desire no more ! He had it. Oh then, were I but a king, I would desire no more ! He had it. Oh then, were I but an emperor, I would desire no more ! He had it. Oh then, were I but emperor of the whole world, I would then desire no more ! He had it ; and yet then he sits down with Alexander, and weeps that there are no more worlds for him to possess. Now did any man enjoy what he is said to desire, it would be but a very mean portion compared with God. We may truly say of all the honours, riches, greatness, grandeur, and glory of this world, com- pared with God, as Gideon sometimes said of the vintage of Abiezer, ' The gleanings of Ephraim are better than the vintage of Abiezer,' Judges viii. 2 ; so the very gleanings, yea, the vsmallest gatherings of God, are far better, and more excellent and transcendent, they are more satisfying, more delighting, more ravishing, more quieting, and more contenting than all earthly portions are or can be. What comparison is there between a drop of a bucket and the vast ocean ? between a weak drop, which recollecting all its force, yet hath not strength enough to fall, and the mighty waters ? Or what comparison is there between the dust of the balance and the whole earth ? Why, you will say, there is no comparison between these things ; and I will say, there is less be- tween all finite portions, and such an infinite portion as God is. For this is most certain, that there must needs be always an infinite distance between what is finite and what is infinite; and such a portion God is. By all that hath been said, it is most evident that God is an incompar- able portion.
But now all earthly portions are comparable portions. You may easily and safely compare one earthly portion with another, one prince's re- venues may be comparable to another's, and one great man's lordships may be comparable to another's, and one merchant's estate may be com- parable to another's, and one gentlen^en's lands ma,y be comparable to another's, and one wife's portion may be comparable to another's, and one child's portion may be comparable to another's, &c., but God is an incomparable portion. There is no comparison to be made between God and other portions. And thus I have in these fifteen particulars fully discovered the excellency of the saints' portion above all other portions.
And, therefore, I shall now come to the second thing, and that is, to shew you,
II. Upon what grounds their title unto God as their portion is founded and bottomed ; and they are these that follow : —
(1.) First, The free favour and love of God, the good will and plea- sure of God, is the true ground and bottom of God's bestowing of himself as a portion upon his people, Deut. vii. 6-8 ; Ezek. xvi. 1-15. There was no loveliness nor comeliness in them that should move him to bestow himself upon them. They had neither portion nor proportion, and there- fore there was no cause in them why God should bestow himself as a portion upon them. God, for the glory of his own free grace and love, hath bestowed himself as a portion upon those who have deserved to have their portion amongst devils and damned spirits, in those torments that are endless, ceaseless, and remediless. The Ethnics^ feign, that their gods and goddesses loved some certain trees, for some lovely gooil ' That i8, the heathens, applied to all nations, non-Jewish and non-Christian. — G.
'40 AN ARK FOR ALL GOD's NOAHS. [LAM. III. 24.
that was in them ; for Jupiter loved the oak for durance, and Neptune the cedar for stature, and Apollo the laurel for greenness, and Venus the poplar for whiteness, and Pallas the vine for fruitfulness ; but what should move the God of gods to love us, who were so unworthy, so filthy, so empty, so beggarly, that were trees indeed, but such as Jude mentions, 'corrupt, fruitless, twice dead, and plucked up by the roots'? ver. 12. The question may be resolved in three words, Amat quia amat, he loves us because he loves us. The root of all divine love to us lieth only in the bosom of God. But,
(2.) Secondly, Their title to God as their portion is founded upon God's free and voluntary donation of himself to them in the covenant of grace, Ezek. xi. 19 ; Heb. viii. 10-13. In the covenant of grace, God hath freely bestowed himself upon his people : Jer. xxxii. 88, 40, ' And they shall be my people, and I will be their God : and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good ; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.' The covenant of grace is the great charter, it is the Magna Charta of all a saint's spiritual privileges and immunities. Now in this great charter, the Lord hath proclaimed himself to be his people's God: Jer, x. 16, 'The portion of Jacob is the former of all things ; the Lord of hosts is his name.' He that is the former of all things, even the Lord of hosts, is the portion of Jacob ; and he is Jacob's portion, by virtue of that covenant of grace, which is a free, a full, a rich, and an everlasting covenant : a covenant that he will never break, nor alter, nor falsify ; a covenant that he hath sworn to make good, as you may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together.' That covenant of grace, whereby God gives himself to be his people's God and portion, he is bound to make good by his oath ; and, therefore, certainly whoever is forsworn, God will never be forsworn. The Egyptians, though heathens, so hated perjury, that if any man did but swear ' By the life of the king,' and did not perform his oath, that man was to die, and no gold was to redeem his life, as Paulus Fagius observeth in his comment on Genesis.'' To think that God will not make good that covenant that he hath bound himself by oath to make good, is blasphemy, yea, it is to debase him below the very heathens. All laws, both divine and human, have left no such bond of assurance to tie and fasten one to another, as that of an oath or covenant ; which, as they are to be taken in sincerity, so they are to be kept inviolably. Certainly, the covenant and oath of the great God, is not like a gipsy's knot, that is fast or loose at pleasure. Whoever breaks with him, yet he will be sure, faithfully and inviolably to keep his covenant and his oath with his. But,
(3.) Thirdly, Their title to God as their God and portion, is founded and bottomed upon that marnage union that is between God and his people, Jer. iii. 13, 14. Hosea ii. 19, 20, 23, 'And I will betroth thee unto me for ever ; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies : I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness ; and thou shalt know the Lord. And I will sow her unto me in the earth ; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them that are not my