A MOST SWEETE AND assured Comfort for all those that are afflicted in Consciscience or troubled in minde Written by that godly zealous Preacher M. Richard Greenham With two comfortable letters to his especiall frends that way greeued Psalm 34. 18. The Lord is nere vnto them that are of a contrite heart and will saue such as be afflicted in Spirit LONDON Printed by Iohn Danter for William Iones 1595. TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull Sir DRVE DRVRIE Knight W. I. wisneth continuall peace of conscience RIGHT Worshipfull your zeale to Religion and loue of Learning haue made mee bold to present you with this fatherles Orphane which I hope the rather you will patronage becaus it is the fruite of a godly Parent once with your Worship familiar who liuing taught the Word sincerely and being dead hath lest some monument of his workes necessary to instruct and edifie This first is offred to the worlds view containing all excellent comfort for an afflicted Conscience If you voutchsafe to accept it I haue my desire that boldly made choyce of you for your especiall desert The God of mercie and Father of our Lorde Iesus lengthen your dayes and make your end blessed Your Worships in all dutie VV. I. TO THE READER MAny are the calamities that sinne imposeth vpon the wicked but aboue all other plagues the wound of Conscience is most heauie Touching which the holie Scripture affoords diuers examples both of the wicked that haue mourned without hope and the righteous that haue sorrovved sought comfort The svvetest of sinnes plesure is not vvithout a sharp sting that piercing the Conscience beginneth hell in the harts of the vngodlie and prepareth Gods Children to seeke heauen by vnfained repentance I can not here number all of either sort the Scripture mentioneth I vvil onely touch some that it may appeare how sorrovv and vexation of minde are sinnes hourelie companions Pharaohs contempt of God brought him to hardnesse of hart hardnes of hart to headlong destruction Balaam sinned thorough greedie couetousnes and perished among the vncircumcised the sonnes of Heli sinned fell before their enemies Saul sinned and ended his life on his ovvne svvord Antiochus and Herod blasphemed and vvere smitten deseruedly Iudas betrated and died despairingly All these vvith manie other vvanting comfort for their wouÌ„ded consciences perished lamentablie vvher on the other side Iob Dauid Hezekiali Peter Zachâ—us c. confessed their faults sought mercie vvere comforted Their conscienences bring 〈◊〉 assured they wer strong confident and vnremoueable as appâ—â—â— in Iob vvho so confidentlie beleeued that for all his miserie he crieth Thogh the Lord kill me yet will I trust in him Dauid also though his soul were powred out as water yet hee commanded it to praise the lord The sicke saith our Sauior neede the Phisition no mortall maÌ„ but hath been soule sicke and therfore all men need comfort It is necessarie that he which ministreth to the diseased shuld know the cause of the sicknes that being remoued the medicine may more effectually worke they that minister the woord ought to haue a feeling of their brethrens infirmities that they may bee able to comfort the cast downe conscience stirre the secure soul and weaken the proud thought That the Author of this treatise was such a one appeareth were there no other proofe by it containing such heauenly consolation meeting so with al temptations that for euill there can be no euasion Mercies with iudgments are heere so mixed that neither may he that standeth boast nor he that is falne be wholly discouraged While he liued in this Citie he was an excellent Teacher after his death he hath left among other heauenly labors this comfortable doctrine that preacheth peace to the troubled comfort to the comfortles fauour to the afflicted health to the diseased hope to the humbled grace to the grieued Conscience Which that it maie effect I haue publisht for thy practise Thine W. I. In the title of the Letter against hardnes of hart Robert is set for Richard by the Printers error A MOST sweet Comfort for an afflicted Conscience It is thus written Prouerbs 18. 14. The Spirit of a man susteineth his infirmitie But a vvounded Spirite vvho can beare THis Scripture is not onely worthy to be grauen in steel with the pen of an Adamant and in letters of gold but also to be written and registred by the singer of God his spirit in the table of our harts Which sentence briefely speaketh thus much vnto vs that what trouble befalleth a man his minde vnappalled hee will indifferently beare it out but if the spirit of a man be once troubled and dismayed hee cannot tell how to be deliuered And no maruell for if the mind of man be the fountaine of comforts which ministreth comfort vnto him in all other troubles and if it become comfortles what shall comfort it If it be void of helpe where shall it bee helped If the eye which is the light of the body be darknes how great is that darkenes If the salt which sauoureth all things be vnsauourie for what is it good If the minde which susteineth all troubles bee troubled howe intollerable is that trouble To shew this the better we will first declare how great a punishment of GOD this wound of Conscience is Secondly wee will teach howe this trouble of minde may be preuented and auoyded Lastly we will set down how Gods children faling in