our cleansing and plainly laid open our sin in Confession I say if after this our sin does still grow upon us and spread and increase in us God then looks upon it no longer as an ordinary Scab but accounts it a Leprosie our Sin now becomes out of measure sinful our Disease is more remediless our Case much more fearful and dangerous Sin after Confession is a great sin in these respects 1. As it is a persisting and continuing in a course of Rebellion against God an holding up maintaining and renewing the old War against Heaven Now every sin the oftner it is committed the more it acquireth in the quality of Evil. 2. Sin after Confession is great not only as it is a continuing and going on still in our old sin but further as it is a sin * Vid. Tertul de Poenitent c. 5. against great Light for if you had not clearly known it to be a sin you could never have confess'd it 3. Sin after Confession is a dealing most falsly and treacherously with God When the People of Israel sinn'd again in marrying the Daughter of a strange God ev'n after that solemn Confession of this Sin and Resolution against it Ezra 10.11 12. This their Relapsing after Confession is branded for Treachery and call'd expresly an abominatiâ—n 2 Mal. 11.13 This false and treacherous dealing is a plain abusing and gross dishonouring of God Pray do but consider If any of you should have a Child or Servant in the Family come every Morning and Evening and confess his Fault and then go presently and practise the same how could you bear and endure such a Carriage and Behaviour So how ill how very ill will God take this at any Man's Hands when he does nothing but * Alterâ—ae iâ—tâ—r â—piditatâ—m nostram poeniteâ—tiam vices suâ—t Sen. de otio Sap. cap. 28. Sin and Confess Confess and Sin Believe it by the very next Act of Sin the same Sin you do more to God's dishonour and do more justifie your Sin than ever you can make God Amends for if you should repeat your Words of Confession to all Eternity Deliberate wilful returning to Sin after professed Repentance and Confession of Sin with a prevailing degree of love to it and delight in it is such an Act of extream baseness and falseness to God as shews the greatest undervaluing of him and casts the highest disparagement upon him For here the Sinner having †Vid. Tertull de Poenitent c. 5. made a Trial and Comparison of both plainly prefers in his Judgment and Choice the Work and Service of Sin and Satan before the Way and Work of God And so does in effect say That He is far the better Master whose he had rather be and whom he had rather serve And so gives the Devil occasion of Rejoycing and matter of Triumphing against God that One that lately seem'd to return to God is now more fully fallen off from God and come over again into his Possession and Power and under his Command and Kingdom Falling into Sin after Confession will make your Sin of a deep of a double Dye That 's the First 2. Falling into Sin after Confession as this is a great Sin so it brings along with it great Punishment 1. It does usually and ordinarily draw after it internal Punishment It deserves and begets hardness of Heart When Pharaoh after Confession sinned yet more it follows immediately He hardened his heart Exod. 9.27 34. 2. Sinning after Confession brings along with it and draws after it most heavy outward Punishments too Pharaoh and his People were soundly plagued for sinning wilfully after Confession When Ezra had solemnly confess'd that great Sin of the People of Israel in mingling of themselves by Marriages with the People of the Lands Ezr. 9. from 6 to 14. what dreadful apprehensions had he of the woful effects of that Sin if ever they should dare to return to it again Ver. 14. Should we again break thy Commandments and joyn in affinity with the people of these abominations wouldst not thou be angry with us till thou hadst consum'd us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Well then Take heed of a Relapse and Recidivation after Confession as for God's sake because it is an heinous Sin against God So for your own sake because so provoking a Sin as this is will hardly go unpunish'd 3. Sinning wilfully after Confession will make you Self-condemn'd when God punisheth you You will then be judg'd out of your own Mouth Ye will have nothing to say for your Selves before God For how can ye excuse your Selves to God for the doing of that which formerly ye accus'd your Selves to God for doing And how will your Mouths be stopt when God condemns you for that which formerly ye condemn'd your Selves for in the Presence of God 4. Sinning wilfully after Confession will break our present Peace and dash our Hopes of future and further Comfort If God has spoken Peace upon former Confession we shall hazard and endanger all by returning again to Folly We may by one Act quickly lose all that which we were so long a getting and procur'd at so dear a Rate Or if God intended us any Comfort this will stop the