changed, as we shall see presently, almost into the image of an incarnate fiend ]
2. Spreading —
[However large the mass of dough may be, the smallest leaven will leaven it throughout. And thus did sin operate on the soul of Adam. His understanding was rendered dark ; his will, perverse ; his affections, sensual ; his conscience, treacherous and partial. Not a member of his body, or a faculty of his soul, retained its original purity: but, as the prophet says of the Jewish people, " The whole head was sick, and the whole heart faint : from the sole of the foot even to the head there was no soundness in him ; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores." God's own testimony, respecting man in his fallen state, is, that " every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually" ]
3. Assimilating —
[The whole of the dough is by leaven changed, and will produce the same change on any other mass with which it may come in contact. So " Adam begat a son in his own fallen likeness ;" and all who have proceeded from him inherit the very same depravity which sin had produced in him. In every age, and every place, human nature is the same : there is, in all, the same alienation from God, and the same idolatrous regard to self. Education may make a difference in the habits of men; but in i\ve\x propensities there is no difference. There is, in all, the same " filthiness, both of flesh and spirit ;" the same love to sensual indulgence ; and the same disposition to pride, envy, malice, wrath, and all uncharitableness. In every living man, whether civilized or savage, there is that " wisdom only which is from beneath, which is earthly, sensual, devilish ^"]
The appeal which the Apostle makes on this sub- ject leads us to consider,
II. The importance of having just conceptions re- specting it —
It is no curious speculation that is here suggested; but a fact, that is confirmed by universal experience, and the knowledge of which is of great importance,
I. For the preservation of the Church —
[The Church of Christ is in continual danger, both from error and corruption: and, in reference to both of these, the
^ Jam. iii. 15.