some measure into this affliction of spirit may bee recouered out of it For the first the grieuousnes of this malladie is seene either by some due consideration of the persons that haue felt it or by some wife comparison made betweene this griefe of minde and other outwarde griefes incident vnto a man The persons in whom we may consider this wounded spirit are either meerely naturall men or such as bee renued by the spirit of GOD The men meerely naturall are either the Heathen such as neuer knew God in Christ or carnall professors such as haue not professed Christianitie aright If wee looke among the Heathen how many of them haue willingly gone vnder pouertie and haue been content to vnburden themselues of al worldly treasures Howe haue some of them their mindes beeing vnappalled suffred imprisonment exile extreame tortures of bodies rather than they woulde betray Countries Howe many of them hauing deuoured many iniuries and borne outwarde troubles with some ease and with no resistance whilst their mindes were at liberty And yet looke not into the meanest but the best and most excellent men among them euen their wisest Philosophers sweete Orators and exquisite Poets who in bearing and forbearing thought the chiefest point of vertue to consist and yee shall see when some great distresse of minde did wound them some woulde make an ende of it by preparing a Cup of deadly poyson some woulde violently and voluntarily run on the enemies pikes some woulde throwe downe themselues from hye Mountaines some would not sticke to
armed souldiers If our friends were the Princes and all the Gouernours of the earth If our possessions wer as long as betweene the East and the west If our meate wer as Manna from heauen If our apparrell were as costly as the Ephod of Aaron If euery day were as glorious as the day of Christs resurrection yet if our mindes bee appalled with the iudgement of God these thinges would little comfort vs. Let experience speake If a troubled minde impayreth not health dryeth not vp the blood consumeth not the marrowe pineth not away the flesh consumeth not the bones if it maketh not al pleasures painfull and shortneth not the life surely no wisedome can councell it no councell can aduise it no aduise can asswage it no asswagement can cure it no eloquence can perswade it no power can ouercome it no Scepter affray it nor inchaunter can inchant it And yet on the contrary if a man languish in sickenes so his hart be whole and is perswaded of the health of his soule his sickenes doth not grieue him If a man bee reproched so he be precious in the sight of God and his Angels what losse hath hee If a man be bannished and yet doubteth not that heauen is his Country and that hee is a Citizen among the Saints it doth not appall him If a man be in trouble of minde and findeth peace of conscience hee will quietly digest his trouble But if the minde bee troubled who dareth meete with the wrath of the Lord of Hoasts who can put to silence the voyce of desperation who will step out and make agreement with the hills to spare vs who dare make a couenant with the diuell that hee would not lay claime vnto vs If then a good conscience helpeth all euills and all other benefites in this life cannot helpe a troubled conscience wee see it true in proofe which here is in prouerbe The Spirit of a man vvill susteine his infirmitie But a vvounded Spirit Who can beare it Againe in all other afflictions we may haue some comfort against sinne this is euer accompanied with sinne A man may be sick reproched imprisoned and banished yet in all these haue a cleare conscience his owne hart telling him that there is no speciall cause of these crosses in him but that hee may suffer them for the triall of his faith or for righteousnes sake and well dooing But when the Spirite is wounded there is a guiltines of sinne and where a mans spirite is troubled hee suspecteth all his wayes hee feareth all his sin he knowes not what sin to begin with it breeds such hurly burly in him that when it is day hee wisheth for night when it is night he would haue it day his meate doth not nourish him his sleep often forsaketh him his dreames are feareful vnto him If he speaketh he is little eased if he keepeth silence hee boyleth in disquietnes of hart the light doth not comfort him the darkenesse doth grieue him To prosecute our comparisons where all other euills are more intolerable because they bee temporall and pursue vs but to death this beeing not cured endeth not in death but becommeth eternall For euen the heathen men thought that death was the end of all misery the perswasion whereof made them beeing in some misery to make an end of themselues and hasten their owne death as Sathan doth make many nowe a daies who are ignorant of hell which is a place of farre greater paines than any they can suffer in this worlde whatsoeuer Howe be it a tormented conscience if before it was begun is now continued or if it was not before now beginneth and neuer endeth world without ende For though true it is that sickenes pouerty imprisonment or bannishment haue ended their terme in death yet a wounded heart which was temporall in this life is nowe eternall after this life that which before death was in hope recouerable is after death made both vncurable vnrecouerable It is good therefore to consider if euen in this life the torment of