nor regard what his Will and Pleasure is if we can but accomplish our own desires on any Terms Such eagerness and impetuousness of affection shews that our minds are not stayed upon God but that we look after other things besides him as Principal Ingredients of our happiness It shews that we are not rooted and grounded in his Love and that our Wills are not sufficiently subdued to his Holy Will and just Government It is a matter of great consequence therefore to have this indifferency firmly settled in our minds as that which will minister greatly to the ease and happiness of our lives and without which in some good measure we cannot be said in any tolerable sence to have God for our Portion Lastly If we would have God for our Portion we must do as David here resolves and promiseth I said or I have promised that I would keep thy Word To keep God's word is the same as to do his Commandments which the Psalmist subjoyns as the condition of that high priviledge of having God for his Portion He is not to be had on any other Terms neither are we to expect that he will make us happy in his favour when we provoke him with our Sins These intercept the Influences of his Grace and obscure the light of his Countenance They displease and provoke our Heavenly Father and make us unmeet for the Portion and Inheritance of his Children If we would have him for our God we must be his People and how can that be made appear but by being governed by his Laws This is the constant Tenour of the Covenant and there is no pretence nor priviledge whatsoever that can entitle us to the blessings of it unless we walk as the People of God 'T is not enough that we call our selves his People neither is it enough to do as those spoken of in the Prophet Ezech. 33. 31. They sit before thee as my people and hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their Covetousness God is not to be imposed upon by such Pretences neither will he be flattered where he is not truly loved and obeyed The truth of which is to be tryed by that rule of the Apostle Rom. 6. 16. Whom ye yield your selves Servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of Sin unto death or of obedience unto Righteousness It is not enough that we wear his Livery or bear the badge of his Servants but we must do him actual service otherwise we cannot expect to receive wages from him God was in a peculiar manner the God of Israel and he calls himself a Husband to Israel but when they deserted his service and committed abomination he retracted that Relation and commanded the Prophet to use the name Lo-ammiâ— for ye are not my people and I will not be your God Hos. 1. 9. and Chapter 2. 2. she is not my wife neither am I her Husband God will not be ours unless we be His neither will it avail us to be his in Name only but we must be so in deed and in truth After all this it must be acknowledged that we are frail sinful Creatures and that our great security and confidence lyes in the Infinite Mercies of God and the merits of our Saviour But 't is a Religious care over our selves and over our ways that qualifies and makes us fit for the mercy of God that he may pardon that wherein through weakness we come short of our duty This was the Course that David took whom we find begging of God for mercy vers 2. be merciful unto me according to thy word but withal he resolves in this verse to keep God's Law and vers 3. he is said to have performed what he promised I turned my Feet to thy Testimonies And so Iob tho his great Confidence was in God yet the sence of his own Integrity made his confidence more rational and satisfied him that it was not only a vain presumption And therefore he thought it fit to make protestation of his Innocency and Integrity Chapter 31. To this purpose our Saviour plainly tells that young man Mat. 19. 17. if thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Where he makes the one of these the necessary Condition of the other and implies that no man can obtain Eternal life without keeping the Commandments One thing more may be observ'd from the form of the words I have said or I have promised that I would keep thy words the Psalmist seems here to call to mind and renew some former resolution and promise whereby he had more solemnly devoted himself to the Service of God Herein we shall do well to follow his Example Doubtless good Resolutions not to speak now of Vowes are of great use to help to keep us close to our duty For when a man finds himself bound as it were by his own act and deed and engag'd by a Covenant which he has made with himself upon the best and most important Reasons this cannot but strengthen him in the performance of his duty David bound himself in the strictest bonds of this kind as is more fully exprest verse 106. I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy Righteous Iudgements Besides as this is useful to our selves so 't is available with God for the obtaining of his favour For when we thus dedicate and devote our selves and our lives to his service it will move him to communicate himself more freely to us and to become our Portion The design of all that has been said is first to