and derided him and thought the poor old man doted and dreamed not as we say of a dry Summer but of a wet Winter but yet Noahs propriety and interest in God being clear Noah begins his work and goes on his work and never ceases till he had finished that work that God had set him about Alciat observes in one of his Emblems that a dog then barketh most when the Moon is at fullest but whether it be by some special influence that it then worketh in the dog or whether it be occasioned by the spots in the Moon represented unto him in the forme and shape of another dog I shall not conclude but yet let the dog bark never so much the Moon will run her course she will walk her station securely through the Heavens though all the dogs in the Town bark never so fiercely at her so a man that hath an interest and propriety in God and knows it he is like the Moon he will hold on his course heaven-wards and holinesse-wards though all the lewd and debauched wicked wretches in City and Countrey should bark at him and deride him and oppose him and speak all manner of evil against him Propriety and interest in God will make a man set light by all such paper-shot yea it will carry him through the pikes not onely of evil tongues but it will also carry him through the most fierce and eager opposition that either Satan himself or any of his instruments can possibly raise against him But Fourthly Declare and evidence your propriety and interest in God by your sweet and noble carriage and deportment towards those that have an interest and propriety in God Look as a child carries it in a different way to his Father to what he doth to others so you must carry it in a different way towards those that have an interest and propriety in God to what you do towards those that have no interest nor propriety at all in God Though a wife be very kind and courteous to all comers and goers yet she carries it in a very different way to her husband from what she doth to all others she carries it with a great deal more kindnesse and sweetnesse and tendernesse and familiarnesse and noblenesse c. towards her husband than she doth towards others whether they be friends or strangers And just thus should you carry it towards those that have a propriety and interest in God I have not faith enough to believe that such men have any interest and propriety in God who carry it very strangely and proudly and churlishly and scornfully and deridingly and tyrannically and disdainfully and enviously and maliciously and rigorously and sowrly and bitterly c. towards those that have an interest and propriety in God and yet carry it at the same time very fairly and sweetly and courteously c. towards such wretches that have no interest or propriety in God at all yea to such that blaspheme his Name and that prophane his Sabbaths and that pollute his Ordinances and that trample upon his mercies and that despise his warnings and that are given up to their own hearts lusts and that live as if there were neither God nor heaven nor hell But Fifthly Evidence your interest and propriety in God by doing such things for God which such as have no interest in God cannot do nor will not do nor have no heart nor minde to do evidence your interest in God Matth. 5.44 45 46 47 48. by doing singular things for God by doing such things for God that are above their reach that have no interest nor propriety in God at all As by denying your selves your sinful selves your natural selves and your religious selves and by keeping a singular guard upon your owne hearts words and wayes and by stepping over the Worlds Crown to take up Christs Crosse Heb. 11. as Moses did and by lessening your selves to greaten Christ as John did Joh. 3.30 31 32. and by lifting up of Christ above your lusts above your selves above the world above outward priviledges above your performances above your arts Phil. 3.7 8 9. parts and gifts as Paul did and by blessing a taking God as well as a giving God Job 1. as Job did and by rejoycing and glorying in all the afflictions and sufferings that befalls you for Christs sake and the Gospels sake as the Apostles and primitive Christians did and by chusing to suffer rather than to sin Heb. 11. as those Worthies did of whom this world was not worthy and by keeping of your selves from the defilements pollutions and abominations of the times as some in Sardis did Rev. 3.4 and by following of the Lamb wheresoever he goes as those hundred fourty and four thousand did who had their fathers name written in their foreheads O Sirs Chap. 14.1 2 3. 4 5. it is infinitely better not to challenge any interest or propriety in God at all then to pretend high as to interest and propriety in God and yet to do no more for God nay it may be not so much than they that have no interest nor propriety in God at all But Sixthly and lastly Evidence your interest and propriety in God by falling roundly in with the interest of God in opposition to all carnal interests in the world O Sirs the interest of God will by degrees eat out and swallow up all other interests in the world Look as Pharaohs lean kine eat up the sat Gen. 41.4 Exod. 7.11 12. and as Aarons rod swallowed up the Egyptians rods so the interest of God will in time eat up and swallow up all that superstitious carnal worldly Antichristian and Satanical interest that men labour now to uphold with all their might Isa 8 9 10. Dan. 2.35 Then was the iron the clay the brasse the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the Summer threshing-floors and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them and the stone that smote the Image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth Verse 44. And in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the Kingdome shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these Kingdomes and it shall stand for ever And so Chap. 7.27 And the Kingdom dominion the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an ever lasting Kingdome and all Dominions shall serve and obey him Rev. 17.12 13 14. And the ten hornes which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdome as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the beast these have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast these shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall
