Chapter 3: That We Are Regenerated by Faith, Wherein Is Treated of Repentance

Albeit we have already partly taught how faith possesses Christ, and how by it we enjoy his benefits: nevertheless this were yet dark, unless we did also make declaration of the effects that we feel thereby. Not without cause it is said, that the sum of the Gospel stands in repentance and in forgiveness of sins. Therefore leaving out these two points, whatever we shall say of faith, shall be but a hungry and imperfect, yes and in manner unprofitable disputation of faith. Now since Christ does give both to us, and we obtain both by faith, that is to say, both newness of life and free reconciliation, reason and order of teaching requires, that in this place I begin to speak of both. Our next passage from faith shall be to Repentance, because when this article is well perceived, it shall the better appear how man is justified by only faith and mere pardon, and yet how real holiness of life (as I may so call it) is not severed from free imputation of righteousness. Now, it ought to be out of question, that Repentance does not only immediately follow faith, but also spring out of it. For whereas pardon and forgiveness is therefore offered by the preaching of the Gospel, that the sinner being delivered from the tyranny of Satan, from the yoke of sin, and from miserable bondage of vices, may pass into the kingdom of God, truly no man can embrace the grace of the Gospel, but he must return from the errors of his former life into the right way, and apply all his study to the meditation of repentance. As for them that think that repentance does rather go before faith than flow or spring forth of it, as a fruit out of a tree, they never knew the force thereof, and are moved with too weak an argument to think so.

Christ (say they) and John in their preachings do first exhort the people to repentance, and then they afterward say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Such commandment to preach, the Apostles received such order, Paul followed, as Luke reports. But while they superstitiously stick upon the joining together of syllables, they mark not in what meaning the words hang together. For when the Lord Christ and John do preach in this manner: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is come near at hand: do they not fetch the cause of repentance from very grace and promise of salvation? Therefore their words are as much in effect as if they had said: because the kingdom of heaven is come near at hand, therefore repent. For Matthew, when he has showed that John so preached, says that in him was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, concerning the voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. But in the Prophet that voice is commanded to begin at comfort and glad tidings. Yet when we refer the beginning of repentance to faith, we do not dream of a certain mean space of time, wherein it brings it out: but we mean to show that a man cannot earnestly apply himself to repentance, unless he know himself to be of God. But no man is truly persuaded that he is of God, but he that has first received his grace. But these things shall be more plainly discussed in the process following. Perhaps this deceived them, that many are first by terrors of conscience tamed, or framed to obedience, before that they have thoroughly digested, yes before they have tasted the knowledge of grace. And this is the fear at the beginning, which some account among virtues, because they see that it is near to true and just obedience. But our question is not here how diversely Christ draws us to him, or prepares us to the endeavor of godliness: only this I say, that there can be no uprightness found where reigns not that Spirit which Christ received to communicate the same to his members. Then according to that saying of the Psalm: With you is mercifulness, that you may be feared. No man shall ever reverently fear God, but he that trusts that God is merciful to him: no man will willingly prepare himself to the keeping of the law, but he that is persuaded that his services please him: which tenderness in pardoning and bearing with faults, is a sign of fatherly favor. Which is also showed by that exhortation of Hosea, Come, let us return to the Lord, because he has plucked us, and he will heal us: he has stricken us, and he will cure us — because the hope of pardon is used as a prod to make them not to lie dull in their sins. But their doting error is without all color of reason, which to begin at repentance, do appoint certain days to their new converts, during the which they must exercise themselves in penance: and when those days are once past, they admit them to the communion of the grace of the Gospel. I speak of many of the Anabaptists, especially those that marvelously rejoice to be counted spiritual, and their companions the Jesuits, and such other dregs. Such fruits indeed the spirit of giddiness brings forth, to determine repentance within the span of a few days, which a Christian man ought to extend in continuance throughout his whole life.

But certain learned men, even long before these times, meaning to speak simply and sincerely of repentance, according to the truth of Scripture, have said that it consists of two parts, mortification and vivification. Mortification they expound to be a sorrow of the soul and fear conceived of the acknowledging of sin, and of the feeling of the judgment of God. For when a man is once brought into true knowledge of sin, then he truly begins to hate and abhor sin: then he heartily dislikes himself, confesses himself to be miserable and lost, and wishes himself to be another man. Further, when he is touched with some feeling of the judgment of God (for the one immediately follows upon the other) then he lies stricken and overthrown, then he trembles, humbled and cast down, then he is discouraged and despairs. This is the first part of repentance, which they have commonly called Contrition. Vivification they expound to be the comfort that grows of faith, when a man overthrown with conscience of sin, and stricken with fear of God, looking afterward to the goodness of God, to the mercy, favor in salvation that is through Christ, raises himself up, takes breath again, recovers courage, and returns as it were from death to life. And these words, if they have a right exposition, do aptly enough express the nature of repentance. But where they take Vivification for the cheerfulness, which the mind receives being brought into quietness from trouble and fear, therein I agree not with them: since it rather signifies a desire to live holily and godly, which grows of regeneration, as if it were said, that man dies to himself, to begin to live to God.

Some other, because they saw this word diversely taken in Scripture, have made two sorts of Repentance: and because they would make them differently known by some mark, they have called the one Repentance of the Law, by which the sinner wounded with the searing iron of sin, and worn away with fear of the wrath of God, sticks fast in that trouble and can not wind himself out of it. The other Repentance they call of the Gospel, by which the sinner is indeed grievously vexed with himself, but he rises up higher and takes hold of Christ, the salve of his sore, the comfort of his fear, the haven of his misery. Of the repentance of the law they put those examples: Cain, Saul, and Judas. Whose repentance when the Scripture rehearses to us, it means that they acknowledging the grievousness of their sin, were afraid of the wrath of God, but in thinking upon God only as a revenger and judge, they fainted in that feeling. Therefore their repentance was nothing else but a certain entry of hell, into which they being entered in this present life began already to suffer punishment, from the face of the wrath of God's majesty. The repentance of the Gospel, we see in all them, that being galled with the spur of sin in themselves, but comforted and refreshed with confidence of the mercy of God, are turned to the Lord. Hezekiah was stricken with fear, when he received the message of death: but he prayed weeping, and looking to the goodness of God, he took again good confidence to him. The Ninevites were troubled with the horrible threatening of destruction. But they clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashes and prayed, hoping that the Lord might be turned to them, and turned from the fury of his wrath. David confessed that he had too much sinned in numbering the people: but he said further, Lord take away the wickedness of your servant. He acknowledged his offense of adultery, when Nathan rebuked him, and did cast himself down before the Lord, but therewithal he also looked for pardon. Such was the repentance of them that at the preaching of Peter were pricked in their heart: but trusting upon the goodness of God, they said furthermore: You men or brethren, what shall we do? And such was the repentance of Peter himself, who wept indeed bitterly, but he ceased not to hope well.

Although all these things be true, yet the very name of repentance (so far as I can learn by the Scriptures) is otherwise to be taken. For where they comprehend faith under repentance, it disagrees with that which Paul says in the Acts, that he testified to the Jews and Gentiles repentance to God and faith in Jesus Christ. Where he reckons repentance and faith as two diverse things. What then? Can true repentance stand without faith? No. But though they can not be severed, yet they must be distinguished. As faith is not without hope, and yet faith and hope are diverse things: so repentance and faith, although they hang together with one perpetual bond, yet they rather would be conjoined than confounded. And 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: but in what meaning it is so comprehended, shall most easily appear when the force and nature thereof shall be declared. The name of repentance in Hebrew is derived of converting or returning, in Greek of changing of the mind or purpose, and the thing itself does not ill agree with either derivation, whereof the sum is, that we departing from ourselves should turn to God, and putting off our old mind, should put in a new. Therefore in my judgment, repentance may thus not amiss be defined: that it is a true turning of our life to God, proceeding from a pure and earnest fear of God, which consists in the mortifying of the flesh and of the old man, and in the quickening of the spirit. In this sense are to be taken all the preachings wherein either the Prophets in old time, or the Apostles afterward exhorted the men of their time to repentance. For this only thing they labored to persuade, that confounded with their own sins, and pricked with fear of the Lord's judgment, they should fall down and be humbled before him, against whom they had offended, and with true amendment return into his right way. Therefore these words, To be turned or return to the Lord, To repent, or do penance, are among them used without difference in all one signification. And therefore also the holy history says, that men repent after the Lord, when they that lived wantonly in their own lusts, not regarding him, do begin to follow his word, and are ready at their captain's command to go wherever he calls them. And John and Paul used these words, to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, for, to lead such a life as may represent and testify such an amendment in all their doings.

But before we go any further, it shall be profitable that we do more plainly set out at large the definition that we have made. Wherein there be chiefly three points to be considered. First when we call it a turning of life to God, we require a transforming, not only in outward works, but also in the soul itself, which when it has put off her oldness, then begins to bring forth the fruits of works agreeable to her renewing. Which when the prophet goes about to express, he commands them whom he calls to repentance, to make them a new heart. Therefore Moses oftentimes meaning to show how the Israelites might repent, and so be rightly turned to the Lord, teaches that it be done with all their heart, and with all their soul (which manner of speaking we see often repeated of the Prophets) and naming it the circumcising of the heart, he shakes away all inward affections. But there is no place whereby a man may better perceive what is the natural property of repentance than the fourth chapter of Jeremiah. If you return to me, O Israel, (says the Lord) return to me, plow up your arable land and sow not upon thorns. Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the uncircumcised skins of your hearts. See how he pronounces that they shall nothing prevail in taking upon them the following of righteousness, unless wickedness be first plucked out of the bottom of their hearts. And to move them thoroughly, he warns them that they have to do with God, with whom there is nothing gotten by dallying, because he hates a double heart. Therefore Isaiah laughs to scorn the foolish endeavors of hypocrites, which did indeed busily go about an outward repentance in ceremonies, but in the meantime they had no care to loosen the bundles of wickedness wherewith they held poor men fast tied. Where also he very well shows in what duties unfeigned repentance properly stands.

The second point was, that we taught that repentance proceeds of an earnest fear of God. For, before that the mind of a sinner be inclined to repentance, it must be stirred up with thinking upon the judgment of God. But when this thought is once thoroughly settled, that God will one day go up into his judgment seat, to require an account of all sayings and doings: it will not suffer the helpless man to rest, nor to take breath one minute of time, but continually stirs him up to think upon a new trade of life, whereby he may safely appear at that judgment. Therefore oftentimes the Scripture, when it exhorts to repentance, makes mention of the judgment: as in Jeremiah: lest perhaps my wrath go out as fire, and there be none to quench it, because of the naughtiness of your works. In Paul's sermon to the Athenians: And whereas until now God has borne with the times of this ignorance, now he gives warning to men, that all men everywhere may repent, because he has appointed the day wherein he will judge the world in equity. And in many other places. Sometimes it declares by the punishments already extended, that God is a judge, that sinners should think to themselves, that worse things hang over them if they do not repent in time. You have an example thereof in Exodus 29. But because the turning begins at the abhorring and hatred of sin, therefore the Apostle makes sorrowfulness, such as is according to God, the cause of repentance. And he calls sorrowfulness according to God, when we are not only afraid of punishment, but do hate and abhor sin itself, for as much as we understand that it displeases God. And no marvel. For unless we be sharply pricked, the slothfulness of our flesh could not be corrected, indeed prickings would not suffice for the dullness and slothfulness thereof, unless God in stretching out his rods should pierce more deeply. This is also an obstinacy which must be beaten down as it were with beetles. Therefore the perverseness of our nature enforces God to the severity that he uses in threatening, because he should in vain call us alluringly with fair speech while we lie asleep. I recite not the testimonies that commonly offer themselves to be found. The fear of God is in another manner also the beginning of repentance. For though man's life were absolutely furnished with all points of virtues, if it be not applied to the worshipping of God, it may indeed be praised of the world, but in heaven it shall be mere abomination, for as much as the chief part of our righteousness is to give God his due right and honor, whereof he is wickedly robbed, when we bend not ourselves to yield ourselves subject to his government.

