And do, I thus pass into the number of those bleffed ones, to whom the divine principle is communicated: I who was fometime darknefs, am I made light in the Lord? fick, but am I now healed? dead, but now made alive? alienated from the love and life of God, now by grace reftored to both! O my foul, what a change have I undergone! Shall I not adore, and blefs God for this! Shall I not love, and truft, and delight in him! O my God, "Whom have I in hea"ven but thee; and there is none upon earth "that I defire befides thee." Because thy loving"kindness is better than life, my lips fhall praise "thee." Blefs the Lord, O my foul, and all "that is within me blefs his holy name." Bless the Lord, &c.

SERMON

SERMON III.

God the All-fufficient Portion, and Choice of his Saints.

PSALM LXXIII. 25, 26.

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I defire befides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

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HESE are the words of a faint, upon a ferious furvey of both worlds, fixing on God as his portion, or chief good. They exprefs the fenfe of foul with which fuch an one firft comes to God, and afterwards renews his covenant with him. The Lord's portion is his ple, Deut. xxxii. 9. and he also is theirs: Their choice of him is hearty and particular. Lam. iii. 24. "The Lord is my portion, faith my foul." And the text is expreffive of the fatisfaction they have in him, such as they have in none else.

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The Pfalmift, as one of the people of God, is here directing himfelf to him, afferting his intereft in him, and this in a manner that fpeaks his efteem of him beyond whatever could be named in either world, as ftanding in competition with him. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I defire befides thee.

Whatever there may be defireable in either world, earth or heaven, holy fouls are carried to God, as in whom alone they can find fatisfaction. This is a truth felt by the generation of them that feek him. God in providences, God in ordinances; communion with him upon earth, and the enjoyment of him above, is what their hearts are fet upon.

Here I shall endeavour to fhew;

I. How God is to be confidered, when the faints thus fpeak of him.

II. Enquire, what a gracious foul may have in view in this or the other world, defireable or engaging, with which yet it cannot take up.

III. Whence it is that these cannot fatisfy without God, or be instead of him.

IV. What a gracious foul may be conceived to mean in looking above, and beyond all things elfe, and faying of God, and to him, I have none in heaven but thee, or on earth that I defire befides thee; and whence fuch a temper proceeds. Laftly, The ufe.

I. How God is to be confidered when his people thus fpeak of him; every one for himfelf? I have none in heaven but thee.

(1.) Not abfolutely, or as, in himfelf, clothed with majefty, armed with juftice, of purer eyes than

than to behold iniquity, inclined to punish it, and by almighty irresistible power able, in the most terrible manner, to do fo. For thus confidered,

he may well be faid to be a confuming fire; and convinced finners cannot thus think of him without being troubled. The difplay of his glorious perfections, ftrikes terror into their fouls, apprehending him their enemy: And how can their hearts endure, or their hands be ftrong, in the day that he shall deal with them? Ezek. xxii. 14.-" "Tis a fearful thing to fall into the "hands of the living God;" for who knoweth ἐσ the power of his anger? according to his fear "fo is his wrath." This wrath, upon the account of fin, we are by nature liable to; and fhould he deal with us according to the rigour of a broken law, we could no way efcape. If "thou, Lord, fhouldest mark iniquity, O Lord "who shall stand? Pfalm cxxx. 3. This therefore the Pfalmift deprecates, Pfalm cxliii. 2. "Enter not into judgment with thy fervant, "for in thy fight fhall no man living be jufti"fied." The confideration of an abfolute God, is what his own children cannot bear. Tis not, therefore, under this notion that one of this number fpeaks of him with fo much fatisfaction, Whom have I in heaven but thee. But,

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2. As God in Chrift; as having fet forth his Son to be a propitiation for our fins, and, thro' him, manifested the greateft love to us, or a readinefs to bestow the greateft bleffings upon us. "God fo loved the world, that he gave his on

ly begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in "him fhould not perish, but have everlasting

"life."

32 "life." John iii. 16. Thus, "God commend"eth his love to us, in that while we were yet "finners Chrift died for us." Rom. v. 8. And He "that fpared not his own Son, but delivered him

up for us all, how fhall he not with him also, "freely give us all things? ch. viii. 32. How amiable, attracting, and endearing, is the discovery made of God in Chrift? How full of compaffion is he for loft finners? unwilling they should perish, and earnestly defirous of their happiness in the method taken to bring it about? Fury is not in him there is plenteous redemption with him: he is ready to have mercy, and abundantly pardon he is the Father of mercies; the God of all and comfort, 2 Cor. i. grace His name 3. and nature is Love, 1 John iv. 3. His throne is a throne of grace, encompaffed with a rain-bow, the emblem of peace. Our way to him is open; the ground of our fears removed; his thunder laid by, that his terrors might, no more, make us afraid. Mercy and truth are met together, righteoufnefs and peace have kiffed each other." God as the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, apwith a smile pears upon his face, good-will in his heart; the richest, or most defirable bleffings, in his hand. And thus under the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jefus Chrift, the believer is led to fay with the Pfalmift in the text, Whom have I in heaven but thee, &c. Thus they joy in God through Jefus Christ our Lord, by whom we have now received the atonement, Rom. v. II.

II. We are to enquire, what a gracious foul may have in view, in this or the other world,

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