move every considerate person to enter into Account with himself and see what Choice he has made Let him ask himself what has been and is his main business and design in the World and see what answer his Conscience will make him If he have yet made no settled Choice he has done very unwisely in spending so much time without design If he have made a wrong Choice it is high time to inquire into it to the end he may be convinced of his Error and amend it Let him know then that every one who lives in any vice or custom of Sin is justly interpreted to have made that his Choice although perhaps he have not chosen it with the Circumstances of a formal Deliberation and Election Now for the recovery of such a one 't is necessary for him to make an Estimate of the quality and true Value of that which he has accepted of for his Portion And indeed in this respect a vitious person may be said to have some advantage by his folly because he is or may be convinc't out of his own experience of the Emptiness vexation and dissatisfaction of the wayes of Sin If such a one would but hearken to his own reason and conscience or if he would but diligently consult his Memory I believe it might be left to himself to make
their Portion they were as though they had possessed all things Now he who has thus setled his Affairs that he is or may be happy in despight of the World and the worst things he can meet with in it cannot but be granted to have taken a very wise course and to have made a very wise and beneficial Choice Thirdly the Benefit of it is seen in this that 't is an infallible means to mortify us to this World because it engages us not to make any other thing our Portion But this will fall in most fitly with the last particular which shall be to Enquire by what means we may compass this great End and business of our Lives To have God for our Portion The best direction in this case will be First that we chuse him for our Portion And Secondly that we do as David resolves in the close of the verse I have said that I will keep thy word First to chuse him for our portion is the way to make him so If this seem a small or easie matter we must know that there is a great deal comprehended in this Choice It implyes that we prefer God in our Judgment and Esteem above all other things and that we prefer his Love and Service before all the delights and present advantages of Sin It amounts in effect to what was mentioned before That we make not any other thing our portion Other things we may have and esteem and enjoy them two in their just measure and degree but we must not overvalue them nor dote on them we must not bestow our hearts on them nor repose our trust and happiness in them God must be uppermost in our love and esteem as Solomon chose Wisdom before Riches and Honour otherwise he will not be our Portion To this purpose our Saviour hath told us in effect That we cannot have our Treasure on Earth and in Heaven Matt. 6. 19. He hath told us That we cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon if the one be our Portion the other cannot will not be But since we are allowed to love other things how shall we know whether we make them our Portion or not We may know it by the room and place those things have in our hearts If they have the preheminence they are our Portion for two Chiefs or Principals cannot consist together in our choice If God be our Portion all other things will be chosen and loved and used in subordination to him and his love and Service It will not be difficult for us if we observe the motions of our own hearts to make a Judgment concerning our selves In the Course of business and Temptation we may sometimes observe a kind of Competition betwixt God and our selves that is betwixt our duty and our corrupt Inclination and Interests Now when 't is come to a struggle and Competition in the Will observe which side usually prevails and we shall soon know how the case is with us If the awe and love of God and a Religious sense of our duty prevail we may conclude we are right so far But if vain and corrupt inclinations prevail we may so far conclude that God is not our Portion For that is every mans Portion which he prefers and values and seeks after most Indeed it is in effect his God and his being carried out after it with love and delight is that Idolatry of the heart of which the Scripture speaks For Instance He who sets his heart on the World and hunts after riches unreasonably and sticks not to violate his Duty and his Conscience for the gaining and keeping of them and prefers them before the true Riches such a man has his portion in this World and is guilty of that Covetousness which the Scripture calls Idolatry The ambitious man likewise who will do any thing to be great and climbs up to it by base complainces and unworthy Actions he has made choice of his Object Vanity is his Portion And so for those who make their Belly and their pleasure their God meat and drink and other base sensual Liberties are their Portion So likewise the Envious and Malicious who will contrive and repay evil and practise revenge contrary to the express will and Law of God mischief is their