Part 5

And if this feeling, this acknowledgment and supplication were required even when, if I may so speak, He longed to confer the gift, and was standing with it ready in His stretched out hand, how much more requisite must they be when His face is averted, and His heart displeased; when it is His _wrath_, rather than His _love_, which is made ready to reveal itself, and will presently reveal itself, unless it is deprecated and propitiated, and His love won back? Yes, surely, in such a case, we must arise and go to Him, like the prodigal, acknowledging that we are not worthy to be called His children. We must smite upon our breasts, like the publican, and cry out of our distress, “GOD be merciful to me a sinner.” We must win His general sympathy by the manifestation of our contrition; we must tell Him, one by one, of the items of offence which, of His mercy in Christ, we would have Him blot out of the great book of His remembrance; and not visit with His threatened vengeance.

We can have little fear of His offended justice, if we do not thus guard against every particular exercise of it. We can have but little appreciation of His pardoning grace, if we will not be at the trouble of telling Him when and for what we want it. And we can have but little sense of His awful holiness, if—all unclean, and able only to be cleansed by Him _in answer to our entreaty_, _and on the showing of our stains_—we yet approach Him, and expect to be tolerated in His presence, unconcernedly defiled, and in filthy rags. “Ask, and ye shall have.” “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.” “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me. . . . I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found.” {67}

And there is a gracious purpose, a merciful regard for the sinner’s best interests, in this imposed law of general and particular confession. The offering of frequent confession will keep a man mindful of his state before God. It will lead him to consider what he has to confess; and so, through self-searching, he will come to self-knowledge: and the act of describing each sin to GOD will operate in representing that sin faithfully to the sinner; so that the very ordinance, which is properly the acknowledgment before GOD of sins realised, regretted, and forsaken, will often serve to show the sinner, for the first time, the sin which he has to repent of and forsake.

And one other benefit will surely arise from this exercise, namely, that the sinner will be deterred from a fresh commission of that confessed sin; that, having ascertained what are his evil propensities, what are the weak points in which Satan successfully assails him, he will be more on his guard against lapses, and wanderings, and defeats. He will nerve himself, and fight more _certainly_; “not as one that beateth the air.” He will seek to be better covered with the armour of GOD, and grasp more resolutely the sword of the Spirit. He will go forth conquering and to conquer.

To obtain pardon, then, for past sins, it is necessary (in accordance with GOD’S law) to confess them. To know ourselves, our difficulties, failures, trials from within and without; to shame ourselves out of sin, and to guide and encourage us to victory over it, it is expedient (and GOD has mercifully required it) that we should tell out before Him, ever and anon, all that we can rake up against ourselves; and not present even that as a total, but beg Him to add to it the secret things, in which we offend without knowing it. “Who can tell how oft he offendeth? O, cleanse Thou me from my secret faults.”

Alas! my brethren, how high is the standard! How far do many of us fall short of it! Where, among the frequenters of the temple, are the abashed, and humbled, and contrite penitents, proclaiming their sinfulness, and imploring pardon: “GOD be merciful to me a sinner”? Where, among professed Christians, are the imitators of David, communing with, searching out their spirit in the night season, rising early, to tell out with sighs and pangs each sin that they can discover; each renewal of it; each thought of it? But an hour since, we all joined, or professed to join, in words of general confession. Who felt and abashed themselves as sinners? Who really confessed any sin to GOD? Presently, some of us will take part in a more solemn form, and draw nearer still to a present GOD, seeking most intimate communion with Him. What sins are we going to confess, and pray to be relieved from? How much of self-abasement and contrition shall we take with us to the foot of the altar? No further back than yesterday each one of us sinned in thought, in word, or in deed; perhaps, in all three, How many of us brought those sins to remembrance, last night or this morning, by self-examination, and confessed them, and with contrition sought pardon of them? Which of us has done this, and is wont to do it, whenever wrong has been done, or right omitted? Remember, there is no forgiveness, there is no favour with GOD, nor hope of heaven without it. There is no knowledge of self, no perception of danger from without, no spiritual progress. He that covereth his sin shall not and _cannot_ prosper. He walketh independently, ungratefully, rebelliously—in his own way; and the end of that way is death.

My brethren, think of these things; think of your imperative duty, and your sovereign interest; and let close self-examination, honest, heartfelt, contrite confession, be your frequent and diligent exercise. Every morning settle what you have to do and avoid; every evening consider what you have done and omitted, and lay the account religiously before GOD. Daily dress and undress your souls. Cleanse yourselves of what is amiss by confession and repentance. Prepare yourselves for future success, by the examination of past failures. You cannot approach GOD: He will not approach you (but for judgment), unless you have thus purified yourselves, and put off the things that defile holy ground.

