THE ANCHOR of FAITH.  
Upon which, A Christian may Repose in all manner of Temptations. Especially in that Great and Dangerous Gulf of DESPERATION.  
Wherein so many overwhelmed with the weight and Burden of their Sin, and not resting themselves by the Hand of Faith, upon the Promises and Inuitations of CHRIST, have with Cain and Judas most fearfully fallen and shipwrackt themselves, to the utter Confusion both of Body and Soul for ever.  PROV. 18.14. 
The Body will bear his infirmity; but a Broken and wounded Spirit who can bear.  St. August. in lib. de Vtilitate poenitentiae agendae. 
Lest we should increase our sins by despairing, the gate of Repentance is set open unto us.  
Lest by presuming, the day of our Death is concealed from us.  
LONDON. Printed for Robert Wilson, and are to be sold at his Shop at Grays-inn new Gate in Holborn. 1628.   

A PREFACE TO THE Christian Reader.  
IT is a Wonder of the World, a wonder to be seriously marked, and diligently considered of; and a wonder being seriously marked, and diligently considered of, worthy to be deeply weighed, and inwardly to be laid up in m●n● hearts as a thing most necessary, profitable, and available to Christian piety, and everlasting felicity both of soul and body, 
The thing 〈◊〉 be ydred 〈◊〉 serious to be ●sidere●  to see and to think of it, how careful, watchful, diligent, earnest, and painful, almost all the world every where is to avoid, to prevent, to cure, and to remedy, all such troubles, crosses, griefs, maladies, infirmities, and sicknesses as do or may befall the body: And on the other side to see, or find so few watchful, careful, and painful to avoid, prevent, cure or expel the most dangerous wounds of the Spirit, the troubles of the conscience, or desperation, a mischief, of all other mischiefs, most needful to be looked into.  

〈◊〉 se● thing 〈◊〉 be ydred ●nd se●sly to 〈◊〉 ●d of.  It is a wonder to see, and consider how many there are in the World, which either loath and are afraid of bodily sickness, or love & like health, will send for and seek, run and ride after bodily Physicians, and inquire after the best, the most expert & most skilful of them, to learn by their direction, and to be advised by their counsel (though it cost their purse full dear) how to purge and avoid such corrupt humours as may breed (though not presently bring forth) noisome diseases, and sicknesses: how careful and how scrupulous they are to keep a temperate order and a diet in eating and drinking: and how moderate they will be in sleep, and all other bodily exercises: And on the other side, how few there be in the World that will either abate their sleep, forgo their pleasures, abridge their diets, or seek after the spiritual Physician, or prepare Physic to purge and expel those dangerous & peccant humours, of notorious and heinous sins which in time will both breed & bring forth the most deadly disease of Desperation, the very Peste of soul and body for ever.  
It is a wonder to see, 
The 〈◊〉 thing be ydred.  how many abhor, and are afraid of worldly poverty, and for the avoiding thereof, and for the love and liking of transitory riches, will with great cark and care rise up early, and late take their rest: they will far hardly, and go clad full barely: they will hazard both bodies and souls; they will toil and tear their flesh in unmeasurable labours by land and sea, be the weather fair, be it foul, per mare pauperiem fugientes, per saxa, per ignes: And yet on the other side, how few can abide any costs charges or pains, to escape and remedy spiritual decays, to avoid poverty of conscience, or in time before it be too late, to beware that they be not plunged ere they be ware into the most deadly and devilish gulf of Desperation; as though salvation, and peace of a godly conscience, were a matter not worthy the talking of, or labouring for.  
It is a lamentable thing to behold, how many in the world will undertake and attempt any thing, 
●ing to ●men●  be it never so chargeable & troublesome, not sluggish nor sleepy, not careless and slothful, but most earnest and watchful most careful and painful, at every assay, by Prudence and prowess, by wit and by wariness, by counsel and by cunning, by learning and by labouring, ambitiously to hunt gain, and gape after honour, and unfatigably seek to attain fame, and highly account of it to be gazed on, & talked of, with the eyes and tongues of all men. And again, how few take any care at all, or once endeavour themselves to avoid shame & confusion in the presence of the Almighty, to become glorious in the sight of GOD and his Angels, and to use and exercise any of those good means and instruments ordained and appointed of God for the increase of Faith, Hope, and Charity: and for the weakening and abandoning of all desperation and diffidence in Gods infinite mercies, and infallible promises.  
It is a lamentable thing to mark and consider how vigilant careful, 
The second th● to be ●mented  and heedful many of the wiser, and circumspecter sort of men of this world will be to escape, and avoid all the penalties, pains and punishments provided and set down, for offenders of mortal men's laws; how painful they will be in Penal Statutes, & how skilful in every branch of the Civil Laws, lest they should ignorantly incur the dangers of imprisonment, of loss of lands, forfeitures of their goods or death itself.  

Many have greater care of mortal men's laws then of God's laws.  But the mighty God, the only highest Lawgiver, that Lord of Lords, and King of all Kings, Let him ordain, publish, and proclaim his Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances, to be harkened unto, observed, and kept, and that under never so rigorous and Severe conditions, punishments, and penalties: How few men will search his Book of Statutes and Laws? How few are afraid of his, not temporary, but everlasting threatenings and punishments, contained in his Laws? and how few men regard, esteem, and thankfully embrace his covenant of reconciliation, set forth in his most joyful, and comfortable Gospel?  
And yet most certain it is, that all these aforesaid things so much to be wondered at, and so greatly to be lamented for: so lightly looked on, so smally regarded, and so little thought on, & many such other of the like fraternity and order of disorders, & sins being delighted in, and securely continued in, without all care or endeavour to forsake them in time, by repentance, & true returning to the Lord, do first breed or in gender, and afterwards bring forth Desperation; then the which, all the Furies, and Devils in hell, cannot lightly excogitate nor find out a greater torment or a more intolerable pain, and that because that all other torments, penalties, and pains are but temporal, and pursue men no further then bodily death; but this endeth not with bodily death, but becometh eternal. Whosoever then he be, that is once surely catcht in this net of desperation, he needs no more accusers to come against him, than his former unrepented sins, which lie at the door to arrest him; his own heart will give evidence against him, and his own iniquity will plead him to be guilty, and that to his own face.  
Upon consideration of these things I have now in this treatise following, (good Christian Reader) endeavoured myself to set down, First, a definition of Desperation; then the grievousness thereof: after this, certain principal causes thereof: together with remedies for the same: and lastly a general preservative against Desperation, arising of what cause soever: To the intent, that the Children of GOD, falling by some occasions into some degrees of it, (for if it rage in extremities, in the opinion of some learned Writers, it is an evil incurable, and unrecoverable) may with the more case and quietness be recovered, and saved as it were out of the Devil's claws; even out of as great danger as ever were the poor Sheep that David took out of the Bears or Lion's mouth. 
1 Sa, 17.   
Accept hereof (gentle Reader) ●●h no worse a mind, than I have at●mpted to be the Writer; and then doubt not, but it shall either minier unto thine heart some comfortable Physic, or else give thee occasion to seek, read, or collect a better.  
Thine in all Christian affection. W. W.   

The Contents of this Book entreated of in every several Page as followeth.  

A Definition of every thing which is to be ●puted or reasoned of, is necessary, 〈◊〉 wherefore.  
The Definition of Desperation of two sorts. Page 1  
Two kinds of Desperation: the one wicked, 〈◊〉 other good and holy. pag. ●  
Three things especially to be noted in the Treat● of Desperation. Page ●  
GOD is constant and faithful: and how, a● wherein. Page ●  
The duty of the faithful towards God, in rega●● of God's faithfulness towards him. Page ●  
The horribleness of the sin of Diffidence, Mistru●● or Desperation. Page ●  
When especially the Devil beginneth to tempt 〈◊〉 Desperation. Page ●  
What kind of Physic and Surgery the Diue● practiseth. Page ●  
The absurd dealing of such as yield to Desperation Page ●  
What great inconveniences they fall into, that yee● to Desperation. Page ●  
Saint Bernard his opinion concerning the heinousness of the sin of Desperation. Page ●  
Scylla and Charybdis is not so dangerous as Desperation. Page ●  
The dangers of Desperation. Page 10 & 11  
Of the degrees by which the Devil draweth me● into Desperation. Page 13  
The Devil the chief cause of Desperation. Page 13  
The forerunners of Desperation. Page 14  
●hat the Devil will object to bring us to desperation. Page 15  
●norance the second cause of desperation. Page 16  
●norance the mother of Desperation. Page 17  
servitude or bondage of sin the third cause of desperation. Page 17  
●he woeful effects of sins. Page 18  
●he fourth cause of Desperation. Page 18  
●he manifold adversaries of man's salvation, all ●hich the Devil useth as means to Desperation Page 19  
●he fift cause of Desperation. Page 20, & 21  
●he sixth cause of Desperation. Page 22  
●ong custom groweth into a second nature. Page 22  
●he first preservative against Desperation. Page 88  
●n example showing that many men put more trust ●n mortal man then in God. Page 89  
●nother proof that many put more trust in mortal 〈◊〉 man then in God. Page 90  
●he second general help against Desperation. Page 91  
●he third general help against Desperation. Page 92  
whatsoever could be looked for at God's hands or whatsoever man could be charged with, that hath Christ performed. Page 93  
●he fourth general help for the avoiding of Despection. Page 94  
The fift general help against Desperation. Page 95  
●aint Paul and Saint james their counsel against the temptations and assaults of Satan. Page 24  
〈◊〉 description of the Armour with which Saint Paul would have Christians to resist the Devil. Page 25  
The first kind of Armour to resist the Devil with. Page 25  
The second kind of armour wherewith the Devil is 〈◊〉 to be resisted. Page 25  
Whereby the Devil is emboldened to tempt, & whereby on the other side he is discouraged. Page ●  
The third kind of armour against Satan. Page ●  
The fourth kind of Armour against Satan. Page ●  
What ●aith is. Page ●  
The st●t k●nd of armour to resist the Devil. Page ●  
The Scriptures do minister store of Armour again every kind of temptation. Page ●  
The sixth kind of Christian Armour. Page ●  
Remedies against igno ance. Page ●  
The danger of wilful Ignorance. Page ●  
What the Ignorant must do. Page ●  
Counsel very necessary for the ignorant. Page ●  
What the ministers of God's word are. Page ●  
How the Ministers of God's word are to be accosted of. Page ●  
Of the great servitude and bondage of sins, and the remedies thereof. Page ●  
Examples tending to the strengthening of our Fa● Page ●  
Hope, and Patience against Desperation. Page 39 & 4●  
Wherefore Christ came into this world. Page 41. 42. & 4●  
What manner of righteousness God requireth at o● hands. Page ●  
Sin dwelleth even in the believers, & in the m● righteous in the world: but yet reigneth not neyth● can it condemn them, and why, Page 46 & 4●  
Places of Scripture letting forth God's great mer● Page 4●  
A Catalogue or rehearsal of many things, where● the Devil craftily tempteth many men to sin a● Desperation. Page ●  
How the Devil tempteth by riches. Page ●  
How the Devil tempteth by poverty. Page ●  
How the Devil tempteth by friends. Page ●  
●ow the Devil tempteth by enemies. Page 52  
●ow the Devil tempteth by carefulness. Page 52  
●ow the Devil tempteth by security and careles●es. Page 52  
How the Devil tempteth by strength, by health. ableness of body, beauty, by honour and dignity, by quickness of spirit and sharpness of wit. Page 52. & 53.  
How the Devil tempteth by God's word, & how he will abuse wrest and misapply God's word. Page 53. & 54.  
The true use of those Scriptures which the Devil seeketh to abuse, to bring men to Desperation thereby. Page 55  
The comforts and commodities of the crosses and aflictions of God's children. Page 57, & 58.  
Why God sends evils to his children, and how he sendeth comforts in the midst of evils. Page 59  
How God loves and dealeth with his children. Page 60  
Gods ●od● of what sort they are. Page 61  
What God seeketh to work by dealing hardly with his children. Page 62  
Go●s affection to his children like unto a kind loving mother's affection. Page 63, & 64.  
God dealeth with his children as Physicians & Surgeons' do with their Patients. Page 65  
God useth sometimes the service and ministry of Devils and of wicked men. Page 67  
The wicked are not bettered by their troubles and afflict on's. Page 67  
Whence it cometh that afflictions and crosses profit God's children. Page 67  
The conceits and opinions of the wicked in their adversities and troubles. Page 68, & 69  
The ends that the Devil brings the wicked unto by their aflictions troubles and crosses: Page 70  
Two commodities to be reaped by the lives, and manner of the deaths of the wicked. Page 71  
The great danger of customs in sin, and of delaying of amendment of life. Page 71, & 72  
A comparison showing the danger of long custom and w●ltring in sin. Page 72 & 73  
Whence repentance and amendment of life are to be had, and how they are to be come by. Page 74  
Many are and may be deceived in the manner and time o● their repentance. Page 75  
A note for such as defer repentance unto their last day. Page 75  
Examples showing that it is dangerous trusting unto the last hour. Page 76  
Notable examples of sudden and unprovided death out off holy Scriptures, & other writer's Page 76, 77, 78.  
A catalogue or rehearsal of sundry lets and impediments which oftentimes fall out when we come to our last hour, to hinder and pur by that late repentance which so many trust to at the end of their lives. Page 81 & 82  
The effects of choler in time of extreme sickness Page 82  
The manner how the Devil will busy himself to hinder repentance, at our last pant. Page 38  
The example of joseph of Arimathia most worthy to be imicated. Page 85  
The use and custom of the Egyptians to bridle evil actions. Page 86  
The notable and imitable example of King Ezechias. Page 86   
Finis.   

