2 Samuel 11

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XI.—Lord, what is man when left to himself! On this side the grave no man is secure from presumptuous sin. The lusts of the flesh are most powerful and deceitful evils, and the last to be subdued; and such as make provision for the flesh, by sloth and sensuality, are prepared for every temptation. When we are out of God’s way of duty we cannot expect his protection. If our eyes be suffered to wander, our hearts and feet will soon follow. To indulge sinful lust is but to increase its cravings. And a heart given up to lewdness will sacrifice honour, interest, friends, nay, God himself, to the idol of its hateful passions. Often it requires double care to conceal sin than what would have been necessary to prevent it. One sin ordinarily requires another to hide it. And such as have defiled their neighbour’s bed will not stick to destroy his soul by drunkenness, or even his life by the sword. When sin has hardened the heart, the strongest warnings of providence are disregarded.—When the devil has once got a soul before the wind of his temptations, he can drive it to the very brink of hell—to deliberate malice and murder. God, however highly displeased, may permit men for a time to prosper in their wickedness, till their particular branches of guilt have become almost innumerable.—But stand still, my soul, and tremble to behold the man according to God’s heart, the royal deputy of heaven—negligent in business, indulgent of sloth, wandering in eye, and lustful in heart; in old age debauching a lady of good reputation, and the wife of a faithful hero: labouring to impose a spurious issue upon an injured friend; robbing his faithful servant of his senses by drink, to promote the base design; deliberately contriving murder, and making the intended victim the bearer of the murderous mandate; using Uriah’s fidelity and valour as the means of his ruin; involving Joab, and the deserters of their post, and the Ammonites, as partners in his guilt: and, in fine, charging his murder on the providence of God! Oh, what fearful depths of corruption must be in my heart! How astonishing is it that Jesus and his Spirit should dwell in so polluted a residence! How much I am indebted to God for his restraining grace! Let me then daily commit the keeping of my soul to God; and, if overtaken in a fault, immediately apply to Jesus Christ for repentance and forgiveness of my sins