acknowledgment of sin in the room of Christ's satisfaction, and to rely
thereupon for peace and acceptance with God, as it is alleged they did,
it must be owned that they wofully erred in a matter of the highest
consequence: but to affix this either upon all in general, or upon any
particular person by name, is against the law of charity, and a judging
of the heart, which is not obvious to man, but only to God, and so an
usurping of God's prerogative; wherefore it appears, that the objecting
of these and other such like things against this duty, is the effect of
an impotent malice, and passion against the whole design of the work,
which is too shrewd an evidence of a malignant spirit.

Whereas, some have taken occasion to pass injurious reflections upon the
minister, because he made confession and acknowledgment of his own
personal miscarriage; as though he did it with design to please the
people, and to excite them to make confession of the things whereof they
had no due sense, and that he should have proposed himself, as an
example to the people; therefore, to discover the falsehood of such
reports, we must declare plain matter of fact upon this head. The
minister did indeed acknowledge his own iniquities in general, with
others, and also particularly at the entry of the work; but without any
design to please party or person; but only for the glory of God as
himself declared, which if any shall say was but hypocritical
self-seeking, we must remit them to the apostle's interrogation, to
prepare an answer, _Who art thou, O man, that judgest?_ Neither did he
say that he did it to be an example to others, though, even in that
case, he had not been to be blamed, seeing the best of God's saints, in
public employment in church and state, have done the like in public
assemblies, as Josiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, in sacred record, and in our
church history, the Rev. John Davidson, who, at the renewing of the
covenant, March 30th, 1596, not only exhorted the brethren of the