Of Desperation.  

CHAPTER. 1  
The first Chapter containing the Definition, and Division of Desperation.  
M. T. Cicero, that most worthy Father of the Roman eloquence was of that mind, 
A definition of every thing which is to be disputed or reasoned of, is necessary and wherefore.  that every thing which was to be reasoned & disputed of, should first begin at the definition thereof, that ●o it might briefly be understood what the substance of the matter was whereof reasoning or disputation was to be ●olden: Of the like opinion and mind ●m I at this present, concerning the dangerous peste of most wicked and damnable Desperation; being the mat●er which now I have in hand (through God's assistance) to write of.  

Definition of Desperation is of two sorts.  The Definition then of Desperation I find and read to be of two sorts as concerning the words, and yet in sense and substance of matter little differing one from the other: Whereof the one is, Desperatio est horribilis mentis & cordis seu conscientiae ●repidatio ex sensu irae divinae propter peccatum concepta cum metu aeternae damnationis, 
The first Definition of Desperation.  sine ulla expectatione veniae. Desperation is an horrible fear, or trembling of the mind and heart or conscience, conceived through a sense and feeling of God's wrath for sin; with a fear of eternal damnation, without all expectation or hope of pardon or forgiveness thereof.  
The other (which is a far more ancient Definition) is this Desperatio est malum quo quis diffidit de voluntate dei, 
The second Definition of desperation.  aestimans malitiam svam magnitudinem divinae misericordiae & bonitatis excedere. Desperation is an evil through which a man mistrusting despaireth utterly, & is past all hope of the good will of God, verily thinking that his naughtiness, or sins, excel the mercies and goodness of God, according to that saying of the first desperate man Cain: Mine iniquity is greater than can be pardoned. 
Gen. 4.13  Gen. 4.13  
Thus it being made plain and easy what desperation is by these aforesaid Definitions, it followeth in the next place, (to proceed after the same order that the said Cicero used) that I speak of division of Desperation; 
Two kinds of Desperation the one wicked the other holy.  which I likewise find and read to be of two kinds: the one a wicked kind of Desperation of God's promises, power, goodness & mercy towards sinners, the matter which here I am to entreat of: The other an holy Desperation of a man's own power, in the obtaining of eternal life, conceived and wrought by a sense or feeling of a man's own defects, infirmity, & corruptions. Concerning this former kind of Desperation, being especially the mark which I would have poor silly distressed souls to have a diligent and a watchful eye unto, to the intent that both myself, and my poor brethren, living and warring yet with me in the militant Church of Christ here on earth, may be the better forewarned (for that as they say Tela raevisa minus nocent) of this most subtle ●nd deadly stratagem, concerning this most dangerous and fatal assaulting engine, of the Arch-enemy of our souls, this deep despair and devilish soule-poyson, I have thought good by the penning of this short Treatise, to put myself and others in remembrance of these three points; 
Three things especially to be noted in this Treatise of Desperation.  to wit, first of the heinousness, grievousness, and pernitiousnes of Desperation. Secondly, of the causes thereof: and thirdly of the remedies.   

CHAP. 2.  
The second Chapter, wherein is described how heinous, grievous, hurtful, and pernicious, the sin of Desperation is.  
IN sundry and manifold places of holy Scriptures are we taught, that Go● is faithful, 
1 Cor. 1.9 2. Thes. 3 3 1 joh. 1.9 2 Co. 1.20  faithful in his words, an● true in all his promises: All the promises of God are Yea and amen: Faithful in his mercies, for they never fail 〈◊〉 Faithful, Just, & True are his ways 〈◊〉 according to the song of the holy Angels. 
GOD is constant & faithful: & how, and wherein.  Reu. 15.3. Yea moreover, God is careful for the Faithful, and hat● promised to be their God, 
Reu 15.3 2 Cor. 6.18  and they shall be his people. It is thy duty therefore, O Man! to do GOD this honour, to believe without all wavering, doubting, or despairing; 
The duty of the faith full towards god in regard of God's faithfulness towards him.  that GOD hath both Power and Will to do all things that he promiseth, and not to permit any such cogitations, thought, or conceit, once to enter into thine heart, as that God should prove himself a liar; or that it should not come to pass, which he hath promised. But if thou once suffer the distrust and diffidence in God's promised mercies (through the multitude of thy sins, and the grievousness of thine offences, through the nature of ●inne itself and the crafty ingestion and suggestion of Satan) to take hold of, 
The horribleness of the sin of Diffidence, Mistrust, or Desperation,  and possess thine heart: O horrible and grievous is this last sin of Despairing ●hich thou addest to thy former sins. ●o heinous, so hurtful and pernicious, ●s this thy sin of Diffidence and distrust ●n God's mercies to be obtained, according to his promised word, that I may ●y of thee, 
Aug in lib de utilitate paenitentiae agendae.  as S. Augustine said of Iudas ●e traitor, Non tam scelus quod eom●isisti quam indulgentiae desperatio facit te penitus interire: Not so much the si●● which thou hast done, as thy despaired of forgiveness, hath utterly cast the● away. Surely judas his despair and distrust (according to S. Augustine his opinion) was a more grievous sin, them his treason in the betraying of his Master. 
jer. super Psa. 108.  Whereunto agreeth S. jero. Magis inquit offendit deum judas, in ho● quod desperando scipsum suspendit, quam in hoc quod d●um tradidit. Desperatio enim reddit hominem maledictum, et protectione derindignum. judas (saith S. Jerome) more offended God herein, that in despair he hanged himself, then in tha● he betrayed his Lord and Master: Fo● Desperation maketh a man accursed, 〈◊〉 unworthy God's protection. And thu● likewise Cain his despairing in God mercy after his murder committed was a more grievous sin, than th● shedding of his brother Abel hi● blood: For to add Despair to fo●mer sins, is to draw sin after sin as it were with Cart-ropes, t● heap sin upon sin, to fulfil th● measure of iniquity, and so to purchase swift and most certain damnation. It is indeed the fashion and old wont of Satan, 
When especially the Devil beginneth to tempt to despair.  to persuade man (when he hath once committed many heinous sins) after his own sins, to despair, and so to commit the greater sin after the lesser: which is as if an unlearned ignorant and a murdering Physician should cause his Patient for the remedring of a little cold taken to drink the juice of Hemlock which by adding cold to cold, is most sure to bring present death; Or as if a man, having an Ache in one of his fingers, should cut off the whole hand to take away the Ache of a finger. 
Note what kind of physic and surgery the Devil practiseth.  Even such like Physic and Surgery doth the Devil practise to minister unto lewd and wilful sinnors, when he enticeth and draweth them after many precedent heinous sins, through despair of finding mercy and forgiveness to shorten their lives, by killing and murdering themselves, by poisoning, by stabbing, by throat-cutting, by drowning, by judaslike hanging of themselves; & finally by casting off all use of faith, all use of hope, and so quite to despair of God's mercy: then the which, what can be a more dangerous course for any man to yield unto? What can be more foolish or contrary to all reason, if a man's reason were not blinded and bewitched that he could not see, nor perceive, nor consider well of it, then whiles a man is afraid of water, presently to cast herself headlong into it, 
The absurd dealing of such as easily yield to desperation.  and so seeingly and wittingly to drown himself? or than whiles a man is afraid of fire, presently to run into it and to dispatch himself therein? Or whiles a man is afraid of hell fire, out of hand most desperately to plunge himself into the dangers thereof?  
And yet such as these are the persuasions, and temptations of the Devil, to a man whose barking conscience continually pangeth and plagueth him for his sins.  
Such as these are the fruits of the most monstrous sin of despairing of God's mercy and grace.  
May not he be accounted worse than mad, 
* Mark this O man, lest thou yield to Desperation before thou be awa●e what great inco●● niences thou yieldest unto.  that is so forward and ready to yield unto, and to follow after the Devil's whistle, alluring and enticing unto desperation, seeing it is no means to diminish, but to increase sin, and the rewards of sin, seeing that it is no relief, but an everlasting burden and grief of the soul: seeing that it is not a delivery of the soul, but a certain destruction of the soul: seeing it is not a redemption, but an undoubted condemnation of soul and body for ever.  
And finally, seeing that it changeth temporal grief into eternal grief, and the pangs of conscience, into the pains of hell for ever. And thus is verified that saying of S. Bernard, Desperatio auget peccatum, 
Saint Bernard his opinion concerning the 〈◊〉 ●nes of desperation.  Desperatio maior est omnibus peccatis, Desparatio peior est omni peccato, Desperation increaseth sin: Desperation is greater than all other sins, Desperation is worse than all other sins.  
This is a thousand times worse than the dangerous rock Scylla, against which so many poor Mariners have dashed their ships, 
Scylla and Charybdis not so dangerous as desperation.  to the great loss both of Ships, goods and lives: or then that no less dangerous gulf Charybdis, which have devoured up so many passengers: For at this unfortunate and deadly rock of Desperation, many thousan●s of poor souls overcharged with the burden of their iniquities, and turmoiled in their consciences with the waves of fearful thoughts, and troublesome conceits by the blustering blasts and surgie storms of God's vengeance threatened against sinners, both have and daily do make dangerous and fearful shipwreck. This is a worse dungeon for both souls and bodies of poor desperate sinners: then was the Den of Lions, into the which the Rulers, Officers, 
Dan. 6.17  and Governors of King Darius caused Daniel to be cast, and closed up: 
Dan 3.19  Yea, and this is seven times worse than the seven times heated burning Oven or Furnace, into the which that proud Idolatrous King Nabuchadnezzer commanded Sidrach, Misach, and Abednago, the true servants and worshippers of the only true and everliving God, to be cast in. This is that incurable, remediless, and desperate sore, wound and malady, which the Prophets of God jeremy and Micheas, 
jer. 3. Mic. 1.  in their days complained of among their people. This is that great stop & let, that hindereth and resisteth God's holy grace from flowing and entering into the souls of sinful men. This is the Axe that heweth and choppeth a sunder the chains wherewith God in his great mercy, and merciful kindness, would draw the hearts of sinners unto himself by Repentance; whereof speaketh the Prophet Ozeas. 
Oze. 11.  Trust in the Lord, and do good, saith the holy Ghost by the Prophet David: 
Psal. 37.3  where he placeth and setteth Trust in GOD in the first place, and doing good in the second: trusting in GOD, goeth before as the Mistress, and doing good followeth & attendeth on as the Handmaid: For as it is said Spes alit agricolas, were it not for Hope the Husbandman's heart would burst; Hope nourisheth his heart: Even so Despair and diffidence, or distrust in GOD, is a Stepmother to well doing, and draweth back from doing good; according to the saying of a learned Writer upon the said 37. Psal. Desperatio & diffidentia abstrahit ab omni studio honi nam cogitat omnia fieri frustra: 
Musculus in Ps. 37.3  ita namque ex spe et fiducia promanant mortalium conatus, ut ex ipsis conatibus satis liqucat quid quisque sperat. Desperation and Mistrust draweth back from all desire of well doing, 
Desperation draweth men back from all well doing and why.  for it thinketh all to be but lost labour: for so do all men's labours and endeavours flow and spring from Hope and trust, that every man's doings do plainly testify what he hopeth or trusteth for.  
And now let this suffice briefly to give a taste how great and grievous, hurtful and pernicious this sin of Desperation is.   

