i
refrain from praising him who had wrought their deliverance ;
the most obdurate could not hut feel ; the most insensible could not but admire. Happy would it have been for them if they had always continued in this mind ; but though, through frailty, they soon relinquished this heavenly temper, the effect, while it lasted, was good and suitable.]
Improvement —
1. Let us endeavour to get our minds duly im- pressed with the temporal deliverances vouchsafed to us as a nation —
[We must be blind indeed if we see not the hand of God in the repeated victories which we have lately gained : though they have not been either so miraculous or so complete as that recorded in the text, they demand our most grateful acknow- ledgments. Had they been as numerous and decisive in favour of our enemies as they have been on our part, we should before this time have seen this land the theatre of war. Let us then praise and adore our God for his interposition on our behalf; nor let us soon forget the wonders he has wrought for us ; let us rather turn to him in an humble dependence on his mercy ; Let us plead the promises he has made to all penitent and believing people ; and let us, in faith and penitence, expect the accomplishment of his word.]
2. Let us take occasion also to bless him for the
spiritual deliverance wrought for us as individuals —
[Our danger from the broken law was far greater than from human foes : there was no possible method of escape, if God had not interposed for us ; but he has opened a way for us through the death of his own Son, and utterly vanquished all the enemies of our salvation. Let every heart and every tongue unite in his praise ; nor let the remembrance of his mercy be ever effaced from our minds, but let his word, whereby he encourages sinners, be our hope ; then shall every fresh vic- tory be a pledge of future triumphs, and the final destruction of our enemies be the subject of eternal praise.]