A father may frown upon his son for his fault, but doth not easily disinherit him; but a servant, on his offence, is turned out of doors. When Adam held by the first covenant, he was but an honourable servant; therefore when he offended his master, he was turned out of doors; but now we have by Christ the title of children, and though God may chastise us, he will not disinherit us. “My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips”—Psalm lxxxix. 33, 34. He hath reserved a liberty in the covenant that He will chastise us: “I will visit their transgression with the rod,” etc. (verse 32), but He will never alter the purposes of His love and His counsel towards us. A child may be whipped, but not disinherited. God hath not only pawned His word to us, but given us an earnest that He will not change His purpose. The inheritance is passed over in court: “Who hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”—2 Cor. i. 22. Those that make the purposes of God to be changeable, cut the sinews of Christian comfort; always ready to fall; but God hath given us assurance that He will never reverse the purposes of His love. When we have once an interest in it, our right is indefeasible, and we cannot lose it. And mark, it is not only a sure title in regard to God, but also in reference to men; for as God will not take our heritage from us, so men can not. We may lose goods, lovings, lives, but we can never lose our heritage; this is sure in Christ. None can take away our better portion. “All things are yours” (I Cor. iii. 22), and even death is but a portion of our heritage.—Thomas Manton.