(7.) Seventhly, As God is a glorious portion, so he is a peculiar por- tion, he is a portion peculiar to his people, Ps. cxlii. 5, 6 ; Jer. x. 16. This is evident in the text, and in all the scriptures cited to prove the point, Ps. xvi. 5, and so in that Ps. Ixvii. 6, * Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us :' and so Ps. Ixviii. 20, ' He that is our God is the God of salvation,' or ' God of salvations,* as it is in the Hebrew. God is a God of all manner of salvations ; he hath all sorts and ways of salvations ; he is not only powerful, but also skilful, to save his people from ten thousand deaths and dangers. Faith is an appropriating grace, it is much in appropriating of God to itself: ' My Lord and my God,' and my Redeemer and my Saviour and my portion ;'* Ps. Ixxiii. 26, ' My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.' In Gideon's camp every soldier had his own pitcher, Judges vii. 16; amongst Solomon's men of valour, every man wore his own sword, 1 Chron. xxvi. 30 ; and the five wise virgins had every one oil in her own lamp, Mat. xxv. 4. Luther was wont to say, that there lay a great deal of divinity couched up in pronouns, as in meum, tuum, suum, mine, thine, his : and so faith's appropriating of God to the soul, as its own portion, is all in all. God is a portion peculiar to the saints ; he is the hidden manna, the new name, the white stone, the bread to eat that others know not of There is never a hardened Pharaoh in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never a murdering Saul in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never a painted bloody Jezebel in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never a cunning Ahithoph§l in the world that can truly say, 'The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never a proud Haman in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never a tyrannical Nebuchadnezzar in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my por-
' Dent, xxviii. 17-20 ; Job xx. 22-29, and chap. xxiv. 18 ; Prov. Hi. 88; Mai. ii. 2, &o. * John XX. 28 ; Job xix. 25 ; Luke i. 47.
Lam. III. 24.] an ark for all god's noahs. 23
tion;' nor there is never a crafty Herod in the world that can truly say, 'The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never a rich Dives in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never a treacherous Judas in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never an hypocritical Simon Magus in the world that can truly say, 'The Lord is my portion ;' nor there is never an apostatizing Demas in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is ray portion;' nor there is never a persecuting scribe or pharisee in the world that can truly say, ' The Lord is my portion.' It is only the saint that can truly say, ' The Lord is his portion/ for God is peculiarly his, he is only his.
But now all earthly portions are common portions ; they are all common to good and bad, to the righteous and to the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacri- ficeth not, to him that sweareth and to him that feareth an oath, Eccles. ix. 1-3. Was Abraham rich ? so was Dives too ; was David a king ? so was Saul too ; was Daniel a great favourite at court ? so was Haman too, &a , And indeed usually the basest and the worst of men have the largest share in earthly portions ; which made Luther say, that the whole Turkish empire was but a crust that God cast to a dog. Abraham gave unto his sons of the concubines gifts, and sent them away, but unto Isaac he gave all that he had, Gen. xxv. 5, 6. So all earthly portions, which are giftless gifts, God gives them to the worst and vilest of men ; Daniel iv. 17, * This matter is by decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones ; to the intent that the living may know, that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men ;' and so in that Daniel xi. 31, ' And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.' Interpreters do generally agree, that by this vile person in the text is meant Antiochus Epiphanes, that was so great and mighty a prince, that when the Samaritans did write to him, they write, Antiocho magno deo, to Antiochus the great god. And indeed his very name speaks him out to be some great and glorious person, for Antiochus Epiphanes is Antiochus the illustrious, the famous ; and yet you see that the Holy Ghost, speaking of him, calls him a vile person Ah ! how vile in the eyes of God are the greatest men in the work' who have not God for their portion ! Augustus in his solemn feasts gave trifles to some, but gold to others. God gives the trifling portions of this world to the vilest and worst of men, but his gold, his Christ, himself, he gives only to his saints: Gal. ii. 20, ' And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' Haws,^ that are for hogs, grow upon every hedge ; but roses, that are for men, they only grow in pleasant gardens ; you know how to apply it. Though many have counterfeit jewels, yet there are but a few that have the true diamond ; though many have their earthly portions, yet there are but a few that have God for their portion. But,
(8.) Eighthly, As God is a peculiar portion, so he is a universal • , * Fruit of the hawthorn. — Q.
24 AN ARK FOR ALL GOD's NOAHS. [LAM. III. 24.