The Practice of Piety

O Lord our GOD and heavenly father, who art the only Creator & Governor of Heaven and Earth, and all things therein contained, we confess that we are unworthy to appear in thy sight and presence, considering our manifold sins which we have committed against Heaven, and before thee: and how that we have been borne in sin, and do daily break thy holy Laws and Commandments, contrary to our knowledge and Consciences, albeit that we know ⟨p. 439⟩that thou art our Creator, who hast made us; our Redeemer, who hast bought us with the blood of thine only begotten Son; and our Comforter, who bestowest upon us all the good and holy graces, which we enjoy in our souls and bodies. And if thou shouldest but deal with us, as our wickedness and unthankfulness have deserved; what other thing might we, O Lord, expect from thee, but shame and confusion in this life, and in the world to come wrath and everlasting condemnation? Yet, O Lord, in the obedience of thy Commandment, and in the confidence which we have in thy unspeakable and endless mercy in thy Son, our ⟨p. 440⟩Saviour Jesus Christ: we thy poor Servants appealing from thy Throne of Justice (where we are justly lost and condemned) to thy throne of Grace (where mercy reigneth to pardon abounding sin:) do from the bottom of our hearts most humbly beseech thee to remit and forgive unto us all our offences and misdeeds, that by the virtue of the precious blood of JESUS CHRIST, thine innocent Lamb, which he so abundantly shed to take away the sins of the world: all our sins both original and actual, may be so cleansed and washed from us, as that they may never be laid to our charge, nor never have power to rise