Conveyance of it If God was preparing any Blessing for us this will cause him to withhold it from us 5. By relapsing into Sins solemnly confess'd thou wilt cut out for thy self new Work and create thy self new Trouble and make the Severities of a new Repentance necessary and force thy self to perform over again the penal afflictive Duty of Confession To take more tearing violent Vomits to swallow down more bitter lothsom Pills and to go through a tedious course of stronger Physick than ever thou took'st before 6. Falling into Sin after Confession will make us the more unapt and unable to rise again and recover out of it It will strengthen Sin in us For every repeated and renewed Act does mightily confirm and radicate the old Habit and so gives Sin the faster hold in the Soul and makes it more difficult to be remov'd And as it strengthens Sin so it weakens Grace in the Soul As Nature is made much the weaker by careless Relapses into bodily Diseases So the Habit of Grace is weaken'd and impaired by falling afresh into sinful Acts that are contrary to it And so our Spiritual Strength decaying our Soul's Recovery must needs be with the more danger and greater difficulty For the feebler we make our Selves by our fall the further we are from relieving our Selves and helping our Selves up again 7. It 's very dangerous to fall into Sin after Confession because this will very much dishearten us when we would beg Pardon of our Sin and hugely discourage us when we would renew our Resolution against it We shall then be apt to think thus with our Selves With what Face can I ask God Pardon of that which since I last beg'd Pardon of I have
David was when he fled from his Son Absalom and was in extream danger to lose his Kingdom and his Life 2 Sam. 15.26 If the Lord says he shall thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him I have done with this head of Self-Condemnation so soon as I have intreated you to observed that Particularizing and Aggravation have some place in Self-Condemning as well as in Self-Accusing there is a particularizing and aggravating of punishment as well as of sin for whatever particular threatning and commination is made and denounced in the Word of God against such and such a particular sin or whatever particular punishment is in God's Word or Providence usually measur'd andi proportion'd out unto any sin the penitent Sinner if guilty of that sin takes it up applies and makes use of it in the sentencing of himself Further Whatever sad heavy direful Circumstances of the punishment either of Sin in general or of any particular sin of his are to be found in the Book of God theâ—â— the penitent humble Sinner looks upon as properly belonging to and righteouâ—ly reveal'd against his sin and dares not but acknowledge them justly due unto himself for and by reason of his sins To give an instance of particularizing in Self-Judging Lord says the Sinner I have grieved thy good and holy Spirit resisted and striven against its strivings and thou may'st justly take thy holy Spirit from me and resolve with thy self that thy Spirit shall strive no longer with me Lord I have blinded my own Eyes and shut out the Light and thou may'st justly give me up to judicial blindness to a * 1 Rom. 28. reprobate mind I have wilfully hardned my own Heart and therefore thou may'st justly give me up to judicial hardness of Heart and to a * 1 Tim. 4.2 Seared Cauterized Conscience I have despised the riches of thy Mercies and thou may'st justly now treasure up for me Wrath against the Day of Wrath. I have been incorrigible and unbroken under Judgments and therefore thou may'st justly say unto me in indignation * 1 Isai 5. Why should you be stricken any more you will revolt more and more Therefore thou may'st take away in Wrath that which thou at first didst send in Anger thou may'st now in Judgment with-hold and remove thy Judgments thou may'st now for my greater punishment forbear punishing me and that thou may'st at one blow kill me presently leave off striking me Thus you see the Penitent Sinner judges himself worthy of particular Punishments for being guilty of particular Sins And thus I have done with the Acts of Confession Self-Accusing and Self-Condemning CHAP. VI. The first Adjunct or Property of true confession it is free and voluntary not forced and constrain'd I Now proceed to speak of the Adjuncts and genuine Properties of true Confession which are these 1. True Confession is voluntary 2. It 's made with Hatred of Shame and Sorrow for our sins 3. With a full Resolution against our sins 4. Lastly with an earnest Desire of and some good Hope in Divine Mercy 1. True Confession is free and voluntary not forced and constrain'd The Penitent Sinner is not brought upon his Knees with violence and compulsion he 's mov'd to confess his sins out of a deep of the great wrong and injury that his sin has done to a good God whom he now heartily loves and therefore he goes as willingly