God doth it to this purpose, to assure us and secure us of the in- heritance. Having given us so many ^securities without us, — his word, promises, covenant, oath, the revelation and discovery of his faithful- ness and immutability in them all, — he is pleased also graciously to give us one within us, Isa. lix. 21, that we may have all the security we are capable of. What can more be done? He hath given us of the Holy Spirit;-— in him the first-fruits of gloiy, the utmost pledge of his love, the eai^nest of all.
2dl^/. On the part of believers he is an eai-nest, in that he gives them an acquaintance with, —
(1st.) The love of God. Their acceptation with him makes known to them their favour in his sight, — that he is their Father, and will deal with them as with children ; and consequently, that the inheritance shall be theirs. He sends his Spirit into our hearts, " crying, Abba, Father," Gal. iv. 6. And what is the inference of believers from hence ? Verse 7, "Then we are not servants, but sons; and if sons, then heirs of God." The same apostle, again. Bom. viii. 1 7, " If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." On that persuasion of the Spirit that we are children, the inference is, " Then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." We have, then, a right to an inheritance, and an eviction of it. This is the use, then, we have of it, — even the Spirit persuading us of our sonship and acceptation with God our Father. And what is this inheritance of glory? "If we suf- fer with him, we shall be glorified together." And that the Spirit is given for this end is attested, 1 John iii. 24, " Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." The apostle is speaking of our union with God, which he expresseth in the words foregoing: " He that keepetli his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him ;" — of that union elsewhere. Now, this we know from hence, even by the Spirit which he hath given us, — the Spirit acquaints us with it. Not that we have such an acquaintance, but that the argument is good and conclusive in itself, " We have of the Spirit ; therefore he dwells in us, and we in him : " because, indeed, his dwelling in us is by that Spirit, and our interest in him is from thence. A sense of this he giveth as he pleaseth.
> Heb. vi. 17, 18.
246 OF COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY GHOST.
{2dlij.) The Spirit being given as an earnest, acquaints believers with their inheritance, 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. As an earnest, being part of the whole, gives knowledge of it, so doth the Spirit; as in sundry par- ticulars might be demonstrated.
So is he in all respects completely an earnest, — given of God, re- ceived by us, as the beginning of our inheritance, and the assurance of it. So much as we have of the Spirit, so much we have of heaven in perfect enjoyTnent, and so much evidence of its future fulness. Under this apprehension of him in the dispensation of grace do believers receive him and rejoice in him. Eveiy gracious, self-evi- dencing act of his in their hearts they rejoice in, as a drop from heaven, and long for the ocean of it. Not to drive eveiy effect of grace to this issue, is to neglect the woik of the Holy Ghost in us and towards us.
There remains only that a difference be, in a few words, assigned between believers receiving the Spirit as an earnest of the whole inheritance, and hypocrites " tasting of the powers of the Avorld to come," Heb. vi. 5. A taste of the powers of the world to come seems to be the same with the earnest of the inheritance. But, —
[Is^.] That by '' the powers of the world to come " in that place is intended the jo3^s of heaven, there is, indeed, no ga-ound to imagine. They are nowhere so called ; nor doth it suitably express the glory that shall be revealed, which we shall be made partakers of. It is, doubtless, the powerful ministry of the ordinances and dispensations of the times of the gospel (there called to the Hebrews according to their own idiom), the powers or great effectual things of the world to come, that is intended. But, —
[2dIZ_y.] Suppose that by " the powers of the Avorld to come " the glory of heaven is intended, there is a wide difference l)etween tak- ing a vanishing taste of it ourselves, and receiving an abiding ear- nest from God. To take a taste of the things of heaven, and to have them assured of God as from his love, dififer greatly. A hypocrite may have his thoughts raised to a great deal of joy and contentment in the consideration of the good things of the kingdom of God for a season, considering the things in themselves ; but the Spiiit, as he is an earnest, gives us a pledge of them as provided for us in the love of God and pm-chaso of his Son Jesus Christ. This by the way.