Various objections have been keenly urged against the teaching that faith, and the pardon of sin in justification, precede the first exercise of true repentance. I shall here endeavour to return answers to such of them as are the most plausible.

1. It has been objected, "that there are several passages of Scripture, such as Luke 3:3 and 24:47, and Acts 5:31, in which repentance is mentioned before the forgiveness of sins."

With regard to these and similar passages, it may be proper to recollect what has been said already concerning the mention of repentance before faith; namely, that the order in which things are mentioned in Scripture is not, in every instance, the order of nature. Repentance or a turning from sin to God, being a duty required by the dictates even of a natural conscience, may well be first preached to sinners, in order to convince them at once of the necessity of it, and of their natural inability to exercise it; and then will properly follow the doctrine and offer of the forgiveness of sins, the faith of which is the principal means of attaining the exercise of that repentance. In this view, repentance might be preached by John the Baptist and the apostles of Christ, before the doctrine of forgiveness. Besides, the word repentance , appears to be sometimes used to express the relinquishing of wrong opinions.

Accordingly, when John exhorted the Jews to repent, he may be understood as inviting them to relinquish the error of the Pharisees about a temporal Messiah, and about justification in the sight of God by the works of the law; and that of the Sadducees concerning the resurrection. When Peter told them that they had crucified Him whom God now glorified, he showed them how they came to commit that most atrocious crime: "through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers" (Acts 3:17). He then corrects their mistake, informing them that, according to the prophecies respecting Messiah, He was to suffer the very things which they had inflicted upon Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 3:18). Hence he urges them to change their mind, to relinquish the destructive error with respect to Messiah into which they had fallen, and to turn to the Lord by embracing his Gospel (Acts 3:19).

One reason for not understanding the word repent here to mean evangelical repentance, is that this repentance is evidently included in the next phrase, "be converted." But were it granted that the term repent here might signify evangelical repentance, yet this passage would not prove such repentance to be prior to the forgiveness of sins in justification. For "the blotting out of sins" here may signify, not the formal pardon of them in the act of justification, but the manifestation of that pardon. For in Scripture a thing is often said to be done, when it is manifested. By "the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord," Calvin, Beza, Piscator, Aretius, and other judicious commentators, understand the day of judgment, when the saints shall be refreshed by the most public and honourable declaration of their state of pardon (Acts 3:20,21). For the time here referred to is "the time of restitution of all things," when Christ shall be sent from heaven to judge the world.

Now the apostle's teaching, that repentance is before the glorious declaration of pardon at the last day, is surely no proof that the exercise of true repentance goes before the act of pardon itself. In a word, repentance is sometimes put for the whole of conversion to God, including both faith and turning from sin to Him. This seems to be the meaning of it in the words, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18). Repentance in this its large acceptation may be said to be both before and after the pardon of sin in justification; before it, in respect of faith receiving Christ as "Jehovah our Righteousness," and after it, in respect of godly sorrow for sin and turning from it to God.

As to the expression in Luke 3:3, "John first declares," says Calvin on the place, "that the kingdom of heaven is at hand; and having thus proposed the grace of God to his hearers, he thence exhorts them to repent. Hence it appears that the mercy of God, by which he restores the lost, is the ground upon which repentance proceeds. In this sense, Mark and Luke say that John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; not to intimate, as some ignorantly suppose, that repentance is the cause of the remission of sins; but to teach us that, as the free love of God is first in embracing poor sinners, not imputing their sins unto them, so this pardon of sins is granted us in Christ; not that God may indulge us in our sins, but that He may heal us and deliver us from them." Piscator on the same place says, "The baptism of repentance means that this ordinance was used to testify and profess repentance. The words, for the remission of sins , depend immediately not on the word preached , nor on the word repentance , but on the word baptism ; and the import of the exhortation is, that baptism serves to signify and seal the remission of sins."

