and the son of man, that thou visitest him, and dost thus magnify him?*

O let not the Lord be angry, if we that are but dust and ashes, take upon us to speak unto the Lord of glory."

We are not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servants; nor is it meet to take the children's bread and cast it to such as we are; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master's table: And thou art rich in mercy to ali that call upon thee." X. We must humbly profess the desire of our hearts toward God, as our felicity and portion, and the fountain of life and all good to us.

Whom have we in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that we desire besides thee, or in comparison of thee. When our flesh and our heart fail, be thou the strength of our heart, and our portion for ever; the portion of our inheritance in the other world, and of our cup in this, and then we will say, that the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places, and that we have a goodly heritage.

d

The desire of our souls is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee; with our souls have we desired thee in the night, and with our spirits within us will we seek thee early.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so pant our souls after thee, O God; our souls thirst for God, for the living God, who will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with us, and our prayer to the God of our life.'

O that we may come hungering and thirsting after righteousness, for thou fillest the hungry with good things, but the rich thou sendest empty away."

Our souls thirst for thee, and our flesh longs for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, that we may see thy power and thy glory, as we have seen thee in the sanctuary. Thy loving-kindness is better than life; our souls shall be satisfied with that as with marrow and fatness, and then our mouths shall praise thee with joyful lips.

XI. We must likewise profess our believing hope and confidence in God, and his all-sufficiency; in his power, providence, and promise. In thee, O God, do we put our trust, let us never be ashamed; yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed.'

Truly our souls wait upon God, from him cometh our salvation; he only is our rock and our salvation; In him is our glory, our strength, and our refuge, and from him is our expectation."

When refuge fails us, and none cares for our souls, we cry unto thee, O Lord, thou art our refuge and our portion in the land of the living."

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God:o We will trust in thy mercy, O God, for ever and ever, and will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints.P

We have hoped in thy word, O remember thy word unto thy servants, upon which thou hast caused us to hope.

XII. We must entreat God's favourable acceptance of us and our poor performances. There be many that say, Who will show us any good? But this we say, Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, and that shall put gladness into our hearts, more than they have whose corn and wine increaseth."

We entreat thy favour with our whole heart, for in this we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of the Lord.'

Hear our prayers, O Lord, give ear to our supplications; in thy faithfulness answer us ;" 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."

Thou that hearest the young ravens which cry,* be not silent to us, lest if thou be silent to us, we be like them that go down to the pit.'

Let our prayers be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of our hands be acceptable in thy sight as the evening sacrifice."

XIII. We must beg for the powerful assistance and influence of the blessed Spirit of grace in our prayers.

Lord, we know not what to pray for as we ought, but let thy Spirit help our infirmities, and make intercession for us."

b

O pour upon us the spirit of grace and supplication, the spirit of adoption, teaching us to cry, Abba, Father; that we may find in our hearts to pray this prayer:

"O send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead us, let them guide us to thy holy hill and thy tabernacles; to God our exceeding joy."e

O Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouth shall show forth thy praise.'

XIV. We must make the glory of God our highest end in all our prayers.

This is that which thou, O Lord, hast said; That thou wilt be sanctified in them that come nigh unto thee, and before all the people thou wilt be glorified; we therefore worship before thee, O Lord, that

r Ps. iv. 6, 7.

53.

x Ps. viii. 4. y Gen. xviii. 27, 30. z Gen. xxxii. 10. a Matt. XV. 26, 27. b Rom. x. 12. c Ps. lxxiii. 25, 26. d Ps. xvi. 5, 6. e Isa. xxvi. 8, 9. f Ps. xlii. 1, 2, 8. g Matt. v. 6. h Luke i. i Ps. Ixiii. 1-3, 5. Ps. xxxi. 1. 1 Ps. xxv. 3. m Ps. Ixii. 1, 2, 5-7. n Ps. cxlii. 4, 5. o P's. xx. 7.

p Ps. lii. 8, 9. ↑ Ps.

cxix. 74, 49. u Ps. cxliii. 1. y Pa. xxviii. 1. e Rom. vii. 15. g Lev. x. 3.

▾ Deut. iv. 7. z Ps. cxli. 2. d 2 Sam. vii. 27.

