ƲSE I.

Examine your selves whether God be your All; Can you say, Whom have we in Heaven but thee, and that there is nothing on Earth that we desire besides him: Prove your own selves by this Touchstone; try your selves by this Weight and Ballance of the Sanctuary: [Page 8] If you do not attain to this, you are reprobate Sil­ver, and the Lord will reject you. We have reason to examine our selves about this matter.

1. Because there are but few that make God their All: Many give him glorious Titles, and challenge an interest in him; they call him their Lord, their God, and their King, yet in their serious and pra­ctical thoughts have higher estimations of lying va­nities, than of God blessed for ever. Many there are that hear the Word of the Lord; they come before him as his people use to do, and sit be­fore him as his people use to sit, but amongst these how few are to be found that make him their All, that look for no happiness, no comfort, no good but in the enjoyment of him?

2. We have reason to examine, because of the ne­cessity of it, it must be done: Woe unto us if it be not done; we are no Christians without it; we are not in the state of Grace, if this be not: We are no more Saints whatever our Profession may be, than the picture or carkass of a man is a man. Oh! if we do not make God our All, though we may seem to be something, and may deceive our selves and others, yet in God's account we are nothing, and God will make nothing of us, i. e. will have no regard of us, or respect unto us another day. To help us now a little in our enquiry about this matter, I shall give you a few Characteristical Marks of such a Soul as makes God his All.

1. This Soul will love to draw near to God: To draw near to him by Faith, by Prayer, and in all the Duties and Ordinances of his Worship: you read in [Page 9] the last verse of this 73 Psalm: It is good for me to draw near to God: So saith every one that makes God his All: Oh I love to draw near to God, One day in the Courts of the Lord is better Psalm 84. 10. to me than a thousand elsewhere. I was Psalm 122. 1 glad when they said unto me, Come let us go into the house of the Lord: Whilst others say un­to God, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways, Job 21. 14. And again, chap. 22. 17. They said unto God, Depart from us, and what can the Almighty do for us? We shall get no good by Gods drawing near to us, nor by our drawing near to him; and in the 15th verse of the 21 chap. of Job, What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him? This is the language of the men of the world, their words are indeed stout against the Lord; but saith the Soul that Mal. 3. 13. makes God his All, it's good for me; whatsoever the sentiments and apprehensions of carnal ones are, this I am sure of, it's good for me; I believe it to be good, and I have found it to be good; all the people of God say it's good for them, and I will say it's good for me, to draw near to God: Lord, saith Peter, Whither should I go but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life: Lord, saith this Soul, Whither should I go but unto thee? I love, I love to come to thee, for thou art my All, and all my Springs are in thee, and slow from thee.

2. He is one that fears to sin against God: He fears indeed nothing more; his Motto is, Nil nisi pec­catum timeo: There is nothing in all the world that I fear more than sin, because this is the only thing [Page 10] that can separate between him and his God; and that can make a partition wall between him and his great All. He fears sin more than suffering, and will chuse it rather than iniquity; because suffering doth not separate between the Soul and God. He fears sin more than poverty, than sickness, than death it self, for none of these can separate between the Soul and God. He knows what is exprest, Rom. 8. ver. 35, &c. That tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword; neither height nor depth, death or life, i. e. The pains of death, or the affli­ctions and sorrows of life, can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus; therefore he fears sin more than all. Sin is against God, suffering is only afflictive to the Creature. It's sin only that causes God to hide his Face from us, and to set his Face against us.

3. When other things come into Competition with God, this Soul that accounts God his All, will leave them, and cleave to God. If he can't injoy Fa­ther and Mother, Brethren and Sisters, Houses and Lands with God, he will leave them all, because they are not his All, and will cleave to God. As Rath left her Kindred, and her Fathers house, and joyned her self to Naomi: And as it's said, a man shall leave his Father and Mother, and shall cleave to his Wife; in like man­ner will that Soul do, whose All the Lord is: As Mephibosheth said, Let Ziba take all, since the King is returned in peace, 2 Sam. 19. 29 So saith he, Let all go, I am willing to forgo them all; if God will return to me in peace, and abide with me, I shall say, My lines are fallen in a fruitful place, and truly I have a goodly heritage. Sometimes we may see a [Page 11] Servant following two Gentlemen, but unto which of these the Servant belongs, we can't tell, until they part asunder, and then the Servant will go with the one, and leave the other. While we can have God and the world both, it's hard to say which is our All, and which is our Master that we desire to serve; but when they come to part asunder, and we can no longer injoy God and the world toge­ther, that Soul whose All the Lord is, will resolve with Joshua, that he will serve the Lord; and as the Needle in the Compass leaves all the other points and stands to the North, so will he leave all his other injoyments, and joyn himself to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant to love the name of the Lord, to fear him, and serve him for ever.

