The Doctrine of Repentance (Puritan Paperbacks)

by Thomas Watson

Either sin must drown or the soul burn. Let it not be said that repentance is difficult. Things that are excellent deserve labour. Will not a man dig for gold in the ore though it makes him sweat? It is better to go with difficulty to heaven, than with ease to hell.

Repentance is a grace of God's Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.

He that can believe without doubting, suspect his faith; and he that can repent without sorrowing, suspect his repentance.

A wicked man may be troubled for scandalous sins; a real convert laments heart-sins.

Godly sorrow shows itself to be ingenuous because when a Christian knows that he is out of the gun-shot of hell and shall never be damned, yet still he grieves for sinning against that free grace which has pardoned him.

Our sorrow for sin must be such as makes us willing to let go of those sins which brought in the greatest income of profit or delight. The physic shows itself strong enough when it has purged out our diseases The Christian has arrived at a sufficient measure of sorrow when the love of sin is purged out.

In our confessions we tax ourselves with pride, infidelity, passion, so that when Satan, who is called 'the accuser of the brethren', shall lay these things to our charge, God will say, They have accused themselves already; therefore, Satan, thou art non-suited; thy accusations come too late.

Augustine said that before his conversion he confessed sin and begged power against it, but his heart whispered within him, 'not yet, Lord'. He was afraid to leave his sin too soon. A good Christian is more honest. His heart keeps pace with his tongue. He is convinced of the sins he confesses, and abhors the sins he is convinced of.

Confession gives vent to a troubled heart. When guilt lies boiling in the conscience, confession gives ease. It is like the lancing of an abscess which gives ease to the patient.

A man that is afflicted may have his conscience quiet. When the ark was tossed on the waves, Noah could sing in the ark. When the body is afflicted and tossed, a Christian can 'make melody in his heart to the Lord' (Eph. 5.19). But when a man commits sin, conscience is terrified.

But when we commit sin, God withdraws his love. When

?

This turning from sin implies a notable change.

Three men, asking one another what made them leave sin: one says, I think of the joys of heaven; another, I think of the torments of hell; but the third, I think of the love of God, and that makes me forsake it. How shall I offend the God of love?

It is not falling into water

that drowns, but lying in it. It is not falling into sin that damns, but lying in it without repentance:

There is no rowing to paradise except upon the stream of repenting tears. Repentance is required as a qualification. It is not so much to endear us to Christ as to endear Christ to us. Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

Indeed, if prayer does not make a man leave sin, sin will make him leave prayer.

Repent of your non-improvement of talents. Health is a talent; estate is a talent; wit and parts are talents; and these God has entrusted you with to improve for his glory. He has sent you into the world as a merchant sends his factor beyond the seas to trade for his master's advantage, but you have not done the good you might. Can you say, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds' (Luke 19.18)? I mourn at the burial of your talents! Let it grieve you that so much of your age has not been time lived but time lost; that you have filled up your golden hours more with froth than with spirits.

Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell.

Oh, but my sins are out of measure sinful! Do not make them greater by not repenting. Repentance unravels sin and makes it as if it had never been.

O Christian, what are your duties compared with the recompense of reward? What an infinite disproportion is there between repentance enjoined and glory prepared? There was a feast-day at Rome, when they

O blessed repentance, that has such a light side with the dark, and has so much sugar at the bottom of the bitter cup!

It is not so much the sins we have committed that so provoke and grieve Christ as that we refuse the physic of repentance which he prescribes.

Be as speedy in your repentance as you would have

God speedy in his mercies:

Have you repented? God looks upon you as if you had not offended. He becomes a friend, a father.

He will now bring forth the best robe and put it on you. God is pacified towards you and will, with the father of the prodigal, fall upon your neck and kiss you. Sin in scripture is compared to a cloud (Isa. 44.22). No sooner is this cloud scattered by repentance than pardoning love shines forth. Paul, after his repentance, obtained mercy: ‘was all bestrowed with mercy' (1 Tim. 1.16). When a spring of repentance is open in the heart, a spring of mercy is open in heaven.

Have you been penitentially humbled? The Lord will never upbraid you with your former sins. After Peter wept we never read that Christ upbraided him

with his denial of him. God has cast your sins into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7.19). How? Not as cork, but as lead. The Lord will never in a judicial way account for them. When he pardons, God is as a creditor that blots the debt out of his book (Isa. 43.25). Some ask the question, whether the sins of the godly shall be mentioned at the last day. The Lord said he will not remember them, and he is blotting them out, so if their sins are mentioned, it shall not be to their prejudice, for the debt-book is crossed.

The repenting sinner can go to God with

boldness in prayer and look upon him not as a judge, but as a father. He is 'born of God' and is heir to a kingdom (Luke 6.20). He is encircled with promises. He no sooner shakes the tree of the promise but some fruit falls.

Oh, says one, Christ has died; he has done all for me; therefore I may sit still and do nothing.

Because of mercy men presume and think they may go on in sin, but should a king's clemency make his subjects rebel?

They had rather go sleeping to hell than weeping to heaven.

Sin is a sugared draught, mixed with poison. The sinner thinks there is danger

in sin, but there is also delight, and the danger does not terrify him as much as the delight bewitches him. Plato

None are so truly cheerful as penitent ones.

No sooner do our tears fall than God's repentings kindle (Hos. 11.8). Do not say then that there is no hope. Disband the army of your sins, and God will sound a retreat to his judgments. Remember, great sins have been swallowed up in the sea of God's infinite compassions.

It is no wonder that he who is not resolved to be an enemy of sin is conquered by it.