Errand they came not to be Converted but to be hardened they had a mind not to believe and seek only a colour for their unbelief they ask him therefore for that which they verily thought he would not grant them that they might have some pretence for their Infidelity Now therefore our Saviour having discovered their Design and detected their Hypocrisie in the 2 3 and 4 Verses in my Text turns himself towards his Disciples and gives them this serious caution against them and all such kinds of Men Take heed and Beware c. For the full opening of which I will briefly inquire into these Four things First What is the Importance of this Metaphorical expression Leaven and what our Saviour means by the Leaven of Pharisees and Sadducees Secondly More particularly we will inquire what was the peculiar Leaven of these two Sects so often mentioned in the New-Testament Thirdly We will consider what was the danger of that Leaven and its contrariety to the Doctrine and Design of our Saviour Fourthly and Lastly We will inquire what this Caution of our Saviour implies and what he would have his Disciples to do when he bids them Take heed and beware c. And by that time I have given Account of these Four things I shall not only have opened the full scope of the Text but I hope every attentive Auditor will be satisfied of the seasonableness of this subject for the present Time. I begin with the First viz. What our Saviour means by Leaven In the Words following my Text Verse 7. We find that the Disciples took our Saviour Literally and reflecting on themselves for their Omission to provide Bread and necessaries for the Voyage which they were now entring upon though he had obliquely reproved their carelesness in that particular and that he had thence took occasion to interdict them all Trade and Civil commerce with those two Sects of Men. But by the 12. Verse they understand their Master's mind better and knew at Length That he spake not of the Leaven of Bread but of the Doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees Indeed it is usual with our Saviour by that Metaphor to represent Doctrine whether good or bad for Matth. chap. 13. 33. He compares his own Institution to it saying the Kingdom of Heaven is like Leaven which a Woman took and hid in two Measures of Meal till the whole was Leavened c. And the resemblance is very fit and Natural for as it is the nature of Leaven that it works insensibly quickly insinuates it self and Universally diffuses its Efficacy over the whole Mass into which it is put so in like manner Doctrine works upon the minds of Men and gives a Tincture of its own Nature and Temper to them Insomuch as that such as a Mans persuasions and Principles are such ordinarily at least will his Life and Practice be It is true indeed that sometimes Mens Lives are better than their Principles and sometimes also worse For it may fall out that Men of very unhappy and mischievous Opinions may yet live virtuously when the Probity of their Temper is such as that it Antidotes them against the Malignity and Venome of their persuasions And on the other side it is no infrequent tho' an unhappy spectacle to behold others of very Noble and Generous principles as to Doctrine yet to live very Lewd and Profligate Lives such Men with-holding the Truth in unrighteousness as the Apostles Phrase is or out-facing the Light and Debauching their Consciences in compliance with their Lusts and carnal or secular Interests But as I said ordinarily it is otherwise for such a state of contradiction to Principles must needs be violent and unnatural and the lives and actions of Men do as reasonably bear proportion to the Principles of their Minds and Consciences as it is Natural for the stream to rise as high as its Source and Fountain and no higher Hence it is that our Saviour Matth. 12. 33. saith Either make the Tree good and his Fruit good or the Tree Corrupt and the Fruit Corrupt And again Matth. 6. 23. He pronounces If the Light that is in Thee be Darkness that Darkness must be great and intolerable To the truth of which Observation the general experience of all the World bares ample Testimony amongst several instances of which I cannot but remark a very pertinent passage of an Heathen Historian in the Life of that wicked Emperour Tiberius his Words concerning him are these Erat circa Deos negligentior quippe Mathematicae addictus persuasionisque plenus omnia sato agi Which I render thus q. d. Tiberius was a profane Prince careless of Religion and without any Devotion towards God and no wonder for he was an admirer of Astrology and full of the Opinion that the Starrs or Fate governed the World and not God. And in short this is the true Reason of all Education and of all the Care and Diligence that evil and good Men use in Propounding and Propagating good Doctrine and preventing the contrary not that they think God is pleased with dry opinions and speculations but because they are aware that Principles draw on Practices and that evil opinions Corrupt good Manners But somuch for that I proceed In the second place to inquire what was the peculiar Leaven of these Pharisees and Sadducees which our Saviour thus cuations against And for this the Learned Jewish Historian Josephus in his 13th Book of Antiquities and in his 2d Book of the Jewish Warrs hath given us a very exact Account of all the Sects of Religion amongst that People and from him I shall present this Auditory with the substance of what he delivers touching the Pharisees and Sadducees wherein we are at present concerned And first it is notorious that the Sect of the Sadducees utterly denied the being of Angels and Spirits or of all Spiritual substances and acknowledged nothing but Matter or Body in the whole Universe and consequently hereof they must also renounce the Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection of the Body and Eternal Life in the World to come Whereas on the contrary the Pharisees acknowledged all the aforesaid great Articles as we Learn Acts 23. 