THE SECURITY OF GOD's TEMPTED PEOPLE.
1 Cor. X. 13. There hath no temptation taken you hut such as is common to man : hut God is faithful, ivho will not suffer you to he tempted above that ye are able ; hut will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may he able to hear it.
WE are ever prone to run into the opposite ex- tremes of presumption and despair. To check the former, we should reflect upon the manifestations of God's wrath ; and to avoid the latter, we should bear in mind the promises of his mercy. With this view St. Paul sets before the Corinthian Church the judgments that had been executed on the Israelites in the wil- derness ; but lest they should turn his warnings into an occasion of despondency, he assures them, that God himself had engaged to keep all who diligently sought him, and humbly relied upon him.
1972.1 THE SECURITY OF GOD's TEMPTED PEOPLE. 227
His words naturally lead us to point out,
I. The temptations of God's people —
Many, doubtless, are the temptations with which the godly are beset —
[It seems from the preceding context that the word " temptation " is to be understood in its most extended sense, as comprehending every thing which might endanger their steadfastness in the ways of God. Tlie world strives to en- snare them both by terrors and allurements Thejflesh
strongly inclines them to gratify its appetites and
Satan labours incessantly to beguile them by his wiles and devices^ ]
But the temptations of all are such only as others experience in common with themselves'' —
[All are ready to suppose that there are none tempted like them : but if we knew the experience of others, we should find that, " as face answereth to face in a glass, so
does the heart of man to man " All indeed are not
tempted exactly in the same manner or the same degree (for there are temptations peculiar to men's age and condition in life) but there are none so singularly tried, but that there are many others in similar circumstances with themselves ; and the ascertaining of this point often affords much consolation and encouragement to tempted souls.]
Nor are there any trials so great but that believers may be confident of,
II. Their security in the midst of them —
God himself is interested in their behalf; and they may safely rely on,
1 . His power —
[" That they may not be tempted above that they are able," he will proportion their trials to their strength. Are they at present too weak to endure hardship? He will delay its approach *= : or, if he permit it to come upon them, he will weaken its force "^ : and, if they be likely to faint under it, he
* Satan can easily assume the appearance of " an angel of light :" and he does so especially when he stirs up religious professors to distract the minds of the simple with matters of doubtful disputation, and thus to turn the weak, and the conceited, and the vain, " from the simplicity that is in Christ."
^ 'Ai'OpwTrifoc may signify also 'proportionable to human strength; but the common translation seems perfectly just.
■= Exod. xiii. 17. ^ Ps. Ixxvi. 10. and Isai. xxvii. 8.
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