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

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.

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 Desarts of Lybia 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 remedilesly appointed them thereto.