Chapter 2: Confession

Of the second part of prayer, which is confession of sin, complaints of ourselves, and humble professions of repentance.

Having given glory to God, which is his due, we must next take shame to ourselves, which is our due, and humble ourselves before him in the sense of our own sinfulness and vileness; and herein also we must give glory to him, as our Judge by whom we deserve to be condemned, and yet hope, through Christ, to be acquitted and absolved. Josh 7:19.

The heads

• 1. We must acknowledge the great reason we have to lie very low before God, and to be ashamed of ourselves when we come into his presence, and to be afraid of his wrath, having made ourselves both odious to his holiness, and obnoxious to his justice.
• 2. We must take hold of the great encouragement God hath given us to humble ourselves before him with sorrow, and shame, and to confess our sins.
• 3. We must therefore confess and bewail our original corruption, in the first place, that we were the children of apostate and rebellious parents, and the nature of man is depraved and wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude, and our nature is
• 4. We must lament our present corrupt dispositions to that which is evil, and our indisposedness to, and impotency in, that which is good. We must look into our own hearts, and confess with holy blushing
• 1. The blindness of our understandings, and their unaptness to admit the rays of the divine light.
• 2. The stubbornness of our wills, and their unapthess to submit to the rules of the divine law.
• 3. The vanity of our thoughts, their neglect of those things which they ought to be conversant with, and dwelling upon those things that are unworthy of them, and tend to corrupt our minds.
• 4. The carnality of our affections, their being placed upon wrong objects, and carried beyond due bounds.
• 5. The corruption of the whole man; irregular appetites towards those things that are pleasing to sense, and inordinate passions against those things that are displeasing, and an alienation of the mind from the principles, power, and pleasures of the spiritual and divine life.
• 5. We must lament and confess our omissions of our duty, our neglect of it, and our trifling in it, and that we have done so little _ since we came into the world, of the great work we were sent into the world about; so very little to answer the end of our creation, or of our redemption, of our birth, and of our baptism; and that we have profited no more by the means of grace.
• 6. We must likewise bewail our many actual transgressions, in thought, word, and deed.
• 1. We must confess and bewail the workings of pride in us.
• 2. The breaking out of passion and rash anger.
• 3. Our covetousness and love of the world.
• 4. Our sensuality and flesh-pleasing.
• 5. Our security and unmindfulness of the changes we are liable to in this world.
• 6. Our fretfulness and impatience, and murmuring under our afflictions ; our inordinate dejection and distrust of God and his providence.
• 7. Our uncharitableness towards our brethren, and unpeaceableness with our relations, neighbours, and friends, and perhaps injustice towards them.
• 8. Our tongue sins.
• 9. Our spiritual slothfulness and decay.
• 7. We must acknowledge the great evil that there is in sin, and in our sin; the malignity of its nature, and its mischievousness to us. — 1.) The sinfulness of sin.
• 2. The foolishness of sin.
• 3. The unprofitableness of sin.
• 4. The deceitfulness of sin.
• 5. The offence which by sin we have given to the holy God.
• 6. The damage which by sin we have done to our own souls, and their great interests.
• 8. We must aggravate our sins, and take notice of those things which make them more heinous in the sight of God, and more dangerous to ourselves. ~ We bewail before thee all our sins, and all our transgressions in all our sins. . The more knowledge we have of good and evil, the greater is our sin.
• 2. The greater profession we have made of religion, the greater hath been our sin.
• 3. The more mercies we have received from God, the greater has been our sin.
• 4. The greater afflictions we have been under for sin, the greater is the sin if we go on in it.
• 6. The more vows and promises we have ; made of better obedience, the greater has our _sin been.
• 9. We must judge and condemn ourselves for our sins, and own ourselves liable to punishment.
• 10. We must give to God the glory of his patience and long-suffering towards us, and his willingness to be reconciled.
• 11. We must humbly profess our sorrow and shame for sin, and humbly engage ourselves in the strength of divine grace, that we will be better, and do better for the future.

Henry’s text is in the public domain. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265 Chestnut Street. Undated, about 1840 to 1860. The preface is dated Chester, March 25, 1710. From the Internet Archive scan. The KJV text is in the public domain.