Thirdly, it remains that we declare what is meant by this that we say, that Repentance consists in two parts, that is to say, mortifying of the flesh, and quickening of the spirit. The Prophets do plainly express it, although somewhat simply and grossly, according to the capacity of the carnal people, when they say: Cease from evil and do goodness. Again: Be washed, be clean, take away the evil of your works from my eyes: Cease to do perversely, learn to do well, seek judgment, help the oppressed, etc. For when they call men away from wickedness, they require the death of the whole flesh, which is stuffed full of wickedness and perverseness. It is indeed an uneasy and hard thing to put off ourselves, and to depart from our natural disposition. Neither can it be thought that the flesh is thoroughly dead, unless all that we have of ourselves be abolished. But forasmuch as all the affection of the flesh is enemy against God, the first entry to the obeying of his law is the forsaking of our own nature. Afterward they express the renewing by the fruits that follow thereof, as righteousness, judgment, and mercy. For it were not enough to do those duties rightly, unless the mind itself and the heart have first put on the affection of righteousness, judgment, and mercy. That is done when the spirit of God has so soaked in new thoughts and affections, our souls first washed with his holiness, that they may rightly be counted new. And truly as we are naturally turned away from God, so unless the forsaking of ourselves does go before, we can never go toward that which is right. Therefore we are so often commanded to put off the old man, to forsake the world and flesh, to bid our lusts farewell, and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Moreover the very name of mortification does put us in mind how hard it is to forget our former nature: because we thereby gather that we are not otherwise framed to the fear of God, nor do learn the principles of godliness, but when we are violently slain with the word of the Spirit, and so brought to nothing: even as though God should pronounce, that to have us to be counted among his children, there needs a death of all our common nature.

Both these things do happen to us by the partaking of Christ, for if we do truly communicate of his death, by the power thereof our old man is crucified, and the body of sin dies that the corruption of our former nature may live no more. If we be partakers of his resurrection, by it we are raised up into a newness of life, that may agree with the righteousness of God. In one word I expound repentance to be regeneration, which has no other mark to which it is directed, but that the image of God which was by Adam's offense foully defaced and in a manner utterly blotted out, may be renewed in us. So the Apostle teaches, when he says: but we representing the glory of God with uncovered face are transformed into the same image, out of glory into glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. Again: Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which is created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth. Again in another place: putting on the new man, which is renewed after the knowledge and image of him that created him. Therefore by this regeneration we be by the benefit of Christ restored into the righteousness of God, from which we were fallen by Adam. After which manner it pleases the Lord wholly to restore all those whom he adopts into the inheritance of life. And this restoring is fulfilled not in one moment, or one day, or one year, but by continual, yes and sometimes slow proceedings God takes away the corruptions of the flesh in his elect, cleanses them from filthiness, and consecrates them for temples to himself, renewing all their senses to true pureness, that they may exercise themselves all their life in repentance, and know that this war has no end but in death. And so much the greater is the lewdness of that filthy railer and apostate Staphylus, which foolishly says that I confound the state of this present life with the heavenly glory, when I expound by Paul the image of God to be holiness and true righteousness. As though when any thing is defined, we should not seek the whole fullness and perfection of it. And yet we deny not place for increases: but I say that however near any man approaches to the likeness of God, so much the image of God shines in him. That the faithful may attain to this, God assigns them the race of repentance wherein to run all their life long.

The children of God therefore are so delivered by regeneration from the bondage of sin, not that having now obtained the full possession of liberty, they should feel no more trouble by their flesh but that they should have remaining a continual matter of strife, with which they may be exercised, and not only be exercised, but also may better learn their own weakness. And in this point all writers of sound judgment agree together, that there remains in man regenerate a feeding of evil, from where continually spring desires that allure and stir him to sin. They confess also that the holy ones are still so held entangled with that disease of lusting, that they cannot withstand but that sometime they are tickled and stirred either to lust or to covetousness, or to ambition or to other vices. Neither is it needful to labor much in searching what the old writers have thought herein, for as much as only Augustine may be sufficient for it, who has faithfully and with great diligence gathered all their judgments. Therefore let the readers gather out of him, such certainty as they shall desire to learn of the opinion of antiquity. But there may seem to be this difference between him and us, that he when he grants that the faithful so long as they dwell in a mortal body are so held bound with lusts, that they cannot but lust, yet dares not call that disease sin: but being content to express it by the name of weakness, he teaches that then only it becomes sin, when either work or consent is added to conceit or receiving, that is, when will yields to the first desire: but we account the very same for sin, that man is tickled with any desire at all against the law of God. Indeed we affirm that the very corruption that engenders such desires in us, is sin. We teach therefore that there is always sin in the holy ones, until they be unclothed of the mortal body, because there remains in their flesh that perverseness of lusting that fights against uprightness. And yet he does not always forbear to use the name of sin, as when he says: This Paul calls by the name of sin, from where spring all sins to a fleshly concupiscence. This, as much as pertains to the holy ones, loses the kingdom in earth, and perishes in heaven. By which words he confesses, that the faithful are guilty of sin, in so much as they are subject to the lusts of the flesh.

But this that it is said, that God purges his church from all sin, that he promises that grace of deliverance by Baptism, and fulfills it in his elect, we refer rather to the guiltiness of sin, than to the very matter of sin. God truly performs this by regenerating them that are his, that in them the kingdom of sin is abolished (for the Holy Ghost ministers them strength, by which they get the upper hand and are conquerors in the battle) but it ceases only to reign and not so to [reconstructed: dwell] in them. Therefore we so say, that the old man is crucified, and the law of sin abolished in the children of God, that yet there remain some leavings, not to have dominion in them, but to humble them by knowledge in conscience of their own weakness. And we confess that the same are not imputed, as if they were not: but we affirm that this comes to pass by the mercy of God, that the holy ones are delivered from this guiltiness, which otherwise should justly be reckoned sinners and guilty before God. And this sentence it shall not be hard for us to confirm, for as much as there are evident testimonies of the scripture upon their matter. For what would we have more plain, than that which Paul cries out to the Romans chapter 7. First both we have in another place shown, and Augustine proves by strong reasons, that Paul there speaks in the person of a man regenerate. I speak not of this, that he uses these words, Evil and Sin, that they which will speak against us may not cavil against those words: but who can deny, that a striving against the law of God is evil: who can deny a withstanding of Justice to be sin? Finally, who will not grant that there is a fault, where is a spiritual misery? But all these things are reported of this disease by Paul. Again, we have an assured demonstration by the law, by which this whole question may easily be discussed. For we are commanded to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our powers. Since all the parts of our soul ought so to be occupied with the love of God, it is certain, that they satisfy not the commandment that conceive in their heart any desire, be it never so little, or suffer any such thought at all to enter into their mind, as may withdraw them from the love of God into vanity. For what? Are not these the powers of the soul, to be affected with sudden motions, to comprehend with wit, to conceive with mind? Therefore, when these do open a way for vain or corrupt thoughts to enter into them, do they not show that they are even so much void of the love of God? Therefore, whoever confesses not that all the lusts of the flesh are sins, and that the same disease of lusting which they call a feeding, is the wellspring of sin, he must needs deny that the transgression of the law is sin.

If any man thinks it an absurdity, that all the desires with which man is naturally moved in affection, are universally condemned, whereas they are put into man by God the author of nature — we answer, that we do not condemn those desires that God has so engraved into the mind of man at the first creation, that they cannot be rooted out without destroying the very nature of man, but only outrageous and unbridled motions that fight against the ordinance of God. But now since by reason of the depravity of nature all her powers are infected and corrupted, that in all her doings there appears a continual disorder and intemperance, because the desires cannot be severed from such intemperance: therefore we say that they are corrupt. Or (if you like to have the whole sum in fewer words) we teach that all the desires of men are evil: and we accuse them to be guilty of sin, not in that they are natural, but for that they are inordinate: and we call them inordinate, because no pure or clean thing can come out of a corrupt and unclean nature. And Augustine does not so much vary from this doctrine as he appears in show, while he somewhat too much fears the envy that the Pelagians labored to bring him into, he sometimes forbears to use the name of sin: yet where he writes that the law of sin still remaining in the holy ones, the only guiltiness is taken away, he plainly shows that he does not so much disagree from our meaning.

We will allege some other sentences, by which shall better appear what he thought. In the second book against Julian: This law of sin is both released by the spiritual regeneration, and abides in the mortal flesh: released herein, because the guiltiness is taken away in the sacrament by which the faithful are regenerate: and it abides, because it works the desires against which the faithful do fight. Again: Therefore the law of sin (which was also in the members of so great an Apostle) is released in baptism, but not ended. Again: The law of sin (of which yet remaining the guiltiness, is in baptism discharged) Ambrose called wickedness: because it is wickedness for the flesh to lust against the Spirit. Again: Sin is dead in respect of that guiltiness in which it held us, and even being dead, it still rebels till it is healed with perfection of burial. And yet plainer in the 5th book: As the blindness of heart is both a sin, by which men believe not in God: and also a punishment of sin, by which a proud heart is chastised with worthy correction: and the cause of sin when anything is committed by the error of a blind heart: so the lust of flesh against which a good spirit lusts, is both sin, because there is in it disobedience against the government of the mind: and also the punishment of sin, because it is given for recompense to the deservings of the disobedient: and the cause of sin in man, when he consents by defection or in man, when he is born: by infection. Here without any doubtful speech he calls it sin, because when error was once overthrown, and the truth confirmed, he less feared slanderous reports. As in the 41st Homily upon John, where doubtless he speaks according to the true meaning of his mind, he says: If in the flesh you serve the law of sin, do that which the Apostle himself says: let not sin reign in your mortal body to obey the desires thereof. He says not, let it not be, but let it not reign. So long as you live, sin must needs be in your members: at least let its reign be taken from it. Let not that be done which it commands. They that defend that lust is no sin, are accustomed to object that saying of James: Lust, after that it has conceived, brings forth sin. But this is easily confuted. For unless we think that he speaks of only evil works or actual sins, evil will itself shall not be accounted sin. But where he calls mischievous deeds and wicked offenses the offspring of sin, and gives to them the name of sin, it does not by and by follow from that, that to lust, is an evil thing and damnable before God.

Certain Anabaptists in this age devise I know not what frenetic intemperance in place of spiritual regeneration, saying that the children of God restored into the state of innocence now ought no more to be careful for bridling the lust of the flesh, and that the Spirit is to be followed for their guide, under whose guidance they never go out of the way. It were incredible that man's mind could fall to so great madness, unless they did openly and proudly babble abroad this doctrine. Truly it is monstrous. But it is fitting that such should suffer the punishment of such blasphemous boldness, who have so persuaded their minds to turn the truth of God into a lie. Shall all the distinction between honesty and dishonesty, right and wrong, good and evil, virtue and vice, be taken away? Such difference, say they, comes from the cursedness of old Adam, from which we are exempted by Christ. So now there shall be no difference between fornication and chastity, plain dealing and subtlety, truth and lying, justice and extortion. Take away vain fear, say they, the Spirit will command you no evil thing, so that you boldly and without fear yield yourself to the guidance of it. Who can choose but be astonished at these monstrous things? Yet it is a common teaching among them, who blinded with madness of lusts have put off all common reason — but what Christ, I beseech you, do they frame to us, and what spirit do they belch out? For we acknowledge one Christ, and his only Spirit whom the Prophets have commended, whom the Gospel given us does preach, of whom we there hear no such thing. That Spirit is no patron of manslaughter, whoredom, drunkenness, pride, contention, covetousness, and [reconstructed: gluttony], but the author of love, chastity, sobriety, modesty, peace, temperance, and truth. It is not a giddy spirit that runs headlong without consideration through right and wrong, but is full of wisdom and understanding, that discerns rightly between just and unjust. It stirs not to dissolute and unbridled licentiousness, but makes a distinction between lawful and unlawful, and teaches to keep measure and temperance — but why do we labor any longer in confuting this beastly rage? To Christians the Spirit of the Lord is not a troublesome fantasy, which either they themselves have brought forth in a dream, or have received being forged by others, but they reverently seek the knowledge of him at the Scriptures, where these two things are taught of him. First, that he is given to us for sanctification, that he might bring us into the obedience of God's will, being purged from uncleanness and defilements — which obedience cannot stand unless lusts be tamed and subdued, to which these men would give the bridle at liberty. Secondly, we are taught that we are so cleansed by his sanctification that we are still besieged with many vices and much weakness, so long as we are enclosed in the burden of our body, whereby it comes to pass that being far distant from perfection, we have need always to increase somewhat, and being entangled in vices, we have need daily to wrestle with them. Therefore it also follows that shaking off sloth and carelessness, we must watch with heedful minds, that we be not compassed unaware with the snares of our flesh. Unless perhaps we think that we have proceeded further than the Apostle, who yet was wearied by the angel of Satan, that his strength might be made perfect with weakness, and who did unfeignedly represent in his flesh that division of the flesh and of the spirit.

