# On Confession of Sin by Richard Sibbes

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2006/11/09/on-confession-of-sin-by-richard-sibbes/
- Published: 2006-11-09T11:56:29-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“No man is more ready to charge the church than she is to confess her infirmities.
She never hideth them, she never justifieth them; she is black, she hath afflictions,
she kept not her own vine, she wants knowledge, affection, discretion, love. She
never denies it, but confesses all freely from her heart; she hides not her sin,
but tells what she is, what she hath done, that so she may give glory to the Lord
God of Israel. And indeed, it makes much for the honor of Christ, and commends His
grace, that He, such a king, will set His heart and His eye upon such a deformed
slut as the world deems her to be. It makes for the comfort of her poor children,
and much stayeth them, when they shall hear the church in all ages, and in her Abraham,
David, and Paul, saying, ‘I am black,’ I have affliction, corruption, as well as
others.

It makes for the silencing of all saucy daughters that will upbraid her; an ingenuous
confession, stops their mouths, and puts them all to silence. It much quickens her
to the use of the means, and maketh her cry, ‘Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth,
where thou feedest!’ and to seek her comfort in Christ Jesus. Oh it doth her good
to receive the sentence of death, shame, poverty, damnation, in herself, that so
she may be found in Christ, arrayed with the rich robes of His righteousness. Hence
her plain-hearted openness in her confession.

Let us do the like, and leave it to the harlot and whore of Babylon to say herself
is a queen, she is glorious, she cannot err. But let us say with the church, we 
are black; yea, let us see it, let us speak it with sorrow, with shame, as the saints
have done, and be so affected with our estate, that it may truly humble us, and 
cause us to say, ‘It is the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.’ And let us
so confess it in ourselves, that we pity others, and bear with them, though full
of sins and miseries; so confess it, that we stir up others thereby to run, as Paul
did, and use the ordinances with all diligence, to pray much, to read much, to hear,
to confer, to advise, and be humble and sincere.

A verbal confession of frailties, without humility, mercy, diligence, without the
use of the means, is hypocrisy. If we will speak with the church, we must feel what
we say, and so well understand ourselves and our estate, that we may gain humility,
mercy, and watchfulness by it.”

–Richard Sibbes, _Works of Richard Sibbes_, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1982), 
Vol. 7: pp. 97-98.

[(HT: The Shepherd’s Scrapbook)](http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2006/10/19/confess-your-sins-to-one-another-part-3/)

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