he had not fully performed the command! Deeply affected with the ungrateful, rebellious spirit of the prince, and with the calamities coming upon him, he cried unto the Lord with most importunate intercessions for him. But the sentence against him was determined in the court of heaven; and the painful task of declaring it was committed to Samuel. The man of God, therefore, with all the majesty peculiar to his sacred character, not fearing the wrath of the king,' arraigned him as a criminal, convicted him of covetousness, pride, and dissimulation, very sharply reproved him for his disobedience, and pronounced his condemnation. He was then departing from him, with a holy indignation, but was detained a while, in compliance with the earnest entreaties of Saul, that he might not show him any open disrespect, or excite the contempt and opposition of the people against him.

This was the last visit which the prophet paid to the rejected prince of Israel. Yet let it not be thought, that he was influenced by resentment or arrogance. On the contrary, the grief of Samuel, on Saul's account, seems to have been indulged to an extreme. The Lord, therefore, rebuked him, charged him to acquiesce in the rejection of Saul, and sent him with an express commission to anoint one of the sons of Jesse, who was soon to be raised to the throne. [1 Sam. xvi. 1, &c.]

Samuel was now advanced in years, and retired from public business; and yet he was actively employed in promoting the great interests of religion. He is supposed to have founded those seminaries of pious education, the schools of the prophets,' which tended to preserve the purity of revelation, and to provide proper persons for the service of the church.

Thus, after a life of eminent usefulness, Samuel departed in peace, and his death was much lamented by the whole nation of Israel. [1 Sam. xxv. 1.] How honourable does the good man appear, even in a private station! Though he may be neglected by many, who once professed to revere him, his worth will be acknowledged, when he is taken away, and his loss will be felt by the church.

[ROBINSON.]

XVIII.

SERMON LXXXVIII.

FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

1 SAM. xiii. 13.

CHARACTER OF SAUL.

-And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord.

[Text taken from the First Evening-Lesson.]

WHEN the children of Israel, dissatisfied with their situation under the immediate sovereignty of the Most High, persisted in requiring to be governed like the neighbouring nations, by a king; Saul, a young man of the tribe of Benjamin, was the person whom God placed upon the throne. We, perhaps, had we possessed no ulterior information, might have been disposed to expect that, when the Searcher of hearts cast his eye over the twelve tribes in quest of a man whom he might appoint to be ruler over his people, he would select one, conspicuous for piety, and prepared by steadfast faith, to meet the trials, with which his exaltation would be attended. Yet why should we have expected such a choice? Is it the established order of Providence, that piety should be recompensed by elevation to dignity and power? Are the rulers of the earth, whether in Pagan or in Christian lands, always eminent for religion beyond the mass of their subjects? Was it to be presumed, that when he gave to his people a king in his anger,' [Hosea xiii. 11.], in his anger at their rebellious rejection of his own regal sway, the individual singled out should be one, whose excellence might lull them into forgetfulness of their crime; rather than one who, through misconduct flowing from wilful perverseness of character, might be the instrument of convincing them of their guilt, and of the worth of the pre-eminent distinction and peculiar happiness, which they had renounced? The thoughts of the Most High are not as our thoughts. He knew what king was most fitting for the Israelites; and that king he gave to them.

I purpose to lay before you the leading circumstances in the conduct of Saul; and afterwards to deduce, for your edification, some of the inferences, which they suggest.

I. In the early behaviour of Saul, after the period when he is introduced in the Scriptures to our notice, there is much to prepossess us in his favour. [1 Sam. ix. x. xi.] When he is addressed by Samuel as the person on whom the desire of Israel should speedily be fixed, his reply bears strong indications of modesty. The same modesty is afterwards displayed, when he hides himself, among the furniture of the tents, from the choice and admiration of the people. When, by the casting of the lots before God, his appointment to the throne has been announced to the assembled tribes of Israel, he unostentatiously returns to his father's house, and disdains not to occupy himself, as heretofore, in the superintendence of the flocks and herds. When the children of Belial,' wicked and rebellious men, contemptuously demand, How shall this man save us?' and offer to him no testimonies of the respect due to the chief of the nation, the delegate of Heaven; he sustains the insult with patience: he holds his peace.' When the rest of the people, warmed in their attachment to their new monarch by his victory over the Ammonites, exclaim, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? Bring the men, that we may put them to death;' he strenuously interposes to save the offenders; and interposes, apparently from motives of reverence and gratitude to God: There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to-day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel.'

