2. He determines to preserve them even to the
end —
[We are not to understand by the words of our text, that God has no ill design towards them ; for he entertains not these against any child of man : " He willeth not the death of any sinner, but that all should come to repentance and live." But, in behalf of " those who believe in Christ" (for this is the description given of his little ones), he has a fixed purpose, that they shall not perish : " He keeps them by his power " for that very end, that they may not fall : and " he will never suffer any one to pluck them out of his hand''."
We must not however imagine that he will keep them with- out exertions of their own. No: it is hy and through their own exertions that God will keep them. The Holy Spirit is said to " help our infirmities;" just as one man helpeth another, by bearing together with him a part of his burthen^. And, if we will not exert the powers which God has given us, we shall in vain look for aid on his part. I consider this sentiment as peculiarly important : because many, from an apprehension that God's promised agency will generate supineness in us, discard altogether the idea that God has undertaken any thing for us. But God has assuredly engaged to " keep the feet of his saints," and to finish in them the work he has begun : but he will carry this into effect by calling forth our efforts to the uttermost. " His working in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure," is our encouragement to " work out our own salvation with fear and trembling :" and, if we will not work for ourselves, we give a decided proof that the grace of God is not in us. If, on the other hand, we will " arise and work," we shall find that " God is with us of a truth," and that " our labour shall not be in vain in the Loi'd."]
See, then,
•i ver. 12, 13. ^ John x. 28, 29. *■ avrmTiXafificireTat.