“Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Mt. 3:2

“…the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God…”

Heb. 6:1

“…but the publicans and the harlots believed him [John the Baptist]: and ye, when ye [chief priests and elders] had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.”

Mt. 21:32

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Subsections

Justification without Any Meritorious Works
Faith: Condition of Justification
Justifying Faith: Never Alone
Certain Inherent Graces: Requisite to Justification
What Respects the Covenant of Grace is Conditional

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Order of Contents

Bible Verses  45+
Articles  5
Book  1
Quotes  40+
Westminster
Agnostic  2
Latin  4

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Bible Verses

This list is not exhaustive.

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Old Testament  12

1 Kn. 8:33-36

“When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel…

because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk…”

2 Chron. 7:14  “If my people… shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin…”

Ps. 32:5  “I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”

Prov. 28:13  “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Isa. 1:16-18  “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Isa. 55:6-7  “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Jer. 36:3  “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Eze. 18:21-22  “But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.  All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.”

Eze. 18:30-32  “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.  Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”

Eze. 33:14-16  “Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.  None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.”

Jonah 3:10  “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

Zech. 1:3  “Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you…”

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New Testament  34+

Mt. 3:2  “And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Mt. 4:17  “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Mt. 21:32  “…but the publicans and the harlots believed him [John the Baptist]: and ye, when ye [chief priests and elders] had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.”

Mk. 1:4  “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”

Mk. 1:15  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

Mk. 4:12  “…lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.”

Mk. 6:12  “And they went out, and preached that men should repent.”

Lk. 3:3  “And he [John the Baptist] came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;”

Lk. 7:47  “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins which are many are for∣given her, for she loved much.”

Lk. 8:12  “…and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”

Lk. 13:3  “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Lk. 24:27  “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Jn. 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jn. 5:44  “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?”

Jn. 6:29  “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom He hath sent.”

Acts 2:38  “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Acts 3:19  “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

Acts 5:31  “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”

Acts 8:22  “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.”

Acts 11:18  “Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.”

Acts 11:21  “And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.”

Acts 16:31  “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

Acts 11:17-18  “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?  When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.”

Acts 19:4  “Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

Acts 19:18  “And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.”

Acts 20:21  “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Acts 26:18  “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me [Christ].”

Acts 26:20  “That they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.”

Rom. 10:10  “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

2 Cor. 7:10  “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

2 Tim. 2:25  “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;”

2 Pet. 3:9  “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Heb. 6:1  “…the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God…”

Heb. 11:31  “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.”

James 4:8  “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”

James 5:19-20  “He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

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Articles

1600’s

Ball, John – 2nd pt., ch. 5, p. 349  of A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace  (London, 1645)

“…the doubt touching the precedency of faith and repentance may be easily determined.  For if faith be taken largely or generally for a belief of the promise, if we repent and receive it, then faith is before repentance: for there can be no turning without hope of pardon, nor coming home by hearty sorrow, without some expectation of mercy [see WCF 15.2 & WSC 87].  Thus the exhortations run, ‘Turn unto the Lord, for He is merciful and gracious.’  ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.’

But if faith be taken more strictly, for that faith or belief whereby we receive, embrace, or rest upon the promise of God in Christ Jesus for pardon and forgiveness, then repentance goes before pardon: for no remission is promised to be enjoyed but upon condition of repentance…

If repentance be necessary to Justification, of necessity it must go before justifying faith; because faith and justification are immediately coupled together.  It is impossible to come unto Christ without repentance…  Coming unto Christ is a lively motion of the soul, wherein arising from sin, it draws nigh or approaches unto Christ, that in Him it might be satisfied.  The motion is one, but the points are two.  For in drawing nigh unto Christ, the soul arises from sin: which may be called repentance.”

Ambrose, Isaac – pp. 29-30  of ‘The New Birth’  in Prima the First Things...  (London, 1650)

“…repentance is taken sometimes largely and sometimes strictly: By this distinction it may easily appear how sorrow goes before repentance and how repentance goes before faith.  Indeed, for the latter is the great controversy, but some reconcile it thus: Repentance has two parts, the aversion of the soul from sin, and the conversion of the soul to God; the latter part of it is only an effect of faith, the former part of it, viz. the turning of the soul from sin is also an effect, but not only an effect, for it is begun before faith, though it be not ended till our life end.

Some object that God works repentance and faith together: But we dispute not how God works them, but how the soul acts them; not which is in the soul first, but which appears out of the soul first: neither is it any new thing in philosophy to say those causes which produce an effect, though they be in time together, yet are mutually before one another in order of nature, in diverse respects to their several causalities.

Thus a man must have repentance before he have saving and justifying faith; and yet a man must have faith before the work of repentance be perfect in the soul.  As we maintain repentance to be a precedent work, so we deny it not to be a subsequent effect: Sorrow is before the birth too, as the apostle intimates, 2 Cor. 7:10, ‘Godly sorrow works repentance,’ that is, sorrow prepares a man for repentance, it goes afore it and prepares for it. And now it is that God’s spirit begins to renew his heart…”

Witsius, Herman – ch. 11, ‘Whether Repentance Precedes the Remission of Sins?’ [Yes]  in Conciliatory or Irenical Animadversions on the Controversies Agitated in Britain: under the Unhappy names of Antinomians and Neonomians  (Glasgow, 1807), pp. 119-121

Witsius speaks of repentance as a ‘disposing condition’ of justification and the remission of sins.  That is, it is a non-meritorious, disposition that is an antecedent condition for Justification to take place (it being Scripturally required that for the remission of sins, one must repent).

Clark, Smauel – ch. 16, ‘Concerning the Order of Justification’  in Scripture-Justification, or a Discourse of Justification, according to the Evidence of Scripture-Light  (London: S. Bridge, 1698), pp. 83-84

Clark (1626-1701) was an English nonconformist, puritan minister who wrote a commentary on the Bible.  He followed in the trajectory of Baxter.

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1700’s

Boston, Thomas – ‘Whether or not repentance be necessary in order to the obtaining of the pardon of sin?’  in Miscellaneous Questions  at Monergism

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2000’s

Ramsey, D. Patrick – ‘Faith & Repentance’  (2019)  7 paragraphs

Corley, Brandon – ‘On the Order of Faith & Repentance’  (2024)

“Following Boston, I defend the following: there is a legal repentance which precedes faith and an evangelical repentance which follows faith.  Therefore repentance may be said to either precede or follow faith in different senses.”

Corley also quotes or references Aquinas, William Ames, Samuel Rutherford, John Owen, John Brown of Wamphray and Samuel Willard.

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Book

2000’s

Beeke, Joel & Paul Smalley – Prepared by Grace, for Grace: The Puritans on God’s Ordinary Way of Leading Sinners to Christ  (RHB)  297 pp.

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Quotes

Order of

Tyndale
Colloquy of Regensberg
Calvin
Bullinger
Ursinus
Zanchi
Pareus
Perkins
Rollock
J. Downame
Bucanus
Zarnovecius
Trelcatius
Sclater
Taylor
Elton
Walaeus
Burton
Byfield
Alsted
Ames
Wendelin
Forbes
Alting
Collinges
Ball
Spanheim Sr.
Voet
Rutherford
Maresius
A. Burgess
Leigh
Amyrauld
Scrivener
Vincent
Baxter
Le Blanc
Manton
Corbet
Mastricht
Witsius
Fentiman

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1500’s

William Tyndale

An Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue...  Parker Society (d. 1536; Cambridge Univ. Press, 1850)

Answer to the 2nd Book, p. 111

“…and the Scripture says, that we be justified at the repentance of the heart, through Christ’s blood…”

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Answer to 4th Book, pp. 195-96

“Note now the order: first God gives me light to see the goodness and righteousness of the law, and mine own sin and unrighteousness; out of which knowledge springs repentance.  Now repentance teaches me not that the law is good, and I evil; but a light that the Spirit of God has given me, out of which light repentances springs.

The the same Spirit works in mine heart trust and confidence, to believe the mercy of God and his truth, that He will do as He has promised; which belief saves me.  And immediately out of that trust springs love toward the law of God again.  And whatsoever a man works of any other love than this, it pleases not God, nor is that love godly.

Now love does not receive this mercy, but faith only, out of which faith love springs; by which love I pour out again upon my neighbor that goodness which I have received of God by faith.  Hereof ye see that I cannot be justified without repentance; and yet repentance justifies me not.  And hereof ye see that I cannot have a faith to be justified and saved, except love spring thereof immediately; and yet love justifies me not before God.
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Hereof ye see what faith it is that justifies us.  The faith in Christ’s blood, of a repenting heart toward the law, does justify us only; and not all manner [of] faiths.”

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Regensburg Agreement of 1541

Intro

This agreement in Bavaria, historically known as the Colloquy of Ratisbon, involved the negotiators and theologians:

Protestants: Bucer, Melanchthon, Pistorius the elder

Romanist: Contarini, Gropper, Pflug, Eck

The article on justification (from which the below comes) encountered great opposition, especially from Eck, but an agreement was finally arrived at.

Calvin warmly welcomed this agreement (Letter to Farel, 11.5.1541).  See Wikipedia: ‘Diet of Regensburg (1541)’.

