In the moment of regeneration the Holy Spirit implants all spiritual and saving graces in the heart of the elect sinner, and among others, faith and repentance. He implants at the same instant the root or principle of saving faith and of true repentance. He gives these two graces together and at once in respect of time; and therefore, though in our conception of them, they are to be distinguished, yet they are never to be separated from each other. The principle of faith in the regenerate soul, that is, the capacity of acting faith, is not in point of time before that of repentance, nor is the principle of repentance before that of faith. Every true believer in principle is at the same time a true penitent, and every true penitent in respect of principle is a genuine believer. An impenitent believer, and a penitent unbeliever, are characters which have no existence but in the vain imaginations of some men.
But, though the principle of saving faith does not in respect of time precede that of true repentance, yet in order of nature, the acting of that faith precedes the exercise of this repentance (Zech 12:10). The regenerate sinner is enabled cordially to apprehend or trust in the pardoning mercy of God in Christ, in order to exercise true repentance (Psa 13:5). For he cannot begin to exercise that repentance which is spiritual and acceptable to God until he first begin to trust cordially in Jesus Christ for mercy and grace. The exercise of true repentance, as already observed, flows from that of justifying and saving faith. A legal and counterfeit repentance, indeed, often goes before the first acting of true faith; but the exercise of evangelical or true repentance never goes before, but always springs from it and follows it. The exercise of true faith is the instrument or means of attaining, through grace, the habit and exercise of evangelical repentance. The first acting of saving faith in conversion is the means of attaining the first exercise of that repentance; and the renewed actings of that precious faith are the means of being enabled to renew the exercise of it.

Seeing the priority of the acting of unfeigned faith to the exercise of true repentance is of immense importance to the holiness and comfort of believers, in subordination to the glory of God I shall endeavour to evince the reality of it by the following arguments:

1. Faith is the principal grace, and the acting of it is the first breathing, the first vital motion of the regenerate soul.

No sooner is the dead sinner quickened than he begins to act spiritually, and his first activity is that of believing. His true belief of the law with application to himself issues in true conviction of his sinfulness of heart and life, and also in something resembling legal repentance; and his saving faith of the gospel with application to himself issues in union and communion with Christ, and so in evangelical repentance. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6); and therefore it is impossible, without the previous exercise of it, so to repent as to please Him (Jer 31:19,20). "Without me," says the Lord Jesus, "ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). If, separate from Christ or without vital union with Him by faith, a man can do nothing that is spiritually good, we may be sure that without it he cannot exercise spiritual repentance. Such repentance is usually styled evangelical, because the exercise of it is attained by faith in Jesus Christ as exhibited to sinners in the Gospel. Though the law, in the hand of the Spirit, serves in a good degree to reveal the inexpressible malignity, odiousness, and demerit of sin, yet the glorious Gospel affords brighter and more affecting discoveries of these. It is in this glass that the true penitent attains the most humbling and heart-melting views of the exceeding sinfulness of sin; such views of it as, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, will bring godly sorrow to the heart and the tears of evangelical repentance to the eyes. It is the eye of faith, contemplating sin in the cross of the adorable Redeemer, that affects the heart with bitter repentance and with true abhorrence of all iniquity.

2. Saving faith is the leading grace, especially to the exercise of true repentance.

The acting of the former is in order to the exercise of the latter. Accordingly we read in the Scripture, that "a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord" (Acts 11:21) and that the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for Him (Zech 12:10). The tears of godly sorrow drop as it were from the eye of faith. It is the exercise of faith in the crucified Redeemer that melts the hard heart into penitential mourning, and that produces the tears which run down in repentance. The eye of faith fixes on God in Christ as a God of love, mercy, and grace; and then by repentance the heart turns to Him, and to the love and practice of true holiness (Jer 3:22).

A godly minister, accordingly, gives us this admonition: "When you go to mourn for sin, begin aloft with Christ; and do not think to begin below with sin, and so to come up to Christ; but being aloft with Christ, and fall down upon your sin." True repentance is our turning to God. But if the exercise of this repentance were before that of faith, sinners might return to God without coming by Christ as the only way to Him, contrary to this declaration of Christ respecting Himself: "I am the way...no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Evangelical repentance cannot otherwise be attained than by faith, receiving it from the Lord Jesus, who is exalted to give it (Acts 5:31).

