Use 2. To magnify the goodness of God, who unto us hath sweet- ened and seasoned all his dreadful dispensations, and all the altera- tions in those nations, with this his p-racious desim iTinning throuo-h them all: this is that which puts all their beauty and lustre on them, being outwardly dreadful and horrible. The carrying on of this (wliich is hidden from the men of the world, who have therefore no joy) is the only thing we have to rejoice at in this day; our victories have no glory but what they receive from hence, Isa. iv. 2. That blood which is an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord is the blood of the enemies of this design of his ; the vengeance that is to be delighted in is the vengeance of the temple; heaven, and all that is in it, is called to rejoice, when Babylon " is destroyed with violence and fury," Rev. xviii. 21, — when those who would not have the King of saints
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reign are brought forth and slain ])efore his face : and in this God makes distinguishing work, and calls to rejoicing, Isa. Ixv. 13, 14, " Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty : behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed : behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit/'
Thus the saints are called to sing " the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb," Rev. xv. 3. The dehverance by Moses was a temporal deliverance from outward yokes and bondage; — the deliverance of the Lamb was a spiritual deliverance from spi- ritual bondage: the deliverance that God will give his saints from this oppression shall be mixed ; as their bondage partakes of both, so shall their deliverance be; and therefore they shall sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. If ever any persons in the world had cause to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, w^e have this day. The bondage prepared for us was both in spirituals and temporals; — about a tyrant full of revenge, and a discipline full of persecution, hath been our contest: whether the yoke of the one and the other should by the sword and violence be put upon our necks and consciences, is our controversy. There was both Egypt and Babel in the bondage pre- pared,— and both these enraged. Pharaoh doubled the task of the Israelites when they did speak of liberty ; what would he have done had he recovered them under his hand after they were escaped? What would the thoughts of that man of blood have been, and his ways, had he prevailed, after so many provocations? " Csede ac sanguine, quisquis ab exilio." And what would their ways have been who thought to sit on his right hand and his left in his kingdom? But of this afterward. Now, God having broken both the one snai-e and the other, surely we have cause to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb this day, when others ai'e in the condition mentioned Isa viii. 21, 22.
It is true, all things are not clear to all perhaps that serve the Lord. Some cannot rejoice in the works of our God ; but they are not the first on whom that sin hath been charged. Nothing more frequent in the Scripture than the laying this sin at the door of pro- fessors, that they set not their hearts to the work of the Lord. If they are of the armies in heaven, they will at length learn to ft)ll(>w the Lamb; and for the present, music Avith some discords may make melody for the Lord. The song of Deborali is full of complaint,' — divisions of Reuben, — Gilead, Dan, and Ashcr, slow m their helps, — Meroz wholly neutral : — though we have of all these sorts, yet may we make a song to the Lord, that in Jesus Christ may be acceptable • Isa. xliii. 18; Ts. Ix.wiii. 42-44; Judgt>s v. 15, 17, 23.
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this day. And the Lord, I hope, will open the eyes of them amongst us, and give them to cry for mercy when his righteous judgments have driven them from all their holds. When the mighty army was destroyed in the north about three years ago, many would see nothing in it, but that they had not the blessing of the church. Hence they began to think of it as Balak did of Balaam ; — "whom he blessed, they were blessed; and whom he cursed, they were cursed."^ God could not bear the robbing him of his glory, and giving it unto selfish men. They shall bless, and bless again, and be no more heard than the Baalists' cry : — even to the Lord shall they cry, but he will not regard them : the Lord, I say, will drive them from such holds as these, that they may acknowledge his hand. Let, then, the great work of the Lord be o^vned, be rejoiced in, for it will certainly bear down all that stand in the way of it : neither is there the least true consolation in any of these alterations, but what arises from a closing with it.