TWO TREATIses of the comforting of an afflicted conscience, written by M. Richard Greenham, with certain Epistles of the same argument.  
Hereunto are added two Sermons, with certain grave and wise counsels and answers of the same Author and argument.  
Imprinted at London by Richard Bradocke, for Robert Dexter, and are to be sold at the sign of the Brazen Serpent in Paul's Churchyard, 1598.   

To the right worshipful S. Drue Drury Knight. H. C. wisheth increase of all heavenly virtues.  
IT hath been the continual practice (Right worshipful) of the most faithful stewards & dispensers of the mysteries of God; not only to spend the time of their pilgrimage, inplanting and watering those parts of God's vinyeard, wherewithal it hath pleased him to charge them for the present, but also (as much as in them lay) to help, and set forward the growth of them, even unto the day of their perfection. Amongst many other, our present author M. Richard Greenham, may bet set with the forwardest in this rank. A man, into whose praises if I should enter, I should either be injurious to his desert, or tedious, especially unto you, in whose memory he doth yet most lively remain. But amongst many excellent gifts which were so plentifully powered out upon this man of God, not any one did more shine either to the glory of God, or his commendation amongst men, than that especial gift he had to the raising up of the consciences of those who from the sense of their infirmitieswere discouraged & cast down. And left this extraordinary gift, should with his decease die in the grave with him, he left in writing unto us, among many things something also of that argument, which after his death, with more speed than diligence was sent unto the press. The same now being brought unto me to be prepared for the second impression; the common good of those, who from these holy labours might raise unto themselves a sovereign comfort for their oppressed consciences; as also the reverent regard I had unto the blessed memory of the deceased Author, encouraged, or rather enforced me to look more carefully unto it, and finding the former edition very defective, to endeavour the correction of it, which is thus as you see obtained, & the volume thus far increased by such written copies of the like argument, as were ministered unto me. All which, I am emboldened to present unto your W. favour & protection; partly for the unfeigned love you bore unto the root from whence they sprang, & partly also for that interest you had in them by the former dedication. May it please your worship therefore to accept them, as the poor remainder of that hope, which in the Author's life time promised more unto us, than the Lord hath thought us worthy to enjoy. Thus commending your W. and yours to the tuition of the almighty, I humbly take my leave.  
Your worships in all duty to command. H. C.   

To the Reader.  
OUR life, saith the Apostle, is a warfare, & every day we are more or less to encounter with our adversary. And therefore is the Church of God upon earth called Militant, because the members thereof are priest soldgiers, standing continually upon their guard, knowing, that their enemy is an old wily Serpent, and a fierce ravenous Lion, continually seeking whom he may devour. But amongst many snares he hath laid to entrap the soul of man, either presuming too much of himself, or derogating too much from the graces of the spirit in him, this is not the meanest, that he laboureth, to divide the kingdom against itself, and to use men as his instruments for their own destruction. For well he knows, that where coming in his own likeness, he should seem odious and be valiantly resisted; there, masked under a veil of humility, he may more secretly encroach upon the fearful spirit; & if the Lord doth not put the bit into his mouth, to curb him with, he may at length display his banners in the heart. But we have a valiant leader, let us stick unto him, even jesus Christ the righteous, who is a Serpent also lift up in the wilderness to cure all whose hearts are scorched with the venomous heat of the fiery serpent; who is a Lion of the Tribe of juda, ●●mightie prince, and the king of peace, who shall subdue all things under him that he may be all in all. I might here enter into a large discourse, but in this argument this present book is so copious, as I doubt (gentle Reader) whether thou shalt find any want; much less of that which I am able to afford thee. Only it had been to be wished the Author of these Treatises, had himself survived to the publishing of them, that the same might have come more full & perfect into thy hands. But since it hath pleased the Lord, for cause best known unto himself, to bereave his Church in this land, of so excellent a pillar, there remaineth nothing for us, but to submit ourselves unto his providence, & to take up that complaint of Elisha for Elias, when he was taken from him into heaven. My Father, my Father, the Chariot of Israel & the horsemen thereof. But to return unto ourselves, thou art to be entreated, courteous reader, to take in good part these few things at this time, & to make thine use of them, till some other (the only true copies whereof are yet in the hands of his friends) may be obtained of them. Amongst which there are many things of divers arguments worthy thy knowledge, & of good profit unto the direction of a Christian life; Of which I have thought good to set down unto thee a brief catolog, that thou mayst know: that as our Author's labours in the ministry of the gospel, were exceeding great in that part of the Church which was committed unto him, so as he might, he was not unmindful of posterity, but careful to leave a remembrance of himself in some profitable instructions for those that should come after. Farewell.  
Thine in the Lord. H. C.   


1 A large Treatise of the Sabbath.  
2 A Catechism.  
3 A Treatise of contract  
4 Of the resurrection of the dead▪  
5 Of the last judgement.  
6 Of zeal.  
7 Of humlity and honour▪  
8 Of anger.  
9 Of murmuring.  
10 Of a good name.  
11 Of lying.  
12 Of the necessity of the word preached.  
13 Of keeping the heart above all things.  
14 Of the kingdom of heaven compared unto a pearl.  
15 Of the coming of the holy Ghost.  
16 Of rejoicing in the Cross of Christ.  
17 A great number of grave and wise counsels and answers, gathered by Master john Hopkins and others that attended him for that purpose.    

An epigram to the Reader.  

THE thirsty soul, that fainteth in the way,  
Or hunger-bit for heavenly food doth long:  
The wearied heart, that panteth all she way  
Oppressed with fears, & home-bread griefs among;  
The blinded eye, that hunt's the shining ray,  
Or mind enthralled, through Satan's wily wrong:  
Let hither far for comfort in their need;  
For smothered flames a greater fire will breed.   

Here silver streams shall quench thy boiling heat,  
And honey dews thy hungry stomach fill,  
Hear sweet Repose with Comfort shall entreat  
Thy wounded breast to cure with busy skill,  
Hence fetch thy ransom howsoever great,  
A mine of treasures are in this fair hill;  
From whose high top thy scaled eyes may see  
A glorious light that shall enlighten thee.   

The streams are blood, the dew is bread from heaven  
The Rest and Comfort are celestial joys;  
The ransom from the cross was freely given,  
The light is faith, which darkness all destroys.  
Thrice happy man that guides his steps so even,  
As his pure light no gloomy dark annoys.  
His ransomed soul aeternal joys shall win  
When timely death shall blessed life begin.   
H. C.   

