An End of Doctrinal Controversies, Chapter 27
CHAP. XXVII. Of Repentance; late Repentance; the time of Grace, and of the unpardonable Sin.
§. 1. REpentance, as a Pain, and involuntary, is part of the Punishment of sin by the Law of Works; but Repentance as a returning to God, and a recovery of the Soul, is a Grace and Duty proper to the Subjects of the Redeemer under the Law of Grace.
§. 2. Yea, it is a great and excellent part of the Law of Grace to give Repentance unto life, and to admit of Repentance after sin, which the Law of Innocency did not admit of.
§. 3. Therefore Iohn and Christ himself did preach the Gospel or Law of Grace, when they preached Repentance; which was a great part, even of Christ's own preaching.
§. 4. Therefore the Antinomian Libertines know not what they talk of, when they call it Legal Preaching, and set Repentance as in opposition to Faith, as if Faith were all that the Gospel did command, or Repentance did not belong to Faith.
§. 5. Yet it must be confessed, that of late times many have laid more upon the sorrowing, weeping, and fearing part of Repentance, than was meet, and said too little of the turning of the Soul from worldly and fleshly sinful Pleasures, to the delightful Love and Praises of God, and willing Obedience and Conformity to his Will, which is the principal part of true Repentance. And, I think God permitted the Antinomians to rise up, and cry up Free-Grace, and call the Ministers Legallists, to rebuke our Error in this point, and to call us to preach up his Grace more plentifully, and to consider better that Gospel-obedience doth chiefly consist in Thankfulness, Love and Ioy, and in the words of Praise, and Works of Love. I am sure this use we should make of their Abuses.
§. 6. Repentance is either general, or particular; General (or Universal) Repentance is a turning of the Understanding, Will, and Practice (with repenting Sorrow) from the inordinate Estimation, Love, and seeking of temporal Things for the Pleasure and Prosperity of the Flesh (or sensual powers) to God, his Will, and Service, and the Hopes of everlasting glory, through Faith.
§. 7. This Repentance is the same thing with Conversion, and as I said before, Faith it self includeth Repentance in its Essence, as denominated from the terminus a quo, it being a Turning from Unbelief to God by believing in him as God, and to Christ by believing in him, as our Saviour, and to the Holy Ghost by believing in him, as the Agent and Witness of Christ and our Sanctifier.
§. 8. Particular Repentance is our turning with Sorrow from a particular Sin, to our contrary obedience to God.
§. 9. Without that universal Repentance or Conversion, which turneth the Mind, Will, and Life to God, from created Vanity and this World, no Man can be saved; because he continueth an Idolater and Rebel, and doth not indeed take God for his God, nor Christ for his Saviour, nor the Holy Spirit for his Sanctifier; but is an ungodly Man, and a Forsaker of God and his own Felicity.
§. 10. Repentance, as towards God, is sometime distinguished from Faith in Christ: And then Repentance is our turning to God, as God, by Faith (Trust) Love, and Obedience, resigning our selves to him as our Owner, subjecting our selves to him as our Ruler, and loving him as our Benefactor, and chiefly as the Infinite Good in himself, our ultimate objective End. And this is the greater Duty respecting God, as our End, even the same with Love to God, for the procuring of which Christ came into the World, and Faith is given us: And then Faith in Christ is the mediate grace and duty by which we are brought to this Repentance.
§. 11. Not that any man can truly take Christ for his Saviour, before he taketh God for his God, (for the Love and Intention of the End, is before our Choice and Use of the Means:) But Christ being our Teacher first bringeth us to assent to the Truth of God's Perfections and Relations to us, and then to the Truth of his own Gospel, and by this Assent bringeth us (first to a common, and then) to a special Consent at once, that God be our God, and Christ our Saviour; but so that we desire God as our End, and Christ as Mediator, as the Means.
§. 12. Universal Repentance (or Conversion) doth virtually contain all particular future Repentance, but not actually. Therefore where this is, that Soul may be saved without actual Repentance for some particular sins (or sorts of sin): As, e. g. if we are ignorant that such or such a thing is sin, for want of necessary Instruction, or if in a crowd of business some sinful Thought, Passion, or Word pass unobserved, or if we do our faithful endeavour to find out a sin, and cannot, remember it (as who can remember at Conversion one of many that he has committed in Unregeneracy, and after many are forgotten:) And every Man dieth in some sin, which he hath no time here to repent of; viz. in some sinful imperfection of all grace and duty, and omission of due degrees of Love, and other Acts: For all which virtual repentance will be accepted.
