right hand ;' now observe hope's inference, vcr. 2A, — 'Thou shaltguicle nie with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.' And as exjieriences carefully kept, and wisely improved, would conduce nnich to the strengthening the Christian's hope of salvation; so also would they lift up his head above all those distr^icting fears which arise in the Christian's heart, and put him to much trouble, from those cross and afflicting providences that befall him in this life. Certainly David would have been more scared with the big looks and vain de- portment of that proud Goliath, had not the remembrance of the bear and the lion, which he slew, brought relief to him, and kept his fears down. But he had slain this uncircumcised Philistine in a iigm-e, when he tore in pieces those un- clean beasts ; and, therefore, when he marches to him, this is the shield which he lifts up to cover himself with, ' The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine,' 1 Sam. xvii. 37. If experiences were no ground for hope in future straits, then they would not have the force of an argument in prayer ; but saints use their experiences, and make account they urge God very close and home, when they humbly tell him what he hath already done for them, and expect he should therefore go on in his fatherly care over them, — ' Save me fi'om the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns,' Psa. xxii. 21. And, no doubt, a gracious soul may pray in faith from his past experience, and expect a satisfactory answer to that prayer, wherein former mer- cies are his plea for what he wants at present. God himself intends his people more comfort from every mercy he gives them, than the mercy itself, abstract- edly considered, amounts to. Suppose, Christian, thou hast been sick, and God hath at thy humble prayer plucked thee out of the jaws of death ; the comfort of this particidar mercy is the least God means thee therein ; for he would have thee make it a help to thy faith, and a shore to thy hope, when shaken by any future strait whatever, — ' Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness,' Psa. Ixxiv. H. God, in that mercy at the Red Sea, is thinking what Israel should have to live on for forty years together ; and intends that they should not only feast them- selves at present with the joy of this stupendous mercy, but ponder it up in their memories, that their faith might not want a meal in the wilderness all the while they were to be in it. Experiences are like a cold dish reserved at a feast ; some- times the saint sits down with nothing else on his table but the promise and his experience ; and he that cannot make a soul-refreshing meal with these, deserves to fast. Be sure. Christian, thou observest this in every mercy, — what is a mat- ter of present thankfulness, and what is a ground of future hope. Achor is called ' a door of hope ;' Hosea ii. 15. God, when he gives one mercy, opens a door, for him to give, and us to expect more mercy through it. God compares his promise to the rain which maketh the earth ' bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread-to the eater ;' Isa. Iv. 10. Why shoiddst thou content thyself with half the benefit of mercy ? When God performs his promise, and delivers thee out of this trouble, and that strait, thou art exceed- ingly comforted, and thy heart possibly enlarged into thankfulness for the same. It is well ; here is ' bread for the cater,' something that at pi-esent feasts thee. But where is ' the seed for the sower ?' The husbandman doth not sell all his corn that he reaps, but saves some for seed, which may bring him another crop : so. Christian, thou shouldst not only feast thyself with the joy of thy mercy, but save the remembrance of it as hope-seed, to strengthen thee to wait on God for another mercy, and farther help in a needful time.
CHAPTER XIII.
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED ; WITH TWO OR TUREE REFLECTIONS USEFUL FOR OUR IMPROVING EXPERIENCE.
But you will possibly say, How can a saint's past experience be so helpful to his hope for the future, when God, we see, often crosseth the saint's expe- riences? He delivers them out of one sickness, and takes them away, may be, with the next; he saves them in one battle without a scratch, and in another, awhile after, they are killed or wounded; how then can a saint ground his hope from a jiast deliverance, to expect deliverance in the like strait again?
554 AND TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION.