Here some, not rightly instructed, will exclaim:  “Truly I could wish to commend myself to such a keeper, but only His sheep does He preserve.  Whether I also am counted in that flock, I know not.”  Against this doubt we must most strenuously contend, for the Lord Himself assures us in this very passage, that all who “hear and with faith receive the voice of the gospel are His sheep”; and He says expressly:  “If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.”  These promises of the Son of God, which can not be shaken, we must confidently appropriate to ourselves.  Nor shouldst thou, by thy doubts, exclude thyself from this blest flock, which originates in the righteousness of the gospel.  They do not rightly distinguish between the law and the gospel, who, because they are unworthy, reckon not themselves among the sheep.  Rather is this consolation afforded us, that we are accepted “for the Son of God’s sake,” truly, without merit, not on account of our own righteousness, but through faith, because we are unworthy, and impure, and far from having fulfilled the law of God.  That is, moreover, a universal promise, in which the Son of God saith:  “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The eternal Father earnestly commands that we should hear the Son, and it is the greatest of all transgressions if we despise Him and do not approve His voice.  This is what every one should often and diligently consider, and in this disposition of the Father, revealed through the Son, find grace.

Altho, amid so great disturbances, many a sorrowful spectacle meets thine eye, and the Church is rent by discord and hate, and manifold and domestic public necessity is added thereto, still let not despair overcome thee, but know thou that thou hast the Son of God for a keeper and protector, who will not suffer either the Church, or thee, or thy family, to be plucked out of His hand by the fury of the devil.

With all my heart, therefore, do I supplicate the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, having been crucified for us, and raised again, sits at the right hand of the Father, to bless men with His gifts, and to Him I pray that He would protect and govern this little church and me therein.  Other sure trust, in this great flame when the whole world is on fire, I discern nowhere.  Each one has his separate hopes, and each one with his understanding seeks to repose in something else; but however good that may all be, it is still a far better, and unquestionably a more effectual, consolation to flee to the Son of God and expect help and deliverances from Him.