(3.) In controlling mighty actions, — I mean, giving success to his
118 A MEMORIAL OF THE DELIVERANX'E
people in all their undertakings. The commander-in-chief of all the forces in this kingdom, since his sitting do^vn before Colchester, was proffered a pass to go beyond the seas for his security. Whence is it that he hath now the necks of his enemies, and hath given any of them their lives at their entreaty? Greater armies than this have been buried under lesser walls. Did not the number of the besieged at first exceed the number of the besiegers? were not their advan- tages great? their skill in war, amongst men of their own persuasion, famous and renowned? so that the sitting down before it was judged an action meet only for them who could believe they should see the bow of God made quite naked. It had been possible, doubtless, to reason's eye, that many of those fictions wherewith a faction in the great city fed themselves, — of the many routings, slaughters, and de- structions of the aniiy, — might have been true. Some of them, I say ; for some were as childish as hellish. In brief, they associated them- selves, and were broken in pieces ; — high walls, towering imaginations, lofty threats, — all brought down. " So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord : but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might;" and let the land have rest for many years, Judg. v. 81.
Use 2. This will discover unto us the bottom and rise of all God's appearances for his people, — even the engaging of his own free grace. He doth not " make his bow quite naked," according to their desei-v- ings, but his own word; not because they of themselves are better than others, but because he loves them more than others. Were God's assistances suited to our walkings, they would be very uneven; but his good- will is constant ; so are our deliverances.
Use 3. Be exhorted to thankfulness ; not verbal,^ but real ; not the exultation of carnal affections, but the savouiy obedience of a sovmd mind. There are many ingredients in thanksgiving; — suitable and seasonable obedience to answer the will of God in his mercies is doubtless the crown of all. Look, then, under the enjoyment of blessincfs in general, to close Avalking with God in the duties of the covenant, — and in particular, to the especial work of this your genera- tion,— and you are in the way to be thankful.
Use 4. Be sedulously careful to prevent that which God hath might- ily decried by our late mercies, — viz., niutual animosities, strife, con- tention, and violence against one another ;*" I mean, of those that fear his name. God hath interposed in our quarrels from heaven. Tlie language of our late deliverance is, Be quiet, "lest a worse thing happen unto you." Our poor brethren of Scotland Avould not see the hate-
• " In Ijoncficio reddendo plus animus, quani census operatur." — Ambr. Offi., lib. i. caj). .'V2.
2 'H ^icKpikivia Tris vria'Tilaf, rfiti o//.ovciitv rrif virriait iruv'iirrriffit Iron. Epist. ad Vlct.
apud Kuscb., lil). v. cap. 2;i. •l^iXivixoi i<rrt aliX'fsi xai ^JiXairai Ti^i fih attixotrtof lis (rairr.oiaf. — Cleni. Ep. ad Cor.
OF ESSEX COUNTY, AND COMMITTEE. 1J9
fulness of theii- animosities towards their friends, until God suffered that very thing to be the means to deliver them up to the power of their enemies The weapons they had formed were used against hemse ves. Let us learn betimes to agree about our pasture lest the wolves of the wilderness devour us. Persecution and idolatry have ruined all the states of the Christian world.
2. Of the assertion we have spoken hitherto: come we now to the particular confirmation of it by instance. "Thou didst cleave the earth mth nvers, "-cleave the earth, or make channels in the earth, tor waters to flow in.
Another most eminent work of almighty power is here set forth —eminent m itself, and eminent in its typical signification. And the same thing being twice done, hath a plural expression,— " rivers "
{I.) Eminent of itself. The bringing of streams of waters from the rock, for the thirsty people in the wilderness, is that which is here celebrated. Now this the Lord did twice :-First, Exod. xvii G when the people were in Rephidim, in the first year after their coming from ±.gypt, they fainted m their journeys for want of water, and (accord- ing to the wonted custom of that rebelHous people) complained ;vith murmuring So they extorted all their mercies; and therefore they were attended with such sore judgments. Whilst the meat was in their mouths, the plague was on their bones. Mercies extorted hv murniurvngs, unseasoned with loving-kindness, though they may be quails m the mouth, will he plagues in the belly. Let us take heed lest we repine the Almighty into a full harvest and lean soul, Ps cvi 15 t^et and keep mercies in God's way, or there is death in the pot
Forty years after this, when the first whole evil generation was con- sumed, the children, who were risen up in their fathers' stead fall a munnurmg for water in the wilderness of Zin, and, with a profligacy of rebellion, wish they had been consumed with others in the former plagues. Numb. xx. 4. Here also the Lord gives them water, and tliat m abundance, verse IL Now, of this observe,—