hast blasphemed God, thou hast undervalued the glory of his grace; thou hast, what in thee lieth, opposed the glorious design of heaven! Thou hast sought to make thy filthy rags to share in thy justification. Now, all these are mighty sins; these have made thine iniquity infinite. What wilt thou do? Thou hast created to thyself a world of needless miseries. I call them needless, because thou hadst more than enough before. Thou hast set thyself against God in a way of contending; thou standest upon thy points and pantables: Thou wilt not bate God an ace, of what thy righteousness is worth, and wilt also make it worth what thyself shalt list. Thou wilt be thine own judge, as to the worth of thy righteousness; thou wilt neither hear what verdict the word has passed about it, nor wilt thou endure, that God should throw it out in the matter of thy justification, but quarrellest with the doctrine of free grace, or else dost wrest it out of its place to serve thy PhariPha-saical designs; saying, God, I thank thee, I am not as other men;' fathering upon thyself, yea, upon God and thyself, a stark lie; for thou art as other men are, though not in this, yet in that; yea, in a far worse condition than the most of men are. Nor will it help thee any thing to attribute this thy goodness to the God of heaven: for that is but a mere toying; the truth is, the God that thou intendest, is nothing but thy righteousness; and the grace that thou supposest, is nothing but thine own good and honest intentions. So that, every man, therefore, take heed what he doth, and Fourth, In all that thou sayest, thou dost but play the downright hypocrite. Thou pretendest indeed to mercy, but thou intendest nothing but merit. Thou seemest to give the glory to God; but at the same time takest it all to thyself. Thou despisest others, and criest up thyself, and in conclusion fatherest all upon God by word, and upon thyself in truth. Nor is there any thing more common among this sort of men, than to make God, his grace, and kindness, the stalking-horse to their own praise, saying, God, I thank thee when they trust to themselves that they are righteous, and have not need of any repentance; when the truth is, they are the worst sort of men in the world, because they put themselves into such a *Points and pantables;' quibbles and quirks. With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes; He robb'd not, but he borrowed from the poor.'-Dryden. Pantable,' from pantoufle, a slipper. To stand upon his pantables, was a contemptuous mode of speech, to express a very dishonourable man's 'standing upon his honour,' which could so easily be slipped from under him. What pride is equal to the pope's in making kings kiss his pantables.' Sir E. Sandys. He standeth upon his pantables, and regardeth greatly his reputation.' Saker's Character of a Fraudulent Fellow. Bunyan was peculiarly happy in his use of popular and proverbial Awake man! What hast thou done? Thou expressions.-ED. state as God hath not put them into, and then | transgressions? A self-righteous man therefore can come to God for mercy none otherwise than fawningly: For what need of mercy hath a righteous man? Let him then talk of mercy, of grace, and goodness, and come in an hundred times with his, 'God, I thank thee,' in his mouth, all is but words, there is no sense, nor savour, nor relish of mercy and favour; nor doth he in truth, from his very heart, understand the nature of mercy, nor what is an object thereof; but when he thanks God, he praises himself; when he pleads for mercy, he means his own merit; and all this is manifest from what doth follow; for, saith he, 'I am not as this Publican!' Thence clearly insinuating, that not the good, but the bad, should be rejected of the God of heaven: That not the bad but the good; not the sinner, but the self-righteous, are the most proper objects of God's favour. The same thing is done by others in this our day: Favour, mercy, grace, and God I thank thee,' is in their mouths, but their own strength, sufficiency, free-will, and the like, they are the things they mean, by all such high and glorious expressions. [SECOND JUSTICE.] But, secondly, If thy plea be not for mercy, but for justice, then to speak a little to that. Justice has measures and rules to go by; unto which measures and rules, if thou comest not up, justice can do thee no good. Come then, O thou blind Pharisee, let us pass away a few minutes in some discourse about this. Thou demandest justice, because God hath said, that the man that doth these things shall live in and by them. And again, the doers of the law shall be justified; not in a way of mercy, but in a way of justice. He shall live by them. But what hast thou done, O blind Pharisee! What hast thou done, that thou art emboldened to venture, to stand