Wesley Corpus

How excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! The children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” And therefore do we still look up to that bountiful hand, from whence we have received all our good things. O Lord our God, be favourable unto us, as thou usest to be unto those that love thy holy name! O look not upon the sin of our nature, nor the sins of our hearts and lives, which are more than we can remember, and greater than we can express. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because thy compassions fail not. But thou lookest upon the face of thine Anointed, who was manifested to take away our sins; by whom it is that we have the access unto the Majesty on high. O God, be merciful to us miserable sinners, for his sake whom “thou hast exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance” unto thy people, “and forgiveness of sins.” Be merciful, O God, be merciful unto our souls, which have greatly sinned against thee. O heal our backslidings; renew us to repentance; establish our hearts in thy fear and love; and establish our goings in thy way, that our footsteps slip not. Let us waver no more; let us never more be weary or faint in our minds; let us not revolt from thee, or turn to folly again, after thou hast spoken peace to our souls; but may we go on conquering and to conquer all the enemies of our souls, and all the hinderances of our salvation, till thou hast bruised Satan under our feet. Seeing there is in Christ Jesus an infinite fulness of all that we can want or wish, O that we may all receive of his fulness, grace upon grace; grace to pardon our sins, and subdue our iniquities; to justify our persons and to sanctify our souls; and to complete that holy change, that renewal of our hearts, whereby we may be transformed into that blessed image wherein thou didst create us. O make us all meet to be partakers of the inheritance of thy saints in light. And teach us, O God, to use this world without abusing it; and to receive the things needful for the body, without losing our part in thy love, which is better than life itself.