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But aside from the express testimony of scripture, it is demonstratively certain, that repentance comes into the nature of saving faith, from what has been proved concerning it, under the preceding particulars, viz. that saving faith implies a right disposition of heart; and that this right taste and disposition consists in love to God. For there can be no degree of right disposition, and love to God, or friendly disposition towards him, in an impenitent heart. Every degree of right exercise, and of love to God, in a sinner, implies repentance, as essential to such exercises. Therefore the impenitent man is always an unbeliever; and every believer is a true penitent.-Where there is no repentance, there is no faith.

That repentance is implied in saving faith, and the reason of it, will be still more evident, by considering the nature of true repentance, and in what it consists, according to scripture. The definition given of repentance by the assembly of divines, in the shorter catechism, appears to be agrecable to the scripture, which is in the following words, "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his 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." Here repentance is defined as including the whole of a saving conversion: And he who attends to his Bible, must be sensible that repentance is commonly used there in this sense, and always, unless it be evidently used in a limited sense. Repentance has a first and more immediate respect to sin, discerning, realizing, and confessing the malignant nature, odiousness and ill desert of it, as committed against God, and a violation of his law. It therefore supposes and implies the true knowledge of God, discerning and realizing his being, greatness, excellence, worthiness and authority: And consequently a conviction and sense of heart, of the righteousness, excellence and perfection of the law of God, both in the precepts and sanctions of it; or an understanding, cordial approbation of it: for it is in the light of those objects that sin, which is the transgression of this law, which derives its foundation and reason

from the divine character and perfection, appears in its true colours and extent, and as infinitely odious, and deserving infinite evil, even endless punishment. Repentance includes right views and exercises of heart respecting these objects, GOD, LAW, SIN, which right exercises of heart are supposed and implied in right views and sentiments concerning them. Therefore, repentance implies and consists in a hearty regard to God, as infinitely excellent and glorious; or, which is the same, in love to the Deity; and in a cordial approbation of the law of God, in which the divine character appears, and is effectually asserted; and in a true lɔve to this law, rightly understood; and in hatred of sin, as committed against this law, and this God, and an hearty acknowledgment of his own guilt and vileness, and desert of the punishment, which the law of God threatens to sin. All this will be acknowledged to be implied in true repentance, and essential to it, by all who have properly attended to this subject.

But these sentiments and exercises are supposed and implied in saving faith, or faith in Jesus Christ. If we suppose this faith to consist in right speculative views of the gospel, in a conviction of the truth and excellence of it, exclusive of any exercise of heart, if this could be, yet even this supposes and includes right sentiments of God, law, and sin; for without a right view of these, the gospel, or way of salvation by Jesus Christ, cannot be understood. For the gospel implies these truths respecting God, law, and sin, and is founded upon them ; and the existence, wisdom and glory of it are derived from the nature and perfection of God and his law, and the consequent nature and ill desert of sin. If these be left out of view, there cannot be any true idea or conception of the gospel in the mind. The ideas and sentiments therefore, which are essential to repentance, are equally essential to faith in Christ.

But if saving faith includes a right disposition and exercises of heart, in receiving Jesus Christ, as he is offered in the gospel, as essential to the nature of it, which has been proved; then it necessarily supposes and implies those exercises in which true repentance consists. Embracing Jesus Christ as a Saviour, or looking to him

and trusting in him for salvation from sin and misery, implies a true view and cordial approbation of the character of God, and of his law, an acknowledgment of the desert of sin, and of his desert of endless destruction; and a hatred of sin, and hearty renouncing it, and desire of deliverance from it. It is easy to see that a person cannot heartily approve of Christ as a Saviour from sin and misery, to which he is justly exposed by sin, and look to him, and accept of him, in this character, unless he sees and acknowledges himself to be a sinner, deserving eternal destruction; and in his heart hates sin and forsakes it, as no impenitent person does, or can do: For the heart, in turning or cleaving to Christ, turns from, and renounces sin, in this very act. And applying to Christ for deliverance from the curse of the law carries in it an acknowledgment of the desert of sin, and the righteousness of the divine law. therefore certain that repentance is implied in saving faith, and comes into the nature of it, and has a coexistence with it; and is not properly a fruit or effect of faith in Christ. Therefore, as saving faith and true repentance are thus implied in each other, so that the exercise of faith is also an exercise of repentance, we may hence clearly see the reason and propriety of the Apostles speaking sometimes of repentance as the condition of salvation, and at other times representing faith in Christ as the only condition; and that they are perfectly consistent in this.

