CHAPTER f. 18 mourn beforeGod because of our pride and vanity of mind, the violence of our passions, our earthly- mindedness and love of this world, our sensualityand indulgence of our flesh, our carnal security and untbankfulness under plentiful mercies, and our fretfulness and impatience, or sinful dejection in a time of trou- ble : our neglect of duty and want of love to God, our unbelief and hardness of heart, our slothfulness and decay in religion, tho dishonours we have brought to God, and all our miscarriages towards our fellow -creatures. And these may be aggravated on purpose to humble our souls yet more before God, by a reflection on their -variety and their multitude. How often they leave been repeated even before and since we knew God saviugly ; that we have committed them against much light: and that we have sin- ned against much love ; and that after many rebukes of the word and providence, and many consolations from tie gospel and spirit of God. You find this part of prayer very plentifully insisted and enlarged upon, among those examples that are left us in the word of God. And with these confessions we must thus bewail and take shame to ourselves., We are ashamed and blush to lift up our faces before thee our God, for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespasses grown up to the heavens. Behold we are vile, what shall we answer thee? We will lay our hands upon our mouth, andput our mouth in the dust f so be there maybe hope. 3. A confession of our desert of punishment, and our un- worthiness of mercy, arising from the sense that we have of .all our aggravated sins, in such expressions as these : " We deserve O Lord, to be for ever cast out of thy presence, and to be eter- nally cut off from all hope of mercy.' We deserve to fall under the curse of that law which we have broken ; and to be for ever banished from the blessings of that gospel which we have so long refused. We have sinned against so much mercy, that we are no longer worthy to be called thy children. We are utterly un- Worthy of arty of those favours that are promised in thy word, and which thou bast given us encouragement to hope for. If thou contend with us for our transgressions, we are not able to answer thee, OLord, nor to makeexcuse for one ofa thousand ; if thoushouldest marje iniquities, OLord, whoshall stand? But there is forgiveness with. thee, there is mercy and plenteous redemption. .4. A confession or humble representation of our wants and sorrows of every kind. Tho .particulars of which will fall under the next head; but it is necessary that they should be spread before God, anti poured out as it were in his presence ; for God loves to hear us tell him, what a sense our souls have of our own particular necessities and troubles. IIe loves to hear us complain before him, when we are under any pres- sures from his hand, or when we stand in need of mercies of anti kind.
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