(1st.) The 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 deliverance 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 guilt 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
“promise of the eternal inheritance.” This, in the first place, are the
adopted children of God heirs unto. Look, whatever is in the promise 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.