But whereas the Apostle in describing of repentance reckons seven either causes or effects or parts thereof, he does that of a very good cause: and these they be: endeavor or carefulness, excusing, indignation, fear, desire, zeal, punishment. Neither ought it to seem any absurdity, that I dare not certainly determine whether they ought to be counted causes or effects. For both may be defended in disputation. They may be also called affections joined with repentance: but because, leaving out those questions, we may understand what Paul means, we shall be content with a simple declaration of them. He says therefore, that of the heaviness which is according to God, arises carefulness. For he that is touched with an earnest feeling of displeasure because he has sinned against his God, is therewithal stirred up to diligence and heedfulness, to wind himself cleanly out of the snares of the Devil, to take better heed of his snares, to fall no more from the governance of the Holy Spirit, not to be oppressed with security. Next is Excusing, which in this place signifies not the defense, whereby a sinner to escape the judgment of God, either does deny that he has offended, or diminishes the heinousness of his fault, but a purgation which stands rather in craving of pardon, than in defense of his cause. Like as the children that are not reprobate when they acknowledge and confess their faults, do yet use entreating, and that it may take place, they protest by all means that they can, that they have not cast away the reverence that they owe to their parents. Finally they so excuse themselves, as they go not about to prove themselves righteous and innocent, but only that they may obtain pardon. Then follows Indignation, whereby the sinner frets inwardly with himself, quarrels with himself, is angry with himself, when he recalls his own perverseness and his own unthankfulness to God. By the name of fear, he means that trembling that is struck into our minds so often as we think both what we have deserved, and how horrible is the severity of God's wrath against sinners. For we must needs then be vexed with a marvelous unquietness, which both instructs us to humility, and makes us more wary against the time to come. Now if out of fear does spring that carefulness, of which he had spoken before, then we see with what linking they hang together. It seems to me that he has used this word Desire for diligence in our duty and ready cheerfulness to obey, to which the acknowledging of our own faults ought chiefly to provoke us. And to that also belongs zeal, which he joins immediately next to it. For it signifies a ferventness, with which we are kindled when we are spurred forward with these pricking thoughts: what have I done? Where had I thrown myself headlong, if the mercy of God did not help me? The last of all is punishment, for the more rigorous that we be to ourselves, and the more strictly that we examine our own sins, so much the more we ought to trust that God is favorable and merciful to us. And truly it is not possible, but that the soul being struck with horror of the judgment of God, must needs do some execution in the punishing of itself. Truly the godly hope what punishments are shame, confusion, mourning, loathing of themselves, and other affections that spring out of earnest acknowledging of sins. But let us remember that there is a measure to be kept, that sorrow do not swallow us up, because nothing more readily happens to fearful consciences than falling to despair. And also by that crafty means whoever Satan finds overthrown with dread of God, he more and more drowns them in the gulf of sorrow, that they may never rise up again. Truly the fear cannot be too great which ends with humility, and departs not from hope of pardon. But always (as the Apostle teaches) the sinner must beware, that while he moves himself to the loathing of himself, he despair not, oppressed with too great fear, for so do we flee away from God who calls us in him by repentance. Upon which point this lesson of Bernard is very profitable: Sorrow for sins is necessary, if it be not continual. I counsel you sometime to return your fault from [reconstructed: grievous] and painful remembrance of your own ways, and to [reconstructed: look] up to the plain ground of cheerful remembrance of benefits of God. Let us mingle honey with wormwood, that the wholesome [reconstructed: bitterness] may bring us health, when it shall be drunk tempered with sweetness. And if you think of yourselves in humility, think also of the Lord in goodness.

Now it may be also perceived what be the fruits of repentance, even the duties of godliness toward God, and of charity toward men, and therewith a holiness and purity in all our life. Finally, the more earnestly that any man examines his life by the rule of God's law, so much the surer tokens he shows of his repentance. Therefore the Holy Spirit often, when he exhorts us to repentance, calls us sometimes to all the commandments of the law, sometimes to the duties of the second table. Although in other places after that he has condemned uncleanness in the very fountain of the heart, he descends afterward to outward testimonies that do set out true repentance: of which thing I will hereafter set before the readers' eyes a table in the description of a Christian life. I will not gather testimonies out of the Prophets, wherein they partly scorn at their follies that go about to appease God with ceremonies, and do show that they be mere mockeries, and partly do teach that outward uprightness of life is not the principal part of repentance, because God looks upon the heart. Whoever is even moderately exercised in the scripture shall perceive of himself without any other man's putting in mind, that when we have to do with God, we labor in vain, unless we begin at the inward affection of the heart. And the place of Joel shall not a little help to the understanding of the rest, where he says: Tear your hearts and not your garments (Joel 2:13). Also both those points are expressed in these words of James: You wicked doers, cleanse your hands; you double-minded men, purge your hearts (James 4:8). Where indeed there is an addition joined to the first part, but afterward is showed the very fountain and beginning that they must wipe away their secret filthiness, that there may be an altar set up to God in the very heart. Besides this there are also certain outward exercises which we use privately as remedies to humble ourselves or to tame our flesh, and publicly for the declaration of repentance. And they proceed from that punishment of which Paul speaks, for these are the properties of an afflicted mind, to be in loathsomeness, mourning and weeping, to flee gorgeousness and all trimming, and to forsake all delights. Then he that feels how great an evil is the rebellion of the flesh seeks all remedies to bridle it. Moreover he that well thinks how grievous a thing it is to have offended the justice of God, can not rest until he has in his own humility given glory to God. Such exercises the old writers do often rehearse, when they speak of the fruits of repentance. But although they do not place the whole force of repentance in them, yet the readers shall pardon me, if I speak what I think: it seems to me that they stand too much upon them. And if any man will wisely weigh it, I trust he will agree with me, that they have in two ways gone beyond measure. For when they so much enforced, and with immeasurable commendations advanced that bodily discipline, this indeed they obtained, that the people did the more earnestly embrace it, but they in a manner darkened that, which ought to have been of much greater importance. Second, in giving punishments they were somewhat more rigorous than ecclesiastical mildness may bear, as we shall have occasion to show in another place.

But because many when they hear weeping, fasting and ashes spoken of, both often in other places and specially in Joel, they measure the chief part of repentance by fasting and weeping: therefore their error is to be taken away. That which is there spoken of the turning of the whole heart to the Lord, of cutting their hearts and not their garments, is properly belonging to repentance: but weeping and fasting are not joined as continual or necessary effects thereof, but are spoken of in respect of a special circumstance. Because he had prophesied, that there hung over the Jews a most grievous destruction, therefore he counsels them to prevent the wrath of God, not only in repenting, but also in uttering tokens of their sorrow. For as a man standing to be arraigned, uses humbly to abase himself with an overgrown beard, uncombed hair and black apparel, to move the judge to pity: so it behooved them when they stood accused before the judgment seat of God, in piteous array to beseech him not to extend his rigor. But although ashes and sackcloth did perhaps more fitly agree with those times, yet it is certain, that weeping and fasting should be to a very convenient good use among us, so often as the Lord seems to threaten us any plague or calamity. For when he makes any danger to appear, he does after a certain manner give warning, that he is prepared or armed to avenge. Therefore the prophet did well, when he exhorted his countrymen to weeping and fasting, that is to the sorrowful manner of accused men, whose offenses he said a little before, were had in examination. Even as the pastors of the Church should not do ill at this day, if when they see any ruin hanging over the necks of their people, they would cry out upon them to make haste to fasting and weeping: so that they would with greater and more inward care and diligence, always enforce that which is the principal point, that they must cut their hearts and not their garments. It is out of doubt, that fasting is not always joined with repentance but is appointed peculiarly for times of miserable plagues: and therefore Christ joins it with wailing, when he acquits the Apostles from need thereof, until the time that being despoiled of his presence, they should be tormented with grief. I speak of solemn fasting. For the private life of the godly ought to be tempered with honest sparing and sobriety, that in the whole course thereof there may appear a certain kind of fasting. But because all this matter shall be to be declared again in the place where we shall treat of the discipline of the Church, therefore I do now the more slenderly touch it. But this one thing I will add here by the way: when the name of repentance is applied to this outward profession, then it is improperly turned from the natural meaning which I have above set forth of it. For it is not so much a turning to God as a confession of fault, with a beseeching of God not to charge them with the pain and guiltiness. So to do penance in ashes and sackcloth is nothing else, than to utter a displeasedness when God is angry with us for grievous offenses. And this is a public kind of confession, whereby we condemning ourselves before the angels and the world, do prevent the judgment of God. For Paul rebuking their slothfulness that tenderly bear with their own faults, says: If we did judge ourselves, we should not be judged of God. But it is not always necessary to make men openly of counsel and witnesses of our repentance: but to confess privately to God is a part of true repentance which cannot be omitted. For there is nothing more unreasonable than to look to have God to pardon us the sins in which we flatter ourselves and do hide them by hypocrisy, lest he should bring them to light. And it behooves us not only to confess those sins which we daily commit, but more grievous offenses ought to draw us further, and to call again into our remembrance things that seem long ago buried. Which lesson David gives us by his example. For being touched with shame of his newly committed fault, he examines himself even to the time when he was in his mother's womb, and confesses that even then he was corrupted and infected with the filthiness of the flesh. And this he does not to diminish the heinousness of his fault, as many hide themselves in the multitude, and seek to escape punishment by wrapping others with them. But David does far otherwise, which with simple plainness enforces his fault in saying, that being corrupt from his first infancy, he has not ceased to heap evils upon evils. Also in another place he likewise so examines his past life, that he craves the mercy of God for the sins of his youth. And truly then only shall we prove our drowsiness to be shaken away from us, if groaning under our burden and bewailing our evils, we ask [reconstructed: relief] of God. It is moreover to be noted, that the repentance which we are commanded continually to apply, differs from that repentance, that lifts up as it were, from death them that either have filthily fallen, or with unbridled licentiousness have thrown forth themselves to sin, or after a certain manner of rebellious revolting, have shaken off the yoke of God. For the Scripture oftentimes, when it exhorts to repentance, means thereby as it were a passage or rising again from death into life: and when it recounts that the people did penance, it means that they were turned from their idolatry and other [reconstructed: gross] offenses. And in like manner Paul threatens mourning to sinners that have not done penance for their wantonness, fornication and unchastity. This difference is to be diligently marked, lest while we hear that few are called to penance, a more than careless assurance should creep upon us as though the mortifying of the flesh did no more belong to us, the care whereof the corrupt desires that always tickle us, and the vices that commonly bud up in us, do not suffer us to release. Therefore the special repentance which is required but of some, whom the Devil has violently carried away from the fear of God, and fast bound with damnable snares, takes not away the ordinary repentance which the corruptness of nature compels us to apply throughout all the whole course of our life.

