their bodies be predisposed by melancholy, they religiously given, and
have tender consciences, every small object affrights them, the very
inconsiderate reading of Scripture itself, and misinterpretation of
some places of it; as, Many are called, few are chosen. Not every one
that saith Lord. Fear not little flock. He that stands, let him take
heed lest he fall. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
That night two shall be in a bed, one received, the other left. Strait
is the way that leads to heaven, and few there are that enter therein.
The parable of the seed and of the sower, some fell on barren ground,
some was choked. Whom he hath predestinated he hath chosen. He will
have mercy on whom he will have mercy. Non est volentis nec currentis,
sed miserentis Dei. These and the like places terrify the souls of
many; election, predestination, reprobation, preposterously conceived,
offend divers, with a deal of foolish presumption, curiosity, needless
speculation, contemplation, solicitude, wherein they trouble and puzzle
themselves about those questions of grace, free will, perseverance,
God's secrets; they will know more than is revealed of God in his word,
human capacity, or ignorance can apprehend, and too importunate inquiry
after that which is revealed; mysteries, ceremonies, observation of
Sabbaths, laws, duties, &c., with many such which the casuists discuss,
and schoolmen broach, which divers mistake, misconstrue, misapply to
themselves, to their own undoing, and so fall into this gulf. They
doubt of their election, how they shall know, it, by what signs. And so
far forth, saith Luther, with such nice points, torture and crucify
themselves, that they are almost mad, and all they get by it is this,
they lay open a gap to the devil by desperation to carry them to hell;
but the greatest harm of all proceeds from those thundering ministers,
a most frequent cause they are of this malady: [6710]and do more harm
in the church (saith Erasmus) than they that flatter; great danger on
both sides, the one lulls them asleep in carnal security, the other
drives them to despair. Whereas, [6711]St. Bernard well adviseth, We
should not meddle with the one without the other, nor speak of judgment
without mercy; the one alone brings desperation, the other security.
But these men are wholly for judgment; of a rigid disposition
themselves, there is no mercy with them, no salvation, no balsam for
their diseased souls, they can speak of nothing but reprobation,
hell-fire, and damnation; as they did Luke xi. 46. lade men with
burdens grievous to be borne, which they themselves touch not with a
finger. 'Tis familiar with our papists to terrify men's souls with
purgatory, tales, visions, apparitions, to daunt even the most generous
spirits, to [6712]require charity, as Brentius observes, of others,
bounty, meekness, love, patience, when they themselves breathe nought
but lust, envy, covetousness. They teach others to fast, give alms, do
penance, and crucify their mind with superstitious observations, bread
and water, hair clothes, whips, and the like, when they themselves have
all the dainties the world can afford, lie on a down-bed with a
courtesan in their arms: Heu quantum patimur pro Christo, as [6713]he
said, what a cruel tyranny is this, so to insult over and terrify men's
souls! Our indiscreet pastors many of them come not far behind, whilst
in their ordinary sermons they speak so much of election,
predestination, reprobation, ab aeterno, subtraction of grace,
preterition, voluntary permission, &c., by what signs and tokens they
shall discern and try themselves, whether they be God's true children
elect, an sint reprobi, praedestinati, &c., with such scrupulous
points, they still aggravate sin, thunder out God's judgments without
respect, intempestively rail at and pronounce them damned in all
auditories, for giving so much to sports and honest recreations, making
every small fault and thing indifferent an irremissible offence, they
so rent, tear and wound men's consciences, that they are almost mad,
and at their wits' end.
These bitter potions (saith [6714]Erasmus) are still in their mouths,
nothing but gall and horror, and a mad noise, they make all their
auditors desperate: many are wounded by this means, and they commonly
that are most devout and precise, have been formerly presumptuous, and
certain of their salvation; they that have tender consciences, that
follow sermons, frequent lectures, that have indeed least cause, they
are most apt to mistake, and fall into these miseries. I have heard
some complain of Parson's Resolution, and other books of like nature
(good otherwise), they are too tragical, too much dejecting men,
aggravating offences: great care and choice, much discretion is
required in this kind.
