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is implied in this, when it is accounted a Part of Repentance.

If Confession was no more than a particular distinct Acknowledgment of our Sins to God, then that would be the best Confession that gave the most punctual Account of every the least minute Circumstance that happens in the finful Action : He would confess best that could tell best the Story of his Sins. But, alas! there is nothing in this that can recommend us unto God. When we speak of Confession of Sins as a means of obtaining Pardon for them, we mean by it such an actual Attention to our Sins, and to our Guilt, and such an hearty Acknowledgment thereof to God Almighty, as includes in it both Shame and Sorrow for what we have done, and likewise stedfast Purpose of Heart to do so no more. To confefs our Sins, is to own with Shame and Confusion of Face, that we have transgressed the righteous Laws of God, and deserve his Wrath and Displeafure, and so far to dislike, to disapprove, and to deteft our own Actions, that we severely purpose never to be guilty of the like again.

We need not be long to seek what kind of Confeffion that is which my Text speaks of, if we will but attend to what we require of one another in Cafes of Affronts and Offences done to ourselves. Supposing a Man hath done some great Injury to us in Word

or

F

or Deed, upon which we are grievously
offended with him, so far that we break off
all those Terms of Friendship and Amity
with the Man which were between us be-
fore: He defires to be reconciled to us,
and in order to that, common Sense teach-
eth him to come and acknowledge his
Fault; and accordingly he doth so, and we
accept of his Confession as a good Satif-
faction: What is it now that moves and
inclines us so to do? Is it that he hath told
us some Things that we knew not before?
No; for we did sufficiently know all his
unhandsome Carriage to us, and that made
us out of Charity with him: Is it that he
doth in a handsome Speech, and with many
Rhetorical Amplifications, set forth the
Particulars of the Injury, and tell us what
first inclined him, what Neighbour encou-
raged him, with what Intrigues and Cir-
cumstances the whole Business was carried
on? Why in this he may shew himself a
very artificial Man in telling a Story : But
this alone causeth no relenting in us.
may tell us all this, and in as good Words,
by way of Drollery or Defiance: That
which works upon us to forgive the Man
the Injury that he did us, is purely and
solely the Mind with which this Confeffion
is made. We fee that he is heartily forry
for what he hath done; he is ashamed of
it, and by this Confeffion doth what he can
to undo it again. He heartily wishes that

He

he had never done it; and was it to do again, he would abhor the Thoughts of doing it. This now is some Compensation to us; nay, it is really the best Satisfaction he can make us: And upon this Confideration of the Man's Repentance we do repent also, and forgive him.

Now just upon the fame Account that we value or accept the Confeffion of Offenders towards ourselves, doth God accept of the Confeffion of our Offences towards him : Namely, the Virtue and Acceptableness of it doth not lie in the material Confeffion it self, but in the Disposition of the Heart and Mind wherewith it is tendered. By this we may, in fome measure, see what Confeffion that is to which a Pardon of Sin is in the Text promised. It is not barely a Repetition of the Faults we are guilty of to God Almighty; nay, tho that Repetition be made never so often, or never fo particularly: But it is such an Acknowledgment of our Faults as is accompanied with Shame for them, with Hatred to them, and with Resolutions to amend them. So that Confession of Sin doth plainly include in it three Things.

First, That we be heartily sensible of our Sins past, and forry for them, and angry at ourselves for having committed them. And this is that which in common Speech we call Contrition.

Secondly,

Secondly, That this Sense, and this Sorrow, and this Indignation, do put us upon applying ourselves to God, and there with Shame and Confusion laying open our miferable Condition before him, and humbly and heartily begging his Mercy and Favour thro' the Merits and Intercession of our Lord Jesus. And this is that which is Confeffion in the precise strict Sense of the

Word.

Thirdly, That at the same time we enter into stedfast and serious Purposes to amend what hath been amiss in us, and to live more carefully, more obediently to the Laws of God for the future. And this is that which is called Resolution.

And now having thus explained the Nature of Confeffion, we have a fair and easy Way opened to us for refolving the other Part of our Enquiry in this Matter; and that is, how Confeffion comes to be so necessary, so indispensible a Part of Repentance. For it is easy to be collected, from what has been faid, that confeffing our Sins in this manner, is, in the Reason of the Thing, a Point so necessary, that we are no ways qualified for the obtaining Forgiveness of them without it.

Can that Man be, in any Sense, capable of Mercy, that either stands upon his own Vindication, or is so little sensible of his Fault, that he will not so much as make Acknowledgment of it? There is no Man that

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that so behaves himself, can expect to find the least Favour from any earthly Tribunal before which he is convened, tho' the Matter for which he is called in question be of never so small a Concernment. And can we expect that the supreme Lord of the World will pass by Offences done againft his infinite Majesty, and in Contempt of his eternal Laws, upon easier Terms?

Whosoever doth not forrowfully confefs and acknowledge his Sins, cannot, in any Sense, be said to repent of them. And fure, without Repentance, there can be no Forgiveness. If it be said that Repentance confifts in the forsaking of Sin, and not in the confeffing of it, I answer with a Divine of our own, "That that may indeed be "the Notion of a heathen Repentance." For the Pagans, it is confessed, took very little Notice of this Part of Religion which we are now talking of. But it is far from being the Repentance that God hath prescribed to Mankind in the Old and New Teftament. Nor indeed would any of us accept of fuch a Repentance ourselves (if it may in any Sense be called by that Name.) We should not think ourselves well dealt with, in cafe of any Injury done to us, that the Man who had affronted us once, did so no more. But we expect that he should acknowledge his first Fault, as well as that he should reform it.

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