4. Such as these will not be envious at the foolish when they see the prosperity of the wicked. I mean, this temptation will not abide in and upon them▪ they will not remain under the power of it, though they may be surprized with it, but they will soon get out of it. He that makes God his All, cannot but see, that tho' they seem to possess all things, yet indeed they have nothing; that they are more to be pitied than to be envyed; and that they have greater cause to weep and howl even in the fulness of their suffi­ciency, than they have to rejoyce and be glad. It's said of Jehoshaphat, that he had Silver and Gold in abundance, Riches and Honour in abundance, 2 Chron. 17. 5, 6. but his heart was lift up to God in the ways of God: He valued not himself by his Riches and Honour, but by his relation to God, and interest in him; without whom all other things had been but [Page 12] low-priz'd Commodities, and of very little account with him. The wicked man's Riches, Honours and good things are his All; for what hath he more? God pays them their Portion in the World's Coin, and in a little while will say unto them, You have received your Con­solation: And then they will wish that they had begg'd their Bread with Lazarus on Earth, rather than their Water with Dives in Hell. Oh! pity these miserable Souls; they have nothing within them or without them, that can do them any good: They have nothing but Sin within them, and that will damn them; they have nothing but the World with­out them, and that cannot save them; no, it will prove a heavy Mill-stone about their necks, which will sink them down deeper into the Gulf of Eternal Woe and Misery.

I now pass on to the next, which is the 26th verse: My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Where you have the Psalmists Complaint; And secondly, the Psal­mists Comfort. In the former part of the verse, you find him going forth weeping, My flesh and my heart faileth; but because he had within him precious seed; (For light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart: This seed is already sown in their Hearts and Souls;) Therefore in the latter part of the verse, we find him returning again rejoycing with his Sheaves in his bosom: But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. We will first con­sider his Complaint; My flesh and my heart faileth, [...] will fail; my flesh will fail, my heart will fail in a little time: He speaks in the present tense, to [Page 13] notifie the certainty of the failure: Such forms of speech are frequently used in Scripture: Babylon is fallen, is fallen—i. e. Babylon shallas surely fall as if it were fallen already. The Scripture speaks often of things that will be done, as if they were at present done, Rom. 8. Whom he justified, them he glorified; that is, they shall as certainly be glorified, as if they were already in the Kingdom of Glory. Thus here, My flesh and my heart faileth, that is, it's sure and certain that it will be so: My flesh, my heart; we are not to understand it exclusivè, as if it were only ap­propriate to himself, and were not the case of others as we [...]l as his; no, but you are to understand it in­clusivè, as meant of all that dwell in these fleshly Ta­bernacles and Houses of Clay: This is a common case; there is no exemption from this general Calamity and Affliction The Doctrine from hence, (which I shall but briefly insist on) is this:

Though at present this flesh of ours may flourish as the Grass; and may be in its beauty as the Flower in the field; yet as the Grass soon withereth, and the Flower soon fadeth, so will it be with our flesh. Though at present, these hearts of ours may be sound and strong, though they are every moment moving and beating in our bosoms, always opening or shut­ting. Still busie either in a way of contraction or dilatation; but e're long all this work will fail, this motion will cease, the heart will faint and suc­cumb, and the strings of it will be broken in pieces. [Page 14] Mans slesh and heart will surely fail: I shall in a few words animadvert,

• 1. Ʋpon the failing of mans Flesh.
• 2. On the failing of mans Heart: And then,
• 3. Shew whence this failing proceeds and doth arise: And,
• 4. Make some brief Application.

