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PART IV.
7.] COMMIT YOUR SOULS TO GOD UNDER THEM.

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of them. He hates none of his creatures; he loves all his new creatures with a peculiar, an unchangeable, an eternal love. Looking at him as their Creator, they may well be persuaded that he is able and that he is willing to keep that which, in obedience to his own command, they have committed to him.

1

And then he is not only a Creator, but "a faithful Creator." He is faithful to fulfil the expectations of support and protection, which the very relation of Creator is fitted to excite in the mind of an intelligent loyal creature. The new creature cannot but have an expectation, that he who has given it true life will preserve it, will never let it perish. This is an instinct of the new nature; and “he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him, he also will hear their cry and save them." "The Lord preserveth all them that love him." Besides, he has given to them as his creatures, his new creatures, "exceeding great and precious promises." We will quote a few of them: "In six troubles God shall deliver thee; in seven no evil shall touch thee. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust; he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil, the Lord shall preserve thy soul. When thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee, and the flood shall not overflow thee; when thou passest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle on thee. I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall any one pluck them out of my Father's hand. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, can separate" those created anew in Christ Jesus "from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus their Lord." "Faithful is he who hath promised, who also will do it." "He is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said it, and shall he not do it? Hath he promised it, and shall he not make it good?" "All these promises are yea, amen, in Christ Jesus, to the glory of God by us. "2

Nothing but this committing unreservedly the keeping of the soul to God as a faithful Creator, could meet the exigencies of the case, and fit for so severe and complicated a trial. This only would enable the persecuted Christians so to endure the trial as to "obtain the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to those who love him." Connected with the statement, that severe trials were awaiting Christians, the apostle makes an impressive announcement of the dreadful doom of "those who obey not the gospel of God." The beginning of the judgment was to come on the house or family of God; the end of it on them who obey not the gospel of God. The first drops were to fall on the former, the collected tempest on the latter; the first were to be chastened, severely chastened, but on the last was to come "wrath to the uttermost." The first were to be "saved

1 "The relation of Creator implies omnipotent love; the attribute of faithful eternal love declared in his promises."-BATES.

Job v. 19-25.

Psal. xci.; cxxi. 7, 8. Isa. xliii. 2. John x. 28-30. Rom. viii. 38, 39; 1 Thess. v. 24. Num. xxiii. 19. 2 Cor. i. 20.

as by fire," the others were to be "destroyed with an everlasting destruction;" the one getting into a place of safety with difficulty, the other finding no place of shelter from the "fiery indignation which was to devour the adversaries" of God. This is more strongly expressed in the interrogative form than it could be by any direct affirmation. "What shall the end be? Where shall they appear?"

It may be right to remark in passing, that the eighteenth verse is a quotation from the Greek version of the thirty-first verse of the eleventh chapter of the book of Proverbs. Our English version, which is an accurate rendering of the Hebrew text, gives a meaning, which seems at first altogether different. "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed on the earth, much more the wicked and the sinner." Though these words may, and probably do mean, Even really good men are chastened for their sins, and, if so, surely the wicked and the sinner shall be punished with a severity suited to the heinousness of their guilt,' a sentiment not materially different from that in the passage before us; at the same time this does seem an instance in which the inspired writer merely uses the words of the Greek translation of the Scriptures, as the vehicle of his own thoughts, without any particular reference to their meaning and bearing in the place from which they are borrowed.

If we have not misapprehended altogether the meaning of this paragraph, the direct reference in these words is to the tremendous evils which came upon the Jewish opposers of Christianity very soon after these words were written. These were "the days of vengeance,' days in which there was "such affliction as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created till that time, neither shall be." 1 Nor are we called to limit these words to the calamities which befell the unbelieving and impenitent Jews in their own land and other lands, dreadful as, we know from the authentic narrative of their own historian Josephus, these were. These to them were not "the end" of the judgment. They were foreshadowing symbols of that everlasting destruction in the world to come, which awaited them, along with all who, like them, "obey not the gospel of God;" but, in opposition to all the means used for reclaiming them, continue ungodly and sinners.