Ps. cxix. 58. w Isa. xlv. 19. a Rom. viii. 26. . Ps. xliii. 3, 4.

t 2 Cor. v. 9. x Ps. cxlvii. 9. b Zech. xii. 10. f Ps. li. 15.

we may glorify thy name; and therefore we call upon thee, that thou may deliver us, and we may glorify thee.i

made ourselves both odious to his holiness and obnoxious to his justice.

O our God! we are ashamed, and blush to lift

XV. We must profess our entire reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for acceptance with God, and come in his name.

are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.b

To us belong shame and confusion of face, because we have sinned against thee.

eousness.°

We know that even spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God only through Christ Jesus, nor can we hope to receive any thing but what we ask of thee in his name, and therefore make us accepted in the Beloved; that angel, who puts much incense to the prayers of saints, and offers them up upon the golden altar before the throne."

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 feeling of our infirmities,' and is therefore able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, because he ever lives making intercession."

Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed," in whom thou hast by a voice from heaven declared thyself to be well pleased;" Lord, be well pleased with us in him.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE SECOND PART OF PRAYER, WHICH IS, CONFESSION OF SIN, COMPLAINTS OF OURSELVES, AND HUMBLE PROFESSIONS OF REPENTANCE.

HAVING given glory to God, which is his due, we must next take shame to ourselves, which is our due, and humble ourselves before him in the sense of our own sinfulness and vileness. And herein, also, we must give glory to him, as our Judge, by whom we deserve to be condemned, and yet hope, through Christ, to be acquitted and absolved.

In this part of our work,

I. We must acknowledge the great reason we have to lie very low before God, and to be ashamed of ourselves when we come into his presence, and to be afraid of his wrath, having

Thou puttest no trust in thy saints, and the heavens are not clean in thy sight: how much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity like water.

When our eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, we have reason to cry out, Woe unto us, for we are undone."

Dominion and fear are with thee, thou makest peace in thy high places: there is not any number of thine armies, and upon whom doth not thy light arise? How then can man be justified with God, or, how can he be clean that is born of a woman?i

Thou, even thou, art to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Even thou, our God, art a consuming fire,' and who knows the power of thine anger?"

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."

If we knew nothing by ourselves, yet were we not thereby justified, for he that judgeth us is the Lord;" who is greater than our hearts, and knows all things. But we ourselves know that we have sinned, Father, against heaven, and before thee, and are no more worthy to be called thy children.

II. We must take hold of the great encouragement God has given us, to humble ourselves before him with sorrow and shame, and to confess our sins.

If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayst be feared; with thee there is mercy, yea, with our God there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities."

Thy sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise; nay, though thou art the high and lofty One that inhabitest eternity, whose name is Holy ;'

though the heaven be thy throne and the earth thy footstool, yet to this man wilt thou look, that is poor and humble, of a broken and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at thy word," to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite

ones.

V

Thou hast graciously assured us, that though they that cover their sins shall not prosper, yet those that confess and forsake them shall find mercy. And when a poor penitent said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, thou forgavest the iniquity of his sin; and for this shall every one that is godly, in like manner, pray unto thee in a time when thou mayst be found."

We know, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but thou hast said, that if we confess our sins, thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.*

III. We must therefore confess and bewail our original corruption in the first place, that we were the children of apostate and rebellious parents, and the nature of man is depraved, and wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude, and our nature is so.

Lord, thou madest man upright, but they have sought out many inventions; and being in honour did not understand, and therefore abode not, but became like the beasts that perish."

By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: By that one man's disobedience many were made sinners,a and we among the rest.

b

We are a seed of evil-doers; our father was an Amorite, and our mother a Hittite, and we ourselves were called (and not mis-called) transgressors from the womb, and thou knowest we would deal very treacherously.d

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; producing the grapes of Sodom, and the clusters of Gomorrah.' How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!

Behold, we were shapen in iniquity, and in sin did our mother conceive us.h For, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. We are by nature children of wrath, because children of disobedience, even as others.

All flesh have corrupted their way; we are all gone aside, we are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

IV. We must lament our present corrupt dis

u Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2. ▾ Prov. xxviii. 13. w Ps. xxxii. 5, 6. x 1 John 1, 8, 9. y Eccl. vii. 29. = Ps. xlix 12, 20. a Rom. v. 12, 19.

positions to that which is evil, and our indisposedness to, and impotency in, that which is good. We must look into our hearts, and confess, with holy blushing,

1. The blindness of our understandings, and their unaptness to admit the rays of the divine light.

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."