CHAP. 3.  
The third Chapter containing the chiefest and most principal causes of Desperation.  
THat memorable and notable saying of S. Gregory in one of his Homilies, moveth me to think, and here to commit it to writing, that one cause of Desperation, and not the least, but rather the primary and principal cause of all other ariseth from the subtle, cunning and cozening counsel, inducement, persuasion, and allurement of the Devil: for saith S. Gregory, 
Greg. in quadam Hom.  Quum in gravi peccato miser homo labitur: suadet ei diabolus ne peniteat, ne confiteatur peccatum leue et modicum in cord affirmat, misericordiam praedicat, longum spacium vitae promittit, permanere in peccato suggerit, ut sic in contemptum dei, & d●sperationem sui inducat & pereat: When wretched man slippeth into some grievous sin, the Devil's council is, that he repent not at all for it, that he confess it not: he tells him in his heart, 
The degrees by which the Devil draweth men on into desperation.  that it is but a light and small offence: he says God is full of mercy, he promiseth him long life, he suggesteth unto him to lie still in sin, that by these means he may bring him at last into contempt of God, and into utter Desperation, and so he may become a castaway for ever. Here doth S. Gregory in most manifest and plain words describe and decipher the Devil himself to be the author and so consequently the chiefest causer, and cause, of this horrible soul murdering Desperation; and here also doth he set down by what steps and degrees he brings and leads a poor careless wretched man into despair.  
Now consider this moreover, that if Satan that arch-enemy of man's welfare, 
job. 1.  durst very boldly and sawcely without any bidding, presume to thrust himself into God's presence amongst his holy Angels; if he durst so subtly and cunningly, dissemblingly and lyinglie, assail and assault our first Parents Adam and Eve, 
Gen. 3.  being yet innocents, unstained, and pure from all sin: Nay more than all this, if he durst approach and with diverse temptations assault and allure Christ jesus himself, 
Ma●. 4.3.  both God and Man; and yet Man free from any spot or blemish of sin endeavouring himself to the uttermost of his skill and power if it had been possible, to have brought him, and wrought him to his own wicked will: Alas, is it any marvel then if he do as diligently and busily bestir himself with his manifold wiles, and guiles, to assail us weak, poor, and miserable sinners? Who (without the daily and hourly strengthening of God's holy spirit) are of ourselves prompt, apt and ready, 
The forerunners of desperation except we look to ourselves in time.  every hour to decline and fall away from God, and to fall unto Idolatry, Blasphemy, Perjury, Murder, Whoredom, Theft, Pride, Disobedience, and what not; wherein, after we be once plunged over head and ears, and over run with thee guilt of many sins, then will Satan lay about him, and apply his business like a most valiant Champion, to catch us in the most dangerous snare of all other, even deep Despair: He will challenge our souls by the severe justice of GOD, let us say against him whatsoever we can, and argue against him as long as we will, yet will he insult, rejoice, and reply saying: Neither God's mercies nor Christ's merits, can any thing help, but thou must needs be damned, 
What the Devil will object against us to bring us to despair  so lightly heretofore hast thou esteemed God, and his precepts; so smally hast thou regarded Christ jesus and his merits, or rather so willingly, wittingly, and seeingly hast thou vilipended, and contemned them; and so obstinately, carelessly, and desperately, trodden them underfoot, that even as thou hitherto hast made no reckoning of God, and hast not opened the door of thy heart to receive him, and give him entertainment when heestood without and knocked to be let in there; so now God will requite thee, with Legetalionis, with like for like: he will make no reckoning of thee, he will not open his ears unto thee when thou criest unto him, he will not let thee have though thou ask, he will not let thee find though thou seek, he will not open unto thee though thou knock. Behold now art thou tossed like waves of the Sea, thy Faith wavereth between Hope and Dread, and therefore canst thou receive nothing at the Lords hands: with these and infinite such like disputations, will Satan set upon, and vex the very elect of God, to bring them (if it were possible) to desperation. And if the elect shall be thus sifted, (as Peter was) in what case then shall the wicked and reprobate be?   

CHAP. 4.  

The second cause of desperation.  THe second cause of Desperation, is ignorance of God, & want of knowledge of the will of God, unto mankind revealed by his holy word: 
Mat. 22.  for as ignorance of the scriptures, as it was pronounced by the mouth of Christ jesus himself speaking against the Saducees, 
2 Kin. 17.26. Ps. 23.10.11. Pr. 28.29 30.31. Esa. 1.34. Hos. 4.7. Eph. 4.18  concerning the resurrection of the dead, was the cause of that their so great error; Even likewise the ignorance of God, is oftentimes the occasion & cause of God's heavy displeasure; and so of diverse & sundry inconveniences and mischiefs: 
Berinthia super Cant.  and amongst the rest, it is also a cause of this cursed Desperation, as writeth S. Bernard: Vtraque cognitio, dei scilicet & tui tibi necessaria est ad salutem, quia de ignorantia tui venit superbia, ac de dei ignorantia venit desperatio. The knowledge both of God, & of thyself are necessary unto salvation, because out of the ignorance of thyself, ariseth pride; 
Ignorance the mother of desperation.  & likewise out of the ignorance of God, cometh Desperation. Out of this ignorance of God, must Desperation needs arise: for how can it otherwise be, but that he that is altogether without any knowledge of God, must despair to receive any good thing of him? for as no man can take pleasure nor any profit by hid and unknown Treasure: so no man can look for grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins, or any other benefit or good gift at his hands, of whom he is utterly ignorant, and of whom he hath no knowledge.   

CHAP. 5.  

The third cause of desperation.  THe third cause of Desperation is the great servitude or bondage or sin: with which whosoever is clogged, he becometh thereby the servant of sin: john 8.34. And the woeful and hurtful effects of sins, are the procurements of God's curses and plagues upon bodies, 
The woeful & hurtful effects of sin.  souls, lands, children, stock, crop, and every thing else that a man hath, or goeth about at home or abroad, in town or in field, in City or in Country, by land or by water. Deu. 28. Leu. 26. Sin hardeneth the heart. Heb. 3.13. It fighteth against the soul. 1. Pet. 2.11. It gnaweth & tormenteth the conscience. 1. Sa. 25.31. And bringeth men into the most damnable gulf of Desperation, wherein multitudes of Worldlings, Matchevillians, Epicures, & impious Atheists are daily implunged, and irrevocably drowned for ever.   

CHAP. 6  
THe Fourth cause of Desperation do many gather to themselves upon the words of Christ in Mat. 7.13. 
The fourth cause of Desperation.  Straight is the gate, & narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, & few there be that find it. And again out of Mat. 20.16. Many are called, but few are chosen. And again out of Luk. 13.24. Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in & shall not be able: All which places do plainly teach; that few shall be saved; for in bidding to strive to enter in, Christ giveth us to understand that it is no easy matter, but a matter that requireth great strife, pains, and earnest diligence against the World, the Flesh, and the Devil.  
Upon these considerations, 
The fear and doubt of many.  many begin to fear and to tremble, to stagger, and no doubt, whether they may think themselves to be in the number of those few that shall be saved yea or no; and so are drawn into despair, whiles that they find this present evil world against them with all the baits, snares, nets, and lets, pleasures, and profits thereof to catch them, 
The great and manifold aduersa●es of man's salvation: all which the devil useth as means to Desperation.  fetter them, and entangle them, whiles they find their own flesh, their own corrupted nature against them; their reason poisoned, their wills and affections blinded, their natural wisdom, concupiscences, and lusts, ministering strength to Satan's temptations, taking part against them daily and hourly ready to betray them into his hands, whiles that they see and perceive even legions of Devils, even all the Devils in hell against them, with all their crafty heads, marvellous strength, infinite wiles, cunning devices, deep slights, and tried temptations, lying in ambush against their poor souls; & who seeth not the thousands are carried headlong to destuction through the temptations of either the world, the flesh, or the devil? And thus are we poor wretches in a most pitiful case assaulted and betrayed on every side.   

CHAP. 7  
THe fift cause of Desperation ariseth from the manifold crosses & afflictions of this present life,: 
The fifth cause of desperation.  for from hence it is that some men being daily feretted, followed on, & even almost pressed down with temporal afflictions and troubles, 
Sundry kinds of crosses and afflictions.  as penury, poverty, hunger, nakedness, sickness of body, troubles of mind, unquiet suggestions of the flesh, temptations of the Devil persecutions, imprisonments, loss of friends, loss of goods, loss of good name and fame, a wicked, crooked, & froward mate in matrimony, disobedient & untoward children, unkind & unthankful friends, underserued malice, envy, & hatred of froward neighbours, & many other such like crosses, as daily in one sort or other befall men: When they once feel themselves touched and tried herewith, 
jer. 20.  anon they take occasion hereby to cry out, and lementably to howl, and curse the day wherein they were borne, 
jer. 15.  to call that an unhappy hour wherein their mothers brought them forth, 
job. 3.  to wish they had died in their birth, & that they had perished so soon as they came out of their mother's womb; that some hill might fall upon them & overwhelm them that so they might shortly be rid out of their pains: Yea they will not be persuaded that these things are sent of God (for the most part) to such as he loveth, but rather to such as he hateth; and that never a loving father will handle his children so as they are handled. Now the Devil most subtly lying in wait for his advantoge, taketh hold on this their weakness, and striveth by little & little by such occasions as these to work utter desperation in them; and by these means oftentimes forceth some to sudden, wretched, and desperate ends.   

CHAP. 8  
THe sixth cause of Desperation is long custom of sin, 
The sixth cause of Desperation.  whereby a man yields and submitteth himself as an obedient & ready bondslave to the Devil, little respecting if not utterly contemning both God and his word, whose dull conscience through giving himself over to impurity & filthiness of life, is waxed hard in iniquity, and corrupt ways, and as it were burned with a hot iron, so that he is now past all sense & feeling of sin, 
Long custom groweth into a second nature.  & this long custom groweth as it were into a second nature (in process of time) which to expel is a matter of great difficulty. This is it which the Prophet jerim. meant, where he affirmed that it is as hard a thing for such to do any good that have been continually enured with doing of evil, as it is to wash a Blackamoor or Aethiopian skin white: or to change the spots of a Leopard: And therefore according to our English adage, as that which is bred in the bone, will never lightly out of the flesh: so an old wont or custom of any vice, be it of lying, swearing, gaming, drinking, whoring, or any other such like, will seldom or never be remedied; whereby it oftentimes cometh to pass, that in the end the Devil by this means having laid a foundation, so fitting his purpose to work on, bringeth his old customers to despair.   

CHAP. 1.  
The first Chapter concerning the Remedies against the temptations & assaults of Satan, being the first special cause of Desperation, before entreated of in Ch. 3  
TO meet with the dangerous and manifold temptations of Satan, that great enemy of mankind, wherewith he continually after other sins first committed, laboureth to bring us into the deep gulf of desperation; It shall not be amiss, nay rather it shall be our best course and remedy, to learn & practise that most sure, safe, and excellent counsel, which the holy ghost giveth by those two worthy Apostles of our Saviour Christ, 
Eph: 6. jam. 4. Saint Paul & S. jam s their counsel against the temptation's & assaults of Saith n.  S. Paul and S. james; whereof S. Paul saith, Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the assaults of the Devil & S. jam. saith, Resist the Devil & he will fly from you: that is to say, we must st●iue against all unlawful & forbidden lusts by which he eggeth, draweth, and haileth men from sin to sin, from bad to worse, and finally to desperation, the worst of all sins.  
Had Cain thus resisted the Devil, he had never been so far drawn (as he was) from faithless hypocrisy, to envy; from envy to murder. and from murder to Desperation. Had judas the traitor thus resisted the Devil when he by his enticement first yielded to covetousness, and so for a little filthy lucre to betray his most loving, gentle, and kind Lord & Master, he had not from those sins one in the neck of another finally fallen into despair, wherein he became his own hang man to the everlasting testimony of his own damnation.  
Full worthy therefore, and very needful in this case is S. james his counsel, Resist the Devil etc. yea and that in the beginning. 
A description of the manner of armour with which Saint Paul would have Christians to resist the Devil.   
And S. Paul goeth further on with the like good counsel, and setteth down very plainly with what manner of Armour he would have Christians to buckle and furnish themselves with, that so they may be found the more ready and able to encounter their general enemies temptations: As first with Verity, or Truth, which is the arming of themselves with true and sincere knowledge of God Tit. 1.1. 
The first kind of Armour to resist the Devil with.  In the true service of God with out hypocrisy, in Spirit and truth. josua 24.14. john 4.24. 3. Kin. 2.4 And likewise with uprighr true speaking & dealing with our neighbours in word and deed Eph. 4.25. Ex. 23.1.  

