2. The sea: — that is, the Red sea, which, in like manner, was divided, Exod. xiv. 21 ; which the prophet also admires in the fore-cited psalm: " The sea saw it, and fled. What ailed thee, 0 thou sea, that thou fleddest?" What strong, mighty impression of power was on thee, that the multitudes of thy waters should be parted, and thy channel discovered dry to the bottom?
8. " That thou didst ride upon thme horses, and thy chariots of salvation." This you have again, verse 15, " Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses." These were those clouds and winds which the Lord sent before the Israelites, to the sea and Jordan, to drive them back. " He maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind," Ps. civ. 3. So Ps. xviii. 10, " He did fly upon the wings of the wind." After the manner of men, God is repre- sented as a mighty conqueror, riding before his annies and making way for them. The power and majesty of God was with and upon those clouds and winds which went before his people, to part those mighty waters, that they might pass dry ; and therefore they are called his saving chariots, because by them his people were delivered. Or
' "Crotcra licet abscondcro, ct in abdito alcre; ira se piofert, ct in faciciii exit," — Sencc. de ira.
OF ESSEX COUNTY, AND COMMITTEE. 109
by horses and chariots here you may understand the angels, who are the host of God. Ps. Ixviii. 17, " The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels." They have appeared as horses and chariots of fire, 2 Kings vi. 17. And their ministry, no doubt, the Lord used in these mighty works of drying rivers and dividing- seas. Either way, the glorious power and majesty of God, in his de- livering instruments, is set forth.
Thus the words severally; — now jointly.
This admiring interrogation includes a negation. " Was the Lord kindled against the rivers? was thy face against the rivers," &c. Was it that the deep had offended the Most High, that, by thine angels, winds, and clouds, thou didst so disturb the floods in theu' ancient course, and madest naked their hidden channels, until the hoary deep cried out for fear, and lifted up his aged hands to the Almighty, as it were, for pity? verse 10. No, surely, no such thing. All those keep the order by thee unto them appointed ; it was all for the salvation and deliverance of thy people. God was not angry with Jordan when he drove it back, nor with the sea when he divided it ; but all was effected for Israel's deliverance.
XVII. Observation. The very senseless creatures are, as it luere, sensible of the wrath and power of the Almighty.
Effects of anger being in and upon the deep, " he utters his voice, and lifts up his hands on high," verse 10. God often in the Scripture sets forth his power and majesty by the trembling of heaven and the shaking of the earth, the vanishing of mountains and the bowing of perpetual hills, — the professed humble subjection of the most eminent parts of the creation. The sea shall fly, as afraid ; the rocks, as weak, rend and crumble; the heavens be darkened; the mountains skip like rams, and the httle hills like young sheep, Ps. cxiv. 4.
Tpif^ii 0 opri, xa) youa, xai 'TTiXapis; Bu^os ^ciXaffirni, Kiiftiaiv v^o; fjiiya,, "Orav iTifikiipri yopyov o/x/xa oiffTorev.
iEscli. ajjud Justin., Apol. ii.
" The earth shook, the heavens dropped at the presence of God," Ps. Ixviii. 8. The almighty Creator holds the whole frame of the build- ing in his own hand, and makes what portion he ^^leaseth, and when he pleaseth, to tremble, consume, and vanish before him. Though many things are not capable of sense and reason, yet he will make them do such things as sense and reason should prompt the whole subjected creation unto, to teach that part their duty who were en- dued therewith. A servant is beat, to make a child learn his duty.
Use. See hence the stoutness of sinful hearts, — more stubborn than the mountains, more flinty than the rocks, more senseless than the gi-eat deep. Friend, art thou stronger than Horeb? yet that trem-
110 A MESIOllIAL OF THE DELIVERANCE
bled at the presence of this mighty God, whom it never had provoked. Are thy lusts like the streams of Jordan? yet they ran back from his chariots of salvation. Are thy corruptions more finnly seated on thy sou] than the mountains on their bases? yet they leaped hke flighted sheep before that God against whom they had not sinned. And wilt thou, a small handful of sinful dust, that hast ten thousand times pro- voked the eyes of his glory, not tremble before him, coming on his horses and chariots of salvation, — his mighty works and powerful word? Shall a lion tremble, and thou not be afraid, who art ready to tremble with a thought of that poor creature? Shall the heavens bow, the deep beg for mercy, and thou be senseless? ShaU all creatures quake for the sin of man, and sinful man be secure? Know you not that the time is coming wherein such men will desire the trembling rocks to be a covert to their more afhighted souls?