#3 Part I, Chapter IX. All God’s Deeds of Kindness Testify to the Gravity of Our Sins.
O holy God, just Judge, the more deeds of kindness You have bestowed upon me, the more I am grieved that I have so often offended You, such a benevolent Father. Every gift you have bestowed upon me is like a bond of love. You have willed that I be bound to You, but I heaped up the number of sins, having forgotten You and Your kindness. I have sinned Father, against heaven and before You. I am not worthy to be called Your son. Make me as one of Your hired servants [Luke 15:19]. I am totally dissatisfied with myself. Grant that I be totally pleasing to You. The riches of Your goodness and Your extraordinary patience [Rom. 2:4] have for a long time called me to repentance, but so far I have declined to come. O most benevolent Father, again and again You have called me to repentance through the preaching of the Word, through the admonition of creation, through the reproof shown on Christ on the cross, through the internal working of the Holy Spirit. But I have completely closed my ears to this calling. (Text continues with Advent Four) (from The Daily Exercise of Piety by Johann Gerhard, Repristination Press, p.26-27)