I have now done; I am only to mind you of another duty, which is to accompany our repentance, and falting, and prayer, as a teftimony of the fincerity of our repentance, and one of the best means to make our fafting and prayer acceptable to God, and to turn away his judgments from us, and that is charity and alms to the poor, whofe number is very great among us, and their neceffities very preffing and clamorous; and therefore do call for a bountiful fupply.

And, to convince men of the neceffity of this duty, and the efficacy of it in conjunction with our repentance, and fafting, and prayers, I fhall only offer to your confideration a few plain texts of fcripture, which need no comment upon them, Dan. iv. 27. It is the Prophet's advice to Nebuchadnezzar; Break off thy fins by righteoufnefs, and thine iniquity by fhewing mercy to the poor; if fo be it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. Acts x. 4. The angel there tells Cornelius, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. Ifa. Iviii. 5. Is not this the faft which I have chofen, to loofe the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppreffed go free, and that ye break every joke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are caft out to thy house; when thou feeff the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh? then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health fhall Spring forth Speedily, and thy righteousness fhall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord fhall be thy reward: then shalt thou call, and the Lord fball anfwer thee: thou shalt cry, and he fhall fay, here I am. To which I will only add that gracious promife of our Saviour; Blessed are the merciful, for they fhall find mercy; and that terrible fentence in St. James, He fhall have judgment without mercy, that hath fhewed no mercy.

SERMON N

CLXI.

Of confeffion and forrow for fin.

PSAL. XXXviii. 18.

I will declare mine iniquity, and be forry for my fin.

IN

N this pfalm David does earneftly beg mercy and forgiveness of God, and in order to the obtaining of it, he declares both his fins, and his repentance for them in these words, which contain in them two of the neceffary ingredients, or at least concomitants of a true repentance, viz. confeffion of fin, and for row for it.

I fhall fpeak fomething of the first of these, viz. confeffion of fin: But the second, viz. forrrow for fin, shall be the main fubject of my difcourfe.

Firft, Confeffion of fin; I will declare mine iniquity; or, as it is in the old tranflation, I will confefs my wickedness. Of which I fhall fpeak under thefe three heads. 1. What confeffion of fin is.

3. What are the reafons and grounds of this neceffity.

I. What confeffion of fin is. It is a declaration or acknowledgment of fome moral evil or fault to another, which we are conscious to ourselves we have been guil ty of. And this acknowledgment may be made by us, either to God or man. The fcripture mentions both. Confeflion of our fins to God is very frequently mentioned in fcripture, as the first and neceffary part of repentance; and fometimes, and in fome cafes, confeffion to men is not only recommended but enjoined.

II. How far confeffion of our fins is neceffary. That it is neceffary to confefs our fins to God, the fcripture plainly declares, and is I think a matter out of all difpute.

For

them;

For it is a neceffary part of repentance, that we should confefs our fins to God, with a due fenfe of the evil of and therefore the fcripture maketh this a neceffary qualification and condition of pardon and forgiveness. Prov. xxviii. 13. Whofo confeffeth and for fuketh his fins fhall have mercy. 1 John i. 9. If we confess our fins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our fins, and to cleanfe us from all unrighteousness; implying, that if we do not confefs our fins to God, the guilt of them will ftill remain; to God, I fay; for of confeffion to him St. John plainly speaks, when he fays, he is faithful and juft. Who? God furely; who, though he be not named before, yet is neceffarily understood in the words before; If we confefs our fins, i. e. to God, he is faithful and juft.

