Chap. 7. 44 Exp ;Trion tipm the Book of J O B. Verf. 20 . 479 Falfehearted Saul (r Sam. 15.24.. ) and Traitor-J xdas(Matth. 27.4.) make as good a con"effl ,n as this. Every one ofthefe Enid, I bavefinned, and what Both- Job fay more ? it is furely no great colt nor pain to finful nature, to bring up fuch a con£etfion as this. I anfwer, Firfi a general confcfiion may be a found confcflion r it is one thingnot to express particular tins, with the circumflan- ces of thole tins, and another thingpurpofely to conceal them. I grant, implicit confeffion may be as dangerous as implicit faith. And to digg in the earth, and hide our tin in the Napkin lof our excutès:, is worle than to hide our Talents in the Napkin of our idlenefs. And as it is moil dongerous, knowingly to conceal tin from God, Co it is very dangerous to do it through ignorance or intdvertency ; Some confers tin in general termes only, be- caufe they know not what their fins are, or have quite forgot them , As Nebuchadnezzar called the Attrblogers, and Sorceters, and Chaldeans, and told them he had dreamed a dream, but he could not tell what it was, For the thing was gone from him, Dan. 2. 5. Some fuch there are , who can, or, will only fay, Th ey have finned, they havefinned, but what, they cannot tell, or they do not remember, Thofe things art gone from them. That which is written of the learned Bellarmine, a great Cardinal anda Champion for Auricular, particular eon a ton offin to man, feemes very firange, That when he lay upon his death -bcd, and the Prier} after the Popith manner, came to abfolve him, he had n)thing to confefs: at lati he thought offome Height extrava- gancies of his youth, which was all he had to fay of his own mifcarriages, We fee a manmay be a Schollar in all the knowledg ofthe world, of Nature, and of Scripture, and yet not know his own heart,norbe ftudied ox read in himtelf. He that is fo in a fpi- ritual notion , can never want particular matter in his muff in- nocent dayes to confefs before the Lord, and to theme himfelf for. What though he htrh efcaped the pollutions of the world, and is cleanfed from the filthinefs of the fleth? yet he knowes that dill in his fleth there dwells no good thing, and that in his, fpirit,thereare, at Intl touches of, many fpiritual filthineffes, as paide,unbeleif,zc.befides his great deficiencies inevery duty,and in his love to Jefus Chrift,which is the ground ofal1.So then in a- ny ofthefe fenfes, to confefs fin only in general,is a finful confef- jion,And yet Job cnAde a holy con£d on hete,and fodid the Pic
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