Now if that be true, which is most evidently certain, that all the sum of the gospel is contained in these two principal points, Repentance and forgiveness of sins: do we not see, that the Lord does therefore freely justify them that are his, that he may also by the sanctification of his Spirit restore them into true righteousness? John the Angel sent before the face of Christ to prepare his ways, preached: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is come near at hand. In calling them to repentance, he did put them in mind to acknowledge themselves sinners, and all that was theirs, to be damnable before the Lord, that they might with all their hearts desire the mortifying of their flesh and a new regeneration in the Spirit. In telling them of the kingdom of God, he called them to faith. For by the kingdom of God which he taught to be at hand, he meant forgiveness of sins, salvation, and life, and all that ever we get in Christ. Therefore in the other Evangelists it is written, John came preaching the Baptism of repentance to forgiveness of sins. And what is that else, but that they being oppressed and wearied with the burden of sins, should turn to the Lord, and conceive good hope of forgiveness and salvation? So Christ also began his preachings: The kingdom of God is come near at hand: repent and believe the Gospel. First he declares that the treasures of God's mercy are opened in him, and then he requires repentance, and last of all confidence in the promises of God. Therefore when he meant briefly to comprehend the whole sum of the gospel, he said, that he must suffer and rise again from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name. The Apostles also preached the same after his resurrection, that he was raised up by God, to give to Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. Repentance is preached in the name of Christ, when men hear by the doctrine of the gospel that all their thoughts, their affections, and their endeavors are corrupt and faulty, and that therefore it is necessary that they be born again if they will enter into the kingdom of God. Forgiveness of sins is preached when men are taught that Christ is made to them redemption, righteousness, salvation and life: in whose name they are freely accounted righteous and innocent in the sight of God, whereas both these graces are received by faith, as I have in another place declared: yet because the goodness of God whereby sins are forgiven, is the proper object of faith, therefore it shall be good that it be diligently distinguished from repentance.

Now as the hatred of sin, which is the beginning of repentance, opens to us the first entry to Christ, who shows himself to none but to miserable and afflicted sinners, who groan, labor, are laden, are hungry and thirsty, and pine away with sorrow and misery: so must we endeavor toward repentance, throughout all our life apply it, and follow it to the end, if we will abide in Christ. For he came to call sinners, but to repentance: he was sent to bless the unworthy, but so that every one should turn himself from his wickedness. The Scripture is full of such sayings. Therefore when God offers forgiveness of sins, he likewise uses to require on our part repentance, secretly declaring thereby, that his mercy ought to be to men a cause to repent them. (Do, says he) judgment and righteousness, because salvation is come near at hand. Again. There shall come to Zion a Redeemer, and to them that in Jacob repent from their sins. Again. Seek the Lord while he may be found: call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked leave his way and the wickedness of his thoughts, and be turned to the Lord, and he shall have mercy on him. Again. Turn and repent, that your sins may be done away. Where yet is to be noted, that this condition is not so annexed as though our repentance were a foundation to deserve pardon, but rather (because the Lord has determined to have mercy upon men to this end that they should repent) he teaches men where they shall travel if they will obtain grace. Therefore so long as we shall dwell in the prison of our body, we must continually wrestle with the vices of our corrupt flesh, indeed with our own natural soul. Plato says in certain places, that the life of a Philosopher is a meditation of death. But we may more truly say, that the life of a Christian man is a perpetual study and exercise of mortifying the flesh, till it being utterly slain, the Spirit of God gets the dominion in us. Therefore I think that he has much profited, that has learned much to dislike himself: not that he should stick fast in that mire and go no further, but rather that he should hasten and long toward God, that being grafted into the death and life of Christ, he should study upon a continual repentance: as truly they can not otherwise do, that have a natural hatred of sin: for no man ever hated sin, unless he were first in love with righteousness. This doctrine, as it was most simple of all other, so I thought it best to agree with the truth of the Scripture.

Now that repentance is a singular gift of God, I think it is so well known by the doctrine above taught, that I need not repeat a long discourse to prove it again. Therefore the church praises and holds in admiration the benefit of God, that he has given the Gentiles repentance to salvation. And Paul commanding Timothy to be patient and mild toward the unbelievers, says: If at any time God give them repentance that they may repent from the snares of the Devil. God indeed affirms that he wills the conversion of all men, and directs his exhortations generally to all men: but the effectual working thereof hangs upon the Spirit of regeneration. Because it were more easy to create us men, than of our own power to put on a better nature. Therefore in the whole course of regeneration we are not without cause called, the work of God created to good works, which he has prepared that we should walk in them. Whoever the Lord's will is to deliver from death, those he quickens with the Spirit of regeneration: not that repentance is properly the cause of salvation, but because it is already seen that it is inseparable from faith and from the mercy of God: since (as Isaiah testifies) there is a redeemer come to him, and to those that in Jacob are returned from their wickedness. This truly stands steadfastly determined, that wherever lives the fear of God, there the Spirit has worked to the salvation of man. Therefore, in Isaiah, when the faithful complain and lament that they are forsaken of God, they reckon this as a token of being reprobates, that their hearts were hardened by God. The Apostle also meaning to exclude apostates from hope of salvation, appoints this reason, that it is impossible for them to be renewed to repentance: because God in renewing them whom he will not have perish, shows a token of his fatherly favor, and in a manner draws them to him with the beams of his cheerful and merry countenance: on the other side with hardening them, he thunders against the reprobate, whose wickedness is unpardonable. Which kind of vengeance the Apostle threatens to willful apostates, which when they depart from the faith of the Gospel, do make a scorn of God, reproachfully despise his grace, and defile and tread under feet the blood of Christ, indeed as much as in them is they crucify him again. For he does not (as some foolishly rigorous men would have it) cut off hope of pardon from all willful sins: but teaches that apostasy is unworthy of all excuse: so that it is no marvel that God does punish a contempt of himself so full of sacrilege, with unappeasable rigor. For he says that it is impossible, that they which have once been enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift, have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they fall, should be renewed to repentance, crucifying again of new, and making a scorn of the Son of God. Again in another place: If (says he) we willingly sin after knowledge of the truth received, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, etc. These also are the places, out of the wrong understanding of which, the Novatians in old time have gathered matter to play the madmen: with whose rigorousness certain good men being offended, believed this to be a counterfeit Epistle in the Apostle's name, which yet in all parts does truly favor of an Apostolic spirit. But because we contend with none but with those that allow it, it is easy to show, how these sentences do nothing maintain their error. First it is necessary that the Apostle agree with his master, which affirms that all sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Spirit, which is not forgiven neither in this world, nor in the world to come. It is certain (I say) that the Apostle was contented with this exception, unless we will make him an adversary to the grace of Christ. Therefore it follows, that pardon is denied to no special offenses, but only to one, which proceeding of a desperate rage, cannot be ascribed to weakness, and openly shows that a man is possessed of the Devil.

But to discuss this, it behooves us to inquire what is that same so horrible offense, that shall have no forgiveness. Whereas Augustine in one place defines it an obstinate stiffness even to death, with despair of pardon, that does not well agree with the very words of Christ, that it shall not be forgiven in this world. For either that is spoken in vain, or it may be committed in this life. But if Augustine's definition be true, then it is not committed, unless it continue even to death. Whereas some other say, that he sins against the Holy Spirit, that envies the grace bestowed on his brother: I see not from where that is fetched. But let us bring a true definition, which being once proved with sure testimonies, shall easily by itself overthrow all the rest. I say therefore, that they sin against the Holy Spirit, which of set purpose resist the truth of God, with brightness of which they are so dazzled, that they cannot pretend ignorance: which they do only to this end to resist. For Christ, meaning to expound that which he had said, immediately adds: He that speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, shall not be forgiven. And Matthew, for the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, puts the spirit of blasphemy. But how can a man speak a reproach against the Son, but it is also spoken against the Holy Spirit? They that stumble unaware against the truth of God, not knowing it, which do ignorantly speak evil of Christ, having yet this mind, that they would not extinguish the truth of God disclosed to them, or once with one word offend him, whom they had known to be the Lord's anointed: these men sin against the Father and the Son. So there are many at this day, that do most hatefully detest the doctrine of the Gospel, which if they did know it to be the doctrine of the Gospel, they would be ready to worship with all their heart. But they whose conscience is convinced, that it is the word of God which they forsake and fight against, and yet cease not to fight against it, they are said to blaspheme the Holy Spirit: inasmuch as they wrestle against the enlightening that is the work of the Holy Spirit. Such were many of the Jews, which when they could not resist the Spirit that spoke by Stephen, yet endeavored to resist. It is no doubt but that many of them were carried to it with zeal of the law, but it appears that there were some other that of malicious wickedness did rage against God himself, that is to say, against the doctrine, which they were not ignorant to be of God. And such were those Pharisees, against whom the Lord inveighs, which to overthrow the power of the Holy Spirit, defamed him with the name of Beelzebub. This therefore is the spirit of blasphemy: when man's boldness of [reconstructed: deliberate] purpose leaps forth to reproach of the name of God. Which Paul signifies when he says, that he obtained mercy, because he had ignorantly committed those things through unbelief, for which otherwise he had been unworthy of God's favor. If ignorance joined with unbelief was the cause that he obtained pardon, thereupon follows, that there is no place for pardon, where knowledge is joined to unbelief.

But if you mark it well you will perceive that the apostle speaks not of one or other particular fall, but of the universal departing whereby the reprobate do forsake salvation. And it is no marvel, that they whom John in his canonical epistle affirms not to have been of the elect, from whom they went out, do feel God implacable. For he directs his speech against them, that imagined, that they might [reconstructed: return] to the Christian religion, although they had once departed from it: and calling them from this false and pestilent opinion, he says that which is most true, that there is no way of return open for them to the communion of Christ, that wittingly and willingly have cast it away. But they cast it not away, that only in dissolute licentiousness of life transgress the word of the Lord, but they that of set purpose cast away his whole doctrine. Therefore the deceit is in these words of falling and sinning. Because the Novatians expound falling to be, if a man being taught by the law of the Lord, that he ought not to steal or to commit fornication, abstains not from stealing or fornication. But on the contrary I affirm, that there is a secret comparison of contraries, wherein ought to be repeated all things contrary to that which was first spoken, so that here is expressed not any particular fault, but the whole turning away from God, and (as I may so call it) the apostasy of the whole man. Therefore when he says, they which have fallen after that they have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and also tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come: it is to be understood of them that with advised ungodliness have choked the light of the Holy Spirit, have spit out again the taste of the heavenly gift, have estranged themselves from the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, have trodden under foot the word of God and the powers of the world to come. And the more to express that advised purpose of wickedness, in another place afterward he adds this word by name, Willfully. For when he says, that there is left no sacrifice for them that sin willingly after knowledge of the truth received, he does not deny, that Christ is a continual sacrifice to purge the iniquities of the holy ones (which he expressly cries out almost in the whole epistle, where he declares the priesthood of Christ) but he says, that there remains no other when that is once forsaken: and it is forsaken, when the truth of the gospel is of set purpose renounced.

But whereas some think it too hard and too far from the tender mercifulness of God, that any are put away that flee to beseeching the Lord's mercy: that is easily answered. For he does not say, that pardon is denied them if they turn to the Lord: but he utterly denies, that they can rise to repentance, because they are by the just judgment of God stricken with eternal blindness for their unthankfulness. And it makes nothing to the contrary that afterward he applies to this purpose the example of Esau, which in vain attempted with howling and weeping to recover his right of the firstborn. And no more does that threatening of the Prophet, When they cry, I will not hear. For in such phrases of speech is meant neither the true conversion, nor calling upon God, but that carefulness of the wicked with which being bound, they are compelled in extremity to look to that which before they carelessly neglected, that there is no good thing for them but in the Lord's help. But this they do not so much call upon, as they mourn that it is taken from them. Therefore the Prophet means nothing else by crying, and the Apostle nothing else by weeping, but that horrible torment which by desperation frets and vexes the wicked. This it is good to mark diligently: for otherwise God should disagree with himself, which cries by the Prophet that he will be merciful as soon as the sinner turns. And as I have already said, it is certain that the mind of man is not turned to better, but by God's grace preventing it. Also his promise concerning calling upon him, will never deceive. But that blind torment with which the reprobate are diversely drawn, when they see that they must needs seek God, that they may find remedy for their evils, and yet do flee from his presence, is improperly called conversion and prayer.

