the curse of the law (as the poor blind Pharisee doth), but that God would accept of his service, as he was a son, and not deny to give him a reward of grace for what he had done, since he was pleased to declare in his testament, that he would reward the labour of love of his saints with an exceeding weight of glory; and therefore prayeth, that God would not wipe away his good deeds, but remember him for good, according to the greatness of his mercy.

(2.)  A second instance is that of David, where he saith, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified;” Psalm clxiii. 2.  David, as I have hinted before, is said to be a man “after God’s own heart,” Acts xiii.; and as here by the Spirit he acknowledges him for his servant; yet behold how he shrinketh, how he draweth back, how he prayeth, and petitioneth, that God would vouchsafe so much as not to enter into judgment with him.  Lord, saith he, if thou enterest into judgment with me, I die, because I shall be condemned; for in thy sight I cannot be justified; to wit, by my own good deeds.  Lord, at the beginning of thy dealing with me, by the law and my works, I die: therefore do not so much as enter into judgment with me, O Lord.  Nor is this my case only, but it is the condition of all the world: “For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.”

(3.)  A third instance is that general conclusion of the apostle, “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident; for the just shall live by faith.”  By this saying of St Paul, as he taketh up the sentence of the prophet Habakkuk, chap. ii. 4, so he taketh up this sentence, yea, and the personal justice of David also.  No man, saith he, is justified by the law in the sight of God: no, no just man, no holy man, not the strictest and most righteous man.  But why not?  Why, because “the just shall live by faith.”

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 conversion or after; that is, I knew not that I did any thing before conversion, either against the law, or against my conscience; for I was then, touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless.  Also, since my conversion, I know nothing by myself; for “I have walked in all good conscience before God unto this day.”

A great saying, I promise you.  Well, but yet “I am not hereby justified;” Phil. iii. 7; Acts xxiii. 1; 1 Cor. iv. 4.  Nor will I dare to venture the eternal salvation of my soul upon mine own justice; “for he that judgeth me is the Lord;” that is, though I, through my dim-sightedness, cannot see the imperfections of my righteousness, yet the Lord, who is my judge, and before whose tribunal I must shortly stand, can and will; and if in his sight there shall be found no more but one spot in my righteousness, I must, if I plead my righteousness, fall for that.

2.  That the best of men are afraid to stand before God’s tribunal, there to be judged by the law as to life and death, according to the sufficiency or non-sufficiency of their righteousness, is evident; because by casting away their own (in this matter), they make all the means they can for this; that is, that his mercy, by an act of grace, be made over to them, and that they in it may stand before God to be judged.

Hence David cries out so often, “Lead me in thy righteousness.”  “Deliver me in thy righteousness.”  “Judge me according to thy righteousness.”  “Quicken me in thy righteousness.”  “O Lord (says he), give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.”  “And enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord: for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified.”  And David, what if God doth thus?  Why, then, saith he, “My tongue shall speak of his righteousness.”  “My tongue shall sing of thy righteousness.”  “My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness.”  “Yea, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only;” Psalm lviii.; xxxi. 1; xxxv. 24; cxix. 40; xxxv. 28; li. 14; lxxi. 15, 16.

Daniel also, when he comes to plead for himself and his people, he first casts away his and their righteousness, saying, “For we do not present our supplications unto thee for our righteousness:”  And he pleads God’s righteousness, and that he might have a share and interest in that saying, “O Lord, righteousness belongeth to thee;” to wit, that righteousness, for the sake of which, mercy and forgiveness, and so heaven and happiness, is extended to us.

Righteousness belongeth to thee, and is thine, as nearly as sin, shame, and confusion, are ours, and belongeth to us.  Read the 16th and 17th verses of the 9th of Daniel.  “O Lord (saith he), according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger, and thy fury, be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and thy people, are become a reproach to all that are about us.  Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake:”  For the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ; for on him Daniel now had his eye, and through him to the Father he made his supplication; yea, and the answer was according to his prayer, to wit, that God would have mercy on Jerusalem; and that he would in his time send the Lord, the Messias, to bring them in everlasting righteousness for them.

