"Sir, the last year, when the heavy hand of the righteous Lord lay upon this land and other parts of the Christian world, manifested by the three arrows of his anger, plague, famine, and sword, just cause was given to inquire after such means as might cure the wounds that were made by them, and move the Lord to withhold his hand from shooting abroad any more of them. Upon inquiry there was found in God's word (the treasury wherein all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid) fit remedies for all those maladies," writes Gouge in his preface to the Earl of Warwick.

In this book William Gouge opens the Lord's treasure house (of Psalm 116) for deliverance from deadly distress and spiritual dilapidation.