darling and their Portion The thing is as true in all other Instances where 't is plain that our duty lyes on one hand and Sin on the other If we see the sin before us and accept of the Temptation to it we do by just Interpretation prefer it before God and the rewards of Religion and take it for our Portion That which sways a mans will and bears rule within him and disposes of him and his Actions is in very truth his Idol howsoever he may flatter himself to the contrary or persuade himself through his partiality that God will interpret it otherwise Consequent to this first means of making God our Portion is that holy and happy temper of being Indifferent to the things of this Life If we can be moderate and Indifferent about these 't is an evidence that our hearts do not cleave to them and that we do not look on them as our Portion This indifferency consists in an eveness of mind towards temporal good and evil not to value or love or desire the one as though our Happiness depended on it nor to dread the other so as to think our selves miserable and undone when any temporal evil befals us but to look upon both with a deference and submission to the will of God always esteeming him as our main refuge and dependence For the maintaining and preserving of which good indifferency we must take heed of eager and importunate desires on the one hand and of excessive fears and solicitude on the other For people to be sick for any thing they desire as Ahab was for Naboth's Vineyard 1 Kings 21. Or to be clamorous and importunate as Rachel was saying give me Children or else I dye Gen. 30. 1. Or to be distressed at any cross accident as Rebecca was only on supposition of Jacob's marrying one of the Daughters of Heth saying What good shall my Life do me Gen. 27. 46. Or indeed as David was for his ungracious Son Absalom when God had but newly delivered him out of his hand so as to wish would God I had died for thee 2 Sam. 18. 33. It is too much for good people to be thus Violently concerned for any of these things When we fear things or grieve for them with so much dejection and distress of mind 't is a sign we lov'd them too well and that we do not depend upon God so entirely as we ought and so on the other hand when we long for any thing with so great Ardour and Intensness of desire 't is a sign we place our happiness in it and that we could be willing to quit all else and to make it our Portion It argues that we look not much unto God
portion for ever If we thus explain the Psalmist's words by way of Comparison the Wisdom of his Choice is so evident that it needs not to be proved For what is any creature in comparison of the Creator What is outward splendor or felicity in comparison of the Favour of God which is better than life it self What are the goods of this world to that Immortal Kingdom which is above What are the poor low gratifications of our Senses and vain Affections for the present in comparison of those Purer Delights and more Excellent Glories of the Kingdom of God Indeed there is no comparison betwixt these and therefore it were very needless to insist on this sence any farther Secondly Thou art my Portion to wit Causally Thou that is the Emanations of thy Goodness are my Portion God is to be loved and chosen in regard of his Infinite Perfections In regard of his Power whereby he does whatsoever he pleases in all the World In regard of his All-sufficiency because he alone is able to make us perfectly happy In regard of his Infinite Wisdom whereby he knowes the Exigencies of our Condition and what is fittest to be done for us But specially in regard of his Goodness and the Effects and Emanations of it whereby he is inclined to concern his Wisdom and Power and Providence for the good of them that love him So that to speak explicitly it is as much as if David had said Oh Lord the Participations of thy Goodness are my Portion Thy Word and thy Blessing thy Favour and Protection the assistance of thy Grace and the sense of thy Love thy Gracious and Comfortable Presence now and the hope of enjoying thy Glorious Presence hereafter these are my Choice my Portion and my onely Treasure Let us take a short view of each of these and we shall find that they amount together to a vast Portion First Thy Word and the Gracious manifestations of thy Self and of thy Will therein is to me a great Portion and Treasure Nothing will be more plain to us than that David esteemed it so if we read over this Psalm and observe how often he mentions and celebrates the Word of God and declares the great Love and Esteem that he had for his Statutes and Commandments We may see it almost in every other Verse of the Psalm throughout What Interjections of Love and Delight does he breath out upon this Occasion v. 97. Oh how I love thy Law all the day long is my study in it And in the beginning of the Psalm vers 14. