Gods husbandry

AN other use is for those,¹ which by this trial shall be found guilty; let them no longer maintain a good opinion of themselves, but take themselves for what they be, whom examination hath found guilty; let Confession therefore prepare him for pardon and amendment: for certainly these diseases of the soul will never be healed, until they be seen ⟨p. 88⟩and acknowledged; neither will God ever pardon them, till the man in whom they rule, begin to see, and to confess them. If I did require an open confession, of all the dissemblers amongst you (namely, that they should now before GOD and this Congregation, open their mouths against themselves, and entreat all men to take notice, that hitherto they have but sought to cousin the world and themselves, not being indeed the men they have been, and would have been taken for); if I say we did exact such an open and public confession, tending to pull blushing into their faces before men, yet it ought not to seem much to any man, to yield himself to the bearing of his due reproach. For why; what traitor or felon, taken in his felony or treason by a few, would not willingly yield to confess the same in the face of the Country, at the general Assizes, if he were sure to be forgiven? But Brethren, the confession which we demand of you, and wherewith the Lord will (in this case) be satisfied, is not open and public to the world-ward (that your credit should be impeached by it, and your good names blemished); but it is private and secret to God-ward, tending alone to heal the soul and name both, and to prevent the vengeance of God, which can not otherwise be prevented. Now in thine heart, anon in thy closet, thy doors (as Christ saith) being shut to thee, fall down before the face of him that seeth in secret,