bservation, that in the covenant there is
a double surrender, one on God's part, and another on our part. God
Almighty makes a surrender of Himself, and of his Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Behold, saith God, I am wholly thy God; all My power, and mercy,
and goodness, all is thine; My Son is thine, and all His rich purchases;
My Spirit is thine, and all His graces: this is God's surrender. On our
part, when we take hold of the covenant, we make a delivery of our
bodies and souls into the hands of God; we choose Him to be our Lord and
Governor, we resign up ourselves into His hands. Lord, we are Thine at
Thy disposing: we alienate ourselves, and make a deed of gift of
ourselves, and give Thee lock and key of head, heart, and affections.
This is the nature of every religious covenant, but especially of the
covenant of grace. But now, for a Christian to call in, as it were, his
surrender, to disclaim his resignation, to steal away himself from God,
and lay claim to himself after his alienation; to fulfil his own lusts,
to walk after his own ways, to do what he lists, and not what he hath
covenanted to do, and so to rob God of what is His: this is the highest
degree of sacrilege, which God will never suffer to go unpunished. And
surely if the stick-gatherer, that did but alienate a little of God's
time; and Ananias and Sapphira, that withheld but some part of their
estate: and if Belshazzar for abusing the consecrated vessels of the
temple, were so grievously punished; how much more will God punish those
that alienate themselves from the service of that God to whom they have
sworn to be obedient? It is observed by a learned author, of the famous
commanders of the Romans, that they never prospered after they had
defiled and robbed the temple of Jerusalem. First, Pompey the Great,
went into the _sanctum sanctorum_, a place never before entered by any
but the high-priest, and the Lord blasted him in all his proceedings,
"that he that before that time wanted earth to overcome, had not at last
earth enough to bury him withal." The next was Crassus, who took away
10,000 talents of gold from the temple, and afterward died, by having
gold poured down his throat. The third was Cassius, who afterwards
killed himself. If then God did thus avenge Himself of those that
polluted His consecrated temple; much more will He not leave them
unpunished, that are the living temples of the Holy Ghost, consecrated
to God by covenant, and afterwards pr