That We May Not Proceed In Our Wickedness

Grant, Almighty God, that, since you have hitherto so kindly invited us to yourself, and daily invite us, and often interpose your threatening to rouse our inattention, and since we have been inattentive to your reproofs, as well as to your paternal kindness--O, grant that we may not, to the last, proceed in our wickedness, and thus provoke the vengeance you denounce on men past recovery; but that we may anticipate your wrath by true repentance, and be humbled under your hand, that you may receive us into favor, and nourish us in your paternal bosom, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(a prayer of John Calvin, in his Commentary on Hosea, translated into English in 1846 and updated by me into modern English)