In the printer’s manuscript, Oliver Cowdery initially wrote the subjunctive (that is, infinitive) form of the verb confess, in agreement with the subjunctive be earlier in this if- clause (“if a man be meek and lowly in heart”). Somewhat later Oliver corrected 𝓟 by supralinearly adding the third person singular ending -es to the end of confess. The level of ink flow for this correction is heavier and agrees with the two supralinear corrections earlier on this page of 𝓟 (see the above discussion under Moroni 7:42). This agreement in ink flow argues that here in verse 44 Oliver was once more correcting 𝓟 to make it agree with the reading in 𝓞. In addition, there would have been no motivation to remove the joint occurrence of the subjunctive be and the subjunctive confess from this if- clause.
Of course, the resulting text has both subjunctive and indicative verb forms conjoined within the same if- clause. Yet we have already noted (see under Mosiah 2:38) that examples of this kind are found in the Book of Mormon text:
One difference here in Moroni 7:44 is that the indicative verb form ends in -es rather than -eth. Yet the -es ending is always possible, even in the original Book of Mormon text.
There is another way to interpret the initial form confess here in 𝓟, namely, as a third person singular form for which the inflectional ending -es is suppressed. Such usage occurred in Early Modern English. (In fact, one could also reinterpret the subjunctive confess in Mosiah 26:29, listed above, as a similar instance of this kind from early English usage.) There is, for instance, some evidence that two original instances of third person singular witness in the Book of Mormon text stand for witnesses (see the discussion under 2 Nephi 31:18). So the original confess here in Moroni 7:44 could be interpreted as standing for an Early Modern English equivalent of confesses.
Ultimately, it appears that the initial form confess in Moroni 7:44 is a scribal error and that Oliver Cowdery’s later correction to confesses was the result of his proofing 𝓟 against 𝓞, especially since the level of ink flow for the correction in 𝓟 is identical to the two earlier corrections in 𝓟 for Moroni 7:42. The critical text will therefore accept the form confesses, the corrected reading in 𝓟 for Moroni 7:44.
Summary: Accept in Moroni 7:44 Oliver Cowdery’s correction of the verb form confess to the third person singular present confesses; conjoined mixes of the subjunctive and the indicative in the same if- clause are found elsewhere in the text (thus there is nothing wrong with the corrected reading in 𝓟: “and if a man be meek and lowly in heart and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ”).