But a question is raised, whereas the Apostle denies that God is appeased with feigned repentance, how Ahab obtained pardon and turned away the punishment pronounced upon him, whom yet it appears by the rest of the course of his life to have been only stricken amazed with sudden fear. He did indeed put on sackcloth, scattered ashes upon him, lay upon the ground, and (as it is testified of him) he was humbled before God: but it was not enough to cut his garments when his heart remained thick and swollen with malice — yet we see how God is turned to mercy. I answer that so sometimes hypocrites are spared for a time, but yet so that ever the wrath of God lies upon them, and that is done not so much for their sakes, as for common example. For whereas Ahab had his punishment mitigated to him, what profit did he get thereby, but that he should not feel it alive on earth? Therefore the curse of God, although it were hidden, yet had a fast abiding place in his house, and he himself went into eternal destruction. This same is to be seen in Esau. For though he had a repulse, yet a temporal blessing was granted him at his weeping. But because the spiritual inheritance, by the oracle of God could not rest but with one of the brothers, when Jacob was chosen and Esau refused, that putting away did exclude the mercy of God: this comfort was left him as to a beastly man, that he should be fat with the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven. And this is it that I said even now, that it ought to be referred to the example of other, that we should learn the more cheerfully to apply our minds and endeavors to repentance, because it is not to be doubted that when we are truly and heartily turned, God will be ready to forgive us, whose mercifulness extends itself even to the unworthy, so long as they show any grief at all. And therewithal we are also taught, how terrible judgment is prepared for all the obstinate, which now make it a sport with no less shameless face than iron heart to despise and set nothing by the threatenings of God. After his manner he oftentimes reached out his hand to the children of Israel, to relieve their miseries, although their cries were counterfeit, and their heart double and false, as himself in the Psalm complains, that they by and by returned to their nature, and so minded with so friendly gentle dealing to bring them to earnest conversion, or to make them inexcusable. Yet in releasing punishments for a time, he does not bind himself to a perpetual law thereby, but rather rises sometimes more rigorously against hypocrites, and doubles their pains, that thereby may appear how much feigning displeases him. But (as I have said) he shows some examples of his readiness to give pardon, by which the godly may be encouraged to amendment of life, and their pride may be the more grievously condemned, that stubbornly kick against the prick.

We have already taught in part how faith lays hold of Christ and how through faith we enjoy His benefits. But this would remain dark unless we also declared the effects we experience from it. It is not without reason said that the sum of the Gospel consists in repentance and forgiveness of sins. Therefore, leaving out these two things, whatever we say about faith will be a thin, incomplete, and practically useless treatment of the subject. Since Christ gives both to us — and we receive both through faith — that is, both newness of life and free reconciliation, reason and the logic of teaching require that I now speak of both. Our movement from faith will be to repentance — for when this matter is well understood, it will become clearer how a person is justified by faith alone and by sheer pardon, and yet how genuine holiness of life is not separated from the free imputation of righteousness. Now it must be beyond question that repentance not only immediately follows faith but springs from it. For since the grace of the Gospel is offered with the preaching that the sinner — delivered from the tyranny of Satan, the yoke of sin, and the miserable bondage of vices — might pass into the kingdom of God, no one can embrace this Gospel grace without turning from the errors of his former life to the right path and devoting all his effort to the practice of repentance. Those who think repentance goes before faith rather than flowing from it as fruit from a tree have never understood the true nature of repentance, and the argument that moves them to think so is far too weak.

They say: Christ and John in their preaching first called the people to repentance and then announced that the kingdom of heaven was near. The apostles received this as their commission, and Paul followed the same order, as Luke records. But while they cling so rigidly to the order of words, they fail to notice how the meaning holds together. When Christ and John preached, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,' did they not draw the grounds of repentance from the very grace and promise of salvation? Their words therefore amount to this: because the kingdom of heaven is near, therefore repent. For Matthew, after showing that this was John's preaching, says that in him was fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy about the voice crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.' In the prophet, that voice is commanded to begin with comfort and glad tidings. When we say that repentance has its beginning in faith, we do not imagine some span of time in which faith first produces it. We mean to show that a person cannot earnestly apply himself to repentance unless he knows himself to be of God. And no one is truly persuaded that he is of God except the one who has first received God's grace. These things will be discussed more plainly as we proceed. Perhaps they were misled by this: many are first tamed by terrors of conscience or shaped toward obedience before they have fully digested — indeed, before they have even tasted — the knowledge of grace. This is the initial fear that some count among virtues, seeing that it is near to true and right obedience. But our question is not how God draws us to Himself by various means or prepares us for the pursuit of godliness. I say only this: no genuine uprightness can be found where the Spirit does not reign — the Spirit whom Christ received in order to share with His members. So according to the psalm: 'With You is forgiveness, that You may be feared.' No one will ever truly fear God except the one who trusts that God is merciful to him. No one will willingly prepare himself to keep the law unless he is persuaded that his service pleases God — and that this tenderness in pardoning and bearing with faults is a sign of fatherly favor. This is also shown by Hosea's exhortation: 'Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn us, and He will heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.' The hope of pardon is used as a spur to keep people from lying still in their sins. But there is no reasonable basis for the foolish error of those who, in beginning with repentance, assign a set number of days to new converts during which they must practice penance — and only after those days are completed are they admitted to fellowship in the grace of the Gospel. I speak of many Anabaptists, especially those who rejoice greatly to be counted spiritual, and the Jesuits, and other groups of the same kind. Such are the fruits the spirit of giddiness produces — fixing repentance within the span of a few days, when a Christian ought to extend it throughout his entire life.

Certain learned men, even long before these days, meaning to speak simply and truly of repentance according to Scripture, said that it consists of two parts: mortification and vivification. Mortification they explained as sorrow of soul and fear arising from acknowledgment of sin and from the sense of God's judgment. For when a person is brought into true knowledge of sin, he begins truly to hate and abhor sin; he is deeply displeased with himself, confesses himself to be miserable and lost, and wishes he were a different person. Further, when he is touched with some sense of God's judgment — for the two follow one upon the other — he is stricken and thrown down, he trembles, humbled and cast down, discouraged and in despair. This first part of repentance they commonly called contrition. Vivification they explained as the comfort that grows from faith, when a person who has been brought low by conscience of sin and struck with fear of God, looking then to God's goodness and mercy and the salvation that is in Christ, lifts himself up, breathes again, takes courage, and returns as it were from death to life. These words, if rightly explained, express the nature of repentance well enough. But where they take vivification to mean the cheerfulness the mind receives when brought from trouble and fear into quiet, I cannot agree — for it rather signifies a desire to live holy and godly, which grows from regeneration. It is as though one said that a person dies to himself in order to begin to live to God.

Others, seeing that the word repentance is used in different ways in Scripture, have distinguished two kinds. To make them recognizable by some mark, they called one the repentance of the law — by which the sinner, wounded by the searing iron of sin and worn down by fear of God's wrath, remains stuck in that trouble and cannot find his way out. The other they called the repentance of the Gospel — by which the sinner is indeed grievously troubled within himself, but rises higher and lays hold of Christ as the remedy for his wound, the comfort for his fear, and the haven in his misery. As examples of the repentance of the law they cite Cain, Saul, and Judas — whose repentance, as Scripture describes it, meant that they acknowledged the gravity of their sins and feared the wrath of God, but thinking of God only as avenger and judge, they collapsed under that feeling. Therefore their repentance was nothing other than a kind of entry into hell, into which they descended in this present life and began already to suffer punishment before the face of God's wrathful majesty. The repentance of the Gospel we see in all those who, stung by the spur of sin within themselves, yet comforted and refreshed by confidence in God's mercy, turn to the Lord. Hezekiah was struck with fear when he received the message of death — but he prayed weeping, and looking to God's goodness, he took courage again. The Ninevites were shaken by the dreadful threat of destruction. They clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashes and prayed, hoping that the Lord might turn from the fury of His wrath. David confessed that he had sinned greatly in numbering the people, and said: 'Lord, take away the wickedness of Your servant.' He acknowledged the offense of adultery when Nathan rebuked him and cast himself down before the Lord — yet at the same time looked for pardon. Such was the repentance of those who, at Peter's preaching, were cut to the heart — yet trusting in God's goodness, they said: 'Brothers, what shall we do?' And such was the repentance of Peter himself, who wept bitterly yet did not stop hoping.

Although all these things are true, the word repentance as used in Scripture — so far as I can determine — is to be understood differently. When they include faith within repentance, this conflicts with Paul's statement in Acts that he testified to Jews and Gentiles concerning repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ — where he counts repentance and faith as two distinct things. What then? Can genuine repentance stand without faith? No. But though they cannot be separated, they must be distinguished. Just as faith is not without hope, and yet faith and hope are distinct things — so repentance and faith, though they are joined in a permanent bond, should be united rather than confused. I am well aware that the name repentance sometimes encompasses the whole turning to God, of which faith is no small part. But in what sense it does so will become clearest when the nature and power of repentance itself are declared. The Hebrew word for repentance is derived from turning or returning; the Greek word from a change of mind or purpose. The thing itself agrees well with both — its sum is that we depart from ourselves and turn to God, and putting off our old mind, take on a new one. Therefore repentance may fittingly be defined as a genuine turning of our life to God, proceeding from a sincere and earnest fear of God, consisting in the mortification of the flesh and the old self, and in the quickening of the Spirit. In this sense all the preachings of the prophets in former times, and of the apostles afterward, are to be understood when they called people to repentance. Their one aim was to persuade people that, having been put to shame by their sins and pierced with fear of God's judgment, they should fall down before the One they had offended, be humbled, and with genuine amendment return to His way. Therefore these phrases — 'to turn or return to the Lord,' 'to repent' — are used among them interchangeably with the same meaning. And for the same reason the sacred history says that men repent toward the Lord when those who had lived carelessly in their own desires without regard for Him begin to follow His word and are ready at their Captain's command to go wherever He calls. And John and Paul used the expression 'bring forth fruit worthy of repentance' to mean living a life that demonstrates and testifies to such amendment in all one's conduct.

Before going further, it will be profitable to explain the definition we have given more fully. Three main points are to be considered. First, when we call repentance a turning of life to God, we require a transformation — not only in outward works but in the soul itself. When the soul has put off its old nature, it then begins to bring forth works agreeable to its renewal. When the prophet seeks to express this, he commands those he calls to repentance to make themselves a new heart. And Moses, when he sets out how the Israelites might repent and truly turn to the Lord, often teaches that it be done with all their heart and all their soul — a phrase the prophets frequently repeat. By calling it the circumcision of the heart, he brushes away all inward affections of the old self. There is no passage where the true nature of repentance is more clearly shown than in Jeremiah 4: 'If you return to Me, O Israel, return to Me. Plow up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and remove the foreskins of your hearts.' See how God declares that they will gain nothing by adopting external righteousness unless wickedness is first pulled out of the root of their hearts. And to move them deeply, He warns them that they are dealing with God — from whom nothing is gained by playing games, because He hates a double heart. Therefore Isaiah mockingly exposes the futile efforts of hypocrites who busily pursued an external repentance through ceremonies, while caring nothing about loosening the bundles of wickedness with which they kept poor people bound. There he also makes clear what duties genuine repentance properly includes.

