Ananias and Sapphira, for that in another cafe, they lyed unto God and kept back a part, Acts v. And he is no true penitent, that defires to hide any fweet morfel under his tongue, and is not willing to take shame to himself for every known fin.

4. Be very particular in your confeffion, opening out your spiritual fores before the Lord, Pfal. li. 4. I have done this evil in thy fight. Joh. vii. zo. I have finned, and thus and thus have I done. To confefs the feveral kinds of your fin in general, without defcending to particulars, is too fuperficial work on fuch an occafion. The particular abominations of your heart and life, are raised up in meditation, to be laid before the Lord in humble confeffion. I

fuppofe you to be at this work in a fecret place, where you may freely utter before him, what it would not be proper you should say in the hearing of others. No doubt, a great deal of freedom may be used in fecret prayer, in narrating of thoughts. and actions, with the defignation of time, place, and perfons, fo as may tend to one's deeper humiliation; which would not be to edification, in focial prayer.

Now, in order to your being the more full and particular in your confeffion, I would recommend the fame method and order to be observed therein, as in the review of your fins. I believe, that, fo doing you will find the advantage of it. Go orderly through the feveral periods of your life, and through all the ten commandments, making your confeffion; where also you may take in the confeffion of publicfins, always fo as may best tend to the further humiliation of yourself. In a fpecial manner, be very particular as to the signal miscarriages of our life: and aggravate your guilt, acknowledging the aggra vating circumstances thereof. And unto the confef fion of your known fins, against all the ten commandments, add a humble acknowledgment of a large void

and blank to be left for your unknown fins against every one of them; which you can by no means fill up, but the all-knowing God can; for who can underftand his errors? Pfal. xix. 12. And confidering the commands of the perfect law, as binding you to embrace the gospel, confefs your atrocious guilt in finning against the remedy of fin, therein revealed, offered and exhibited unto you.

5. It will be profitable, that all along through your confeffion, you approve of the law as holy, just, and good, Rom. vii. 12. For as black doth best appear, when fet by white; fo fin appears moft clearly in its native hue, exceeding finful, when fet over against the pure, holy, juft, and good commandment. As for example, when you are to confefs your fins against the first commandment, you may fay to this purpose, "Lord, thou commandeft me,

faying, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. "I acknowledge, this thy command is most just and "reasonable in itself, and moft good for me. It was "thou alone who made me, thou alone haft preferv"ed me. I never needed another god befides thee, " and none but thee could ever do the part of a god

to me. Thou didst magnify thy rich grace, in " condescending to be in Chrift a God to me a noft "wretched creature. Nevertheless, over the belly

of this law of love, my duty, and my intereft, I "have had many other gods before thee: I have fet up my curfed felf in thy room and ftead,-made the "vain world my god,&c." And fo in other cafes. 6. Laftly, Let your confeffion be closed with felfcondemning, felf-emptying, and a look of faith.

ift, Condemn yourfelf, as did the returning prodigal, Luke xv. 18. Father, I have finned against hea ven, and before thee, Ver. 19. And am no more worthy to be called thy fon. As you looked to the com. mandments before, and confeffed your fin; fo look now to the threatenings and curfe of the law, and

confefs your juft deferving. Read there your deferved doom, and pafs fentence against yourfelf. Nothing is more natural, than that now you call your felf fool and beast, for that you have followed the wild-fire of your corrupt inclinations, to the miring of yourself thus in fin and guilt; and have broken over the hedge, where now you find the serpent biting you. And here,

(1.) Confefs you deferve no good, but all evil, in time. If the cause of your fast be some evil you are at prefent fmarting under, acknowledge God to be juft, very juft in it. If it is fome ftroke threatened, and hanging over your head, confefs that you well deferve it should fall on you in its full weight. If it is light that you want, confefs you deferve to be left in darkness: or whatever be the mercy you come to make fupplication for, acknowledge from the heart, that you have forfeited it. Surely, in cafe your uncircumcifed heart be humbled, you will accept of the punishment of your iniquity, Lev. xxvi. 41. And then if your fins have found you out, you will own the procedure against you to be righteous and holy: if your broken bones fmart, you will fay it is juft: if the Lord has turned his former fmiles into frowns, mixed your comforts with gall and wormwood, fouring them so as to fet your teeth on edge, blasted your enjoyments, and squeezed the fap out of them, you will after confeffion of fin, fay from your very heart, My folly makes it fo.