2. Some have objected to the doctrine above stated, "that in Acts 2:38 and 8:22, the exhortations to the exercise of repentance are prefixed to the attaining of pardon, intimating that, if sinners do not repent, they have no ground to expect the remission of their sins. The exercise of true repentance, therefore, must precede the pardon of sin in justification."

In answer to this, let it be observed that in those passages, the whole way of a sinner's returning to God is in general proposed. On this position, Calvin expresses himself thus, "Truly I am not ignorant that, under the name of repentance, is comprehended the whole turning to God, whereof faith is not the least part" ( Institutes , Book III, Chap 3, Sec 5). If, before a sinner can be pardoned, it is requisite that he exercise faith and repentance and walk in good works, then repentance and good works are made equal with faith as the means of justification; for it is clear that obedience rendered by the regenerate man is comprehended in the whole import of returning to God. Now unless our whole turning to God more generally be an instituted mean of our attaining the remission of sins, the passages alleged prove nothing to the purpose.

As to the first of them, "Repent and be baptized... for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38), who does not see that the command to be baptized is prefixed to the remission of sins, as well as the command to repent? Must it then follow that baptism is a necessary mean in order to attain the remission of sins? The argument is of as much force for baptism as it is for repentance. Mention is indeed made of remission, but not by way of promise. Nay, nothing is said here of a formal reception of remission. For, as Piscator well observes, "These words, for the remission of sins , do not depend on the word repent , but on the words be baptized ." The meaning, then, of the apostle's exhortation to those convinced sinners, is that they should repent, that is, should turn to God in Christ by faith and repentance; and that they should receive baptism, not as a mean of obtaining the remission of sins, but as a testimony of their receiving that, and every other spiritual blessing in Christ, by means of faith in Him. It is manifest, from the connection denoted by the causal particle for , in verse 39, that the apostle there exhibits the promise of pardon and salvation as the ground upon which he calls them to repent; as if he had said, "I exhort you to repent; and in order that you may do so in a spiritual and acceptable manner, believe that the promise is to you. You are pricked in your heart, but do not despond; for the promise of the Spirit, and of a free salvation, is graciously directed in offer to you. Therefore turn wholly to God, by faith, repentance, and new obedience; and for assurance of the remission of your sins, receive baptism as the sign and seal of the covenant."

As to the last passage alleged (Acts 8:22), it is plain that the apostle prefixes the command to pray, to what he says of forgiveness, as well as the command to repent; yet surely it cannot hence be concluded, that acceptable prayer goes before the forgiveness of sin in justification. But here, as before, repentance is put for the whole way of turning to the Lord.

3. Some have argued for the priority of the exercise of true repentance to the pardon of sin in justification, from these words of our Lord to Saul of Tarsus, "I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts 26:17,18).

In answer, let it be observed that here our blessed Lord first shows how He works faith in the hearts of sinners by means of the Gospel: namely, by opening their eyes, and turning them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. He next declares that, by means of faith thus wrought, they receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith that is in Him. It is urged that this clause, "to turn them from the power of Satan unto God," may signify the exercise of true repentance. I answer, that as these words, "to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," plainly describe the work of the Spirit of Christ by means of the Gospel, they are to be understood of regeneration, which is attributed to the Gospel as a mean of it (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23).
The turning here mentioned is the work of the Spirit of Christ, in which sinners are passive. The first expression, "to open their eyes," is used to describe the work of Christ (Isa 42:7); but it is nowhere said to be the sinner's act. The next phrase, "to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," is of the same meaning with bringing out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house; a work which, in the same passage, is also ascribed to Christ, but nowhere in Scripture to the sinner himself.

Hence the expressions in question cannot be understood of the exercise of true repentance; for this is the exercise or work of a regenerate sinner. But the following expression, "that they may receive," may be connected with these words at the end of the verse, "by faith that is in me"; and may well be understood of the sinner's act of receiving forgiveness and the inheritance of eternal life by faith, which is necessarily followed by the exercise of evangelical repentance. Thus the words of the Lord Jesus in this passage represent a sinner's receiving by faith the forgiveness of sins, and not the exercise of true repentance, as the first or most immediate effect of regeneration; and so, they serve much to confirm the priority of pardon to the first exercise of that repentance.