3. The exercise of true repentance flows immediately from unfeigned love to Christ, and to God in Him; but such love to Him springs from the exercise of true faith on Him.

The exercise of evangelical repentance, I say, flows immediately from genuine love to Jesus Christ, and to God in Him. The believing sinner exercises godly sorrow for his sins, because he pierced Christ, his dear Redeemer by them. But this he could not do unless he loved Christ with a supreme and tender love. It is his ardent love of the Redeemer that, under the infinite agency of the Holy Spirit, disposes and impels him to mourn and be in bitterness for having pierced and put Him to grief.

Also he forsakes with deep abhorrence all his iniquities, because they are infinitely hateful to God, and because he has thereby insulted and reproached His glorious Majesty. But he could not on these accounts hate sin, if he did not love Christ and God in Christ supremely, and if he did not love sincerely the holiness of His nature and His law. Moreover, he turns to God, and to a diligent endeavour after new obedience to Him. This, however, arises from superlative esteem of Him, and from ardent affection to Him. The exercise of true repentance, then, springs immediately from sincere love to Christ and to God in Him, as an infinitely holy and gracious God.

This love flows from the exercise of unfeigned faith. It is "faith which worketh by love." By faith the believer spiritually apprehends the love or good will of God to him. "We have known and believed," says the apostle John, "the love that God hath to us: God is love" (1 John 4:16). Calvin's remark on this passage appears to be just. "We have known and believed," or, that is, says he, "We have known by believing. In a preceding verse, the apostle represented faith as our believing that Jesus is the Son of God; but here he says: By faith we know the love of God toward us." When a man cordially believes the love of God to him, he in the same degree loves God, because God first loved him (1 John 4:19). He believes or trusts that God loves him with a love of good will, and so, he is powerfully and sweetly constrained to love Him in return. It is not the secret love of God in election, nor the secret operation of it in regeneration, that is more directly intended by the phrase, "He first loved us"; but the public manifestation of His love in the gift of Christ as exhibited in the Gospel; even that discovery of His love which is the object of the direct exercise of faith. This view of the apostle's assertion is confirmed by the fact that he uses this most sublime expression, "GOD IS LOVE" (1 John 4:16). Here he intimates that God, as the object of faith, is love; and also that a convinced sinner cannot sincerely love Him, till he first believes that, in Jesus Christ His dear Son, HE IS LOVE even to him. The special love of God to the believer may, indeed, be concluded from his unfeigned love to God.

But it does not follow that there is no apprehension at all of the loveliness and love of God to him, at his first exercise of love to God. The love of God in Christ, apprehended by the direct acting of faith, may well begin and promote that exercise. The believer's love to God, which is excited by the faith of God's love to him, is no more a mercenary, or a sinful self-love, than that of the Psalmist, when he loved Jehovah as his strength, his rock, his fortress and deliverer, his God, the horn of his salvation, and his high tower (Psa 18:1,2). Nor is it any more a self-love than that of Paul and the believers at Corinth, when the love of Christ, manifested in His dying for them, constrained them to live not to themselves but to Him. The Psalmist, by saying to the Lord, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee," expresses his exercise of supreme love to Him. But he attained this exercise of love by the acting of his faith, expressed thus in the immediately preceding verse: "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory" (Psa 73:24,25). It is evident, then, that the exercise of true repentance proceeds from supreme love to God, and that this love springs from the exercise of unfeigned faith. The acting of this faith therefore precedes the exercise of that repentance.

4. The exercise of genuine repentance supposes true conviction of sin and misery, and this proceeds from a true faith of the law.

Legal repentance, which is exercised by many unregenerate persons, springs from legal conviction and legal terror. But the exercise of evangelical repentance arises from that true and thorough conviction which is a consequence of that true faith of the law, implanted by the Holy Spirit at regeneration. Arising from such conviction of sin as follows upon the faith of the law, it may well be said to spring from this faith, as well as from the saving faith of the gospel. The subject of true repentance is a convinced sinner. "He sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity" (Job 36:9,10; cf Acts 2:37,38). As soon as a sinner is regenerated, and has true faith implanted in his heart, he believes the doctrine of the law, with particular application to himself. Hence arises true conviction of sin, and this is followed by the saving faith of the Gospel. The exercise of true repentance, then, in the order of nature, springs both from the true faith of the law and from the saving faith of the Gospel. If it follow that faith of the Gospel, it must of course follow that faith of the law from which true conviction proceeds. This faith and this conviction, therefore, are previously necessary to that exercise.