8. Only this is to be added withal That these latter entertained so many Legendary Stories about these great Points and had such very crasie notions of them that they thereby rendred the very Doctrines ridiculous and incredible Again the Sadducees were gross Idolaters of the Letter and as they received only the Law of Moses excluding the Prophets and all other sacred Writings so they understood the Books of the Law in the most crass and litteral sense and admitted not of any interpretation or consequence from it though never so clearly and naturally deduced On the other side the Pharisees not only received the whole Scripture of the Old Testament but besides were great Patrones of Oral Tradition and allowed as great or greater authority to it than the written Word and
of and that that whole affair is Matter of indifferency since God is pleased with variety or regards not what Principles Men are of so they be Devout and Honest in their respective persuasions This conceit wherever it is is nothing better than a piece of the Old Leaven of Sadducism Or if there be those that assert that the Religion of Christ Jesus is only to be of the Religion of the Prince and Country Or that whatsoever a Man believes in his Heart it is lawful for him to conceal and disguise it and to make profession of that which comports best with his Safety and Interest all this is Sadducism To give one instance more on this Head Whosoever they be that would persuade us we must needs understand those Famous words Hoc est Corpus meum in the gross literal sence against all the Reason of the world and the very Testimony of our Saviour this is neither better nor worse than a spice of old Sadducism And then on the other side for the Pharisees Wherever we observe Men building their Faith and Religion upon Oral and unwritten Tradition and equalling that to the Holy Scripture and written Word of God this is Pharisaism Or wherever we find Men imposing upon others a vast and voluminous Creed and enjoyning a World of Nice Observances under the Peril of Eternal Damnation if they be not complied with or the Yoke laid upon the Neck of the Disciples of our Lord no whit Inferious to that of Judaism in all this there is the Spirit of Pharisaism Wherever we see Men lay mighty stress upon disputable Opinions or to Save or Damn Men accordingly as they are of such or such a Party here is the plain Genius of Pharisaism To name no more Wherever we observe Men to be mighty pretenders to Devotion but careless of Justice and Charity or to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel all this is the Leaven of Pharisaism wherever it is found and to be avoided accordingly In the next place let us consider the Emphasis of these Words of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed and beware it is an earnest expression that I do not remember to have observed above once more in the whole New Testament and to be sure imports no less than that great application of mind is required in this particular Religion is certainly a business that deserves to be well considered of and to be carefully examined and well understood as well as Devoutly prosecuted nor is there any thing in this World for the sake of which God gave us our Understanding more than to inquire into this weighty affair And the least that can be made of the charge here in the Text is that we by no means allow our selves Supinely to swallow whatsoever is either first Suggested or imperiously Dictated to us since such an Implicit Faith is the very first working of the Leaven of the Pharisaism and Sadducism and the vindicating our selves to our selves and the asserting the Freedom of our own Thoughts and Liberty of judging for our selves is the first Step to true and generous Christianity and the way to be everlastingly secured from the aforesaid Leaven For example If we freely consult our own Reason we shall never be able to think of God Almighty as of a partial Deity or an accepter of Persons that will Save or Damn Men in gross accordingly as they shall be of such a Sect or Party We shall never be able to imagine that a great and wise Majesty will have any great value for empty forms and meer Pageantry of Religion as if we had a Fancy like that of the Pantomime at Rome who having been admired by the Rabble would needs have the fondness to go also into the Capitol and play his Tricks over before the Gods as if God must needs be pleased with what the silly multitude admired It can never enter into a considering Mans thoughts that the Divine Majesty should be propitiated with Beads and Baubles that Mony should Purchase his Favour to the Wicked Man that he should be corrupted with Bribes or imposed upon and won with Complements In a word no Man that hath and makes use of the discretion of a reasonable Creature can think so unworthily of God as that he should be fatally offended with little mistakes in Opinion or that he will cast away a very sincere and Devout Man meerly