If the expression, "by faith that is in me," be understood to be immediately connected with the word "sanctified," it will be a further confirmation of the same doctrine. For thus the faith, which receives forgiveness of sins, is declared to be the means of sanctification. But if that faith be the means of sanctification, it is of course the means of attaining the exercise of true repentance; for this repentance, as has been already stated, is included in sanctification. The first act of justifying and saving faith, therefore, is before the first exercise of true repentance, as the means are, in order of nature, prior to the end.

4. Some have maintained "that the following texts prove the first exercise of evangelical repentance to be prior to the forgiveness of sins in justification: Luke 13:3,5; Proverbs 28:13; Jeremiah 4:1,3,4; Ezekiel 33:11; and Isaiah 55:7."

To this it may be answered, that the passage in Luke 13:3,5 does not hold forth a connection between repentance and forgiveness, but merely between impenitence and perishing. The difference between these two connections is great. Let the argument be this: Except ye repent, ye shall perish. Therefore if ye do repent, ye shall live. Here, as Thomas Boston well observes, "The consequent is true, but the consequence is naught." It is no better reasoning than it would be to say: Our evil works will damn us, therefore our good works will save us; or, as if we should say, if we do not pray, we shall perish; therefore if we do pray, we shall live. When the Papists argued that men must be justified by their good works, because they are condemned for the want of them, Calvin's answer to them was to this purpose: The contraries here are not equal; for one deviation, however, small, from the perfect rule of God's law, renders a person unrighteous, and liable to eternal death (James 2:10). But it is not one or a few good works, but an unremitted course of obedience, without the smallest defect, that will constitute a person righteous in the sight of God. And it is a maxim, with respect to a particular action, that it is not morally good unless it have all the requisites of a good work. The want but of one of them renders it evil. In like manner, not repenting simply or of itself, is sufficient to make us perish; but who will say that repentance of itself is, even in the way of means, sufficient to save us? There is indeed no salvation without repentance. But if every thing without which men shall perish must go before a state of justification, as a mean of attaining to it, then a holy life, and perseverance in it until death, must go before justification; and then it will follow, that justification in the sight of God is not to be attained before death. For the Scriptures plainly declare, that without holiness and enduring to the end, as well as without repentance, men shall undoubtedly perish (Heb 10:39 and 12:14). They also declare, "That all who believe, are justified from all things," and that to them there is no condemnation (Acts 13:39; Rom 8:1). Here we learn that, as soon as a sinner begins cordially to believe in Him who is Jehovah our Righteousness, his justification before God is, at that instant, complete and irrevocable.

As to Proverbs 28:13, it serves clearly to teach us that none evidences himself to be a sharer in the pardoning mercy of God in Christ, but he who sincerely confesses and forsakes his sins. To affirm that he whom the Holy Spirit brings to this exercise shall have mercy during the after course of his life (Psa 23:6), and at the day of judgment (2 Tim 1:18), is perfectly consistent with asserting that the mercy of a state of pardon is, in order of nature, prior to that exercise. Samuel Rutherford commenting on the passage, observes that the Holy Ghost is not here speaking about order, as if penitent confession, and forsaking of all sin, must go before forgiveness; but the Lord designs the person pardoned, that they must be such as forsake their sins (Psa 23:6). There is much reason for this; because many who cover their sins, and do not forsake them, will yet pretend to share in pardoning mercy. Such have much need to be undeceived. Besides, it should be observed that the expression in this text may include the confession of open and scandalous sins before men, and their exercise of mercy toward such sinners; and it may also include the practice of good works in general, as is evident from the import of forsaking sin (Matt 5:7; Prov 14:21). Now, will any Protestant deliberately say that the practice of good works in general is the previous condition of justification in the sight of God?

