We shall finde David in great anguish and distresse of spirit Psal 25. 17. 18. The troubles of mine heart are inlarged oh bring thou mee out of my distresses wringing pressing anguishes looke upon my affliction and my paine Here be troubles of heart distresses of spirit affliction and paine But what is it now that thus wrings distresses and paines David See the last words And forgive all my sinnes not forgive all my punishments Davids sin not his punishment was his paine Wee shall see the like in him 2 Sam. 24. 10. I have sinned greatly I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant hee mentions not the taking away of any smart nay Vers 17. He is willing to beare it I have sinned let thine hand be against me He begs that the punishment may be laid upon him but begs that his iniquity may be taken away Let God be pleased to take away his iniquity and he is nothing solicitous for the punishment the offence of GOD troubled him more than his personall smart So that Gods heart were but towards him in the pardon of his sinne he did not care though Gods hand were against him in smiting him with temporall chastisement And this will better appeare if wee doe but compare Pharaoh with David Ex. 8. 8. Intreat the Lord that hee may take away the Frogs from mee the Frogs troubled him more than his sin against God Take away the Frogs but no mention at all of taking away his sin And when afterwards a confession of sin is extorted from him yet was it not his sin that disquieted him Exod. 9. 27 28. not take away my sin but take away the thunderings and the haile Lord sayes David Take away the iniquity of thy servant oh sayes Pharaoh take away these filthy Frogs and this dreadfull thunder A repenting heart is more troubled at sin then at thunder and Frogs It sees more filthinesse in sin than in Frogs or Toads or what ever else can bee presented more ugly to it A repenting sinner hath his eye upon God and upon his Law Hee sees the holinesse of God that he is a God of pure eyes that cannot behold iniquity Hab. 1. 13. Hee sees him a good gracious patient Father and so it cuts him to the heart to have offended such a Father and God He looks upon the Law and sees it to be Holy just and good and this gals him to the heart to have violated so holy and so pure a Law Now wicked men they looke wholly at the justice and wrath of GOD at the curse of the Law and so nothing troubles them but the feare of hell and death If these might be avoided the offending of an holy and good God the violating of an holy and a good Law would not a whit afflict or disquiet them Nay it is remarkable in David that though hee had upon Nathans message to him confessed his sin and Nathan upon his confession had pronounced the pardon of it yet after this he cries out My sinne is ever before me against thee only have I sinned Marke then that even pardoned sinne forgiven sin vexes and disquiets a true repenting heart It pinches him and disquiets him though it be forgiven it grieves him that he hath so played the foole and that ever he was such a beast to offend so gracious a God When the Prodigals Father sees him comming a far off he runs to meet him shewes compassion to him fals upon him and kisses him That kisse was the seale of his pardon as if he had said Behold I forgive thee all thy sin as when David kissed Absalom and Esau kissed Iacob they both did it in token of full reconciliation And yet for all this see how the Prodigall speakes he sayes not O Father from the ground of my heart I unfainedly thanke thee oh how great is my Fathers goodnesse thus to pardon me c. but Father I have sinned against thee I but his Father had kissed him and thereby testified that he had freely forgiven him what need hee confesse his pardoned sin Why is he not rather in the confession of praise than in the confession of sin Oh no A repenting sinner is so affected and grieved with the offence of God in his sinne that though God have pardoned and forgiven it yet he cannot but mourne for it and be afflicted with it that so holy a Law hath beene broken by him that so good a God hath beene offended by him Psal 25. 6 7. Remember O Lord thy tender mercies remember not the sinnes of my youth If God remember mercy hee forgets and forgives sinne If God forget it why doth David remember the sins of his youth Yes so will a true repenting heart doe it will remember the sin that God forgets it will mourn for the sin which God hath forgiven Now hereby may men try the truth of their repentance Pharaoh can say I have sinned yet was he not to be trusted and Saul can say so too as well as hee I have sinned and Iudas can say I have sinned as well as them both and yet not a true penitentiary of them all We may say as much and make large confessions before the Sacrament too and yet be farre from true repentance Deale honestly if thou be grieved indeed what is it that grives thee sinne or smart Such as is the object of thy griefe such is thy repentance As in the case of feare of sin so is it in the Qui Gehennas meluit non peccare metuit sed ardere Ille autem peccare metuit qui peccatum ipsum sic ut Gehennas odit August â—ep 144. case of griefe for sin In the case of fear Augustines saying is true He that feares hell feares not to sin but to burne But he feares to sin who so hates sin it selfe as hell To feare hell is to feare burning not sinning he feares sinning that