make use only of those things that are good against the second ague,
would not this demonstrate that this man was not sensible of the nature
and danger of this disease? The same may be said of every sinner that
shall make use only of those means to justify him before God, that can
hardly make him go for a good Christian before judicious men. But the
poor Publican, he knew the nature and the danger of his disease; and knew
also, that nothing but mercy, infinite mercy, could cure him thereof.
5. This confession of the Publican declareth, that he himself was borne
up now by an almighty though invisible hand. For sin, when seen in its
colours, and when appearing in its monstrous shape, frighteth all away
from God. This is manifest by Cain, Judas, Saul, and others, who could
not stand up before God under the sense and appearance of their sin, but
fled before him, one to one fruit of despair, and one to another. But
now this Publican, though he apprehends his sin, that himself was one
that was a sinner, yet he beareth up, cometh into the temple, approaches
the presence of an holy and sin-revenging God, stands before him, and
confesses that he is that man that sin had defiled, and that had brought
him into the danger of damnation thereby.
This therefore was a mighty act of the Publican. He went against the
voice of conscience, against sense and feeling, against the curse and
condemning verdict of the law: he went, as I may say, upon hot burning
coals to one that to sin and sinners is a consuming fire.
Now then, did the Publican this of his own head, or from his own mind?
No, verily; there was some super-natural power within that did secretly
prompt him on, and strengthen him to this more noble venture. True,
there is nothing more common among wicked men, than to trick and toy, and
play with this saying of the Publican, “God be merciful to me a sinner:”
not at all being sensible either what sin is, or of their need of mercy.
And such sinners shall find their speed in the Publican’s prayer far
otherwise than the Publican sped himself; it will happen unto them much
as it happened unto the vagabond Jews, exorcists, who took upon them to
call over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus; that
were beaten by that spirit, and made fly out of that house naked and
wounded, Acts xix. 13. Poor sinner, thou wilt say the Publican’s prayer,
and make the Publican’s confession, and say, “God be merciful to me a
sinner.” But hold; dost thou do it with the Publican’s heart, sense,
dread, and simplicity? If not, thou dost but abuse the Publican and his
prayer, and thyself and his God; and shalt find God rejecting of thee and
thy prayers, saying, The Publican I know; his prayers and godly tears I
know; but who or what art thou? and will send thee away naked. They are
the hungry that he filleth with good things, but the rich (and the
senseless) he sendeth empty away.
For my part, I find it one of the hardest things that I can put my soul
upon, even to come to God, when warmly sensible that I am a sinner, for a
share in grace and mercy. Oh! methinks it seems to me as if the whole
face of the heavens were set against me. Yea, the very thought of God
strikes me through; I cannot bear up, I cannot stand before him; I cannot
but with a thousand tears say, “God be merciful to me a sinner;” Ezra ix.
15.
At another time, when my heart is more hard and stupid, and when his
terror doth not make me afraid, then I can come before him, and ask mercy
at his hand, and scarce be sensible of sin or grace, or that indeed I am
before God. But above all, they are the rare times, when I can go to God
as the Publican, sensible of his glorious majesty, sensible of my misery,
and bear up, and affectionately cry, “God me merciful to me a sinner.”
But again, the Publican, by his confession, sheweth a piece of the
highest wisdom that a mortal man can shew; because; by so doing, he
engageth as well as imploreth the grace and mercy of God to save him.
You see by the text he imploreth it; and now I will shew you that he
engageth it, and makes himself a sharer in it.
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy.” And again, “If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness;” Prov. xxviii. 13; 1 John. i. 9.
_First_, In the promise of pardon, “he shall have mercy;” he shall have
his sins forgiven. As also Solomon prays, that God will forgive them
that know their own sores; and they are indeed such as are sensible of
the plague of their own heart, 2 Chron. vi. 29, 30; 1 Kings viii. 37, 38.
And the reason is, because the sinner is now driven to the farthest
point, for confession is the farthest point, and the utmost bound unto
which God has appointed the Publican to go, with reference to his work;
as it is said of Saul to David, when he was about to give him Michal his
daughter to wife, “I desire not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of
the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.”
So says God in this matter, I desire no sacrifices, nor legal
righteousness to make thee acceptable to me: “Only acknowledge and
confess thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against me,” 1 Sam.
xviii. 25; Jer. iii. 12, 13. And though this by some may be thought to
be a very easy way to come at, and partake of the mercy of God; yet let
the sensible sinner try it, and he shall find it one of the hardest
things in the world. And there are two things to which man is prone,
that makes confession hard:
_First_, There is a great proneness in us to be partial, and not thorough
and plain in our confessions. We are apt to make half confessions; to
confess some, and hide some; or else to make feigned confessions,
flattering both ourselves, and also God, while we make confession unto
him; or else to confess sin, as our own fancies apprehend, and not as the
word descries them. These things we are very prone to do; men can
confess little sins, while they hide great ones. Men can feign
themselves sorry for sin when they are not, or else in their confessions
forget to judge of sin by the word. Hence it is said, They turned to
God, “not with their whole hearts, but as it were feignedly.” “They
spake not aright, saying, What have I done?” “They flatter him with
their mouth, and lie unto him with their tongues,” and do their
wickedness in the dark, and sin against him with a high hand, and then
come to him and “cover the altar with their tears.” These things
therefore demonstrate the difficulty of sincere confession of sin; and
that to do it as it should, is no such easy thing.
