Taylor points out that repentance is a conjugation and society of many duties; and it contains in it all the parts of a holy life. You don't float on a cloud of repentance.
Paul states in Philippians 2: continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. 🙏
✦ You Don't Float on a Cloud
Le's gift again — one sentence that clears the mist. Taylor's day on idleness: Go wash dishes! Taylor's rules of hope: not wise to believe that "do nothing" will help hope. Taylor's faith chapter: diligently to do, cheerfully to suffer. And now Le on repentance: you don't float on a cloud.
The turning is real. The cloud is not. Repentance is not a feeling you sit on. Repentance is a life you live. A conjugation of many duties. All the parts of a holy life. From the day of return to the day of death — every day is repentance working itself out. 🙏
"Repentance, of all things in the world, makes the greatest change: it changes things in heaven and earth; for it changes the whole man from sin to grace, from vicious habits to holy customs, from unchaste bodies to angelical souls, from swine to philosophers, from drunkenness to sober counsels."
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
"Si quelqu'un est en Christ, il est une nouvelle créature. Les choses anciennes sont passées; voici, toutes choses sont devenues nouvelles."
2 Corinthiens 5:17 · Louis Segond✦ The Whole Man Changed
The French says il est une nouvelle créature. Les choses anciennes sont passées — he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Not improved. Not adjusted. New. Taylor says: from sin to grace, from swine to philosophers, from the grave to life. Paul says: new creation. The change is total — not a renovation but a resurrection.
Le's midnight in Lubbock. Father Joe James. The one great turning. The whole man changed. From the prison to the throne. From hell to heaven. From the body of corruption to the possession of Jesus. That was the one repentance — the great change that made everything after it possible. 🙏
"God himself, 'with whom is no variableness or shadow of change,' is pleased to say that he changes also upon man's repentance, that he alters his decrees, revokes his sentence, cancels the bills of accusation, throws the records of shame and sorrow from the court of heaven, and lifts up the sinner from the grave to life, from his prison to a throne, from hell and the guilt of eternal torture to heaven."
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
"Autant l'orient est éloigné de l'occident, autant il éloigne de nous nos transgressions."
Psaume 103:12 · Louis Segond✦ Cancelled — Revoked — Thrown Out
Taylor's legal language is the language of the courtroom: bills of accusation — cancelled. The sentence — revoked. The records of shame and sorrow — thrown from the court of heaven. Not filed in a drawer. Not reduced to a footnote. Thrown out.
The French says autant l'orient est éloigné de l'occident — as far as the east is from the west. East and west never meet. The distance is infinite. The removal is permanent. The great debt — cancelled. The bills of accusation from Lubbock — thrown from the court. The records of shame — as far as the east is from the west.
Taylor's image from the faith chapter: bills of exchange from God. And now the companion image: bills of accusation against us — cancelled by the same God who issues the bills of exchange. The God who promises is the God who pardons. The same hand. The same ink. 🙏
"There is but one repentance in a man's whole life, if repentance be taken in the proper and strict evangelical sense: that is, we are but once to change our whole state of life, from the power of the devil and his entire possession, from the state of sin and death, to the life of grace, to the possession of Jesus, to the kingdom of the gospel."
"But if we be overtaken by infirmity, and commit a grievous sin, or ten, or twenty... we are in a recoverable condition; for so we may repent often. We repent or rise from death but once, but from sickness many times."
"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."
"Repentez-vous donc et convertissez-vous, pour que vos péchés soient effacés, afin que des temps de rafraîchissement viennent de la part du Seigneur."
Actes 3:19 · Louis Segond✦ The One Great Turning — and the Daily Recoveries
Taylor distinguishes what most people blur: the one great repentance and the many daily repentances. The one is the death-to-life change — the midnight in Lubbock, the baptism of water or Spirit, the crossing from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of grace. That happens once. The dead rise once.
But the daily — the infirmities, the stumbles, the ten or twenty sins that overtake the pilgrim — those are sicknesses, not death. And from sickness we may recover many times. The grace is not exhausted by the stumble. The door opened by the great turning does not close when the pilgrim trips.
