August 27

"Heirs." Titles 3:7.

If we properly observe those who are Christians indeed, we shall find in them a peculiarity that distinguishes them from, and an importance that ranks them above all other creatures. What an assemblage of qualities, excellencies, and advantages must they possess, to do any thing like justice to the various and numberless representations by which they are held forth to our view and admiration in the Scriptures of truth. Let me contemplate them under the character of heirs.

As such we may consider them in the grandeur of their estate. A man may be heir to a cottage, or a large domain, or even a throne. But what is the inheritance of Christians? In one place they are called "heirs according to promise." In another, "heirs of the grace of life." In another, "heirs according to the hope of eternal life." In another, "heirs of salvation." In another, "heirs of the kingdom, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." Paul prays that the Ephesians may be enlightened to know it; and speaks of "the hope of their calling," and "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." The inheritance of the worldling, who has his portion in this life; the inheritance of the Jew, in Canaan; the inheritance of Adam, in paradise; the inheritance of angels, in heaven, all come far short of the believer's expectation. At present, it cannot be fully either described or conceived. It doth not yet appear what we shall be.

We may consider them in the solidity of their title.

No person ever had a claim to an estate so clear and decisive as the Christian has to his inheritance. He may not, indeed, be certain of it in his own mind. There is a difference between a right, and the perception of it. An heir, by reason of his tender age, or infirmity, or disorder, may be unconscious of what awaits him. And Christians may be ignorant and fearful. They may condemn themselves, when God has justified them freely from all things; and they may conclude that they have no part nor lot in the matter, while yet their title is as valid as the word and oath of God can make it. It is also perfectly inseparable from the birth that makes them new creatures, for they are born of God; and "if children, then heirs; and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ;" and being one with him, their heirship is as undeniable as his.

We may view them also in the certainty of their possession. An heir, who has had the clearest and fullest title to an estate, has yet never enjoyed it. To take possession of it, perhaps he had to cross the sea, and was wrecked. Or he travelled by land, and was murdered. Or in reaching maturity, he fell a prey to one of the many diseases to which humanity is liable. Or if he was preserved, the estate was destroyed; for there is no place of security on earth. Or if the estate was not destroyed, it was usurped, and by fraud and villany alienated from its lawful owner. How many figure away only in the rights of others. But what shall hinder the Christian from realizing his hope? His inheritance is incorruptible and undefiled, and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for him, where danger never comes. And the heir is as safe as the estate, being "kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation."

But observe these heirs in the circumstances of their minority. For there is a period of nonage; and "the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father." Before this season arrives, he must submit to many restraints not pleasant to his feelings, and the reasons for which he cannot fully appreciate. Yea, there may be cases in which he may even be constrained to borrow from a domestic or neighbor, who has none of his expectancy. And Christians must not reckon that their present indulgences will equal their future reversions. They are now under a course of discipline, in which they must exercise self-denial, and appear less favored than many around them. But they rejoice in hope; and not only so, but as the heir has something more from his estate than the prospect of it—as he has education and attendance becoming his rank, and remittances to enable him to live answerable to his destination; so Christians have now supplies from their riches in glory, and are training up, under a divine Teacher, for the sublime spheres they are to fill; and their ministering spirits do always behold the face of our heavenly Father.

And what is the deportment that becomes these heirs? It ought to be ennobled. Holiness is the true dignity of the soul, and sin its vilest degradation. They are therefore to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." And Oh the infinite delicacy of the gospel—they are to "abstain from the very appearance of evil." It ought to be humble and grateful. They were, by nature, only children of wrath. If their relation is glorious, it is derived entirely from grace. There were difficulties in the way of their adoption, which God alone could remove. "I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage?" But he removed these obstacles by the sacrifice of his own Son, and the renovation of his own Spirit; and poor and vile as they were, he raised up the poor out of the dust, and lifted the needy from the dunghill, to set them with princes, even the princes of his people. It ought to be very cheerful and happy.

"A hope so much divine, May trials well endure."

But so inferior are natural things to spiritual, that when the one are applied to the illustration of the other, they teach us as much by contrast as by comparison. What then is the difference between these and earthly heirs? In other cases the inheritance is diminished by the number of coheirs. Here the multitude of partakers, instead of injuring, increases the blessedness of each possessor. In other cases the father dies before the child inherits. Here the father never dies. In other cases the heir by dying loses his inheritance. Here by dying he gains it; it is then he comes of age. In other cases an estate passes from hand to hand. Here is no succession; it is our heritage for ever. "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord; and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."