altar of the cross! seeing that the generality of Christians make no other return for these thy mercies, than contempt of thy favours, forgetfulness of their own obligations, and ingratitude to the best of benefactors; is it not just that we, thy servants, penetrated with the deepest sense of the like indignities, should enter upon a due and satisfactory reparation of honour to thy most sacred majesty? Prostrate, therefore, in body, and humbled in mind, before heaven and earth, we solemnly declare our utter detestation and abhorrence of such a conduct. Inexpressible, we know, was the bitterness which the multitude of our sins brought upon thy tender heart; insufferable the weight of our iniquities which pressed thy face to the earth in the Garden of Olives; and unsurmountable thy anguish, when expiring with love, grief, and agony, on Mount Calvary, in thy last breath thou wouldst reclaim sinners to their duty and repentance. This we know, O dear Redeemer! and would most willingly redress these thy sufferings by our own, or share with thee in thine.