Source: Justification by Faith in Catholic-Protestant Dialogue. An Evangelical Assessment, tr. Anthony N. S. Lane  (London: 2002), pp. 233-37

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Article 5

“3. Likewise, it is quite clear that adults do not obtain these blessings of Christ, except by the prevenient movement of the Holy Spirit, by which their mind and will are moved to hate sin.  For, as St. Augustine says, it is impossible to begin a new life if we do not repent of the former one.  Likewise, in the last chapter of Luke [24:47], Christ commands that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be preached in his name.  Also, John the Baptist, sent to prepare the way of the Lord, preached repentance, saying [Matt. 3:2]: ‘Repent [Poenitentiam agite], for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near.’

Next, man’s mind is moved toward God by the Holy Spirit through Christ and this movement is through faith.  Through this man’s mind believes with certainty all that God has transmitted [tradita], and also with full certainty and without doubt assents to the promises made to us by God who, as stated in the psalm [144:13], is faithful in all his words. From there he acquires confidence [fiduciam] on account of God’s promise, by which he has pledged that he will remit sins freely and that he will adopt as children those who believe in Christ, those I say who repent of their former life.  By this faith, he is lifted up to God by the Holy Spirit and so he receives the Holy Spirit, remission of sins, imputation of righteousness and countless other gifts.

4. So it is a reliable and sound doctrine that the sinner is justified by living and efficacious faith, for through it we are pleasing and acceptable to God on account of Christ.   And living faith is what we call the movement of the Holy Spirit, by which those who truly repent of their old life are lifted up to God and truly appropriate the mercy promised in Christ, so that they now truly recognize that they have received the remission of sins and reconciliation on account of the merits of Christ, through the free [gratuita] goodness of God, and cry out to God: Abba Father’.
…

10. Now those who say that we are justified by faith alone should at the same time teach the doctrine of repentance, of the fear of God, of the judgement of God and of good works, so that all the chief points of the preaching may remain firm, as Christ said: ‘preaching repentance and the remission of sins in my name’ [Luke 24:47].  And that is to prevent this way of speaking [i.e. sola fide] from being understood other than has been previously mentioned.”

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John Calvin

Institutes of the Christian Religion  trans. Henry Beveridge  (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845)

vol. 2, bk. 3, ch. 3, sect. 20, pp. 173-74

“20. Moreover, as hatred of sin, which is the beginning of repentance, first gives us access to the knowledge of Christ, who manifests Himself to none but miserable and afflicted sinners, groaning, labouring, burdened, hungry, and thirsty, pining away with grief and wretchedness, so if we would stand in Christ, we must aim at repentance, cultivate it during our whole lives, and continue it to the last.

Christ came to call sinners, but to call them to repentance.  He was sent to bless the unworthy, but by “turning away every one” “from his iniquities.”  The Scripture is full of similar passages.  Hence, when God offers forgiveness of sins, He in return usually stipulates for repentance, intimating that his mercy should induce men to repent.  “Keep ye judgment,” says He, “and do justice: for my salvation is near to come.” (Isa. 56:1)  Again, “The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.” (Isa. 59:20)  Again,

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him.” (Isa. 55:6-7)

“Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” (Acts 2:38; 3:19)

Here, however, it is to be observed, that repentance is not made a condition in such a sense as to be a foundation for meriting pardon; nay, it rather indicates the end at which they must aim if they would obtain favor, God having resolved to take pity on men for the express purpose of leading them to repent.”

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vol. 3, bk. 4

ch. 15, sect. 17, p. 341

“Wherefore, when the Lord invites the Jewish people to repentance, He gives no injunction concerning another circumcision, though (as we have said) they were circumcised by a wicked and sacrilegious hand, and had long lived in the same impiety.  All He urges is conversion of heart.

For how much soever the covenant might have been violated by them, the symbol of the covenant always remained, according to the appointment of the Lord, firm and inviolable.  Solely, therefore, on the condition of repentance, were they restored to the covenant which God had once made with them in circumcision, though this which they had received at the hand of a covenant-breaking priest, they had themselves as much as in them lay polluted and extinguished.”

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ch. 16, pp. 373-74

“24…  It is right that he who, in adult age, is admitted to the fellowship of a covenant by one from whom he had hitherto been alienated, should previously learn its conditions; but it is not so with the infant born to him.  He, according to the terms of the promise, is included in the promise by hereditary right from his mother’s womb.  Or, to state the matter more briefly and more clearly. If the children of believers, without the help of understanding, are partakers of the covenant, there is no reason why they should be denied the sign, because they are unable to swear to its stipulations…

But the child descended from unbelieving parents is deemed an alien to the covenant until he is united to God by faith.  Hence, it is not strange that the sign is withheld when the thing signified would be vain and fallacious.  In that view, Paul says that the gentiles, so long as they were plunged in idolatry, were strangers to the covenant (Eph. 2:11).

The whole matter may, if I mistake not, be thus briefly and clearly expounded: Those who, in adult age, embrace the faith of Christ, having hitherto been aliens from the covenant, are not to receive the sign of baptism without previous faith and repentance.  These alone can give them access to the fellowship of the covenant, whereas children, deriving their origin from Christians, as they are immediately on their birth received by God as heirs of the covenant, are also to be admitted to baptism.”

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Henry Bullinger

The Decades  ed. Thomas Harding  (1549; Cambridge: Parker Society, 1850), vol. 3, 4^th Decade, 2^nd Sermon, ‘Of Repentance & the Causes thereof…’, pp. 62-63  Bullinger declared agnostism on the issue, yet the below, describing order in conversion, is helpful.

“…the acknowledging of sins does not of itself obtain grace or forgiveness of sins, even as the bare acknowledging of a disease is not the remedy for the same: for even damned men also do acknowledge their sins, and yet are not therefore healed.  The acknowledging of sin is a certain preparative unto faith, as the acknowledging of a disease does minister occasion to think upon a remedy.

To this at this present we add that not the very fear of God, how sincere soever it be, not the very sorrow conceived for our sins, how great soever it be, nor the very humiliation, how submiss soever it be, do of themselves make us acceptable to God: but rather that they prepare an entrance and make a way for us unto the knowledge of Christ, and so consequently do lead us to Christ Himself being incarnate and crucified for us and our redemption, and lay us upon Christ alone, by Him to be quickened and purely cleansed.”

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Zachary Ursinus

A Collection of Certain Learned Discourses...  (d. 1583; Oxford, 1600), ‘A Preface of an Oration…  To whom the Benefit of the Death and Resurrection of Chrsit Appertains…’, p. 134

“Wherefore the Gospel dispossesses all unbelievers of Christ’s benefits, not only by a flat exclusion, but also by positive virtue of that condition of faith and repentance, by which He promises expressly or covertly his benefits unto men, and which it appears is never found in the reprobate, that is, such as do persist, and will still persist in their impiety.”

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Jerome Zanchi

Confession of the Christian Religion…  (1586; Cambridge, 1599), ch. 18. ’Of Repentance’, pp. 142-45

“…and first of repentance the continual and inseparable companion of faith.  For albeit it be daily made more perfect after justification, yet because no man is justified without repentance, and the beginning thereof goes before justification, therefore we have purposed in this first place to declare what our belief is concerning the same.

I. To Justification, and therefore to the communion with Christ, repentance is necessary.

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David Pareus

‘A Piece of a Speech concerning that Question, To whom properly do the benefits of Christ’s sufferings and death belong?  And how Christ is said to die for all…’ (1590)  in Zachary Ursinus, Sum of Christian Religion…  (London: Young, 1645)

p. 808

“Therefore, the Gospel debars from the benefits of Christ all infidels, not only by a plain exclusion, but also by that condition of faith and repentance, under which, either expresly or tacitly, God promises to men the benefits of Christ, and which is never to be found in those that persevere in sin.”

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p. 810

“So Christ, ‘He that believes in the Son, has life eternal.’  And Peter, ‘To Him bare all the prophets witness, that all who believe in Him, shall receive remission of sins through his name.’  There is the like reason of all other evangelical promises: for they have annexed expressly or tacitly the condition of faith and repentance;”

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William Perkins

A Reformed Catholic...  (Cambridge, 1598), 3rd Point, Certainty of Salvation, ‘Our Reasons to the Contrary’, pp. 56-57

“3rd Exception: They [Papists] say, we are indeed to believe our salvation on God’s part: but we must needs doubt in regard of ourselves: because the promises of remission of sins are given upon condition of man’s faith and repentance.  Now we cannot (say they) be assured that we have true faith and repentance, because we may lie in secret sins, and so want that indeed which we suppose ourselves to have.

Answer: I say again, he that does truly repent and believe, does by God’s grace know that he does repent and believe: for else Paul would never have said, ‘Prove yourselves whether you be in the faith or not:’ and the same apostle says, 2 Cor. 12, ‘We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are given of God:’ which things are not only life everlasting, but justification, sanctification, and such like.  And as for secret sins, they cannot make our repentance void: for he that truly repents of his known sins, repents also of such as be unknown, and receives the pardon of them all.  God requires not an express or special repentance of unknown sins; but accepts it as sufficient, if we repent of them generally: as David says, Ps. 19. ‘Who knows the errors of this life: forgive me my secret sins.’  And whereas they add that faith and repentance must be sufficient, I answer that the sufficiency of our faith and repentance stands in the truth and not in the measure or perfection thereof; and the truth of both where they are, is certainly discerned.”