The second point of the definition was this: we taught that repentance proceeds from an earnest fear of God. Before the mind of a sinner can be inclined to repentance, it must be stirred up by thinking on God's judgment. Once this thought is thoroughly settled — that God will one day mount His judgment seat to call every word and deed to account — it will not let the person rest or take a single breath of ease. It continually stirs him up to think about a new way of life, one by which he may safely stand at that judgment. Therefore Scripture, when it exhorts to repentance, often mentions judgment. So Jeremiah: 'Lest My wrath go out like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.' And Paul's sermon to the Athenians: 'The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has set a day when He will judge the world in righteousness.' And many other places. Sometimes Scripture makes God known as judge through punishments already sent — so that sinners will think to themselves that worse things await them if they do not repent in time. An example of this is in Exodus 32. But since turning to God begins with the hatred and abhorrence of sin, the apostle makes godly sorrow the cause of repentance. He calls it godly sorrow when we are not merely afraid of punishment but hate and abhor sin itself — because we understand that it displeases God. And no wonder. Unless we are sharply prodded, the sluggishness of our flesh cannot be corrected. Indeed, prodding alone would not be enough for its dullness and torpor — God must stretch out His rod and pierce more deeply. This is an obstinacy that must be beaten down as with a hammer. The perverseness of our nature therefore forces God to use the severity He uses in threatening — for He would call us in vain with gentle words while we lie asleep. I will not list the many testimonies that readily present themselves on this point. The fear of God is also the beginning of repentance in another sense. Even if a person's life were fully adorned with every virtue, if it is not directed toward the worship of God, it may be praised by the world — but in heaven it will be mere abomination. The chief part of our righteousness is to give God His proper right and honor, which is wickedly stolen from Him when we do not bend ourselves in submission to His governance.

Third, we must declare what we mean when we say that repentance consists of two parts: the mortification of the flesh and the quickening of the spirit. The prophets express this plainly, though in somewhat simple and direct terms fitting the capacity of the people: 'Cease from evil and do good.' And again: 'Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless,' and so on. When they call people away from wickedness, they are requiring the death of the whole flesh, which is filled with wickedness and perverseness. It is indeed an uncomfortable and hard thing to put off ourselves and depart from our natural disposition. Nor can the flesh be considered thoroughly dead unless everything we have of ourselves is abolished. Since all the inclinations of the flesh are hostile to God, the first step in obeying His law is the forsaking of our own nature. The prophets then express renewal through its fruits: righteousness, justice, and mercy. For it would not be enough to perform these duties rightly unless the mind and heart have first taken on the disposition of righteousness, justice, and mercy. This happens when the Spirit of God has so soaked our souls — first washed with His holiness — with new thoughts and new affections that they may rightly be called new. As we are by nature turned away from God, we can never turn toward what is right unless self-denial comes first. This is why we are so often commanded to put off the old self, to forsake the world and the flesh, to bid farewell to our desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. The very word mortification reminds us how hard it is to forget our former nature — for we gather from it that we are not shaped for the fear of God or brought to learn the first principles of godliness except by being violently slain by the word of the Spirit and reduced to nothing. It is as though God were pronouncing that to be counted among His children requires the death of all our common nature.

Both of these things happen to us through our sharing in Christ. For if we truly share in His death, by its power our old self is crucified and the body of sin dies, so that the corruption of our former nature may reign no more. If we share in His resurrection, we are raised up by it to newness of life that agrees with the righteousness of God. In a word, I explain repentance to be regeneration, which has no other goal than this: that the image of God — so foully defaced and nearly obliterated by Adam's offense — be renewed in us. So the apostle teaches when he says: 'But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.' And again: 'Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.' And in another place: 'Put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created it.' Through this regeneration we are, by the benefit of Christ, restored to the righteousness of God from which we had fallen through Adam. This is how the Lord is pleased to fully restore all those He adopts into the inheritance of life. And this restoring is accomplished not in a single moment, or a single day, or a single year. Through continuous — and sometimes slow — progress, God removes the corruptions of the flesh in His elect, cleanses them from filth, consecrates them as temples to Himself, and renews all their senses to true purity — so that they may practice repentance all their lives and know that this war has no end but death. All the more despicable, then, is the slander of that filthy and apostate reviler Staphylus, who foolishly charges that I confuse the state of this present life with heavenly glory when I explain by Paul that the image of God is holiness and true righteousness. As though in defining something one should not seek its full and perfect content. Yet we do not deny that there is room for growth. I say that however closely a person approaches the likeness of God, to that degree the image of God shines in him. To enable the faithful to reach this, God assigns them the course of repentance — the race they are to run throughout their entire lives.

The children of God are therefore freed from the bondage of sin through regeneration — not so that, having now obtained full possession of liberty, they feel no more trouble from their flesh, but so that there remains in them a continuing ground of struggle, by which they may be exercised. And not only exercised, but also may better learn their own weakness. On this point all sound writers agree: there remains in regenerate persons a tinder of evil from which desires that allure and stir them to sin continually spring. They also acknowledge that the holy are still so entangled with this disease of desire that they cannot help being at times stirred or drawn toward lust, covetousness, ambition, or other vices. It is not necessary to search extensively through the ancient writers on this, since Augustine alone is sufficient — having faithfully and diligently gathered all their judgments. Let readers draw from him whatever certainty they desire on the opinion of antiquity. There may appear to be this difference between him and us: Augustine, while granting that the faithful, as long as they dwell in a mortal body, are bound by desires so that they cannot avoid desiring, yet dares not call this disease sin. Content to describe it as weakness, he teaches that it becomes sin only when either act or consent is added to the conception or reception of desire — that is, when the will yields to the initial impulse. But we count it as sin that a person is moved by any desire at all that is contrary to the law of God. We affirm that the very corruption that produces such desires in us is sin. We therefore teach that sin is always present in the holy until they are unclothed from the mortal body — because there remains in their flesh a perverseness of desire that fights against uprightness. And yet Augustine himself does not always hesitate to use the word sin, as when he writes: 'This Paul calls sin, from which spring all sins to fleshly desire. This, so far as it concerns the holy, loses its kingdom on earth and perishes in heaven.' By these words he confesses that the faithful are guilty of sin insofar as they are subject to the desires of the flesh.

But the statement that God purges His church from all sin — and the promise of this deliverance through baptism, which He fulfills in the elect — we apply to the guilt of sin rather than to the very substance of sin. God truly accomplishes this through regenerating those who are His: the reign of sin is abolished in them, for the Holy Spirit provides them with strength by which they prevail and are conquerors in the battle. But sin ceases only to reign in them, not to dwell in them. Therefore we say that the old self is crucified and the law of sin abolished in the children of God — yet remnants remain, not to dominate them but to humble them through the conscience's knowledge of its own weakness. We acknowledge that these remnants are not imputed — treated as though they did not exist. But we affirm that this comes about through God's mercy, which delivers the holy from this guilt that would otherwise rightly make them counted as sinners and guilty before God. This position is not hard to establish, since there are plain testimonies of Scripture on this matter. What could be plainer than Paul's cry in Romans 7? Both we have shown elsewhere, and Augustine proves with strong arguments, that Paul is speaking there in the person of a regenerate person. I am not merely pointing to his use of the words evil and sin, so that those who oppose us cannot object to those terms. Who can deny that fighting against the law of God is evil? Who can deny that resisting justice is sin? Who will not grant that there is fault wherever there is spiritual misery? Yet all of these things Paul attributes to this disease. Moreover, we have a clear demonstration from the law itself, by which the whole question can easily be settled. We are commanded to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength. Since all parts of the soul ought to be entirely occupied with love for God, it is certain that those who conceive even the smallest desire in their hearts — or allow any thought to enter their minds that might draw them from love of God to vanity — are failing to satisfy the commandment. For what are these — the sudden movements of feeling, the conceptions of the mind, the thoughts of the understanding? Are these not the powers of the soul? When they open the way for vain or corrupt thoughts, do they not show that they are lacking in the love of God? Therefore whoever does not confess that all the desires of the flesh are sins, and that this disease of desiring they call a tinder is the wellspring of sin, must by necessity deny that transgression of the law is sin.

If someone thinks it absurd that all desires by which a person is naturally moved in feeling should be universally condemned, since they were placed in human beings by God the author of nature — our answer is this: we do not condemn those desires that God engraved in the human mind at the first creation, which cannot be removed without destroying human nature itself. We condemn only the violent and unbridled impulses that fight against God's order. But now, since the whole of human nature's powers are infected and corrupted by its depravity, so that a continual disorder and excess appears in all its doings, and since desires cannot be separated from such excess — we therefore say that they are corrupt. Or, if you prefer to have the whole sum in fewer words: we teach that all the desires of human beings are evil. We charge them as guilty of sin — not because they are natural, but because they are disordered. And we call them disordered because nothing pure or clean can come out of a corrupt and unclean nature. Augustine does not differ from this teaching as much as he seems to, though out of excessive fear of the slander the Pelagians worked to bring upon him, he sometimes avoids using the word sin. Yet where he writes that the law of sin still remaining in the holy ones has only its guilt removed, he makes plain that he does not fundamentally disagree with our meaning.

We will cite some other passages that make his view clearer. In the second book against Julian, Augustine writes: 'This law of sin is both released by spiritual regeneration and remains in the mortal flesh — released in that the guilt is taken away in the sacrament through which the faithful are regenerated; and it remains in that it works desires against which the faithful fight.' Again: 'Therefore the law of sin, which was also in the members of so great an apostle, is released in baptism, but not ended.' Again: 'The law of sin — whose remaining guilt is discharged in baptism — Ambrose called wickedness, because it is wickedness for the flesh to lust against the Spirit.' Again: 'Sin is dead with respect to the guilt in which it held us, and even being dead it still rebels until it is healed by the perfection of burial.' And still more plainly in the fifth book: 'Just as blindness of heart is both a sin — in that people do not believe in God — and a punishment of sin — in that a proud heart is justly chastised — and a cause of sin — when something is committed through the error of a blind heart: so the lust of the flesh against which a good spirit lusts is both sin, because in it there is disobedience against the government of the mind; and a punishment of sin, because it is given as payment to the deserts of the disobedient; and a cause of sin in a person — when by defection he consents to it, or when he is born infected by it.' Here Augustine calls it sin without any ambiguity — for once error was overthrown and the truth established, he feared slander less. So also in his 41st Homily on John, where he undoubtedly speaks according to his true conviction, he says: 'If in the flesh you serve the law of sin, do what the apostle himself says: do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey its desires.' He does not say, do not let it exist, but do not let it reign. 'As long as you live, sin must be in your members — at least let its reign be taken from it. Do not let what it commands be done.' Those who maintain that desire is not sin usually object with James's statement: 'Desire, after it has conceived, gives birth to sin.' But this is easily answered. Unless we think he is speaking only of evil deeds or actual sins, the evil will itself would not count as sin. And when James calls wicked deeds and offenses the offspring of sin and gives them the name of sin, it does not automatically follow that desiring itself is therefore an evil and damnable thing before God.

Certain Anabaptists in our day invent a sort of frenzied lawlessness in place of spiritual regeneration, claiming that the children of God — restored to the state of innocence — no longer need to be concerned with bridling the desires of the flesh, and that the Spirit is to be followed as their guide, under whose direction they never go wrong. It would be incredible that the human mind could sink to such madness if they did not openly and boldly preach this doctrine. It is monstrous. But it is fitting that those who have so persuaded themselves to turn the truth of God into a lie should suffer the punishment of such blasphemous boldness. Shall all distinction between honesty and dishonesty, right and wrong, good and evil, virtue and vice, be swept away? Such distinctions, they say, come from the corruption of old Adam, from which Christ has set us free. So now there will be no difference between fornication and chastity, straightforwardness and deceit, truth and lying, justice and extortion. 'Set aside empty fear,' they say, 'the Spirit will command you nothing evil, so freely and fearlessly surrender yourself to its guidance.' Who can help but be astonished at such monstrous claims? Yet this is common teaching among those who, blinded by the madness of their desires, have shed all common reason. But what Christ, I ask, are they constructing for us? What spirit are they breathing out? For we acknowledge one Christ and His Spirit alone — commended by the prophets, preached by the Gospel given to us — and we hear nothing of the kind from Him. That Spirit is no patron of murder, sexual immorality, drunkenness, pride, quarreling, greed, and gluttony — but the author of love, chastity, sobriety, modesty, peace, self-control, and truth. He is not a giddy spirit that rushes headlong without thought through right and wrong — He is full of wisdom and understanding and discerns rightly between just and unjust. He does not stir up dissolute and unbridled licentiousness, but makes a distinction between lawful and unlawful and teaches the keeping of measure and temperance. But why labor longer to refute this brutish madness? To Christians, the Spirit of the Lord is not a troubled fantasy — either dreamed up by themselves or taken from others who forged it. They reverently seek knowledge of Him from Scripture, where two things are taught about Him. First: He is given to us for sanctification, that He might bring us into obedience to God's will, having been purged from uncleanness and defilements. This obedience cannot stand unless desires are tamed and subdued — the very desires these people would set free without restraint. Second: We are taught that though cleansed by His sanctification, we are still besieged by many vices and much weakness as long as we are enclosed in the burden of the body. Because of this, being far from perfection, we always need to advance further; and being entangled in vices, we need to wrestle with them daily. Therefore it also follows that we must shake off laziness and carelessness and watch with alert minds, lest we be surrounded unaware by the snares of our flesh. Unless, of course, we think we have advanced further than the apostle himself — who was tormented by a messenger of Satan so that his strength might be made perfect in weakness, and who genuinely experienced in his own flesh that division between the flesh and the spirit.

