“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.”
SIN unconfessed is sin unforgiven. He who has not brought himself to the
approved publican’s mind, and with that publican’s deep, heartfelt
humiliation and self-abhorrence, poured out the contrite entreaty, “GOD
be merciful to me a sinner;” he who, as he stands or kneels before the
throne of grace, is not emptied of self-justification—is not convinced
that mercy alone can save him—is not eager to embrace the only proffered
propitiation of rebels and outcasts (that afforded by the Son of
obedience and love), is still in the depths of iniquity—still under the
condemnation of the law: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Nor even
if he has this general sense (and confesses it) of sinfulness and
unworthiness, is he much nearer to pardon and justification unless,
besides, by diligent self-searching he has found out wherein he is a
sinner and unworthy, and, like penitent David, makes mention before God
of every ascertained act, and word, and thought of offence; every
omission, every transgression, and prays for power to know himself
better, that he may confess himself the more fully.
I need not stay to prove to you that all this is required. There are
many precepts and many examples in the Bible, which set forth clearly the
necessity of both general acknowledgment of sinfulness, and also special
confession of particular sins to GOD, as preliminary to pardon.
And we may easily see why it is so. All things are indeed naked and open
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do; and He, therefore, needs no
informing of our circumstances, our wants and feelings, our griefs and
burthens. But, by a rule of His own establishing, He does not bless us
in providence or grace, unless we ask for the blessing, and assure Him
that we should appreciate it. When of His free love He had designed to
bestow great things on the Israelites, and had even commissioned His
prophets to make known the intention, He, nevertheless, restrained the
flow of His bounty by the condition, “I will yet for this be inquired of
by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” {65} He would have men
realise that they wanted the blessing; and He would have them
_acknowledge_ their dependence on Him for the bestowal of it.
And if this feeling, this acknowledgment and supplication were required
even when, if I may so speak, He longed to confer the gift, and was
standing with it ready in His stretched out hand, how much more requisite
must they be when His face is averted, and His heart displeased; when it
is His _wrath_, rather than His _love_, which is made ready to reveal
itself, and will presently reveal itself, unless it is deprecated and
propitiated, and His love won back? Yes, surely, in such a case, we must
arise and go to Him, like the prodigal, acknowledging that we are not
worthy to be called His children. We must smite upon our breasts, like
the publican, and cry out of our distress, “GOD be merciful to me a
sinner.” We must win His general sympathy by the manifestation of our
contrition; we must tell Him, one by one, of the items of offence which,
of His mercy in Christ, we would have Him blot out of the great book of
His remembrance; and not visit with His threatened vengeance.
We can have little fear of His offended justice, if we do not thus guard
against every particular exercise of it. We can have but little
appreciation of His pardoning grace, if we will not be at the trouble of
telling Him when and for what we want it. And we can have but little
sense of His awful holiness, if—all unclean, and able only to be cleansed
by Him _in answer to our entreaty_, _and on the showing of our stains_—we
yet approach Him, and expect to be tolerated in His presence,
unconcernedly defiled, and in filthy rags. “Ask, and ye shall have.”
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.” “When I kept silence, my
bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night
Thy hand was heavy upon me. . . . I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and
mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the LORD; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall
every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be
found.” {67}
And there is a gracious purpose, a merciful regard for the sinner’s best
interests, in this imposed law of general and particular confession. The
offering of frequent confession will keep a man mindful of his state
before God. It will lead him to consider what he has to confess; and so,
through self-searching, he will come to self-knowledge: and the act of
describing each sin to GOD will operate in representing that sin
faithfully to the sinner; so that the very ordinance, which is properly
the acknowledgment before GOD of sins realised, regretted, and forsaken,
will often serve to show the sinner, for the first time, the sin which he
has to repent of and forsake.
And one other benefit will surely arise from this exercise, namely, that
the sinner will be deterred from a fresh commission of that confessed
sin; that, having ascertained what are his evil propensities, what are
the weak points in which Satan successfully assails him, he will be more
on his guard against lapses, and wanderings, and defeats. He will nerve
himself, and fight more _certainly_; “not as one that beateth the air.”