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Of Conscience, ch. 3, Of the kinds of conscience: and of conscience-regenerate, p. 880  appended to A Golden Chain...  (Cambridge, 1600)

“Lastly I answer that the ground of the former objection is erroneous, namely that the promise of salvation depends on the condition of our works: because the Scripture says it is made and accomplished on man’s part freely.  I grant indeed that to the promise there is annexed a condition of faith: yet faith must not here be considered as a work, but as an instrument apprehending Christ with his benefits: and withal, repentance with the fruits thereof are on our part required, yet no otherwise but as they are necessary consequents of faith and the signs and documents thereof.”

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Robert Rollock

Select Works of Robert Rollock  ed. Gunn  (d. 1599; Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1849), vol. 1, A Treatise of God’s Effectual Calling, ch. 33, ‘Of Charity or Love’, p. 237

“For which cause principally, I thought good to speak of it [love] briefly in this treatise, after faith and hope, for that faith, wherein we say consists the second part of our effectual calling, has these for inseparable companions, faith, hope, and repentance; after which follows our justification by order, not of time, but of nature.”

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1600’s

John Downame

The Christian Warfare…  (London, 1604), bk. 2, ch. 12, ‘The reasons alledged against the assurance ofour salvation, answered’, p. 271

“I answer: though the Lord give us no particular promise in his Word, yet He gives us that which is equally effectual, and of like force; namely his general promise without any limitation, exception or condition, but the condition of faith and repentance, with a commaundment to apply the same.

And because naturally we are unable in ourselves to perform this, therefore He has ordained the ministry of the Word, and the use of the sacraments, which He makes effectual by the inward operation of his Spirit, for the begetting and confirming of our faith, and stirring us up to repentance; which being wrought in us, we may as certainly be persuaded that the general promises belong unto us, as if they were made unto us particularly and by name.”

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William Bucanus

Institutions of Christian Religion…  (London: Snowdon, 1606), 30^th Place, ‘Of Repentance…’, ‘Whether of these goes before, faith or repentance?’ p. 313

“Whether of these goes before, faith or repentance?

Whereas we have said before that repentance is sometimes used by a synecdoche for that which they call contrition, and have showed that contrition is legal or evangelical, we have placed faith as it were in the middle, between the former of those sorrows which comes of the acknowledgement of our sins and the accusations of the conscience, or which proceeds from the Law, and the latter, which proceeds from the Gospel, for godly sorrow is an effect of faith as well as joy and gladness of conscience.”

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Gregorius Zarnovecius

Apokatastasis, sive vindiciae pro articulo plane fundamentali religionis Christianae de planissima satisfactione  (Danzig, 1607), pp. 53-54, trans. Baxter, Baxter’s Confession (1655), ch. 10, sect. 3, pp. 388-90  Zarnovecius (1528-1621) was a Polish reformed theologian, here responding to Socinus, the father of Socinianism.  Note: Zarnovecius’s calling repentance an instrumental cause of justification is not standard or recommended, but can be taken in the best sense possible and overlooked.

“By these and other Scripture-sentences, everyone easily sees that there are two conditions given man that he may escape the judgment of God’s justice and obtain the promise of mercy.  One is the blessed seed, Christ, and his death and sacrifice.  The other is faith in Christ and repentance.

There is great difference between these conditions: one is simple, not conditionate, and (as they say) simply given, without respect to another dignity (or worthiness); but the other is conditionate, and given secundum quid [in a certain way], that is, receiving all its authority and certainty from the former: to wit, repentance and faith in Christ.

The first condition depends on no other, but is of itself, and from itself, authentical, and gives from itself to the other all its force, virtue, and dignity.  Hence the first is more principal and the chief; but the other is less principal and viler.  This greater or less principality consists in this, that the first is the cause-efficient of expiation and security from God’s justice, and of obtaining mercy.  And the latter is an instrumental cause, or organ of acceptance, applying reconciliation and mercy obtained.  That respects justice; this mercy.

By that satisfaction is given to the just Judge, without the hurt or diminution of his justice, as Himself proclaims from heaven, Mt. 3:17 and 17:5, “in whom I am well pleased,” or “in whom I am appeased,” or rest satisfied.  But by that other, to wit, faith and repentance, man satisfies himself in his own conscience, that he may consist without any offence from the justice of God.

As therefore it is a heinous error of them who confound these conditions in the business of justification, so peculiarly does Socinus err and break forth into blasphemy, while, turning his eye to this condition—to wit, faith and repentance, which is the less principal—and resting on this alone, he affirms it to be the efficient and meritorious cause of obtaining mercy.  But the other more principal, without which this would be as a body without a soul, or a shell without a kernel, he blindly passes over and neglects, as if he saw it not.

For if only bare faith in Christ and repentance would suffice to obtain God’s mercy, of what use, I pray you, was that former condition premised to this? to wit, the promise and exhibition of the Holy One, and of his death and sacrifice, and the express injunction that men’s eyes and faith be directed to this holy seed.  Socinus therefore does violence to God, disjoining what He has conjoined; and that which God would have put first, he does not so much as let it follow after, but endeavours wholly to remove and blot it out of the memory of men.”

.

Lucas Trelcatius

A Brief Institution of the Common Places of Sacred Divinity  2nd ed.  (London, 1610), bk. 2, Justification, Confuting Part, 3rd Argument, p. 251

“The second head is the will of God, who will have us justified with the alone condition of faith.  The Adversary [Bellarmine] answers that it contradicts the Scripture, which lays down also the condition of repentance.  Answer:

1. Repentance is the condition of faith and of the person justified, but not properly of justification.

2. It is one thing to treat of the condition of justification, but another thing of the cause and instrument thereof: for a condition notes a consequent, or effect: but a cause, the antecedent or efficient.”

.

William Sclater

A Key to the Key of Scripture: or an Exposition with Notes upon the Epistle to the Romans...  (London, 1611), on Rom. 2:14-15, p. 251

“The good quiet conscience is that that rightly excuses in Christ Jesus, upon privity of performing the conditions of remission, faith and repentance, this that Solomon calls a continual feast (Prov. 15:15), the jewel of a Christian, and as one well terms it, Heaven upon earth.”

.

Thomas Taylor

A Commentary upon the Epistle of St. Paul written to Titus…  (Cambridge, Greene, 1612), ch. 3, p. 642

“…for nothing is promised them in the Word, seeing all the promises go with condition of faith and repentance, which they want [lack]: and can we marvel if the seal do him no good that has no name, no right in the covenant.”

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Edward Elton

An Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians  (London: Griffin, 1615), on Col. 2:18, p. 704

“Objection [of Papists]: But the minister may mistake the matter [in assuring a person of salvation].

Answer: True, if he speak absolutely, but if he speak upon condition of faith and true repentance he may thereupon assure a man of salvation: he may say, ‘Believe thou and repent truly, and thou shalt be saved.’

If a king should publish and make known that whosoever of such a city shall come and do such a thing, shall be thus or thus rewarded, and give charge to some to make it known to that city, shall we say that any having authority to publish the king’s pleasure, does mistake the matter in so doing, or that any of that place, to whom it should be said, go thou and do that which the king has appointed, and he thereupon going, and doing the thing appointed, does presume to take on him to know more than he ought touching the king’s pleasure?  Surely no.”

.

Anthony Walaeus

Theological Theses on the Efficacious Vocation of the Sinner to Salvation  trans. AI  (Leiden: Marcus, 1620), p. 6

“XXX. The demand is ‘repent’ (Mt. 3:2), and “believe in my Son whom I have sent” (Mt. 17:5; Jn. 3:16).  Man indeed fulfills this condition, but in such a way that God has already worked that very thing in him before, and thus being converted, he converts himself; having been made faithful, he believes.”

.

Henry Ainsworth

ed. Samuel White, The Orthodox Foundation of Religion long since collected by that judicious and elegant man, Mr. Henry Ainsworth  (d. 1622; London: Sparke, 1641), pt. 2, Mystery of Piety, p. 75

“And the covenants of God with men are of two sorts:

1. Legal, when upon condition of present and continued obedience to all his precepts, He promises life eternal.

2. Evangelical, when upon condition of repentance, faith and newness of life, He promises forgiveness of sins, and eternal life through Christ.”

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Henry Burton

A Plea to an Appeal traversed Dialogue-wise  (London: W. Jones, 1626), p. 36

“True it is, that without faith and repentance, there is no salvation; and a man dying impenitent, is damned.  But, we must know that as faith and repentance are conditions, which God has ordained, and so requires on our part, though Himself give them, and work them in us; so they are a part of those means which God has appointed to attain the end of our salvation.  And the meanes are such, so fixed and established of God, as they shall always attend upon his purpose and pleasure in our election to grace and glory.”

.

Nicholas Byfield

The Rule of Faith, or an Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed…  (London: Stephens, 1626), 5th Article, p. 472

“Fourthly, that the principal work for the highest ministers in the Church to do is to preach the Gospel.

Fifthly, that the doctrine of our reconciliation with God in Jesus Christ, is the principal doctrine to be taught or learned.

Sixtly, that grace and mercy in Jesus Christ from God is offered to every creature upon condition of faith and repentance: None is excepted.”

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Johann Heinrich Alsted

Distinctions through Universal Theology, taken out of the Canon of the Sacred Letters & Classical Theologians  (Frankfurt: 1626), ch. 21, ‘Repentance’, p. 94

“Repentance [poenitentia] is true or false, internal or external, major or minor, preceeding or following faith.”

