os the man will reap benefit fi·oin, as his friends v:ill rejoice in, as the world will call reformation; but it is not such a change as will make him meet for heaven, and iil deficient in its import from what our Saviour speaks of when he says, "I tell you nay, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." There is no single word in the ;English language which occurs to us as fully equal to the faithful rendering of the term in the original. Renewedness of mind, however awkward a phrase this may be, is perhaps the most nearly expressive of it. Certain it is, that it harmonizes with those other passages of the Bible where the process is described by which saving repentance is brought about. We read of being transformed by the renewing of our minds, of the renewing of the Holy Ghost, of being renewed in the spirit of our minds. Scriptural repentance, therefore, is that deep and radical change whereby a soul turns from the idols of sin and of self unto God, and devotes every movement of the iimer and the outer man, to the captivity of his obedience. This is the change which, whether it be expressed by one word or not in the English language, we would have you well to understand; and reformation or change in the outward conduct, instead of being saving and scriptural repentance, is what, in the language of John the Baptist, we would call a fruit meet for it. But if mischief is likely to arise, from the want of an adequate word in our language, to that repentance which is unto salvation, there is one effectual preservative against it-a firm and consistent exhibition of the whole counsel and revelation of God. A man who is well read in his New Testament, and reads it with d0cility, will dismiss all his meagre conceptions of repentance, when he comes to the following statements:-" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- • dom of God." "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the ~gdom of heaven." " If any man have not the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=