The second kind of Armour wherewith the Devil is to be resisted.  Secondly with the Breastplate of righteousness: that is, with the earnest applying and endeavouring of ourselves to all virtue and godliness in our lives and conversations: Where note, that the Apostle having placed Verity, Truth, or true knowledge of God, in the first place: in very fit & good rank & order he placed this Righteousness; the is to say practice of true knowledge in holiness of life in the second place; as a godly father hereupon hath very well observed in these words: Vera dei cognition & animi sinceritate, & puritate primum deinde pia et sancta vita ornari debent Christiani milites: Christian Soldiers ought first to have their hearts & minds decked & furnished with true knowledge of God, with true sincerity & purity of mind; & secondly, with Godly & holy life answerable to their true knowledge. Hereby all slighty, cunning, & forcible entries unto Satan's engines and subtle snares shallbe debarred and shut up: hereby all the passages of our thoughts and imaginations shall be prevented and taken up, 
Whereby the Devil is emboldened to tempt: and Whereby on the other side he is discouraged, & resisted  that he shall not so easily find any breach or weak place to invade. For as on the one side, by looseness & licentiousness of the flesh, by lewdness of our lives, by our iniquity and ungodliness, the Devil is animated, fleshed, and emboldened, daily to tempt and assault us: for he seeing in the corruption of our nature a forwardness to wickedness, he bloweth the bellowes and kindleth the flame of our bad inclination; he stirreth us up, & pricketh us forward, till after the heaping up of one sin after another, at the length he casteth us down headlong into the bottomless pit of Desperation: So on the other side by this Armour of righteousness, sincerity and integrity to an holy life is the Devil withstood and resisted, and we become the more able to stand fast in the day of our temptation: So that it is not without just cause, that the Apostle compareth this Righteousness the second kind of spiritual Armour, unto a corporal Braest-plate; for that like as a Breastplate saveth and fenceth the vital parts of man, 
The good fruits of uprighteousnes, & holiness of life.  as his heart, liver, & entrailes; which once being stricken and pierced man's life is lost: so doth uprightness and holiness of life, preserve the heart and conscience of man free & safe from the invasion & confusion wrought by Satan from the fiery darts of infidelity, hardness of conscience, coldness in religion, wickedness of life, corruption in conversation, & finally from Desperation, the very upshot of all mischiefs.  

The third kind of Armour for a Christian against Satan.  Thirdly, must we arm & furnish ourselves to resist Satan the Devil, with the Gospel of peace, the is, our hearts must be throughly acquainted, & fully fraughted with the knowledge of that glad tidings of great joy, which the Angels of the Lord brought at the birth of Christ; 
L. 2.10.  that tidings of great joy, which must be unto all nations, with that most comfortable & joyful embassage of the Reconciliation of man with God, which may full w●l be called the Gospel of peace for that it only maketh the Conscience of man quiet, & at peace with God and itself: then the which, what one thing in all the world, can set a man more free from all Desperation? 
The fourth Armour. 1. Cor. 16 13.   
Fourthly, with Faith in jesus Christ; wherewith the same S. Paul arming men against spiritual assaults by Satan and his ministers, and preparing them to the spiritual battle agaiast the Devil and his members, encourageth them not to shrink, but to cleave fast to this Faith, whereby we may resist and beat back our spiritual enemy.  
And likewise S. Peter instructing us to prepare and make ourselves strong, to encounter with the common enemy the Devil, teacheth us to resist him by faith especially: Be sober (saith he) and watch, 
1. Pet. 5.8  for your adversary the Devil, goeth about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in faith.  
For this cause Saint Basil upon the 32. Psalm saith, 
Basilius in Psal. 32.  What man is able to make war with the Devil, unless he flee for help to the Captain of the Host through faith in him, to wound and thrust through his enemy?  
And likewise S. Augustine accounted this faith to be so powerful, 
Aug. lib. 3 Cap 20. de lib. arbitrio.  that it resisteth, vanquisheth and overcommeth the Devil.  

What faith is  And this true Christian Faith which is of such power as aforesaid, is a sure trust in the mercy of God the Father through the merits of Christ jesus, when we do persuade ourselves most certainly of the pardon of our sins through Christ's righteousness; and of eternal salvation by his passion, hereby obtaining peace in our consciences with God, & rest, & walk in obedience to his will & commandments by his word unto us revealed. Of this kind of faith is entreated in Abac. 2.4. Rom. 3.38 Rom. 51. Ephe. 2.8.  

The fift kind of Armour  The fift kind of Armour to resist the Devil with whereof S. Paul in the catalogue of a Christian Soldiers armour maketh rehearsal, is the word of God: this is the Sword of the spirit, whereby the suggestions and wicked temptations of Satan, are beaten back, propelled, & kept off, even as a man keepeth back his enemy at the point of his Sword.  
With this kind of Armour did our chief captain Christ jesus in his manhood here on earth, resist and put back all the Devil his subtle and faulse temptations, answering every one of them with Scriptum est, It is written: whence we may learn by the like means, 
Christ himself an example how to resist the Devil's temptations.  after his most excellent example to combat with the Devil, and to give him the foil, whensoever by him, or any his wicked instruments, we shall be tempted to this Desperation, or any other sins whatsoever.  
If we be tempted to swear and blaspheme the holy name of God, it is to be resisted with Sciptum est, It is written, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. If to pollute and break the Lords Sabbath day through either labouring about our pleasures or profits, answer, It is written, Remember that thou keep holy etc. If to murder, & shedding of blood, by any forbidden way or means, or upon any unlawful occasion whatsoever; answer, It is written, Thou shalt do no murder. If to steal and purloin by any unlawful means, directly or indirectly; answer, it is written, Thou shalt not steal If we be tempted to usury, 
Exo. 22.25. Deu 23.19. Le. 25.39 Psal. 15.5.  let us draw out the Sword of the Spirit, Thou shalt not give to Usury unto thy brother, Usury of money, Usury of meat or of any other thing. If he move us to deceit & fraudulent dealing, 
1 Thes. 4.5. Leu 25.14  let us resist him with, It is written, Let no man oppress or deceive his brother in bargaining, for the Lord is a judge in such things. If we be solicited to disloyalty, & disobedience to Princes, let us strive against that, with, It is written, 
Rom. 13.1 2, 3,  Let every soul be subject to the higher powers etc. Finally to be short to what kind of sin, mischief, or inconvenience so ever any of us shall happen to be drawn, 
The Scriptures do minister store of swords against every kind of temptation  enticed, or inveigled, let us search the Scriptures, & we shall soon find store of swords, of one kind or other to answer, foil, and recoil, whatsoever this mortal enemy of ours can use or object against us, here is armour enough to find him occupied with.  
The sixth kind of spiritual Armour, and heavenly furniture, wherewith S. Paul, or rather the holy Ghost by Saint Paul, 
The sixth kind of Christian Armour.  would have us complete and furnished against all the dangerous combats, conflicts, and wicked suggestions of this wicked and damned spirit, thereby to avoid, repel, & vanquish him utterly is devout, hearty, zealous & Godly prayer. Over & beside S. Paul his instruction, and most needful exhortation, in this case his & our Lord, Master, and Saviour Christ jesus, hath commended unto us this kind of weapon, when he taught to pray with this petition. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Let us then apply this Armour, this kind of propulsative weapon, and fervently, and hearty use it: And firmly believe that which David the Prophet for our good encouragement hath written in Ps. 145.19. God is ne'er to those which call upon him, & will fulfil the desire of them that fear him. and deliver them Whensoever therefore we are tempted, alured, and drawn on by Satan through covetousness to riches, through ambition to honour, through envy to murder, through concupiscence to adultery, through intemperance to gluttony; or to be short through any other sin to iniquity. Let us strait ways by prayer crave for power and strength from above, to overcome these temptations, and especially the most dangerous suggestion of Despair.  
This kind of Armour is always ready at hand, so that Satan can no sooner attempt any thing against us, but this weapon is as soon ready (if we hearty and zealously lay hold thereon) to repel and vanquish all his practices against us: And therefore, Pray, pray, pray.   

CHAP. 2.  
The second Chapter concerning remedies and helps against ignorance, the second cause of Desperation, entreated of before in Chap. 4.  
COncerning the second cause of Desperation, to wit, ignorance; Our Lord jesus Christ who was nothing ignorant of the manifold mischiefs, and of the manifest dangers that the Devil leadeth silly men into, as it were blindfolded through blind ignorance: and he knowing that Ignorance is rather the mother of desperation (as heretofore in the 4. Chap. of the causes of Desperation hath been sufficiently proved) then of Devotion, as the Papists have in this point ignorantly taught & maintained: hath in his own person, & with his own mouth exhorted and admonished all men, 
Io. 5.29  to Search the Scriptures, which is a lesson in this case most necessary for all men, to learn thereby to deliver themselves out of the dangerous gulf of Ignorance, and so consequently out of many other sins, and finally out of desperation; where-into thousands through Ignorance have been implunged and drowned for ever.  
Let us therefore for the remedy and avoiding of final Desperation, 
Remedies against Ignorance.  whereunto so many run headlong through Ignorance, little knowing, and less regarding what they do, until it be too late; receive the word of God, which (as S. james saith) is able to save our souls: with all readiness like unto the Noblemen of Berea, & search the Scriptures daily. 
Act. 17.11  Let us seek after the knowledge of God in time. And as the Prophet Esay said, 
Esa. 55 6.  Seek the Lord whiles he may be found & call upon him lest he is near. 
The danger of wilful Ignonorance.  And let us be assured of this that all manner of Ignorance is perilous; but wilful Ignorance of all other is most perilous (For it is (as a learned Writer hath affirmed) a plain Prognostication, 
A. D. in the plain man's path to heaven.  & a demonstrative argument of eternal death. It is a most horrible and fearful thing for a man to refuse instructions, despise counsel, harden their Hearts, stop their ears, and close up their eyes against God this is the very up shot of everlasting ruin.  

What the Ignorant must do  Let the ignorant therefore that stand in this dangerous estate repair with all diligence and attentiveness unto the learned Ministers & dispensers of Gods most sacred word, and at their mouths inquire the knowledge of God's laws. This doth God himself command us by the Prophet Malachi, 
Malac 4.  And when we feel our consciences wounded, let us after the example of the Godly, faithful, and devout people, who after the hearing of God's word preached, came unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles, saying, Men & brethren, 
Act. 2.  what shall we do? Even thus I say, let us come unto God's Ministers, 
Counsel f●r the ignorant very necessary.  and confess & acknowledge our great blindness and ignorance, and say unto them. Help us, instruct us, teach us set us in the way, & guide us in the paths of the knowledge of God and of our salvation: 
What the true Ministers of gods word are.  for surely they are the Physicians and Surgeons of our souls, so that if w● repair unto them, they shall give us t● drink of the wholesome waters of knowledge, to quench our thirst of Ignorance: they are the dispensers of the manifold graces of God, & the Lords Stewards to give each one of us our portions in due time.  
We have not Christ always amongst us (as appertaining to his bodily presence) but as himself saith, we have the Poor always amongst us: even so also we have not Christ himself (that body I mean which sitteth at the right hand of God the father) always with us: but yet our Lord Christ, ascending up on high, gave unto men among other gifts, this gift also (if we could rightly consider of it) of no small value, even Pastors & Doctors that is, the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ, that might instruct, inform, and teach us in the way of life, that might declare unto us the secret counsels & hiden mysteries of God, 
How the true ministers of God's word are to be accounted of  thet might arm us with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, to encounter & resist our deadly enemy the Devil therewith. Let us joyfully receive them; for who so receiveth them as they ought to be. receiveth also with them, him that sent them, whose Messengers they are, Let us hear them, for they bring unto us the word of life: Let us give credit unto the Lords Ministers, & Glory unto the Lord himself, that hath given in his great love this blessing unto us, to have his messengers and Ambassadors abiding among us, to declare and make known unto us by them, what his own good will and pleasure is in all things, to the avoiding of this blind ignorance, the very mother of Desperation, and so consequently of eternal Damnation with the Author thereof, and his cursed Angels for ever.   