Paul also, as I have hinted before, disclaims his own righteousness, and layeth fast hold on the righteousness of God; seeking to be found in that, not having his own righteousness, for he knew that when the rain descends, the winds blow, and the floods come down on all men, they that have but their own righteousness, must fall; Phil. iii

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 into a fool’s paradise, and persuade themselves that all shall be well with them then, for the sake of their own silly and vain-glorious performances, yet when the day comes that shall burn like an oven, and when all that have done wickedly shall be as stubble (and so will all appear to be that are not found in Christ), then will their righteousness vanish like smoke, or be like fuel for that burning flame.  And hence the righteousness that the godly seek to be found in, is called, The name of the Lord, a strong tower, a rock, a shield, a fortress, a buckler, a rock of defence, unto which they resort, and into which they run and are safe.

The godly therefore do not, as this Pharisee, bring their own righteousness into the temple, and there buoy up themselves and spirits by that into a conceit, that for the sake of that God will be merciful and good unto them; but throwing away their own, they make to God for his, because they certainly know, even by the word of God, that in the judgment none can stand the trial but those that are found in the righteousness of God.

3.  That the best of men are afraid to stand before God’s tribunal by the law, there to be judged to life and death, according to the sufficiency or non-sufficiency of their righteousness, is evident; for they know, that it is a vain thing to seek, by acts of righteousness, to make themselves righteous men, as is the way of all them that seek to be justified by the deeds of the law.

And herein lieth the great difference between the Pharisee and the true Christian man.  The Pharisee thinks, by acts of righteousness, he shall make himself a righteous man: therefore he cometh into the presence of God well furnished, as he thinks, with his negative and positive righteousness.

Grace suffereth not a man to boast before God, whatever he saith before men.  His soul that is lifted up, is not upright in him; and better is the poor in spirit than the proud in spirit.  The Pharisee was a very proud man; a proud, ignorant man; proud of his own righteousness, and ignorant of God’s: for had he not, he could not, as he did, have so condemned the Publican, and justified himself.

And I say again, that all this pride and vain-glorious show of the Pharisee did arise from his not being acquainted with this, that a man must be good before he can do good; he must be righteous, before he can do righteousness.  This is evident from Paul, who insinuateth this as the reason why none do good, even because “There is none that is righteous, no, not one.”  “There is none righteous,” saith he, and then follows, “There is none that doeth good;” Rom. iii. 10, 11, 12.  For it is not possible for a man that is not first made righteous by the God of heaven, to do any thing that in a gospel-sense may be called righteousness.  To make himself a righteous man, by his so meddling with them, he may design; but work righteousness, and so by such works of righteousness make himself a righteous man, he cannot.

The righteousness of a carnal man is indeed by God called righteousness; but it must be understood as spoken in the dialect of the world.  The world indeed calls it righteousness, and it will do no harm, if it bear that term with reference to worldly matters.  Hence worldly civilians are called good and righteous men, and so, such as Christ, under that notion, neither died for, nor giveth his grace unto; Rom. v. 7, 8.  But we are not now discoursing about any other righteousness, than that which is so accounted either in a law or in a gospel-sense; and therefore let us a little more touch upon that.

A man then must be righteous in a law-sense, before he can do acts of righteousness, I mean, that are such in a gospel-sense.  Hence, first, you have true gospel-righteousness made the fruit of a second birth.  “If ye know that Christ is righteous, know ye that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him;” 1 John ii. 29.  Not born of him by virtue of his own righteous actions, but born of him by virtue of Christ’s mighty working with his work upon the soul, who afterwards, from a principle of life, acteth and worketh righteousness.

And he saith again, “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.”  Upon this scripture I will a little comment, for the proof of what is urged before: namely, that a man must be righteous in a law-sense, before he can do such things that may be called acts of righteousness in a gospel-sense.  And for this, this scripture, 1 John iii. 7, ministereth to us two things to be considered by us.

The first is, That he that doth righteousness is righteous.

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 righteousness that he shall do; for then an evil tree may bear good fruit, yea, and may make itself good by doing so; but he saith, He that doth righteousness is righteous; as he saith, He that doth righteousness is born of him.

So then, a man must be righteous before he can do righteousness, before he can do righteousness in a gospel-sense.

Our second thing then is to inquire, with what righteousness a man must be righteous, before he can do that which in a gospel-sense is called righteousness.