With respect to Jeremiah 4:1,3,4 and Ezekiel 33:11, it may be remarked, that, in these texts repentance is either taken in its large sense, for the whole conversion, in which faith in Jesus Christ, and receiving the remission of sins, as well as repentance strictly taken, is comprehended; or the duty is simply required; while the right manner of performing it, and the connection of it with privileges and with other duties, are to be learned by comparing other passages of Scripture on the same subject. Such commands are given to persons, both before justification, for conviction, and after it, for direction, with declarations of a certain connection between true repentance and life, and that in perfect consistency with the priority of pardon in justification to the exercise of such repentance. No texts of Scripture have ever been or can be produced, which teach that God has either brought sinners to the exercise of evangelical repentance, or has promised to do so, before the faith of His pardoning mercy.

As to Isaiah 55:11, it is evidently the design of this remarkable passage to set before the sinner the pardoning mercy of God in Christ that he may first believe or trust in it for pardon, and for grace to return to God; and then, that by this faith or trust, he may begin the exercise of true repentance, in turning from his wicked way and thoughts. "Here," says Calvin upon the text, "the context is to be carefully attended to: for the prophet shews that men must have the previous faith or confidence of pardon, otherwise they cannot be brought unto the exercise of repentance. The doctrine of the Popish doctors on the nature of repentance is indeed egregious trifling. But even though they were to teach the true nature of it, it would still be unprofitable while they omit what is the foundation of all right exercise of repentance, the doctrine of free forgiveness of sin, by which alone true peace of conscience can ever be attained. And, indeed, while the sinner is a stranger to this peace of conscience, and views God only as a Judge dragging him to His tribunal to give an account of his ill-spent life, he will flee from God, instead of returning to Him, with godly fear and filial obedience." As the exercise of true repentance is the end, and faith the means of attaining this end, so the sinner is first called to forsake his evil way and his thoughts, and return unto the Lord; and then the absolute promise of pardoning mercy is set before him, that, by applying and trusting it, he may return to the Lord in a spiritual and acceptable manner.

5. The following objection has been urged against our doctrine: "God declares to the Israelites that after they should become truly penitent, then he would forgive them: `If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers... if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob'" (Lev 26:40-42). In Ezekiel 36:25,33, God declares concerning the Jews in Babylon, that He will first bring them to repentance, and then restore them to their land. Solomon, in his prayer in the dedication of the temple, expressly and repeatedly holds forth this doctrine, that repentance is before forgiveness. The temple was a type of the Son of God incarnate. And in all their prayers the penitent Jews looked toward the holy temple, and then God heard in heaven His dwelling place. "When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin... Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants" (I Kings 8:35-36).

Answer: It cannot be proved that the forgiveness mentioned in these passages is necessarily to be understood of that pardon which is included in the act of justification, and consequently, that all the exercise which is prior to this forgiveness must be before the first acting of faith. For the exercises which preceded this forgiveness, such as prayer and confession of sin, evidently implied the true faith of those who were sincerely engaged in them. To look toward God's holy temple may well be regarded as an Old Testament phrase expressive of believing in God's Holy One. Therefore, as they whose exercise is described in those passages had faith in Messiah before the forgiveness there mentioned, it follows that they were in a state of justification before that exercise.

