34. Complaint of a poor Sinner concerning the Impenitence of his Heart.

I, miserable afflicted sinner, come unto Thee, my heavenly Father, and bring nothing with me but sin only. I can therefore not lift up my eyes to Thy exalted and most holy majesty, but I am ashamed, that I have so oft offended Thee and not hearkened unto Thy voice. Alas! there is nothing good in me, I am conceived and born in sins, my nature is so perverted and depraved, that I cannot feel and experience in me either a desire or love for virtue and the heavenly gifts, but only for transitory honor and joys and the inclination to all evil. I have lived in sin from my youth up, and yet I live in sin, as long as I have this sinful flesh of Adam on me. But, dear Lord, I comfort myself by Thy unbounded, unfathomable, infinite and unspeakable grace and mercy, which Thou hast promised to all penitent sinners in Thy word and confirmed by a sacred oath. I comfort myself by the precious merit of Thy only begotten Son, who was delivered for the sake of my 057 sins and raised for my justification. O heavenly Father, hide Thy face from my sins and behold the face of Thy Son, who in himself never did commit sin, nor ever knew of sin, but through His most holy obedience, blood and death hath made satisfaction for all my sins and the sins of the whole world. Receive me, O Father, for the sake of this Saviour again into grace, and do not permit his bitter sufferings and death and his perfect precious ransom, which he has paid Thee for my sins to be lost by me, poor sinner, but that it may strengthen me. And I will then praise and bless Thee, here in time and there in eternity. Amen.