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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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,…