CHAP. 3  
Of the great servitude & bondage of sins and of the remedies thereof.  
COncerning the great servitude and bondage of sin being the third (before noted) cause of Desperation, for the helps and remedies thereof this have I briefly to say, that what though we have been servants unto sin, and have been pressed, and surpressed with the bondage thereof, so that we must needs confess, (unless we should prove ourselves liars, and thrt there were no truth in us) that we through our often doing of those things which we should not have done; & on the other side, through our leaving off those things undone which we should have done, have most justly deserved Gods threatened curses and plagues to light on our bodies, our souls, our children, our stocks, our crops, & every thing else we go about, & put our hands unto. What though our sins fight against our souls, and gnaw our consciences, and be ready even out of hand to lead us into the most dangerous state of Desperation? 
Examples tending to the strengthening of our faith hope and patience against desperation-  What though we have contended & fallen out with our brethran? as did Paul and Barnabas, who were so hot in contentention one against another, that they forsook one an others company in high displeasure and heat of their stomaches, the one taking with him Luke the other john? What though we have yielded unto, practised!, and followed Oppression, Extortion, polling, pilling and wresting that we can by hook or crook from our brethren? 
Luke 19 2  So did Zaoheus, yet notwithstanding after his repentance, his forsaking & ceasing from bad getting, his restitution, and alms giving, received that most cheerful and comfortable saying of Chiist, This day is salvation entered into thine house, 
Luk. 19 9  What though we have been théeues, robbers & stealers of our neighbour's goods? so was the thief that was crucified with Christ; and yet upon eyes humble, contrite, and sorrowful confession of his sins, he heard this most sweet word from Christ, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. What though we have murdered and sh●d the blood, or caused the blood to be shed of some of our brethren? so did David to Urias, and yet upon his zealous, inward & true unfeigned sorrowfulness & repentance, he was not taken away in his sin, but found pardon. And so did the jews which put to death the Lord of life.  
〈◊〉 Manasses was an Idolater, he def●●● th● Temple of God, he with stood 〈◊〉 beat down the truth, 
2 K●●●  he set up Idolatry, he was a conjurer & a Soothsayer, 〈◊〉 shed abundance of Innocent 〈◊〉, so that the streets flowed therewith, he committed more abominations than the Canaanites or Amorites whom for their filthiness the Lord cut off out of the land of the living, he sacrificed his sons and daughters to Devils: and yet upon his true returning to the Lord from the bottom of his heart, he found favour and mercy.  
If our sins then, 
2. Chr. 33.  or the sins of any one of us, were as grievous as ever were the sins of Manasses, yet upon our true and unfeigned return to the Lord shall we despair of his mercy? shall we or may we, or day we think that the mercy and power of the Lord is shortened? or that God is not the s●●●e God he was? Is he not as ready to pardon & forgive sins, the sins of a m●● repenting, returning, & faithfully c●●ling upon him, as ever he was the sins of Manasses?  
All these examples, and many more, are written for our learning, comfort & strengthening of our faith, hope, and patience, that we should in no wise despair upon our true repentance, neither for the multitude nor grievousness of our sins.  
And likewise also it is written for the bruising, & as it were even for the breaking of the back of all damnable Desperation, and to hold the hearts, and to restore the fainting and dull spirits of all such as the servitude and bondage of sin (this our third cause of Desperation) doth vex and press down: It is (I say) written, that the Son of man is come to save men's lives. 
Luk. 9.56  And he himself hath said, I am come to call not the just but sinners, 
Math. 10. Math. 20 joh. 3. Wherefore Christ came into this world  And again, jesus Christ is come to give his life a redemption for many. Also God the father hath not sent his Son to judge the World, but to the end the world may be saved by him.  
Now what is it to save & not to judge? but to deliver from death and damnation; wherein we lay in the midst of the bondage of sin; for sin is the death and damnation of the ●oule: Now he cannot save us except sin be first taken from us; And therefore, and for this cause came jesus Christ the Son of God, 
joh. 8.  and he hath declared himself to the world to the end that he should take away sins, and should destroy the works of the Devil. If it be so that jesus Christ be come into the world to take away sins; and if the same were his intent and his message, the purpose of jesus Christ shall not fail at all and his message remaineth steadfast and true; he then without all doubt, hath taken away this which the Devil would persuade us to be a cause of Desperation, this great servitude and bondage of sin, from all those that trust in him, and do verily believe, and persuade themselves in the bottom of their consciences that it is most true: but yet how comes this to pass? to wit by jesus Christ only by his own free grace and mercy; by the benefits and merits of himself, who is our only Saviour, without any other mean or merit; 
joh. 1.29  for he is the only Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. As also S. Peter said to the jews, 
Act. 4 12.  There is none other salvation, but only in jesus Christ; for among men there is given none other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. And so Christ himself said after he was risen from the dead. It must needs have been, 
Luk. 24.44.  that Christ must have suffered death & that he must have risen the third day from the dead, & that amendment of life, & forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all people & to all nations, O ho● swerte and comfortable are these wor●s and sayings of God which is the only eternal truth indeed? O how worthy are they to been laid v● in the depth of our hearts, and to have our whole confidence reposed freely vp●n them! And to the Collossians it is sai●, 
Collos. 2  God hath quickened us which were dead in sins with jesus Christ, forgiving us all our trespasses, & hath put out the hand-writing that was against us, he even took it out of the way, & fastened it on the Cross. What meaneth he by this, but only that jesus Christ hath taken away the obligation of our debt? to wit, that we did owe for our sins, and hath taken it & tied it with himself upon the Cross; & ●ath indeed paid it full bitterly: who also is for us, & will surely take away this great servitude & bondage of sin (wh●ch the Devil would use as an instrument of Desperation against us) in case we will believe his word, & that we can settle our minds & quiet our hearts, to account & esteem his bitter passion and merits to be so great and of such value, that they are able, effectual, and of sufficient strength, to obtain these oforesaid things for us. And Christ's prayer to his heavenly Father is heard, and remaineth heard continually when he prayed, saying, 
joh. 17 20  I pray not for these alone (meaning his three present Disciples) but for them also which shall believe in me through their word: Wherefore the same prayer includeth every one of us, so fare forth as we believe, and place the same in our hearts, and wholly repose ourselves thereon.  
And S. Peter saith, jesus Christ hath commanded us to preach unto the people, 
Act. 10.42 43.  & to testify that it is he that is ordained of God a judge of the quick & the dead, & that to him all the Prophets give witness, that through his name all that believe, should receive remission of sins.  
Moreover, S. Paul saith, 
2. Cor. 5.21.  God hath made him which knew no sin, sin for us to the end that we should be made the righteousness of God in him.  
And here is to be noted, 
What manner of righteousness God●●quireth at our hands  what righteousness, or justice & goodness that is, which God requireth and esteemeth; which is no other, but that only which dwelleath and holdeth upon the justice Goodness, and merit of jesus Christ, being utterly ignorant of the justice or Righteousness and goodness which many do seek in their own good works.  
But yet when I stand so much upon this point, to prove that our sins should be no cause of Desperation, (a thing which the devil greatly urgeth & objecteth against the conscience of an ignorant man) for that our sins are taken away by the innocent Lamb Christ jesus, that he hath sufficiently paid the ransom thereof, & that we are become righteous, by the righteousness of jesus Christ: it is not here my meaning, neither would I have any man so to mistake me, and misunderstand me, that I think, or would have any other men to think hereby, that there is no more sin in us or that sin dwelleth not in these our mortal bodies: 
Sin dwells even in the believers, & in the most righteous men in the world: but yet reigneth not in th● 〈◊〉  for I confess it plainly, and it is too true, that sin indeed dwelleth in us; but yet to the great comfort of an afflicted conscience against desperation I affirm it (having the holy scriptures for my teachers herein) that although the root of sin, the naughty disposition, and inclination to sin remaineth always strong in a Christian, and never can be wholly vanquished before we put off by death, this sinful flesh of ours; although (I say) it do dwell in us, yet it doth not reign in any Christian believer; yet it is not able to damn a true faithful believer: it cannot (I say) damn us for as much as we are in jesus Christ, and that we do fight and strive against the remanent of sin, albeit we stagger and waver sometimes, and do feel and perceive ourselves to be assailed sometimes by the strong temptations of the devil, and the flesh. This is it that S. Paul writeth of when he saith, 
Rom. 8.1  There is now no damnation to them that are in Christ jesus, which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.  
The remanent and root of sin dwelleth always in us, but we like unto licentious worldlings, give it not the bridle, and suffer it not to range too fare, and to take too deep a root, but we break it, tame it, and make it subject unto us by walking after the spirit. etc. and then nothing more sure than that there shall be no condemnation at all unto us thereby, neither any cause of desperation thereby, for that we are justified by our faith and delivered from sin; to wit, these sins which might condemn us, the root, original, and mother of sin yet notwithstanding still abiding, remaining and dwelling in us; against which we war and strive, as long as we continue in this life; but the victory remaineth to our Chieftain and head-Captaine jesus Christ, by the law of his spirit which maketh us to live in him, and hath set us free from the right of sin and death (in such sort that we may no more fear sin, nor death) by jesus Christ, who hath overcome all for our wealth, and hath reconciled us eternally to his Father; who as our dear Father, from henceforth will show favour unto us, for the love of jesus Christ his dear Son, and so will take from us all our sins as though we had never committed them. Even so doth he promise, saying, 
Mich. 7.18 19  God is one God willing to show us grace & mercy, he will turn to us & will be favourable, & he will take away our iniquities, & cast our sins into the depth of the sea. And again it is said of God's wonderful mercies, The Lord is full of compassion & mercy, 
Psal. 103.8.9.10. &c  long suffering & of great goodness. He will not always be chiding, neither keepeth he his anger for ever He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For look how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth so great is his mercy also towards them that fear him: Look how wide also the east is from the west, so far hath he set our sins from us. Yea, like as a father pitieth his own children; even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him: for he knoweth whereof we be made; he remembreth that we are but dust etc.  
Of the great mercies of God towards sinners, read more in Psal. 145.8.9. 
Places of holy Scriptures, setting forth God's great mercies.  and 147.8.10. & in joel. 2.13. Math. 18.11. 2. Cor. 1.3. Eph. 2.4. 1. Tim. 1.13. unto the 18. verse.  
Surely these places are words of most rare and singular comfort, and they be certain, firm, sure, and unchangeable spoken and pronounced by the eternal verity itself, & therefore not to be mistrusted or dispaired of. But yet let us take heed, lest that verse be verified in us, Stulti cum vitant vitia in contraria currunt.  
Let us not abuse God's mercies, making a cloak thereof to cover our sins: Let us not presume too far, and say as in Ecclesiastic. 5.6. The mercy of God is great, he will forgive my manifold sins: for mercy & wrath cometh from him etc.   

CHAP. 4  
The fourth Chapter concerning the Remedies to be used against the fourth cause of Desperation, arising of the doubts suggested by the Devil unto many men to bring them into despair of their salvation, by means of the small number of those that shall be saved, in comparison of the great number of the reprobate.  

A catalogue or rehearsal of many things whereby the Devil craftily tempteth men to sin and desperation.  GReat indeed is the power, & manifold & marvellous are the polices, devices, wiles, subtleties, assaults, and suggestions, wherewith and whereby that wily Fox, that old bitten Dog, that subtle Satan the Devil, daily and hourly practiseth to entice, allure, and even as it were to force multitudes of men hear on earth, into one sin or other, whereunto he findeth and proveth them to be naturally inclined; and last of all upon one occasion or other, into Desperation.  
If he espieth a man to be rich, 
How the devil tempteth by riches.  and to have worldly blessings through the gift of God, then will he apply him earnestly by his prosperity to lull him asleep in the forgetfulness of God, in worldly Pleasures, pleasant Vanities, & transitory delights, comforts, and solaces; and by trusting in his riches to lift up himself arrogantly above others; to swell in pride, and to contemn his brethren, committing (and that with great sauciness and boldness) many fond, palpable, and gross errors and follies, against God's word, even as if he should say, Who is the Lord?  
On the other side if a man be poor, he laboureth thereby to make him contemptible before the world, 
How the devil tempteth by poverty.  to pinch and nip him with the want of many things necessary both for back and belly, that he seethe before his face many others have in great & in abundant measure; he soliciteth him to steal, 
Pro. 30.9  to take the name of God in vain, to seek after gain by unhonest, unlawful, and  means; to murmur, distrust, blaspheme, and despair.  

How the Devil tempteth by friends Gen. 3.6. job. 2.9 Ester 5.14  If a man have friends he will use them as his instruments, to tempt unto some evil by their lewd and wicked counsel, as he did procure Euah to do unto Adam, job his wife to job. Haman his Wife unto Haman.  

How the Devil tempteth by enemies.  If thou hast enemies then will he prick thee forward by their proceedings and dealings against thee, unto unjust choler, wicked anger, and devilish revenge.  
If thou be careful for thy family, wife and children, he will take hold upon that occasion to stuff thy heart with too much desire of having, 
How the Devil tempteth by carefulness.  and getting by right or by wrong, and thereby through extreme covetousness, make thee to forgo all godliness and piety.  

How the Devil tempteth by security and carelessness.  On the other side if thou be careless, that's it that he can make use of also; for as S. Bernard saith, Infert diabolus securitatem, ut inferat etiam perditionem. etc. In heaven Angels became devils. In Paradise Adam and Euah fell into disobedience. In the school of Christ, judas became a traitor to his Lord & Master: & all this (saith S. Bern.) through security and retchlesness, to keep themselves in that good state wherein they were once set.  
Hast thou strength? thereby will he take occasion to embolden and harden thee to do injury and wrong, and to set upon thy weaker.  
Hast thou health and a strong able body? 
How the Devil tempteth by strength by health ableness of body & beauty.  by those will he induce and entice thee to one kind or other of lewdness and dissoluteness.  
Hast thou beauty? that will he make an instrument for bawdry; an enticement and an allurement to voluptuousness & wanton delights.  
Hast thou honour and dignity in the world? 
How the devil tempteth by honour and dignity.  thereby will he blow the bellows of pride, audacity, and boldness, to oppress, to crush, and tread under foot thine inferiors.  
Hast thou vivacity, 
How the Devil tempteth by quickness of spirit & sharpness of wit.  & quickness of spirit, and sharpness of wit and learning? these also will he strive to abuse & wrest to serve his turn to excogitate, invent, and device a thousand vanities; yea, & all the rare and excellent gifts of God, which God doth bestow on any man: this Devil, this arch-enemy of mankind will leave no ways, nor means unattempted, to procure man to abuse the same to a clean contrary end (if it were possible) to that for which they were bestowed.  