A general confeffion of our fins is abfolutely neceffary; and, in fome cafes, a particular acknowledgment of them, and repentance for them, especially if the fins have been great, and deliberate, and prefumptuous; in this cafe, a particular confeffion of them, and repentance for them, is necessary, so far as we can particularly recollect them, and call them to remembrance: whereas, for fins of ignorance and infirmity, of furprize and daily incurfion, for leffer omiffions, and the defects and imperfections of our best actions and fervices, we have all the reason that can be to believe, that God will ac cept of a general confeffion of them, and repentance for them. And, if any man ask me, where I find this diftinction in fcripture between a general and particular repentance; I answer, that it is not neceffary it should be any where expreffed in fcripture, being fo clearly founded in the nature and reafon of the thing; because, in many cafes, it is not poffible that we fhould have a particular knowledge and remembrance of all our particular fins; as is plain in fins of ignorance, fince our very calling them by that name does neceffarily fuppofe that we do not know them. It is impoffible wel fhould remember thofe fins afterwards which we did not know when they were committed: and therefore either a general repentance for thefe and the other fins I mention-> ed of the like nature, must be fufficient, in order to the pardon of them; or we must say, that they are unpar

X 3

don

donable, which would be very unreasonable, because this would be to make leffer fins more unpardonable than those which are far greater.

And yet, though this difference between a general and particular repentance be no where exprefly mentioned in fcripture, there does not want foundation for it there. Pfal. xix. 12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanfe thou me from fecret fins, i. e. fuch as we do not difcern and take notice of when they are committed. And yet David fuppofeth, that upon a general acknowledgment of them, and repentance for them, we may be cleanfed from them, tho' we cannot make a particular acknowledgment of them, and exercife a particular repentance for them, because they are fecret, and we do not particularly understand what they are.

As for our confeffing our fins to men, both scripture and reafon do in fome cafes recommend and enjoin it. As, 1. In order to the obtaining of the prayers of good men for us. James v. 16. Confefs your fins one to another; he faid before, the prayer of faith fhall fave the fick, and the Lord shall raise him up. This in all probability is meant of the miraculous power of prayer, which St. Chryfoftom reckons among the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, bestowed upon Chriftians in the first ages of the church and this is very much countenanced and confirmed by what prefently follows after this command of confeffing our fins to one another, and praying one for another, and given as the reafon of it; for the effectual. fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The original is δέησις ἐνεργουμένη, "the infpired prayer," which in the verfe before is called the prayer of faith, meaning that miraculous faith, in the power whereof Chriftians did obtain of God whatever they were infpired to ask of him; according to our Saviour's promise in the gofpel, concerning the efficacy of the prayers of Chriftians, which we find mentioned among the other miraculous powers which were to be conferred upon then by the coming of the Holy Ghost.

2. Confeffion of our fins to men is likewife reasonable, in order to the ease and fatisfaction of our minds, and our being directed in our duty for the future. In this cafe common reafon and prudence, without any precept

of

of fcripture, will direct men to have recourse to this remedy, viz. to discover and lay open our disease to some fkilful fpiritual phyfician, to fome faithful friend or prudent guide, in order to fpiritual advice and direction, for peace and fatisfaction of our minds. And then,

the

3. In cafe our fins have been publick and fcandalous, both reafon and the practice of the Chriftian church do require, that when men have publickly offended, they fhould give publick fatisfaction, and open teftimony of their repentance.

But as for private and auricular confeffion of our fins to a Priest in all cafes, and as of abfolute neceffity to our obtaining pardon and forgiveness from God, as the church of Rome teacheth, this is neither neceffary by divine precept, nor by any conftitution and practice of the antient Chriftian church, as I have fhewn in my former difcourfe.

Not to mention the bad confequence of this practice, and the impious and dangerous ufe which hath been made of this feal of confeflion, for the concealing and carrying on of the moft wicked and barbarous defigns, and the debauching of the penitents, by drawing them into the commiffion of the fame and greater fins than those which they confessed, which the more devout perfons of that church have frequently complained of; I proceed now to fhew briefly, in the

III. Place, the grounds and reafons of the neceffity of confeffing our fins to God; and I shall but just mention them.

1. From the precept and command of God; for which I have already produced clear proof of fcripture.'

2. From the nature of the thing, because, without this, there can be no repentance towards God. He that will not fo much as own the faults which he hath been guilty of, can never repent of them. If we will not confefs our fins to God, we are never like to be forry for them. Thus much for the first thing in the text, the confeffion of our fins. I proceed now to the

Second ingredient of repentance mentioned in the text, which is forrow for fin; I will declare mine iniquity, and be forry for my fin. In the handling of this argument, 1 fhall,

1. Con