9. It is impossible indeed to have too high an esteem for the faith of God’s elect. And we must all declare, By grace ye are saved through faith:—not of works, lest any man should boast. We must cry aloud to every penitent sinner, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But at the same time we must take care to let all men know, we esteem no faith but that which worketh by love: and that we are not saved by faith, unless so far as we are delivered from the power as well as the guilt of sin. And when we say, Believe and thou shaltbe saved; we do not mean, “Believe and thou shalt step from sin to heaven; without any holiness coming between; faith supplying the place of holiness:” but, believe and thou shalt be holy: believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt have peace and power together. Thou shalt have power from him in whom thou believest, to trample sin under thy feet; power to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and to serve him with all thy strength. Thou shalt have power, by patient continuance in well-doing, to seek for glory and honour and immortality. Thou shalt both do and teach all the commandments of God, from the least even to the greatest. Thou shalt teach them by thy life as well as thy words, and so be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

IV. 1. Whatever other way we teach to the kingdom of heaven, to glory, honour and immortality, be it called the way of faith, or by any other name, it is in truth, the way to destruction. It will not bring a man peace at the last. For thus saith the Lord, Verily I say unto you, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The Scribes, mentioned so often in the New Testament as some of the most constant and vehement opposers of our Lord, were not secretaries, or men, employed in writing only, as that term might incline us to believe. Neitherwere they lawyers, in our common sense of the word (altho’ the word νομικοί is so rendered in our translation.) Their employment had no affinity at all, to that of a lawyer among us. They were conversant with the laws of God, and not with the laws of man. These were their study: it was their proper and peculiar business, to read and expound the law and the prophets; particularly in the synagogues. They were the ordinary, stated preachers among the Jews. So that if the sense of the original word was attended to, we might render it, the divines. For these were the men who made divinity their profession; and they were generally (as their name literally imports) men of letters; men of the greatest account for learning that were then in the Jewish nation.

2. The Pharisees were a very antient sect, or body of men, among the Jews: originally so called from the Hebrew word ‏פרש‎, which signifies, to separate or divide. Not that they made any formal separation from, or division in the national church. They were only distinguished from others, by greater strictness of life, by more exactness of conversation. For they were zealous of the law in the minutest points; paying tithes of mint, anise and cummin. And hence they were had in honour of all the people, and generally esteemed the holiest of men.

Many of the Scribes were of the sect of the Pharisees. Thus St. Paul himself, who was educatedfor a Scribe, first at the university of Tarsus, and after that in Jerusalem, at the feet of Gamaliel (one of the most learned Scribes or doctors of the law that were then in the nation) declares of himself before the council, [93]I am a Pharisee the son of a Pharisee: and before king Agrippa, [94]After the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And the whole body of the Scribes generally esteemed and acted in concert with the Pharisees. Hence we find our Saviour so frequently coupling them together, as coming in many respects under the same consideration. In this place they seem to be mentioned together, as the most eminent professors of religion: the former of whom were accounted the wisest, the latter the holiest of men.

3. What the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees really was, it is not difficult to determine. Our Lord has preserved an authentic account, which one of them gave of himself. And he is clear and full in describing his own righteousness; and cannot be supposed to have omitted any part of it. He went up indeed into the temple to pray: but was so intent upon his own virtues, that he forgot the design upon which he came. For ’tis remarkable, he does not properly pray at all. He only tells God, how wise and good he was. God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are; extortioners, unjust, adulterers; or even as this Publican. I fast twice inthe week; I give tithes of all that I possess. His righteousness therefore consisted of three parts, first, saith he, I am not as other men are. I am not an extortioner, not unjust, not an adulterer; not even as this Publican. Secondly, I fast twice in the week; and thirdly, give tithes of all that I possess.

I am not as other men are. This is not a small point. It is not every man that can say this. It is as if he had said, I do not suffer myself to be carried away by that great torrent, custom. I live not by custom, but by reason; not by the examples of men, but by the word of God. I am not an extortioner, not unjust, not an adulterer: however common these sins are even among those who are called the people of God: (extortion, in particular, a kind of legal injustice: not punishable by any human law, the making gain of another’s ignorance or necessity, having filled every corner of the land) nor even as this Publican; not guilty of any open or presumptuous sin: not an outward sinner: but a fair, honest man, of blameless life and conversation.

4. I fast twice in the week. There is more implied in this, than we may at first be sensible of. All the stricter Pharisees observed the weekly fasts; namely, every Monday and Thursday. On the former day, they fasted in memory of Moses receiving on that day (as their tradition taught) the two tables of stone written by thefinger of God: on the latter, in memory of his casting them out of his hand, when he saw the people dancing round the golden calf. On these days, they took no sustenance at all till three in the afternoon; the hour at which they began to offer up the evening sacrifice in the temple. Till that hour it was their custom to remain in the temple, in some of the corners, apartments or courts thereof; that they might be ready to assist at all the sacrifices, and to join in all the public prayers. The time between, they were accustomed to employ, partly in private addresses to God, partly in searching the scriptures, in reading the law and the prophets, and in meditating thereon. Thus much is implied in, I fast twice in the week, the second branch of the righteousness of a Pharisee.

5. I give tithes of all that I possess. This the Pharisees did with the utmost exactness. They would not except the most inconsiderable thing, no, not mint, anise and cummin. They would not keep back the least part of what they believed properly to belong to God; but gave a full tenth of their whole substance yearly, and of all their increase, whatsoever it was.

Yea, the stricter Pharisees (as has been often observed, by those who are versed in the ancient Jewish writings) not content with giving one tenth of their substance to God, in his priests and Levites, gave another tenth to God in the poor, and that continually. They gave the sameproportion of all they had in alms, as they were accustomed to give in tithes. And this likewise they adjusted with the utmost exactness, that they might not keep back any part, but might fully render unto God the things which were God’s, as they accounted this to be. So that, upon the whole, they gave away, from year to year, an entire fifth of all that they possest.