To right confession of sin, several things must go: as,
1. There must be sound conviction for sin upon the spirit: for before a
man shall be convinced of the nature, aggravation, and evil of sin, how
shall he make godly confession of it? Now, to convince the soul of sin,
the law must be set home upon the conscience by the Spirit of God: “For
by the law is the knowledge of sin.” And again, “I had not known lust,
unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet;” Rom. vii. 7. This law,
now when it effectually ministereth conviction—of sin to the conscience,
doth it by putting of life, and strength, and terror into sin. By its
working on the conscience, it makes sin revive, “and the strength of sin
is the law;” Rom. vii.; 1 Cor. xv. It also increaseth and multiplieth
sin, both by the revelation of God’s anger against the soul, and also by
mustering up and calling to view sins committed and forgotten time out of
mind. Sin seen in the glass of the law is a terrible thing; no man can
behold it and live. “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I
died;” when it came from God to my conscience, as managed by an almighty
arm, then it slew me. And now is the time to confess sin, because now a
soul knows what it is, and sees what it is, both in the nature and
consequence of it.
2. To a right confession of sin, there must be sound knowledge of God,
especially as to his justice, holiness, righteousness, and purity;
wherefore the Publican here begins his confession by calling upon or by
the acknowledgement of his Majesty: “God be merciful to me a sinner:” As
if he should say, God, O God, O great God, O sin-revenging God, I have
sinned against thee, I have broken thy law, I have opposed thy holiness,
thy justice, thy law, and thy righteous will. O consuming fire (“for our
God is a consuming fire”), I have justly provoked thee to wrath, and to
take vengeance on me for my transgressions. But alas! how few that make
confession of sin have right apprehension of God, unto whom confession of
sin doth belong. Alas! it is easy for men to entertain such
apprehensions of God as shall please their own humours, to bear up under
the sense of sin, and that shall make their confession rather facile and
fantastical, than solid and heartbreaking. The sight and knowledge of
the great God is, to sinful man, the most dreadful thing in the world;
which makes confession of sin so rare. Most men confess their sins
behind God’s back, but few to his face; and you know there is ofttimes a
vast difference in thus doing among men.
3. To the right confession of sin, there must be a deep conviction of
the terribleness of the day of judgment. This John the Baptist inserts,
where he insinuates, that the Pharisees’ want of (sense of, and) the true
confession of sin; was because they had not been warned (or had not taken
the alarm) to flee from the wrath to come. What dread, terror, or
frightful apprehension can there be, where there is no sense of a day of
judgment, and of our giving unto God an account for it? Matth. iii. 7;
Luke iii. 7.
I say, therefore, to confession of sin, there must be,
(1.) A deep conviction of the certainty of the day of judgment; namely,
that such a day is coming, that such a day shall be. This the apostle
insinuates, where he saith, “God commandeth all men, every where, to
repent: because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead;”
Acts xvii. 30, 31.
This will give a sense of what the soul must expect at that day for sin,
and so will drive to an hearty acknowledgement of it, and strong cries
for a deliverance from it. For thus will the soul argue that expecteth
the judgment-day, and that believes that it must count for all. O my
heart! it is in vain now to dissemble, or to hide, or to lessen
transgressions; for there is a judgment to come, a day in which God will
judge the secrets of men by his Son; and at that day he will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and will manifest the counsels of
the heart. If it must be so then, to what end will it be now to seek to
dissemble? 1 Cor. iv. 5. This also is in the Old Testament urged as an
argument to cause youth, and persons of all sizes, to recall themselves
to sobriety, and so to confession of their sin to God; where the Holy
Ghost saith ironically, “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy
heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine
heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou that for all these
things God will bring thee into judgment.” So again, “God shall bring
every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or
whether it be evil,” Eccles. xi. 9; xii. 12, 14.
The certainty of this, I say, must go to the producing of sincere
confession of sin; and this is intimated by the Publican, who within his
confession, addeth, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” As if he should
say, If thou art not merciful to me, thy judgment shall swallow me up:
without thy mercy I shall not stand, but fall by the judgment which thou
hast appointed.