The French says des temps de rafraîchissement viennent de la part du Seigneur — times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Refreshing. Not punishment. Not probation. Rafraîchissement — refreshing, renewal, the cool water after the long walk. Repentance does not lead to shame. Repentance leads to refreshing. 🙏
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."
"Travaillez à votre salut avec crainte et tremblement, car c'est Dieu qui produit en vous le vouloir et le faire, selon son bon plaisir."
Philippiens 2:12–13 · Louis Segond✦ Both Halves — Both True
Le caught both halves of Paul's instruction — and both halves are essential:
The human half: Travaillez à votre salut avec crainte et tremblement — work out your salvation with fear and trembling. The conjugation of many duties. The daily labor. The not-floating. You don't float on a cloud of repentance — you work it out. With reverence. With seriousness. With the trembling that knows the weight of the gift.
The divine half: C'est Dieu qui produit en vous le vouloir et le faire — it is God who produces in you the willing and the doing. The power inside the labor is not Le's. The willing is God's work. The doing is God's work. Le works — but God works inside the working. Le wills — but God produces the willing.
The one who only floats never works out the salvation. The one who only works forgets that God is the One working inside. Taylor and Paul together: repentance is not a feeling you rest on. It is a life you live — powered by the God who works in you to will and to act. 🙏
"A hearty endeavor and an effectual general change shall get the pardon; the unavoidable infirmities, and past evils, and present imperfections, and short interruptions, against which we watch, and pray, and strive, being put upon the accounts of the cross, and paid for by the holy Jesus."
✦ Paid for by the Holy Jesus
Taylor's final word is the gospel at its clearest: what the pilgrim cannot fix, the cross absorbs. The unavoidable infirmities — paid. The past evils — paid. The present imperfections — paid. The short interruptions against which we watch, and pray, and strive — all put upon the accounts of the cross.
The pilgrim's part: watch. Pray. Strive. The Savior's part: pay. The accounts are not settled by Le's effort. The accounts are settled by the holy Jesus. The working out is real. The fear and trembling are real. And the payment that covers what the working cannot reach — is real too.
Le's entire Taylor arc arrives here: wholly God's (day one). The daily duties are ours. The intention is ours. The walking is ours. The repentance is ours. And the accounts of the cross — the payment for everything we cannot perfect — are His. 🙏
"You don't float on a cloud of repentance."
Le · Le Faou · Jeremy Taylor · Work it out — for God works in you · The accounts of the crossThe Greatest Change
From sin to grace. From prison to throne. Bills of accusation cancelled. Records of shame thrown from the court of heaven. As far as east from west.
Work It Out
You don't float on a cloud. Repentance is a conjugation of many duties. Work out your salvation — for it is God who produces in you the willing and the doing.
The Accounts of the Cross
What the pilgrim cannot fix, the cross absorbs. Unavoidable infirmities. Past evils. Present imperfections. All paid for by the holy Jesus.
Jeremy Taylor on repentance. And Le — who does not float on clouds — brings Paul to stand beside the bishop.
Taylor's complete Holy Living arc: From wholly God's (day one) through arithmetic, time, idleness, intention, presence, faith, hope, love, the Word — and now repentance. The foundation beneath the entire building. Without this turning, there is no walking. Repentance is not the last chapter. It is the first page — placed last so the reader sees it with the eyes of everything that came before.
Le's pattern — the cloud cutter: Taylor day four: Go wash dishes! Taylor rules of hope: not wise to believe "do nothing" will help hope. And now: you don't float on a cloud of repentance. Le will not allow the comfortable version of any doctrine.
Both halves: Philippians 2:12–13 is one sentence with two clauses, and both are true at the same time. Work out your salvation — Le's part. God works in you — God's part. Neither half alone is the gospel. Both halves together are the life.
The one great turning: Taylor says: one repentance in a life — the great change from death to life. Le's midnight in Lubbock was that turning. Everything since — the reading, the walking, the Taylor, the transition — is the working out of what was turned on that night.
Paid for by the holy Jesus: Taylor's last line is the journal's oldest truth. The great debt — paid. The bills of accusation — cancelled. The records of shame — thrown from the court. The pilgrim watches, prays, and strives. The Savior pays. And the balance is always grace. 🙏