513. Whether contrition is repentance or not, may be inferred from the description of repentance given hereafter, where it is shown that repentance is impossible unless man is aware that not only generally but in every least particular he is a sinner; and this no man can know, unless he examines himself, sees the evils that are in him, and condemns himself on account of them. But the contrition that is declared to be necessary to faith, has nothing in common with all this; for it is merely the thought and the confession therefrom, that man is born into the sin of Adam, and into a proclivity to the evils springing from it; consequently, that the wrath of God is upon him, and therefore a well-deserved damnation, doom, and eternal death. From all this it is plain that contrition is not repentance.
