Chapter 15: Of Repentance Unto Life and Salvation
Such of the elect that are converted at riper years, having sometime lived in the state of nature, and therein served divers pleasures, God in their effectual calling gives them repentance to life.1
Whereas there is none that does good and does not sin,2 and the best of men may, through the power and deceitfulness of their corruption dwelling in them, with the prevalency of temptation, fall in to great sins and provocations; God has, in the covenant of grace, mercifully provided that believers so sinning and falling be renewed through repentance unto salvation.3
This saving repentance is an evangelical grace,4 whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, does, by faith in Christ, humble himself for it with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self–abhorrancy,5 praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavor, by supplies of the Spirit, to walk before God unto all well–pleasing in all things.6
As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, upon the account of the body of death, and the motions thereof, so it is every man’s duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly.7
Such is the provision which God has made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers unto salvation, that although there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation,8 yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation to them that repent,9 which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary.
1 Titus 3:2–5
2 Eccles. 7:20
3 Luke 22:31–32
4 Zech. 12:10; Acts 11:18
5 Ezek. 36:31; 2 Cor. 7:11
6 Ps. 119:6,128
7 Luke 19:8; 1 Tim. 1:13,15
8 Rom. 6:23
9 Isa. 1:16–18, 55:7
- CHAPTER 1:
Of the Holy Scriptures - CHAPTER 2:
Of God and the Holy Trinity - CHAPTER 3:
Of God’s Decree - CHAPTER 4:
Of Creation - CHAPTER 5:
Of Divine Providence - CHAPTER 6:
Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the punishment thereof - CHAPTER 7:
Of God’s Covenant - CHAPTER 8:
Of Christ the Mediator - CHAPTER 9:
Of Free Will - CHAPTER 10:
Of Effectual Calling - CHAPTER 11:
Of Justification - CHAPTER 12:
Of Adoption - CHAPTER 13:
Of Sanctification - CHAPTER 14:
Of Saving Faith - CHAPTER 15:
Of Repentance unto Life and Salvation - CHAPTER 16:
Of Good Works - CHAPTER 17:
Of the Perseveraance of the Saints - CHAPTER 18:
Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation - CHAPTER 19:
Of the Law of God - CHAPTER 20:
Of the Gospel and the Extent of Grace thereof - CHAPTER 21:
Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience - CHAPTER 22:
Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day - CHAPTER 23:
Of Lawful Oaths and Vows - CHAPTER 24:
Of the Civil Magistrate - CHAPTER 25:
Of Marriage - CHAPTER 26:
Of the Church - CHAPTER 27:
Of the Communion of Saints - CHAPTER 28:
Of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper - CHAPTER 29:
Of Baptism - CHAPTER 30:
Of the Lord’s Supper - CHAPTER 31:
Of the State of Man after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead - CHAPTER 32:
Of the Last Judgement