The original words in the New Testament, which in the Authorised Version of the Bible are translated repentance, are metamellomai and metanoia. The former of these words signifies "an after carefulness," or an uneasy feeling of regret and dissatisfaction for what has been done, without regard either to duration or to effects. It denotes a mere change of feeling, whether it be for the better or for the worse; such a sorrow as is not productive of a real change of conduct, and does not imply it. It does not imply a consideration either of goodness or badness, but merely of change from whatever motive or cause. It is therefore the word which is usually employed by the sacred writers to express repentance of any sort. And indeed, according to the common acceptation of the term with us, a man may as properly be said to repent of a good, as of a bad action. A covetous man will repent of the alms which a transient fit of compassion may have incited him to bestow. The original word then signifies remorse or dissatisfaction with one's self, for what one has done.

On the other hand, the latter of those words signifies "a change of mind," of judgment, of disposition, of purpose, and of conduct. It denotes properly a change for the better; a change of mind that is not transitory, but durable, and productive of good conduct. It implies not only sorrow and remorse for what is past, but a change of disposition and of conduct for the future. When John the Baptist, our Lord, and His Apostles inculcate this change of mind as a duty, or mention the necessity of it as a doctrine of Christianity, metanoia and metanoeo are the terms which they invariably employ. One or other of these is the word commonly used to express the habit and exercise of that repentance which is evangelical and abiding, and not to be repented of.

The repentance then which is in the New Testament required of sinners is such an entire change of mind, or of views and sentiments respecting sin and salvation, as discovers itself by a genuine sorrow for sin, a firm resolution to hate and forsake it, and a sincere endeavour so to return to God in Christ as to walk with Him in newness of life: the sincerity of which is to be evidenced by fruits meet for repentance. This, as was hinted above is true repentance. And as it is the gift of God, the purchase of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit, it is a saving grace. Implanted by the Spirit at regeneration, it is so inseparably connected with salvation, as to constitute an essential part of it. In the Scriptures it is called, "repentance to salvation," and "repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18); as it proceeds from, and evidences spiritual life in the soul, and as it prepares for, and issues in the perfection of life eternal; as also to distinguish it from the sorrow of the world which works death (2 Cor 7:10) it is also styled, "repentance toward God," because in the exercise of it a sinner turns from all known sin, to the love and the service of God (Acts 20:21).

True repentance is not a transient act, as if a sigh or a pang of sorrow for sin amounted to it. No, these may indeed be acts of true repentance, while they issue from a heart sincerely penitent: but repentance itself, instead of being a passing act, is an abiding principle, a lasting disposition of soul, a gracious principle lying deep in the heart, disposing a man at all times to mourn for and turn from sin (Zech 12:10). The waters of godly sorrow for sin in the renewed heart will continue to spring up there while sin is there, though they may, through remaining hardness of heart, be much obstructed for a time. After the heart has, at the sinner's first conversion, been smitten with evangelical repentance, the wound still bleeds, and will continue more or less to bleed until the band of glory be put about it in the holy place on high. If, therefore, a man regards repentance only as the first stage in the way to heaven, and instead of renewing daily his exercise of it, satisfies himself with concluding that he has passed the first stage, the truth of his repentance is very questionable. The man who does not see his need of exercising repentance daily may have a counterfeit, but cannot have a true repentance. He may have a superficial sorrow for his sins, and even such remorse gnawing his conscience as may be the first moving of the worm that shall never die, as that of Judas was, and yet be a total stranger to that evangelical repentance, which is both a saving grace and an abiding principle.

In the heart of the true penitent, a wonderful and permanent change has been graciously effected. He is irresistibly constrained to abandon his former views of sin, of salvation from sin, and of the pleasantness and beauty of holiness, and to embrace sentiments altogether opposite. Such a change is produced in his inclinations and affections that he no longer takes pleasure in unrighteousness, but delights in the law of God and in obedience to it after the inward man. And the more pleasure he takes in holiness, the more deep, and even delicious will his sorrow for sin be, and the more vigorous will his endeavours be to turn from all sin to God. And yet, so far is he from meriting any blessing from God by his exercise of true repentance, that he is laid under fresh obligations to Him for having granted to him the inestimable blessing of repentance unto life. The more of it he receives from God, the more he is bound to honour Him by a lively and frequent exercise of it.

Having thus glanced at the formal nature of evangelical repentance, I now proceed to consider, what the exercise of it includes.