The last and greatest cause of this malady, is our own conscience,
sense of our sins, and God's anger justly deserved, a guilty conscience
for some foul offence formerly committed,—[6715]O miser Oreste, quid
morbi te perdit? Or: Conscientia, Sum enim mihi conscius de malis
perpetratis.[6716] A good conscience is a continual feast, but a galled
conscience is as great a torment as can possibly happen, a still baking
oven, (so Pierius in his Hieroglyph, compares it) another hell. Our
conscience, which is a great ledger book, wherein are written all our
offences, a register to lay them up, (which those [6717]Egyptians in
their hieroglyphics expressed by a mill, as well for the continuance,
as for the torture of it) grinds our souls with the remembrance of some
precedent sins, makes us reflect upon, accuse and condemn our own
selves. [6718]Sin lies at door, &c. I know there be many other causes
assigned by Zanchius, [6719]Musculus, and the rest; as incredulity,
infidelity, presumption, ignorance, blindness, ingratitude, discontent,
those five grand miseries in Aristotle, ignominy, need, sickness,
enmity, death, &c.; but this of conscience is the greatest,
[6720]Instar ulceris corpus jugiter percellens: The scrupulous
conscience (as [6721]Peter Forestus calls it) which tortures so many,
that either out of a deep apprehension of their unworthiness, and
consideration of their own dissolute life, accuse themselves and
aggravate every small offence, when there is no such cause, misdoubting
in the meantime God's mercies, they fall into these inconveniences. The
poet calls them [6722]furies dire, but it is the conscience alone which
is a thousand witnesses to accuse us, [6723] Nocte dieque suum gestant
in pectore testem. A continual tester to give in evidence, to empanel a
jury to examine us, to cry guilty, a persecutor with hue and cry to
follow, an apparitor to summon us, a bailiff to carry us, a serjeant to
arrest, an attorney to plead against us, a gaoler to torment, a judge
to condemn, still accusing, denouncing, torturing and molesting. And as
the statue of Juno in that holy city near Euphrates in [6724]Assyria
will look still towards you, sit where you will in her temple, she
stares full upon you, if you go by, she follows with her eye, in all
sites, places, conventicles, actions, our conscience will be still
ready to accuse us. After many pleasant days, and fortunate adventures,
merry tides, this conscience at last doth arrest us. Well he may escape
temporal punishment, [6725]bribe a corrupt judge, and avoid the censure
of law, and flourish for a time; for [6726]who ever saw (saith
Chrysostom) a covetous man troubled in mind when he is telling of his
money, an adulterer mourn with his mistress in his arms? we are then
drunk with pleasure, and perceive nothing: yet as the prodigal son had
dainty fare, sweet music at first, merry company, jovial entertainment,
but a cruel reckoning in the end, as bitter as wormwood, a fearful
visitation commonly follows. And the devil that then told thee that it
was a light sin, or no sin at all, now aggravates on the other side,
and telleth thee, that it is a most irremissible offence, as he did by
Cain and Judas, to bring them to despair; every small circumstance
before neglected and contemned, will now amplify itself, rise up in
judgment, and accuse the dust of their shoes, dumb creatures, as to
Lucian's tyrant, lectus et candela, the bed and candle did bear
witness, to torment their souls for their sins past. Tragical examples
in this kind are too familiar and common: Adrian, Galba, Nero, Otho,
Vitellius, Caracalla, were in such horror of conscience for their
offences committed, murders, rapes, extortions, injuries, that they
were weary of their lives, and could get nobody to kill them.
[6727]Kennetus, King of Scotland, when he had murdered his nephew
Malcom, King Duffe's son, Prince of Cumberland, and with counterfeit
tears and protestations dissembled the matter a long time, [6728]at
last his conscience accused him, his unquiet soul could not rest day or
night, he was terrified with fearful dreams, visions, and so miserably
tormented all his life. It is strange to read what [6729]Cominaeus hath
written of Louis XI. that French King; of Charles VIII.; of Alphonsus,
King of Naples; in the fury of his passion how he came into Sicily, and
what pranks he played. Guicciardini, a man most unapt to believe lies,
relates how that Ferdinand his father's ghost who before had died for
grief, came and told him, that he could not resist the French King, he
thought every man cried France, France; the reason of it (saith
Cominseus) was because he was a vile tyrant, a murderer, an oppressor
of his subjects, he bought up all commodities, and sold them at his own
price, sold abbeys to Jews and Falkoners; both Ferdinand his father,
and he himself never made conscience of any committed sin; and to
conclude, saith he, it was impossible to do worse than they did. Why
was Pausanias the Spartan tyrant, Nero, Otho, Galba, so persecuted with
spirits in every house they came, but for their murders which they had
committed? [6730]Why doth the devil haunt many men's houses after their
deaths, appear to them living, and take possession of their
habitations, as it were, of their palaces, but because of their several
villainies? Why had Richard the Third such fearful dreams, saith
Polydore, but for his frequent murders? Why was Herod so tortured in
his mind? because he had made away Mariamne his wife. Why was
Theodoric, the King of the Goths, so suspicious, and so affrighted with
a fish head alone, but that he had murdered Symmachus, and Boethius his
son-in-law, those worthy Romans? Caelius, lib. 27. cap. 22. See more in
Plutarch, in his tract De his qui sero a Numine puniuntur, and in his
book De tranquillitate animi, &c. Yea, and sometimes GOD himself hath a
hand in it, to show his power, humiliate, exercise, and to try their
faith, (divine temptation, Perkins calls it, Cas. cons. lib. 1. cap. 8.