1. Mans Flesh that will fail: Flesh sometimes is taken in Scripture, Sensu morali, or rather, immorali & corrupto; in a moral, or immoral and corrupt sense; for the depraved Nature, for the unregenerate Part in man: As in Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit. Rom. 7. 18. In my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. So in Gal. 5. 19. The works of the flesh are manifest, &c. But this is not the meaning of it here. Though this flesh shall fail, and doth fail, for in every regenerate Soul, it is dying daily. Sin in the Godly hath lost its Sword. So that it can't kill; it hath lost its Scepter, so that it can't rule, and in a few days it shall lose its Being, its Habitation and Re­sidence. The death of the Body shall be the destruction of the body of death. Now sin is dying in them; it hath received a deadly wound, but then it shall breathe out its last, and live no longer, to be a Thorn in their Eyes, or a Goad in their Sides, to vex and disquiet their righteous Souls, as now it doth from day to day: Then this cursed Inmate shall be turned out of doors, and Grace shall dwell alone in the Soul for ever. This body of death is now under a Curse, and then the Curse of the barren Fig-tree shall fall upon it, and no fruit shall ever grow on it more.

[Page 15] But secondly; Flesh is taken and to be understood sensu naturali & physico, in a natural and physical sense; and thus we are to take it here: For the fleshly part of man, that fleshly substance that our bones are co­vered withal; that fleshly Tabernacle in which the Soul of man doth dwell: This flesh will fail, Isa 40. 6, 7. All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, so will the flesh: All the goodliness of it, its comeliness, strength and beauty, all will fail: A blast will come upon all, which will cause it to wither and decay, which will turn it into rottenness, and make it become like a Moth-eaten garment, Job 13. 28. How beautiful soever you may now be, in a few days your beauty shall be turned into deformity: And how strong so­ever you at present be, it will not be long but this flesh of yours will become so weak, that it will not be able any longer to hold the spirit. The Lord hath determined a Consumption to come upon all flesh, Isa. 28. 22. and he hath many ways and methods to bring it about: As in Deut. 28. 21, 22. Either by the pesti­lence, or a fever, or an inflammation, or an extream burning, or the sword, &c. How many hundred dis­eases and distempers are there up and down in the world, effecting this determined consumption: If God give any one of them a Commission to come to us, and to effect the same (as surely at one time or o­ther he will) then will our Beauty consume away as a moth, and this blow of his hand will make our flesh to fail.

2. Mans heart will fail. This heart of man, which is that part that is primum vivens, and ultimum mo­riens [Page 16] in him, which is first alive, and dies last; this heart will fail, grow cold and die away: It dies last, but die it must. This strong hold in man will be assaulted, and forced, nolens volens, whether it will or no, to surrender to the power of sickness and death: Sickness will come and closely besiege it; one Disease and Distemper or another will give it a Summons; then Death will come, that Mighty Conqueror, and break the very strings of it, and so quite subdue it. Thus, as you read Eccles. 12. ver. 6. This golden bowl will be broken, and the pitcher will be broken at the fountain, and the wheel will he broken at the cistern; that is, the heart of man, with all the instrumental and subservient parts, whereby supplies of Blood and Spirits are conveighed from it, into the several parts of the Body, will break and fail, and the Offices of these parts will cease, and be per­formed no more.

3. We are to shew from whence this failing doth proceed. The answer to this Question, hath occasi­oned many serious thoughts amongst the Wise men of this world; I mean, amongst many Sage Heathens and Profound Philosophers; these evils and miseries they were sensible of, and complained of them; but the rise and original of them they could not come to the knowledge and understanding of: This wisdom and understanding was too deep for them to sound with their line of reason, and too difficult for them to attain unto: Therefore they looked upon death, and all the failings and tendences thereunto to be a com­mon Tribute, laid upon every Creature to pay; to be an Universal Law that all Mankind must obey▪ [Page 17] and submit to: And to have the same reason that other mutations and changes have, which they did see in the course of nature every day: And they could render no other reason, but the same which they gave when they saw other things dissolved in­to their Elements: This is a common fate, Sic fata volunt: It's so appointed by the Higher Powers; but the reason of the appointment they could not find out. And because they did apprehend no far­ther, it's no great wonder why they did fear death and dissolution no more than they did; but rather expected or desired it, as a rest from their labours, and an end of all their sorrows and miseries.