.

Theological Questions Briefly Set Forth & Exposited  (Frankfurt, 1627), 29.‘Of Repentance [Poenitentia]’, p. 217

“6. Whether repentance is prior to faith?  Initial repentance is prior; continued [repentance] is posterior [to faith].”

.

William Ames

The Marrow of Theology  3rd ed.  tr. John Eusden  (Labyrinth Press, 1983), bk. 1, ch. 26, ‘Calling’, pp. 158-60

“19. Because of this receiving, calling is termed conversion, Acts 26:20.  All who obey the call of God are completely turned from sin to grace and from the world to follow God in Christ.  It is also called regeneration or the very beginning of a new life, a new creation, a new creature–and it is often described in the Scriptures, Jn. 1:13; 3:6; 1 Jn. 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:23 and 2:2…

20. As for man, receiving is either passive or active.  Phil. 3:12, ‘I apprehend, because I have been apprehended.’

21. The passive receiving of Christ is the process by which a spiritual principle of grace is generated in the will of man.  Eph. 2:5, ‘He has quickened.’
…

30. Repentance has the same causes and principles as faith, for they are both free gifts of God.  Eph. 2:8, ‘Faith is the gift of God;’ 2 Tim. 2:25, ‘Whether God may at some time give them repentance.’  They have the same subject; both have their seat in the heart or will of man. Rom. 10:9; 1 Kn. 8:48, ‘With the heart man believes.’  ‘They shall come back with all their heart.’

They are also begotten at the same time.  But, first, they have diverse objects, for faith is properly directed to Christ and through Christ to God, but repentance is directed to God Himself who has been offended by the sin. Acts 20:21, ‘Turning towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Second, they have diverse ends, for faith properly seeks reconciliation with God but repentance compliance with the will of God. Rom. 3:25, ‘A reconciliation through faith in his blood;’ Acts 26:20, ‘That they should…  turn to God doing works fit for repentance.’

31. Repentance, so far as it comprises the care, anxiety, and terror connected with the law, precedes faith in order of nature, as a preparing and disposing cause, and is even found in the unregenerate; but insofar as it turns man away effectively and genuinely from sin, by which God is offended, it follows faith and depends upon it as an effect upon its cause and so belongs to those who have faith.
…

34. Repentance is likely to be known before faith, because a sinner cannot easily persuade himself that he is reconciled to God in Christ before he feels himself to have left those sins which separated him from God.”

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Marcus F. Wendelin

Christian Theology  3rd ed.  (1634), Gospel-Offer & Covenant of Grace  Wendelin (1584-1652)

“The commandment to embrace the Mediator by faith also conjoins repentance: according to that saying of John the Baptist, Mk. 1:15, Repent ye, and believe the Gospel. Thus God Himself from heaven reveals the Mediator, and commands that He be embraced by true faith, Mt. 17:5, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. The promise is expressed, Jn. 3:16, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
…

The external call, which ordinarily is made through the ministers and preachers of the word, concerns adults, and not the elect alone, even if these primarily, but also reprobates, to whom God also reveals the Mediator, and, should they repent, commands them to expect life from Him: and that unto this end, that, with the condition of repentance and faith neglected, without which salvation through Christ come to no one, they are made ἀναπολόγητοι or inexcusable, and understand the just cause of damnation.”

.

William Forbes

Considerationes Modestae et Pacificae Controversiarum de Justificatione...  4th ed.  (d. 1634; 1658; Oxford: Parker, 1850), vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 3, p. 39

“Concerning penitence, which embraces in itself the fear of God, and almost all other acts, there occur (as we have shown before) very many passages in Scripture, in which it is set forth as a necessary means through which to obtain pardon of sins, or (what in fact is the same thing) as a condition under which God (ultimately of his own gratuitous promise) forgives sin.  Who will deny that these in some sense have the nature of a cause, except he who is more pleased with the pugnacity of disputing, and the desire of cavilling, than with the love of the truth?  How often is forgiveness of sins described in Scripture as the effect or fruit of penitence? (Isa. 1:16-19; 56:4-12; Jer. 18:7-8; Joel 2:12-14; Jonah 3:10, etc.)”

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Henry Alting

Common Places, pt. 2, p. 688  trans. Richard Baxter, Richard Baxter’s Confession of his Faith…  (London: 1655), ch. 3, p. 408

“The gospel does not promise salvation on condition of good works as causes effecting it, but on condition of faith and repentance: the one as an instrument of accepting remission of sins the other as a causa sine qua non [casue without which: nothing]: nor on condition of such repentance or new obedience as is perfect, but such as is by grace begun.”

.

A Method of Didactic Theology  (Amsterdam, 1656; 1662), Locus 16, ‘The Gift of Repentance [Resipiscentiae] & Faith by Effectual Calling’, p. 100

“Hence it [repentance, resipiscentia] partly precedes faith and partly follows it.  It precedes with regard to the knowledge of sin and punishment, contrition from each sense and the despairing of one’s own powers (Isa. 66:1-2; Mt. 5:2-6; Acts 2:37).  It follows [faith] with regard to conversion, or the change from bad to good (2 Cor. 7:10; Acts 20:21; 26:18).”

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John Collinges

The Spouse’s Hidden Glory & Faithful Leaning upon her Well-Beloved, wherein is laid down the soul’s glory in Christ and the way by which the soul comes to Christ, delivered in two lecture sermons…  (London: 1646)

pp. 25-26

“We deny that regenerating grace is infused into slothful men, but into souls subdued by God’s Word and law, and after a manner disposed by the foregoing actions; yet we say that even these forgoing actions have their first motions from God; and the question is whether God does not first work a sight and sense of sin and an humiliation for it by his exciting grace, before He comes with his regenerating, quickening and saving grace into the soul; we say He does in his ordinary course of his dispensations.  (Only I must here be safely understood that I speak according to man’s apprehension; for in respect of God, nothing is first or last; He works all in an instant, all graces together in the soul;

but the question lies not whether God works the habit of repentance before the habit of faith, or no; for without question He works together all his works; but whether God makes humiliation act before faith, which we say he does.  Esau and Jacob may be in their mother’s womb together, but Esau may come out and be seen in the world before Jacob: yet not tying up the Almighty to this method, who can and will work any way, even which way it pleases Him:”

.

pp. 46-49

“2. The wilderness of sorrow, contrition, repentance, call it what you please, though I know the latter term ‘repentance’ be controverted by some new opinionists.

Yet I know not why we may not say that a man may repent without saving grace.  And for that repentance which they say must be the effect of faith, if I were a schoolman, I should rather call it godly sorrow, but I desire not to play upon terms: and for their defining repentance to be a sorrow for sin out of the sense of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ, it is a definition they have devised for their own purpose; and give them their premises according as they please, they would be poor logicians if they made the conclusion to displease them: for from hence they argue, if the love of God be the ground and cause of repentance (viz. the love of God manifested and sensible to us, we having apprehended it by faith), the special love of God, then faith must go before repentance, viz. an apprehension of God’s saving love and reliance upon it.

But I answer: the definition which they give us of repentance is deceitful; it is a definition of a species instead of a genus (as we say in logic).  As some unwary divines define faith, to be an assurance of God’s love in Jesus Christ: this is true, but this is a faith of the highest stamp, and many a precious soul is without this faith to his dying day.  Faith of adherence is another thing; as if I should go to define a man to be a reasonable creature, skilled in all sorts of learning.  Any man would understand me, that I did not go about to describe a man in general, but this or that particular man.

And I say once again, if I were a schoolman, I should rather call this a godly sorrow, and define repentance in general to be a sorrow for sin, there is the genus and differentia: or if there be required a fuller definition with the ground, though I conceive such a definition would be more proper to give of repentance in its several kinds than of repentance in general; yet we may give it thus, it is a sorrow for sin, arising out of the fear of God’s wrath or apprehensions of God’s love.

And I know not why we may not say that a man may repent without saving grace.  Bishop [John] Davenant says, a man by exciting the grace of God, may peccata propria considerare, ad sensum eorundem expavescere et liberationem ab hoc metu exoptare, tremble for his sins and mourn for them, and desire deliverance out of them (Mk. 1:15; Lk. 17:3-4; Eze. 14:6); and if this be not repentance, I know not what is (not taking repentance for the whole work of conversion, as sometimes it is taken in Scripture), but taking repentance for a weariness of sin and sorrow for it.

But those of our brethren here (that are so afraid of Babylon that they will run quite beyond Jerusalem, so afraid of being Arminians or Papists, to ascribe any desert to duties, or tie that God has to concur with our duties, that they are resolved they will not be sober Protestants: so afraid of being heterodox, that to avoid it, they will not be orthodox) tell us that this is a legal, not a saving repentance; it sounds ill to distinguish between a legal and saving repentance.

I will digress a little to rend this fig-leaf, being all they have to cover the nakedness of their opinion: I would fain understand that term ‘saving repentance’ in what sense they take it; the Scripture warrants no such distinction.

1. If they mean by ‘saving repentance’, such a repentance as merits salvation, or such a repentance as God is tied necessarily to concur with, with his saving grace, I say, no repentance can be saving repentance.  No repentance (says learned Davenant) can so dispose the heart, ut ex merito congrui teneatur Deus gratiam cuiquam infundere.