A MOST SWEET Comfort for an afflicted Conscience.  It is thus written, Prouerb●. 18.14. 
The Spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity: But a wounded Spirit who can bear it?  
THis Scripture is not only worthy to be graven in steel with the pen of an Adamant, and to be written in letters of gold; but also to be laid up registered by the finger of God his spirit in the tables of our hearts. Which sentence briefly speaketh thus much unto us, that what trouble befalleth a man (his mind being unappalled) he will indifferently bear it out; but if the spirit of a man be once troubled and dismayed, he cannot tell how to be delivered. And no marvel; for if the mind of man be the fountain of consolation, which ministereth comfort unto him in all other troubles; if that become comfortless, what shall comfort it? If it be void of help, when shall it be helped? If the eye which is the light of the body be darkness, how great is that darkness? If the salt which savoureth all things be unsavoury, for what is it good? If the mind which sustaineth all troubles be troubled, how intolerable is that trouble? To show this the better, I will first declare how great a punishment of God this wound of conscience is: Secondly I will teach how this trouble of mind may be prevented and avoided: Lastly I will set down how God's children falling in some measure into this affliction of spirit, may be recovered out of it.  
For the first, the grievousness of this malady is seen, either by some due consideration of the persons that have felt it; or by some wise comparison made between this grief of mind, and other outward griefs incident unto a man.  
The persons in whom we may consider this wound of spirit, are either merely natural men, or such as be renewed by the spirit of God: The men merely natural are either the Heathen such as never knew God in Christ, or carnal professors, such as have not professed Christianity aright. If we look among the Hearhen, how many of them have willingly gone under poverty, and have been content to unburden themselves of all worldly treasures? How have some of them (whilst their minds were unappalled) suffered imprisonment, exile, and extreme tortures of body; rather than they would betray their Countries? How many of them have devoured many injuries, and borne outward troubles, with some ease and with no resistance, whilst their minds were at liberty? And yet look not into the meanest, but the best and most excellent men among them, even their wise Philosophers, sweet Orators, and exquisite Poets; who in bearing and forbearing thought the chiefest point of virtue to consist; and ye shall see, when once some great distress of mind did wound them, some would make an end of it by preparing a Cup of deadly poison; some would violently and voluntarily run on the enemy's pikes: some would throw down themselves from high Mountains; some would not stick to stab most monstrously their own bodies with Daggers, or such like instruments of death: all which men would seem to have great courage in sustaining many harms, so long as their minds were not overmastred. But when their divine and supreme Essence (which they accknowledged to be God) did by his power cross & overturn their witty devices and headstrong attempts, so as without hope of remedy they were hampered in pensiveness and sorrow of mind: than not being able to turn themselves under so heavy a burden, they shrunk down, and by violent death would rid themselves of that disquietness & impatience of their troubled minds.  
But let us come nearer; and whether we behold the Papists, or the family of love, or the common sort of Christians, we shall see they will pass quietly through many afflictions, whether for that they have a spirit of slumbering and numbnes cast upon them; or whether because they have brawned themselves through some senseless blockishness as men hewn out of hard Oaks, or graven out of marble stones I know not: But yet when the lord shall let lose the cord of their consciences, and shall set before their faces their sins committed; see what fearful ends they have, whilst some of them by hanging themselves, some by casting themselves into the water, some by cutting their own throats have rid themselves out of these intolerable griefs. Now wherein is the difference that some die so sencelesly, and some dispatch themselves so violently? Surely the one feeling no sin, depart like brutish swine; the other surcharged with sin, die like barking Dogs.  
But let us come to the children of God, who have in some degree felt this wound of mind; and it will appear both in the members and in the head, of all burdens to be a thing most intolerable to sustain a wounded conscience. And to begin with, let us set in the first rank job, 
job.  that man of God commended unto us by the holy Ghost for a mirror of patience; who although for his riches he was the wealthiest man in the land of Huz; for his authority, might have made afraid a great multitude; and for his substance was the greatest of all the men in the East: Yet when the Shabeans came violently and took away his cattle; when the fire of God falling from heaven, burnt up his sheep and his servants; when the Chaldeans had taken away his Camels; when a great wind smote down his house upon his children; although indeed he rend his garments, which was not so much for impatience, as to show that he was not senseless in these evils: Yet it is said that he worshipping blessed the name of the Lord, saying: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.  
But behold when at the strange conference of his comfortless friends, his mind began to be aghast, which was not so in all his former trial, when his conscience began to be troubled, when he saw the Lord fasten in him sharp arrows, and to set him up as a Butt to shoot at; when he thought God caused him to possess the sins of his youth, this glorious pattern of patience could not bear his grief: he was heavy, and now may commend, the Image of a wounded spirit, to all that come after. David, 
David.  a man chosen according to the Lords own heart: Ezekiah, 
Ezekiah.  a pure worshipper of God, and careful restorer of true Religion; jeremiah, 
jeremiah.  the Prophet of the Lord, sanctified and ordained to that Office before he was form in his mother's womb, were rare and singular in the graces and favour of God: yet when they felt this wound piercing them with grief of heart, they were as Sparrows mourning, as Cranes chattering, as as pelicans casting out fearful cries, they thought themselves as in the grave, they wished to have dwelled solitary; they were as bottles parched in the smoke, they were as doves mourning, not able without sighs and groans to utter their words, their hearts clove to the dust, and their tongues to the roof of their mouths.  
But above all; (if these were not not sufficient to persuade us in this doctrine) there remaineth one example, whom we affirm to be the perfect anatomy of an afflicted mind. This is the Lord and Saviour jesus Christ the Image of the father, 
Christ jesus.  the head of the body, the mirror of all graces, the wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption of all the Saints, who sustained the Cross even from his youth upward: and besides poverty, baseness, hunger, did willingly go under the great trouble of contempt and reproach, and that among them where he should have had a right deserved honour, in respect of the doctrine he taught them, and in regard of the manifold miracles be wrought among them; as the healing of the sick, the giving sight to the blind, the restoring of life to the dead: This unkindness nevertheless, did not so much strike into him. But at what time he was set as a Sacrifice for all, when he was to bear our infirmities & carry our sorrows, at what time he was plagued & smitten of God, humbled & wounded for our transgressions, when he should be broken for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him; then he cried out; My soul is heavy even unto the death: Then he prayeth, Lord if it he possible, let this Cup pass from me: But how prayeth he? even with sweeting; how sweateth he? even drops of blood; how long prayeth he? Three times; when ends his agony? not until he was dead; What said he being ready to departed? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.  
Was this for his human death, as some have imagined? No no, wicked men have died withthout complaint, whose patience then might seem to exceed his; it was his suffering in his human Spirit, which encountered with the wrath of God, his Godhead suppressing itself for a while: he suffered indeed many torments in body, but much more heavily did the wrath of God lie upon his soul.  
If this consideration of an afflicted spirit in these examples do not sufficiently show what a grievous thing it is to sustain a wounded conscience: Let us proceed to the comparing of this with other evils, which fall into the nature of man. There is no sickness but Physic provideth for it a remedy, there is no sore but Chirurgery will afford it a salve; Friendship helpeth poverty; There is no imprisonment, but there is hope of liberty; Suit and favour recover a man from banishment; Authority and time wear away reproach: But what Physic cureth? what chirurgery salueth? what riches ransometh? what countenance beareth out? what authority assuageth? what favour relieveth a troubled Conscience? All these banded together in league, (though they would conspire a confederacy) cannot help this one distress of a troubled mind; And yet this one comfort of a quiet mind doth wonderfully cure, and comfortably assuage all other griefs whatsoever. For if our assistance were as an host of armed soldiers; If our friends where the Princes and the Governors of the earth; If our possessions were as large as between the East and the west; If our meat were as Manna from heaven; If our apparel were as costly as the Ephod of Aaron; If every day were as glorious as the day of Christ's resurrection; yet if our minds be appalled with the judgements of God, these things would little comfort us. Let experience speak; If a troubled mind impareth not health, drieth not up the blood, wasteth not the marrow, pineth not away the flesh, consumeth not the bones, if it maketh not all pleasures painful, and shorteneth not the life; surely no wisdom can council it, no counsel can advise it, no advise can assuage it, no assuagement can cure it, no eloquence can persuade it, no power can overcome it, no Sceptre will affray it, nor enchanter can charm it. And yet on the contrary, if a man languish in sickness, so his heart be whole, and is persuaded of the health of his soul, his sickness doth not grieve him: If a man be reproached, so he be precious in the sight of God and his Angels, what loss hath he? If a man be banished, and yet doubteth not that heaven is his Country, and that he is a Citizen among the Saints, it doth not appall him: If a man be in trouble, and findeth peace of conscience, he will quietly digest his trouble. But if the mind be troubled, who dareth meet with the wrath of the Lord of Hosts? who can put to silence the voice of desperation? who will step out and make agreement with the hells to spare us; who dare make a covenant with the Devil, that he would not lay claim unto us? If then a good Conscience helpeth all evils, and all other benefits in this life, in themselves cannot help a troubled conscience; we see it true in proof; which here is in proverb; The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity: But a wounded Spirit, Who can bear it?  
Again, in all other afflictions we may have some comfort against sin; this is ever accompanied with the accusation of sin. A man may be sick, reproached, impoverished, imprisoned, and banished; and yet in all these have a clear conscience; his own heart telling him that there is no special cause of these crosses in him, but that he may suffer them for the trial of his faith, or for righteousness sake and well doing. But when the spirit is wounded, there is still a guiltiness of sin, and when a man's spirit is troubled, he suspecteth all his ways, he feareth all his sins, he knows not what sin to begin with; it breeds such hurly burlies in him, that when it is day he wisheth for night; when itis night he would have it day, his meat doth not nourish him; his dreams are fearful to him, his sleep oftimes forsaketh him; If he speaketh, he is little eased; if he keepeth silence, he boileth in disquietness of heart; the light doth not comfort him, the darkness doth terify him.  
To prosecute our comparisons; where all other evils are the more tolerable, because they be temporal, & pursue us but to death: this not being cured endeth not in death, but becometh eternal. For even the heathen men thought that death was the end of all misery: the persuasion whereof made them (being in some misery) to make an end of themselves, and hasten their own death; as Satan doth make many now a days to do, who are ignorant of the hell, which is a place of far greater pains than any they can suffer in this world whatsoever. Howbeit a tormented conscience, if before it was begun, is now continued; or if it was not before, now beginneth and never endeth world without end. For though true it is, that sickness, poverty, imprisonment or banishment have ended their term in death; yet a wounded heart which was temporal in this life, is now eternal after this life: that which before death was in hope recoverable, is after death made uncurable & unrecoverable. It is good therefore to consider, if even in this life the torment of conscience be so fearful; how much more grievous it is to sustain it in hell, where that is infinite, which here is finite; where that is unmeasurable, which here is measurable: where is the sea of sorrow, whereof this is but a drop, where is the flame of that fire, whereof this is less than a spark.  
But to shut up this argument: Some there have been who through out all their life time, have been free from all other troubles, so as either they felt them not at all, or else in very small measure, and by that means never knew what outward trouble meant. As for example, some men there have been, who for sickness never knew there headeach; for poverty, never knew what want meant; who for discredit, were never evil spoken of; who ever put far from them the evil day of the Lord; who made a league with death as it were, & a covenant with hell; who thought they could crucify every cross, rather than come underany cross: yet they could never escape a wounded conscience, either in this life, or in the life to come. True it is, that God's Children by faith & repentance do often escape it, but the wicked, and such as are borne unto it, as to their sure inheritance; the more they fly from it, the more it pursueth them. If we have transgressed the Civil Laws, the judge by bribes may be corrupted; if a man have committed some capital offence, by flying his Country he may escape the Magistrates hands: but our consciences telling us that we have sinned against God; what bribe shall we offer? or whether shall we fly? whether shall we go from his spirit? or whether shall we go from his presence? If we ascend into heaven, is not he there? If we lie down in hell is he not there? If we fly to the utmost parts of the sea, is he not there also? There needeth no apparitor to summon us, there needs no Bailie arraunt to fetch us; there needs no accuser to give in against us: sin will arrest us, and lieth at the Door, our own Conscience will impanel a Quest against us; our own hearts will give in sufficient Evidence, and our own iniquity will plead us to be guilty to our own faces.  
Thus we see both by the experience of them that have suffered the wound of the spirit, and by the comparing of it with other evils, what a weight most grievous and burden intolerable it is to have a tormented conscience.  
Now let us show how we may prevent; & by what means God's children falling into some degrees of it, 
The second part of the first division.  (for if it rage in extremity it is an evil unrecoverable) may safely and quietly be delivered from it. And here a just complaint is to be taken up, & it is a wonder to be marked (if we may wonder at God's works) that we see many so careful & watchful to avoid o●her troubles, and so few or none take any pains to escape the trouble of mind which is so grievous. We see men loving health and loathing sickness, in diet temperate, in sleep moderate, in Physic expert, skilful to purge, & to avoid such corrupt humours, which in time may breed (though presently they do not bring forth) some dangerous sickness: yet to avoid the diseases of the soul, no man abateth his sleep, no man abridgeth his diet, no man prepareth Physic for it; no man knoweth when to be full, and when to be empty; how to want and how to abound. Others carried away with the love of riches, & very ●ly to fall into poverty; will not stick to rise early, to take sleep lately, to far hardly, to tear & taw their flesh in labour by land & by water, in fair & foul wether, by rocks and by sands, from far and from near: and yet to fall into Spiritual decay, to avoid the poverty of conscience no man taketh such pains; as though salvation and peace of mind, were not a thing worthy the labouring for. Some ambitiously hunting after honour, & not easily digesting reproaches, behave themselves neither sluggishly nor sleepely; but are active in every attempt, by love & by counsel, by prudence & prowess, by wit & by practice, by labour & learning by cunning, & diligence to become famous, & to shun a civil reproach: yet to be glorious in the sight of God and his Angels, to fall before the heavens, and in the presence of the Almighty to be covered with shame and confusion of Conscience, we make none account, as they, who neither use any means to obtain the one, nor avoid those occasions which may bring the other.  
Others unwilling to come within the reach and danger of the Law, that they may escape imprisonment of body, or confiscation of goods; will be painful in penal statutes, skilful in every branch of the civil law, and especially will labour to keep themselves from treasons, murders, felonies, and such like offences deserving the punishment of death: yet when the Lord God threateneth the seizure both of soul and body, the attaching of our spirits, the confiscating of our consciences, the banishing of us from heaven, the hanging of us in hell, the suspending of our salvation, the adjudging of us to condemnation for the breach of his Commandments no man searcheth his eternal Law; no man careth for the Gospel: neither the sentence of everlasting divorcement from the Lord, neither the covenant of reconciliation is esteemed of us.  
And to reach our Complaint one degree father. Behold, the more we seek outward pleasures and to avoid the inward trouble of mind, the more we hast and run into it; & suddenly plunge ourselves in a wounded spirit ere we be aware. Who posteth more to become rich who hopeth less to be come poor than the merchant man? who adventureth great treasures, who hazardeth his goods, who putteth in jeopardy his life; and yet suddenly he either rusheth upon the rock of hardness of heart, or else is swallowed up of the gulf of a despairing mind: from which afterwards he cannot be delivered with a ship full of gold. Woeful proof hath confirmed, how some men (wholly set on pleasures, such as could not away to be sad, and hedged up always of godly sorrow) have had their tables made snares; and even their excess of pleasures, hath brought excess of sorrows: and whilst they laboured to put the evil day far from them; they have used such follies as have been the most bitter and speedy hangmen of their fearful and trembling consciences.  
There be some of another sort, who never dreaming of a troubled mind, have had their hearts set on nothing but how they might get some great fame and renown; and therefore have slipped into such vain glorious attempts, and foul flatteries, as they have not only lost the peace of their Consciences, but also fallen most deeply into reproachful shame, which they sought to shun.  
Now as the peace of conscience and joy of mind is such a treasure, as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the tongue expressed; but passeth all understanding. So the wounded spirit is such as the eye hath not seen it, the ear hath not heard it, nor the tongue uttered, but passeth all understanding. And as they only know what the peace of mind meaneth, that feel it; so they alone can in truth speak of a troubled mind, that have tasted of it by experience.  
Bet let us show what way is to be used to keep us from this wound of the Spirit. 
How we may be preserved from the wound of Conscience.  It is the use of Physic, as to cure us of diseases when we are fallen into them; so to preserve us from sickness before it hath taken hold of us: it is the power of the word, as to assuage the trouble of Conscience, when it doth once press us; so to prevent it before it hath overtaken us. It is a chief point of worldly wisdom not to tarry for the use of Physic until we be deadly sick; but to be acquainted with GOD'S merciful preservations to defend us from it; likewise it is a chief policy of a godly Christian, not only to seek comfort when the agony is upon him, but also to use all good helps to meet● with it before it comes. And we condemn them of folly, who will not as well labour to keep themselves out of debt, as to pay the debt when they own it: so it is a madness not to be as circumspect to avoid all occasions, which may bring trouble of mind upon us; as we would be provident to enter every good way which may draw us out of this trouble, when we have once entered into it.  
The remedies preservative; are first the searching of our sins, & then the examining of our faith.  
The searching of our sins, is either the due acknowledging of our sins, or the true sense and feeling of our sins. The acknowledging of our sins, is either of those that be past, whether we have unfeignedly repent us of them: or of those which be present, whether we be truly grieved for them.  
Thirdly of those secret corruptions, which in the course of our life are likely to come, whether we are reverently afraid of them and resolve to suppress them with all our endeavour.  
Concerning sins past, we must call to mind the sins done of old, in our youth, in our middle age, in our old age; that we judging ourselves may not be judged of the Lord; that accusing of ourselves, Satan have no occasion to accuse us; and throwing down ourselves before the Lord, he may lift us up. For many going quietly away, and sleeping in carnal security (notwithstandingthe sins of their youth) and neglecting to make conscience of their sins done long ago; suddenly have fallen into such horror o● mind, that (the violent remembrance of all their sins surcharging them) they have been overwhelmed.  
This Examination doth then rightly proceed, when it is reacheth to the errors of this life, & to the sins of our youth; because many men (even from their childhood, by a civil righteous life) having escaped gross sins, wherewith the world could never charge them, have notwithstanding carried the burden of their secret, sins done in their youth. David (Psal. 25.7.) prayeth the Lord, not to remember the sins of his youth; job (23.6. the man of God) confesseth that the Lord writing bitter things against him made him to possess the iniquities of his youth. What, shall we think that David or job were given to notorious wickedness in their youth? No, they knew they were subject to youthful wantonness and unstaidness of their affections; which though it did not burst out, yet it made them less careful to glorify GOD; which looseness the way to lewdness; which weakness, the way to strange vanities; which wantonness, the way to open wickedness, is even in the best of God's Children in the days of their youth: which being afterwards in the time of their regeneration, brought (as it were) to judgement, and laid before their consciences, doth cause them to repent.  
But here is a thing to be blushed at, which maketh men's ears to tingle when they hear it; that many men (far no doubt from this true repentance) can largely indeed discourse of the things done in their youth; but in such a bravery, with such boastings, and pleasing of themselves in the remembrance of them; as besides that they provoke others to sin in the like, and set themselves a flat Backe-byas against Repentance and this Christian examination; they seem to renew the decayed colours of their old sins, with the fresh suit of their second pleasures therein. But alas what pleasure have they in those things, whereof they have no profit? what profit have they those things whereof they should be ashamed? Nether in this strain can we forget the madness of them, who may seem to step one degree farther towards this examination of sin than did the former; by thinking that the leaving of sin, and repenting of sin is all one. Against these both daily experience and the word of God doth sufficiently declaim. Iosep●s brethren (jacob his sons) who devised evil against their brother, put him into the pit, and sold him unto strangers; did cease from this cruelty: but yet they are not read to have remembered their sins with any remorse, until thirteen years after the sin was committed; as we may see in the process of the History. David had left his sins of murder and adultery (as thinking all quiet and well) the space of a whole year; after which time (being admonished by the Prophet Nathan) he repent of it. And experience hath tried in many that have had some working of God in them, that though they left their sins many years ago, yet because they repent not truly for them, they have rebounded up on them with terrible sights & fearful visions, to humble them, and to bring them to serious examination of them, being done and left long since. Examples whereof we need not fetch from far, seeing so many preachers as are acquainted with fearful spirits will give witness hereof. The fruit of which amazed minds for sins already left, is ours, to beware of sins which are to come: And that other men's harms may teach us blessed wisdom, let us labour not only to leave sin, which one may do for profit, for fear, for praise, or for werisomnes; but also to repent of it for conscience sake.  
This Examination of our sins past, must be partly of those that we committed before our calling, & partly of those which were done after our calling. Every man (especially having his reason reform by the word of God) will grant an examination of the life, before our true knowledge of God in Christ, to be most needful: But it may be some will think that we need not be so precise in the searching of those sins, which were after our knowledge. But seeing of all other sins these bite sorest, and pierce deepest, for that they are aggravated with all the mercies of God going before, and Sin is then most sinful, when after we know the truth, after we have been delivered from sin, after we have been enlightened with the grace of God, we have fallen into it: I think that an examination most specially aught to be had of these sins. Wherefore to iterate our former examples in a new matter, as we may see the former kind of examining of our sins before our calling, in the sons of jacob; so we have a pattern of the latter in the practice of the Prophet David, who at the hearing of his sin was so troubled in his spirit, that he could not rest in the Prophet's speech telling him his sin was forgiven him, but still was disquieted, as one utterly forsaken of God & could find no comfort of God's spirit in him. For as it fareth often with sores, it cometh to pass in sins we are loath to have our wounds often grated upon, we cannot so well away to have our sores rifled, seared, and lanced; but fed with healing salves: so we are hardly brought to have our consciences ground, or our sins ransacked, sifted, searched, & ripped up; but would still have them plastered with sweet promises, and bathed in the mercies of God: whereas it is far safer before incarnative and healing Medicines, to use corrosive and mundifying waters, without which though some sores may seem to close and skin up a pace, yet they prove worse, and being rotten still at the core; they have above a thin skin, & underneath dead flesh. In like manner, we would cloak, we would hide and cover our sins, as it wear with a Curtain; but it is more sound Chirurgery to prick and pierce our Consciences with the burning iron of the Law, and to cleanse the wound of the Soul by sharp threatenings, lest that a skin pulled over the Conscience for a while, we leave the rottten corruption, uncured underneath; and so we be constrained to cry out of our sins openly. As it is a folly then to disemble our sores whilst they be curable, and after to make them known when they be grown uncurable; so it is as great folly to dissemble our sins whilst they may be remedied, and so after be constrained with shame to blaze them abroad when thy are remediless. But of this by the way, because we shall more largely touch it in the last part to come.  
It is sufficient to commit sin before knowledge, but after some good light of the spirit to sin, breedeth either hardness of heart, or a troubled spirit; both which we shall avoid, if in truth we be careful to watch over our affections, and beware that after our delivery we fall not into sin gain.  
Several men subject to several sins, have their several checks in their consciences: some are overcome with wrath, and yet after the moody fit they can tell that the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousness of God; some are subject to lust, and afterwards they say, it profiteth them nothing. Some are given to a continual course of vanity, who notwithstanding can say, that man's l●fe hath another end, some slip deeply into worldliness, and yet they be often wakened with most terrible checks of conscience. Well, blessed are they whose hearts be truly grieved; and let them beware that make ●aliance with sin: for either hardness of heart will overtake them, or a troubled conscience will confound them. Wherefore it comes to pass, that many spending their bodies on lust, lament that ever they so abused their strength; many given too much to the pleasure of this life, had grief come upon them, to remember how they have spent Gods graces, lavished his good gifts, and misspent their time; or else, if they have not this grief, they fall into voluptuousness & draw such a thick skin upon their hearts, as will cause the strongest denouncing of God's judgements to rebound, be they driven on never so hard. And sure it is the sin of this world, that men being controlled in their consciences, whilst they are a praying, and feel a secret charge laid against them, to beware of guile in buying & selling; either have these cheeks less and less, and so they grow to be profane; or else afterward they are wonderfully wounded, that they have been so worldly, so greadely pursuing earthly things; so coldly procuring heavenly things. Thus even our privy thoughts (not profited by) are breeders of farther trouble.  
Now the remedy against this trouble is, willingly and wittingly not to cherish sin, 
Remedy.  to wish that the minister should touch our most privy and secret sins, to be glad privately to be admonished, to profit by our enemies when they do reproach us: and rather to desire (in such a case) to be humbled than to suffer ourselves to be flattered. This trying of ourselves must yet stretch itself farther, not only to the committing of evil, but also to the omitting of good. As when (after some good working and feeling of the spirit,) we begin to fight and conflict with our own consciences saying; though I must pray, I must have time also to provide for my family; if I go so to hear the word of God, surely I shall be in danger to lose this profit; if I thus attend upon the exercises of religion, I shall be cut short in the use of my pleasures. Wherefore it shall be good to search our hearts, not only in the careless not using of the means; but also in the negligent watching over the fruits of the means: saying to ourselves in this manner; I have heard a Sermon, but (alas) without any feeling or working upon my affections; I have been praying, but with no power of the spirit; I have received the Sacrament, but without those joys glorious and unspeakable, which I was wont to taste of. I saw the Discipline of the Church executed, but without any fear of sin at all in myself, or compassion to the member censured.  
And here I dare from my own observation assuredly affirm, that outward sins have not been at some times so grievous to God's children; as that they have sometimes used the means with little reverence and with less fruit. And no marvel, we shall see many men at some times, not so much grieved for their sickness itself, as for that that they have either willingly neglected the means which might have preserved their health, or that they have abused the Physic that might have restored their health to them again: in like manner (I say) it fareth with them, who either unreverently have refused the means, which should keep their souls from surfeiting: or else unthankfully have abused those helps, which might have recovered them again. From hence it cometh, that some men are as much grieved for not using their good gifts to the benefit of God's Church, as others are troubled for pestering the Church with unprofitable corruptions; or as we shall see a rich man sometimes as much humbled for not giving money to the poor, which he might have done; as for heaping up riches falsely, which he ought not to have done. And thus, many (having received good gifts and graces from the Lord) are seasoned and sanctified by afflictions; whereby they are taught to put their gifts in ure, and to offer their service to Christ: and others are forced to hide their gifts, which cannot be without some decay of God's glory, without offence to the weak, without the loss of many souls, which otherwise might be won to the gospel, and without strengthening the hand of the adversary to slander our dark and dumb profession. All which things will in the end bring terror of mind: because if the Lord cannot work upon us by taking away goods, friends, credit, wife, children, or such like, to bring us to Repentance; he will surely whip our naked consciences, he will enter even into our very entrails, and pierce our secret boweles.  
As we must examine ourselves thus for sins of time past, and present, so must we use this practice in sin to come: and this is very needful. For were it so, that our life and conversation were such, as neither before not after our calling, man could justly accuse it: Yet the hidden corruption of our nature, may threaten some heinous downfall in time to come. Which hath made men of very good report and conversation to hang down their heads, and fear their secret hypocrisy, as that which may break forth to the shame of all their former life, in time to come.  
But because we forgot to speak of them, that in the examining of their lives past, are much grieved for the want of sincerity, and for privy vainglory in themselves; let us before we go to the searching of our hearts in sin to come, speak somewhat of this. Men troubled for this privy pride are either touched, or not touched. If the veil of sin was so great in them, that it hide Christ from them; it is the good will of God, that by this sight of their most secret sins they should come to see the righteousness that is in Christ jesus; and so they shall the better be kept from being justiciary Pharisees. For when being a long time well brought up, and leading a civil life, the Devil would persuade us of some inherent righteousness in us; It is the wisdom of our God to touch us with the conscience of most hidden corruptions, as also to certify and make known unto us, that even for our birth there was a secret seed of sin in us, which (without the Lord watching over us) would surely have broken forth to his dishonour.  
