1 Samuel 28

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XXVIII.—The enemies of the church craftily seize their opportunity when their principal opponents are out of the way. And when God has left a country it is easy for enemies to penetrate into the very heart of it. How hard it is for saints to act honestly when they have wandered out of God’s way! Whether they take part with friends or foes, they are apt to be ensnared. But dreadful is the case of men who are abandoned by God, and deprived of his prophets and ministers. And they who refuse to seek God, while he may be found, will cry in vain when he refuses to answer, and have their troubles doubly aggravated by the terrors of an evil conscience. When men throw off their cloak of religion, they ordinarily abandon themselves to the very abominations against which they had professed much zeal. Works of darkness hate the light: and many, who have cast off the fear of God, are ashamed to appear so bad as they are before men. But it is shocking for persons amidst gospel light to enter into leagues or fellowship with devils;—absurd to profess hatred to Satan in others, and yet indulge him in our heart;—dangerous to flee to the devourer for relief, when the God of grace hath cast us off;—and stupid to fear the laws of men, and the wrath of a wicked king, more than the authority and eternal vengeance of Almighty God. But God often gives up to strong and devilish delusions the men who have no pleasure in his truth; and those who undervalue the Lord’s prophets at last get devils in their stead. Cold comfort indeed will the devil administer to his servants even in their greatest distress. But they have themselves only to blame for all the miseries to which they are reduced; for vain is their knocking when the door of mercy is once shut. Having departed from God, they have forsaken their own mercies. A miserable life, and more miserable death, are all the portion they can expect. And, when once a man is given up to despair, he rushes on to his own destruction as the horse rushes into the battle