himself before God and the world; therefore God remitted part of the punishment otherwise due unto him. Such regard was had to humility in that instance, shewing itself only in some transient acts, which were far short of a full and perfect repentance.

These things considered, we may from thence learn to judge the more favourably of some kind of persons, whom we may sometimes see led away by the vehemence and impetuosity of their vices or passions; but condemning themselves all the time, and humbly suing to God for mercy and pardon. For though God will not pardon them till they change their sinful course of life, and thoroughly amend their ways; yet their present humiliation and self-abasement is a promising symptom, which may have its use, and will not want its reward. God will, on that account, be the more inclined to give them grace to perfect their repentance. It is a scripture maxim, laid down in the Psalms, repeated in the Proverbs, inculcated also by St. James f, and again by St. Peters, that "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the "humble." An humble sinner is in a way to forsake his sins. His self-abasement is one degree of penitence; and according as he becomes more and more humble, so God will supply more and more grace, to work in him a thorough change both of heart and life. The proud Pharisee, though he had made great advances in outside virtue and godliness, yet, by indulging his pride and self-flattery, he not only checked his further progress, but really went backward and lost ground: while the humble Publican, though hitherto unpractised in virtue and piety, was however entering upon it, and was upon the improving hand: and therefore it was, that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. But,

3. The use which we are to make of the two cases taken together is, to reject what was bad in both; and to adopt what was praiseworthy in either. The Pharisee was a person of a strict and sober life, but he was proud the Publican was humble, but withal he was a person of loose morals. Both were blamable in their several ways, while, in other respects, both deserved commendation; the Publican especially, to whom our Lord gave the preference. What then are we to learn from all? Reject the Pharisee's pride and censoriousness; and reject also the Publican's loose morals. Put on the Pharisee's strict kind of life, together d Psalm cxxxviii. 6. • Prov. iii. 34. f James iv. 6. g I Pet. v. 5.

To

with the Publican's humility, and then all will be right. make the advice the clearer, I shall now severally treat of both parts.

1. First, I say, let it be our care to follow what was really good and commendable in the Pharisee. He was no extortioner; he wronged no man in his property; he was no adulterer, or the like: our Lord does not charge him with saying any thing fulse of himself: his report, probably, was true: but he was blamable for boasting even of what was fact. Besides his negative accomplishments, that he was no extortioner, no unjust dealer, and no adulterer; he had something further to plead : he made up his weekly accounts with God; he "fasted twice in the week;" and with his fasting, we may presume, he joined serious and solemn devotions and, to shew his further respect for God, he paid what the Law had ordered to God's authorized ministers; he paid tithes of all that he possessed, in a punctual manner, and in a way altogether blameless; excepting that he was proud of doing it.

We have here, to all appearance, a very fair and very exemplary character drawn to the life, and allowed also to be true. Follow him therefore so far, namely, in his sobriety, his temperance, and his chastity; in his honest and upright dealings between man and man; and likewise in his weekly care to settle his accounts with God. Fasting may properly be added to devotions, in order to raise them higher, or to fix them yet stronger upon the heart: but this must be understood with allowances, according as health, or leisure, or opportunities, or other circumstances favour. The Pharisee found leisure, or he made leisure, sufficient for it; and he did well in it, if he could but have been content not to boast of it, nor to value himself too much upon it, nor to pass hard censures upon others, as falling far short of him, in those respects.

Take we care then, to distinguish the good part from the evil part, and to set it before us for our approbation and imitation. Follow not the Publican in his loose life, in his irregular or careless ways; but rather follow the Pharisee in his strict course of life, and in his circumspect conduct, whereby he hoped to please God; and wherein he could not have failed, if he had but been as humble and candid in heart, as he was strict and exemplary in life.

2. Therefore, secondly, after taking care to live the sober and exemplary life of the Pharisee, make we it our chief endeavour to superadd thereto the humility and candour of the Publican; that so we may be perfect and entire, thoroughly furnished "unto every good work."

