HISTORY OF SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR***


Transcribed from the 1816 R. Thomas edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                   [Picture: Public domain book cover]





                                    A
                               FEW REMARKS
                                  ON THE
                            Scripture History
                                    OF
                                  SAUL,
                                   AND
                          _THE WITCH OF ENDOR_,


                                * * * * *

                              BY J. CHURCH,
                           _SURRY TABERNACLE_.

                                * * * * *

              TRY THE SPIRITS WHETHER THEY BE OF GOD.—John.

       FOR SATAN TRANSFORMETH HIMSELF INTO AN ANGEL OF LIGHT.—Paul.

       WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE DAY OF YOUR VISITATION, WHERE WILL YE
                          FLEE FOR HELP.—Isaiah.

                                * * * * *

                           Sold in the Vestry.

                                * * * * *

                               _SOUTHWARK_;
             PRINTED BY R. THOMAS, RED LION STREET, BOROUGH.

                                  1816.

                                * * * * *




_REMARKS_
ON THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY OF
SAUL, &c.


          “WOE ALSO TO THEM WHEN I DEPART FROM THEM.”  Hosea ix, 12.

               “GOD IS DEPARTED FROM ME, AND ANSWERETH ME NOT.”
                              1 Sam. xxviii. 15.

       _To all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity_.

BELOVED,

IT is your mercy the divine Spirit is the glorifier of Jesus; that he has
set him forth in his word as the Christ of God; what he is, what he has
done, and what he has graciously said to his people.  This is the work of
our faith, to receive as we need, these things, all the way to heaven.

The person of Jesus is the delight of the Father, the glory of heaven,
and the foundation of the Church, considered as God-man Mediator.—The
glories of his person is revealed in the word, but we must die to see
them in full perfection, and no doubt that will be an heaven worth dying
for: but blessed be God we are not wholly in the dark about these
excellencies, so runs the promise, _They __shall all know me_, _from the
least to the greatest_.—His person is truly blessed; his love is
immutable; his work is honorable and glorious, exactly suited to all the
necessities, of his people.  His covenant engagements, his precious
offices, his sweet titles and characters, the Father’s gracious
acceptance of the work he accomplished, and to which he had called and
appointed him.  These, and a thousand more interesting points, are set
forth as matters of our faith, and the food of our souls.  His
everlasting righteousness is our justification, his precious
blood-shedding is our atonement, and his prevalent intercession at the
Father’s right-hand, is the basis of our hope, and the ground of our
acceptance.—I say again, my dear friends in Jesus, what a mercy!  This is
our refuge, our remedy, our joy, our triumph, our present and eternal
all: and that we have the most important evidence of interest in these
capital blessings, by being led from every other refuge; and under a
sense, a daily view of our need, we are enabled to fly for a refuge, to
lay hold on this hope; nor can we have a pain, a sorrow, a cross, a
misery of any kind, from sin, Satan or the world, but the holy Spirit
designs thereby really to endear the Lord Jesus to us, as he is revealed
in the word.  There is another most blessed consideration for our faith,
viz. What Jesus has graciously said to his people, in all the precious
declarations of the Father’s love; the evidence he has given of this in
the gift of the dear Son, to obey, suffer, and die—the declarative
evidence of his own love, in his willingness to accomplish the work of
redemption; and blessing his people with the gift of the holy Spirit, as
the principal evidence of interest in his love and work.  His precious
invitations to poor, needy, helpless, lost, wandering, undone sinners,
who being in the least imaginable degree convinced of their state, they
are invited to him, with the most comfortable assurance of salvation;
which assurance _of_, and _to_ faith, will, in due time, produce the
comfortable assurance of sense.  His promises are exceeding
glorious—hence the Church declared, after a beautiful, tho’ enigmatical
description of her Beloved, _His mouth is most sweet_.  The promises are
very precious, yea, the Apostle calls them _exceeding precious_—they are
exactly adapted to our cases, let them be what they may: if thirsting for
the consolations of the Spirit, Jesus says, _I will pour water on him_,
_and floods on the dry ground_.  If ready to give up all, having waited
long to little purpose, he says, _The vision is for an appointed time_,
_at the end it will speak_.  If a soul is groaning under guilt, he says,
_I will he merciful to your unrighteousness_, _and your sins and
iniquities I will remember no more_.  If we feel our sins too strong for
us, he promises he will subdue them.  If we are made sensible of our
backsliding, he says, _I will heal your backslidings_.  If in great
difficulties, and we know not which way to get out of them, he says, _I
will bring the blind by a way they __know not_: _I will guide thee with
mine eye_.  If harrassed by the Devil, he promises to _bruise him under
our feet shortly_.  If complaining of hardness of heart, he says, _I will
give you a new one_—and if full of fears, he declares he will be _an
hiding place in every storm_; and if we feel as if we were forsaken of
God; and are actually forsaken of friends, relatives, acquaintance, and
both professor and possessor shun us; and suppose every ray of sensible
comfort gone, yet, he cannot, will not leave or forsake you; for he hath
said, _I will never_, _never_, _leave you_: _I will never_, _no_,
_never_, _no never_, _forsake you_! for so the learned say it is in the
original, not less than five times mentioned.  How sweet the thought!—so
that we may confidently sing—

