Puritan Library

"Repentance"

"Repentance is the doctrine of the Gospel."

- Thomas Boston, Repentance, pg 42

The book "Repentance", which is a collection of sermons preached by the 18th century Puritan Thomas Boston, is the second book I have read recently concerning the biblical topic on repentance (the first being by Thomas Watson - see book review before this one).  As Thomas Watson gave what I believe is a very emotional look at repentance (having the heart being central in one's own repentance), I believe that Thomas Boston gave a technical view of repentance.  I believe both views must be adopted by an individual in order to have a full and biblically balanced view and experience of repentance.

In his book, what Boston did very well was to give warnings distinguishing between a true repentance and a false repentance, as he wrote, “Without a sense of sin there is no humiliation; without humiliation there can be no repentance; and without repentance there can be no escape from the wrath of God... Insensibleness of sin, and the evil of it, locks up the heart in obduration and impenitency; and that will shut up the soul under wrath.”  True repentance cannot take place until the true nature of your own evil is self-understood.  A false and limited view of your own sin will result in producing a false and limited act of repentance.  And speaking of limiting repentance, Boston also points out the importance of exercising repentance as a daily part of your walk with God, as opposed to repenting only once at your conversion.  Boston states it as such, “Whoever endeavours not to carry on their repentance, I doubt if they ever at all repented yet... The heart first smitten with repentance for sin at the soul’s first conversion to God, the wound still bleeds, and is never bound up to bleed no more, till the band of glory be put about it in heaven.”  Daily repentance of our sins is to exist side-by-side with our daily faith in God, who delivers us from those sins.

For a detailed look into the nature of true repentance, and how it is to affect our daily walk with God, I would suggest Thomas Boston's book "Repentance" as a helpful manual to gain a robust and thorough grasp of such an important life-saving experience that genuine repentance gives.

“Though you have sinned with the world, if you repent with God’s elect, you will not perish with the world.”

- Thomas Boston, Repentance, pg 124

Puritan Library

"The Doctrine of Repentance"

“Martyrs shed blood for Christ, and penitents shed tears for sins.”
- Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance, pg 19

This book, written in 1668 by the Puritan Thomas Watson, is one of two books I have recently read on the subject of repentance (the second book is titled "Repentance" by the Puritan Thomas Boston, which I will write a review for shortly).  In Watson's book, one aspect of repentance that seemed to be a theme throughout is the necessary connection of sorrow to repentance.  Watson strongly emphasizes that true repentance will always be accompanied by a deep and heart-wrenching sorrow for sins against a holy and majestic God. Watson wrote, “Godly sorrow goes deep, like the vein which bleeds inwardly.  The heart bleeds for sin... As the heart bears a chief part in sinning, so it must in sorrowing.”  Repentance is not merely repeating the words "I'm sorry" to God after we have sinned, but rather it is to be a felt disturbance in our souls: a disturbance that makes our hearts wish to no longer offend our glorious Savior.  That is where sorrow comes in and makes our repentance an acceptable fragrance to God, for without sorrow in our repentance it will not be received but will be rejected because of its superficiality and unchanging nature.  Repentance that does not hurt us cannot change us, as Watson solemnly warned, “He that can repent without sorrowing, suspect his repentance.”

The most meaningful way to make your repentance meaningful itself is to focus on Jesus Christ on the Cross dying for the very sins you are to repent of.  When you think of your sin simply as a bad and unfortunate thing - without contemplating what your sin did to Jesus - you might feel somewhat regretful for it, but that will be the totality of your repentance.  However when you meditate on your sins being the cause of Jesus' terrible sufferings and eventual death on the Cross, than you would find it impossible to repent without sorrow.  You cannot genuinely repent without your soul shedding painful tears for what they have caused on so beautiful a person as the Son of God.  Watson concludes, “Can we look upon a suffering Saviour with dry eyes? Shall we not be sorry for those sins which made Christ a man of sorrow?  Shall not our infirmities, which drew blood from Christ, draw tears from us?”

