1 Samuel 13

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XIII.—God quickly renders men miserable in the enjoyment of their own inventions for safety: and leaves such as trust to their own understanding to the most impolitic, if not treacherous, conduct. It is easy for him to awaken the resentment of nations, or to levy prodigious armies, when he hisses for them, and musters the host to the battle. And the greatest nations and most flourishing churches, when God has deserted them, appear pitiful and contemptible. In perplexing straits, men often entangle themselves more and more by using sinful means of relief. Impatience to help ourselves, and unwillingness to leave our concerns in God’s hands, serve only to involve us in new troubles. It is infinitely dangerous for the greatest to invade the ministerial office, and run when God has not sent them: it may cost them a kingdom, nay, their everlasting damnation. Disobedience against God’s positive precepts and admit of no excuse. Every attempt to extenuate our guilt is a proof of a humbled spirit. The more we sin against conviction, the more aggravated our transgression: and pretences to religion, whilst we act in opposition to God’s commands, are but barefaced hypocrisy. Want of true sense always accompanies want of grace. Sins, which to us appear very little, have dangerous consequences: and plain and faithful rebukes become God’s ministers. The unstable is earthly grandeur—to-day we may be enthroned, and so-morning deposed! Miserable is a guilty, a defenceless, nation—and much more than who are destitute of the whole armour of God