1. True repentance imports deep humiliation of soul before the Lord.

It is by the high way of pride that sinners depart from God; and it is by the low way of humiliation that they return to Him. The grace of Christ brings elect sinners down from their high conceit of themselves and lays them low at the footstool of a gracious God. It makes them humble themselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt them in due time (1 Peter 5:6). As it was with Benhadad's servants (1 Kings 20:31,32), so it is with true penitents. By faith, they understand that the King of Israel is a merciful King; by repentance, they put sackcloth on their loins, and ropes on their heads, and in that humble posture, they come to Him. Evangelical humiliation is the immediate consequence of a true sense of sin, and of a spiritual apprehension of pardoning mercy. It consists in lowliness, or self-abasement of mind before God, and esteeming others better than ourselves; in having low thoughts of ourselves, and a deep sense of our extreme meanness, hatefulness, weakness, and unworthiness in the sight of God. It is the sense that a true Christian has of his own despicableness, odiousness on account of sin, and utter inability for the least good thought, word, or work, and that with a suitable frame of heart.

In true humiliation the believing sinner sees the hatefulness of his iniquity, and the inexpressible odiousness of his heart and life because of sin; and he has an answerable frame of spirit, a disposition to abhor and abase himself as a sinner, to exalt Christ alone, and voluntarily to deny and renounce himself. The hypocritical or legal penitent is lifted up with an high opinion of his humiliation, and is ostentatious of it; whereas the true penitent is deeply humbled for the pride of his heart. He accounts himself one of the least of saints, and is disposed to think others better than himself (Phil 2:3). He sees that his humiliation is very small in comparison of what it ought to be, and that his pride is very great and exceeding sinful. He is a thousand times more quick-sighted in discerning his pride and self-righteous temper than his humility. On the contrary, the hypocrite is blind to nothing so much as to his pride, and quick-sighted to nothing so much as to his show of humility. Evangelical humiliation then is a principal part of the exercise of true repentance. The sincere penitent so discerns and feels the plague of his own heart as to think less favourably of himself than he can do of others, or they of him.

2.The exercise of true repentance includes godly sorrow for sin.

The remorse of the evangelical penitent is a sorrowful remorse, a deep contrition of heart, not so much for the punishment to which he has exposed himself, as for the indignity he has done to a holy, a gracious, and a merciful God. The apostle Paul styles it, "Sorrow according to God," or "godly sorrow" (2 Cor 7:10), not only to distinguish it from the sorrow of the world which works death, but to shew that it is grief for sin because it is sin; because it is an infinite offence given, and an infinite dishonour done, to a holy, a good, and a gracious God, a transgressing of His holy and righteous law, a defacing of His moral image, a piercing of His dear Son, and a grieving of His Holy Spirit. Trusting that the spotless Lamb of God was pierced for his iniquities, the true penitent mourns, not so much for himself as for Him (Zech 12:10). And so real, so deep is his penitential sorrow that though there were no conscience to accuse, no judge to condemn, no devil to affright, no hell to torment, yet he would mourn and be in bitterness for having offended that God who has loved him, pierced that Saviour who died for him, and grieved that Spirit who sanctifies and comforts him. "Against thee, thee only have I sinned," says the Psalmist, "and done this evil in thy sight" (Psa 51:4). His penitential sorrow springs not only from a true sense of the infinite hatefulness of his innumerable sins, but also from the faith of redeeming mercy, and from his love of God and of His holy law.

His godly sorrow springs likewise from his views of the infinite majesty, excellence, holiness, and amiableness of that transcendently glorious God whom he has insulted; of the injustice and base ingratitude of which he has been guilty; and of the infinite obligations to obedience which he has violated. Now that his views of sin are changed, he feels deep regret, bitter remorse, and intense sorrow for what he has done against his gracious God and Father. His iniquities appear to his mind inexpressibly odious, and they become a heavy burden, too heavy for him. He mourns bitterly for them, and still mourns that he cannot mourn more. His heart is broken, and as it were melted when he considers the odiousness and the multitude of his crimes against that gracious God, who all the time was full of infinite love to him. He grieved the Holy Spirit by committing sin, and he himself is now grieved in repenting of it. The adamantine heart is dissolved into tears of godly sorrow; the rock is struck by the rod of evangelical truth, and the waters gush out. This is that rending of the heart, which the Lord requires (Joel 2:12,13).
The sorrow of evangelical repentance is inward and real sorrow. It is not a bowing down of the head as a bulrush (Isa 58:5), nor a disfigured countenance. It rises from inward principles of faith and love; and so it makes the man mourn in secret before the Lord. It is deep sorrow, sorrow which descends deeply into the heart. To dig deep was the security of the house that was founded upon a rock (Luke 6:48). Penitential sorrow is a prickling or piercing of the heart as with spears and swords, or a compunction of heart (Acts 2:37). But is godly sorrow deeper in the heart than the deepest grief on any worldly account? If we calculate merely feeling, or by the moving of the affections, it is plain that it does not always appear deeper than other sorrows. But if we compute by the fixed disposition of the heart, it is evident that it is deeper than them all, and exceeds the greatest of them. Persons are usually moved more sensibly by a less degree of sorrow than by a greater. The greatest grief is often above tears. Penitential sorrow settles more deeply, and continues more firm than any other grief.