and fall to the most perfect justice of God? Hast thou fulfilled the whole law, and not offended in one point? Hast thou purged thyself from the pollutions and motions of sin that dwell in the flesh, and work in thy own members? Is the very being of sin rooted out of thy tabernacle? And art thou now as perfectly innocent as ever was Jesus Christ? Hast thou, by suffering the uttermost punishment that justice could justly lay upon thee for thy sins, made fair and full satisfaction to God, according to the tenor of his law for thy If thou hast done all these things, then thou mayest plead something, and yet but something for thyself in a way of justice. Nay, in this I will assert nothing, but rather inquire:-What hast thou gained by all this thy righteousness? (we will now suppose what must not be granted) Was not this thy state when thou wast in thy first parents? Wast thou not innocent, perfectly innocent and righteous? And if thou shouldest be so now, what hast thou gained thereby? Suppose that the man, that had forty years ago forty pounds of his own, and had spent it all since, should yet be able now to show his forty pounds again? What has he got thereby, or how much richer is he at last, than he was, when he first set up for himself. Nay, doth not the blot of his ill living betwixt his first and his last, lie as a blemish upon him, unless he should redeem himself also by works of supererogation, from the scandal that justice may lay at his door for that? But, I say, suppose, O Pharisee, this should be thy case, yet God is not bound to give thee in justice that eternal life, which by his grace he bestoweth upon those, that have redemption from sin, by the blood of his Son. In justice therefore, when all comes to all, thou canst require no more than an endless life in an earthly paradise; for there thou wast set up at first; nor doth it appear from what hath been said, touching all that thou hast done or canst do, that thou deservedst a better place. Did I say, that thou mayest require justly an endless life in an earthly paradise. Why? I must add to that saying, this proviso: If thou continuest in the law, and in the righteousness thereof, else not. But how dost thou know that thou shalt continue therein? Thou hast no promise from God's mouth for that, nor is grace or strength ministered to mankind by the covenant that thou art under. So that still thou standest bound to thy good behaviour, and in the day that thou dost give the first, though never so little a trip, or stumble in thy obedience, thou forfeitest thine interest in paradise, and in justice, as to any benefit there. But alas, what need is there that we should thus talk of things, when it is manifest, that thou hast sinned, not only before thou wast a Pharisee, but when, after the most strictest sect of thy religion, thou livedst also a Pharisee; yea, and now in the temple, in thy prayer there, thou showest thyself to be full of ignorance, pride, selfconceit, and horrible arrogancy, and desire of vain glory, &c., which are none of them the seat or fruits of righteousness, but the seat of the devil, and the fruit of his dwelling, even at this time, in thy heart. Could it ever have been imagined, that such audacious impudence could have put itself forth in | tion of the thought of the heart of the sons of men any mortal man, in his approach unto God by is only evil, and that continually. Wherefore they prayer, as has showed itself in thee? I am not that do as the Pharisee did, to wit, seek to justify as other men!' sayest thou; but is this the way themselves before God from the curse of the law, to go to God in prayer? Is this the way for a by their own good doings, though they also, as mortal man, that is full of sin, that stands in need the Pharisee did, seem to give God the thanks for of mercy, and that must certainly perish without all, yet do most horribly sin, even by their so doing, it, to come to God in prayer? The prayer of the and shall receive a Pharisee's reward at last. upright is God's delight. But the upright man Wherefore, O thou Pharisee, it is a vain thing for glorifies God's justice, by confessing to God the thee either to think of, or to ask for, at God's vileness and pollution of his state and condition: hand, either mercy or justice. Because mercy He glorifies God's mercy by acknowledging, that thou canst not ask for, from sense of want of that, and that only, as communicated of God by mercy, because thy righteousness, which is by the Christ to sinners, can save and deliver from the law, hath utterly blinded thine eyes, and complicurse of the law. menting with God doth nothing. And as for justice, that can do thee no good, but the more just God is, and the more by that he acteth towards thee, the more miserable and fearful will be thy condition, because