1 Samuel 15

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XV.—Injuries done to God’s Israel will, sooner or later, be resented by him. He often bears long with the vessels of his wrath fitted for destruction: but the longer judgments are foreborn, they will only be he more severe when they come; and bloody instruments will be chosen for bloody work. How dangerous is it to live among the devoted enemies of God? But kindness to God’s people often procures safety to men’s offspring many ages afterward. A covetous and hypocritical heart makes men do the work of God by halves: and men’s sins often make God change his methods of providence, though he never changes his mind or purpose. While the ruin of sinners is the grief of God’s faithful ministers, the most deceitful men are most ready to boast of their exact obedience to his law: but hypocritical protestations of obedience are often contradicted by the most undeniable proofs. Such as are most forward to justify themselves, are ordinarily the readiest to condemn others: and knowing of the blame on our partners in, or tempters to, sin, is a shrewd evidence of an unhumbled heart. Those, whom God hath highly exalted from low beginnings, ought to remember it as an excitement to do great things for God their exalter. Ministers of Christ ought to deal faithfully with the greatest: and to hunt them out of all their lying refuges and ill-grounded excuses. Next to Jesus’ atonement, nothing is more pleasing to God than true holiness of heart and life. But to live in disobedience to the true God is as bad as to set up false gods, the devil not excepted: and those are unworthy to rule over men who are unwilling to be ruled by God. Fear of man causeth a snare. To confess the sins which we cannot conceal, and to be chiefly afraid of their shame, is no more than may be expected even from an unhumbled heart. But such repentance comes too late when God hath passed a sentence of rejection. So little are hardened sinners affected with God’s threatenings, that honour before the people is dearer to their hypocritical hearts than reconcilement with him. But bloody murderers will at last be reckoned with by God. And never is the destruction of most sinners nearer than when they have no apprehension of it. Let us therefore withdraw from intimacy with such, but never neglect to mourn over their deplorable condition; for it is truly bitter to see those whom we love in the ways of death and hell. 4 R