ever you would have God for your portion, it highly concerns you to give up yourselves to God with highest estimations, and with most vigorous affections, and with utmost endeavours, according to that pre- cious promise, Isa. xliv. 5, ' One shall say, I am the Lord's ; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob ; and another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.' God stands upon nothing so much as the giving up of yourselves to him, nor is he taken with nothing so much as the giving up of yourselves to him. I have read of ^schines, who, seeing his fellow-scholars give great gifts, viz. gold, silver, and jewels, to his master Socrates, and he being poor, and having nothing else to bestow, he gave himself, which the philosopher most kindly accepted, esteeming this present above all those rich and costly presents that his scholars had presented to him, and accordingly in love and sweetness he carried it toward him.^ So there is nothing that God accepts, loves, likes, and esteems, like the giving up of a man's self unto him. This is a present that God prefers above all the gold, silver, and sparkling jewels in the world. Well, sirs, remember this, such as are not as willing to say, Lord, we are thine, as they are to say. Lord, thou art ours, such shall never have God for their portion. But, [5.] Fifthly, If you would have God for your portions, then you must take up Christ in your arms, and treat with God upon the credit of Christ. There is no acquaintance with God, there is no reconciliation to God, there is no union nor communion with God, there is no re- admission into the presence and favour of God, without a mediator.'' God out of Christ is incomprehensible, God out of Christ is exceeding terrible, an absolute God is a consuming fire, Heb. xii. 9 ; and therefore says Luther, Nolo Deum ahsolutum, let me have nothing to do with God himself. The blood of Christ, the blood of the covenant, is that, and only that, that can cement, reunite, and knit God and man together. Themistocles, understanding that king Admetus was highly displeased with him, took up his young son into his arms, and treated with the father, holding that his darling in his bosom, and thereby appeased the king's wrath.^ O sirs ! the King of kings is offended with you, and upon the account of your sins he hath a very great controversy with you. Now, there is no way under heaven to pacify his wrath, and turn away his displeasure from you, but by taking up Christ in your arms, and by presenting all your suits in his name. There is no angel in heaven, nor no saint on earth, that can, or that dares, to interpose be- tween an angry God and poor sinners. It is only Christ, the prince of peace, that can make up a sinner's peace with God, Isa.ix. 6. John xiv. 6, * Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man Cometh unto the Father but by me.' There is no way to the Father but by the meritorious blood of the Son ; there are none that can stand between everlasting burnings and us but Christ, Isa. xxxiii. 14. ' You shall not see my face except you bring your brother Benjamin with you,* said Joseph to his brethren, Gen. xliii. 3, 5. So says God, Sinners, sinners, you shall not see my face except you bring Jesus with you, except you bring Christ in your arms ; you shall never see my face with joy. you shall never see my face and live. There is a writ of vengeance
' Seneca, de Benefic. lib. i. » Plutarch in Themistocles.
> Eph. ii. 16 ; Heb. ii. 17 ; Col. i. 20; Eph. i. 6, 7.
118 AN AUK FOR ALL GOD'S NOAHS. [LaM. III. 24.
that is issued out of the court of heaven against poor sinners, and except Christ steps in, they will certainly fall under an eternal arrest, and be thrown into everlasting perdition and destruction. But,
[6.J Sixthly, If you would have God for your portion, then you must break your league with sin. You must fall out with sin, if ever you fall in with God. Sin and you must be two, or God and you can never be one. There is no propriety to be had in God, except your hearts rise against that which first disunited and disjointed you from God. Sin and you must part, or God and you can never meet. You shall as soon make an accommodation between light and darkness, heaven and hell, noon and midnight, 2 Cor. vi. 14-1 8, as ever you shall be able to make an accommodation between God and sin. So long as sin remains ours, God will be none of ours. No prince will be one with that sub- ject that lives in the practice of treason and rebellion against him,* No prince will be one with him that hath killed his only son and heir, and that daringly continues to hold up those bloody weapons in his hands wherewith he hath committed that horrid fact. There is no adulteress that can be so shamelessly impudent, or so vainly confident, as to de- sire pardon of her jealous husband, or to expect an oneness and a sweet- ness with him, whilst she continues to hold her wanton lovers still in her arms, and is fully resolved to hold on in her wanton dalliances as in times past. O sirs ! God is that prince that will never admit of peace or union with you till you cease practising of treason against him, and till you come to lay down your weapons of rebellion at his feet ; he is that jealous husband that will never take you into an oneness, into a nearness and deamess with himself, till you come to abandon all your wanton lovers, and thoroughly to resolve against all wanton dalliances for time to come. If ever you would have God for your portion, you must say to all your wanton lovers, and to all those idols of jealousy that you have set up in your souls, as Ephraim once said to his, ' Get you hence, for what have I any more to do with you V Hosea xiv. 8. But,
[7.] Seventhly and lastly. If you would have God for your portion, then you must wait upon him in the use of all holy means? In the use of holy means, God makes the clearest, the fullest, and the choicest discoveries of himself ; in the use of holy means, poor sinners come to be acquainted with the excellency of God, and with the necessity of having God for their portion ; in the use of holy means, poor sinners come to understand the fulness of God, the goodness of God, the gra- ciousness of God, the sweetness of God, and the wonderful freeness, readiness, and willingness of God to give himself as a portion to all such as see their need of him, and that are heartily willing to receive him as their God and portion ; and in the use of holy means God works in poor sinners a readiness, a forwardness, and a blessed wilUngness to choose God for their portion, to close with God for their portion, to embrace
' Pharnaces sent a crown to Csesar at the same time that he rebelled against him, but he returned the crown and this message back : Faceret imperata priua, let him return to his obedience first. [Plutarch, Ccesar ; Suetonius, Jul. See our Index under Fharnacea for other references. — G.]