and readily about Confession of his sins as ever he went about the Commission of them But now the false-hearted Hypocrite is usually with much ado with a great deal of stir pull'd and haled dragg'd and driven to his Confession he confesses full sore against his Will he confesses only out of feâ—r of imminent danger or sence and feeling of present Punishment I say only out of this for I don't deny but that fear and feeling of Judgments may be an Occasion of a voluntary Confession for the Godly are often brought by Punishments and Afflictions to a true Penitent and voluntary Acknowledgment of their sins but fear or feeling of Judgments tho' it may be an Occasion of their Confession yet it is never the main Principle that acts them in Confession but it is the sight and sence of the evil Nature of their sin and the love they bear to God that makes them voluntarily to accuse and condemn themselves in their Confessions They are indeed sometimes brought to see and feel their sins by some punishment or other yet it is their Sin discover'd to them by the punishment rather than the Punishment it self that makes them willing to confess And these having once a thorow Conviction of the evil of their sin would if their fears were remov'd and their punishment taken off prove notwithstanding as forward and ready as ever to make a full Confession of their sin But now it is not at all the sin but only the Punishment for sin which causeth the Hypocrite to confess who tho' he at present exclaim against his sin yet were he once at ease free from pain and from under the Rod would soon hold his peace and hug his sin that now he cries out against and complains of Many Men's Confessions are but the * 7 Hos 14. Howlings of afflicted Men that cry out meerly because of Pain Possibly some outward troubles and calamities or it may be some laniatus and iâ—tus some scourgings and rendings of Conscience may put wicked Men upon Confession but these confess their sins just as the * S Mat 29. Devils confess'd Christ more out of Torment than any true Love to God these confess their faults just as Sâ—hâ—l-Bâ—ys confess when they are under the Lash and as Traytors confess when they are upon the Rack who would never say a Word were not such violent extraordinary means us'd with them to extort it from them It was only the present smart and feeling of God's severe Plagues and exemplary Judgments that drove Pharaoh to confess and say I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked 9 Exod. 27. 10.16 It 's a sign his Confession was involuntary for so soon as the Plagues were remov'd and he taken off the Rack ruâ—sâ—â— ad ingenium redâ—it Pharaoh was Pharaoh still so soon as he got a little respite he began to Sing another Tune to recant to unsay and call in in a manner his late feigned Confession he strait returned to his wonted hardness stubbornness and refractariness of spirit for the Text says that when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder were ceased he sinned yet more and hardned his heart he and his servants 9 Exod. 34. Thus it was with wicked Balaam 't was the Angel that stood before him with a drawn Sword that forced him to cry out I have sinned who otherwise would have been more dumb than the Ass he rode on Numb
22.34 Thus it was with Saul nothing but the pronouncing of his Rejection and the threatning the less of his Kingdom made him cry out unto Samuel I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.24 Nothing but Terror of Conscience and the amazing fear and presumption of Hell and Damnation put Judas upon his Confession and caus'd him to cry out I have sinned iâ— that I have betrayed the innocent Hood Mat. 27.3 4. But how contrary to the slaâ—ish sullen Temper of wicked Men is the sweet ingenuous Disposition of the Penitent Sinner who readily confesses out of an heart sensible of the evil of Sin and drawn out with sincere Love and affection unto God! Lo this Man's Confession comes like Water out of a Spring with a voluntary freeness not like Water out of a Still which is fore'd with â—ire Pharaoh's and Balaam's and Sauâ—'s they confess only when they are in Danger but behold the Prodigal See here 's one confessing when he 's safe and secure in his Fathers Arms Luk. 15. I o here 's a Voluntier in Confession indeed Some would think when his Father's â—nger appear'd to be ever when he manifested no signs of his displeasure took no notice of any fault but seem'd to put up and pass in all when his Father had their forget it one would have though it he should now have done wisely not to have â—aked it up again himâ—â—â— When his Father fell upon his Neck and kiâ—s'd him and the black threatning Sâ—rme was so well brown ever when the sad freâ—â—ds and angry words which where deserv'd prov'd nothing else but pleasant Suâ—â—â—s and a 〈◊〉 Speeches one would have thought he should now have sâ—aâ—ed the mentioning on his fruit ommitted his Conâ—ession and Humiliation there b