of the deficiency of thy, so much by thee, esteemed righteousness. This, I say, is the sum of the prayer of the just and upright man, Job i. 8; xl. 4. Ac. xiii. 22. Ps. xxxviii.; li. 2 Sa. vi. 21, 22. and not as thou most vain-gloriously vauntest, with thy, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are.' True, when a man is accused by his neighbours, himself righteous before God.] by a brother, by an enemy, and the like; if he be [The Pharisee seeth no need of mercy, but thinketh clear, and he may be so, as to what they shall lay to his charge, then let him vindicate, justify, and acquit himself, to the utmost that in justice and truth he can; for his name, the preservation whereof is more to be chosen than silver and gold; also his profession, yea, the name of God too, and religion, may now lie at stake, by reason of such false accusations, and perhaps can by no means, as to this man, be recovered, and vindicated from reproach and scandal, but by his justifying of himself. Wherefore in such a work, a man serveth God, and saves religion from hurt; yea, as he that is a professor, and has his profession attended with a scandalous life, hurteth religion thereby: So he that has his profession attended with a good life, and shall suffer it notwithstanding, to lie under blame by false accusations, when it is in the power of his hand to justify himself, hurteth religion also. But the case of the Pharisee is otherwise. He is not here a dealing with men, but God; not seeking to stand clear in the sight of the world, but in the sight of heaven itself; and that too, not with respect to what men or angels, but with respect to what God and his law, could charge him with and justly lay at his door. This therefore mainly altereth the case; for a man here to stand thus upon his points, it is death; for he affronteth God, he giveth him the lie, he reproveth the law, and in sum, accuseth it of bearing false witness against him; he doth this, I say, even by saying, 'God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are;' for God hath made none of this difference. The law condemneth all men as sinners, and testifieth, that every imagina * See note on page 235. What a deplorable condition then is a poor Pharisee in! For mercy he cannot pray, he cannot pray for it with all his heart; for he seeth, indeed, no need thereof. True, the Pharisee, though he was impudent enough, yet would not take all from God; he would still count, that there was due to him a tribute of thanks: God, I thank thee,' saith he, but yet not a bit of this, for mercy; but for that he had let him live, for I know not for what he did thank himself, till he had made himself better than other men; but that betterment was a betterment in none other judgment than that of his own, and that was none other but such an one as was false. So then, the Pharisee is by this time quite out of doors; his righteousness is worth nothing, his prayer is worth nothing, his thanks to God are worth nothing; for that what he had was scanty, and imperfect, and it was his pride that made him offer it to God for acceptance; nor could his fawning thanksgiving better his case, or make his matter at all good before God. But I'll warrant you, the Pharisee was so far off from thinking thus of himself, and of his righteousness, that he thought of nothing so much as of this, that he was a happy man; yea, happier by far than other his fellow rationals. Yea, he plainly declares it when he saith, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are.' O what a fool's paradise was the heart of the Pharisee now in, while he stood in the temple praying to God! God, I thank thee,' said he, for I am good and holy, I am a righteous man; I have been full of good works; I am no extortioner, unjust, nor adulterer, no nor yet as this wretched Publican. I have kept myself strictly to the rule of mine order, and my order is the most strict of all orders now in being: I fast, I pray, I give tithes of all that I possess. Yea, so forward am I to be a religious man; so ready have I been to listen after my duty, that I have asked both of God and man the ordinances of judgment and justice; I take delight in approaching to God. What less now can be mine than the heavenly kingdom and glory? Now the Pharisee, like Haman, saith in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour, more than to myself? Where is the man that so pleaseth God, and consequently, that in equity and reason should be beloved of God like me? Thus like the prodigal's brother, he pleadeth, saying, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment.' Lu. xv. 29. O brave Pharisee! But go on in thine oration: Nor yet as this Publican.' Poor wretch, quoth the Pharisee to the Publican, What comest thou for? Dost think that such a sinner as