Aspects of Piety 14
Repentance Adams speaks of repentance in one place as ‘that old laundress' (Works 3, p 273). Elsewhere he assures us that tears of repentance will not drown us but will save us from drowning. Emergent repentance is ‘the main plank that shall preserve thee from perishing’. (Works 3, p 297).
People do not care for repentance by nature. In one passage, Adams exclaims ‘O blessed repentance, how sweet and amiable art thou! Yet how few love thee!’ He identifies some of the characters who hate it – the proud great man, the greedy wealthy, the miserly ‘country Nabal’, cheating ‘avarous citizens’, the hypocritical ‘muffled lawyer’, the bloodthirsty ‘sharking officer’. The usurer, drunkard and adulterer are obvious targets but, he points out, the tragedy is that they think they will one day repent before it is too late. (Works 2, p 488).
How foolish to think repentance is something so easy. Tears alone will not do it. Judas and Esau wept as much as David and Peter but they did not repent in their souls. (Works 2, p 346). In The Black Saint, where he deals directly with superficial repentance, he warns that 'Sin is congealed, concorporated, baked on; and must be pared and digged away by greater violence than sweeping. … Impiety is habituated by custom, hardened by impenitency, incorporated to him by his affection to it; and shall he think that a formal repentance, like a soft besom, can sweep it clean? Can a few drops and sprinklings of water purge off the inveterate foulness and corruption of the flesh? There is required much rinsing to whiten a defiled soul.' (Works 2, p 56).
Some think they can ‘boldly, stain the cloth a whole vintage, and at last let one washing serve for all’ or put out a thousand fires with one tear. This is a great error.
‘Repentance’ can be thought of as ‘an ascent of four steps’. (It is interesting to compare this sermon with John Bradford’s popular 1552 sermon on repentance for their basic similarity and Adams’ increased awareness of the danger of hypocrisy). Some don’t even begin on this ascent, others only come so far. Unless we ascend all four stairs we are not really repenting. We must begin with amendment of life then preparation for Christ’s coming. The third rung on the ladder is abstaining from sin and the fourth setting out on a new path. All these are useless if they do not lead to actual repentance. That is the only ‘bulwark to defend us from the shot of God’s thunder from heaven’ and hedge against ‘his judgements on earth’. (Works 2, p 490).
Repentance ought to be a daily thing. God is very gracious but to rely on a last minute repentance is not wise. ‘It is better to make this thy diet than thy physic’. ‘He that will wear a crown in heaven must be all his life on earth preparing it'.(Works 2, p 572)
Adams also speaks of repentance and her daughter faith as ‘two most valiant and puissant (ie powerful) soldiers that are the soul’s champions’. They fight sin and lust and all the powers of evil. Repentance fights with some apparent disadvantages. She fights kneeling and ‘stoops as low as she can’. However, this invites mercy and ‘the fearful thunder of vengeance is resisted by the soft wool of repentance.’ Then there is the fact that her fellow soldiers can often fail – faith droops, hope faints, conscience sleeps. However, Holy fear wakens conscience, conscience faith, faith hope and hope repentance and there is pardon and comfort. Similarly, by bringing up the rear this ‘conquering queen’ may seem far off but ‘comes in with her reserve’ and deals with sin at last. (Works 3, p 297).
People do not care for repentance by nature. In one passage, Adams exclaims ‘O blessed repentance, how sweet and amiable art thou! Yet how few love thee!’ He identifies some of the characters who hate it – the proud great man, the greedy wealthy, the miserly ‘country Nabal’, cheating ‘avarous citizens’, the hypocritical ‘muffled lawyer’, the bloodthirsty ‘sharking officer’. The usurer, drunkard and adulterer are obvious targets but, he points out, the tragedy is that they think they will one day repent before it is too late. (Works 2, p 488).
How foolish to think repentance is something so easy. Tears alone will not do it. Judas and Esau wept as much as David and Peter but they did not repent in their souls. (Works 2, p 346). In The Black Saint, where he deals directly with superficial repentance, he warns that 'Sin is congealed, concorporated, baked on; and must be pared and digged away by greater violence than sweeping. … Impiety is habituated by custom, hardened by impenitency, incorporated to him by his affection to it; and shall he think that a formal repentance, like a soft besom, can sweep it clean? Can a few drops and sprinklings of water purge off the inveterate foulness and corruption of the flesh? There is required much rinsing to whiten a defiled soul.' (Works 2, p 56).
Some think they can ‘boldly, stain the cloth a whole vintage, and at last let one washing serve for all’ or put out a thousand fires with one tear. This is a great error.
‘Repentance’ can be thought of as ‘an ascent of four steps’. (It is interesting to compare this sermon with John Bradford’s popular 1552 sermon on repentance for their basic similarity and Adams’ increased awareness of the danger of hypocrisy). Some don’t even begin on this ascent, others only come so far. Unless we ascend all four stairs we are not really repenting. We must begin with amendment of life then preparation for Christ’s coming. The third rung on the ladder is abstaining from sin and the fourth setting out on a new path. All these are useless if they do not lead to actual repentance. That is the only ‘bulwark to defend us from the shot of God’s thunder from heaven’ and hedge against ‘his judgements on earth’. (Works 2, p 490).