It is also a lively sorrow, a grief that quickens the soul. The sorrow of the world works death; it indisposes a man for activity in duty. But godly sorrow, quickens a man to the spiritual performance of duty (2 Cor 7:11). The former arises from slavish dread, which chills and stiffens the soul, and so renders it unfit for action, the latter from faith and love, which warm the heart, and dispose it to be ardent and active (Luke 7:47).

It is a universal sorrow. The evangelical penitent is grieved in heart not only for his own iniquities but for those of others (Psa 119:136). He never mourns sincerely for any one sin who does not mourn for all; and he never grieves aright for the iniquities of his life who does not bewail bitterly the sin of his nature.
It is moreover an operative sorrow. It "worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of" (2 Cor 7:10). Godly sorrow and turning to God are inseparable. Evangelical sorrow in the heart is a spring which, as it runs, works out the love, power, and practice of sin. In a word, it is sorrow which continues in the heart as long as sin remains in it. The grief of the legal penitent is like a summer-flood, which is soon over, but the sorrow of the evangelical penitent is like a living spring, which, in a greater or lesser measure, always sends forth water.

3. Another ingredient in the exercise of true repentance is hatred of all sin, accompanied by self-loathing.

True hatred of sin, under the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, flows from faith working by love to God; and it is a holy abhorrence of every sin as infinitely hateful to Him. This hatred is universal against all sin, whether it be known or unknown. "I hate," says the Psalmist, "every false way" (Psa 119:104). It is irreconcilable to any known sin. "I hate the work of them that turn aside," says the Psalmist again, "it shall not cleave to me" (Psa 101:3). It is constant without intermission. It is a hearty detestation, an utter abhorrence of all sin as sin, and of every appearance of sin; an utter abhorrence of it as peculiarly odious, as inexpressibly abominable; a detestation of it in its nature as the greatest of all evils, the worst of all enemies, as the most inveterate enemy, not only of the precious soul, but of that God whose nature is infinitely lovely and loving. The more the true penitent is enabled to trust that Jesus was wounded for his transgressions and was bruised for his iniquities, the more he abhors them. In the sufferings and death of the Lamb of God, he sees what infinite wrath, what tremendous punishment he as a sinner deserves. And when he cordially trusts that the Lord Jesus so loved him, as willingly to endure all that punishment for him, his iniquities appear inexpressibly hateful in his view, and he longs to be able to hate them with perfect hatred. He abhors sin as the worst of all evils, worse even than the evil of suffering: and were he left to his choice, without fear of ever being called to account, he would not choose sin; for he abhors it, because of its contrariety to the holy nature and law of God.

True hatred of sin is accompanied by self-loathing. "Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations" (Ezek 36:31). The true penitent loathes, not only the sin which dwells in him, and the innumerable transgressions which have been committed by him, but he loathes himself as a sinner. Seeing in the glass of the loving-kindness, sparing mercy, and holy law of God, and of the agony and anguish of his Redeemer, the unutterable deformity, odiousness and demerit of his sins, he abhors himself for his iniquities and abominations. "Wherefore I abhor myself," says Job, "and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). He does not indeed loathe himself as a creature, but he loathes himself as a sinner. He looks on himself as a most deformed, a most polluted object. He now rejects with holy indignation all the vain excuses for sin which he used formerly to make, and with which he satisfied his conscience. He accuses, judges, and condemns himself. He is accordingly represented as smiting on his breast (Luke 18:13); thereby declaring that he considers his depraved heart within to be the source of all his other abominations, and that he justly deserves to be struck at the heart and to die for his innumerable and aggravated crimes. He sees now that his heart and his life are a most loathsome spectacle; all as an unclean thing, and that all his righteousnesses are as filthy rags. He loathes himself, therefore, and renounces all confidence in himself.