dreads sinning as he dreads burning It is so in case of griefe he that is sorry because of hell is not sorry because he hath sinned but because he shall burne He is truly sorry for sin that is more grieved for sinning than he is afraid of burning If then sin meere sin without relation to hell be that which doth disquiet us and this be the thing that mainly troubles us that we have beene such beasts to offend God there is a cause of great joy in such sorrow it is an evidence of thy true repentance But if dread of hell and the feare of being damned bee the thing that workes this sorrow and griefe in us there is little cause of comfort in such repentance So may our repentance be tryed by the object of our sorrow 2 Secondly the depth and greatnesse of this sorrow will serve to try the truth of our repentance The sorrow of repentance is not a slight overly superficiall griefe but a deepe and an hearty sorrow That as David speaks of in that case Ps 73. 21. Thus
heaven then see what followeth Luke 15. 22 23. bring hither the fatted Calfe let us eate and bee merry Now that he repents he is fed and feasted with fat things the fat Calfe must be killed and prepared But look upon him in his impenitency whilest he is in his sinnes and how fares hee then alas he then eats husks feeds with the Swine and his belly not filled neither whilest he was in a Swinish condition he was fitter to feed at a Swines trough than to feed at his Fathers Table and then he is fed with nothing but with empty huskes It is just so here If men come to God and to his Table with confession and contrition of spirit with true and sound repentance then God sayes Come bring the fatted Calfe make a Feast give this repenting sinner my Sons flesh and bloud his spirit let him eat marrow glut his heart with the comforts of my spirit with the sweetnesse and goodnesse of Christ But when men come in their swinish and brutish lusts come no better than Swine without repentance for their sins then GOD sends them to the trough What doe you a company of swinish adulterers and drunkards at my Table get you to the trough the trough is fitter for you than the Communion-Table And though such persons in their impenitency will thrust and crowd in to the Lords Table yet they shall be fed but with husks Impenitent persons find their food in the issue no better they receive but the huske of the Sacrament bare Bread and Wine the naked Elements they never taste a whit of the fatted Calfe they eate not a whit of CHRISTS flesh and bloud God feeds Swine onely with huskes huskes are good enough for Hogges And what are impenitent persons better than Hogs to whom Pearles must not bee given Observe how the Prodigals father speakes to him after his re-repentance Come bring the fatted Calfe let us eate and bee merry A man can never so eate at the Sacrament as to bee merry till hee eat of the fat Nehemiah 8. 10. Goe your way eat the fat and drinke the sweet neither bee yee sorry that is be you merry and joyfull eating the fat and drinking the sweet cheeres and makes the heart merry But when sayes his father let us eat and bee merry Now after hee saw his Sonne to bee sorry when hee saw his soule humbled and afflicted with sorrow for his sinnes he saw him truly penitent Now let us eate and bee merry It is to little purpose to eate at the LORDS Table unlesse wee may so eate that wee may bee merry that wee may bee cheered refreshed rejoyced Now hee that would eate and bee merry at the LORDS Table Lords Table must weepe and be sorry in his owne private Chamber and Closset And when we have made our selves sorry God will make us merry when we have sadded our soules by repentance God will glad them with the comforts of his Spirit dispersed to us in the Sacrament And the greater our sorrow is before we come the greater will our mirth be when we be come But contrarily when we come to the Lords Table and have not beene sorry have not beene humbled have not repented then may we come and eate but we cannot eate and be merry we can have no comfort no joy in our receiving because GOD feeds us in such a case with nothing but huskes Huskie food will never make the heart merry and where repentance is wanting it makes the Sacrament proove to a man no better then an husky banquet Where repentance is wanting a man in receiving receives nothing but bare bread and bare wine neither is it any more with God then if a man did eate common bread and drinke ordinary wine at his owne Table It is in Sacraments as it was with sacrifices When men came to the sacrifices and offerings without repentance see how God esteemed of them Hos 9. 4. For their bread for their soule shall not come into the house of the Lord. Zanch. in Locum The bread for their soule that is the bread for their life their daily bread for the sustinance of their bodily life He speakes of that meate offering Levit. 2. 5. That meate offering was appointed of God for a spirituall use and yet it is called the bread for their life or livelihood Because they using those Ordinances without Repentance though the meate offering were appointed for a spirituall use God esteemed no other then common meate as their ordinary bodily bread they fed upon to susteyne bodily life In the same sense it is that Iere. 7. 