hath cut the threed of their lives and given them their portion among hypocrites Ah how many be there that have died in the time of their earthly projects and designs Luk. 12.15 to 22. before ever they have set about that great work of securing God for their portion and how many thousands be there that God in his just judgment hath given up to insatiable desires of earthly things Phil. 3.18 19. and to a cursed endlesse covetousnesse all their dayes Some write of the Crocodil that it alwayes growes that it hath never done growing and just so 't is with the desires of worldly men they alwayes grow they have never done growing now they are for one thousand then for ten then for twenty then for fourty then for an hundred thousand now they are for this Lordship and then they are for that now they are for this good bargain and then they are for that their hearts grow every day fuller and fuller with new desires of further and greater measures of earthly things they please themselves with golden dreams till they awake with everlasting flames about their ears and then they fall a cursing themselves that they have made gold their confidence and that they have neglected those golden seasons and opportunities wherein they might have secured God for their portion But Thirdly Object 3 Others may object and say we would fain have God for our portion and we would willingly apply our selves to all those wayes and means whereby we might obtain the Lord to be our portion but we are poor unworthy wretches surely the Lord will never bestow himself as a portion upon such miserable unworthy ones as we are we are worthy of death we are worthy of wrath we are worthy of hell we are worthy of damnation but we are no wayes worthy of having God for our portion Did ever the Lord cast an eye of love upon such unlovely and such unworthy sinners Lepers as we are c. Now to this Objection I shall return these answers First Though you have no merits 2 Cor. 4.15 1 Tim. 1.14 1 Pet. 1.3 yet God is rich and abundant in mercy your sins your unworthinesse can but reach as high as heaven but the mercies of God reach above the heavens Psal 103.11 For as the Heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him Psal 108.4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds The highest comparisons which the world will afford are not sufficient to expresse the greatnesse of Gods mercy to poor sinners Though the heavens are exceeding high above the earth yet the mercies of God to his poor people are above the heavens But Secondly I answer that the Lord hath never bestowed himself as a portion upon any yet but unworthy ones David was as unworthy as Saul and Job as Joab and Peter as Judas and Paul as Simon Magus Mat. 21.31 32. and the Publicans and Harlots that entered into the Kingdome of heaven were as unworthy as the Publicans and Harlots that were shut out of the Kingdome of heaven and the thief that went to paradise was as unworthy as the thief that went to hell All the Saints in heaven and all the Saints on earth are ready with one joynt consent to declare that they were as unworthy as the most unworthiest when God first bestowed himself as a portion upon them This Objection I am unworthy is a very unworthy Objection and therefore away with it But Thirdly I answer that God hath no where in all the Scripture required any personal worthinesse to be in the creature before he will bestow himself upon the creature O Sirs it never came into the thoughts of God it never entered into the heart of God to require of men that they should be first worthy of his love before they should enjoy his love and that they should be first worthy of his mercy before they should tast of his mercy and that they should be first worthy of his goodnesse before they should be partakers of his goodnesse and that they should be first worthy of himself before he would bestow himself as a portion upon them If we should never enjoy God for our portion till we are worthy to enjoy him for our portion we should never enjoy him If a man had as many eyes as Argus to search into the Scripture and as many hands as Briareus to turn over the leaves of Scripture yet he would never be able to find out one Text one line yea one word wherein God requires a personal worthinesse in the creature before he gives away himself to the creature Should God stand upon a personal worthinesse to be in the creature before he would look upon the creature or before he would let out his love to the creature or before he would extend mercy or pity to the creature or before he would in a Covenant of free grace give himself to the creature no sinner could be saved man would be for ever undone and it had been good for him that he had never been born But Fourthly I answer 't is not mens unworthinesse but mens unwillingnesse that hinders them from having God to be their portion though most men pretend their unworthinesse yet there is in them a secret unwillingnesse to have God for their God When they look upon God as a gracious God then they are willing to have him to be their God but when they look upon God as an holy God then their hearts fly back when they look upon God as a merciful God and as a bountiful God O then they wish that he were their God but when they look upon God as a commanding God and as a ruling and an over-ruling God O then their hearts do secretly rise against God there is a real unwillingnesse in the hearts of sinners in all respects to close with God and to have God to be their God Isa 53.1 Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Ch. 65.2 3. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after their own thoughts A people that provoke me to anger continually to my face How long Prov. 1.22 23 24 25 26. ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit upon you I will make known my words unto you Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh c. For thus saith the Lord God the holy One of Israel Isa 30.15 in returning and rest shall ye be saved in quietnesse and in confidence shall be