As the statement concerning the severe trial to which Christians were to be exposed is made the basis of the exhortation, "Commit the keeping of your souls to God, as unto a faithful Creator;" so this statement respecting the perdition of ungodly men seems to us to be the basis of the exhortation, "Commit the keeping of your souls to God in well-doing." It is evident that "to suffer for well-doing" as referred to at the twentieth verse of the second chapter, is just equivalent to suffering as a Christian, suffering on account of the consistent profession of the faith of Christ. And the "constant continuance in well-doing," in which Christians are "to seek for glory, honor, and immortality," is plainly just the persevering faith of the doctrines and practice of the duties of Christianity. The persecuted Christians were to continue in well-doing. They had done well in embracing the gospel, denying themselves, and becoming followers of

1 Mark xiii. 19.

Christ; and they must persevere in doing well, by holding fast their profession.

Should they not thus persevere in well-doing, but, under the power of terror and shame, abandon the cause of Christ, making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, they would make a miserable exchange of circumstances. They must in this case take their place among the ungodly and sinners, who obey not the gospel of God. However severe the trials of Christians may be, they are nothing compared with the punishment which awaits the impenitent and unbelieving. Even in this world, some of the apostates of that age, in seeking to escape the persecution to which Christians were exposed, involved themselves in still more dreadful calamities. They who in Jerusalem remained faithful to Christ, following his command, left, the doomed city, embracing an opportunity very wonderfully offered to them, and so were saved, saved with difficulty; while the apostates continued, and perished miserably in the siege and sack of that city.

In the times of the severest persecution, it is men's wisdom, by embracing the gospel, to cast in their lot with the afflicted people of God. That is the only way of escaping evils immeasurably more dreadful than any which the malignant ingenuity of earth or hell can inflict on the saints; and it is absolute madness, to purchase security from persecution, and all that this world can bestow, at the price of apostasy. "For he who turns back, turns back to perdition." Since, then, trials so severe were awaiting the church of God, and destruction so awful was impending over those ungodly men and sinners who, either by impenitence or apostasy, were disobedient to the gospel of God, how appropriate and how powerfully enforced the injunction of the apostle, "Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in welldoing, as to a faithful Creator."

The two injunctions are most intimately connected. It is only he who is continuing in well-doing, that in the day of severe trial can commit the keeping of his soul to God, as to a faithful Creator; and it is only he who commits the keeping of his soul to God, as to a faithful Creator, that in the day of severe trial will continue in welldoing. All others will become weary in well-doing under persecution; and silently withdraw from, or openly renounce connection with, the oppressed, persecuted church of Christ.

There are two general principles of a practical kind, and of very general application, naturally suggested by what we have said, to which I would call your attention for a moment before we conclude.

They who obey the gospel may count on varied, and, it may be, severe trials, previously to their obtaining "the salvation that is in Christ with eternal glory;" and they who obey not the gospel can reasonably count on nothing but everlasting perdition.

They who obey the gospel are as sure of salvation as the love and power, the faithfulness and wisdom, of God can make them. The righteous, those "justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," those sanctified by the Spirit through the

truth, shall certainly be saved. When it is said they are "scarcely saved," the reference is not to the uncertainty of their being saved, but to the difficulties and trials they may experience in the course of their being saved. All Christians are not tried as the Christians to whom Peter wrote, the Christians at the close of the Jewish dispensation; but all Christians meet with afflictions, and meet with afflictions because they are Christians; all suffer, and all suffer as Christians. We must never think ill of a cause merely because it is persecuted, nor indulge dark thoughts respecting the spiritual state and prospects of men merely because they are very severely afflicted. The absence of trial is a worse sign than what we might be disposed to think the excess of trial. "If ye were without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then were ye bastards, and not sons." But it is not exposure to trial, it is the endurance of trial, in "a patient continuance in well-doing," that is the characteristic mark of those who obey the gospel of God. Let Christians, then, not wonder at their trials, however severe. Let them not count strange even the fiery trial, as if some strange thing had happened to them; and let them seek, by rightly improving their trials, to convert them into proofs of saintship and means of salvation.

