Therefore a Christian is a happy man, a great man, tako him as you will ; greater than the greatest man in the world without grace ; for what he hath, he hath with a curse, as God gave Israel a king in his rage, Hoseaxiii. 11. You know what Moses saith, Deut. xxviii. 17, * Cursed shalt thou be in thy blessings.' A man may have a great many things, and be cursed in them. He doth not say he will curse them in the want of riches, that they should be poor, but he will curse them in their good things ; they should have the vengeance of God with them. A Christian may want these things, but he hath the gi'ace of God to want them, and he hath comfort here and assur- ance of better hereafter. Therefore all things are his, even the worst, because all things have a command to do him good. All things have a prohibition that the}' do him no harm. As David said of Absalom, ' Do the young man no harm,' 2 Sam. xviii. 5, so God gives all things a prohibition that they do his children no harm, nay, they have a command on the contrary to do them good. If they do them not good in one order, they do it in another ; if they do it not in their outward man, they do it in their inward ; and God's children by experience find him di'awing them nearer to himself, both by having and wanting these things. So though they be not in possession theirs, yet in use, or, as we say, by way of reduc- tion. The worst things are God's children's. For God brings all things about to their good. And when God's children shall be un the shore here- after, and shall be past all and shall set their foot in heaven once, then they shall see by what a sweet providence God guided it, ' that all things wrought for their good,' Rom. viii. 28.
Quest. But you will say this or that particular is not mine, nor possessed by any of the saints.
Ans. All things are not ours by possession, but by some kind of use or other. We see and behold and meditate upon such things as are possessed by others, and exercise our thoughts profitably about God's providence in disposing these things as he pleaseth ; as also we hereby stir up within us the graces of patience, contentedness, and thankfulness for what we have. Thus
20 A christian's portion ; or,
■what we possess not may bo ours, and in a better and more profitable use of it to us tlian to them that possess it.
A Christian therefore, I say again, is a great man, above other men. And this is the reason that carnal men, that have the spirit of the v.orld in them, do so bitterly envy and malign them. Certainly, they secretly think, this man is greater than I am ; there is that in him that I have not. A Christian is above other men, and is able to judge them ; and knoweth what they are, even miserable in their greatest heights. ' The spiritual man is judged of none,' 1 Cor. ii. 15, Men judge him poor and wretched, but it is false judgment, for he is ever truly rich and noble and happy. He fixeth a true judgment on them, but they cannot of him ; for he is in a rank of creatures above them. ' The saints shall judge the world,' 1 Cor. vi. 2. Those that are despised now shall judge others ere long ; they shall be assessories in judging the world. No marvel wicked men secretly malign God's people. The wicked cannot but judge them better and happier than themselves. As the life of grace is a higher thing, in the nature of the thing, than the life of reason, so those that have a gracious spiritual hfe, they are in a rank of creatures above all other men in the Avorld whatsoever.
We see then what a great man a Christian is. He is master of what he hath, and of what he hath not. And is not this a wonderful prerogative that a Christian hath, that turn him to what condition you will, raise him or cast him down, kill him or spare his life, you cannot harm him ? If you spare his life, this life is his ; if you kill him, ' death is his.' Ell him, save him, enrich him, beggar him, his happiness is not at your com- mand. There is a commanding power to rule all things for the good of God's people. It is not at the devotion* of any creature in the w^orld, either devils or men. God overturns and overpowers all, and all is and shall be theirs.
The state of grace is higher than any earthly condition, therefore it can- not be tainted or blemished by earthly things. Nothing that sense suffers hath power over reason, for it is above sense. If a man be sick he hath the use of reason ; if health, reason also manageth it. No inferior thing can manage a superior. Let a man's estate be what it will, grace will master it, because it is a condition above, a ruling commanding condition.