Though men have never so great a stock, yet if they still spend upon it they will certainly consume it; oh, but God is such a stock as can never be spent, as can never be consumed. If a sparrow should but fetch a drop of water out of the sea once a day, yea, once in a thousand years, yet in time it would be exhausted ; oh but God is such a sea, such an ocean, that if every angel in heaven, and every saint and sinner on earth, should drink whole rivers at a draught, yet not one drop could be dimi- nished. If a child should take but a cockle-shell of water out of the sea every day, the sea would be really the less, though not visibly the less, and in time it would be exhausted, and drawn dry ; but let all created beings be every day a-d rawing from God, yet they shall never lessen him, they shall never draw him dry. The mother's breasts are often drawn dry, but the more you draw at the breasts of God, the more milk of grace and comfort will flow in upon you : Isaiah Ixvi. 10, 11, 'Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be ye glad with her, all ye that love her : rejoice for thy joy with her, all ye that mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation ; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.' God keeps open house for all comers and goers, for aU created creatures both in heaven and earth ; and
Lam. III. 24.] an ark for all god's noahs. 31
though they are perpetually sucking at his breasts, yet the more they draw, the more the heavenly milk of divine joy, content, and satisfaction flows in abundantly upon them, Ps. civ. 24. All creatures, both high and low, rich and poor, honourable and base, noble and ignoble, bond and free, Jews and Gentiles, are all maintained upon God's own cost and charge ; they are all fed at his table, and maintained by what comes out of his treasury, his purse ; and yet God is not a pin the poorer for all this. It would break and beggar all the princJes on earth, to keep but one day the least part of that innumerable company that God feeds, and clothes, and cherishes, and maintains every da}' upon the account of his own revenue, which is never the poorer for all the vast expenses that he is daily at. There is still in God a fulness of abundance, and a fulness of redundance, notwithstanding the vast sums that he hath, and doth daily expend. It were blasphemy to think that God should be a penny the poorer by all that he hath laid out for the maintenance of those millions of angels and men, that have had their dependence upon him, from their first creation to this very day. Look, as the sun hath never the less light for filling the stars with light, and as the fountain hath never the less water for filling the lesser vessels with water that are about it ; so though God fills all the vessels, both of grace and glory, with his own fulness, yet he is never the less full himself; there is still in God plenitudo fontis, the fulness of a fountain. Look, as the over- flowing fountain pours out water abundantly, and yet after all it remains full ; so though the Lord be such an overflowing fountain as that he fills all, yet still he retains all fulness in himself
I have read of a Spanish ambassador, that, coming to see the treasury of Saint Mark in Venice, that is so much cried up in the world, he fell a-groping at the bottom of the chests and trunks, to see whether thev had any bottom ; and being asked the reason why he did so, answered in this among other things. My master's treasure differs from yours, and excels yours, in that his hath no bottom as yours have, alluding to the mines in Mexico, Peru, and other parts of the western India. All men's mints, bags, purses, and coffers may be quickly exhausted and drawn dry, but God is such an inexhaustible portion, that he can never be drawn dry; all God's treasures are bottomless, and all his mints are bottomless, and all his bags are bottomless. Millions of thousands in heaven and earth feed every day upon him, and yet he feels it not ; he is still a-giving, and yet his purse is never empty ; he is still a-fillino- all the court of heaven, and all the creatures on earth, and yet he is a fountain that still overflows. There be them that say, that it is most certainly true of the oil at Rheims, that though it be continually spent in the inauguration of their kings of France, yet it never wastes ; but whatever truth is in this story, of this I am most sure, that though all the creatures in both worlds live and spend continually on Christ's stock, yet it never wasteth.
But now all earthly portions are frequently exhausted and drawn dry. The prodigal quickly spent his patrimony upon his harlots, Luke xv. ; and how many drunkards, and gluttons, and wantons, and gamesters, and roysters, &c., do daily bring a noble to ninepence ! Pro v. xxiii. 20, 21. ' Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?' saith God to Job, chap, xxxviii. 22, &c. Now, saith Gregory, the treasures of the snow are
32 AN ARK FOR ALL GOD's NOAHS. [LaM. III. 24.
worldly riches, which men rake together, even as children do snow, which the next shower washeth away, and leaves nothing in the room of it but dirt. And ah ! how many merchants, and shopkeepers, and others in these breaking times, have found all their riches and earthly portions to melt away as snow before the sun ! how many of late have been very rich one week, and stripped of all the next, and set with Job upon the dunghill ! All earthly portions are like water in a cistern, that may easily and quickly be drawn dry; but God is an inexhaustible portion, that can never be drawn dry ; and this discovers the excellency of this portion above all other portions. But