we have done to any of his Attributes. By thus accufing and condemning ourselves, we do Right to God's Sovereignty and abfolute Power, by acknowledging him to have both a Right and an Ability to punish us. We do Right likewife to his Goodnefs, fince we acknowledge that we have acted vilely and unworthily, and against our own Interefts, in tranfgrefling his Laws, which i we cannot but be fenfible are infinitely reasonable and good, and much for our Advantage to obferve. To his Omniprefence and Omnifcience also we make fome Satisfaction, fince our Confeffion of our Faults fuppofeth that we have a Senfe that God knows and taketh notice of all our Actions. In a word, by hearty and penitent Confeffion of our Sins, we both justify God, and give Glory to him. We may say both thefe Things, because we have Warrant from Scripture for them. David, in the 51ft Pfalm, therefore makes a Confeffion of his Sins to God, That God might Ver. 4. be juftified in his Sentence, and clear when he is judged. And when Joshua exhorts Achan to confefs his Sin, tho' yet it was well enough known already in the Congregation, the Argument he useth to perfuade him, was, that this Confeffion was for the Glory of God. My Son, fays he, give Glory to the Joh.7.19. Lord God of Ifrael, and make Confeffion unto

bim.

This that I have faid is abundantly fufficient to fhew what great Reason there is, that Confeffion of Sins fhould be made fo indifpenfible a Condition of the Forgiveness of them.

I might add several other Confiderations, drawn from the great Benefits and Advantages that we ourselves do receive by the Practice of it; as for Inftance, the great Peace, and Comfort, and Satisfaction that it muft needs yield to an afflicted, troubled Mind, thus to have disburden'd itself of all its Loads and Incumbrances (as certainly, to a fenfible Spirit, the Conscience of Sin is of all others the greatest Burden.) So that upon this Acconnt God's obliging us to the Confeffion of our Sins is the greatest Mercy to us that can be. I might add alfo another Confideration, viz. the mighty Obligation that this Practice of Confeffion doth lay upon all of us to forfake the Sins we do thus confefs. Such an Obligation, that really we must be impudent if we can always confefs, and yet always return to the fame Sins again. So that upon this Account it must be acknowledged that it is as much for our Good, as for the Reafonableness of the Thing, that Confeffion of Sins is made fo neceffary a Part of Repen

tance.

But I fhall wave thefe Things, and proceed (by way of Application of what has been faid) to fay fomething of the Manner

in which we are to confefs our Sins, and to give a few Directions about it.

The great Business that we have to take care of in the Exercife of this Part of Repentance, is, that we do deeply affect our felves with a Sense of the great Evil of Sin, and the Affront it puts upon the Divine Majefty; as alfo with a Sense of the infinite Obligations we are under to obey all the Laws of God, both upon the Account that they are so just and reasonable in themfelves, and likewife upon Account that God, by so many Inftances of Kindness to us (as every one of us, if we would reflect, can give Thousands of Inftances to ourselves) hath laid fuch powerful and irresistible Engagements upon us to live up to a Conformity to them.

1. If now we be affected with a Sense of these Things as we ought to be, we shall in the first place, whenever we approach to God to confefs our Sins, express a hearty Sorrow for having offended fo good, fo kind, fo gracious a God, fo continual a Benefactor: For having tranfgreffed fuch righteous, fuch unexceptionable Laws, which were given us purely for our Benefit; and which we can never tranfgrefs but we act against ourselves and our own Interefts. We fhall blufh at our extreme Ingratitude to God, and fee our own Folly in fo unaccountably departing from him in any Inftances; and at the fame time we

have these Thoughts, we fhall seriously refolve to be wifer for the future, and accordingly we shall anew dedicate and devote ourselves to the Service of God our Creator, and Jefus Chrift our Redeemer, renewing our Vows and Purposes that we have fo often made to him, in a faithful Endeavour, in all our Thoughts, and Words, and Deeds, to govern ourselves by the Laws he hath prescribed us. All this is implied in the Notion of religious Confeffion, as I have before explained it, and is indeed the very Life and Soul of it.

2. But then, fecondly, The more particular our Confeffion is, the better it is, and the more acceptable it will be: Not upon Account that God ever needs to be inform'd of what Faults we are guilty, or takes any Delight in a Rehearsal of a long Catalogue of Sins; but because this particular Confeffion is an Argument and an Expreffion of the Sincerity of our Repentance, and fhews that we have fearched and examined our Hearts to the Bottom, and that we harbour no concealed Affection to any particular Sin whatsoever, but that we are willing to bring out every Enemy that speaks Oppofition to God and his Laws, to be flain before him.

3. But, thirdly, He that confeffeth as he fhould do, will be fure not to favour himfelf in his Confeffion; he will not be forward to make Excufe or Apologies for his

Sins. He will not fay, that the Faults he hath been guilty of, are either little in their own Nature, or brought upon him by fuch Temptations as he could not avoid. On the contrary, he will rather aggravate his Faults, and lay a Load upon himself, that God may lay the lefs Load upon him. He will acknowledge himself to be a base, vile, unworthy Creature, unfaithful to his Vows and folemn Purposes, and ungrateful to his God, who is every Day heaping Obligations upon him. He will remember all the Engagements God hath laid upon him, and that he hath laid upon himself, to a ftrict Life of Virtue and Holinefs. He will bitterly cenfure his own Folly and unaccountable Extravagance, that he hath in any Inftance departed from those Rules. In a word, the aggravating Circumstances which he can in his own Mind apply to his Sins, will fo affect him, that he fhall become vile and mean in his own Eyes; fo unworthy a Thing, that he will from the Bottom of his Heart profefs to God, that he is not worthy the leaft of his Mercies. And certainly this is the Confeffion that is acceptable to God. This is the judging of 1 Cor. 11. ourselves that the Apoftle fpeaks of, by which we prevent our being judged of the Lord. And lastly, this is that Oblation which David fpeaks of, of a broken and Pf. 51.17. contrite Heart, which he says, God will

not defpife.

31.

4. But,