sect. 1.) to punish them for their sins. God the avenger, as
[6731]David terms him, ultor a tergo Deus, his wrath is apprehended of
a guilty, soul, as by Saul and Judas, which the poets expressed by
Adrastia, or Nemesis:
[6732]Assequitur Nemesique virum vestigia servat,
Ne male quid facias.———
And she is, as [6733]Ammianus, lib. 14. describes her, the queen of
causes, and moderator of things, now she pulls down the proud, now she
rears and encourageth those that are good; he gives instance in his
Eusebius; Nicephorus, lib. 10. cap. 35. eccles. hist. in Maximinus and
Julian. Fearful examples of God's just judgment, wrath and vengeance,
are to be found in all histories, of some that have been eaten to death
with rats and mice, as [6734]Popelius, the second King of Poland, ann.
830, his wife and children; the like story is of Hatto, Archbishop of
Mentz, ann. 969, so devoured by these vermin, which howsoever Serrarius
the Jesuit Mogunt. rerum lib. 4. cap. 5. impugn by twenty-two
arguments, Tritemius, [6735]Munster, Magdeburgenses, and many others
relate for a truth. Such another example I find in Geraldus Cambrensis
Itin. Cam. lib. 2. cap. 2. and where not?
And yet for all these terrors of conscience, affrighting punishments
which are so frequent, or whatsoever else may cause or aggravate this
fearful malady in other religions, I see no reason at all why a papist
at any time should despair, or be troubled for his sins; for let him be
never so dissolute a caitiff so notorious a villain, so monstrous a
sinner, out of that treasure of indulgences and merits of which the
pope is dispensator, he may have free pardon and plenary remission of
all his sins. There be so many general pardons for ages to come, forty
thousand years to come, so many jubilees, so frequent gaol-deliveries
out of purgatory for all souls, now living, or after dissolution of the
body, so many particular masses daily said in several churches, so many
altars consecrated to this purpose, that if a man have either money or
friends, or will take any pains to come to such an altar, hear a mass,
say so many paternosters, undergo such and such penance, he cannot do
amiss, it is impossible his mind should be troubled, or he have any
scruple to molest him. Besides that Taxa Camerae Apostolicae, which was
first published to get money in the days of Leo Decimus, that sharking
pope, and since divulged to the same ends, sets down such easy rates
and dispensations for all offences, for perjury, murder, incest,
adultery, &c., for so many grosses or dollars (able to invite any man
to sin, and provoke him to offend, methinks, that otherwise would not)
such comfortable remission, so gentle and parable a pardon, so ready at
hand, with so small cost and suit obtained, that I cannot see how he
that hath any friends amongst them (as I say) or money in his purse, or
will at least to ease himself, can any way miscarry or be misaffected,
how he should be desperate, in danger of damnation, or troubled in
mind. Their ghostly fathers can so readily apply remedies, so cunningly
string and unstring, wind and unwind their devotions, play upon their
consciences with plausible speeches and terrible threats, for their
best advantage settle and remove, erect with such facility and deject,
let in and out, that I cannot perceive how any man amongst them should
much or often labour of this disease, or finally miscarry. The causes
above named must more frequently therefore take hold in others.
SUBSECT. IV.—_Symptoms of Despair, Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, Anxiety,
Horror of Conscience, Fearful Dreams and Visions_.
As shoemakers do when they bring home shoes, still cry leather is
dearer and dearer, may I justly say of those melancholy symptoms: these
of despair are most violent, tragical, and grievous, far beyond the
rest, not to be expressed but negatively, as it is privation of all
happiness, not to be endured; for a wounded spirit who can bear it?
