Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
Ver. 14. It is not the will of your Father] Happy for us, that we are kept by the power of God to salvation, 1 Peter 1:5, for else it were possible for us to fall away and perish: an intercision there might be, nay, an utter excision from Christ, were not his left hand under us, and his right hand over us, Song of Solomon 2:6, and both his hands about us, to clasp and hold us fast to himself. But his right hand is our Jachin, and his left hand our Boaz, 1 Kings 7:21. Both which pillars in the porch of Solomon's temple did show, not only by the matter whereof they were made, but also by the names whereby they were called, what stedfastness the elect stand in before God, both for present and future. For present they have strength in themselves; for future, God will so establish them with his grace, that they shall never wholly depart from him. As for reprobates, God saith of them, that that will die, let it die; they shall die in their sins, as the Lord threateneth the Jews; which is a thousand times worse than to die in a ditch or in a dungeon.