conscience be so fearefull how much more grieuous is it to susteine it in hell where that is infinite which here is finite where that is vnmeasurable which here is measurable where is the sea of sorrowe whereof this is but a droppe where is the flame of that fire whereof this is lesse then a sparke But to shut vp this argument Some there haue beene who thorowe out all their life time haue been free from all other troubles so as either they felt them not all or else in very small measure and by that meanes neuer knewe what outward trouble meant As for example some men there haue been who for sicknesse neuer knew the head-ache for pouertie neuer knewe what want meant who for discredite were neuer euill spoken of who euer put frō them the euill daye of the Lorde who haue made a league with death as it were a couenant with hell who thought they could crucifie anie crosse rather than come vnder anie Crosse yet they could neuer escape a wounded conscience either in this life or in the life to come True it is that Gods Children doo often escape it but the wicked and such as are borne vnto it as to their sure inheritance the more they flie from it the more it pursueth them If we haue transgressed the Ciuill Lawes the Iudge by bribes may be corrupted if a man haue committed some capitall offence by flying the Countrey hee maye escape the Magistrates hands but our Consciences telling vs that wee haue sinned against God what bribe shall wee offer or whether shall wee flie whether shall we goe from his spirite whether shall wee flie from hys presence If we ascend into heauen is not hee there If we flie to the vtmost parts of the sea is hee not there also There needeth no Paritor to summon vs there needes no Baylie arraunt to fetche vs there needes no accuser to come in agaynst vs sinne will arrest vs and lieth at the Doore our owne Conscience will impanell a Quest against vs our owne heartes will giue in Euidence agaynst vs and our owne iniquitie will pleade vs to be guiltie to our owne faces Now let vs shew how we may preuent it and by what means Gods children falling into some degrees of it for if it rage in extremitie it is an euil vnrecouerable may safely and quietly bee deliuered from it And here a iust complaint is to be taken vp and it is a wonder to be marked if we may wonder at GODS workes that we see so manie carefull and watchfull to auoyd other troubles and so few or none take anie paines to escape the troble of mind which is so greeuous We see men louing health and loathing sicknes in diet temperat in sleep moderate in Phisick expert skilfull to purge and to auoyde such corrupt humours which in time maye breed thogh presently they doo not bring forth sicknes yet to auoyde the
the body thorough some extraordinary repletion hath gotten some great surfet not so much to the weakening of nature as to the threatning of imminent death and therfore requireth rather some strong purgation than comfortable and cordiall medecines then the soule also being brought to some extraordinary sinne is rather to bee boared and pierced with the denouncing of Gods iudgement thā otherwise But because wee woulde deale more plainely lesse confusedly it is good in our accesse to the afflicted consciences to lay these two grounds First we must perswade the persons humbled that their sins are pardonable their soules curable And after that this visitation is not so much a signe of Gods wrath and anger as a seale of his loue and fauour in that it is not either blind or barren but plentiful in good effects and fruitefull in Godly issues The former howe needefull it is the experience of so many as haue beene throwne downe is a sufficient witnes who haue had this as a tagge tyed in their tentations The Lord wil surely make an end of them in some strange and vnknown tentation Wherein they are not vnlike vnto men fallen into some dangerous disease who thinking to bee without the fadome of the Phisitians skill and not to bee within the compasse of thinges recouerable adde a second and sorer griefe vnto their former Wherefore as these men seeme to bee halfe healed when any man of knowledg can bee brought who by experience hath cured the like malladie in like degrees in others So then the fearefull soules are not a little by hope refreshed and strengthned to looke for some ease when they see none other tentation hath ouertaken them thā such as hauing fallen into the nature of man haue found mercie at the handes of God that hee might bee feared This ground worke framed it is good to build vp and repaire the decayed ioy of the minde partly by the Law to make a preparatiue for these ioyes if the minde not truly humbled is not fit truly to be comforted and partly by the gospel if the conscience kindly throwen down is become a fit subiect to apply the promises of Iesus Christ vnto it And here againe to answere thē that denie the law wholly or at all to bee vsed when we wold breed comfort in one I demand whether if it be necessary to maintaine the righteousnes of Christ it bee not also as necessarie to preserue the righteousnes of the Law Seing the righteousnes of the Law of vs not fulfilled wyll drawe vs vnto the righteousnes of Christ to vs imputed And sith the righteousnes of Christ to vs imputed is neuer throughly and truly esteemed vntil we see the righteousnes of the law of vs to be vnperformed Again if our Sauior