21. the Lord in a kinde of scorne calls their sacrifices flesh Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eate flesh There wanted repentance in the offerers and therefore God reckons them but as other ordinary flesh in the Shambles And being so what had they more at their meate offerings then at their owne Tables what at their sacrifices more then might have beene had at the Shambles And no wonder for God intends not his Ordinance to such God calls not invites not such and he will not welcome those whom he invites not Consider those Canons which were for eating the Passeover Exod. 12. 43 44 45. This is the Ordinance of the Passeover there shall no stranger eate thereof But every mans servant that is bought for money when thou hast circumcised him then shall he eate thereof A forreyner and an hired servant shall not eate therof Here be three Canons First no stranger must eate thereof Suppose he had yet surely should he have had no Communion with God God would have beene a stranger to him Secondly no hired servant must eate thereof suppose he had certainly God would not have accepted his service Thirdly no uncircumcised one must eate thereof If an uncircumcised person had eaten thereof could he have looked for a blessing Now all these three Canons make against an impenitent sinners comming to the Sacrament For an impenitent sinner is all these He is a stranger to God Psal 58. 3. The wicked are estranged from the wombe And Psal 54. 3. David calls the Ziphims who were notwithstanding of Israel strangers for what so estranges a man from God as doth sinne He is an hyred servant a servant to Satan and his lusts Iohn 8. 34. Whosoever commiteth sinne is the servant of sinne 2 Pet. 2. 18. They themselves are servants to corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage And who will set his servant at his Table with him The servant abides not in the house for ever Iohn 8. 35. and therefore sits not down at Table at any time He is an uncircumcised person Iere. 4. 3 4 Breake up the fallow ground circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the fore skine of your heart What is the circumcision of the heart but the breaking up of the fallow ground verse 3. So that a repenting heart is a
man blush and be ashamed when he had done amisse And we may truly say that blushing is the colour of Repentance Ezra 9. 6. I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face It is true indeed that men may bee and are ashamed that are far enough from repentance There is a shame of the face and a shame of the heart they have the shame of face but not the shame of heart And if they have the shame of heart yet there is a double kinde of that shame 1. First the shame of a thiefe Ier. 2. 26. As the thiefe is ashamed when he is found so is the house of Israel ashamed And so there is the shame of any infamous sinner which arises from the disgrace and discredit of his action that hee hath done such a thing by which hee hath crackt his credit or may bring himselfe to some shamefull punishment the whip stocks or the gallowes So wicked men may be ashamed of their sins in their heart and conscience because of that shame their sinne will bring them unto in hell 2. Secondly there is a shame of a sonne or childe a filiall gracious shame of heart and conscience and that is when a mans shame rises not from the shamefull consequents that follow sin but out of a sight of the filthinesse and loathsome basenesse of their sinnes they see them so nasty and so filthy that it makes them ashamed that they have defiled themselves with such filth And this is the shame that is in the cheeks of true repentance There is a great deale of difference betweene the shame of a thiefe when he is taken and the shame of a man that fals into a puddle into the kennell or the myre a thiefe is ashamed because some disgrace will light upon him or some punishment of shame A man that is fallen into the myre or kennell he is ashamed but his shame is from the filthy nasty unsavoury pickle that he is in So a wicked man hath shame of conscience because his conscience tels him he shall come to shame in hell but a true penitent man hath shame of conscience because his conscience tells him that he hath defiled and besmeared himselfe with loathsome filth And such a shame as this may prove a surer signe of repentance then sometimes sorrow may doe There may be a griefe and a sorrow for sin that may come from the sense and apprehension of wrath and such a griefe will not evidence true repentance but a shame for sinne out of the sense of the filthinesse and vilenesse of sinne is an unfailing evidence of the faith of repentance If upon examination we can finde such a shame in our soules if with Ezra wee are ashamed and blush to lift up our face not because our shamefull punishments are increased over our heads not because our trespasses will sinke us downe into hell but because Our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasse is growne up to the heavens such shame yeelds comfort But few are thus ashamed of sinne now how many glory in their shame in their sinne which should be and is their shame The Prophet Isaiah complaines of a brow of brasse Isaiah 48. 4. The Prophet Ieremy of an Whores forehead Ierem. 3. 3. And Zephany Of sinners that know no shame Zeph. 3. 5. Sinners have lost those few remaining sparkes of modesty they were wont to have and are so farre from being ashamed of their sins that they rather count it a shame not to sinne May not the Lord say of many now as he twice complains Ier. 6. 