The Pharisee and the Publican | Page 6

harlots." "Publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of
heaven." Yea, when our Lord Christ would have the rebellious
professor stigmatized to purpose, he saith, "Let him be to thee as an
heathen man and a publican."
We therefore can make no judgment of men upon the outward
appearance of them. Who would have thought, but that the Pharisee had
been a good man? for he was righteous; for he prayed. And who could
have thought, that the other had been a good man? for he was a
Publican; a man, by good men and bad men, joined with the worst of
men, to wit, with sinners, harlots, heathens.
The Pharisee was a sectarian; the Publican was an officer. The Pharisee,
even because he was a sectarian, was had the more in esteem; and the
Publican, because he was an officer, was had the more in reproach. To
speak a little to both these:
1. The Pharisee was a sectarian; one that deviated, that turned aside in
his worshipping from the way of God, both in matter and manner of
worship; for such an one I count a sectarian. That he turned aside from
the matter, which is the rule of worship, to wit, the written word, it is
evident; for Christ saith, that they rejected the commandments of God,
and made them of no effect, that they might keep their own traditions.
That they turned aside also as to their manner of worship, and became
sectarians, there is with no less authority asserted--"For all their works
they do for to be seen of men;" Acts xxvi. 5; Mark vii. 9-13; Matt. xxiii.
5.
Now this being none of the order or ordinance of Christ, and yet being
chosen by, and stuck to of these sort of men, and also made a singular
and necessary part of worship, became a sect, or bottom for those

hypocritical factious men to adhere unto, and to make of others
disciples to themselves. And that they might be admired, and rendered
'venerable by the simple people to their fellows, they loved to go in
long robes; they loved to pray in markets, and in the corners of the
streets; they shewed great zeal for the small things of the law, but had
only great words for things that were substantial--"They made broad
their phylacteries, and enlarged the borders of their garments;" Matt.
xxiii.
When I say the Pharisee was a sectarian, I do not mean that every
sectarian is a Pharisee. There were the sects of the Herodians, of the
Alexandrians, and of the Sadducees, with many others; but to be a
Pharisee, was to be of the straitest sect: "After the most straitest sect of
our religion, I lived a Pharisee." That, therefore, of all the sects, was the
most strait and strict. Therefore, saith he, in another place, "I was
taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers." And
again, "Touching the law, a Pharisee;" Acts xxii. 3; xxvi. 4-6; Phil. iii.
5. The Pharisee, therefore, did carry the bell, and wear the garland for
religion; for he outdid, he went beyond all other sectarians in his day.
He was strictest, he was the most zealous; therefore Christ, in his
making of this parable, waived all other sects then in being, and pitched
upon the Pharisee as the man most meet, by whose rejection he might
shew forth and demonstrate the riches of his mercy in its extension to
sinners: "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee:"
such a brave man as you have heard.
2. The Publican also went up thither to pray. The Publican, I told you
before, was an officer: an officer that served the Romans and himself
too; for the Romans at that time were possessors of the land of Jewry
(the lot of Israel's inheritance), and the emperor Tiberius Caesar placed
over that land four governors, to wit, Pilate, Herod, Philip, and
Lysanias; all these were Gentiles, heathens, infidels; and the publicans
were a sort of inferior men, to whom was let out to farm, and so men
that were employed by these to gather up the taxes and customs that the
heathens had laid upon the Jews to be paid to the emperor; Luke ii. 1;
iii. 1, 2, 12, 13.
But they were a generation of men that were very injurious in the
execution of their office. They would exact and demand more than was
due of the people; yea, and if their demands were denied, they would

falsely accuse those that so denied them to the governor, and by false
accusation obtain the money of the people, and so wickedly enrich
themselves, Luke iii. 13, 14; xix. 2, 8. This was therefore grievous to
the Jews,