from heaven the stars in their courses fought against Sisera The river Kishon swept them away that antient River the River Kishon O my soul thou hast troden down strength Then Seaventhly for the better expression of their thankfulness for such mercyes and deliverances that they might be transmitted and handed over to all posterity and generations and that the people that were unborn might praise the Lord it was usuall and ordinary with them to put some remarkable signe or token of remembrance upon the particular mercy and deliverance which they had received or upon the place where they received it by giving it a name that did import and signifye the same that so when their children or their childrens children should in time to come ask the reason why is this thing or this place called by this name then their fathers might preach unto them the gracious deliverance of the Church in that thing or that place and make rehearsall repetition of the righteous Acts of the Lord thus the Lord instructed them in the ordinance of the Passeover Exod. 12.25 it was called the Passeover because the Lord commanded the destroying Angel to passe over the houses of Israel when he slew all the first born of the Egyptians And it shall come to passe saith the text when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you according as he hath promised that ye shall keepe this service And it shall come to passe when your children shall say unto you what mean you by this service that ye shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lords Passeover who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses Hebr. Pasch from Pasach that is to leape or Passeover And when the waters of Jordan were cut off or divided that the people might passe into the land of promise Josua commanded for a perpetual remembranise f this Act to all posterity that twelve men that is one out of every tribe of Israel should take a great stone out of midst of Jordan and set them up upon a heap upon that place which was dried up for their passage that when the generations to come should ask what means this great heap of stones then the fathers might preach to their children the righteous Acts of the Lord and by reviving the memorial of that wonderfull mercy stir them up to praise the Lord. Jos. 4.6 The Lord gave Israel a great deliverance from their enemies by the hand of Samson first Samson returned thanks Lord thou hast given this great deliverance to thy servant and then he puts a name upon the place for a Memorandum to posterity he calls it Jud. 15.17 Ramath Lehi that is the lifting up of the jaw bone that when the generations to come should inquire why is this place called Ramath Lehi then their fathers might preach unto them the righteous Acts of the Lord shew them the greatnesse of the deliverance by the weaknesse of the meanes So Israels great deliverance from the enemy that surrounded and compassed them about David thankfully ascribes unto the Lord the Lord saith he haâ—h broken in upon mine enemies like the breach of waters and then he gives a name to the place for a Memorandum to Posterity he calls it Baal-Perazim that is the plaine of breaches 2. Sam. 5.20 That when the children in time to come should inquire why is this place called Baal-Perazim then their fathers might teach them the great mercies of God towards Israel and say unto them in this place the enemy compassed us about and thought to swallow us up quick and here the Lord broke in upon them like the breach of waters and therefore this place is called Baal-Perazim the plain of breaches The like may be said of Samuel when the Lord had delivered Israel from the Army of the Philistins not by sword or by bow or by battle but by thunder from heaven then Samuel set up a great pillar of stone for a memorial to all generations and gives it a name he called it Eben-Ezer that is the stone of help saying thus far the Lord hath helped us 1. Sam. 7.12 And after that Jehosaphat had received a notable deliverance from the numerous Army of the Ammonites the Moabites and the Edomites that came against Juda not by fighting but by singing and praising God 2. Chr. 20.21.23 That the memoriall of so great a deliverance might be perpetuated to all posterity he put a name upon the place and called it Berachah that is blessing and so that valley was called the valley of blessing that when their children in time to come c. Eightly they expressed their thankfulness by erecting of Altars as Moses Exo. 17.14 and Gideon Jud. 6.24 and Josua Jos 8.30 and others Ninethly They did not onely blesse God for their deliverances and build Altars and erect great pillars and monuments but also they writ whole Rolles Bookes and volumes of their deliverances for the instruction of future generations and thus the Lord commanded Moses to write Israels deliverance from the lying in wait of Amelek the first enemy that affronted them after their coming out of Egypt Jos 17.14 The Lord said unto Moses write this for a Memorial in a book the Lord will have written and recorded not onely what Amalek did to Israel but also what the God of Israel did to Amalek for a Memorial to Israel for instruction to posterity that the generations to come might praise the Lord. Thus Israels deliverance from the Amorites and the wonderfull Acting of the Lord in order thereunto they recorded in a booke for the benefit of posterity Jos 10.13 The Sun stood still in Gibeon and the Moone in the valley of Ajalon till the people were avenged of their enemies Is not this written in the booke of Jasher The great deliverance of Israel in the red sea and the wonders which the Lord wrought in the brooks of Arnon were recorded for a Memorial to posterity in the booke of the warrs of the Lord. Num. 21.14 It is sayd in the booke of the warrs of the Lord what he did in the red sea and in the brooks of Arnon And at the streame of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar and lyeth upon the border of Moab The vulgar latine reads the rocks of the torrents were bowed down that they might rest in Ar and lye in the borders of moab upon which the do way translators comment thus A the Egyptians were drowned in the sea so the Amorites were oppressed with the rocks falling upon them and the waters carried their carcases into the valley of Moab This was recorded in the book of the warrs of the Lord. And thus they writ volumes and books of their deliverances for an everlasting Memorial to all posterity And was it thus with our fathers and the people of God informer ages then surely whatsoever things were written a foretime