4. The exercise of true repentance includes shame and confusion of face before the Lord.

The remembrance of his innumerable, and heinous provocations fills the true penitent with holy shame and blushing before God. "O my God," says Ezra, "I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens" (Ezra 9:6). Shame was never felt in the world till our first parents had lost their reputation by sinning against God. It is in consequence of a true sense of sin, and of a fiducial apprehension of pardoning mercy that the true penitent is filled with shame before a holy and gracious God, for the deep depravity of his nature and the aggravated transgressions of his life.

Spiritual nakedness also occasions shame. Accordingly Adam, after he had sinned, said to the Lord, "I heard thy voice in the garden; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself" (Gen 3:10). Sin has taken away the comeliness of human nature. It has stripped the sinner of his beautiful garments, so that the shame of his nakedness appears. The believing sinner sees that, and has this great promise fulfilled to him: "That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God" (Ezek 16:63). Reproach causes shame. "Sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov 14:34). That knowledge of sin which is by the law may produce worldly sorrow, but it is the province of the gospel only to paint sin in such colours as to make the true penitent ashamed, yea, even confounded because he bears the reproach of his youth (Jer 31:19). A true sense especially of base ingratitude, when it is accompanied by the faith of redeeming mercy fills him with shame: "We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God" (Jer 3:25). The disappointment also of his former hopes from sin fills the penitent with holy shame. During his unregenerate state he expected satisfaction and happiness in a course of disobedience, but now that his views of sin are changed, he sees that he was all the time procuring for himself nothing but present misery and endless destruction. His reflection upon this often fills him with shame. Accordingly, the apostle Paul puts this question: "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death" (Rom 6:21). A spiritual discovery also of the pollution of his sin fills the penitent with shame. Sin defiles as well as deforms the soul in the sight of God. The true penitent sees this and is ashamed. "We are all as an unclean thing," says the church, "and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa 64:6). And Daniel explains, "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us, confusion of faces, as at this day" (Dan 9:7).

5. The exercise of true repentance implies ingenuous and unreserved confession of sin to the glory of that God who has been dishonoured by it.

Thus Joshua exhorted Achan, "My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him" (Josh 7:19). This is the way in which the true penitent vents his godly sorrow, self-loathing, and shame. "I acknowledged my sin unto thee," says the Psalmist, "and mine iniquity have I not hid: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (Psa 32:5). If the sin has been committed in secret, confession to God in secret will suffice. If it has been a private offence, given not only to God but to a fellow-creature, the confession is to be made not merely to God, but to that fellow-creature in private (James 5:16). If it has been a public offence, the confession should be public likewise (1 Tim 5:20). Accordingly, David published his confession to the church (Psa 51), and so did Paul (1 Tim 1:13). As the secret confession is to be made to God only, so the private and public confessions, are to be made to him chiefly. Ingenuous confession of sin is so necessary in the exercise of true repentance that in Scripture it is put for the whole of repentance. Thus saith the lord, "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence" (Hosea 5:15).

The true penitent by his unreserved confession of his crimes accuses himself. With sorrow and shame he confesses to the honour of his God and Father, that times without number he has transgressed His holy and righteous law. "I acknowledge my transgressions,"says David; "and my sin is ever before me" (Psa 51:3). He also condemns himself. When he looks into the holy law and considers the infinite malignity and demerit of his innumerable crimes, he reads his doom and passes sentence on himself. "Father," said the returning prodigal, "I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son" (Luke 15:18,19). He sees and confesses that he deserves for his great and aggravated provocations to sink throughout eternity under the overwhelming wrath of almighty God. And he says with the afflicted church, "It is of the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed" (Lam 3:22). He sees that it would have been just with God to have punished him, considered as in himself, with everlasting destruction. Instead of covering his transgression as Adam, the true penitent knows not where to find expressions strong enough to set forth the extreme malignity of the very least of his crimes. He lays his hand upon his mouth, and his mouth in the dust, as being unable to declare either the multitude of his iniquities or the greatness of their aggravations. His confession, accordingly, is free, sincere, particular, and habitual.

6. The exercise of evangelical repentance, includes the sinner's turning from all sin to God in Christ.

This is the formal nature of true repentance, or that which completes it. It is under this notion of it that evangelical repentance, is, in the Old Testament, often styled "returning" or "conversion." In the exercise of this repentance the convinced sinner returns and comes to himself (Luke 15:17); and then he turns from all sin to God. Whenever he comes to himself, he will come to Christ by faith, and to God in Him by repentance.

