Notes: Sect. 4. — Evangelical Repentance a consequent of Faith.
Notes: Sect. 4. — Evangelical Repentance a consequent of Faith.
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Thomas Watson writes, “I shall not dispute the priority, whether faith or repentance goes first. Doubtless repentance shows itself first in a Christian’s life. Yet I am apt to think that the seeds of faith are first worked in the heart. When a burning taper is brought into a room, the light shows itself first, but the taper preceded the light. In the same way, we see the fruits of repentance first, but the beginnings of faith were there before.” (Doctrine of Repentance, 1668)
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That gospel-offer in Isa. 4.1 is the most solemn one to be found in all the Old Testament; and that one recorded in Rev. 22.17, is the parting offer made to sinners by Jesus Christ at the closing of the canon of the Scripture, and manifestly looks to the former offer; in this I can see no ground to think that the thirsting mentioned in it in any way restricts the offer; or that the thirsty invited there are convinced and sensible sinners, who are thirsting after Christ and his righteousness; this would leave outside the compass of this solemn invitation, not only the far greater part of mankind, but even of the visible church. The context seems decisive in this point; for the thirsting ones invited, are those who are “spending money for what is not bread, and their labour for what does not satisfy,” verses 1, 2; but convinced, sensible sinners who are thirsting after Christ and his righteousness, are not spending their labour and money at that rate; but on the contrary, they are spending them for what is bread and satisfies, namely, for Christ. Therefore, the thirsting mentioned there must be more extensive, and comprehending, yes, and principally aiming at that thirst after happiness and satisfaction, which being natural, is common to all mankind. Men pained with this thirst or hunger are naturally running — for quenching it — to the empty creation, and their fulsome [excessive] lusts; so ‘‘spending money for what is not bread, and their labour for what does not satisfy,” their hungry souls find no food, except what is meagre and lean, bad and unwholesome, and cannot satisfy their appetite. Compare Luke 15.16., Adam left all mankind in this wretched case, and Christ finds them there. Whereupon the gospel proclamation is issued, inviting them to come away from the broken cisterns,Jer 2.13 and filthy puddles, to the waters of life, even to Jesus Christ, where they may have bread, richness, what is good, and will satisfy their painful thirst, John 4.14, and 6.35.
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That is, in such a manner that it will be true evangelical repentance, a gracious humiliation, sorrow and turning, acceptable in the sight of God. This question (grounded on Nomista’s pretending that Neophytus had no warrant to believe unless he had truly repented) supposes that there is a kind of repentance, humiliation, sorrow for sin, and turning from it, which goes before faith, but that they are not “in a godly way,” as the apostle phrases it, 2Cor. 7.11.
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I do not think it strange to find the author so very peremptory in this point, which is of greater weight than many are aware of. True repentance is a turning to God, coming back to him again; returniug even to the Lord, according to a usual Old Testament phrase found in Hos. 14.1, and rightly so translated in Isa. 19.22. But no man can come to God “but by Christ;” Heb. 7.25, “He is able also to save those to the uttermost who come to God by him.” — John 14.6, “No man comes to the Father but by me.” We must take Christ in our way to the Father, or else it is impossible for we guilty creatures to reach to him. And no man can come to Christ, except by believing in him, John 6.35. Therefore it is impossible for a man to truly repent before he believes in Christ. “God has exalted Him with his right hand, to be a Prince (or leader) and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins,” Acts 5.31. One would think this is a sufficient intimation that sinners not only may, but ought to go to him for true repentance; and not stand off from him until they get it to bring along with them — especially since repentance, as well as remission of sin, is a part of that salvation which he as a Saviour is exalted to give, and consequently, for which sinners are to receive and rest on him; and likewise it is that by which he, as a leader, leads sinners back even to God, from whom they were led away in the first Adam, the head of the apostasy. And if one inquires about the way he gives repentance to Israel, the prophet Zechariah showed it before to be by faith, Zech. 12.10, “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn.”
