FORE, since we are come into the house of God to worship and serve him, and all we can do will be esteemed but a mocking of God without repentance, I, the ambassador of that God to whom you intend to pray, even I PRAY AND BESEECH YOU, in his name, AS MANY AS ARE HERE PRESENT, high and low, rich and poor, young and old; whether you are the best of the congregation or the worst of sinners, TO ACCOMPANY ME in making this confession to our great Lord, who commanded me to bring you with me, and will most mercifully accept and lovingly embrace us all. O then come along with me, and confess your sins WITH A PURE HEART, void of all hypocrisy, and also with an HUMBLE VOICE, expressing the sorrow of your minds, and accusing yourselves in your own words, since you have deserved shame; and fear not that your own testimony shall condemn you, for you are going, not to a human tribunal, but TO THE THRONE OF THE HEAVENLY GRACE, where he sits who did invite you, and doth wait for you, and will forgive you, do not fear it; neither trouble yourselves how to bespeak him who is in heaven, for if you be willing to go with me I will be your mouth, only you must consent to and seal every sentence by SAYING AFTER ME this most hearty confession following, SECTION III. OF THE DAILY CONFESSION. The Analysis or Division of the Confession. This pious Confession is so methodically composed, that it naturally falls into these four parts: 1. the introduction; 2. the confession, properly so called; 3. a deprecation of evil; 4. a petition for good. is shewed, In general, how we have sinned,. 2. In parti- Almighty and most merciful Father, ....we 1. Of the cause, improving our 2. Of the effect, doing actual sin, 3. In a conclusion from both 1. What we would be delivered from, and 2. The rea sons an nexed to 3. An ar- depreca- In general dis- In sins of omis- In sins of com- ........ 1. From the guilt of sin, those 3. From the power of it, But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders: Spare thou them, O God, ofthat confess their faults: ..... Restore thou With the reason, because we are of.. them that are penitent; 1. From the promises in general.. 4. The persons by whom they are 1. Of whom we desire it, 1. To live hereafter. According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesu our Lord. And grant, O most mer {ciful Father, 2. Through whom we desire it,. { { •for his sake, That we may hereafter live .a godly, righteous, and a sober life, To the glory of thy holy name. Amen. 26 27 A Practical Discourse on the general Confession. §. I. ALMIGHTY AND MOST MERCIFUL FATHER] The church hath been curious and exact to select such titles for God in the beginning of every prayer, as are most proper to the petitions to which they are prefixed, and most likely to produce suitable affections in him that useth them; which, as it is every where apparent to a considering person, so may it appear particularly in the fitness of these two compellations to the subsequent confession. The first is Almighty, being an acknowledgment of the greatness of him whom we have of fended a; and it denotes his being all-sufficient in himself for his own happiness, (as the philosopher defined him,) as also his being able to supply all our wants. And further, it signifies his absolute dominion over all the world, and his infinite power to do whatever he pleaseth. So that the consideration of this attribute shews us that we have sinned against a God whom we cannot hurt by our sins; we may indeed harm ourselves by them, both by stopping the current of those blessings which restrain and refresh us, and by provoking him to let loose his anger to destroy us. And if the shutting his hand of bounty would make us perish for want, sure then the weight of his arm of power will crush us to pieces, which we must meditate on so long till our hearts are pierced with a religious fear and holy dread of the anger of this Almighty God; only this fear must not drive us from him, but draw us more speedily to him, and be as the needle, which a Gen. xvii. 1. Heb. w LXX. aνтaρкns and Job xxii. 15. παντοκράτωρ. Aqu. ἱκανὸς καὶ ἄλ KIμos. Theo. iKavòv Kaì dvvaTòv, h. e. avтаркns #рòs evdaμovíav. Speusippus. Ipsa suis contenta opibus, nil indigna nostri. Lucretius. b Si nullus est timor, non est qua charitas intret, sicut setam introducere filum videmus, sed nisi exit seta non succedit linum ; enters not to stay, but to make way for the thread of a uniting love; for the heart will be the faster bound to, 2ndly, the most merciful Father, when it is first made sensible it hath offended a dreadful, almighty God. He yet retains the bowels as well as the name of a Father, and is the most merciful of all fathers. For what natural parent would not have cast out and disinherited his once dearest child, for the one half of what we have done against our heavenly Father? Yet upon our true repentance he stands ready to embrace us with as much love as if we had never done amiss. If fear will move our hearts, here is represented his terrible power; if love will work upon us, here is discovered his unspeakable goodness; and what heart can resist both? His almightiness is first, but if the terror thereof seal up thy lips, let the hope of his fatherly pity and compassion open them again. Learn humility and true contrition from the first, and faith and hope from the latter, which are excellent mixtures in a penitent heart, and the best dispositions in the world for a hearty and prevailing confession. §. II. WE HAVE ERRED AND STRAYED FROM THY WAYS] God's laws are frequently in holy scripture compared to a way that leads to everlasting life, and thither we are going while we are walking in them. But our sins and iniquities are errings and strayings out of this path. In our lesser, sudden, and unobserved sins, we err and step aside. Vain thoughts, rash and idle words, light and foolish carriages, make our way crooked". And these happen so frequently, that at best we go on but in contorted spiral lines, which is far from the straight sic timor occupat mentem prior, verum non ibi manet quia ideo intravit, ut introduceret charitatem. Aug. in 1 Ep. Johan. [ix. 4.] c Heb. sig. peccatum et curvum. Eccles. vii. 13; Psalm xxxviii. 16; Job xxxiii. 27; Matt. xvii. 17. yeveà dieotpaμμévn. ness and evenness of our rule; when these are done out of ignorance, they are called errors; and though we think them small in their kind, yet they are formidable in their numbers, and next to infinite. But besides these little wanderings, we stray further, and stay longer, we fall into greater transgressions and evil habits; these are open forsaking of God's ways, and a plain passing over those bounds which God hath set to us, as Solomon did to Shimeid; and by so doing we forfeit our lives, as he did his, if the Divine mercy did not spare us. And thus malice and envy, lust and drunkenness, pride and cruelty, covetousness and oppression, (especially when by frequent repetitions they are become customary,) may be called straying from his ways. It is very likely, many in favour to their own cause will count their errors no sins, and call their strayings errors and infirmities; but the least are committed so often, 28 that they are not to be despised, and the greater are so heinous they cannot be hid; and we should consider, that be the sin what it will, if we repent not, we still wander further, and so an error ends in going astray. To have stepped aside may seem excusable by human frailty; he must be more than man that doth not so sometimes; but he that sees his error and goes on, is worse than a beast, and wholly inexcusable. We have all erred by less, and strayed by greater sins; but if we hasten our repentance, our strayings shall be forgiven and esteemed as errors; otherwise the lesser evils, if we cherish them and neglect repentance, will increase and become the utter deserting of God's ways. III. LIKE LOST SHEEP] The church chooseth to express our departure from God in the language of the d 1 Kings ii. 37, ubi v sig. transire limites, ut et Jos. iv. 1. at Deut. xvii. 2, &c. sig. peccare. e Humanum est errare; belluinum vero perseverare in errore. Cicero. |