2. If they mean by ‘saving repentance’, such a repentance as of itself, without any more ado, shall be sufficient to salvation: I say again, no repentance can be called a saving repentance.  For without faith it is impossible to please God.

3. If they mean by ‘saving repentance’, a repentance that conduces to salvation; I say, this kind of repentance (let them call it legal or what they please) is a saving repentance.

4. If they mean by ‘saving repentance’, such a repentance as is wrought ordinarily in such as shall be saved, I say, in that sense this repentance is a saving repentance.

Now, whether it ought not to be preached, as well from law as gospel motives, is a question that lies not in my way to determine, only I hear my Savior (though He were Gospel itself) preaching it from a law-motive, Lk. 13:2, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”  Let the unprejudiced reader judge if damnation be not there preached as a terrible motive to repentance: surely I then may learn to preach from the best of preachers and preach, ‘Repent, or you will go to hell; repent, or you will be damned,’ as well as ‘Repent, because God has loved you:’ yea, and John too preached repentance as well, because the axe was laid to the root of the tree and whatsoever tree brought not forth good fruit should be hewn down and cast into the fire, as because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.  I dare not learn contrary to Christ and the Baptist’s copy; I will preach mercy and judgment: the law and the gospel go well together; I will not be accursed for separating what God has joined.  But

5. Lastly, I conceive, we cannot call any repentance saving repentance till the work of conversion be fully wrought in our souls.  Nay, I make a question whether any man (without the grace of assurance) can properly call his repentance ‘saving repentance’, till he comes into Heaven.  And for my own part, I am full in the negative.

But I have digressed too far, to convince some (who I fear are not so willing to suffer the word of conviction, as I to speak it.)  We left the spouse in the second wilderness, the wilderness of sorrow; it is time we now return to her, and comfort her, and show you how she comes out of that, leaning upon her Beloved.”

.

John Ball

A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace…  (London: 1645), ch. 3, ‘Of the Covenant of Grace in General’, pp. 17-21

“So the pardon of sin is given of grace, and not for works, though pardon be granted only to the penitent, and faith on our part, a lively, unfained and working faith be required to receive the promise.
…

The stipulation required is that we take God to be our God, that is, that we repent of our iniquities, believe the promises of mercy and embrace them with the whole heart, and yield love, fear, reverence, worship, and obedience unto Him, according to the prescript rule of his Word.  Repentance is called for in this Covenant, as it sets forth the subject capable of salvation by faith, but is itself only an acknowledgement of sin, no healing of our wound, or cause of our acquittance.

The feeling of pain and sickness causes a man to desire and seek remedy, but it is no remedy itself. (Lk. 13:5; Acts 11:18; 2 Cor. 7, 10; Eze. 18:27)  Hunger and thirst make a man to desire and seek for food, but a man is not fed by being hungry.  By repentance we know ourselves, we feel our sickness, we hunger and thirst after grace, but the hand which we stretch forth to receive it, is faith alone, without which repentance is nothing but darkness and despair.  Repentance is the condition of faith and the qualification of a person capable of salvation: but faith alone is the cause of justification and salvation, on our part required.  It is a penitent and petitioning faith, whereby we receive the promises of mercy, but we are not justified partly by prayer, partly by repentance, and partly by faith, but by that faith which stirs up godly sorrow for sin, and enforces us to pray for pardon and salvation.
…

In the Covenant of works, works were required as the cause of life and happiness: but in the Covenant of grace, though repentance be necessary and must accompany faith, yet not repentance, but faith only is the cause of life.  The cause not efficient, as works should have been, if man had stood in the former Covenant, but instrumental only: for it is impossible that Christ, the death and blood of Christ, and our faith should be together the efficient or procuring causes of justification or salvation.
…

If then, when we speak of the conditions of the covenant of grace, by “condition” we understand whatsoever is required on our part, as precedent, concomitant, or subsequent to justification, repentance, faith, and obedience are all conditions; but if by “condition” we understand what is required on our part as the cause of the good promised, though only instrumental, faith or belief in the promises of free mercy is the only condition.
…

In this covenant man promises to repent of his sins, and, repenting, to cleave to the promise of mercy made in Jesus Christ, and in faith to yield willing, cheerful, and continual obedience.”

.

Frederic Spanheim, Sr.

Gospel Doubts…  (1639; Geneva, 1700), vol. 3, Doubt 12, ‘Whether Metanoia [Repentance] is Prior to Faith, or Faith to Repentance?’, p. 25

“Metanoia-inchoate is anterior to faith, completed posterior.  Thus metanoia considered according to the act of contrition is anterior to faith, according to the act of conversion, posterior.  And so in a diverse respect metanoia is and is not anterior to faith, without contradiction.”

.

Gisbert Voet

Disputation 29, ‘On Regeneration’, pt. 1  (1639)  tr. AI by Roman Prestarri  in Select Theological Disputations  (1655), vol. 2, pp. 432-65  Latin  at Confessionally Reformed Theology

“2nd Problem: Whether faith precedes regeneration, at least repentance?

Response: The former is denied; the latter is affirmed concerning faith in the first act, which in the order of nature precedes repentance considered both in the first act and in the second act.

But it is denied concerning faith in the second act, at least the complete or formed second act.  For such faith is necessarily preceded in the order of nature and of time by certain acts of repentance.

This distinction observed will contribute not a little to reconciling the dogmatic and practical theologians.”

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Disputation 30, ‘On Regeneration’, pt. 2  (1639)  tr. AI by Roman Prestarri  in Select Theological Disputations  (1655), vol. 2, pp. 447ff.  Latin  at Confessionally Reformed Theology

“III. What is the cause that among the dogmatic and practical writers so many ἐναντιοφανῆ [enantiophane, apparent contradictions] occur concerning the consequent dependence, order, and succession of acts and effects of regeneration?

Response: Partly that the mode of regeneration is so hidden, and many things escape us, according to that passage John 3:8; partly that the following distinctions are either not expressly observed by all, or are not applied by the reader. They are:

1. The question concerning the order, succession, and consequent dependence of habits or first acts among themselves is one thing; and the question concerning their order and dependence compared with second acts is another. So in turn the question concerning the dependence, succession, and order of second acts among themselves is one thing; and the question concerning their order compared with first acts is another.

2. Again, the question concerning the succession, priority, and posteriority of second acts in themselves is one thing; and the question concerning the succession of the same καθ’ ἡμᾶς [kath’ hēmas, according to us], or in our sense, is another.

So, for example, the second act of faith, which really precedes the second acts of true grief according to God, of desire for grace, and other such motions of repentance, is in our sense and καθ’ ἡμᾶς regarded as posterior, and thus is mostly placed by the Practical writers.

The reason is that those initial acts of faith (which may be called first and primary, unformed, incomplete motions) are so obscure and insensible that they are not perceived or regarded as acts of faith in that haste, in those ὠδῖνες [ōdines, birth pangs] of spiritual birth—although those now completely converted in the second act, and more and more often by the renewed practice of repentance and faith, reading back through the traces and recalling to memory that whole change of the right hand of the Most High, seem to themselves with some mental and as it were twilight evidence and diminished perspicacity to see and observe in that disturbance and commotion the mode, order, leading, and discordant concord of those affections and acts (of hope and despair, joy and grief, fear and confidence, accusation and apology, credulity and doubt, etc., 2 Corinthians 7:11; Romans 7:8–9), and their mutual dependence, promotion, impulse, and excitation—which, however, then when those things were happening they could not distinctly see or judge with certain and resolved knowledge. Not otherwise than a man, thinking back after a disease or its paroxysm, better judges concerning the state of the disease and its various affections and concomitants.

But that Practical writers do not count or scarcely count those unformed, incomplete, and insensible motions of faith (which precede, accompany, and follow the acts of grief, desire, etc., and ἀχωρίστως [achōristōs, inseparably] intermingle themselves with them) among the acts of faith is not surprising. For it happens to them nearly as to physicists, who do not reckon insensible motion or impulse among motions. In the same way astronomers call the solstice the progress of the sun insensible to us.

Finally, the question concerning the order of first or second acts in nature, or as to essence, is one thing; and the question concerning their order in time, or as to existence, is another.

We think these distinctions have their use for explaining and reconciling many things in this matter.”

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9. ‘Justification’, Of Justification in General  in Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 3   Abbr.

“Whether the infusion of grace is required for justification?  It is distinguished.

Whether some movement of free choice and faith is required?  It is affirmed with a distinction.

Whether a movement of free choice contra sin?  It is disintinguished.

Whether the remission of sins is to number the premises and prerequisites of justification?  It is denied.

Whether the infusion of grace is by order of nature first amongst those things which are required for justification?  It is distinguished.
…

Whether inhering righteousness is the cause of justification?  It is denied.
…

Whether the righteousness of the justified is inhering or imputed?  The latter is affirmed contra the Papists.
…

Whether we deny all inherent righteousness?  It is denied.
…

Whether sanctification or regeneration precedes justification, or the contrary?  It is distinguished.
…

Whether it [justification] precedes repentance?  It is distinguished.
…

Whether and in what way the law and penitence are able to be said to concur unto our justification?  It is explained.”

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Samuel Rutherford

Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself  (London: 1647)

pp. 244-45

“Assertion 7.  Not any protestant divines I know make true repentance a work of the Law, going before faith in Christ.

1. The Law speaks not one word of repentance, but says either do or die.  Repentance is an evangelic ingredient in a saint.