(1) True penitents turn from all sin. "Repent, and turn from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations (Ezek 14:6). To continue in the practice of sin is inconsistent with the exercise of true repentance. Sincere penitents cease from sin. Though sin remains in them, yet it does not reign as formerly. Though they cannot shake themselves loose of the remains of sin, yet they turn from it, both in their heart and in their life.

They turn from all sin in heart and affection. Although iniquity still cleaves to them, yet they no longer cleave to it as formerly, but detest and loathe it (Rom 7:24). Sin still hangs on them, but it is only as chains on the captive, which are his grievous burden; or, as the grave-clothes on Lazarus, when he was raised from the dead, which he was trying to shake off. Their esteem and love of sin are changed into hatred of it. "I hate vain thoughts," says the Psalmist (Psa 119:113). And again, "I hate every false way" (Psa 119:104). In the exercise of true repentance their hearts are turned against all iniquity, and they abhor it as the worst of evils-worse than even the most exquisite suffering. Instead of taking pleasure in sin as formerly, they now loathe it. Hence the exercise of such repentance is styled, a casting away of all their transgressions (Ezek 18:31); as one would cast away some very loathsome thing, which he cannot endure to be near him. "Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence" (Isa 30:22). In a word, their cleaving to sin is turned into an ardent and increasing desire to be free from it. Though formerly sin was dear to them as the apple of the eye; yet now that their heart is rent from it, as well for it, they long vehemently to be delivered from it. Thus they turn from the love of all sin in their heart.

True penitents turn also from all sin in their life, or external conduct. They study to have clean hands as well as a pure heart. In the exercise of repentance they refuse compliance with the corrupt desires of the flesh and of the mind; and so, they through the Spirit mortify the members and deeds of the body of sin (Rom 8:13). They turn from gross sins, or outward abominations. They may indeed be left on some occasion to fall into a gross sin, as David and Peter were, but they are not suffered, as the impenitent are, to lie in it. They are raised again by repentance. "A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again" (Prov 24:16). They watch habitually against all temptations to sin (Psa 18:23), and all occasions of it (Prov 4:14,15); and in proportion to the degree of their sanctification, they abstain even from all appearance of evil.

They not only turn from the practice of open and gross sin, but they strive daily against the sins of common infirmity. They exercise themselves, "to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men" (Acts 24:16). Their conscience is tender with respect to secret as well as to open sins; and therefore they are as deeply concerned to resist motions of sin, and temptations to it in secret before the Lord, as to strive against sinful words and actions openly before the world. And when through infirmity any of them is overtaken in a fault, he, under the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, renews his exercise of faith and repentance, and so he is always departing from iniquity. True penitents will always be repenting as long as sin remains in them and prevails against them. They who consider turning from sin as the work only of a few days or weeks at a man's first conversion are not true penitents. As evangelical repentance is included in sanctification, and as turning from sin both in heart and life is the same as dying to sin, the evangelical penitent is, in principle and practice, constantly turning from sin.

(2) True penitents turn from all sin to God in Christ. They departed from God by sin: they return to Him by repentance. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord" (Hosea 6:1). This is the term to which sinners turn in evangelical repentance. Many who profess repentance turn from one sin to another and never to God: "They return, but not to the most High" (Hos 7:16). But when the Holy Spirit enables sinners to trust in Christ for that salvation of which pardon of sin and repentance are essential parts, He thereby turns them from all sin to God; and when they are thus turned, they turn to Him. "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned... Surely after that I was turned, I repented" (Jer 31:18,19). By faith sinners return to God as their God and their portion, and through Christ take up their everlasting rest in Him as the strength of their heart, and their portion for ever. But by repentance they return to the love of Him as their Lord or Master, and to their duty to Him as such.

In the exercise of evangelical repentance they turn to the love of God as their Lord and Master. "O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name" (Isa 26:13). They account Him infinitely worthy to be obeyed, and served, and pleased in all things. They see the transcendent glory, and amiableness of God in Christ, and therefore they count Him infinitely worthy of all the love of their hearts, and of all the worship and obedience of their lives (James 2:7). They testify their supreme love of Him by a deliberate and cordial choice of Him as their only Lord. "Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now" (Hosea 2:7). They discern the excellence and amiableness, not only of the Lord God Himself, but also of His laws and ordinances, His image and service; and, therefore, they firmly resolve to cleave to Him and serve Him. They also testify their love of Him, by regarding His service as the greatest freedom, the highest honour, and the truest happiness. When the prodigal came to himself, he said, "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare!" (Luke 15:17). To the same purpose the Psalmist says, "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee" (Psa 84:4). All true penitents consider the service of sin as the greatest bondage, the deepest misery, but the service of God in Christ as the truest freedom, the sweetest happiness. Their minds have been enlightened to see the deformity of sin and the beauty of holiness, and therefore their hearts abhor the one, and delight in practising the other.

