(10.) Tenthly, If God be thy portion, then thou wilt set the highest price, value, and esteem upcni those that have God for their portion, Ps. xvi. 3, Prov. xii. 26, and chap, xxviii. 6. A man that hath God for his portion, never values men for their arts, parts, gifts, gay clothes, gold chains ; no, nor by their birth, breeding, high offices, or great places; no, nor by their outward dignities, honours, or riches, &c., but by their interest and propriety in God. A man that hath God for his portion, prizes a poor ragged Lazarus that hath God for his portion, before a rich Dives that hath only gold for his portion. If thou hast God for thy portion, then there is no man in court, city, or country, to that man that hath God for his portion ; then there is no man in a parish, a country, a kingdom, to him that hath God for his portion. A man that hath God for his portion, hath an higher esteem and a greater respect for a Job, though stripped of all, and sitting upon a dunghill, than he hath for a wicked Ahab, though sitting od his royal throne. Paul set a higher price upon Onesimus, though but a servant, a slave, because he had God for his portion, than he did upon Nero, though he was a great and mighty emperor, Philem. 10, 12, 17; 2 Tim. iv. 17. And king Ingo valued poor ragged Christians that had God for their portion, above all his glittering pagan nobles that had only the world for their portion, saying, that when all his pagan nobles should, in all their pomp and glory, be turned into hell, those poor Christians, that had God for their portion, should be his consorts and fellow-princes in heaven. Look, as men that have their portion in this world do value men ac- cording to their worldly portions, so that they that have most gold and silver, and they that have most lordships and lands, they are the best men, the happiest men, the only men in their eyes ; so a Christian that hath God for his portion, he sets the highest value upon those that have God for their portion, and there are no men in all the world that are so high in his books as they are. A man that hath an interest in God loves none, nor likes none, nor honours none, nor delights in none, nor exalts none, nor values none, to those that have God for their por- tion. Though the men, the great men of this world may sit in the uppermost seats at his table, yet they that have God for their portion, sit in the uppermost rooms of his heart. The Jews say, that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt, were as much worth as all the seventy nations in the world. And I may say, that one soul that hath God for his portion, is more worth than all the souls in the world that have only the world for their portion. A man that hath God for his portion, cannot but set a very high value upon all those that have God for their portion, though in disputable things they may differ from him. A man that hath God for his portion, had rather live wit|i those that have God for their portion in a prison, in a dungeon, thaii live with those that have only the world for their portion in a
104; AN ARK FOR ALL GOD'S NOAHS. [LAM. III. 24.
royal palace ; as Algerius/ an Italian martyr, was wont to say, that he
had rather live in prison with Cato than with Caesar in the senate
house. And Doctor Taylor, the martyr, rejoiced exceedingly that ever
he came into prison, because he came there to have acquaintance with
that angel of God, John Bradford, as he calls him.^ When Joseph was
in Egypt, the Scripture saith, according to the Hebrew phrase, that
* he tied the princes of Pharaoh's court about his heart,' Ps. cv. 22 ; so
a man that hath God for his portion, he doth as it were tie those that
have God for their portion about his heart. Oh, he is always best when
they are most in his eye, and nearest to his heart. It is his happiness
on this side happiness to enjoy communion with them, and it is the
greatest unhappiness in this world to be separated from them, Ps. cxx.
5-7. A man that hath God for his portion, values the company of such
that have God for their portion above all other company in the world,
and he values the favour of such above all other men's favour in the
world, and he values the prayers of such above all other men's prayers
in the world, and he values the counsels of such above all other men's
counsel in the world, and he values the experiences of such above all
other men's experiences in the world, and he values the interest of such
above all other men's interest in the world, and he values the hopes
and expectations of such above all other men's hopes and expectations
in the world, and he values the examples of such above the examples
of all other men in the world, and he values the displeasure and anger
of such above all other men's displeasure and anger in the world. But,
[11.] Eleventhly, If God be your portion, then you are his portion.
If you have an interest in God, then God hath an interest in you ; if
you have a propriety in God, then God hath a propriety in you ; if God
be truly yours, then you are really his : Cant. ii. 16, ' My beloved is mine,
and I am his ;' Ps. cxix. 94, ' I am thine, save me ;' I am not mine own,
I am not sin's, I am not Satan's, I am not the world's, I am not friends',
I am not relations', but I am thine, save me ; I am really thine, I am
totally thine, I am solely thine, I am everlastingly thine, save me :
Ezek. xvi. 8, ' I entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest
mine ;' Deut. xxxii. 9, 'For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is
the lot of his inheritance.'^ Though God's people are despised of the
world, yet they are dear to God, for they are his portion. In these
words, 'Jacob is the lot of his inheritance,' he alludes to the division of the
land of Canaan, as if the sons of Jacob had fallen to him by lot. The
Lord's people are as dear to God, and as near to God, and in as great
account with God, as earthly portions and inheritances are or can be
among the sons of men : Jer. xii. 10, ' Many pastors have destroyed my
vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my
pleasant portion (or as the Hebrew hath it, my portion of desire or of
delight) a desolate wildernes.' God's people are not only his portion,
but they are his pleasant portion, yea, they are his desirable portion,
his delightful portion. If the Lord be your portion, then you are his
nheritance, Isa. xix. 25 ; and his peculiar treasure. Exod. xix. 5 ; and
' Clarke, as before, p. 187.— G. * Clarke, as before. — 6,
3 There are none that have that \&rp,6 interest and propriety in the saints that God
hath: Zech. ii. 12, 'And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and
shall choose Jerusalem again.'
Lam. III. 24.] an ark for all god's noahs. 105