as snow though they were red as scarlet they shall be as wooll What the offer is you heare and how great it is your selfe is able to iudge euen so large an offer of mercy as none can be greater In one word it is as if the Lord should say O Israel thou hast sinned against me thy good God most grieuously and hast deserued that I should not onely punish thee sharply but for euer cast thee cleane out of my fauour Notwithstanding vpon thine vnfeigned repentance for all thy sinnes past and a resolute and full purpose of amendment hereafter A general pardon offered I am content to forgiue forget them all and to giue thee my gracious generall pardon to acquit and discharge thee of all and euerie one of thine iniquities that not so much as anie one of them shall bee able to condemne thee in this world or in that which is to come Here I pray you consider a little with me The cursed condition of the Israelites the estate and condition of this people at the time of this louing offer and therewith also consider what cause there was why the Lord should shew so great fauour to this people Begin you at the second verse of the forenamed chapter and marke aduisedly what manner of complaint the Lord takes vp against them 1 An appeale to all the creatures of disobedience First hee calles heauen and earth with all the creatures therein to witnesse their rebellion and disobedience against him 2 Vnthankefulnes Secondly he challengeth them of so monstrous vnthankfulnes that it is too too shamefull for he shewes they were so farre gone in this point that the brute beasts euen the oxe and the asse which were dumme and without reason were more thankfull in theire kinde to their owners for their fodder then they were for so many thousands of blessings which he had bestowed vpon them 3 A large inditement Thirdly in the third verse he draws out against them a very substantiall inditement both for words and matter wherein he layes forth all their ill behauiour Esa 1.3 and paints them out in most liuely colours calling them with great detestation A sinnefull nation a people laden with iniquitie a seede of the wicked corrupt children Fourthly 4 A proofe of the inditement hee prooues this inditement and euery part thereof by charging them to their faces with murder and blood by reason of their horrible oppression and crueltie towards all in generall Verse 15.17 but more specially towards the poore the widow the stranger and the fatherlesse all this is done in the fifteenth and seuenteenth verses In the practise of which sinnes and all other kind of filthines they were such exquisite workemen Verse 10. that they were more like the people of Sodom and Gomorra whom the Lord with fire from heauen destroyed then that people whom the Lord had chosen Exod. 29.5 6 and pickt out from all the nations of the world Verse 11.12.13.14.15 to be a peculiar and a holie people vnto himselfe Fiftly they were such hollow hearted hypocrites in all the outward exercises of religion Hypocrits in the seruise of God that the Lord detested all their sacrifices and vtterly abhorred all their praiers as you may reade in the 11.12.13.14 and 15. verses To make an end with so bad a people as lightly could not be worse they were so desperate and hardned in their wickednesse that they were past cure and no hope or verie small if anie at all of the greater part of their amendement because the Lord had assayed by all good meanes to bring them to some goodnes He had wooed them with blessings and feared them with his iudgements Sam. 7.14 he had chastised them often with rods and many times scorged them with the plagues of the children of men Verse 5.6 but all in vaine the more they were corrected the worse they were and grew to be more desperate as appeares out of the fift and sixt verses After all this bad dealing as though they had beene no such leude and gracelesse people or as though they had not offended so grieuously The Lord intreates peace at their hands which had highly offended him nay rather as though the Lord had done them some great wrong he seekes to them wheras they should haue both sued and sought to him that there might be a treatie of peace and a ful reconciliation made betweene them For which purpose he offers in most friendly and louing manerto common with them saying Verse 18. Come let vs reason together Nowe giue me leaue once againe to deale with your conscience in this point Charge your soule with as many sinnes as euer you can possibly call to minde A particular application of the former example in any parte of your life either before or since your calling in ignorance or in knowledge in youth or in age howsoeuer or with whom soeuer you haue committed them eithert by thought word or deed in the light of the day or in the darknesse of the night Bind them all and euerie one of them in one bundle cast them into the one