3. By your behaviour under trouble when other things fail : Lam. iii. 24, ' The Lord is my portion, saith my soul ; therefore I will hope in him.' When they were driven from their other portions (for that is spoken of), when all manner of calamities did befall them, and they were cast out, and their inheritance turned to strangers, then, ' Lord, thou art our portion.^ When you have nothing left but God, can you live upon God ? and can he be all in all to you ? 1 Sam. xxx. 6, ' David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.' When the Amalekites car- ried away all, yet this was his comfort, God was left still. And so Hab. iii. 18, ' When the labour of the olive shall fail,' &c. What then ? ' Then I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.' When you can count yourself happy enough in God, Deus mens et omnia — if I have God, I have all ; then you have chosen God for your portion.
4. By your delight in God : Ps. xxxvii. 4, ' Delight thyself in the Lord, and lie shall give thee the desires of thine heart.' When this is the great rejoicing of your souls, that you can get but one beam of God's love and his favour darted ui^on your consciences, this is that which revives more than all other temporal things whatever.
5. In mourning for his absence ; if your God be gone, that is the grief of your souls. God can supply the want of the creature, but no creature can supply the want of God ; therefore it is ground of trouble if he hide his face. This lamenting and mourning after a withdrawn God is frequently spoken of in scripture. But the great evidence lies in the words, ' Thou art my portion, 0 Lord ! ' What then ? ' I have said, that I would keep thy words.' Hence observe —
Doct. 2. Those which have chosen God for their portion will mani- fest it by a fixed resolution and strict care of obedience.
They are loath to break with God, rather break with anything else. It must needs be so, because —
1. Holiness is a means of maintaining communion between us and God, and keeping up an interest in him as our only happiness : 1 John i. 6, 7, ' If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another : but if we walk in darkness, and say we have fellow- ship with him, we lie, and do not the truth.' Unless there be a care to please him, certainly you do not choose him for your portion ; for
118 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LXV.
if all Tonr comfort and happiness lies in God, all your diligence and care will be to please God. God was the portion of the Levites, it is said, because they ministered before him, Num. xviii. 20. So it is true of the spiritual Levites, they that are careful to walk with God, minis- ter before him, and keep close with him ; God will be their portion. All sincere Christians are purified as the sons of Levi.
2. Because this is the only evidence. They that love God will love his word, and if they love it they will live by it, and square their actions accordingly. By careless walking you blot your evidences, and so weaken your comfort.
3. Because God is your portion, therefore it should encourage us to keep his word: Gen. xvii. 1, ' I am God all-sufficient ; walk before me and be thou perfect.' If we have an all-sufficient portion, all our busi- ness should be to keep in with God. All warping comes from doubting of God's all-sufficiency, as if God alone were not enough for us. Carnal fear, love, hope, doth draw us off from God to the creature, we are afraid to lose worldly enjoyments, so break with God. Therefore, if we look upon God as all-sufficient, it will necessarily follow we should encourage ourselves to serve him.
4. If we do not keep his word, our lusts will carry us forth else- where. There are certain corrupt principles within you will draw you off from God to another portion : Ezek. xiv. 5, ' They are all estranged from me through their idols.' What kind of idols were these ? Idols of wood and stone ? No ; the prophet explains them, ' They have set up their idols in their heart,' ver. 3. Christians, a man may be an idolater in opinion, and grossly, when he worships stocks and stones ; and he may be an idolater spiritually and in practice. And which is most incurable of these two, think you ? Certainly the spiritual idol- ater. A man may easily be convinced of his false worship by reason and argument, what a brutish thing it is to worship stocks and stones, things that have no life, nor can help him ; but he cannot be convinced of his spiritual idolatry, or cured of that but by grace. Covetousness is idolatry, because it draws off our love, fear, trust, from God and his service, to riches, and so proves a snare to the soul. Idolatry in our affections is more dangerous than gross idolatry in our opinions and outward worship, when our affections carry us out to another good.