Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_500.lzh/D_519.TXT

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CHAP. IV.                                  OF REPENTANCE TOWARDS GOD.

mens making themselves, or in others making them,
public examples in such a way; which though it may
be called repentance before men, it is not repentance
towards God, nor does it answer the end vainly in-
tended by it, making satisfaction for sin; nor is an
external reformation of life and manners repentance in
the sight of God. Men may be outwardly reformed, as.
the Pharisees were, and yet not repent of their sins, as
they did not, Matt. xxi. 32. and xxiii. 28. and after
such an external reformation men may return to their
former sinful course of life, and their last end be worse
than the beginning; besides there may be true repent-
ance for sin where there is no time and opportunity for
reformation, or showing forth a reformation of life and
manners, as in the thief upon the cross and others,
who are brought to repentance on their death-beds;
and reformation of life and manners, when it is best
and most genuine, is the fruit and effect of repentance,
and a bringing forth fruits meet for it, as evidences of
it, and so distinct from that itself.
let, There is a natural repentance, or what is di-
rected to by the light of nature, and the dictates of a
natural conscience; for as there was in the heathens,
and so is in every natural man, a knowledge of good
and evil, of the difference in some respects between
moral good and evil, and a conscience which, when it
does its office, approves of what is well done, and ac-
cuses for that which is ill; so when conscience charges
a man with doing an ill thing, and he is convinced of
it, the light of nature and conscience direct him to wish
he had not done it, and. to repent of it, and to endea-
rour for the future to avoid it; as may be seen in the
case of the Ninerites, who being threatened with the
destruction of their city for their sins, proclaimed a
fast, and issued out an order that every one should
turn from his evil ways, in hope that the wrath of God
would be averted from them, though they could not be
fully assured of it. The Gentiles laid great stress upon
their repentance to conciliate the fayour of God unto
them; for they thought this made complete satisfac-
tion for their sins, and wiped them clean, so that they
imagined they were almost if not altogether pure and
innocents: there is a repentance which the goodness.
of God in providence might or should lead men unto,
which yet it does not, but after their hardness and im-
penitent heart treasure up wrath against the day of!
wrath, and righteous judgment of God, Rom. ii. 4, 5.
2d/y, There is a national repentance, such as the
Jews in Babylon were called unto, to which temporal
blessings were promised, and a deliverance from tem-
poral calamities; as on the one hand, a living iu their
own land, and a comfortable enjoyment of good things
in it; and on the other hand, captivity, and all the
distresses of it threatened; Repent, and turn yourselves
from your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be .your
ruin, Ezek. xviii. 3o--32. and which has no connec-
tion with the special grace of God, and with spiritual

s Quem pcenitet peccasse pene est innocens, Senecae Agamemnon;
act 2. v. 241. Another heathen calls repentance, Omnium fortunatis-
simum facturn, the most happy deed of all, Terent. Heautont. act 4.
sc. 7. v.l.
6 Clemens of Alexandria, Stromat. 1.1. p. 810, had a notion that the
devil being possessed of free-will might be brought to repentance,

and everlasting things. The same people were called
to repent of their pharisaism, of their disbelief of the
Messiah, and other evil works; and were told that the
men of Nineveh would rise up in judgment and con-
demn them, who repented at the preaching of Jonah,
and yet a greater than Jonah, even Christ himself,
called them to repentance, Matt. xii. 41. The same
people were called upon by the apostles of Christ to
repent of their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, and
to turn unto him, and to save themselves from tem-
poral ruin, which for their impenitence and unbelief
came upon their nation, city, and temple, Acts iii. 19.
3dly, There is an external repentance, or an out-
ward humiliation for sin, such as was in Ahab, which,
though nothing more, it was taken notice of by the
Lord, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me ?
and though it lay only in rending his clothes, and put-
ting on sackcloth, and in fasting, and in a mournful
way, yet the Lord was pleased to promise that the evil
threatened should not come in his days, 1 Kings xxi.
29. And such is the repentance Tyre and Sidon would
have exercised, had they had the advantages and pri-
vileges that some cities had, where Christ taught his
doctrines, and wrought miracles; and of this kind was
the repentance of the,.Ninevites which was regarded of
God, Matt. xi. 21. and xii. 41.
4thly, There is an hypocritical repentance, such as
was in the people of Israel in the wilderness, who when
the wrath of God broke out against them for their sins,
returned unto him, or repented, but their heart was
not right with him, Psalm Ixxviii.34--37. so it is said
of Judah, she hath not turned unto me with her whole
heart, but feignedl, y, saith the Lord; and of Ephraim,
or the ten tribes, they return, but not to the Most High,
they are likc a deceitful bow, Hos. vii. l 6. who turned
aside arid dealt unfaithfully.
5thly, There is a legal and there is an evangelical
repentance.    -1. There is a legal one, which is a
mere work of the law, and the effect of convictions
of sin by it, which in time wear off and come to no-
thing; for --(1.) There may be a sense of sin and
an acknowledgment of it, and yet no true repentance
for it, as in the cases of Pharaoh and of Judas, who
both said, I have sinned, Exod. ix. 27. Matt. xxvii. 4.
yet they had no true sense of the exceeding sinfulness
of sin, nor godly sorrow for it.--(2.) There may be
a kind of sorrow for it, not for the evil of fault that is
in sin, but on account of the evil of punishment for it,
as appears in some cases, and in Cain's, Gen. iv. 13.
--(3. ) There may be a great deal of terror of mind
because of sin, a great outcry about it, a fearful look-
ing for of judgment for it, abundance of tears shed on
the account of it, as were by Esau for the blessing,
without success; the devils believe and tremble, but
do not repent 6; there are. weeping and wailing in hell,
but no repentance.---(4.) Such a repentance, if no
more than a mere legal one, issues in despair, as in

which perhaps gave rise to the sentiment of Origen concerning the sal-
vation of devils; but, according to Luther, free-will is the greatest
enemy to righteousness, and to the salvation of men; and if so, then
certainly to the salvation of devils, and can be no friend nor of any
service to them, Luther de serv. Arbitr. c. ell,