But God hath shewn in his Word unto us the true cause of all our woe, and the original of our failing and dying; that all proceeds from mans sin; Hinc illae lachrymae; from this cursed root of bit­terness doth spring and arise all our Worm-wood and Gall. Rom. 5. 12. By one mans disobedience sin entred into the world, and death by sin: Death with all its appurtenances, with all that leadeth to it, and all the miseries that follow after it; all are the issues and products of sin: There had been no sickness, no death, no failing of heart or flesh, had there been no sin. Man hath sown unto the flesh, and therefore of the flesh must reap corruption, Gal. 6. 8. Sin as na­turally produceth these evils, as every Seed doth produce and send forth its own Herb: It's this that hath opened the Sluce, and let in that Inundation of miseries, that we poor Creatures are assaulted and over-whelmed withal. It's storied, Of a Person tra­velling in Germany, and beholding the ruins and de­solations [Page 18] which the Wars had made there; that he said, Haec sunt peccata Germanorum; that is, these ruins and desolations are the Germans sins; meaning, that their sins and provocations were the procuring causes of all their mischiefs and miseries. James 4. ver. 1. The Apostle proposes a question, and gives the reso­lution of it: From whence (saith he) come wars and fightings, with all their mischievous and destructive at­tendances? He tells us, they come from the lusts of men that war in their members against the Lord, and against their own peace, comfort and tranquillity. There had been nothing but good Seed in the whole Creation, which would have brought forth good fruit, had not man by his sin sowed tares: There had been no pricking bryar, nor grieving thorn, there had been nothing to hurt or destroy in the whole Universe, had it not been for mans sin: Man hath sowed the wind, and reaps the whirl-wind.

We will now make some brief Application, and so dispatch this point.

ƲSE I.

Let's all look to this, that all be well within with our Souls and Spirits, because these failings and fai­lures will certainly come upon our slesh and our hearts: Oh look to your Souls, and ask them often how they do? And whither they are not in danger of failing too? I mean of being lost and undone for ever. Oh it's sad to have a failing Body, and a pe­rishing Soul; to have a pained and languishing Body, and to have a pained and dying Soul; troubles with­out [Page 19] and terrors within; this must needs be doleful and dismal: The spirit of a man will bear the infirmi­ties and failings of the Body, if that be but sound, and in a good condition; but if that be wounded and galled with the guilt of sin and apprehensions of wrath, what is there then to help us to bear?

ƲSE II.

Let's think seriously of this failing: Make me to know how frail I am, Psalm 39. 4. Help me to ap­ [...]rehend and consider what a poor failing Creature I am, saith David; those of you that have Bones full of Marrow, and Breasts of Milk, that are in your Health and Strength, and seem to slourish like the green Bay-tree; Oh consider this and lay it to heart, that your Flesh and your Hearts must fail before it be long. The Lord help us so to consider it, that we may apply our hearts to Wisdom; Oh that there were such an Heart within us! Eccles. 11. 8. If a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Oh don't let us forget the days of dark­ness; let us not put away from us the evil days of failing, of trouble and affliction, because they will assuredly come upon us. Some Heathens accounted it true Wisdom and sound Philosophy to meditate often of Death: To be sure this would be of excel­lent use, and would much conduce to the promoti­on of Piety and true Religion, if we would be much in meditation on this Subject. Let it be much in your thoughts in your lying down, and in your rising up, in your going out, and in your coming in, at [Page 20] home and abroad; Oh consider that your Flesh and your Heart must fail in a little time. This frequent­ly considered on, and often revolved in our minds, would (by the assistance and operation of the Spi­rit of grace) doubtless better us to a far higher de­gree than yet we have attained unto.

1. We should verily be less earthly than we are, did we ponder this more in our hearts than we do. We should not be so much concerned about the Body and the things thereof as we are, did we seriously consider this: Certainly men would not spend their days, waste their lives, prostitute their Consciences, in making provision for their Flesh, and in getting sup­plies for their Bodies; did they seriously consider that this Fabrick of the Body, this Tabernacle of dust, this House of clay, is falling down about their ears, and then what profit will they have of all that they cared for, and laboured after under the Sun? Were this well considered, we should not be so like the Serpent as we are, which goes on its Belly and seeds on Dust. Mens Souls cleave unto the dust as David speaks, though in another sense, Psal. 119. 25. Adhaerent pavimento: They are as if they were all Flesh, and had no Spirit to mind at all, as if they were all Body, and had no Soul, which would not be, if this were well considered by us.