He will seek to be better covered with the armour of GOD, and grasp more
resolutely the sword of the Spirit. He will go forth conquering and to
conquer.
To obtain pardon, then, for past sins, it is necessary (in accordance
with GOD’S law) to confess them. To know ourselves, our difficulties,
failures, trials from within and without; to shame ourselves out of sin,
and to guide and encourage us to victory over it, it is expedient (and
GOD has mercifully required it) that we should tell out before Him, ever
and anon, all that we can rake up against ourselves; and not present even
that as a total, but beg Him to add to it the secret things, in which we
offend without knowing it. “Who can tell how oft he offendeth? O,
cleanse Thou me from my secret faults.”
Alas! my brethren, how high is the standard! How far do many of us fall
short of it! Where, among the frequenters of the temple, are the
abashed, and humbled, and contrite penitents, proclaiming their
sinfulness, and imploring pardon: “GOD be merciful to me a sinner”?
Where, among professed Christians, are the imitators of David, communing
with, searching out their spirit in the night season, rising early, to
tell out with sighs and pangs each sin that they can discover; each
renewal of it; each thought of it? But an hour since, we all joined, or
professed to join, in words of general confession. Who felt and abashed
themselves as sinners? Who really confessed any sin to GOD? Presently,
some of us will take part in a more solemn form, and draw nearer still to
a present GOD, seeking most intimate communion with Him. What sins are
we going to confess, and pray to be relieved from? How much of
self-abasement and contrition shall we take with us to the foot of the
altar? No further back than yesterday each one of us sinned in thought,
in word, or in deed; perhaps, in all three, How many of us brought those
sins to remembrance, last night or this morning, by self-examination, and
confessed them, and with contrition sought pardon of them? Which of us
has done this, and is wont to do it, whenever wrong has been done, or
right omitted? Remember, there is no forgiveness, there is no favour
with GOD, nor hope of heaven without it. There is no knowledge of self,
no perception of danger from without, no spiritual progress. He that
covereth his sin shall not and _cannot_ prosper. He walketh
independently, ungratefully, rebelliously—in his own way; and the end of
that way is death.
My brethren, think of these things; think of your imperative duty, and
your sovereign interest; and let close self-examination, honest,
heartfelt, contrite confession, be your frequent and diligent exercise.
Every morning settle what you have to do and avoid; every evening
consider what you have done and omitted, and lay the account religiously
before GOD. Daily dress and undress your souls. Cleanse yourselves of
what is amiss by confession and repentance. Prepare yourselves for
future success, by the examination of past failures. You cannot approach
GOD: He will not approach you (but for judgment), unless you have thus
purified yourselves, and put off the things that defile holy ground.
Thus much by way of reminder and entreaty respecting confession to GOD,
general and particular. But the question is asked in these days, and
being asked should not be left unanswered, whether, in any case, and if
so, in what, confession should also be made to any other than
GOD?—whether it is ever needful, or expedient, to uncover our sins, and
make known our spiritual burthens to our fellow man?
Now, any mindful reader of the Bible must be ready at once to answer
that, on Divine authority, it _is_ sometimes necessary, and often
expedient. When we have injured another, by word or deed; when we have
defrauded him, misled him, maligned him; provoked him to anger or
displeasure, or only in some secret way harmed him; we must, as a
foremost duty, go and acknowledge our fault, and obtain his forgiveness,
or at least leave nothing undone to obtain it. The rash striker, the
undutiful child, the dishonest tradesman, the unfaithful servant, the
seducer into any sin, the scandalmonger, the slanderer, the base
supplanter, the peacebreaker, may not atone for their offences, may not
have remission from GOD, but by the consent, or at least after the sought
consent, of the person offended against (which, of course, implies
previous acknowledgment and confession of the offence). “If thou bring
thy gift to the altar,”—_i.e._, if thou approachest GOD in any way, to
serve Him, or to seek His blessing—“and there rememberest that thy
brother hath aught against thee; Leave there thy gift before the
altar,”—stop at the threshold of God’s presence—“and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” {71} And
if the offence has been a public one, to the scandal, or detriment, or
provocation of a community, the confession, too, must be public; so that
St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, commands that such an offender
should be publicly censured, and put away from among them; and implies,
that he is not to be considered restored to the privileges of a
Christian, until the community, satisfied that he is penitent, shall
pronounce his forgiveness, and confirm their love towards him.
