Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A05517
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[A comfortable treatise for the reliefe of such as are afflicted in conscience]
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Linaker, Robert, 1550 or 51-1618.
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1595
(1595)
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STC 15638; ESTC S100280
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35,666
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76
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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