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
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didst SO disturb the floods in their ancient course, and madest naked their hidden channels, until the hoary deep cried out for fear, and lifted up his aged hands to the Al- mighty as it were for pity? ver. 10. No, surely, no such thing. All those keep the order by thee unto them ap- pointed ; 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 were 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;' ver. 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 little hills like young sheep;' Psal. cxiv. 4.
T^ifxSi J' 0^1), Kctl yaia, nal TnXcti^iot
'OTav l7n(3X£>f'»i yo^ylv ofjifjia ha-Trorou, ^schylus, apud Justin. Apol. 2.
'The heavens shook, the earth dropped at the presence of God ;' Psal. Ixviii. 8. The almighty Creator holds the whole frame of the building in his own hand, and makes what portion he pleaseth, 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 endued 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 great deep. Friend, art thou stronger than Horeb ? yet that trembled at the presence of this mighty God, whom it never had provoked. Are thy lusts like the streams of Jordan? yet they run back from his chariots of salvation. Are thy corruptions more firmly
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seated on thy soul, than the mountains on their bases? yet they leaped like frighted sheep, before that God against tvhoni they had not sinned. And wilt thou, a small handful of sinful dust, that hast ten thousand times provoked 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 afraid, who art ready to tremble with a thought of that poor crea- ture? Shall the heavens bow, the deep beg for mercy, and thou be senseless? Shall 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 affrighted souls?
XVIII. Observation. INo creatures, seas, nor floods, greater or lesser waters, shall be able to obstruct or hinder God's people's deliverance, when he hath undertaken it.
Is the sea against them ? it shall be parted. Is Jordan in the way? it shall be driven back: both sea and Jordan shall tremble before him. Euphrates shall be dried up, to give the kings of the east a passage ; Rev. xvi. 12. Waters in the Scriptures are sometimes afflictions, sometimes people and nations. Be they seas, kings and princes, or be they rivers, inferior persons, thej'^ shall not be able to oppose. God has decked his house, and made it glorious with the spoils of all opposers. There you have the spoils of Pharaoh, gathered up on the shore of the Red sea, and dedicated in the house of God; Exod. xv. There you have all the ar- mour of Senacherib's mighty host, with the rest of their spoils, hung up to shew; 2 Chron. xxxii. 21. There you have the glory, and throne, and dominion of Nebuchadnezzar, himself being turned into a beast; Dan.iv. 33. There you shall have the carcases of Gog and Magog, with all their mighty hosts, for coming to encamp against the city of God ; Ezek. xxxix. There you have the imperial robes of ''Dio- clesian and his companion, abdicating themselves from the empire for very madness that they could not prevail against the church. * Kings of armies shall fly apace, and she that tarries at home shall divide the spoil ;' Psal. Ixviii. 12. All opposers, though nations and kingdoms, shall perish and be utterly destroyed; Isa. Ix. 12. Rev. xix. 18.
^ Emeb. vit. Con, Const. Orat.
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God will not exalt any creature unto a pitch of oppo- sition to himself, or to stand in the way of his workings. The very end of all things in their several stations, is to be serviceable to his purposes towards his own. Obedience in senseless creatures is natural, even against the course of nature in the season of deliverance. 'Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon ;' Josh. X. 12. 'Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubba- bel, thou shalt become a plain ;' Zech. iv. 7. The most mountainous opposers shall be levelled, when the Spirit of God sets in for that purpose. There is a strength in every promise and engagement of God unto his people, that is able to carry the whole frame of heaven and earth before it. If they can believe, all things are possible to them that believe. When the decree is to bring forth the fruit of the promise, it will overturn empires, destroy nations, divide seas, ruin armies, open prisons, break chains and fetters, and bear down all before it. As the wind shut up in the earth will shake the pillars as it were of its mighty body, but it will find or make a passage. The least promise of deliverance, if the season thereof be come, though it were shut up under strong and mighty powers, crafty counsels, dungeons, and prisons, like the doors and lasting bars of the earth, the truth and power of God shall make thera all to tremble, and give birth to his people's deliverance.