In obedience to this Scripture rule, the ministers of our Church are
ordered to admit no notorious evil liver, nor any that has done wrong to
his neighbour in word or deed, to holy communion; until, if he be an open
offender, he has openly declared himself to have truly repented (in some
such form as that of the Commination Service); or, if he be a private
injurer, until he has recompensed the parties to whom he has done wrong.
This discipline is not indeed enforced (as it should be) by _man_.
Sinners and saints mingle together in the LORD’S house, and alike partake
outwardly of the tokens of spiritual approval and blessing: but,
assuredly, GOD, who is true, maintains jealously what man neglects; and
refuses with displeasure the offerings of the violators and despisers of
His law. Ay, and moreover places a firm and impassable barrier of
excommunication between Him and them, which shall not be removed till the
appointed reconciliation with man has been made. In such cases, then,
confession to man, to the injured or offended, is necessary by the
ordinance of GOD.
In many other cases it is expedient, we might even say enjoined, since
inspired precepts recommend it. When, for instance, the burthened
conscience needs the sympathy, the advice, the prayers of others to
lighten it. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for
another, that ye may be healed.” {72a} Or when, again, the present
consequences of a past sin can only be removed by the active assistance
of others, as when Achan was bidden by Joshua—“My son, give, I pray thee,
glory to the LORD GOD of Israel, and make confession unto Him; and tell
_me_ now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.” {72b} In this latter
case, GOD had signified that Achan was the offender who had provoked His
wrath against Israel; and Joshua, the ruler of Israel, rightly demanded
what was the offence, that he might know how to do away with it.
Whenever, then, you feel spiritual perplexity, heaviness of soul which
you cannot relieve, faintness of heart, need of consolation or help in
prayer, you may and should make known your circumstances to some pious
and wise Christian or Christians, able and willing to advise, to succour,
to intercede for you. And whenever you cannot undo the consequences of
your sin without the active assistance of others, you are bound to take
to you partners in the work, and to communicate freely to them what you
have done, and wish undone.
It is not easy for me to say—your own feelings will guide you best in
such a matter—what confessor you should choose. In some cases a parent
would be the most fitting, or a bosom friend; in others, a stranger, or
slight acquaintance; in some cases, again, a person of your own age and
circumstances; in others, a senior, or a superior. But if these fail to
serve and relieve you, then, in all cases, should you avail yourselves of
the ordinance of GOD, and choose out your spiritual guide from among
those whom He has specially appointed to teach, and to console, and to
intercede. First, be sure that you cannot help yourselves, because GOD
has imposed upon you an individual responsibility, and entrusted to you
powers of soul and mind which you may not neglect to exercise. Then, if
you fail, go, call to yourselves that aid which seems best in itself, and
can be secured with least violence to your natural feelings, and least
injury to your social character and position. If that does not avail,
then betake yourselves to the ministers of religion, in the hope, nay,
with the assurance, that even if their learning, their habitual
examination of human nature’s wants and failings, their experience and
interest in soul-work, should, after all, leave them insufficient guides
and helpers, still GOD, to Whom in the person of His representatives you
have thus come, will not let you depart without a blessing, but will send
down from heaven itself His light, and comfort, and effectual strength.
One of two objections to this teaching may present itself to some of
those who hear me. Some of you, my brethren, may be ready to assert,
that human aid is not wanted in such circumstances; and others, that to
seek it of the clergy is to draw near to the error and corrupt
superstition of the Romanists.
To the first, I would simply answer, that they cannot really know much of
spiritual life, if they suppose that he who would lead such a life can
always get on without external help, and that they are little acquainted
with GOD’S mysterious ways, if they do not know that He ever works by
agents, in the religious and the moral, as well as in the physical world.
