1 Samuel 4

If ours be a true genuine love to our heavenly Father, it may be known, 1. By the effects. 1. Then we have a holy fear: There is a fear which arises from love to God; that is, we fear the loss of the visible tokens of God's presence (1 Samuel 4:13): Eli's heart trembled for the…

The eye that mocks at his father, and despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagle shall eat it. Eli's two disobedient sons were slain (1 Samuel 4:11). God made a law that the rebellious son should be stoned; the same death the bla…

He whose heart would never break at the sight of his sins, shall now break at the sight of his loss. Phinehas's daughter, when she heard the Ark was lost, cried out, The Glory is departed; (1 Samuel 4:21). When the sinner sees what he has lost, he has lost the beatific vision, h…

But when they ceased to trust in God, and put their confidence in the things themselves, which were no otherwise useful but as they were pledges of his presence, they proved their ruin. Hereof we have a fatal instance in their bringing the Ark into the field, in their battle aga…

Hence sanctification proceeded to all the other parts of it; for, as Solomon observed, the places were holy whereunto the Ark of God came (2 Chronicles 8:11). And of such sacred veneration was it among the people, so severe was the exclusion of all flesh from the sight of it, th…

So the Apostle reckoning up the privileges of the Hebrews (Romans 9:4), affirms that to them appertained the adoption and the glory. And therein not the Ark is intended, although it may be that is sometimes called the glory, or signified under that name, as (1 Samuel 4:21, 22; P…

That is a blessed love which puts a Christian into a hot fit of zeal, and a cold fit of fear, making him shake and tremble, and not dare willingly to offend God. 2. A fear mixed with jealousy, 1 Samuel 4.13. Eli's heart trembled for the Ark.

Melanchthon seemed to take little notice of the death of his child, which he dearly loved, being almost overwhelmed with the miseries lying on the Church. And it was a good evidence of the graciousness and publicness of Eli's spirit, who sitting in the gate anxiously waiting for…

So, are Idolaters solicitous in time of danger, not so much because of their outward peace, (it is not said that they were afraid because the enemies would come and take their Corn, or their Estates) but Beth-aven, where the Calves were, they were afraid of that. When there is a…

He speaks it then by way of contempt against the vain and dumb Idols; to wit, that they and their soul were led into captivity. Object. But let us see if this may not as well be retorted upon the true God, whose Ark was taken by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:11), which was the sig…

The Ark, which was the most signal representation of the presence of God among them, was called his glory. So the wife of Phineas, upon the taking of the Ark, affirmed, that the glory was departed (1 Samuel 4:22): The glory is departed from Israel, for the Ark of God is taken. A…

It was the repository of the Covenant; for so the Law written by the finger of God in Tables of stone, is often called metonymically, and being anointed (Exodus 40:9), became [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], holiness of holinesses, or most holy, a type of him who was to fulfill the La…

Thus Job arose, bound with a four-fold cord of affliction: he raised himself up like Samson, though in humility, yet with strength and courage. And so it is opposed to the sinking of the spirit under troubles, as you know the spirit of Eli did, (1 Samuel 4:18). There was sad new…

O, they knew not how to give up such a minister! When the ark of God (which was the symbol of the divine presence among the Jews) was taken, all the city cried out (1 Samuel 4:13). O, the loss of a Gospel ministry is an inestimable loss! not to be repaired but by its own return,…

That it is no privilege of truth, to furnish its assertors, with this persuasion, that the dissenters from it, ought forcibly to be opposed, restrained, punished: no false religion ever yet in the world, did enthrone itself in the minds of men, enjoying a civil sovereignty over…

Sin is a forsaking of God, and sin makes God forsake us: now which is better, to have God with and for, or against us? If God be for us, it matters not who be against us (Romans 8:31), but if God be against us, and depart from us, all is Ichabod (1 Samuel 4:21-22; Job 34:29). Ye…

As it is in war, when a pitched field is fought, and the bodies of both armies meet, each standing in the defense and [reconstructed: advantage] of its own [reconstructed: ground]; but when the day is got, and the battle won, and the forces of the [reconstructed: enemy] not only…

Therefore know that, if you finde not your hearts affected with the things that belong to God, that there is no anger stirred up, it is a sure argument that you love him not. It is observable that is said of olde Ely, 1 Sam. 4:3. when newes was brought him that the Israelites we…

For the first; the Ark is oftentimes called the Glory of God (Psalm 78:61): He gave his strength into captivity, and his Glory into the hand of his enemies. Where he speaks of the surprisal of the Ark by the Philistines; which when it was accomplished, Phineas his wife called he…

First, in the separation of our own cause from the church's. As when, it going ill with the church, it goes well with us in particular — if then we can distaste our own private felicities and call them Ichabods, as that good woman did her son when the ark was captured (1 Samuel…

When the Judges scourge and imprison the Apostles, no man will speak for them — the immediate power of God does it, the chains fall off legs and arms, immediate providence is a key also to open the prison doors, and they are saved. There is a bloody war at the taking of the Ark,…

2. What was the wickedness of Shiloh; for the Lord shows that it was for that, he did that to it, which he had done; Text, now we shall see the sin of Shiloh, if we look into (1 Samuel 2:12), &c. which was the sin of the priests in contemning the ordinances of God, giving an evi…