end of the ballance when you haue so done take vp the sinnes of this people put them into the other ende and weigh them together without ante deceit Nay for this once you shall haue leaue to shew your best cunning and see if you can make your ende heauier If you can not as I am sure you can not except you will vse some notable deceit which will be soone found out so as you shall neuer be able to answere it then knowe you and let your conscience also vnderstand A strong reason to proone and perswade that if the Lord saide vnto a wicked people frosen in sinne come hee doeth much more saie to you who woulde so faine leaue your sinne come and againe come let vs two reason together For although thy sinnes be in thine own sight as crimson yet shall they bee made as white as snowe though they bee to thy seeming as redde as euer was the scarlet yet they shall bee as white as anie wooll because they shall bee all so perfectly scowred and washed in the bloud of Iesus Christ Rom. 8. â— as not any one of them shall be able to condemne thee either in this world or in the world to come And that you may bee the more bolde to come behold your sweet sauiour who being made sin for you that you might be made the righteousnesse of God saith also vnto you 2. Cor. 5.21 come Matth. 11.28 Another reason of great weight will you not come when your Sauiour calleth you for your good yea for your further encouragement be offers and is readie to take you by the hand and to go with you himselfe vnto the father for whose sake you must needes be most heartely wellcome And if you shall thus answere your Sauiour
that which he doth not feele For there be a great many mo as greatly tormented as he but he thinkes not so because he dâ—th not feele it so Thus do you deale you are greatly troubled with the weaknes of your own faith which you feele therfore according to your feeling you complaine Many deere seruants of God are greatly greeued for the weaknes of their faith that none hath so weake a faith as you haue not withstanding there be a great number besides your selfe who are as much troubled this way as you But I will take your own words You say your faith is weake Yea then you grant you haue faith And therefore say I or rather the Lord himself for your comfort you cannot possiblie perish For God so loued the world Iohn 3.16 that he gaue his onely begotten sonne that whosoeuer beleeueth in him might not perish but haue euerlasting life But your faith as you say is so weake that you cannot thinke it to be anie faith at all A weake faith is a good faith therefore make much of it and labour to strengthen it And I againe doe answer you with a better warrant than your thought that a weake faith is a faith yea a good and a sound faith The weakenes of faith doth not take away the nature and beeing of faith that because there is weaknesse in it therefore it should cease to be a faith Will you say a weake man is no man because of his weakenesse No A weake man is a man for he is a man though neuer so weake as long as there is any life and breath in him Neither doeth his weakenesse take away his goodnes for he may be a verie good man although he be verie weake So say I of your faith the weakenesse thereof takes not away the goodnes It is a good a sound and a liuely faith although it be weake I neuer yet heard of anie beleeuing man or woman Weaknesse of faith a generall complaint of all the godlie but haue complained of the weaknesse of their faith Nay for my part I haue marked it in sundrie examples that the more godly and beleeuing the more they haue complained I coulde from mine owne experience name diuerse to proue this paint and some of them well knowne vnto your selfe But I wil name some one or two out of the Scriptures and leaue the rest to your owne good consideration You reade in the Gospell of Marke the ninth chapter and foure twentieh verse of so good and faithfull a man marke 9.24 Example of a weake faith in a verie good man as you wil your selfe confesse hee had a true and sincere faith because hee saide vnto Iesus Christ Lord I beleeue Neuerthelesse this good man was sicke of your disease and felt his faith to be weake yea verie weake and therfore he intreates the Lord Iesus very earnestly yea crying out with tears saith Lord help my vnbeleef c. Again you reade in Saint Lukes Gospel the seuenteenth chapter and fift verse of the holie Apostles The Apostles weake in saith whom our Sauiour Christ had chosen to preach and by their preaching to beget faith in others yet euen these men doe in like maner find and feele great want and weaknesse in their owne faith For which cause they put vp their humble supplication vnto their Lord and master Iesus Christ that he would increase their faith So that now you see verie plainly Weakenesse and wants will waite vpon vs to our graue there is no cause why you should too much discourage your selfe with the consideration of the weakenesse of your faith Because the best and most faithfull seruants of God doe halt of this sore as well as you and shall doe as long as they liue in this world For there is no perfection of any good grace in this life 1. Cor. 13.9 We see and know in part and therefore must needes also beleeue and practise in part Perfection is no where to bee found but in heauen Weakenesse of faith a speciall meanes to humble vs. that that we may long to be there and so bee fully perfect God vseth this as a holie and good meanes rightly to humble you and many of his deare children for your good that by the true feeling of this weakenesse and many other infirmities you may see how much neede you haue to runne continually for strength and succor at the handes of your sweete Sauiour who hath throughlie supplied all your wants and who will so strengthen you that your faith though neuer so weake to your owne feeling may neuer faile you For which purpose I would haue youe to lay sure holde of these wordes full of sweete comfort deliuered vnto Peter by out Sauiour Christ for the strengthening of all the faithfull Simon Simon Luke 22.31 Sathan hath desired to winnow you as wheate All the faithfull are as deare to Christ as Peter but I haue prayed for thee that thy faith faile not Marke I pray you how Iesus Christ promiseth to pray for Peter and not for him onely but for all the faithfull For is hee onelie Peters Sauiour He prayeth for all the faithful as wel as for Peter and for you is he not also the Sauiour of all the faithfull in the world Is hee not your Sauiour as well as Peters yes truly Then he will pray for you also For so he sayth in that most sweete prayer which hee makes to his heauenly father for all the faithfull which shall beleeue in him to the worlds ende Ioh. 17.20 I pray not for these alone but for them also which shal beleeue in mee through their worde And if hee in whom onelie the father is wholie and altogither well pleased Math. 3.17 and for whose sake hee can not bee displeased with you doe praie for you shall not hee bee heard and his prayer fullie graunted Yes it can not be denied But yet you say hee speakes to Peter Christ in Petes speâ—kes to al the faithfull by name and promiseth to pray for him by name Yea and that is as much as if he should call you by your name and say that he will pray for you and for so manie as Satan hath any desire to winow But satan hath a great desire not onely to winow Peter but all the rest of the faithfull also For so are Christs words saying Sathan desires to winow not thee Sathans malice in deadly against all the faithfull but you as if hee should say his malice is not against one alone but against all Therefore as all must looke to themselues so Christ promiseth to praie for so many as are windowed and particularlie for you because you can tell that you are winnowed And whereas it pleaseth the Lord thus to winow and sift your faith you may be sure not to loose but to gaine thereby For this you know the more the good corne is fanned and winowed
To the right honorable my verie good Lord Robert Deuoreux Earle of Essex and Ewe Vicount of Hereford Lord Ferrers of Chartley c. Master of the Queenes Maiesties horse knight of the most noble order of the Garter and one of her Maiesties most honourable priuie Counsel the continuall encrease of Gods euerlasting fauour peace and comfort in this and in the world to come MAnie men right Honourable when they intend some euil I meane when they haue resolued freely and boldly to trade in some sinne without check and controlment doe seeke to shroude themselues vnder the cloth and countenaunce of some great persons of Worship and Honour If my purpose or practise were such I might iustly feare to bee crossed and cursed in this my enterprise The searcher of all hearts knoweth that my purpose prayers and endeuours through his gracious assistance are and shall bee to keepe a good conscience in my ministerie to walke in the vprightnesse of my heart and to bee kept blamelesse to the comming of Iesus Christ In this resolution may it seeme good vnto your Honour as you haue alreadie at the earnest and humble sute of manie my verie good and worshipfull friends receiued me to fauour so still to continue your most honourable protection for my further encouragement in well doing May it also please your honourable and religious disposition to comfort and countenaunce this Mite and small measure of comfort which according to grace receiued I haue once addressed and now the second time published and enlarged for the reliefe of such as grieue and groane vnder the heauie but then of their sinnes Behold I presume to present it vnto your Honour as the best present I haue to testifie my humble dutie seruice and thankfulnesse And if by Gods good fauour and blessing there