- gion has been misrepresented by the weakness of superstition,
or the artifices of interest. The clearest precepts have been obscured by false interpretations, and one errour added to another, till the understanding of men has been bewildered, and their morals depraved, by a false appearance of religion.
Repentance has been made, by some, to consist in the outward expressions of sorrow for sin, in tears and sighs, in dejection and lamentation.
It must be owned that where the crime is publick, and where others may be in danger of corruption from the example, some publick and open declarations of repentance may be proper, if made with decency and propriety, which are necessary to preserve the best actions from contempt and ridicule; but they are necessary only, for the sake of destroying the influence of a bad example, and are no otherwise essential to this duty. No man is obliged to accuse himself of crimes, which are known to God alone; even the fear of hurting others ought often to restrain him from it, since to confess crimes may be, in some measure, to teach them, and those may imitate him in wickedness, who will not follow him in his repentance.
It seems here not impertinent to mention the practice of private confession to the priest, indispensably enjoined by the Roman church, as absolutely necessary to true repentance; but which is no where commanded in Scripture, or recommended otherwise, than as a method of disburdening the conscience, for the sake of receiving comfort or instruction, and as such is directed by our own liturgy.
Thus much, and no more, seems to be implied in the apostle's precept, "of confessing our faults one to another," a precept expressed with such latitude, that it appears only to be one of those which it may be often convenient to observe, but which is to be observed no farther than as it may be convenient. For we are left entirely at liberty, what terms, whether general or particular, we shall use in our confessions. The precept, in a literal and rational sense, can be said to direct no more, than general