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This the Scripture teaches, determining in general that without faith one can do nothing acceptable in the sight of God, John 15.5, “Without me.” i.e. separate from me, “you can do nothing.” — Heb. 11.6, “Without faith it is impossible to please him:” and particularly with respect to this case, Luke 7.37-47, “And behold a woman in the city, who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table..., stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet. And he turned to the woman, and said to Simon: Her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” — It is an argument gathered from the effects which follow, whereby anything is proved by its ensuing signs.” -Calvin. Instit. lib. 3. cap. 4. sect. 37.
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There is knowledge in faith, as our divines teach against the Papists, and as the Scripture makes manifest. Isa. 53.11, “By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many.” — Heb. 11.3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Now, saving faith being a persuasion that we shall have life and salvation by Christ, or by receiving and resting on him for salvation, includes in it the knowledge of our being beloved of God: the former cannot be without the latter. In the meantime, according to the strength or weakness of that persuasion, the steadiness or unsteadiness of that receiving and resting, so is this knowledge clear or unclear, free of or accompanied with doubts. They are still of the same measure and degree. So that this says no more in effect than that faith in Christ is the spring of true love to God — which, however it is attained by a guilty soul, men will better know if they consider well what it is. The true love of God is not a love to him only for his benefits, and for our own sake, but a love to him for himself, for his own sake; it is a liking of and complacency in his glorious attributes and perfections, his infinite, eternal and unchangeable being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. If a convinced sinner is devoid of the least measure of persuasion of life and salvation by Christ, and of the love of this God to him; but apprehends (as he cannot miss doing in this case) that he hates him as his enemy, and will prove so at last; this cannot fail to fill his whole soul with slavish fear of God; how then shall this love of God spring up in one’s heart, in such a case? For slavish fear and true love are so opposite the one to the other, that according to the measure in which the one prevails, the other cannot have access. 2Tim. 1.7, “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.” 1John 4.18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; because fear has torment.” But once life and salvation, and remission of sin, is believed by the convinced sinner with [personal] application — and thereby the love of God towards him is known — then, according to the measure of that faith and knowledge, slavish fear of God is expelled, and the heart is kindly drawn to love him, not only for his benefits, but for himself, having a complacency in his glorious perfections. “We love him, because he first loved us,” 1John 4.19. The love of God to us is the inducement of our love to him: but love utterly unknown to the party that is beloved can never be an inducement to love in return. Now, in consequence of this, the sinner’s bands are loosed, and his heart — which before was still hard as a stone, though broken in pieces by legal terrors — is broken in another manner, softened, and kindly melted in sorrow for displeasing this gracious God.
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God first turns a sinner, to bring him to Christ, John 6.44, 45, “No man can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And then he comes to God by Christ, John 14.26, “No man comes to the Father but by me.”
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In a right manner, in the manner mentioned immediately after.
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Faith comes from the word of God; hope comes from faith; and charity springs from them both. Faith believes that word; hope trusts in what is promised by the word; and charity does good to her neighbour. Mr. Patrick Hamilton’s Articles in Knox’s Hist. p. 11.
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Not as that they are pardoned already; but that one must so apprehend the favour of God, as to believe that God will pardon his sin, as the author says expressly in the premises from which this conclusion is drawn; or that God pardons his sin in the present time. See note, chap. 3, sect. 6. Now, remission of sin is a part of that salvation which faith receives and rests on Christ for. See the note on the Definition of Faith, fig. 2. As for the phrase the author uses to express this, it is most agreeable to the Scripture phrase, “Remission of sins preached,” Luke 24.47; Acts 13.38.
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Namely, such an alteration as is pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God, which he has described in the preceding sentence. Otherwise, he has already taught us that there are notable alterations of life and conduct which do not proceed from faith; and therefore they are not accepted by God. And we shall hear more of these shortly.
It will not be amiss here to observe how our author, in his account of the relation between faith and repentance, treads in the ancient paths, according to his own manner.