upon the Account of a Ceremony under or over and he that allows himself but this kind of modest Freedom of mind hath made good Provision against the danger of the Leaven of Pharisaism and Sadducism Again in the Third place the most effectual security against the aforesaid Leaven is to keep to the Holy Scripture especially of the New Testament to study that and take all the Measures of our Religion thence If we trust to the Authority and dictates of Men or to the Customs and Fashions of the World they will betray us to those Leavens or if meerly upon unwritten Tradition that like a common Sewer brings down for the most part the Trash and Rubbish of former times very often letting the most weighty things sink and perish in the passage For proof of which we need no other evidence but the experience of the Jews amongst whom one cannot but admire what childish and ridiculous Stories this way of Tradition hath filled them with insomuch that this Oral part of their Religion hath almost quite disparaged that which was written and Divinely revealed meerly by the Vicinage and Conjunction with it Whereas if we attend to and study the Holy Scripture that will not only preserve us from such mean and unworthy Notions of God and Religion but will ingage us in such a method as shall both make us better Men and the World the better for us If we govern our selves by Tradition and the Fancies of Men then all our Care and Devotion will be laid out in Cultivating an Opinion in Ceremonious Addresses to the Deity in Pompous Oblations or in Scrupulous Observance but if we consult the Scripture that will teach us that God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and that a pure Mind and an Holy Life are more acceptable to him than long Prayers frequent Fasts and the most costly Offerings There we shall find that the first and great Commandment of Gods Law is Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Mind and with all thy Strength and that whatever demonstrates sincere Love to him be it little or much is sure to procure his Favour These we shall learn expresly that the Lord our God is not pleased with the Fat of Lambs nor propitiated with Rivers of Oyl neither doth he require the fruit of our Bodies to expiate the Sin of our Souls but that we do justly and love Mercy and walk humbly with our God The due consideration of which passages of Scripture will effectually Antidote us against the Infection of any of the aforesaid Leavens To all which I add in the last place that if we do but mind the Nature and Notion of Christianity and consider the Genius and Spirit of that Religion we are safe particularly if we do but look upon it under the representation which those two Words or Phrases give of it whereby it is called a reasonable Service and a Spiritual Worship As for the former no Man can be so absurd as to think that a reasonable service which is built upon an implicit Faith and where a Man understands nothing of the Reason and Grounds of his Religion but in a Blind Obedience servilely and brutishly gives himself up to the Conduct of others or when he Worships God in a Language whereof he hath no knowledge or understanding And as for the other Phrase of a Spiritual Worship can any Man of common sense take that to be a Spiritual Religion which is made up of Bodily Drudgeries of meer Forms and Rites and Ceremonies But to be a Christian is to have worthy Notions of God in our minds and a flame of servent Piety and Devotion to him in our Hearts to Love him to Fear him to Trust in him to be Holy and Just and Sober in our Lives and to be peaceable in our Spirits such a Religion as this is worthy of God was fit for the Son of God to be the Author and Publisher of and the Consciencious Observance of it will fit us for and in due time bring us to the possession of the Heavenly Mansions above and the Eternal Society of glorious Saints and Angels in Heaven Which God grant to us all through the Merits and Mediation of the same Jesus Christ Our Lord To whom be Glory and Honour and Adoration for ever and ever Amen ADVERTISEMENT The Golden Rule Or The Royal Law of 〈◊〉 explained By J. Goodman D. D. And are to be Sold by Robert Olavel at the Peacock at the West-End of St. Pauls FINIS
consequently thought themselves obliged under as great a necessity to the observance of those things that came down to them by the Tradition of their Fathers as to those they found written in the Law and the Prophets from whence it came to pass as it must needs do that their Creed became Vast and Voluminous and their Devotion was Clogged with innumerable Rites and Ceremonies The result of all which is this that the Pharisees had too much Faith such as it was and the Sadducees properly speaking none at all The Sadducees could upon their Principles have no ground for any Religion or Piety and the Pharisees by their Prodigious additions to Gods Institution had quite corrupted and lost the true Idea of Religion In short whatever cold pretences a Sadducee could make to Civility or Morality it is evident he could have no Devotion On the contrary the very Character of a Pharisee was a confident Devotionist without Morality Now from what hath been delivered in this short Account of these two Sects it will be easie to discern the reason why our Saviour gives such caution against their Leaven and what the mischief and danger to his Doctrine and Design was from each of them singly or both together Which is the 3. Third Inquiry but because herein lies