2. We should be surely more heavenly than we are, if we did meditate more on the failing of our Flesh and our Heart. We should be more heavenly in our Conversations, in our Communications, in our Hearts and Affections, in our Labours and Indeavours. This [Page 21] would cause us to groan to be delivered out of this failing Tabernacle, and to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven. Here we have no con­tinuing City, saith the Apostle, Heb. 12. 14. There is not a House in it, but what is failing, decaying, and even ready to drop down: Therefore we seek one to come; even a City that hath Foundations, and will never fail, whose Builder and Maker is God.

ƲSE III.

Let's from hence learn to hate sin to a greater de­gree than yet we do. This is the evil of evils; the greatest evil of all evils; and the evil that is the cause of all our other evils: It's this that doth us all the mischief: All our Consumptions, our Pains, Dis­eases, Distempers, Failings come from this cause. It's strange indeed, that men should be in love with their deadly Enemy; that they should entertain it in their Bosoms, that they should lodge it so near their Hearts: That they should nourish this Viper which will gnaw out their very Bowels, and will assuredly feed upon the slaughters and ruins of its dearest lovers. Oh if we love our sins we are cruel unto our own Souls. If any man among our selves, should take away our Money, should fall upon us, and beat, and wound us, or deprive us of any world­ly accommodation; how easily can we hate such a Person; and how hardly be reconciled to him? Oh learn to hate sin; all ye that love the Lord hate evil; all ye that love your selves, that love your Souls, hate sin: There's nothing more prejudicial and destructive to us. This is the Enemy that robs [Page 22] and wounds us; this weakens and debilitates our Bo­dies, and ruins our Souls: This is the Enemy that se­parates the Soul from the Body, and God from the Soul.

Thus we have done with the Psalmists complaint, My Flesh and my Heart faileth, there's the dark side of the Cloud: We pass on now to the bright side thereof; which is the Psalmists comfort, But God is the strength of my Heart, and my portion for ever. Thus, as in 1 Sam. 30. 6. he encouraged himself in the Lord his God; and in the view and apprehension of the failing of his flesh and his heart, these consolations did refresh and delight his Soul.

Here I shall only glance a little upon these three particulars, which may serve for so many Doctrinal Observations.

• 1. That God is the Believers strength.
• 2. That God is the Believers portion.
• 3. That God is the Believers everlasting portion.

Every one of these is a Well of Salvation, out of which with the Bucket of Faith, we may draw out abundance of the Waters of Consolation to chear our Hearts withal in our greatest troubles.

1. God is the Believers strength: From God he hath strength, 1. To bear his burdens. Alas! with­out the strength of God, we should faint in the day of adversity, because our strength is small: God puts underneath his everlasting arms, and enables them [Page 23] to bear: He strengthens them with all might by his Spirit in the inward man; and helps to undergo the miseries, infirmities and burdens, that are upon the outward man, therefore by Faith we should cast all our burdens upon him, for he hath promised to sustain us, Psal. 55. 22. He will give us shoulders suitable to our burdens, or else suite our burdens to our shoulders.

2. From God he hath strength to do his Duties: As he gives shoulders for every burden, he hath for us to bear, so he gives hands for every piece of work he hath for us to do: Alas! Without him we can do nothing, as the Hand can do nothing without the Head, the Body can do nothing without the Soul; no more can we do, without the strength of God: Therefore where ever there is a command that finds us work, there is always a suitable promise to find us strength: I will cause you (saith God) to walk in my ways, my grace shall be made sufficient for you: God doth not deal with us as the Egyptian Taskmasters did with the Israelites, who required Brick, but would give them no Straw: God doth not require Duty and Service of us, and leave us to get strength to do it, where we can; no, but is pleased graci­ously to promise, that he will give what he doth com­mand, and that his Spirit shall help our infirmities, and that he will strengthen us unto the performance of every good work.

3. From God he hath strength to overcome his cor­ruptions. Were it not for the power of God resting on them, and working in them, these Sons of Zer­viah [Page 24] would be too hard for them; these mighty Philistines would certainly vanquish and overcome them. Therefore he goes out against them in the Name of the Lord, as David did against that Philistine Giant, 1 Sam. 17. 45 knowing, that in his own strength he cannot prevail; therefore he begs of God to teach his hands to war, and to strengthen his fingers to fight, that he may be avenged on the Enemies of God, and of his Soul, and be made more than a Con­querour in and through the strength and power of Christ Jesus: It's from the Spirit and strength of Christ, that any Soul is enabled to mortifie the deeds of the flesh; without this strength, instead of mor­tifying our lusts, our lusts, to be sure, would morti­fie us, and lead us captive as it were bound hands and and feet, and triumph over us.