5. Evangelical repentance is included in sanctification, and the means or instrument of sanctification, is justifying and saving faith.

As the exercise of saving faith is, according to the covenant of grace, previously necessary to sanctification, so is it to the exercise of that repentance which is comprised in sanctification. That evangelical repentance is included in sanctification is evident. No man can repent unless he hate sin and love holiness. None can hate sin and turn from it, except he be sanctified: and none can be sanctified unless he have that saving faith, by the acting of which a man is vitally united to Christ, the head of sanctifying influence.

In actual sanctification, the believer dies more and more to sin, and lives to righteousness. Now, what is it to die to sin, but to exercise godly sorrow for it, and holy abhorrence of it? And what is it to live to righteousness, but to turn to God from the love and practice of all iniquity, and to the love and practice of universal holiness? The habitual sanctification, and the exercise of it is included in actual sanctification. The habit and the exercise of true repentance, then, have their place in habitual and actual sanctification. The principle of true repentance, indeed, as previously observed, is infused at regeneration; but the habit and exercise of it are not introduced but in sanctification. Now saving faith is the means or instrument of sanctification. Accordingly we read in Scripture that they who are sanctified, "are sanctified by faith" (Acts 26:18). The first acting of that faith must be before the first exercise of this repentance, as the means are before, and in order to the end.

6. If the exercise of true repentance be previously requisite, or preparatory, to the first acting of saving faith, the convinced sinner must be satisfied that his repentance is true, before he begin to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

Were it true that Jesus and His great salvation are, in the Gospel, offered to none but the true penitent, and that none else is warranted to receive the offer, it would follow that no sinner could warrantably embrace the offer till he were previously satisfied that his repentance was not counterfeit, but true; or, that he could not without sin attempt to come to Christ, or to trust in Him for salvation, until it was certified to his conscience that his repentance had all the discriminating characters of a true repentance. And seeing the exercise of genuine repentance springs from unfeigned love to God, he must be satisfied too, that he loves God sincerely, not only while he apprehends God to be his infinite enemy, but while He is indeed his enemy. The apostle Paul says: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom 14:23); that is, "Whatsoever is done in doubt of conscience, whether God has commanded it or not, is sin." And it is plain from the context, that by faith here, the apostle means the faith of God's command. If, then, the exercise of true repentance be a qualification previously necessary to the first acting of saving faith, and if the convinced sinner cannot be satisfied that his repentance is of the true kind, or that God commands him in particular to believe in Christ, how can he, so long as he doubts whether the command affording him a warrant for believing be addressed to him, attempt to believe in the Saviour? He may be sure that his attempting an act of faith, whilst he doubts his warrant for it, is his sin.

No wonder that the convinced and affrighted sinner doubts if he be a true penitent, and that he is ready to conclude he is not! But until he be satisfied that his repentance is of the true kind, he must not, according to that doctrine, presume to trust in the Saviour for salvation. If the Lord invites none to share in the provisions of His house but the true penitent, then he that doubteth is condemned if he eat. As the sinner cannot see anything that is spiritually good in himself before, but only in, or after, his first exercise of faith, it will be impossible for him ever to act faith on Christ warrantably; because true repentance, supposing him to have the principle of it, cannot be seen by him before his first acting of faith. Consequently no sinner in the world could ever begin lawfully to trust in the Saviour for salvation. For none must presume to trust in Christ until he see that he is a true penitent; and this cannot be discerned till he have already begun to believe or trust in Him.