Christ did fore shew his Disciples that the first worke of the holy Ghost at his comming should bee to conuict the world of sinne to make men know that without Iesus Christ ther is nothing but sinne and then that he shuld rebuke the World of righteousnes that they might see Christ died not for his owne but the sins of others I see not why it should not be very conuenient first to lay opē the righteousnes of the law that men maye see their sins and then the righteousnes of Christ that men may see their sinnes discharged in him Besides wher the Lord saith by his Prophet At vvhat time soeuer a sinner dooth repent of his sins from the bottom of his hart I vvill put all his vvickednes out of my remembrance that it may well be gathered there must be a sound sorrow for sin going before and then the true ioy of sinnes pardoned may the more frely be looked for afterward Moreouer seeing al the promises of God in the gospel are cōmended vnto vs vnder the title tenor of restoring sight to the blind hearing to the deafe strength to the lame health to the sicke and life to the dead it is manifest not onely that there is no disease of the soule that Christ cannot heale but also that wee must first finde our selues blinde deafe dumbe lame sicke dead before he wil meddle with vs because they that are whole need not the Phisition and he came to call sinners not the Righteous to repentance Now to doo this in wisedome by neither pressing the conscience too seuerely nor releasing the conscience more vnaduisedly it shalbe the safe way to vse the wel tempered speech of the Apostle to the sorcerer Repent if it be possible thy sinnes may bee forgiuen thee Where hee dooth not wholly discourage him because it may bee his sins may be pardoned neither yet too boldly incourage him that without repentance he sheweth it altogether impossible to be pardoned And that we be not too preposterous in our consolations let vs bee warned by the blasphemous speeches of the detestable Arrian who of late yeares was put to deth at Norwich This hellish heretique a little before he shuld be executed afforded a few whorish tears asking whether he might bee saued in Christ or no When one told him that if he truely repented he shuld surely not perrish hee brake out most monstrously into this speech Nay is your Christ so easily to be intreated indeede as you say Then I defie him care not for him Oh howe good a thing had it been not to haue cast this pretious stone to this swine Oh how safe had it bin to haue dealt more bitterly and dwelt more vehemently on the conscience of this caytise Now to attaine some discretion in curing this wounded spirite wee must learne wisely to iudge both of the person afflicted and of the nature of his affliction First we must note whether it be a man or a woman becaus we may vrge more carefully the vse of the law to a man as hauing the stronger vessell And as Sathan knew the woman to be most easie and frameable to be wrought vppon at his first temptation so is hee not ignoraunt that shee is the weaker partie to susteine an accusation Then let vs consider whether they that are thus humbled haue knowledge or no Because if they haue none they thinke trouble of minde to be so strange a thing as neuer any before it if they haue knowledge then Sathan is readie to accuse them of sins agaynst the holye Ghost as though anie sin done against knowledge were a sinne of presumption Farther we are to enquire how strong or weake they are that if they be not sufficiently wounded to touch thē with some deep sense of sinne Also we must be circumspect to finde out whether by nature they are more fearfull or melancholy or no As also whether they be vsuall sinners or haue faln once of infirmitie that so vppon their disposition and inclination we may builde our speech the better To these it is good to adde this consideration of the persons age estate and ability as if the partie bee troubled for worldlinesse whether hee bee not a
stab most monstrously their owne bodies with Daggers or such like instruments of death all which men woulde seeme to haue great courage in susteining many harmes so long as their mindes were not ouermastred But when the diuine and supreame Essence which they acknowledged did by his power crosse and ouerturne their witty deuises and headstrong attempts so as without hope of remedie they were hampered in pensiuenes and sorow of minde then beeing not able to turne themselues vnder so heauy a burthen they shrunke down and by violent death woulde ridde themselues of that disquietnes and impatiencie of their troubled mindes But let vs come nearer and whether wee behold the Papists or the Familie of loue or the common sort of Christians wee shall see they will passe quietly through many afflictions whether for that they haue a spirite of slumbring or numbers cast vppon them or whether because they haue brawned themselues through some senceles blockishnes as men hewen out of hard Oakes or grauen out of marble stones I know not But yet when the Lord shall let loose the cordes of their consciences and shall set before their faces their sinnes committed see what a fearfull end they haue whilst some of them by hanging themselues some by casting themselues into the water some by cutting their owne throates haue rid themselues out of this intollerable griefe Nowe wherein is the difference that some dye so