Use. I. Have we seen nothing of this in our days? noseas divided? no Jordans driven back? no mountains revelled? no hills made to tremble ? Whence then was the late confusion of armies ? casting down of mighty ones ? reviving of dead bones? opening of prison doors? bringing out the captive ap- pointed to beslain? Isitnotfromhence,thatnothingcanstand against the breaking out of a promise in its appointed season ? *Was the Lord displeased with the rivers?' Was his ano-er against the walls and houses, ' that he rode upon his horses and chariots of salvation V
Use. 2. Let faith be strengthened in an evil time. Poor distressed soul, all the difficulty of thy deliverance lies in thine own bosom. If the streams of thy unbelief within be not stronger than all seas of opposition without, all will be easy. O learn to stand still with quietness, between a host of Egyptians and a raging sea, to see the salvation of God.
138 A MEMORIAL OF THE DELIVERANCE
Be quiet in prison, between your friends* bullets, and your enemies' swords, God can, God will, make a way. If it were not more hard with us to believe wonders, than it is to the promise to effect wonders for us, they would be no wonders, so daily, so continually would they be wrought.
XIX. Observation. God can make use of any of his crea- tures to be chariots of salvation.
This is the other side of that doctrine which we gathered from ver. 5. ' Winds and clouds shall obey him.' 'Ravens shall feed Elijah that will not feed their own young. The sea shall open for Israel, and return upon the Egyptians. And this both in an ordinary way, as Hos. ii. 21, 22. and in an extraordinary way as before. So many creatures as God hath made, so many instruments of good hath he for his peo- ple. This is farther confirmed, ver. 9.
Ver. 9. 'Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.'
With nakedness thy bow was made naked. The rest is elliptical, and well supplied in the translation.
The verse hath two parts.
1. A general proposition : 'Thy bow was made naked,' &c.
2. A particular confirmation of that proposition by in- stance : ' Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.'
• 1. The proposition holds out two things.
(1.) What God did : 'He made his bow quite naked.'
(2.) The rule he proceeded by herein; 'According to the oaths of the tribes, even his word.'
The assertion of this verse is not of some particular act, or work, as the former; but a general head or fountain of those particular works, which are enumerated in the follow- ing verses.
(1.) A bow is a weapon of war, an instrument of death, and being ascribed to God, after the manner of men, holds out his strength, power, might, and efficacy, to do whatever he pleaseth. And this is said to be quite naked. When a man goes about to use his bow, he pulls it out of his quiver, and so makes it naked. The exercising of God's power is the making naked of his bow. This he did in all those won-
' 'EnSaXJ^it ToLf vioTTolj 0 xo'^tt^, Arist. Hist. Ariiina. 6. Pellunt nidis pullos sicut etCorvi.Plin. Nat. Hist.
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ders, wherein he stretched out his hand, in bringing his peo- ple into the promised land here pointed at. And it is said, that with nakedness it was made naked, because of those very high dispensations and manifestations of his almighty power. This is the making naked of his bow.
(2.) For the rule of this, it is 'the oaths of the tribes ;' or as afterward, ' his word.' The oaths of the tribes, that is, the oaths made to them, the word he stood engaged to them in. The promise God made by oath unto Abraham, that he would give him the land of Canaan for an inheritance, even to him and his posterity. Gen. xii. 13 — 15. is here intimated. This promise was often renewed to him and the following patriarchs. Hence it is called oaths, though but the same promise often renewed : and it had the nature of an oath, because it was made a covenant. Now it was all for the be- nefit of the several tribes, in respect of actual possession, and was lastly renewed to them ; Exod. iii. 17. Hence called 'the oaths of the tribes,' not which they sware to the Lord, but that which the Lord sware to them. So afterward it is called his word : ' thy word.' This then is the purport of this general proposition: O Lord, according as thou pro- misedst, and engagedst thyself by covenant to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their posterity, that thou wouldst give them the land of Canaan to be theirs for an inheritance j so by the dispensation of thy mighty power thou hast fully accomplished it. And this he layeth down for the support- raent of faith in a time of trouble.
The words would afford many observations, I shall in- sist only on one.
XX. Observation. The Lord will certainly make good all his promises and engagements to his people, though it cost him the making of his bow quite naked, the manifestation of his power in the utmost dispensations thereof.