The apostle, in describing repentance, lists seven elements — whether causes, effects, or parts — and does so with good reason. They are: diligence, defense, indignation, fear, desire, zeal, and punishment. It should not seem strange that I hesitate to say definitively whether they should be counted as causes or effects — both can be argued. They may also be called affections accompanying repentance. But leaving aside those questions, we can understand what Paul means with a simple explanation of each. He says that out of the godly sorrow arises diligence or careful attentiveness. For the person who is genuinely troubled because he has sinned against his God is thereby stirred up to diligence and watchfulness — to free himself cleanly from the devil's snares, to be more alert to his traps, not to fall again from the governance of the Holy Spirit, not to be overcome by carelessness. Next is defense or excusing — which here does not mean the self-justification by which a sinner, to escape God's judgment, denies his offense or minimizes its seriousness. It means rather a seeking of pardon than a defense of one's case. Like children who are not hardened: when they acknowledge and confess their faults, they still plead and do their best to show that they have not thrown away the reverence they owe to their parents. In short, they excuse themselves not to prove their innocence but only to obtain pardon. Then follows indignation, by which the sinner frets within himself, quarrels with himself, and is angry with himself when he recalls his own perverseness and ingratitude toward God. By the word fear he means the trembling struck into our minds whenever we reflect on both what we have deserved and how terrible the severity of God's wrath is against sinners. We are then inevitably troubled with a profound restlessness, which both teaches us humility and makes us more cautious going forward. And if carefulness springs from fear — as he had said — we see how closely the two are linked. He seems to me to use the word desire to mean diligent attention to duty and a ready cheerfulness to obey — which the acknowledgment of our faults ought above all to stir in us. Zeal is joined immediately to desire, and it signifies the fervor that is kindled in us when we are prodded by thoughts like these: What have I done? Where would I have hurled myself if God's mercy had not helped me? Last is punishment — for the more strictly we deal with ourselves and the more rigorously we examine our sins, the more we may trust that God is favorable and merciful toward us. It is inevitable that a soul struck with horror at God's judgment must execute some punishment upon itself. The godly feel the punishments of shame, confusion, grief, self-loathing, and other affections that flow from an earnest acknowledgment of sins. But let us remember that a limit must be kept so that sorrow does not swallow us up — for nothing more readily threatens fearful consciences than falling into despair. By that same crafty means, Satan drowns those he finds overwhelmed with dread of God ever deeper in the gulf of grief, so that they may never rise again. Truly, fear cannot be too great when it ends in humility and does not depart from hope of pardon. But the sinner must always beware, as the apostle teaches, that while moving toward self-loathing he does not despair under too great a weight of fear — for in that way we flee from God, who by repentance calls us to Himself. On this point Bernard's counsel is very helpful: 'Sorrow for sins is necessary, but must not be unceasing. I advise you at times to return from the painful and difficult memory of your ways and lift your eyes to the clear ground of cheerful remembrance of God's benefits. Let us mix honey with wormwood, that the wholesome bitterness may bring health when drunk tempered with sweetness. And if you think of yourselves in humility, think also of the Lord in goodness.'

Now we can also see what the fruits of repentance are: duties of godliness toward God and of love toward our neighbors, along with holiness and purity throughout all of life. The more earnestly a person examines his life by the rule of God's law, the surer evidence he shows of genuine repentance. Therefore the Holy Spirit, when urging us to repentance, sometimes directs us to all the commandments of the law and sometimes to the duties of the second table. In other places, after condemning uncleanness at the very fountain of the heart, He descends to outward evidences that display true repentance — a picture of which I will set before readers later in the description of the Christian life. I will not gather testimonies from the prophets in which they partly mock those who try to appease God with ceremonies, exposing them as mere shams, and partly teach that outward uprightness of life is not the principal part of repentance, since God looks on the heart. Whoever is even moderately familiar with Scripture will perceive on his own, without any prompting, that when we are dealing with God we labor in vain unless we begin with the inward affection of the heart. Joel's passage will be no small help for understanding the rest, where he says: 'Tear your heart and not your garments' (Joel 2:13). Both points are also expressed in James's words: 'Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded' (James 4:8). Here the first part is joined by an addition, but then the very fountain and source is shown: they must wipe away their secret filth so that an altar to God may be set up within the heart itself. Beyond this there are also certain outward practices that we use privately as remedies to humble ourselves or to restrain the flesh, and publicly as declarations of repentance. These flow from the self-punishment of which Paul speaks — for these are the marks of a troubled spirit: to be in self-loathing, mourning, and weeping; to avoid fine clothing and all decoration; and to forsake all pleasures. The person who feels how great an evil the rebellion of the flesh is seeks every remedy to rein it in. And the person who truly thinks how serious a thing it is to have offended the justice of God cannot rest until he has glorified God through his own humility. Such practices the ancient writers frequently describe when speaking of the fruits of repentance. Though they do not place the whole power of repentance in these external exercises, readers will, I think, pardon me for stating my view: it seems to me that they lean too heavily on them. Anyone who weighs the matter carefully will, I trust, agree with me that they have gone too far in two ways. First, by pressing bodily discipline so insistently and praising it with such extravagant commendations, they did indeed secure the people's more eager embrace of it — but they thereby obscured what ought to have carried far greater weight. Second, in assigning penances they were somewhat more severe than the gentleness of the church can bear — as we shall have occasion to show in another place.

But because many people, hearing weeping, fasting, and ashes mentioned frequently — especially in Joel — conclude that the chief part of repentance consists in fasting and weeping, their error must be corrected. What Joel says about turning the whole heart to the Lord and tearing the heart rather than the garments belongs properly to repentance. But weeping and fasting are not joined as constant or necessary effects of it — they are mentioned with respect to a specific situation. Since Joel had prophesied that a terrible destruction was hanging over the Jews, he advised them to head off God's wrath not only by repenting but also by displaying outward signs of their grief. Just as a person standing trial humbly humbles himself with an unkempt beard, uncombed hair, and dark clothing to move the judge to pity — so it was fitting that the Jews, standing accused before God's judgment seat, should appear in pitiful condition and plead with Him not to press His severity. Although ashes and sackcloth may have fit those times more closely, it is certain that weeping and fasting would be very appropriate for us whenever the Lord seems to threaten us with some plague or calamity. For when He causes any danger to appear, He gives warning in a certain sense that He is prepared to punish. Therefore the prophet was right to urge his countrymen to weeping and fasting — the mournful manner of accused persons whose offenses he had just said were under examination. And the pastors of the church would not do wrong today if, seeing some ruin threatening their people, they were to call them to fasting and weeping — so long as they pressed with greater and more inward care what is most important: that they must tear their hearts and not their garments. There is no doubt that fasting is not always joined to repentance but is appointed specifically for times of serious calamity. Therefore Christ links it with wailing, when He excuses the apostles from the need of it until the time when, deprived of His presence, they would be tormented with grief. I am speaking of solemn, public fasting. For the private life of the godly ought to be characterized by honest restraint and sobriety, so that throughout its entire course there may appear a certain ongoing form of fasting. But since all of this will need to be treated again in the section on church discipline, I touch on it more briefly here. One thing I will add by way of transition: when the name repentance is applied to this outward public expression, it is being used in a sense different from the proper meaning I have set out above. For it is not so much a turning to God as a confession of fault, coupled with a plea that God not charge them with the guilt and penalty. So to do penance in ashes and sackcloth is nothing other than to express distress when God is angry with us for serious offenses. This is a public form of confession by which, condemning ourselves before angels and the world, we anticipate God's judgment. Paul, rebuking those who deal too gently with their own faults, says: 'If we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged by God.' But it is not always necessary to bring others openly into our repentance as counselors and witnesses — for private confession to God is a part of true repentance that cannot be omitted. For nothing is more unreasonable than to expect God to pardon sins in which we flatter ourselves and conceal them from Him through hypocrisy, lest He bring them to light. We must not only confess the sins we commit daily. More serious offenses ought to draw us further, calling back to memory things that seem long since buried. David gives us this lesson by his own example. Stricken with shame over his freshly committed sin, he examines himself all the way back to his time in his mother's womb and confesses that even then he was corrupted and infected with the filth of the flesh. He does not do this to diminish the seriousness of his fault, as many people hide in a crowd and try to escape punishment by dragging others along with them. David does the opposite: with plain straightforwardness he presses home his fault by saying that, being corrupt from his first infancy, he has never stopped heaping evil upon evil. In another place he likewise examines his past life in such a way that he asks God's mercy for the sins of his youth. Truly, our drowsiness will only be shaken off when we are found groaning under our burden, lamenting our sins, and asking God for relief. It must also be noted that the repentance we are continually commanded to practice differs from the repentance that is, as it were, a rising from death for those who have fallen into shameful sins, have thrown themselves into unbridled licentiousness, or have in a spirit of outright rebellion shaken off the yoke of God. For Scripture, when it exhorts to repentance, often means by it something like a passage or rising again from death to life. And when it says that the people repented, it means they turned from their idolatry and other serious offenses. In the same way Paul threatens mourning to sinners who have not repented of their sensuality, sexual immorality, and impurity. This distinction must be carefully observed — lest, on hearing that only a few are called to repentance in this special sense, we fall into a carelessness that assumes mortification of the flesh no longer applies to us. The corrupt desires that are always tickling us, and the vices that continually spring up in us, will not allow us to be released from that concern. Therefore the special repentance required only of some — those whom the devil has violently dragged away from the fear of God and bound tightly in his damning snares — does not remove the ordinary repentance that the corruption of our nature compels us to practice throughout the entire course of our lives.

Now if this is true -- as it most certainly is -- that the entire sum of the Gospel is contained in these two main points, repentance and forgiveness of sins, do we not see that the Lord freely justifies His people so that He may also restore them to true righteousness through the sanctification of His Spirit? John, the messenger sent before Christ to prepare His way, preached: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." By calling them to repentance, he urged them to recognize that they were sinners and that everything about them was condemnable before the Lord. He wanted them to desire with all their hearts the death of their sinful nature and a new rebirth in the Spirit. By telling them of the kingdom of God, he called them to faith. By the kingdom of God, which he declared to be at hand, he meant forgiveness of sins, salvation, life, and everything we receive in Christ. Therefore, in the other Gospels it is written that John came preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What is that but calling those who are oppressed and weary under the burden of sins to turn to the Lord and conceive a good hope of forgiveness and salvation? Christ also began His preaching the same way: "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Gospel." First He declares that God's treasures of mercy are opened in Him. Then He requires repentance. Last, He calls for confidence in God's promises. When He wanted to briefly summarize the whole Gospel, He said that He must suffer and rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached in His name. The apostles preached the same message after His resurrection: that He was raised up by God to give Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. Repentance is preached in Christ's name when people learn from the Gospel's teaching that all their thoughts, passions, and efforts are corrupt and faulty, and that they must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Forgiveness of sins is preached when people are taught that Christ has become their redemption, righteousness, salvation, and life. In His name they are freely counted righteous and innocent before God. Both of these graces are received by faith, as I have explained elsewhere. Yet since the goodness of God by which sins are forgiven is faith's proper object, it will be good to carefully distinguish it from repentance.

