The Godly Man's Picture

3. The godly man is ingenuous in laying open of his sins, Psa. 32. 5. 1 confessed my sin to thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. The hypocrite doth veil and smother his sin; he doth not abscindere peccatum, but abscondere; like a Patient that hath some loathsome disease in his body, he will rather die than confess his disease: But a godly mans sincerity ⟨p. 133⟩is seen in this, he will confess and shame himself for sin, 2 Sam. 24. 17. Lo I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: Nay, a Child of God will confess sin in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale, he will acknowledge he is a sinner in general; whereas David doth as it were point with his finger to the sore, Psal. 51. 4. I have done this evil: He doth not say, I have done evil, but this evil; he points at his blood-guiltiness.

3. The godly man is ingenuous in laying open of his sins, Psa. 32. 5. 1 confessed my sin to thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. The hypocrite doth vail and smother his sin; he doth not abscindere peccatum, but abscondere; like a Patient that hath some loathsome disease in his body, he will rather die than confess his disease: But a godly mans sincerity ⟨p. 133⟩is seen in this, he will confess and shame himself for sin, 2 Sam. 24. 17. Lo I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: Nay, a Childe of God will confess sin in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale, he will acknowledge he is a sinner in general; whereas David doth as it were point with his finger to the sore, Psal. 51. 4. I have done this evil: He doth not say, I have done evil, but this evil; he points at his bloud-guiltiness.