13. The thirteenth duty that is incumbent upon those who have been burnt up, is to get a God for their portion, Ps. xvi. 5, and Ixiii. 26. You have lost youi- earthly portion, your earthly possessions ; oh that you Avould now labour with all your might to get God for your portion ! Ps. cxix. 57 ; Jer. x. IG ; Lam. iii. 24. If the loss of your earthly j)ortions shall be so sanctified to you as to work you to make God your poition, then your unspeakable losses will prove inconceiv- able gain unto you. 0 sirs, God is the most absolute, needful, and necessary portion. The want or the loss of earthly portions may afflict and trouble you, but the want of God for your portion will cer- tainly danm you. It is not absolutely necessary that you should have a poition in gold, or silver, or jewels, or goods, or houses, or lands, or lordships ; but it is absolutely necessary that you should have God for your portion. Suppose that, with the apostles, you have no certain dwelling-place, nor no gold nor silver in your purses, 1 Cor, iv. 11; Acts iii. 6 ; suppose, with Lnzarus, you have never a rag to hang on
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 281
your backs, nor never a dry crust to put in your bellies, Luke xvi. 20, 21 ; suppose, with Job, you should be stripped of all your worldly comforts in a day ; yet if God be your portion, you are happy, you are really happy, you are signally happy, you are greatly happy, you are unspeakably happy, you are eternally happy. However it may go with you in this world, yet you shall be sure to be glorious in that other world. To have God for thy portion, 0 man, is the one thing necessary ; for without it thou art for ever and ever undone. If God be not thy portion, thou canst never enjoy communion with God in this world ; if God be not thy portion, thou canst never be saved by him in the other world. Will you consider a little Avhat an excel- lent transcendent portion God is : —
(1.) He is a present portion ; ^ he is a portion in hand, he is a por- tion in possession.
(2.) God is an immense portion ; he is a vast large portion, he is the greatest portion of all portions.
(3.) God is an all- sufficient portion.
(4.) God is a pure and unmixed portion ; God is an unmixed good, he hath nothing in him but goodness.
(5.) God is a glorious, a happy, and a blessed portion ; he is so in himself, and he makes them so too who enjoy him for their por- tion.
(6.) God is a peculiar portion — a portion peculiar to his people.
(7.) God is a universal portion, he is a portion that includes all other portions.
(8.) God is a safe portion, a secure portion, a portion that none can rob a believer of.
(9.) God is a suitable portion ; no object is so suitable and adequate to the heart as he is.
(10.) God is an incomprehensible portion.
(11.) God is an inexhaustible portion ; a portion that can never be spent, a spring that can never be drawn dry.
(12.) God is a soul-satisfying portion ; he is a portion that gives the soul full satisfaction and content.
(13.) God is a permanent portion, an indeficient portion, a never- failing portion, a lasting, yea, an everlasting portion.
(14 and lastly.) God is an incomparable portion, God is a portion more precious than all those things which are esteemed most precious. Nothing can make that man miserable that has God for his portion ; nor nothing can make that man happy that hath not God for his por- tion. 0 sirs, why do you think that God, by his late fiery dispensa- tions, has stripped you of your earthly portions, but efiectually to stir you up to make him your only portion ? &c. But,
14. The fourteenth duty that is incumbent upon them that have been burnt up, is to make God their hahifaiion, to mahe God iheir dwelUng-place : Ps. xc. 1, ' Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place' — or place of retreat — 'in all generations' — or in generation and genera- tion, as the Hebrew runs. It is a Hebraism, setting forth God to be the dwelling-place of his people in all generations, before the flood and
1 See my ' Matchless Portion,' from p. S to 107, where all these particulars are fully proved. [Vol. II. pp. 1, reg. : being 'An Ark for all God's Noahs.'— G.]
282 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
after tlie llood.^ The Israel of God, in all their troubles and travels in their wilderness condition, were not houseless nor harbourless. God was both their hidiiii^-place and their dwelling-place. He that dwelleth in God cannot be unhoused, because God is stronger than all. It is brave for a Christian to take up in God as in his mansion-house. It was a witty saying of that learned man, Picus Mirandola, viz., that God created the earth for beasts to inhabit, the sea for fishes, the air for fowls, the heavens for angels and stai's ; and therefore man hath no place to dwell and abide in, but God alone. Now the great God has burnt up your dwelling-places, make him your dwelling-place, your habitation, your shelter, your place of retreat, your city of refuge. Certainly they dwell most safely, most securely, most nobly, most con- tentedly, most delightfully, and most happily, who dwell in God, who live under the wing of God, and whose constant abode is under the shadow of the Almighty. Let the loss of your habitations lead you by the hand to make choice of God for your habitation. There is no security against temporal, spiritual, and eternal judgments, but by making God your dwelling-place. How deplorable is the condition of that man that hath neither a house to dwell in, nor a God to dwell in ! that can neither say. This house is mine, nor, This God is mine ! that hath neither a house made with hands, nor yet one eternal in the heavens ! It is a very great mercy for God to dwell with us, but it is a far greater mercy for God to dwell in us, and for we to dwell in God, 2 Cor. V. 1, 2 ; 1 John iv. 13, and iii. 24. For God to dwell with us, argues much happiness, but for we to dwell in God, this argues more happiness, yea, the top of happiness. There is no study, no care, no wisdom, no prudence, no understanding, to that which works men to make God their habitation. No storms, no tempests, no afflictions, no sufferings, no judgments can reach that man, or hurt that man, who has made God his dwelling-place. He that hath God for his habita- tion can never be miserable ; and he that hath not God for his habi- tation can never be happy. That God that has once burnt you out of your habitations can again burn you out of your habitations ; and if he should, how sad would it be that God has once and again burnt you out of your habitations, and yet you have not made him your habitation ! &c. But,