Lancelot Andrewes · 32 of 61

Confession

Behold, Thou art angry, for we have sinned. We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses as filthy rags. We all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are clay, all Thy handiwork. Be not wroth very sore, nor remember iniquity for ever, behold, see, we beseech Thee, we are all Thy people. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy Name’s sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against Thee. Yet Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy Name, leave us, not. O Hope of Israel, The Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? why shouldest Thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Be merciful to our unrighteousnesses, and our iniquities remember no more. Lord, I am carnal, sold under sin; there dwelleth in me, that is, in my flesh, no good thing; for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. I consent unto the law that it is good, I delight in it after the inner man; But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and enslaving me to the law of sin. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, that where sin abounded, grace hath much more‑abounded. O Lord, Thy goodness leadeth me to repentance: O give me sometime repentance to recover me from the snare of the devil, who am taken captive by him, at his will. Sufficient for me the past time of my life to have done the will of lusts, walking in lasciviousness, revelling, drunkenness, and in other excess of profligacy. O Lamb without blemish and without spot, who hast redeemed me with Thy precious Blood, in that very Blood pity me and save me; in that Blood, and in that very Name, besides which is none other under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved. O God, Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee. Lord, Thou knowest all my desire, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. Let not them that trust in Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my cause; let not those that seek Thee be confounded through me, O Lord God of Israel. Take me out of the mire that I sink not; O let me, be delivered from them that hate me and out of the deep waters; Let not the water flood drown me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.