Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Ver. 38. Peter said unto them, Repent] μετανοησατε. Hence then they had not yet repented, for all they were pricked at heart. Nay, Peter prescribes it for a remedy, which taxeth their folly that take the disease for the remedy, and are overly forward to minister comfort or ever men have sorrowed after God, and to a transmentation. The English are not sick soon enough, saith one, and they are well again too soon. It is true of their minds, as well as of their bodies, Currat ergo poenitentia, ne praecurrat sententia; and let our fasts be according to an old canon, which defines their continuance usque dum stellae in, caelo appareant, till stars be seen in the sky. It is not for men to scarf up their wounds till they are thoroughly searched, not to get out of the furnace of mortification till their hearts melt, as Josiah's did, and fall asunder in their bosoms, like drops of water. Penitence and pain are words of one derivation, and very near of kin. Never was any wound cured without sensible pain: never any sin healed without soaking sorrow. Let none dream of a delicacy in the ways of God; nor hope for sound comfort, till they have thoroughly repented. The Hebrews, as they express sin and punishment by the same word, so do they repentance and comfort, נחם .