True penitents turn also to their duty to God as their Lord and Master. When Saul of Tarsus became a penitent, he said, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). All who return to God come home as servants to do His work. All who become His friends do whatsoever he commands them (John 15:14). They "delight in His commandments. As it is with their whole heart that they return to the love and practice of their duty, so they have a full and fixed purpose of heart in dependence to God. "O Lord, I have said that I would keep thy words." "I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end" (Psa 119:57,112). They return to their duty, with a full purpose to enter upon and keep the way of duty; to pursue and practise holiness in all manner of conversation. This full purpose is a sincere resolution to return to the practice of every known duty. True penitents study to know what is duty in every situation, and when it is known, to perform it. They endeavour to serve the Lord cheerfully and diligently in heart and in life.

It is also a purpose to return to spirituality in every duty. "We are the circumcision,"says the apostle, "which worship God in the spirit" (Phil 3:3). Sincere penitents resolve through grace to have their hearts as well as their hands engaged in their duties; to perform them from union with Christ, faith, and love as the principles; from the grace of God and the love of Christ as the motives; in the strength of the grace of Christ, and with the whole heart as the manner; and to the glory of God in Christ as the ultimate end of them. This resolution is usually called a full purpose because it is a resolution which is put in execution without delay. "I made haste," says the Psalmist, "and delayed not, to keep thy commandments" (Psa 119:60). It is so called also because a sincere endeavour after new obedience is inseparably connected with it. Although true penitents are sensible that they cannot in their own strength perform new obedience, yet they habitually aim at it, and even at perfection in it (Phil 3:14). The obedience which they purpose and endeavour to yield is styled new obedience because the principles, the motives, the rule, the manner, and the end of it are all new.

The true penitent's turning from all sin to God is voluntary. Some turn from their sins sore against their will. They part from their darling sins with great reluctance, as the covetous man from his possessions at death, when he is forced to let them go. The true penitent, on the contrary, turns from all iniquity with willingness, or by choice. In the same manner does he turn to God. He voluntarily and heartily yields himself to Him to serve Him. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power (Psa 110:3). His turning from all sin is also sincere. He turns from iniquity, not so much because it is hurtful, but because it is hateful to him. He departs from it because it offends an infinitely holy and gracious God, dishonours His dear Son, grieves His Holy Spirit, violates His law, and defaces His image. His return to God in Christ is sincere. He turns to Him, not feignedly but with his whole heart (Jer 3:10). Hypocrites have a divided heart, one part for God and another for sin. But "no man can serve two masters." Moreover, he turns speedily from sin to God. As long as a man delays to turn from all sin his repentance is feigned. A true penitent will no more delay, than a man would to snatch a burning coal from his bosom. He will not delay a moment. He will make no truce with sin. He knows that if he delay a single moment longer it may prove fatal to him. He therefore imitates the Psalmist, who says, "I made haste, and delayed not, to keep thy commandments (Psa 119:60).

His turning from sin is also universal. Whoever turns sincerely from any sin turns from all sin. Accordingly, Jehovah gave this command to the house of Israel: "Cast away from you all your transgressions" (Ezek 18:31). One sin retained would render all his exercise of repentance vain; just as Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal's concubine, was the death of all his seventy sons by his wives, except one (Judg 8:299:5). The true penitent, therefore, abstains from all appearance of evil, and carefully avoids every avenue of temptation. Every sin as such is the object of his deep abhorrence. And if any iniquity has prevailed against him more than another, if any sin has easily beset him, this he resolutely and cheerfully foregoes, and with unreluctant mind abandons. He so abandons every known sin as to return to the love, and to the spiritual performance of every known duty. He not only yields new obedience, but attempts the performance of it in all its parts.

So much for the nature and import of true repentance.