thou art shall be heard of God? God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshipper of God as I am, as I thank God I am, him he heareth. Thou, for thy part, hast been a rebel all thy days: I abhor to come nigh thee, or to touch thy garments. Stand by thyself, come not near me, for I am more holy than thou. Is. lxv. 5. out of thy mouth, will make him forget that thy throat is an open sepulchre, and that thou within art full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness? Thy thus cleansing of the outside of the cup and platter, and thy garnishing of the sepulchres of the righteous, is nothing at all in God's eyes, but things that manifest, that thou art an hypocrite, and blind, because thou takest no notice of that which is within, which yet is that, which is most abominable to God. For the fruit, alas, what is the fruit to the tree, or what are the streams to the fountain! Thy fountain is defiled; yea, a defiler, and so that which maketh thy whole self, with thy works unclean in God's sight. But Pharisee, how comes it to pass, that the poor Publican is now such a mote in thine eye, that thou canst not forbear, but must accuse him before the judgment of God: for in that thou sayest, 'that thou art not even as this Publican,' thou bringest in an accusation, a charge, a bill against him. What has he done? Has he concealed any of thy righteousness, or has he secretly informed against thee that thou art an hypocrite, and superstitious? I dare say, the poor wretch has neither meddled nor made with thee in these matters. But what aileth the Pharisee? Doth the poor Publican stand to vex thee? Doth he touch thee with his dirty garments; or doth he annoy thee with his stinking breath? Doth his posture of standing so like a man condemned offend thee? True, he now standeth with his hand held up at God's bar, he pleads guilty to all that is laid to his charge. Hold, stop there, go no further; fie Pharisee, fie; Dost thou know before whom thou standest, to whom thou speakest, and of what the matter of thy silly oration is made? Thou art now before God, thou speakest now to God, and therefore in justice and honesty thou shouldest make mention of his righteousness, not of thine; of his righteous-been a naughty man! and I have been righteous, ness, and of his only. I am sure Abraham, of whom thou sayest he is thy father, never had the face to do as thou hast done, though it is to be presumed he had more cause so to do, than thou hast, or canst have. Abraham had whereof to glory, but not before God; yea, he was called God's friend, and yet would not glory before him; but humbled himself, was afraid, and trembled in himself, when he stood before him, acknowledging of himself to be but dust and ashes. Ge. xviii. 27, 30. Ro. iv. 2. But thou, as thou hadst quite forgot, that thou wast framed of that matter, and after the manner of other men, standest and pleadest thy goodness before him. Be ashamed Pharisee! Dost thou think, that God hath eyes of flesh, or that he seeth as man sees? Is not the secrets of thy heart open unto him? Thinkest thou with thyself, that thou, with a few of thy defiled ways canst cover thy rotten wall, that thou hast daubed with untempered mortar, and so hide the dirt thereof from his eyes: Or that these fine, smooth, and oily words, that come He cannot strut, vapour, and swagger as thou dost? but why offended at this? Oh but he has sayest thou. Well, Pharisee, well, his naughtiness shall not be laid to thy charge, if thou hast chosen none of his ways. But since thou wilt yet bear me down, that thou art righteous, shew now, even now, while thou standest before God with the Publican, some, though they be but small, yea, though but very small fruits of thy righteousness. Let the Publican alone, since he is speaking for his life before God. Or if thou canst not let him alone, yet do not speak against him; for thy so doing will but prove, that thou rememberest the evil that the man has done unto thee; yea, and that thou bearest him a grudge for it too, and that while you stand before God. But Pharisee, the righteous man is a merciful * Meddle nor make,' to interfere with matters that do not concern us. 'I think it no sin, to sleep in a whole skin, He that will meddle with all things, may go shoe the goslings. I'll neither meddle nor make, said Bill Heaps, when he spill'd the butter milk.' Old Proverbs.