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches And vers 111. he professes that they were his Portion and his Joy Thy Testimonies have I claimed as my heritage for ever and why they are the very joy of my heart Certainly howsoever we value it 't is a singular Favour of God that he vouchsafes us his Word for our guidance and direction and that he ha's been pleased therein to discover to us somewhat of Himself and of our duty and happiness Neither of these could be known any otherwise with any measure of Certainty and without the knowledg of them how sad and uncomfortable would our condition be To find in our selves desires after Happiness and yet not to know what that Happiness is nor where to find it to feel our condition calamitous and unhappy and not to know to whom to address our selves for help nor upon what considerations to stay our minds to have a stormy and troublesome Journey to go and at the End of it no other repose than that of the Cold Grave and the Chambers of Death the Uncertainty it self and much more such Expectations would be sad and amazing Yet such would our condition be were it not for the Light of God's Holy Word which alone acquaints us with the Gracious Purposes of God towards us and the provision which he hath made for our everlasting Happiness after death whereby we are armed with courage and good Hope and inabled to bear all things cheerfully in a joyful apprehension and assured expectation of the Glory that shall be revealed Without Divine Revelation we could be at no Certainty in matters of Religion which would reduce us wholly to a life of Sense and render our condition no better that of the Beasts that perish Nay it would be much worse than that of the Beasts For though perhaps their Pleasures and Enjoyments are not so refined as those of Voluptuous men yet neither are they so Interrupted with the Conscience of death which as oft as it occurs even in the midst of Laughter is enough to make the Heart Sorrowful And from this nothing can secure us but that which upon possible Conditions gives us hope of the Comforts and Joyes of the future Life Briefly What Light is to the World that the Word of God is to the Soul Take away the Light and what do all the Works of Art and Nature signifie The World it self seems to be vanish't when the Light is gone and if it should so continue the World would be a Chaos and a Dungeon not worth the Inhabiting So truly without this Divine Light we should be lost as to our spiritual and rational that is to our best Capacities which ought therefore to indear unto us the presence and possession of this Sacred Treasure and ingage us to walk in the Light of it Secondly As the Knowledg so much more the Grace of God is a great Portion Under this may be comprehended both the gracious Acts of the Divine Providence and also the Comforts and Assistances of the Holy Spirit First in respect of the Divine Protection and Goodness so David esteemed God his Portion As if he had said Oh Lord by thy Providence I live and by thy Goodness I am maintain'd and preserv'd and deliver'd out of all danger and distress and not only so but I have a comfortable life and a plentiful subsistence as we know God rais'd him from the Sheepfold to the Throne and what more can a man have to his Portion We might truly say the same if we had thankful hearts as he had to consider from whence our Blessings come Our Houses our Lands our Wealth our Friends our Children and whatsoever else we value or account dear to us in this World proceed all from the Bounty and gracious Providence of God And therefore in reason these later as being the Causes of the former ought to be esteemed our Portion rather than the things themselves The things themselves may be lost or taken from us but the Causes of them are a Treasure that cannot fail The goodness of the Lord endures for ever and ever upon them that fear him and his Righteousness upon Childrens Children Psal. 103. 17. Again in respect of the Aids of God's grace and the assistances of his Holy Spirit so David accounted the Lord to be his Portion As if he had faid When I consider the
all the hast that 's possible He listeth not to loyter nor to gaze but he bestirs himself with all his might because the Goal is in his eye and the honour and reward of overcoming are in his thoughts So 't is likewise in this case he who hath not settled this in his heart That Religion is his business and that God alone is the Portion of his Soul and that all other things are but vain or at the best but indifferent will be apt to turn aside to those Vanities which he has not yet learn'd to disesteem But on the other hand he who is thus persuaded is not so like to go astray but having fixed his End and that so wisely will be apt to proceed more Evenly and Regularly toward the attainment of it If any thing happens to come in his way to tempt or divert him he presently remembers that this is contrary to his measures and to the choice he has made And therefore he turns away from the Temptation and his heart turns towards God and minds him that He is his portion which it would be a madness to deprive himself of for any of the foolish momentary enjoyments of Sin No doubt they who have seriously made such a Choice will find themselves to be thus engaged and there is scarcely any Temptation which such a posture of mind will not inable a good man to resist and overcome Secondly the benefit of making God our Choice and Portion