Thus much by way of reminder and entreaty respecting confession to GOD, general and particular. But the question is asked in these days, and being asked should not be left unanswered, whether, in any case, and if so, in what, confession should also be made to any other than GOD?—whether it is ever needful, or expedient, to uncover our sins, and make known our spiritual burthens to our fellow man?

Now, any mindful reader of the Bible must be ready at once to answer that, on Divine authority, it _is_ sometimes necessary, and often expedient. When we have injured another, by word or deed; when we have defrauded him, misled him, maligned him; provoked him to anger or displeasure, or only in some secret way harmed him; we must, as a foremost duty, go and acknowledge our fault, and obtain his forgiveness, or at least leave nothing undone to obtain it. The rash striker, the undutiful child, the dishonest tradesman, the unfaithful servant, the seducer into any sin, the scandalmonger, the slanderer, the base supplanter, the peacebreaker, may not atone for their offences, may not have remission from GOD, but by the consent, or at least after the sought consent, of the person offended against (which, of course, implies previous acknowledgment and confession of the offence). “If thou bring thy gift to the altar,”—_i.e._, if thou approachest GOD in any way, to serve Him, or to seek His blessing—“and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar,”—stop at the threshold of God’s presence—“and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” {71} And if the offence has been a public one, to the scandal, or detriment, or provocation of a community, the confession, too, must be public; so that St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, commands that such an offender should be publicly censured, and put away from among them; and implies, that he is not to be considered restored to the privileges of a Christian, until the community, satisfied that he is penitent, shall pronounce his forgiveness, and confirm their love towards him.

In obedience to this Scripture rule, the ministers of our Church are ordered to admit no notorious evil liver, nor any that has done wrong to his neighbour in word or deed, to holy communion; until, if he be an open offender, he has openly declared himself to have truly repented (in some such form as that of the Commination Service); or, if he be a private injurer, until he has recompensed the parties to whom he has done wrong. This discipline is not indeed enforced (as it should be) by _man_. Sinners and saints mingle together in the LORD’S house, and alike partake outwardly of the tokens of spiritual approval and blessing: but, assuredly, GOD, who is true, maintains jealously what man neglects; and refuses with displeasure the offerings of the violators and despisers of His law. Ay, and moreover places a firm and impassable barrier of excommunication between Him and them, which shall not be removed till the appointed reconciliation with man has been made. In such cases, then, confession to man, to the injured or offended, is necessary by the ordinance of GOD.

In many other cases it is expedient, we might even say enjoined, since inspired precepts recommend it. When, for instance, the burthened conscience needs the sympathy, the advice, the prayers of others to lighten it. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” {72a} Or when, again, the present consequences of a past sin can only be removed by the active assistance of others, as when Achan was bidden by Joshua—“My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD GOD of Israel, and make confession unto Him; and tell _me_ now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.” {72b} In this latter case, GOD had signified that Achan was the offender who had provoked His wrath against Israel; and Joshua, the ruler of Israel, rightly demanded what was the offence, that he might know how to do away with it.

Whenever, then, you feel spiritual perplexity, heaviness of soul which you cannot relieve, faintness of heart, need of consolation or help in prayer, you may and should make known your circumstances to some pious and wise Christian or Christians, able and willing to advise, to succour, to intercede for you. And whenever you cannot undo the consequences of your sin without the active assistance of others, you are bound to take to you partners in the work, and to communicate freely to them what you have done, and wish undone.

It is not easy for me to say—your own feelings will guide you best in such a matter—what confessor you should choose. In some cases a parent would be the most fitting, or a bosom friend; in others, a stranger, or slight acquaintance; in some cases, again, a person of your own age and circumstances; in others, a senior, or a superior. But if these fail to serve and relieve you, then, in all cases, should you avail yourselves of the ordinance of GOD, and choose out your spiritual guide from among those whom He has specially appointed to teach, and to console, and to intercede. First, be sure that you cannot help yourselves, because GOD has imposed upon you an individual responsibility, and entrusted to you powers of soul and mind which you may not neglect to exercise. Then, if you fail, go, call to yourselves that aid which seems best in itself, and can be secured with least violence to your natural feelings, and least injury to your social character and position. If that does not avail, then betake yourselves to the ministers of religion, in the hope, nay, with the assurance, that even if their learning, their habitual examination of human nature’s wants and failings, their experience and interest in soul-work, should, after all, leave them insufficient guides and helpers, still GOD, to Whom in the person of His representatives you have thus come, will not let you depart without a blessing, but will send down from heaven itself His light, and comfort, and effectual strength.

