Matt. xiii. 33. Another parable spake he unto them ; The king- dom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the ivhole loas leavened.
AS our Lord was not weary of multiplying his parables, so neither should we be of considering them. There is indeed an inexhaustible variety in them ; and in those, which most resemble each other, there will be found a rich and instructive diversity. Scarcely any two are more alike than this and the one which precedes it. But that declares the extensive spread of the Gospel from small beginnings, and this its assimilating and transforming efficacy. In tracing the parallel between the Gospel kingdom and leaven hid in the meal, we shall find that they are,
I. Assimilating in their nature —
[Leaven changes not the substance of the meal in which it is hid, but materially alters its qualities : it so impregnates the meal as to transform it, as it were, into its own likeness. Thus does the Gospel affect those who receive it into their hearts : it makes us partakers of a Divine nature **. It does not indeed essentially change either the faculties of the soul, or the m.embers of the body; but it communicates to them a new life and power, a new direction and tendency. The Gospel is com- pared to a mould, into which souls, when melted by Divine grace, are cast^, and from which they derive a new and heavenly form. Hence, when converted by it, we are said to be re- newed after the image of God in righteousness and true holi- ness'^; and the more this leaven works within us, the more are we changed into Christ's image, from glory to glory '^.
The same effect does the Gospel produce also in the world at large : wherever it prevails, it invariably brings men to the same mind, temper, and disposition. All are rendered vile in their own eyes ; all are made willing to receive mercy through Christ alone; and all pant after holiness, as the perfection of their nature and the summit of their bliss. There is indeed a great diversity of parties and opinions respecting things of
a 2 Pet. i. 4.
^ Rom. vi. 17. This seems to be the proper meaning of ttf ov TTctpe^odriTE Tvirov hcaj^rig, though it is not so expressed in our translation, f^ Eph. iv. 23, 24. d 2 Cor. iii. 18.