He expresses his joy by bursting forth into praises Blessed be the Lord c. 3. He lays down the grounds and reasons 1. the deliverance of the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians 2. the destruction of the Egyptians before the face of Israel v. 11. 4. He offers Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings and so he rejoyces Corde Ore Opere in Heart in Word and in Work v. 12. 5. Aaron and all Israel rejoyce with him in the last part of the 12th verse Doct. Hence we learn That it is a Duty incumbent upon all Jethro and Moses Aaron and Israel Priest and People to bless God and to make his praise to be glorious when he glorifies his mercie in delivering his Church we are then to praise God greatly when he gives us great Deliverances then it is seasonable to sing a Benedictus Blessed be the Lord who hath delivered his people from the hand of the Egyptians c. So Psal 66.8 O bless our God ye people and make the voyce of his praise heard which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved for thou O God hast proved us thou hast tried us as â—…lver is tryed thou broughtest us into the net thou layedst affliction upon our loyns that hast caused men to ride over our heads we went through fire and through water c. Here is great affliction the net men riding over their heads passing through fire and through water great Dangers then great Deliverances v. 12. Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place therefore they sing great praises v. 13. I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings I will pay thee my vows which my lips have uttered when I was in trouble I will offer thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of rams I will offer bullocks and goats and then he concludes with a Benedictus Blessed be God v. 20. I might multiply Scriptures for further evidences of this truth but this may suffice Now to come to the Reasons and Arguments of the point Why is this a duty incumbent upon all Why are we then to sing great praises when the Lord gives us great Deliverances 1. Because by so doing we glorifie God Psal 50.23 Whoso offereth praise he glorifieth me Thus did David 1 Chron. 29.10 Benedictus Blessed be thou O Lord God of Israel our father for ever and ever Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the Majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head above all God requires not our Wisdom to direct him nor our strength to assist him nor our dignity to advance him but our thankfulness to adore him Grace requires Gratitude when God extends his bountifulness we are to be inlarged in our thankfulness when Benefits are gotten the Benefactors must not be forgotten we must glorifie God and sing praises to him that is holy and that inhabiteth the praises of Israel Psal 22.4 Secondly Why is it so c. It is because such return of blessing thanks and praises is Gods tribute that pepper-Corn of acknowledgement that all we have we hold in Capite we have it from him from whom every good gift and every perfect gift doth descend even from him who is the father of lights Jam. 1.17 and the detaining of this tribute is no less then God-robbing and the Apostles exhortation is Let him that stole steal no more Ephes 4.28 It is Gods tribute Psal 50.14,15 Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows to the most high And call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver theeâ— and thou shalt glorifie me Thus Melchisedeck King of Salem and Priest of the most high God pays his tribute and returns praise for Abrahams deliverance from the sword of the four Kings that fought against Sodom Benedictus Deus fortis excelsus Blessed be the most high strong God Gen. 14.20 And the Prophet Habakkuk seeing by the perspective of Prophesie the deliverance of the Church from the Captivity of Babel pays his tribute before-hand and blesses God greatly for that great deliverance Hab. 3.17 c. David's Psalmes are so many store-houses of Examples Every Psalm as one notes is either an Hosanna or else an Hallelujah either God bless or God be blessed either Prayers or Praises either Prayers for Mercies or Praises for Mercies Thirdly Because thankfulness for Mercies or Deliverances received is honum jucundum it is fit meet and decent it is a good and pleasant thing Psal 92.1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name O most high to shew forth thy loving kindeness in the morning and thy faithfulness in the night for thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work and I will give thanks for the operation of thy hands It is good and pleasant it is Mel in One Melos in Aure Jubilatio in Corde Honey in the Mouth Musick in the Ear and Melody in the Heart And therefore the Apostle exhorts us Ephes 5.19,20 Speak to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and Col. 3.16 Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Thus did David sing with grace in his heart Psal 108.1 O God my heart is fixed my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise even with my glory I will praise thee O Lord amongst the people and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations For thy mercie is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds Be thou exalted O God above the heavens and thy glory above all the earth Fourthly The very Dictates of Nature teach us gratuity and thankfulness to our Benefactors All rivers saith the wise man come from the sea and all rivers by way of a thankful Retribution return and empty their waters into the Sea God is the main Ocean the great sea of all blessings all Rivers of blessings flow from him and therefore according to the very dictates of Nature ought to be returned unto him Psal 93.3 The floods have lifted up O Lord the floods have lifted up their voice Ainsworth in locum tells us That the Chaldee hath it thus The floods have lifted up their voice of praises to God and the floods have received the reward of their praises from God Psal 91.1 The heavens declare the glory of God Psal 96.12 Psal 98.7 Psal 148. There is a general summons and invitation not onely of all sorts of men but also all manner of Creatures to this duty and to joyn together in this Harmony to give praises to God and to make
