Published in Offor's 1861 edition of "Bunyan's Works."
OF REPENTANCE AND COMING TO CHRIST.
The end of affliction is the discovery of sin, and of that to
bring us to a Saviour. Let us therefore. with the prodigal, return unto him, and
we shall find ease and rest.
A repenting penitent, though formerly as bad as the worst of men,
may, by grace, become as good as the best.
To be truly sensible of sin is to sorrow for displeasing of God;
to be afflicted that he is displeased by us more than that he is displeased with
us.
Your intentions to repentance, and the neglect of that soul-saving
duty, will rise up in judgment against you.
Repentance carries with it a divine rhetoric, and persuades Christ
to forgive multitudes of sins committed against him.
Say not with thyself, Tomorrow I will repent; for it is thy duty
to do it daily.
The gospel of grace and salvation is above all doctrines the most
dangerous, if it be received in word only by graceless men--if it be not attended
with a sensible need of a Saviour, and bring them to him. For such men as have only
the notion of it, are of all men most miserable--for by reason of their knowing more
than heathens, this only shall be their final portion, that they shall have greater
stripes.