Forgiveness of sin, as has been observed already, sometimes signifies the manifestation of God's favour toward His people, in the removal of temporal calamities from them. In this sense I am led to understand forgiveness in the passages under consideration, and particularly in the deliverance of the Jewish church from her captivity. If it be granted that true believers in that church were, by the sentence of justification before God, already exempted from eternal wrath, it will not follow that the forgiveness there mentioned is to be understood of this justifying sentence, and not of the removal of temporal calamities. For the deliverance of believers from temporal strokes, the effects of paternal anger, doubtless may be, and often is, a token to them, of the sentence of their justification, which may have taken place long before. "It is clear," says Thomas Boston, "that in such passages, the people are considered in their national capacity, under national strokes for national sins, for the removal of which, repentance of the same kind is required. And though, in such a general repentance of a people, they who believe are spiritually and theologically serious, and with a removal of the common calamity from the society of which they are members, get God's countenance to shine on their souls; yet the generality are never evangelically penitent. But moral seriousness in such a case, according to the Lord's dealing with nations, is a mean of getting these temporal strokes removed, as may be seen in the case of the Ninevites, and many times in the case of the Jews. It is generally allowed that there is a twofold being under the covenant of grace, the one external, the other internal. The same person may be under the covenant of works and the covenant of grace; under the former in respect of his soul's state, with God's curse upon him; under the latter, as externally partaking of the external privileges, protections, deliverances, &c. given to the visible church." Thus God might be said to remember His covenant for the afflicted Israelites, when they as a nation humbled themselves and confessed their sins, and at the same time He might deliver them from the temporal judgments under which they had lain. It is usually upon national repentance that national calamities are removed. But this does not at all concern the point in hand, the question being of the means previously necessary to the pardon of sin, in the act of justification before God; between which, and the subsequent repeated forgivenesses, as has been stated above, there is a vast difference.

6. It has been urged "that, in token of repentance as what must precede forgiveness, the High Priest under the law was, on the great day of atonement, to lay both his hands on the head of a live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, in all their sins, and thus put them upon the head of the goat, to be sent away into the wilderness. As this was to be done on that solemn occasion, in relation to the iniquities of the children of Israel in general; so, if any particular man at any time committed a sin, he was to bring his bullock, and, in token of confession and repentance, to lay his hand upon its head, and substitute it to die in his room. And if he had not only sinned against God, but in his sin injured his neighbour, he must first, as became a true penitent, make restitution before the sacrifice was offered."

A short answer to this must suffice. The act of the Israelites in the cases now mentioned, in laying their hands on the head of the devoted sacrifice, was a profession of their faith in Messiah as the true antitypical sacrifice, and was a token that they trusted in Him for the remission of all their sins. In consequence of that act, supposing it to have been unfeigned, they were actually in a state of pardon, as all true believers are; and therefore, as that act was before the public confession of their sins, so it evidenced their state of pardon to have been before that confession, before that restitution, and the other tokens of their repentance. This, then, is an additional proof of the priority of pardon in justification to the first exercise of true repentance. And that which followed the confession of iniquities in the offering of the sacrifice, namely, the sprinkling of the blood and the sending away of the live goat, corresponded to those comfortable intimations of pardon which the blessed Spirit affords to believers in and after their exercise of evangelical repentance, by means of Gospel-ordinances.

7. That which is chiefly urged against the priority of justification by faith to the first exercise of true repentance, is "the supposed tendency of it to derogate from the necessity and importance of such repentance."

This is the old hackneyed objection which has always been urged by legal teachers against the doctrine of a sinner's justification by faith alone; and the solid answers which were given by the apostle Paul to the Judaizing teachers, and by our Reformers to the Papists, in that case, are abundantly sufficient in this. They include the following points:

When we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ as the ground of our justification, we receive it also as the meritorious and procuring cause of true repentance. The Holy Spirit works repentance in us at the same time in which He works that faith by which we receive the righteousness of Christ for our justification. So that, though justification is before repentance, in order of nature, yet the one cannot be said, at least in the case of adults, to be before the other, in order of time. A believer cannot have the comfortable sense or evidence of his state of pardon without the exercise of true repentance. The negligence of believers in not exercising repentance for particular sins particularly, will bring upon them most heavy corrections in the present life. All who live and die without repentance, shall inevitably perish. It is not a true repentance, or a godly sorrow for sin, to which the pardoning mercy of God and the redeeming love of Christ, apprehended by faith, are not constraining motives.

8. Once more, it has been said that "if the necessity of repentance in order to forgiveness, be given up, we shall not be in the practice of urging it on the unconverted. We shall imagine that it will be leading souls astray, to press it before, and in order to believing; and afterward it will be thought unnecessary, as all that is wanted will come of itself."