4. In God is his strength to stand it out against, to resist and to overcome Satan's Temptations. The Tempter is strong, and we are weak; he did over­come Man when he had no sin, and gave him a sad fall; even then, when he was in the rectitude of his Nature, when there was nothing within to take the Tempter's part: But now he hath much more power over us, because we have a party within us, that upon every occasion and temptation, is ready to be­tray us, and to deliver us up unto him. So that if we be not kept by the power of God through Faith in Christ Jesus, unto salvation, we shall undoubtedly come short of the Kingdom of God: We have not only flesh and blood, but principalities and powers to wrestle withal. How shall we quench the fiery Darts of the Devil? How shall we resist his strong Temptations, when [Page 25] we are weak as Water, if we be not strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and be not strengthned by the hand of the mighty God of Jacob? But God tells us, that we have more with us, than we have against us, though the Gates of Hell, and all the Power and Policy of that Kingdom of Darkness be engaged against us. He hath assured us that he will be with us, and strengthen us, and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against us.

ƲSE I.

Learn from hence, That such as are without God are without strength: You are in the midst of Ene­mies, and have no strength to resist them; in the midst of dangers, and have no strength to fly or make an escape, and so to deliver your own Souls. You are without strength for active Obedience, you can do nothing as you ought to do it, you are without strength for passive Obedience, you can bear and suffer nothing as you ought to bear it; in a word, you have strength for nothing but to fight and re­bel against God, and in so doing you do but kick against the pricks, you wound your own Souls, and add coals of fire to your Eternal Flames.

ƲSE II.

Let the people of God have frequent recourse un­to their strength. The name of the Lord is a strong Tower, the righteous fly unto it, and they are safe; all is well with them then.

[Page 26] Let me tell you, that you are but a feeble people of your selves, every blast of Temptation will blow you down; every gust of the wind of Affliction, every wave and billow, will overcome and overwhelm you; every duty and service will be too mighty for you; therefore have recourse to your strength, keep close to your strength. You read Prov. 30. 26. That the Coneys are but a feeble Folk, therefore they dwell in the Rocks. Oh! go to the Rock that is higher than you, dwell in the Rock, and build upon the Rock; and this Rock will be a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the storm, and afford a shadow unto you in a weary Land: You will find Honey in this Rock to delight you, Water in this Rock to refresh you, Strength in this Rock to support and bear you up, when your flesh and your heart will fail you. This Rock will follow you whither soever you go, it will never leave you nor forsake you: When you go through the Fire, and the Water, you will find it present with you; as Isa. 43. 2. When thou passest thorow the Wa­ters, I will be with thee, and thorow the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee: When thou walkest thorow the Fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the Flame kindle upon thee. None have such a Rock as is our Rock; we may appeal to the very Enemies of God themselves to be Judges, if they would speak arbitrio sano, and judge according to evidence. Let us then fly to our Rock by Faith and Prayer; let us get into the clefts of it; if we build upon this Rock, and put our confidence in it, we shall never be moved.

2. God is the Believer's Portion. The people of God are the Lord's Portion, and Jacob is the Lot of [Page 27] his Inheritance—And the Lord calls them his pleasant Portion, Deut. 32. 9. God indeed would be very poor in the World, and would have no pleasure in the works of his hands, were it not for them: So God is their Portion, he hath made over himself by a deed of gift, to be their God, and their exceeding great Re­ward: And here I might shew you:

• 1. What an enriching Portion God is.
• 2. What a Soul satisfying Portion God is. And
• 3. What a Soul-saving Portion God is.

But I have no time to enlarge upon these things: If you know God, you know it all, and abundantly more than I am able with words to express. I shall there­fore only shew you, first, how they came to have this Portion; and then secondly, make some brief Applica­tion.

