And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no •ot, •h• withered away John i•. 6. If a man ⟨p. 205⟩abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. But however violently the winds blow, none of the truly ingrafted branches, that are knit with the stock, are found missing, when the storm is changed into a calm, John xvii. 12. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost. The least twig growing in Christ shall stand it out, and subsist; when the tallest cedars growing on their own root, shall be laid flat on the ground, Rom. viii. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or p•, or sword: See ver. 36, 37, 38, 39. However severely Israel be sifted, yet shall not the least grain, or as it is in the original language, a little stone fall upon the earth, Amos ix. 9. It is an allusion to the sifting of fine pebble stones from among heaps of dust and sand: tho' the sand and dust fall to the ground, be blown away with the wind, and trampled under foot; yet there shall not fall on the earth so much as a little stone, such is the exactness of the sieve, and care of the sifter. There is nothing more ready to fall on the earth than a stone: yet if professors of religion be lively stones built on Christ the chief corner stone; although' they be little stones, they shall not fall to the earth, whatever storm beat upon them. See 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6 All the good grain in the church of Christ is of this kind; they are stones in respect of solidity; and lively stones, in respect of activity. If men be solid substantial Christians, they will not be like chaff tossed to and fro with every wind; having so much of the liveliness that they have nothing of the stone: and if they be lively Christians, whose spirit will stir in them, as Paul's did, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, Act xvii. 16. they will not lie like stones, to be turned over hither and thither, cut and carved, according to the lusts of men; having so much of the stone, as leaves nothing of liveliness in them.
And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no •ot, •h• withered away John i•. 6. If a man ⟨p. 205⟩abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. But however violently the winds blow, none of the truly ingrafted branches, that are knit with the stock, are found missing, when the storm is chang•d into a calm, John xvii. 12. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost. The least twig growing in Christ shall stand it out, and subsist; when the tallest cedars growing on their own root, shall be laid flat on the ground, Rom. viii. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or p•, or sword: See ver. 36, 37, 38, 39. However severely Israel be sifted, yet shall not the least grain, or as it is in the original language, a little stone fall upon the earth, Amos ix. 9. It is an allusion to the sifting of fine peeble stones from among heaps of dust and sand: tho' the sand and dust fall to the ground, be blown away with the wind, and trampled under foot; yet there shall not fall on the earth so much as a little stone, such is the exactness of the sieve, and care of the sifter. There is nothing more ready to fall on the earth than a stone: yet if professors of religion be lively stones built on Christ the chief corner stone; altho' they be little stones, they shall not fall to the earth, whatever storm beat upon them. See 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5, 6 All the good grain in the church of Christ is of this kind; they are stones in respect of solidity; and lively stones, in respect of activity. If men be solid substantial Christians, they will not be like chaff tossed to and fro with every wind; having so much of the liveliness that they have nothing of the stone: and if they be lively Christians, whose spirit will stir in them, as Paul's did, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, Act xvii. 16. they will not ly like stones, to be turned over hither and thither, cut and carved, according to the lusts of men; having so much of the stone, as leaves nothing of livelinss in them.
