Repentance

REPENTANCE-
Part I
"…repentance is a mighty work, a difficult work, a work that is above our power."
"Repentance is a flower wich does not grow in nature's garden!"
"Repentance is a gift that comes down from above. Men are not born with repentance in their hearts, as they are born with tongues in their mouths: (Acts 5:31)."
"(2 Timothy 2:25-26) It is not in the power of any mortal to repent at pleasure. Some ignorant deluded souls vainly conceit that these five words, 'Lord! Have mercy upon me,' are efficacious to send them to heaven;"
"The Hebrew word for repentance signifies to return, implying a going back from what a man had done. It denotes a turning or converting from one thing to another, from sin to God. True repentance is a thorough change both of the mind and life. Repentance for sin is nothing worth without repentance from sin."
"The formal ACT of repentance is a changing and converting. It is a turning from darkness to light."
"The SUBJECT changed and converted is the whole man; it is both the sinner's heart and life; first his heart, then his life; first his person, then his practice and lifestyle."
"The TERMS of this change and conversion,…The heart must changed from the state and power of sin, the life from the acts of sin—but both unto God;…So the prophet Isaiah says 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord' (55:7)."
"Besides, repentance is not only a turning from all sin—but also a turning to all good; to a love of all good, to a prizing of all good, and to a following after all good (Ezek. 18:21): 'But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.'"
"Also true repentance includes a sensibleness of sin's destructiveness;…how it has made men Godless, Christless, hopeless and heavenless. Further, true repentance includes sorrow for sin, contrition of heart."
"…repentance does include, not only a loathing of sin—but also a loathing of ourselves for sin."
"True repentance is a sorrowing for sin, as it is an offence to God and against God. Repentance both comes from God, and drives a man to God, as it did the church in the Canticles, and the prodigal."
"…true repentance does not only work a man to loathe himself for his sins—but it makes him ashamed of his sin also: 'What fruit had you in those things whereof you are not ashamed?' says the apostle (Rom. 6:21)."
"'Repentance,' says he, 'strips us stark naked of all the garments of the old Adam, and leaves not so much as a shirt behind.'"
"…repentance is a continued act. The word repent implies the continuation of it. Anselm confesses, that all his life was either damnable for sin committed, or unprofitable for good omitted; and at last concludes, 'Oh, what then remains, but in our whole life—but to lament the sins of our whole life.' True repentance inclines a man's heart to perform God's statutes always, even unto the end."
"Repentance is a continued act of turning,…A true penitent has ever something within him to turn from; he can never get near enough to God;"
Thomas Brooks: Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices