1. We have no stability in ourselves —
[As all our ability and inclination to what is good, are derived from God at first, so must we receive continual supplies from him, even as of light from the sun. Without his con- stant superintendence, both the visible world, and the new creation in the soul of man, would soon revert to their original chaos. This the Apostle elsewhere urges as a motive to dili- gence f, and, in the words before us, to humility and care. Nor can we well have a more powerful argument ; for if " we stand by faith" only, and not by any wisdom or strength of our own, it becomes us to maintain a spirit suited to our weak and depen- dent state.]
2. Others, apparently as safe as we, have been rejected —
[Many have long made a profession of religion and de- parted from it at lastg. Demas stands as an awful monument of human weakness h. Lot's wife is pointed out to us in the same view1. The Jews, who were brought out of Egypt, and yet were destroyed in the wilderness, are expressly set forth as examples to usk. And, above all, the rejection of the Jewish nation for their iniquities, after they had been so long the peculiar people of God, speaks loudly to us. This in parti- cular is urged by the Apostle in the words following the text1; and it teaches us, never so to value ourselves either on our rela- tion to God, or our experience of his goodness, as to forget, that we also may be rejected, if we do not rely upon him, and unreservedly devote ourselves to him.]
3. That which was the ground of the rejection of the Jews, is very prevalent in us —
[God had given to the Jews a revelation respecting the Messiah : but they disbelieved his record, and rejected his Son : and for this their unbelief they were " broken off from the olive " which God's right hand had planted. A still clearer revelation God has given unto us: and is there not much unbelief in our hearts with respect to it ? Are even the most advanced Christians so much affected with the declarations of God's word, as they would be, if faith were in constant and perfect exercise ? Alas ! the faith that realizes things invisible, and gives a present existence to things future"1, is found in but few, and operates but weakly in the best : and, if it should wholly fail, Satan would sift us as wheat, and we should be
f Phil. ii. 12, 13. s l Tim. i. 19.
h 2 Tim. iv. 10. > Luke xvii. 32.
k Jude, ver. 5. 1 Cor. x. 1 1. See also Jer. vii. 12.
1 ver. 21, 22. >» Ileb. xi. 1.