is compared to any thing cannot be compared and when he is defined groweth greater by defining of him Such are not onely good Scholars but also great Scholars who have learned contentedly to be ignorant where God would not have them knowing If that great Apostle that learned his Divinity among the Angles yea to whom the Holy Ghost was an immediate Tutor did know but in part then certainly those that are most acute and judicious in divine knowledge may very well conclude that they know but part of that part that was known to him As for my own part I dare pretend but to a spark of that knowledge that others have attained to and yet who can tell but that God may turn this spark into such a flame as may warm the hearts of many of his dear and precious ones Much is done many times by a spark O Sirs catch not at the present profits pleasures preferments and honours of this world but lay up a good foundation for the time to come provide for eternity make sure your interest and propriety in God It was an excellent saying of Lewis of Bavyer Emperour of Germany Such goods said he are worth getting and owning as will not sink or wash away if a Shipwrack happen How many of you have lost your all by Shipwracks and how hath divine providence by your multiplied crosses and losses taught you that the good things and the great things of this world cannot be made sure How many of you have had rich inheritances left you by your fathers besides the great portions that you have had with your wives and the vast estates that you have gained by Trading but what is become of all is not all buried in the deep or in the grave of oblivion O the unconstancy and the grand impostury of this world Oh the flux and reflux of riches greatnesse honours and preferments how many men have we seen shining in their worldly pomp and glory like stars in the Firmament who are now vanished into smoak or Comets How hath the Moon of many great mens riches and honours been eclipsed at the full and the Sun of their pomp gone down at noon It was saith the Historian a wonderful precedent of the vanity and variety of humane condition to see mighty Exerxes to float and sly away in a small Vessel Justin who but a little before wanted Sea-room for his Navy The Dutch to express the worlds vanity and uncertainty have very wittily pictured a man with a full blown bladder on his shoulders and another standing by pricking the bladder with a pin with this Motto Quamsubito how soon is all blown down I am not willing to make the Porch too wide else I might have given you famous instances of the vanity and uncertainty of all worldly wealth pomp and glory from the Assyrian Chaldean Persian Grecian and Roman Kingdomes whose glory now lies all in the dust By all this it is most evident that earthly portions cannot be made sure they make themselves wings and they fly away Prov. 23.5 O but now God is a portion that may be made sure In the time of the Marian Persecution Mr. Fox Acts and Monum there was a woman who being convened before bloody Bonner then Bishop of London upon the trial of Religion he threatned her that he would take away her husband from her Saith she Christ is my husband I will take away thy child Christ saith she is better to me than ten sons I will strip thee saith he of all thy outward comforts but Christ is mine saith she and you cannot strip me of him A Christian may be stript of any thing but his God he may be stript of his estate his friends his relations his liberty his life but he can never be stript of his God As God is a portion that none can give to a Christian but himself so God is a portion that none can take from a Christian but himself and therefore as ever you would have a sure portion an abiding portion a lasting portion yea an everlasting portion make sure of God for your portion O Sirs that you would judge that only worth much now which will be found of much worth at last when you shall lie upon a dying bed and stand before a Judgment-seat O that men would prize and value all earthly portions now as they will value them when they come to die and when their souls shall sit upon their trembling lips and when there shall be but a short step between them and eternity O at what a poor rate at what a low rate do men value their earthly portions then certainly it will be their very great wisdome to value their earthly portions now as they would value them then And O that men would value this glorious this matchlesse portion that is held forth in this Treatise now as they will value it and prize it when they come to die and when they come to lanch out into the ocean of eternity I have read of a Stationer who being at a Fair hung out several pictures of men famous in their kinds among which he had also the Picture of Christ upon which divers men bought according to their several fancies the souldier buyes his Caesar the Lawyer his Justinian the Physician his Galen the Philosopher his Aristotle the Poet his Virgil the Orator his Cicero and the Divine his Augustine but all this while the picture of Christ hung by as a thing of no value till a poor Chapman that had no more money then would purchase that bought it saying Now every man hath taken away his God let me have mine too O Sirs it would make any gracious any serious any ingenious any conscientious bea rt to bleed to see at what a high rate all sorts and ranks of men do value earthly portions which at best are but counterfeit pictures when as this glorious portion that is here treated on hangs by as a thing of no value of no price most men are mad upon the world and so they may have much of that for their portion they care not whether ever they have God for their portion or no Give them but a Palace in Paris The Duke of Burbone and then with that French Duke they care not for a place in Paradise Give them but a messe of pottage and let who will take the birthright give them but Manna in a wildernesse and let who will take the land of Canaan give them but ground which is pleasant and rich and then with the Reubenites they will gladly take up their rest on this side the Holy Land give them but their bags full Luke 12 16-22 and their barns full and then with the rich fool in the Gospel they can think of nothing but of taking their ease and of eating and drinking and making merry So bruitish and foolish are they in their understandings as if their precious and immortal souls were good for
