Causes of despair, the Divel, melancholy, meditation, Distrust, weakness of faith, rigid Ministers, misunderstanding Scriptures, guilty consciences, &c.

The principal agent and procurer of this mischief, is the Divel; those whom God forsakes, the Divel by his permission layes hold on. Sometimes he persecutes them with that worme of conscience, as he did Judas, Saul, and others. The Poets call it Nemesis, but it is indeed Gods just judgement, sero sed serio, he strikes home at last, and setteth upon them as a thief in the night, 1 Thes. 2.

This temporary passion made David cry out, Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thine heavy displeasure; for thine arrowes have light upon mee, &c. There is nothing sound in my flesh, because of thine anger. Again, I roare for the very grief of my heart;

and Psalme 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken mee, and art so far from my health, and the words of my crying? I am like to water poured out, my bones are out of joynt, mine heart is like waxe, that is molten in the midst of my bowels.

So Psal. 88. 15. and 16. vers. and Psal. 102. I am in misery at the point of death, from my youth I suffer thy terrours, doubting for my life; thine indignations have gone over mee, and thy fear hath cut mee off. Job doth often complain in this kinde; and those God doth not assist, the Divel is ready to try and torment, still seeking whom he may devour.

If he finde them merry, saith Gregory, he tempts them forthwith to some dissolute act; if pensive and sad, to a desperate end. Aut suadendo blanditur, aut minando terret, sometimes by faire means, sometimes again by foule, as he perceives men severally inclined.

His ordinary engine by which he produceth this effect, is the melancholy humour it self, which is balneum Diaboli, the Divels bath; and as in Saul, those evil spirits get in as it were, and take possession of us. Black choler is a shooing-horn, a bait to allure them,

in so much that many writers make melancholy an ordinary cause, and a symptome of despair, for that such men are most apt by reason of their ill disposed temper, to distrust, fear, grief, mistake, and amplifie whatsoever they preposterously conceive, or falsly apprehend. Conscientia scrupulosa nascitur ex vitio naturali, complexione melancholica (saith Navarrus cap. 27. num. 282. Tom. 2. cas. conscien.)

The body works upon the minde, by obfuscating the spirits and corrupted instruments, which Perkins illustrates by simile of an Artificer, that hath a bad toole, his skill is good, ability correspondent, by reason of ill tooles his work must needs be lame and unperfect.

But melancholy and despaire though often, do not alwaies concur; there is much difference; melancholy fears without a cause, this upon great occasion; melancholy is caused by fear and grief, but this torment procures them and all extremity of bitterness; much melancholy is without affliction of conscience, as Bright and Perkins illustrate by four reasons; and yet melancholy alone again may be sometimes a sufficient cause of this terror of conscience.

Fælix Plater so found it in his observations, è melancholicis alii damnatos se putant, Deo curæ non sunt, nec prædestinati, &c. They think they are not predestinate, God hath forsaken them; and yet otherwise very zealous and religious; and ’tis common to be seen, Melancholy for fear of Gods judgement and hell fire, drives men to desperation; fear and sorrow, if they be immoderate, end often with it.

Intolerable pain and anguish, long sickness, captivity, misery, loss of goods, loss of friends, and those lesser griefs do sometimes effect it, or such dismal accidents. Si non statim relevantur, saith Mercennus, dubitant an sit Deus, if they be not eased forthwith, they doubt whether there be any God, they rave, curse, and are desperately mad, because good men are oppressed, wicked men flourish, they have not as they think to their desert, and through impatience of calamities are so misaffected.

Democritus put out his eies, ne malorum civium prosperos videret successus, because he could not abide to see wicked men prosper, and was therefore ready to make away himself, as Agellius writes of him.

Fælix Plater hath a memorable example in this kinde, of a Painters wife in Basil, that was melancholy for her sons death, and for melancholy became desperate, she thought God would not pardon her sins, and for four months, still raved, that she was in hell-fire, already damned. When the humour is stirred up, every small object aggravates and incenseth it, as the parties are addicted.

The same author hath an example of a merchant man, that for the loss of a little wheat, which he had over long kept, was troubled in conscience, for that he had not sold it sooner, or given it to the poor, yet a good Schollar and a great Divine; no perswasion would serve to the contrary, but that for this fact he was damned; in other matters very judicious and discreet.

Solitariness, much fasting, divine meditations, and contemplations of Gods judgements, most part accompany this melancholy, and are main causes, as Navarrus holds; to converse with such kinde of persons so troubled, is sufficient occasion of trouble to some men.

Nonnulli ob longas inedias, studia & meditationes cœlestes, de rebus sacris & religione semper agitant, &c. Many (saith P. Forestus) through long fasting, serious meditations of heavenly things, fall into such fits;

and as Lemnius adds, lib. 4. cap. 21. If they be solitary given, superstitious, precise, or very devout: seldome shall you finde a Merchant, a Souldier, an Inn-keeper, a Bawd, an Host, an Usurer so troubled in minde, they have cheverel consciences that will stretch, they are seldome moved in this kinde or molested: young men and middle age are more wild, and less apprehensive; but old folks, most part, such as are timorous and religiously given.

Pet. Forestus observat. lib. 10. cap. 12. de morbis cerebri, hath a fearful example of a Minister, that through precise fasting in Lent, and overmuch meditation contracted this mischief, and in the end became desperate, thought he saw divels in his chamber, and that he could not be saved; he smelled nothing, as he said, but fire and brimstone, was already in hell, and would ask them still, if they did not smel as much.

I told him he was melancholy; but he laughed me to scorn, and replied that he saw divels, talked with them in good earnest, would spit in my face, and ask me if I did not smel brimstone, but at last he was by him cured.

Such another story I finde in Plater observat. lib. 1. A poor fellow had done some foul offence, and for fourteen dayes would eat no meat, in the end became desperate, the Divines about him could not ease him, but so he died.

Continual meditation of Gods judgements troubles many, Multi ob timorem futuri judicii, saith Guatinerius cap. 5. tract. 15. & suspitionem desperabundi sunt: David himself complains that Gods judgements terrified his Soul, Psal. 119. part. 16. vers. 8. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am affraid of thy judgements.

Quoties diem illum cogito (saith Hierome) toto corpore contremisco, I tremble as often as I think of it.

The terrible meditation of hell-fire and eternal punishment much torments a sinfull silly soul. What’s a thousand years to eternity? Ubi mœror, ubi fletus, ubi dolor sempiternus. Mors sine morte, finis sine fine; a finger burnt by chance we may not endure, the pain is so grievous, we may not abide an hour, a night is intolerable; and what shall this unspeakable fire then be that burns for ever, innumerable infinite millions of years, in omne ævum, in æternum. O eternity!

Æternitas est illa vox, Vox illa fulminatrix, Tonitruis minacior, Fragoribusq; cœli, Æternitas est illa vox, —— meta carens & ortu, &c.

Tormenta nulla territant, Quæ finiuntur annis; Æternitas, æternitas Versat coquitq; pectus. Auget hæc pœnas indies, Centuplicatq; flammas, &c.

This meditation terrifies these poor distressed souls, especially if their bodies be predisposed by melancholy, they religiously given, and have tender consciences; every small object affrights them, the very inconsiderate reading of Scripture it self, and mis-interpretation of some places of it, as,