Pharisee and the publican (Parable) -- Early works to 1800
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 quarrelest with the doctrine of free grace, or
else dost wrest it out of its place to serve thy Pharisaical 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 anything 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,
4. In all that thou sayst 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 anything 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 state as God hath not put them into, and then impute it to God,
saying, God, I thank thee, that thou hast done it; for what greater sin
than to make God a liar, or than to father that upon God which he never
meant, intended, or did: and all this under colour to glorify God, when
there is nothing else designed, but to take all glory from him, and to
wear it on thine own head as a crown, and a diadem, in the face of the
whole world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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