ing now no need of it but you find it hâ—â—e quae otherwise even while his Father â—â—â—ngâ—â— embraces and kindly entertains him his Hearâ— sweetly melts and freely breaks out into an hundle Confession and Acknowledgment of his sin Father says he â—â—rce armed against heaven and in 〈…〉 and am no more wordly to le cauâ—ed thy Son Sence of Love assurance of Faver will soonest of any thing put the â—â—â—ding Sinner upon Confession and that Confession must needs be voluntary and uncompulsory which only Love gently constrains the Penitent Sinner to make to his reconciled God and Father And thus I have done with the first Adjunct or Property of Confession True Confession is free and voluntary not forced and coaâ—t CHAP. VII The second Property of true Confes sion It is made with Hatred of Shame and Sorrow for our Sins These holy Affections must in our Confessions be laid out more upâ—n our Sin than any Punishment for Sin and must bear and hold sâ—me Proportion to the sins confess'd The Penitent Sinner does often outwardly express his inward Affection by Weeping and shedding of Tears Weeping is no infallible Sign or certain Token of an Heart truly sensible of Sin but not Weeping in some cases may well be suspected for a bad Sign 2. SEcondly True Confession is made with Hatred of Shame and Sorrow for our Sins He that truly confesses he does it passionately and feelingly he 's really sensible of and deeply affected with the sins he confesses His Confession is not verbal and formal only and from the Teeth outward but inward and Heart-deep He speaks from his very Soul he says no more than what he feels And truly these holy Afâ—ections are the very Life of Confession without them Confession is a very dull dead and heartless thing He that comes to make Confession without these Affections speaks but Words of Course and as it were by the by and his present Confession does but encrease and add to the number of his sins and so make Work for â—â—o her Confession It 's impoâ—sible to confess any sin aright and at the same time to retain the lâ—ve of it or bear any good affection to it it speaks a flat Contradiction Confession you have heard is the Condemning of one's self for one's sin Pray how can we condemn our sâ—lves to God for our sins unlâ—ss we condemn our sins in our selves Confession voâ—d of Affection is the greatest Meckery of God in the World and surely God can't be mov'd and affected with our Confessions of our sins unless we be thus mov'd and affected with our sins in our Confessions He therefore that confesses aright is ever touched with these suitable Aâ—â—ections 1. He perfectly hates the sin he confesses that 's one Affection he bears towards his sin He hates his sin out of a sâ—gâ—t of the odious ugly evil nature of it out of a sence of its Contrariety to God's Nature and Contradiction to his Will out of an apprehension of the guilt it has brought upon his own Person of the faith it has brought into his own Nature of its miscâ—tevousness to his own precious immortal Soul and destructiveness of his own spiritual good and eternal happiness 2 â—â— 18. He looks upon his sin as an evil and a littering and plainly hates it and wishes the very Death of that which cost the Death of Christ and has made him â—â—ble unto eternal Death He sees his sin in its own Câ—lâ—ars he beholds the mâ—sâ—â—ness and the danger of it and can't endure it his Heart rises up against his sin as strongâ— as ever his Stomack rises up against that which it naâ—â—â—ares he fully lâ—kes and abominates his sin so as were it to do again he would first suffer aâ— tâ—â—ng he would rather dâ—e than do it He hates his sin and leâ—â—es himself for his sin He lothes himself for that Deformity and â—â—â—â—ement which makes the very God of 〈◊〉 to lâ—the and abhor his own Creature Ezek. 36.21 Then shall you remember your own evil ways and â—eâ—r d urge that were not good and shall iâ— the your selves in your own sight for your miâ—â—i ies and for your abominations The Penitent Câ—rseâ—lor is filled with Self-displiâ—ency and Self-abhorrency Seeing I am evil says * 〈…〉 2. St. Austin to confess unto God is nothing else but to be displeas'd with my self The humble Sinner's Heart is angry and impatient against his sin and full of indignation agan st himself for his sin he fells quite out with himself in Confession and takes an holy Revenge upon himself for his sins Penitent Ephraim smote upon his Thigh 31 Jer. 19. in token of Astonishment at and deâ—eslation of his former vile and lewd courses The confessing Publican smote upon his Breast Luk. 18.13 in token of his wonderful great Contrition and to signify a will and desire even to punish himself for his faults and out of a real Hatred of his sin which Iâ—dged in his Heart His knocking upon his Breast shewed what mind and aâ—fectiâ—n he carried to his sin and declared his dâ—iâ—e utterly to destroy it Thus the humble Confessor hates his sin and is at odds and variance