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like friends, who were indeed thy enemies. Thou, O God, didst see our follies, and observe our weaknesses, thou knowest the averseness of our nature to good, and our proneness to commit vanity; and because our imperfect obedience could not bring us to perfect felicity, whither thou didst design us, the great God of all the world was pleased to make a new covenant with man, and to become a debtor to his Blessed be God, and blessed be that mercy which

servants.

O be pleased to work that
Let us not lose our title

hath done so great things for us. in us which thou expectest from us. in the covenant of faith and repentance, by deferring the one, or dishonouring the other; but let us walk worthy of our vocation, according to the law of faith, and the mercies of God, and the covenant of our Lord Jesus.

II.

O BLESSED Jesus, never suffer us to abuse thy mercies, or to turn thy grace into wantonness. Let the remembrance and sense of thy glorious favours endear our services, and let thy goodness lead us to repentance, and our repentance bring forth the fruits of godliness in our whole life. Imprint deeply upon our hearts the fear and terror of thy majesty, and perpetually entertain our spirits with highest apprehensions of thy loving-kindness, that we may fear more, and love more, every day more and more, hating sin, crucifying all its affections and desires, passionately loving holy things, zealously following after them, prudently conducting them, and indefatigably persevering in them to the end of our lives.

III.

O BLESSED and eternal God, with thy Spirit enlighten our understandings in the rare mysterious secrets of thy law. Make me to understand all the most advantageous ways of duty, and kindle a flame in my soul, that no difficulty or contradiction, no temptation within or persecution without, may ever extinguish. Give me a mighty grace, that I may design to please thee with my best and all my services, to follow the best examples, to do the noblest charities, to pursue all perfection, ever pressing forward to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. Let us rather choose to die,

than to sin against our consciences. Let us also watch, that we may omit nothing of our duty, nor pretermit any opportunity by which thou canst be glorified, or any Christian instructed, comforted, or assisted, not resting in the strictest measures of command, but passing forward to great and prudent significations of love, doing heroic actions; some things by which thou mayest be greatly pleased, that thou mayest take delight to pardon, to sanctify, and to preserve, thy servants for ever. Amen.

CHAP. II.

OF THE NATURE AND DEFINITION OF REPENTANCE; AND WHAT PARTS OF DUTY ARE SIGNIFED BY IT IN HOLY

SCRIPTURES.

6

SECTION I.

THE Greeks use two words to express this duty, μɛraμéλɛia and μετάνοια. Μεταμέλεια is from μεταμελεῖσθαι 4 post factum angi et cruciari,' to be afflicted in mind, to be troubled for our former folly; it is δυσαρέστησις ἐπὶ πεπραγμένοις, saith Phavorinus; a being displeased for what we have done:" and it is generally used for all sorts of repentance, but more properly to signify either the beginnings of a good, or the whole state of an affective repentance. In the first sense we find it in St. Matthew', ὑμεῖς δὲ ἰδόντες οὐ μετεμελήθητε ὕστε gov, Tou Mioтevoa aur; and "ye seeing, did not repent that τοῦ πιστεῦσαι αὐτῷ; ye might believe him." Of the second sense we have example in Judas, Metaμeλndeis áñéorges, he repented too, but the end of it was, he died with anguish and despair; and of Esau it is said, μετανοιας τόπον οὐχ εὗρε, “ he found no place for" an effective "repentance;" but yet he repented too, for he was μετέπειτα θέλων, and μετὰ δακρύων ἐκζητήσας, he fain would have had it otherwise, and he "sought it with tears"," which two do fully express all the meaning of this μεταμέλεια, when it is distinguished from the better and effective repentance. There is in this repentance, a sorrow for what is done, a disliking of the thing with its consequents and effect: and

fMatt. xxi. 32.

g Matt. xxvii. 2.

h Heb. xii. 17.

so far also it is a change of mind. But it goes no farther than so far to change the mind, that it brings trouble and sorrow, and such things which are the natural events of it, Μεταμέλεια πάθος ἀνθρώπινον, saith Suidas. It is ' an affec tion incident to man,' not to God, who cannot repent: where although by dos he means an accident or property' of man, that is, a quality in the general sense; yet that it is properly a passion in the special sense, was the sense of all men, as Tertulliani observes; saying, that the heathens know repentance to be passionem animi quandam' (the same with zálos aveędzivov in Suidas), a passion,' quæ veniat de offensa sententiæ prioris,' coming from our being offended, or troubled at our former course.'-But Tertullian uses the Latin word, of which I shall give account in the following periods.

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2. But when there was a difference made, μETάVOIX was the better word; which does not properly signify the sorrow for having done amiss, but something that is nobler than it, but brought in at the gate of sorrow. For ἡ κατὰ Θεὸν λύπη, a godly sorrow,' that is μerauksia, or the first beginning of repentance, μETάVOIαv xαTERYάZEтal, worketh' this better repentance, μετάνοιαν ἀμεταμέλητον, and εἰς σωτηρίαν, 6 a repentance not to be repented of,' not to be sorrowed for, a repentance that is unto salvation k.” Sorrow may go before this but dwells not with it, according to that of St. Chrysostom; "Medicinæ hic locus, non judicii; non poenas sed peccatorum remissionem pœnitentia tribuit." Mɛrávo is the word. Repentance brings not pains, but pardon with it; for this is the place of medicine and remedy, not of judgment or condemnation :" meaning, that this repentance is wholly salutary, as tending to reformation and amendment. But Tertullian m made the observation more express "In Græco sono, pœnitentiæ nomen non ex delicti confessione, sed ex animi demutatione compositum est ;" "To repent, among the Greeks, signifies, not a confession of our fault, but the change of mind." He speaks of the grammatical sense of the word; for in the whole use of it, it is otherwise.

