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LET me in the next place speak by1 way of comfort. Christian, hath God given thee a repenting heart, know these three things for thy everlasting comfort.
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Thy sins are pardoned. Pardon of2 sin circumscribes blessedness within it, Psal. 32. 1. Whom God pardons, he crowns, Psal. 1[…]3. 4. Who forgiveth thy iniquities, who crowneth thee with loving kindness. A repenting condition is a pardoned condition. Christ said to that weeping woman, Thy sins which are many are forgiven, Luk. 7. 47. Pardons are sealed upon soft hearts: O thou whose head hath been a fountain to weep for sin, Christs side will be a fountain to wash away sin, Zach. 13. 1. Hast thou repented? God looks upon thee as if thou hadst not offended; he becomes a friend, a father; he will now bring forth the best Robe, and put it on thee: God is pacified towards thee, and will with the Father of the Prodigal, fall upon thy neck and kiss thee. Sin in Scripture is compared to a cloud, Isa. 44. 22. No sooner is this cloud scattered by Repentance, but pardoning love shines forth. Paul, after his Repentance, obtained mercy, 1 Tim. 1. 16. […], I was all bestrowed with mercy. When a spring of Repentance is open in the heart, a spring of mercy is open in Heaven.
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God will pass an Act of Oblivion;3 he so forgives sin, as he forgets, Ier. 31. 34. I will remember their sin no more. Hast thou been penitentially humbled? the Lord will never upbraid thee with thy former sins. After Peter wept, we never read that Christ upbraided him with his denial of him. God hath cast thy sins into the depth of the Sea, Micah 7. 19. How? not as Cork, but as Lead. The Lord will never in a judicial way account for them. God when he pardons, doth as a Creditor that blots the debt out of his (delens) Book, Isa. 43. 25. *. Some move the question, whether the sins of the godly shall be mentioned at the last day? The Lord saith, he will not remember them; and he is blotting them out: So that if their sins be mentioned, it shall not be to their prejudice, for the debt-book is crossed.
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Conscience will now speak peace4.5 O the musick of conscience! Conscience is turned into a paradise, and there a Christian doth sweetly solace himself, and pluck the flowers of joy, 2 Cor. 1. 12. The repenting sinner can go to God with boldness in prayer, and look upon him not as a Judge, but a Father. He is born of God, and is heir to a Kingdom, Luk. 6. 20. He is incircled with Promises; he no sooner shakes the tree of the Promise, but some fruit falls.
To conclude, the true penitentiary may look on death with comfort; his life hath been a life of tears, and now at death all tears shall be wiped away· Death shall not be a destruction, but a Gaol-delivery. Thus you see what great comfort remains for repenting sinners. Luther said, before his conversion he could not endure that bitter word Repentance, but afterwards he found much sweetness in it.