So Jacob pleads, that God would deliver him from Esau. He had had * That is, = ' defeat."— G.
172 COMMENTARY ON
experience of God's niorcy till then, and therefore ho trusted that God would deliver him from Esau.
It is a good argument, to plead experience to move God to care for us for the time to come.
It was used hy the Head of the church, hy the hody, the church, and by every member of the church.
1. It was used by tlie Head, Ps. xxii., which is a psalm made of Christ, ' I was cast on thee from my mother's womb, therefore be not far from me.'
It was typically true of David, and it was true of the Son of David. ' 2. So the church j^Icods tvith God in divers places, in Isa. li. 2, God calls to his people to make use of former experience. ' Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you,' &c. Look to former times, ' to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you were digged.' He that was your God then, is your God now. ' Look to Abraham, your father,' and from thence reason till now. So in Isa. Ixiii. 7, ' I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord, and the praise of the Lord, according to the great goodness of the Lord bestowed upon us.' ' In all their afflictions he was afflicted,' &c. He speaks of former experience: 'In love he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.' So in Ps. xliv. 1, ' Our fathers have told us ' this and this. So both the Head of the church and the church itself, plead with God from former experience, and God calls them to former experience : ' Remember the rock whence you where hewn.' And he upbraids them, because they forgat the works done to their fathers, in Ps. cv., and divers others. He objects to them that they did not make use of God's former favours, ' They forgot their Saviour, that had done great things in Egypt,' &c., Ps. cvi. 11, 12. They forgat his former favours. And in the 13th verse of that psalm, ' They soon forgat his works, and waited not for his counsel.'
And so it is with every particular saint of God. They have reasoned from experience of God's favours, from the time past to the time to come. The Psalms are full of it. Among the rest, ' I remembered the days of old, and meditated on all thy works ; I mused on the works of thy hands,' Ps. cxliii. 5. And in Ps. cxvi. 3, ' The sorrows of death,' (as the apostle saith here, ' I was delivered from so great a death,') ' the sorrows of death compassed me, the pains of hell took hold on me. I found sorrow and trouble. I cried unto the Lord : 0 Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. The Lord preserveth the simple : I was brought low, and he helped me.' What doth he build on that ? ' Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul ; the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.' What will he do for the time to come ? ' I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.' Thus we see how we may plead with God, as the psalmist doth excellently in Ps. Ixxi. He goes along with God there from the beginning of his days, in verse 5. ' Thou hast been my hope, Lord, and my trust from my youth ; by thee I have been held from the womb ; thou tookest me out of my mother's bowels : my praise shall be continually of thee.' What doth he plead from this now, when he was old ? In verse 9, ' Cast me not off in the time of my old age ; forsake me not when my strength faileth.'
AVliy ? Thou hast been my God from my youth ; thou hast held me from the womb : therefore cast me not off in my old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth. So he pleads with God, verse 17, ' Lord, thou bast taught me from my youth ; now when I am old and grey-headed,
2 CORINTHL\NS CHAP, I, \T.Ii. 10. 173
forsake mc not, till I have slicwed thy strength to this generation, and thy power to ever}' one that is to come.'
Thus we see how the Sjiirit of God in his childi-en makes a blessed use of former experience, to reason with God for the time to come ; and it will afford us arguments in all kinds. We may reason from foiTuer spiritual favours to spiritual favours. As for instance, God hath begun a good work in us, therefore ' He will finish it to the day of the Lord,' Phil. i. G. ' His gifts and gi'aces are without repentance,' Rom. xi. 29. And we may reason from spiritual favours past to all favours to come that are of a lower nature, Rom. viii. 32, ' He that spared not his own Son, but gave him to death for us all, how shall he not with him give us all things ? ' It is a strong reason. He hath done the greater, therefore he may well do the less. Wo ma}^ reason from one favour to another. Thus, from temporal to temporal. He hath delivered me, therefore if it be for his glory and my good he will deliver me. We may reason from once to all of the like, Ps. xxiii. 1, ' God is my shepherd,' &c. ' He hath been with me in the valley of death,' ver. 4. He hath shewed himself to be my shepherd in all my troubles. "What doth' he build on that, for the time to come '? ' Doubtless the loving- kindness of the Lord shall follow me all the days of my life,' ver. 6.