a little continent of air big enough to make a fire-ball, or the revolution of a minute's walk. These when they are alone, and do not actually and with effect minister to the wise counsels and firm progressions of a holy life, are as far from procuring pardon, as they are from a life of piety and holiness. SECTION VIII. 100. XIV. In the making confession of our sins, let us be most careful to do it so, as may most glorify God, and advance the reputation of his wisdom, his justice, and his mercy. For if we consider it, in all judicatories of the world, and in all the arts and violences of men which have been used to extort confessions, their purposes have been, that justice should be done, that the public wisdom and authority should not be dishonoured; that public criminals should not be defended or assisted by public pity, or the voice of the people sharpened against the public rods and axes, by supposing they have smitten the innocent. Confession of the crime prevents all these evils, and does well serve all these good ends. Gnosius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, So the heathens did suppose was done in the lower regions. The judge did examine and hear their crimes and crafts, and even there compelled them to confess,' that the eternal justice may be publicly acknowledged; for all the honour that we can do to the divine attributes, is publicly to confess them, and make others so to do; for so God is pleased to receive honour from us. Therefore, repentance being a return to God, a ceasing to dishonour him any more, and a restoring him, as far as we can, to the honour we deprived him of ;—it ought to be done with as much humility and sorrow, with as clear glorifications of God and condemnations of ourselves, as we can. To which purpose, 101. XV. He that confesseth his sins, must do it with all sincerity and simplicity of spirit, not to serve ends, or to make religion the minister of design; but to destroy our i Æn. 6. 566. Heyne. mighty work to be done, to which time is as necessary as labour and observation; and therefore we must not put it off, till what begins in fear, cannot pass into love, and therefore it is too likely to end in sorrow; their fears overtake such men; it is too much to be feared, that what they fear, will happen to them. 99. XIII. And after all, it is to be remembered, that sorrow for sins is not repentance, but a sign, an instrument of it, an inlet to it; without which, indeed, repentance cannot be supposed; as manhood must suppose childhood; perfect supposes that it was imperfect: but repentance is after sin, of the same extent of signification, and contains more duties and labour to the perfection of its parts, than innocence. Repentance is like the sun, which enlightens not only the tops of the eastern hills, or warms the wall-fruits of Italy; it makes the little balsam-tree to weep precious tears, with staring upon its beauties; it produces rich spices in Arabia and warms the cold hermit in his grot, and calls the religious man from his dorter in all the parts of the world where holy religion dwells; at the same time it digests the American gold, and melts the snows from the Riphæan mountains, because he darts his rays in every portion of the air; and the smallest atom that dances in the air, is tied to a little thread of light, which by equal emanations fills all the capacities of every region: so is repentance; it scatters its beams and holy influences; it kills the lust of the eyes, and mortifies the pride of life; it crucifies the desires of the flesh, and brings the understanding to the obedience of Jesus; the fear of it bids war against the sin, and the sorrow breaks the heart of it the hope that is mingled with contrition, enkindles our desires to return; and the love that is in it, procures our pardon; and the confidence of that pardon does increase our love, and that love is obedience, and that obedience is sanctification, and that sanctification supposes the man to be justified before; and he that is justified, must be justified still; and thus repentance is a holy life. But the little drops of a beginning sorrow, and the pert resolution to live better, never passing into act and habit; the quick and rash vows of the newly-returning man, and the confusion of face espied in the convicted sinner;-if they proceed no further, are but like the sudden fires of the night, which glare for awhile within a little continent of air big enough to make a fire-ball, or the revolution of a minute's walk. These when they are alone, and do not actually and with effect minister to the wise counsels and firm progressions of a holy life, are as far from procuring pardon, as they are from a life of piety and holiness. SECTION VIII. 100. XIV. In the making confession of our sins, let us be most careful to do it so, as may most glorify God, and advance the reputation of his wisdom, his justice, and his mercy. For if we consider it, in all judicatories of the world, and in all the arts and violences of men which have been used to extort confessions, their purposes have been, that justice should be done, that the public wisdom and authority should not be dishonoured; that public criminals should not be defended or assisted by public pity, or the voice of the people sharpened against the public rods and axes, by supposing they have smitten the innocent. Confession of the crime prevents all these evils, and does well serve all these good ends. Gnosius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, So the heathens did suppose was done in the lower regions. 