Take Up the Cross

Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. — Luke 13:24  

Confession of Sin

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all nrighteousness.
— 1 John 1:9

If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
— Leviticus 26:40-42

He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
— Job 33:27-28

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. Selah.
— Psalm 32:5

Confession of Sin, by Matthew Henry.  The following contains an excerpt from Chapter Two of his work, “A Method for Prayer.” 1710.

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. Joshua 7:19.

IN THIS PART OF OUR WORK, 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

OUR God, we are ashamed and blush to lift up our fac es before thee, our God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Ezra 9:6.

To us belongs shame and confusion of face, because we have sinned against thee. Daniel 9:8.

Behold we are vile, what shall we answer thee? we will lay our hand upon our mouth, and put our mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope; crying with the convicted leper under the law,Unclean, unclean. Job 40:4. Lamentations 3:29. Leviticus 13:45.

Thou puttest no trust in thy saints, and the heavens are not clean in thy sight: How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drink eth iniquity like waters! Job 15:15, 16.

When our eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, we have reason to cry out, Woe unto us, for we are undone. Isaiah 6:5. Dominion and fear are with thee, thou makest peace in thy high places: There is not any number of thine armies, and upon whom doth not thy light arise? How then can man be justified with God, or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Job 25:2, 3, 4. Thou, even thou art to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight, when once thou art angry? Even thou, our God, art a consum ing fire, and who knows the power of thine anger? Psalm 76:7.Hebrews 12:29. Psalm 90:11.

If we justify ourselves, our own mouths shall condemn us, if we say we are perfect, that also shall prove us perverse; for if thou contend with us, we are not able to answer thee for one of a thousand. Job 9:20, 3. If we knew nothing by ourselves, yet were we not thereby jus tified, for he that judgeth us is the Lord; who is greater than our hearts, and knows all things. But we ourselves know that we have sinned, Father, against heaven, and before thee, and are no more wor thy to be called thy children. 1 Corinthians 4:4. 1 John 3:20. Luke 15:21.

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.

If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared; with thee there is mercy, yea with our God there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Psalm 130:3, 4, 7, 8.

Thy sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and a con trite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise: Nay, though thou art the high and lofty One that inhabitest eternity, whose name is Holy; though the heaven be thy throne, and the earth thy footstool, yet to this man wilt thou look, that is poor and humble, of a broken and a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at thy word, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Psalm 51:17. Isaiah 57:15. Isaiah 66:1, 2. Isaiah 57:15.

Thou hast graciously assured us, that though they that cover their sins shall not prosper, yet those that confess and forsake them shall find mercy. And when a poor penitent said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, thou forgavest the iniquity of his sin, and for this shall every one that is godly in like manner pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found. Proverbs 28:13. Psalm 32:5, 6.

We know that if we say, We have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but thou hast said that if we confess our sins, thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8, 9.

WE MUST THEREFORE CONFESS AND BEWAIL OUR ORIGINAL CORRUPTION IN THE FIRST PLACE, THAT WE ARE 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 SO.

LORD, thou madest man upright, but they have sought out many inventions; And being in honour did not un derstand, and therefore abode not, but became like the beasts that perish. Ecclesiastes 7:29. Psalm 49:12, 20. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; By that one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, and we among the rest. Romans 5:12, 19.

We are a seed of evil doers; our father was an Amorite, and our mother a Hittite, and we ourselves were called (and not miscalled) transgressors from the womb, and thou knewest we would deal very treacherously. Isaiah 1:4. Ezekiel 16:3. Isaiah 48:8.

The nature of man was planted a choice and noble vine, wholly a right seed, but it is become the degenerate plant of a strange vine; producing the grapes of Sodom, and the clusters of Gomorrah. How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed! Jeremiah 2:21. Deuteronomy 32:32. Lamentations 4:1. Behold we were shapen in iniquity, and in sin did our mothers conceive us. For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. We are by nature children of wrath, because children of disobe dience, even as others. Psalm 51:5. Job 14:4. Ephesians 2:3, 2.

All flesh hath corrupted their way, we are all gone aside, we are all together become filthy, there is none that doth good, no, no not one. Genesis 6:12. Psalm 14:3.

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.

Having the understanding are darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our heart. Ephesians 4:18.

The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness, to the natural man, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discern ed. 1 Corinthians 2:14.

We are wise to do evil, but to do good we have no knowledge. We know not, neither do we understand, we walk on in darkness. Jere miah 4:22. Psalm 82:5.

