What Is Repentance unto Life?

Answ. Bepentance unto life is a saving grace* % Cc whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of bis sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavour after new obedience.

Qj Why is this mean of salvation called repentance unto life? A. Because it proceeds from, and is an evidence of spiritual life, and issueth in eternal life.

Q. Is there any repentance unto death?

A. Yes ♦, the sorrow of this world, and legal repentance.

Q. What call you the sorrow of this world?

A. Excessive vexation and grief on account of worldly losses and disappointments, Judges xviii, 24.

Q^ How doth this work death? A. It wastes our

bodies, wounds our souls, and tempts to self-murder.

Q. What is legal repentance? A. That fear, grief, 2nd reformation from sin, which an unbeliever may have. * Q.* Wherein do legal and gospel repentance differ?

A. In their order, cause, object, and fruits.

Q. How do they differ in their order? A. Legal

repentance goeth before faith in Christ, gospel Tepentance (or repentance unto life) follows after it, Zech. xii. 10.

Q. How do they differ in their cause? A. Legal

repentance flows from the view of God’s justice and wrath in his threatenings and judgments; but repentance unto life flows from the view of God’s holiness and love, manifested in the death of Christ, and precept of the law.

Q. How do they differ in their object? A. In legal repentance, we are affected chiefly with the guilt of sin, ana with gross sins j but in repentance unto life, we are affected chiefly, with the filth of sin, the dishonour done to Gol by it, and with secret and beloved sins, Gen, iv.

Qj. .How do they differ in their ^//v/z/j-? ‘A. Legal repentance turr.eth us only from some acts of sin, and worketh death •, but repentance unto life turnethusfrom the love of -every tin, and leads to eternal life, 1 ‘Kings xxi. 27.

(h Ho& doth legal repentance work death?

A. It ir.ritat.es lust, fills us with wrath against God because of his justice and holiness, and promotes self-murder.

Q. Why is repentance unto life called a grace?

A- It is God’s free gift, and our beautiful ornament.

Q. Why is gospel repentance called a saving grace /

A. -Because it is an evidence and part of begun salva tion, and makes us meet for perfect salvation.

Q. Why is repentance so often joined with faith in scripture? A. Because it inseparably flows from, and attends faith in Jesus Christ, Zech. xii. 10, 1 Tim. i. 5.

Q. Hath it the same hand with faith in our salvation f

A. No j it doth not receive salvation as faith doth*

Q. Who are the subjects of gospel repentance?

A. Every sinner ought to repent j but only believing sinners do, or can truly repent, Zech. xii. 10.

Q. Who is the author of saving repentance?

A. God in Christ by the Holy Spirit, Acts v. 31.

Q. What is the instrumental cause of repentance?

A. God’s providence, but especially his word.

Q. In how many things doth gospel repentance consist?

A. Five, viz. a sense of sin, an appreheasion of God’s mercy •, grief for, hatred of, and turning from sin.

Q. What call you a sense of sin? A. An heart affecting view of it in its nature, number, and aggravations,

Qj, Why is this necessary in true repentance?

A. To make our soul sick and weary of sin, Jer. xiii. 27a

Qj- How is this true sense of sin produced?

A. By the convictions of God’s Spirit, John xvi. 8.

Q. What do you mean by an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ? A. A sight of him as merciful in

pardoning our sins, and saving our souls through Christ.

Qj How is the affecting apprehension of God’s mercy produced? A. By the Spirit’s enlightening our mind

in the knowledge of Christ and his mediation, Gal. i. 16.

Q. WThy is it necessary in repentance?

A. To melt our heart for sin, and to keep us from despair.

Q. What is grief for sin? A. Our sorrowing

for sin, as it dishonours God, defiles and wounds our own soul, and the souls of others, Psalm li. 4, — 17.

Qj What doth most powerfully excite true grief for sin? A. A believing view of Christ in his sufferings. Qj How doth this view excite true grief for sin? A. As in the death of Christ we clearly see the greatness of that divine love against which sin is committedj and the greatness of God’s indignation at our sin.

Qj How doth the view of the greatness of God’s love, which appears in Christ’s death, excite grief for sin?

A. It fills us with indignation and shame, that we have rendered unto God hatred for such astonishing love.

Q. How doth the view of God’s indignation against sin, which appeals in Christ death, excite grief for sin?

A. It fills us with shame and sorrow, that we have delighted so much in that abominable thing which God so fcatelh, as to punish it with the death of his Son.

Q. What are the properties of true grief for sin?

A* it is a godly, kindly, universal, proportionate, and superlative grief and sorrow, 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11.

Q. How h it a godly sorrow?

/A. As sin is sorrowed for chiefly as against God, Ps. li.4.

Q. How is it a kindly grief? A. It flows from our

love to God, and the faith of his love to us, 1 John iv. 19.

£). How is it universal grief? A. As we grieve

for all known sins with our whole heart, Psalm xxv. 18.

£>. How is it proportion cte grief? A. As we grieve

most for our greatest sins, as original sin, unbelief, and beloved lusts, Psalm li. 3, 5. Rom. vii. 14, — 24.

Q. How is it superlative grief? A. As we are

more grieved for sin than for afflictions, Rom. vii. 24.

Qj Is true grief for sin always sensibly greater than grief for afflictions? A. No •, but it is more deep and

Lasting, as it continues while we live, Psalm li. 3,

Q^ Must tears always attend true grief for sin?

A. Many have tears for sin without true grief, and some may have true grief for sin without tears.

Q. Why is grief for sin necessary in repentance?

A. To make our soul willing to leave sin, Job xlii. 5, 6.

Q^ What is hatred of sin? A. A dislike and

abhorrence of it, and loathing ourselves for it.