Prov. xviii. 19. What, therefore, [6736]Timanthes did in his picture of
Iphigenia, now ready to be sacrificed, when he had painted Chalcas
mourning, Ulysses sad, but most sorrowful Menelaus; and showed all his
art in expressing a variety of affections, he covered the maid's father
Agamemnon's head with a veil, and left it to every spectator to
conceive what he would himself; for that true passion and sorrow in
summo gradu, such as his was, could not by any art be deciphered. What
he did in his picture, I will do in describing the symptoms of despair;
imagine what thou canst, fear, sorrow, furies, grief, pain, terror,
anger, dismal, ghastly, tedious, irksome, &c. it is not sufficient, it
comes far short, no tongue can tell, no heart conceive it. 'Tis an
epitome of hell, an extract, a quintessence, a compound, a mixture of
all feral maladies, tyrannical tortures, plagues, and perplexities.
There is no sickness almost but physic provideth a remedy for it; to
every sore chirurgery will provide a slave; friendship helps poverty;
hope of liberty easeth imprisonment; suit and favour revoke banishment;
authority and time wear away reproach: but what physic, what
chirurgery, what wealth, favour, authority can relieve, bear out,
assuage, or expel a troubled conscience? A quiet mind cureth all them,
but all they cannot comfort a distressed soul: who can put to silence
the voice of desperation? All that is single in other melancholy,
Horribile, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum, concur in this, it is more
than melancholy in the highest degree; a burning fever of the soul; so
mad, saith [6737]Jacchinus, by this misery; fear, sorrow, and despair,
he puts for ordinary symptoms of melancholy. They are in great pain and
horror of mind, distraction of soul, restless, full of continual fears,
cares, torments, anxieties, they can neither eat, drink, nor sleep for
them, take no rest,
[6738]Perpetua impietas, nec mensae tempore cessat,
Exagitat vesana quies, somnique furentes.
Neither at bed, nor yet at board,
Will any rest despair afford.
Fear takes away their content, and dries the blood, wasteth the marrow,
alters their countenance, even in their greatest delights, singing,
dancing, dalliance, they are still (saith [6739]Lemnius) tortured in
their souls. It consumes them to nought, I am like a pelican in the
wilderness (saith David of himself, temporally afflicted), an owl,
because of thine indignation, Psalm cii. 8, 10, and Psalm lv. 4. My
heart trembleth within me, and the terrors of death have come upon me;
fear and trembling are come upon me, &c. at death's door, Psalm cvii.
18. Their soul abhors all manner of meats. Their [6740]sleep is (if it
be any) unquiet, subject to fearful dreams and terrors. Peter in his
bonds slept secure, for he knew God protected him; and Tully makes it
an argument of Roscius Amerinus' innocency, that he killed not his
father, because he so securely slept. Those martyrs in the primitive
church were most [6741]cheerful and merry in the midst of their
persecutions; but it is far otherwise with these men, tossed in a sea,
and that continually without rest or intermission, they can think of
nought that is pleasant, [6742]their conscience will not let them be
quiet, in perpetual fear, anxiety, if they be not yet apprehended, they
are in doubt still they shall be ready to betray themselves, as Cain
did, he thinks every man will kill him; and roar for the grief of
heart, Psalm xxxviii. 8, as David did; as Job did, xx. 3, 21, 22, &c.,
Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life to them
that have heavy hearts? which long for death, and if it come not,
search it more than treasures, and rejoice when they can find the
grave. They are generally weary of their lives, a trembling heart they
have, a sorrowful mind, and little or no rest. Terror ubique tremor,
timor undique et undique terror. Fears, terrors, and affrights in all
places, at all times and seasons. Cibum et potum pertinaciter
aversantur multi, nodum in scirpo quaeritantes, et culpam imaginantes
ubi nulla est, as Wierus writes de Lamiis lib. 3. c. 7. they refuse
many of them meat and drink, cannot rest, aggravating still and
supposing grievous offences where there are none. God's heavy wrath is
kindled in their souls, and notwithstanding their continual prayers and
supplications to Christ Jesus, they have no release or ease at all, but
a most intolerable torment, and insufferable anguish of conscience, and
that makes them, through impatience, to murmur against God many times,
to rave, to blaspheme, turn atheists, and seek to offer violence to
themselves. Deut. xxviii. 65, 68. In the morning they wish for evening,
and for morning in the evening, for the sight of their eyes which they
see, and fear of hearts. [6743]Marinus Mercennus, in his comment on
Genesis, makes mention of a desperate friend of his, whom, amongst
others, he came to visit, and exhort to patience, that broke out into
most blasphemous atheistical speeches, too fearful to relate, when they
wished him to trust in God, Quis est ille Deus (inquit) ut serviam
illi, quid proderit si oraverim; si praesens est, cur non succurrit?
cur non me carcere, inertia, squalore confectum liberat? quid ego feci?
