My dear Father, I always confess and you can see that as I walk or stand, every particle of my inner and out being, together with my body and soul, deserves hell and fire. When all is said and done, you, my Father, know that of my own accord there is not even a hair on my head, nor any other thing in me, that is good. Everything that belongs to me is hunted by the hated devil for the bottomless pit.
What can I say about it? In spite of who I am, I continue to pray to you, my dear Father. Do not stare and search me with your eyes, for I would be lost and destroyed, even if a hundred thousand worlds were mine! But I ask you to look at the face of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, your anointed one, my Mediator, High Priest, and Advocate; my Savior, Redeemer, and Benefactor. O my Father, be gracious and merciful for his sake, not mine.
Grant me a happy end and a glad resurrection, for the sake of your dear Son, Jesus Christ. Help my body in this world, and my soul in the world to come, because of the crimson blood which he has shed on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins, and because of my many sins which cannot be named, which because of your righteousness you will not cover. I pray you now, my Father, because of your infinite mercy permit the blood of Jesus Christ your Son to accomplish its purpose in me. It was willed by you from eternity that the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross should pay for the forgiveness and remission of my sins.
So in whatever hour or moment by day or night you will come and knock to require my spirit which you have breathed into me, I pray you continually, dear Father, to permit this spirit, which is my soul, to be commended into your hands. I ask this because of the blood, sufferings, and death of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 70-71.
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