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Is it My will that a sinner should die, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?" 1 "Now therefore: Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting, in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy.' Return, as you have deeply revolted, O children of Israel." 3 "Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from before My eyes; cease to do perversely. Learn to do well seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come, and accuse the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool." "Be converted to Me, and you shall be saved: for I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the word of justice shall go out of My mouth, and shall not return: for every knee shall be bowed to Me." 5 "Incline your ear and come to Me: hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies of David...

Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him for He is bountiful to forgive." 6 "Return, O rebellious Israel, and I will not turn away My face from you; for I am holy, and I will not be angry for ever. But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the

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1 Ezech. xviii. 21-23.

3 Isa. xxxi. 6.

Ib. xlv. 22-24.

2 Joel ii. 12, 13.
4 Ib. i. 16-18.
6 Ib. lv. 3-6.

Lord thy God, and hast not heard My voice. Return, O ye revolting children, for I am your father, and will bring you into Sion. And I will give you pastors according to My own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine." "1 "Return, ye rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions." 2 "Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest My indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can quench it because of the wickedness of your hearts." 3 "Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?" 4 "For My foolish people have not known Me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."5 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, be converted to the Lord thy God.

ARTICLE IX.

A humble supplication of the children of Israel to God.

"We beseech Thee, O Lord God, great and terrible, who keepest the covenant, and dost mercy to them that love Thee. We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, and have revolted; and we have gone astray from Thy commandments, and Thy judgments. We have not hearkened to Thy servants the prophets, that have spoken in Thy name to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, and to all the people of the

1 Jerem. iii. 12-15.
3 Ib. iv. 4.

2 Ib. iii. 22.

4 Ib. iv. 14.

5 Ib. iv. 22.

land. To Thee, O Lord, justice; but to us confusion of face, as at this day to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, to them that are near, and to them that are afar off in all the countries whither Thou hast driven them, for their iniquities by which they have sinned against Thee." 1 "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and Thy name is worthy of praise, and glorious for ever, for Thou art just in all that Thou hast done to us, and all Thy works are true, and Thy ways right, and all Thy judgments true. For thou hast executed true judgment in all the things that Thou hast brought upon us, and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our fathers: for according to truth and judgment, Thou hast brought all these things upon us for our sins. For we have sinned and committed iniquity, departing from Thee: and we have trespassed in all things; and we have not hearkened to Thy commandments, nor have we observed nor done as Thou hast commanded us, that it might go well with us. Wherefore all that Thou hast brought upon us, and everything that Thou hast done to us, Thou hast done in true judgment. . . . Deliver us not up for ever, we beseech Thee, for Thy name's sake. And take not away Thy mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham Thy beloved, and Isaac Thy servant, and Israel Thy holy one: to whom Thou hast spoken, promising that Thou wouldst multiply their seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea-shore. For we, O Lord, are diminished more than any nation, and are brought low in all the earth this day for our sins. And now we follow Thee with all our heart, and we fear Thee and seek Thy face.

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I Dan. ix. 4-9.

Put us not to confusion, but deal with us according to Thy meekness, and according to the multitude of Thy mercies." 1 "Behold Thou art angry, and we have sinned: Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast crushed us in the hand of our iniquity. And now, O Lord, Thou art our Father, and we are clay and Thou art our Maker, and we are all the works of Thy hands. Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold, see, we are all Thy people. The city of Thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert, Jerusalem is desolate. The house of our holiness, and of our glory, where our fathers praised Thee, is burnt with fire, and all our lovely things are turned into ruin." "O Lord, Thy eyes are upon truth; Thou hast struck, us and we have not grieved: Thou has bruised us, and we have refused to receive correction: we have made our faces harder than the rock, and we have refused to return." 3 "We have sinned before the Lord our God, and we have not believed Him, nor put our trust in Him: and we were not obedient unto Him, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His commandments, which He hath given us. From the day that He brought our fathers out of the land of Egypt even to this day, we were disobedient to the Lord our God: and going astray, we turned away from hearing His voice. And many evils have cleaved to us, and the curses which the Lord foretold by Moses His servant. And we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God according to all the words of the prophets whom He sent to us and we have gone away

1 Dan. iii. 26.

3 Jerem. v. 3.

2 Isa. lxiv. 5-12.

every man after the inclinations of his own wicked heart to do evil in the sight of the Lord our God." 1 "We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee. Give us not to be a reproach, for Thy name's sake, and do not disgrace in us the throne of Thy glory."2 "And now, O Lord God of Israel, who hast brought Thy people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and with signs, and with wonders, and with great power, and with a mighty arm, and hast made Thee a name as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have acted unjustly, O Lord our God, against all Thy justices. Let Thy wrath be turned away from us, for we are left a few among the nations where Thou hast scattered us. Hear, O Lord, our prayers and our petitions, and deliver us for Thy own sake, and grant that we may find favour in the sight of them that have led us away, that all the earth may know that Thou art the Lord our God, and that Thy name is called upon Israel, and upon his posterity. Look down upon us, O Lord, from Thy holy house, and incline Thy ear and hear us."3 "O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be confounded: they that depart from Thee shall be written in the earth: because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved for Thou art my praise."4 "0 thou sword of the Lord, how long wilt thou not be quiet? Go into thy scabbard, rest and be still." "O Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,

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1 Baruch i. 17-22.
3 Baruch ii. 11-16.

2 Jerem. xiv. 20, 21.
4 Jerem. xvii. 13, 14.

5 Ib. xlvii. 6.

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