Just as hatred of sin -- which is the beginning of repentance -- opens the first door to Christ (who shows Himself only to miserable and afflicted sinners who groan, labor, are burdened, are hungry and thirsty, and waste away in sorrow), so we must pursue repentance throughout our entire lives, applying it and following it to the end if we want to remain in Christ. He came to call sinners, but to repentance. He was sent to bless the unworthy, but on the condition that each one turn from their wickedness. Scripture is full of such statements. When God offers forgiveness of sins, He also typically requires repentance from us, quietly indicating that His mercy should be a cause for us to repent. He says: "Pursue justice and righteousness, for salvation is near." Again: "A Redeemer shall come to Zion and to those in Jacob who turn from their sins." Again: "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked abandon his way and the wickedness of his thoughts, and turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him." Again: "Turn and repent, so that your sins may be wiped away." Yet it must be noted that this condition is not attached as if our repentance were the basis for deserving pardon. Rather, since the Lord has determined to show mercy to people so they will repent, He is showing them where they must go if they want to receive grace. Therefore, as long as we dwell in the prison of this body, we must continually wrestle with the sins of our corrupt nature -- indeed, with our own natural soul. Plato says in certain places that the life of a philosopher is a meditation on death. But we can more truly say that the life of a Christian is a perpetual study and practice of putting the flesh to death, until it is completely slain and the Spirit of God gains full control in us. I think that person has made much progress who has learned to deeply dislike themselves -- not so that they should remain stuck in that misery and go no further, but so they should hurry and long toward God. Being grafted into the death and life of Christ, they should devote themselves to continual repentance. Truly, those who genuinely hate sin cannot do otherwise, since no one ever hated sin who was not first in love with righteousness. This teaching, being the simplest of all, seemed to me best aligned with the truth of Scripture.

That repentance is a unique gift of God is so well established by the teaching above that I need not repeat a long argument to prove it again. Therefore, the church praises and marvels at the goodness of God in granting the Gentiles repentance for salvation. Paul, commanding Timothy to be patient and gentle toward unbelievers, says: "Perhaps God may grant them repentance so that they may escape from the snares of the devil." God does indeed declare that He desires the conversion of all people, and He directs His exhortations to everyone. But the effective working of repentance depends on the Spirit of regeneration. It would be easier to create us from nothing than for us to produce a better nature by our own power. Therefore, throughout the whole process of regeneration we are rightly called God's workmanship, created for good works that He prepared in advance for us to walk in. Those whom the Lord wills to rescue from death, He brings to life through the Spirit of regeneration. This is not because repentance is properly the cause of salvation, but because it is inseparable from faith and from God's mercy. As Isaiah testifies, a Redeemer has come to those in Jacob who turn from their sin. This much stands firmly established: wherever the fear of God lives, there the Spirit has worked to bring about salvation. Therefore, in Isaiah, when the faithful complain and grieve that they are forsaken by God, they point to the hardening of their hearts by God as evidence of being rejected. The apostle also, when he wants to exclude apostates from any hope of salvation, gives this reason: it is impossible for them to be renewed to repentance. God, in renewing those whom He does not want to perish, shows a sign of His fatherly favor and in a sense draws them to Himself with the warmth of His cheerful countenance. On the other hand, by hardening the reprobate, He thunders against those whose wickedness is beyond forgiveness. This kind of vengeance the apostle threatens against deliberate apostates -- those who abandon the faith of the Gospel, mock God, scornfully reject His grace, and trample the blood of Christ underfoot. As far as it lies in them, they crucify Him again. He does not -- as some overly strict people claim -- cut off the hope of pardon from every deliberate sin. Rather, he teaches that apostasy is so inexcusable that it is no surprise God punishes such sacrilegious contempt with unrelenting severity. He says it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come -- if they fall away -- to be renewed to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and holding Him up to scorn. Again, in another place: "If we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment," etc. These are the very passages from which the Novatians in ancient times drew their extreme conclusions. Their harshness offended some good people so much that they believed this letter was falsely attributed to an apostle. Yet it truly breathes an apostolic spirit throughout. But since we are arguing only with those who accept it as genuine, it is easy to show that these statements do not support the Novatian error. First, the apostle must agree with his Master, who declares that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Spirit, which will not be forgiven in this age or in the age to come. It is certain that the apostle was satisfied with this exception -- unless we want to make him an enemy of Christ's grace. Therefore, it follows that pardon is denied to no specific type of sin, but only to one: a sin that proceeds from desperate rage, cannot be attributed to weakness, and clearly shows that a person is possessed by the devil.

To discuss this further, we need to ask what this terrible offense is that can never be forgiven. Augustine once defined it as stubbornness even to the point of death, combined with despair of pardon. But this does not fit well with Christ's own words -- that it will not be forgiven in this world. If Augustine's definition were correct, the sin could not be committed during one's lifetime, only at the moment of death. Others say that the person who sins against the Holy Spirit is one who envies the grace given to a fellow believer. But I do not see where they get this idea. Let us bring a true definition instead, which, once proven by solid evidence, will by itself demolish all the others. I say, then, that those who sin against the Holy Spirit are people who deliberately resist God's truth. They are so dazzled by its brightness that they cannot pretend ignorance, yet they resist it solely in order to fight against it. Christ explains what He had said by immediately adding: "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven." And Matthew uses "the spirit of blasphemy" in place of "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit." But how can a person insult the Son without also insulting the Holy Spirit? Those who stumble unknowingly against God's truth, who ignorantly speak against Christ while still having no intention of suppressing the truth of God revealed to them, or of saying even one word against the One they know to be the Lord's Anointed -- these people sin against the Father and the Son. There are many people today who bitterly hate the doctrine of the Gospel, but who would be ready to worship it with all their heart if they knew it was the Gospel. But those whose conscience is convinced that what they reject and fight against is the word of God, and who still refuse to stop fighting it -- these are said to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. They are wrestling against the enlightenment that is the Holy Spirit's work. Many of the Jews were like this. When they could not resist the Spirit speaking through Stephen, they tried to resist Him anyway. No doubt many of them were driven to it by zeal for the law. But it is clear that there were others who out of deliberate wickedness raged against God Himself -- that is, against the teaching they knew came from God. The Pharisees against whom the Lord spoke so strongly were of this type. To undermine the power of the Holy Spirit, they accused Him of working by the power of Beelzebub. This, then, is the spirit of blasphemy: when a person deliberately and knowingly leaps forward to insult the name of God. Paul points to this when he says that he obtained mercy because he had acted in ignorance through unbelief. Otherwise, he would have been unworthy of God's favor. If ignorance joined with unbelief was the reason he received pardon, it follows that there is no place for pardon where knowledge is joined with unbelief.

But if you look carefully, you will see that the apostle is not speaking about one particular sin or another. He is speaking about the total abandonment of faith by which the reprobate forsake salvation. It is no wonder that those whom John in his epistle says were never truly among the elect -- since they went out from among us -- find God unwilling to forgive. He directs his words against those who imagined they could return to the Christian faith after having once abandoned it. He calls them back from this false and dangerous assumption by telling them what is absolutely true: there is no way of return open to those who knowingly and willingly cast away their communion with Christ. But they do not cast it away simply by sinning through careless living. Only those who deliberately throw away His entire teaching are guilty of this. The key is in the meaning of "falling" and "sinning." The Novatians interpreted falling to mean that whenever a person knows from God's law that they should not steal or commit adultery, yet does so anyway, they have fallen beyond recovery. But I say the opposite: there is an implied contrast in which everything opposite to what was first said must be included. What is expressed here is not any particular sin, but the complete turning away from God -- in other words, the total apostasy of the whole person. So when the apostle says that those who have fallen away after being enlightened, tasting the heavenly gift, sharing in the Holy Spirit, and tasting the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, cannot be renewed to repentance, it should be understood of those who, with deliberate wickedness, have smothered the light of the Holy Spirit, spit out the taste of the heavenly gift, cut themselves off from the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and trampled on the word of God and the powers of the age to come. To make this deliberate intention even more explicit, in another passage he specifically adds the word "willfully." When he says there is no sacrifice left for those who deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, he does not deny that Christ is a continual sacrifice to purge the sins of the saints (which he clearly proclaims throughout almost the entire epistle, explaining Christ's priesthood). He says there is no other sacrifice once Christ's sacrifice is abandoned. And it is abandoned when the truth of the Gospel is deliberately rejected.

Some think it too harsh and contrary to God's tender mercy that anyone who flees to beg the Lord's forgiveness should be refused. But the answer is easy. The apostle does not say that pardon is denied if they turn to the Lord. He flatly denies that they can rise to repentance, because God has justly struck them with eternal blindness for their ingratitude. It makes no difference that he afterward applies the example of Esau, who tried in vain with howling and weeping to recover his birthright. The prophet's threatening is equally relevant: "When they cry out, I will not hear." In these expressions, what is described is not true conversion or genuine calling upon God, but the desperate anguish of the wicked. Trapped in their extremity, they are forced to face what they had carelessly ignored before: that nothing good awaits them apart from the Lord's help. But they do not truly call upon God so much as they mourn that His help has been taken from them. Therefore, the prophet means nothing by "crying" and the apostle nothing by "weeping" except the horrible torment that desperation inflicts on the wicked. This is important to note carefully, because otherwise God would contradict Himself -- He who declares through the prophet that He will show mercy as soon as the sinner turns. And as I have already said, it is certain that the human mind does not turn to what is better unless God's grace first intervenes. Also, God's promise about answering those who call on Him will never disappoint. But the blind torment that drives the reprobate in different directions -- when they realize they must seek God to find relief for their troubles, yet still flee from His presence -- cannot properly be called conversion or prayer.

But a question arises: since the apostle denies that God is appeased by fake repentance, how did Ahab obtain pardon and turn aside the punishment pronounced against him? The rest of his life shows he was merely stunned by sudden fear. He did put on sackcloth, sprinkle ashes on himself, and lie on the ground. As Scripture says, he humbled himself before God. But this was not enough to tear his garments while his heart stayed thick and swollen with evil. Yet we see that God relented toward him. I answer that hypocrites are sometimes spared for a time, but in such a way that God's wrath still rests on them. This is done not so much for their benefit as for a public example. Although Ahab had his punishment delayed, what did he gain? Only that he would not feel the punishment during his earthly life. God's curse, though hidden, still had a firm hold on his household, and Ahab himself went on to eternal destruction. The same is true of Esau. Although he was denied the inheritance, an earthly blessing was granted him through his weeping. But since the spiritual inheritance, by God's decree, could rest with only one of the brothers -- Jacob was chosen and Esau rejected -- that rejection excluded him from God's mercy. He received this comfort as a man of the flesh: he would be enriched with the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven. This is what I said earlier: it should be taken as an example for others, so we may more cheerfully apply our minds to repentance. There is no doubt that when we truly and sincerely turn to God, He will be ready to forgive us. His mercy extends even to the unworthy as long as they show any grief at all. At the same time, we are taught what a terrible judgment is prepared for all the stubborn, who now dare to mock God's threats with shameless faces and hardened hearts. In this way, God often reached out His hand to the children of Israel to relieve their sufferings, even though their cries were insincere and their hearts dishonest, as He Himself complains in the Psalms. They would quickly return to their old nature. His gentle dealing was meant either to bring them to genuine conversion or to leave them without excuse. Yet in temporarily delaying punishments, God does not bind Himself to a permanent rule. Sometimes He rises more severely against hypocrites and doubles their pains, to show how much pretense displeases Him. But as I have said, He shows certain examples of His willingness to pardon, so that the godly may be encouraged to change their lives, and the pride of the stubborn -- who kick against the prod -- may be more severely condemned.