2 Samuel 21:22

REFLECTIONS

SEE, Reader! in the solemn events of this chapter, in the giving up the sons of Saul to death, how awfully true that denunciation of the LORD is, of visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him. Oh! ye that are parents! let this sad example before your eyes, prompt you to seek grace from GOD, to be kept back from sin; lest the LORD smite the fathers with the children, and both are involved in the evil of their ways.

Precious JESUS! it is impossible to turn to any part in the Bible, or to any subject, or person, or thing contained in it, without finding somewhat that, either by immediate allusion, or in direct reference, points to thee. Everywhere, methinks, I discover thee. And in everything indeed, would I desire to have my soul exercised in the contemplation of thee. For, dearest LORD! that subject loseth all its beauty, all its loveliness, however pleasing in itself, that terminates not in thee. And though the bloody house of Saul is as remote, (and infinitely more remote), as hell from heaven, compared to thee; yet, when I see the ordinary law of our GOD broken, that in their hanging up, they might be suspended betwixt earth and heaven, until that GOD was entreated for the land: how is it possible, not to have my mind instantly led to thee, thou sinners' Surety, and sinners' Friend, who literally, and truly, wast made both sin and a curse for thy people, when thou knewest no sin, on purpose that they might be made the righteousness of GOD, in thee. There on thy cross, blessed JESUS, would I forever fix my eye, unless, indeed, now and then to follow thee, in the contemplation of thy conquests over it, in thy triumphal entrance into heaven. On JESUS would I forever gaze. In every ordinance, in every providence, in every prayer, in every song of praise; there, there would my ravished soul look, and say; there hangs my hope, my joy, my everlasting security! And on thee, and thy dear Person, do I hang all the glory of my Father's house, and all the glory of my own salvation. Oh! the precious, precious, Person of my adored Redeemer! So sweet, so suitable, so gracious, art thou to my soul, as a poor convinced sinner, that, like Paul, my determination is fixed; henceforth, I will know nothing among men, but JESUS CHRIST, and him crucified. And, blessed be my GOD, I hope and trust I can, with the same assurance of faith, say as he did, for I know him to be the power of GOD, and the wisdom of GOD for salvation to me, and to everyone that believeth.