But that which heightened the spirit of the people against them, and that made them so odious and filthy in their eyes, was for that (at least so I think) these publicans were not, as other officers, aliens, Heathens, and Gentiles, but men of their own nation, Jews, and so the brethren of those that they so abused. Had they been Gentiles, it had not been wondered at.

The Publican then was a Jew, a kind of a renegade Jew, that through the love that he had to unjust gains, fell off in his affections from his brethren, adhered to the Romans, and became a kind of servant to them against their brethren, farming the Heathenish taxations at the hand of strangers, and exacting of them upon their brethren with much cruelty, falsehood and extortion. And hence, as I said, it was, that to be a Publican, was to be so odious a thing, so vile a sinner, and so grievous a man in the eyes of the Jews. Why! this was the Publican, he was a Jew, and so should have abode with them, and have been content to share with his brethren in their calamities; but contrary to nature, to law, to religion, reason, and honesty, he fell in with the Heathen, and took the advantage of their tyranny to pole, to rob, and impoverish his brethren.

But for proof that the Publican. was a Jew.

1. They are even then, when compared with, yet distinguished from the Heathen; "Let him be to thee as an Heathen man and a Publican," Matth. xviii. which two terms, I think, must not here be applied to one and the self-same man, as if the Heathen was a Publican, or the Publican a Heathen, but to men of two distinct nations; as that Publican and Harlot, is to be understood of sinners of both sexes. The Publican is not an Harlot, for he is a man, &c. and such a man as as been described before. So by Publicans and Sinners, is meant such sinners as the Gentiles were ; or such as by the text, the Publican is distinguished from: Where the Pharisee, saith he, was not an extortioner, unjust, adulterer, or even as this Publican. Nor can he (by Heathen man) intend the person, and

by the term Publican, the office or place of the Heathen man; but by Publican is meant the renegade Jew, in such a place, &c. as if yet further manifest by that which follows, For,

2. Those Publicans, even every one of them that by name are made mention of in the New Testament, have such names put upon them; yea, and other circumstances thereunto annexed, as doth demonstrate them to be Jews, I remember the names of no more but three, to wit, Matthew, Levi, and Zaccheus, and they were all Jews.

(1.) Matthew was a Jew, and the same Matthew was a Publican; yea, and also afterward an apostle. He was a Jew, and wrote his gospel in Hebrew; he was an apostle, and is therefore found among the twelve. That he was a Publican too, is as evident by his own words: for though Mark and Luke, in their mentioning of his name and apostleship, do forbear to call him a Publican, (Mark iii. 18. Luke vi. 15.) yet when this Matthew comes to speak of himself, he calls himself Matthew the Publican, (Matth. x. 3.) for I count this the self-same Matthew that Mark and Luke make mention of, because I find no other Matthew among the apostles but he: Matthew the Publican, Matthew the man so deep in apostacy, Matthew the man of that ill fame among his brethren. Love, in Mark and Luke, when they counted him among the apostles, did cover with silence this his Publican state; and it is meet for Peter to call Paul his beloved brother, when Paul himself shall call himself the chief of sinners ;)

* Publicans were officers chosen from among the Jews, by the Romans, to gather their Taxes; they were held in much the same estimation as sheriff's officers, (vulgarly called bum bailiffs) are at the present day, and were probably guilty of the sins of covetousness, extortion, and oppression, which gave occasion to the cavils and exceptions made by the Scribes and Pharisees at our Lord, for his free conversation with them; not considering that he associated with them rather as their Physician than companion; to the end that the power and efficacy of his grace might more eminently appear in the conver sion of such notorious sinners.

sinners;) but faithfulness to the world, and a desire to be abased, that Christ thereby, and grace by him, might be advanced, made Matthew, in his evangelical writings, call himself by the name of Matthew the Publican. Nor has he lost thereby; for Christ again to exalt him, (as he hath also done by the apostle Paul,) hath set by his special providence, the testimony that this Matthew hath given of his birth, life, death, doctrine, and miracles, in the front of all the new Tes

tament.