appears by the Ease and Comfort of it in every Condition First as for Ease 't is an uneasie thing to have ones mind unsetled and much worse to have it setled on a wrong Object which is the case of all vitious and ungodly men For either such men do not prefix to themselves any certain End but live at Large like the irrational Creatures that eat and drink and enjoy what 's before them without considering any farther end of their being or else they addict themselves to some particular Vice or Vanity which instead of easing and comforting the mind afflicts and confounds it when a man comes to reflect on the miserable Choice he has made On the other hand nothing can contribute more to a state of rest and inward satisfaction than to have one's Choice settled and to have it fixt so happily as upon God This sets the whole business of a man's life at a stay and frees him from the solicitude of his thoughts and from the trouble of farther consultation It answers his mind as to the great Question of happiness and so settles his spirit and puts him into such a condition that 't is not an easie matter to disturb the repose and happiness of his life 'T is likewise highly beneficial in respect of the Comfort of it in every condition If the Lord be our portion it cannot be imagined that we can want any thing that is good for us For whatsoever is wanting in other kinds is abundantly made up in him His love and favour and blessing and assistance the consideration of his gracious providence and the hopes of his glorious promises are sufficient to make us happy whatsoever our outward condition be There will be Concussions in the World and Troubles in mens particular affairs Sad casualties sicknesses disappointments losses calumnies defamations oppression and violence these are the common Entertainments with which the World treats its guests at one time or other All which tho they be grievous to flesh and blood yet they have not that powerful nor malignant influence upon those who trust in God that they have upon others who live on themselves If they happen to be surprized at the first approaches of trouble they soon recal and recover themselves They know they have a friend and they look up to him and that like our Saviour's presence with his Disciples on the Sea calms and stills the rage of their troubles and furnishes them with such considerations as these What tho my Friends are taken from me yet God is with me who took me out of my Mother's Womb and hath susteined me ever since I was born What tho my health be impair'd and my body grown feeble so that I cannot enjoy my self as formerly Alas this is not the thing on which I depend this weakness may bring me nearer to that which is my main End of which if I secure my duty I am sure neither pain nor age nor any other Accident can deprive me What though my portion in the World be small yet I have the Creator and Disposer of it Tho I am low he is high above all and I am sure his Providence takes a care of me I am rich enough if I can but keep Patience and Integrity Lord thou art my Portion Oh! make me happy in a faithful adherence to thee and in the communications of thy Love and Goodness to me and I have enough This has alwayes been the Refuge and Comfort of the People of God to retire to Him and there to hide and shelter themselves from the storms of this present evil World This bore up Iob's spirit and helpt him to get above the miseries of his Condition I know that my Redeemer liveth c. Iob. 19. 25. The same was David's constant refuge who in the midst of the greatest dangers and distresses when he had nothing left to secure him but God's protection thought himself safer in that than in the security of Castles and fenced Cities And therefore he so often calls God his Refuge and strong hold his Castle and deliverer Not only because he trusted that He would deliver him out of his troubles but because he found that he supported him under them and gave him such Comfort as made his Condition happy when in outward appearance it seemed to be desperate Of this we have many Instances in the story of his Life particularly after the sacking of Ziklag 1 Sam. 30. 6. Where the text saith of him that he was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him but 't is added in the close of the verse but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God The like he declareth of himself Ps. 142. 4 5. I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was no man that would know me Refuge failed me no man cared for my Soul I cryed unto the O Lord I said thou art my Refuge and my Portion in the Land of the living The same was the comfort of the three Children when they had no other prospect but that of Death and a burning fiery Furnace Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us Dan. 3. 17. To these we may add the Examples of the Apostles and First believers whose lives were a continual warfare yet they were more than Conquerors They were compassed about with Evils on every side but they were so far from being distressed or cast down at it that they joyed in God and rejoyced in their Tribulation They had nothing yet having him for