To this ignorant, perverse, and malicious cavil, a short answer must suffice. The objector seems to insinuate that he does not know how sinners can be urged to repentance, and to works worthy of repentance, without representing them as necessary in order to justification. But might not sinners be urged to consider seriously that, while they continue impenitent and unholy, they evidence themselves to be in a state of condemnation, and in the broad way that leads to destruction? Might not they be warned, and pressed to consider, that impenitence obstinately persisted in, will terminate in everlasting destruction? Might not the necessity of true repentance be pressed upon sinners as a motive to their believing in Christ, because such repentance cannot be attained otherwise than by believing in Him? Nay, is not this the only suitable and profitable way of urging sinners to evangelical repentance? Is it not as preposterous and unreasonable to press upon poor sinners the necessity of repentance, without pointing out to them the only means by which the exercise of it may be attained, as it would be to say much to a sick man, in order to persuade him to cure himself, whilst he neither himself knows, nor is informed by any other, by what means he may be cured?

Has not this unskillful way of urging sinners to the exercise of repentance the most destructive tendency? Does it not lead them to take up with a sort of legal repentance, which fills them with a pharisaical pride, and with such conceit of self-righteousness, as, more than all the gross irregularities of which they pretend to have repented, hardens them in their enmity and opposition to the doctrine of grace?

With respect to true believers, our denying that the first exercise of evangelical repentance precedes justification, is far from rendering it unnecessary to urge even them, to the daily exercise of this repentance. Although believers have in them the principle and habit of true repentance, and of all other spiritual graces, yet they need, by the admonitions and exhortations of the Word, to be frequently stirred up to the exercise of them. These are necessary, especially in the case of true repentance, because of the deceitful and powerful workings of indwelling sin, and on account of that spiritual sluggishness which is a part of remaining depravity, and which calls for frequent reproof and correction. Hence the exercise of spiritual graces, and the fruits meet for repentance, are commonly as little to be expected even from believers, without the use of means, both internal and external, as the production of a good crop, even in the most fruitful soil, without due cultivation. Accordingly, it appears to be the main design of a great part of Scripture, to excite believers to the lively and daily exercise of evangelical repentance. They are sometimes represented, as wise virgins who slumber and sleep with the foolish, and as having left their first love; and, therefore, they are exhorted to remember from whence they are fallen, and to repent, and do the first works.

*What has now been advanced constrains me to exhort my reader to mortify, through the Spirit, his unbelief, legal temper, and enmity to God and to the method of salvation by Jesus Christ. These are the principal sources of all the objections that have ever been raised against the truth that the exercise of true repentance comes after faith and justification. O my dear reader! look unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and be you saved from those, and all the other, inveterate corruptions of your nature. Look to Him for that supernatural faith of the law, as a violated covenant of works, which issues in deep and thorough conviction of the sin of your nature and life, and especially of the exceeding sinfulness of your unbelief. Look to Him also for that saving faith of the glorious gospel, which is a cordial belief of the offers, invitations, and absolute promises of it, with particular application of them; which is the confidence of the heart in Him, for all His salvation to yourself in particular; which is a renunciation of your own righteousness, in the affair of justification, and a reliance only on His; and which works by love to God, to Christ, to the Holy Spirit, to the honour of the law, and the glory of the gospel, and to the absolute freeness of Christ's great salvation. By means of the frequent exercise of this holy faith, you will receive the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, to mortify your legal tempter and your natural enmity to the absolute freeness of Christ's salvation. And in proportion as these are mortified, you will cease from objecting against true repentance as a part of that salvation, which Jesus Christ merited for His elect by fulfilling all righteousness for them. You will no longer be disposed to argue against faith, and justification by faith, as previous in order of nature to the first exercise of evangelical repentance. On the contrary, you will spiritually discern, approve, admire, and love the comely order of these, as unalterably fixed by infinite wisdom and love, in the counsel of peace and covenant of grace.

