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 sore; there was no soundness in my flesh, neither rest in
my bones, because of my sin; mine iniquities went over my head, were a
burden too heavy to bear. I was feeble and sore broken, and roared by
reason of the disquiet of my heart. My lovers and friends stood aloof
from my sore, and my kinsmen stood afar off. I was ready to halt, and
my sorrow was continually before me; yet even in my darkest, deepest
afflictions, when deep called to deep, and thy waves and billows were
passing over me; when my soul seemed sinking in the mire where there
was no standing, I groped in the dark; my heart panted, my strength
failed, and the light of mine eyes seemed gone out. I was weak with my
groaning; in the night I made my bed to swim with my tears; yet even
then, by that same covenant by which I was suffering, light sprang out
of darkness, glimmering hope in the midst of despair. I remembered the
years of thy right hand; in the multitude of my thoughts within
me--the provision made in this covenant--thy comforts delighted
my soul.

"I was furnished with a plea which would condemn, by every
covenant but thine: Pardon my iniquities, for they are great. Thou,
even thou, art he who blottest out transgressions as a cloud, and
iniquity as a thick cloud. V