The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained/Chapter16

by Benjamin Fiske Barrett

 

XVI.—Repentance.

Most Christians at the present day will scarcely credit the statement, that, in Swedenborg's time there was no correct understanding of the Scripture doctrine of repentance. Yet it is strictly true. It was believed to consist in a species of anxiety and grief called contrition, which preceded their faith in those about to be regenerated,—a terror arising from fear of the wrath of God and eternal damnation; and that, without this contrition, the faith which attributes to man the merit and righteousness of Christ, could not be bestowed. This contrition, accompanied by the mere lip-confession that the individual was "all mere sin, thereby including all sins and excluding none"—without any perception or acknowledgment of any particular sins in himself—was thought to be repentance. Speaking on this subject in his last great work, Swedenborg says:

"I once heard a man praying in the spiritual world after this manner: 'I am full of sores, leprous, unclean, from my mother's womb. There is not a sound spot in me from my head to the sole of my foot. I am not worthy to raise my eyes toward God. I am deserving of death and eternal damnation. Have mercy upon me for the sake of thy Son. Purify me in his blood. On thy good pleasure depends the salvation of all. I pray for mercy.' Hearing him pray thus, the bystanders asked, 'How do you know that you are of such a character?' He replied, 'I know it because I have heard so.' But he was then sent to the angelic examiners, before whom he spoke in the same way. And they, after examination, reported that he had spoken the truth about himself, but that still he did not know of one single evil that was within him, because he had never examined himself, and had believed that after lip-confession evils were no longer evils in the sight of God, both because God turns his eyes away from them and because He has been propitiated. And the angels said that therefore he had not come to a sense of any of his evils, although he had been a willful adulterer, a thief, a wily detractor and intensely revengeful, and was still such in heart and will." (T. C. R. 517.)

So foreign from the truth was the idea concerning repentance, which this individual had received from the church of his day while he was on earth!

But the New Church teaches a different doctrine on this subject. It teaches that man is born with an inclination (inherited from foregone ancestry) to all kinds of evil—the proclivity to particular kinds varying in strength with different individuals. And unless these evils are overcome or removed, the man remains in them; and they cannot be removed without repentance. This is the first step in the regenerate life. And the beginning of repentance is self-examination, and the consequent recognition and acknowledgment of particular evils in one's self, that need to be removed before their opposite heavenly goods can be received. And when the evil inclination is discovered, the individual should acknowledge it before the Lord, supplicate Divine assistance in its removal, turn from it as from the fire of hell, shun its indulgence as a sin against God, and begin a new life, that is, should seek to develop and strengthen in himself the opposite good inclination. And not only must we examine our outward actions, but the thought and intention from which the actions proceed, if we would perform true repentance.

"As, for example, when a man's thought, will and intention incline him to revenge, adultery, theft, false-witness,—blasphemy against God, the holy Word, the church, and the like; if he attends to this, and inquires whether he would actually commit these evils if the fear of the law and for his good name did not hinder; and if, after this scrutiny, he decides that he must not will to commit them because they are sins, he truly and interiorly repents. . . . He who does this repeatedly, feels the delights of evil when they return as disagreeable, and finally condemns them to hell." (T. C. R. 563.)

"He who would be saved, must confess his sins and do the work of repentance. To confess sins is to know evils, to see them in one's self, to acknowledge them, to make himself guilty, and condemn himself on account of them. When this is done before God, it constitutes the confession of sin.

"To do the work of repentance is to desist from sins when he has thus confessed them, and from a humble heart has made supplication about remission; and further, to lead a new life according to the precepts of faith.

"He who only acknowledges in a general way that he is a sinner, and makes himself guilty of all evils, and does not explore himself, that is, see his sins, makes confession but not the confession of repentance; for he lives afterwards as before.

"He who lives the life of faith, does the work of repentance daily; for he reflects upon the evils appertaining to himself, acknowledges them, shuns them, and supplicates the Lord for aid. . . . Repentance of the mouth and not of the life is not repentance. Sins are remitted only by repentance of the life." (A. C. 8387-'94. See also A. R. 531.)

"A man forever remains of such a character as is his life [or ruling love], and by no means such as he is [or appears to be] at the hour of death; for repentance at that time is of no avail with the evil, but it confirms the state with the good." (Ap. Ex. 194.)