First, How they came to have this goodly Portion, and to be instated in such an Inheritance, which is incor­ruptible, undesiled, and that fadeth not away. For answer,

First, Negatively, 1. They were not born to it. Some among men are born to great Portions, and large In­heritances; these are their birth-right, and intailed upon them as being the lawful Heirs of such and such persons: But the Lord knows, that we are all base­born, because born in sin: Our Father was an Amorite, and our Mother an Hittite; and so we are become an accursed generation, and are Heirs of nothing but Wrath and Hell: We did no sooner live, but we [Page 28] deserved to die; and no sooner did we see the Light, but we deserved that God should give us our Portion among Devils and damned ones, in the Kingdom of Darkness: In the Womb we were like the Cockatrice Egg, fill'd with deadly Poyson, and since we came thence, we have been like the troubled Sea, casting forth myre, filth and dirt. As we are Adam's Chil­dren, if God should pay us our Portion that belongs unto us, it would undo us for ever.

Secondly, They did not get this Portion by their own industry, labour and diligence. Sometimes among men the diligent hand makes rich; and persons born to nothing come to acquire great things, and to pur­chase for themselves large Revenues. But so it is not here; this Portion was not acquired by us in this way. Alas! what were we able to do in order to this, whose hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked above all things? as God, who knows us infinitely bet­ter than we know our selves, witnesseth of us. We have nothing within us to principle any one good action: If the Tree be bad, so must the Fruit of neces­sity be. If we would attain to this of our selves, we must first pay the debt which we owe to Justice for our sin; and then we must perform that sinless and unspotted obedience which the Law demands. Both which all the men on Earth, and I may add, all the Saints and Angels in Heaven, are not able to do. Thus negatively.

2. And Positively. We are born again to it, by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. 1. 3. Who hath be­gotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection [Page 29] of Jesus Christ: The meaning is, that being born again, we slie to Jesus Christ by Faith, and by his Re­surrection are assured, that God is reconciled, and that our Peace is made, our Debt is paid (for other­wise he having been arrested and laid in the Prison of the Grave, he had not risen again and come forth from thence, if full satisfaction had not been given) and thus we come to a lively hope, that now we are upon good terms with God, and that he is become our Father, and will be the portion of our Souls for ever.

ƲSE I.

Hence we may be informed, That none are so rich as the people of God: None so rich in possession, none so rich in reversion: Many of them seem to have no­thing, yet they possess all things: None can tell how rich they are, but they that can tell how rich God is, for the riches of God are all theirs.

ƲSE II.

Let the people of God make use of their portion; is men do, for the supply of those things they need; they go to their portion, and with that pro­cure those necessaries and conveniences which they want. Oh, let the people of God, go to their por­tion every day, and make use of it, for all they want for their Bodies, or for their Souls, for their inward, and for their outward man, for Time and for Eternity: There are some men of the world that do not use their portion, Eccles. 6. ver. 2. There is [Page 30] a man to whom God hath given Riches, Wealth, and Honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth; yet he hath not power to eat there­of. By reason of inordinate Love, distrustful Pro­vidence, and the incumbrances of earthly imploy­ments, they hinder themselves of the injoyment of what they have; and so they are Poor in the midst of their Riches, and Beggars in the midst of their Abundance. There is as it were a Spell set upon their Estates, so that their Wealth says to them, Touch not, tast not, handle not. They are like the Dog in the wheel, that toils all the day to Roast meat for others eating. Truly many of Gods own peo­ple live exceedingly below their allowance, they live, as if they had nothing, were worth nothing, when they have a rich Portion; they have it, but they do not use it: What comfort, what joy, what peace which passeth all understanding, might they find in it, if they would live by Faith upon it?

ƲSE III.

Let all be exhorted to get this Portion: What will you do when your Flesh and your Heart fail­eth, if God be not your Portion? What will you do when Death and Judgment comes, if God be not your Portion? Oh Death will be deadly to you, if God be not your Portion; Judgment will be ter­rible and amazing, and you will be ready to cry to the Rocks, to the Hills and Mountains to fall upon you, and to hide you from the wrath of the Lamb that sits upon the Throne, if God be not your Por­tion. Oh get this portion! I told you before, that [Page 31] it is not procured by our indeavour, we can't pur­chase it by all that we are able to do; but this is procured by another; there is a near Kinsman of ours, that hath redeemed this morgaged or lost Inheri­tance, that is, Jesus Christ; the right of Redemp­tion did belong to him, and he hath done the part of a Kinsman for us. Now if we will come to him as poor, miserable and undone Creatures, and take this Inheritance thankfully out of his hands; if we will receive it, in his right, and submit to his terms, which are as reasonable as can be desired; then this Inheritance is our own, and God will become our Portion again. Oh, get this Portion, or you get no­thing; get this Portion, and you get all; this Por­tion will make you happy in Life and Death.