As for them which have had some working in them, and yet are often plunged with sore distresses this trouble cometh to them for two especial causes, either for some hypocrisy, that they did more in show than in truth; wherefore the Lord bringeth them back again to see their corrupt proceedings, and that they may know all their religion to be but hypocrisy, & all their righteousness to be but unrighteousness: or for the abusing of their knowledge, in that they made it but a mask to juggle in, & that they made their affections to fight with their own judgements. We must remedy this, by not thinking of ourselves above that which is meet, and by labouring to embrace the truth in truth. And here let us note, that many of God's Children accuse themselves of hypocrisy, when indeed they offend not in it for the most righteous persons are their own greatest accusers. And yet the accusation doth justly arise from some fault on their parts: for though they have done things in truth, yet because with truth they laboured not to see their secret corruptions, in some other matters, they sustain this trouble of mind. So that there is nothing harder than to sift & search our hearts to the bottom, whether we respect our sins past or our sins present, whether we look to our privy pride, hidden wants, or secret corruptions. And to return from whence we digressed, to the examination of our hearts, in sins to come: 
Return to sins to comes.  let us observe that in God's children there is such a jealousy, as they tremble at the very first motions & quake at the least occasion of sin, although because vice will sit in residence very near unto virtue, there may be in them sometime too much scrupulousness This fear causeth the dearest of the Saints of God to reason on this sort; O Lord, I see now many excellent in gifts, and constant in profession for a long time, whose end hath not answered their beginnings, whose deaths were not like to their lives. This is true, whether we look into the word or into the world: and it is a thing that may much humble us. For though we may remember what we have been, and know what we are; yet who can tell what may come unto him hereafter.  
Oh that the serious meditation hereof would dwell long upon our consciences: that with an holy jealousy we might prevent the sin that is to come. But alas, there be some venture some knights, which think it no mastery to offer themselves to masking, minstrelsy and dancing, nor to run into quarrels, brawls and contentions, as though they had their ears, their eyes, their hands and their feet in their own power, and at commandment to use and govern as themselves list.  
Howbeit, GOD'S Children better fenced with his grace, than those bold buxzards are afraid of these occasions: as knowing full well, that their eyes may soon be provoked to lust, their ears may quickly listen unto unchaste delights, their hands may suddenly strike a deadly blow, and their feet may easily be snared in carnal pleasures.  
Beware O man, be circumspect O woman that thou prostitute not thyself to too much liberty: for although in coming to such lascivious and contentious places thou didst purpose none evil; yet for thy venturing without warrant, thou mayst be over thy shoes in sin, and plunged in some wicked attempt over head and ears, ere thou be'st aware. And because vice is so confine unto virtue, beware also of superstition: for still the enemy laboureth either to make thee too hardy in sin, or else he will cause thee to be too fearful and superstititious; either he will puff thee up with presumption, or assault thee with desperation. To these temptations our nature is very pliable: first to presumption, as may appear by our common speech; tush, the Preacher is but a man as I am, I am sure he hath infirmities as others have; we are no Angels, our nature is corrupt, we are but flesh, I am sure you would not have us Gods. Thus the Devil cometh to tempt; but he apparrelleth himself in another suit when he cometh to accuse: and then of a ●lie he makes an Elephant, of the very smallest prick of a pin, a globe of the whole earth: of a mole hill a mountain●: and presseth silly souls with fears and terrors, that they know not how to wind out themselves. If he cannot bring them to make no conscience where they should make conscience, he will labour to bring them to make conscience where they need make no conscience. He careth not whether thou wilt be remiss or superstitious, so thou be one of them. If he cannot get you to follow the Epicurism of the world, as Libertines in diet and apparel; he will make you so precise as to think it a heinous sin, to eat one bit of meat, or to wear one rag of cloth more than for necessity. How needful therefore it is to sail which an even course, we may conjecture by other things which will bewray the corruption of our nature.  
In the time of a plague we shall see some will be so bold, that without any lawful calling or godly warrant, they will rush into places infected; and then falling sick, their conscience pricks them for their tempting of God by an unadvised boldness, in the hour of their death.  
Others plunged as deeply in a quite contrary extremity, are too fearful when they do but hear of the sickness; and for very fear have been brought to death's door, only by imagining themselves to have been infected, when they have been most free, who ofteneimes have even died, and that without any natural cause that ever could be known, but only through immoderate fear▪ and the judgement of God coming upon them for their infidelity and unbelief. Thus it is with us in Christianity, in that as well the oppressing ourselves with too much fear to be overcome, as the carnal security, in not fearing to be overcome, may bring sin upon us. God his children must labour for a measure, and that must be sought for in the word, which will teach them how they shall neither decline on the right hand, nor on the left; but will guide them in the narrow way, showing in every thing what is the virtue, what is the vice; what is the mean, what is the extreme.  
Among many Examples, let us consider of zeal, 
Zeal.  a most precious virtue in Christianity, so long as it is free from the extremities. Otherwise if we be cold in zeal, it is a sin on the left hand: if we be zealous without knowledge, it is preposterous, and becometh a sin on the right hand.  
But can we not come to some perfection? No, if you understand it for an absolute unspottedness; albeit to that perfection which the Scripture taketh for soundness, truth, and sincerity of heart, which is void of careless remissness, we may come. Neither doth the Lord deal with us a●ter our sins, nor reward us after our iniquities: in whose eyes the most glorious actions of men, are but as waters flowing purely from the Conduit, but defiled by passing through a filthy channel: Wherefore although we have our imperfections, let us not seek to be more righteous than we can be; saying for every error of this life, Oh, I am none of God his sons, I am none of his daughters: for I cannot find that perfection in me which is to be required: But let us comfort ourselves in the truth of our hearts, and singleness of our de●ires to serve God, because he is God; and so we shall be accepted of God.  
I speak this to this end, that poor souls might have comfort, and know that is they abhor sin as sin, if they examine themselves for it, if they groan under it, if they mislike themselves for it, if they fear to fall into it; the Lord will not pursue them with the rigour of his law, but will give them the sweetness of his promises; they are no more under the ●urse, but under grace.  
But further to enforce our Exhortation, to avoid too scrupulous a fear, which hindereth the true examination of our hearts: let us think that it happeneth in the spiritual conflict as in civil wars. We read that many Cities lying in great security, have suddenly both been assaulted and overthrown; as also, how some Countries (too much negligence in the means) through an excessive faithfulness, have encouraged their enemies with more greedy violence to pray upon them. With which kind of stratagems our adversary the devil being well acquainted; doth often practise this policy. If he see us without all fear too quietly to rest in ourselves, he thinketh his assault must needs be the stronger, because our resistance is the weaker. Again, if he discrieth in us a cowardly fear and fainting of heart, before we once begin to join battle with him; he will set upon our immoderate fear, & as villainously as suddenly stab us to the heart, & make a present spoil of us.  
Common practice doth farther teach us, that when we can hear the word without all trembling at God his judgements, when we can pray without all fear before the Majesty of God, when we can come to the Discipline of the Church without all reverence of the ordinance of the Lord; all is in vain. Again, let us hear with too much trembling, and we shall learn nothing; let us pray with too servile a fear, and our worshipping of God will be without all comfort and unchearfull. Thus if we neither lessen sin, that is sin indeed; neither make sin of that which is not sin in truth, it is good to proceed to this threefold examination and to lay the edge of this doctrine more near our affections, because many will be found in this ripeness of knowledge and barrenness of conscience, to speak, dispute and declaim of all these things very skilfully, which flickering in the circumference of the brain, and not sitting at the ground of the heart, do seal up a more just sentence of condemnation against them. To help this evil with, we must meditate deeplier of the Law and of the Gospel, together with the appurtenances of them both, that finding ourselves far from God's blessings promised to the keepers of the law, and seeing ourselves near to the curses due to the breakers of the Law, we may raise up some sense of sin in ourselves. Yet herein we must not stay our foot, but give a farther stride: for whereas many by a diligent view of the law, have come to the sense of sin in themselves, and saw plainly their own condemnation: yet because they laboured not to see their guiltiness acquitted by the remission of sin in Christ, they plunged themselves into a bottomless sea of sorrows. Others having passed these degrees, & hitherto made these steps to avoid the wound of Conscience; have come also too short, and miss of the mark: when because beside the sense of sins pardoned by the death of Christ, they felt not also the virtue of his passion crucifying sin in them, but saw that with the remission of sin was not joined the mortification of sin; they feared that there was no forgiveness for them, but still languishing with sorrow, they thought themselves to stand charged with their former guiltiness. Yea and which is more for that such men have not truly been instructed, nor surely have been grounded in the doctrine of Christ's death and resurrection; that is for that they saw not as well power flowing from his death to slay sin in them, as virtue to pardon sin in them; for that they felt not as well strength to Sanctification, streaming from the rising again of Christ, as they were persuaded of justification and righteousness therein: They have line still bleeding at the heart, in such sort, as the wound of grief could hardly or never be staid and staunched. Wherefore let us strengthen our weak souls with this sixefold cord of consolation, against these bitter assaults. Let us first labour to know sin, then to sorrow for sin, after to feel our sins in Christ forgiven, further to look for power to crucify the same, then to lay hold on justification by his resurrection; and lastly, hope for strength to proceed from thence, to further us in sanctification and holiness of life, even unto the end. And thus much briefly for the second thing which we matched in company with the examination of sin, even the trial of faith: both which rightly used, shall in some measure safeguard us from the trouble of an afflicted mind.  
Now let us hasten to the third part of our division; 
The third part of the first division.  to show how God's children being fallen into this wound of spirit may be helped out of it: which (God willing) we will also perform, after we have answered a necessary objection; which (in the former part) might seem to encounter against us. There is no man but will grant, that David, job, and others of the Saints of God, had a sight of their sins, a sorrow for their sins, and a taste of the remission of their sins: how then cometh it to pass, that these men were so troubled in mind? To this I answer, that their trouble so befell them, either for failing in some of these former things; or else they were rather afflicted for trial of their faith, than for punishing of sin in them. And therefore be it always provided, that we think not every conflict of Conscience, continually and chiefly to be for the pursuing of our sins: but sometimes and principally, that it cometh for the trial of our faith: and yet secondarily, or less principally, for the scourging of sin, as we may see in job.  
Whereupon let all men be admonished, when they see good men thus humbled & thrown down in mind, to lay their hands on their mouths from saying; Surely these men are but hypocrites, doubtless these men be great sinners, the Lord hath found out their hypocrisy. For good reason there is, that such silence should be used: for that the Lord may as well make trial of their faith, as take punishment on their sins. For if such affliction should always and chiefly be sent for sin, than it should follow that all others as they exceeded them in sin, should also exceed them in the punishment of sin.  
But now coming to the salving of this soar, 
Salue of this sore.  I shall seem very strange in my cure: and so much the more be wondered at, by how much in manner of proceeding I differ from the most sort of men herein. I am to us and uncertain.  
To them which are troubled with such blind griefs, whereof they can see no reason, as often it happeneth to God's Children in secret providence, who either never knew God, or else had but a general knowledge of him: I answer, that as I deny not Physic to be ministered, if it in part proceed from a natural cause; so I require the word especially to show the principal and original cause to begin in the soul. And this I do the rather, because I would have wisdom both in considering the state of the body if need so require; and in looking chiefly to the ●oule, which so few think of. If a man troubled in Conscience come to a Minister, it may be he will look all to the soul and nothing to the body; if he come to a Physician, he only considereth of the body, and neglecteth the soul. For my part, I would never have the Physicians counsel severed, nor the Minister's labour neglected; because the soul and body dwelling together, it is convenient, that as the soul should be cured by the word, by prayer, by fasting, by threatening, or by comforting; so the body also should be brought into some temperature, by Physic, by purging, by diet, by restoring, by music, and by such like means; providing always that it be done so in the fear of God, and wisdom of his spirit, as we think not by these ordinary means to smother or smoke out our troubles; but as purposing to use them as preparatives, whereby both our souls and bodies may be made more capable of the spiritual means to follow after.  
As we require these things to be the matter of our ministery in such a perplexity; so we would wish the persons ministering to be men learned and of sound judgement, wise, and of Godly experience, meek and of most loving spirits. For when the troubled patient shall be well persuaded of our knowledge and discretion, & there with all shall perceive us to come in tender and loving affection, I think an entrance is made, and all prejudice is taken away, so as we may the more freely work upon the Conscience; first bringing them to the sight of sin, as to some cause of their trouble. Herein we must labour to put away all confusion and blindness of sorrrowe, endeavouring by wisdom to bring the parties wounded to some certain object & matter of their trouble; and so draw out of them the confession of some several especial, and secret, sin; I say several & secret sin, because I know, how many (through a palpable blindness or disordered discerning of sin) talk nothing so much as of sin; and yet they either can not descry several sins, or they will not be brought to acknowledge their secret sins: whereof the one proceedeth of the ignorance of the Law of God, and the other of self love, which maketh us loath even in our travel of mind▪ to shame ourselves.  
Now that the confession of particular sins is requisite, it may appear by the two and thirtieth Psalm, 
Psal. 32.  wherein (being a Psalm of instruction, concerning the forgiveness of sins) the Prophet (by his own experience) teacheth us, that he could find no relief of his sickness, until he had remembered, and made confession of his sins.  
What? shall we think that the Prophet of God (taught so wonderfully by the word and by the spirit) did not see his sins before? Be it far from us. Rather let us know that he had not severally and particularly ripped up his sins before the Lord, in a several confession of them. Which though the Lord knoweth far better than we ourselves: yet such kind of sacrifice is most acceptable unto him.  
Now if in this trouble the person humbled can not come to the particular sight of sin in themselves; it is good to use the help of others unto whom they may offer their hearts to be gauged and searched, and their lives to be examined more deeply, by hearing the several Articles of the law laid open before them; whereby they may try the whole course of their actions. For (as we said before) the grossest hypocrites will generally complain of sin; and yet deal with them in particular points of the particular precepts, and prove them in the applying of things to be done or not done to their own consciences; and we shall see many of these poor souls tossed too and fro, now floating in joys, now plunged in sorrows, not able to distinguish one sin from another.  
Now when we shall see the wound of the spirit to arise of any certain and known sin, it is either for some sin already committed, wherein we lie; or else for some sin as yet not committed, but whereunto we are tempted. For the former: It pleaseth God oftentimes to bring old sins to mind, when we had not thoroughly repent of them before; that so (as it were) representing them to us afresh, we might fall into a more misliking of them. And yet herein is not all, to mislike ourselves for some particulars, although it be good to be occupied about some especial sins: for as it is not sufficient for the avoiding of hypocrisy, to see sin generally: so it is not enough to escheve the deceiveableness of the heart, ever to be poring busily in one particular, and to be forgetful of our great and general sins. But let us learn by the particulars to pass to the generals. When any such one sin then doth pursue thee, rest not only therein, but say thus rather to thyself; Oh Lord, is this one sin so grievous? and doth my God punish this one sin so sorely? How great then should be my punishment, if thou shouldest (O Lord) so deal with me for all my other sins.  
Let us labour to have a sense both of general and of particular sins, lest in time our grief pass away without fruit; whilst that not being displeased as well with one sin, as with another; we either look to superficially to general, and not to particulars; or else too superstitiously observe particulars and not the generals.  
Concerning those sins whereunto we are tempted; as when a man is moved to think blasphemously of God the father, o● to doubt wether there be a Christ or no, or to imagine grossly of the holy Ghost, or to deny GOD, or to doubt of the Trinity; or to be moved to murder, adultery, or such like: in which temptations he feeleth God's spirit to cheek him for them, so as he knoweth not in this case what to do, for that on the one side he dares not listen willingly to these fearful and monstrous temptations; and on the other side, he feareth least in time by long, suit he might fall into them, or at the least for that he seethe not how to be delivered from them: I suppose these motions are not so much to be disputed with, as we by them are to be provoked to more instant and extraordinary zeal of prayer.  
Surely these are dangerous temptations, and therefore are not to be kept close; which our nature will easily incline unto: but particularly are to be confessed of us. For the Devil will come sometime to thee, to keep thee still in a general acknowledging of sin, and urge thee on this manner; Surely thou must needs do this sin, thou seest thou canst have no ease, until thou hast consented, thou art ordained to it: the reason why thou art thus incessantly tempted, is because thou dost not thus take thy pleasure. Go too, deny God, believe not his word: it is but a policy to keep men in awe; Religion is no such matter as men make it. Thus for fear of yielding on the one hand, and for shame of disclosing the temptations on the other hand; many men have pined away, & almost have been overcome by them. If we should disclose this (say these men) what would people say of us? They would count us Atheists, they would think us the wickedest men in the world. Well for our instruction and consolation herein; Let us learn that these kinds of temptations, are either corrections for some sins past, or punishments for some sin present, or forwarners of some sin to come. We shall see many tempted to adultery, who (no doubt) cannot be brought to commit it; & yet because in their youth they have committed it, and not repent of it, it comes to them again. The like may be observed in theft, in gluttony, and in other temptations, which are not so much sent unto us, presently to overcome us, as to put us in mind, that some time heretofore we having been over come with them, should now repent for them. Sun time a man shall lie in some sin, whereof when he will not be admonished, neither by the public nor private means, and then some other strange tentation shall fall upon him, differing from that wherein he presently lieth, to admonish him of that other sin. As when a worldling shall be tempted to adultery, a thing which he hath no desire to do; yet it is to make him look to his wordliness, whereof he hath so strong & through a liking: Whereat if then he will not be awaked, he may suddenly fall into that too, and so by the punishment of GOD, in punishing one sin with another, both his sins shall be to his great shame laid open, and one sin shall make known another. Sometime also it cometh to pass, that one shall be tempted with such a sin, as neither heretofore, nor presently he hath given any liking or entertainment unto; and yet the Lord by it may forewarn him how he may fall into it hereafter, as also to show that he hath stood all his former life, rather by the grace of God than by the strength of flesh and blood. Wherefore when thou art moved to doubt of God, of Christ, of the word, or of justification, do not so much stand wondering at these strange temptations, as think with thyself that it is the mercy of God by them, to cause thee better to discern of those temptations in others: when thou shalt have observed with fear and trembling how they make their first entry into a man's heart, how they gather strength, how they agree with our corrupt nature, in what degrees they come to some growth, how the spirit of God doth resist them, what be the means best to prevail against them. And thus if thou make thy profit by them, thou shalt so wonderfully search and descry by several veins, the body, age and sleight to of these temptations in others, by an holy experience which God hath taught thee in others, that besides that thou shalt lay forth men's secret corruptions, as if thou wast in their bosoms; thou shalt be able also by the seed of sorrow in thyself, to beget an unspeakable joy in others, who in time may be tempted as thou now art.  
Think moreover and beside, that such is the efficacy of sin, that they who are now no Papists, Heretics, Adulterers, or thieves, may for their secure contemning and foolish passing over of these temptations sent unto them, suddenly, shortly after fall into them; because they would not seek to make some use of them, nor confess before the Lord both their proneness & worthiness to fall into them. But if we will humble ourselves in such temptations, and learn by them meekly to discern the corruptions of our hearts, we shall not only persently deliver ourselves from peril, but be also further enabled to assist others hereafter, in the l●ke danger.  
But some will oppose against these things which we have delivered: Do you think it a remedy to cast down them that are already humbled? This is rather to be a Butcher than a builder of a man's conscience. To whom I answer, that I desire Preachers to be Builders, and not Butchers; and it is one thing generally to apply, and another particularly to lay the medicine unto the wound▪ it is good to begin with searching first, and to purge the sore by the vinegar of the Law, and after to supple it with the oil of the Gospel. Both which must be done in wisdom, using them to some in greater, to some in lesser measure. For as some having nothing but a decay of nature, and no mortal humour, need rather restorative, than purging medicines: So some rather troubled for some spiritual wants, than for grosser sins, need not so much the sharp threatenings of the Law, as the sweet promises of the Gospel. But if the body, through some extraordinary repletion hath gotten some great surfeit, not so much to the weakening of nature, as to the threatening of imminent death, and therefore requireth rather some strong purgation, than comfortable and cordial medicines: then the soul brought almost to deaths door with some extraordinary sin, is rather to be bored and pierced with the denouncing of God's judgements than otherwise. But because we would deal more plainly & less confusedly, it is good in our access to afflicted consciences, to lay these two grounds. First, we must persuade the persons humbled, that their sins are pardonable and their sores curable: And after, that this visitation is not so much a sign of God's wrath and anger, as a seal of his mercy and favour, in that it is not either blind or barren, but plentiful in good effects, and fruitful in Godly issues. The former how needful it is, the experience of so many almost as have been thrown down, is a sufficient witness; who have had this as a tag tied to their temptations that never any were so plagued as they, none ever had the like temptations. The Lord will surely make an end of them in some strange and unknown tentation. Wherein they are not vnlike unto men fallen into some dangerous disease, who thinking to be without the fathom of the physicians skill, and not to be within the compass of things recou●rable, add a second and sorer grief unto their former.  
Wherefore as these men seem to be half healed, when any man of knowledge can be brought, who by experience hath cured the like malady in like degrees in others: So, than the sorrowful souls are not a little by hope refreshed and strengthened to look for some ease, when they see none other tentation to have overtaken them, than such as having fallen into the nature of man, have found mercy at the hands of God, that he might be feared. This ground work framed; it is good to build up and repair the decayed joy of the mind, partly by the Law, to make a preparative for these joys; if the mind not truly humbled, is not fit truly to be comforted: and partly by the gospel, if the conscience kindly thrown down, is become a fit subject to apply the sweet promises of God in jesus Christ unto it. And here again, to answer them that deny the law wholly, or at all to be used, when we would breed comfort in one: I demand whether if it be necessary to maintain the righteousness of Christ, it be not also as necessary to preserve the righteousness of the Law? Seeing the righteousness of the Law, of us not fulfilled, will draw us unto the righteousness of Christ to us imputed: And sith the righteousness of Christ to us imputed, is never thoroughly & truly esteemed, until we see the righteousness of the law of us to be unperformed. Again if our Saviour Christ did foreshow his Disciples, that the first work of the holy Ghost at his coming, should be to convict the world of sin, to make men know, that without jesus Christ their is nothing but sin, and then, that he should rebuke the world of righteousness, that they might see how Christ died not for his own sin, but for the sins of others: I see not why it should not be very convenient, first to lay open the righteousness of the law, that men may see their sins; and then the righteousness of Christ; that men may see their sins discharged in him. Besides, where the Lord saith by his Prophet. At what time soever a sinner doth repent of his sins from the bottom of his heart, I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance: it may well be gathered that there must be a sound sorrow for sin go before; and then true joy of sins pardoned, may the more freely by virtue of his promise be both hoped for, & looked for afterward. Moreover, seeing all the promises of God in the gospel are commended unto us under the title and tenor of restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the Lame, health to the Sick, and life to the Dead; it is manifest, not only that there is no disease of the soul which Christ cannot heal: but also that we must first find ourselves blind, deaf, dumb, lame, sick and dead, before he will meddle with us; because they that are whole need not the Physician, and he came to call sinners, not the Righteous to repentance. Now, to do this in wisdom, by neither pressing the conscience too severely, nor releasing the conscience more unadvisedly, it shallbe a safe way, to use the well tempered speech of the Apostle to the sorcerer; Repent, that if it be possible, thy sin may be forgiven thee. Where he doth not wholly discourage him, because it may be his sin may be pardoned; neither yet too boldly encourage him, in that without repentance, he showeth it altogether impossible to be pardoned.  
And that we be not too preposterous in our consolations, let us be warned by the blasphemous speech of that detestable Arian, who of late years was put to death at Norwich. This hellish heretic, a little before he should be executed, 
An Arian executed at Norwich.  afforded a few whorish tears ask whether he might be saved in Christ or no? When one told him, that if he truly repent, he should surely not perish: he broke out most monstrously into this speech: Nay, is your Christ so easily to be entreated indeed, as you say? Then I defy him, and care not for him. Oh how good a thing had it been not to have cast this precious stone to this swine? Oh how safe had it been to have dealt more bitterly, and to have dwelled more vehemently on the conscience of this caitiff?  
Now to attain some discretion in curing this wounded spirit, we must learn wisely to judge, both of the person afflicted, and of the nature of his affliction. First, we may note whether it be a man or a woman, because we may urge more fearfully the use of the law to a man, as being the stronger vessel. And as Satan knew the woman to be most easy and frameable to be wrought upon, at his first temptation: so is he not ignorant that she is the weaker party to sustain any temptation now. Then let us consider, whether they that are thus humbled have knowledge or no? Because, if they have no knowledge they think trouble of mind to be so strange a thing, as never any before had it: if they have knowledge, than Satan is ready to accuse them of the sin against the holy Ghost, as though every sin done against knowledge, were a sin of presumption. Further, we are to inquire, how strong or weak they are, that if they be sorely stricken we cease to humble them any further, if they be not sufficiently wounded then to touch them with some deeper sense of sin. Also we must be circumspect, to find out whether by nature they are more fearful & melancholy or no: As also, whether they be usual sinners, or have fallen once of infirmity; that so upon their disposition & inclination we may build our speeches the better. To these it is good to add the consideration of the persons age, estate & ability: as if the party be troubled for wordliness, whether he be not a great householder: if he complain of uncleanness, whether he be not a young man & unmarried: if he be humbled with covetousness, whether he be not old: because divers countries, callings, ages, conditions & estates of men, have their divers & peculiar sins, which we must rightly discern. Howbeit of what sex soever they are men or women, of what complexion soever the are, of what knowledge to discern sin, of what degree of committing sin; of what age, authority, wealth, estate, or condition soever they are, it is good to mark that there be many, who are more troubled for the vexation and disquietness of their mind being distempered, then for the vileness and horribleness of their sin committed; who are wounded more with the fear of shame, with the fear of being mad, or with the fear of running out of their wits, than with the conscience of sin. Which thing if we find in them, it is our part to travel with them, that they make a less matter of the outward shame, & more conscience of the inward sin. Neither must we here forget to make a distinction between our speeches used to the humbled in the very time of their extreme agony & burning ague of their troubles, & those speeches which we use to them the fit being past; because the one and former requireth more consolation and less exhortation, the other and latter would have us more abundant in admonishing, and more sparing in comforting, when we may wisely admonish them to beware of sin, which so procured their own woe. In this breathing time, it is also expedient to exhort them, that for some season until they shall find greater power of regeneration, they would tie themselves to some holy orders, and godly vows, whereby they may either be furthered in mortifying some special sin; which for that they could find no power against it, did most grieve them, or strengthened in some special grace, the want whereof did also wound them.  
But before we launch deeper into this sea of particular temptations, and begin to found the dangerous passages of natural corruption, and original sin, the troublesome froth whereof, doth almost overwhelm many poor pilgrims it; shall be good to give this caution, that both in these and in the former troubles, men would be still again admonished, patiently to bear with a wounded spirit, albeit it fall out so, that they be somewhat pettish, seeing the holy Ghost speaketh so favourably of them, saying: A wounded Spirit who can bear? And surely our practice in other things, by the law of equity, may urge this at our hands. For if men by the light of reason can see it to be a duty convenient, not furiously to control, but meekly to suffer, and wisely to put up the unadvised speeches of a man distempered in brain, by reason of some burning ague, or such like violent and vehement sickness: we may easily gather even by the same rule of reason, not so severely to censure the impatient speeches of him, who by reason of some parching Fever of the spirit, is disquieted in all parts of his mind, and hath all the veins of his heart (as it were in a spiritual agony) vexed. Wherefore both unsavoury for want of godly wisdom, and uncharitable for want of Christian love, are their murmuring obtrectations which say, what? Is this the godly man? Is this he that is so troubled for his sins? Why! see how pettish he is, nothing can please him: no body can satisfy him. Consider, O man, if thou canst bear with a frail body, that thou must much more bear with a frail mind. Consider O man that this his pettishness doth more wound him to the heart, than any injury thou couldst press him with. And therefore seeing he afflicteth his own soul for it, thou needest not add any thing to his affliction, and to exasperate his grievous smart. Consider that it is a blessed thing mercifully to bethink us of the estate of the needy, and that to rub a fresh wound, & to strain a bleeding sore, is nothing else, but with jobs friends to bring a new torment, where there is no need of it. If the wise father doth rather pity than rebuke his child, when by reason of sickness the appetite is not easily pleased: even so, if we purpose to do any good with an afflicted mind, we must not be austere in reprehending every infirmity, but pitiful in considering of it tender frailty. Neither do I speak this to nourish pettishness in any, but would have them to labour for patience, and to seek for peace, which though they find not at the first, yet by prayer they must wait on the Lord, and say; Lord, because there is mercy that thou mayst be feared: I will wait upon thee, as the eye of the servant waiteth upon the hand of his Master. I will condemn myself of folly, and say, Oh my soul, why art thou so heavy? Why art thou so cast down within me? Still trust in the Lord, for he is thy health and thy salvation.  
FINIS.   

