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I. THE NECESSITY OF THIS DUTY OF CONFESSION.

1. Confession is a considerable part and branch of prayer (Daniel 9:4, 20; Ezra 10:1).

2. God's glory is much advanced by our confession. He is most exalted in our abasements, and then are His wisdom, and goodness, and holiness, and other His attributes set forth to most advantage, when we humbly acknowledge our own vileness and wretchedness, and that which is the cause of both, our wickedness.

3. Our own interest is concerned in our confession, as that by which our pardon is procured (Psalm 33:5). The readiest way for the cleansing and healing of a wound or ulcer is to lay it open, to search it to the bottom; to apply corrosives to the dead flesh, and fetch out all the putrefied matter: and so it is with a conscience galled with sin, which, by dissimulation and concealment, may palliate a cure, but not effectually work it without confession.

4. Confession is an evidence of true conversion, and without it there is no assurance of pardon.

5. It is a condition of the new covenant (1 John 1:9). When we repent of our sins, and declare our penitence by a confession of them, then, and not till then, we may challenge pardon upon Gospel-terms; then, and not else, we may appeal to God's faithfulness and justice, as He stands engaged by promise in that covenant to justice and to sanctify us, to forgive the guilt, and to release us from the penalty of our sins; to cleanse us from the filth, and to free us from the power and dominion of them. Otherwise those attributes of His, His truth and His righteousness, will oblige Him to condemn us with our sins, and to punish us for them, and not to accept us in them, or forgive them to us without confession.

6. It is a qualification which is to virtuate the sacraments themselves, and make them effectual to us. Now, the sacraments are seals of that covenant, whereby it it confirmed to us, and the benefits and advantages of it are derived and conveyed unto us in the pardon of our sins, and God's gracious acceptance of us.

II. AFTER WHAT MANNER IT MAY BE PERFORMED, SO AS BEST TO ANSWER AND MAKE GOOD THOSE ENDS.

1. Let thy confession of thy sins be open, and free, and plain as thou canst make it, with a declaration of all the aggravating circumstances, without any dis. guise or extenuation; because thou hast to do with a God who sees the secrets and innermost retirements of thy hearts.

2. Let it be sincere, and in good earnest; such as may be accompanied with a hearty sorrow for God's displeasure, which thy sins have procured thee; with a thorough shame for the turpitude of them that they have made thee odious to God, and scandalous to good men; with a perfect heart.

3. Let it be humble, ins prostrate adoration of God in all His gracious and glorious attributes and perfections; and in a due acknowledgment of thy own vileness and sinfulness, weakness and wickedness.

(Adam Littleton, D. D.)

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KJV: Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

WEB: Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.