If God be your Portion, if your Possessions are lower he will heighten the Fruition: He can croud in abundance of comfort in a little of the Crea­ture. He can make a single Dish out-vye a Feast, and the meanest fare, suppose a Dinner of green Herbs, to be sweeter and better than a stalled Ox. With God a small Stock, will be more comfortable and satisfying than a large Revenue. Or if he susser us to be bereaved of all, he himself will be instead of all. He hath taken to himself the names of all things needful and comfortable, to intimate to us, that he alone stands for all they signify or are worth. Therefore he is called a Portion, an Inheritance, an Habitation, high Tower, Shade, Strength, De­liverer, Friend, Father, Husband, &c. To let us know that all these are nothing without him, and that he can be all without these▪

[Page 32] Without this portion, when you come to die, not Angels but Devils will receive your Souls: and eternity will not be the measure of your joys but of your woes: Oh think of your dying day, and how near you may be to that day, and be a­wakened to make sure of this portion. Death is ri­ding its Circuit, up and down every day, it will not be long but it will come to us: it will come with its Sythe, and Mow us down, it will come and take down the Glass, and stop our breath, and tell us that we have lived our last! Oh then, make sure of this portion: and he will be your God in Life, in Death, and after Death to all Eternity. Make sure of this portion, or you will have the wicked mans portion, Psal. 11. 6. Ʋpon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup.

3. God is their everlasting portion. A portion that they shall never leave, a portion that they shall ne­ver lose. For we must have a better and a more in­during substance, than can be had and injoyed here: we shall outlive all these things. A portion in this world will not serve our turns, because we are hast­ning away out of this world into an everlasting state; and therefore must get an everlasting portion: Alas, A month may devour us and all our portion that we have here, Hos. 5. 7. yea a week, a day, a night, may devour all; but the Godly mans portion is ever­lasting. God, saith the Psalmist in the Text, is my portion for ever. There's nothing but God that suits the Souls nature; nothing but God that can [Page 33] fill the Souls Capacities, nothing but God that can equal the▪ Souls duration. Here is a Portion indeed that is Coaetaneous with the immortal Soul of man. As for all the perfection that is here below we shall soon see an end of it: As David said, I have seen an end of all perfection, Psal. 119. 96. he speaks not of every kind of perfection, but of all the perfections of one kind: as for divine perfections and injoyments they have no end; therefore an end of them cannot be seen; but all humane perfections and injoyments they must and will end. By the sight of his eye, he had seen an end of many humane perfections; and by the sight of his mind he had seen an end of them all; some he had seen already ending, and he saw of necessity that all must end. But the Godly man hath an everlasting Portion, a Portion that shall survive all the Vicissitudes, and changes of time: in fatal period shall ever come to put an end to their injoyment of this Portion, to denude or rob them of this precious treasure.

To the enjoyment of this blessed and everlasting Por­tion, our Friend (whose death was the occasion of this discourse) is gone; and now all tears are wiped from her eyes, and she is bathing her self in those rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore. Tho' she be dead, she yet speaketh; she speaketh to her yoak-fellow and children that she hath left behind, to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world, as she did; to mind their precious and immortal Souls, to provide for Eter­ity and to lay a good foundation against the time to come, [...] she did. She speaks to us all, to be followers of them, [...] through Faith and patience inherit the Kingdom: [Page 34] Such a one she was, under her long affliction though she di [...] groan, she never grumbled; though she mourned, [...] she never murmured; her earnest desire was rather to be [...] her affliction sanctified to her, than removed from [...]. As to life or death, she left it wholly to Gods choice chusing infinitely rather to be at his dispose than her own. I verily believe that if life and death had been put in a Pair of Balances, she would not willingly have [...] in one dram, to turn the Balance any way. The Kingdom of Heaven had already entred into her, and she had a longing desire (if her time was come, and her work done) to enter into it.