liberty, his life, but he can never be stripped of his God. As God is a portion that none can give to a Christian but himself, so God is a por- tion that none can take from a Christian but himself; and, therefore, a.^ ever you would have a sure portion, an abiding portion, a lasting portion, yea, an everlasting portion, make sure of God for your portion.
O Sirs ! that you would judge that only worth much now, which will be found of much worth at last, when you shall lie upon a dying bed, and stand before a judgment-seat. Oh that men would prize and value all earthly portions now, as they will value them when they come to die, and when their souls shall sit upon their trembling lips, and when there shall be but a short step between them and eternity. Oh, at Avhat a poor rate, at what a low rate do men value their earthly por- tions ! then, certainly, it will be their very great wisdom to value their earthly portions now as they would value them then. And oh that men would value this glorious, this matchless portion that is held forth in this treatise now, as they will value it and prize it when they come to die, and when they come to launch out into the ocean of eternity ! I have read of a stationer, who, being at a fair, hung out several pictures of men famous in their kinds, among which he had also the picture of Christ, upon which divers men bought according to their several fancies : the soldier buys his Caesar, the lawyer his Justinian, the physician his Galen, the philosopher his Aristotle, the poet his Virgil, the orator his Cicero, and the divine his Augustine ; but all this while the picture of Christ hung by as a thing of no value, till a poor chap- man, that had no more money than would purchase that, bought it, sayiug. Now every man hath taken away his god, let me have mine too. O Sirs ! it would make any gracious, any serious, any ingenious, any conscientious heart to bleed, to see at what a high rate all sorts and ranks of men do value earthly portions, which at best are but coun- terfeit pictures, whenas this glorious portion that is here treated on hangs by as a thing of no value, of no price. Most men are mad upon the world, and so they may have much of that for their portion, they care not whether ever they have God for their portion or no. Give them but a palace in Paris, and then with that French duke [the Duke of Burbone (Bourbon)] they care not for a place in paradise ; give them but a mess of pottage, and let who will take the birthright ; give them but manna in a wilderness, and let who will take the land of Canaan ; give them but ground which is pleasant and rich, and then with the Keubenites they will gladly take up their rest on this side the Holy Land ; give them but their bags full, and their barns full, and then with the rich fool in the Gospel they can think of nothing but of taking their ease, and of eating and drinking, and making merry, Luke xii. l()-22. So brutish and foolish are they in their understandings, as if their precious and immortal souls were good for nothing but as salt to keep their bodies from rotting and stinking.
Oh that these men would seriously consider, that as a cup of pleasant wine, offered to a condemned man in the way to his execution, and as the feast of him who sat under a naked sword, hanging perpendicularly over his head by a slender thread,^ and as Adam's forbidden fruit, seconded by a flaming sword, and as Belshazzar's dainties, overlooked * Damocles, Cicero. Ihuc. v. 21 ; Horace, Carm. iii. I. xvii. — G.
EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 7
by an handwriting against the wall ; such and only such are all earthly portions to those that have not God for their portion.
Well, gentlemen, remember this, there is no true happiness to be found in any earthly portions. Solomon, having made a critical in- quiry after the excellency of all creature comforts, gives this in as the ultimate extraction from them all, ' Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.' If you should go to all the creatures round, they will tell you that happiness is not in them. If you should go to the earth, the earth will tell you that happiness grows not in the furrows of the field. If you go to the sea, the sea will tell you that happiness is not in the treasures of the deep. If you go to the beasts of the field, or to the birds of the air, they will tell you that happiness is not to be found on their backs, nor in their bowels. If you go to your bags, or heaps of gold and silver, they will tell you that happiness is not to be found in them. If you go to crowns and sceptres, they will tell you that happiness is too precious and too glorious a gem to be found in them.
As it is not the great cage that makes the bird sing, so it is not the great estate that makes the happy life, nor the great portion that makes the happy soul. There is no true comfort nor no true happiness to be drawn out of the standing pools of outward sufiiciencies. All true com- fort and happiness is only to be found in having of an all-sufficient God for your portion: Ps. cxliv. 15, 'Happy is that people that is in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.' And therefore, as ever you would be happy in both worlds, it very highly concerns you to get an interest in God, and to be restless in your own souls till you come to enjoy God for your portion.
A man that hath God for his portion is a non-such ; he is the rarest and the happiest man in the world ; he is like the morning star in the midst of the clouds ; he is like the moon when it is at full ; he is like the flower of the roses in the spring of the year ; he is like the lilies by the springs of waters ; he is like the branches of frankincense in the time of summer ; he is like a vessel of massy gold that is set about with all manner of precious stones.^
Nothing can make that man miserable that hath God for his portion, nor nothing can make that man happy that wants God for his portion : the more rich, the more wretched ; the more great, the more graceless ; the more honourable, the more miserable that man will be that hath not God for his portion. The Sodomites were very wealthy, and who more wanton and mcked than thej- ? The Egyptians and Babylonians were very rich, great, and potent in the world, and what greater op- pressors and persecutors of the people of God than these ? Oh the slavery, the captivity, and the woful misery of the people of God under those cruel tyrants ! Have not the Nimrods, the Nebuchadnezzars, the Belshazzars, the Alexanders, and the Csesars, &c., been commonly the lords of the world, and who so abominably wicked as these ? No men for wickedness have been able to match them or come near them.