How the devil tempteth by god's word  And finally the very Word of God, given through God's great and infinite goodness, to be our spiritual Sword, to resist and encounter the Devil with; which as S. james saith, is able to save the souls of men: which as S. Paul saith, is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth: which as holy Dau. saith; was a lantern unto his feet & a light unto his paths. This, even this, will the Devil so far forth as ever he may, with all the cunning fetches, crafts, & policies that ever he can device, 
How the Devil will abuse, wrist, and misapl● gods word  seek to abuse, wrist, and misapply, from the true meaning sense and signification thereof, to confirm lies, untruths and heresies, thereby: he will draw some texts and sentences, thereof to bring men into presumption of their own Virtues, Worthiness and merits to their utter overthrow. And likewise with some other places & sentences thereof, he will bestir himself to bring men to waver in faith, to doubt of God's graces and mercies through Christ, & so finally to fall into utter desperation. And thus doth he daily abuse and wrest all those places of holy Scriptures before noted and alleged in the fourth cause of Desperation, tending to prove the small number of those that shall be saved, in comparison of the huge and great number of the reprobate.  
Those places I say, doth he urge upon the consciences of many in the world, & by his misapplying of them, and by his misconstruing of Christ's purpose, drift, and meaning therein, draweth and driveth them to fear and to tremble to doubt and despair, that they are none of that small number, seeing so few shall be saved.  
But O thou man that art thus tried, 
The true use of those Scriptures which the Devil seeketh to abuse, to bring men to desperation thereby.  tempted, and drawn towards temptation! for thy remedy and help herein Search the Scriptures, and consider upon those places, to what end and purpose Christ delivered this doctrine, and thou shalt anon prove and find, that his meaning was nothing less than to drive men into despair, but rather hereby to exhort, persuade, and to give caveats, and warning pieces unto all men that run at random after the world, to remember them selves, and their dangers, and tickle states; to awake & rouse them up that are so fast lulled a sleep in the dangerous cradle of security, and retchlessness, that so they might be touched, moved and stirred up to embrace in time when time serves, a fare more diligent and watchful care of their salvation, that by such means they may be found in the number of Christ's little flock and of those few that shall be saved; whom the Apostle Paul exhorteth to make an end of their salvation with fear & trembling: 
Phi. 2.1.  by which they might be made more careful and more diligent in that their so weighty a business.   

CHAP. 5  
The fift Chapter wherein are contained the comforts, helps & remedies against the fift cause of desperation, which is the heavy and great weight of crosses, afflictions, troubles and necessities, that God suffereth to fall upon many in this life.  
MOst true, most notable, and most comfortable for the distressed & afflicted children of God, 
Ro. 8.22.  is that golden sentence of the holy Ghost, penned by his chosen vessel S Paul, Rom. 8.28. All things work together for the best, to them that love God. For even the afflictions & troubles of God's children are so sanctified unto them by the spirit, 
Herald 12.10  that by the same they are made partakers of God's holiness. 
Heb. 12.14 1 The. 1.6  By the same they enjoy the quiet fruit of Righteousness. By the same they attain unto a greater measure of joy in the holy Ghost. 
Gal. 6, 14 1, Cor, 11 32,  By the same the world is crusified to them, and they to the world. By the same they are made, conformable to Christ's death, By the same they are kept from the condemnation of the wourld. 
Rom, 5, 5,  By the same they learn experience, patience, hope etc. 
The comforts and commodities of the crosses and afflictions to God's children.   
So that these things rightly pondered weighed, and considered, their Crosses are mercies, their losses gains, their afflictions are their schoolings, and their adversity their learned University. Avoid thou Satan, thou canst not make these afflictions, crosses and trubles neither good nor likely causes of Desperation, so they be taken, borne and used as they ought to be, for it is written for the learning, comfort, help, and remedy of all God's afflicted children, whom thou wouldst full gladly persuade, that their afflictions are signs & prognosticating tokens of God's wrath; and so consequently if thou couldst, thou wouldst draw them thereby to despair of God's love & mercy. 
Pro. 2.12.  It is written I say; That the Lord correcteth him whom he loveth, even as the father doth the child in whom he delighteth. And again, My son, 
Herald 12.5 6 7.8.9. etc.  despise not the chastning of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth; & he scourgeth every son that he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God offereth himself unto you, as unto sons; for what son is it whom the father chasteneth not? If therefore ye be without correction, whereof all are partakers, them are ye bastards & not sons, & so forth unto the 12 .v. These & many other such like sayings & sentences of the holy scriptures, are most evident testimonies, that afflictions, troubles, crosses, and vexations, are sure tokens of God's grace, mercy, and favour, whereby God assureth us of his merciful will and fatherly good heart towards us and not signs of his wrath & heavy displeasure, as the devil would persuade us, thereby to cause us to despair.  
God indeed oftentimes sendeth evils even upon his own beloved children; 
Why God sendeth evils to his children & how he sendeth comforts in the midst of evils.  but yet to the intent to do them good thereby: and withal in the midst of those evils which he toucheth them with he sendeh them some comforts to hold their hearts with. Examples hereof you may see in Adam and Euah, for when for their disobedience God would banish them out of that most pleasant place in all the world, wherein at the first he had placed them, yet in the midst of that punishment which he had laid upon them, his fatherly kindness shown itself; for before he driven them out, he made them coats to arm them against all weather, and he comforted them with a promise of the blessed seed (jesus Christ) which should restore that salvation to mankind which they had lost by yielding to the Serpents entice. 
Gen. 3.12   
This was, and this is, the most kind & loving dealing of God with man, he will make us to smart a little for our sins: here is his justice; but yet so that he will not utterly forsake us, nor give us over for ever: here is his mercy. Avoid therefore Satan, once I say again avoid; cease to suggest or to ingest into any man's heart that he should think because that God doth cross & afflict him, that therefore he doth hate, forsake, and utterly casteth of those with whom he so dealeth: for this is most true, that as Christ jesus hath taught us to call upon him by the name of a Father, saying, Our father which art in heaven &. so he love's us as a Father, for his sake: and again he will be more mindful of us, than our own Mothers; for why? himself hath so taught us, and so promised, as appeareth in Esa. 49.  

How God loveth and dealeth with his children.  Examine and consider but a little the proceedings and dealings of Mothers and Fathers with their children, & thereby shall you see and perceive more clearly, how God handles his children under their afflictions, troubles, and crosses.  
It is the fashion & manner of a good kind and natural Father, that fain would see good proof of his child, first to instruct and teach him in the virtuous course and ways of welldoing: Secondly to give him oftentimes warning and monition, to keep him in that good way which he hath taught him: Thirdly if words will not serve, then to jerk him now and then with the rod: Fourthly, in case his child being now grown up, wax stubborn, malapart, and disobedient, if he will needs spend his thrift wantonly, prodigally and riotously in ill company, then comes his Father & draws him out by the ears and with a whip or cudgel, beats him till his bones crack.  
All this he doth, & yet with a fatherly love, and a natural kind affection, to fear him, and to tame him; and as it were with violence, to bring him to amendment not minding to forsake him, nor utterly to cast him off for ever.  
Even such as this is the dealing of our heavenly Father, with his untowardly, stubborn, and disobedient children: For, first he teacheth and instructeth them by the Ministers, Teachers, and Preachers of his holy word and will: he giveth them often monitions & warning to walk in his ways, 
God's rods of what sort they are.  and to live in his obedience; which if they despise and will not follow, than he useth his rods, as poverty, sickness, diseases, crosses in their children, in their stock, in their crop, and such like: and when this will not serve, nor do any good, but still on they wax obstinate and stubborn, and care not neither for words nor warning, for stripes nor gentle correction; then God sendeth upon them more heavy & grievous punishments, as plagues, pestilences, dearth, casualties of fire, wars loss of victory, fire and sword, captivity, and other such like great & almost intolerable mischiefs: and all these to work in them acknowledging of God, humbling themselues under the mighty hand of God sorrowfulness of hart for their negligence in serving of God, 
What God seeketh to work by dealing hardly with his children.  and true unfeigned repentance, and turning again unto God, who then is as ready to receive them as ever he was before, and with mercy and loving kind benefits to bless them: Examples hereof holy scriptures afford us not a few, but especially in the government of God's chosen people the Isralites, wherein it doth plainly appear, that although God did oftentimes punish the disobedience & falling away of those his people; yet it ever proved nothing else, but the displeasure of a kind and loving father, which sought not their utter overthrow, but rather their reformation and amendment. Let us therefore in the like cases, not despair of God's mercy, but amend our former wicked course of life & yield ourselves patiently unto our heavenly father, & rejoice in him, in the midst of our troubles & afflictions, for as much as there is nothing more sure than that if we return to him, but he will likewise turn again unto us with a gracious & fatherly mind, heart, & good will.  
In this behalf also is God compared and likened unto a kind loving mother; 
God's affection to his Children like unto a kind loving mother's affection.  for like as a natural mother is very careful, watchful & diligent about her child, she trimmeth it, she dresseth it, feedeth it, nourisheth it, prayeth to God hearty for it and doth all the good she can for it with a most loving, tender, & motherly affection; & yet now and then she is so disquieted in her mind, so moved and provoked by her child's peltishnes, forwardness and unruliness, that she is even against her own nature, forced to be angry with it to chide it, and sometimes to beat it: Even so like unto this motherly dealing, is the properly and natural affection of God towards Mankind, who as he would not the death of a sinner, so neither delighteth he in any manner of grief, sorrow trouble or misfortune of man, were he not sometimes stirred up, moved, and provoked, through our forwardness, unthankfulness & unkindness, to chasten & correct us, and like as a mother though she be angry and offended with her child for a time, yet her displeasure soon passeth away she giveth it not over, she forsaketh it not, she forgetteth it not for ever. Even after the like fashion doth God our heavenly father deal with man: nay more mindful, more kind and more pitiful is God towards us▪ This is most true, the mouth of God himself hath spoken it; for those are hi● words. Can a woman forget her own● child & not have compassion on the son o● her womb? 
Esa. 49.15  though she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. And finally (to draw to an end of this comparison) eue● as a Mother when her child is impish, peevish, and wayward, menaceth and threateneth it to throw it away to a Beggar, & s●arreth it with some bugs, throsts Hobgoblins, or such like, and all to make it quiet, and to cling the more unto her: so likewise our good Father, when he seethe that we forget him make smaller reckoning of him then becomes us, & wax unthankful & untowardly to all goodness declining and hasting on apace to follow all sin and iniquity; then he sometimes showeth us t●e terrible faces of fearful troubles and dangers, and he will bring us into great perils: yea, and for our unthankfulness, and other such like offences, he will now & then take away by one means or ●ther, our health, our wealth, our peace, our liberty, our safety, etc.  
And all this doth he to cause us to turn back again unto him, to cleave and cling the faster unto him, to pray & call upon him the more faithfully, heartily and zealously for his help & deliverance, to esteem better of his gifts, when we enjoy them, and to be more thankful for them when we have them.  
So that the very causes of all troubles, crosses, and calamities are not to work in us murmuring & grudging, & despair, but if we will weigh them & consider them throughly, to make good use of them, they may turn to our great profit and benefit, and not to our hurt: For like as a natural Father & mother do, so doth God love us when he smiteth us; he favoureth us, when he seemeth to be most against us; when he seemeth to be most angry, he aimeth most at our good, for as S. August. saith, Melius novit medicus quid expediat quam aegrotus, The sick man the patiented, never knoweth so well what is good for him as doth the Physician. 
God dealeth with his children as Physicians and Surgeons do with their Patients.  And therefore the Physicians & Surgeons when they see no other remedy for the recovery, curing, & amending of their sick, corrupted, & infected patients, use to minister unto them tart, bitter, harsh, and unpleasant things, & to fear, burn, and cut away corrupted, rotten, & dead flesh with saws, iron, and other such like instruments, and all to save & cherish the sound and whole parts, Ne par● sincera trahatur, lest that which is whole, should by the other be corrupted, infected and poisoned; even so doth God sometimes (when he sees 'tis best for us) plague our bodies sharply and grievously, that our soul may be preserved and saved. The Physician in compounding of his best treacle, useth Serpents, Adders and other poisoned things, that with the same he may drive out one poison with an other: 
How God useth sometimes the service of Devils & wicked men.  Even so God (as by Histories plentifully in God's Book it appears) useth the ministry help, and service of Devils, and of most devilish & wicked men, by them to afflict and chastise us, and yet to do us good withal; & afterwards burneth the rods when he hath corrected and beaten his children with them a while. It is not given to every man (I must needs confess) to understand this, and to make this good use of afflictions, crosses, and troubles laid upon them for their sins sake; for than should Pharaoh and many of his wicked courtiers like himself; then should Cain, 
The wicked are not bettered by ●heir troubles & afflictions.  Saul judas Iscariot, & many other vile, lewd, and desperate persons beside, in their manifold crosses, troubles, and adversities, have turned unto the Lord and been saved.  
But we must learn and know, that adversities, 
Whence it cometh that afflictions and crosses profit God's children.  troubles, & afflictions, of themselves and of their own proper nature, cannot work and bring such profits, & so much good unto men: But it is the spirit of God, which resting in Gods faithful children, purgeth, reformeth, comforteth, and strengtheneth them, & by these outward means worketh all these good things in us: And so whatsoever goodness hath been spoken of heretofore to befall men by means of adversities, crosses, and troubles, is to be understood only of the faithful and godly, which are taught and led by the spirit of God, to consider rightly of them, & to make such use of them, that according as in the beginning of this Chapter it is truly said, to them that love God all things work together for the best. 
Rom. 8.28   
Whereas on the other side, in the unfaithful, 
The conceits and opinions of the wicked in thie● adversities and toubles.  unrepentant, and wicked ones, they work after another fashion, & are of clean contrary operation, whiles that they ascribe their adversities and troubles, either to blind Fortune and Chance; as though Fortune had a certain power to work, without the working and providence of God; or else, unto them that are not of their own sect, faith, and religion, as did wicked Ahab to godly Elias, or to the Magistrates, 
4. Kin. 18  or to the Ministers of God's word, or to Faith and religion itself, or to the Planets, Stars, & influences of the Elements; yea, and some will I blame God himself, as though they themselves were so innocent and blameless, that God deals not well with them to lay upon them such crosses & punishments: and so very busy they make themselves, to shift off all blame ever to others faults.  
And although their sins be multiplied to exceeding multitudes of offences, yet they will not see nor confess any such things in themselves, nor any thing consider, nor regard the punishments of God laid upon them, and cleaving unto them for the same. But through their hardness of heart, and want of faith (which is the mother of all blasphemy, and abomination) they can not spy whose hand it is that is against them, nor wherefore; or else being even as it were violently forced to know it, that it is, the working of the Lord against them, and his vengeance in heavy displeasure upon them; yet they will not be moved thereby, nor any thing at all stirred up to amend their lives, but like unto King Pharaoh the more God correcteth them, the more obstinate they swerve, decline, and fly away, from him being like unto graceless children, with whom neither words, threatenings, nor beating, can prevail. Like unto them that will neither dance with the piper, nor lament with the mourner: 
Mat. 11.17 Luk. 7.31.32.  and so fare off are they from being recovered, won, and reform by means of any crosses, afflictions, and troubles lighting on them; an● following them ever as the shadow doth the body; that they will sooner burst out into all manner of impatientnes bitterness, and spiteful poysonful railing and blaspheming words against the righteousness of God, saying, That their punishment is greater than their sins, and heavier than they can brook or bear: and that they are wronged, and are not indifferently dealt with, & so at the length after heaping one sin in the neck of an other, the Devil brings them on, 
The ends that the devil brings the wicked unto by their afflictions, troubles, and crossss.  and by little and little winds them into that he gapes for, namely into a reprobate mind, and deadly Desperation, in so much that at the last they fall too, and yield to murdering, hanging, drowning, o by other such means most miserably, to dispatch themselves with their own hands, like unto Saul, Achitophel & judas, so giving themmselues over to the Devil; and as they lived for a while most wretchedly, so they depart out of the world as divelishly, forgetting utterly, and al-together inconsiderate, reckless, & careless what shall become of them afterwards for ever. By whose lives, 
Two commodities to be reaped by the lives and manner of the deaths of the wicked.  and manner of deaths the children of God may yet reap two commodities: first, they shall be eased of the great troubles, disturbance, and discommodities, & of the lewd and evil examples which they gave to others whiles they lived. And secondly, they which remain a live after them, may learn and take warning by their shameful falls, and by their terrible examples, & desperate deaths, lay hold on repentance and amendment of their lives before it be too late.   

