as the play is about to finish, after the destruction of all worldly material, satan asks for forgiveness and is restored to angel lucifer, thus forgiven. the unsettling chromaticism here ends and bach's "before thy throne" (vor deinen thron tret ich hiermit, bwv 668) strikes up in a canon from the four viols. this canon is pandiatonic and upon its completion, its mirror image is stated (that is the identical material played backward).