charging tliem with transgressing the commandment of God. " Knowest thoii/' they said, " that the Pharisees were offended." To this question we are indebted for our Lord's ex23lanatory declaration — a declaration which perha23s has never received the notice it deserves.
The plain meaning of our Lord's words is, that false doctrine like that of the Pharisees, was a plant to which no mercy should he shown. — It was a " plant which His heavenly Father had not planted/' and a plant which it was a duty to root up, whatever offence it might cause. It was no charity to spare it, because it was injurious to the souls of men. — It. mattered nothing that those who planted it were high in office, or learned. If it contra- dicted the word of Grod, it ought to be opposed, refuted, and rejected. — His disciples must therefore understand that it was right to resist all teaching that was unscrip- tural, and to " let alone," and forsake all instructors who persisted in it. — Sooner or later they would find that all false doctrine will be completely overthrown, and put to shame, and nothing shaU stand but that which is built on the word of God.
There are lessons of deep wisdom in this saying of our Lord, which serve to throw light on the duty of many a professing Christian. Let us scan them well, and see what they are. It was practical obedience to this sapng which produced the blessed Protestant Keformation. Its lessons deserve close attention.
Do we not see here the duty of boldness in resisting f ilse teaching ? Beyond doubt we do. No fear of giving offence, no dread of ecclesiastical censure, should make us hold our peace, when God's truth is in peril.
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If we are true followers of our Lord, we ought to be out- speaking, unflinching witnesses against error. " Truth/' says Musculus, " must not be suppressed because men are wicked and blind/'
Do we not see again the duty of forsaking false teachers, if they will not give up their delusions ? Be- yond doubt we do. No false delicacy, no mock humility should make us shrink from leaving the ministrations of any minister who contradicts God's word. It is at our peril if we submit to unscriptural teaching. Our blood will be on our own heads. To use the words of Whitby, " It never can be rio-ht to follow the blind into the ditch."
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Do we not see, in the last place, the duty of patience, when we see false teaching abound ? Beyond doubt we do. We may take comfort in the thought that it will not stand long. God Himself will defend the cause of His own truth. Sooner or later every heresy "shall be rooted up." We are not to fight with carnal weapons, but wait, and preach, and protest, and pray. Sooner or later, as Wycliffe said, " the truth shall prevail."
Respecting the heart of man, our Lord declares in these verses, that it is the true source of all sin and defile- ment. The Pharisees taught that holiness depended on meats and drinks, on bodily washings and purifications. — ■ They held that all who observed theii' traditions on these matters were pure and clean in God's sight, and that all who neglected them were impure and unclean. — Our Lord overthrew this miserable doctrine, by showing His disciples that the real fountain of all defilement was not without a man, but within. " Out of the heart," He says, " proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,