_First_, There is a great proneness in us to be partial, and not thorough and plain in our confessions. We are apt to make half confessions; to confess some, and hide some; or else to make feigned confessions, flattering both ourselves, and also God, while we make confession unto him; or else to confess sin, as our own fancies apprehend, and not as the word descries them. These things we are very prone to do; men can confess little sins, while they hide great ones. Men can feign themselves sorry for sin when they are not, or else in their confessions forget to judge of sin by the word. Hence it is said, They turned to God, “not with their whole hearts, but as it were feignedly.” “They spake not aright, saying, What have I done?” “They flatter him with their mouth, and lie unto him with their tongues,” and do their wickedness in the dark, and sin against him with a high hand, and then come to him and “cover the altar with their tears.” These things therefore demonstrate the difficulty of sincere confession of sin; and that to do it as it should, is no such easy thing. To right confession of sin, several things must go: as, 1. There must be sound conviction for sin upon the spirit: for before a man shall be convinced of the nature, aggravation, and evil of sin, how shall he make godly confession of it? Now, to convince the soul of sin, the law must be set home upon the conscience by the Spirit of God: “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” And again, “I had not known lust, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet;” Rom. vii. 7. This law, now when it effectually ministereth conviction—of sin to the conscience, doth it by putting of life, and strength, and terror into sin. By its working on the conscience, it makes sin revive, “and the strength of sin is the law;” Rom. vii.; 1 Cor. xv. It also increaseth and multiplieth sin, both by the revelation of God’s anger against the soul, and also by mustering up and calling to view sins committed and forgotten time out of mind. Sin seen in the glass of the law is a terrible thing; no man can behold it and live. “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;” when it came from God to my conscience, as managed by an almighty arm, then it slew me. And now is the time to confess sin, because now a soul knows what it is, and sees what it is, both in the nature and consequence of it.