own elect, which cry day and night unto him?--I tell you that he will
avenge them speedily."

This is therefore a very comfortable parable to such of the saints as
are under hard usage by reason of evil men, their might and tyranny:
for by it we are taught to believe and expect, that God, though for a
while he seemeth not to regard, yet will, in due time and season,
arise and set such in safety from them that puff at them; Psalm xii.
4.

Let the good Christian pray always; let him pray, and not faint at
seeming delays; for if the widow by importunity prevailed with the
unjust judge, how much more shall he with his heavenly 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 chosen for my text;
by which he designeth two things: First, The conviction of the proud
and self-conceited Pharisee: Secondly, The raising up and healing of
the cast down and dejected Publican. And observe it, as by the first
parable he chiefly designeth the relief of those that are under the
hands of cruel tyrants, so by this he designeth the relief of those
that lie under the load and burden of a guilty and disquieted
conscience.

This therefore is a parable that is full of singular comfort to such
of the sinners in the world that are clogged with guilt and sense of
sin; and that lie under the apprehensions of, and that are driven to
God by the sense of the judgment that for sin is due unto them.