101. XV. He that confesseth his sins, must do it with all sincerity and simplicity of spirit, not to serve ends, or to make religion the minister of design; but to destroy our i Æn. 6. 566. Heyne. sin, to shame and punish ourselves, to obtain pardon and institution; always telling our sad story just as it was in its acting, excepting where the manner of it, and its nature or circumstances, require a veil; and then the sin must not be concealed, nor yet so represented as to keep the first immodesty alive in him that acted it, or to become a new temptation in him that hears it. But- this last caution is only of use in our confessions to the minister of holy things; for our confession to God, as it is to other purposes, so must be in other manners: but I have already given accounts of this. I only add, that, 102. XVI. All our confessions must be accusations of ourselves, and not of others. For if we confess to God, then to accuse another may spoil our own duty, but it can serve no end; for God already knows all that we can say to lessen, or to aggravate the sin: if we confess to men,-then to name another, or by any way to signify or reveal him, is a direct defamation; and unless the naming of the sin do, of itself, declare the assisting party, it is at no hand to be done, or to be inquired into: but if a man hath committed incest, and there is but one person in the world with whom he could commit it; in this case, the confessing his sin does accuse another; but then such a guide of souls is to be chosen, to whom that person is not known; but if, by this or some other expedient, the fame of others be not secured, it is best to confess that thing to God only; and so much of the sin as may aggravate it to an equal height with its own kind in spe cial, may be communicated to him, of whom we ask comfort, and counsel, and institution. If to confess to a priest were a divine commandment, this caution would have in it some difficulty and much variety; but since the practice is recommended to us wholly upon the stock of prudence, and great charity; the doing it ought not, in any sense, to be uncharitable to others. 103. XVII. He that hath injured his neighbour, must confess to him; and he that hath sinned against the church, must make amends and confess to the church, when she declares herself to be offended. For when a fact is done which cannot naturally be undone, the only duty that can remain, is to rescind it morally, and make it not to be any longer or any more. For as our conservation is a continual creation, lessens the shame, lessens also the hatred of sin, and his future caution, and the reward of his repentance; and takes off that which was an excellent defensative against the sin. But with the shame, the minister of religion is to do as he is to do with the man's sorrow: so long as it is a good instrument of repentance, so long it is to be permitted and assisted, but when it comes irregular, or disposed to evil events, it is to be taken off. And so must the shame of the penitent man, when there is danger, lest the man be swallowed up by too much sorrow and shame, or when it is perceived, that the shame alone is a hinderance to the duty. In these cases, if the penitent man can be persuaded, directly and by choice, for ends of piety and religion, to suffer the shame,—then let his spirit be supported by other means; but if he cannot, let there be such a confidence wrought in him, which is derived from the circumstances of the person, or the universal calamity and iniquity of man, or the example of great sinners like himself, that have willingly undergone the yoke of the Lord, or from consideration of the divine mercies, or from the easiness and advantages of the duty; but let nothing be offered to lessen the hatred or the greatness of the sin; lest a temptation to sin hereafter be sowed in the furrows of the present repentance. 106. XX. He that confesseth his sins to the minister of religion, must be sure to express all the great lines of his folly and calamity; that is, all that by which he may make a competent judgment of the state of his soul. Now if the man be of a good life, and yet in his tendency to perfection, is willing to pass under the method and discipline of greater sinners, there is no advice to be given to him, but that he do not curiously tell those lesser irregularities, which vex his peace, rather than discompose his conscience: but what is most remarkable in his infirmities, or the whole state, and the greatest marks and instances, and returns of them, he ought to signify; for else he can serve no prudent end in his confession. 107. But, secondly; if the man have committed a great sin, it is a high prudence, and an excellent instance of his repentance, that he confess it,-declaring the kind of it, if it be of that nature, that the spiritual man may conceal it. But if, upon any other account, he be bound to reveal every |