And be nigh unto us in all that which we call upon thee for; for thou never saidst to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain.m Let our prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of our hands be acceptable in thy sight as the evening sacrifice.n Lord, we know not what to pray for as we ought, but let thy Spirit help our infirmities, and make intercession for us.o Oh, pour upon us the Spirit of grace and supplication, the Spirit of adoption, teaching us to cry, Abba, Father.q O Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.r We do not present our supplication before thee for our righteousness;s for we are before thee in our trespasses, and cannot stand before thee because of them; but we make mention of Christ's righteousness, even of his only, who is the Lord our righteousness.u We come in the name of the Great High Priest, who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who was touched with the feelings of our infirmities, and is therefore able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him.w / Deut. iv. 7. m Isa. xlv. 19. 26. p Zech. xii. 10. n Psal. cxli. 2. q Romans viii. 15. t Ezra ix. 15. CHAPTER II. Confession. OUR GOD! we are ashamed, and blush to lift up our faces before thee, our God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.a To us belong shame and confusion of face, because we have sinned against thee.b Behold we are vile, what shall we answer thee? c we will lay our hand upon our mouth, and put our mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope,d crying with the convicted leper, unclean, unclean.c If we justify ourselves our own mouths shall condemn us; if we say we are perfect, that also shall prove us perverse; for if thou contend with us, we are not able to answer thee for one of a thousand.ƒ If thou shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand! but there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared; with thee there is mercy, yea, with our God there is plenteous redemption. g Thy sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise./ a Ezra ix. 6. b Daniel ix. 8. d Lam. iii. 29. e Lev. xiii, 45. c Job xl. 4. f Job ix. 3, 20. Psalm cxxx. 3, 4, 7. b Psalm li. 17. Though thou art the high and lofty one, that inhabitest eternity, whose name is holy; i though the heavens be thy throne and the earth thy footstool,k yet to this man wilt thou look that is poor and humble, of a broken and contrite spirit, and trembleth at thy word, to receive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Thou hast graciously assured us, though they that cover their sins shall not prosper, yet those that confess and forsake them, shall find mercy./ If we say we have no sin, we deceive our selves, and the truth is not in us.m Lord, thou madest man upright, but they have sought many inventions.n By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passes upon all men, for that all have sinned.o The nature of man was planted a choice and noble vine, wholly a right seed, but it is become the degenerate plant of a strange vine. We are by nature children of wrath, because children of disobedience, even as others.q We are all gone out of the way, we are altogether become filthy, there is none that doth good; no, not one.r i Isa. lvii. 15. m 1 John i. 8. p Jerem. ii. 21. kIsa. lxvi. 1, 2. Prov. xxviii. 13. o Rom. v. 12. Psal. xiv. 3. By nature our understandings are darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our hearts.s The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.t We are wise to do evil, but to do good we have no knowledge.u We have within us a carnal mind which is enmity against God; and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.w And our corrupt hearts have been sometimes ready to say, what is the Almighty that we should serve him.x Every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts is evil, only evil, and that continually; and it has been so from our youth.y Oh, how long have vain thoughts lodged within us! z Of the rock that begat us we have been unmindful;a and have forgotten the God that formed us; we have forgotten him days without number, and our hearts have walked after vanity. We have set those affections on things beneath, which should have been set on things above.c We have followed after lying vanities, and forsaken our own mercies ;d-have forsaken the fountain of living waters, for cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.e We have a law in our members, warring against the law of our minds, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin, that is in our members; so that when we would do good, evil is present with us. We acknowledge that by nature we are dead in sin, g and that there dwelleth no good thing in us.h We have within us an evil heart of unbelief, which inclines us to depart from thee the living God.i We are carnal, and sold under sin.k Our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know them? / We have been as fig-trees planted in the vineyard, and thou hast come many years, seeking fruit from us, but hast found none; m and therefore we might justly be cut down, and cast into the fire for cumbering the ground.n Thou hast come looking for grapes, but behold wild wrapes; for we have been empty vines, bringing forth fruit unto ourselves.o d Jonah ii. 8. & Eph. ii. 5. Rom. vii. 14. n Matt. iii. 10. e Jere. ii. 13. Rom. viii. 21, 23. i Heb. iii. 12. m Luke xiii. 6, 7. |