“When thou didst slay them, they sought thee, and remembered that God was their rock, and the most high God their Redeemer.  Nevertheless they did flatter with their mouth and lied unto thee with their tongue, for their heart was not right with thee, neither were they steadfast in thy covenant.  But thou being full of compassion, forgavest their iniquity and destroyedst them not; yea, many a time turnedst thou away thine anger, and didst not stir up all thy wrath.

“O how many times did they turn back, tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.  Yet did he fulfil all his promises, and by wonders in the sea, wonders in the desert, wonders in Zoan’s field, and in the camps of their enemies, he led them safely to the border of his sanctuary, to the mountain which his right hand had purchased.  He cast out the heathen before them, and gave them rest in the land of promise.  Even there they provoked the Most High, provoked him to jealousy with their graven images.

“Again thou didst chasten them sore, let loose the corruptions of men upon them, and suffer them to fall before their enemies.  Thou deliveredst thy strength into captivity, and thy glory into the hands of their enemies.

“Yet, O Lord, again didst thou deliver them, and sentest provision for them by thine own covenant.  Thou didst choose David thy servant, and take him from the sheep-folds.  Thou broughtest him to feed Jacob thy people, and Israel thine inheritance.  So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

“Such are the people with whom thou hast still to do.  Such, O God of infinite mercy, such the God with whom we sinners have to do, even ’the Lord God, merciful and gracious, keeping mercy for thou sands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty.’  O what could man or angel have done with this last character of thy name?  Thy covenant makes provision.  In Christ Jesus, our blessed substitute, all is reconciled.  Thy name is one; the just God, and the justifier of the ungodly who believe in Jesus; This God is our God; we will make mention of his righteousness, and his only.  By his own covenant, in his own time, and by means of his own providing, he will revive us.  Amen.”

“APRIL, 1804

“All my desire is before thee, and it is all contained in thy well-ordered covenant.  Many years of vanity, of idolatry, of backsliding, wandering, and folly have passed over my head since I first took hold of thy covenant.  How fickle, false, and deceitful have I proved; yet thou knowest, thine own Spirit through all my wanderings testified in my heart, that out of the channel of this covenant there could be neither safety nor comfort; and never, so far as I can remember, have I deliberately chosen to be dealt with by any other.  Its corrections and chastisements have reached the deepest sensibilities of my heart.  Thine arrows stuck fast in me, thy hand pressed me