' Ps Ixxxix. 34, 85 ; Isaiah liv. 9, 10 ; Ps. cxi. 5 ; Ps. cv. 9 ; Mic. vii. 20 ; Heb. vi. 13-19 Luke i. 73. * Inserted in the Critici Sacri. — G.
Lam. III. 24.] an ark for all god's noahs. 41
people, Thou art my people ; and they shall say, Thou art my God.' This threefold repetition, ' I will betroth thee,' ' I will betroth thee,' ' I will betroth thee,' notes three things,
[1.] First, the certainty of their marriage union and communion with God.
[2.] Secondly, The excellency and dignity of their marriage union and communion with God. And,
[3.] Thirdly, The dijfficulty of believing their marriage uvdon and communion with God. There is nothing that Satan doth so much envy and oppose, as he doth the soul's marriage union and communion with God ; and therefore God fetches it over again and again and again, ' I will betroth thee unto me,' &c. And so in that Isaiah Ixi. 10, ' I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God ; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.' And so, chap. Ixii. 5, ' For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee : and as a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.'' I have read of five sisters, of the same birth, pedigree, and race, whereof one was married to a knight, another to an earl, a third to a gentleman, a fourth to a mean man, and the fifth to a filthy beggar. Though they were all alike by birth and descent, yet their difference did lie in their marriage. We are all alike by creation, by the fall, by nature, and by the first birth ; it is only our marriage union and com- munion with God that differences us from others, and that exalts and lifts us up above others. Look, as the husband is the wife's by marriage union and communion, so God is the believer's God and portion, by virtue of that marriage union and communion that is between God and the believer. And let thus much suffice for the second thing.
III. I shall come now to the third thing, and that is, to maJce some improvement of this blessed and glorious truth to ourselves; and, therefore.
Is it so, that God is the saint's portion, and that he is such an excellent, and such a transcendent portion above all other portions, as hath been fully evidenced ? Then,
[1.] First, Let not the saints that have God for their portion fret and vex themselves, because of those earthly portions that God commodity bestoivs upon the worst of men. There is a great aptness in the best of men to envy those earthly portions that God often bestows upon the worst of men. The lights of the sanctuary have burnt dim, stars of no small magnitude have twinkled, men of eminent parts, famous in their generations for religion and piety, have staggered in their judgments, to see the flourishing estate of the wicked.^ It made Job to complain, Job xxi. 7-16, and chap. xxiv. 12, and Jeremiah to expostulate with God,
' What was said by one of the Rabbins concerning Methuselah's wife, that she had nine husbands in one, is very applicable to the believer that hath God for his husband.
* Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, seeing Harpalus, a vicious person, still thriving in the world, he was bold to say, that wicked Harpalus his living long in prosperity, was an argument that God had cast off his care of the world, that he cared not which end went forward ; and no wonder if this heathen stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked, when 80 many of the precious sons of Zion have stumbled at that stumbling-stone. [Harpalus : Pausania, i. 37 ; Athen. xiii.; Diod. xvii. 108. — G.]
42 AN ARK FOR ALL GOD's NOAHS. [LAM. III. 24<.
chap. xii. 1, 2, and David even to faint and sink, Ps. Ixxiii. To see the prosperity of the ungodly, to see the wicked in wealth and the saints in want, the wicked in their robes and the saints in their rags, the wicked honoured and the saints despised, the wicked exalted and the saints debased, the wicked upon thrones and saints upon dunghills, is a sight that hath sadly put the best of men sometimes to it. But this is a temper of spirit that doth noways become those that have God for their portion ; and therefore the psalmist, in the 37th Psalm, cautions the saints against it no less than three several times, as you may see in verses 1, 7, 8. There is nothing that doth so ill become a saint that hath God for his portion, as to be sick of the frets ; and to prevent this mis- chief, this sickness, the precept is doubled, and redoubled, 'fret not, fret not, fret not.' Though they that have sore eyes are offended at bright clear lights, yet they that have God for their portion should never fret or fume, storm or rage, because some are greater than they, or richer than they, or higher than they, or more honourable than they, because all their prosperity is nothing but an unhappy happiness ; it is nothing but a banquet, like Haman's, before execution ; and what man is there, that is in his wits, that would envy a malefactor who meets with honour- able entertainment as he is going along to execution ? All a wicked man's delicate meats, his fine bits, and his murdering morsels, are sauced, and all his pleasant and delightful drinks are spiced, with the wrath and di.spleasure of an angry God ; and why then should you fret and vex at their prosperity ? What madness and folly would it be in a man that is heir to many thousands per annum, to envy a stage player that is clothed in the habit of a king, but yet not heir to one foot of land, no, nor worth one penny in all the world, and who at night must put off his royal apparel, and the next day put on his beggarly habit ? Oh, sirs ! it will be but a little little while before the great God will disrobe the wicked of all their prosperity, felicity, and worldly glory, and clothe them with the rags of shame, scorn, and contempt for ever ; and there- fore, oh what folly and madness would it be for those that are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ of all the glory of heaven, to envy the prosperity of the wicked, Rom. viii. 17.
The prosperity of the wicked lays them open to the worst and greatest sins.
[1.] First, It lays tkem open to all uncleaninees and Jilthiness, Jer. V. 7, 8.
[2.] Secondly, It loiys them open to pride and contempt of God, Ps. Ixxiii. 3-13, Deut. xxxii. 15.
[3.] Thirdly, /^ lays thenn open to vex, oppress, tyrannize, persecute, insult, and triumph over the poor people of God, as you may see in Pharaoh, Saul, Ahab, Jezebel, Haman, and the scribes and pharisees.