2. Christ was made a Prince and exalted to give repentance, Acts 5:31, and the Law, as the Law, has not one word of Christ, though it cannot contradict Christ, except we say that there be two contradictory wills in Christ, which were blasphemy; but some dispositions before conversion I conceive Antinomians yield to us.  For one says, speaking of the manner of his conversion:

‘One main thing, I am sure, was to get some soul-saving-comfort; that moved me to reveal my troubled conscience to godly ministers, and not in general to allay my trouble.’

Yet I can make good from Scripture that this desire can be in no unconverted soul; a physician that mistakes the cure doctrinally will prove a cousening [deceiving] comforter.  And another says:

‘The persons capable of justification are such as truly feel what lost creatures they are in themselves and in all their works: this is all the preparative condition that God requires on our part to this high and heavenly work, for hereby is a man truly humbled in himself, of whom God speaks, saying, ‘I dwell with him that is of an humble spirit, etc. [Isa. 57:15]’

To make persons capable of justification, here is required a true feeling that they are lost in themselves and in all their works.  But this can be no preparative condition of justification, as Eaton says, because:

[1.] True feeling must follow faith, not go before it.

2. And true feeling is proper to justified persons, nothing going before justification, and so, [that] which is found in unjustified persons, can be proper to justified persons only.

3. Antinomians say, ‘Sinners as Sinners, and consequently all sinners’ are to believe justification in Christ, without any foregoing preparation.  This man says, ‘Prepared and feeling persons that are sensible of sin, are only capable of justification.’

4. To truly feel a lost condition cannot be all the preparative condition, for the Word has annexed no promise of justification to the unjustified who shall feel his lost condition.  For the place Isa. 57 speaks of a justified sinner, not of an unjustified [person] who is only prepared for justification:

1. Because God dwells in this humbled soul, then He must be justified and converted. Eph. 3:17, ‘That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith.’

2. This is a liver by faith, and so justified; ‘The just shall live by faith,’ Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38; and he must live by faith whom the high and lofty One revives.”

.

pp. 258-59

“Assertion 11.  That the promises of the Gospel are holden forth to sinners, as sinners, has a twofold sense:

1. As that they be sinners and all [be] in a sinful condition to whom the promises are holden forth.  This is most true and sound.  The Kingdom of grace is an hospital and guest-house of sick ones, fit for the art and mercy of the Physician Christ.

2. So as they are all immediately to believe and apply Christ and the promises, who are sinners; and there be nothing required of sinners but that they may all immediately challenge interest in Christ, after their own way and order, without humiliation or any Law-work.  In this sense it is most false that the promises are holden forth to sinners as sinners, because then Christ should be holden forth to all sinners, Americans, Indians and sinners who never by the least rumor heard one word of Christ.

2. Peter desires not Simon Magus to believe that God had loved him in Christ Jesus with an everlasting love, nor does the Gospel-promise offer immediately soul-rest to the hardened and proud sinner wallowing in his lusts, as he is a hardened sinner; nor is the acceptable year of the Lord proclaimed, nor beauty and the oil of joy offered immediately to any but to those who are weary and laden and who mourn in Zion and wallow in ashes, Mt. 11:28-30; Isa. 61:1-3.  It’s true, to all within the visible Church Christ is offered without price or money, but to be received after Christ’s fashion and order, not after our order; that is, after the soul is under self-despair of salvation and in the sinner’s month, when he has been with child of hell.

I grant, in regard of time, sinners cannot come too soon to Christ, nor too early to wisdom; but in regard of order, many come too soon and unprepared.  Simon Magus too soon believed.  Saltmarsh says He misbelieved too soon, for he falsely believed: none can believe too soon.  Answer: To believe too soon is to misbelieve, and Saltmarsh and Antinomians teach us the method of false-believing when they teach us too soon to believe; that is, to believe that God has loved you (be ye what ye will, Simon Magus, Judas or others) with an everlasting love, for that is the Antinomian Faith.  Simon Magus is without any foregoing humiliation or sense of sin, or self-despair, to believe he was no less written in the Lamb’s book of life from eternity than Peter; and this he cannot believe soon enough.  I say, neither soon or late ought a reprobate to believe any such thing.

A covetous man who had great possessions [the rich young ruler] had not yet bidden farewell to his old god mammon when he came to Christ; therefore he departed sad from Christ.  Another came before he had buried his father; and some come, Lk. 14:28-29, before they advise with their strength and what Christ will cost them.  I desire I be not mistaken: none can be thoroughly fitted for Christ before he come to Christ; but it is as true some would buy the pearl before they sell all they have, which is not the wise merchant’s part:

and they err foully who argue thus, If I were not a sinner, or if my sins were less heinous, and so I were less unworthy, I would come to Christ and believe; but ah, I am so grievous an offender and so unworthy that I cannot go.  Their antecedent is true, but the consequence is naught and wicked.  It is true, I am sick, and [it is] good that I both say and feel that I am sick; but, therefore, I cannot, I will not go to the Physician: that is wicked logic and the contrary consequence is good: whereas the other consequence is a seeking of righteousness in ourselves.”

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Samuel Maresius

Collegium theologicum...  (1649)  trans. in Richard Baxter, Richard Baxter’s Confession of his Faith…  (London: 1655), ch. 3, pp. 407-8

locus 13, p. 337

“The necessity of repentance, as a means, we here also acknowledge, seeing that to the impenitent there can be neither salvation nor remission of sin, etc.  Remission of sin belongs to it, neither formally, nor meritoriously, nor satisfactorily, but at most:

1. Conditionally, as this is offered to us in the gospel, on the condition of repentance and faith.

2. Dispositively, etc.

3. Judicatively and ostensively, etc.

Far be it from us therefore to make that remission with the Papists to be an effect properly so called of repentance; when that is due only to God’s grace by Christ, etc.  But it’s partly a necessary consequent adjunct of it, in as much as under that condition, as also of new obedience (though not for it), remission of sins is propounded and offered to us, seeing it is inconvenient to remit sin to him that perseveres in sin.”

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locus 11, sect. 51

“This remission is not propounded or promised in the gospel, but on the condition of duty to be performed, so that he can never be partaker of it that neglects this.  The same must be said of the illative ‘for’, Mt. 25:35.”

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Anthony Burgess

The True Doctrine of Justification Asserted & Vindicated, from the Errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians & more especially Antinomians in 30 Lectures  (London: Miller, 1651), Lecture 30, on Lk. 7:47, pp. 267-68

“…take notice of this distinction, as a foundation, viz. that there is in Scripture a twofold repentance or humiliation of the soul for sin:

The one antecedent and going before pardon, and this the Scripture requires as a necessary condition, without which forgiveness of sin cannot be obtained: of this repentance the Scripture for the most part speaks, Eze. 18:18, 30; Mt. 3.2; Mk. 6.12; Lk. 13:3; Acts 3:19; and generally in most places of Scripture.

In the second place there is an humiliation of heart and brokenness of soul for sin, arising from the apprehension of God’s love in pardoning, whereby we grieve that we should deal so unkindly with so good and gracious a God: this, though more rarely, yet is sometimes spoken of in Scripture, as first in this woman, who out of the apprehension of God’s love in pardoning so much to her did pour out her soul in all ways of thankfulness.

After this manner also was David’s repentance, Ps. 51; for he was thus deeply affected after Nathan had told him his sin was taken away; although it does appear by the psalm also that he had not as yet that sense of pardon which did quiet his conscience.  This kind of affection was also in Paul, 1 Tim. 1:12–16; 1 Cor. 15:8–9, in which places the apostle, remembering his former sins, confesses them, and acknowledges thereby his unworthiness of all that grace and favour he had received; so that the apostle does not there humble himself that he may obtain mercy, but because he had obtained mercy.  The most eminent instance of this kind of sorrow and shame is Eze. 16:62–63, where God promises to establish his covenant with them, and then mark the event of this:

‘That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee.’

So then both these kinds of humiliations are to be owned and practiced;

and therefore it is a false and dangerous error to acknowledge no other kind of repentance than the latter [former].  The Papists will not acknowledge this latter humiliation at all, because they deny all faith and assurance that a believer may have of his sins in particular.

And others say that there is only this latter; and therefore the forementioned author, in his treatise of Gospel Repentance, makes this only gospel-repentance.  But as gospel-faith is not that reflex act of the soul in a man whereby it is persuaded that Christ is his, but a direct act of taking and receiving Christ to be ours, so a gospel-repentance is not that mainly whereby we are humbled because we receive God’s love to us in pardoning, but principally in that loathing of ourselves to obtain pardon.

It is therefore great ignorance in that author, in his treatise of Gospel Repentance, when p. 58, he calls repentance that goes before this faith, viz. that my sins are pardoned, a dead work; as if the faith that justifies, and without which it is impossible to please God, were the believing that my sins are pardoned; whereas the Scripture makes it to be the receiving of Christ and laying hold on Him.  And seeing that the object must in order of nature be before the act that is employed about it, it follows infallibly that I must have justification before I can believe I have it.

Repentance therefore may be thought to go before a twofold act of faith: first, that whereby Christ is laid hold upon and made ours, and so the repentance that precedes this may be called legal and slavish.  Or secondly, before a persuasion that my sins are pardoned; and before this act of faith repentance must necessarily go, because the covenant of grace dispenses pardon only to such.”

