110 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LXlV.
things to bestow upon tliem, ' But he hath provided for them a city,' a heavenly kingdom. Not only given them that which they enjoyed in houses, their flocks and herds, which were multiplied ; these were slender things to take up the whole significancy of that expression, I will be their God. But now God is not ashamed to be called their God ; that is, God can with honour and without shame take that title upon him, for he hath everlasting happiness in the world to come to bestow upon them. Thus whatever God is, hath, or can do, it is thine. Look, as the apostle saith, Heb. vi., that ' when God had no greater thing to swear by, he swore by himself,' so we may say, Avhen he had no greater thing to bestow upon his people, he gives and bestows him- self, as fully and wholly makes over himself to every believing soul, so that they have as full a plea and sure right to God as any man hath to his patrimony to which he was born. I will act answerably, becoming an infinite power and goodness, for thy good. This is the significancy of that ample and glorious expression which God useth in the covenant of grace. As when a covenant was made between the king of Israel and the king of Judah, the tenor of it was, ' My horses are as thy horses, my strength as thy strength,' 1 Kings xxii. 4. So whatever is God's is ours for our benefit, and what is ours is God's for his service. Mark, God not only saith, I will be yours, but, be a God, that is, I will act like a God. In pardon of sin : Hosea xi. 9, ' I will not return to destroy Ephraim ; for I am God and not man.' He will not pardon as a man, but as a God. Man's patience is soon spent and soon tired. What ! seven times a day forgive my brother ? But he will pardon as a God. And so, when he sanctifies, he will sanctify as a God : 2 Peter i. 3, ' By his divine power he hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.' And so in defence and maintenance, which is part of the covenant : I will feed, maintain, protect thee as a God ; that is, not as one that is to be limited in the course of second causes. When he pleases he can give us water, not only out of the fountain, but out of the rock ; when there is nothing visible to supply and maintain you, then, I will be a God; then he will glorify us like a God, like an infinite and eternal power. For as God is an infinite God, so he gives us a far more exceeding weight of glory ; and as an eternal God, he gives us an eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 17. The glory he bestows upon us suits with the infiniteness and eternity of his essence. As it is said of Araunah, that was of the royal extraction of the Jebusites, ' He gave like a king to a king,' worthy of his blood and descent; he had a generous mind: so God will give like a God ; therefore, he not only saith, I will be thine, but, be thy God. You think it much when you view a large compass, and can look abroad and say, All this is mine ; but one that hath chosen God for his portion hath much more to say : God is mine.
[3.] That which a man would make his portion if he were free to choose, it should be a proper and suitable good, our own good. The heart of man aims at not only honum, good in common, but also honum congruum, a suitable fitting good. Every element moveth to its own place, and every living creature desires food proper to itself. So man is not only carried to good, but good that suits to his capacity and necessity. The soul, being a spirit, must have a spiritual good.
VeK. 57.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. Ill
Indeed, as it acts in the body, and accommodates itself with the necessities of the body, and seeks the good of the body, so it may be carried out to honours, pleasures, and profits, for these az'e the con- veniences of the bodily life : but as it is a spirit, and can live apart from the body, it must have something above these, a spiritual object ; and as it is immortal, it must have an immortal good. Now, for a spiritual immortal good do we grope and feel about until we find it, and then there is a great deal of satisfaction : Acts xvii. 27, ' That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.^ So we are groping and feeling about, as the blind Sodom- ites did for Lot's door, for some good that may suit the capacity of our souls : we were made for God, and therefore cannot have full contentment without God. But I speak not now of man as man, but suppose him to have a new nature put into him, that carries him after satisfaction : ' We are made })artakers of the divine nature,' 2 Peter i. 4. It is called so because it comes from God and tends to him. Now, there must be something suitable to this nature. Pleasure is when those things are enjoyed that suit with us, when the object and the faculty are suited. When every appetite hath a fit diet to feed upon, then a marvellous deal of pleasure and contentment results from thence : Pom. viii. 5, ' They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit.' All things seek a suitable good. Now, they that are after the spirit, that have a new spiritual divine nature put into them, renewed souls, they must have an object proper, and therefore must have something above the concernments of the body, and above the fleshly nature ; for everything delights in that which is suitable, as a fish in the stream, and an ox to lick up the grass ; and man must have a suitable good as a rational being ; but as a spiritual being, must have another good. Grace restores us to the inclinations of nature when it was innocent ; therefore the soul, that came from God, must centre in God, and it cannot be quiet without him.