2. To those who are willing to be taught of God —
[The docility of a little child is one of the choicest gifts that can possibly be bestowed upon you. It is a certain pre- lude to divine instruction, and the best preparative for all the blessings of the Gospel. You need not be discouraged at the thought of your own weakness : for " what God has hid from the wise and prudent, it is his delight to reveal to babes u." " The wise he will leave to be taken in their own craftiness1:" but the more you are " a fool" in your own estimation, the more certainly and effectually shall you be made truly wisey. The Holy Spirit is promised to you, as " a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ2 :" and though the Gospel must ever remain to you an unfathomable mystery, you shall have such an insight into it as no unenlightened man can havea, and by means of it be " guided safely into the way of peace."]
n Matt. xi. 25, 26. x Tsai. xxix. 14. with 1 Cor. i. 19, 20.
y 1 Cor. iii. 18—20. z Eph. i. 17, 18. a Matt. xiii. 11.
John x. 9. I am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
THE importance of sound doctrine cannot be too strongly insisted on. Error, especially in the funda- mentals of religion, is as destructive as vice. In innumerable instances, it brings both those who pro- pagate, and those who receive it, into eternal ruin : hence St. Paul denounced anathemas against any one, even though he should be an angel from heaven, who should blend Judaism with Christianity. Our Lord himself also spake of false teachers with indignation. The Pharisees, while they rejected him, taught the people to look for salvation to their own ritual or superstitious observances ; Jesus therefore declared them to be only as " thieves and robbers," who, instead of belonging to the flock of God, sought eventually their destruction, and, in opposition to their false doctrines, affirmed3 himself to be the only door of admission into the fold of God.
a The affirmation is exceeding strong, ver. 7. and it is repeated in the text.