Confession of Ministry Sins Pt.1

I was recently listening to Joel Beeke preach at the 2011 Desiring God Pastors' Conference, and was arrested by a reference he made to a 1651 gathering of Scottish ministers in which they confessed their sins as ministers of Christ's gospel. Dr Beeke quoted their twelfth confession regarding prayerlessness which was convicting indeed, and in chasing up his quotation I discovered the rest of this amazing document (as recorded by Horatius Bonar). Over the next while I hope to post their confession here, praying that they might be effective in my own life (and perhaps those of other ministry colleagues) in stirring me to walking closer to, and working more effectively for Christ Jesus.

Confession 1.
We have been unfaithful. The fear of man and the love of his applause have often made us afraid. We have been unfaithful to our own souls, to our flocks, and to our brethren; unfaithful in the pulpit, in visiting, in discipline, in the church. In the discharge of every one of the duties of our stewardship there has been grievous unfaithfulness. Instead of the special particularisation of the sin reproved, there has been the vague allusion. Instead of the bold reproof, there has been the timid hint. Instead of the uncompromising condemnation, there has been the feeble disapproval. Instead of the unswerving consistency of a holy life whose uniform tenor should be a protest against the world and a rebuke of sin, there has been such an amount of unfaithfulness in our walk and conversation, in our daily deportment and intercourses with others, that any degree of faithfulness we have been enabled to manifest on the Lord's Day is almost neutralised by the want of circumspection which our weekday life exhibits.