I do not say that we can justly stand upon this, or require these Terms of Reconciliation from our Brethren : But it is infinitely fit and reasonable that God should from his Creatures. We are bound to forgive give one another; but God is not bound to forgive us. That which is in us an Act of Duty, is in him an Act of free Grace and Mercy. If therefore it be supposed that we are all Sinners towards God, and stand in need of his Mercy, and that we shall not find Mercy without Repentance of our Sins, it will follow that our Repentance must as well look backwards as forwards; that is to say, we must not only look to the reforming of our Life for the future, (for that can do no more than prevent the Difpleasure of God for the Time to come) but we must also look to the undoing, as well as we can, our fore-past Sins, in order to the obtaining God's Forgiveness of them. But this is no way in the World to be done, but by meekly, and humbly, and forowfully confessing them.

And accordingly this is the Condition that God in Scripture every where requires, in order to the granting his Pardon and Mercy for our former Tranfgreffions. If we confess our Sins (fays St. John) he is 1 Joh. 1.9. faithful and just to forgive us our Sins. And thus also David; I acknowledged my Sin Pfal.32.5. unto thee, and mine Iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess

my Sin unto the Lord,

and so thou forgavest me the Iniquity of my Sin. But this is not all that is to be faid for the Neceffity of Confession, as we have explained it: For, in the second Place,

2. As no Man is qualified for the Mercy of God that doth not devoutly confefs his Sins, (because not to confess is an Argument that the Man doth not truly repent) fo, if we do consider what is imported in Confeffion, we shall be convinced that it is a Thing, that in the very Nature of it must needs, above all other Thing we can do, recommend us to God; for it is doing what Right we possibly can to the several Attributes of God to which we have done Difhonour. If God had never commanded this Expression of Repentance, yet we should eafily have gathered from the Reason of the Thing, that it is the best, the most natural Compensation we can make to God for the Breach of his Laws. Not that, in true speaking, there is any Compenfation, any Satisfaction to be made by us to God; Chrift, by his Sacrifice on the Cross, hath done that for us; and that Satisfaction that he made, we humbly tender to God on our behalf, and pretend to no other. But this nevertheless we may say, that by approaching to God with an hearty Sense of our Sins, and confeffing them before him with truly contrite and penitent Hearts, we make the best Reparation we are capable of, for the Affronts and Injuries which by our Sins

we

we have done to any of his Attributes. By thus accusing and condemning ourselves, we do Right to God's Sovereignty and abfolute Power, by acknowledging him to have both a Right and an Ability to punish us. We do Right likewise to his Goodness, fince we acknowledge that we have acted vilely and unworthily, and against our own Interests, in tranfgrefling his Laws, which we cannot but be sensible are infinitely reasonable and good, and much for our Advantage to observe. To his Omniprefence and Omniscience also we make some Satisfaction, since our Confeffion of our Faults supposeth that we have a Sense that God knows and taketh notice of all our Actions. In a word, by hearty and penitent Confeffion of our Sins, we both justify God, and give Glory to him. We may fay both these Things, because we have Warrant from Scripture for them. David, in the 51st Pfalm, therefore makes a Confession of his Sins to God, That God might Ver. 4. be juftified in his Sentence, and clear when he is judged. And when Joshua exhorts Achan to confess his Sin, tho' yet it was well enough known already in the Congregation, the Argument he useth to perfuade him, was, that this Confession was for the Glory of God. My Son, says he, give Glory to the Josh.7.19. Lord God of Ifrael, and make Confeffion unto bim.

This that I have said is abundantly fufficient to shew what great Reason there is, that Confeffion of Sins should be made fo indispensible a Condition of the Forgiveness of them.

I might add several other Confiderations, drawn from the great Benefits and Advantages that we ourselves do receive by the Practice of it; as for Instance, the great Peace, and Comfort, and Satisfaction that it must needs yield to an afflicted, troubled Mind, thus to have disburden'd itself of all its Loads and Incumbrances (as certainly, to a sensible Spirit, the Conscience of Sin is of all others the greatest Burden.) So that upon this Acconnt God's obliging us to the Confession of our Sins is the greatest Mercy to us that can be. I might add also another Confideration, viz. the mighty Obligation that this Practice of Confeffion doth lay upon all of us to forsake the Sins we do thus confefs. Such an Obligation, that really we must be impudent if we can always confefs, and yet always return to the same Sins again. So that upon this Account it must be acknowledged that it is as much for our Good, as for the Reasonableness of the Thing, that Confeffion of Sins is made so necessary a Part of Repen

tance.

But I shall wave these Things, and proceed (by way of Application of what has been faid) to say something of the Manner in which we are to confess our Sins, and to give a few Directions about it.

The great Business that we have to take care of in the Exercise of this Part of Repentance, is, that we do deeply affect our selves with a Sense of the great Evil of Sin, and the Affront it puts upon the Divine Majesty; as also with a Sense of the infinite Obligations we are under to obey all the Laws of God, both upon the Account that they are so just and reasonable in themselves, and likewise upon Account that God, by so many Instances of Kindness to us (as every one of us, if we would reflect, can give Thousands of Instances to ourselves) hath laid such powerful and irresistible Engagements upon us to live up to a Conformity to them.

1. If now we be affected with a Sense of these Things as we ought to be, we shall in the first place, whenever we approach to God to confess our Sins, express a hearty Sorrow for having offended so good, so kind, so gracious a God, so continual a Benefactor: For having transgressed such righteous, such unexceptionable Laws, which were given us purely for our Benefit; and which we can never transgress but we act against ourselves and our own Interests. We shall blush at our extreme Ingratitude to God, and fee our own Folly in so unaccountably departing from him in any Instances; and at the fame time we