1 Samuel 8:19

These things, as I said above, are foretold in the type of carnal prelates concerning the future conduct of the king: so that they might desist from petitioning for him in whom they had recognized such great evils. But it is the nature of the hearts of the reprobate that they quickly propose evil and do not more quickly come to their senses from an evil purpose. Therefore it is also added: (Verses 19, 20.) But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said: "By no means! For a king shall be over us, and we also shall be like all the nations, and our king shall judge us, and shall go out before us, and shall fight our battles for us." 11. By these words indeed the morals of carnal subjects are openly described: because while they seek after outward things, they do not attend to inner losses even when these are set before them. But those who rule carnally, by the very display of temporal power, give their lesser subjects great hope of protection. Therefore when they say, "A king shall be over us, and he shall fight our battles for us," what else do they suggest but the morals of reprobate subjects, who despise humble and spiritual preachers in order to be helped temporally by carnal men? This they would certainly never do, had they not first lost the light of the heart. For if they outwardly despise the humility of spiritual men, they do not deserve to discern by what sublimity of power these inwardly excel; in those others too they see the outward tyranny of power, but they do not see by what weakness he is inwardly oppressed. The former, because they cling to God, are powerful even in outward things when they wish; the latter, who depart from the Lord, cannot fulfill by strength of action the hope they promise from secular power. […]

But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, etc. This obstinacy of the disobedient people asking for a king instead of the Lord does not only pertain to the time of proclaimed grace, but also before the celebrated mysteries of the Lord's …

10. It was indeed a matter of great rashness to ask for a king against God's will; of great hardness, to be unable to be overcome by the counsels of the prophet. It was of great rashness to put forth arguments to him whom they knew, by the Lord's revelation, to know beforehand all that he was about to do. Of great hardness, not to yield to him whom they knew to command only those things which he had learned by the Lord's revelation.

14, 15 ), and perhaps they had some intimation that the time was at hand; but they are all in haste: "We, in our day, will have this king over us." Could they but have waited ten or twelve years longer they would have had David, a king of God's giving in mercy, and all the calamities that attended the setting up of Saul would have been prevented.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens

Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel,....