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The Philadelphia Confession, 1742
Such of the elect as are converted at
riper years, having sometime lived in the state of nature, and therein served divers lusts
and pleasures, God in their effectual calling giveth them repentance unto life.1
Whereas there is none that doth good,
and sinneth not2 and the best of men may through the power and
deceitfulness of their corruption dwelling in them, with the prevalency of temptation,
fall in to greater sins and provocations, God hath in the covenant of grace, mercifully
provided that believers so sinning and falling, be renewed through repentance unto
salvation.3
This saving repentance is an
evangelical grace,4 whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit
made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth by faith in Christ, humble himself
for it, with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrency;5
praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavour by supplies of
the Spirit to walk before God unto all well-pleasing in all things.6
As repentance is to be continued
through the whole course of our lives, upon the account of the body of death, and the
motions thereof; so it is every man's duty to repent of his particular known sins,
particularly.7
Such is the provision which God hath made through Christ in the covenant of grace, for the preservation of believers unto salvation, that although there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation;8 yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation on them that repent;9 which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary.
Footnotes:
1. Tit 3:2-5.
2. Ecc 7:20.
3. Lk 22:31-32.
4. Zec 12:10; Ac 11:18.
5. Eze 36:31; 2Co 7:11.
6. Ps 119:6,128.
7. Lk 19:8; 1Ti 1:13,15.
8. Ro 6:23.
9. Isa 1:16-18; 55:7.
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