15. 8. 12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush And are not men growne to that height of Sodomes impudency Isay 3. 9. The shew of their countenance doth witnes against them and they declare their sin as Sodome they hide it not Is the drunkard ashamed of his drunkennesse They that are drunke are drunke in the night 1 Thess 5. Drunkennesse then had some shame it sought to mantle it self with the darknesse of the night But are men now ashamed of drunkennesse in the open day in the open streets So for swearers adulterers and others Such impudency proclaimes mens impenitency in an high degree such persons are as far from repentance as they are from shame 2 Secondly deepe sorrow and hearty griefe for sin Where consider two things 1. first The object of repenting sorrow 2. secondly The depth and greatnesse of it Both will try truth of repentance 1 First the object of repenting sorrow is sin It is sin that specially afflicts and disquiets a repenting soul that is the thing that wrings and pinches it Where was it that the prodigals shooe did specially wring him Luke 15. 21. Father I have sinned against heaven that is against God in heaven he doth not say Father I am in a depth of misery ready to perish with hunger in that pinching distresse that I would be glad to eate husks with Hogs But Father I have sinned This is the griefe of a repenting soule that Gods Majesty hath beene offended in and by his sinnes This was that which lay heaviest upon and sate closest to Davids heart He neither cries out of his discredit and shame in the world nor yet speakes a syllable of wrath or hell but Psal 51. 3 4. My sin is ever before me against thee only have I sinned and have done this evill in thy sight My sinne is ever before me not Hell and damnation is ever before me not the shame and reproach of the world but my sin is ever before me It is this Lord that pinches and disquiets mee that I have sinned and done this evill in thy sight A good heart feares more the committing of sin than the suffering of punishment following it Prov. 30. 9. Give me not poverty lest I be poore and steale and take the name of my God in vaine He doth not say lest I be poore and steale and bring my selfe under the Magistrates sword or thy wrath but he lookes only at the sin lest I steale and take thy Name in vaine He feares the prophaning of GODS Name more than the bringing of his owne name and person in question And to this purpose is that which Elihu charges Iob withall Iob 36. 21. Regard not iniquity for this thou hast chosen rather than affliction that is thou hast rather chosen sin and iniquity than poverty and affliction as if he had said inasmuch as thou hast vainely and rashly expostulated with God V. 20. desiring death rather than to beare this affliction thou art guilty of iniquity and sinnest in this thy choice This therefore implies that a good heart would rather choose affliction than iniquity to suffer affliction than to do iniquity Now as a good heart is more afraid of sin than affliction and punishment so likewise a repenting heart is more grieved for sinne committed then for sorrow to bee suffered
was mine heart grieved or thus was mine heart leavened that is his griefe was so great that his heart was leavened with it A little leaven leavens the whole lumpe therefore much leaven doth it much more his whole heart was sowred with the leaven of sorrow Such is the griefe and sorrow of repentance it is a leavening griefe that leavens the whole lumpe of the heart it seasons and affects all the whole heart Therefore the mourning of repentance is called a great mourning Zach. 12. 11. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Ierusalem How great as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo As great as was the mourning for the untimely losse of Iosiah How great that was see 2 Chro. 35. 24 25. So deepe is the sorrow and so great is the sorrow for sin in repentance Yea it is a bitter mourning Zech. 12. 10. And they shall mourne for him as one mournes for his onely Sonne and shall bee in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first-borne A man that looses his first-borne and his only sonne how bitterly mournes that man Repentance mournes so bitterly Peter went out and wept bitterly they be waters of Marah that flow from the eyes of repentance Nay though it be a bitter sorrow which is for the losse of an only son and the losse of deere friends yet in repentance God lookes for a geeater sorrow than that is which is for the death of dearest friends therefore Isay 22. 12. The Lord called to weeping mourning and baldnesse God in speciall manner prohibited baldnesse in their mournings for the dead Deut. 14. 1. Yee shall not cut your selves nor make any baldnesse betweene your eyes for the dead and yet God that forbad it in mourning for the dead cals for it in mourning for sinne To teach how great our sorrow for sin should be that there ought to be a greater sorrow in repentance for sin than of naturall affection for the losse of our dearest friends by death It was a great sorrow that of Davids for Amnons death 2 Sam. 13. 