1 Samuel 28:25

REFLECTIONS

IF ever the contemplation of the wicked, in his progress from sin to sin can become profitable to deter from the commission of sin, and to keep back the soul, under grace, from presumption; surely there is not a character in scripture which teaches this more loudly, than that of Saul. Behold him from the moment of Samuel's anointing him king, to the hour in which the Holy Ghost hath here sketched his history, and what doth it afford but the very melancholy account of a desperately wicked heart. That heart of Saul was never changed by grace; for though he is said to have had another heart from what he had when seeking his Father's asses, when he came to the kingdom; yet not a new heart created in righteousness and true holiness. With this deceitful heart of nature, the acquired purple of a kingdom, and the power of a Prince, only furnished means of manifesting what that heart originally was by nature, and what it ever remained untouched by grace. It only was uniformly making a greater progression and ripeness in evil. Reader! behold in his history how he proposed to himself pleasure in offending God; fighting against the gracious hand that had given him a throne; and as one determined to sacrifice everything rather than that God should appoint a successor in his kingdom, who had, unasked, and unthought of, given a kingdom to him. Think here from what an awful thing it must be in the wicked to be found fighting against God.

From the view of Saul, let us turn our thoughts to Jesus, whose redemption work becomes the only remedy for all sin, even in his children, who are by nature open and justly exposed to wrath even as others. We read the history of Saul to very little purpose if the sequel of it and indeed every part of it, doth not lead to this conclusion of the apostles; Are we then better than they? Are we in ourselves, and in our fallen state, by nature, less exposed to the same commission of sin? No, in no wise. For the scripture hath before proved all under sin. And God hath concluded all in unbelief as well as sin. Well may every truly awakened soul cry out, under the heart-felt conviction of the truth; Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. Here then, Reader! let you and I join issue and rejoice. Jesus is set forth as a propitiation for sin through faith in his blood. He is the salvation and the righteousness of God to every sinner that believeth. Oh! Lord, grant us the fullness of grace to believe the record which God the Father hath given of his dear Son. And may that precious scripture be ever sounding in our ears, and ever living in its divine and saving influence in our hearts; God having raised up his Son Jesus hath sent him to bless you, in turning away everyone of you from his iniquities.