From what has been said it may justly be inferred that there is no exercise of true repentance without a heart broken from and for sin. Sinners either must be broken-hearted for their sins, and be mourners in Zion, or God will break them with the rod of His fiercest indignation. They either must be of a contrite, that is, of a bruised or crushed spirit for the unnumbered sins of their heart and life, or God will crush them under the overwhelming weight of His unsupportable wrath. They will either mourn and be in bitterness for their great transgressions, in time, or they shall weep and wail under the punishment of them, through eternity. Alas! there are multitudes of sinners at this day who are stout-hearted, who boldly outface reproofs, both from the Word of God and their consciences, with hearts that neither break nor bow. O that such would seriously reflect that a day shall come in which God will make the stoutest heart to tremble, and the hardest heart to fly as in a thousand pieces! Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron," says the Psalmist: "Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (Psa 2:9). "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" (Psa 90:11). Some secure sinner will say, "I daily repent of my sins." Well would it be with you if you did so indeed. But no one is so ready to pretend that he has true repentance as he who is yet an utter stranger to it. If some regret for your sins and a transient wish for mercy were true repentance, it were easy work. But it is far, very far from being so. You cannot repent evangelically or acceptably without a new heart, a broken and contrite spirit, a heart broken from and for all your iniquity. Neither can you do so without cordial trust in the pardoning mercy of God in Christ. Be exhorted, O impenitent sinner, to exercise that godly sorrow for sin which is a fruit of saving faith, and which worketh repentance to salvation. Be no longer a stranger to the exercise of evangelical mourning for the innumerable evils of your heart and life. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt 5:4).

It is also evident from what has been stated that sin will be followed by shame, either in this world or in that which is to come. If a sinner live and die without true repentance, his shame in the eternal world is certain. He shall be covered with shame before all the armies of heaven and all the generations of the children of Adam at the last day, and with the most overwhelming shame in the place of torment for ever and ever. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake... some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan 12:2). And if the sinner is enabled, before it is too late, to exercise repentance unto life, he will be covered with holy shame and blushing before the Lord. He will glorify God by taking shame to himself for the loathsome deformity and pollution of his unholy nature and life. If by the eye of faith he discerns that mercies and forgivenesses belong to the Lord, he will surely confess that to himself belongs confusion of face. If he is enabled to trust cordially that the Lord is pacified toward him for all that he has done, he will remember and be confounded and never open his mouth any more, because of his shame (Ezek 16:63). He will in secret before God be ashamed even of that which no fellow-creature could ever witness. He will be as much ashamed of secret, as of open abominations.

We may hence infer also that shamelessness in sinning is a sure mark of impenitence; and is therefore a forerunner of everlasting shame (Jer 6:15; Phil 3:19). Impudence in committing sin reveals a hard and impenitent heart, and a seared conscience. Ah! what well-grounded hope of heavenly glory can that man have who glories in his shame, and who, instead of being ashamed of having sinned, would be ashamed of appearing penitent?

Sin must surely be a very loathsome object in the eyes of the true penitent, since the sight of it makes him loathe himself. No man truly abhors his sins but he who loathes and abhors himself as a sinner. An impenitent sinner usually loves that in himself which he appears to loathe in others, but the true penitent loathes sin in himself even more than he does in others. And when he loathes himself in his own sight for having sinned against an infinitely holy and gracious God, it is at once a part and an evidence of his being a true penitent; an argument that his love of sin is turned into hatred of it. If a person, then, wishes to attain true self-loathing, let him in the faith of illuminating and renewing influences, look narrowly into himself. Let him closely and frequently inspect the inexpressible malignity and deformity of the sin that dwells in him and of the innumerable abominations that are committed by him. Many a poor sinner is pining away in his iniquity and in all the loathsomeness of inbred corruption, threatening his eternal perdition, whilst in the mean time he is fond of his condition and is dreaming of happiness. But, if sovereign mercy prevent it not, dreadful shall be his surprise when he awakes in the place of torment. O let no sinner remain a stranger to the exceeding sinfulness of his heart and life! Let every one consider seriously and frequently the infinite odiousness and demerit of his transgressions and his extreme need of union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Does evangelical repentance include confession of sin? Let the reader, then, study to be sincere, free, full, and particular in confessing his iniquities to the Lord. Your debt by nature and practice to the law and the justice of God is boundless. You can accumulate, but you cannot pay the immense sum. You are utterly insolvent. If you be not found in Christ as Jehovah our Righteousness, you owe to the holy law as a covenant of works a debt of perfect obedience for life, and of infinite satisfaction for sin. Confess then the infinite sum. Confess it to the Lord in order to prevent a legal pursuit, and to be capable of praying consistently for a remission of it, which otherwise you cannot be. O if you had a spiritual sense of your aggravated sins and godly sorrow for them, these like an overflowing torrent would bear down before them all those things which now indispose you for a free and particular confession of them.