But is it true that the offers of the Gospel, and commandment to believe in Jesus Christ, are addressed to none but true penitents? Far from it. Christ with His righteousness and salvation is in the Gospel offered to sinners of mankind in common-to sinners as such; and sinners as such are invited and commanded to believe on His name (1 John 3:23), "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev 22:17). "Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

The error which has now been adverted to, is most injurious to such as are seeking Jesus, and fighting against unbelief; for it tends greatly to discourage, and even to obstruct, all their attempts to trust in Him for salvation from sin and wrath. Although they apprehend the wrath of God denounced against them for their innumerable transgressions, and hear of a free salvation offered in the Gospel, yet it still appears to be forbidden fruit to them, because they are far from being certain that they have exercised true repentance. For they consider the exercise of true repentance to be a pre-requisite qualification for the acting of unfeigned faith. Hence the offers of a compassionate Saviour, and the promises of a great salvation, do but torment them the more; while they falsely persuade themselves that none but the true penitent has a right to apply and trust them. As they cannot be satisfied before the first acting of faith that their exercise of repentance is genuine, and as they cannot attain deliverance from their perplexing fears, nor victory over the least of their spiritual enemies, but by the exercise of faith in the almighty Redeemer, their souls are ensnared, and obstructed in faith, in holiness, and in comfort. So long as they adhere to this false persuasion, it will effectually deter them from coming as sinners to Christ, and from trusting in Him, so as to be filled "with all joy and peace in believing."

ARE YOU ENTANGLED IN THIS PERPLEXING SNARE? Do you persuade yourself that the exercise of true repentance, and a consciousness of this exercise, are previously necessary to the acting of unfeigned faith? Do you postpone the act of trusting in the Lord Jesus for all His salvation, till you first sit down and mourn awhile for your sins, or till your heart be so humbled that you may be welcome to Him, and so have from your own resources a warrant for trusting in Him? Do you object against coming to Christ because you are not certain that your conviction of sin and your repentance are of the right sort? Do you apply yourself to the exercise of repentance in order to be qualified for believing in Christ, or do you apply your conscience to the commands and curses of the broken law, in order so to repent as to be entitled to trust in Him? Know, I entreat you, that this preposterous and self-righteous course will but sink you the deeper in unbelief, impenitence, and enmity to God the longer you try in this manner to seek for evangelical repentance in your heart or life, the farther you will be from finding it.

But perhaps you will reply, Can any man who is not a true penitent exercise a saving faith in Christ? I answer, No, he cannot. But though no man can act a saving faith without having the principle of true repentance, or a disposition to exercise it, implanted by the Holy Spirit in his heart, yet multitudes have believed, and do believe to the saving of the soul, without having previously seen that they had that principle, and without any previous exercise of it. To have it is necessary to the acting of true faith; but to know that you have it, is not necessary. To have the capacity or disposition to exercise true repentance is indispensably requisite; but the actual exercise of it, and your consciousness of that exercise, are not previously necessary. Study then, in dependence on the grace of the promise, and study resolutely, to believe in order to repent; to come as an unworthy and undone sinner, and, believing cordially that the offers of the gospel are directed to you in particular, to trust firmly in Jesus Christ for all His salvation, and for true repentance as an essential part of it. So shall you be enabled to exercise that evangelical repentance which will not need to be repented of. Do not try to wash yourself clean in order to come to the open fountain of redeeming blood; but come to it as you are, and, by the immediate exercise of direct confidence in the Lord Jesus, wash away all your sins (Ezek 36:25).

7. The exercise of true repentance itself shews plainly that the acting of saving faith is prior to it.

Such repentance is a sinner's turning cordially from all sin to God. But it is impossible to turn to God except through Christ. "I am the way [said Jesus]...no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6). It is impossible to come to Christ and walk in Him, but by the acting of faith (John 6:35). The sinner, then, who would turn and come to God by true repentance, must needs take Christ by faith as his way to Him. He must believe or trust in Christ in order to return and come to God by Christ. The exercise of faith, therefore, is, in order of nature, before that of repentance.

Repentance is, indeed, in Scripture, placed sometimes before faith. But the reason seems to be that repentance is the end, and faith the means of attaining to that end. The end is first in intention, and therefore is mentioned first; but the means are first in practice. Thus in Mark 1:15 our Lord commands sinners to repent; and in order to their exercise of repentance, he enjoins them to believe the Gospel as the means of attaining that important end. The apostle Paul, said to the elders of the church at Ephesus, that he had testified to them, "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21)-repentance toward God as the end, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ as the means of attaining that end. Hence it is obvious that, if faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ be not the means of attaining repentance toward God, the fundamental truth, that no man comes to the Father but by Christ, is overturned (John 14:6).

