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he knoweth, 1 Sam. iii. 13. And the beft of the faints mentioned in fcripture, had fomething of that. nature to humble them. Now, as ever you would be duly humbled in your exercise of perfonal fafting, let thefe, in your review of your fins, be brought forth by head-mark, and fet before you in the fight of a holy God: and that, although they be freely pardoned unto you long ago; for the view of thele is most likely to afflict you; and pardoned fins, inafmuch as they are pardoned, are humbling in the remembrance of them, Luke vii. 37, 38, 47.; as Paul's pardoned blafphemy and perfecution were to him, 1 Tim. i. 13.

4. In thinking on your fins, take along with you the aggravations of them. Reprefent to yourfelf the infinite majefty of God, against whom you have finned and as ever you would be duly humbled, entertain high and elevated thoughts of the Lord our Lawgiver, This will make you to fay with David, Pfalm li. 4. Against thee, thee only have I finned and done this evil in thy fight; understanding by your own experience what he meant thereby. In your meditation, fet God's way of dealing with you, all along from your very birth, over against your way of dealing with him; fo fhall conviction be brought home on your confcience, with a peculiar edge; while confidering the mercies he hath heaped on you, the light and warnings he hath afforded you, your guilt will appear of a deepest dye.

5. Having thus feen your extreme finfulness, confider in the next place the juft demerit of your fin, even God's wrath and curfe, both in this life and that which is to come. For because of these things. cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience, Eph. v. 6. The law is a looking-glass for finners, not only in its commands, but alfo in its threatenings and curfe; fhewing unto all their curfed ftate by nature; to unbelievers, what they are actual

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ly lying under for their fins, and to believers, what theirs do deferve. And therefore, after you have, as before directed, gone through all the Ten Commandments, for your conviction and humiliation; do you, for your further humiliation, fet your eyes upon the threatenings and curfe of that holy law as a covenant of works; and fee therein your just deserving, so as that God may be justified when he fpeaketh against you, and clear when he judgeth, Pfalm li. 4. And think with thyfelf, how thou fhouldft, without peradventure, eternally perifh under his wrath, if he should proceed against thee according to law and justice as he hath actually proceeded against many, for thofe very fins wherewith thou art chargeable.

6. In this review of your fins, endeavour all along that your eye may affect your heart. In vain will you rake into that dunghill, if fuitable affections or emotions of heart be not thereby excited in you. And these fuitable affections are, (1.) Hatred, deteftation, and abhorrence of fin, Pfalm cxix. 128. Rom. xii. 9. Wherefore pull the mask from off it, remove the paint and varnish that has been laid over it, that you may fee it in its native deformity; and look on it until your ftomach turn on the fometimes fweet morfel. (2.) Grief and forrow of heart for it, Pfalm xxxviii. 18. Let your heart be rent, in confi. deration of the offence thereby given to a gracious God, its contrariety to his holy nature and will, its dishonouring of his Son who gave himself a facrifice for fin, and grieving of his Spirit who fanctifies us. (3-) Holy Shame upon the account of it, Jer. xxxi. 19. Behold it as a filthy thing, the very reverse of the beauty of holiness, the holiness of God expreffed in his law; and be confounded at the fight. Behold it as a bafe requital of divine favours, and blush before him. (4.) Self-loathing, Ezek. xxxvi. 31. Purfue the thought of the filthiness of your fin, till you

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lothe yourself in your own fight, as rendered unclean all over, by abominations of heart and life. (5.) A longing to be rid of fin, the guilt, defilement, prevailing, and indwelling of it. Dwell on the thought of your finfulness, till your heart, pained and burdened therewith, grone out longing defires of deliverance, as Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from the body of this death! Who fhall draw this dagger out of my bowels! this fting out of my confcience! this poifon out of my flesh! who will take this load off my back!

All this will be no more than necessary humiliation. For it will be the lot of every finner, either in time or in eternity, to be like the fish that is boil. ed in the water which it fome time a day swimmed in. But blessed are they that weep now, Luke vi. 21. Wo unto you that laugh now: for ye shall mourn and weep, verse 25.

