any they are that yet have not God for their portion.
4. God hath bestowed himself as a portion upon as great sinners as any they are that yet have not God for their portion.
5. All the angels in heaven, and all the men on earth, cannot tell to the contrary, but that God may have thoughts of mercy towards thee, and that thy lot may fall within the purpose of his grace, and that he may bestow himself as a portion upon thee before thou art cut off from the land of the living. Although a sinner may certainly know at the present that God is not his God, that God is not his portion, yet he doth not certainly know that God will never be his God, that God will never be his portion; and therefore no sinner may peremptorily conclude that God will never be his God, because for the present he cannot, he dares not say he is his God.
God gave himself as a portion to Abraham when he was old, when he was a white-headed sinner, Gen. 12:4. And Manasseh was old when he was converted and changed, and when God bestowed himself upon him, 2 Chron. 33:1, 12–14. And Zaccheus and Nicodemus were called and converted in their old age. When there were but a few steps between them and the grave, between them and eternity, between them and everlasting burnings, then the Lord graciously revealed himself, and bestowed himself as a portion upon them. And if we believe Tertullian, Paul wanted not a prediction of the Holy Ghost in that prophetic blessing of dying Jacob to his youngest son: Gen. 49:27, 'Benjamin shall raven as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.' Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, in the morning, the fore part of his age, worrying and devouring the flock of Christ, persecuting of the church; and in the evening, the declension of his life, dividing the word, a doctor of the nations. And Dionysius tells us that Mary Magdalene, that was so loose and dissolute in her youth, being converted in her old age, she sequestered herself from all worldly