already appeared, that fhe fuppofes fuch perfons may be deftitute of "the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, and a true lively faith," and not in a state of falvation. To whom then does the church of England believe repentance neceffary? Her aufwer is, to every person admitted into her communion who has arrived at years of difcretion. Whatever may be the ftate of Infants, this duty she confiders all who would be really Chriftians," bound to perform, when they come to age." She most folemnly exacts it at Confirmation; fhe infifts upon a renewal and continuation of it, in her Communicants; all her Worshippers fpeak the genuine language of it; fhe pofitively maintains, that without it, partaking in her external ordinances only increases men's condemnation. But what does our church conceive is implied in repentance? Her Catechifm answers; It is "to renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the finful lufts of the flesh." Her Homilies add; It is "utterly to deteft and abhor fin;" " from the very bottom of our hearts to deteft and abhor it;" from the confiderations of its "filthinefs," and that “God cannot but deteft and abhor us for it," and that "it coft the dear heart's blood of his only begotten Son our Saviour." She has moreover defined it, "A returning again of the whole man to God, from whom we be fallen away by fin." "A forfaking all manner of things that are repugnant and contrary unto God's will, and giving our hearts unto him, and the whole ftrength of our bodies and fouls":" "A renouncing our former wicked life, and a FULL CONVERSION TO GOD in a new lifed." "For they," she fays, "that do truly repent, must be clean altered and changed, they mult become NEW CREATURES." (y) See above, p. 103. Repentance, p. 338, 349. (d) Ibid. p. 348. (z) See Catechifm. (a) On (c) Ibid. 338. She cannot, we fee, be more express against fubftituting any merely outward or partial change for true Repentance. It is the man, the whole man, that must be clean changed. His repentance muft extend to the "heart," the "whole heart," the " ," the "very bottom of the heart." "For fince," fhe fays, "that the heart is the fountain of all our works, as many as do with their whole heart turn unto the Lord, do live unto him onlyf." And this repentance, fhe teaches, Christ was exalted to give unto Ifrael; and "they," the adds, "who think that they have done much of themselves towards repentance, are fo much more the farther from God." It is the office of " the Holy Ghoft to fanctify and regenerate" men; and "the more it is hidden from our underftanding, the more it ought to move all men to wonder at the fecret and mighty working of God's Holy Spirit, which is within us. For it is the Holy Ghost, and no other thing, that doth quicken the minds of men, stirring up good and godly motions in their hearts, which are agreeable to the will and commandments of God, fuch as otherwise of their own crooked and perverse nature they would never have. That which is born of the fpirit, is fpirit. . . . As for the works of the fpirit, the fruits of faith, charitable and godly motions, if he (man) have any at all in him, they proceed only of the Holy Ghoft, who is the only worker of our fanctification, and maketh us new men in Christ Jesus. . . . Such is the power of the Holy Ghoft to regenerate men, and as it were to bring them forth anew, so that they shall be nothing like the men they were before. Neither doth he think it sufficient inwardly to work the spiritual and new birth of man, unless he do alfo dwell and abide in him.” She prays accordingly, that her members may be "raised from the death of fin unto the life of righte (f) Ibid. p. 338. Whitfunday, p. 291. (g) Ibid. p. 337. M (z) Hom. for h oufuels that God would create and make in them new and contrite hearts," that "being regenerate, &c. they may daily be renewed by his holy fpirit;" that he would "fo work in our hearts by the power of this Holy Spirit, that we being regenerate, and newly born again in all goodness, &c. may in the end be made partakers of everlafting life." To the fame effect prays her illuftrious member Lord Bacon: "O Lord," ... he fays, "thou art not delighted in the death of finners, but in their converfion. Turn our hearts, and we fhall be turned; convert us, and we fhall be converted; illuminate the eyes of our minds and underftanding with the bright beams of thy Holy Spirit, that we may daily grow in the faving knowledge of the heavenly myftery of our redemption, wrought by our dear Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift; fanctify our wills and affection by the fame Spirit, the moft facred fountain of all grace and goodnefs. . . . Increase our weak faith, grant it may daily bring forth the true fruits of unfeigned