Is evangelical repentance a turning from all sin to God in Christ? Let the reader then examine himself, whether he has, in heart and affection, turned from all iniquity. Is your esteem of all sin turned into contempt and dislike of it? Is your love of every sin turned into abhorrence of it, and into self-loathing because of it? Is your cleaving to any darling, any predominant lust, changed into a longing to be perfectly and eternally freed from it? Have you turned from all known sin in your external conduct? Have you forsaken all gross pollutions? Are you habitually on your guard against all sins even of common infirmity, abstaining from all appearances of evil? Do you labour, in dependence on promised grace, to resist the motions of sin in your heart, and to refuse compliance with them in your life? Is your turning from all sin, voluntary and sincere? Have you returned to God in Christ? Instead of turning from one sin to another, have you returned from all iniquity to the Lord? Do you esteem Him worthy to be obeyed, served, and pleased in all things? Do you choose Him as your only Lord, and regard His service as your greatest happiness, your highest honour? Have you with your heart returned to your duty to Him? Is your heart reconciled to the whole law of God, the whole yoke of Christ? Have you in your heart a deliberate and full purpose of new obedience? Have you returned to the cheerful practice of every known duty, and to spirituality in all? Have you returned to the performance of every duty, voluntarily, sincerely, and without delay? Is it in the faith of pardoning mercy and of sanctifying grace that you endeavour to perform all your duties? If you have been enabled in any measure to do so, you may be satisfied that you are a true penitent. And though your consciousness of being such is no part of your warrant for renewing your actings of faith in the Lord Jesus, yet it will be an encouragement to you to renew them upon the warrant afforded you in the glorious Gospel. But if you are still not satisfied that you are a true penitent, come as a sinner to Him who is exalted to give repentance, and trust in Him for that evangelical repentance which is a substantial part of spiritual life, of that life which is founded on justification, carried on by sanctification, and completed in glorification.

Is repentance a turning of the heart from all sin? It plainly follows that turning from sin outwardly, while the heart still cleaves to it, is far from being true repentance. It is easy indeed to reform outwardly, but the great business consists in getting the heart, by justifying and regenerating grace, broken from and for all manner of sin. If you would be satisfied, that your repentance is not counterfeit but true, you must examine the motives which excite you to turn from iniquity. For the low and legal motives which rise no higher than yourself, your own safety and welfare, will never evidence you to be a true penitent.

Many, alas! cease from certain acts of sin merely because sin ceases from them. They have not left sin, but some particular sin has quit them. Many an old sinner thinks himself a true penitent because he is not disposed as formerly to wallow in the mire of youthful lusts. Some forsake certain sins, but not from the evangelical principles of saving faith in the great Redeemer, union with Him, love to Him, and hatred of all sin as sin. They do not love supremely the holy nature of God in Christ, and therefore they do not hate the nature of sin. But they can never begin to exercise evangelical repentance till they hate the very nature of all iniquity, and begin to turn from it with holy abhorrence because it is hateful not only to God but to themselves. Every sin is, in its very nature, most detestable to the true penitent.

It follows also that merely negative reformation is not true repentance. A man must not only turn from all sin, but turn to God. The evangelical penitent not only ceases to do evil but learns to do well (Isa 1:16,17). He not only abhors that which is evil but cleaves to that which is good (Rom 12:9). He not only mortifies his corrupt inclinations and affections, but he possesses and exercises the contrary graces. Many reform externally from the evils of their past life, but they do not go forward to the ways of faith and holiness. Like the proud Pharisee, who went up to the temple to pray, they satisfy themselves with being not unjust, not extortioners, not adulterers. But they do not consider that no sooner is the house from which the unclean spirit is gone out, empty, than he returns with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and so the last state of that man is worse than the first (Matt 12:44,45). In evangelical repentance, the regenerate and believing sinner returns from the love and practice of sin to the love and enjoyment of God, and to that new obedience to him which flows from faith and love. Turning to God in Christ is the essence of evangelical repentance.

In conclusion, the exercise of repentance must be the work of our whole lives, for so our turning from sin and returning to God will be, if we are true penitents. While the sincere penitent is fleeing from sin, it follows him. It often overtakes him, and therefore he must renew his flight often. New provocations require a renewed exercise of repentance; nay, old sins are not to be forgotten. "Remember," said Moses to Israel, "and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness" (Deut 9:7). And the Psalmist prayed thus: "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions" (Psa 25:7). The whole life of the true penitent is a continual warfare. During this warfare he must fight many battles. Sometimes he gains the victory and sometimes he loses. If he loses he must renew the fight: if he gains, he must pursue the victory and prepare for a new encounter. But he should always be of good courage and maintain his conflicts resolutely, for though he may lose a particular battle, yet he shall be more than a conqueror at last (Rom 8:37).