FAMILY SERMONS.-No. CCVI.

Luke xviii. 9, 10 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a pharisee, and the other a publican.

OUR blessed Lord "spake as never man spake," and whatever he said infinitely deserves our most serious regard let us therefore consider the particulars of this most interesting parable, humbly praying for the teaching of his Holy Spirit, that we may understand it aright, and find it profitable for our spiritual in

struction.

The first circumstance mentioned in the parable is, the persons to whom it was addressed" those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." This description includes too many even of those who profess and call themselves Christians, It comprises a sin against God, a sin against our neighbour, and a sinful estimate of ourselves. Instead of deeply feeling and lamenting the depravity of their nature and their innumerable sins, negligences, and ignorances, there are many who deceive themselves with a false idea of their own goodness, trusting, in whole or in part, to their supposed merits, instead of relying wholly on the infinite merits of Christ for don and acceptance with God. They may not, indeed, venture, in their addresses to their Creator, to say, in the language of the elder brother, in the parable of the Prodi gal Son," Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandments;" they may even acknowledge in CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 290.

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words that they are miserable sinners, and that there is no health in them; yet in their hearts "they trust in themselves that they are righteous:" they have no sufficient sense of the strictness of God's law, or of their own grievous violations of it, and hence they do not suitably feel their need of an all-suffi. cient Saviour: they are a generation pure in their own eyes, yet are they not washed from their filthiness;" thus deceiving themselves with a superficial repentance, a dead faith, an imperfect and worthless obedience. To all such, by whatever name they may be called, or to whatever sect they may belong, this parable is addressed: they may justify themselves before men, and, so far as many of the outward duties of morality are concerned, they may have an appearance of reason for their justification; they may plead that they do not defraud their neighbour of his property, or injure his good fame, or harden themselves against his necessities, or withhold from him the good offices of amiableness or affection; but "God knoweth their hearts, and many things that are highly esteemed among men are abomination in his sight," because of the wrong motives and selfish or unholy principles from which they spring.

But besides the sin of justifying ourselves before God, grounded on a false estimate of our own righteousness, the parable includes the sin of despising our neighbour. Pride, in all its forms, is offensive to God and destructive to man. That individual knows nothing of his own heart who can say to his fellowcreature, "Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou." Even allowing that we have been preserved from many offences into which others have fallen, yet who is it that hath made us to differ; and what have we that we have not received? Why then should we boast over others? Why should we pride ourselves upon our own supposed superior attainments in

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religion; on our devout observances; our prayers, our fastings, our almsgivings; when, after all that we have done or can do, we are at best unprofitable servants? And even where there is a real moral difference, for which we ought to be truly grateful to God, it is sinful for us to despise others who may not have enjoyed equal advantage of a religious education, Christian instruction, and good example. The greater may be our own knowledge of scriptural doctrine or our advances in the graces of the Christian character, the more ready should we be to bear with, to pity, and to assist those who have been less privileged than ourselves.

Having thus declared to whom the parable is addressed, our Lord proceeds to the parable itself: "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican."

In the visible church of Christ, the righteous and the wicked may be seen, like the tares and the wheat, growing together; they may resort to the same temple, and join in the same acts of devotion; but He who reads the heart perceives a wide difference between them. Of the two worshippers in the parable under consideration, the one was a Pharisee, the other a Publican. The Pharisees were a sect professing to be remarkably strict in their lives, and most zealous for the law of God, but they were guilty of the greatest insincerity. They loved to pray in conspicuous places, in order to be seen of men. For a pretence they made long prayers, while they did not scruple to devour widows' houses. They paid tithes of the most trifling herb, while they neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, faith, and love to God. They cleansed the outside of the cup and of the platter, they practised divers washings, and they adorned the exterior of the sepulchre, while within they were full of ravening and wickedness. The Publicans were persons employed in

collecting the taxes which the Romans levied upon the Jews, and were doubly hateful to the people, both from their customary extortions and from their being the agents in exacting an odious tax for a foreign and heathen power. But we must not judge of men by the name or party to which they may seem to belong : the heart and the conduct are the tests of character; the former in the sight of God, the latter before mankind. Under the garb of the scrupulous and devout Pharisee lurked pride and ostentation, presumption towards God, and uncharitableness towards man; while in the person of the Publican, a reputed sample of all that was most degrading and odious in human character, were found a humility, a penitence, a self-renunciation, and a sincere desire to obtain the mercy of God, which are recorded for our edification with the approbation of the Great Searcher of all hearts himself.

