One of the Prayers from the Valley of Vision
Oh Changeless God
Under the conviction of the thy Spirit I learn the more I do the worse I am,
the more I know, the less I know,
the more holiness I have, the more sinful I am,
the more I love, the more there is to love.
O wretched man that I am!
I have a wild heart, and cannot stand before thee;
I am like a bird before a man.
How little I love they truth and ways.
I neglect prayer,
by thinking I have prayed enough and earnestly, by knowing thou hast saved my soul.
Of all the hypocrites, grant that I may not be an evangelical hypocrite who sins more safely because abounds, who tells his lusts that Christ’s blood cleaneth them, who reasons that God cannot cast him into hell, for he is saved, who loves evangelical preaching, churches, christians, but lives unholily
My mind is a bucket without a bottom, with no spiritual understanding, no desire for the the Lord’s Day, ever learning but ever reaching the truth always at the gospel-well but never holding water.
My conscience is without conviction or contrition with nothing to repent of.
My will is without power of decision or resolution.
My heart is without affections and full of leaks
My memory has no retention, so I forget easily the lessons learned and thy truth seep away.
Give me a broken heart that yet carries home the water of grace
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