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and Shew of outward Religion, without a due Regard to the Internal and Spiritual part of it; as will be evident from the feveral Characters given of it in the New Testament.

In Matth. 23. where our Lord denounces a Chain of Woes upon the Scribes and Pharifees, under the Character of Hypocrites; the feveral Descriptions of their Hypocrify are, That they devoured Widows Houfes, and for a Pretence made long Prayers; that they compaffed Sea and Land to make one Profelyte, and when he was made, they made him two-fold more the Child of Hell, than themselves; that they paid Tithe of Mint, and Anife, and Cummin, and omitted the weightier Matters of the Law, Judgment, Mercy and Faith; that they made clean the outfide of the Cup and of the Platter, but within were full of Extortion and Excess; that they were like unto whited Sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but

are within full of dead Men's Bones, and of all Uncleanness; even so, they outwardly appeared righteous unto Men, but within were full of Hypocrif, and Iniquity. Te Hypocrites, lays our Lord in another Place well did Efaias prophefy concerning you, faying, This People draweth nigh unto me with their Mouth, and honoureth me with their Lips, but their Heart is far from me.

This Hypocrify of the Pharisees is justly compared to Leaven by our Loid upon account of its Qualities, its fecret and infenfible fpreading it felf, and communicating its Influence; and its clating and puffing up the

Mals in which it works: The first of which Qualities our Lord obferves where he likens the Kingdom of Heaven to Leaven hid in three Meafures of Meal, 'till the whole was leaven'd; and the laft is a common Interpretation in the Jewish Writers. I fay that this Hypocrify is juftly

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compar❜d to Leaven upon these two Accounts, will appear as well from the Hiftory, as from the Nature of the Thing itself.

The History informs us, that this Leaven had tinctured the whole Jewif Nation; and tho' it be principally charg'd upon the Pharifees, yet it was also common with the Sadducees and Herodians, the only Sects amongst the Jews taken notice of in the Gofpels. In this Hypocrify they agreed, how widely foever they differed in other Particulars; and tho' the whole Body of the People feem not, in our Lord's time, to have divided themselves into these Parties, nor feparated from each other, under these Diftinctions (however zealous these feveral Factions might be in gaining Profelytes) but only fome of the more eminent and active Men amongst them: Yet we may collect, from the high Opinion they exprefs of the Pharifees

Pharifees upon all Occafions, that the Grofs of the People admired their Piety, and imitated their Manners, and admitted their Leaven, and that the Religion of the Nation in general was external and ceremonial. If indeed they had not been wholly preengaged by this kind of Religion, they must have better understood and more readily complied with Lord's fpiritual Interpretations of the

Law.

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And if we trace this Leaven on to Christianity, we shall find that it continued to ferment amongst the new Converts, notwithstanding the great Industry of Christ and his Apostles to abolish the Shadow by introducing the Substance, and the happy Difference they fhewed betwixt the Righteousness of Works and of Faith. 'Twas not long before certain of the Pharifees who believed, afferted that it was needful to circumcife the Gen

tiles, and to command them to keep the Law of Mofes. The Galatians were bewitched by this Doctrine, they defired to be under the Law. Peter and Barnabas were carried away by this Diffimulation, or Hypocrify, as it is in the Original: And the great Defign of almost all St. Paul's Epiftles, is to retrieve his feveral Correfpondents from the spreading Leaven of I cannot but take notice of a Proverbial Saying of St. Paul's which he twice makes ufe of; and where it occurs in his Epiftle to the Galatians, it is exprefly upon the very Occafion I am now speaking of, viz. their Readiness to relapfe into the Ceremonial Law - ---- a little Leaven, says he, leaveneth the whole Lump.

this Error.

However the Profeffion of Christianity increased under the Miniftration of the Apostles, the Life and Spirit of it were supported with the utmost Difficulty. St. Jude fays, Be

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