Another short Treatise belonging to the Comfort of an afflicted Conscience.  
IN all afflictions Gods children must look unto the end: They are to desire to profit by them, and in them to seek the way of perfect comfort and consolation: which that they may find, they must know that the afflictions of the godly last but a while; they serve them but for salves and medicines; the end of them is always happy. In them they are not only preserved, and purified from many sins: but also much beautified with the Image of jesus Christ, who is the eldest Son in the house of God. Again the cross of true Christians is the sweet and amiable call of God unto repentance, in that he putteth us in mind thereby to bethink us of our debts: because we are given to think the day of payment is yet far of; yea we fall a sleep until our turn be ended, and whilst God lengtheneth our days waiting for our repentance, we never think of our sins until the hour come wherein we perish with shame. The best meeting then with the lords visitation, is without delay and in sincerity to pray for our sins to be pardoned. For therefore doth the Lord oftentimes shackle us the more with the chains of his chastisements, because we are more careful to be unburdened of our sickness, then to be freed from our sin: which we the rather are loath to confess, because we would not be espied, to be in the wrath of God. Others there be that nearing of their sins in the time of their afflictions, will acknowledge indeed their infirmities to be the mother of such a brood: yet they have no true remorse to restrain themselves from sin, because they have but a confused conceit thereof, and though their ship be never so much tossed and turmoiled, yet think they not that God holdeth the stern. These men if God bear with them, do as it were settle in their lees, and are as it were soaked in their sins. For prosperity is a drunkenness, to cast ourselves into a dead sleep, and when the Lord setteth us alone, we cease not to soothe up ourselves, bearing ourselves in hand, that we are in God's favour, and that he loveth us, because he scourgeth us not. And thus reckless we are whilst we measure Gods love according to our sense and humour. Wherein we be wray our ignorance of the exercise of the cross, in that affliction is the mother of humility, humility breedeth repentance, & repentance obtaineth mercy. Some also there are who usually whilst the fearful judgement of God is before their eyes, either in themselves or in others, have a few glancing motions, and starting cogitations of their sins and of Christ his passion: yet at all other times their minds are so clasped up from thinking of temptations, & their hearts so locked up from foreseeing or forthinking of judgements, that they feel no godly sorrow. They mock the mourning days of the elect, as of them that be of a melancholy nature; they make a sport of sin, as little remembering the sting which will either prick them to the heart blood most fearfully in the hour of death, or meet them with griping agonies in the day of their visitation more speedily. But happily they think they have given good testimony & word of their repentance and remembrance of God, when they give one deep sigh and away, and pass over God's heavy indignation as over burning coals. So that whilst the Lord in prosperity affordeth large peniworthes of his love unto them, they dally with his Majesty, and make a sport of his mercy. All which imperfections may be better corrected, if in our deepest rest with a reverent & humble fear of gods judgements, we did wait for the day of our trial, & prepare ourselves to the lords visitations, as they who by the writing of their own conscience do acknowledge themselves by just title to be fosterers thereof: for the feeling of God's mercy must come from the sight of our misery by sin; which being pardoned, we shall soon have our infirmities heeled. Wherefore let us first learn to cleanse our souls from sin, and then to sustain the sores of our body. Sure it is that if we have suffered our hearts to be harrowed with the rake of God's judgements, (as occasion from the Lord hath been given) that we are become soft & well exercised in the fear of God: we shall come to the feeling of our sins, the sense whereof; if it bring as it were a sickness to the body & a corsie to the soul, it is an undoubted earnest of our regeneration, & happy are we if we find ourselves so diseased and troubled with our sins, that we can hardly (being in the skirmish & agony) make any difference between the motions to any evil, & the consent unto the same: for oftentimes evil motions do so possess the souls of gods children, sucking down so strongly in them that though they weep, pray, and meditate (which be the last means & remedies to ease & cure them) yet though they feel them with irksomenes & loathsomeness, as we feel sickness in our bodies: yet those motions will be continually in them without diminishing, the delight only excepted. Wherefore for our comfort herein, we are not to martyr ourselves with disquietness of mind, because we are so pestered, thronged with wicked motions and assaults, but rather let us quiet our selves, and not suffer ourselves to be hindered with sickness either of body or mind: by means whereof we should become more unprofitable to ourselves, & the whole church of God. For the godly shall not be so freed from sin, but that they shallbe assaulted with evil motions, suspicions, delusious, vain fan ti●●●s & imaginations; the body of sin shall never be from us so long as we live. For the scum thereof is almost continually boiling & wallopping in us, foaming out such filthy froth & stinking savour into our minds, that it is not only detestable to the mind regenerate and renewed by the spirit of God, but also it would make abashed the very natural man, to look into so loathsome a sty of sin, & sink hole of iniquity. Yea it maketh us often to quail, & if it were possible, it would corrupt the very part regenerate. For mighty is the power, & raging is the strength of sin: Neither for all this must we cease to sorrow for our sins, nor despair on the other side, although our sorrow be but small. For if we be sorrowful for the hardness of our hearts, if we can be grieved for that we are no more grieved for our sins, if we can but sigh and groone because we feel our iniquities; it is so much a greater comfort unto us, as it is a greater testimony that our hearts are not altogether hardened: so that if we feel borrow indeed, although we weep not, yet we may gather comfort, considering that this sorrow is for sin with a love and hunger after righteousness: yea if our assaults be distrust, pride, arrogancy, ambition, envy, concupiscence, as who●e as the fire in the furnace all our days, and though Satan layeth out oil in great measure & out of measure, that it is the wonderful mercy of the Lord that we stand; and though our prayers be dull and full of wearisomenes, if the striving and straining of ourselves to goodness be so hard, that we know not whether we strive for fear of punishment or for love of so good a Father: yet if we feel this in ourselves that we would feign love the Lord, and be better, and being wearied and tired with our sins, long gladly to enjoy the peace of righteousness, and desire to please God in a simple obedience of faith; then let us comfort ourselves; there is no time to late to repent in. For he cometh quickly to Christ (although in the hou●e of death) that cometh willingly, and in a desire of a better life: howsoever sin and Satan at that time would especially persuade him. For as the humming Bee having lost her sting in an other, doth still notwithstanding make a fearful and grievous noise by her often buzzing about us, but is nothing able to hurt us: so sin & death, having lost their stings in Christ jesus, do not cease at all, even in the height of the parching heat of our consciences, to make a murmuring: and with furious storms of temptations to terrify us and our consciences, albeit they can never sting us. Wherefore if Satan charge our consciences with sin (if we can feel the things a little before mentioned, in our consciences) let us bid him, not tell us what we have been, but what we would be. For such we are by imputation as we be in affection, and he is now no sinner, who for the love he beareth to righteousness, would be no sinner. Such as we be in desire and purpose, such we be in reckoning and account with God, who giveth that true desire and holy purpose to none but to his children whom he justifieth. Neither undoubtedly can the guiltiness of sin break the peace of our conscience, seeing it is the work of an other who hath commended us as righteous before God, and saved us. It must indeed be confessed, that our own works will do nothing in the matter of justification, which from Christ, & in Christ is freely given unto us: it must be granted that in ourselves we are weaker than that we can resist the least sin, so far of is it, that we can encounter with the law, sin, death, hell and Satan: and yet in Christ we are more than conquerors over them all. When the law accuseth thee because thou hast not observed it; send it to Christ & say, there is a man that hath fulfilled the law: to him I cleave, he hath fulfilled it for me, and hath given the fulfilling of it unto me; I have nothing to do with thee, I have another law which striketh thee down, even the law of liberty which through Christ hath set me free. For my conscience which henceforth serveth the law of grace, is a glorious prince to triumph over thee. If sin come and would have thee by the throat, send it to Christ, & say, as much as thou mayst do against him, so much right thou shalt have against me. For I am in him, & he in me: wherefore (O sin) I am righteous through my Christ, which is a condemning sin, to condemn thee which art a condemned sinner. If death creep upon thee & attempt to devour thee, say unto it, Christ hath overcome thee, & opened to me the gates of everlasting life: thou wouldst have killed him, with the sting of sin, but the same being of no force, thy purpose (O death) hath failed, and he being my life, is become thy death. If Satan summon thee to answer for thy debts, send him also to Christ and say, that the wife is not suable, but the husband: enter thine action against Christ mine husband, and he will make thee a sufficient answer: who then shall condemn us? or what judge shall daunt us? sith God is our judge and accquited us? and Christ was condemned, & justifieth us? he is our judge that willeth not the death of a sinner; he is our man of law who to excuse us, suffered himself to be accused for us. O gluttonous hell where is thy defence? O cruel sin, where is thy tyrannous power? O ravening death where is thy bloody sting? O roaring Lion, why dost thou freete and foam? Christ my law fighteth against thee O law, and is my liberty. Sin against thee O sin, and is my righteousness: Christ against thee O devil, and is my saviour? Death against thee O death & is my life. Thou didst desire to pave my way to the burning lake of damned souls: but contrary to thy will, thou art constrained to lift up the ladder whereby I must ascend into the new jerusalem. Wherefore if we shall find ourselves forsaken of God, so as we perceive nothing but matter of despair, let us still hold our own; & in the certainty of our faith stay ourselves, sith Christ is given us of God that he might extinguish sin, triumph over the law, vanquish death, overcome the devil, and destroy hell, for our only comfort and consolation. But peradventure some will say, my faith is weak and cold, and my conscience is as a ●laming lamp and burning furnace: I fear the Lord will still pursue me with his wrathful indignation: Thou dost well to fear, but fear and sin not.  
For fear which subdueth the security of the flesh, is in all most requisite, in that the weaker we are in ourselves, the stronger we are in God. But that fear is dangerous, which hindereth the certainty of faith, in that it encourageth our enemy more fiercely to set upon us; when we (coming into the camp) will cast away our armour especially which should defend us. Comfort thyself, the Lord will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed, he looketh not on the quantity but on the quality of our faith. For as a good mother doth not reject her child because through some infirmity it is weak, feeble and not able to go alone, but rather doth pity and support it lest peradventure it should fall, & recompenseth that with more motherly affection, which in her child is wanting by occasion: in like manner the Lord God our most gracious father doth not cast us off, because through our imperfections we are unable or afraid to draw nearer to the throne of grace; but rather pitieth us, and seeing us a far of desirous to come unto him, meeteth us by the way, & by grace & strength of his own hand, directeth our steps unto his kingdom. And as he which freely purposeth to give a wedge of gold, will not withdraw his gift because the hand of him that should receive it, is weak, troubled with the gout, palsy, or leprosy, so that by any means, though in great weakness, he be able to hold it: even so the Lord purposing in free mercy to bestow on us an immortal weight of glory, will not deprive us of it, though many filthy blemishes have polluted and weakened or faith, so that in any small measure we be able to take hold of his promises▪ neither are we ●o look on our faith which the Gospel hath called us unto, because we never believe as we ought; but rather on that which the Gospel offereth & giveth, that is on God's mercy and peace in Christ: in whose lap if we can lay our heads with Saint john, than we are in felicity, security, and perfect quietness. Contrariwise there be some, who (notwithstanding that a tormented conscience is a stinging Serpent, that it were much better that all the creatures rose up against us, every one bringnig their bane; then once to come before the dreadful face of God) are so blockish that they are wholly resolved into hardness. If they be pricked with sickness, they cry alas; if they be pinched with poverty thy can complain: but as for the torment of mind they cannot skill of it: And even to talk of abrused, contrite & broken heart, is a strange language. For proof whereof our consciences are rocked asleep so that not one amongst a thousand knoweth what it is to be pressed and harrowed with the rake of God's judgements. But blessed are they that to their own salvation feel this in their bodies, whilst sin may be both punished and purged. For though God spare us for a time, yet we know what he keepeth for our end. Wherefore it is the best for us to run to the Lord in this life with a troubled mind, lest we tarry till the Lord have locked us up with the heavy fetters of desperation, when he shall summon us to the bar of his judgement, in the sight of his Angels, and impannelling the great inquest of his Saints against us, shall denounce our fearful and final sentence of eternal condemnation, for we see many that have been careless and have made good cheer all their life long, yea, and when men have laboured to make them feel the judgements of God, they have turned all to mockery, but whose jollity the Lord hath so abated when they draw towards death, that in stead of resting and sporting (whereunto they had been given) they have felt the terror of death, hell, and damnation, and lapping up their joys in final desperation, have forced out cursings against their filthy pleasures. Wherefore if we in the tempest of our temptations will sail a right course, neither shrinking nor slipping into the gulf of desperation, neither battering our bark against the rock of presumption; Let us in a contrite spirit cry unto the Lord: Have mercy upon me, heal my soul for I have sinned against thee, forgive all mine iniquities, and heal all mine infirmities. Thou healest those that are broken in heart and bindest up their sores: why art thou cast down my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me, wait on God, for I will yet give him thanks, he is my present help, & my God. Yet my soul keep thou silence before God, of him cometh my salvation, he is my strength, therefore I shall not much be moved, his mightiness is enough to give me courage, yea and shallbe even when I am forlorn, I know that the diminishing of my body, goods, friends, or any other thing is a calling of me, to that which never shall diminish nor decay, I believe that my Lord and my God allureth me daily thither; that I might not doubt that when my body is laid in the grave, and there consumed as it were to nothing, yet notwithstanding my soul resting in the bosom of the Lord, shall return unto me and shall rise to glory: even as it (resting in this life, in the mercies of Christ) did rise to grace verily I see, & that with joy, that my flesh must go to decay for look what freshness soever was in it, it diminished day by day. And I need not go far to seek for death, for I feel not so small an infirmity in my body, but the same is unto me a messenger of dissolution. Yet for all this I shall see my God, and when I am covered in the belly of the grave with moulds, I am assured, that he will reach me his hand to lift me up again to the beauty of his inheritance: so that this small cottage and shed of leaves, being brought to the grave, shall be carried into an incorruptible tabernacle. Thus communing with our own hearts, and being still in the peace of a good conscience, concerning our outward sufferings, we shall find that the Lord by his fatherly and loving chastisements, intendeth nothing more than to prove our obedience, as good reason it is that he should, and to confirm our faith, as also is most necessary. Howbeit still as I said, he useth a fatherly correction, that is, in mercy, measure, and judgement. For as he striketh us down in anger for our sins with the one hand, so he raiseth us up again in love for our salvation with the other hand. For albeit his corrections be wearisome wounds to flesh and blood, yet are they sovereign medicines to the soul and conscience, especially when the Lord giveth us that priviuiledge of his children, that by his holy spirit he doth overmaster us, lest that finally we should be his judge, and he not ours. And for this cause the Lord is often times provoked to put on (as it were) a contrary face, & to lock us up in a prison of adversity, to restrain us from the liberty of our sins, which Satan feign would make us violently to rush into. And surely though the wisdom of the flesh persuadeth us that nothing is better than to be spared and not to be espied when the Lord calleth us to reckoning; yet the spirit showing our desperate estate, without the sire of affliction, and boulter of adversity, teacheth us that we cannot of all the blessings of God sufficiently esteem this, being the mother of humility, and nurse of true repentance. Again, the Lord fitteth us often by inward temptations and outward crosses, to flit us from the stake of security and untowardness to good works; least in time we should lose the experience of our knowledge and faith in Christ, and seek some easier kind of life for flesh & blood. Neither can we truly repent, until by some cross we know this world to be a place of sorrow, and not of mirth and delight. For so long as we make our prosperity a bulwark to beat down all harms, we are to look for adversity to beat down the high sail of our proud hearts, whereby we gad after our own lusts, and leave the anchor of peace, which is our trust in God. Let us learn● then, when the world beginneth to favour us, and we have as it were an hundredth thousand soldiers, to bear us up; not to be secure; for there is nothing more easy for a man, then for to make himself believe that he shall always continue in happy estate, and think he shall die in the nest. But we must be as birds on a bough, to remove at God's pleasure, and that without resistance when the Lord shall visit us. And because we are given to much to think that we have the things in our own right, which we hold of the free goodness of God: we are taught in affliction how heinous unthankfulness it were to bind the Lord continually to entertain us in this life at so full Charge and cost, without respect of his free & undeserved gifts: or to hold plea against, and sue him as it were by an obligation, at whose hands we ought to beg daily; and at whose gate we receive all our maintenance: or to make a rend charge of all that which he giveth of his he liberality. Thus in the end we make a challenge of ownershippe of God's gifts, and make account to have their company to the grave, whereby we provoke the Lord often to prove to our faces, that all that we have is but lent and borrowed. Let us then have such an eye to every blow, that whensoever the Lord shall lay any cross upon us, we be ready to receive it & to yield up our bonds unto him, the condition whereof is, that we be ready to remove whensoever he pleaseth, knowing that God's providence forceth us always to the best, and as most may make for the hastening of our souls to our everlasting inheritance. Let us learn not to reckon without our host, & that we hold our prosperity of the Lord not in ●ee simple, but as tenants at will, that is, from day to day, resigning to God the sovereignty of revoking us when it pleaseth him. Thus it becometh the Lord to change our estate that we be come not snatled in the gifts of prosperity, and become so foolish as not to keep on our way to the heavenly life. Our natural inclination is to forget that we are on earth as pilgrims; to leap up into the clouds; and to promise unto ourselves the whole course of our lives to be in prosperity; and so long as God letteth us alone at our ease, we take ourselves (as it were) to be petty Gods. But when we see ourselves shut up, and know not what will be the end of our misery, finding ourselves to be entertained in this life but as journey men, waged for the present day, but not knowing what will become of us the day following: we desire to take our ●est in the bosom of God's providence, and so much we strike our sails the lower, when the Lord proclaimeth war with our secure prosperity: which persuadeth us that we shall live for ever, and driveth us from bethinking us of our miseries and frailties. Wherefore let us cut out our prosperity by the pattern of humility, and in our best estate, put ourselves in readiness to suffer adversity, and when we are well, to look for worse, & keep a good watch when God handleth us most gently, that in abounding we may foresee our wants, in health our sickness, and in prosperity our calamity: concerning things of this life the faithful are to stand in a doubt, that that which they hold with one hand, may be taken away with the other. We must not think that we shall ever be shut up in a mewe, so that we should see no cross: but we must lay open ourselves to receive stripes from the Lord, knowing that our least cries will stay his greatest scourges. Let us love to be assaulted, but not unmeasurably because God will assist us. Let us look to fall, but on our knees, because God's hand doth hold us up. Let us look to be humbled but in mercy, because the Lord sustaineth us, and as we are assured where misery hemmeth us about on every side, to have an out-gate in every danger▪ so it is our part continually to confess before the Lord, that we ever give new occasions that he should follow us with new punishments▪ and that our sins do often shake of the wings of God's mercy, under the which we have been long comforted. For God's children acknowledge themselves without ceasing, that God hath rods in a readiness (though they see no present evil) to beat them from their sins: and bend all their care, how they may rather suffer ad●ersitie to God's glory, then to steep securely in prosperity unto their own pleasure. Now when the Lord doth, as it were hold us on the rack for these causes before named, we must pray unto him, that (howsoever he keepeth us in the press) we may have a breathing while to consider our days spent in pleasure, and to examine our unthankfulness, which shutteth up the door of God's mercy from us. And because our afflictions are the sorer when they come the nearer to the soul, we may with ourselves conclude to hold on the way of our thorough-●aire and though we see nothing but thorns of temptations, and briars of evil affection's, so as we must be feign to leap over hedges, rocks, and ditches; yet must we not cease to continue in God's service. For if that were not, what trial and examination of our faith should there be, wear we as in a fair meadow that we might run on a long by the water side in a shade, and that there might be nothing but pleasure and joy all our life time: who could vaunt that he had served God with good affection? But when GOD doth send us things clean contrary to our desires, that we must be feign one while to enter into a quagmire, and another while to march upon ragged rocks & stones; then we shall have the use of a well ex-excised mind in prayer, in repentance, and in contempt of this life. And why doth the Lord some time suffer us to pine away, and to languish in continuance of grief, seeing that he could clean rid us at the first, doubtless to this end, that we might confess his mercy more freely, and bite of his iuststice more sharply. Let us now learn to hold all the passions of impacientie in bondage, both by comparing our evils which the wonderful mercies of GOD, and our small sufferings with the intolerable conflicts of our forefathers For there is no greater cause of our despairing under the cross, then when Satan persuadeth us: that never any were handled so roughly, or else would bear us in hand, that although GOD afflicted the faithful that have been before us, yet they were not so weak as we. But let us remember that GOD hath so pinched his servants, even them whom he loved, and whose welfare was dear and precious in his fight, and hath often brought them to such extremities, as they were not able to look up any more, not witted how to speak nor how to hold their peace. Wherefore lest our infirmities should overmaster us, and when temptations are fierce upon us, we know not where to become: Let us call too mind the Saints of God, who were constrained with sighs and groans to stoop under the hand of GOD; whose martyrs and tormented children ought to be our looking glasses, to the end that by them we may learn, that according as GOD dealeth forth the gifts of the Spirit, thereafter doth he send greater afflictions; both to make than the more esteemed, and also to cast up a more plentiful fruit of their faith. How did God deal with Abraham, 
Abraham  not a common man, but rather an Angel, the tenth part of whose sufferings would make a stout heart to quail. How was David the servant of God, 
David.  exercised in God's school, who felt all God's dar●s, and had all his arrows shot at him. Thus it is requisite that God's graces should not b● idle in his children, but set on work by afflictions, whereby they may be known in due time and place. How did God play the Lion wi●h Ezechias, 
Ezechias.  who (as with paws & teeth) bruised and crushed his bones; not that we may accuse God of cruelty, but that we may see with what anguish the Lord doth some times exercise his children, and with what patience he doth arm them: who notwithstanding his vehement trials, do stay themselves upon God, accusing themselves (Mat. 7.9) I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him: and excusing the Lord with all humbleness with David (Psal. 114) I know O Lord that thy judgements are right, and that thou hast afflicted me justly etc. It is much available to mortification and Christian patience also, to occupy our hearts in the house of mourning even in our greatest banqueting, and to betake ourselves unto some serious meditation of adversity, when present pleasures would most divorce us from the remembrance thereof. So though we have much in possession, we shall have little in affection & when God doth most advance us, we shall fear our wants of humility: and ●hen especially be ransacking our infirmities, when the Lord for ou● trial enricheth us most with his benefits. For if the Lord God by multiplying his mercies increaseth our account; we are often to suspect, to call to judgement, and to arraine ourselves for the using of God's creatures; who often giveth that in judgement, which he might deny us in mercy and often waineth us from some things in his love, which he might give unto us in his anger.  
FINIS.   