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Sometimes, indeed, repentance and faith seem to be used in a more limited sense; and, in this view, distinguished from each other. Thus we find St. Paul speaking, "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."* Here the Apostle limits the meaning of the words repentance and faith, and so makes a distinction between them. And by repentance

toward God, he appears to mean right views and exercises with respect to God, as lawgiver and judge, asserting and maintaining the rights of the Deity; and so right notions and exercises respecting the law God, and sin, the transgression of this law; such sentiments and

Acts xx. 21,

exercises as ought to take place in the mind of a sinner, and must take place, whenever he comes to a right taste and temper of heart, whether he have any distinct views of Christ, and the way of salvation by him, or not; and which are necessary in order to understand and embrace the gospel, as has been shown. By faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, he intends those views and exercises of heart toward Jesus Christ, as a suitable and all sufficient Saviour from sin, and the curse of the law, which are agreeable to the gospel, and to which sinners are invited. According to this distinction, as repentance toward God is put first, so it takes place in the mind first, in the order of nature, and precedes faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance toward God, in this sense of it, respects the term from which the sinner turns in conversion, and consists in a cordial approbation of the law of God, and self condemnation for his sin, and hating and renouncing it in his heart. Faith in Jesus Christ respects the term to which the sinner turns, viz. God in Jesus Christ, or God manifest in the flesh; and consists in believing the gospel with all his heart, which implies receiving and trusting in Christ, as a sufficient and suitable Saviour for such a sinner.

The same distinction seems to be made between repentance, and faith in Christ, in the following passages. "Repent ye, and believe the gospel."*"And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." "But shewed unto them-that they should repent, and turn unto God." But all this is consistent with repentance being implied in faith, so that where there is no repentance, there is no faith in Christ; and repentance, taken in the full sense of it, implying saving faith: And the whole may be considered as one and the same complex act of the mind, viewed and distinguished according to the different and opposite objects to which it has respect, viz. sin and the curse; and God in Jesus Christ, which is a turning from sin to God, revealed in the gospel. And therefore, when faith or repentance is mentioned without any lim† Matt. xxi. 32. # Acts xxvi. 20.

Mark i. 15.

itation, each comprehends the whole, even active conversion, or turning from sin to God, by Jesus Christ.* To prevent mistakes, and farther to elucidate this point, it must be observed, that repentance toward God, which, in the order of nature, at least, is antecedent to faith in Jesus Christ, implies faith in God, or a real belief of his being and glorious perfection. For, as has been observed, God must be seen in some measure in his true character, in order to see the reason and foundation of his law, and consequently the evil nature of sin, which can be known only by understanding the divine law. This discerning and belief of the existence and perfection of God; of the reason, reality, existence and extent of the divine law, and of the sinfulness and ill desert of man, is faith: It is the faith of a mind divinely illuminated, and implies right taste and exercise of heart Or it is a belief peculiar to a renewed heart. And even this faith implies repentance; for an impenitent heart is not capable of it, and does not discern and believe the existence and character of God, as the renewed penitent heart does. This faith now described is, in the order of nature, antecedent to faith in Jesus Christ; as those objects must be seen as they are, and believed with a faith which implies exercises of heart in some measure answerable to them, before the gospel , can be understood, or there can be any discerning or faith respecting Jesus Christ and the way of salvation by him. That the discerning and belief of these objects, God, law, sin, is true faith, and of the same nature with that by which men believe in Jesus Christ, is evident from scripture. "Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear. He that cometh to God, must believe that he is."+ Here the Apostle is speaking of the faith, which is peculiar to good men, true saints: It is a belief that God is. It is true indeed that this faith is not complete,

See Mr. Edwards's Discourse on Justification 103, 114, published in the year 1738. And Mr. Nature and Glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. † Heb. xi. 1, 3, 6.

by Faith alone, page Bellamy's Essay on the Section viii.

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