(2.) Confefs you deferve eternally to perish, and that it is of the Lord's mercies you are not confumed, Lam. iii. 22.; that God might in justice wrap you up in the filthy garments of your fin, and caft you out of his fight, into the lake burning with fire and brimStone, as the fittest place for fuch a finful lump. Acknowledge yourself to be, in yourself, a wretched creature, juftly under the curfe and condemnatory fentence of the law, having nothing to fay for yourfelf,

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felf, at the bar of justice, why it may not be fully executed against you, a felf condemned, as well as a law-condemned finner, Pfalm li. 4. Whatever your ftate be in the fight of God, it is altogether juft, that your libel against yourself be not concluded without this.

2dly, Be emptied of yourself, in humble and hearty acknowledgment of utter inability to help yourself. Having taken a view of the load of fin lying upon you, and laid before the Lord the particulars of your burden, with the finking weight thereof, acknowledge that it is quite beyond your power to move it from off you. Say from the heart, "Lord, here is a load of guilt lying upon me, which "by no doing or fuffering of mine can be moved; "here is a mighty power of fin I am no more able "to grapple with, than a little child with a giant; a "dead weight I can no more remove, than I can remove a mountain. If thou leave me under it, as thou justly mayft, I perish."

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This is true humiliation, where the poor broken finner lies at the Lord's feet, fenfible that he is bound with ten thousand cords of guilt, but unable to loose the weakest of them; that his foul is preyed upon, and like to be devoured, by a fwarm of living lufts, yet unable to kill or fake off any of them. If we are duly humbled, our humiliation will be carried thus far; for it is the ruin of many, that they fee not the abfolute need of the blood of Chrift, for removing of their guilt; and far less, the abfolute need of his Spirit, for breaking of the power of fin

in them.

Laftly, Let there be a look of faith out of the low dungeon, look unto God in Chrift, and fay, God be merciful to me a finner, Luke xviii. 13. And turn thou me, and I shall be turned, Jer. xxxi. 18. Tell him, that, fince according to his holy gospel, there is yet hope in Ifrael concerning this thing, you

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muft and will take the benefit of the gofpel-procla mation of grace and mercy, and lay hold on the horns of the altar: and therefore, tho' your weight be heavier than mountains of brafs; you do, with humble confidence, at the Father's bidding, lay it wholly over on the blood of his Son, the Lord Jefus Chrift, trufting thereon allenarly for remiffion of fin, fanctification, and complete falvation.

Now, as to the two directions laft mentioned, I mean not, that what is propofed in either of them, muft needs be done all at once, without intermiffion. You may use them, as you are best able to reach them. It is not very likely, that those who spent one fourth part of the day in confeffing and worshiping, Neh. ix. 3. did make but one confeffion continued without intermiffion. So you may make fuch intermiffion in either or both of them, as you find neceffary. Chriftian prudence muft direct in the matter, to use the means, fo as may best conduce to the end.

DIRECT. VIII.

After confeffion of fin, apply yourself to the duty of perfonal covenanting, explicit entering into, or renewing covenant with God, by taking hold of God's covenant of grace, in exprefs words. That this is a neceffary part of the work of a personal fast, may be gathered from Jer. 1. 4. and Neh. ix, 38. both cited before. And it is clear from the nature of the thing; for to what purpofe fhall men lay open their wounds before the Phyfician of fouls, if they mind not to put themselves in his hand for cure, in the way of the covenant? or how can they pretend to mourn for, fin if they are not to enter on the way of reformation? A time of perfonal fafting is a time for the runaway to return to his duty, and to fet matters right again, that were put wrong by turning aside from God and his way. And one unwilling