This prayer comes at the end of ‘Lecture Eighth’ on Jeremiah, in which God bemoans the fact that “the whole people were unteachable….they were hard-necked and untameable; for he had tried to correct them by scourges, but effected nothing.”
“Grant, Almighty God, that since thou, in thy paternal kindness, daily invitest us to thyself, we may not harden ourselves against thy holy and salutary admonitions; and whenever thou chastisest us with scourges, may we not become obdurate against thee, but learn humbly to submit to thy word, and receive thy chastisement, and so profit by both, that we may not be exposed to the extreme judgement which thou denouncest on the obstinate; but may we, on the contrary, open a way for thy paternal goodness, so that thou mayest kindly deal with us, until thou receives us into that blessed rest which has been prepared for us in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Commentary on Jeremiah, vol 1, p133
Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1989