Apostle gave the same salutary warning. The Galatian Chuixh were in danger of seduction by Judaizing teachers : indeed, even Barnabas himself had been seduced by Peter's dissimu- lation. To them, therefore, St. Paul suggested this salutai-y admonition, " A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump*^:" and in numberless instances has the truth of that saying been evinced. Aaron's calf became an object of worship to all Israel : and Jeroboam's calves perverted all the tribes that were submitted to his government ; and continued to pervert them, till they were all destroyed. The little leaven that, from time to time, was found amongst holy men in the primi- tive Church, wrought gradually to the production of all the abominations that have for centuries prevailed in the Church of Rome. And in the great majority of Protestant Churches has one error or another crept in, till all their members have become infected with it, and vital godliness been banished from their souls.
In the passage before us, the warning refers more particu- larly to morals ; and intimates, what experience so fully proves, that " evil communications will corrupt good manners." To illustrate this amongst the ungodly world is unnecessary, because it is too obvious to have escaped the observation of any. But amongst the Apostles themselves we may behold it on several occasions. Let a little leaven of pride'', of covetousness^, of self-confidence^, or cowardice*', be brought amongst them, and they all immediately catch its baneful in- fluence, and betray the weakness of their better principles. And wherever the Gospel is preached in its purity, the same awful tendency is seen and felt : one person or another indulges a proud, conceited, or contentious spirit ; and " his word will soon eat as doth a canker^."]
2. For the preservation of our own souls —
[The recollection of this fact will prove extremely ser- viceable to every child of God. For who is there that has not felt the bitter consequences of omitting to resist the very first incursion of an evil thought ? It was but a glance which David caught of Bathsheba ; and we all know what sad effects it produced, to the dishonour of God, and well nigh to the destruction of his own soul. " The man after God's own heart" became, in a degree that was scarcely ever exceeded, a man after the very heart of Beelzebub himself And if this idea teaches us to resist the first motions of sin, how much more strongly does it guard us against the harbouring of any
^ Gal. v. 9. '^ Matt. xx. 21, 24 — 27.
^ John xii. 3 — 6. compared with Matt. xxvi. 8,
<- Matt. xxvi. 35. ' Matt, xxvi, 56. s 2 Tim. ii. 17.