truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace: above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."*

From what has been said, may we not learn to judge, with some degree of precision, of the state of our souls, and of our prospects for eternity? Satan desires to have you, and is using every effort for that purpose. And there is but one effectual plan of resisting and defeating him. The important question therefore is, Are you availing yourselves of that plan? Have you acceded to its terms? If you do not accede, Satan is as sure to have you for ever as if he had you already.

If you are in Christ, marvel not at temptation. Expect it. Prepare for it. Count it not strange. But be serious and earnest. To persons in your circumstances, trifling is deathit is damnation. You do not need to take any pains to go to hell. Only take little or no pains to escape it, and it is sure to be your doom. Resist, then, with all your might, the tendency of your nature to sloth and indolence. It might, perhaps, be truly said, that, after all, the worst enemy is our own heart. We are so prone to trifling, that it requires continual grace from God to preserve us from this guilty infatuation. O, pray to be made and kept broad-awake. It will be an awful thing to awake, from the pleasing dream of mirth and folly, from the slumbers of indifference and unconcern, in hell! Merciful God, quicken Thou us according to Thy word!

Whilst, however, you guard against trifling, guard against

Ephesians vi. 10-18.

despondency. Think seriously, but do not despair. Consider your danger, that you may be kept from presumption; but consider that the eternal God is your refuge, and underneath you are His everlasting arms. Remember that no temptation hath befallen you but such as is common to men; and your Lord is faithful, who hath promised, and will with the temptation make a way for your escape, that you shall be able to bear it. Satan is mighty, but not almighty. The bit and the bridle of Jehovah are in his jaws. God hath said to him, "Hitherto thou shalt come, but no farther." Rejoice, then, though it be with trembling. More are they that be with us, than they that be against us. "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel." Satan, if permitted by God to do his worst, could only make martyrs of you, by taking away your earthly life: he cannot make you sinners without your own consent. You never need yield to him. You may be even "more than conquerors."

"Surely there is no

Rejoice in hope of that better world where temptation shall have no place. Yet a little while, and you shall give all your enemies the slip for ever. The wicked one shall cease from troubling, and the weary will be at rest. It is yet but a little while, and the heaven and the earth shall flee away. In that consummation of all things, the dominion of impiety shall be finally crushed. That old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, being cast for ever into the bottomless pit, shall deceive the nations no more; and there shall be heard voices in heaven, saying, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."* God of my fathers! may I, may all that hear me, bear some humble part in that heavenly chorus, for the Messiah's sake! Amen!

Revelation xii. 10.

SERMON XXII.

THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND OF THE SADDUCEES.

PART I.

MATTHEW Xvi. 6.

TAKE HEED AND BEWARE OF THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND OF THE SADDUCEES.

Ir was truly said of Christ, "Never man spake like this Man." This remark is applicable, not only to the matter, but also to the manner, of His teaching. Not only were His doctrines possessed of an intrinsic dignity and excellence peculiarly characteristic of truth, and far surpassing all human wisdom; but even the mode in which He introduced and taught these doctrines was in the highest degree striking and forcible, and bespoke the Divine skill of the Teacher. It was His custom to seize on every passing event,-on every occurrence of common life,-and to render it, however seemingly trivial, subservient to the purposes of Christian instruction. Of this happy facility in the religious improvement of minute circumstances, we have an instance in the passage before us. It appears that in one of His journeys He had occasion to cross the sea of Galilee. In these little excursions, it was needful that travellers should carry with them a temporary supply of provisions. Through forgetfulness, His disciples, to whom He entrusted the management of such matters, had omitted to do this. When they "were come to the other side," it was found that "they had forgotten to take bread." Instead of angrily chiding their neglect, or expressing in harsh terms His displeasure at the inconvenience to which it might subject the whole company, He seized the opportunity of

speaking to them on a subject of far profounder interest. "Take heed," said He, "and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." The meaning of this injunction will be collected from what follows:-" And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven. of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."*

The words of the text, thus interpreted, are recommended to our serious attention by the very solemn manner in which they are introduced. From a compassionate solicitude for our salvation, Jesus Christ Himself, the incarnate Word and Wisdom of God, warns us against the influence of certain doctrines and opinions which He sees to be highly injurious and dangerous. Now, as this caution, coming from such authority, and delivered in such a manner, must obviously be of high importance, let us earnestly entreat God to direct and bless us while we inquire into its import.

The doctrines of the Pharisees and the Sadducees are here compared to leaven. For, as leaven by its fermentative action circulates its principle and quality throughout the whole mass into which it is put, and assimilates that mass to itself, so these doctrines have a corrupting, contagious, and assimilating power; and are, moreover, so congenial to the depraved propensities of the unregenerate heart, that it is extremely difficult to avoid being tainted by them.

*Matthew xvi. 6-12.

This being premised, let us proceed to speak, first, of the leaven of the Pharisees, and secondly of the leaven of the Sadducees; showing, as we proceed, the antichristian character and dangerous tendency of each of these systems: which may perhaps, appear, on examination, to have been revived and propagated, though under new names, in our own age and country.

I. The leaven of the Pharisees.

It appears from both sacred and profane history, that the Pharisees were by far the most numerous and popular sect among the Jews. For almost all the learned men of that nation, who are in the New Testament called Scribes, and who claimed to be eminent for their knowledge of the Mosaic law, and its interpretation by the traditions of the elders, belonged to this sect. Accordingly we find that the Scribes and Pharisees are generally mentioned together.

The corruptions of the Pharisees may, for the sake of distinction, be summed up under three heads :

1. It appears, that, like the sect of Stoics so celebrated in ancient history, they were rigid predestinarians, or believers in what modern language calls philosophical necessity. Like most advocates for that doctrine, they were not altogether consistent with themselves. For it seems, from the account of Josephus, that they pretended to ascribe some kind of free will and free agency to man; though at the same time they asserted that God has bound everything fast in fate, and has pre-ordained all actions, circumstances, and events. Now, does not this doctrine inevitably make God the author of sin ? And if man be not able (not, indeed of himself, but by the grace and Spirit of God) to avoid sin and follow holiness, how can it be consistent with justice to punish the wicked for what he could not help, or to reward the righteous for walking in that path of virtue in which he was absolutely compelled to walk? Does not the system of necessity, or absolute unconditional predestination, make man to be a piece of mere