I recommend Thomas Watson's book "The Doctrine of Repentance" for those who seek a deepening of their repentance that will affect their hearts with godly sorrow, making a true change in your lives away from sin, thereby being a repentance that will be received by God.

“Moist tears dry up sin and quench the wrath of God.  Repentance is the cherisher of piety, the procurer of mercy.”
- Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance, pg 7

Why Read The Puritans Today?

"In the Puritans, people are finding men who were passionate and obsessed with the knowledge of God." - Don Kistler

Puritan expert Don Kistler wrote a short book entitled "Why Read The Puritans Today?", in which he gives ten reasons why the books and written sermons of the 17th and 18th century Puritans are still highly relevant for Christians in the modern era.  The reasons Kistler gives were practical and everyday realities for the Puritans, which ensured for them an in depth and encompassing relationship with God and His Word.

I would like to write out excerpts from all ten of those reasons here to encourage Christians to become acquainted with the writings of the Puritans for the sole purpose of growing closer to God and for gaining a much more intimate and comprehensive hold on God's Word.

"Why Read Puritans Today" - by Don Kistler

1. Reading the Puritans will elevate your concept of God to a degree you probably never thought possible, and show you a God who is truly worthy of your worship and adoration... When you begin to have Isaiah's vision of God from Isaiah 6, and you realize that the reality of God is infinitely beyond anything your mind can fully comprehend, you'll realize that the average man doesn't think much about God at all... The Puritans were, above all, great thinkers.

2. The Puritans had a "love affair", if you will, with Christ; they wrote much about the beauty of Christ... The true Christian wants Christ and nothing but Christ.

3. The Puritans will help us understand the sufficiency of Christ.  This comes under great attack in our modern church.  You may have Christ to save you, but you need psychology to help you get through life, we are told... It is our deficiency of Christ that is the issue.  If Christ is all in all, how can we look to anyone else or anything else for answers?

4. The Puritans help us to see the sufficiency of Scripture for life and godliness... The Puritans understood that spiritual problems needed spiritual solutions... God, who created the soul, and who died to redeem the soul, best knows how to treat the soul.  And those men who are most acquainted with God are best able to provide cures for the soul.  In fact, the Puritans were called "physicians of the soul."

5. The Puritans can teach us about the heinous nature of sin... There is no doctrine on which it is more important to be orthodox than this one, because if you are off on the doctrine of sin, you are going to be off on every other doctrine.

6. The Puritans will help us with practical living... Before this century, most counseling was done from the pulpit or during a pastoral visit to the home to catechize the family... There was no area of life that the Puritans believed was not to be regulated by Scripture... The Puritans were very pastoral in addition to being very theological.  There is a great deal for comfort in their writings.

7. The Puritans will help us with evangelism that is biblical.  Most evangelism today is man-centered.  Puritan evangelism was God-centered.

8. Reading the Puritans will help establish right priorities... One Puritan said it this way, "God's smile is my greatest reward, and His frown is my greatest fear."  If it is true that we become like the people with whom we spend our time, then it is an investment in eternity to spend your time with the Puritans.

9. The Puritans can help us clarify the issue of how a man is made right with God.  A title that I highly recommend is Solomon Stoddard's work on the difference between imputed and infused righteousness, "The Safety of Appearing on the Day of Judgment in the Righteousness of Christ."  I cannot overemphasize the importance of being sound on this matter of imputed righteousness in this day when so many are not sound on the eternal difference between imputed and infused righteousness.  The difference between these two positions is not simply the distance between Rome and Geneva; it is the distance between heaven and hell.

10. Finally, let's examine the Puritans and the authority of the Word... The Puritan divines who wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith wrote, "The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God."... That is how the Puritans viewed Scripture.  Their high view of God came from their high view of Scripture.  And if we would know God the way they did, we must love His Word the way they did.

"Reading the Puritans, then, would be the best possible use of time.  Oh, that we might become like them in the ways that they set Christ forth for all to adore and worship."
- Don Kistler, Why Read The Puritans Today, pg 17