one of us, even at the door ; for, on the instant of our depar- ture from the body, we are borne into the presence of our Judge, and have our portion for ever fixed. Hence the believer waits for his dissolution, as the promised commence- ment of everlasting joys. Others may wait, and even long, for death, as a termination of their sorrows ; but it is the believer alone who " looks for and hastes unto the coming of the day of Christ," as the completion and consummation of all his joys. Others may affect heaven as "a rest" from trouble ; but the believer alone pants for it as a rest in God. In the view of that day, " he is sober, and hopes to the end for the grace that shall be brought unto him at the revelation of Jesus Christ e,"]
But from our text we are led to notice farther, II. The blessings which the Gospel secures —
God in calling us to the knowledge of his Son, calls us also to a fellowship with his Son, in all the blessings both of grace and glory : and where he gives the former of these blessings, there he engages to impart the latter also. On this ground, the promise of a faithful God, the Apostle assured the Corinthians of,
1. Their continued preservation —
[" He shall confirm you unto the end," says he. If believers were left to themselves, they would have no prospect of ever enduring to the end. So many and so great are the difficulties which they have to contend with, that they could have no hope at all. But God undertakes for them, to " keep them by his own power through faith unto salvation." He engages both for himself and for them : for himself, that " he will not depart from them to do them good :" and for them, that " he will put his fear into their hearts, so that they shall not depart from him^." If they offend him by any violation or neglect of duty, " he will visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes : but his loving-kindness will he not utterly take from them, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail : for once he has sworn by his holiness, that he will not lie unto David'." So fully assured of this truth was Paul in relation to the Philippian Church, that he declared himself " confident of this very thing, that He who had begun a good work in them would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ'':" and the same confidence we may feel in relation to every true believer, that " none shall ever separate him from the love of
B 1 Pet. i. 13. ^ Jer. xxxii. 40.
i Ps. Ixxxix. 30—35. ^ Phil. i. G.