Wouldest
thou learn words of thanksgiving? Hearken unto the Three Children, saying, ‘We
have sinned, we have transgressed. Thou art righteous, O Lord, in all that thou
hast done unto us, because thou hast brought all things upon us by a true
judgment’ (Prayer of Azariah; Book of Daniel LXX). For to confess one’s own
sins, this is to give thanks with confessions unto God: a kind of thing which
implies one to be guilty of numberless offenses, yet not to have the due
penalty exacted. This man most of all is the giver of thanks.