-ED. man, and while he standeth praying, he forgiveth; | rious oration from first to last? only an accusation yea, and also crieth to God that he will forgive drawn up, and that against one helpless and forhim too. Mar. xi. 25, 26. Ac. vii. 60. Hitherto then thou lorn; against a poor man, because he is a sinner; hast shewed none of the fruits of thy righteousness. drawn up, I say, against him by thee, who canst Pharisee, righteousness would teach thee to love not make proof of thyself that thou art righteous: this Publican, but thou showest that thou hatest But come to proofs of righteousness, and there thou him. Love covereth the multitude of sins; but art wanting also. What though thy raiment is hatred and unfaithfulness revealeth secrets. better than his, thy skin may be full as black: Yea, what if thy skin be whiter than his, thy heart may be yet far blacker. Yea, it is so, for the truth hath spoken it; for within you are full of excess and all uncleanness. Mat. xxiii. Pharisee, thou shouldest have remembered this thy brother in this his day of adversity, and shouldest have shewed, that thou hadst compassion to thy brother in this his deplorable condition; but thou, like the proud, the cruel, and arrogant man, hast taken thy neighbour at the advantage, and that when he is even between the straits, and standing upon the very pinnacle of difficulty, betwixt the heavens and the hells, and hast done what thou couldest, what on thy part lay, to thrust him down to the deep, saying, 'I am not even as this Publican.’ * What cruelty can be greater; what rage more furious; and what spite and hatred more damnable and implacable, than to follow, or take a man while he is asking of mercy at God's hands, and to put in a caveat against his obtaining of it, by exclaiming against him that he is a sinner? The master of righteousness doth not so: Do not think,' saith he, that I will accuse you to the Father.' Jn. v. 45. The scholars of righteousness do 'But as for me,' said David, when they (mine enemies) were sick, (and the Publican here was sick of the most malignant disease) my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer (to wit, that I made for them) returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.' Ps. xxxv. 13, 14. not so. Pharisee, Dost thou see here how contrary thou art to righteous men? Now then, where shall we find out one to parallel thee, but by finding out of him that is called the dragon; for he it is that accuseth poor sinners before God. Zec. iii. Re. xii. 'I am not as this Publican:' Modesty should have commanded thee to have bit thy tongue as to this. What could the angels think, but that revenge was now in thine heart, and but that thou comest up into the temple, rather to boast of thy self and accuse thy neighbour, than to pray to the God of heaven: For what one petition is there in all thy prayer, that gives the least intimation, that thou hast the knowledge of God or thyself? Nay, what petition of any kind is there in thy vain-glo * The accurate knowledge of Bunyan as to the meaning of law terms is very surprising, and proves him to have been an apt scholar. A caveat is a caution not to admit a will that may injure some other party.-ED. Pharisee, there are transgressions against the second table, and the Publican shall be guilty of them: But there are sins also against the first table, and thou thyself art guilty of them. The Publican, in that he was an extortioner, unjust, and an adulterer, made it thereby manifest that he did not love his neighbour; and thou by making a God, a Saviour, a deliverer, of thy filthy righteousness, doth make it appear, that thou dost not love thy God; for as he that taketh, or that derogateth from his neighbour in that which is his neighbour's due, sinneth against his neighbour, so he that taketh or derogateth from God, sinneth against God. Now then, though thou hast not, as thou dost imagine, played at that low game as to derogate from thy neighbour; yet thou hast played at that high game as to derogate from thy God; for thou hast robbed God of the glory of salvation; yea, declared, that as to that there is no trust to be put in him. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness' or substance. Ps. lii. 7. What else means this great bundle of thy own righteousness, which thou hast brought with thee into the temple? yea, what means else thy commending of thyself because of that, and so thy implicit prayer, that thou for that mightest find acceptance with God? All this, what does it argue, I say, but thy diffidence of God? and that thou countest salvation safer in thine own righteousness, than in the righteousness of God; and that thy own love to, and care of thy own soul, is far greater, and so much better, than is the care and love of God. And is this to keep the first table; yea, the first branch of that table, which saith, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God?' For thy thus doing cannot stand with love to God. How can that man say, I love God, who from his very heart shrinketh from trusting in him? Or, how can that man say, I would glorify God, who in his very heart refuseth to stand and fall by his mercy? Suppose a great man should bid all the poor of |