The truly blessed man

4. If God by his Providence brings our secret sins to light, we are to make a free Confession of them. There are many ways in which God doth this. Men think their sins shall never be known, being contrived so privately, and acted so secretly, but God revealeth them, and then it is vain for us to hide them: thus God dealt by David, 2 Sam. 12. and he hath left his sorrowful Confession on record, Psal. 51.

5. Hence sometimes it is requisite to make a public Confession, when the Sin cannot be legally proved against us: Viz. When Gods Providence giveth so much light, as our profession is scandalized among men, though there be not a full proof. When there are such circumstances of discovery, as give a moral certainty to men, and there are several things known, that render us justly suspected: as when there is a common fame, and such things as make the most charitable suspicious of us, and force an enquiry to be made: Now we are either innocent or guilty, and the honour of God requires that we either assert our innocency, or acknowledge our Guilt; the Apostle reproved the Corinthians on a common report, 1 Cor. 5.1. ⟨p. 216⟩And he commends their earnestness in clearing themselves, 2 Cor. 7.10.

5. Hence sometimes it is requisite to make a publick Confession, when the Sin cannot be legally proved against us: Viz. When Gods Providence giveth so much light, as our profession is scandalized among men, though there be not a full proof. When there are such circumstances of discovery, as give a moral certainty to men, and there are several things known, that render us justly suspected: as when there is a common fame, and such things as make the most charitable suspicious of us, and force an enquiry to be made: Now we are either innocent or guilty, and the honour of God requires that we either assert our innocency, or acknowledge our Guilt; the Apostle reproved the Corinthians on a common report,