Until there is confession of sin, and not merely of a sin, there is no forgiveness. When our hearts are brought to recognize God’s hand, it is not merely, then, a question of what particular sin or of what particular iniquity may need forgiveness; God has brought down the soul, through the working of His Spirit on it, to detect the principle of sin, and so there is confession of that, and not merely of a particular sin. There is then positive restoration of soul.
J.N. Darby, from The Bible Treasury, Vol.N7