18. A POOR SINNER LAMENTS THE IMPENITENCE OF HIS HEART

     O heavenly Father, I, a miserable and wretched sinner, come before Thee with nothing but my sins, and so I dare not even lift up mine eyes to Thy most holy majesty on high, but feel abased for having so often offended Thee and disobeyed Thy voice.  Alas! there is no good thing, for I have been conceived and born in sin, and by nature I am perverted and corrupted to such a degree that I neither feel nor experience any love or desire for virture and heavenly treasures, but only of temporal honor and pleasures and all manner of baseness.  From my youth I have lived in sin and do so to this day, having within me my sinful flesh, the Old Adam.  But I take comfort, dear Lord, in Thy boundless, unsearchable, infinite, and unspeakable grace and mercy, which Thou hast promised in Thy Word to all penitent sinners and which promise Thou hast confirmed by a sacred oath.  I take comfort in the precious merits of Thine only-begotten Son, who was given into death also for my sins and was raised again for my justification.
     Hide Thy face, O my heavenly Father, from my sins and behold the face of Thy Son, who never Himself committed a sin, yea, who knew no sin, but who by His most holy obedience, by shedding His blood and dying for me upon the cross, hath fully atoned for all my sins and also for those of the whole world.  For the sake of this Savior receive me again into grace, O my Father, and do not let His bitter sufferings and death and the perfect, precious ransom which He has paid Thee for my sins be lost upon me, poor sinner, but let it be effectual in me.  I will then laud and praise Thee here in time and there in eternity.  Amen.