remission of sins," Acts v. 31. Now repentance and remission of sins his
people have need of, after conversion as well as before conversion.

4. There are promises of pardon and remission of sins in the new
covenant of grace, all which are sealed and confirmed in the blood of
Jesus, Jer. xxxi. 34, "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more." And chap, xxxiii. 8, "And I will cleanse
them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I
will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, and whereby
they have transgressed against me." Isa. xliii. 25, "I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake; and will not
remember thy sins."

5. Though there be no actual pardon of sins, till they be committed, and
repented of, according to the tenor of the gospel, Matt. iii. 2, Luke
xiii. 3. Acts ii. 38; and viii. 22; yet while Christ bare all the sins
of his people upon the cross, they were all then virtually and
meritoriously taken away; of which Christ's resurrection was a certain
pledge and evidence; for then got he his acquitance from all that either
law or justice could charge him with, in behalf of them, for whom he
laid down his life a ransom. Rom. viii. 33, 34, "Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth: Who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ that died, or rather that is risen again."

6. So that by virtue of Christ's death, there is a way laid down, in the
covenant of grace, how the sins of the elect shall be actually pardoned,
viz. that at their conversion and first laying hold on Christ by faith,
all the sins, whereof they then stand guilty, shall be actually pardoned
and forgiven, in their justification; and all their after-sins shall
also be actually pardoned, upon their griping to Christ of new by faith,