Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
The Pharisees were a sect who prided themselves upon a more than ordinary sanctity of life and manners. The Evangelist Luke hath drawn the portrait of one, which may serve as a sample of all. Luke 18:9-14. And their general character our LORD himself hath most strikingly marked in a whole chapter. Matthew 23:1. The Sadducees, in their very name, which implied righteousness, from Sedek, were of that class who justified themselves before GOD. What unceasing persecutions our dear LORD sustained from both these characters I need not enumerate, for the history of the life of JESUS is full of them. But what a name did the Baptist give them; O generation of Vipers! A name which can belong only to the seed of the Serpent. And I pray the Reader, once for all, to observe this feature of character as uniformly given to the reprobate, and to them only, throughout the whole Bible. See Matthew 23:33; Revelation 12:9; John 8:44. The children of the Kingdom are never once in all the Word of GOD called by such a name. See POOR on Ephesians 2:3. I pray the Reader to weigh this consideration well, for it is highly important. And I pray the Reader to remark yet further with me, that (as far as my memory chargeth me) we do not find a single. Pharisee or Sadducee who saw CHRIST in the days of his flesh (Nicodemus excepted), ever savingly converted. Paul was a Pharisee indeed, and of the highest order in point of high, self exalting notions: but then Paul lived not in the days of CHRIST'S flesh, so as to know CHRIST; and saw nothing of JESUS, until he saw him in his glory in his way to Damascus. It furnisheth out a solemn consideration this, that not one (Nicodemus excepted) of those sects in the days of CHRIST, and who assumed a greater degree of holiness than others, was savingly converted.
The children of Abraham, according to the Covenant made with Abraham, were those of grace, and not counted after nature. The one decisive feature of this family is; if ye be CHRIST'S, then y e are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29. So hath it been in all ages. So was it then. So is it now. And such will it be forever. The Ishmaels, and the sons of Keturah; the Esaus, and the whole troop of natural descendants from Abraham: these, as the HOLY GHOST hath said by Paul, which are the children of the flesh; these are not the children of GOD; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. In Isaac shall thy seed be called! Reader! think What a blessed thing it is to be able to say, as Paul did, Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Romans 9:7-8; Galatians 4:28.