in our
fancied wisdom, seeing by our own light, and compassing ourselves
about with our own sparks; we feed on ashes: a deceived heart has
turned us aside.

"'O Lord, the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof.' It is of
the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. To us belong shame and
confusion of face--O cover us with it--but to thee belongs mercy.
Humble us, O Lord, and we shall be humbled; 'turn us, and we shall
be turned.'

"It is in our nature to backslide for ever; thou, and thou only,
knowest the deceitfulness of the heart; thou, and thou only, canst
search it. O search us, and try us, and show us what wicked ways there
are in us, and lead us in the way everlasting. Deal not with us
according to our sins, but according to the multitude of thine own
mercies. We have no other plea; our sins call for judgment, and until
thou, thine own blessed self, turn us, we are in no situation to
receive mercy. Work with us for thy name's sake, establish with us
thine own covenant of free, unmerited, undeserved mercy. Then shall we
know that thou art the Lord.

"Make us thine by thine own covenant, established in Christ,
thine own anointed; the blessed surety, by thine own appointment; our
substitute, on whom it hath pleased thee to lay the iniquities of us
all; in whose sacred person thou tookest vengeance for all our sins;
by whom thy law is fulfilled, magnified, and made honorable; whose
doing and suffering in our stead is accepted by Jehovah. 'The Lord is
well pleased for his righteousness' sake.' No covenant short of one
fulfilled in every jot and tittle could benefit us.

"Thy covenant is well-ordered in all things, and it is sure.

"Here, O Lord, I take my stand; here I lay my foundation, and on
this thy covenant I build; or rather, here thou thyself hast laid my
foundation, and on this rock hast thou set my soul and built my hopes,
thou subduing my enmity. I acquiesce. I will now 'remember the years
of thy hand,' look back to thy dealings with thine own nation, whom
thou didst choose and set apart from all other nations, though of the
same blood with all those that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

"They, like us, destroyed themselves, but in thee was their help.
They also sinned, committed iniquity, and did wickedly; they
remembered not thy mercy, but provoked thee at the Red sea, after the
great deliverance thou hadst wrought for them, and the wonders thou
madest to pass b