One of two objections to this teaching may present itself to some of those who hear me. Some of you, my brethren, may be ready to assert, that human aid is not wanted in such circumstances; and others, that to seek it of the clergy is to draw near to the error and corrupt superstition of the Romanists.

To the first, I would simply answer, that they cannot really know much of spiritual life, if they suppose that he who would lead such a life can always get on without external help, and that they are little acquainted with GOD’S mysterious ways, if they do not know that He ever works by agents, in the religious and the moral, as well as in the physical world. For their enlightenment, let them inquire of the eminently spiritual, or the marvellously reformed, and they will assuredly find, that human helps and sympathies have formed many steps of the ladder by which these have climbed so high towards heaven.

The other objectors merit a longer answer, because the charge they make is a serious one; not only affecting individuals, but casting a blot upon the good fame of our Church itself, which unmistakeably teaches and recommends, in special cases, the use of human and clerical confessors.

My dear brethren, let me ask you to bear with me patiently. I have no party motives to serve, nor party prejudices to indulge; GOD is my witness I reluctantly speak to you on this subject. I am only induced to do so by the consideration that, when a religious question is agitated out of doors, it is the minister of GOD’S bounden duty to take it up in the pulpit, and exhibit it, as far as he can, in scriptural light, keeping aloof alike from prejudging approval, and from capricious and worldly condemnation of the thing maintained. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth.” {75}

What, then, first, is the Romish use of confession? Every lay member of the Church of Rome is obliged, at stated times, to make a full and particular confession to a priest, of every sin, of every kind, that he or she can call to remembrance. No matter, that they are repented of and confessed to GOD; no matter, that the way of escape from them is plain; that they have been escaped from; out they must come, with all their preceding, accompanying, and following circumstances; without reserve of any kind. If but a _thought_ of sin be kept back; if the priest but _fancy_ that something is kept back; excommunication is pronounced, and the offender, or supposed offender, is cut off from all means of grace. {76} And the doctrine which guides this practice is, that no sin is ever forgiven by GOD, unless it has first been confessed to a priest; and that, even then, though its eternal punishment is remitted by their giving of absolution, works of penance must be performed on its account, or a longer or shorter period of suffering in purgatory will have to be endured.

Such is Rome’s course. I need scarcely tell you, that our Church, in condemning the “sacrament” of penance, and denying the existence of a purgatory, has swept away the only pretences on which such a prying, unscriptural, and most mischievous confessional could be maintained.

But, still, the Church of England has a doctrine and a practice of confession. In the exhortation to holy communion, it is enjoined, “If there be any of you, who by this means,” (self-examination) “cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of GOD’S word, and open his grief, that by the ministry of GOD’S holy word, he may receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness.” And in the Order of the Visitation of the Sick it is directed: “Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter.” And let it not be said, that these are Romish elements in a “tesselated ritual.” The exhortation is a Protestant composition; and the words that make it imperative on us to move every sick person we visit to a special confession, if he needs it, were added at the last review of the Prayer-Book.

What, then, is the sum of Church teaching? Men are to confess their sins to GOD alone, with a view to pardon and religious homage. (In certain cases, they are advised to seek _assurance_ of _absolution_ from the clergy. I dwell not on this now, because I purpose, GOD willing, to give the subject full consideration on an early occasion. {77}) When they find this confession sufficient to procure spiritual peace and amendment of life, they need not, and ought not, to make known their faults to others. They are not to make their ministers partakers of the thoughts and secrets of their breasts; they are not to look to them for pardon; they are not to get rid of their responsibility to GOD, by accepting penance at man’s hand; they are not to seek direction from a priest, in the ordinary ways of life; they are not to submit themselves to close catechisings, and prying investigations. But they are, when in doubt, in difficulty, in overwhelming grief, in all circumstances of spiritual helplessness, so to reveal their lives and open their thoughts to a spiritual officer, that he may, out of the treasure of his knowledge and experience, and by virtue of his commission as a minister of holy things, direct, and comfort, and strengthen them, more really and effectually than he can in public sermons, from mere guessing at their condition. When the public ministry suffices for them, let them seek no more; when they need, likewise, private ministry, by all means let them demand it: the Church binds us to render what they ask.