For their enlightenment, let them inquire of the eminently spiritual, or
the marvellously reformed, and they will assuredly find, that human helps
and sympathies have formed many steps of the ladder by which these have
climbed so high towards heaven.
The other objectors merit a longer answer, because the charge they make
is a serious one; not only affecting individuals, but casting a blot upon
the good fame of our Church itself, which unmistakeably teaches and
recommends, in special cases, the use of human and clerical confessors.
My dear brethren, let me ask you to bear with me patiently. I have no
party motives to serve, nor party prejudices to indulge; GOD is my
witness I reluctantly speak to you on this subject. I am only induced to
do so by the consideration that, when a religious question is agitated
out of doors, it is the minister of GOD’S bounden duty to take it up in
the pulpit, and exhibit it, as far as he can, in scriptural light,
keeping aloof alike from prejudging approval, and from capricious and
worldly condemnation of the thing maintained. “The priest’s lips should
keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth.” {75}
What, then, first, is the Romish use of confession? Every lay member of
the Church of Rome is obliged, at stated times, to make a full and
particular confession to a priest, of every sin, of every kind, that he
or she can call to remembrance. No matter, that they are repented of and
confessed to GOD; no matter, that the way of escape from them is plain;
that they have been escaped from; out they must come, with all their
preceding, accompanying, and following circumstances; without reserve of
any kind. If but a _thought_ of sin be kept back; if the priest but
_fancy_ that something is kept back; excommunication is pronounced, and
the offender, or supposed offender, is cut off from all means of grace.
{76} And the doctrine which guides this practice is, that no sin is ever
forgiven by GOD, unless it has first been confessed to a priest; and
that, even then, though its eternal punishment is remitted by their
giving of absolution, works of penance must be performed on its account,
or a longer or shorter period of suffering in purgatory will have to be
endured.
Such is Rome’s course. I need scarcely tell you, that our Church, in
condemning the “sacrament” of penance, and denying the existence of a
purgatory, has swept away the only pretences on which such a prying,
unscriptural, and most mischievous confessional could be maintained.
But, still, the Church of England has a doctrine and a practice of
confession. In the exhortation to holy communion, it is enjoined, “If
there be any of you, who by this means,” (self-examination) “cannot quiet
his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let
him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of GOD’S
word, and open his grief, that by the ministry of GOD’S holy word, he may
receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and
advice, to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple
and doubtfulness.” And in the Order of the Visitation of the Sick it is
directed: “Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special
confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any
weighty matter.” And let it not be said, that these are Romish elements
in a “tesselated ritual.” The exhortation is a Protestant composition;
and the words that make it imperative on us to move every sick person we
visit to a special confession, if he needs it, were added at the last
review of the Prayer-Book.
What, then, is the sum of Church teaching? Men are to confess their sins
to GOD alone, with a view to pardon and religious homage. (In certain
cases, they are advised to seek _assurance_ of _absolution_ from the
clergy. I dwell not on this now, because I purpose, GOD willing, to give
the subject full consideration on an early occasion. {77}) When they
find this confession sufficient to procure spiritual peace and amendment
of life, they need not, and ought not, to make known their faults to
others. They are not to make their ministers partakers of the thoughts
and secrets of their breasts; they are not to look to them for pardon;
they are not to get rid of their responsibility to GOD, by accepting
penance at man’s hand; they are not to seek direction from a priest, in
the ordinary ways of life; they are not to submit themselves to close
catechisings, and prying investigations. But they are, when in doubt, in
difficulty, in overwhelming grief, in all circumstances of spiritual
helplessness, so to reveal their lives and open their thoughts to a
spiritual officer, that he may, out of the treasure of his knowledge and
experience, and by virtue of his commission as a minister of holy things,
direct, and comfort, and strengthen them, more really and effectually
than he can in public sermons, from mere guessing at their condition.
When the public ministry suffices for them, let them seek no more; when
they need, likewise, private ministry, by all means let them demand it:
the Church binds us to render what they ask.
This kind of confession has the hearty approval of spiritual men of all
ages, and all shades of theological opinion. All our reformers urged it.
