Nor will he ever suffer the weakest believer to perish. If we were less than the least of all saints, if we were only as “smoking flax,” having but one spark of grace and a whole cloud of corruption, God would assuredly observe the latent principle, and discover the workings of his own Spirit amidst all the infirmities of our fallen nature.] There is an essential difference between the hypocrites and the sincere- Moreover, God will infallibly distinguish the true professors from the false. The security of all those that are truly upright. Doubtless such “tossings to and fro” are very distressing to us at the time but they are overruled for good, in that they separate us move effectually from an evil world, and render us more meet for the heavenly garner.]ĭoubtless many who make a fair appearance, perish by these means: nevertheless we are assured of, and it is with the same benevolent intent that our Almighty friend gives licence to our adversary to make his assaults on us. God sees that a state of perfect ease would by no means conduce to his people’s welfare: and therefore he suffers them sometimes to be agitated, There are now, as well as in former ages, sifting times, (if we may so speak,) both to the Church at large, and to the individual members of it: and the same distinguishing regard is still, though less visibly, manifested by God to his dear children not the smallest of whom shall ever be overlooked. The Prophet Amos was commissioned to foretell the dispersion of Israel which began in the Assyrian captivity, and was completed at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans: but the God of Abraham promised by him, that he would be mindful of “his hidden ones,” and deliver them from the evils to which the profligate and secure should surely be exposed. Daniel and the Hebrew youths were carried captive with their nation yet were they eminently protected by that God whom they served: and Jeremiah, though not raised to any exalted station, was on many occasions marked as an object of God’s incessant care and attention. THOUGH God does not see fit to preserve his people wholly from national calamities, yet he interposes, either to lighten their afflictions or to sanctify them to their good. Lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. DISCOURSE: 1194 THE SECURITY OF ALL GOD’S PEOPLEĪmos 9:9.
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