Let us next observe the attitude, and listen to the petitions, of these two worshippers. "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself." He approached with a boldness ill becoming a sinner in the presence of his Creator. We may conceive him selecting the most conspicuous place for his pretended devotions; sounding a trumpet before him, and anxious to be seen of men. In approaching God, a true Christian is deeply abased in his own estima.. tion: far from affecting an ostentatious publicity, he retires into his own secret thoughts, reflecting upon his sinfulness, and the infinite majesty and justice of his Creator; nor would he dare even to make his requests known to Him, but that he is encouraged to do so by his own merciful invitation, through the merits of that all-sufficient Mediator who has opened a way of access to our justly offended Creator by his infinitely meritorious atonement. The Pharisee approach ed the Divine Majesty with a proud and self-satisfied demeanour; not

so holy men of old; not so the father of the faithful, who, when he drew near to God, to intercede for a perishing city, confessed himself to be but dust and ashes, and prayed that the Lord might not be angry that he had taken upon him to speak before him; not so the blessed angels themselves, who veil their faces, and bow in humility before the throne of their Creator, while they celebrate his praises, and pour out before him their grateful acknowledgments for his mercies.

The language of the Pharisee was such as we might anticipate from one who trusted in himself that he was righteous, and despised others. "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are; extortioners, unjust, adulterers; or even as this Publican." Whether he added more, we are not told; but these few words furnish a sufficient specimen of the spirit in which he addressed his Maker. "God, I thank thee." True, we ought to be thankful to God for his restraining grace, without which there is no excess of evil to which our fallen and corrupt nature might not lead us; but in the lips of the Pharisee this was but a heartless formal profession of gratitude: he was not truly thankful: he uttered the language of thanksgiving only as a customary expression, a decent acknowledgment, the better to introduce his own praises. His real object in coming to the temple, under the pretence of praying, was to utter before God, and probably in the hearing of the bystanders, the various virtues for which he thought himself distinguished. "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 that I possess." He shews no sense of his own unworthiness; he acknowledges no defect in his obedience; because he was not, if we may believe his statement, an extortioner, or unjust, or an adulterer, he was satisfied to be proud, selfrighteous, censorious, and guilty of

innumerable other offences, both against God and man; and because he fasted twice in the week, which was not required by the law of God, and gave tithes of all he possessed, even to a scrupulous minuteness, he thought it no sin to boast before his Maker, to bring in God himself as his debtor, and to challenge commendation instead of praying for mercy. He was utterly ignorant both of God and of himself; for, had he known either aright, had he measured himself by the perfect law of his Creator, instead of setting up a self-flattering standard by an ostentatious comparison with his neighbour, he had not dared proudly to stand in the presence of the Almighty, and to narrate his supposed virtues, when he ought to have been humbly confessing his sins. In thanking God, at least in words, for preserving him from various gross offences, he does not seek for renewed grace and strength to run the way of his commandments, but is contented with the attainments which he supposes himself to have already made. Instead of imploring pardon for his sins, he boasts that he does not require it. Like the church of the Laodiceans, he thinks himself rich and increased in goods, and having need of nothing, and knows not that he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Such were his lamentable defects, even supposing that he really believed his own declaration; but how much greater still his guilt if that declaration, as, from our Lord's frequent descriptions of the Pharisees, we may suppose to have been the fact, was false and hypocritical, in order to deceive men while he mocked God! In either case, we learn from his unhappy example, carefully to examine ourselves, as to our real state before our Maker; and not to rest content with an outward shew of religion, destitute of a spiritual change of heart. Like the Pharisees of old, we may deceive others, we may even deceive ourselves; but we cannot deceive God.

He requireth truth in the inward parts; he is not satisfied with the name or form of religion; he will not lower the just requirements of his holy law to the level of our imperfect conceptions of it, or acquit us, because we either are, or think ourselves, better than other men, while in his sight we are still corrupt, and guilty, and destitute of all true religion. The frame of mind which he requires and approves, is the very reverse of that which we have been considering, as will appear, if we advert to the conduct and language of the other individual mentioned in the text, the Publican, of whom it is said, that "he went down to his house justified rather than the other."

