Transcribed from the 1845 Thomas Nelson “Works of thePuritan Divines (Bunyan)” edition , email
Two men went up into the temple to pray;the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself;God, I thank thee, that I am not as other menare, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,or even as this Publican. I fast twice in theweek, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the Publican, standing afar off would not lift upso much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon hisbreast, saying, God be merciful to me asinner.—Luke, xviii. 10–13.
In the beginning of this chapteryou read of the reason of the parable of the unjust judge and thepoor widow; namely, to encourage men to pray. “Hespake a parable to this end, that men ought always to pray, andnot to faint;” and a most sweet parable for that purpose itis: for if through importunity, a poor widow woman may prevailwith an unjust judge, and so consequently with an unmerciful andhard-hearted tyrant, how much more shall the poor, afflicted,distressed, and tempted people of God, prevail with, and obtainmercy at the hands of, a loving, just, and merciful God? The unjust judge would not hearken to, nor regard the cry of, thepoor widow, for a while: “But afterward he said withinhimself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because thiswidow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continualcoming she weary me.” “Hark,” saithChrist, “what the unjust judge saith.” “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day andnight unto him?—I tell you that he will avenge themspeedily.”
This is therefore a very comfortable parable to such of thesaints as are under hard usage by reason of evil men, their mightand tyranny: for by it we are taught to believe and expect, thatGod, though for a while he seemeth not to regard, yet will, indue time and season, arise and set such in safety from them thatpuff at them; Psalm xii. 4.
Let the good Christian pray always; let him pray, and notfaint at seeming delays; for if the widow by importunityprevailed with the unjust judge, how much more shall he with hisheavenly Father. “I tell you,” says Christ,“that he will avenge them speedily.”
But now, forasmuch as this parable reacheth not (so directly)the poor Publican in the text, therefore our Lord begins again,and adds to that other parable, this parable which I have chosenfor my text; by which he designeth two things: First, Theconviction of the proud and self-conceited Pharisee: Secondly,The raising up and healing of the cast down and dejectedPublican. And observe it, as by the first parable hechiefly designeth the relief of those that are under the hands ofcruel tyrants, so by this he designeth the relief of those thatlie under the load and burden of a guilty and disquietedconscience.
This therefore is a parable that is full of singular comfortto such of the sinners in the world that are clogged with guiltand sense of sin; and that lie under the apprehensions of, andthat are driven to God by the sense of the judgment that for sinis due unto them.
In my handling of this text, I shall have respect to thesethings—
1. To the persons in the text.
2. To the condition of the persons in the text.
3. To the conclusion that Christ makes upon themboth.
First, For the persons. They were, as you see,far one from another in their own apprehension of themselves; onegood, the other bad; but yet in the judgment of the law, bothalike, both the same, both sinners; for they both stood in needo