Fourth, [that] terrors are found in those who do not repent, and some people repent without terrors.
Fourth, [that] terrors are found in those who do not repent, and some people repent without terrors.
§ 48. (IV) Bellarmine finally concludes in this way: “Terrors are found in those who do not repent, as in demons, who believe and shudder (James 2[:19]); and, conversely, some people repent without terrors, as in the case of the sinful woman (Luke 7[:36–50]). How credible it is, indeed, to have repented with no fear of punishment but solely because of the love of God!”
We respond. (1) Again he is resorting to the fault of equivocation. Although demons may be afflicted with the terrors of punishment, nevertheless true grief from sins committed, sincere hatred of the same, and humiliation before God’s judgment do not occur in them. Here we use “terrors” to mean these things, which will become clear from the following.
(2) Terrors of conscience can indeed be separated from faith, as is clear in the case of those who are filled with despair, and of demons. Nevertheless true, salutary repentance is not free of terrors of conscience. But it is unphilosophical to conclude that a part does not belong to the whole because it can be separated from a part with which it constitutes the whole. For must we endure this conclusion: “The soul can be separated from the body; therefore it is not an essential part of man”? In the same way, this does not work: “Terrors exist in those in whom faith does not follow; therefore terrors with faith do not constitute repentance.”
(3) There must be a distinction between filial fear and servile fear. Filial fear and trembling are proper to true, salutary repentance. They are, in fact, connected with true faith in Christ. Servile fear springs from the fear of punishment and is proper to demons.
(4) Those who are truly repentant grieve not so much from a fear of punishment as from their love for God and their hatred of sin. Nevertheless they are not free from all terrors of conscience. Rather, fear and confidence are joined in them, and consequently they pray that the judgment of God might not come upon them (Ps. 143:2). Meanwhile, they gain confidence in God’s mercy, so they are described in this way: “They fear the Lord and hope in His mercy” (Ps. 147:[11]).
(5) The very tears of the sinful woman of Luke 7[:38] bear considerable and even greater witness that she felt genuine, serious pangs of conscience. These tears are the ambassadors of grief and testify more than sufficiently to the blood of a wounded soul. Bernard (on Song of Songs, sermon 10):
Her weeping is the ointment which her soul, ensnared by many sins, makes ready: she begins to contemplate her ways; she gathers, heaps up, and grinds up the many different types of her sins in the mortar of her conscience and at the same time cooks them all together in the kettle of her seething breast with a fire of repentance and grief, so that she can say with the prophet: “My heart burns within me, and a fire is kindled in my meditation” [Ps. 39:3], etc.