Were the exercise of true repentance before the acting of genuine faith, sinners might return to God without coming by Christ, the only way to Him. But according to the Scriptures, the exercise of evangelical repentance is not otherwise to be attained than by faith, by which we look upon Him whom we have pierced (Zech 12:10), and by which we receive out of His fulness grace to repent. It is the cordial exercise of particular trust in the Redeemer, that, through grace, it powerfully withdraws the affections from all iniquity and sweetly attaches them to the holy and blessed God. After Ezra had prayed and confessed, the people indeed wept; but they did not attempt to put away their strange wives, until Shechaniah had cried, "We have trespassed against our God...yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing" (Ezra 10:2). They who will turn must not only be prisoners of fear, but "prisoners of hope" (Zech 9:12).

8. Once more, the Scriptures set forth the blessed Object of faith, and the precious promises of grace, as powerful motives to the exercise of true repentance.

By this it is evident that it must be by a faith-view of that glorious Object, brought near in the offers and promises, that a convinced sinner is incited and enabled, to exercise evangelical repentance. Various passages of Scripture, such as the following, set forth the exceeding riches of the grace of God, in order to excite and encourage sinners to the exercise of true repentance. "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you...Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God" (Jer 3:14,22). "Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up...O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity" (Hosea 6:1;14:1). "Therefore also now, saith the LORD, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (Joel 2:12,13). The moral law of Sinai, which requires true repentance, is prefaced by this most gracious declaration to encourage the Israelite to obedience: "I am the LORD thy God" (Exo 20:2). And in the New Testament, sinners are exhorted to repentance thus: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 3:2;4:17).

Now if the exercise of true repentance precedes that of saving faith, such passages tend to deceive us. For, by the most natural construction of them, we are induced to believe that it is by means of a previous apprehension by faith of the mercy and grace of God in Christ, that sinners are brought to the exercise of evangelical repentance. Such passages, especially when compared, show plainly that it is by a believing application of the offers and promises of the blessed Gospel, and by a cordial trust in the Lord Jesus for mercy and grace, that convinced sinners are disposed to exercise true repentance.

By the arguments here advanced, it is, I trust, evident to the impartial reader that the acting of true or saving faith is, in order of nature, previous to the exercise of evangelical repentance.

Is the first act of justifying and saving faith previous, in order of nature, to the first exercise of evangelical repentance, and is the renewed acting of the former before the renewed exercise of the latter? Then the believing sinner should, in repenting of his sins, begin with the sin of unbelief. He ought, in the faith of pardoning mercy, to repent of his unbelief and distrust of the faithful Redeemer, in order to repent of all his other sins. As faith, with respect to its office in the new covenant, is the principal, the leading grace, so unbelief is the radical, the leading sin. Accordingly, when the Holy Spirit convinces an elect sinner of sin, He convinces him particularly of his unbelief (John 16:8,9). He shews him the exceeding sinfulness, hatefulness, and demerit of all his iniquities, and especially of his disbelief, and distrust of the Divine Redeemer.

The exercise of evangelical repentance, therefore, has respect chiefly to this radical sin, which is the root of every other abomination. All other iniquities are but so many malignant streams issuing from the unbelief as their fountain. The legal penitent, as he is never truly convinced of the strength and sinfulness of his unbelief, so he never sincerely repents of it; and because he never truly repents of that sin, he cannot repent evangelically of any other. His pretending to repent of his other transgressions is vain, so long as he does not repent of his unbelief, the corrupt fountain from which they all flow. The evangelical penitent, on the contrary, shows that his repentance is true, by repenting of all the polluted streams of his iniquities, not only in themselves but in their fountain. And if at any time, in his exercise of repentance, he overlooks his remaining unbelief, or distrust of the Saviour, he will find that his exercise of it will languish, and that hardness and impenitence of heart will prevail against him. The stronger his faith is, and the more frequently he exercises it, the more deeply he will repent of his remaining unbelief, and of all the innumerable crimes which proceed from it.

Reader, see that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to exercise true repentance, and that you repent of your unbelief, in order to repent spiritually of all your other sins. For it is in proportion as you turn from your unbelief, that root of bitterness, that you turn in an acceptable manner from any other of your iniquities.