They who obey not the gospel of God can reasonably count on nothing but unmixed misery, everlasting perdition. "If judgment begin at the house of God, what shall the end be of those who obey not the gospel of God? and, if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" These words most strikingly bring before our minds both the severity and the certainty of the punishment which awaits the wicked. If even the children of God, the objects of his peculiar love, are severely chastened for their faults in this season of Divine forbearance, what can those who are the objects of his moral disapprobation and judicial displeasure expect, but the unmitigated punishment of their sin, under an economy which is the revelation of his righteous judgment, where justice is to have free course and to be glorified? If the trials to which the righteous are exposed are so varied and severe, that, though saved, they are "saved as by fire," saved with difficulty, with a struggle, after a "great fight of affliction," what shall be the state of those who are not to be saved at all-not saved, but destroyed with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power? If even children are so severely chastened, how shall hardened rebels be punished? "If these things are done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Oh! that men who obey not the gospel of God could be but induced to lay these things to heart. If they continue disobedient to the gospel, there is no hope; for there is no atoning sacrifice, no sanctifying Spirit, no salvation, but the sacrifice, the Spirit, the salvation revealed in the gospel.

But why should they not obey this gospel? Is it not "a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation?" Oh! why will they reject the counsel of God against themselves? If they continue to reject this counsel of peace they must perish: but there is no necessity of

1 Heb. xii. 8.

rejecting this counsel of peace, but what originates in their own unreasonable, wicked obstinacy.

I conclude, in words full of comfort to the first of those classes of whom I have been speaking, and full of terror to the second. May God carry them home with power to the hearts of both! 66 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." "The Lord is not slack concerning his declaration, as some men count slackness; but he is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance.' "He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."

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NOTE A. p. 641.

It must be admitted that there is a strange disparity between "the busy-body," and "the thief," and "the murderer." It is an ingenious conjecture, but nothing more, of Dr. Mangey, that a very early transcriber may have written dorpioniGKOTOS, which appears in all existing manuscripts, for aλorpioɛníkλomos, “a purloiner of other men's property." There is more weight in Bishop Barrington's suggestion-"This caution probably owed its origin to the temper and conduct of the Jews at this period. They were peculiarly fond of intermeddling in the public councils and concerns of other bodies of men." Josephus, de Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. xviii. § 7, 8, gives an excellent comment on this apostolical prohibition. He relates that his countrymen, "needlessly mixing with the Greeks assembled at Alexandria on their own affairs, and acting the part of spies, greatly suffered for it." This took place A.D. 66, just about the time this epistle was written.-Vide BOWYER's Conjectures, pp. 603, 4.

NOTE B. p. 643.

Christians were persecuted just because they were Christians. The words of Tertullian are remarkable:- Non scelus aliquod in causa, sed nomen Christianus, si nullius criminis reus, nomen valde infestum." Not less remarkable are the words of Pliny to Trajan (Epistt. x. 97):-" Cognitionibus de Christianis interfui nunquam ; ideo nescio quid et quatenus aut puniri soleat, aut quæri. Nec mediocriter hesitavi an nomen ipsum, etiamsi flagitiis careat, an flagitia cohærentia nomini puniantur. Interim in iis qui ad me tanquam Christiani deferebantur hunc sum secutus modum. Interrogavi ipsos an essent Christiani } Confitentes iterum et tertio interrogavi, supplicium minatus. Perseverantes duci jussi; neque enim dubitabam, qualecunque esset quod faterentur, pervicaciam certe et inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri. Fuerant alii similis amentiæ, quos, quod cives Romani essent, annotavi in urbem remittendos." "It seems," as Lord Hailes observes, "that Pliny did not know what inquiries ought to have been made, and therefore he limited his to two words, 'Christianus es? It required but other two, such as 'Ego quidem,' or 'Ita sane,' and the cause was judged and the culprit despatched to execution. Blessed era in which, without any captious question as to flaws in the indictment, exceptions to the verdict, or motion for arrest of judgment, a trial for life might be begun, carried on, and brought to a comfortable issue by the pronouncing of about twenty letters! and what mighty obligations did not the primitive Christians owe to their equitable and intelligent judges, who, by a single and simple interrogatory, relieved them from the delays and suspense of a long trial !"-Disquisitions concerning the Antiquities of the Christian Church, chap. iv. p. 100.

1 2 Pet. ii. 9; iii. 9. Prov. xxix. 1.

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