o o o
tions, time, place, and the like, ofttimes take deep impres-
OF ESSEX COUNTY, AND COMMITTEE. 109
sions ; mercies should be remembered with them. So doth the apostle again, 2 Tim. iv. 17, 18. ' He did deliver me from the mouth of the lion :' Nero, that lion-like tyrant. And what then ? * he will deliver me from every evil work.' David esteemed it very good logic, to argue from the victory God gave him over the lion and the bear, to a confidence of vic- tory over Goliah, 1 Sam. xvii. 37.
Use. The use of this we are led unto, Isa. xliii. 16 — 18. 'Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters ; which bringeth forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow. Remember ye not the former things, nor consider the things of old.' Let former mercies be an anchor of hope in time of present distresses. Where is the God of Marstone Moor, and the God of Naseby ? is an ac- ceptable expostulation in a gloomy day. O what a catalogue of mercies hath this nation to plead by in a time of trouble? God came from Naseby, and the Holy One from the West. Selah. 'His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.' He went forth in the North, and in the East he did not withhold his hand. I hope the poor town wherein"" I live, is more enriched with a store mercy of a few months, than with a full trade of many years. ' The snares of death compassed us, and the floods of ungodly men made us afraid;' Psal. xviii. 4. 'but the Lord thundered from heaven, the highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire: yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightning and discomfited them: he sent from above, he took us, he drew us out of many waters, he deli- vered us from our strong enemy, and from them which hated us, for they were too strong for us;' ver. 13, 14. 16, 17. How may we say with the same psalmist in any other distress, ' O my God, my soul is cast down within me, therefore will
1 remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Her- monites, from the hill Mizar ;' Psal. xlii. 6. ' Where is the God of Elijah, who divides anew the waters of Jordan?'
2 Kings ii. 14.
■■ No place in the county so threatened ; no place in the county so preserved ; small undertakings there blessed ; great opposition blasted. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis.
110 A MEMORIAL OF THE DELIVERAXCE
The following verses, set forth the glory and power of God, in the accomplishment of that great work of bringing his people into the promised land, with those mighty things he performed in the wilderness.
Ver. 4. If I mistake not, sets out his glorious appear- ance on mount Sinai ; of which the prophet affirms two things :
1. That * his brightness was as the light.'
2. That ' he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power.'
1. For the first. Is it not that brightness which appeared, when the mountain burnt with fire to the midst of heaven, Deut. iv. 11. a glorious fire in the midst of clouds and thick darkness? The like description you have of God's presence, Psal. xviii. 11, 12. ' He made darkness his secret place, and brightness was before him :' as the light, the sun, the foun- tain and cause of it, called 'light,' Job xxxi. 26. Now this glorious appearance holds out the kingly power and majesty of God in governing the world, which appeareth but unto few. ' The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, clouds and darkness are round about him, a fire goeth before him, his lightnings enlightened the world ;' Psal. xcvii. 1 — 3.
2. 'He had horns coming out of his hand.' So the words most properly, though by some, otherwise rendered. That horns in Scripture are taken for strength and power,* needs no proving. The mighty power of God, which he made ap- pear to his people, in that glorious representation of his majesty on mount Sinai, is by this phrase expressed. ' There his chariots were seen to be twenty thousands, even many thousands of angels, and the Lord among them in that holy place;' Psal. Ixviii. 19. There they perceived that 'he had horns in his hand ;' an almighty power to do what he pleased. Whence it is added; 'And there was the hiding of his power.' Though the appearance of it was very great and glorious, yet it was but small to the everlasting hidden depths of his omnipotency. The most glorious appearance of God comes infinitely short of his own eternal majesty as he is in himself: it is but a discovery, that there is the hiding of infinite perfection; or, there his power appeared to us, whiqh was hidden from the rest of the world.
• Deut. x^xiii. 17. Psal. Ixxv. 10. 2ech. i. 18.