The fruit, however, corresponds little with the blossom. The hour of serious trial comes on. A vast army of Philistines invades the land. Saul has been directed not to march towards the invaders, until a solemn sacrifice unto God shall have been celebrated in the camp by Samuel, who has previously fixed seven days as the period, within which he shall arrive. [See ch. x. 7, 8.] The seventh day is past; and Samuel appears not. What measures shall the king adopt? Shall he listen to the voice of duty, which commands him to wait with patience for the arrival of Samuel, to whom it belongs to offer the sacrifice; and in pious confidence to leave the event to God? Impatient and weak in faith, he calls for burnt offerings and peace-offerings. Scarcely has he made an end of offering the burnt-offering, when Samuel arrives. Saul endeavours partly to extenuate, partly to vindicate, his conduct; pleads the critical emergency; and talks of having

reluctantly forced himself to undertake the sacrifice. The prophet, at once, cuts off all excuses by a declaration, to the truth of which the understanding and the conscience of the king bear witness: Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee.' And he proceeds to inform the disobedient monarch, that had he been faithful under this trial of patience and humility, his kingdom should have been for ever established by the Most High: but that now the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and ordained him to be captain over his people, Because thou,' O Saul, hast not kept that, which the Lord commanded thee. Thou hast done foolishly thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God.'

In the next memorable circumstance in the conduct of Saul, the folly of sin is exemplified by an instance of extreme rashness and violence. God, by a miraculous interposition of his power, overthrows before Jonathan the host of the Philistines. Saul, breathing vengeance against them, and apprehensive that, if the Israelites shall pause to take the smallest refreshment, an additional number may escape, straitly charges the people with an oath, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening; that I may be avenged on mine enemies.' What are the consequences of this adjuration? In the first place, the Israelites are distressed with extreme faintness, through want of sustenance: and the slaughter of the Philistines proves far less extensive than it might have been, had their pursuers been allowed to refresh themselves, although in the most hasty manner, with the honey, which they found in great abundance in a wood, through which they passed. In the next place, Saul brings a curse upon the head of his own son. Jonathan, not having been present when his father bound all the people under a penal denunciation to abstain during the whole of the day from food, eats a small quantity of honey in the wood. So sacred in its obligation is an oath, or an equivalent adjuration, promulgated lawfully, however rashly, by the sovereign authority, that the breach of it by Jonathan, though arising not from wilful disregard, but from unsuspicious ignorance, entails upon the people marks of the divine displeasure. The Supreme Being, when Saul asks counsel of Him whether the pursuit of the Philistines shall

tence.

be continued, returns not an answer. The king is instantly aware, that the abstinence which he enjoined under a curse on the whole army, has not been observed; and pronounces that the offender, even if that offender be his own son Jonathan, has forfeited his life. After public supplication to God, the lot is cast for the discovery of the transgressor. It falls on Jonathan; his father condemns him to death: God do so, and more also, for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan.' The people, however, will not endure the execution of the senJonathan led them on to the victory, which has just been achieved. Shall Jonathan die,' they exclaim, 'who has wrought this great salvation in Israel? As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground: for he hath wrought with God this day.' So they rescue him, that he dies not. Let it be observed, that the guilt of Saul, with respect to this transaction, is not confined to the blind fury, which impelled him to pronounce the curse on the people. If the crime of Jonathan was one, which the king had authority to pardon, why was he so obstinately barbarous as to condemn his son? But if, in his apprehension, divine justice indispensably required the life of the offender, why did not Saul, at all personal hazards, adopt suitable measures afterwards, for carrying the irrevocable sentence into effect?

Though Saul, by his disobedience respecting the sacrifice, has incurred the forfeiture of the kingdom, yet God, ever merciful and long suffering, forbears to commission Samuel to anoint a successor to the throne, and is willing to grant to the unworthy prince an opportunity of reinstating himself in the divine favour. When the children of Israel were coming up from Egypt, the Amalekites, though descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob, laid wait to destroy them in their march. In consequence of this unprovoked and unnatural hostility, the Lord God, after discomfiting the Amalekites, before his people, denounced war with Amalek from generation to generation.' [Exod. xvii. Numb. xxiv. Deut. xxv.] Samuel, by the direction of the Most High, now commands Saul to execute the long predicted vengeance. Having solemnly reminded him of his universal obligation to hearken to the voice of the Lord, who had exalted him from obscurity to the throne, the prophet, in the name of Jehovah, declares, that the original crime of Amalek was present in the divine