restraint imposed upon him as a test of his fidelity, he fell ; and, by his fall, brought death and destruc- tion upon all his posterity. Now, in restoring men to his favour, God says, ' I will not commit your eternal interests into your own hands : for if I do, weak as ye are, and surrounded with temptations, and having your own interests alone confided to you, what can I hope, but that you will cast them all away, and perish ? I will therefore give you another Covenant Head and Representative, even my only dear Son, and commit all your interests to him : he shall be your hope : " he shall be your very life ;" yea, " your life shall be hid with Christ in God :" then I shall be sure that no enemy shall prevail against you : for " none can pluck you out of his hands ; much less shall any pluck you out of my hands y."
In what I have said on this sublime portion of Holy Writ, I would be understood to speak with diffidence. But I believe that the interpretation which I have put upon it is the true sense, and that no one can enter into its full meaning who does not view it in this light. But the point I am insisting on depends not on one or two particular passages : it is the statement of the whole Scriptures. Every soul is given into the hands of Christ, that he may " keep it by his own power, through faith unto sal- vation2." Hence it is that he could appeal to his Father in his last intercessory prayer, that " of those who had been committed to him he had lost none*." And hence it is that St. Paul was so " confident, that, wherever the good work was begun in a soul, it should be carried on and perfected unto the end\" He knew that Christ was the Author of true faith, wherever it existed ; and that he, who was " the Author, would also be the Finisher, of it0:" and hence he assured both himself and every believing soul, that, inasmuch as " Christ has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake theed," we may dismiss all
y John x. 28, 29. z John xvii. 2. 1 Pet. i. 5.
a John xvii. 12. b Phil. i. 6. c Heb. xii. 2.
(l Heb. xiii. 5, G.