Chapter 12: A Necessary Caution Inserted

SUch as have solemnly repented of their sins, let me speak to them,

1. By way of Caution. Though Repentance be so necessary and excellent as you have heard, yet take heed that you do not ascribe too much to Repentance. The Papists are guilty of a double errour; 1. They make Repentance a Sacrament. Christ never made it so; and who may institute Sacraments, but he who can give virtue to them? Repentance can be no Sacrament, because it wants an outward sign. A Sacrament cannot properly be without a sign.

2. The Papists make Repentance meritorious: they say it does ex congruo merit pardon ; this is a gross errour. Indeed Repentance fits us for mercy. As the Plough when it breaks up the ground, fits it for the seed: So when the heart is broken up by Repentance, it is fitted for remission, but it does not merit it . God will not save us without Repentance, nor yet for it. Repentance is a qualification, not a cause. I grant repenting tears are precious; they are, as Gregory says, the fat of the sacrifice. And as Basil says, the medicine of the soul. And as Bernard, the wine of Angels; but yet tears are not satisfactory for sin. We drop sin with our tears, therefore they cannot satisfie. Austin says well, I have read of Peters tears, but no man ever read of Peters satisfaction. Christs blood only can merit pardon . We please God by Repentance, but we do not satisfie him by it. To trust to our Repentance, is to make it a Saviour. Though Repentance helps to purge out the filth of sin, yet it is Christs blood washs away the guilt of sin ; therefore do not idolize Repentance: Do not rest upon this, that your heart has been wounded for sin, but rather, that your Saviour has been wounded for sin. When you have wept, say as he, Lord Jesus, wash my tears in your blood.