OF REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE AND SALVATION

1.  Such of the elect as are converted in riper years, having lived some time in the state of nature, and in this state served diverse lusts and pleasures, God gives repentance that unto life, through an effectual call.[1]

2.  Whereas there is none that does good and does not commit sin, and because the best of men may fall into great sins and provocations through the power and deceitfulness of their own indwelling corruption and  prevalence toward temptation, God has mercifully provided in the covenant of grace that when believers sin and fall, they shall be renewed through repentance unto salvation.[2]

3.  This saving repentance is an evangelical grace by which a person who is made to feel, by the Holy Spirit, the manifold evils of his sin, and being given faith in Christ, humbles himself over his sin with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrency, praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavor, by supplies of the Spirit’s power, to walk before God and to totally please Him in all things.[3]

4.  As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, on the account of the body of death, and the motions of it, so it is every man’s duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly.[4]

5.  Such is the provision which God has made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers unto salvation; that although even the smallest sin deserves damnation; yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation on them that repent; which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary.[5]