That We May Ever Submit Ourselves to You

Grant, Almighty God, that as you so kindly call on us daily by your voice, meekly and calmly to offer ourselves to be ruled by you, and since you have exalted us to a high degree of honor by freeing us from the dread of the devil, and from that tyranny which kept us in miserable fear, and have also favored us with the Spirit of adoption and of hope--O, grant that we, being mindful of these benefits, may ever submit ourselves to you, and desire only to raise our voice for this end, that the whole world may submit itself to you, and that those who seem now to rage against you may at length be brought, as well as we, to render obedience to you, so that your Son Christ may be the Lord of all, to the end that you alone may be exalted, and that we may be made subject to you, and be at length raised up above, and become partakers of that glory which has been obtained for us by 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)

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