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Edward Leigh

A System or Body of Divinity…  (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 7, ch. 6. Of Justification, p. 512

“There is a great difference between vocation and justification.  Vocation precedes, justification follows.  Justification praesupponit aliquid [presupposes something], viz. faith and repentance; Effectual Calling ponit haec, non autem praesupponit [posits this, but does not presuppose it]. (Conference between Cameron and Tilen)”

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Moses Amyrauld

Theses Salmuriensis, vol. 2, Disputation on Satisfaction, p. 63  as trans. Richard Baxter, Richard Baxter’s Confession of his Faith…  (London: 1655), ch. 10, sect. 3, p. 338

“Because repentance from sin is frequently in the holy Scripture made a condition going before remission and a cause without which we shall not have it, it so orders its exhortations that it may drive us to true repentance and true sanctity that so we may obtain remission.  So the prophets, John Baptist, etc.”

.

David Dickson

An Expositon of all St. Paul’s Epistles…  (London: Eglesfield, 1659), on James, ch. 5, verses 19-20, p. 287

“Because, if they admonish one another, and confess their sins one to another, and be instant in prayers to God one for another, and become instruments of God for the converting of any wandering sinner, then they should be for the future instruments of saving the souls of their neighbours from death (to which he that errs hastens) and also instruments for the future of covering and hiding the multitude of sins of an erring brother: who unless he had repented, his sins should be produced at the Judgement of God for condemnation and death, which now are, after the admonition of the wandering person and the repentance of him that is admonished, covered.”

.

Matthew Scrivener

A Course of Divinity...  (London: Roycroft, 1674), pt. 1, bk. 1, ch. 20, p. 76

“And therefore, lastly, in answer to diverse places of the ancients which are produced to confirm the modern sense of justification by faith alone, I answer in a word: That it is true, their words seem to attest so much, but their meaning was plainly no more than this:

That faith many times does justify without works, that is, any outward manifestation of their faith, by such fruits: but never without inward acts of repentance and charity distinct from this special faith: nor without such a devotion to good works, which wants nothing but opportunity to exert them; which is by an extraordinary clemency and grace of God, accepted for the thing itself.

This appears by the example by them given, to manifest their meaning, of the thief on the cross; who was so justified and saved by faith alone, without good works answerable thereunto, because his sudden faith was prevented by sudden death.  Nevertheless, that his faith was so much alone as to exclude repentance, and such graces as were compatible to one in his condition, from a proportionable concurrence to that effect, is nowhere said, nor intended by any of the fathers whose judgment is of account in the Church of God.”

.

Thomas Vincent

An Explicatory Catechism: or an Explanation of the [Westminster] Assembly’s Shorter Catechism…  (London: Mortlock, 1675)

p. 45

“A. The New Covenant dispenses with the rigor of that [Law] too; and justified and pardoned persons shall not lose all again upon the least defailance; therefore the Gospel proclaims pardon of sin upon repentance, and acceptance of sincere endeavors to obey Him.

[Note that WCF 15.2 includes “endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of his commandments” as a part of, or what flows out of, reprentance.]

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pp. 68-69

“Q. But is justifying faith solitary without all attendants?

A. No, justifying faith has two daughters that inseparably attend her.

1. Repentance: Here sinful man retracts and undoes his faults, acknowledges his transgressions, rents his heart weeps, smites upon his breast, and cries ‘What have I done?’ laments after the Lord and abhors himself in dust and ashes: He executes the Law upon himself; and since God excuses him from the punishment, he accuses himself of the guilt, and condemns himself to the shame of his sin; and hereby the sinner honors the equity of the threatening by his tears, acknowledging that his blood was due.

2. Newness of life: Here the sinner acknowledges perfect obedience to be still his duty, which honors the equity of God’s commandments. (Rom. 16:26)”

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Richard Baxter

Catholic Theology, Plain, Pure, Peaceable...  (London: White, 1675), Preface, n.p.

“I had never read one Socinian, nor much of any Arminians…  and I remembered two or three things in Dr. [William] Twisse (whom I most esteemed) which inclined me to moderation in the five Articles [disputed between Arminians and the Reformed at Dort]:

…
5. That faith is but causa dispositiva justificationis [a cause by way of disposition of justification], and so is repentance.”

.

A Paraphrase on the New Testament with Notes, Doctrinal & Practical...  (1685), on Rev. 3, verse 20

“Note: Though it be not without the grace of Christ that we open to him when He knocks, and receive his offered special grace, yet, in this, He lays so much on man as to make our opening, that is, our accepting-faith, the condition of his entering for a fixed habitation by habitual love and holiness.

On which account divines used to say that faith and repentance, wrought first in conversion, are the conditions or qualifications for consequent justification and sanctification.”

.

Louis Le Blanc

Theological Theses, vol. 2  3rd ed.  tr. by AI by Colloquia Scholastica at Discord  (1675; London, 1683), ‘On Justifying Faith’, pt. 1, p. 166  Latin

“CIV…  Chamier concedes that a person is justified and sins are forgiven before they believe.  But this contradicts the entire Scripture, which consistently teaches that God’s wrath remains on those who do not believe, and faith and repentance are the conditions under which forgiveness of sins is promised to us, without which it cannot be obtained.”

.

Thomas Manton

A Second Volume of Sermons…  (London: Astwood, 1684), Sermons on Rom. 8, Sermon 43, on Rom. 8:33

p. 334

“The Covenant of grace is God’s pardoning act, and instrument by which we know whom, and upon what Terms God will pardon and justify; namely, all such as repent and believe the Gospel.”

.

p. 335

“for a sinner, as a sinner, is not justified, but a penitent believer [is]…

I say, our first actual pardon, justification, and right to life, is given upon condition of our first faith and repentance…  The grace of God will do nothing without the intervention of Christ’s merits; and Christ’s merits do not profit us ’till it be applied by faith…”

.

p. 336

“For the righteousness of Christ is none of ours, till we do repent and believe: let us see how our title does arise, when we thankfully, seriously and broken-heartedly accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, then we are found in Him not having our own righteousness.”

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John Corbet

The Remains…  (London: Parkhurst, 1684), ‘Of the Ministry’, §4. ‘The nature of the Spiritual Power residing in the Pastors’, p. 39

“God and Christ does by the law of grace absolve or justify the penitent, constitutive: Even before the pastor pronounces absolution, every penitent is by the covenant of grace justified or made righteous.”

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Peter van Mastricht

Theoretical Practical Theology  (2nd ed. 1698; RHB), vol. 4, pt. 1, bk. 5, ch. 1, ‘The Covenant of Grace’, sect. 23, ‘The covenant of grace is not offered and conferred upon each and every person’, pp. 24-25

“The papists prefer good works as meritorious causes, as do the Socinians, but as good works required by grace.  There are those who prefer faith and repentance taken jointly, and there are several who are pleased with repentance, faith, and obedience.  Most of the orthodox, with the Scriptures, most accurately admit here faith alone…

Most broadly understood it [a condition] includes anything that is required in any way for the covenant of grace, whether:

(1) antecedently, and as it were in a preparatory fashion, in which sense the hearing of the promulgated covenant, a general assent given to the divine Word, a conviction of the necessity of the covenant of grace, an effectual call to faith (prior to faith, if not in time, at least in nature), an acknowledgement and sense of one’s misery, a godly desperation about oneself and all things outside the Mediator, and so forth, can be called a condition.  Or,

(2) concomitantly, in which manner self-denial (Lk. 9:23; Phil. 3:4–12), the exercise of repentance (Mk. 1:15; Acts 2:38–39), and so forth, can be taken as a condition.  Or,

(3) consequently, as covenantal duties, in which sense evangelical obedience (cf. Gen. 12:1–3; 15:18; 17:1–2; 9:1–15) and renewal of repentance (Dt. 30:1–9 with 29:24 to the end) can be admitted as a condition.

More strictly and most properly understood, a condition denotes that by which, when it is given in man, from the divine promise, the covenant of grace is entered into.  In this sense faith alone supplies the condition of the covenant of grace, for by this: (1) it is distinguished from the covenant of works (Rom. 3:27; 10:5–14); (2) it is denominated the law of faith (Rom. 3:27); and (3) its righteousness, the righteousness of faith (Rom. 10:6; Phil. 3:9; Heb. 11:7); (4) its covenanted parties are called οἱ ἐκ πίστεως, those who are of faith (Gal. 3:9).”

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Herman Witsius

Conciliatory or Irenical Animadversions on the Controversies Agitated in Britain: under the Unhappy Names of Antinomians & Neonomians  (1696; Glasgow, 1807), ch. 11, ‘Whether repentance precedes the remission of sins? [Yes]’, pp. 119-20

“II. As soon as a principle of new life is infused into the adult person by the Spirit of Grace, immediately spiritual acting of every kind springs up from that principle, actions so pervading and exciting one another, and so mingled in their exercise that they can scarcely be distinguished in practice; and as difficult is it to determine which is first in time, which last.

Surely it is not possible but that the soul, quickened by the Spirit, should in that supernatural light wherewith it is illuminated, both see itself defiled and undone with innumerable sins, and see Christ full of grace, truth and salvation.  Such a view cannot but cause both, that with shame and sorrow it be displeased with itself, and with ardent desire be carried out unto
Christ.  Hence arises the receiving and accepting of Christ, that it may be delivered from the fiithiness and guilt of its sins.  Now it cannot receive Him for justification except at the same time it receive him for sanctification: nor receive Him as a Priest to expiate sin, unless it also receive him as a King to whom it may submit in order to obedience.