The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

We are wise to do evil, but to do good we have no knowledge. We know not, neither do we understand, we walk on in darkness."

God speaketh once, yea, twice, but we perceive it not; but hearing, we hear, and do not understand;" and we see men as trees walking.

2. The stubbornness of our wills, and their unaptness to submit to the rules of the divine law. We have within us a carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

Thou hast written to us the great things of thy law, but they have been accounted by us as a strange thing,' and our corrupt hearts have been sometimes ready to say, What is the Almighty that we should serve him?"-and that we should certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth of our own mouth. For we have walked in the way of our own heart, and in the sight of our eyes, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind."

Our neck hath been an iron sinew, and we have made our heart as an adamant; we have refused to hearken, have pulled away the shoulder, and stopped our ears, like the deaf adder, that will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely.

How have we hated instruction, and our heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of our teachers, nor inclined our ear to them that instructed us.d

3. The vanity of our thoughts, their neglect of those things which they ought to be conversant with, and dwelling upon those things that are unworthy of them, and tend to corrupt our minds.

Every imagination of the thoughts of our heart is evil, only evil, and that continually, and it has been so from our youth.

O how long hath those vain thoughts lodged within

w Job xxi. 15.

x Jer. xliv. 17.

a Isa. xlviii. 4. 12, 13.

e Gen. vi. 5. f Gen. viii. 21.

b Zech. vit. 11, 12.

r Job xxxiii. 14. v Hos. viii. 12.

c Ps. lviii. 4, 5.

Eph. ii. 3.

d Prov. v.

us! Those thoughts of foolishness which are sin.s From within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts; which devise mischief upon the bed, and carry the heart with the fool's eyes into the ends of the earth. But God is not in all our thoughts,' it is well if he be in any of the Rock that begat us we have been unmindful, and have forgotten the God that formed us: We have forgotten him days without number," and our hearts have walked after vanity," and become vain. Our inward thought having been, that our houses should continue for ever; this our way is our folly.P

4. The carnality of our affections, their being placed upon wrong objects, and carried beyond due bounds.

We have set those affections on things beneath, which should have been set on things above, where our treasure is," and where Christ sits on the right hand of God, the things which we should seek.

We have followed after lying vanities, and forsaken our own mercies; having forsaken the fountain of living waters, for cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.'

We have panted after the dust of the earth," and have been full of care what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed, the things after which the Gentiles seek, but have neglected the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof."

We have lifted up our souls unto vanity," and set our eyes upon that which is not, have looked at the things that are seen, which are temporal, but the things that are not seen, that are eternal, have been forgotten and postponed."

The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in us, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.'

There is in us a bent to backslide from the living God: Our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know them? They start aside like a broken bow.i

V. We must lament and confess our omissions of our duty, our neglect of it, and triflings in it; and, that we have done so little since we came into the world, of the great work we were sent into the world about, so very little to answer the end either of our creation or of our redemption, of our birth and of our baptism; and that we have profited no more by the means of grace.

We have been as fig-trees planted in the vineyard, and thou hast come many years seeking fruit from us, but hast found none; therefore we might justly have been cut down and cast into the fire for cumbering the ground:* Thou hast come looking for grapes, but behold wild grapes; for we have been empty vines, bringing forth fruit unto ourselves."

We have known to do good, but have not done it: We have hid our Lord's money," and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and slothful servant.

We have been unfaithful stewards, that have wasted our Lord's goods, for one sinner destroys much good."

Many a price hath been put into our hand to get wisdom, which we have had no heart to, or our heart has been at our left hand.'

Our childhood and youth were vanity," and we have spent our years as a tale that is told.▾

W

We have not known, or improved, the day of our visitation, have not provided meat in summer, nor gathered food in harvest, though we have had guides, overseers, and rulers.*

We have cast off fear, and restrained prayer before God; have not called upon thy name, nor stirred up ourselves to take hold on thee.

We have come before thee as thy people come, and have sat before thee as thy people sit, and have heard thy words, when our hearts at the same time have been going after our covetousness. And thus have we brought the torn, and the lame, and the