Be of good cheer; a child is rational in power, not in act; and so art thou penitent in affection, though not yet in action.  ’Tis thy desire to please God, to be heartily sorry; comfort thyself, no time is overpast, ’tis never too late.  A desire to repent is repentance itself, though not in nature, yet in God’s acceptance; a willing mind is sufficient.  “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,” Matt. v. 6.  He that is destitute of God’s grace, and wisheth for it, shall have it.  “The Lord” (saith David, Psal. x. 17) “will hear the desire of the poor,” that is, such as are in distress of body and mind.  ’Tis true thou canst not as yet grieve for thy sin, thou hast no feeling of faith, I yield; yet canst thou grieve thou dost not grieve?  It troubles thee, I am sure, thine heart should be so impenitent and hard, thou wouldst have it otherwise; ’tis thy desire to grieve, to repent, and to believe.  Thou lovest God’s children and saints in the meantime, hatest them not, persecutest them not, but rather wishest thyself a true professor, to be as they are, as thou thyself hast been heretofore; which is an evident token thou art in no such desperate case.  ’Tis a good sign of thy conversion, thy sins are pardonable, thou art, or shalt surely be reconciled.  “The Lord is near them that are of a contrite heart,” Luke iv. 18. [6784]A true desire of mercy in the want of mercy, is mercy itself; a desire of grace in the want of grace, is grace itself; a constant and earnest desire to believe, repent, and to be reconciled to God, if it be in a touched heart, is an acceptation of God, a reconciliation, faith and repentance itself.  For it is not thy faith and repentance, as [6785]Chrysostom truly teacheth, that is available, but God’s mercy that is annexed to it, He accepts the will for the deed:  so that I conclude, to feel in ourselves the want of grace, and to be grieved for it, is grace itself.  I am troubled with fear my sins are not forgiven, Careless objects:  but Bradford answers they are; “For God hath given thee a penitent and believing heart, that is, a heart which desireth to repent and believe; for such an one is taken of him (he accepting the will for the deed) for a truly penitent and believing heart.”

All this is true thou repliest, but yet it concerns not thee, ’tis verified in ordinary offenders, in common sins, but thine are of a higher strain, even against the Holy Ghost himself, irremissible sins, sins of the first magnitude, written with a pen of iron, engraven with a point of a diamond.  Thou art worse than a pagan, infidel, Jew, or Turk, for thou art an apostate and more, thou hast voluntarily blasphemed, renounced God and all religion, thou art worse than Judas himself, or they that crucified Christ:  for they did offend out of ignorance, but thou hast thought in thine heart there is no God.  Thou hast given thy soul to the devil, as witches and conjurors do, explicite and implicite, by compact,