blood will I not
offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The Lord is the portion of
mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot."[82] The vow
here is emphatic, being made against swearing to another god, and
intimating that the Lord, being his Lord, and the portion of his
inheritance and of his cup, had been received by him according to a
choice to which he still adhered. When Jesus appeared in the flesh, some
who had believed in a Messiah to come, and who were accordingly true
believers, in acts of Covenanting received Jesus as a Saviour that was
come. John, the forerunner, was sanctified from the womb; but after
Jesus had commenced his public ministry, that distinguished individual
on one occasion, seeing Him coming unto him, said, "Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world."[83] And this act of
appropriation, as well as of bearing testimony, he afterwards repeated.
Nathaniel was a believing expectant of the Messiah. Of him Jesus made
honourable mention when he said, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is
no guile;" and he, immediately on perceiving proofs of his Divine
character, professed his acceptance of him. "Nathaniel answered and
saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of
Israel."[84] And Thomas and Peter, as instances of those who have
received him, testifying in the exercise of Covenanting to their cordial
acceptance of him, said in the solemn act of confessing his name, the
one, "My Lord and my God;"[85] and the other, in language implying the
same avouchment, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I
love thee."[86]

They receive the Father as a God in Covenant, who receive the Son; and
they receiving the Son receive the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of promise.
The acceptance of the Redeemer therefore is the acceptance of a
Three-one-God, as a Covenant God. In Covenanting, that acceptance is
made by the saints. And all things are theirs, and they are Christ's,
and Christ is God's. Of the Father as reconciled unto them, as having
drawn them to himself, and justified them, and adopted them into his
family, they accept in that exercise. In that, too, they accept of the
Redeemer as their prophet and king, and acquiesce in his priesthood held
on their behalf. And in that, the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Christ,
the Remembrancer, the glorious Agent who brings from death to life, who
illuminates the understanding, who gives comfort and consola