THE soul's conflict. 273
yet we live for ever in Mm. When Moses saw the people drop away so fast in the wilderness, and wither like grass, ' Thou art our foundation,' saith he, ' from one generation to another ; thou art God from everlasting to everlastiag,' Ps. xc. 2. When we leave the world, and are no more seen here, yet we have a dwelling-place in God for ever, God is ours from everlasting in election, and to everlasting in gloiy, protecting us here and gloinfyiog us hereafter. Da\'id, that claimed God to be his God, is gone, but David's God is alive. And David himself, ' though his flesh see cor- ruption,' Acts ii. 27, yet is alive in his God still.
That which is said of wily persons that are full of fetches * and wind- ings, and turnings in the world, that such will never break, may much more truly be said of a right godly man, that hath but one gi'and policy to secui'e him in aU dangers, which is to run to his God as to his tower of offence and defence ; such a one wiU never be at a desperate loss so long as God hath any credit, because he never faileth those that fly imto him ; and that because his mercy and truth never fails. The very lame and the blind, the most shiftless f creatures, when they had gotten the strong hold of Zion, thought then they might securely 'scorn David and his host,' 2 Sam. v. 6, 7, because though they were weak in themselves, yet their hold was strong ; but we see their hold failed them at length, which a Chi'istian's will never do.
Obj. But God seems to have small care of those that are his ia the world ; those who beheve themselves to be his jewels, axe counted the oflscom-ing of the world, and most despised.
Ans. We must know that such have a glorious life in God, but it is * hidden with Christ in God,' Col. iii. 3, from the eyes of the world, and sometimes fi'om their own. Here they are hidden under infii'mities, afflictions, and disgraces, but yet never so hidden but that God sometimes lets down a beam of comfort and strength, which they would not lose, to be freed from then* present condition, though never so gi'ievous. God comes more immediately to them now than fonnerly he was used ; nay, even when God seems to forsake them and to be their enemy, yet they are sup- ported with such inward strength that they are able to make good their claim with Christ their head, and cry ' My God ' stUl. God never so de- parts but he always leaves somewhat behind him which draws and keeps the heart to him. We are like poor Hagar, who, when the bottle of water was spent, fell a crying, Gen. xxi. 17, when there was a fountain close by, but her tears hindered her from seeing it. When things go iU with us in our trades and callings, and all is spent, then our spirits droop, and we are at our wits' end, as if God were not where he was. Oh, consider, if we had all and had not God, we had nothing. If we have nothing, and have God, we have enough, for we have him that hath all, and more than all, at his command. If we had all other comforts that om: hearts can de- sire, yet if God withdraw himself, what remains but a curse and emptiness? What makes heaven but the presence of God ? and what makes hell but the absence of God ? Let God be in any condition, though never so ill, yet it is comfortable ; and usually we find more of God in trouble than when we are out of trouble. The comforts of religion never come till others fail. Cordials are kept for faintings. When a curtaia and a veil is drawn be- twixt us and the creature, then our eyes are only upward to God, and he is more clearly seen of us.
In the division of things, God bequeaths himself to those that are his for their portion as the best portion he can give them. There are many goodly * That is, ' artifices.' — G t That is, ' without expedients.' — G.
VOL. I. S
274 THE soul's conflict.
tilings in the world, but none of these are a Christian's portion. There is in him to supply all good and remove all ill, until the time come that we stand in need of no other good. It is our chief wisdom to know him, our holiness to love him, our happiness to enjoy him. There is in him to be had whatsoever can truly make us happy. We go to our treasure and our portion in all our wants ; we live by it and value ourselves by it. God is such a portion, that the more we spend on him the more we may. ' Our strength may fail, and our heart may fail, but God is our portion for ever,' Ps. Ixxiii. 26. Everything else teaches us, by the vanity and vexation we find in them, that our happiness is not in them. They send us to God ; they may make us worse, but better they cannot. Our nature is above them, and ordained for a greater good ; they can go but along with us for a while, and their end swallows up all the comfort of their beginning, as Pharaoh's lean kine swallowed up the fat. Gen. xH. 20. If we have no better portion here than these things, we are like to have hell for our portion hereafter. What a shame will it be hereafter, when we are stript of all, that it should be said, Lo, this is the man that took not God for his poi'tion. If God be once ours, he goes for ever along with us, and when earth will hold us no longer, heaven shall. Who that hath his senses about him would perish for vrant of water when there is a fountain by him ? or for hunger, that is at a feast ? God alone is a rich portion. 0, then, let us labour for a large faith, as we have a large object. If we had a thousand times more faith, we should have a thousand times more increase of God's blessings. When the prophet came to the widow's house, as many vessels as she had were filled with oil, 1 Kings xvii. 14. We are straitened in our own faith, but not straitened in our God. It falls out oft in this world that God's people are like Israel at the Red Sea, environed with dangers on all sides. What course have we, then, to take, but only to look up and wait for the salva- tion of our God ? This is a breast full of consolation ; let us teach our hearts to suck and di"aw comfort from hence.