CHAP. 6.  
The sixth Chapter concerning the remedies against Desperation, arising and growing by long custom of sin, & by delaying & putting off the forsaking of sin from day to day.  

The great danger of custom of sinn●, & of delaying of amendment of life.  IT is written, that the continual and long custome of sin, and the delaying and putting off from time to time of the amendment of life, is one of the greatest and most dangerous deceits & cunning stratagems and policies which the enemy of mankind doth use towards the children of Adam: for he is not ignorant how that like as links in a chain one catcheth hold and hangeth by another, and one draweth another: Even so by continuance, long custom, and secure sleeping in sin, one sin draweth on another, and so every day sin is added to sin, so that by toleration and procrastination, sin so mightily increaseth, and by this means waxeth so headstrong, that in the end, the saying of the Poet proveth very true; to wit,  
Qui non est hod●e, 
A comparison showing the d●nger f ●ong custom and w●ltring in ●inns.  cras minus aptus erit He that is not ready to day (to forgo & forsake sin) to morrow-day shall he be more unfit. The Devil knoweth well enough, how that like as old festered and long grown sores and diseases of the body are fare more dangerous, more troublesome, and harder to be healed, & require a longer time by much to be cured, then if they had been looked to at the first: Even so the diseases of the soul as swearing, thieving, whoring, drunkenness, & such like, being once long accustomed, settled, and having gotten an habit, are either never, or seldom, and that with greater difficulty afterwards rooted out, then at the first beginning they might have been.  
And so by these diseases of the soul, the habit thereof having once taken root in man, and the Devil by them having gotten the surer hold and possession, he endeavoureth and most diligently by all wries and means applieth to keep men still on in ure, and practice w●th old and long accustomed sins, until at the length in extremity of sickness towards the hour of death (if not before) he may by such causes and occasions plant and work in the heart of man deep despair to his utter confusion for ever.  
To resist therefore, to remedy and help this canker-like creeping & infectious evil, let us to day while it is yet to day, study to turn again unto God, cast out the Devil, and with him this great cause and occasion of desperation, even long custom of sin, and delay of amendment of our lives, the thing that so hangeth on, and presseth us down, & let us in time while we have time take a better course, looking up unto jesus Christ, and set him before the eyes of our faith, as the only mark to shoot at. And for as much as we can not turn again to the Lord, & forsake our former wallowing in our former long accustomed sins, except the Lord our God reach us his helping hand to turn us unto him; and that repentance is not in our own power to take it up & lay it down at our own pleasure, 
Whence repentance & amendment of life are to be had, & how they are to be come by 〈◊〉  and that of ourselves we can not put it into our hearts when we list, exceept it first come from above; for that it is an excellent and a rare gift of God: Let us earnestly and hearty with our humble & fervent prayers beg the same at God's hands: Let us practise much & often hearing, reading, & meditating the word of God and with care use all ordinary means for the better, and speedy attaining of it, for it is not so easy a matter to come by, as the world thinketh it: It is not an hours work when we lie on our deathbeds that will serve the turn: It is not, 
Many are & may be deceived in the manner & time of their repentance.  Cry God mercy a little for fashion sake, that will do it: It is not a coursing or mumbling up of a few prayers at a man's last farewell, the will avail: And yet if we were sure that that would serve, yet we are very un-sure, whether we shall have time, leisure, and remembrance at our last gasp, to do that yea or no: to trust to do it at our last hour, is but a broken staff to be trusted unto, And yet it is not so uncertain, but on the other side it is as certain, that then we shall have many byasses, 
Note this you that defer repentance until your last end.  many rubs and stops, many impediments to lie in our ways, and to hinder our course in going forward at that time with last gasping repentance, which many fond and foolish men rely so much upon, 〈…〉 ●●st so much unto, passing away their days, & carelessly neglecting good opportunity when time serveth, like unto those five foolish Virgins that made no preparation aforehand to be in a readiness to enter in with the Bridegroom, till it was too late: this is I say, a very broken staff to trust unto, & a thing very doubtful, and uncertain to depend upon, or to make any reckoning of, for a man to repent and cry God mercy, and make himself fit and ready for God at his last hour, because that very many in all ages and in all places have been and are taken away oftentimes with a sudden death, & have neither that hours nor half hours leisure that they before spoke of, and trusted so much unto.  