“It ought to be out of the question,” says Calvin, “that repentance not only immediately follows faith, but also springs out of it. As for those who think that repentance goes before faith, rather than flows or springs from it as a fruit out of a tree, they never knew the force of it, and are moved with too weak an argument to think so. Christ and John [they say] in their preachings, first exhort the people to repentance, etc. A man cannot earnestly apply himself to repentance, unless he knows himself to be of God: but no man is truly persuaded that he is of God, except he that has first received his grace. No man shall ever reverently fear God, except he that trusts that God is merciful to him: no man will willingly prepare himself to keep the law, except he that is persuaded that his services please God.” Instit. b. 3. chap. 3. sec. 1, 2.
“However soon the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, which God’s elect children receive by true faith, takes possession in the heart of any man, that soon he regenerates and renews that man. So that he begins to hate what before he loved, and begins to love what before he hated; and from this comes that continual battle which is between the flesh and the spirit.” Old Confess., art 13.
“Being in Christ, we must be new creatures — so that we must hate and flee that which before we loved and embraced, and we must love and follow that which before we hated and abhorred. All of which is impossible for those who have no faith, and have but a dead faith.” Mr. John Davidson’s Cat. p. 29.
“Quest. When I ask you then, What is craved of us after we are joined to Christ by faith, and made truly righteous in him? you shall answer. A. We must repent and become new persons, that we may show forth the virtues of him that has called us.” Ibid. p. 35.
“What is your repentance? The effect of this faith, working a sorrow for my sins that are by-past, and purpose to amend [my ways] in time to come.” Mr. James Melvil’s Cat. in his Propine, etc. p. 44.
“Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, with grief and hatred of sin, turns from it to God.” Shorter Cat.
“M. Then you are saying, That until the time that God has received us to mercy, and regenerated us by his Spirit, we can do nothing but sin — even as an evil tree can bring forth no fruit except that which is evil, Mat. 7.17. C. Even so it is.” Calvin’s Cat. quest. 117. “He receives us into his favour, by his bountiful mercy, through the merits of our Saviour Christ, accounting his righteousness to be ours, and for his sake he does not impute our faults to us.” Ibid, quest. 118.
“Quest. What is the first fruit of this union? (namely of union with Christ by faith.) A. A remission of our sins, and imputation of justice. Q. Which is the next fruit of our union with him? A. Our sanctification and regeneration to the image of God.” Craig’s Cat. q. 24, 25. “Q. What is sanctification? A. Sanctification is a work of God’s grace, whereby they are renewed in their whole man, after the image of God, having the seeds of repentance unto life, and of all other saving graces, put into their hearts.” Larger Cat. quest. 75.
“We would beware of Mr. Baxter’s order of setting repentance and works of new obedience before justification, which is indeed a new Covenant of Works.” Rutherford’s Influences of the Life of Grace, p. 346.
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This is taken word for word out of the English Annotations on Mat. 3.2; which are cited for it by our author under the name of the Last Annotations, because they were printed in the year 1645, about which time this book also was first published. How the author applies it, will appear shortly.
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The word rendered repent is, “To change one’s mind, and to lay aside false opinions which they had drunk in, whether from the Pharisees concerning the righteousness of works, traditions, worship, etc.; or from the Sadducees concerning the resurrection,” etc. Lucus Brugensis, apud Pol. Synop. Orit. in Mat. 3.2.
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That the reader may further see how little weight there is in the objection raised from Mark 1, 15, I subjoin the words of two learned commentators on the text. “Repent, turn from the wickedness of your ways and believe. There is a repentance that must go before faith, that is, the applicative of the promise of pardoning mercy to the soul; though true evangelical repentance, which is a sorrow for sin, flowing from the sense of the love of God in Christ, is the fruit and effect of faith.” Contin. of Poole’s Annot. on the place. — “Faith or believing, in order for the work of grace, is before repentance, that being the first and mother grace of all others; yet it is here and in other places named the latter: first, because though faith is first wrought, yet repentance is first seen and evidenced,” etc. Lightfoot’s Harmony, part 3. p. 164. 4to.
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That is, his repentance is true in its kind, though not saving. There is a change of his mind and heart in that, upon a conviction, he turns from profanity to strictness of life, and upon further conviction, from a conceit of his own righteousness to a desire for the righteousness of Christ: nevertheless, all this is but selfish, and cannot please God while the man is void of faith, Heb. 11.6.
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See the note, p. 144.