sencelesly and some dispatch them selues so violently Surely the one feeling no sinne depart like brutish Hogs the other surcharged with sinne dye like barking Dogs But let vs come to the children of God who haue in some degree felt this wound of minde and it will appeare both in the members and in the heade of all burthens to bee a thing most intollerable to susteine a wounded Conscience And to begin with let vs set in the first ranke Iob that man of God coÌ„mended vnto vs by the holy Ghost for a myrrour of patience who although for his riches hee was the wealthiest man in the land of Huz for his authoritie might haue made afraid a great multitude and for his substance was the greatest of all the men in the East Yet when the Shabeans violently tooke away his cattell when the fier of God falling from heauen burnt vp his sheepe and his seruaunts when the Chaldeans had taken away his Cammels when a great winde smote down his house vpon his children although indeed he rent his garments which was not so much for impatiencie as to shewe that he was not vnsensible in these euils Yet it is saide that hee worshipped and blessed the name of the Lorde saying Naked came I out of my mothers vvombe and naked shall I returâ—e thither againe The Lord giueth and the Lord taketh away Blessed be the name of the Lord. Howbeit beholde when at the strange conference of his comfortles friends his minde began to be agast which was not so in all his former tryall when his conscience began to be troubled when he saw the Lord fasten on him sharp arrowes and to set him vp as as a Butte to shoote at when hee thought God caused him to possesse the sinnes of his youth this glorious patterne of patience coulde not beare his griefe he is heauy now may commende to all the Image of a wounded spirite that shall come after Dauid a man chosen according to the Lords owne hart Ezekiah a pure worshiper of God and carefull restorer of pure Religion Ieremiah the Prophet of the Lorde sanctified and ordained to that Office before hee was formed in his mothers wombe were rare and singular in the graces fauour of God yet when they felt this wound piercing them with griefe of hart they wer as Sparrows mourning as Cranes chattering as Pellicans casting out fearefull cries they thought themselues as in the graues they wished to haue dwelt solitarily they were as bottels parched in the smoke they were as Doues mourning not able without sighes and grones to vtter their words their harts cloue to the dust and their tongues to the roofe of their mouths But aboue all if these were not sufficient to perswade vs in this doctrine there remaineth one example whom we affirme to be the perfect anatomie of an afflicted Conscience This is the Lord Sauior IESVS CHRIST the Image of the father the head of the body the myrror of all graces the wisedome righteousnes holines and redemption of all the Saintes who susteined the Crosse euen from his youth vpward and besides pouerty basenes hunger did willingly goe vnder the great trouble of contempt and reproch and that among them where he shuld haue had a right deserued honor in respect of the Doctrine he taught them and in regard of the manifolde myracles wroght among them as the healing of the sicke the giuing sight to the blinde the restoring of life to the deade This vnkindnes neuertheles did so much strike him as at what time hee was set as a Sacrifice for al when he was to beare our infirmities carry our sorrowes at what time hee was plagued and smitten of God humbled and wounded for our transgressions when hee should be broken for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was vpon him then he cryed out My soule is heauie euen vnto the death Then hee prayeth Lord if it be possible let this Cup passe from mee But how prayeth hee euen with sweating howe sweateth hee euen droppes of blood how long prayeth hee Three times when ends his agony not vntill he was dead What saide hee beeing ready to depart My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Was this for his humane death as some haue imagined No no wicked men haue died without coÌ„plaint whose patience them might seeme to exceede his it was his suffering in his humane Spirite which incountred with the wrath of God his Godhead suppressing it self for a while he suffred indeede many torments in body but the wrath of God did much more lye vpon his soule If this consideration of an afflicted spirit in these examples doe not sufficiently shew what a grieuous thing it is to susteine a wounded Conscience Let us proceede to the comparing of this with other euills which fall into the nature of men There is no sickenes but Phisicke prouideth for it a remedy there is no sore but Chirurgery will affoorde it a salue Friendship helpeth pouertie There is no imprisonment but there is hope of libertie Suite and fauour recouer a man from banishment Authoritie and time weare away reproch But what Phisicke cureth what Chirurgerie salueth what riches ransome what countenance beareth out what authoritie asswageth what assault dismaieth a troubled Conscience All these banded togeather in league though they wold conspire a confederacie cannot help this one distresse of a troubled minde And yet this one comforte of a quiete minde doth wonderfully cure and comfortably asswage al other griefes whatsoeuer For if our assistance were as an host of