03. II. GROUNDS OF TITLE UNTO GOD AS A PORTION

II. GROUNDS OF TITLE UNTO GOD AS A PORTION

II. Upon what grounds their title unto God as their portion is founded and bottomed; and they are these that follow:—

(1.) First, The free favour and love of God, the good will and pleasure of God, is the true ground and bottom of God’s bestowing of himself as a portion upon his people, Deuteronomy 7:6-8; Ezekiel 16:1-15. There was no loveliness nor comeliness in them that should move him to bestow himself upon them. They had neither portion nor proportion, and therefore there was no cause in them why God should bestow himself as a portion upon them. God, for the glory of his own free grace and love, hath bestowed himself as a portion upon those who have deserved to have their portion amongst devils and damned spirits, in those torments that are endless, ceaseless, and remediless. The Ethnics feign, that their gods and goddesses loved some certain trees, for some lovely good that was in them; for Jupiter loved the oak for durance, and Neptune the cedar for stature, and Apollo the laurel for greenness, and Venus the poplar for whiteness, and Pallas the vine for fruitfulness; but what should move the God of gods to love us, who were so unworthy, so filthy, so empty, so beggarly, that were trees indeed, but such as Jude mentions, ’corrupt, fruitless, twice dead, and plucked up by the roots’? ver. 12. The question may be resolved in three words, Amat quia amat, he loves us because he loves us. The root of all divine love to us lieth only in the bosom of God. But,

(2.) Secondly, Their title to God as their portion is founded upon God’s free and voluntary donation of himself to them in the covenant of grace, Ezekiel 11:19; Hebrews 8:10-13. In the covenant of grace, God hath freely bestowed himself upon his people: Jeremiah 32:38; Jeremiah 32:40, ’And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.’ The covenant of grace is the great charter, it is the Magna Charta of all a saint’s spiritual privileges and immunities. Now in this great charter, the Lord hath proclaimed himself to be his people’s God: Jeremiah 10:16, ’The portion of Jacob is the former of all things; the Lord of hosts is his name.’ He that is the former of all things, even the Lord of hosts, is the portion of Jacob; and he is Jacob’s portion, by virtue of that covenant of grace, which is a free, a full, a rich, and an everlasting covenant: a covenant that he will never break, nor alter, nor falsify; a covenant that he hath sworn to make good, as you may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together. That covenant of grace, whereby God gives himself to be his people’s God and portion, he is bound to make good by his oath; and, therefore, certainly whoever is forsworn, God will never be forsworn. The Egyptians, though heathens, so hated perjury, that if any man did but swear ’By the life of the king,’ and did not perform his oath, that man was to die, and no gold was to redeem his life, as Paulus Fagius observeth in his comment on Genesis 2 To think that God will not make good that covenant that he hath bound himself by oath to make good, is blasphemy, yea, it is to debase him below the very heathens. All laws, both divine and human, have left no such bond of assurance to tie and fasten one to another, as that of an oath or covenant; which, as they are to be taken in sincerity, so they are to be kept inviolably. Certainly, the covenant and oath of the great God, is not like a gipsy’s knot, that is fast or loose at pleasure. Whoever breaks with him, yet he will be sure, faithfully and inviolably to keep his covenant and his oath with his. But,

(3.) Thirdly, Their title to God as their God and portion, is founded and bottomed upon that marriage union that is between God and his people, Jeremiah 3:13-14. Hosea 2:19-20; Hosea 2:23, ’And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies: I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them that are not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.’ This threefold repetition, ’I will betroth thee,’ ’I will betroth thee,’ ’I will betroth thee,’ notes three things, [1.] First, the certainty of their marriage union and communion with God.

[2.] Secondly, The excellency and dignity of their marriage union and communion with God. And,

[3.] Thirdly, The difficulty of believing their marriage union and communion with God. There is nothing that Satan doth so much envy and oppose, as he doth the soul’s marriage union and communion with God; and therefore God fetches it over again and again and again, ’I will betroth thee unto me,’ &c. And so in that Isaiah 61:10, ’I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.’ And so, chap. 62:5, ’For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as a bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.’ I have read of five sisters, of the same birth, pedigree, and race, whereof one was married to a knight, another to an earl, a third to a gentleman, a fourth to a mean man, and the fifth to a filthy beggar. Though they were all alike by birth and descent, yet their difference did lie in their marriage. We are all alike by creation, by the fall, by nature, and by the first birth; it is only our marriage union and communion with God that differences us from others, and that exalts and lifts us up above others. Look, as the husband is the wife’s by marriage union and communion, so God is the believer’s God and portion, by virtue of that marriage union and communion that is between God and the believer. And let thus much suffice for the second thing.