Canfe(fion of Sin. D I R E C T. VII. Arrer this review of your fins fl:lade, go unto God by prayer, and make confeffion ofthem. And here, confeffion is to be the chief part ofyour prayer : yea, ' and if the whole of it almo1l be confeffion, it will · not be amifs. Certainly extraordinary confeffion of " fin, is a greq.t part of the work ofa religious fafit Neh . ix. 3· Dan. ix. 20. And the folemn review, in which one's fins are fo partiCularly fearch'd out, natively Hfues therein. For the more profitable management of this, con· feffion of fin, the following advices are offered. Fit:fl, Take no thought ofyour voice, farther than to keep it from being unfeafonably high. :J For the voice, in itfelf, is nothing before the heart · fearching God, who regards not the found of men's throats, but of their heart and affeCtions. ' The true ~odhip~ pers iliall worfbip the Father in fpirit and in truth ; for the Fatl1er feeketh fuch"to woriliip 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 n1uch .love, ' Ezek. xxxiii. 31. And one, by an indifcreet management of it, may be fruitlefly weakned; and unfitted for con-, tinuing at the work, fo as need may require. The affeetions are the befi rulers of the voice. - Secondly, Endeavour to bring along into your 'ccmfeffion, and carry along, thefe affeCtions and motions of hear>t, of which before; namely, hatred and detefiation .of fin, godly' forrow, holy fbame, [elf-loathing, and longing to be rid of fin, Pfal. xxxviii. 18. 'I wil~ declar~ mine iniquity, I will be forry .for my fin-~ When the leper was to £fY unclean, undean, pis clothes were to be rent, his, head ba~e, and the~~ was to be a covering upon his I upper hp, Lev. xm. 45· A confeili.ng tongue re· quire'
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