repentance, that by the power of the death of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, we may daily die unto fin, and by the power of his refurrection we may be quickened, and raised up to newness of life, may be truly born anew, and may be effectually made. partakers of the firft refurrection, that then the fecond death never have dominion over us ".". may Such are the ideas of our Church respecting the change of character which repentance implies. She clearly then fees, in thefe days, fome meaning in the obnoxious terms converfion, regeneration, renovation, &c. She fees no abfurdity in attempting to convert those who have already joined in her fervice. She confiders fuch a converfion, neceffary in all her adult members; and, of course, that one part of "the general office" of her minifters is to enforce it. (h) Burial Ser. Chriftinasday. (i) Collect on Ash. Wed. (k) Coll, for (y) Works, 7 re We have ftill to inquire what her opinion is refpecting contrition and folicitude of mind, as accompanying this change? And this, we find, fhe confiders effential to it. After affirming that "there are four parts of repentance;" "the firft," the fays, "is the contrition of the heart." "For," as the proceeds, "we must be earneftly forry for our fins, and unfeignedly lament and bewail that we have by them fo grievously offended our moft bounteous and merciful God." We must have a thorough feeling of our fins;" we muft, like the hearers of St. Peter, be "compunct and pricked in our heartsm." And is not this implied in all her humiliating confeffions, and urgent cries for mercy? What does she mean when the exhorts her members to 66 turn unto our Lord God with all contrition and meeknefs of heart; bewailing and lamenting their finful life?" What do her children mean when they plead for mercy and deliverance as "miferable finners, and miferable offenders •;" when they pray for "new and contrite hearts, that worthily lamenting their fins, and acknowledging their wretchednefs, they may obtain forgiveness through Jefus Christ?" With what fpirit do they acknowledge and bewail their manifold fins and wickednefs, which moft grievously they have committed, provoking most justly God's wrath and indignation against them;" and tell God, that "they earnestly repent, and are heartily forry for these their misdoings, that the remembrance of them is grievous unto them, and the burden of them intolerable?". -In the name of common fenfe, does all this only imply thofe gentle touches of remorfe for fome fcandalous tranfgreffions which our op ponents dream of, which are fcarcely perceptible to the penitents themselves, and in no cafe perceptible to others, and compatible with every fpecies of gaiety? (1) Hom. on Repent. p. 342. (m) Ibid. p. 343. (0) General Confeffion, and Litany. mina. Ser. (n) Com (P) Coll. A fpecimen of the penitential language of our leading Martyrs has already been produced. A paffage from Bradford fhall here be added. "I pray you," he fays to Mr. Traves," in your communication with God, have me, of all finners, a most negligent, unthankful, and wretched, in remembrance: That at length I might truly convert and return. . . . This paper, pen, and ink, yea, the marble-stone, weepeth, to fee my flothful fecurity, and unthankful hardness, to fo merciful and long fuffering a Lord. I confess it, I confefs it, though not tremblingly, humbly, or penitently; yet I confefs it, oh! hypocritically I confefs it. Therefore pray, pray for me, ut refipifcam, et ut Deum convertar, &c. ."Yet this "Bradford," Mr. Strype calls one of "four prime pillars of the reformed church of England." Of this Bradford, Bishop Ridley faid, "In my confcience I judge him more worthy to be a Bishop, than many of us that are Bishops already, are of being Parish Priests."--We will only request attention to one paffage more. "When good men," faith the Homily on fafting, "feel in themselves the heavy burden of fin, fee damnation to be the reward of it, and behold with the eye of their mind the horror of hell, they tremble, they quake, and are inwardly touched with forrowfulnefs of heart for their offences, and cannot but accuse themselves and open this their grief unto Almighty God, and call unto him for mercy. This being done feriously, their mind is fo occupied, partly with forrow and heavinefs, partly with an earnest defire to be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that all defire of meat and drink is laid apart, and loathsomeness of all worldly things and pleasures cometh in place, fo that nothing then liketh them more, than to weep, to lament, to mourn, and both with words and behaviour of body, to fhow (z) See Strype's Ecc. Mem. Vol. iii. Catalogue, No.31. (y) Ibid. (x) Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 8. P. 254. |