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would not endure to the end, and so should not be saved; and the righteous themselves should be saved, not without much struggle, exertion, suffering; "saved as by fire." Some have supposed the reference to be to the Neronian persecutions, which by a few years preceded the calamities connected with the Jewish wars and the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now, on entering on this scene of severe trial, they who were to "suffer according to the will of God"-a phrase marking the origin of their sufferings rather than the manner in which they were sustained; nearly equivalent to, 'on account of the Divine will,' that is, on account of their doing the Divine will—are enjoined to "commit the keeping of their souls to God, as to a faithful Creator." To commit their souls, that is, themselves into the hands of God, to be kept by him, is just under a deep sense of their own incapacity to meet and sustain the trial in a way glorifying to God and advantageous to themselves, to resign themselves entirely to the guidance of God's providence, and word, and Spirit, in the expectation that he will make their duty obvious to them in circumstances of doubt and perplexity; and, when their duty is made plain to them, enable them at all hazards to perform it, trusting not to their own understanding, but to the Divine wisdom; relying not on their own energies, but on the power of God; trusting that he will indeed keep that which they commit to him; protect them from all real evil; allow them to be exposed to no unnecessary, no useless suffering; lay on them no load of labour or suffering which he will not enable them to sustain; "not suffer them to be tried above what they are able to bear, but, with the temptation, give them a way of escape; "deliver them from every evil work, and preserve them unto his heavenly kingdom."1

This is obviously the general meaning; but there is something peculiar and emphatic in the phrase, "Commit the keeping of your souls to him." They were to commit the

1 2 Tim. iv. 18.

care of their bodies, their lives, their reputation, their property, their relations to God, with a distinct understanding that they may be called on by him to part with them all; and well pleased to part with them all, in the assurance that their souls are safe in his keeping; safe in life, safe in death, safe for ever; "bound up in the bundle of life with the beloved."

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He who thus commits the keeping of his soul to God, is ready for all trials, however severe. Such a person will be "anxious about nothing; and while "in every thing, by prayer and supplication, he makes his requests known to God," his need will be supplied according to God's glorious riches; and "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep his mind and heart through Christ Jesus." 2

The persecuted Christians are encouraged thus to commit the keeping of their souls to God, by the consideration that he is "a faithful Creator." He is their Creator. He not only is the "Father of their spirits" and the former of their bodies, as he is of the spirits and bodies of all men, but He has "of his own will begotten them by the word of truth, through the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, so that they are a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." They are not only his creatures, but his "new creatures;" his "workmanship created anew unto good works." To whom should they commit the keeping of their souls but to him? They are his property; more his than their own. He is able to take care of them. He who made them can preserve them. Conservation does not require greater power than creation. And he is disposed to take care 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

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which, in obedience to his own command, they have committed to him.

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 shall 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 passest 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 will he not do it? Hath he promised it, and will he not make it good?" "All these promises are yea, amen, in Christ Jesus, to the glory of God by us.'

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Job v. 19-25. Psal. xci.; exxi. 7, 8. Isa. xliii. 2. John x. 28-30. Rom. viii. 38, 39.

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 Christian 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 very severe trials were awaiting Christians, the Apostle makes a very 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 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 thirtyfirst 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, with

out 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 had not been from the beginning of the creation which God created till that time, neither shall be." 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 ;” and, 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 welldoing." It is evident at the twentieth verse of the second chapter, that "to suffer for well-doing" 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, honour, 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 Christ; and they must persevere in doing well, by holding fast their profession.

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