smaller moment; but in the fundamental points all are agreed, and, when upon their knees before God, have the most perfect resemblance to each other. Being joined to the Lord they are one spirit with him, and with each other ^. The same spirit pervades both the Head and all the members. Hence all true Christians of every place and every age are " one bread," being impregnated with the same heavenly leaven, and formed into one mass for the service of their common Lord and Master*^.]
The resemblance further appears, in that both of them are,
II. Mysterious in their operation —
[How, in the leavening of meal, the one substance acts upon the other so as to produce a fermentation, is a mystery, which the wisest philosophers are not able to explain. The secret energy of the leaven is discoverable in its effects ; but the precise mode of its operation cannot be ascertained. The same difficulty occurs in explaining the operation of the Gospel on the hearts of men : its truths have an energy that is not found in any thing else. The word is quick, and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating the very inmost recesses of the soul^. But Iww this leaven, as soon as it is put into the heart, begins to work, how it operates with such in- vincible power, and hotv it uniformly changes, as well the most guilty and obdurate hearts, as those which seem more likely to yield to its impressions — this is indeed a mystery. The effects produced by it are evident and undeniable; but how it pro- duces those effects so as to transform the vilest sinner into the very image of God, is known to God alone. On account of this mysterious property, our Lord compared the Gospel to the wind, which, tliough manifest enough in its effects, is in many respects inexplicable''.
If the Gospel be so mysterious in its operation upon indivi- duals, it must of necessity be so too in its operations upon the world at large. We pretend not to say how the simple doctrine of the cross should be made to triumph over all the prejudices and passions of mankind ; but, from what we have already seen, we cannot doubt of its final success.]
Lastly, they are both,
III. Universal in their influence —
[Leaven, when it has begun to work, never ceases till it has leavened all the meal. Thus does the Gospel also work in the hearts of men. It changes, not their outward conduct only, but the inward dispositions of the heart. Both body and soul
<= 1 Cor. vi. 17. f 1 Cor. x. 17.
s Heb. iv. 12. ^ John iii. 8.