The Bad Leaven; Or, the Contagion of Sin
T. Adams. Galatians 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. There is a thing active, "leaven;" a thing factive, "soureth;" a thing passive, "the lump." I. But because the whole speech is allegorical, let us first OPEN THE METAPHOR WITH THE KEY OF PROPER ANALOGY, 1. First, taking leaven for false doctrine, so we find in the New Testa. ment four sorts of leavens: Matthew 16:6, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees; " there be two of them, the Pharisaical and the Sadducean leavens. Mark 8:15, "Beware of the leaven of Herod;" there is the third. The fourth is my text, the leaven of mingling Mosaical ordinances with Christ's institutions. 2. Now to the second way of considering these words, taking leaven personally for leaveners, false teachers, indeed heretics. 3. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Now let us resolve this allegory another way, and conceive by leaven, sin; by lump, man; by leavening, infection. In effect, a little sin makes the whole man, in body and soul, unsavoury to the Lord. Sin and leaven are fitly compared for their sourness. There is a leaven sharp and sour, but sanative. But this leaven is far sourer, yet hath nothing but death in it. It is soar to God, sour to angels, sour to saints, sour to the sinner. Sin is sourer than any leaven. II. The allegory thus opened, THE SPECIAL TREASURE OR INSTRUCTION REMAINS YET TO BE DRAWN OUT. We perceive what the leaven signifies, and what the lump. Now we must consider the relation betwixt a little leaven, and the whole lump. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." A little sin infecteth a great deal of righteousness. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10). And upon good reason; for there is a universal corruption, therefore should be a universal sanctification. In that young man that professed himself to have kept the commandments, and Christ began to love him, yet there was a little leaven spoiled all — covetousness. In Herod, though he heard many sermons of John's preached gladly (and it is some good thing to hear sermons with joy), yet the leaven of Herodias marred all. 1. Even the least offence is mortal in its own nature, capable of transgression, and liable to malediction. 2. Sins less heinous, are the most numerous. Many littles make a mickle. Small drops of rain commonly cause the greatest floods. The less violence, the longer continuance. The drizzling sleet, that falls as it were in a mist, fills the channels, they swell the rivers, the overcharged rivers send forth their superfluous waters over the containing banks; now the meadows are polluted, the corn-fields spoiled, the cattle drowned; yea, even houses, and towns, and inhabitants are endangered, and firm continents buried under a deluge of waters. Many little sands, gathered to a heap, fail not to swallow a great vessel. You have eagles, hawks, kites, and such great fowls of rapine, flying always alone; but the sparrows and pigeons, that devour the grain, by innumerable troops. A pace is but a little space of ground; yet a thousand paces make a mile, and many miles bring to hell. If they be not the worst, they are the most; and is it not all to one purpose whether one Goliath or a thousand Philistines overcome thee? The bird brings so many little straws as make up her nest: the reprobate so many little sticks as make up his own burning pile. saith there is in sin both weight and number. Judge them by tale, and not by weight. Put a wanton speech, a loose gesture into the balance, though Christ found it heavy, and every soul shall for whom he did not bear it, yet it is censured, a little faulting, a little failing: so little, that were it less, it were nothing. 3. These little sins are not so easily felt, therefore most pernicious. If a man hath dyed his hand in blood, a peaceless conscience haunts him with incessant vexation: let him hate his brother, this little murder he feels not. The devil, like a roaring lion, is soon heard: forming himself to a fox, his insinuation is not perceived. Doubtless there be some that would shudder at the temptation to perjury; yet, by insensible steps they arrive at it: by lying they come to swearing, by swearing to forswearing. 4. Little sins are the materials of great sins. The seeds of all sins are naturally in us: not so much as treason, homicide, perjury, but there is in our nature a proclivity to them. Sin seems at first like a little cloud, but it prognosticates a deluge of ensuing wickedness. 5. A little sin infects a great deal of righteousness. The leprosy infected the garments, and the very walls of the house; but sin hath infected wood, and wool, and walls, earth, air, beasts, plants, and planets; and stuck a scar on the crystal brow of nature itself: "For we know the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now" (Romans 8:22). If the great world groan for man's sin, shall not the little world, man, groan for his own sin? When one commended Alexander for his noble acts and famous achievements, another objected against him that he killed Callisthenes. He was valiant and successful in the wars; true, but he killed Callisthenes. He overcame the great Darius; so, but he killed Callisthenes. He made himself master of the world; grant it, but still he killed Callisthenes. His meaning was, that this one unjust fact poisoned all his valorous deeds. Beware of sin, which may thus leaven the whole lump of our soul. Indeed we must all sin, and every sin sours; but to the faithful and repentent Christian it shall not be damnable: "There is no damnation to them that are in Jesus Christ," (Romans 8:1). There is in all corruption, to most affliction, to none damnation, that are in Christ. Our leaven hath soured us, but we are made sweet again by the all-perfuming blood of our blessed Saviour. 6. The least sins are the most fatal to men's destruction. There is death in it and for it. A dram of poison diffuseth itself to all parts, till it strangle the vital spirits, and turn out the soul from the tenement. (T. Adams.) Parallel Verses KJV: A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. WEB: A little yeast grows through the whole lump.