(3.) It is a most lasting and durable inheritance, as being eternal : ' I have taken thy testimonies for my licvitage fo7' ever.' You know all estates are valuable according as they last. A lease for years is better than to be tenant at will, an inheritance is better than a lease. Our inheritance lasts for ever and ever. All other heritages determine with life, but then ours begins — this heritage of God's testimonies. A worldly portion may crumble away and waste to nothing before we die, but these testimonies will give us a good estate when all things else fail. A believer, when he is stripped of all, and reduced to bare
140 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXXI.
promise?!, is a happy man ; and ^vllen lie is reduced to exigencies, tlien is the time to init the bonds in snit. God by promise hath made him- self a debtor : ' As having nothing, yet })ossessing all things,' 2 Cor. vi. 10. Tiiey have all things in the promise, though nothing in sense. If we have but one gracious promise left to subsist upon, we cannot be j)Oor ; it is better riches than all the world, for then our right to God and eternal life still remaineth. If an estate here should last till death, yet then certainly men try the weakness of their portion. When other men find the worlhlessness and baseness of their portion, you find the sweetness, fulness, and comfort of yours. Carnal men have but an estate for life at best: Luke xvi. 25, 'Son, in thy lifetime thou receivedst thy good things ; ' when they come to die they can look for no more ; tlien they find the gnawing worm of conscience prove mattei" of vexation and torment ; but then your heritage comes to the full : Ps. Ixxiii. 2G, ' My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the strengtli of my heart, and my portion for ever.' Not only when all outward comforts fail, all creatures in the world have spent their allowance, but when the flesh begins to fail, when we consume and faint away, and hasten to the grave : Lord, then thou failest not, thou art the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. We have an interest in the eternal God, and we shall live eternally to enjoy him. God lives for ever, and we live for ever, that we may enjoy God.
[2.] Now I come to give the reasons why it is the property of be- lievers to choose this for their portion, and why no others can do it. It is the property of believers to do so upon two groimds : —
(].) Because of the wisdom that is in faith. Faith is a spiritual prudence. You shall see faith is opposed not only to ignorance, but to folly, because it teacheth us to make a wise choice. Eeason makes us wise to choose a good portion in this world : ' The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light,' Luke xvi. 9. But faith is for the inward and spiritual life. Worldly men are wise in Avorldly employments, to make a wise choice, and accomplish such things they affect, turn and wind in the world ; there they excel the children of God ; but faith makes us wise for eternity, and there- fore it chooseth the better portion. Faith is a spiritual light, and seeth a worth in other things. It is a notable saying, Prov. xxiii. 4, ' Labour not to be rich : cease from thine own Avisdom.' How came these two things to be coupled ? If we had no better wisdom than our own, we should spend our time, strength, and care to labour to be rich. Human wisdom doth only incline and enable us to the affairs of the present life, but God infuseth a supernatural light into the saints ; they have counsel from the Loixl : Ps. xvi. 7, ' I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel : my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.' As if he had said, Ah ! Lord, if I am left to myself, and the workings of my own natural spirit, I should be as vain and foolish as others are ; but thou hast given me counsel.
(2.) The next reason is, because of the nobleness and height of spirit that is in faith. Faith will not be satisfied with any slight fancies; it must have better things than the world yieldeth. The great ])rivilege of the covenant and work of grace is to give us a new heart ; that is, another manner of spirit than we had before. Our
VeR. 111.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 141
natural spirit is the spirit of the world, a cheap, vile, low spirit, that will be satisfied with every base thing. Every man seeketh something- for his portion, for no man hath sufficiency in himself, but seeketh it without. Natural men go no further than the world, riches, honour, pleasure ; they seek it some in one tiling, some in another. There is none more unsatisfied than a worldly man, for his heart cannot find rest, and yet none are sooner satisfied. A worldly man is not dainty, but taketh up what is next at hand. You think there is no such ex- cellent-spirited men as they that have high designs in the world, and can achieve greatness and honour. But a poor Christian is of a more excellent spirit ; these things will not give him contentment, nothing on this side God. Faith yieldeth a man a choice spirit, it maketli us take the testimonies of the Lord for our heritage. A renewed soul it hath its aspirings ; it gets up to God, and will not be satisfied with worldly delights ; but ' thou art my portion, saitli my soul,' Lam. iii. 24. Others hunt after other things beneath God, heaven, the graces of the Spirit, the righteousness of Christ. Therefore thus it must needs be the property of God's children, because they have another under- standing and another heart. And then none iDut the children of God can have these privileges. Why? Because though they are very magnificent and glorious, yet they are invisible, and for the most part future and to come ; they make no fair show in the flesh ; this is hidden manna, meat and drink the world knows not of. Carnal men look upon an estate that lies in the covenant to be but a notion and mere conceit, and they cannot believe they shall be provided for if OJod bears the purse for them ; they cannot live immediately upon God, they must have something visible, outward, and glorious : and partly this inheritance is to come, therefore they cannot have this property : Heb. vi. 12, * Be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.' The testimonies of the Lord are an inheritance we cannot come at presently, there needs a great deal of faith and patience in waiting upon God : as a hired servant must have money from quarter to quarter, and cannot with the child expect when the inheritance will befall him. A carnal heart dares not trust God, cannot tarry his leisure ; wicked men ' have their reward,' Mat. vi. 2 ; they must have present wages, glory, honour, and profit here ; they discharge God of other things, because it is a thing which costs them much waiting. A humble dependence upon God conflicts with many difficulties and hardships. Carnal men see no beauty in it, and because it is to come, it turns their stomachs.