am what I am. O make out this promise
to me; I will record it in thine own words: 'I will establish my
covenant with thee: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord,' Ezekiel
16:62. I confess myself the character described in the two foregoing
chapters; and though thou hast chastened me ten thousand times less
than my iniquities deserve, even by the constitution of the new
covenant, thou hast chastened me. Now, O Lord, most merciful and
gracious, who 'pardonest iniquity, transgression, and sin,' for thy
name's sake, do to and for me as thou hast said: 'I will establish my
covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. That thou
mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more
because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that
thou hast done, saith the Lord God.' Amen."

To Mr. and Mrs. B----, in Britain.

"DECEMBER 7, 1801.

"I have received my dear J----'s three letters from Dingwall:
fresh matter of praise to our covenant God. You have had your season
of affliction; and now you have a season of refreshing, a
resting-time. The cup of the Christian is always more or less mixed.
Your afflictions have ever been mixed with much mercy, and now your
season of rest is also mixed. I well know that no temporal comfort can
compensate the absence of your justly beloved D----. He, however, who
is the God of both, who goes with him, and stays with you, can not
only support, but comfort. The omniscient, the omnipresent, the
omnipotent God is our God, and the God of our house; all that he is is
ours, to bless us. Behold, God is become our salvation. Every
endearing name known among men he takes to himself, to inspire us with
pleasing, confiding love--every name that connects the idea of
protection, to keep our minds in quiet peace, in the assurance of
safety: Father, Husband, Brother, Friend, Prophet, Priest, King,
Physician, Help, Health, Light, Life, Counsellor, Guide, Sanctuary,
Anchor--but I should fill my sheet. I said it all at first: God is
ours, and ours with the knowledge of all our backslidings, which he
heals; our wanderings, from which he restores us; and our sins, which
he forgives: one of his names is the God of pardons. He delights in
mercy. Are we not his witnesses? What has our whole life been, but
sin, backslidings, and wanderings? What have his dealings with us
been, but pardons, healings, rest