especially the Emphasis of the Text I will give a more particular Account of this matter as followeth And first as touching the Sadducees it is manifest by what hath been said that their Leaven was the same with that of the Epicurean Philosophers and could by no means be a Principle of Conscience or Religion but a Doctrine Calculated for this present Life for believing neither Angel nor Spirit nor any thing to be in the World but meer Matter it was impossible they should have any concern for another World and consequently they could have no Religion only as the Law of Moses was lex Terrae the Law of the Land so far it stood them in hand to observe it or at least to pretend an external Conformity to it for the sake of their secular Interests and Advantages To be sure such Principles could lay no obligation upon their Consciences and therefore they were the truest Race of Latitudinarians and could comply with whatsoever was uppermost and upon that score could not withstand the Temptation of being of the Religion of the Prince whatever it was Accordingly it is observable in a Parallel place to this of my Text namely Mark 8. 15. For the Leaven of the Pharisees we have the Leaven of Herod as signifying the same thing for these Men it seems consistently enough with their Principles could flatter that vile Prince so far as to cry him up for the Messias It was I say a Sect or Leaven fit for Men of Covetous and Ambitious designs and was successful to those purposes for Acts 5. 17. We find the great Council or Sanhedrin of the Jews chiefly consisted of those of this Leaven These Men were of the Spawn of the Leviathan and derived the sanction of Religion from humane Legislation and the commands of God obliged no further than they were inacted by the Civil Magistrate Besides all this they had the right knack of Triming between all Religions for whatsoever was the inward opinion of their mind they could conceal or deny or mince the matter so that their Persuasion should never expose them to any damage nor their Conscience interfere with their Interests Now the Christian Religion which our Saviour came to introduce and to plant in the World being not only a very strict and Holy but a most solemn and serious institution Nothing could be more contrary to it than such loose Principles as these His was a Religion fitted to please God not to flatter and humour Men It was a Religion designed for the saving of Mens Souls in another World and to fit them for Eternal Life and not to serve a turn or to save a Stake in this World. Upon all which there can be no wonder that he earnestly Cautions against the Leaven of the Sadducees which undermined the Principles of all Religion And then in the next place for the Religion of the Pharisees that by what was said in the description of their Leaven consisting of so many incredible Articles of Faith grounded only upon Tradition and Legendary Stories and of such innumerable trifling and Arbitrary Rites and Ceremonies and yet made essentially necessary to Salvation was utterly contrary to the whole tenor and design of the Gospel as might be made appear in innumerable instances of which I will here specifie only these five particulars following In the first place a principal Design of our Saviour in the Doctrine of the Gospel was to instruct Men with right notions of God which is not only the first and most immediate honour to the Divine Majesty but the only solid Foundation of all Vertue and Piety The right apprehension of Gods Perfections and Attributes being the great obligation upon our minds to reverence and observe him in general and being of great use also to direct us in the particular instances of our Duty towards him Now the Pharisees Superstition was contrariwise very apt to breed in Men very mean and unworthy notions of the Divine Majesty and so tended naturally both to confound the Measures and to subvert the very ground and Reason of Piety and Vertue Partly as it mightily abated of his Grandure and Majesty whilst it represented him as insisting upon so many little things as carried neither weight nor worth nor intrinsick Reason in them We always count it an Argument of a little mind to be wrought upon by meer Complements to be pleased with Trifles and to be offended with such Ceremonious Omissions And we cannot naturally esteem him to be a Wise and great Man whom we observe to be of that temper much less can we imagine that he should be an infinitely wise God a full perfect and self-sufficient being that will indure to be flattered with Ceremonies be forced with Gifts be propitiated with formal Oblations be complemented with external Addresses imposed upon by shows and shadows or be offended for the want of any such things Now the Pharisees Leaven consisting wholly of these without regard to true Piety and generous Obedience and conformity of Heart and Life to him quite clouded and obscured the glory of his Divinity and rendred him more like a Man than a God and indeed more like a little necessitous narrow minded Man than a wise and a great one Partly as it rendred him an unbenign and captious Deity such an one as insisted upon very Punctilio's and was prone to take advantage of his Creatures upon the smallest omissions the effects of which must needs be that Men might be possibly Tempted to fear and to stand under the slavish dread of such a God but it was plainly impossible they should love him without which there can be no Life nor Soul in Religion Above all this