7. Another obstacle to repentance is despondency of mind
reeds in which there is sweet juice; sugar is made from it. Likewise in a penitent heart (which is the bruised reed), grow the sugared joys of God's Spirit. God turns the water of tears into the juice of the grape, which exhilarates and makes the heart glad. Who should rejoice if not the repenting soul? He is heir to all the promises, and is not that a matter for joy? God dwells in a contrite heart, and must there not be joy there? "I dwell with the one who has a contrite spirit, to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isa 57.15). Repentance does not take away a Christian's music, but it does sound a higher note, and makes it sweeter.
7. Another obstacle to repentance is despondency of mind It is a futile thing for me, says the sinner, to begin to repent; my sins are so great that there is no hope for me. "Return now every one from his evil way ... And they said, There is no hope" (Jer 18.11-12). Our sins are mountains; how will these ever be thrown into the sea?
Where unbelief represents sin to our soul in its bloody colors, and God in his judge's robes, the soul would sooner fly from God than to him. This is dangerous. Other sins need mercy, but despair rejects mercy. It throws the cordial 72 of Christ's blood on the ground. Judas was not only damned for his treason and murder, but it was his distrust of God's mercy that destroyed him. Why should we entertain such hard thoughts of God? He has a deep love for repenting sinners
(Joe 2.13). Mercy rejoices over justice. God's anger is not so hot that mercy cannot cool it; nor is it so sharp that mercy cannot sweeten it.
God considers his mercy to be his glory (Exo 33.18-19). We have some drops of mercy ourselves, but God is "the Father of mercies"
(2Cor 1.3); He is the one who reproduces all the mercies that are in us. He is the God of tenderness and compassion. No sooner do we mourn than God's heart melts. No sooner do our tears fall, than
God's compassions kindle (Hos 11.8). Do not say then that there is no hope. Disband the army of your sins, and God will sound a retreat to his judgments. Remember, great sins have been swallowed up in the sea of God's infinite compassions. Manasseh made the streets run with blood, yet when his head was a fountain of tears, God grew favorable.
8. Hope of impunity