36 37. The King wept very sore or with a great weeping greatly and David mourned for his son every day He wept He wept with a great weeping and with a great weeping greatly And he mourned daily Such is the sorrow of repentance a deepe and a daily sorrow till God allay it with some answers of peace Hence it is that it manifests it selfe with such outward expressions The Publican smites upon his breast Luke 18. And Ephraim smites upon his thigh Ier. 31. 19. And Ezra rends his garment plucks the haire off his head and beard Ezra 9. 3. All but to testifie the deepe and hearty sorrow for sin By this may men take a triall of their repentance If thou hast had a leavened spirit an imbittered spirit hast lamented after the Lord 1 Sam. 7. 2. whom thou hadst lost by thy sin as thou wouldest have lamented after a deere lost friend if thou hast beene in the waters of Marah the greater thy griefe hath beene the greater cause of comfort hast thou in the truth of repentance But so formall so slight is the sorrow of many hearts for sin that it is a cleere case they are strangers to repentance 3 Thirdly A forsaking an utter Post luctum poenitentiae non redeas ad peccatum non iterum facias quod iterum plangas Non est paenitens sed irrisor qui adhuc agit unde paenitent Bern. de modo bene vivendi ejection and rejection of all our former sinfull lusts and wayes Prov. 28. He that confesseth and forsaketh Repentance not only confesses but forsakes the confessed sin Iob 34 32. If I have done iniquity I will doe no more That is the language and the resolution of true repentance Ephes 4 28. Let him that stole steale no more True repentance makes men doe as God did when he repented him Gen. 6. 6 7. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth and it grieved him at his heart but that was not all And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast c. for it repents me that I have made them Nay repentance in man goes further one Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and hee was spared from the common destruction but here not one lust or sin finds grace in the eyes of a man that truly repents but all must be drowned in the floud of the teares of repentance It is with a man that hath the griefe of true repentance as it was with Nehemiah Neh. 13. 7 8. I came to Ierusalem and understood of the evill that Eliashib had done for Tobia in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God and it grieved mee sore but he rests not there but goes further therefore I cast forth all the houshold-stuffe of Tobiah out of the chamber What should Tobiah doe with a chamber there Therefore he not onely outs Tobiah but out goes all his stuffe too So doth repentance when it considers all the evill that Satan and corruption have done and how they have taken up chambers in the heart that should be the house of God it is grieved sore and thereupon it outs Satan and all his stuffe neither Satan nor his stuffe shall bee chamberd there any longer So doth repentance dispossesse Satan of the soule as Christ dispossessed his body of him Marke 9. 25. Thou dumbe and deafe spirit I charge thee to come out of him and enter no more into him so repentance casts Satan and filthy abominations out of a man that they enter no more they are cast out for ever Teares of repentance are not onely wetting but washing teares Isay 1. 16. Wash you make you cleane Davids teares washt his couch Psal 6. and so much more washt himselfe Baptisme is called the Baptisme of Repentance Luke 3. 3. In baptisme there is a washing away of sinne And how is baptisme the baptisme of repentance if in repentance there were not the doing away of sinne If a man could shed a sea of teares yet if he doe not drowne his sin in that sea what were he the better If a man should weepe his eyes out yet if he weepe not his sins out to what purpose were it Wheresoever repentance is there must necessarily follow this forsaking and casting off our sins because with true repentance these two things ever goe first an abomination and loathing of sin the man that repents horribly loathes his sins by which he hath offended Iob 42. 6. I abhorre my selfe and repent Ezek. 20. 43. Ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed Secondly an indignation against sin 2 Cor. 7. What indignation Hosea 14. 8. Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any more with Idols Now that which a man loathes and that
22. Ephes 1. 13. Ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise and Ephes 4. 30. Now as in Courts there be some dayes that are called Sealing-dayes so there be some speciall sealing-times and sealing-dayes in this kinde Sacraments are seales Rom. 4. 11. And Sacrament dayes are the sealing dayes of the Court of Heaven So that when a man comes to the Sacrament he comes to be sealed And therefore in this regard there must be a renewing of repentance before the receiving of the Sacrament Otherwise a man is not sealeable not capable of the seale and the impression of it Hard wax will not receive the print of the seale Before we put the seale to the wax wee first melt the wax or warme and so soften it at the fire and so prepare it for a capacity of the seales impression So when the heart is melted and is softned then it is fit to take the seale of the Spirit in the use of the seale in the Sacrament Now the renewing of repentance before the Sacrament is a melting a warming and a softning of the heart and a fitting it for the seale So needfull then and requisite as the melting or softning of the wax is before sealing so needfull is the renewing of repentance before the Sacrament