Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal…

And besides, evangelical Repentance, being active Conversion, is not to be treated of as a particular Grace, properly and entirely distinct from Faith, as by some it seems to have been. What i Conversion, but the sinful, alienated Soul's closing with Christ or the Sinner's being brought to believe in Christ? That Exercise of ⟨p. 106⟩Soul that there is in Conversion, that respects Sin, cannot be excluded out of the Nature of Faith in Christ: There is something in Faith, or closing with Christ that respects Sin, and that is evangelical Repentance: That Repentance which in Scripture is called Repentance for the Remission of Sins, is that very Principle or Operation of the Mind it self, that i called Faith, so far as it is conversant about Sin. Justifying Faith in a Mediator, is conversant about two Things: It is conversant about Sin or Evil, to be rejected and to be delivered from by the Mediator, and about positive Good to be accepted and obtained by the Mediator; as conversant about •he former of these, it is evangelical Repentance or Repentance for Remission of Sins. Surely they must be very ignorant, or at least very inconsiderate, of the whole Tenor of the Gospel, that think that that Repentance by which Remission of Sins is obtained, can be completed, as to all that is essential to it, without any Respect to Christ, or Application of the Mind to the Mediator, who alone has made Atonement for Sin: Surely so great a Part of Salvation as Remission of Sins, is not to be obtained, without looking, or […] to the great and only Saviour. 'Tis true Repentance in its more general abstracted Nature, is only a Sorrow for Sin, and forsaking of it, which is a Duty of natural Religion; but evangelical Repentance, or Repentance for Remission […] Sins, hath more than this essential to it; a Dependence of Soul on the Mediator for Deliverance from Sin is of the Essence of it.

And besides, evangelical Repentance, being active Conversion, is not to be treated of as a particular Grace, properly and entirely distinct from Faith, as by some it seems to have been. What i Conversion, but the sinful, alienated Soul's closing with Christ or the Sinner's being brought to believe in Christ? That Exercise of ⟨p. 106⟩Soul that there is in Conversion, that respects Sin, cannot be excluded out of the Nature of Faith in Christ: There is something in Faith, or closing with Christ that respects Sin, and that is evangelical Repentance: That Repentance which in Scripture is called Repentance for the Remission of Sins, is that very Principle or Operation of the Mind it self, that i called Faith, so far as it is conversant about Sin. Justifying Faith in a Mediator, is conversant about two Things: It is conversant about Sin or Evil, to be rejected and to be delivered from by the Mediator, and about positive Good to be accepted and obtained by the Mediator; as conversant about he former of these, it is evangelical Repentance or Repentance for Remission of Sins. Surely they must be very ignorant, or at least very inconsiderate, of the whole Tenour of the Gospel, that think that that Repentance by which Remission of Sins is obtained, can be compleated, as to all that is essential to it, without any Respect to Christ, or Application of the Mind to the Mediator, who alone has made Atonement for Sin: Surely so great a Part of Salvation as Remission of Sins, is not to be obtained, without looking, or to the great and only Saviour. 'Tis true Repentance in its more general abstracted Nature, is only a Sorrow for Sin, and forsaking of it, which is a Duty of natural Religion; but evangelical Repentance, or Repentance for Remission Sins, hath more than this essential to it; a Dependance of Soul on the Mediator for Deliverance from Sin is of the Essence of it.