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S211M.
XL.1
LIVING
ABOVE THE
DEAD.
IËi
VIII.
Repentance and
godly sorrow
for our past
of-
fences, belong only to this
life.
Converting
grace works
only
on
earth
;
we
are called
to
repent
in
order
to be
for-
given
:
" Repent
and
be
converted,
that
your
sins
may
be blotted out
;"
Acts
iii. 19.
And the exercise
of
this
grace
is
not
only necessary
at
first conversion,
(though
it
most eminently
appears
at
that
season)
but it
must
run
like
a thread through the
whole
course
of
this
mortal
life,
till
death
shall
put
an
utter
end to
sin.
Let
every known
sin
therefore
which
we
are
guilty
of
be
attended
with
some
new
and
sensible exercise
of
shame,
and sorrow,
and
holy
indignation
against
ourselves.
Let
us
live in
a
daily,
constant, penitent frame, for
we
are
daily
sinners.
This
painful
sense
of
sin,
this
holy mourning,
is
an ho-
nour
done
to
the
law
of pur
God.
It
is
the
living,,
the
living
who
are called to this
work;
for
there
is
no
repen-
tance
in
the grave
:
Shew
your hatred
of
sin
therefore
continually, and
your
sincere
love
to the
law
of
holiness
by such an humiliation
as
becomes an
imperfect saint.
You
will
ask
me,
" Do not
saints
in
heaven
repent
that
they have ever
sinned here on earth
?"
I
answer,
that
whatsoever
regret
they feel in
the me-
mory
of
their past
transgressions,
it
is
not attended
with
such sensible shame and inward pain
at
the heart,
as
are
necessary
to
that duty of repentance that
is
required here
on
earth
;
for
there
is
nothing must break in upon
their
perfect
peace or
joy
in heaven.
As
God
is
said
not
to
remember
their
iniquities, because
he does
not
remern-
ber
them
in
order
to punish,
so
the saints above are
not
said
to
repent of
sin,
because they have
no such
shame
and
grief accompanying it
as
whilst they dwelt
upon
earth, and
which
are
some
of
the most
remarkable ingre-
dients
in
our repentance.
But
we
may
suppose there
is
among them
some
sort
of
holy
self-displicency,
and
something
of a
sacred
regret,
that
ever
they
offended
such a
God,
and such a Saviour
?
There
will
be
surely
an
inward and hearty
disapproba-
zion
of their
former sinful
ways
whenever they
think
upon them:
And, indeed,
without
some reflection
on
their
former guilt
and
misery,
they can never
give
due
glory
to
Christ their Redeemer,
who
rescued them
from
their.
sorrows
and
their
sins.
But
,all
the painful
and
shameful
attendants of
this
grace
of
repentance
must
be
VOL.
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