(2dli/.) The privileges of the house are such as they will not suit nor profit any other. To what purpose is it to give food to a dead man? Will he grow strong by it? will he increase upon it? The things of the family and house of God are food for living souls. Now, children only are alive, all others are dead in trespasses and sins. What will outward signs avail, if life and power be away? Look upon what particular you please of the saints' enjoyments in the family of God, you shall find them all suited unto believers; and, being be- stowed on the world, [they] would be a pearl in the snout of a swine.
It is, then, only the sons of the family that have this right ; they have fellowship with one another, and if/iai fellowship with the Father and the Son Jesus Christ; they set forth the Lord's death till he come ; they are intrusted Avith aU the ordinances of the house, and the administration of them. And who shall deny them the enjoy- ment of this right, or keep them fiom what Christ hath purchased for them? And the Lord will in the end give them hearts every- where to make use of this title accordingly, and not to wander on the mountains, forgetting their resting-place.
218 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
2dly. They have a title to the future fulness of the inheritance that is purchased for this whole family by Jesus Christ. So the apostle argiies, Rom. viii. 17, " If children, then heirs," etc. All God's children are "first-bom," Heb.xii. 23; and therefore are heirs: hence the whole weight of glory that is prepared for them is called the inheritance. Col. i. 12, " The inheritance of the saints in light." " If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise," Gal. iii. 29. Heirs of the promise; that is, of all things promised nnto Abraham in and with Christ.
There are three things that in this regard the children of God are said to be heirs unto : —
{1st) "Ihe promise ; as in that place of Gal. iii. 29 and Heb. vi. 17. God shows to " the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel;" as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are said to be " heirs of the same promise," Heb. xi. 9. God had from the foundation of the world made a most excellent promise in Christ, containing a deliver- ance from all evil, and an engagement for the bestowing of all good things upon them. It contains a deliverance from all the evil which the g-uilt of sin and dominion of Satan had brought upon them, with an investiture of them in all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus. Hence, Heb. ix. 15, the Holy Ghost calls it a " pro- mise of the eternal inheritance." This, in the first place, are the adopted children of God heirs unto. Look, whatever is in the pro- mise which God made at the beginning to fallen man, and hath since solemnly renewed and confirmed by his oath ; they are heirs of it, and are accepted in their claim for their inheritance in the courts of heaven.
{^Idly.) They are heirs of righteousness, Heb. xi. 7. Noah was an heir of the righteousness which is by faith; which Peter calls a being " heir of the gi'ace of life," 1 Pet. iii. 7. And James puts both these together, chap. ii. 5, " Heirs of the kingdom which God hath pro- mised;" that is, of the kingdom of grace, and the righteousness thereof. And in this respect it is that the apostle tells us, Eph. i. 1 1 , that " we have obtained an inheritance;" which he also places with the righteoiisness of faith. Acts xxvi. 18. Now, by this righteous- ness, grace, and inheritance, is not only intended that righteousness which we are here actually made partakers of, but also the end and accomplishment of that righteousness in glory; which is also assured in the next place, —
(;Mly.) They are " heirs of salvation," Heb. i. 14, and " heirs ac- cording to the hope of eternal life," Tit. iii. 7 ; which Peter calls an " inheritance incorruptible," 1 Pet. i. 4 ; and Paul, the " reward of the inheritance," Col. iii. 24, — that is, the issue of the inheritance of light and holiness, which they already enjoy. Thus, then, distinguish
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the full salvation by Christ into the foundation of it, tlie promises ; and the means of it, rigliteousness and holiness ; and the end of it, eternal glory. The sons of God have a right and title to all, in that they are made heirs with Christ.
And this is that which is the main of the saints' title and right, which they have by ado^^tion ; which in sum is, that the Lord is their portion and inheritance, and they are the inheritance of the Lord : and a large portion it is that they have ; the lines are fallen to them in a goodly place.
[2.] Besides this principal, the adopted sons of God have a second consequential right, — a right unto the things of this world ; that is, unto all the portions of it which God is pleased to intrust them here withal. Christ is the " heir of all things," Heb. i. 2 ; all right and title to the things of tlie creation was lost and forfeited by sin. The Lord, by his sovereignty, had made an original gi'ant of all things here below for man's use : he had appointed the residue of the works of his hands, in their several stations, to be sei-viceable unto his behoof Sin re- versed this whole grant and institution, — all things were set at liberty from this subjection unto him; yet that liberty, being a taking them off from the end to which they were originally appointed, is a part of their vanity and curse. It is evil to any thing to be laid aside as to the end to which it was primitively appointed. By this means the whole creation is turned loose from any subordinate ruler; and man, having lost the whole title whereby he held his dominion over and possession of the creatures, hath not the least colour of interest in any of them, nor can lay any claim unto them. But now the Lord, intending to take a portion to himself out of the lump of fallen man- kind, whom he appointed heirs of salvation, he doth not immediately destroy the works of creation, but reserve them for their use in their pilgrimage. To this end he invests the whole right and title of them in the second Adam, which the first had lost; he appoints him " heir of all things." And thereupon his adopted ones, being " fellow-heirs with Christ," become also to have a right and title unto the things of this creation. To clear up this right, what it is, I must give some few observations: —