shall be ame one sentence worde syllable or letter which may bring or adde comfort to you or yours I shall be occasioned the rather heartily to blesse God for so great mercie and to pray more instantly that your Honour may be blessed for euer Your honours most humble and bounden seruant in the Lord Robert Linaker A COMFORTABLE TREATISE FOR THE reliefe of such as are afflicted in conscience IT is not long since I promised you some small remembrance of my hearty desire to affoorde you some comfort oncerning the inwarde affliction of your minde if the Lord should any way enable me thereunto I haue now therefore according to the measure of grace receiued performed that my promise as you shall vnderstaÌ„d by reading these leaues following Whereby if you shall reape so much comfort as from the depth of my heart I entreat the Lord you may I shal account my selfe for euer most nearely bound by all maner of dutie and thankfulnesse vnto his blessed maiesty Howsoeuer it fall out you shall receiue and keep this poore treatise by you as an vndoubted record of my good meaning towards you and some others of whose particular estate I haue some certaine knowledge and for whome I pray most heartily Inward afflictions are neither common nor easie as I do for you I confesse your afflictioÌ„ is neither common nor easie to be born And that bicause it is not outward but inward not of the body but of the minde For as Salomon saieth A sorrowfull minde drieth the bones Prouerbs 17.22 Againe A man will sustaine his infirmitie but a wounded spirâ—t who can beare it Prou. 18.14 His meaning is that no outward griefe or discommoditie whatsoeuer but may be indured and borne with great patience and constancie but if the conscience be wounded and striken with the feeling of Gods wrath for sin or any other great cause there is neither man nor woman which is able to endure and beare it out long without great gracious assistance from God That this is so you can speak of your own experience yet for your comfort remember that you are not alone the due consideration whereof may not a little cheere vp your heart For you reade of some in the scriptures some you heare of and some you know your selfe who grone vnder the same burden whose consciences are set very hard vpon the racke whose poore soules are in little ease as well as yours This is one principall point A principal comfort for the troubled minde which I would haue you thinke vpon continually but then especially when Sathan woulde beare you down that you are alone in this kinde of affliction and that no body is so troubled as you are For this purpose you may remember that sweete sentence of the holy apostle 1. Pet. 5.9 wherein he doeth you to vnderstand that the same afflictions which you endure are also accomplished and suffered of your other bretheren which are abroad in the world as if he should say let not such a thought as this is ouersway you The best affected are your partners that you should think you haue no fellowes For there bee a number of Gods deere childreÌ„ who are as much and as often troubled with the same griefe of minde aswell as you For as there is no man so wise so strong or so rich but there be many as wise as strong and as wealthie so there is none so greatly grieued in body or minde but there be many who are as deepe in the same griefe as they be Againe Another chiefe comfort against Sathans temptation if your wily enimy shal by this kind of temptation assay to wound your weake conscience that you belong not to God because the correction is so sharpe and the rod wherwith you are beaten so smarting you may boldly step to him wring his weapon out of his hand therwith thrust him thorow for the maner of your chastiâ—ement doeth proue verie strongly to your conscience that you are highly in Gods fauor and that because you are not only partaker of that correction wherof all the sonnes and daughters of God are partakers for so many as are without correction are bastards not children but of that kind of chasticement â—abr 12.8 which only is proper to those who aboue many others haue bin in greater fauor with God For example Dauid was a man as you haue learned from the scriptures according to Gods own hart Dauid was greatly loued of God and grieuously afflicted that is such a one as the Lord set great store by he notwithstanding was throughly whipt with this three stringed whip as you may read at large not in one but in many Psalmes by name the sirt Psalme throughout a great part of the two and twentieth the eight and thirtie the whole Psalme the one and fiftie and manie moe which you maie find by diligent reading in the booke of the Psalmes where you shall vndestand that his estate is all one with yours Againe you may remember that Paul the Apostle was a chosen vessell Acts 9.15 Galat. 1.15 Paul a chosen vessell sharply handled whom God had