Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI, KEPENTANCE. Repentance belongs exclusively to the religion of sinners. It has no place in the exercises of unfallen creatures. He who has never done a sinful act, nor had a sinful nature, needs neither forgiveness, conversion, nor repentance. Holy angels never repent. They have nothing to repent of. This is so clear that it is needless to argue the matter. But sinners need all these blessings. To them they are indispensable. The wickedness of the human heart makes it necessary. Under all dispensations, since our first parents were expelled the garden of Eden, God has insisted on repentance. Among the patriarchs, Job said, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashei." Under the law David wrote the thirty-second and fifty-first psalms. John the Baptist cried, ' Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Christ's account of himself is that he "came to . call sinners to repentance." Just before his ascension, Christ commanded "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." And the apostles taught the same doctrine, "testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." So that any system of religion among men which should not include repentance, would upon its very face be false. Matthew Henry says, "If the heart of man had continued upright and unstained, divine consolations might have been received without this painful operation preceding; but being sinful, it must first be pained before it can be laid at ease, must labor before it can be at rest. The sore must be searched, or it cannot be cured." "The doctrine of repentance is right gospel doctrine. Not only the austere Baptist, who was...