Third Day. CONFESSION. LORD, behold, we are vile, what shall we answer Thee? we will lay our hand upon our mouth, and put our mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope, crying with the convicted leper under the law, unclean, unclean. 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. 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. 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. Cleanse Thou us Who can understand his errors? from secret faults. We have minded the things of the flesh more than the things of the spirit, and have made provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it, even those lusts which war against our souls, and in many instances have acted as if we had been lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. PETITION. For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon our iniquity, for it is great; for innumerable evils have compassed us about, our iniquities have taken hold upon us, so that we are not able to look up. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver us; O Lord, make haste to help us. Fulfil in us all the good pleasure of Thy goodness, and the work of faith with power. Let the Spirit of truth guide us into all truth, and cause us to understand wherein we have erred. Lord, unto us let it be given to believe; for the grace by which we are saved is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We come to the Throne of grace, that we may obtain not only mercy to pardon, but grace to help in every time of need. Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him let us have access into that grace wherein believers stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. THANKSGIVING. We bless Thee, O God, that when sacrifice and offerings Thou wouldest not, and in them hadst no pleasure, that the Eternal Son of God said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God; and that in the volume of the book it was written of Him, He did delight to do Thy will, O God, yea, Thy law was within His heart. We bless Thee that Thou wast in Christ, reconciling the world unto Thyself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and that Thou hast committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Lord, we receive it as a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. We know that He is a teacher come from God, since no man could do those miracles which He did, except God were with Him. Also, that He hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us unto our God kings and priests. INTERCESSION. O let the Gospel be preached to every creature; for how shall men believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? and who shall send forth labourers but the Lord of the harvest? O teach transgressors Thy ways, and let sinners be converted unto Thee. Let all that set themselves, and take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed, that would break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from them, imagine a vain thing. Let Thy way be known upon earth, that barbarous nations may be civilised, and those that live without God in the world may be brought to the service of the living God; and thus let Thy saving health be known unto all nations. And now, O God, enable us to go from strength to strength, until we appear before Thee in Zion. Amen. |