1. Because it is made to be one of the conditions of pardon, and the act of repentance that is necessary to the pardon of sin : Prov. xxviii. 13, 'He that hideth his sins shall not prosper ; but he that confesseth and forsakes them, shall find mercy;' so it runs. And 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.' God's justice is satisfied by Christ, but it must be glorified and owned by us. So Jer. iii. 13, ' I am merciful, saith the Lord : only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.' God hath mercy enough to pardon all, only he will have it sued out his own way, he will have his mercy asked upon our knees; and have the creature stoop and submit. And David, Ps. li. 3, ' I acknowledge my transgression.'
2. It is the only means to have our peace settled. If you would not have your trouble and anxious thouglits continued upon you, go open yourselves to God, declare your ways : Ps. xxxii. 5, ' I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.' As soon as David did but take up a resolution,
246 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XXVII.
presently he felt the comfort of it. If David had confessed sooner, he had come to his ease sooner. Distress of conscience is continued upon us until this be done ; and especially is this found by experience, when great trouble comes upon us by reason of sin. There is some sin at the bottom God will briup; out ; and until they come to clearness and openness with God, the Lord still continues the trouble ; they are kept roaring, and do not come to their peace, Job xxxiii. 26, 27. When a man is under trouble, and the sense of sin doth not fasten on the heart, he is not prepared for deliverance ; but when it comes to this, ' I have sinned, and it profits me not,' then God sends ' an in- terpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness.'
3. It prevents Satan's accusations and God's judgments. It is no profit to cover our sins, for either Satan will declare them, or God find us out, and enter into judgment with us. It prevents Satan as an accuser and God as a judge.
[1.] It prevents Satan as an accuser. Let us not tarry till our ad- versary accuse. There is one that will accuse you if you do not accuse yourselves. He that is a tempter is also an accuser of the brethren. Now confession puts Satan out of office. When we have sued out our pardon, Satan is not an accuser so much as a slanderer : Rom. viii. 33, ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's' elect ?' Ti)e informer comes too late when the guilty person hath accused himself, and sued out his pardon. And —
[2.] It prevents God as a judge. It is all known to God : Ps. Ixix. 5, ' 0 God ! thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee.' It is a folly to conceal that which cannot be hid. God knows them. How ? God may be said to know things two ways — either simply with respect to the perfection of his nature, and so he knows all things ; or by virtue of his office, and so God knows things judicially as judge of the world; he takes knowledge of it so as to punish it, unless you confess it. But in this kind of Jinowledge he loves to be prevented ; he will not know it as a judge if we confess it, when there is process against sin in our own consciences : 1 Cor. xi. 31, ' If Ave judge ourselves we shall not be judged.' When we accuse and judge ourselves, then God's work is })revented. God is contented if we will accuse, arraign, judge, and condemn ourselves ; then he will not take knowledge of our sins as a judge. The end of God's judging is execution and punishment, but the end of our judging is that we may obtain pardon. Now, consider whether you will stand at the bar of Christ, not as a Saviour, but as a judge; or will judge yourselves in your own heart? Better sit as judge upon your own heart than God should sit as judge upon you ; therefore deal plainly and openly with him.
Thus I have explained what it is to declare our ways ; it is an act of dependence to take God's leave, blessing, counsel along with us ; an act of friendship, as to lay open our case to God ; and an act of brokenness of heart, as declaring our sins and temptations.
For the reasons why, if we would speed with God, we should un- feignedly lay open our case before him.
_ 1. It argueth sincerity. A hypocrite will pray, but will not thus sincerely open his heart to God : Ps. xxxii. 1, ' Blessed is he in whose
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spirit there is iTO guile' No g-uile ; it hath a limited sense with respect to the matter of confession, that doth not deal deceitfully with God, hut plainly and openly declares his case. Many ways men may be p;uilty of guile of spirit in confession of sin ; either when they content themselves with general or slight acknowledgments ; as thus, We are all sinners ; but they do not declare their ways. Generals are but notions ; and as particular persons are lost in a crowd, so sins lie hid in common acknowledgments. Or else men take up the empty forms of others. You shall see in Numbei's xix. the waters of purifica- tion wherewith a man had been cleansed, if another touched them, he became unclean. Confessions are like those waters whereby one hath cleansed himself. Now to take up others' confessions, and the forms of others, without the same affection, feeling, and brokenness of heart, doth but defile us the more, when the heart doth not prescribe to the tongue but the tongue to the heart. Or else men make some acknow- ledgments to God, but do not uncover their privy sore ; they are loath to draw forth the state of their hearts into the notice and view of conscience. This guile of spirit may be sometimes in God's children. Moses had a privy sore which he was loath to disclose ; and therefore when God would have sent him into Egypt, he pleads other things, insufficiency, want of elocution, that he was a stammerer, that he had not utterance. Ay ! but his carnal fear was the main ; therefore see how God touches his privy sore : Exod. iv. 19, ' Arise, Moses ; go into Egypt : the men that sought thy life are dead.' Why, Moses never pleaded that ; he mentions other things that were true, that he was a man of slow speech, and his brother Aaron was fitter ; but he never pleads carnal fear : but the Lord knew what was at the bottom. So it is with Christians ; many times we will confess this and that which is a truth, and we may humble ourselves for it. Ay ! but there is a privy sore yet kept secret. Therefore this open dealing with God is very necessary to lay open before God whatever w^e know of our state and way, for then God will be nigh to us. Out of self-love men spare themselves, and will not judge and condemn themselves ; therefore they deny, excuse, extenuate, or hypocritically confess, Oh, I am a sinner ! and the like, but do not come openly.