GOOD COUNSEL. Why, Youth, art thou fallen into desperation? What, man, pluck up thine heart, and rise, Although thou see nothing now but thy condemnation, Yet it may please God again to open thy eyes: Ah, wretched creature, what doest thou surmise? Thinkest not that God's mercy doth exceed thy sin? Remember his Merciful Promises, and comfort thyself in him. JUVENTUS. O sir, this state is so miserable, the which I lie in, That my comfort and hope from me is separated: I would to God I had never been! Woe worth the time, that ever I was created! GOOD COUNSEL. Ah, frail[161] vessel, unfaithful and faint-hearted, Doest thou think that God is so merciless, That when the sinner doth repent, and is converted, That he will not fulfil his merciful promises? JUVENTUS. Alas, sir! I am in such heaviness, That his promises I cannot remember. GOOD COUNSEL. In thy wickedness continue no lenger; But trust in the Lord without any fear, And his Merciful Promises shall shortly appear. JUVENTUS. I would believe, if I might them hear, With all my heart, power and mind. GOOD COUNSEL. The living God hath him hither assigned: Lo, where he cometh even here by, Therefore mark his sayings diligently. [_Here entereth_ GOD'S MERCIFUL PROMISES. The Lord, by his prophet Ezekiel, saith in this wise plainly, As in the thirty-third chapter it doth appear: Be converted, O ye children, and turn unto me, And I shall remedy the cause of your departure; And also he saith in the eighteenth chapter, I do not delight in a sinner's death, But that he should convert and live: thus the Lord saith. JUVENTUS. Then must I give neither credit nor faith Unto St Paul's saying, which this man did allege. GOD'S MERCIFUL PROMISES. Yes, you must credit them, according unto knowledge; For St Paul speaketh of those which resist the truth by violence, And so end their lives without repentance. Thus[162] Saint Augustine[163] doth them define, If unto the Lord's word you do your ears incline, And observe these things which he hath commanded, This sinful state, in the which you have lain, Shall be forgotten and never more remembered: And Christ himself in the gospel hath promised, That he, which in him unfeignedly doth believe, Although he were dead, yet shall he live. JUVENTUS [_He riseth_]. These comfortable sayings doth me greatly move To arise from this wretched place. GOD'S MERCIFUL PROMISES. For me his mercy sake thou shalt obtain his grace, And not for thine own desertes, this must thou know; For my sake alone, ye shall receive solace; For my sake alone, he will thee mercy show: Therefore to him, as it is most due, Give most hearty thanks with heart unfeigned, Whose name for evermore be praised.