    The soul that on Jesus bath lean’d for repose,
    He can not, he will not forsake to his foes;
    That soul though all Hell should endeavor to shake,
    He’ll never, no never, no never, forsake!

And he is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he
should repent.  Let our faith plead these things, and may we rejoice in
him who is the faithful God—he never can leave or forsake his dear
Children, his Bride, his jewels, his crown, his honour, his glory, his
own flesh and blood.  This is our security and our triumph.  His love
cannot change; his nature is immutable; his purposes cannot be broken;
the bond of union cannot be dissolved; he is one with them, he is in
them, and they are engraven on his heart, on his arms, and on the palms
of his hands; and he has sworn, _Because_, or _As I live you shall live
also_.  Yet there may be some apparent forsakings, these are chiefly
imaginary; yet they have caused these sad complaints—_Why hidest thou thy
face_, _O Lord_?  Zion said, _The Lord hath forsaken me—my God hath
forgotten me_!  The Lord may depart from his people, in the suspensions
of his keeping hand; and the light of his countenance, the sense of his
favour, and the divine comforts of his spirit—this may be seen in the sad
tale of the fall, of the children of God, especially in the history of
Sampson, of whom it is written, that he went out to shake himself, as at
other times, and he wist not that the Lord was departed from him: the
Lord may seem as if he had forsaken his people when he delays answering
prayer; when the soul is shut up for a season; when sin prevails; when no
power is felt under the word; when providences are dark; when temptations
are strong; when the Church is under long persecution; and when distress
abound.  Thus we may be partially forsaken; but faith can still triumph
in this—_What shall separate us from the love of Christ_?  David still
loved his Absalom, though he refused him the sight of his face.  The loss
of the light of God’s countenance, loudly proclaims the direful effects
of the believer’s sin, sloth, and unbelief—O! for grace to fly from sin
as from the face of a Serpent—O! for grace to cleave to Jesus
continually.  But the Lord may be said to leave a man, when he withdraws
his sustaining, creative, providential hand, as in the case of some who
are lunatic; of others who push into dreadful crimes, and suffer for
them; and of others, who are left to their own pride and despair, and who
rush headlong, by their own hands, into an awful eternity.  It is a mercy
for a natural man to be kept by the almighty power of God, even as the
God of nature.  The Lord may be said to leave a people, when they have
slighted the Gospel, rejected his servants, despised his ordinances, and
wholly cast out his messages of love to his people.  This we all know was
the case with the Jews, which is to be seen to this day: God has given
them up to their own blindness, pride, prejudice, and enmity; and no
doubt they will remain so till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Hence he has said, _I will drive them out of my house_.  _Yea_, _woe is
to them when I depart from them_.  _Your sin remaineth_.  _Behold your
house is left unto you desolate_, _until ye shall say_, _blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord_.  But finally; the Lord has left
some individuals to themselves, who have come into a profession, and who
have, uncalled, claimed the Lord as theirs; who have been awfully proud,
arrogant, lovers of themselves, heady, high minded, and cruelly envious
of others; whose hearts were never truly humbled; whose enmity was never
slain; whose secret prejudice was never subdued; nor were such taught out
of either the Law, the Gospel, or affliction: such may have wonderful
talents, but no love of God, of Christ, or the Spirit; no real love to
the word of God, the house of God, the people of God, or the operations
of the grace of God.  Such may make a fair shew in the flesh, for a
season; may be useful in some external things to others, as the
scaffolding to a building, which will be taken away when