Q. What chiefly excites us to the true hatred of sin?

A. A view of Christ as crucified for usp Zech. xii. 10.

Q. How doth the view of this, as the greatest evidence of God’s love, stir up hatred of sin?

A. It makes us hate sin as the murderer of God’s dear Son, and our best friend, Zech. xii. 10. Acts ii. 36, 37.

Q,. How doth the view of Christ’s death, as the greatest rvidence of God’s indignation at sin, excite hatred of it?

A. It makes us to hate sin because God hates it •, and, as far as possible, as God hates it, Psalm exxxix. 22, 23.

Q. What are the properties of true hatred of sin?

A. It is a gracious hatred) flowing from love to Gods

an universal hatred of all sin, at all times 5 a proportionate hatred, chiefly bended against our greatest sins; a superlative hatred of sin above any other thing; a self-loathing ha«» tred, whereby we loath and abhor ourselves as the rest and lodging of sin, Psalm xcvii. 10. and cxix. 104.

O. Is it not also a perfect hatred? A. Yes-; as therein we desire to hate sin with all our heart, and are grieved that any love to sin should remain in us; and it is hatred which cannot admit of reconciliation with sin.

O. Why is hatred of sin necessary in true repentance?

A. To make our soul turn from, ana war against it. -

0. What do you understand by turning from sin?

A. Our leaving the practice of gross sins, and ceasing from the love of every sin, Psal. cxix, 49. Isa. i. 16. Qj, Can we return to these gross sins of which we have truly repented? A. We canr.ot return to a course of

such sins, nor live always hardened in them, 1 John iii. 9„

Q. To whom do we turn, in leaving the pleasures and service of sin? A. To God as our Lord and Portion,

Q. Is turning from the pleasures and service of sin different from our turning to God? A. No; every step we turn from sin is a step towards God, Hos. xiy. 1.

Q. What is the cause of*our turning from sin to God

A. God’s almighty love drawing our heart, Hos. xi. 4*

Q. Can then any graceless man turn from sin?

A. He may turn from the outward practice of some gross sins, but cannot turn from the love of any -sin*’-.

Q. In what manner do true penitents turn from, sin to - God? A. Humbly, with a deep sense, and free confession of their sin-; universally,^ from all- sins with their whole heart; and heartily, from love to God, with full pur-” pose of heart, and endeavour after new obedience;

Q. What mean you by turning from sin to God with a full purpose of heart ?~ A. Our fixed resolution

of heart to war against, and mortify sin and obey God more and more, in spite of all opposition, PhiL iii. 14.

O. Are true penitents often turned out of their designed path? A. Yes; but never from their fixed purpose

against sin, Jer. xxxii. 40. Psalm xlviii. 5^ancLcxix* 100,

.Q. How is our full purpose of -heart against sin evidenced ‘? A. By our endeavour after- new obedience to the law of God, Psal. cxix. 5. 2 Cor. vii. 1. Heb.xiL 28o m 1 Q^.- Why is -this obedience called t$gsdfiMi A.- Becau|s it proceeds from a new principle, is influenced by new mo lives, directed by a new rule, and managed in a new man* tier to a new end, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.

Q. How doth it proceed from a new principle $ A. tt proceeds from a new heart united to Christ, and not from the old corrupt heart, Matth. vii. 17. Luke viii. 15.

Q^ How is this obedience influenced by new motives?

A. It is influenced by the authority of God, and his love in Christ shed abroad in our heart, not by the old motives of the fear or favour of men, or legal fear of God’s wrath, or hope of his favour, 1 John iv. 19. and v. 2.

Q. How is it directed by a new rule? A. It is directed by the law as a rule of life j not by the law as a covenant, and our own inclination, J. Cor. ix. 21.

£). How is this obedience new in its end? A. Its

end is the glory of God, not self-interest and applause.

Q. What are the properties (or manner) of this new obedience -? A. It is sincere, as therein we study to be

in reality what we appear: spiritual as all the powers of our soul are employed in it with holy fear and delight: constant; as we walk habitually in the ways of God as long as we live: humble; as, after we have done all, we count ourselves unprofitable servants: and universal; as we study conformity to the whole law of God, in thought, word, and deed.

Q. What are the marks of repentance unto life?

A. A careful desire to avoid, and be rid of sin 5 an humble, free, and ingenuous confession of it $ and an holy revenge on it, in cutting short our lusts of their wonted provision, 2 Cor. vii. 11. Psalm li. Rom. vii. 14, — 24.

Q. For what reasons should we repent of our sin?

A. God’s mercies and judgments call us to it j his comamnd, and our baptismal, and other engagements, bind us to it, and except we repent, we shall surely perish.

Q. When ought we to repent of>ur sin?

A. Immediately without delay 7 for the present day may be our last $ and every day’s continuance in sin is a re-acting of our former sins, hardens our heart, and may provoke God to deny u* grace to repent, Psalm cxix. 59, 6Q»

Q. Is the repentance of the thief on the cross any encouragement to delay repentance till our last moments ■?

A. No y for it is but a single instance of such late repentance j and that in a man who perhaps never heard of

Christ before; and at such a time as the like never was, nor will be, namely, when Christ triumphed over Satan on the cross, Luke xxiii. 40, — 43.

Q. Can we truly repent of ourselves? A. No.

Q. What then should we do to obtain repentance?

.A. Carefully consider our sins, and the sufferings of Christ, and cry, that, as a Prince exalted to give repentance, he may turn us, and we shall be turned, Isa. lv. 7.