VeR. 26.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 34T
goodly heritage.' He that hath God for his portion hath enough. All other portions have a ^ant annexed to them, but this alone sufficeth : Kev. xxi. 7, ' He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God. and he shall be my son ; ' therefore he shall inhent all things, because God is his God. Possidet possidentem omnia, he pos.sesseth him that pos.=esseth all things. God is sufficient to his own happiness, much more to ours : God is enough for himself, and that which will satisfy God will much more satisfy a creature ; as that which will fill an ocean will fill a small vessel. You disparage the all- sufficiency of God when you have God for your portion, and yet are perplexed with base, earthly desires as others are, as if he that fills all things could not fill up thy heart. This is the misery of a worldly man's portion, that while he hath what he desires still there is a want, and still his sore runneth. Here is all that we can need or desire it we had eyes to see it.
2. Improve it for comfort in deep distresses. When all is gone, yet if we have a covenant-interest in God left, that is enough to support the heart. David was plundered at Ziglag, and lost all he had, yet David ' encouraged himself in the Lord his God,' 1 Sam. xxx. 6.
Sometimes a poor christian hath no friends in the world, but God is his friend ; though all be gone, yet God is not gone ; God is alive still, and God is mine still ; as one said, Deiis mens, et omnia mea — God is mine, and all things are mine. So Hab. iii. 17, 18, 'Although the fig- tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.' If the oil in the cruse and the meal in the barrel' be spent — if the creatures have spent all their allowance, yet God is not spent. This is the life of heaven, to live immediately upon God, for in heaven God is all in all. It is an anticipation of heaven when we can see all things in God — house, home, lite, food, maintenance, and protection ; as they in the wilderness, when they wanted houses: Ps. xc. 1, ' Lord, thou hast l^een our dwelling-place in all generations.' This expoundeth Paul's riddle : 2 Cor. vi. 10, ' As having nothing, and yet pos-sessing all things ; ' as having nothing in our own hands, but all things in God's. If God bear the purse for us we cannot be poor. Surely they do not know what it is to have God for their God who are wholly dejected with worldly losses, as if there were no God in heaven, as if there were no covenant, no such enfragement of God to us. Who would complain of the loss of a candle when he hath the sim? To live altogether upon outward supplies is the mere life of sense ; but when we have no friend in the world, no help in the creature, none to stead us or stand by us, then are we put to prove the virtue of our portion. God takes away the creature that we may have an experience of the goodness of our interest in him, what it is to have God for our God.
3. It mu.'it be improved to dependence upon God for the future sup- plies of the present life, till our work be done, and we come to heaven ; Ps. xxiii. 1, • The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want' We have a God who hath the command of all things. If God carry the purse in his own hands, we are never in the worse condition ; he is our father.
348 SliR.MUNS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. L.
and will give us wliat is necessary for us. He is worse than an infidel that Avill not provide for his own. If we are God's, he will provide for us ; and therefore when we are in any doubt, conflicting with unbelief, we may plead with God, and say, ' I am thine, save me,' Ps. cxix. 94. And you may plead with yourselves, and say, ' Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope in God ; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God,' Ps. xiiii. 5. Thus may christians improve their interest, as an encouragement to trust.
4. We must improve it especially to a hope and expectation of a better happiness than the world yields — to give us hope in life and in death, that we may expect all those things which God hath promised. We must shoot the gulf before we can pass into the land of promise, where God will indeed show himself to be our God ; and therefore when death begins to hasten upon us, let us remember that he is our God, and that he hath better things to give us, else he would be ashamed to be called our God. The world is not a fit place wherein to give us our portion ; it is a fit place for dogs to have their portion, but not for children. Now our interest must keep up our hopes. Surely our God hath some better thing than the world yields to bestow upon us ; as the patriarchs went to their graves professing their hopes of a better state : Ps. Ixxiii. 26, ' My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.' When the decays of nature creep upon you apace, say, I have an interest in God, and I look for an eternal portion ; when my flesh begins to fail, and consume, and waste away — when the heart and life is even spent, and tlie lamp is ready to go out, yet thou art my God. and my portion for ever. As Oleviau comforted himself, My hearing is gone, and my smelling is gone, and my sight is a-going, and my speech and feeling is almost gone ; but the lovingkindness of God shall never depart from me. When worldly men see the vanity of their portion, and begin to discover how the world hath cheated them, then you see the happiness of yours. The error of their choice is best seen at death : when their portion is gone, then yours remameth ; their good things are past, yours are to come; Jer. xvii. 11, ' As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not ; so he that getteth riches, and not ])y right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall 1x3 a fool.'