2. Of his faithfulness —
[For every believer the very truth of God is pledged ; and " life is promised" to him by a " God who cannot Hey." It is not said that the believer shall not be tempted, or " be in heaviness through manifold temptations : but that he shall not be finally overcome, God does engage ; as the Apostle says : " God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear itz." Here, I say, the very faithfulness of God is pledged ; and we may be sure, that " of all the good things which he has promised to his people, not one shall ever faila." No doubt they may through weakness be overcome for a season, as the lives of the most eminent saints but too clearly prove. But in such a case God has told us how he will act towards them : "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments ; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments ; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail ; my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips : for once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto DavidV Of course, we are not to understand this of one who sins wilfully and habitually : for, whatever he may profess, he is no child of God, but a downright hypocrite : but of the weakest of real saints it is spoken ; and to him it shall assuredly be fulfilled : for " it is not the will of our Father that one of his little ones should perish0."]
For a just improvement of this passage, let it be remembered,
1. In what way alone we can have access to God —
[We have spoken of the believer as " dwelling in God :"
but how came he into that sanctuary ? and where did he find
u Col. iii. 3, 4. x Deut. xxxii. 9—12. y Tit. i. 2.
z 1 Cor. x. 13. a Josh, xxiii. 14.
b Ps. lxxxix. 30 — 35. c Matt, xviii. 14.