Luther said he would rather lose a thousand worlds than suffer private
confession to be thrust out of the Church. Calvin exhorted all who
thought they would be benefitted by it, to use it readily, and showed
them, by precise rules, how to do so. Puritans of old, so-called
evangelical ministers of our day—presbyterians, anabaptists, wesleyans,
independents, all maintain and practise it now, though sometimes under
other names—“consultation,” “history of conversion,” “detailing of
experiences.” Richard Baxter’s characteristic words, exhibiting the true
spirit of Church teaching, and showing how nonconformists cling to it in
this case, are specially worthy of full recital.
“I know,” he writes, “some will say, that it is near to Popish
auricular confession, which I here persuade Christians to; and it is
to bring Christians under the tyranny of the priests, and make them
acquainted with all men’s secrets, and masters of their consciences.
To the last, I say—to the railing devil of this age—no more, but the
LORD rebuke thee. If any minister have wicked ends, let the GOD of
heaven convert him, or root him out of His Church, and cast him among
the weeds and briers. But is it not the known yoke of sensuality to
cast reproaches upon the way and ordinances of GOD? Who knoweth not,
that it is the very office of the ministry, to be teachers and guides
to men in matters of salvation, and overseers over them. . . . I am
confident, many a thousand souls do long strive against anger, lust,
blasphemy, worldliness, and trouble of conscience, to little purpose,
who, if they would but have taken GOD’S way, and sought out for help,
and opened all their case to their minister, they might have been
delivered in a good measure long ago. And for Popish confession, I
detest it: we would not persuade men that there is a necessity of
confessing every sin to a minister before it can be pardoned. Nor do
we it in a perplexed formality only at one time of the year, nor in
order to Popish pardons or satisfactions; but we would have men go
for physic to their souls, as they do for their bodies, when they
feel they have need. And let me advise all Christian congregations
to practise this excellent duty more. See that you knock oftener at
your pastor’s door, and ask his advice in all your pressing
necessities. Do not let him sit quiet in his study for you: make him
know by experience, that the tenth part of a minister’s labour is not
in the pulpit.”
One more quotation: it will be heard with respect when I tell you it is
from the Bishop of Lincoln’s sermons on repentance: “As ministers should
be, by their profession, usually the best advisers in cases of
conscience, and are, or ought to be, every penitent’s ready and
sympathising friends, so to them the stricken or perplexed soul will
often have recourse. And thus, there is a sense in which those dreaded
words, ‘confession to the priest,’ (in one sense, justly dreaded, for the
iniquity of ages is upon them) may express an edifying practice, and even
at times a duty.” {80}
Thus, my brethren, have I endeavoured to set before you, the true merits
of the question, “Ought man to confess to man?” to remind you what is
required, what is allowed and recommended, what is forbidden by
Scripture, and the Witness and Keeper of Scripture, the Church.
Endeavour, all of you, to learn from the subject, charity and wisdom. If
you feel that you need not this use of confession, thank God for your
easy circumstances; but, blame not, and, above all, dare not to ridicule,
those who have need. If you want it, by all means seek it; we may not
refuse it. To all of you, I would say, at all times regard your
clergyman as indeed an appointed spiritual friend and adviser, and so
make use of him; but, especially in sickness, when you call him to your
bedside, so far, at least, admit him to your confidence, and enlighten
him with respect to your spiritual state, that his instruction may be
pointed, and his prayers appropriate; and so his visits blessed. Oh!
look not upon us as mere Sunday lecturers, or mechanical readers of
prayers, in whom you have no week-day interest, and from whom no benefit
is to be derived, but what may be had in church. Degrade not our office,
nor ignore our authority, nor slight our willingness to use both for your
temporal and eternal good. Nor, on the other hand, exalt us to the false
position of spiritual despots—lords of men’s consciences; idols occupying
the place of GOD. _Ministers_ we are; servants of Christ; and your
servants for His sake. Make use of our ministry as a ministry, and doubt
not but GOD will then make it profitable to you, and accomplish by it,
all the ends for which He appointed it.
SERMON VII.
FORGIVENESS.