2. For the matter, ' I will keep thy words.' Keeping God's word notes an exact and tender respect, when a man keeps it as a jewel, as
YeR.' 57.] SERMONS UPON FSALM CXIX. 107
a precious treasure, that it may not be hazarded ; or keeps it ' as the apple of his eye/ Prov. vii. 2. The eye is soon offended with the least dust ; so "when we are chary of the word of God, loath to oileud God in anything, then are we said to keep his word. Two points lie clear in the text : —
1. That God alone is the godly man's portion.
2, That those which have chosen God for their portion will manifest it by a fixed resolution and strict care of obedience.
It must needs be so ; if God be his portion, his great business will be to keep in with him.
Doct. 1. That God alone is the godly man's portion. This will appear by scripture and by reason.
1. By scripture: Ps. xvi. 5, 'The Lord is the portion of mine in- heritance and of my cup.' There is a double metaphor; first, an allusion to the shares of the land of Canaan, so God is the portion of mine inheritance, saith David ; and an allusion to the manner of a feast, where every man had his allowance of meat set by his cup : but snares and brimstone are said to be the portion of a wicked man's cup. As every man had his allowance set by his flagon of wine, especially in a solemn feast, so God is the portion of my cup. So Ps. Ixxiii. 26, ' The Lord is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever, when my flesh and my heart faileth,' that is, when my body yields to the decay of nature ; yea, when all our courage seems to be lost, borne down by diffi- culties that we endure in the flesh, God is a portion that will never fail.
2. To give some reasons of it. It will appear to be so — [1.] By considering what is requisite to a man's portion. [2.] Why a godly man looks upon God under this notion.
First, If a man were left to his free choice, what he would choose to take for his portion ; not what is his portion in his strait, when he can have no better, but if he were left to his free choice : —
1. He would require that it be something good, or apprehended to be so.
2. That it be something to which he hath a title and interest, to which he can lay claim, or is in possession or expectation of according to right.
3. He would choose that which is suitable to the capacities, neces- sities, and desires of him whose portion it is.
4. That it be sufficient to supply all his wants, so as he may live upon it.
.5. That it be such a thing wherein he may find satisfaction and acquiescence, so that he needs seek no more and ask no more.
6. Such a thing wherein he may take complacency and great delight, where he may be well pleased and rejoiced.
Now, all these things are to be found in God, and with good reason the saints make this choice, and say, ' Thou art my portion, 0 Lord.'
[1.] That which is to be chosen for our portion must be good: ' There is none good but one, and that is God,' Mat. xix. 17. It is Christ's own proposition : he is good of himself, good in himself, yea, good itself. There is no good above him, besides him, or beyond him. But if anything else be good, it is either from him or with him. But that I may more distinctly speak to this —
108 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SePv. LXIY.
(1.) God is primitively and originally good; the creature is but derivatively good. He is good of himself, which nothing else is, the fountain-good, and therefore is called ' the fountain of living waters,' Jer. ii. 13. The creatures are but dry pits or broken cisterns. Other things, what good they have it is of him. God must needs be infinitely better and greater than they, for all things which are good they have from God.
(2.) God is the chiefest good, and other things are only good in subordination. All creature goodness is but a stricture of that perfect good which is in God ; and therefore, if we find any good in them, that should lead us to the greater good, even to the Creator. Who would leave the substance to follow the shadow ? or desire the picture to the dishonour and neglect of the person whom it represents ? Cer- tainly so they do that run after the creature and neglect God, that seek happiness in sublunary enjoyments, to the wrong and neglect of God. That small good which the creatures have is not to hold us on to them, but to lead us to him, as the streams will direct us to the fountain, and the steps of the ladder are not to stand still upon, but to ascend higher. If your affections be detained in the creatm-e, you set the creature in God's stead ; you pervert it from its natural use, which is to set forth the invisible things of God, his excellency, his goodness, his godhead, and his power to do you good, and to send you to him that made them. But how usually doth that which should carry us to God divert and detain us from him ! If a prince should woo a virgin by a messenger, and she should leave him, and cleave to the messenger, and those he sent as si)okesmen and servants, this were an extreme folly. By the beauty and sweetness of the creatures, God's end is to draw us to himself as the ohiefest good ; for that which we love in other things is but a shadow and an obscure resemblance of that which is in him. There is sweetness in the creature, mixed with imperfection ; the sweetness is to draw us to God, but the imperfec- tion is to drive us from setting our hearts on them. There is some- Avhat good in them : look up to the Creator ; but there is vanity and vexation of spirit, and this is to drive us off from these sublunary things.