The Communicant's Companion (continued)
with God, and would be accepted of him therein, our "covenant with death must be disannulled, and our agreement with hell must not stand." All these foolish, sinful agreements, which were indeed null and void from the beginning, by which we had alienated ourselves from our rightful owner, and put ourselves in possession of the usurper, must be revoked and cancelled, and our consent to them drawn back with disdain and abhorrence. When we take an oath of allegiance to God in Christ as our rightful king and sovereign, we must herein abjure the tyranny of the rebellious and rival powers. "O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us," while sin has reigned in our mortal bodies, in our immortal souls, and every lust has been a lord; but now we are weary of that heavy yoke, and through God's grace it shall be so no longer; for, from henceforth, "by thee only will we make mention of thy name." The covenant into which we are to enter is a marriage covenant, "thy Maker is to be thy husband," and thou art to be betrothed to him; and it is the ancient and fundamental law of that covenant, that all other lovers be renounced, all other beloved ones forsaken; and the same is the law of this covenant: "Thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee." Quitting all others, we must cleave to the Lord only; lovers and crowned heads will not endure rivals; on these terms, and no other, we may covenant with God: "If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth," else it is not a return to God.
1. We must renounce all subjection to Satan's rule and government.
Satan's seat must be overturned in our hearts, and the Redeemer's throne set up there upon the ruins of it. We must disclaim the devil's power over us, cast off that iron yoke, and resolve to be deceived by him no more, and led captive by him at his will no more. We must quit the service of the citizen