Many come to the Sacrament and there is no print or impression made in their heart there is no appearance of any seale let such consider whether they did not neglect the softning of their hearts by not renewing their repentance Quest Wherein stands this renewing of repentance Ans 1. First in a fresh examination of our hearts to finde out our sinnes and corruptions We saw before that we must examine our graces but that is not all there must bee an examination of our selves for our sins That Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our wayes is to be done in our renewed repentance before the Sacrament Better we our selves search and make inquiry before we goe to the Sacrament than God should inquire after our iniquities and make a search after our sins at the Sacrament Iob complaines Iob 10. 6. That God enquired after his iniquity and searched after his sin That is a sore thing We can looke for no better at the Sacrament if we have not done it before we come thither 2 Secondly in a solemne confession of sin with deepe humiliation for them This confession let it be full and bring out thy sins as they tooke the Vessels of the Temple Ezra 8. 34. By number and by weight By number first Charge thy selfe impartially with all the sins thou canst recall So let thy confession be full in regard of enumeration Lev. 16. 21. All their iniquities all their transgressions Then by weight so let thy confessions be full in regard of aggravation make them as great and as foule in their natures and circumstances as thou canst Psal 25. 11. Psa 40. 12. 2 Sam. 24. 10. And thus haply may we understand that place Levit 16. 21. He shall confesse all their iniquities and all their transgressions in all their sins not only their sins but all their transgressions in their sinnes that is hee shall not onely confesse their sins but he shall aggravate their sins by laying open how many transgressions were wrapped up in their severall sinnes and how many transgressions were in the severall circumstances of their sins The laden soul is called to come to Christ is promised ease and refreshment and this promise is made good in the use of the Sacrament As therefore we would bee in the number of those whom Christ cals and to whom he promises ease and refreshment yea as we would have this ease and refreshment in the Sacrament so come with laden soules as much as we can The heavier and the weightier wee make our sins in our confessions the likelier they are to lade us And let thy confessions be with deepe humiliation let them bee dolorous confessions with griefe and sorrow for sin and from a sight and sense of it Labour to see and feele thy sin and sight and sense of it will worke sorrow for it Sight helpes to sorrow As in that case Lam. 3. 51. Mine eye affects mine heart so is it true in the sight of sin the eye that sees sin affects the heart feeling of sin helpes to sorrow The weight of it felt will bring the heart to sorrow in confession Davids confession was with sorrow Psal 38. 18. I will declare that is confesse mine iniquity But how shall his confession be qualified I will be sorry for my sin How comes he by his sorrow Surely by that Vers 4. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavie burthen they are too heavie for me What can make the heart more heavie than when it feeles the heavinesse and weight of sin So should a man carry himselfe in his confession before the Sacrament as Ephraim did in that confession of his Ier. 31. 18. I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe Make thy confessions before the Sacrament bemoaning confessions Let our confessions be ever so long and so large ever so exact and particular yet if done without sorrow it is but an historicall confession It is all one as if a man should come and tell God a Story or a long Tale of his sins God doth not require our confessions before the Sacrament to tell him that which hee knowes not he knowes our sins better than our selves but that in our confessions wee should have our hearts sorrowfully affected for them Be sure therefore before thou come to the Sacrament to renew thy repentance in confession one sweet advantage shalt thou have by it amongst others and that is this our selfe-accusations in our confessions will be a prevention and a disappointment of Satans accusations against us The Divell even at the Sacrament will bee laying in against us it is good therefore to take a course to defeat him He will be pleading against a man Lord shall this man be welcome to thy Table Shall he receive the benefit of thine Ordinance He hath done thus and thus I can lay to his charge these and these sins Thus by his accusations will he seek to put in a bar against a blessing upon us Now when a man before the Sacrament renewes his repentance and hath in his confessions brought in the accusations Praeventus Diabolus in accusatione ultra nos accusare non poterit Et si ipsi nostri simus accusatores proficit nobis ad salutem si vero expectemus ut a Diabolo accusemur accusatio illa nobis cedit ad poenam Orig. Hom. 3. in Levit. against himselfe Satan is prevented for then wee doe as I may say furnish the Lord with an answer to stop Satans mouth for then will the Lord be ready to answer for us Why Satan thou accusest this man of nothing whereof he hath not already to the full accused himselfe he himselfe hath accused himselfe of all this