We have sinned, Father, against heaven and before you; we have all
We have cast off fear, and restrained prayer before God; have not called upon your name, nor stirred up ourselves to take hold on you.
Job 15:4. Isaiah 64:7.
We have come before you as your people come, and have sat before you as your people sit, and have heard your words, when our hearts at the same time have been going after our covetousness. And thus have we brought the torn, and the lame, and the sick for sacrifice, have offered that to our God, which we would not have offered to our governor; and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a corrupt thing, when we had in our flock a male. Ezekiel33:31. Malachi 1:8,
6. WE MUST LIKEWISE BEWAIL OUR MANY ACTUAL TRANSGRESSIONS, IN THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED We have sinned, Father, against heaven and before you; we have all sinned and have come short of the glory of God; for the God in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, have we not glorified. Luke 15:18. Romans 3:23. Daniel 5:23.
Against you, you only have we sinned and have done much evil in your sight; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he hath set before us; though they are all holy, just, and good. Psalm 51:4. Daniel 9:10. Romans 7:12.
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse us from secret faults.
In many things we all offend; and our iniquities are more than the hairs of our head. James 3:2. Psalm 40-12.
As a fountain cast out her waters, so do our hearts cast out wickedness; and this hath been our manner from our youth up, that we have not obeyed your voice. Jeremiah 6:7. Jeremiah 22:21.
Out of the evil treasure of our hearts we have brought forth many evil things. Matthew 12.35.
6.1. We must confess andbewail the workings ofpride in us.
We have all reason to be humbled for the pride of our hearts, that we have thought of ourselves above what hath been meet, and have not thought soberly, nor walked humbly with our God. 2 Chronicles
32:26. Romans 12.3. Micah 6.8.
We have leaned to our own understanding; and trusted in our own hearts; and have sacrificed to our own net. Proverbs 3:5. Proverbs
28:26. Habakkuk 1:16.
We have sought our own glory more than the glory of him that sent us; and have been puffed up for that for which we should have mourned. John 7:18. 1 Corinthians 5:2.
6.2. The breaking out ofpassion andrash anger.
We have not had the rule which we ought to have had over our own spirits, which have therefore been as a city that is broken down and has no walls. Proverbs 25:28.
We have been soon angry, and anger hath rested in ourbosoms. And when our spirits have been provoked, we have spoken unadvisedly with our lips; and have been guilty of that clamor and bitterness which should have been put far from us. Proverbs 14:17. Ecclesiastes
7:9. Psalm 106:33. Ephesians 4:31.
6.3. Our covetousness and love of the world.
Our conversation has not been without covetousness, nor have we learned in every state to be content with such things as we have.
Hebrews 13.5. Philippians 4:11.
Who can say he is clean from that love of money, which is the root of all evil, that covetousness which is idolatry. 1 Timothy 6:10.
We have sought great things for ourselves, when you have said, Seek them not. Jeremiah 45:5.
6.4. Our sensuality andflesh-pleasing.
We have minded the things of the flesh more than the things of the Spirit, and have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, and have nourished our hearts as in a day of slaughter. Romans 8:5.
We 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 ifwe had been lovers ofpleasure more than lovers of God.
Romans 13:14. 1 Peter 2:11. 2 Timothy 3:4.
When we did eat, and when we did drink, did we not eat to ourselves, and drink to ourselves? Zechariah 7:6.
6.5. Our security and unmindfulness of the changes we are liable to in this world.
We have put far from us the evil day, and in our prosperity have said we should never be moved, as iftomorrow must needs be as this day, and much more abundant. Amos 6.3. Psalm 30:6. Isaiah 56:12.
We have encouraged our souls to take their ease, to eat and drink and be merry, as if we had goods laid up for many years, when perhaps this night our souls may be required of us. Luke 12:19, 20.
We have been ready to trust in uncertain riches more than in the living God; to say to the gold you are our hope, and to the fine gold you are our confidence. 1 Timothy 6:17. Job 31:24.
6.6. Ourfretfulness and impatience and murmuring under our afflictions, our inordinate dejection, and distrust of GodandHis providence.
When you have chastised us and we were chastised, we have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; and though our own foolishness hath perverted our way, yet our heart hath fretted against the Lord; and thus, in our distress we have trespassed yet more against the Lord. Jeremiah 31:18. Proverbs 19:3.
We have either despised the chastening of the Lord or fainted when we have been rebuked of him; and ifwe faint in the day of adversity, our strength is small. Proverbs 3:11. Proverbs 24:10.
We have said in our haste we are cut offfrom before your eyes, and that the Lord hath forsaken us, our God hath forgotten us, as if God would be favorable no more; as if he had forgotten to be gracious and had in anger shut up his tender mercies. This has been our infirmity. Psalm 31:22. Isaiah 49:14. Psalm 77:7, 9, 10.
6.7. Our uncharitableness towards our brethren, and unpeaceableness with our relations, neighbors andfriends, and perhaps injustice towards them.
We have been verily guilty concerning our brother; for we have not studied the things that make for peace, nor things wherewith we might edify one another. Genesis 42:21. Romans 14:19.
We have been ready to judge our brother, and to set at nought our brother, forgetting that we must all shortly stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14:10.
Contrary to the royal law ofcharity, we have vaunted ourselves, and been puffed up, have behaved ourselves unseemly, and sought our own, have been easily provoked, have rejoiced in iniquity, and been secretly glad at calamities.
1 Corinthians 13:4, 5, 6. Proverbs 17:5.
We have been desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another; when we should have considered one another to provoke to love and to good works. Galatians 5:26. Hebrews
The bowels of our compassion have been shut up from those that are in need; and we have hidden ourselves from our own flesh. Nay, perhaps our eye has been evil against our poor brother, and we have despised the poor. 1 John 3:17. Isaiah 58:7. Deuteronomy 15:9. James
And if in anything we have gone beyond and defrauded our brother, ifwe have walked with vanity, and our foot hath hasted to deceit, and any blot hath cleaved to our hands, Lord, discover it to us, that if we have done iniquity, we may do so no more. 1
Thessalonians 4:6. Job 31:5, 7. Job 34:32.
6.8. Our tongue sins.
In the multitude of our words there wanted not sin, nor can a man full of talk be justified. Proverbs 10:19. Job 11:2.
While the lips of the righteous feed many, our lips have poured out foolishness and spoken frowardness. Proverbs 10:21. Proverbs 15:2.
Much corrupt communication hath proceeded out of our mouths; that foolish talking and jesting which is not convenient; and little of that which is good, and to the use of edifying, and which might minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29. Ephesians 5:4.
Iffor every idle word that men speak they must give an account, and by our words we must be justified, and by our words we must be condemned, Woe unto us, for we are undone! for we are ofunclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Matthew
12:36, 37. Isaiah 6:5.
What would become ofus, if God should make our own tongues to fall upon us. Psalm 64:8.
6.9. Our spiritualslothfulness and decay.