Our feet have run to evil, our thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. The way of peace we have not known; we have made us crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein, shall not know peace. Therefore do we wait for light, but behold obscurity: for brightness, but we walk in darkness. Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me? are they restrained? We are indeed as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. But now, O Lord, thou art our Father: we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord; neither remember iniquity for ever behold, see, we beseech thee, we are thy people. Thou, O Lord, art our Redeemer: thy name is from everlasting. O Lord, Father and governor of my whole life, leave me not to the sinful counsels of my own heart, and let me not any more fall by them. Set scourges over my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom over my heart, lest my ignorances increase, and my sins abound to my destruction. O Lord, Father and God of my life, give me not a proud look, but turn away from thy servant always a haughty mind. Turn away from me vain hopes and concupiscence, and thou shalt hold him up that is always desirous to serve thee. Let not the greediness of the belly, nor the lust of the flesh, take hold of me: and give not thy servant over to an impudent mind. There is a word that is clothed about with death: God grant it may not be found in the portion of thy servant. For all such things shall be far from the godly, and they shall not wallow in their sins. Though my sins be as scarlet, yet make them white as snow though they be red like crimson, let them be as wool. For I am ashamed of the sins I have desired, and am confounded for the pleasures that I have chosen. Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am, and that I may apply my heart unto wisdom. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord : let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. - For innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look for they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. up: But thou, O Lord, though mine iniquities testify against me, save me for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many, we have sinned grievously against thee. But the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? The Lord God will help me, who is he that shall condemn me? I will trust in the Lord, and stay upon my God. O let me have this of thine hand, that I may not lie down in sorrow. St. Paul's Prayer for a holy Life. I.. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant unto me according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith; that being rooted and grounded in love, I may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length, and depth and height and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, and may be filled with all the fulness of God, through the same our most blessed Saviour Jesus, Amen z. 2 Eph. iii. 14, &c. The Doxology. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us: unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. II. O most gracious God, grant to thy servant to be filled with the knowledge of thy will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, to be fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthen me, O God, with all might, according to thy glorious power, unto all patience, and long-suffering, and joyfulness: so shall I give thanks unto the Father, who hath made me meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. III. Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect what is lacking in my faith, direct my way unto him, make me to increase and abound in love towards all men, and establish my heart unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints b. IV. The God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make me perfect in every good work to do his will, working in me what is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen c. A Penitential Prayer. O eternal God, most merciful Father, who hast revealed thyself to mankind in Christ Jesus, full of pity and compassion, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving b 1 Thess. iii. 11, 12. a Col. i. 9, &c. c Heb. xiii. 20, 21. iniquity, and transgression, and sin; be pleased to effect these thy admirable mercies upon thy servant, whom thou hast made to put his trust in thee. I know, O God, that I am vile and polluted in thy sight; but I must come into thy presence or I die. Thou canst not behold any unclean thing, and yet, unless thou lookest upon me, who am nothing but uncleanness, I shall perish miserably and eternally. O look upon me with a gracious eye; cleanse my soul with the blood of the holy Lamb; that being purified in that holy stream, my sins may lose their own foulness, and become white as snow: then shall the leprous man be admitted to thy sanctuary, and stand before the throne of grace, humble, and full of sorrow for my fault, and full of hope of thy mercy and pardon, through Jesus Christ. II. O my God, thou wert reconciled to mankind by thy own graciousness and glorious goodness, even when thou didst find out so mysterious ways of redemption for us by sending Jesus Christ; then thou didst love us, and that holy Lamb did from the beginning of the world lie before thee as sacrificed and bleeding; and in the fulness of time he came to actuate and exhibit what thy goodness had designed and wrought in the counsels of eternity. But now, O gracious Father, let me also be reconciled to thee; for we continued enemies to thee, though thou lovedst us; let me no longer stand at a distance from thee, but run unto thee, bowing my will, and submitting my understanding, and mortifying my affections, and resigning all my powers and faculties to thy holy laws, that thou mayest take delight to pardon and to sanctify, to assist thy servant with thy grace, till by so excellent conduct, and so unspeakable mercy, I shall arrive to the state of glory. III. : O blessed Saviour Jesus, thou hast made thyself a blessed peace-offering for sins, thou hast procured and revealed to us this covenant of repentance and remission of sins and by the infinite mercies of the Father, and the death and intercession of the Son, we stand fair and hopeful in the eye of the divine compassion, and we have hopes of being saved. O be pleased to work thy own work in us. The grace and admission to repentance is thy own glorious production, thou hast obtained it for us with a mighty purchase: but then be pleased also to take me in, to partake actually of this glorious mercy. Give to thy servant a perfect hatred of sin, a great displeasure at my own folly for ever having provoked thee to anger; a perpetual watchfulness against it, an effective resolution against all its tempting instances, a prevailing strife, and a glorious victory; that the body of sin being destroyed, I may never any more serve any of its baser interests: but that by a diligent labour, and a constant care, I may approve myself to thee my God, mindful of thy covenant, a servant of thy will, a lover of thy glory; that being thy minister in a holy service, I may be thy son by adoption and participation of the glories of the Lord Jesus. O let me never lie down in sin, nor rise in shame; but be partaker both of the death and the resurrection of our Lord; that my imperfect and unworthy services may, by passing into the holiness of thy kingdom, be such as thy servant desires they should, and fit to be presented unto thee in the perfect holiness of eternity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. CHAP. III. OF THE DISTINCTION OF SINS, MORTAL AND VENIAL, IN WHAT SENSE TO BE ADMITTED; AND HOW THE SMALLEST SINS ARE TO BE REPENTED OF, AND EXPIATED. SECTION I. MEN have not been satisfied with devising infinite retirements and disguises of their follies to hide them from the world; but finding themselves open and discerned by God, have endeavoured to discover means of escaping from that eye, from which nothing can escape but innocence, and from which nothing can be hid, but under the cover of mercy. For besides that we expound the divine laws to our own purposes of ease and ambition, we give to our sins gentle censures, and adorn them with good words, and refuse to load them with their proper characters and punishments; and at last are come |