A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolvedA Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved

4. Over much Sorrow yet more hindereth Hope; when men think that they do believe Gods Word, and that his Promises are all true to others, yet cannot they Hope for the promised Blessings to themselves: Hope is that Grace by which a Soul that believeth the Gospel to be true, doth comfortably expect, that the benefits promised shall be its own; its an applying Act. The first act of Faith saith, the Gospel is true, which promiseth Grace and Glory through Christ: The next act of Faith saith I will trust my Soul and all upon it, and take Christ for my Saviour and Help: And then Hope saith, I hope for this Salvation by him: But Melancholy, overwhelming Sorrow and Trouble, is as great an Adversary to this Hope, as water is to fire, or snow to heat. Despair is its very pulse and breath. Fain such would have hope, but they cannot. All their thoughts are suspicious, and misgiving, and they can see nothing but danger and misery, and a helpless state. And when Hope, which is the Anchor of the Soul, is gone, what wonder if they be continually tossed with storms.

4. Over much Sorrow yet more hindreth Hope; when men think that they do believe Gods Word, and that his Promises are all true to others, yet cannot they Hope for the promised Blessings to themselves: Hope is that Grace by which a Soul that believeth the Gospel to be true, doth comfortably expect, that the benefits promised shall be its own; its an applying Act. The first act of Faith saith, the Gospel is true, which promiseth Grace and Glory through Christ: The next act of Faith saith I will trust my Soul and all upon it, and take Christ for my Saviour and Help: And then Hope saith, I hope for this Salvation by him: But Melancholly, overwhelming Sorrow and Trouble, is as great an Adversary to this Hope, as water is to fire, or snow to heat. Despair is its very pulse and breath. Fain such would have hope, but they cannot. All their thoughts are suspitious, and misgiving, and they can see nothing but danger and misery, and a helpless state. And when Hope, which is the Anchor of the Soul, is gone, what wonder if they be continually tost with storms.

5. Over much sorrow swalloweth up all comfortable Sense of the Infinite Goodness and Love of God, and thereby hindereth the Soul from Loving Him. And in this it is an Adversary to the very Life of Holiness: It is exceeding hard for such a troubled Soul to apprehend the Goodness of God at all; but much harder to judg that he is good and amiable to him: But as a man that in the Deserts of Libya is scorched with the violent heats of the Sun, and is ready to dy with draught and faintness, may confess that the Sun is the Life of the Earth, and a Blessing to mankind, but it is misery and death to him; even so these Souls overwhelmed with Grief, may say that God is good to others, but he seems an Enemy to them, and to seek their destruction: They think he hateth them, and hath forsaken them; and how can they love such a God, who they think doth hate them, and resolve to damn them, and hath decreed them to it from Eternity, and brought them into the world for no other end. They that can hardly love an Enemy that doth but defame them, or oppress and wrong them, will more hardly love a God, that they believe will damn them, and hath remedilessly appointed them thereto.