f. the PERSON of CHRIST. 145 Hence Godlinefs bath thepromifeof the life that now is, andof that which is to come, r Tim. iv. 8. And the promife is only of the inheritance. This inheritance, as was before intimated was loll in Adam, and forfeited into the hand of the great Lord, the great poifeftor of heaven and earth. In his fovereign grace and goodnefs he was pleated again to rettore it, as unto all the benefits of it unto the former tenants, and that with an addition of grace, and a more exceeding weight of glory. But withal, infinite wifdom provides that a fecund forfeiture Rail not be made of it. Wherefore the grant of it is not made immediately unto any ofthofe for whofe ufe and be- nefit it is prepared and gfanted. They had been once tried and failed in their truft unto their-own eternal beggary and ruin, had not infinite grace interpofed for their relief. And it did not becomethe wifdom of God to make a fecond grant of it, which might he fruftrate in like manner. Where- fore he would not commit it again unto any meet creature whatever g nor could it fafely have been fo done with fecurity unto his glory. For, t.) It was too great a truft, even the whole inheritance of heaven and earth, all the riches ofgrace and glory to be committed unto any one of them. God would not give this glory unto any one creature. Ifit be faid, It was firft committed unto Adam, and thereforq to have it again,. is not an honourabove the capacityof a creature ; I fay that the natureofthe heritance is greatly changed. The whole ofwhat was entrufted withAdam, comes exceedingly fhort of what Godhath now prepared as the inheritance ofthe church. Deere is grace in it, and glory added unto it, which Adam neither had, nor could have right unto. It is now of that nature, as could neither be entrufted with, nor communicated by any meer creature. Be- fides, he that bath it is the object of the faith and truft of the church, nor can any be interefted in any parr ofthis inheritance, without the exercife of thofe and all other graces on him, whofe the inheritance is. And fo to be the objerii of our faith, is the prerogative of thedivine nature alone. 2.) No sneer creature could fecure this inheritance that it fhould be loft no.more; and yet if it were fo, it would behighly derogatory unto the glory of God. For two things were required hereunto. Fiefs, That hein whom this truft is vetted, fhould be in himfelf uncapable ofany fach failure, as through which by the immutable eternal law of obedience unto God, a forfeiture of it fitoald be made. Secondly, That the undertake for them all who fhall be heirs of falvation, who fhall enjoy this inheritance, that none ofthem fhould lofe or forfeit their own perfonal intereft in it, or the terms whereon it is conveyed and communicated unto them. But no meet- creature wan fáficient unto there ends. For no one of them in and by himfelf, in the conítitution of his nature, is abfolutely freefrom falling from God. They may receive, the angels in heaven, and the glorified faints have received fuels a confirmation in and by grace, as that they Rail never actually apoftatize or fall from God. But this they have not from themfelves, nor the principles of their own nature, which is neceffary un- to him that ]hall receive this Truft. For fo, when it was firft vefled' in Adam, he was left to preferve it by the innate con-created abilities of his own nature. And as unto the latter, all the angels in heaven cannot .un- dertake to fecure the obedience of anyone man, fo as that the conveyance' of the inheritance may be furs unto hum. Wherefore with refpecq here- unto, thole angclsthemfelves, though the mot] holy and glorious of all the' creatures of God, have no greater miff or intereft, than to be miniflrinf; ffirits, feet forth to minifler for there who 'Gall be heirs offalvatión, Heb. i. tq. So unuteet are they to haul the whole inheritance vetted in any of them, Oo gut
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