Distinguishing Between Covenant Repentance and Providential Repentance Although it be the duty of every man to endeavor that his repentance and reformation do consist in a sincere, internal, cordial conversion unto God—which the divine calls do intend—without which it will not be of advantage unto his own soul as unto his eternal condition; yet, as unto the turning away of temporal calamities, at least as to the suspension of them, such a public repentance and reformation as evidence themselves in their fruits to proceed from a real sense of sin and judgment, may be useful and prevalent.