Lu. 17.27. examples showing that it is dangerous trusting to the last hour. Gen. 19.23-  When the World was eating & drinking, planting and building: when they were most secure and careless, then suddenly came the flood, and overwhelmed them al. Though it were a fair morning at Lo●s going out of Sodom, yet by and by when they least thought of any such matter, they were all suddenly destroyed. When Nabuchadnezzar was most brag and thought himself most safe and sure, 
Dan. 4.12.  suddenly (never dreaming nor once suspecting any such things) was he pulled on his knees. The Rich man thought himself never more like to have lived, 
Luk. 12.20 Acts 5 are two notable examples of sudden and unprovided death in Anania● and his wife.  then when he so busily made such great provision, and laid up store for many years: yet was his soul suddenly taken from him the very same night. And what knowest thou O man! that trustest so much, and puttest off till the last day & hour, whether that day and hour may not come as suddenly on thee, and as unlooked for, as it did on any of these?  
Augustine and Ambrose did write one of them to the other, what his opinion was, concerning the state of an old Adulterer which in their time, as he was going in the night time to his Whore, passing over a Bridge in his way, fell into the River; and so being drowned, was taken away suddenly in the very purpose of his wickedness, having neither hour, half hour, nor minute, to cry God mercy, to repent, and to pray in.  
joannes Rivius, a learned writer, 
Lib. 1. de stultitia mortas●um in procrastinanda.  & of good credit, affirmed that in his time, & in a village of his country, two old men lying with their Whores whom they had aforetime haunted, 
Correctione vitae.  in one and the self same night died, suddenly taken as it were with the manner: having likewise neither hour nor half hour to prepare themselves in: for the one was suddenly stabbed to death, the other was taken with a sudden Apoplexy, whereof he presently gave up the Ghost.  
And what knoweth any of us all, or what greater privilege hath any of us all but that we may be suddenly yrevented & carried away in the midst of our sins as these were? And whether we have not the like examples of such hasty deaths here in England, whereby many of us have been disappointed of these two or three hours at their last end, to make us ready in, I report me to the deaths of Earl Godwin, & Grimwood of Hitcham? 
Earl Godwin his sudden and fearful death.  whereof the Earl after he had traitorously slain the brother of King Ed. the third, being charged afterwards by the King therewith at Windsor (where he happened to sit at table with the King) he falsely denied the fact, and for his better excuse, he falsely forswore it; and besides all this, he moreover took a piece of bread and put it into his mouth, wished that he might be choked thereof, if he were guilty of his blood, and it followed indeed according to his desire: for he being choked therewith, yielded up his Ghost, and fell down dead in the presence and sight of all at the Table, & from thence was had to Winchester to be buried. 
Grimwood, his sudden and fearful death.  And likewise the said Grimwood of Hitcham in the County of Suffolk, known to be a wilful fursworne man, in the harvest time next after his perjury, feeling of no pain, complaining of no disease, being strong and able to labour, as he was stacking up corn, suddenly his bowels fell out of his body, whereof immediately he died most miserably.  
But what need I to stand bestowing time, paper, and ink, troubling both myself & future Readers, in setting down the manner of the sudden deaths of many men, seeing that both holy and profane writers, & daily experience itself, may fully fraught, store, and furnish us with infinite examples of this sort? And what charter, privilege, or certain hold of life hath any of us all, more than these here before recited, or thousands of others in the like case have had?  
O let us not presume therefore to run on headlong in the long and hardened custom of our sins! not to delay and put off the reforming of our wicked lives until the last hour: And although we be not stricken with sudden death, but have both certain days and hours before our death, yet (as I before said) full many are the stops, lets, and impediments which both may, and also daily do fall out to hinder and put by this late repentance; 
A catalogue of lets & impediments which oftentimes fall out when we come to the last hour, that hinder and put by ●h●t l te repentance, which so ma●y trust unto.  that so many will needs trust unto, and make all their reckoning of, putting of from day to day, and from year to year, till this last time approach and fall on them indeed: For so long as the extremities of sickness do nip and pinch our mortal bodies, the dolours, pangs, & pains racking & tormenting our flesh, will keep our minds so occupied, sometime calling on the Physician for help, sometime turning, tossing, and seeking for ease in every corner of the bed; yea, & from bed to bed, while strength doth serve sometimes taking this receipt, and sometimes that, as the Physicians shall minister: sometimes turmoiled and occupied both in mind and body by the working and purging of the Apothecary's drugs received, sometimes disquiet and brawling with those that are attending about us, crying out on them, as though their using and handling of us wear the occasion of our greater pangs and pains: with these and such like cercumstances, are both bodies and minds exercised and vexed, so long as the vigour and strength of flesh and blood are able to endure and hold out, and so busied here-with continually, that we seldom have any rest or leisure to frame ourselves to any quiet calling on God; to any repentance, or unfeigned and zealous, crying for mercy: for if we sometimes endeavour ourselves to begin to go about it, yet behold one thing or other soon striketh all out of mind, & disturbs us so, that never a whit the better: but if after the powers & senses of our bodies be once worn and weakened, and the feeling of the extreme dolours and pangs of the sickness be mitigated, whereby the body after a time of wrestling and wearying of itself, is now somewhat quieted, and so the mind more settled, w● then begin again to take better hold, yet still on either the care of children & wife for want of sufficient provision for them, or grief to departed from them, or the remembrance of lands, goods, houses & possessions, & other worldly treasures: the love, liking & delights whereof have possessed our hearts all our life time before, will now so afresh enter & trouble our heads & minds, that yet time serves not for to continue any such godly and christian exercises as we in health-time when we should have done it, made no account of, and deferred until the last hour. 
The effect of choler in time of extreme sickness.  Sometimes are we troubled and diseased with melancholy and frenzies, choler shooting up into our brains, & with such cramps & convulsions caused by much evacuation, & such abundance of choler in our veins, that hereof, follows the natural effects, rave, blaspheming, unsensible talking, writhing of the lips, strange and un-accustomed wresting and turning of the neck, buckling of the joints and whole body; yea & oftentimes such extraordinary strength that three or four men cannot hold us nor rule us without bonds. With these and such like strange effects, are many men deprived not only of the right use of the parts of their bodies, but also of their reason and right wits, & last of all of life itself. Are not here then lets enough from the performance of that amendment of life, and crying God mercy, which we put off in our life time?  
Put case that we be neither cut off with sudden death, nor annoyed at our last end with any of these aforesaid lets and impediments of strange diseases and extraordinary effects thereof, nor with any other such like noisome & troublesome circumstances or sicknesses, but that we have time, leisure, and quietness to do all such things as any of us all trusted unto at our last farewell with the world? 
The devil will be most busy to hinder repentance at our last hour.  yet will that deadly enemy, that mortal adversary of ours Satan the Devil, at the time above all other, apply himself; & let us look for no other, but what vile sin we have committed and delighted ●n all our life time, that will he lay to our charge, and clog our consciences with, & to bring us into desperation with and ●y them, he will put us in mind, & terrify us with God's severe threatenings against sin. He will object against us that saying of our Lord Christ, 
Math. 19  that if we would have entered into life, we should have kept his Commandments. 
Math. 7.  He will tell us that not he that saith Lord Lord, but he that doth the will of the father of heaven, shall enter into the Kingdom of God. He will put us in mind that, Not the hearers of the Law, but the doers shall be justified. 
Rom. 2. Rom. 8.  He will threaten us that because we have lived according to the flesh, we shall die. He will crack us that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God: & that neither Fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor Adulterers nor Wantoness, 
1. Cor. 6.9.10.  nor Buggers nor thiefs, nor the Covetous nor Drunkards not Railers, nor Extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  
And that such as have lived according to the works of the flesh, which are repeated up Gal. 5. shall not attain to the kingdom of God. 
1. Cor. 5. jer. 2.  And that we must be presented before the judgement seat of Christ and every man receive particularly according as he hath done in this life good or evil: 
Apoca. 20  
2. Pet. 2.  every man shall receive according to his works: and that God spared not the Angels when they sinned: 
1 P●●. 4.  & if the just shall scarce be saved, where shall the wicked man and sinner appear.  
When all these, & a great deal more, describing & setting forth unto us the rigour of God's severe justice, & the reckoning whereunto we shall be called, shall be put into our minds on our deathbeds; & that damned Satan which all the days of our lives before laboured to make us careless & negligent of the knowledge, or consideration of any of these things, that so he might make us the more boldly & blindly to run headlong into sin, shall charge us with this, and much more like stuff, appealing to our own consciences for witness hereof, and so heeruppon plant in our hearts deep Desperation: Alas in what case shall our poor souls then stand? Would a man then for a thousand worlds, and all the profits and pleasures thereof be brought to such a quandary?  
O thou therefore that readest or hearest this damnable and miserable state that silly souls may be implunged into, for the better avoiding of these perils, read and read again, meditate, ponder, and put in practise the direction, advice, and counsel in the beginning of this present sixth Chapter.  
And take this lesson of joseph of Arimathia, 
The example of joseph of Arimathia most worthy to be imitated.  that like as he in his life time had made a ready Sepulchre in the midst of his Garden, which was the place of his pleasure (as all Gardens of great men most commonly are) even so thou in the midst of these things wherein thou takest thy greatest felicity and delight, remember yet thy grave, and what one day (thou knowest not how soon) shall become of thy poor soul, & afterward of thy soul and body for ever.  

The use & custom of he Egyptians.  Remember and learn likewise at the Egyptians, who perceiving the mindfulness of death to be a good help to bridle their evil actions, used to bring a Picture or Image resembling death, into their great and solemn Feasts; which fearful and ugly sight, trembling and shaking, they took to be a special occasion to keep the beholders in sobriety, by the remembrance of their end, 
The notable & imm●●a●●e example of ●ing Ezechi●s.  which they must all come unto sooner or later.  
And finally, learn at the good king Ezechias, when thou shalt be by any occasion put in remembrance of death, be afraid of Gods threatening, & sorrow a little before hand, lest thou be constrained to sorrow, howl, and cry remediless always afterwards; for according to the old saying, 
Ecclesiast. 7.40.  Qui ante non cavebit post dolebit, he that will not beware before shall afterward be sorry, & he that in all his doings remembreth the end, shall never lightly do amiss. The which wise remembrance of our ends, he vouchsafe to plant in our hearts, who hath full dear bought us, jesus Christ the righteous, to whom with his, and our heavenly father, and the holy spirit three persons; and one eternal majesty of Godhead, all worthy glory, honour, and praise, be worthily attributed, for ever and ever Amen.   

CHAP. 7  
The seaventh Chapter containing the General Preseruative against the despair or doubting of God's mercy arising upon any cause whatsoever.  
FOr as much as it is a thing manifestly to be proved by holy Scriptures, that a man endued with true faith itself may not withstanding now and then be troubled and assaulted with motions of doubtings wavering; yea and of despairing: therefore for the bridling, suppressing and overcoming of these assaults, it shall be good to put in practise these five things especially.  
First, we are to think and consider thus much, 
The first preservative against Despair.  that as not to murder, not to steal, not to commit adultery, and all the rest of the Decalogue or ten Commandments, are the Commandments of God, and we are careful, and strive with ourselves that we should not break any of them; lest that in breaking any of them, we should so highly offend God, that he would therefore pour down upon us his heavy wrath and in his indignation severely punish us as by many examples we see he hath done to others in the like offences: So also it is God's commandment as well as any of the others are, 
1 john 3.23.  That we believe in the name of his son jesus Christ: and therefore we must think we offend against God as grievously, or rather far more grievously in violating and breaking this Commandment by incredulity, doubting, wavering and despairing as if we should shed man's blood, commit whoredom, theft, perjury, or any other such like notorious sin.  
O what a heinous sin must it needs be to cast no doubts, nor despair in the help of a mortal man in the time of need: and yet to mistrust and despair of the like in God? As for example, we can settle our hearts to believe in our mortal fathers if we stand in need of meat, drink or clothes, 
An example that many men put more trust in mortal man then in God.  we then call on them, and if they promise us any such things, we can set our hearts at ease, & count it as a thing done; we doubt no thing of their good will towards us nor of the performance, of their word unto us, we depend upon them, we rely only on them & none other, and what they give their word to do for us, we make as sure reckoning of it, as if it were already in our hands.  

Another example showing that many men put more trust in mortal man then in God.  Again, if we stand in need of a piece of money as of x. l xx. l. xxx. l. or be it more or less, to discharge some dangerous bond, or for any such like use by a set day, or to save our bodies out of prison; & in the mean time, before the day appointed come, some one of our honest rich neighbours, that is counted an honest substantial man, & of good credit, promise us certainly so much money as we want, and stand in need of to serve our turn with, & bids us trust unto it that before that day he will be sure to help; we hereupon trust his honest promise, we believe his word, & make as sure account of it as if we had it already in our purses, and take no more thought nor care for it. O how much more should we trust Gods most faithful, just, and true word and promise; believe him without all distrust, doubting, or despair, & depend upon him who is a thousand times more able and more willing to do us good, and to keep touch with us, than ever was, to ever shall be any mortal earthly father or friendly neighbour?  
The second thing in this case to be considered of, is that every one of us, 
The second general help against desperation.  is particularly to believe that he is in the number of them that shall be saved, by the merits of Christ's death and passion: for the promises of salvation in Christ are indefinite, excluding no particular man, as for example, God so loved the world, 
joh. 3.16.  that he gave his only begotten son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish but have life everlasting. In with general words is included every particular beléeving person, although he have not his name severally & particularly set down: & here God excludeth none from his promise unless through their unbelief & despair they exclude their own selves. If the King of Great Britain of his own mere mercy & motion of compassion, or at the suit and mediation of some Nobleman or other that is dear unto him, should freely pardon and forgive all the malefactors and prisoners of any Jail, within his kingdoms, may we not account them very fond & foolish men, and not worthy the benefit of the King's gracious Pardon, if some two or three should doubt and despair that this general Pardon appertaineth not unto them, because their own particular and several names were not therein specified and expressed? Even thus is our case.  
Let not therefore any illusion of Satan nor fear of our own unworthiness, nor want of our particular names, nor any other argument or reason whatsoever, withdraw us from challenging our own portions and parts of Gods most merciful promises, of his free pardon, and remission of our sins: Let us not doubt nor distrust the performance and truth of God's promises.  
Thirdly, to comfort ourselves, and to suppress Satan's temptations to despairing, 
The third general help against desperation.  we may further meditate and ponder with ourselves these two points especially: First that seeing the Lord hath promised to forgive us our sins; and to put all our wickedness out of his remembrance (as by plain and most manifest evidence of holy scriptures it may easily be proved) than it standeth with his justice and truth, to perform the same, and that upon such a necessity, that he must either forgive us our offences according to his own word, or else we must count him unfaithful for the breach of his promises; or else, (which were horrible to think) judge him an hippocrite or a dissembler, if he should pretend one thing, and intent another; or at the leastwise unconstant in altering & changing that which he hath spoken with his own mouth, & so to be thought (which is monstrous) to be unjust: for the second point we may consider likewise to our comfort and to the weakening & overthrow of all desperate conceits that God hath already punished jesus Christ for our offences, 
Esa. 75. Whatsoever could be looked for at man's hands, or whatsoever man could be charged with, that Christ performed & discharged  & therefore cannot in justice punish them again in us. We offended & Christ was punished for the same: Whatsoever in justice God could either demand or man owed, that paid our Lord Christ. Man aught to die, Christ satisfied for the same: man ought to have born the heavy wrath & displeasure of the father; Christ did bear the same: man ought to have been cast down into hell, Christ satisfied for that also: yea, he so fully contented paid & pleased God the Father, for all whatsoever the Lord could look for at man's hands that the father himself acknowledged, and in thunder from heaven confessed the same, in the hearing of many witnesses present; and hearing the same at the baptising of our Lord Christ by john Baptist in the flood Iorden: and so all faithful believers hereof, are hereby fu●ly and freely acquit and discharged from all debt of sin they owed unto God for ever.  
Why shouldst thou then, O Satan; so busily charge us with any such matter to drive us into desperation, seeing that Sublata causa, tollitur etiam et effectus? The cause whereby thou so urgest desperation by jesus Christ being taken away the effects also must needs then cease.  

The 4. general help for the avoiding of despairing.  The fourth thing to be used and practised for the better avoiding of despair is that at what time soever we feel our hearts through Satan's crafty suggestion assaulted and molested with this venomous sting of desperation, we should then strait convey ourselves into some quiet and secret place, and there in some humble manner pour out our hearts before God with inward hearty & zealous prayer desiring him of his infinite mercies, to work in our hearts increase of faith, and to suppress and vanquish all our unbelief, and utterly to expel from thence all despair.  
The fift and last remedy that now I purpose to handle here against Desperation, 
The fift general help against desperation.  is that we frame ourselves carefully, diligently, and with godly zeal to use, and oftentimes to frequent such godly means as God hath appointed and set forth unto us, for the obtaining and increasing of faith, as (over and beside earnest prayer last before spoken of) the use of reverend reading, hearing, and meditating of God's word, and the receiving of the Sacraments, being holy Signs, and as it were Seals seen with our outward or bodily eyes, which inwardly do signify, and set forth to our hearts the secret and inward graces of GOD.   
FINIS.