(2.) As there must be, for the producing of sincere confession of sin, a
deep conviction of the certainty, so of the terribleness, of the day of
judgment: wherefore the apostle, to put men on repentance, which is
sincere confession of sin, saith, “For we must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in
his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;” 2 Cor. v. 10,
11. The terror of the Lord, as we see here, he makes use of, to persuade
men to confession of sin, and repentance to God for mercy.
And I am persuaded, that one reason that this day doth so swarm with
wanton professors, is, because they have not sound conviction for, nor go
to God with sincere confession of, sin: and one cause of that has been,
that they did never seriously fall in with, nor yet sink under either the
certainty or terribleness, of the day of judgment.
O the terrors of the Lord! the amazing face that will be put upon all
things before the tribunal of God! Yea, the terror that will then be
read in the face of God, of Christ, of saints and angels, against the
ungodly! Whoso believes and understands it, cannot live without
confession of sin to God, and a coming to him for mercy.
“Mountains, fall upon us, and cover us, and hide us from the face of him
that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great
day of his wrath is come, and who is able to stand?” This terror is also
signified, where it is said, “And I saw a great white throne, and him
that sat on it, from whose face the (very) earth and the heaven fled
away: and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small
and great, stand before God: and the books were opened; and another book
was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of
those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell
delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man
according to his works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of
fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in
the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire;” Rev. xx. Here is
terror; and this is revealed in the word of God, that sinners might hear
and consider it, and so come and confess, and implore God’s mercy.
The terror of the Lord, how will it appear, when he “shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ!” 2 Thess. i. 7–9.
The terror of the Lord, how will it appear, when his wrath shall burn and
flame out like an oven or a fiery furnace before him, while the wicked
stand in his sight! Matt. xiii. 50.
The terror of the Lord, how will it appear, while the angels at his
command shall gather the wicked to burn them! “As the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son
of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather together out of
his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire, where there shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth;” Matt. xiii. 40–42. Who can conceive this terror!
much more unable are men to express it with tongue or pen; yet the truly
penitent and sin-confessing Publican hath apprehension so far thereof, by
the word of the testimony, that it driveth him to God with a confession
of sin for an interest in God’s mercy. But,
4. To right and sincere confession of sin there must be a conviction of
a probability of mercy. This also is intimated by the Publican in his
confession; “God (saith he) be merciful to me a sinner.” He had some
glimmerings of mercy, some conviction of a probability of mercy, or that
he might obtain mercy for his pardon, if he went and with unfeigned lips
did confess his sins to God.
Despair of mercy shuts up the mouth, makes the heart hard, and drives a
man away from God; as is manifest in the case of Adam and the fallen
angels. But the least intimation of mercy, if the heart can but touch,
feel, taste, or have the least probability of it, that will open the
mouth, tend to soften the heart, and to make a very publican come up to
God into the temple, and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
There must then be this holy mixture of things in the heart of a truly
confessing publican. There must be sound sense of sin, sound knowledge
of God, deep conviction of the certainty and terribleness of the day of
judgment, as also of the probability of obtaining mercy. But to come to
that which remains; I told you that there were two things that did make
unfeigned confession hard. The first I have touched upon.
_Secondly_, And now the second follows: and that is, some private leaning
to some goodness a man shall conceit that he hath done before, or is
doing now, or that he purposeth to prevail with God for the pardon of
sins. This man, to be sure, knows not sin in the nature and evil of it,
only he has some false apprehensions about it. For where the right
knowledge of sin is in the heart, that man sees so much evil in the least
transgressions, as that it would break the back of all the angels of
heaven should the great God impute it to them. And he that sees this is
far enough off from thinking of doing to mitigate or assuage the rigour
of the law, or to make pardonable his own transgressions thereby. But he
that sees not this, cannot confess his transgressions aright; for true
confession consisteth in the general, in a man’s taking to himself his
transgressions, with the acknowledgment of them to be his, and that he
cannot stir from under them, nor do anything to make amends for them, or
to palliate the rigour of justice against the soul. And this the
Publican did when he cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
He made his sins his own; he stood before God in them, accounting that he
was surely undone for ever, if God did not extend forgiveness unto him.
And this is to do as the prophet Jeremiah bids; to wit, only to
acknowledge our iniquities, to acknowledge them at the terrible bar of
God’s justice, until mercy takes them out of the way; not by doing, or
promising to do, either this or that good work. And the reason of this
kind of confession is,
(1.) Because this carrieth in it the true nature of confession; to
confess, and plead for mercy under the crimes confessed, without shifts
and evasions, is the only real simple way of confession. “I said, I will
confess my transgressions to the Lord;” and what then? “and thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” Mark, nothing comes in betwixt
confession and forgiveness of sin, Psalm xxxii. 5; nothing of works of
righteousness, nothing of legal amendments, nothing but an outcry for
mercy; and that act is so far off from lessening the offence, that it
greatly heightens and aggravates it. That is the first reason.