Sweet and sure signs of Election, to them especially that are brought low.  
A clearing of judgement, conceiving of the truth, and true meaning of the Scripture making for us or against us.  
A rebuking of sin inwardly, a poverty of spirit from thence, and a mourning therefore.  
A being cast downe in our own conceit, & a meekness to bear our punishment thereby wrought.  
An hungering after the righteousness which is in Christ, and a prising and esteeming it above all eartly things.  
A musing upon, and a desire to think and speak of heavenly things.  
A conflict of the flesh and spirit, and therein by practise the powe● of the spirit getting the upper hand.  
A fowing to the spirit, by the use of the means, as of the word, prayer, etc.  
A purpose unfeigned, upon strength received, of vowing one's self wholly to the glory of God, and good of our brethren.  
A resignation of ourselves into God's hands.  
An expecting of the daily increase of our soul's health, and our body's resurrection.  
The forgiving of our enemies.  
An acknowledging of our offences with a purpose truly to leave them.  
A delight in God's Saints.  
A desire that after death the Church of GOD may flourish and have all peace.  
A spirit without guile: that is, an unfeigned purpose always to do well, howsoever our infirmities put us by it.  
FINIS.   

A letter from M. Richard Greeneham to a friend of his, M. M. against hardness of heart.  
I Beseech God the Father of our Lord jesus Christ give me his holy spirit in writing to give advice, and you in reading to receive it, Amen. Since the time I received M. S. his letter, wherein he declared his careful compassion over your estate, I have been not a little grieved because, partly for want of a convenient messenger, & partly because of my manifold distractions with the like occurrences & other weighty affairs, I have been hindered hitherto from writing unto you. And albeit even still I am in the same case, yet conscience towards God, compassion & love towards you, forceth me to overcome lets which hardly I could otherwise prevail against. And albeit I cannot write as I would, yet of that which I shall write proceeding from the forenamed grounds I look for some blessing from God through jesus Christ if you will not too much faint in faith, and yield to the adversary: yea, if you will but hope so well of yourself, as (in the fear of GOD I do write it) I hope of you. First, whereas it seemeth you are sometimes grieved, because you tarried not still at Cambridge according to mine advise, you must know I advised it not as a thing necessary, but more convenient, as I than supposed, but I advised you to obey your father, if his pleasure still continued to have you home; whereunto you yielding, I cannot see ●owe you offended, it being your Father's pleasure you should so do. And who knoweth whether being there you might not have been as much troubled, there being no privilege for persons and places in such cases: And who knoweth whether it be the lords pleasure, for the example and instruction (and I hope the consolation) of others in the end. And albeit you will now think that here you were nearer the more and stronger means, yet know you and be persuaded, that God can and doth in such cases work by fewer and weaker, according to his good pleasure: Besides, it is in our corrupt nature to make much of such means as we cannot have, and not so to esteem those which God doth offer us, as we should; I beseech you therefore in the name of jesus Christ, humbly to praise God for those means he offereth in mercy unto you, and to use them in faith accordingly; and so God shall bless you by them: And then by such conference as you may have from hence by letters, wherein if I may stand you in any steed, rather for the good opinion you have of me, then for any great matter I am able to perform, I shallbe ready to offer any office of love unto you as God shall enable me, and so far forth as I shall be at any time instructed in your particular estate in some letters sent from you by convenient messengers. That which I perceive presently by M. S. letter is, that you are afflicted with the blindness of your mind; and hardness of your heart, which cannot be moved either with the promises of God's mercies, or fear of his judgements; nor affected with the love & delight of the things which be good, nor with the hatred and loathing of the evil. Great cause you have of grief I confess, but no cause of despair dare I grant, because I am persuaded that your persuasion is somewhat false, partly for want of a sound judgement of your estate, and partly for some defect of faith, somewhat through your own default. First therefore know you for a certainty, that this is no other tentation, than such as divers of God's children have been humbled with, and afterward have had a good issue out of it: and if it please God to move ye to credit me, I myself have known others, as deeply this way plunged, as you can be. Remember therefore, that God is faithful, and will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you shall be able to bear. And yet farther to confirm you herein, 
1. Cor. 10.13  the holy scriptures do record, that this way God heretofore hath humbled his own people: in whose person the Prophet Esay lamentably complaineth. 
Esa. 63, 15.  O Lord look down from heaven, behold from thy dwelling place of thy holiness, and of thy glory. Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the multitude of thy mercies, and of thy compassions? They are restrained from me. And afterwards; O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear? And in the next chapped. 
verse. ●  We have been alas an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy clouts: and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities as the wind doth take us away: and there is none that calleth upon thy name, neither that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. And before. 
Esa. 59.10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as one without eyes, we roar like bears, and mourn like doves. So complaineth Ezechias in the bitterness of his soul; 
Esa. 38.14  Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter, I did mourn as a dove: 
Psal. 51.10  And when David crieth, Create in me O God a clean heart, renew in me a right spirit. Restore to me the joy of my salvation, establish me with thy free spirit: doth he not declare that his heart was unclean, his spirit craked, the joy of his salvation lost, and himself subject to ●he sp●rit of bondage? so that wanting the spirit of liberty or adoption, he could neither cry Abba Father, nor have any power against sin. T●us you see how God's children may be blinded in mind, and hardened in heart for a time, so that they feel in themselves the grace of the holy spirit to be as it were perished and dead. Farther to relieve the infirmity of your judgement in this case, because I know it may much distress you, you must understand that there be two kinds of hardness of heart, the one which is not felt nor perceived; The other which is perceived & felt; and of the former that there be two sorts, the first (which is most fearful) when any do purposely resist the motions of God's spirit, and wilfully refuse the means of their salvation; of which the Prophet Zachary speaketh. 7.11. They refused to hearken, and pulled away their shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear: yea, they made their hearts as an Adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts sent in his spirit by the ministry of the former Prophets. The outrageous sin of these men, the Prophet Esay expresseth in these their own fearful terms, 
Esay. 28.15  we have made a covenant with death, and with hell, we are at agreement: though a scourge run over and pass through, it shall not come at us: for we have made falsehood our refuge, and under vanity are we hidden. This was a fearful estate indeed; yet for all that no man can say, but some of those having hardened their hearts, might be, and were afterwards converted. The other kind of hardness of heart which is not felt not perceived, or if perceived, y●t not felt; (which albeit it is less fearful, yet it is dangerous enough) is in such, as although they wilfully resist not God● spirit in good means; yet securely, carelessly and willingly they lie in sin, without any remorse of i●, or true taste of good things. Such was David his estate for the space of a year before Nathan the Prophet am to reprove him, and rouse him from his lulled sleep. Both these kinds I am persuaded you are free from, otherwise than in temptation. Satan may sometimes move ye thereunto. The other kind of hardness of heart which is perceived and felt, is of two sorts; the one in them which are desirous of means whereby they may be relieved, although they do find small or no ease at all in themselves for a time.  
Of this kind the Prophet Esay (in the name of some of god's people) complained. 
Esay, 63  And such was David's state. After that Nathan had reproved him, and gods spirit began to to work wi●h him, yet he crieth out as ye heard before, of the loss of gods graces: and when he saith, that God will accept of no sacrifices be they never so many nor precious, without a contrite heart and broken spirit; he showeth that for a time (even a●ter the proph●t had reproved him) he wanted both. This is your case, and therefore you are in the state of salvation; for David was in this case, even after he had confessed his sin, and had received absolution and pardon from God, by the ministery of Nathan, although he never felt joy thereof, nor true grief for the other: yet because in truth of heart he confessed his fin (as my trust is you do) and was certainly persuaded of the pardonableness of i● by god's mercy, (although he was far off from the feeling it, or applying it to his woeful conscience) his state was good, & very well to be hoped of. And you must know & be persuaded that those things which are written of gods saints, & namely of David & Peter, & such others, are examples for us, if we will stay ourselves upon the word of God in the ministery of his servants, & wait upon the Lords good time, till he come nearer unto us by his spirit: nearer I say, for he is come already unto you: or it may be he never went from you; because to be grieved & humbled with blindness of mind & hardness of heart, to believe certainly the truth of God his promises in general, and to reverence the servants of God which bring the glad tidings of salvation and to long after the comforts, using the means of the word and prayer, the Sacrament of the supper, and the company of gods children, contrary to hope, under hope, yea without any present feeling: all this is a certain argument, that gods spirit is with such, & therefore with you. This estate although it be very grievous, yet it is never dangerous, much less is it fearful; unless any be so wilful, that they persevere & continue in desperate refusing all good means: unless they persevere I say, for that through the spiritual adversary, & his forcible power, whereby God suffereth him sometime for a season to winnow them as wheat, they are so be witched and intoxicated, that they are carried by violent force of temptation, to wax weary of, or to refuse all means of comfort by fits: yea, almost to have no desire at all unto them: yea, sometimes to speak veie evil of them: But all this is but temptation, and therefore GOD will be merciful unto them for Christ his sake.  
Thus job cursed the day of his birth, and wished to be strangled; jeremy almost repent that ever he preached in the name of the Lord: both scarcely abstain from blasphemy. David moved with the spirit of ambition (though dutifully admonished) wilfully w●nt onin numbering the people; Peter also vain gloriously presuming of his own strength, being most wisely and effectually preadmonished of his weakness even by our Lord jesus, yet wittingly rusheth as a horse into the battle and then very cowardly yieldeth, yea doubly denieth, yea strengtheneth his sin with a threefold chord, and fasteneth it with banning and cursings: and yet all these obtained mercy most bountifully. For why? as Satan had desired to winnow them, so our Lord jesus prayed for them, that their faith, though it was vehemently assaulted, yet should not be overcome; although it was battered, yet that it should not be destroyed▪ and though it was oppressed, yet that it should not be extinguished. And here be you fully persuaded, that albeit Luke. 22.31. the words seem to run as belonging but to Peter, Vz. I have prayed for thee that thy faith should not fail; yet he prayed for the rest of the Apostles, yea for all the faithful. For first he saith not, Simon sathan hath desired to winnow thee: but you. Why then saith he, I have prayed for thee? verily because he should more grievously offend than the rest: although their offence was very great; therefore his and our most blessed Saviour applied to him the promise, but did not appropriate it unto him only, and restrained it from the rest. Compare with this place. john. 17.20. and you shall see that the heavenly verity affirmeth; that he prayed not only for the Apostles, but for all those that should believe through their word: yea farther, Our lord jesus Christ was yesterday, is to day, & shallbe for ever. And as the forefathers were baptized into him, 
Hebr. 13.  and did eat his flesh, and did drink his blood; so was his prayer effectual even to them under the law; much more to us under grace. And when you can find testimony in your heart, that when you would do well, evil is present with you, and that you do the evil you would not; then do not you it, but sin in you, when it leadeth you captive. Much more when sathan works with all buffeting you, 
Rom. ●.  assure yourself that God hath pity on you, that the virtue of his power shall be perfect in your weakness. If you believe, 
2. Co. 12.9  according to your faith it shallbe done unto you. But you will say, you cannot believe, that this vile & crooked hardness of your heart can be remitted & renewed: & even this was the second point which in the former part of my letter I gave you to understand was the cause of your excessive distress. I beseech you, & I charge you in the name of our lord jesus Christ, that you will not willingly lie nor offer injury to god's spirit, nor to yourself who hath received it. Tell me, what is the reason why you think you have no faith? Verily because you have no feeling, nor any other fruits thereof, as you think. Wel●▪ first than agree with me herein (as you must if you will not disagree with the truth) that feeling is but an effect and fruit of faith; and therefore theremay be faith without feeling, as well as thecause may be without the effect, & the tree without any appearance of fruit, yea, of sap for a season. And as a man sore wounded and diseased, may for a season be deprived almost of all operations of the natural life to the outward show, and to his own judgement and feeling; so may a spiritual man be●ore wounded by sa●han, and diseased by the present feeling of his sinful corruptions, specially in temptations; that he may think, yea appear to others, that the life of the spirit is not in him. Thus, Peter's faith did not wholly fail, (as you have heard) or else the prayer of our Saviour prevailed not. Thus when David declared that his heart was unclean, 
Psal 5.12.  and his spirit crooked or unstable; 
vers. 14.  and that he had lost the joy of his salvation, 
vers. 13.  and the spirit of liberty, or adoption: yet he prayeth, that God would not take his holy spirit from him: therefore he was not deprived of the spirit of sanctification.  
Hear seemeth to be repugnance, but there is not any: he was deprived indeed for a time of the graces of the sanctifying spirit, but not of the holy Ghost where with he was sanctified: which graces, as God restored unto him, so I am persuaded he will do unto you: Yea and I doubt whether you are deprived of them; but only that partly Melancholy, partly Satan working therewith, make you do injury to yourself, and to the graces of the spirit in you; which I beseech you to take heed of.  
But the messenger cannot stay, and therefore I cannot write as I would, either of this, or of the remedy which you should use; which here after I will, as God shall enable me: and I pray you let me understand (as I requested in the beginning) of your estate in particular somewhat more, and that by this Bearer if you can; because he is of your acquaintance, and will bring it to me faithfully. Only I add now unto that I have written of hardness of heart at large, that you must diligently observe the word Create, which David useth, 
Psal. 51.  declaring that he had no feeling of heart. To this join that which the Prophet Esay speaketh in the person of God. I create the fruit of the lips to be peace, peace as well to him that is far off, as to him that is near. Therefore in faith you may as well pray, with hope to obtain, 
Esa 64.12  as did David: therefore say with him often, and with God's people. O Lord, thou art our Father: we indeed are clay, but thou art our maker, and we are the work of thy hands etc. Know also, God can cause wolves lions, 
Esay. 11.6.  leopards, etc. to dwell lovingly with lambs, calves and kids, etc. & that which is unpossible to men, is possible with God, even to cause a cable rope to go through a needle's eye; that is, to change the hard heart of the unbelieving covetous wretched man; much more yours: yea know you that all things are possible to him which believeth. Cry then, I believe, O Lord help my unbelief: and I dare promise you in the name of our Lord jesus Christ, that you shall have your hearts hesire in goodness. Thus abruptly I must end, I commend you to God & the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you the right of inheritance among them that are sanctified. And the very God of peace sanctify you throughout, that your whole spirit & soul and body may be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord jesus Christ. Faithful is he which hath called you, which will do it. Amen. I pray you pray for me, & I trust as I have, so I shall pray for you, and much more.  
Yours in Christ jesus to use in any need. R. G.   

another Comfortable Letter by Master R. G. to Master M.  
BRother beloved in our Lord jesus Christ, seeing you have had heretofore not only knowledge, but also experience of God's gracious and merciful goodness in jesus Christ, of your own unbelief and of Satan's subtleness; I could marvel why you should give such place, and not keep your ground no furer, if I were not much acquainted with such occurrences. I know not therefore whether with words of rebuke, or of comfort, I should seek to relieve you. Because I cannot come unto you, my counsel and desire is, that you would come up to London the next Term at the farthest; that so I might ask of God, to frame my speech to your Good. In the mean season I beseech you to call unto mind that which you cannot be ignorant of, that in the law, 
Levit. 5.45.6.23.  sacrifices were offered for God's people, not only at their first entrance into covenant with the Lord, but also afterwards many times; 
Levit. 5.45.15.6.2. Num. 15.28.  and that not only for sins committed by ignorance but also by error, that is, forgetfulness, frailness, recklessness, carelessness, etc. If you have not Tremelius his translation by you, you must take heed of the english that hath ignorance, for they failed that so translated it.  
It is manifest that the sin of error is there opposed against the sin committed with an high hand, that is to blasphemy with contempt of God, and making his law of none effect but to be in vain. Which sin jam sure you are most far off from, I would you were as far off from unbelief and distrust. That God's children may fall after their calling into divers foul faults, may appear by many proofs. First, in the Law, when the Lord speaketh in his Majesty and proclaimeth his glory, 
Exod. 24.6.7.  yet in how many words commendeth he his mercy, and for how many several sorts of sins. Doth not Esay the holy Prophet call the people of his days, 
Esay. 1.10.11.  the people of Gomorrha, and their Princes the Princes of Sodom? Doth not he accuse them as grievous transgressors both of the first and second Table; and yet doth afterwards promise them, that though their sins were as crimson, 
vers. 18.  they shall be as white as snow; though they were red like scarlet, they shall be as wool. Doth he not charge them that they were sunk deep in rebellion, 
Esa. 31.6  and yet exhorteth them to return unto the Lord? Yea, doth he not charge them not only with rebellion, 
Esa. 63.10  but also with vexing the holy spirit of God? And yet read what is written. Pray as there you may learn, Esay tenth. 
Esay. 63.9  Chap. five, six, etc.  
What, doth not the holy Prophet jeremy show, 
jer. 31.18.20  that Ephraim was as an untamed Calse, etc. yet so soon as he mourned and was ashamed of himself, doth not the Lord show, that his bowels of mercy were troubled for his estate? Do●h not the Lord offer mercy unto the profane and forgetful transgressors of his holy covenant? 
Psal. 50.5.22  Is not this part of the covenant made with all the sons of David in Christ jesus, that if they not only omitting many good things, but also commit rebellions & iniquities, that though he may visit them, yet it shall be with the rod of his children, and that his mercy he will not take from them, nor break of his covenant made with them in jesus Christ? 
Psal. 89.30  Therefore remember that the holy promises, threatenings, precepts & examples are written, that we should not sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father jesus Christ the just, 
1. joh. 2, 2  & he is the reconciliation of our sins, & not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. Doth not the blessed Apostle Paul charge the Corinthians whom he affirmeth to be rich in Christ, 
1. Cor. 1.6, 7  and destitute of no spiritual gift, to be more carnal than spiritual, yet babes in Christ, yea to be fallen Into idolatry, 
1. Cor. 3.15.2.3.  committing of evil things, fornication, tempting not only of God, but of Christ, yea murmuring against them; yet doth he not herein comfort them, 
1. Cor. 10.9.13.  that no temptation hath token hold on them, but such as appertaineth to man, 
Psal. 19.13  & that God will be merciful unto. David prayeth against presumptuous sins, that they should not reign over him. Signifying though he sinned presumptuously, yet if he did not persever in presumption obstinately, without desire to repent, that such sin or sins were pardonable: Now the Lords covenant towards his in jesus Christ is, not to deal after their sins, nor to reward them after their iniquities, much less will he not regard in wrathful displeasure their infirmities. For if he should so mark what is said or done amiss, who were then able to abide it? But with him is mercy in jesus Christ, that he may be feared. Therefore, lift up your hands which hang down, strengthen your weak knees, & say unto your soul, why art thou so cast down and unquiet within me? I will yet trust in jesus Christ and wait upon the merciful graces of God purchased by his merits. Consider that true humility a riseth of faith in jesus Christ, and that is true faith that engendereth humility; as we may not diminish our sins, so may we not too much aggravate them, nor diminish Christ's merits: have evermore in your mind the example of the prodigal son, who saith not, I am not thy son, but I am no more worthy to be called thy sons he saith not let me be thy bondslave; nay, he saith not let me be thy hired servant: but let me be as one of thy hired servants; his father came and met him, fell on his neck, etc. So shall it come to you good brother; I need make no more application; the holy anointing which you have received, will bring the old mercies of God upon others and upon your own soul unto remembrance, and lead you into all truth, which shall be requisite for your salvation. Put your trust in the Lord, and be you assured, believe his ministers & you shall prosper: The Lord jesus came not to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax; his grace shall be ever more sufficient for you, and his virtue shall unto the end manifest itself in your weakness. Now therefore I beseech him to preserve your body & soul, & spirit, unto his most glorious appearing; Faithful is he that hath called you, & promised, who will also perform it, Amen.  
From my house in London in Warwick lane. Anno 1591. Feb. 24. Yours in jesus Christ as he ha●h been Richard Greenham.   