&c. absit a me hujusmodi Deus. Another of his acquaintance broke out
into like atheistical blasphemies, upon his wife's death raved, cursed,
said and did he cared not what. And so for the most part it is with
them all, many of them, in their extremity, think they hear and see
visions, outcries, confer with devils, that they are tormented,
possessed, and in hell-fire, already damned, quite forsaken of God,
they have no sense or feeling of mercy, or grace, hope of salvation,
their sentence of condemnation is already past, and not to be revoked,
the devil will certainly have them. Never was any living creature in
such torment before, in such a miserable estate, in such distress of
mind, no hope, no faith, past cure, reprobate, continually tempted to
make away themselves. Something talks with them, they spit fire and
brimstone, they cannot but blaspheme, they cannot repent, believe or
think a good thought, so far carried; ut cogantur ad impia cogitandum
etiam contra voluntatem, said [6744]Felix Plater, ad blasphemiam erga
deum, ad multa horrenda perpetranda, ad manus violentas sibi
inferendas, &c., and in their distracted fits and desperate humours, to
offer violence to others, their familiar and dear friends sometimes, or
to mere strangers, upon very small or no occasion; for he that cares
not for his own, is master of another man's life. They think evil
against their wills; that which they abhor themselves, they must needs
think, do, and speak. He gives instance in a patient of his, that when
he would pray, had such evil thoughts still suggested to him, and
wicked [6745]meditations. Another instance he hath of a woman that was
often tempted to curse God, to blaspheme and kill herself. Sometimes
the devil (as they say) stands without and talks with them, sometimes
he is within them, as they think, and there speaks and talks as to such
as are possessed: so Apollodorus, in Plutarch, thought his heart spake
within him. There is a most memorable example of [6746]Francis Spira,
an advocate of Padua, Ann. 1545, that being desperate, by no counsel of
learned men could be comforted: he felt (as he said) the pains of hell
in his soul; in all other things he discoursed aright, but in this most
mad. Frismelica, Bullovat, and some other excellent physicians, could
neither make him eat, drink, or sleep, no persuasion could ease him.
Never pleaded any man so well for himself, as this man did against
himself, and so he desperately died. Springer, a lawyer, hath written
his life. Cardinal Crescence died so likewise desperate at Verona,
still he thought a black dog followed him to his death-bed, no man
could drive the dog away, Sleiden. com. 23. cap. lib. 3. Whilst I was
writing this Treatise, saith Montaltus, cap. 2. de mel. [6747]A nun
came to me for help, well for all other matters, but troubled in
conscience for five years last past; she is almost mad, and not able to
resist, thinks she hath offended God, and is certainly damned. Felix
Plater hath store of instances of such as thought themselves damned,
[6748] forsaken of God, &c. One amongst the rest, that durst not go to
church, or come near the Rhine, for fear to make away himself, because
then he was most especially tempted. These and such like symptoms are
intended and remitted, as the malady itself is more or less; some will
hear good counsel, some will not; some desire help, some reject all,
and will not be eased.
SUBSECT. V.—_Prognostics of Despair, Atheism, Blasphemy, violent death,
&c._
Most part these kind of persons make [6749]away themselves, some are
mad, blaspheme, curse, deny God, but most offer violence to their own
persons, and sometimes to others. A wounded spirit who can bear? Prov.
xviii. 14. As Cain, Saul, Achitophel, Judas, blasphemed and died. Bede
saith, Pilate died desperate eight years after Christ. [6750]Felix
Plater hath collected many examples. [6751]A merchant's wife that was
long troubled with such temptations, in the night rose from her bed,
and out of the window broke her neck into the street: another drowned
himself desperate as he was in the Rhine: some cut their throats, many
hang themselves. But this needs no illustration. It is controverted by
some, whether a man so offering violence to himself, dying desperate,
may be saved, ay or no? If they die so obstinately and suddenly, that
they cannot so much as wish for mercy, the worst is to be suspected,
because they die impenitent. [6752]If their death had been a little
more lingering, wherein they might have some leisure in their hearts to
cry for mercy, charity may judge the best; divers have been recovered
out of the very act of hanging and drowning themselves, and so brought
ad sanam mentem, they have been very penitent, much abhorred their
former act, confessed that they have repented in an instant, and cried
for mercy in their hearts. If a man put desperate hands upon himself,
by occasion of madness or melancholy, if he have given testimony before
of his regeneration, in regard he doth this not so much out of his
will, as ex vi morbi, we must make the best construction of it, as
[6753]Turks do, that think all fools and madmen go directly to heaven.
SUBSECT. VI.—_Cure of Despair by Physic, Good Counsel, Comforts, &c._