and children whom they had drowned sometimes singing Psalms sometimes brandishing naked Swords sometimes scritching in a fearful manner the very Rebels that dwelt near the place confessed it and were so terrified with those dayly Apparitions that they were forced to remove their dwellings But the Priests and Fryars to make the matter sound the better in the ears of their seduced Proselytes told them it was the cunning sleight of the Devil to hinder the great work of propagating the Catholick Religion and killing the Hereticks And indeed these two must go together they cannot propagate their Catholick Doctrine but by our destruction If the Protestants stand Rome must fall but if Rome stand Rome will be still contriving our fall I must write one thing in a Parenthesis because it is not fit to come into the sentence and that is the prodigious and unheard-of villanies which they acted with women even after they were dead In a word I may say of those many prodigious Villanies savage Cruelties and barbarous Inhumanities which they without any scuple commonly and generally acted as the Poet said Saevior es tristi Busiride saevior illo Qui falsum lenio torruit igne bovem Quique bovem Siculo fertur donasse tyranno Et dictis artes conciliasse suas Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque centum Ferrea vox If I had an hundred Tongues and a Voyce of Thunders I could not speak all that they have acted and others suffered in the time of the late unparallelled Rebellion My Lords the Lord hath preserved you and us in the midst of the over-flowing waters of Jordan that the waters of the proud have not gone over our soul Our Danger was great our Deliverance was great and therefore we should endeavor to render to the Lord according to the great Blessings we have received This is the sum and substance of the following Sermon which I humbly offer unto Your Honours Now He that keepeth Israel watch over You continually guide You here with his Counsel and after receive You to glory This is the Prayer of Your Honours unworthy Servant W. LIGHTBVRN From my Study in S. Audoens Arch Octob. 25. 1661. EXOD. XVIII X. And Jethro said Blessed be the Lord who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians THE Book of Exodus may be divided into two parts Historical and Dogmatical the Historical part is laid down in this and the seventeen preceeding Chapters the Dogmatical part begins in the next Chapter The Historical part is a Compendium or a summary Recaptitulation of the remarkable passages of the Lords providential actings towards Israel in the time of their aboad in Egypt their coming out of Egypt and their travels in the Wilderness In the beginning of this Chapter we have a relation of Jethro's journey to visit Moses his Son-in-law Moses Declaration of the goodness of God to Israel and Jethro's return of praise Jethro comes to Rephidim Num. 33.14 the eleventh stage where Israel pitched after their coming out of Egypt and that is as Geographers account but sixteen miles from the City of Midian the place of Jethro's residence When Moses was given to understand of Jethro's coming he goes forth to meet him wherein by the way we may note 1. Moses humility who being so great a Prince Commander in chief of so great a People yet disdains not to humble himself not onely to go out to meet him but also to do obeysance unto him 2. His love he kissed him 3. His humanity gentleness and curtesie he asked him of his welfare 4. His hospitality and beneficence he brought him into his tent 5. His gratitude he maketh a thankful rehearsal and repetition of Israels wonderful deliverance 6. We have an intimation of his patience under the afflictions of Israel 7. His fidelity in all God's house he teaches others by his Example to celebrate the praises of God his mercie and his goodness and not to fall into despondencie under the pressure of the greatest afflictions but to rely upon the promises to depend upon God and to commit the issue to him knowing it is but a little while and then he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10.37 All this we have in the 8th verse Thus Moses informs Jethro in the History of the Church and Jethro advises Moses touching the administration of the Commonwealth vers 19. c. seq Then Jethro is described 1. by his proper Name Jethro 2. by the name of his Office a Priest 3. by the place where he exercised his Priesthood in Midian vers 1. The Midianites were of the progeny of Abraham by Keturah Gen. 25.2 and therefore Jethro may be presumed to have some measures of knowledge of the true God though he lived among a people that were drunk with idolatry and drowned in the Errors of heathenish superstitions 1. Because he came from the loyns of Abraham of whom the Lord gives this Character Gen. 18.19 I know that Abraham will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgement that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him 2. Because of his long conversing with Mâ—ses If any object that expression vers 11. Now I know that the Lord is great c. I answer This is no argument that he knew not the greatness and goodness of JEHOVAH before this time but that he knew it now that is more evidently more conspicuously and by a new demonstration it argues an encrease and corroboration of his faith and that now his former knowledge was sealed up by a new argument and experiment how great the Lord is in his power in delivering his people and how terrible he is in his Majesty in confounding their enemies Such an expression is used Act. 10.34 Now I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Peter knew this before but he is said to know it now because he knew it anew by a new miracle by anew vision and revelation And so 1 King 17.24 the woman of Zarephath says Now by this I know that thou art a man of God she knew it before by the multiplying of the meal in the barrel and the oyl in the cruse vers 14.15,16 but she says I know it now that is by a new miracle by raising my dead son to life And Psal 20.7 Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed c. David knew this before but he is said now to know it because he then knew it by a new salvation by a new deliverance The Text contains Jethro's Doxology for Israel's Deliverance 1. Jethro rejoyced v. 9. Hebr. Vaiichad Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was astonished he was as it were in an extasie that imports the greatness of his wonder and admiration at such a stupendious Act. 2.