The feelings of this man's mind were strikingly displayed in his outward gestures and demeanour. Standing afar off, he would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven; but smote upon his breast." He did not press foremost in the throng of worshippers, or study to be seen of men: he went up to the temple because that was the place appointed for the worship of God; there was the visible emblem of his presence, there was placed the seat of mercy, and there was prayer wont to be made; but he stood afar off; he felt his unworthiness; his eye was bent upon the ground, for his iniquities had taken such hold of him that he could not look up; he smote upon his breast, and penitently uttered the few but expressive words which formed his humble supplication to his Creator.

. And what were those words? Did they contain, like the address of the Pharisee, a statement of his own good deeds? Did he dissemble or cloak his transgressions before God; or, if in words he confessed them, did he add some vain excuse to diminish their heinousness? or did he plead the merit of some supposed virtues, to counterbalance the guilt of his offences; or make promises of future good deeds, to atone for his past transgressions? No, he uttered

but one plain, simple petition; but that petition was most full of meaning. "God be merciful," said he, "to me, a sinner." How much is indicated in those words! They imply his reverence for the majesty of God; a penitent confession of his sins; an affecting sense of his own unworthiness; an acknowledgment of his need of mercy from his offended Creator, and a consciousness that in that mercy alone was his only hope.-Where the heart is truly impressed with a sense of our sinfulness in the sight of God, our prayer will be in substance that of the Publican. The great subject of our petitions will be not any thing worldly, not the honours, or riches, or pleasures of a vain and sinful life, but the pardon of our sins, a renewal of our fallen nature, acceptance with God, grace to walk in the way of his commandments, the consolations of his Holy Spirit, and at length an abundant entrance into his kingdom of glory. All other things will be subordinate, and will be implored only in submission to his Divine will. But mercy, the free favour of God in Christ, not for the merit of any works which we can perform, but springing from his own infinite compassion to us miserable sinners, will be the chief object of our wishes and prayers. In the most depressed condition, the prayer of the Publican will suit our wants; and, amidst the highest attainments in religion, it will never become superfluous. So long as we continue in the present sinful world, we shall remain partakers of its defilements, and therefore shall daily need to pray, "God be merciful to me a sinner.”

And what, in conclusion, was the issue of the address of the Pharisee, and the prayer of the Publican? The latter" went down to his house justified rather than the other;" that is, and not the other. The humble suit of the penitent Publican found acceptance with God: he was absolved of his sins, and received into favour with his Maker; while the

Pharisee, satisfied with his own righteousness, and preferring selfapplause and the honour that cometh fron man more than the favour of God, left the presence of his Creator without any token of approbation. Like Cain, his offering was rejected, because it was not presented as God required. While he was expressing his contempt for his neighbour, he who discerned what passed in his heart, far from approving of his selfstyled excellencies, says of all such offerings, "They are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day." We must not, in perusing this parable, fall into the error of supposing that it was the moral observances of the Pharisee that caused his rejection, or the supposed vices of the Publican that peculiarly fitted him for the reception of Divine mercy. Of the private life of either we know nothing; and it is not perhaps unlikely that the balance of moral virtues might be in favour of the Publican, rather than of his ostentatious neighbour. But the lesson which we learn from the parable is, that whatever may be our character in other respects, in the sight of God we are sinful and perishing creatures, without any ground

for boasting, and needing salvation through his free mercy, in Christ Jesus. On that mercy then let us humbly rely. If, like the Publican,we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us look to the cross of Christ, to that blood which cleanses from all sin, for the expiation of our transgressions. And then, being justified by his merits, let us remember his oft-repeated command," Go, and sin no more;" for vain would be our hope, that we shall obtain pardon by merely adopting the language of the Publican, if we are not partakers of the same humility and tenderness of conscience. If we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear us; but if weary and heavy laden under the burden of our transgressions, we come to the throne of Divine Mercy, and seek deliverance from them, we shall find pardon and rest unto our souls. Then, having much forgiven, we shall love much; and our great effort and delight will be to live to the glory of Him who thus graciously interposed the arm of his mercy for our deliverance.