SERMON VI. LUKE xviii. 14. 1st Part. I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other : T HESE words are the judgment which our SAUIOUR has left upon the behaviour and different degrees of merit in the two men, the pharifee and publican, whom he represents in the foregoing parable as going up into the temple to pray; in what manner they discharged this great and folemn duty, will best be seen from a confideration of the prayer, which each is faid to have addressed to God upon the occafion. The The pharifee, instead of an act of humiliation in that awful presence before which he stood, with an air of triumph and self-fufficiency, thanks God that he had not made him like others - extortioners, adulterers, unjust, or even as this publican.-The publican is represented as. standing afar off, and with a heart touched with humility from a just sense of his : own unworthiness, is faid only to have fmote upon his breast, saying - GOD be merciful to me a finner. I tell you, adds our SAVIOUR, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Though the justice of this determination strikes every one at first sight, it may not be amiss to enter into a more particular examination of the evidence and reasons upon which it might be founded, not |