A letter consolatory written to a friend afflicted in Conscience, for sin.  
Grace and peace in jesus Christ.  
MY very good and loving friend in the Lord jesus, I understand by M. H. who oft traveleth into those parts, that you require of me letters of comfort for relief of your afflicted and distressed conscience. Wherein I could be glad to perform any duty that is within the compass of my poor ability. But your best and soundest comfort (as I take it) lieth in those, that have themselves been exercised with that trial: who from the comforts of Christ that have abounded in them, are best able to comfort those that are in like sort afflicted by the hand of God. 
Cor. 1, 4, 5,  Agine, I have written unto you many times of this argument: If my letters remain with you, they may always speak for me that which I am able to say to that point. If you require more than I have written before this▪ then were it reason you should send me my former letters, that I might know where to begin that which remaineth. My leisure is not great as you know, and there is nothing whereinto I enter more unwillingly, then into this labour of writing: Yet that you may understand that I have not altogether forgotten your old love towards me, nor have suffered mine affection towards you utterly to decay: I will endeavour at once as briefly as I may to remember unto you, so far as I can call to mind, the sum of all that I have written unto you heretofore. The question (as I take it) that that lieth in controversy between your conscience and the enemy, is of the assurance of your salvation. Wherein I would have you first to consider what is, or at any time past hath been the testimony of the Spirit of God unto your spirit, 
The testimony of the spirit.  and then I doubt not, but either from present sense of the same spirit of God crying in your heart Abba Father, or from the remembrance of the days of old, wherein you had a comfortable assurance of God's favour, you shall be able to repel the force of this temptation, considering that the holy Ghost camnotly, that God, whom he loveth, unto the end he loveth, & because his gifts & calling (as the Apostle saith) are such as whereof he doth not, nor cannot repent him. Then consider the nature of faith; 
The nature of faith.  which how weak & unperfect soever it be, it cannot be denied even by Satan himself, to be faith: according to that which is said; 
Mar. 9 24▪ Mat. 17.2,  I believe Lord help thou my unbelief. And if you have faith even as a grain of mustard seed etc. that Faith apprehendeth Christ jesus in whom there is all sufficiency of salvation, and in whom we are complete: so that whatsoever scruple ariseth from ourselves, 
Col. 2.10.  or is enforced of the enemy from any imperfection that is in us, it need not at all to dismay us, because we save not ourselves, but are saved by him, who is made unto us from God, wisdom, righteousness, 
1. Cor. 1 30.  sanctification, and redemption; that who so glorieth should glory in him. And in deed there is no surer refuge when the enemy distresseth us, then renouncing ourselves to profess the only name of Christ jesus; who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. 
Rom. 4.25.  For if the enemy shall say we have sinned, our answer is, 
Rom. 8.34.  Christ hath died for us, yea is risen again, yea is ascended into heaven etc. If he say; 
Rom. 5.19.  we want the righteousness of the law; we must answer, Christ hath fulfilled the law, 
2. Cor. 5.21.  that we by him might be made the righteousness of God. If he say we are in nature corrupt, and therefore both unworthy and unfit for the kingdom of heaven; we must answer him with the words of Christ himself, 
joh. 17.19.  for there sakes have I sanctified myself. Finally whatsoever shallbe objected against us by the enemy, our answer must be: that in Christ, all the promises of God are yea, 
2 Cor. 1.20. Colo. 1. ●9  and in him they are Amen. That all fullness dwelleth in him, and that in him we are perfected: so that we may boldly say with Saint Paul, there is no damnation to those which are in Christ jesus. 
Rom. 8, 1,  If Satan his importunity and impudency will not thus be answered, we must end all disputation with him by ourselves, and send him unto Christ, who amongst other parts of his office towards us, performeth also this for us, both before his heavenly father, and against all our adversaries, that he is our advocate to plead and defend our cause, 
john, 2, 1.  which yet is not so much ours as his own; because the question is not of our merits or satisfactions which we freely renounce, but of the merit of his obedience, and of the value of his death unto the salvation of those that believe in him. So shall we at once stop up the mouth of the enemy, when refusing to plead our own cause, we refer ourselves unto Christ whom we know to be the wisdom of God, and able to answer all that can possibly be objected against us. For seeing Satan is a wrangling and subtle sophister, it is our surest and safest dispatch, to break of all dispute with him, and to send him thither where he may receive his best answer; and we need not to doubt, but he that hath answered the justice of God, and canceled the obligation that was against us before his heavenly father, will easily defeat whatsoever the old serpent our accuser the Devil is able to allege against us. But if we cannot so avoid his assault, but needs we must enter the combat with him; let us take unto ourselves that courage that becometh the soldiers of Christ, and in the name of the Lord jesus manfully oppose ourselves, knowing that he which hath brought us into the battle, will both save us and deliver us out of all dangers. Then if the enemy shall say that we have no faith, 
Whether we have faith or not.  and therefore have no interest in Christ, we may answer that our believing dependeth not upon his testimony, it is enough that ourselves do know, and feel by the grace of God, that we do believe. As for him, we do the rather persuade ourselves of faith, because he saith that we believe not: 
john, 8, 44 25.  knowing that he is not only a murderer, but also a lie● from the beginning, and the father of lying. Now, he that was neither ashamed nor afraid to charge God himself with untruth, will make less scruple to deal fal●ly with us, 
Gen. 3.  & that therefore we utterly reject his witness, as the witness of a notorious & treacherous deceiver, unworthy all credit, and whom we cannot believe, even in the truth itself without danger. For which cause, he was so oftentimes silenced by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles, 
Mar. 2, 24, Act. 16, 18  even then when after his deceivable man the bare wit●es unto the truth. Again when the question is of our faith in Christ weather we believe in him or not, we must beware that we stand not here upon perfection of knowledge, which in the best Divines is unperfect: nor upon the perfection of our persuasion which in all flesh is mingled with imperfection. It is enough for our present comfort, & to the silencing of our adversary, that we have a compitent knowledge of the mystery of our salvation by Christ; far removed from that ignorance, and implicit understanding, which Satan hath planted in the kingdom of Antichrist. For persuasion also, we acknowledge, that partly by the corruption of nature, and partly by his assaults, by the grace of God it is such, as the same is oftentimes assailed & shaken. Yet faileth not▪ nor falleth unto the ground, but standeth invincible against all his attempts & invasions whatsoever. And finally, for that faith whereby we rest for our salvation upon Christ jesus, we glory not in our own strength but we say every one for himself, whi●h him in the Gospel, we believe, Lord help thou our unbelief. For if faith be as it is in deed a repose, settling, placing and putting of our trust and confidence for salvation in Christ whom the father hath sealed: Then we doubt not to prove against Satan, and all his instruments of inside little that we do believe: and that the weakness of our faith which we willingly acknowledge, and that remnant of unbelief which yet hangeth upon us, is so far off from dismaing us; that it is both a warning and motive unto us of great force to stir us up, and to set us a work by all good means to establish and to increase our faith wherein we find the good hand of the Lord not to be wanting unto us: and his ears not to be shut up against our prayers; in which we always say with the Apostles of Christ, Lord increase our faith. If it shall be objected, that because we have not the same sense and feeling of faith which some times we had as Satan himself could not then deny; therefore we have now no faith, but have utterly lost the same: we may answer, the argument followeth not: for even in many diseases of the body it is so with them that have them, that they seam little better than dead corpses, and yet there is life in them, which hidden for a time after is recovered and raised up again; so it is many times with the children of God, that being overborne and distressed with extremity of affliction and temptation, they seem for the time both to themselves and others, to have lost the life and light which once they enjoyed: Yet, so it is, that when the tempest is overblown and the gracious countenance of the Lord again beginneth to shine upon them, the faith which was as it were hid for the time, taketh life, and showeth forth itself, & plainly proveth that as the trees when they bud in the spring time and bring fourth their fruit, ware not dead in the winter as they seemed to be: so the faith of God's children, springing a fresh after the stormy winter of temptation, declareth manifestly that it was not dead when it seemed so to be, but was only respited for the time, that afterward it might bring forth more fruit, & whereas the afflicted soul desireth nothing more than to believe, though it feel not a present operation of comfort by faith; even that desire argueth a secret sense that cannot easily be discerned, together with assurance of better estate in time to come, 
Math. ●.  according to that of our saviour Christ. Blessed are they that hunger & thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied: & that of the blessed virgin▪ he filleth the hungry with good things, but the rich he hath sent empty away. Also that bewaling & deploring of unbelief which is found in the afflicted, is not only a step unto their former comfort, but a certain proof & demonstration of the return thereof. For the Lord working by his spirit in the hearts of his children groanings that cannot be expressed, thereby assureth them that in his good time he will hear them and grant their requests. And so much the more we may be persuaded hereof because the love of God towards us, as it began not of us (as S. john sayeth, 
john, 5.  so it dependeth not upon us, but upon the truth & constancy of him, with whom there is no change nor shadow of change. Again the temptation itself from which our affliction doth arise, though it have of itself a most bitter & sharp taste, even unto the wounding of our souls near unto death: yet hath it also in it argument of comfort: the Lord himself out of darkness raising up light unto his children. For evenby this, that Satan so busily and so fiercely assaileth us, it doth appear that as once helost his possession in us and was cast out by one more mighty than himself which is christ: so now he findeth no peaceable entrance, but a strong & mighty resistance & that therefore there yet remaineth such part of the former work, he could not hitherto overthrow, nor shall be able forever, which is the secret seed of faith still sustained & nourished by the spirit of god when we would think it were utterly extinguished. For as the fire when it wrasteleth with the water thrown upon it, ceaseth not till it have overcome▪ so this resistance of the spirit against the flesh, will not cease until the full victory be obtained, & sathan himself trodden under our feet. Neither is there any more sure testimony, either of our present deliverance begun, or of our full & perfect victory in time to come, than this, that by the word of God we do (though but weakly) resist the temptations of the enemy, & continue in the battle against him: mourning in deed & travaling under the bou● then of affliction, but yet standing upright before the enemy: so that he cannot fully prevail against us, much less overthrow & destroy us. But here one thing must carefully be looked unto, that we be not so far discouraged, either with want of feeling, or overborne with desire of that we have not, as we forget what mercy heretofore we have received. When job so earnestly, 
job. 29.2.  & as on would think impatiently wiseth the good things he had sometimes enjoyed, he doth not only express the great affection he had to be restored unto his former estate, but also giveth the attentive reader to understand, a secret work of that grace of God; from the remembrance of that which had been, insinuating an hope of that which should be, as the event itself afterward declared which issue of his troubles S. james would have us diligently to consider when he saith. 
jam. 5.  Ye have heard of the sufferings of job, and have seen the end of the Lord. But it fareth in this case with the afflicted soul many times, as it doth with those that greedily strive for the goods of this world. Their affection of having more is so strong, & doth so violently possess and carry them, as it not only depriveth them of the use of that they have, but also maketh them forget the same, & which is yet mo●e, protest against it, as if they had it not at all. So the humbled & afflicted spirit, overborne for the time with present grief and anguish of mind, not only useth not the comforts it hath, & cannot presently discern: but also causeth an utter forgetfulness of them, and which more is, protesteth against them, as if they were not: yea, (as we see often in job) he so complaneth of the contrary, as if the Lord had not only forsaken his servant, but had armed himself, and did fight against him to destroy him. Here therefore we must bridle & chastise our impatient and murmuring spirit: and remember that of job so far contrary to the other, 
job.  that though the Lord should destroy him, yet he will trust in him. Neither must we so much vex and unquiet our ha●ts for that we want, as labour to make use of that we have. which though it seem little unto us for the present: yet in truth is more than Satan by all his force is able to overcome, as may appear unto us by that endless resistance which the spirit of god dwelling in us maketh against him. For he that so fighteth is not yet captive: & he that standeth in face of the enemy, and endureth all his assaults, is not yet vanquished. Yet that he holdeth out in so great weakness of his own, against so strong & furious assaults of the enemy; it plainly argueth, that he standeth by a greater strength than his own, by which, as he is presently preserved that he falls not into the hand of his adversary; so need he no doubt thereby to be finally delivered, & be crowned with victory & triumph in despite of Satan & all he is able to work against him. But if the enemy, whose quarreling with us is endless, as his malice is unsatiable, will not thus leave us & give us rest: then as I said before, it is our best & safest way, at once to end all disputation with him. And we cannot better shake him of, than by exercising ourselves in prayer, reading, and meditation of the word of God, & by diligent walking in the works & labours of our callings, for there is no greater opportunity nor advantage that can be given unto the adversary, then if he shall find us idle & unoccupied. If the mind be already possessed of, & occupied in good things, it cannot so easily be trsamported unto that which is evil. But if he find the house empty and fit for him, he than entereth without difficulty. In the question of faith we have comfort also from the works & effects thereof in ourselves: For as the tree is known by the fruits, 
Faith proved by the fruits.  so faith wanteth not her fruits whereby she may be discerned. These are of divers sorts, sorrow for sin past, hatred of evil, care and endeavour to avoid it both in general and in particular, the love of God & of his righteousness; desire & care with labour & contention to please him, both in general & particular duties. And here again we have a lawful & necessary recourse unto the time past. For albeit we have nothing to glory in before God, 
Psal. 77.6.  when the question is of the cause of our salvation; yet the effects of this grace and favour of God towards us in the former fruits of our faith, may yield us no small comfort in the time of our heaviness and of the anguish of our spirits: here of it is that the Prophet in the psalms doth so often protest his obedience unto God, 
Psal. 119  & care to do his commandments, hereof it is that job unto the comforting of his distressed conscience remembreth the course of his former life, 
job. 31.  led in the fear of God and obedience of righteousness. For although we may not attribute any merit, unto our works, 
Rom. 8.4  but must give the whole glory of our salvation unto Christ alone; yet our works do witness for us, that we are the children of God, because we are guided by his spirit and as the Apostle saith, 
Rom, 8.10  though the body be dead in respect of sin, yet the spirit is life for righteousness sake. Also the gracious effects of Christ himself dwelling in our hearts by faith, are sure and certain testimonies that we are members of his body & do belong unto him, because as branches implanted into him which is the vine, we bring forth fruit according unto the nature of the vine. If it be said we do yet sin: 
john. 15. ●  our answer is, that that happeneth unto us, not from the new creature, but from that other part yet remaining in us still subdued under sin, in which the Lord of mercy doth not esteem us, but in that new man which is fashioned again according unto his own image. In so much as S. Paul doubteth not to say, that the sins of the faithful proceeding from the remander of corruption yet abiding in them are not their works, 
Rom. 7.17  but the works of the flesh which being already wounded unto death by the power of the death of Christ, languisheth more & more, 
Rom. 6.2.  & shall finally be abolished by death which is the end & accomplishment of our mortification, & fully endeth the battle between the flesh & the spirit. What shall I say of the loathing of this life, 
Loathing of this life etc.  and the vanity thereof, & of that desire which is in the children of God to be dissolved & to be with Christ? 
Phil. 1.21.  of contemment in all estates, patience in afflictions, constancy in the truth, love towards those that love the Lord, pity towards those that are in misery, and the desiring of the good even of their enemies and those that hate them? Which virtues, though they bear not an equal sail, by reason of the weakness of the flesh and of the malice and resistance of the enemy; yet are they undoubted testimonies of our love towards God, which is not but in those who are first beloved of him, and have tasted how good and gracious he is. If we shall look unto the exercises of piety and of the worship of GOD, 
Comfort from the exercise of piety.  though we may here (as else where) complain of our wants and defects, yet we shall through God's goodness find matter of comfort. Remember therefore what mercy the Lord hath showed you in this part: whi●h what desire and affection you have heard the word of God. 
The hearing of the word.  How precious it hath been unto you, above gold, even the most fine gold, how sweet and comfortable, even above the honey and the honey comb. Remember with what fruit of knowledge in the will of God, increase of faith in his promises, purpose and endeavour of amendment of life, you have often times heard the same Call to mind with what 
Prayer,  zeal & earnestness of spirit you have sometimes called upon the name of God, both publicly & privately, with others & alone by yourself: with what joy & rejoicing of the soul you have praised the lord for his mercies towards his Church, and towards you self: 
Praising of God.  Call to mind what hath been in you at any time the power of those Sacraments, 
Sacraments  which are annexed as seals unto the promise of salvation by Christ, and how far they have by the blessing of God erected your mind in hope and assurance of his goodness towards you.  
If your present discouragement resist the comfort of these meditations, it is no new thing, that in our weakness we should after the manner of those that be sick, disadvantage ourselves of that, which might do us most good: yet remember how injurious a thing it were, to esteem the children of God by their present agonies and conflict of conscience, rather than by the comfort of that estate wherein the grace of God shined plentifully upon them and in them. For as when men are diseased it cannot thereof be concluded, that they were never in health; so the present discomfortures of the children of God, though they take away the sense of his mercy for a time, yet they are no repeal of his former goodness and favour towards them, nor deny them to have been, even in their own judgement and feeling, dear unto the Lord: and still to be, though the storm and tempest of their present affliction suffer them not so lively and comfortably to enjoy the same, as before. For which cause they must with job and David call to remembrance the comforts of times past, 
job. 29.3 Psal. 77.6 12.  from thence to assure themselves of the return of the good hand of the Lord in due time. I doubt not but you can be witness unto God and to your own self, that the time hath been when your comfort and assurance of God's favour was such, as Satan himself could not deny the testimony which then the spirit of God did bear unto your spirit. Now the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, 
Rom. 8.16 Rom. 11.29 john. 13.1.  and whom he loveth he loveth unto the end, neither doth our salvation depend upon any thing of our own: for than we should a thousand times perish and fall before the enemy, but upon that eternal and everlasting love of God, wherewith he hath loved us in jesus Christ before the foundations of the world were laid: which love of his, if it hath at any time been made known unto us and apprehended of us, we have assurance greater than the testimony of men and Angels. But you will say, that which sometimes I felt is now gone, and in stead thereof I am perpetually opprested with the horror of the wrath of God just against me for my sins. It is true that the power and sense of faith is not always alike in the children of God: yet is it a false and sophistical conclusion, suggested from him that is a liar from the beginning, and the father of lying, to say, we feel not faith, therefore there is no faith in us. For in many diseases of the body we have no sense of life, and yet we live. The sun shineth not in the night season, nor when it is obscured with clouds: shall we say therefore that there is no sun, or that it hath utterly no operation? Admit also (which yet may not be admitted) that the Lord had for a time utterly given us over: can we conclude thereof, that he will never again be merciful unto us? Nay, he that found us when we sought him not, will surely return unto the work which he hath begun, though he seemeth for a while to have forsaken it. There is sometime as it were an eclipse of our faith, and of the feeling of the grace of GOD towards us, but let us assure ourselves, that as the Sun and Moon do not perish in their eclipses, nor lose their light for ever: so in this eclipse which happeneth for a time unto our faith, and sense of God's goodness, the same shall not perish or lose his virtue for ever: but shall in good time be restored, or rather quickened in us again, unto our further and more assured comfort. This you have seen in many the dear children of God whose heaviness hath been known unto you, that they have not been forgotten for ever, but that the Lord, who seemed for a while to frown upon them, did in the end cause his most gracious and loving countenance to shine upon them again: you have felt it in yourself, that there hath been an interchangeable course of sorrow and comfort, of faith and fear, and that the one hath contially succeeded the other, that the same hand that humbled you, did raise you up again; that he that inflicted the wound into your soul, applied thereunto the most sweet and sovereign remedy of his grace. So ancient and so experienced a soldier as you are in this spiritual battle, should now be valiant and strong unto the combat: our victory wherein, though it be not to be hoped from the weakness of flesh, yet the experience we have had of the goodness of God in our former troubles, aught to assure us of the return of his helping hand in all our necessities. Shall I put you in mind of the grace of God towards you in your comforting of others, even then when yourself have been in some discouragement? If others have received comfort from you, raise up the same comforts unto yourself. Neither is there any cause you should fear, lest that spirit which in you was able to erect and confirm others, should not be able to refresh & comfort your own soul. In other things we love ourselves too much, and do well unto ourselves rather then to others: but here many times, by the fraud of the enemy, we are made cruel unto our own bowels, and become his abused instruments to torment ourselves: who will put a sword into the hand of his adversary to wound himself with all? And who will strengthen his enemy that is already too strong for him? Yet this is our folly, that we will conspire with Satan against ourselves, and arm him with weapons unto our own destruction. Saint Peter saith resist the Devil being strong in faith. 
1. Pet. 5.9  We must not therefore yield ourselves unto his tyranny, 
1. Ioh, 5.4 Ephe▪ 6, 16  nor cast away that weapon of faith by which alone we may be able to overcome. But I will urge this argument no further. 
Comfort from the benefits of this life.   
I know that the benefits of this life are common for the most part, both to the reprobate and to the elect: yet both in those which are common, there is a great and large difference, and there are some so singular as carry with them a stronger testimony of the favour of God, then that it may without impiety be denied. In common benefits it holdeth, that as things most adverse are yet turned unto our good: 
Rom. 8.28  so much more the good gifts and blessings of God do carry with them a testimony of his love and favour towards us. For as the Lord speaketh unto us in the word and by his spirit, so his good and fatherly providence towards us, is not without voice, but foundeth aloud unto the declaration of his love: But there are as I said some benefits so special, that the use of them is proper only unto his children. Remember with me the first time of this trouble and dismaying of your conscience; and remember with all how many means the Lord hath ministered unto you for your comfort. What shall I say of those whom the Lord hath put even into your bosom the more nearly to apply his mercy unto you, Master C. Master B. Master R. etc. all so furnished unto your comfort, that you may well think, they were as so many hands stretched out from heaven to support and strengthen your weakness withal▪ if I should set myself to remember how mamy other the servants of God have by divine providence been directed to minister comfort unto you, the number would be innumerable: Master S, Master F. Master D. Master, B, Master G. Master G, and almost who not, of those that have been trained and brought up in that school. Consider how great a mercy this hath been, that so many excellent Physicians of the soul, should at several times apply themselves, if not unto the cure, at the least unto the mitigating of your disease. I will not examine how many and great comforts you have received from them by word in presence, and by letters in absence; this only I ask of you, whether you have not known all these to bear unto you the same testimony, to speak the same comfort, and to confirm you in the same assurance of the love of God towards you.  
Now what spirit must that be, that shall contradict the spirit of GOD in the mouths of so many and faithful witnesses? My good friend, mark that I will say unto you: as the patiented that is sick in body willingly resigneth himself unto the sentence and direction of his skilful and faithful Physician; so must the Children of GOD in their spiritual maladies, yield themselves, unto the physicians of their souls, so much the more because the Lord hath given unto the ministers of his Gospel the power of binding and losing, 
●at. 18.18  both in the public ministery of his word, and also in the private consolation of his children. I will not speak of that which is public, although not altogether unfit unto my purpose, considering that that which is publicly spoken as unto all, hath also a particular address unto those that are the Lords. As when the Lord saith by his prophet, Blessed are all they that mourn in Zion. 
Esay.  I will for the present rest in that use of this power of binding and losing which is private and particular. Remember that of Saint james, 
jac. 5, 15  who saith that upon the prayers of the elders of the Church, the sins of the diseased shall be forgiven him: which words can have no other sense, but that by them shall be pronounced unto him the forgiveness of sins. A most excellent practice whereof, we have in our Saviour himself: Luke. 7. where first he proveth by argument unto Simon the Pharisee, 
Luke. 7, 41  that the mourning sinner was pardoned all her sins, and therefore was now no sinner and wicked one, as he uncharitably esteemed her to be, then turning himself unto the distressed soul; first saith, thy sins are forgiven thee, and afterward, thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Wherein, though there be some thing extraordinary in our Saviourchrist as the son of God yet is it that power which he hath communicated unto all his servants, 
job. 20.23  saying whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, etc. which is nothing else but, whose sins upon due examination and trial of their repentance you pronounce to be forgiven, they are forgiven. Hear again remember, (my dear friend) how many of the faithful and expert servants of Christ have examined your estate by conference with yourself, and have found all signs unto health and salvation. Unless therefore Satan dare contradict the spirit of GOD, speaking by the mouths of so many witnesses, he cannot say but you are the Lords. Now for yourself, I am assured that you will not, nor dare not say, but this hath been the constant testimony of all the servants of God sent unto you; and that they were such as you had no cause to suspect their partiality or flattery in any sort. How is it then, that the voice of so many should not be unto you as the voice of GOD himself? Who, though he do not speak unto us now immediately from heaven, as in some times past; yet he speaketh unto us by the mouths of his servants, his Prophets. When David said in the horror of his soul, I have sinned against the Lord, was it think you a small comfort that Nathan said immediately unto him, 
2. Sam. 12.13.  the Lord ha●h pardoned thy sin? I will say nothing of the prayers of so many of the servants of Christ as have commended your cause unto the Lord: which cannot be frustrate, the Lord himself directing them to pray according to his word, and upon the assurance of his promise. Read job. 33.23. 
job. 33.23  If there be present with him (that is with the afflicted soul, as verse 22.) a messenger from God an interpreter (of the will of God,) such as is one of a thousand, who may signify unto man the equity of the Lord, and entreating him for favour shall say: Redeem thou him that he go not down into the pit, by that redemption which I have found; when he hath humbly besought the Lord, he doth graciously receive him that he may behold his face with joy, and he restoreth unto man his righteousness. In which words there are many excellent things to be noted for the comfort of those that are afflicted. The first is, that the anguished soul finding no comfort at home and in herself, by reason of the strength of temptation, must seek relief abroad at the hands of those, whom God hath appointed to make glad the sorrowful mind, and to give rest unto the wearied and distressed conscience. Wherein you must consider with all thankfulness, how great mercy the Lord hath showed unto you, for I do persuade myself; as before I have said, that since the time of your affliction, there hath not been almost one, that hath had any extraordinary gift in that kind, who by conference, writing, or otherwise, hath not bestowed some part of his travail unto your comfort. I could myself name a great number besides those above mentioned, but yourself can remember many more: now the testimony of so many faithful servants of Christ witnessing the grace and goodness of GOD towards you, must be as the voice of GOD himself: who is not as man that he should lie, or as the son of man that he should repent, or alter that which he hath once testified. And if job do acknowledge that the comfort of one faithful witness on the behalf of GOD, is enough to the erecting and cheering of the heaviest mind, what can Satan say unto the testimony not of 2 or 3 witnesses which the law only requireth, but unto the testimony of 2 or 3 score, the meanest and weakest whereof, should be able to answer in your behalf unto all that the enemy is able to object against you. The second thing I note is, that these have not come unto you by error or by chance, but by special address of God's merciful providence, as sent from the throne of grace to bind up your wound, and to minister comfort unto your conscience. The third, that these speak not their own words nor of themselves, but are the faithful interpreters and declarers of the will and counsel of God, not indeed immediately from himself, but by viewing and esteeming of the work of God, and the fruits of his grace in those that are his. The fourth, that as they declare unto the afflicted, that favour of God towards them which themselves are not able for the present to discern, so they commend them by prayer unto the Lord, who hath promised to hear and to grant their requests. The fift, that for comfort in this cause, we must pass out of ourselves, in whom there is nothing that may ease our grief, and cast our eye and cogitation only upon Christ, in whom all fullness of salvation doth dwell, considering that this is one of the means whereby Satan doth most distress and anguish the afflicted souls, that he holdeth them in the cogitation of their sins and transgressions against GOD, and suffereth them not to see, that length, breadeth, height, and depth, and to know that love of Christ that passeth all knowledge, 
Ephe. 3.18  that they might be filled with all the fullness of God. The sixth, that the Lord both mercifully blesseth the labours of his servants in comforting his children, and also graciously heareth their prayers and supplications made in their behalf unto his majesty. And the last, that God in his good time erecteth the minds of the afflicted, and openeth their mouths to praise his name, and to protest his goodness, that he hath brought again their soul from the pit, and hath shined upon them with the light of life. Which effect of the grace of GOD, because you have both seen in others, and felt in yourself many times, you have great cause to hope and expect the return of his comforting hand in due season, who also shall once determine these conflicting days, and set us in that peace which shall never be interrupted, and wherein all tears shall be wiped away from our faces for ever. 
Apoc. 7.18 14 13.   
The malice of the enemy during this life hath no end nor measure at all, and therefore we may justly fear all extremity of attempt against us: but we must strengthen ourselves in him, who can and will enable us unto all things.  
The Last and most grievous assault of sathan against the afflicted, is that he calleth into doubt their election. 
Against the doubt of election  For, because that salvation is only of the elect, he laboureth by all means to shake this ground and pillar of comfort, and if it be possible to subvert and overthrow the same. It behoveth us to take heed how we carry ourselves, as in that temptation which all others is most difficult and dangerous. First therefore, we must beware of that gulf wherein the enemy hopeth to devour us, that we enter not into the secret and hidden counsel of God. For the secrets of the Lord: are for himself: But the things that are revealed, 
Deut. 29.29  are for us and our posterity after us for ●uer, as Moses; saith: what then hath the Lord revealed concerning our election? First the spirit of GOD witnesseth unto our spirits that we are the Children of God. Then it teacheth us to cry Abba Father, and stirreth up in us those groanings that cannot be expressed. From these let us descend unto faith itself, the voice whereof if it be not suppressed by the grievousness of temptation, soundeth cheerfully unto us, that we are beloved of GOD, redeemed be Christ, and fellow-heirs with him of his father's kingdom. If here also the enemy have darkened our senses and obscured our light: We must of necessity with job, 
job. 31.  relieve ourselves from the fruits of our faith, these what they are hath already been said. If necessity do so compel us, we must fly unto the times that are past, & refer ourselves unto the testimonies of the faithful ministers of GOD, who as they are for their wisdom and manifold experience, better able to judge of our estate then ourselves; so have they power and authority from GOD, to decide the controversy between us and our enemy and to plead our cause against him. Also where the enemy from our present trouble and torment of mind, seeketh to drive us unto despair, we are to use against him his own weapons; for amongst many testimonies of our state in grace and favour with GOD, there is none more evident and sensible, then is that conflict which we find and feel in ourselves, of the spirit against the flesh, of faith against unbelief, of a sanctified mind against that part that is unregenerated: and finally, of the new creature against the old man, and of Christ himself in us, against the power of Satan. If he reply that this is not so, but the contrary. We may answer, that albeit there have been many times, wherein we have had a more present and mighty hand of the Lord upon us: yet even now Satan himself cannot deny, but we hate sin and love righteousness: that we love God and to our power obey his will, and fly the baits and occasions of evil: whereof if if there were for the present no manifest and apparent effects, (as yet by the grace of GOD there are) notwithstanding the only affection and desire of the heart thirsting and longing after God his kingdom and righteousness, are sufficient arguments of the work of grace begun in us, which shall so long be continued by the good hand of our heavenly father, until it be consummated and perfected in the life to come. For if it be God (as the Apostle faith) that giveth both the will and the deed: he that hath given us to desire to obey his will, 
Phil. 2.13.  will also enable us unto the doing of the same. And seeing the work of sanctification beginneth in the heart, & thence floweth into our whole life, we nothing doubt but God, who hath given us joy in the holy Ghost, and thereby a love unto him, and unto his Law; will further confirm and strengthen us, that we may be vessels of honour unto his name, and glorify the Gospel of our profession with fruits agreeable and according thereunto. Yea the thoughts, meditations, and desires of the heart, are deeds before God, and principal parts of that obedience which he requireth at our hands. And therefore if the faithful man should be taken away by death, before he hath done any of the outward works of the Law; yet should not his faith be without fruits, in that being sanctified in the inward man, he doth now in soul and spirit serve the Lord, and desireth ability and opportunity, in act to do his will, and to honour his nam●; as appeared in that penitent malefactor that died with our Saviour Christ. 
Luk. 23.42   
Another thing I am to admonish you of, that you be not as the covetous men of the world: who so gape upon that they further desire, as they consider not but rather forget that which they already have, and having much indeed, in their opinion have nothing and to all purposes and uses do as well want that which they have, as that which they have not. So it oftentimes happenneth to the dear children of God, that whilst they look and breath after that, which they have not yet attained unto, they forget and neglect that which they have received, and use it not to their comfort and rejoicing as otherwise they should. This overreaching and importunity of theirs, Satan abuseth against them; from the opinion of having nothing, to blind their eyes, not to see the present grace and goodness of God towards them. It is true that the Apostle saith that in the course of Godliness and religion, 
Phil. 3.11.  we may not think we have attained the goal, or are come unto the end of our race: but, forgetting that which is behind us, and pressing on unto that which is before, must contend (as to a mark) unto the reward of that most high calling of God in Christ jesus. But he speaketh it not to this end, that we should not in thankfulness acknowledge the former mercies of GOD bestowed upon us, or not use them unto our comfort as testimonies of his love and favour toward us: But that we may not stay in our present profiting, but add daily a new and fresh increase; that as from a larger and greater heap of benefits, we may more and more assure ourselves, that we are beloved of God, and shall enjoy the inheritance of his kingdom. When the Apostle saith, work your salvation etc. and labour to make your calling and election sure, though the meaning be not, 
Phil. 2, 12▪ 2, Pet. 1, 10.  that we should put confidence of salvation in works, yet it telleth us, that the works and fruits of our faith are testifications of God's spirit dwelling in our hearts, more evident and pregnant, then that Satan himself can or dare deny them. We may not suffer ourselves to be so overborne of the enemy under the colour of zeal and desire to do well, as not to remember wherein the Lord hath already given us some part of well doing: not so to strive unto that we have not, as to forget that which by his grace we already have: But rather with all thankfulness acknowledging the goodness of God, from thence assure ourselves of the continuance and finishing of the work begun. In the courses of the world, as slowness getteth nothing; so preposterous haste looseth all. It is the subtlety and malice of the enemy, when he cannot hold us with himself; to hasten and push us on so fast and so headelong, as by rashness we may fall into that which by forwardness we had escaped. Good things to come therefore, we must hold them in hope, and pursue them in peace: but the good we have already attained unto, we must so far rejoice and comfort ourselves in, as from thence we may be able to sustain and support our cause against the enemy, and from that we have, to let him understand that we doubt not of that which remaineth: that the Lord will both continued and confirm the work of his own hands, & not forsake the same until it be accomplished in his kingdom of glory. Thus I have in great haste and confusedly set down so much as presently came unto mind of those things which often heretofore I have written unto you: humbly beseeching the father of all mercy and God of all consolation, who hath anointed you with the oil of his grace, sealed you with his spirit of adoption, and given you a sure earnest and pledge of everlasting salvation, to increase upon you, and in your heart the measure of faith, and multiply your fruits in all manner of well doing, make you strong against the face of your enemy, and crown you with victory in the day of battle, that you may praise his name in the day of your deliverance, glorify him in the whole course of your life, and finally enjoy with the rest of his saints, that eternal kingdom of glory prepared for all those that love and fear him. Amen.   