God speaketh once, yea twice, but we perceive it not; but hear ing we hear, and do not understand, and we see men as trees walk ing. Job 33:14. Matthew 13:14. Mark 8:24.

2. The stubbornness of our wills, and their unaptness to submit to the rules of the divine law. We have within us a carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Ro mans 8:7.

Thou hast written to us the great things of thy law, but they have been accounted by us as a strange thing, and our corrupt hearts have been sometimes ready to say, What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And that we would certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth. For we have walked in the way of our own heart, and in the sight of our eyes, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Hosea 8:12. Job 21:15. Jeremiah 44:17. Ecclesiastes 11:9. Ephesians 2:3.

Our neck hath been an iron sinew, and we have made our heart as an adamant; we have refused to hearken, have pulled away the shoulder, and stopped our ears, like the deaf adder, that will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Isaiah 48:4. Zechariah 7:12, 11. Psalm 58:4, 5. How have we hated instruction, and our heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of our teachers, nor inclined our ear to them that instructed us? Proverbs 5:12, 13.

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.

Every imagination of the thought of our heart is evil, only evil, and that continually, and it has been so from our youth. Genesis 6:5. Genesis 8:21.

O how long have those vain thoughts lodged within us! those thoughts of foolishness which are sin. From within out of the heart proceed evil thoughts; which devise mischief upon the bed, and carry the heart with the fool’s eyes into the ends of the earth. Jeremiah 4:14. Proverbs 24:9. Matthew 15:19. Micah 2:1. Proverbs 17:24.

But God is not in all our thoughts, it is well if he be in any: Of the Rock that begat us we have been unmindful, and have forgotten the God that formed us: We have forgotten him days without num ber, and our hearts have walked after vanity, and become vain. Their inward thought having been that our houses should continue for ever; this our way is our folly. Psalm 10:4. Deuteronomy 32:18. Jeremiah 2:32, 5. Psalm 49:11, 13.

4. The carnality of our affections, their being placed upon wrong ob jects, and carried beyond due bounds. We have set those affections on things beneath, which should have been set on things above, where our treasure is, and where Christ sits on the right hand of God, the things which we should seek. Colos sians 3:2, 1. Matthew 6:21.

We have followed after lying vanities, and forsaken our own mercies; have forsaken the fountain of living waters, for cisterns, brok en cisterns that can hold no water. Jonah 2:8. Jeremiah 2:13.

We have panted after the dust of the earth, and have been full of care what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed, the things after which the Gentiles seek, but have neglected the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof. Amos 2:7. Matthew 6:31, 32, 33.

We have lifted up our souls unto vanity, and set our eyes up on that which is not, have looked at the things that are seen which are temporal, but the things that are not seen that are eternal, have been forgotten and postponed. Psalm 24:4. Proverbs 23:5. 2 Corinthians 4:18.

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, powers and pleasures of the spiritual and divine life.

We are born of the flesh, and we are flesh: Dust we are: We have borne the image of the earthly; and in us, that is, in our flesh, there dwells no good thing: For if to will is present to us, yet how to per form that which is good we find not; for the good that we would do we do it not, and the evil which we would not do that we do.John 3:6. Genesis 3:19. 1 Corinthians 15:49. Romans 7:18, 19.

We have a law in our members warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin that is in our members: So that when we would do good, evil is present with us, and most easily besets us. Romans 7:23, 21. Hebrews 12:1.

The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in us, but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores. Isaiah 1:5, 6.

There is in us a bent to backslide from the living God: Our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know them? They start aside like a broken bow. Hosea 11:7. Jeremiah 17:9. Ho sea 7:16.

WE MUST LAMENT AND CONFESS OUR OMISSIONS OF OUR DUTY, OUR NEGLECT OF IT, AND TRIFLINGS 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 EITHER OF OUR CREATION OR OF OUR REDEMPTION, OF OUR BIRTH OR OF OUR BAPTISM, AND THAT WE HAVE PROFITED NO MORE BY THE MEANS OF GRACE.

We have been as fig-trees planted in the vineyard, and thou hast come many years seeking fruit from us, but hast found none; and therefore we might justly have been cut down and cast into the fire for cumbering the ground: Thou hast come looking for grapes, but behold wild grapes; or we have been empty vines, bringing forth fruit unto ourselves. Luke 13:6, 7. Matthew 3:10. Isaiah 5:4. Hosea 10:1.

