Page:Goldentreatiseof00pete.djvu/215

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sin at all, but moderately, as much as strength suffereth, resisting it; now using some industry, then some small violence, that prayer doth not altogether perish, without which nothing in this life can be had secure: but when it cometh out of sloth, or from the devil, then there is no better remedy than to abstain from wine, and not to use water in abundance, but as much as quencheth his thirst; to pray upon his knees, or after some other painful gesture of the body, let him use discipline, or other corporal austerity, to drive sleep from his eyes. To conclude, the remedy for this and all others, is instantly to implore his assistance, who is ready to give it to all, so they ask it fervently and constantly.

A REMEDY FOR THE SEVENTH TEMPTATION.

Against the temptations of diffidence and presumption, seeing that they in themselves be contrary, it is requisite to apply divers remedies. Against diffidence, let him consider that we do not rest upon our own merits, but upon Almighty God's grace; who is so much the more willing to assist man, by how much the more he is diffident of his own forces, placing a firm hope in the goodness of God, to whom nothing is impossible: the remedy for presumption, is to consider that the most evident and certain argument is, that a