A Sermon preached by M. Richard Greenham, upon these words.  
Quench not the spirit.  1. Thessa. 5.19. 
ALl the doctrine of the Scriptures may be briefly referred to these two heads. First how we may be prepared to receive the spirit of God. Secondly, how the spirit may be retained when we have once received it. And therefore Saint Paul having laboured to instruct the Thessalonians, in the former part of this Epistle, how they may receive the spirit, doth here teach them how to keep and continue this spirit unto the end: and this the Apostle doth by giving them a charge and commandment, that in no wise they do quench the spirit: thereby doubtless teaching, that as the shunning of evil, is the first step unto goodness; so the ready way to continue the spirit of God in our hearts, is to labour that it be not quenched. Now the Apostle upon great and weighty consideration, doth here deliver this precept. For first of all, though all those be worthily and justly condemned, that never tasted of the spirit of God: yet as our saviour Christ saith; A more just and fearful condemnation is like to come upon them, that having once received it, doth afterwards lose the same again. Moreover, without this spirit of God, no holy exercise can have his full effect: For the word worketh not, where the spirit of GOD is wanting; prayers have no power to pierce into the presence of God; the sacraments seem small and silly things in our eyes, and all other orders, and exercises which God hath granted and ordained for man, they are unprofitable to man, where the spirit is not present to convey them into our hearts, there to seal up the fruit of of them. Last of all, we are fit to receive no good grace at God's hands: nay, we do not esteem God's graces, when we have not the spirit to teach us to set a due price upon them: for speak of the Law, or of the Gospel; of sin, or of righteousness: speak of Christ, or of our redemption, & justification by him: yea, speak of that huge, and heavy weight of glory where with the elect of God shall be crowned; all this moveth not, we are little affected therewith, unless God give us of his good spirit, to profit by the same. The Apostle there forthwith good reason, gave this precept, and we, for many great causes, are to listen unto it, least by any means the spirit of God be quenched in us, & so we deprive ourselves of all these fruits. Now, whereas the Apostle saith, Quench not the spirit, it may appear he speaketh to those that had already received the spirit. For, as the fire cannot be said to be quenched, where it is not: so they cannot be said to quench or lose the spirit, which have not as yet received it. Then know, that this precept doth properly beelong to them, that have received the spirit of God, and they especially are to make a special use of it: for the other, it cannot profit them, unless that, as the seed lying in the ground a long time doth afterward bud and become fruitful; so this continue in their minds, till they have tasted (in some good sort) of the spirit of GOD, and then breed in them some carefulness that they do not quench it. Well then, to them that have felt and found the spirit of GOD in them, to them saith saint Paul in this place. Take heed, that ye quench not the spirit. Of this, if we do somewhat seriously consider; these two questions will offer themselves, and soon arise in our mind. First, how we may know whether we have the spirit of God, or no: Secondly, if we have it, whether it may be lost again or no: which if they be well and sufficiently answered, they will doubtless give great force unto this precept. For the first then, if we will know whether we have the spirit or no; we must surely understand, that as he knoweth best that he hath life, which feeleth it in himself: so he best knoweth whether we have the spirit of God, that feeleth the spirit working in him. And if we will further know, by the peculiar working and effects of the spirit, then let us mark these. First of all, if there be nothing in man but the nature of man; if nothing but that may be attained by the art and industry of a man, then surely in that man, is not the spirit of God: for the spirit is from God, it is from above, it is above nature: and therefore the Apostle doth set the spirit of God, against the spirit of the world, when he saith: we have received the spirit, not of the world, but of God, Besides, the spirit of God is eternal, and endureth for ever: but all the doings and devices of men they perish, and in time they have an end. Therefore though a man have wisdom with great knowledge, though in wit and skill he pass and excel the common sort of men: yet, if from above he have not been enlightened, if from heaven his wisdom hath not been sanctified, his knowledge shall decay, his wisdom shall wither like grass, he hath not as yet tasted of the spirit of God, that endureth for ever. And therefore saith. S. Paul: We teach the mysteries of God, which none, no not the Princes, and the men of this world, which are above others most excellent, are able to understand. Secondly consider, whether in he, there be any alteration or change. For the wise men which were exper●e in nature, could say, that in every generation there is a corruption▪ And we see, that the seed sown is much changed before it grow up and bear fruit: Then needful it is that in regeneration, there be a corruption of sin, so that as seed in the ground, so sin in our mortal bodies may decay, that the new man may be raised up, the spirit of God taking possession of our souls. Therefore the Evangelist john doth make this, the first work of the spirit, that it shall rebuke the world of sin: and this so needful, that without it, there is not the spirit of God, neither yet can Christ come and enter into that man. Hereof it was that Christ compared the jews to Children in the market place, who would not dance though they were piped unto: and the reason was, because they had not first learned with Ioh● to mourn: for they that by the preaching of john, learned to lament their sins, and for their sins were ●pensiue in their own souls, they received Christ, they danced and did rejoice to hear the joyful tidings of the Gospel. Therefore Christ saith, That whores and harlots entered into the kingdom of heaven (seeing they lamented their sins) before the proud pharisees, which were tuched with no remorse for their sins. And for the same cause it is, that Christ calleth unto him, them only, that labour and are heavy laden: teaching, ●hat if they find not sin to be a heavy load and burden to them, they have not the spirit of God, neither are they fit to receive Christ. Then to be rebuked of sin, is the first work of the spirit; which the spirit worketh in us by these degrees. First it raiseth up in us a great and general astonishment, by reason of all those great and enormous sins that we have committed, and this doth strike us down, it doth terrify us, and hold us amazed wonderfully: than it dealeth with us more particularly; and besides that, it bringeth us unto a special grief for special sins, it doth bereave us of our chief desires, and bringeth us out of conceit and liking with the best things that are in us: for, than it doth display before us the vanity and darkness of our understanding, how unfit and unmeet we are to understand and conceive those things, that do above all others especially concern us: then doth it let us see the perverse corruption of our judgement, that before God, and in things belonging to GOD, we be as bruit beasts, not able to discern things that differ, nor to put a sound difference between good ad evil; then doth it let us see that our reason is unreasonable, nay, that it is hurtful unto us, a great enemy to faith, and a great patron of infidelity and unbelief. When it cometh to our affections, it turneth them upside down, it turneth our mirth into mourning, our pleasure into painfulness, and our greatest delight into most bitter grief: If it do proceed further, and come once to the heart, and to the stomach and courage that is in us, than it cutteth us to the quick, then doth it at once throw us down in humility under the hand of GOD: for while we had to deal with men, we were as stour as any, and would not start for the best, We had reason to say for our selves, & courage to defend ourselves against all them that did deal with us: but now the spirit draweth us into the presence of God, it letteth us see that we have to do with God, and that our strength is weakness in respect of him. Then doth our heart begin to fail us, then do we lay our hands on our mouths, and dare not answer, nay, then do we quickly take up our cross, because the Lord himself hath done it. Behold here how the spirit worketh, behold how sin is corrupted: and who so can behold here this in himself, may assuredly say, that the spirit of God is in him, that it is not in vain within him, nay, that it is mighty and lively in operation in his heart. The third note and effect, is the bringing on forward of this work unto justification: for when the spirit hath brought us thus far, then doth it begin to open unto us a door unto the graces and favour of God: it doth put into our minds, that there is mercy with God, and therefore stirreth us up to seek mercy at his hands: afterward, it doth let us see how Christ suffered, to take away the sins of the world, that in the righteousness of Christ, we may look to be justified before God▪ And this it doth not let us see only, but doth effectually work a sure persuasion of it in our hearts, and confirmeth the same by two notable effects. The first is, a joy most unspeakable and glorious, wherewith our hearts must needs be wholly taken up and ravished, when we see ourselves by the righteousness of Christ of the free mercy and grace of God, redeemed from death, delivered from hell, and freed from the fearful condemnation of the wicked. The second is the peace of conscience: which indeed, passeth all understanding. While sin, and the guilt of sin remained there was no peace, nor rest, no quietness to be found, but fear within, terrors without, and troubles on every side: But when sin is once nailed to the cross of Christ, when the guilt of sin is taken out of our consciences, and the puninshment thereof far removed, then must needs ensue great peace: for our accusers dare not proceed against us, our sins are forgiven us, and God is at one with us: and for this, we have the warrant and testimony of the spirit. Can flesh and blood persuade us of it? can any creature assure us how God is affected towards us? no doubtless. And therefore where this joy and peace is, there must needs be the holy ghost, the author and worker of the same: for as no man knoweth what is in man, but the spirit of man which is in him: so none knoweth the will of God, but the spirit of God, and therefore it is the spirit of God that must certify our hearres and spirits of the same. And hereof there doth arise that, which we take as the fourth note, when we find it in ourselves, to wit; The life and nemblenes that is in us to do good: for when a man doth find favour from God, for the forgiveness of sins, than the love of God constraineth him, that joy which he conceiveth enforceth him, and putteth life into him, for the performance of those things, which are pleasing unto God: then he beginneth to find himself not only reclaimed from evil, but also applied and framed to that which is good; then is his understanding enlightened, to see into the mysteries of godliness, and into that great work of his redemption, and into whatsoever concerneth the saving health of his soul: then is his judgement reform, and he is made able to judge between false religion and true, between the works of the flesh, and of the spirit, between that which is good, and that which is evil and displeasing in the sight of God. Then are his affections in some good measure altered, his desire is set, not upon earthly, but upon heavenly things, his joys are not in the earth, but in the heavens, his anger is wasted and spent, not upon his own privae cause and quarrels, but upon his own sins, and upon whatsoever hindereth the glory of his God: This is the life of God in him; thus he liveth that hath received the spirit, and thus he leadeth his life continually: for they that have received the spirit, are led by the spirit and do live accordingly, bringing forth the fruits of the spirit. But this hath weakness joined with it, and men through frailty may soon fall, and therefore their life: is said To be hid in Christ, because in full and perfect manner it doth not appear: Therefore, if notwithstanding these frailties and falls, we will know whether we still retain the spirit of God, we must search ourselves, and try our hearts by these rules. First, if when through frailty we have fallen (for who is he that falleth not?) We will then know whether by our fall we have lost the spirit of God or no, let us see what liking, or mislykinge we have of sin: for it after our fall, we do hold our former hatred of sin, and the oftenner we fall, the more thorough and deadly hatred we conceive against sin, undoubtedly that frailty hath not as yet deprived us of the spirit. Secondly: come and see how it standeth with thy sorrow: for so long as thy sorrow increaseth for thy sins, it cannot be thought that sin and the flesh, have overcome and utterly quenched the spirit in thee, Thirdly, try thy care: and if thou groan in a godly care, both how thou mayst be able to wage battle against sin in the plain field, and how thou mayst prevent sin in all his policies, thou hast a further assurance that sin, although it be as great as Goliath, yet it hath not hitherto prevailed against thy poor and little David, I say, against those few and small graces, which the good spirit of God hath bestowed upon thee: but the last is most certain, and that is this. When thou art careful to redeem that, which by thy fall thou hast lost, & hast a care to run so much faster forward, by how much more thou hast been letted by thy fall: than it doth appear that the spirit is in thee, yea lively and mighty in operation, and such as shall never be taken from the, until the day of Christ. Thus may we in some good and competent measure try and prove, whether we have the spirit of GOD or no: for where these fruits are to be found, there is also the spirit of God. For further confirmation whereof, we may note the manner of speech, where he saith, Quench not the spirit. We do commonly use to say, the fire is quenched, when the light and heat thereof is taken away; and indeed nothing can properly be said to be quenched, but the fire. Now whereas the Apostle saith, Quench not the spirit, he giveth us to understand, that the spirit is in some respect like unto fire: therefore if we do but a little consider of the nature of fire▪ we shall a great deal better judge of the spirit, And among others, these properties we find to be in the fire. First of all it will burn up, and consume things that may b● burned and consumed: and therefore lighting upon shaw, stubble, sticks, or such like, it bringeth them to ashes, and doth make them as though they had not been at all. Secondly, it doth purge and purify those things that can abide to be purged: and this it doth, first by taking away the superfluity of dross, that hath over covered the thing to be purged. Then by fining the thing itself, and by making it purer and purer: Thirdly, it giveth light even in the most dim & darkest places: And last of all, it giveth heat, and with all doth as it were put life into those things which are capable of life: for whilst a man is frozen and starved for cold, he is numbde, and as it were without life▪ but being broughtto the fire, he is h●tt, he is revived, he is cheered, and then becometh active & nimble. These are the properties of fire, and these do in some manner sort, resemble and shadow out unto us the works and effects of the spirit: for first of all, when the spirit of God seizeth upon a man, and entereth into his soul, than it beginneth to burn to waste and consume in him, those things that will be wasted: after this sort evil affections, noisome lusts, & other stubble which is in man, by the spirit of God are consumed and burned. Secondly, it doth purge us from gross sins, and daily more and more doth purify us, that we may be a clean and holy vessel and Temple for him to rest and dwell in. Thirdly, it is a shining lamp, ever burning and continually giving light unto us, in that way which we have to walk. And lastly, it doth set us on heat, and inflameth us with a zeal of God's glory, with a care of our duty, and with a love of all mankind: yea, withal it putteth life and lust into us, to walk in that good way which it doth lead us, and to do all those good works which may glorify God, or be commodious unto men. Thus we see what likelihood there is between the spirit and fire, for which cause the spirit in the scripture is compared unto fire: nay it is sometimes called fire: for john saith. That our Saviour Christ should baptize with the holy ghost, & with fire: that is, with the holy ghost, which is like unto the fire: Therefore, as truly and as certainly as we may say that there is fire, where we see straw and such like things consumed, or gold and silver finely purged, or great light in dark places, or great heat in bodies that were numbed before; even so truly we may say, and so certainly we may persuade ourselves, that the spirit of God is in us, when we see our corruption consumed, our souls purged from the dross of sin, our hearts enlightened and made hot in walking, and working according to that light. The second question to be considered is, 
The second Question.  whether that man which hath once tasted of the spirit, may lose it, and have it quenched in him. To this it may be said, that because the spirit of God cometh to, and worketh in divers men, diversely, in diverse measures: therefore we must consider of the diverse working of the spirit, and then frame our answer accordingly. First then, there is a lighter and lesser work of the spirit, which may be quenched in them that have it: and that this inferior or lesser kind of working may be taken away▪ appeareth plainly by the parable of the seed which our saviour CHRIST propoundeth, for there, besides them that receive the word into good ground, and bring forth fruits, some an hundredth, some thirty, some sixty fold: he doth also make mention of some others that received the word and yet continued not. And what, had not these the spirit of God in them? yes doubtless, for they received the word▪ yea, they received it gladly, & that which is more, they believed that which they had received. Behold then three fruits of God's spirit in these men, and yet they continued not: for they believed indeed, but their faith was temporary, it lasted but for a time, and after a time it vanished away, and the spirit departed from them: for, either the pleasures and profits of this life did draw out the graces of God, and dry them up, or else the fiery heat of persecution did quite consume them. More plain and notable for this purpose is that, in the sixth to the Hebrews, for there the Apostle faith, That some may taste of the holy ghost, and thereby be made to taste of the good word of God, to be enlightened, to receive heavenly gifts, yea, and to taste of the power of the life to come: and what then? surely the Apostle saith, That if such fall, it is impossible they should be renewed: giving us to understand, that even they which have received the holy ghost, that have been enlightened, that have received heavenly gifts, & have tasted of the power of the life to come even such may fall away, and the spirit may be quenched in such. There is a second kind of working of the spirit, which is a more thorough and effectual working, which can never be taken away from them that have received it. This the Apostle Peter describeth, when he saith, That the chosen of God, are begotten again of the immortal seed of the word: This is not a bare receiving, or a light tasting of the word; but it is a deep taste of the same, whereby we are begotten and borne again. The Apostle john setteth down an other note of it, saying, That they that are thus borne again, cannot sin: that is, they cannot make an occupation of sin, they cannot fall flat away by sin: and why? Even because the the seed of God abideth in them, even that seed, wherewith they were begotten to a lively hope of life, even that seed doth abide, and will abide unto the end. Who so is begotten again by this seed, and hath this seed, abiding in him, the spirit hath wrought that in him, which shall not be taken from him: and therefore our Saviour Christ saith, The word that I speak, is spirit and life: And in an other place he saith, that none shall take his sheep from him, for the father is mightier than all; and therefore in another place he saith, That it is impossible that the elect should be seduced. Thus than we see the question is answered: namely, that there is an inferior working which may be lost; and a more effectual working of the spirit which can never be taken away from them that have it: And this must not seem strange to us, neither must we be offended that the Lord should take some, and leave others: or that he should begin in some, and not bring his work to perfection: For so he dealeth with other things in the world. Some corn is sown and never riseth: some springeth, and yet shortly withereth: some groweth up to an ear, and yet then is stricken or blasted: and other some (at his good pleasure) doth come to a timely ripeness. In like manner, some trees are planted and never take root: some take root but yet not blossom, some blossoms, and yet never bring forth fruit: & other some through his goodness do bring forth fruit in good season. If the Lord deal so with the plant and herb of the field, why may he not deal so with us, the sons of men? If we cannot conceive the reason of this, we must hold our peace: for all the works of GOD are done in righteousness, and all our knowledge is unperfect; therefore we must herein rather accuse ourselves of ignorance, than the Lord of unrighteousness: nay, we ourselves do deal in like sort with those things which are under our hands. In Colleges, Fellows are first chosen to be probationers; and if they be then approved, they be made full Fellows, otherwise they are not. If a man (being childless) do take unto him some friends child, to make him heir of all his goods, he will keep him upon liking; if his manners be honest, he shall be preferred, yea it may be, set over all his house, and yet afterward for some fault be quit cast off. Some other man taketh an other child for the same end, and maketh him his heir indeed: Therefore we must think it righteous in the Lord to deal thus with us, seeing we are in his hand: and we must not be offended, though he call some, and do not enlighten them: and although he enlighten some, and do not continue them, and do of his great mercy continue some even unto the end: let us rather see what use we must make of this doctrine. First, we must take heed that we never quench any grace, or gift that GOD bestoweth upon us. secondly, we must still labour to have greater measure of gifts: for the wicked may come to have some small gifts, and such as may be quite taken away from them. Lastly it doth put a playné difference between the Godly, and the Godless, between them that bear a show of holiness, and them that are indeed the holy ones of the Lord: for the one endureth but for a time, and the other lasteth for ever. Now if we require a further trial, whereby we may know whether we have received that spirit which lasteth but for a time, or that which will abide for ever with us: then let us mark these rules, which put a plain difference between them. First we must mark that enlightening and insight we have in to the word of God, Centaine it is, that both the godly and wicked are enlightened, but the enlightening of the godly is one, and the insight of the wicked is an other: for that knowledge and insight which the godly have received, is certain and distinct: and therefore in particular things, they be able to apply the threatening of God's judgements to the humbling of themselves, and the promises of God to comfort themselves. Again, their knowledge is sufficient to direct them both generally, and in every particular duty. And last of all, it never saileth them, but directeth them unto the end: But the knowledge of the wicked is not so, for it is confused, general, and uncertain. And therefore though they have a general knowledge of the threatenings, and of the promises of God, yet can they not make particular use of the same. Their knowledge is insufficient, nor able to direct them in their particular actions, and therefore it doth leave them in the end. Therefore as the knowledge of the godly for the clearness, the certainty, and the sufficiency of it, is compared to the Sun: so the knowledge of the wicked, is compared to the lightning, which doth not give any certain light, it doth not continue any time; and when it is gone, men are worse than they were before. So doth it fall out with the wicked; for beside that their knowledge doth soon vanish, there is also in them afterwards, greater and more dangerous darkness then there was before: herein than we do see one plain and manifest note of difference. Secondly, we come to our affections. Certain it is, that the wicked do desire the help and the favour of God: but look to the cause, and that will show a difference between them and the godly. The wicked do only seek help, because of some extremity which they suffer? they only desire to be in the favour of God, because they would be freed from grief; and therefore it is common with them to say: Oh that I were out of this pain, Oh that this my sorrow were taken from me. By which speeches they show, that so they might be at rest, or live at their case, they would little weigh of the help or favour of God. But the godly find such sweetness in the favour of God that for the desire thereof▪ they can be content to forego all the pleasures of this life, yea they can be content to suffer much, and endure the cross patiently, so that at the last, they may assuredly enjoy God's favour. Not the godly only, but the wicked also, are grieved when they have sinned but the wicked do therefore sorrow, because their sin hath, or will bring some punishment upon them: And the godly sorrow, because they have offended God, and given him occasion to draw his favour from them, therefore his correction do they bear patiently: but the remembrance of their sin, that toucheth them still at the very quick. Then in their joy, and in thei● sorrow, may appear a second difference. The third difference is in love, for though both of them do love GOD, yet it is after a diverse manner; the one of sincerity, the other for wages. A poor child that is taken up, fed, and clothed, will love him that doth thus feed and clothe him: but if he received no more of that man then of another, he would like him, and love him no better than another: Even so is it with the wicked, if their bellies be filled, their barns stuffed, and they have their hearts desire, they love God indeed, but yet only for their belly, and their barns. Thus did Saul love God, but it was for his kingdom: Thus did Achitophel love God, but it was because he was advanced to be a councillor: And thus did judas love God, but it was because he was chosen to be an Apostle, and carried the bag: But what became of their love the histories do testify. Saul was a little afflicted, and forsook God: Achitophel somewhat crossed in his devices, hangeth himself: and judas for again of money, betrayed Christ. Some experience of this we may see among us; Courtiers will be professors, and Scholars of ripe wits will be religious, if Courtiers may come to be Counsellors, and if Scholars may be preferred to the chiefest places: but if promotion come not, than their profession is forsaken, and their Religion laid aside. And yet that is not all, for either they wax profane in their life or heretical in their opinions. Do the children of God love on this manner? No, the holy Ghost which they have received in effectual manner, doth shed the seed of love in their hearts, and doth work in them a special liking of his goodness, of his righteousness, and of his holiness: and therefore of sincere affection they love him. As the natural child loveth his father naturally, and though his father beat him, yet beareth he it, and still loveth him: so do the children of God deal. They have powered into them as (Saint Peter saith) a godly nature, so that they do freely love God their father: and though he afflict them, or cross them in their desires, yet they love him, and in love perform their obedience unto him continually: therefore job sayeth, Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him: They therefore are said to have received a free spirit, and to serve God in the liberty of the spirit. And who seethe not this to be a plain and manifest difference between them: therefore we may well take it as a third mark or rule, whereby to prove and try ourselves. The fourth and last rule is, in considering the work and effect which Gods mercy received, doth work in us: for, herein do the wicked show their wickedness two ways. First, on the right hand, the mercies of God do work in them a wonderful contentation▪ but not such as causeth them to return the glory unto God, nay rather it is such, as causeth them to take all glory to themselves: for the graces of God do puff them up, and make them proud, and conceited in themselves. Hereof there ariseth a great security, which bringeth first neglect, and afterward contempt of all good means, whereby they should grow up in goodness. On the left hand others offend, being never pleased nor contented with that they have: nay, indeed forgetting and lightly esteeming that they have, and still desiring new. These men beside that they be unthankful, they do also murmur and grudge against God, & are never pleased with him. Between these two, do the children of God hold a middle and even course: and therefore we shall see these things in them. First, a sight and an acknowledging of the wants which do move them, as Saint Peter saith, Like new borne babes, to desire the sweet and sincere milk of the word, that thereby the graces they have, may be increased, and their other wants may be supplied: and so far are they from being puffed up with pride, that they rejoice when their pride may be pulled down, or their haughtiness abated, either by some sharp rebuke, or by some fearful threatening, or by some moderate correction from the Lord. For they know, that if it were needful for Saint Paul to be buffited, and that by the minister of Satan, to the intent that his pride might be beaten down: than it is much more needful for them, after sundry ways to be humbled. Besides they do not only desire the word▪ but they also wait upon the Lord, until it pleased him to work further in them thereby: and this waiting is as earnest as is theirs, who having watched all the night, do wait and look for the dawning of the day. Secondly, as they see their wants, so also they see that grace they have received, and are for that time will appayed, and contented therewith: and therefore as their wants do humble them, so the graces of God received do comfort them: and as their wants do call upon them, and cause them to seek more: so that they have, doth provoke them to be thankful for that they have received. See then a quite contrary course of the wicked, and those that of sincerity do worship God, See I say how contrarily the graces and gifts of GOD do work in them. And therefore from the consideration hereof, we may well draw a fourth rule, whereby to make trial and examination of ourselves: So to conclude this point in a word, when a man by the spirit of GOD hath been enlightened unto a certain and sufficient knowledge of God's will, when he findeth his affection, chief and above all other things set upon GOD, when he findeth a pure and sincere love of God in his heart, not for wages, but for the work of grace, which after an unspeakable manner doth move him thereunto: and when he doth thankfully acknowledge mercies received, as he doth carefully attend and wa●te upon the Lord, till he bestow some greater measure of graces upon him; Then may he be undoubtedly persuaded, that he hath found the spirit working in him, in a more effectual manner, and that therefore it shall never be taken from him. But what then? may such men cast off all care? No, for unto them doth saint Paul give this charge That they do not quench the spirit. And not with out cause doth he give them this charge: for though the spirit itself can never be taken utterly from them, yet doubtless, if they wax proud, if they grow secure, if they fall into sin, the graces and gifts of the spirit, may decay and die in them, their clear understanding, their feeling, their affection, and all may be gone, so that in their own judgement, and in the judgement of others, it may seem that they have quite quenched, and put out the spirit. Neither must this seem so strange: for if the image of God, which was more perfectly placed in Adam, than it is now in us, If I say, th●s image might quite be lost and blotted out, as we see it was, than no marvel if the graces of the spirit of God be for a time, as it were dead and drowned in us. And that we may be the less offended herewith, the scriptures do offer unto us such examples of men, as having been once effectually called and truly borne again, have yet afterwards through some sins, lost the graces of the spirit: such were the Galathians, for they were truly called, and effectually regenerate by the spirit and Gospel of God, as may appear by this, that for the words sake they reverenced the Apostle as the Angel of God; yet they were shared with false doctrine, and fell very dangerously to the choking and quenching of the graces of God's spirit in them. The spirit itself was not taken from them, nay, Christ did still continue in their hearts, but yet for want of godly graces, he was as it were without fashion and form, so that the Apostle did as it were travel again, until Christ was fashioned a new in them. David also upon the committing of his sin, was brought into the like case, therefore in the 51. Psal. he prayeth: That God will create in him a new spirit: What? was the spirit quite gone? no, for by and by in the same Psalm he prayeth, That the Lord would not take away his holy spirit from him: how can these two stand together, first to pray, that a new spirit may be created in him, and then, that the spirit of God may not be taken from him? Surely the spirit itself was still in him, and therefore he prayeth, that it may not be taken from him: but the graces, & gracious working of the spirit they were dead and gone, and therefore he prayeth that they may be renewed in him. By this than we see, that the very chief graces of the spirit may be quenched, even in the most godly, when they fall into sin. But yet that no liberty may be taken hereby, let us a little consider, what grief and punishment they procure to themselves, that do by any means lose the graces of the spirit. First of all we must know, that though the spirit of God cannot be got by our labour, yet it causeth us much labour, and we must undergo much travel, and suffer much trouble, before the spirit of God do take possession of us; now when the graces of the spirit are lost, all this our labour seemeth to be lost, and what grief is it to see the whole labour and travail of a man to vanish and come to nothing. Secondly, when a man receiveth the spirit of GOD, and by the same spirit is assured that his sin is forgiven him, and that he is in the favour of GOD; there doth arise in his heart a great joy in the holy Ghost, a joy I say, that is unspeakable and glorious: and this joy is lost and gone, when the graces of God's spirit are gone: with how great grief and woe, they know, that in any measure have tasted of it. Again, when the graces of the spirit are choked in men, than they have no heart to do good, they have no affection to goodness, but all is gone; and they are made for the time, as it were an unprofitable burden of the earth. What grief can be greater than this? What sorrow can sink more deep, then that a good man should be clean withholden from doing good? Moreover it is sure, that when the gifts of the spirit are in this sort gone, than he that was most righteous before, may soon fall into great sins, yea and which is more, they shall also suffer the reproach of their sins: For this is a part of the covenant that GOD made with his, That though he will not take his mercies utterly from them, yet he will visit their sins with the rod, and their iniquities with scourges: and what grief this is, the example of God's children may show us▪ what grief was it to Noah become a laughing stock to his own son? what heart-breaking to David, by his own son to be thrust from his kingdom, so grievous were those punishments laid upon them that if without any respect of hell or heaven, we could consider of them, we had rather want all the pleasures of sin, which they enjoyed, than we would bear the reproach and feel the pain which they suffered. Last of all, when the graces of the spirit of GOD are once decayed, they can never be repaired and recovered, but with much sorrow and great danger: for it cannot but breed much sorrow of heart, to remember his former sins, to examine and see the greatness of them, to apply God's judgements to them, and to provoke himself to sorrow for them: This is as it were to go through the pikes, and through a purgatory in this present life; and yet this must be done, before we can recover God's graces again. Again, it is a very dangerous thing▪ for in such cases men are brought as it were with jonas, into the bottom of the sea: and as David saith, into the deep waters, so that all the surges, and waves do pass and flow over him. Now we know what danger it is for a man to be thrust over head and ears into the deep waters: and therefore they that are in such a case, are in great danger: wherefore all these things considered, the loss of all our labour, the loss of all true joy, the unfitness to do good, the readiness to sin; the grief and danger that ensueth thereof, will, or at the least wise may, cause us to be ware, how we quench the spirit. And this is the use of the Doctrine, in humbling of of us: which also doth furthermore serve to comfort us, knowing that we may suffer a great decay of GOD'S graces; yet by the rod, or by the word of GOD or by both, they shall be renewed in us again. And thus much of this commandment that the Apostle giveth here, that we should not quench the spirit.  
FINIS.   