(2.) A second reason is, Because God doth expect that the penitent
confessors should not only confess, but bear their shame on them: yea,
saith God, “Be thou confounded also, and bear thine own shame:” when God
takes away thine iniquity, thou shalt “be confounded, and never open thy
mouth more, because of thy shame;” Ezek. xvi. 52, 54, 62, 63. We count
it convenient that men, when their crimes and transgressions are to be
manifested, that they be set in some open place with a piece paper,
wherein their transgressions are inserted, that they may not only
confess, but bear their own shame. At the penitential confession of
sinners God has something to do; if not before men, yet before angels,
that they may behold, and be affected, and rejoice when they shall see,
after the revelation of sin, the sinner taken into the favour and
abundant mercy of God; Luke xv.
(3.) A third reason is, for that God will, in the forgiveness of sin,
magnify the riches of his mercy; but this cannot be, if God shall suffer,
or accept of such confession of sin, as is yet intermixed with those
things that will darken the heinousness of the offence.
That God, in the salvation, and so in the confession, of the sinner,
designs the magnifying of his mercy, is apparent enough from the whole
current of scripture; and that any of the things now mentioned will, if
suffered to be done, darken and eclipse this thing, is evident to reason
itself.
Suppose a man stand indicted for treason, yet shall so order the matter
that it shall ring in the country that his offences are but petty crimes;
though the king shall forgive the man, much glory shall not thereby
redound to the riches and greatness of his mercy. But let all things lie
naked, let nothing lie hid or covered, let sin be seen, shewn, and
confessed, as it is in the sinner himself, and then there will be in his
forgiveness a magnifying of mercy.
(4.) A fourth reason is, for else God cannot be justified in his
sayings, nor overcome when he is judged; Psalm li.; Rom. iii. God’s word
hath told us what sin is, both as to its nature and evil effects; God’s
word hath told us, that the best of our righteousness is no better than
filthy rags. God’s word has also told us, that sin is forgiven us freely
by grace, and not for the sake of our amendments: and all this God shews,
not only in the acts of his mercy toward, but even in the humiliations
and confessions of, the penitent; for God will have his mercy to be
displayed even there where the sinner hath taken his first step toward
him: “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so grace might reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord;” Rom.
v. 21.
(5.) A fifth reason is, because God would have by the Publican’s
conversion others affected with the displays and discoveries of wonderful
grace, but not to cloud and cover it with lessening of sin.
For what will such say when sin begins to appear to conscience, and when
the law shall follow it with a voice of words, each one like a clap of
thunder? I say, what will such say, when they shall read that the
Publican did only acknowledge his iniquity, and found grace and favour of
God? That God is infinitely merciful to those or to such as in truth
stand in need of mercy. Also, that he sheweth mercy of his own good
pleasure, nothing moving him thereto.
I say, this is the way to make others be affected with mercy, as he
saith, by the apostle Paul, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness to us-ward (or toward us) through Christ
Jesus;” Eph. ii. 4–7. You may also see that 1 Tim. i. 15, 16.
(6.) Another reason of this is, because this is the way to heighten the
comfort and consolation of the soul, and that both here and hereafter.
What tendeth more to this, than for sinners to see, and with guilt and
amazement to confess, what sin is, and so to have pardon extended from
God to the sinner as such? This fills the heart; it ravishes the soul;
puts joy into the thoughts of salvation from sin, and deliverance from
wrath to come. Now they “return, and comb to Zion with songs, and
everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away;” Isa. xxxv. 10. Indeed, the belief
of this makes joy and gladness endless.
(7.) Besides, it layeth upon the soul the greatest obligations to
holiness. What like the apprehension of free forgiveness (and that
apprehension must come in through a sight of the greatness of sin, and of
inability to do any thing towards satisfaction), to engage the heart of a
rebel to love his prince, and to submit to his laws?
When Elisha had taken the Syrian captives, some were for using severities
towards them; but he said, “Set bread and water before them, that they
may eat and drink and go to their master;” and they did so. And what
follows? “So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of
Israel,”—he conquered their malice with his compassion. And it is the
love of Christ that constraineth to live to him; 2 Kings vi. 13–23; 2
Cor. v. 14.
Many other things might possibly be urged, but at present let these be
sufficient.
The SECOND thing that we made mention of in the Publican’s prayer, was an
imploring of help against this malady: “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
In which petition I shall take notice of several things.
_First_, That a man’s help against sin doth not so absolutely lie in his
personal conquest as in the pardon of them. I suppose a conquest, though
there can indeed by man be none so long as he liveth in this world, I
mean, a complete conquest and annihilation of sin.