Gods husbandry

Brethren, will ye thus plead guilty,¹ if you be guilty before the Lord? I know it is marvellous hard, to bring the guilty soul to plain confession: self-love reigneth in our hearts naturally, and that can hardly endure to speak any evil against it self, though upon never so just cause. He that hath long fed himself, and made himself (if not peaceable, yet) secure, with telling himself he was a good Christian; will be very loath now (perhaps after many years abiding in this false opinion) to acknowledge himself to have been deceived. We see it is very hard to draw men out of those errors, wherein they have been long trained up. Every man hath been even trained up in a conceit, that he was a good Christian. It is conceit hath long possessed ⟨p. 92⟩him, and this error hath become a very prejudice within him, he hath ever taken it for granted, and been angry that it should be once called into question. It is therefore no wonder, if men find themselves loath to recant their own good conceits of themselves, and to go from all that they have formerly esteemed undeniable. But for all this,² I pray you be persuaded, to see your selves to have been dissemblers, if you have been such, for all your unnatural unwillingness. The thief indeed hath cause (as he thinketh) to be impudent in denying himself to have committed felony (though he know full well, that he hath committed it), because confession is required of him, as an help to his conviction, and so to his condemning. But the Lord of heaven doth not desire thee to confess thy self to have been but an hypocrite, because he wanteth other means to convict thee, or because he may the more easily proceed to condemn thee:³ nay, therefore only he would have thee confess, that thou mayest be capable of pardon; because it is an over-ruled case in heaven, and a thing peremptorily concluded of by the Divine justice, that no sinner shall ever be pardoned, till he deal plainly, and freely confess, that he is such a sinner as he is. Thy confession is called for, only to sit thee for pardon, not to urge against thee to any worse purpose.

Brethren, will yee thus pleade guilty,