We have known to do good, but have not done it: We have hid our Lord’s money, and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and slothful servant. James 4:17. Matthew 25:18, 26.

We have been unfaithful stewards, that have wasted our Lord’s goods; for one sinner destroys much good. Luke 16:1. Ecclesiastes 9:18. Many a price hath been put into our hand to get wisdom, which we have had no heart to; or our heart has been at our left hand. Pro verbs 17:16. Ecclesiastes 10:2.

Our childhood and youth was vanity, and we have brought our years to an end, as a tale that is told. Ecclesiastes 11:10. Psalm 90:9. We have not known, or improved, the day of our visitation, have not provided meat in summer, nor gathered food in harvest, though we have had guides, overseers and rulers. Luke 19:44. Proverbs 6:8, 7. We are slow of heart to understand and believe, and whereas for the time we might have been teachers of others, we are yet to learn the first principles of the oracles of God, have need of milk, and cannot bear strong meat. Luke 24:25. Hebrews 5:12.

We have cast off fear, and restrained prayer before God; have not called upon thy name, nor stirred up ourselves to take hold on thee. Job 15:4. Isaiah 64:7.

We have come before thee as thy people come, and have sat before thee as thy people sit, and have heard thy words, when our hearts at the same time have been going after our covetousness. And thus have we brought the torn, and the lame, and the sick for sacri fice, have offered that to our God, which we would not have offered to our governor; and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a cor rupt thing, when we had in our flock a male. Ezekiel 33:31. Malachi 1:8, 14.

WE MUST LIKEWISE BEWAIL OUR MANY ACTUAL TRANSGRESSIONS, IN THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED.

We have sinned, Father, against heaven and before thee; we have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God; for the God in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, have we not glorified. Luke 15:18. Romans 3:23. Daniel 5:23. Against thee, thee only have we sinned, and have done much evil in thy sight; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he hath set before us; though they are all holy, just, and good. Psalm 51:4. Daniel 9:10. Romans 7:12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou us from secret faults. Psalm 19:12. In many things we all offend; and our iniquities are more than the hairs of our head. James 3:2. Psalm 40:12.

As a fountain casteth out her waters, so do our hearts cast out wickedness; and this hath been our manner from our youth up, that we have not obeyed thy voice. Jeremiah 6:7. Jeremiah 22:21. Out of the evil treasure of our hearts we have brought forth many evil things. Matthew 12:35.

1. We must confess and bewail the workings of pride in us. We have all reason to be humbled for the pride of our hearts, that we have thought of ourselves above what hath been meet, and have not thought soberly, nor walked humbly with our God. 2 Chron icles 32:26. Romans 12:3. Micah 6:8.

We have leaned to our own understanding; and trusted in our own hearts; and have sacrificed to our own net. Proverbs 3:5. Proverbs 28:26. Habakkuk 1:16. We have sought our own glory more than the glory of him that sent us; and have been puffed up for that for which we should have mourned. John 7:18. 1 Corinthians 5:2.

2. The breaking out of passion and rash anger. We have not had the rule which we ought to have had over our own spirits, which have therefore been as a city that is broken down, and has no walls. Proverbs 25:28. We have been soon angry, and anger hath rested in our bosoms. And when our spirits have been provoked, we have spoken unadvis edly with our lips; and have been guilty of that clamour and bitter ness which should have been put far from us. Proverbs 14:17. Ecclesias tes 7:9. Psalm 106:33. Ephesians 4:31.

3. Our covetousness and love of the world. Our conversation has not been without covetousness, nor have we learned in every state to be content with such things as we have. Hebrews 13:5. Philippians 4:11.

Who can say he is clean from that love of money, which is the root of all evil, that covetousness which is idolatry. 1 Timothy 6:10. Col ossians 3:5. We have sought great things to ourselves, when thou hast said, Seek them not. Jeremiah 45:5.

4. Our sensuality and flesh-pleasing. We have minded the things of the flesh more than the things of the Spirit, and have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, and have nourished our hearts as in a day of slaughter. Romans 8:5. James 5:5. We have made provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it; even those lusts which war against our souls: and in many instances have acted as if we had been lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Romans 13:14. 1 Peter 2:11. 2 Timothy 3:4. When we did eat, and when we did drink, did we not eat to our selves, and drink to ourselves? Zechariah 7:6.

