1. This confession is necessary as well as the inward belief, because God hath required it by an express law, which law is confirmed by a sanction of great weight and moment, the greatest promises on the one hand, and the greatest penalties and threatenings on the other. That there is an express law for confession, besides what hath been said already, see 1 Peter iii. 15, ' Sanctify the Lord God of hosts in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear ; ' where they are required not only to revere God in their hearts, but to be ready to own him with their mouths, and to give a testimony of him when it should be demanded ; yea, thai sanctifying God in their hearts is required in order to the testimony given. with their mouths, that having due and awful thoughts of God they may not be ashamed to own him before men. Now this is backed with the greatest pro- mises, and on the other side with the severest threatenings. God hath promised no less than salvation to those that confess him : Mat. x. 32, ' Whosoever will confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.' Father, this is one of mine. He will do them more honour than possibly they can do him ; and Eom. x. 10, ' With the mouth confession is made to salvation,' Salvi esse non pos- sumus, saith Austin, nisi ad saJutem proximorum etiam ore iDrofitea- mur Jidem — we cannot be saved unless we profess the faith that we have. On the other side, the neglect of profession, either out of shame
VeR. 43.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 461
or fear, is threatened with the greatest penalties ; Mark viii. 38, ' Wliosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in tliis adulter- ous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man he ashamed when he cometh in the glory of liis Father with his glorious angels.' Then, when all shadows flee away, and we would crouch for a little favour, that Christ should be ashamed of us, These were Christians, but cowardly and dastardly ones : I cannot own them to be of my flock and kingdom, — oh, how will our faces gather blackness ! The same is Luke ix. 26, ' Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.' So for fear : 2 Tim. ii. 11, 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with him ; if we deny him, he will deny us.' fSo that you see it is not a matter of small moment whether we confess or no, but a thing expressly enjoined by God, and that upon terms of life and death.
2. This confession is of great use, as conducing much to the glory of God and the good of others.
[1.] The glory of God, which should be the great scope and end of our lives and actions, is much concerned in our confessing or not con- fessing what we believe. When we boldly avow tbe truth, it is a sign we are not ashamed of our master : Phil. i. 20, ' According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magni- fied in my body, whether it be by life or by death.' Ministry or mar- tyrdom, he calls this a magnifying of Christ ; whereas flinching, concealing, halving the truth, denying confession, is called a being ashamed of Christ : Luke ix. 26, ' Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words ;' as if his name were a thing base, unworthy, not to be owned.
[2.] The good of others and their edification is concerned in our con- fessing^or not confessing. No man is born for himself, and therefore is not only to work out his own salvation, but as much as in him lieth to procure the salvation of others, and to bring God and his truth into request with them ; therefore not only to believe with the heart — that concerneth himself, but to confess with the mouth — that concerneth the good of others. When we own the truth, th.ough it cost us dear, that tendetli to the furtherance of the gospel: Phil. i. 12, 13, 'For I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel ; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places,' <fcc. Put when we dissemble, that is a scandal and a stumbling-block to others, whom we justify and harden in a false way ; as Peter, fear- ing them of the circumcision, dissembled, and ' the Jews dissembled with him, insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their dis- simulation,' Gal. ii. 12, 13, Men of public fame and favour, when they are not men of courage and of self-denying spirits, their tempor- ising may do a great deal of hurt, and, like a torrent, or stream, carry others with them. Oh, let us beware of this ! Zuinglius saith, Ad aras Jovis et Veneris adorare, et sub antichristo fidem occultare, idem est — as well worship before the altars of Jupiter and Venus, as hide our faith under antichrist. Fear and weakness excuseth not. The fear-