4. CONFESSION

CONFESSION

Congregation:

We acknowledge a deep sense of sin and misery. We see our- selves as sinners in need of a Savior. The spirit of God has awakened us; a kind of awakening, as it were, in hell. We cry, "Lord, what am I! What mean these legions round about me? These chains and fetters that are upon me?

"Lord, where am I! Is there no hope of escaping out of this wretched state? I am but dead, if I continue as I am. What may I do to be saved?"

Pastor: Being made sensible of his sin and his danger, a sinner will look for help and deliverance, but he will look everywhere else before he looks unto Christ. Nothing will bring a sinner to Christ but absolute necessity. He will try to forsake his sins. He will go to prayers, and sermons, and sacraments and search out if there be salvation in them. But all these, though they be useful in their places, are of no help. His duties cannot help him; these may be reckoned among his sins. Ordinances cannot help; these are but empty cisterns. They all tell him, "You knock at a wrong door; salvation is not in us." Do you now utterly despair of your own goodness, or do you trust in anything but Christ?