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3. For however the grammarians may distinguish them, yet the words are used promiscuously; for μetávola is some

i Lib. de Pœnit.

1 Homil. 9. de Poenit.

k2 Cor. vii. 11.

m Lib. 2. adv. Marcion. cap. 20.

times used in the bad sense, and μɛtaμéλɛa signifies the better repentance; not often, but sometimes it does. The son n that told his father, he would not work in his vineyard, afterward was sorry for refusing, and he went to work, mɛtauɛdnθεὶς ἀπῆλθε; and in the same chapter, ὑμεῖς ἰδόντες οὐ μέσ TEμɛλŃINTE; ́ye seeing were not troubled, and sorrowful, that ye might believe, that is, amend your fault.' Mɛtzμɛdɛïodai is in both places used for a salutary repentance. And on the other side, μerάvoia is used to signify, in the evil sense, ' a state of misery, without remedy.' Пavougyos EEXETαι EIS METάVOιav, so the Septuagint read that of Solomon"; "The wicked man cometh to repentance," that is to misery and sorrow. So that there is nothing of usefulness which can be drawn from the grammatical sense of these words; they both signify a change of mind, and they both signify a sorrow; and they both are used for the same thing: and indeed that will be the best use of them: no man can be truly said to repent, but he who, being sorrowful for doing evil, betakes himself to wiser courses. So Phavorinus: Μετάνοιά ἐστι συναίσθησις ψυχῆς ἐφ ̓ οἷς ἔπραξεν ατόπως· “ Repentance is a sense and compunc tion of the soul for those things, which were done foolishly."

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Sum Dea, quæ facti, non factique exigo pœnas,

Nempe ut pœniteat; sic Metanoa vocorp.

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Repentance does exact punishment for evils done, and good undone : but besides this, it is ἡ πρὸς κρείσσον ἐπιστροφὴ, α conversion to that which is better.'-So Aretas defines it Μετάνοιά ἐστι μετάθεσις ἀπὸ χειρόνων, καὶ μεταβολὴ ἐπὶ βέλTIOV, the same with the former; an eschewing evil, and doing good.'

4. And thus the Holy Scriptures understand this word and this duty. It is a whole change of state and life; anoστροφὴ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, ἀπόστασις ἀπ' ἀδικίας 4, 6 a turning from sin; and it is emphatically called by the Apostle μeráνοια ἀπὸ νεκρῶν ἔργων, ‘a repentance from dead works, that is, a forsaking them with sorrow that ever we committed

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P Auson. Epigr. 12. Delph. p. 12. Malè Metanca usus est: verbum purum Græcum est, nec tamen eo sensu et definitione à Græcis usurpatum. Rectè igitur et facetè fassus est idem Ausonius in epigrammate de abusu hujus verbi parum Latini,

Sum Dea, cui nomen nec Cicero ipse dedit.

q Heb. vi. 1. 1 Kings, viii. 35. Isa. lix. 20. 2 Chron, vii. 14. Jer. xviii. 7-9. and xxxi. 19. 2 Tim. ii. 19.

them: and it is also ἐπιστροφὴ πρὸς Θεὸν, “ a conversion to God;' from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God: avavýpay, a returning to sobriety,' the same with ἀνανήφειν, μεταβάλλειν, μεταθέσθαι, μεταγινώσκειν, in Justin Martyr, all signifying a departing from our follies, and a changing to a better life. And though sometimes to repent' is in Scrip ture taken for sorrow only, or a being troubled that the fact is dɔne; yet it is called repentance, no otherwise than as alms is called charity; that is, it is an effect of it, a part or action, or adjunct, of the duty and state of repentance: which ought to be observed, lest (as it is too commonly) one act be mistaken for the whole state, and we account ourselves perfect penitents if we have only wept a penitential shower; which is also to be observed in the definitions which the doctors give of it.

ance.

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5. Tertullian calls it "a passion of the mind, or grief for the offence of our former acts:" St. Austin calls it', a revenge always punishing in itself that which it grieves to have committed." These do only describe that part of repentance which is sometimes signified by uɛrauéλea, and is nothing else but a godly sorrow, the porch, or beginnings of repent→ On the other side Lactantius u describing repentance, gives only the grammatical sense of μετάνοια. "Agere autem pœnitentiam nihil aliud est quam profiteri et affirmare se ulterius non peccaturum :" "To repent is nothing else but a profession and affirmation, that he will sin no more;” which descriptions of repentance are just as if we should say,—A man is a creature that speaks, or laughs, or that can learn to read.-These are effects of his nature, but not the ingredients of a proper definition. Sorrow, and revenge, and holy purposes and protestations, are but single acts of a returning and penitent man: whereas repentance is a whole state of a new life, an entire change of the sinner, with all its appendages and instruments of ministry.

6. As the Greeks have, so have the Latins also, two words to signify this duty, pœnitentia' and resipiscentia,' and these have almost the same fate and the same usages with the other. Pœnitentia' is used by the old Latin translation; r 2 Sam. xii. 5. 13. Deut. xxx. 2. Jer. iii. 7. Acts, xxvi. 18. Eph. v. 14. Ezek. xxxiii. 12. Luke, xix. 8-10. Lib. de ver. et fals. Pœnit. c. 8.

• De Pœnit. in princip.

Lib 6. Divin. instit. c. 13.

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