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We must

But this, perhaps, may be thought a very hard lesson. I could be content, says one, to live a pious, sober, exemplary life; but surely, after taking so much pains, I have a right to value myself upon it, and to think much better of myself than of my less considering neighbours. I could be content, says another, to entertain very low opinions of myself, and to become vile in my own eyes, and often to cry out, "God be merciful to me a "sinner," provided only that I may but be permitted to indulge my own heart's lusts, and continue in my darling sins. But neither of these ways will answer the purpose. be holy in all conversation and godliness, and yet as humble as if we had no virtues at all: we must every one of us do our utmost to serve and please Almighty God; and when we have done all, be content at length to smite our breasts, and say, God be merciful to me a sinner." The reason is, because our very best services are imperfect; and "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Now, when we come to make our addresses before God, he does not want to be told how holy, or how religious, or how perfect we are: he is a better judge of that than we can pretend to be; and he knows our failings and deficiencies. Neither can it be of any use to us, to look only on the brighter side, and to hide the rest, lest we be tempted to stop there, and to conceive that we need nothing further. Our business is to be always advancing and pressing forwards, and not so much to consider what we have already gained, as what we still want. Look we therefore upon our failings, and lay them before God: not because he does not know them, but because he alone can supply them, either with new succours of his grace, or with repeated acts of pardon. This is the reason why confession of sins (which the Pharisee omitted) ought always to make a principal part of our prayers: and another as essential a part is, to throw ourselves entirely upon the all-sufficient merits and mediation of Christ Jesus our Lord. Innocence of our own we have none to appear in before God: broken innocence, made up in some measure by true repentance, is the utmost perfection that fallen man can pretend to and all

that would be too little and too impure for God's acceptance, were it not further recommended, and made worthy, by the allprevailing atonement and intercession of Christ.

Enough has been said to take away all pretence or colour for spiritual pride. It was not pardonable in the angels, because, though they had very great perfections, yet they owed them all to God but it is monstrous in man, because man has no perfection in comparison to the other; and even that little which he has is all owing to the grace of God.

I would not be understood, by any thing I have here said, to lessen the real and solid satisfaction of a well-spent life. The most profound humility is perfectly consistent with full peace of mind, and will rather add to it, than take any thing from it. A man may be very sensible of his having faithfully discharged his duty, without over-valuing himself upon it. And though he knows that his best services are imperfect, and that his infirmities are great, and his failings many, and that he can have no strict claim to a pardon, much less to a reward; yet he knows withal, that such his sincere, though imperfect services, (being as much as, humanly speaking, he is capable of performing,) will be accepted as perfect, through the merits and mediation of him who is perfect: and from these considerations taken together, there will arise an inward calm, a peaceful serenity in every good man's breast. And though I will not say, but that a self-admirer may, through some strong delusion, depart hence as confident, or more confident of his own salvation, than the most humble saint may do; yet I know not whether such false confidence brings with it so divine a pleasure, as a more rational and more modest assurance will do: or if it should, yet the changing of the scene will soon manifest the difference between a wise man's humble expectations and a fool's paradise.

So much for the Publican's humility with regard to himself: I should next throw in a word or two of his candour or his charity with respect to others; as to which also he deserves both our admiration and imitation. He brought in no invidious, no illnatured reflections upon others: he condemned no man, he accused no man but himself. He might have pleaded the many evil examples of a wicked world, to screen himself the better behind a crowd, or to make himself appear the fairer, by producing them as foils to himself: but he was wiser than to offer such poor excuses, such thin coverings as those, to an all-seeing God:

neither would he be hasty to condemn others, while he was imploring mercy for himself: he knew what offences himself had been guilty of: he knew nothing certainly of others, but that it was no business of his to accuse them before God, or to make himself a judge over them: this part of his conduct was wise and commendable; and so far he stands recommended to us, as a pattern for us to copy after.

Not that we are hereby totally prohibited forming comparisons between ourselves and others; for how is it possible altogether to avoid it? Neither is there any thing amiss in endeavouring to go beyond many, in our religious advances, or in believing that we do so, when we have grounds sufficient for it: neither is it necessary for an humble man to think himself worse than he really is, or to condemn himself as the vilest of sinners, and the like: he may be allowed to think justly, and according to truth, as well with respect to himself, as with respect to other persons; for nothing unreasonable or untrue can be expected of us, or be well-pleasing to God. The fault of the assuming Pharisee lay in the making a false estimate of himself, and a false judgment also of others, upon the comparison. He was not so good a man, in the main, as the despised Publican; but his pride, disdain, and insolence, (as black vices as any can be,) shewed him to be one of the vilest of sinners.

Take we care then to live circumspectly in our whole conduct, obeying every commandment of God, and guarding against all kind of vices; but more particularly against pride (spiritual pride) and censoriousness; uncreaturely sins, odious and abominable in God's sight. An humble temper of mind is the root of all virtue, and the perfection also of all godly living. The way to attain it and to preserve it is to dwell much and often upon our failings and miscarriages, upon our natural proneness to evil, and upon the many imperfections even of our best services; remembering that we are nothing in ourselves, but that all our sufficiency is of God; and that that very sufficiency will not render us accepted, without the additional imputed merits of our Saviour Christ.

If we are minded to compare ourselves with other persons, we may look into the exemplary lives and deaths of saints and martyrs, recorded in Scripture, or in Church history; observing what labours, what watchings, what fastings, what fatigues, what torments they waded through, for the kingdom of heaven; humble