It may be, you have begun already to "believe to the saving of the soul"; and yet, you are disposed to object against the priority of faith, and of justification, to the first exercise of true repentance. If this be the present frame of your mind, study through grace, I entreat you, to attain more spiritual, clear, and correct views of the truth as it is in Jesus, and to advance quickly in the exercise of spiritual understanding, faith, and love. The more you know, believe, and love the truth, the sooner, will you detect your errors, and with holy abhorrence relinquish them; and the more will you receive the love of the truth, and of the due order of all its parts. The more will you love, not only every particular doctrine or blessing of the glorious Gospel, but, the peculiar plan of each in the covenant of grace.
In conclusion: If any of my readers has not yet repented of his innumerable and aggravated sins, I must, before I take my leave of him, again exhort and beseech him to repent without delay. The great and terrible God commands you, in the most peremptory manner, to repent of all your transgressions of His holy law. He "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:30,31). Here the apostle Paul declares that God commands all men to repent. And the powerful motive by which he enforces obedience to the Divine command is this: God "hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." Believe then, and consider the certainty of that great and terrible day.

By raising Christ from the dead, God has given assurance of that day to all men; and therefore, if any man still doubts of the judgement to come, it will be at his peril. The God of truth has not only said, but sworn, that there shall be a day of judgment: "we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God" (Rom 14:10,11). At that awful day, the Lord Jesus will come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, in the glory of His Father, and with His holy angels. At His coming, as the Judge of the quick and the dead, all the sons and daughters of Adam shall, by the sound of the last trumpet, be summoned to appear before His tribunal. The sound of this trumpet will be so loud, as not only to be heard at once in all places of the earth and all depths of the sea, but to awake all who sleep in the dust, and raise them from death. Then the righteous and omniscient Judge, "Shall sit on the throne of his glory," His "great white throne" (Rev 20:11), that throne which, as Daniel says, will be "like the fiery flame" (Dan 7:9). His throne of judgment shall not only be a great, but a white and a fiery throne, white as the snow, and fiery as the flame; white, because no judgment shall proceed from it, but what will be most pure and impartial; and fiery, for it will be inexpressibly terrible to every one who lives and dies impenitent.

Reflect seriously, O impenitent sinner, that after your hardness and impenitent heart, you are treasuring up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God. Oh! If death surprise you in your impenitence, the righteous Judge in that day will, with terrible majesty, and the most appalling frown, pronounce on you and all the impenitent this tremendous sentence: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt 25:41). Dreadful doom! To be sentenced to dwell in fire-in fire prepared for the devil and his angels-in everlasting fire, how horrible, how amazing! To be damned by Him who came to save sinners from sin and hell, must be double damnation. But thus it shall be. The Lamb of God shall, in that awful day, roar as a lion against you, and by an irreversible sentence from the throne, adjudge you to the most exquisite, the most direful torment, and to the society of devils for ever and ever. No sooner shall the sentence be passed, than it shall be executed: "these shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt 25:46). "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord," I earnestly intreat you to return by true repentance to the God of all grace.

O be persuaded, while it is called to-day, to repent and turn from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die" (Ezek 33:11). "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil" (Joel 2:12,13). O comply with these compassionate, and tender invitations! And if you would return to the Lord by true repentance, believe in order to repent. Believe, with application to yourself, the commands and curses of the law as a violated covenant of works, in order to obtain true conviction of your sin and misery. And then believe with particular application the declarations, offers, and promises of the blessed gospel; in order to obtain such a faith-view of the mercy of God in Christ, as will dispose and encourage you to exercise that evangelical repentance which will be acceptable to Him. Trust in the Redeemer, that exalted Prince and Saviour, for repentance unto life; and pray in His name to the God of all grace for "the Spirit of grace and of supplications," to enable you to look upon Him whom you have pierced, and to mourn for Him.

*For most of the arguments in the immediately preceding chapter, and the answers to objections in this, I gladly acknowledge myself indebted to Thomas Boston's Miscellaneous Questions , and also to an accurate and able vindication of some points of gospel doctrine, entitled Precious Truth , by the Rev. John Anderson of North America. I have freely availed myself of these two excellent publications. They are far from being so well known as they deserve to be.