The Practice of Repentance, Chapter 3
CAP. 3. Of the subiect of Repentance.
2. THe subiect of Repentance is the beleeuer; the generall subiect of Repentance is a sinner for Christ came to call sinners. But because eueryevery sinner repenteth not; I say only the beleeuer turneth.
Where I plainly conclude that question, wherein is more scruple, than staid wisedome; That Faith goeth before Repentance, & not Repentance before Faith.
Here are
1. Reasons,
2. Cautions.
Reason.1. The fountaine must bee before the streame, the roote before the fruit, the cause before the effect: but Faith, leaning vponupon Gods mercy, manifested in the promise, is the instrumentall cause of Repentance. Hos. 6.1. Come, let vsus turne vntounto the Lord: for he hath smitten, and he will heale. The hope of Gods healing, that is, of forgiuenesse of sins, is the ground of Repentance. Psal. 130.4. Mercy is with thee, that thou maist bee feared. Which showeth, that no man can lay hold vponupon God, to feare, and reuerence him, but hee that is perswaded of his fauour.
Two cannot walke together vnlesse they be friends, and man neuer meeteth God in Repentance, while he conceiueth God an enemy; but runneth away from him, as a strict Iudge. Slauish feare bringeth not a man to God; but louelove, which is a fruit of Faith, for Faith worketh by louelove: therefore Faith is before Repentance.
2. True Repentance is a sauing grace, and eueryevery sauing grace is from Christ. Iohn 15.4. No branch can beare fruit of it selfe, vnlesse it abide in the Vine: EueryEvery penitent must therefore receiue Christ, before the gift of Repentance; and no receiuing of Christ, but by the hand of Faith, Iohn 11.12. therfore Faith must necessarily goe before Repentance.
3. Repentance worketh directly vponupon the heart, to soften it, to cleanse and purifie it. Now in Repentance, it is onelyonly the bloud of Christ, that can soften the hard heart, as onelyonly Goates bloud softeneth the hard Adamant: It is onelyonly the bloud of Christ that can purge the heart and conscience from defilements, Heb. 9 14. Now would I know how wee can hauehave his bloud, before, himselfe; or himselfe, before Faith. Nay, therfore the Scripture applyeth the work of purging the heart to Faith, Acts 15.9. because it is the instrument to lay hold on the bloud of Christ for our purging; therefore Faith must be before Repentance.
4. Repentance is the most acceptable of all good workes. A contrite heart is aboue all Sacrifices; therefore Faith must bee before it: for
1. Whatsoeuer is before Faith, is the issue only of corrupt nature, and corrupt conscience, and cannot please God.
2. Without Faith it is impossible to please God, Heb 11.6. for nothing is acceptable, but in and for Christ; and nothing in and for Christ, but by Faith in Christ, apprehending him.
Object. This sheweth, that Faith must goe with Repentance, but not that Repentance is therefore before it.
Answ. The Apostle expresseth the same thing in another phrase, which putteth Faith before it. Rom. 14.10. Whatsoeuer is not foreign, ex fide, is sin: If it flow not from Faith, as the streame from the fountaine, which in order of nature must be before.
5. Before any thing can please God in a man, the man himselfe, the person must please him first. Gen. 4. God accepted Abel and his sacrifice. The new motion pleaseth God, because it is from a new creature; but first the person must be in Christ, and then a new creature, 2. Cor. 5.17. And first hee must be a beleeuer, before he be in Christ: God respecteth not opus externum, but spiritum internum; He looketh on no worke further than it is the worke of his spirit: but the spirit is no where, but in the sons of God, Gal. 4.6. and no sons but by Faith in Christ, Gal. 3.26. If therefore Repentance must be a worke and fruit of the spirit of God, and that spirit bee in none but sons, and none of them sons but by Faith in Christ; therefore must Faith goe before Repentance, yea before the Sonship it selfe.
1. Both of them are wrought at one moment of time;Secondly the Cautions. and in time are neither first nor last: but in order of nature, Faith, as the cause, is first, and then Repentance.
2. Faith is before compleat Repentance; for some beginnings or preparations to Repentance, goe in time before Faith: namely, legall fit…, and terrours of heart for sinne; and these are sometimes called by the name of Repentance, as a part by the name of the whole. Math. 21.32. Yee were not moued with Repentance, that ye might beleeue. The ignorance of the meaning of the word Repentance in this place, hath occasioned this idle scruple: But the distinction of Legall and Euangelicall Repentance will fully satisfie it: Legall, which is a sorrow and terrour excited by the law, and onelyonly initiall, and preparatory, is before faith: But Euangelicall, which is sauing and compleat, must hauehave faith before it, for the former reasons.
Obiect. But that which most troubleth, is the setting of Repentance before faith, as Mark. 1.15. Repent & beleeue the Gospel. Act. 20.21. Testifying to Iewes and Greekes, foreign.
Answ. But they forget that the cause is set sometimes after the effect, as 1. Tim. 1.5. Faith is set after a pure heart, and yet it is Faith that purifieth the heart: But it is as if he should hauehave said, If you would get a pure heart, get Faith; so in these places: Repent, and that ye may doe so, ye must first beleeue; and so this transposition plainely ouerthroweth the conceit they build vponupon it.
3 The forme of Repentance is in turning, or returning: for by the sinne of our nature, and practise, wee hauehave turned our selues away from God, & cannot see his face, and fauour towards vsus. Now Repentance turneth vsus backe againe the way that wee are gone from him. And in this returne
1 The whole man must turn: for the whole man is turned away, and naturally and wholly euill. Gen. 6. The imaginations of his heart are euill continually: yea whole euill is in eueryevery man: euen the whole roote of sin, and further than the restraint of speciall or common grace, would produce all bitter and poysonfull fruits.
2 He still turneth: Repentance is a continued act of turning; a Repentance neuer to bee repented of, a turning neuer to turne againe to folly: For,
1 He hath euer something with him to turne from: a flesh still resisting the spirit, many temptations of Sathan, many wicked fashions of the world.
2 He can neuer get neere enough to God in this life, nor euer turne so neare him, as once he was, and therefore hee must proceed on till he doe attaine.