as unworthy your notice. How then can you expect but to have your portion with hypocrites and unbelievers, and to be turned into hell with all those who forget God?

These words may probably be very alarming to the tender spirits of some who truly fear God. Some of the sincere and humble followers of the Lamb may be ready to fear, lest he should be angry with them at last, and say, "Depart, I never knew you." But, my dear brethren, tell me, is it not your heart's desire to know and to do the will of God, particularly in those two grand points, faith and holiness? Say, is not Jesus high in your esteem; the chief of ten thousand, and altogether lovely; and would not you gladly be conformed to him, in cheerfully doing and patiently suffering the will of God? Take courage then. These words are as full of comfort for you, as they are full of terror to formalists and hypocrites. The Friend of sinners will say to his dear people, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, and for which my grace prepared your souls on earth. Enter into the joys of your Lord.

And now are any of you beginning to say, I fear I have been deceived. I fear my religion will not stand the test. I have mistaken the shadow for the substance; the shell for the kernel. What shall I do? I answer, it is an infinite mercy that you have discovered your mistake. You might have died deceived, and have been rejected by Christ. But it may be hoped that it is a token for good, and the dawn of mercy to your soul. Let your fears bring you to your knees, and at the throne of grace implore divine aid. Say, with the Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

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SERMON XVI.

THE PHARISEE AND PUBLICAN.

Luke xvi. 16.-God be merciful to me a sinner.

HERE is a time approaching, when MERCY will appear to all mankind the most valuable thing in the world. Figure to yourselves the awful hour, when you shall be about to quit this mortal state, and launch into an unknown world; realize the still more awful moment, when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised; when the great white throne shall be erected, and the assembled world shall appear before the universal Judge; when the grand separation shall be made between the righteous and wicked; the one being placed at the right hand, the other at the left of Christ-then, my friends, then will the full value of mercy be known. ✪ what a word will mercy be then; a world for mercy then! "Vessels of mercy," obtainers of mercy-how will they shout and sing, "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever." While others, in all the bitterness of fruitless woe, shall cry, O that we had but known the need of mercy, the and the vaway of mercy, lue of mercy, while it might have been had! But now the door is shut; the mercies of God are clean gone for ever, and he will be favourable no more.

With this amazing scene in prospect, let us address ourselves to the text, and to the parable of the Pharisee and Publican, of which it is a part. The introduction to it, and the conclusion of it, will be the best key to its true meaning. Ver. 9. "Our Saviour spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." Here are two bad things in their character. 1. They trusted in themselves-which no man can do, if he knows the holy law of God; and 2. They despised others, which we cannot do, if we know our own hearts. The conclusion shews how God dislikes such people, while he accepts a poor dejected sinner; for "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Ver. 14.

"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican." Ver. 10. The Pharisees were a sect of people in those days in high repute for religion; they separated themselves from others, as if more holy they distinguished themselves by peculiar zeal for ceremonies: but many of them were rank hypocrites, neglecting the religion of the heart, and indulging themselves in cruelty and oppression. The Publican also appeared at the same place, at the same time, and on the same errand; but how different their characters! Had we seen them both together, we should perhaps have thought far better of the Pharisee than of the Publican; "for man looketh only at the outward appearance, but God looketh at the heart." Very different motives brought them here. The Pharisee came because it was a public place, and he wished to be seen and admired; the Publican came because it was "a house of prayer," and he wanted to pour forth his soul before God. Thus, my friends, in all our places of worship there is a mixture of characters; but let us remember, God is the searcher of the heart, and he knows what brings us to his house.

