But the extraordinaries of God are apt to supply the defect of all natural and human possibilities. This, in all ages and chances, hath supported the afflicted people of God, and carried them on dry ground through a Red Sea. God invites and cherishes the hopes of men by all the variety of his providence. Let no man despair of God's mercies to forgive him, unless he be sure that his sins are greater than God's mercies. A man may be damned for despairing to be saved.
Despair is the proper passion of damnation.
God hath placed truth and felicity in heaven, curiosity and repentance upon earth, but misery and despair are the portions of hell. Gather together into your spirit and its treasure-house, the memory, not only all the promises of God, but also the remembrances of experience and the former senses of the divine favours, that from thence you may argue from times past to the present, and enlarge to the future and to greater blessings. For although the conjectures and expectations of hope are not like the conclusions of faith, yet they are a helmet against the scorching of despair in temporal things, and an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, against the fluctuations of the spirit in matters of the soul. He hath forgiven me many sins of malice, and therefore surely he will pity my infirmities. Di cosi fuoro di credenza, Non vuoler far speranza.