SERMON V.

OF CONFESSION, AND SORROW

FOR SIN.

BY ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON.

[JOHN TILLOTSON was born in 1630. He was elevated to the Archiepiscopal ses of Canterbury in 1691; and died, 1694.]

SERMON V.

PSALM XXXviii. 18.

I will declare mine iniquity, and be sorry for my

sin.

In this Psalm David does earnestly beg mercy and forgiveness of God, and in order to the obtaining of it, he declares both his sins and his repentance for them, in these words, which contain in them two of the necessary ingredients, or at least concomitants of a true repentance, viz. confession of sin, and sorrow for it.

I shall speak something of the first of these, viz. confession of sin: but the second, viz. sorrow for sin, shall be the main subject of my discourse.

I. Confession of sin: 'I will declare mine iniquity,' or, as it is in the old translation, I will confess my wickedness.' Of which I shall speak under these three heads:

I. What confession of sin is.

II. How far it is necessary.

III. What are the reasons and grounds of this necessity.

I. What confession of sin is. It is a declaration or acknowledgment of some moral evil or fault to another, which we are conscious to ourselves we

have been guilty of. And this acknowledgment may be made by us, either to God or man. The Scripture mentions both. Confession of our sins to God is very frequently mentioned in Scripture, as the first and necessary part of repentance; and sometimes, and in some cases, confession to men is not only recommended, but enjoined.

II. How far confession of our sins is necessary. That it is necessary to confess our sins to God, the Scripture plainly declares, and is I think a matter out of all dispute. For it is a necessary part of repentance, that we should confess our sins to God, with a due sense of the evil of them; and therefore the Scripture maketh this a necessary qualification, and condition of pardon and forgiveness. 'Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy.' 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness;' implying that if .we do not confess our sins to God, the guilt of them will still remain; to God I say, for of confession to him St. John plainly speaks, when he says,' He is faithful and just.' Who? God, surely; who though he be not named before, yet is necessarily understood in the words before: If we confess our sins,' i. e. to God, he is faithful and just.'

A general confession of our sins is absolutely necessary; and in some cases a particular acknowledgment of them, and repentance for them, especially if the sins have been great and deliberate and presumptuous; in this case a particular confession of them, and repentance for them, is neces

1 Prov. xxviii. 13.

21 John, i. 9.

sary, so far as we can particularly recollect them, and call them to remembrance: whereas for sins of ignorance and infirmity, of surprise and daily incursion, for lesser omissions, and the defects and imperfections of our best actions and services, we have all the reason that can be to believe, that God will accept of a general confession of them, and repentance for them. And if any man ask me, where I find this distinction in Scripture, between a general and particular repentance; I answer, that it is not necessary it should be any where expressed in Scripture, being so clearly founded in the nature and reason of the thing; because in many cases it is not possible that we should have a particular knowledge and remembrance of all our particular sins; as is plain in sins of ignorance, since our very calling them by that name, does necessarily suppose that we do not know them. It is impossible we should remember those sins afterwards, which we did not know when they were committed: and therefore either a general repentance for these and the other sins I mentioned of the like nature, must be sufficient, in order to the pardon of them; or we must say, that they are unpardonable, which would be very unreasonable, because this would be to make lesser sins more unpardonable than those which are far greater.

And yet, though this difference between a general and particular repentance be no where expressly mentioned in Scripture, there does not want foundation for it there. 'Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret sins;' (i. e.) such as we do not discern and take notice of, when they are committed. And yet Da

1 Psalm xix. 12.