1 Samuel 25

Be not of a morose spirit. It was said of Nabal (1 Samuel 25:18), he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him. Some are so barbarous, as if they were akin to the ostrich, they are fired with rage, and breathe forth nothing but revenge, like those two men in the Go…

When he calleth, they must obey: and when he calls not, or allows not a course of gaining, or a trade of life (though all the world allowed it) we must not follow it: this will honor them, and their profession, before God. Abraham's faith justified him before God, but his obedie…

Answer. If his conscience tell him, out of God's word, that the thing is not lawful, then he must not keep it; for, an oath may not be the bond of iniquity: the keeping of it is a doubling of the sin. David, in his anger, had sworn to slay Nabal, and all the men in his family, f…

They have all quoad not quoad. These are like the churl Nabal, 1 Samuel 25. 11. Shall I take my bread and my water and give it to men whom I know not from where they be.

Have you forgotten what necessities and straits even a David suffered? How great were his straits and necessities (1 Samuel 25:8)! 'Give, I pray you,' said he to Nabal, 'whatever comes to your hand, to your servants and to your son David.'

Secondly, Having cleared this, and shown you wherein the sin and danger lies; my way is prepared to the second thing proposed: namely, to dissuade mourners from these sinful excesses of sorrows, and keep the golden bridle of moderation upon their passions in times of affliction.…

A soft tongue breaks the bones (Proverbs 25:15). See the example of Gideon appeasing the Midianites (Judges 8:1), and Abigail pacifying David (1 Samuel 25). Fifthly, without meekness, we cannot savingly hear the word, either read or preached (James 1:21).

It is necessary then, you see, that these two parts be joined together, if we would have God to approve and allow of our charity. In commanding them to break their bread to the hungry, he meant to take away all excuses from the covetous and niggardly, who are wont to reply, that…

It is no certain sign that a person is graciously affected, if in the midst of his hopes and comforts, he is greatly affected with God's unmerited kindness to him that is so unworthy, and seems greatly to extol and magnify grace. Those that yet remain with unmortified pride and…

Yea, we find an account in Scripture of gracious persons, a great part of whose comfort in this world has been split upon this Rock. Abigail was a discreet and vertuous Wman, but very unsuitably matched to a churlish Nabal; see 1 Samuel 25:25 What a temptation to the neglect of…

Sometimes God does make one man to be a hedge or a defense to another. The servants of Nabal said of David (1 Samuel 25:16), That he had been a wall to them both by night and day; that is, he had been a protection and a guard to them, he had defended them all the while his army…

The qualification of her suit is, What shall we do for her, in the day that she shall be spoken for? This phrase, to speak for her, is in allusion to the communing that is used for the attaining women in marriage: We find the same phrase in the Original, 1 Samuel 25:39. David se…

Thirdly, there is another sort of the gifts of common providence, wherein some excel others, and that is, riches and honor: these the Scripture calls fathers. Nabal, although he were a fool and a churl, yet David in his messages to him, does implicitly call him father (1 Samuel…

Grow on my soul, and add to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, etc. Grow on from faith to faith; keep yourself under the ripening influences of heavenly ordinances; the faster you grow in grace, the sooner you shall be reaped down in mercy, and bound up in the bundle o…

We may certainly have (and we would do well to consider it) less inward disturbance, and more true ease and satisfaction in forgiving twenty injuries, than in avenging one. No doubt Abigail intended more than she expressed, when to qualify David, and to persuade him to pass by t…

Upon every little default they are put into a flame, and transported beyond due bounds: easily provoked, either for no cause at all, or for very small cause; greatly provoked, and very outrageous, and unreasonable when they are provoked. Their carriage fiery and hasty; their lan…

When I shall awake, I will seek it yet again. (2.) As it takes away the heart, Hos. 4 11. that is, the understanding, reason and ingenuity of a man, and so makes him uncapable of being reclaimed by counsel. Upon this account it was, that Abigail would not speak less or more to N…

Are you come to call my sin to remembrance? But rather let it work kindly on your heart, and make you say as David to Abigail, 1 Samuel 25:32. 33. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent you this day to meet me, and blessed be your advice.

Extraordinary for the good of the husband himself, and others in the family, or such as are out of the family. If there falls out an extraordinary occasion whereby the wife by disposing the goods without or against the consent of her husband may bring a great good to the family,…

To this head may be referred servants' faithfulness in making known to their master the sin of his wife, and to their mistress the sin of her husband, especially if it be such a sin as may tend to the ruin of the family, and that by the knowledge thereof, the party that is not b…

He has such an absolute right, that you can call nothing your own. We think indeed, our lips are our own (Psalm 12:4), and our estates our own: as Nabal (1 Samuel 25:11), Shall I take my bread, and my water, and my flesh? All you have, it belongs to this king, by right of creati…

2. Because he had been tripping and guilty in this kind. In the story of David you may trace too much of this way and vein of lying; as his feigning to Abimeleck the Priest (1 Samuel 25:8), and to Achish (2 Samuel 27:8) compared with verse 10, his persuading Jonathan to tell his…

So the Pharisees hated Christ, because of his free reproofs (John 9:40): "Are we blind also?" They cannot endure to hear of their faults, especially from one in an inferior condition, and think every reproof to be a reproach, though never so wisely and compassionately managed, a…

But if you thus meet with them early on, you may prevent a great deal of sin; it is the best proof of your love (Proverbs 13:24). And it may be they will say as David did to Abigail (1 Samuel 25:39), blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me; blessed be…

When Abigail met David now upon his march so justly provoked, armed also with power and rage; and therefore if we should look at her, that was to discover the [illegible] of his proceedings, and stop him therein, or at David so wronged and provoked, and now upon the sign as the…

So it is with a soul truly willing to be severed from his sin, being burdened and infested with the venomous pollution thereof, it finds most delight in that ordinance that works most kindly and effectually upon it; the saddest counsel, the sharpest reproof, the most searching t…

These are akin to the churlish Nabal. 1 Samuel 25:11: Shall I take my bread and my water and give them to men I do not know? It was said of the Emperor Pertinax that he had a large empire but a narrow, scanty heart.

God has set me a race to run, and I must not linger or loiter. The haste Abigail made to the king (1 Samuel 25:34) prevented her death and the massacre of Nabal's family; our haste in the heavenly race will prevent damnation. This may plead for a Christian in his eager pursuit a…

Now is the fittest season to stamp a reproof upon them, and it is likeliest to take impression. When Abigail reproved Nabal, it was in the right season — not when he was in wine, but when he was in his wits and was fit to hear a reproof (1 Samuel 25:37). Another season for repro…

2. This pronoun self and mine is a proud usurper against God. Was he not an atheist or a churl, and his name folly, who said, (1 Samuel 25:11) and breathed out so many my's? Shall I take my bread and my waters, and my flesh which I killed for my hearers, and give it to men whom…

It appears they yield not themselves willingly to obey sin, in as much as it is the matter of their joy when God orders any providence to prevent sin in them. 'Blessed be the Lord,' said David to Abigail, 'and blessed be your advice, and blessed be you, that have kept me this da…

First, God will reveal his secret counsels to such, and make them of his counsel (Genesis 18:18-20). Secondly, he will bring upon Abraham all the good he has promised him: it is the ready way to bring about the accomplishment of all God's promises to us; otherwise God will heap…