§. 13. But great and heinous sins must needs have actual repentance, because it will not consist with the Truth of Holiness to be so indifferent or eas…e towards them, as not to observe them, and remember them: And if they be known and remembred, they will be repented of, when the Soul hath opportunity to consider what it hath done. For habitual repentance is necessary to Salvation; and Habits will act when they are not extraordinarily hindred, having notable Objects and Opportunity.
§. 14. Yet some sins that are great materially in their nature, may be lessened much to some persons by unavoidable ignorance, and so may not have an actual repentance: As, e. g. in times of War, to kill men in a wrong Cause, is one of the greatest …ins in the World; and yet when by the darkness of State-cases, the Question who is in the right, is so difficult, that very few can decide it; and after their utmost search, each Party thinks that God bindeth them to fight for their King or Country, such persons cannot have a particular repentance, while they are not able to see that they were deceived.
§. 15. It is therefore a Case of exceeding difficulty, what sins may stand with Iustification, not particularly repented of, and what not; or as some speak, which are mortal, and which venial sins, or sins of Infirmity.
§. 16. But he that hath a care of his Salvation, must hate all sin in the general as sin, and keep up his watch, and be willing to know all the worst in himself, and diligently use the means to know it, and resolve to forsake it to his power, when he knoweth it, that so he may not be wilfully impenitent. And he that will sin as far as he thinks will stand with grace, either hath no true grace, or shall not know that he hath it.
§. 17. The time of repentance or mercy, may be said in two Sences to be past; 1. When a man shall not be accepted and pardoned, though he should repent: And so the Day of grace is never past in this Life (and the Damned do not truly repent in our present Sence;) so that for a penitent person to fear that the Day of grace is past, or his Repentance too late (if true) is to contradict the Scope of the Gospel, which giveth pardon to every one that truly repenteth. 2. When a man that before had some motions and helps to repent, and obstinately resisted them, shall be given up to his Obstinacy, and never have such motions more. Thus the Day of grace may be past with many: And such persons turn from God to Wickedness, and are hardened in the love of sin, and usually blinded to defend it, and hate a holy Life: But those that do repent, or fain would repent, or yet feel God moving them to repent, have no cause to think that God hath thus forsaken them. For it is only obstinate and continued forsaking God, that is the sign of one forsaken by him.
§. 18. And this also is no proof to us, that such a Person is finally forsaken. For many that have rejected grace many years, are afterward converted by that grace: So that all that we can say, is, That such as God hath forsaken, do continue to the end to reject his Mercy, and prefer their Lusts; but that he will so continue to the end, no man himself can tell before the end.
§. 19. About the unpardonable sin there are two Co…oversies: 1. What it is. 2. Whether it be abs…ely unpardonable.
That final impenitency is unpardonable, is undoubted: But the sin in question is called, The Blasphemy against the See Mr. Hales of the sin against the H. Ghost; and Paraphrase on Matth. 12. lately published.Holy Ghost; of which having written a special Tractate, I now only say, That it is the Sin of such as believing not Christ to be the Son of God, but a Deceiver, and yet being convinced of his, and his Disciples Miracles, do in their judgments think, and blasphemously say and maintain, that they were done by the power of the Devil to deceive men. These men rejecting the last convincing means of Faith, are left by themselves remediless.
§. 20. But, 2. the Papists and many Ancients say, That by [not forgiven] is meant only [very hardly and rarely;] but most Protestants expound the words absolutely, as they run; which the Reader will think most probable, I leave to his consideration.
§. 21. Some think that the Novatians denied all pardon to such as committed any great sin after Baptism; but Alb…spinaeus, Petavius, and others have truly proved that it was not so, but only that they denied Power in the Church to pardon such Backsliders; which yet, no doubt, was their Error, seeing as God on his part pardoneth men as oft as they truly repent; so the Church must pardon as far as belongs to them, such as seem truly to repent: But frequent gross sinning doth so much disprove mens verbal repenting, that such mens credit being forfeit, their words are not to be taken till they amend their lives.
THE END▪
End of the text · Richard Baxter, An End of Doctrinal Controversies (1691)