the voice of his praise to be glorious Fifthly Because ingratitude and unthankfulness even among Barbarians hath been ever reputed a monstrous thing it is a preternatural thing one of those Privations and Deficiencies which GOD never wrought but the malice of the Devil brought into the world by shouldering out the contrary positive and primitive Virtues We speak of an unthankful person with more then ordinary detestation and account an ungrateful person an unnatural man One phrases Ingratitude a Solecism in sence a Paradox in manners and a Prodigie in nature See how the Lord detests and abominates it and calls the Heavens and the Earth to witness against it Isa 1.2 Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me the Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Masters crib they know their Benefactors but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider And the Lord by the Prophet Micah calls upon the mountains and the strong foundations of the earth to listen attend to the plea controversie he hath with them that were called his people for their monstrous ingratitude Mich. 6.1 Hear ye now what the Lord saith Arise contend thou before the mountains and let the hills hear thy voice Hear ye O ye mountains the Lords controversie and ye strong foundations of the earth for the Lord hath a controversie with his people and he will plead with Israel O my people what have I done unto thee testifie against me For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house of servants and I sent before thee Moses A iron and Miriam O my people remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted and what Balaam the Son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord Here the Lord upbraids them with their monstrous and more then beastly sin of ingratitude and calls the insensible creatures to witness against them and the Psalmist Psal 78.11 They forgat his works and his wonders that he had shewed them marvelous works did he in the sight of their fathers c. but v. 32. for all this they sinned still and believed not his wonderous works v. 42. They remembred not his hands nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy how he had wrought his signes in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan c. That is the fifth Argument taken from the nature of the sin of Unthankfulness it is a monstrous and horrid sin Sixthly Another Argument may be taken from the example of Saints and here to use the Apostles phrase we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arias Montanus circumjacentum nubem testium or as Beza Circumstantem nubem We are compassed about with a cloud of witnesses When they received Mercies and Blessings and Deliverances they looked up and returned Blessings to him that was the Fountain of those Blessings and Deliverances They did not Hab. 1.16 sacrifice to their own nets or burn incense to their own drags as though their portion was made fat or their meat plentious by them they did not ascribe it to their own sword or their own bow but to him who is the Saviour of Israel the Deliverer of those that trust in him Psal 44.1 We have heard with our ears O God our fathers have told us what works thou didst in their days in the times of old how thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand and plantedst them how thou didst afflict the people and cast them out For they got not the land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arm save them but thy right hand and thine arm the light of thy countenance because thou hadst a favour unto them V. 6. I will not trust in my bow it is not my sword that shall save me But thou hast saved us from our enemies and hast put them to confusion that hated us Therefore in God we make our boast all the day long and will praise thy name for ever Secondly They did not onely thankfully acknowledge that their Deliverances came from Heaven and offer up the Sacrifice of Praise Jehovae liberatori to God that delivered them but also they did it in die illo in the same day The same day in which they were delivered the same day was the day of their thanksgiving Seneca tells us that thanks deferred or slowly returned lessens the estimation of the benefit received and is no thanks and therefore the people of God delayed not but offered their Sacrifice of praise in die illo the same day in which they received their deliverance Exod. 14.30 Thus the Lord saved Israel on that day out of the hand of the Egyptians And on that day Moses and Israel returned a Sacrifice of praises for that Deliverance Exod. 15.1 Then in die illo sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord and spake saying I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously c. Lyra notes upon the Text that they did not onely sing praises but they also invited one another stirr'd up one another to the same according to that of the Prophet Psal 34.3 O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together The like Example we have in Deborah and Barak Judg. 5.1 The Lord had given Israel a great deliverance from Sisera who had nine hundred Chariots of Iron and twenty years had mightily oppressed the children of Israel Judg. 4 3. Then says the Text sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day saying Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel They sang praises in die illo on that same day on which the Lord delivered them And the practise of David was the same as we see in the inscription of Psal 18. A Psalm of David the Servant of the Lord who spake unto the Lord the words of this song IN THE DAY that the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and from the band of Saul c. He sang praises in die illo on the same day on which he received his deliverance The same we finde in the practise of religious Hezekiah 2 Chron. 20.26 Thus they praised God for their deliverances they returned the Rivers of thanks to the Sea of Blessings and delayed not their returns but offered Sacrificium laudis their sacrifice of praise to the Lord at the same day and time that they were delivered Thirdly They did not onely bless God for his Blessings by themselvess and in their own persons but it was their practice to preach their mercie and deliverances to their children and so one generation to another that the thankful memorial and remembrance of them might never die but be perpetuated to all posterity This was the Precept of God frequently repeated in the Book of Deuteronomy there after a rehearsal of the