' Compare these scriptures together, Jer. vi. 15. viii. 12; Zeph. iii. 5; Isa. iii. 9, xlii 23 ; Heb. vi. 6. Caligula used to say of himself, that he loved nothing better in hirasi! tlian that he could not be ashamed, &c.
=* =; ' without shame.' Cf. Richardson s. v. — G. ' Augustine, Confess, lib. ii. cap. a.
Chap. III.] a cabinet of jewels. 413
said imto Ezra, We have trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the land ; yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.' If it were not for hope, the heart would break. There was hope among them that Israel would repent, and there was hope among them that God would have mercy upon their repentance. And the same spirit was working in the prodigal: ' I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned ao-ainst heaven and before thee,' Luke xviii. 18. Tliough he was a prodio-al, yet he would go to God as to a father, who knew how to pity and for- give the mourning and repenting child. When confessions of sin are mingled with hopes of mercy, and the soul draws near to God as a feather, then the heart breaks most and melts and mourns most. That confession of sin that is not mixed with some hope of pardon, and with some faith in the mercy of God, is not penitential, but desperate. Cain in some sort confesses, but then he flies into the land of JNod, and there he falls a-building and planting, partly in contempt of the dreadful doom God had passed upon him, and partly to drown the noise of his conscience, and despairing of ever obtaining pardon in this world, or en- joying a house not made with hands in another world, Gen. iv. 16, 2 Cor. v. 1, 2. Judas likewise confesses his most heinous sins, ' I have sinned in betraying innocent blood,' Mat. xxvii. 3, 4 ; but having no hope of pardon, no faith in that innocent blood he had shed, he goes out and hangs himself. Judas had no faith to mingle with his confession ; he confesses despairingly, not believingly, and so goes forth and strangles himself Since Adam fell in paradise, there has not been one wicked man in the world, continuing in that state, that has ever mixed faith with his sorrows, believing with his confessing. It is only the penitent man that confesseth sin believingly, and that is pardoned graciously. The confessing penitent reasons thus with God : liOrd, though I am a sinful creature, yet thou art a merciful God ; though I am unworthy of mercy, yet thou forgivest sins freely ; though my sir.s reach as high as heaven, yet thy mercies reach above the heavens ; J am here ready and willing to accuse and condemn myself, and therefore be thou as ready and as willing to absolve me, and forgive me. O Lord ! though my sins are very many, yet thy mercies are exceeding more ; though I have multiplied my sins, yet thou canst multiply thy pardons ; though I am a sinner, a very great sinner, yet there is mercy with thee, that thou mayest be feared and loved, served and trusted ; and therefore in the face of all my sins, provocations, and unworthiness, I will look up for mercy, and wait for mercy. But,
(8.) Eighthly, and lastly, True penitential confession is joined ivith reformation. That confession of sin that carries forgivenness of sin with it, is attended with serious desires, and earnest endeavours to re- formation, Ps. li. 10 ; therefore forsaking of sin is annexed to confession of sin : Prov. xxviii. 13, * He that covereth his sins shall not prosper ; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.' Confession of sin must be joined with confusion of ^ sin, or all is lost. God will never cross the book, he will never draw the red lines of Chri.st's blood over the black lines of our transgressions, excejDt confessing and forsaking go hand in hand. He that does not forsake his sin, as well as confess it,
414 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. III.