A Necessary Caution
62 David by sin defiled his bed; afterwards by repentance he watered his bed with tears. Israel had sinned by idolatry, and afterwards they offered disgrace to their idols: "You shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver" (Isa 30.22). Mary
Magdalene had sinned in her eye by adulterous glances, and now she will be revenged on her eyes. She washes Christ's feet with her tears.
She had sinned in her hair. It had entangled her lovers. Now she will be revenged on her hair; she wipes the Lord's feet with it. The Israelite women who had dressed themselves by the hour, and lent their mirrors to pride, afterwards, by way of revenge as well as zeal, offered their mirrors to be used in the service of God's tabernacle
(Exo 38.8). So too, those conjurers who used curious arts or magic (as it is translated in the Syriac), once they repented, brought their books and burned them by way of revenge (Act 19.19).
These are the blessed fruits and products of repentance; and if we can find these in our souls, then we have arrived at that repentance which is never to be repented of (2Cor 7.10). the fire.
A Necessary Caution For those who have solemnly repented of their sins, let me speak to them by way of caution. Though repentance is so necessary and excellent, as you have heard, take heed that you do not ascribe too much to repentance. The papists are guilty of a double error:
(1) They make repentance a sacrament. Christ never made it so.
And who may institute sacraments but the who can give virtue to them? Repentance cannot be a sacrament because it lacks an outward sign. And a sacrament cannot properly be sacrament without a sign.
(2) The papists make repentance meritorious. They say it merits pardon ex congruo (altogether fittingly). This is a gross error.
Indeed repentance prepares us for mercy. Just as the plow, when it breaks up the ground, prepares it for the seed, so when the heart is broken up by repentance, it is prepared for remission – but it does not merit it. God will not save us without repentance, nor will he save us for repentance. It is a qualification, not a cause. I grant that repenting tears are precious. They are, as Gregory said, "the fat of the sacrifice;" as Basil said, "the medicine of the soul;" and as