This kind of confession has the hearty approval of spiritual men of all ages, and all shades of theological opinion. All our reformers urged it. Luther said he would rather lose a thousand worlds than suffer private confession to be thrust out of the Church. Calvin exhorted all who thought they would be benefitted by it, to use it readily, and showed them, by precise rules, how to do so. Puritans of old, so-called evangelical ministers of our day—presbyterians, anabaptists, wesleyans, independents, all maintain and practise it now, though sometimes under other names—“consultation,” “history of conversion,” “detailing of experiences.” Richard Baxter’s characteristic words, exhibiting the true spirit of Church teaching, and showing how nonconformists cling to it in this case, are specially worthy of full recital.

“I know,” he writes, “some will say, that it is near to Popish auricular confession, which I here persuade Christians to; and it is to bring Christians under the tyranny of the priests, and make them acquainted with all men’s secrets, and masters of their consciences. To the last, I say—to the railing devil of this age—no more, but the LORD rebuke thee. If any minister have wicked ends, let the GOD of heaven convert him, or root him out of His Church, and cast him among the weeds and briers. But is it not the known yoke of sensuality to cast reproaches upon the way and ordinances of GOD? Who knoweth not, that it is the very office of the ministry, to be teachers and guides to men in matters of salvation, and overseers over them. . . . I am confident, many a thousand souls do long strive against anger, lust, blasphemy, worldliness, and trouble of conscience, to little purpose, who, if they would but have taken GOD’S way, and sought out for help, and opened all their case to their minister, they might have been delivered in a good measure long ago. And for Popish confession, I detest it: we would not persuade men that there is a necessity of confessing every sin to a minister before it can be pardoned. Nor do we it in a perplexed formality only at one time of the year, nor in order to Popish pardons or satisfactions; but we would have men go for physic to their souls, as they do for their bodies, when they feel they have need. And let me advise all Christian congregations to practise this excellent duty more. See that you knock oftener at your pastor’s door, and ask his advice in all your pressing necessities. Do not let him sit quiet in his study for you: make him know by experience, that the tenth part of a minister’s labour is not in the pulpit.”

One more quotation: it will be heard with respect when I tell you it is from the Bishop of Lincoln’s sermons on repentance: “As ministers should be, by their profession, usually the best advisers in cases of conscience, and are, or ought to be, every penitent’s ready and sympathising friends, so to them the stricken or perplexed soul will often have recourse. And thus, there is a sense in which those dreaded words, ‘confession to the priest,’ (in one sense, justly dreaded, for the iniquity of ages is upon them) may express an edifying practice, and even at times a duty.” {80}

Thus, my brethren, have I endeavoured to set before you, the true merits of the question, “Ought man to confess to man?” to remind you what is required, what is allowed and recommended, what is forbidden by Scripture, and the Witness and Keeper of Scripture, the Church. Endeavour, all of you, to learn from the subject, charity and wisdom. If you feel that you need not this use of confession, thank God for your easy circumstances; but, blame not, and, above all, dare not to ridicule, those who have need. If you want it, by all means seek it; we may not refuse it. To all of you, I would say, at all times regard your clergyman as indeed an appointed spiritual friend and adviser, and so make use of him; but, especially in sickness, when you call him to your bedside, so far, at least, admit him to your confidence, and enlighten him with respect to your spiritual state, that his instruction may be pointed, and his prayers appropriate; and so his visits blessed. Oh! look not upon us as mere Sunday lecturers, or mechanical readers of prayers, in whom you have no week-day interest, and from whom no benefit is to be derived, but what may be had in church. Degrade not our office, nor ignore our authority, nor slight our willingness to use both for your temporal and eternal good. Nor, on the other hand, exalt us to the false position of spiritual despots—lords of men’s consciences; idols occupying the place of GOD. _Ministers_ we are; servants of Christ; and your servants for His sake. Make use of our ministry as a ministry, and doubt not but GOD will then make it profitable to you, and accomplish by it, all the ends for which He appointed it.

SERMON VII. FORGIVENESS.

PSALM CXXX., 4.

“There is forgiveness with Thee.”

WE all know what _forgiveness of sin_ means, namely, remission of the punishment due to it by Divine sentence, and restoration of the offender to the position and privileges of the righteous. We all know, too, our individual need, our ever fresh recurring need of this forgiveness; and we also know, all of us, that forgiveness is granted only for the sake and merits of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and on fixed conditions.

Alas! my brethren, how little do we _feel_ what we know. With what vain speculations, what idle dreams, what perverse errors do we too often darken knowledge!