bosom, and therefore whilst confessions are in his mouth, you shall mostly find either tears in his eyes or sorrow in his heart. And indeed, true confession of sin is many times rather a voice of mourning th-an a voice of words. Sometimes a penitent man's eyes will in some sort tell what his tongue can in no sort utter. Many times the penitent is better at weeping than he is at speaking : Ps. xxxix. 12, 'Hold not thy peace at my tears.' Tears hath a voice as well as blood hath, and are very prevalent orators with God : Ps. vi, 8, ' The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.' Penitent tears are undeniable ambassadors, and they never return from the throne of grace without an answer of grace. Tears are a kind of silent prayers, which though they say nothing, yet they obtain pardon ; they prevail for mercy, and they carry the day with God, as you may see in that great and clear instance of Peter. He said nothing, he confessed nothing that we read of, but 'went out and wept bitterly,' and obtained mercy. That prescription that God gave to the leper in the law is worthy of your most serious consideration ; it is in that Lev. xiii. 45, 'And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry. Unclean, unclean.' In th-ese words the leper stands charged with four things : (1.) to go in rent or torn garments, to note that there must be brokenness and sorrow of heart joined with confession of sin; (2.) to go bareheaded, and that partly that men might not mistake him, but mainly to shew his humility under his present misery ; (3.) to put a covering upon his upper lip, some read it, upon his rnouchaches} The Jews in their mournings used this ceremony among the rest, of covering their chin, mouth, rnouchaches, all under the nose. Now, the use of this ceremony in lepers, was partly to pre- serve others from being infected by his loathsome breath, and partly to shew that God takes no pleasure nor delight in the breathings, the prayers of spiritual lepers, of wicked men, — God loves not to hear good words drop from an ill mouth, — and partly to note that shame that must be mingled with his sorrow. (4.) Twice to proclaim his own unclean- ness, 'Unclean, unclean.' And thus you see that there was to be a close connection between the leper's confession and his contrition ; and thus it is with the true penitent; he does not only cry out, Unclean, unclean, but he also rents and tears his garments, that is, he joins contrition to his confession.
But to prevent mistakes, and that I may not shoot an arrow, instead of giving a cordial, to the weak and weary soul, let me only give you this short hint, viz., that when the true penitent cannot pour out his soul in heart-melting confessions before the Lord, yet then he can mourn over his own hardness of heart. When he is at worst he can grieve that he cannot grieve, and mourn that he cannot mourn, and melt that he cannot melt, and break that he cannot break ; and he can bless God for every rod, and every stroke, and every word, and every work, and every ordinance, and every frown, and every reproof, and every cross, and every comfort that has the least tendency to the melting and mollifying of his soul. The true penitent always sets a very high price and value upon a broken heart, though he has not the happiness always to have his heart broken. I know thaA sometimes the penitent soul is so shut * Early form of ' moustaches-' — G.
412 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. III.
up, that if he might have all the world he cannot mourn ; he can only sit down and sigh, and groan ; nay, if all the joys and delights of heaven were to be bought for one single tear, he cannot shed it ; and yet all this time he can grieve that he cannot grieve for sin, and he can be sorry that he cannot be sorry for sin ; and without all peradventure this is in a measure true godly gospel sorrow for sin, &c.
But now wicked men confess their sins, but they never grieve for their sins. They confess their sins, but they are not ashamed of their sins ; they confess their sins, but they cannot blush for their sins.' Though men of good names, and of good natures, would be ashamed to be found doing of base things, things that are below them, that are not worthy of them, yet the generality of sinners are so bold and base, so ignorant, arrogant, and impudent, so frontless^ and graceless, &c., that tliey are no ways ashamed, no, not of those very sins that has put Christ to an open shame, yea, that has put the sun and moon to a blush. Most sinners in these days have brows of brass, and whores' foreheads, that cannot blush. They are so far from being ashamed of their sins, that they think it a shame and disgrace not to sin, not to swear, and whore, and curse, and be drunk, and profane Sabbaths, and despise ordinances ; yea, there are many that are so far from being ashamed of their abominations, that they even glory in them, like those in that Philip, iii. 19. They shew their sins as iSodom, they make both a sport of acting, and a jest of confessing their sins. Thus Austin confesseth that it was sometimes with himself before the Lord wrought upon him ; I was stricken with such blindness, as that I thought it a shame unto me to be less vile and wicked than my companions whom I heard boast ot their lewdness, and glory so much the more, by how much they were the more filthy ; therefore, saith he, lest I should be of no account, I w-as the more vicious ; and when I could not otherwise match others, I would feign that I had done those things which I never did, lest I should seem so much the more abject, by how much I was the more innocent ; and so much the more vile, by how much I was the more chaste.' But for a close remember this, the true penitent knows, that the more God has been displeased with the blackness of sin, the better he will be pleased with the blushing of the sinner ; and therefore he cannot but blush when either he looks upon sin within him, or God above him. But,
(7.) Sevenihly, Penitential confession, it is believing and fiducial ; it is mixed with sortie faith, though not always ivith a strong faith Hosea xiv. 2. It is not like the confession of a malefactor to the judg* but like the confession of a child to his father, or like the confession ol a sick man to his physician. As a penitent man has one eye of sorrow \ipon his sin, so he has another eye o-f hope upon pardoning graci . Thus David, though he had sinned greatly, yet he hangs upon in mercy, and begs his pardon believingly, Ps. li. Thus Daniel, 'To th Lord our God belongs mercies and forgivenesses, though we have tv- belled against him/ Dan. ix. 9. Thus Shechaniah, Ezra x. 2, ' And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and