5. Our security and unmindfulness of the changes we are liable to in this world. We have put far from us the evil day, and in our prosperity have said we should never be moved, as if to morrow must needs be as this day, and much more abundant. Amos 6:3. Psalm 30:6. Isaiah 56:12. We have encouraged our souls to take their ease, to eat and drink and be merry, as if we had goods laid up for many years, when perhaps this night our souls may be required of us. Luke 12:19, 20. We have been ready to trust in uncertain riches more than in the living God; to say to the gold thou art our hope, and to the fine gold thou art our confidence. 1 Timothy 6:17. Job 31:24.

6. Our fretfulness and impatience and murmuring under our afflic tions, our inordinate dejection, and distrust of God and His providence.

When thou hast chastised us and we were chastised, we have been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; and though our own foolishness hath perverted our way, yet our heart hath fretted again st the Lord; and thus in our distress we have trespassed yet more against the Lord. Jeremiah 31:18. Proverbs 19:3. 2 Chronicles 28:22.

We have either despised the chastening of the Lord, or fainted when we have been rebuked of him; and if we faint in the day of ad versity, our strength is small. Proverbs 3:11. Proverbs 24:10. We have said in our haste we are cut off from before thine eyes, and that the Lord hath forsaken us, our God hath forgotten us, as if God would be favourable no more; as if he had forgotten to be gra cious, and had in anger shut up his tender mercies. This has been our infirmity. Psalm 31:22. Isaiah 49:14. Psalm 77:7, 9, 10.

7. Our uncharitableness towards our brethren, and unpeaceableness with our relations, neighbours and friends, and perhaps injustice to wards them. We have been verily guilty concerning our brother; for we have not studied the things that make for peace, nor things wherewith we might edify one another. Genesis 42:21. Romans 14:19. We have been ready to judge our brother, and to set at nought our brother, forgetting that we must all shortly stand before the judg ment seat of Christ. Romans 14:10. Contrary to the royal law of charity, we have vaunted ourselves, and been puffed up, have behaved ourselves unseemly, and sought our own, have been easily provoked, have rejoiced in iniquity, and been secretly glad at calamities. 1 Corinthians 13:4, 5, 6. Proverbs 17:5.

We have been desirous of vain-glory, provoking one another, envying one another; when we should have considered one another to provoke to love and to good works. Galatians 5:26. Hebrews 10:24. The bowels of our compassion have been shut up from those that are in need; and we have hidden ourselves from our own flesh. Nay, perhaps our eye has been evil against our poor brother, and we have despised the poor. 1 John 3:17. Isaiah 58:7. Deuteronomy 15:9. James 2:6. And if in any thing we have gone beyond and defrauded our brother, if we have walked with vanity, and our foot hath hasted to deceit, and any blot hath cleaved to our hands, Lord, discover it to us, that if we have done iniquity, we may do so no more. 1 Thessalonians 4:6. Job 31:5, 7. Job 34:32.

8. Our tongue-sins. In the multitude of our words there wanteth not sin, nor can a man full of talk be justified. Proverbs 10:19. Job 11:2. While the lips of the righteous feed many, our lips have pour ed out foolishness, and spoken frowardness. Proverbs 10:21. Proverbs 15:2. Proverbs 10:32. Much corrupt communication hath proceeded out of our mouths; that foolish talking and jesting which is not convenient; and little of that which is good, and to the use of edifying, and which might minis ter grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29. Ephesians 5:4. If for every idle word that men speak they must give an account, and by our words we must be justified, and by our words we must be condemned, Woe unto us, for we are undone! for we are of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Matthew 12:36, 37. Isaiah 6:5. What would become of us,if God should make our own tongues to fall upon us. Psalm 64:8.

9. Our spiritual slothfulness and decay. We have been slothful in the business of religion, and not fer vent in spirit, serving the Lord. Romans 12:11. The things which remain are ready to die, and our works have not been found perfect before God. Revelation 3:2. We have observed the winds, and therefore have not sown, have regarded the clouds, and therefore have not reaped; and with the slug gard have frightened ourselves with the fancy of a lion in the way, a lion in the streets, and have turned on our bed as the door on the hing es; still crying, Yet a little sleep, a little slumber. Ecclesiastes 11:4. Pro verbs 26:13, 14. Proverbs 6:10. We have lost our first love, and where is now the blessedness we sometimes spake of? Revelation 2:4. Galatians 4:15. Our goodness hath been as the morning cloud and the early dew which passeth away. Hosea 6:4. And that which is at the bottom of all, is the evil heart of un belief in us, which inclines us to depart from the living God. Hebrews 3:12.

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