Ver. 11. "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself:"-he stood by himself, with great formality, in a place where the people must notice him; he prayed thus with himself, and to himself, not to God: Ah, Sirs, there are many people who pray to themselves; they speak not to God; their words never reach him; they utter sounds, but not desires; this praying will do no good. It is remarkable, that in all the Pharisee's prayer there is not one petition: he came to pray; but surely he forgot his errand, for he asks nothing. Praise to God is certainly a proper and a noble part of prayer; but though he pretends to praise, he only boasts. But let us hear his fine prayer; "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." What is this but ignorance, pride, and censoriousness? Besides, he begins his prayer with a lie. He was as other men are, for all men are sinners; in this respect all are on a leyel; there is no difference, as the Scripture speaks, Rom. iii. 22, 23. It is true that some men are restrained from sins that others commit; but the seeds of every sin are by nature in the heart of every man; and if we have

not actually committed them, we owe it to the restraining power or the changing grace of God. The Pharisee seems to admit of this, by saying, "God, I thank thee;" but we have reason to doubt his sincerity in so saying; and to think they were words of course and form; for so proud a heart as his could not be duly sensible of his obligations to divine grace; and there are many, who, like him, use words of praise, but feel no gratitude to God. His meaning was probably this, " O God, thou Author of my being, I thank thee for the noble powers with which thou hast endowed me, by my own wise and careful improvement of which I have kept myself from being so wicked as other people."

You will observe, that there were two principal parts of the law; the one respected morals, the other ceremonials. Now the Pharisee takes care to brag of his regard to both; and first, to the moral law, I am not as other men are— well, what are other men? Why, according to his account, it should seem that most other men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers. At all times there are too many such people as these; but his way of mentioning them was merely for the purpose of exalting himself and his own sect, some of whom were equally criminal, though under the mask of religion. It may be the Pharisee was not an "extortioner,"-did not cruelly oppress his neighbour; but we haye Christ's authority for it, that the Pharisees were generally "covetous, and some of them "devoured widows' houses." He says he was not " unjust”—not a knave, or a cheat: but could he say he had never coveted his neighbour's goods? for this is heart-robbery in the sight of God. He says he was not an "adulterer;" it may be so; but our Lord says, that "he who looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart." Matt. v. 28. But this was the folly of such men; they washed the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they were "full of extortion and excess; righteous without, but full of hypocrisy and iniquity within ;" so Christ declares, Matt. xxiii. 26, &c.

Not content with boasting of himself, he must abuse the poor publican."I am not as this publican." What business had he with the publican? He ought to have rejoiced

to see him in the temple; he might have hoped it was a symptom of his reformation. He should have gone and shook hands with him, and given him some good advice. But his proud heart spurns at the broken-hearted sinner; just as modern Pharisees who look upon mourning souls as poor canting, whining hypocrites, far beneath their notice. There was a great deal of cruelty in this; he could not say his own prayers, without putting in a caveat, as it were, against the petition of his poor neighbour.

But the Pharisee has yet more to boast of. He had not only "done nobody any harm," as the vulgar phrase is, but he had been mighty religious; he kept Lent all the year. I fast, said he, twice a week. Occasional fasting, in order to humble ourselves before God for our sins, is very commendable, whether by private persons or public bodies; but the Pharisee's fasting was not for that purpose, but for ostentation, and with a view to merit at the hand of God, as appears by his boasting of it. Beside this, he tells God, he gave tithes of all he possessed; not only of what the law of Moses required, but of the herbs in his garden; he devoted a tenth part of all he had to religious uses, whether titheable or not by the law.

Thus you have the Pharisee's prayer; a prayer which God rejected; for though he justified himself, God did not justify him. And now, my friends, let us examine ourselves. Is there nothing of the Pharisee's spirit in us? Do we not hear people speaking the same language sometimes? Is not this all the hope of some persons, that they never did any person harm; that they pay every one his due; and perhaps that they go to church constantly, behave decently; take the sacrament, give alms; and so on? How often do we hear this language on a dying bed? Poor ignorant souls rush into the presence of God with no other foundation for their hope than the Pharisee had; while we hear not a word of true humility, poverty of spirit, sense of sin, or hope in Jesus, as the sinner's only friend and hope. O sirs, beware of resembling the Pharisee. Pleas like his may please men, but they will not succeed with God: rather let us resemble the poor broken-hearted Publican, whose character and prayer we next consider. V. 13. "And the Publican, standing afar off, would VOL. I.

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