And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we [are] my lord's servants, both we, and [he] also with whom the cup is found.
Ver. 16. What shall we say, &c.] An ingenuous and penitent confession, joined with self-loathing and self-judging; teaching us how to confess to God.
“Sit simplex, humilis, confessio, pura, fidelis,
Atque frequens, nuda, et discreta, lubeas, verecunda,
Integra, secreta et lachrymabilis, accelerata,
Fortis, et accusans, et se punire parata.”
These sixteen conditions were composed in these verses by the Schoolmen. And such a confession is the sponge that wipes away all the blots and blurs of our lives. 1Jn 1:7 Never any confessed his sin in this sort to God, but went away with his pardon. Wot ye what, - quoth King Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk, concerning Stephen Gardiner, when he confessed his Popery, for which he should have been, the morrow after, sent to the Tower, - he hath confessed himself as guilty in this matter, as his man; and hath, with much sorrow and pensiveness, sued for my pardon: and you know what my nature and custom hath been in such matters, evermore to pardon them that will not dissemble, but confess their fault. a How much more will God!
a Act. and Mon., fol. 1175.