(2.) The next Publican that I find by the Testament of Christ, made mention of by name is Levi, another of the apostles of Jesus Christ. This Levi, also, by the Holy Ghost in holy writ, is called by the name of James: Not James the brother of John, for Zebedee was his father; but James the son of Alpheus. Now I take this Levi also to be another than Matthew; first, because Matthew is not called the son of Alpheus; and because Matthew and Levi, or James the son of Alpheus, are distinctly counted where the names of the apostles were mentioned, Matt. x. 3. for two distinct persons : And that this Levi, or James the apostle, was a Publican, as was the apostle Matthew, whom we mentioned before, is evident; for both Mark and Luke do count him such. First, Mark saith, Christ found him when he called him, as he also found Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom; yea, Luke words it thus: "He went forth and saw a Publican named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he said unto him follow "Mark ii. 14. Luke v. 27.

Now that this Levi, or James the son of Alpheus, was a Jew, his name doth well make manifest. Besides, had there been among the apostles any more Gentiles save Simon the Canaanite, or if this Levi James had been here, I think the Holy Ghost would, to have distinguished him, have included him in the same discriminating character as he did the other, when he called him Simon the Canaanite, Matt. x. 4.

Matthew, therefore, and Levi or James, were both

Publicans,

Publicans. and, as I think, called both at the same time; were both Publican-Jews, and made by grace the apostles of Jesus Christ.

(3.) The next Publican that I find by name made mention of in the Testament of Christ, is one Zaccheus ; and he was a Publican; yea, for ought I know, the master of them all. "There was a man," saith Luke, "named Zaccheus, which was the chief among the Publicans, and he was rich," Luke xix. 2 This man, Christ saith, was a son of Abraham, that is, as other Jews were ; for he spake to stop the mouths of their Pharisaical cavillations. Besides, the Publican shewed himself to be such an one, when under a supposition of wronging any man, he has respect to the Jewish law of restoring fourfold, Exod. xvii. 1. 2 Sam. xii. 6.

It is further manifest that he was a Jew, because Christ puts him among the lost; to wit, among the lost sheep of the house of Israel, ver. 10. and Matt. xv. 24. for Zaccheus was one that might properly be said to be lost, and that in the Jews account: Lost, I say, and that not only in the most common sense, by reason of transgression against the law, but for that he was an apostate Jew, not with reference to Heathenish religion, but as to Heathenish, cruel, and barbarous actions; and therefore he was, as the other, by his brethren, counted as bad as Heathens, Gentiles, and Harlots. But salvation has come to this house, saith Christ, and that notwithstanding his public practice, forasmuch as he also is the son of Abraham.

3. Again, Christ, by the parable of the lost sheep. doth plainly intimate, that the Publican was a Jew.

"Then drew near all the Publicans and sinners for to hear him, and the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them."

But by what answer doth Christ repel their objections? Why, he saith, "What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find it?" Doth he not here, by

the

the lost sheep, mean the poor Publican? plenty of whom, while he preached this sermon, were there, as objects of the Pharisee's scorn, but of the pity and compassion of Jesus Christ; he did without doubt mean them. For, pray, what was the flock, and who Christ's sheep under the law, but the house and people of Israel ? Ezek. xliii. 30, 31. So then, Who could be the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but such as was Matthew, James, Zaccheus, and their companions in their and such-like transgressions.

4. Besides, had not the Publicans been of the Jews, how easy had it been for the Pharisees to have objected, that an impertinency was couched in that most excellent parable of the lost sheep? They might have said, We are offended, because thou receivest the Publicans, and thou for vindication of they practice propoundest a parable of lost sheep; but they are the sinners of the house of Israel, and the Publicans are aliens and Gentiles. I say, How easily might they thus have objected? but they knew full well, that the parable was pertinent, for that the Publicans were of the Jews, and not of the aliens. Yea, had they not been Jews, it cannot, it must not be thought, that Christ (in sum) I should call them so; and yet he did so, when he called

them lost sheep.

Now, that these Publicans were Jews, what follows, but that for this they were a great deal more abominated by their brethren: And (as I have also hinted before) it is no marvel that they were: for a treacherous brother is worse than an open enemy, Pasl. lv. 12, 13. For, if to be debauched in an open and common transgression is odious, how odious is it for a brother to be so; for a brother in nature and religion to be so? I say again, all this they did, as both John insinuates, and Zaccheus confesses.

The Pharisee therefore, was not so good, but the Publican was as bad. Indeed the Publican was à notorious wretch, one that had a way of transgressing by himself; one that could not be sufficiently con

demned