Hence it follows that that act of faith whereby we receive Christ for righteousness cannot be exercised without either a previous, or at least a concomitant repentance, and a purpose of a new life.  If therefore faith go before justification, as we have lately asserted; the same must be said of repentance, springing up together with it from the same principle of spiritual life.”

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2000’s

Travis Fentiman

‘The Necessity of Good Works’ (RBO), ‘Introduction’, ‘Good Works as Required, Consequent Conditions in the Covenant of Grace’

“For a profession of a commitment to new, sincere obedience by the Lord’s grace in entering the Covenant and as a stipulation thereof, besides [David] Dickson above, see:

Peter Martyr Vermigli, Common Places (1583), pt. 2, ch. 16, section 1, end;

John Ball, Treatise of the Covenant of Grace (London, 1645), p. 18;

Francis Roberts, Mysterium & Medulla Bibliorum, the Mysterie and Marrow of the Bible (London, 1657), book 2, ch. 2, Aphorism 2, Section 5, corollary 4, the Conditionality of the Covenant of Faith, p. 111;

Marcus Wendelin, Christian Theology in Two Books (Amsterdam, 1657), book 1, ch. 19, thesis 9, pp. 324-25;

Thomas Blake, A Treatise of the Covenant of God  (London, 1658) ch. 25, ‘What Degree of Obedience the Covenant of Grace Calls for from Christians’, end, pp. 159-60;

Patrick Gillespie, Ark of the Testament Opened… in a Treatise on the Covenant of Grace (London, 1661) part 1, ch. 10, Assertion 3, p. 312;

Turretin, Institutes, vol. 2, 12th Topic, ‘The Covenant of Grace’, Question 2, ‘The Nature of the Covenant of Grace’, section, 5, p. 175;

Thomas Boston, Works, 2.477, point 3;

John Willison, A Sacramental Catechism…  Plainly unfolding the Nature of the Covenant of Grace…  (Glasgow, 1794), p. 47, bottom half & 161;

John Mellen, Fifteen discourses upon doctrinal, connected subjects, with practical improvements (Boston, 1765), Discourse 12, pp. 426-27.”

.

.

Westminster

Confession

ch. 11, ‘Of Justification’

“II. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification;[d] yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.[e]

[d] John 1:12. Rom. 3:28. Rom. 5:1.
[e] Jam. 2:17,22,26. Gal. 5:6.”

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ch. 14, ‘Of Saving Faith’

“By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein;[e] and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands,[f] trembling at the threatenings,[g] and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come.[h]…

[e] John 4:42. 1 Thess. 2:13. 1 John 5:10. Acts 24:14.
[f] Rom. 16:26.
[g] Isa. 66:2.
[h] Heb. 11:13. 1 Tim. 4:8.”

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ch. 15, ‘Of Repentance unto Life’

“II. By it a sinner, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God, and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God,[c] purposing and endeavouring to walk with him in all the ways of his commandments.[d]

[c] Ezek. 18:30,31. Ezek. 36:31. Isa. 30:22. Ps. 51:4. Jer. 31:18,19. Joel 2:12,13. Amos 5:15. Ps. 119:128. 2 Cor. 7:11.
[d] Ps. 119:6,59,106. Luke 1:6. 2 Kings 23:25.

III. Although repentance be not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof,[e] which is the act of God’s free grace in Christ;[f] yet is it of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it.[g]

[e] Ezek. 36:31,32. Ezek. 16:61-63.
[f] Hos. 14:2,4. Rom. 3:24. Eph. 1:7.
[g] Luke 13:3,5. Acts 17:30,31.”

.

Shorter Catechism

“Q. 87. What is repentance unto life?

A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace,[g] whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin,[h] and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ,[i] doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God,[k] with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience.[l]

[g] Acts 11:18.
[h] Acts 2:37,38.
[i] Joel 2:12. Jer. 3:22.
[k] Jer. 31:18,19. Ezek. 36:31.
[l] 2 Cor. 7:11. Isa. 1:16,17.”

.

Larger Catechism

“Q. 73. How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?

A. Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it,[q] nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof; were imputed to him for his justification;[r] but only as it is an instrument by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness.[s]

[q] Gal. 3:11. Rom. 3:28.
[r] Rom. 4:5 compared with Rom. 10:10.
[s] John 1:12. Phil. 3:9. Gal. 2:16“

.

“Q. 75. What is sanctification?

A. Sanctification is a work of God’s grace, whereby they whom God hath, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit[b] applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them,[c] renewed in their whole man after the image of God;[d] having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts,[e] and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened,[f] as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.[g]

[b] Eph. 1:4. 1 Cor. 6:11. 2 Thess. 2:13.
[c] Rom. 6:4-6.
[d] Eph. 4:23,24.
[e] Acts 11:18. 1 John 3:9.
[f] Jude 20. Heb. 6:11,12. Eph. 3:16-19. Col. 1:10,11.
[g] Rom. 6:4,6,14. Gal. 5:24.”

.

.

Agnostic

Quotes

Order of

Bullinger
Pemble

.

1500’s

Henry Bullinger

The Decades  ed. Thomas Harding  (1549; Cambridge: Parker Society, 1850), vol. 3, 4^th Decade, 2^nd Sermon, ‘Of Repentance & the Causes thereof…’, p. 62

“I will not stand in argument, whether faith be a part of repentance, or does by any other means depend upon it.  It seems to me a notable point of folly to go about to tie matters of divinity to precepts of logic: for we learn not that of the Lord’s apostles.”

.

1600’s

William Pemble

Vindiciæ gratiæ. = A Plea for Grace, More especially the Grace of Faith…  (London: 1627), pp. 11-12

“Wherefore we are not to imagine that faith is infused either before or without other graces, or that the soul is not at the same time and as soon disposed to love and fear God as to believe in Him, or to humility, to patience, to charity, to repentance, as for faith.  The seed of all these graces is sown at once; and for their habits they are coeval stems of one common root of inherent sanctity: though yet some of them shoot up faster and bear fruit sooner than other.

Those that do so are the two principal graces of faith and repentance: the actions of both which seem to appear first in the regenerate: which of them show first, I will not now dispute; but certain it is that the regenerate soul works here most lively and stirring, and after the infusion of spirituall life the pulse beats strongest in those arteries. The reason whereof I take it is, the singular use of these two graces arising from the manner of our conversion: which being wrought by the sight of sin and misery on the one side, and the representation of grace and mercy on the other, of necessity draws the newly-regenerate soul by strong motions immediately to conceive sorrow for, and detestation of its sinful misery, and also to a vehement desiring and looking after the promise of grace, which may bring it deliverance from an estate so damnable.  But in this point of the priority of one grace before another, we may not be too bold nor curious: for as the working of the Holy Ghost is secret and wonderful, in making us wild gourds partakers of the sap and sweetness of the true vine: so is it not possibly observable in all or the most, where, and in what branch this sap first buds forth into blossoms and fruit.”

.

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Latin Articles

1500’s

Zanchi, Girolamo

‘Whether repentance [poenitentia] precedes faith or faith repentance’  in Locus 9, ‘Of Repentance [Poentitentia]’  in A Compendium of Principal Heads of Christian Doctrine  in Works, vol. 8 (Geneva, 1649), col. 760

Zanchi argues that repentance is born from and arises from faith, and follows it.

.

1600’s

Walaeus, Antonius – ‘Whether repentance precedes or follows [faith]?’  in ‘Of Repentance [Poenitentia]’  in All the Works, 2 vols. combined  (d. 1639; Leiden: Hackius, 1643), p. 77 rt. col.

Walaeus answers that if ‘repentance’ is taken generally for conversion, so as including faith, then it is simultaneous with faith; if it is taken distinctly and strictly, then it follows faith, as whatsoever is not of faith is sin, and without faith it is impossible to please God.

Spanheim, Sr., Frederic – Doubt 12, ‘Whether Metanoia [Repentance] is Prior to Faith, or Faith to Repentance?’  in Gospel Doubts…  (1639; Geneva, 1700), vol. 3, pp. 24-27

This is one of the best discussions.

“Metanoia-inchoate is anterior to faith, completed posterior.  Thus metanoia considered according to the act of contrition is anterior to faith, according to the act of conversion, posterior.  And so in a diverse respect metanoia is and is not anterior to faith, without contradiction.” – p. 25

Alting, J. Henricus – Problem 6, ‘Whether repentance is prior to or posterior to faith?’  in 16. ‘Of Internal Calling, & that which depends on it: Repentance & Faith’  in A New Problematic Theology, or a System of Theological Problems  (Amsterdam, 1662), pp. 705-6

Alting distinguishes three ways the term “repentance” can be taken, namely, (1) generally, for contrition, faith and conversion or new obedience, (2) specifically, for contrition and conversion, and (3) most specifically, for conversion.

With regard to (1), repentance is logically posterior to those three things that comprise it; with regard to (2), repentance is before faith as contrition flows out of it, but it is after faith in conversion; with regard to (3), repentance follows faith and justification, as new obedience follows faith.

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“How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?”

Jn. 5:44

“John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”

Mk. 1:4

“Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.”

Acts 8:22

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