we are apt to grow careless, and to relax our diligence in seek- ing " the rest that remaineth for us." God therefore causes us to be " emptied from vessel to vessel, that we may not be settled on our leesa."]
2. By inward temptations —
[By far the sorest trials which Christians experience, are, for the most part, of an inward and spiritual nature : Satan wounds them with his fiery darts, and harasses them with many painful suggestions. That wicked fiend indeed desires to sift them as wheat, that he may prevail against them to their destruction ; but God permits him to do it for a very different end, namely, that he may root out all their self-confidence, and stimulate them to greater exertions in their spiritual war- fare. This was the effect which it produced on Peterb; and it is with the same benevolent intent that our Almighty friend gives licence to our adversary to make his assaults on us. Doubtless such " tossings to and fro" are very distressing to us at the time ; but they are overruled for good, in that they separate us more effectually from an evil world, and render us more meet for the heavenly garner.]
Doubtless many who make a fair appearance, perish by these means : nevertheless we are assured of,
II. The security of all those that are truly upright —
There is an essential difference between the hypo- crites and the sincere —
[As chaff and corn may to a superficial observer resemble each other, so may the real and merely nominal Christian. But as there is a solidity in the corn which is not to be found in the chaff, so the truly converted person has something, which clearly distinguishes him from the most refined hypo- crite : he is not contented with an appearance of religion, but seeks to possess it in truth : nor can he rest in the performance of duties ; but labours to have his heart engaged in them. To be high in the estimation of men is, in his eyes, a poor matter ; he would approve himself to God in all he does : nor is there any measure of perfection with which he would be satisfied, while there remained a hope and prospect of attaining more.]
Moreover, God will infallibly distinguish the true professors from the false —
[Man may easily be mistaken in his estimate of charac- ters : but God will form an unerring judgment : he discerns
a Job xxxvi. 8 — 10. with Jer. xlviii. 11. b Luke xxii. 31. compared with 1 Pet. v. 8.