Laftly, It will be very neceffary, that the whole of this work be mixed with devout ejaculations. For be fure Satan will be at your right hand, to resist you, and to mar your work: your heart will be rea dy to mifgive you in it, to ftop and turn afide: therefore prefs forward in it, lifting your eyes every now and then to the Lord for help.

With this review of your own fins, let a view of the public fins of the church and land wherein you live, be joined; ufing the fame helps, as in your own particular cafe, which need not be here repeated. And in relation to this, I fubjoin only three advices.

1. Begin always with your own fins; even though the principal caufe of your faft be the state of the church or land. This has been the manner of the faints: Ifa. vi. 5. Then faid I, Wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Dan. ix. 20. And whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confeffing

Feffing my fin, and the fin of my people Ifrael. The reafon hereof is manifeft: for one will never be duly humbled for the fins of others, who is not in the first place fo humbled for his own.

2. Reprefent public fins to yourfelf, under fuch notions as may tend to excite fuitable affections and emotions of heart in you. Look on them as they are dishonouring to our gracious God, wounding or ruining to the fouls of men, difgraceful to our holy Christian profeffion, and provoking God to wrath against the land. Hate and lòthe them, be ashamed of them, and mourn over them, on these accounts; and long for the day of purging them away.

3. See your own finful part in them, by all means. Bring them home to your own confcience, before the Lord: fearch out, and fee what of the guilt thereof you are, either directly or indirectly, charge. able with, in his fight; and be deeply humbled for the fame,

Thus far of the review of fin.

DIRECT.

VII.

"After this review of your fins made, go unto God by prayer, and make confeffion of them. And here, confeffion is to be the chief part of your prayer; yea, and if the whole of it almost be confeffion, it will not be amifs. Certainly extraordinary confeffion of fin is a great part of the work of a religi ous faft, Neh. ix. 3. Dan. ix. 20. And the folemn review, in which one's fins are fo particularly fearched out, natively iffues therein.

For the more profitable management of this confeffion of fin, the following advices are offered.

1. Take no thought of your voice, farther than to keep it from being unfeasonably high. For the voice in itself is nothing before the heart-fearching God, who regards not the found of men's throats, but of their heart and affections. The true worshipA a 2

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pers fhall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father feeketh fuch to worship him, John iv. 23. But fometimes there is a deceit in the voice, to the beguiling of the foul, as it fared with Ezekiel's hearers, with the mouth fhewing much love, Ezek. xxxiii. 31. And one, by indifcreet management of it, may be fruitlefly weakened; and disfitted for continuing at the work, fo as need may require. The affections are the best rulers of the voice.

2. Endeavour to bring along into your confeffion, and carry along, thofe affections and emotions of heart, of which before; namely, hatred and deteftation of fin, godly forrow, holy fhame, felf-loathing, and longing to be rid of fin, Pfalm xxxviii. 18. I will declare mine iniquity: I will be forry for my fin. When the leper was to cry unclean, unclean, his cloaths were to be rent, his head bare, and there was to be a covering upon his upper lip, Lev. xiii. 45. A confeffing tongue requires a broken heart, a Spirit really weighted with a fenfe of fin. And the marble, that fweats in foul weather, but yet is never a whit the fofter, shall be an emblem of one confeffing his fins with a hale heart. Yet let none fenfible of the hardness of their heart, be thereby made to ftand aloof from confeffion, faying, Who will roll away the ftone! Let them go forward, and effay it: let them confefs their hardness of heart, and unfitnefs to make confeffion; for fo they may find the ftone rolled away to their hand.

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3. Be as full as you can in your confeffion: laying all your fpiritual fores before the Lord, fo far as you know them. One wound concealed from the phyfician, may prove fatal to the patient and one fin induftriously paffed over in confeffion may prove fatal to the finner; for he that covereth his fins fhall not profper, Prov. xxviii. 13. David was aware of this, Pfalm xxxii. 5. I acknowledged my fin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. It fared ill with

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