acted exercised strengthened and increased yea and the more your evidences for heaven will be cleared your gracious experiences multiplied your communion with God raised your way to glory facilitated and all your sufferings sweetned therefore never let noble precious thoughts of God die in your souls Though he frown upon thee O Christian yet say he is thy portion and though he chides thee yet say he is thy portion and though he corrects thee yet say he is thy portion and though he deserts thee and carries it strangely towards thee yet say he is thy portion and though he snatches many a mercy from thee yet say he is thy portion and though he multiplies thy burthens upon thee yet say he is thy portion and though he writes bitter things against thee yet say he is thy portion yea though he should passe a sentence of death upon thee yet still say he is thy portion O Christians this would still raise an heaven in your hearts if under all dispensations ' you would still look upon God as your portion and live upon God as your portion But Thirteenthly If God be a believers portion then never let a believer be afraid to die or unwilling to die See twenty Arguments in my String of Pearls to move you to be willing to die from pag. 169. to pag. 212. let them be afraid to die that have onely the world for their portion here and hell for their portion hereafter but let not a Saint be afraid of death that hath for his portion the Lord of life A man that hath God for his portion should rather court death than tremble at it he should rather sweetly welcome it than turn his back upon it for death to such an one is but the way to paradise the way to all heavenly delights the way to those everlasting springs of pleasure that are at Gods right hand Psal 16. ult the way to life immortality and glory and the way to a clear full constant and eternal fruition of God Bernard saith that he heard his brother Gorard when just in dying rejoyce and triumphingly say Jam mors mihi non stimulus sed jubilus Angustine upon those words Exod. 33.20 21. Thou canst not see my face and live makes this short but sweet reply Then Lord let me die that I may see thy face Death is a bridge that leads to the paradise of God all the hurt that it can do is to bring a believer to a full enjoyment of his portion When Modestus the Emperours Lieutenant threatned to kill Bazil he answered If that be all I fear not yea your Master cannot more pleasure me than in sending me unto my heavenly Father to whom I now live and to whom I desire to hasten Old Alderman Jordan used to say That Death would be the best friend he had in the world and that he would willingly go forth to meet it or rather say with holy Paul O Death where is thy sting triumphing over it What is a drop of vinegar put into an Ocean of wine what is it for one to have a rainy day who is going to take possession of a Kingdome Acts Mon. 813. A Dutch Martyr feeling the flame to come to his beard Ah said he what a small pain is this to be compared to the glory to come Lactantius boasts of the bravenesse of that spirit that was upon the Martyrs in his time our children and women not to speak of men saith he do in silence overcome their tormenters and the fire cannot so much as fetch a sigh from them John Noyes took up a fagot at the fire and kissed it saying Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come to this preferment Never did Neckarchief become me so well as this chain said Alice Driver when they fastened her to the stake to be burnt Mr. Bradford put off his cap and thanked God when the Keepers Wfie brought him word that he was to be burn't on the morrow Mr. Taylor fetcht a frisk when he was come neer the place where he was to suffer Henry and John two Augustine Monks being the first that were burnt in Germany and Mr. Rogers the first that was burnt in Queen Maries dayes did all sing in the flames and be of good cheer said the woman-martyr to her husband that was to suffer with her for though we have but an ill dinner on earth we shall sup with Christ in heaven and what said Justine Martyr to his murtherers in behalf of himself and his fellow-martyrs You may kill us but you can never hurt us Ah Christians how can you read over these choice instances and not blush and not be ashamed to consider what a readiness what a forwardnesse and what a noble willingness there was in these brave Worthies to die and go to heaven and to be fully possest of their God of their portion whil'st you shrug at the very thoughts of death and frequently put that day farre from you and had rather with Peter fall upon building of Tabernacles Mat. 17.4 Phil. 1.23 then with Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ O Christians how justly may that father be angry with his child that is unwilling to come home and how justly may that husband be displeased with his wife who is unwilling to ride to him in a rainy day or to crosse the Sea to enjoy his company and is not this your case is not this just your case who have God for your portion and yet are unwilling to die that you may come to a full enjoyment of your portion But Fourteenthly and lastly If God be the Saints portion then let all the Saints give all diligence to make this clearly and fully out to their own souls 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. that God is their portion Next to a mans having God for his portion 't is the greattest mercy in this world for a man to know that God is his portion and to be able groundedly to say with the Church The Lord is my portion saith my soul Now this is a work that may be done I suppose there is never a believer on earth but may attain unto this personal evidence and certainty of knowledge that God is his portion Heb. 10.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here are two Diminutives in the Greek a little little while to note that God will not in the least delay his coming to his people express promises speaks out such a thing as this is Zech. 13.9 They shall call upon my Name and I will hear them I will say it is my people and they shall say it is my God so Ezek. 34.30 Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them and that they even the house of Israel are my people saith the Lord Psal 9.18 For the patient abiding of the meek shall not be forgotten for ever God will as soon put the faith of reliance and the