3. Let nothing operate to drive you froin God — [David said, " There is nothing better for me, than that
I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines'":" and for this he is generally condemned, and perhaps justly too : though I cannot forget, that our Saviour, under somewhat similar circumstances, was carried by divine direction into Egypt. But respecting us there can be no doubt. Every thing must drive us rather to God, than from him. Persecution, temptations, yea, even sin itself, must have this effect. We have no refuge whatever, but in God : and if, like Jonah, we were in the belly of hell itself, we must cry unto him. Then " shall all things eventually work together for good." Our very fears shall tend to keep us from undue confidence, and constrain us to cast ourselves more entirely upon God. And, if once they produce this blessed effect, we may rest assured, that not all the universe combined " shall ever separate us from his love s."]
'1 Ezek. xviii. 26 — 28. e Ezek. xviii, 29.
f Text. e Rom. viii. 38, 39.
1 Sam. xxviii. 15. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up ? And Saul ansivered, I am sore distressed ; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither hy prophets, nor by dreams : therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
THAT such a thing, as witchcraft has existed, we cannot doubt: but what were the incantations used, or what power Satan had to work with and by them, we know not. Certain it is, that in the days of our Lord, Satan appears to have had a greater influence over the bodies of men than he possesses at this time : and as that was permitted of God for the more abundant display of Christ's power, so it is probable that an extraordinary influence over the minds of men may, through the divine permission, have been sometimes exerted by Satan, that the evil tendency of that influence might be the more clearly seen, and the excellence of the divine government be more justly appreciated. As for the various instances of witchcraft recorded in uninspired books, we can place no dependence whatever upon them; because there is often an undue degree of credulity even in great and good men, and a readiness to receive any report that is marvellous, without sufficiently examining the grounds on which it stands. But what is recorded in the Scriptures we may well believe; because it is revealed by One who cannot err. The account given us of the witch of Endor is one of the most remark- able in the Scriptures; though there are in it some difficulties, which have occasioned a diversity of opinions among the learned respecting it. That, however, we may place it before you in an easy and instructive point of view, we shall consider the history of Saul connected with it ; and particularly,
I. The state to which he was reduced —
This he himself specifies in the words of our text —