1 Tim. i. 13. And more you have of this in that Acts xxvi. 10, 11, ' Which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests ; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them ; and I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blas- pheme ; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.' So Judges x. 10, ' And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.' ' We have sinned,' there is their general confession ; ' we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim,' there is their distinct and particular confession, both of their apostasy and idolatry. And so 1 Sam. xii. 19, 'And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.' They were discontented with that government that the Lord had set over them, and they would need be governed by a king, after the mode of other nations ; and this sin they confess distinctly and particularly before the Lord and Samuel. And so David, in that 1 Chron. XXL 17, ' And David said unto God, Is it not I thaA commanded the people to be numbered ? Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed ; but as for these sheep, what have they done V Thus that princely prophet confesses that particular sin that he then lay under the guilt of. And so Zaccheus makes a particular confession ; he does as it were point with his finger at that wrong and injustice that he had been guilty of : ' Behold, Lord, half my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.' Thus you see that true penitents make a particular confession of their right-eye sins, and of their right-hand sins ; and indeed, what is confession of sin but a setting our sins in order before the Lord ? And how can this be done but by a distinct and particular enumeration of them ? But to prevent mistakes, this must be taken with a grain of salt, this must be understood with this limitation ; we are to confess our sins distinctly, particularly, so far as Ave know them, so far as we are acquainted with them. There are many thousand sins which we commit that we know not to be sins, and there are many thousand sins com- mitted by us that cannot be remembered by us. Now certainly it is impossible for us to recount or confess those sins that we know not, that we remember not ; so that our particular confessions can only reach to known sins, so far as we can call them to mind ; for indeed our particular acts of sin are innumerable ; they are ' more in number than the bail's of our head ;' and indeed we are as well able to teU the stars of heaven, and to number the sands of the sea, and to recount all the sparing mercies, the pitying mercies, the preventing mercies, the succouring mercies, the supporting mercies, and the delivering mercies of God, as we are able to tell, to number, to recount, the individual particular acts of sin that we are guilty of; yet so far as the knowledge and memory of a penitent Christian reaches, so far his confession reaches. But now, wicked men confess sin in the general, in tiie lump ; as Phai"Aoh, ' I have sinned ;' and their confessions arc commonly confused, and at random. When and where do you find wicked men confessing their sins distinctly or particularly before God or man ? This is none of the least of their
Chap. Ill] a cabinet of jewels. 407
miseries, that they have not a clear, distinct, particular view of their own corruptions and abominations. But,