True Christian Religion (Chadwick) n. 509

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

509. CHAPTER NINE

REPENTANCE

The chapters on faith, charity and free will naturally lead on to the subject of repentance, since true faith and genuine charity cannot exist without repentance, and no one can repent without free will. Another reason why repentance must come here is that the next chapter deals with regeneration; and no one can be regenerated until the more serious evils, which render a person loathsome before God, have been removed. What is an unregenerate person but one who is impenitent? And what is an impenitent person but one stricken with a kind of lethargy, knowing nothing about sin and therefore embracing it in his bosom, kissing it every day, as an adulterer does the trollop in his bed. To show what repentance is, and what it does, the chapter needs to be split up into sections.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church