Repentance ought to be a daily thing. God is very gracious but to rely on a last minute repentance is not wise. ‘It is better to make this thy diet than thy physic’. ‘He that will wear a crown in heaven must be all his life on earth preparing it'.(Works 2, p 572)
Adams also speaks of repentance and her daughter faith as ‘two most valiant and puissant (ie powerful) soldiers that are the soul’s champions’. They fight sin and lust and all the powers of evil. Repentance fights with some apparent disadvantages. She fights kneeling and ‘stoops as low as she can’. However, this invites mercy and ‘the fearful thunder of vengeance is resisted by the soft wool of repentance.’ Then there is the fact that her fellow soldiers can often fail – faith droops, hope faints, conscience sleeps. However, Holy fear wakens conscience, conscience faith, faith hope and hope repentance and there is pardon and comfort. Similarly, by bringing up the rear this ‘conquering queen’ may seem far off but ‘comes in with her reserve’ and deals with sin at last. (Works 3, p 297).
On March 29, 1625, the first Tuesday after the death of King James I, Adams preached in Whitehall. Seeking to take advantage of the sober frame that many were in, he preached on Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. (Works 1, pp 49-59). It is a brief but powerful sermon in which he refuses to ‘pull the text in pieces’ and simply works his way through Job’s words. On I repent he notes that repentance is ‘better known than practised’. He seeks to urge everyone to take advantage of this ‘universal antidote’. He especially warns against supposing it is something we can do at will. After some time on the subject he closes with this beautifully arresting paragraph.
'If I should give you the picture of repentance, I would tell you that she is a virgin fair and lovely; and those tears, which seem to do violence to her beauty, rather indeed grace it. Her breast is sore with the strokes of her own penitent hands, which are always either in Moses’s posture in the mount, lift up towards heaven, or the publican’s in the temple, smiting her bosom. Her knees are hardened with constant praying; her voice is hoarse with calling to heaven; and when she cannot speak, she delivers her mind in groans. There is not a tear falls from her, but an angel holds a bottle to catch it. She thinks every man’s sin’s less than her own, every man’s good deeds more. Her compunctions are unspeakable, known only to God and herself. She could wish, not only men, but even beasts, and trees, and stones, to mourn with her. She thinks no sun should shine, because she takes no pleasure in it; that the lilies should be clothed in black, because she is so apparelled. Mercy comes down like a glorious cherub, and lights on her bosom, with this message from God, ‘I have heard thy prayers, and seen thy tears;’ so with a handkerchief of comfort dries her cheeks, and tells her that she is accepted in Jesus Christ. '
In a sermon on Galatians 6:7 Man’s seed-time and harvest or Lex Talionis Adams lists seven general pleas or excuses given for sin. (Works 2, pp 360-374, see pp 364-367). He mentions predestination, God’s will, ignorance, outweighing good deeds, God’s mercy, Christ’s infinite satisfaction and repentance. Dealing with this latter excuse he points out that although God promises to forgive you if you repent, whereas he will always be ‘so good as his promise’ you cannot be so sure that you will be ‘so good as thy purpose’. You can only expect God to ‘forgive thee repenting’ not to ‘give thee repentance sinning’. The promise is ‘to repentance’ not ‘of repentance’. Repentance is God’s gift.
'Unless God give thee repentance, and another mind, thou shalt speed as the lost angels did; for God may as easily cast thee from the earth as he did them from heaven.' (Works 2, p 252).
'If I should give you the picture of repentance, I would tell you that she is a virgin fair and lovely; and those tears, which seem to do violence to her beauty, rather indeed grace it. Her breast is sore with the strokes of her own penitent hands, which are always either in Moses’s posture in the mount, lift up towards heaven, or the publican’s in the temple, smiting her bosom. Her knees are hardened with constant praying; her voice is hoarse with calling to heaven; and when she cannot speak, she delivers her mind in groans. There is not a tear falls from her, but an angel holds a bottle to catch it. She thinks every man’s sin’s less than her own, every man’s good deeds more. Her compunctions are unspeakable, known only to God and herself. She could wish, not only men, but even beasts, and trees, and stones, to mourn with her. She thinks no sun should shine, because she takes no pleasure in it; that the lilies should be clothed in black, because she is so apparelled. Mercy comes down like a glorious cherub, and lights on her bosom, with this message from God, ‘I have heard thy prayers, and seen thy tears;’ so with a handkerchief of comfort dries her cheeks, and tells her that she is accepted in Jesus Christ. '
In a sermon on Galatians 6:7 Man’s seed-time and harvest or Lex Talionis Adams lists seven general pleas or excuses given for sin. (Works 2, pp 360-374, see pp 364-367). He mentions predestination, God’s will, ignorance, outweighing good deeds, God’s mercy, Christ’s infinite satisfaction and repentance. Dealing with this latter excuse he points out that although God promises to forgive you if you repent, whereas he will always be ‘so good as his promise’ you cannot be so sure that you will be ‘so good as thy purpose’. You can only expect God to ‘forgive thee repenting’ not to ‘give thee repentance sinning’. The promise is ‘to repentance’ not ‘of repentance’. Repentance is God’s gift.
'Unless God give thee repentance, and another mind, thou shalt speed as the lost angels did; for God may as easily cast thee from the earth as he did them from heaven.' (Works 2, p 252).
No comments:
Post a Comment