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Nature and effects of.

will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Mat. 15. 7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

Mat. 23. 25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee! cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

Jn. 4. 24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Heb. 11. 6. Without faith it is impossible to please him. [See 161, 525.]

Repentance.

562. What is the nature and what are the effects of true repentance?

Gen. 45. 5. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Ezk. 36. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Ezk. 20. 43.

2 Cor. 7. 9. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing-11. For behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea,

The gift of God-Repentance and confession required. what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!

563. Is repentance the gift of God?

Ac. 5. 30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree: Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Ac. 11. 18. Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

2 Tim. 2. 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

564. Are repentance and confession required as a term of forgiveness and salvation?

Lev. 26. 40. If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

Pr. 28. 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Ez. 14. 6. Repent and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

Ez. 18. 30. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed: and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Repentance and confession required.

For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.

Hos. 5. 14. I will be unto Ephraim as a lion-I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face.

Mat. 3. 1. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat. 4. 17. Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mk. 6. 7. And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two. 12. And they went out and preached that men should repent.

Lk. 13. 3. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Ac. 2. 33. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Christ Jesus, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Ac. 3. 19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.

Ac. 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee.

Ac. 17. 30. The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.

Ac. 20. 21. Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ac. 26. 20. But showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repent

ance.

Jam. 5. 16. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed.

1 Jn. 1. 8. If we say that we have no sin, we dc

Repentance, confession and grief exemplified.

ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Rev. 2. 5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candle-stick out of his place, except thou repent.

565. Are devout repentance, confession, and grief exemplified?

Ezra 9. 5. And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God. And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the land, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

Job 42. 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Ps. 6. 6. I am weary with my groaning, all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.

Ps. 31. 9. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

Ps. 38. 4. Mine iniquities are gone over my head: as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness.

I am

Promises to repentance.

troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. 18. I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

Ps. 51. 3. I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Mat. 26. 75. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus and he went out and wept bitterly.

Lk. 15 18. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father.

Lk. 18. 13. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a

sinner.

566. Are repentance and confession encouraged?

Lev. 26. 40. If they shall confess their iniquity42. Then will I remember my covenant.

2 Ch. 7. 14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Ps. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Ps. 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Is. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un

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