righteous man, that hath left off to do evil, and hath learned to do
well, Isa. i. 16, 17; that hath cast off the works of darkness, and
put on the armour of light. "Flee youthful lusts (said Paul), but
follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on
the Lord out of a pure heart;" 2 Tim. ii. 22.

The Pharisee, therefore, as to the general description of
righteousness, made his definition right; but as to his person and
personal righteousness, he made his definition wrong. I do not mean
he defined his own righteousness wrong; but I mean his definition of
true righteousness, which standeth in negative and positive holiness,
he made to stoop to justify his own righteousness, and therein he
played the hypocrite in his prayer: for although it is true
righteousness that standeth in negative and positive holiness; yet
that this is not true righteousness that standeth, but in some pieces
and ragged remnants of negative and positive righteousness. If then
the Pharisee would, in his definition of personal righteousness, have
proved his own righteousness to be good, he must have proved, that
both his negative and positive holiness had been universal; to wit,
that he had left off to act in any wickedness, and that he had given
up himself to the duty enjoined in every commandment: for so the
righteous man is described; Job i. 8; ii. 3. As it is said of
Zacharias and Elisabeth his wife, "They were both righteous before
God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless;" Luke i. 5, 6. Here the perfection, that is, the
universality, of their negative holiness is implied, and the
universality of their positive holiness is expressed: they walked in
all the commandments of the Lord; but that they could not do, if they
had lived in any unrighteous thing or way. They walked in all
blamelessly, that is, sincerely, with upright hearts. The Pharisee's