The second Sermon preached by M Richard Greenham.  It is thus written Acts 2. Vers. 37.38. 
37 Now when they heard it, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter, and the other Apostles. Men and brethren, what shall we do?  
38 Then Peter said unto them, amend your lives, and be baptised every one of you in the name of jesus Christ for the remission of sins etc.  
IN this portion of the holy book of God is set down to us an effect, or rather a fruit of Peter his sermon, which he made for the answering of the slanderoous reports of the jews, at what time they saw the wonderful gifts of GOD sent down upon the Apostles. In which sermon, the Apostle had pricked their consciences which showing them their sins, telling them of a surety, that their iniquities was the cause of Christ his death: whereby a certain care began to be wrought in them, insomuch that being thus troubled, they inquired and said men and brethren, what shall we do? whereupon afterward followed the second Sermon of Peter, wherein he exhorteth them to continued in their repentance & teacheth us that if our sorrow be good, we must go forward therein. Further he showeth them to this end, that they must believe, that believing they may be baptized, that being baptized they might receive the gift of the holy Ghost. Lastly it is manifest, how they hearing that sermon first received the doctrine, and after persevered in the practice of the same. Briefly therefore three things are here to be noted: First the fruit of the former Sermon of Peter contained in these words. Now when they heard it, etc. Scondely the sum of a new Sermon of Peter in these word. Then Peter said unto them, amend your lives, etc. Thirdly is set down the fruit of their obedience. In the former part of this Chapter we may know the wonderful works of GOD, that the Apostles, who were never brought up in schools, speak with divers tongues▪ which when the multitude heard, some are said to marvel and to be astonished, some mocked them and said, They are full of new wine. But when Peter with great boldness of spirit had in this Sermon which he made, set the truth of God against their false accusations, and had preached against their sins, than they left of mocking▪ & were pricked in their hearts. Where first we may note the power of God's word, which only is able to touch our consciences for sin. For neither the diversity of tongues, nor other gifts of the holy Ghost could prick their hearts, as being able only to cast them into an admiration. What more forcible thing then to cause a go●ly sorrow, them to have our conscience pricked? What so able to prick our conscience as the word of GOD? Indeed many feel sorrow and are inwardly pricked, but because therewith is not joined the power of God's word, They be either senseless as blocks, or in their feeling they are murmurers. This cometh unto us by the dignity of GOD his word, in that no wonders from heaven, no miracles on earth can touch our hearts, and work in us any fruit without the same. For though the Lord should show unto us all the wonders from heaven, which he showed on the old world, and on Sodom, although he should lay all the plagues upon us, which he laid on Pharaoh and on the Egyptians, without the word of God, we should be as unprofitable beholders, as ever were the Sodomites, & should become as hardeharted as ever were Pharaoh, & the Egyptians. so that no judgement from heaven, no trouble from earth can humble us, no blessing from above, no benefit from beneath can▪ profit us, until the word of GOD cometh, which teacheth the old way to forsake it, the new way to enter into it, and the perfect way to continue in it. And thus much for the general scope of this doctrine. Now more particularly we may observe in this first part three things. First the power of the word to prick our conscience. Secondly that this prick must not cause in us a more rebelling against the word or ministers thereof: but rather a greater reverence to them both. Thirdly such pricks must prepare us to a greater desire to profit. For the first we must know, that this is the beginning of repentance, and this is the entry to godliness, even to conceive a sorrow for our sins, and so be wounded with a feeling of our evils. For as long as men are secure, it is not possible, that they should seriously apply their mind unto doctrine, neither without the knowledge, and feeling of our sins can we heartily long for Christ. To this agree the law, the Prophets, and the Apostles. The law, because in all their sacrifices, wherein Christ was prefigured, was manifested also under dark signs, the contrition of heart, and acknowledging their unworthiness. The Prophets as David and Esay. David in the fourth psalm and fi●t verse ●ayeth, Tremble and sin not, where the Prophet showeth, 
Psal. 45.  that this is an effectual thing to true repentance, to quake and tremble for fear of God's judgements. That we may then truly examine ourselves, we must fear and humble ourselves, because before trouble, terror, and quaking at the judgements of GOD, we will never be brought to offer ourselves to Christ alone. In the Psal. 51. Vers. 18.19. the Prophet like wise showeth, that no sacrifice is acceptable to God without a contrite heart, that is, neither prayer, neither almsgiving, neither praise or thanksgiving, unless we bringing an humble and contrite spirit with us, cast ourselves down before his judgement seat, and sue for mercy in Christ. And here mark, that he saith, the sacrifices of God, are a troubled spirit etc. where he using the plural number showeth, that the sacrifices of repentance, which must not be one, but many, are humbleness of spirit and contrition of heart. For the affliction of the soul & contrition of the mind, do so cast us down, wounded with our sins & humbled with a feeling of God's wrath, as that it maketh us to acknowledge, that we are nothing of ourselves, and to seek for our salvation wholly at the mercy of God. No marvel then, if by this means we being confounded and ashamed of ourselves, and staying ourselves on the only promises of God, do confess our own nakedness and wreatchednes, why the Prophet should say, that the Lord is pleased with this sacrifice as with the sacrifice of sacrifices. The Prophet Esai. cap 40. V 6.7.8. saith. 
Esa. 40.6.7 8.  All flesh is grass, & the beauty thereof as the flower of grass, the grass withereth, & the flower falleth, when the breath of the Lord falleth upon it. where the Prophet painting out man in his proper couliers, and driving him to seek our salvation not in himself but in Christ, describeth the outward part of man to be as grass and by the flower of grass, he showeth his gifts of mind being unregenerate, as wisdom memory, knowledge, and understanding. So that, when God's spirit doth but breath on us, all our wisdom, all our knowledge, riches, and authority fall before the presence of the Lord of hosts, neither can we remain, but only by the word of God, whereby we are borne again. Wherefore the considering & meditating of our transitory estate driveth us to a contrition & humbleness of spirit. Besides, the Lord God, saith Esai, 
Esa. 66.  whom the heavens cannot contain, nor the earth hold, will come and dwell with a lowly, poor, and troubled spirit, and which standeth in awe of his word. God doth not accept our sacrifices, which are offered without trembling at his word, no more than if we should kill a man, & choke a dog, or offer swine's flesh, which was counted an abominable thing among the jews, or praise the thing that is unright. Lastly to this accordeth the Gospel, and the Apostles. Our saviour Christ Mat. 9.13. saith, 
Mat. 9▪ 11.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, not every sinner, but that sinner, which condemneth sin in him, & is weary and laden with his sins. Mat. 11.28. Mat. 21.32. our Saviour Christ preferreth the harlotts & Publicans before the Pharisees, for they being pricked for their sins & convicted, did sorrow, & heard john preaching unto them. So then Christ giveth relief to those that want, righteousness to them that feel themselves sinners, ease to them, which are burdened, lightto them, which are in darkness, life to them which are dead, & salvation to them, which condemn themselves. 1. Cor. 14. the Apostle declareth, how the Corrinthians were moved with strange tongues: but yet had not in admiration the word. Besides he showeth by comparing the gift of tongues & prophesying together, that if an Infidel or unlearned man should come, and hear them speak with strange tongues, he would say, they were out of the wits, but if he should hear them speak the word of god plainly, he would be rebuked of all men & judged of all men, & so the secret of his heart should be mad manifest, he would fall down on his and worship God and say plainly, when he feeleth his sins, they rifle mine heart, they show my secret sins, doubtless, this is God's doing, God is in them, I will follow this religion. Wherefore in this appeareth the power of the word, in that it citeth and summoneth our consciences before the tribunal of God, and woundeth us with a lively feeling of God's judgement, that he, who before thorough security did despise sound doctrine, may now be constreained to give the glory unto God. This appeareth more plainly: Heb. 4.12. where it is said, 
Heb. 4.12.  that the word of God is lively, mighty in operation, and sharper than any two edged sword, & it pierceth thought from thought; & all holiness shall seem hypocrisy, all our righteousness shall seem as a defiled cloth: we shall find with Paul, that in us, that is, in our flesh dwelleth no righteousness. For men's consciences are could, neither are they touched and displeased with their evils, so long as they be in ignorance, but when the word of God pierceth into the uttermost corners of their consciences, and telleth them, that they have to do with the Lord; they are thoroughly touched and begin to fear, and entering into themselves examining their conscience, they come to the knowledge of that, which before they had forgotten. We can never be offered to God without his spirit john. 16.8. 
john, 16, 8  For he reproveth the world of sin, and awaketh our consciences, that those sins, which before were hid, should be made manifest. David did lie an whole year without this prick of conscience, and thought, that all was well, 
2, Sam,  until Nathan came, neither did he find comfort of conscience, until he had thus been pricked. josephes' brethren were thirteen years, and never remembered their sins, until, after such time the Lord laid it before them. The Prophet David, Psal. 32 (which he entitled a Psalm of instruction concerning the free remission of sins) reaches how we shall find the same. For many persuade themselves, that their sins are forgiven, when they be not. He also showeth, that until trouble of mind did drive him to GOD, he found no comfort, 
2. Reg.  Man●sses which did eat the bread of sorrow, and did drink the water of grief; until he had lamented and sorrowed, felt no rest nor peace. The woman of Samaria john 4. was pleasant, and jested with our Saviour Christ, until her sins were opened, and then she began to answer with more reverence. For until she was willed to call her husband, she thought all was safe, but after that he had told her, that she had played the adulteress, she acknowledged him, that he was a Prophet.  
Wherefore we may see by this, which hath been spoken, that the word of God only pricketh our consciences, as plainly may here appear by the jews, who cared not for the Apostles nor made any conscience, until their hearts were pricked. In the second place we must note, that they were rightly pricked. For many often times are pricked, which kick against the prick, and having their consciences galled by the word, they murmur either against the preacher of the word, or against the word itself. Here then is the difference between the godly and the wicked, the one is pricked and is made more careful in a godly conscience; the other more hardened then before. But this is a godly sorrow, when we love the man, that rebuketh us, and reverence the word the more being by it reproved in our conscience. Do we love him then that rebuketh us? then we hear profitably. Let us examine ourselves in this sort: I see God hath wounded me by him, he is the instrument, whereby God doth humble me, I will therefore love him. Contrary if we be often touched & amend not, we are in danger of God's wrath. Many indeed are pricked, with poverty, many with sickness, & some with other like afflictions, but few with their sins, which is the cause of their poverty, sickness, and other afflictions. Let us then learn a willingness to offer ourselves to be taught and to be pricked for sin, as these men were. The wicked also are pricked sometimes for sin: but it is rather for fear of punishment, then for conscience to displease God, as were Cain and judas. Some men are pricked, and to put away their sorrow, they will go sleep, they will go play, they will go sport, they will get to merry company, and pass away the time, and so, as they term it, they will purge & drive away the rage of melancholy, they never go to any Preacher, to ask of the Lord, or at the mouth of his spirit. They never respect to prayer, nor seek any comfort in the word of God. But to put away sorrow on this sort is to call it again, and to feel it more freshly either in the hour of death, or in hell. Contrariwise if our sorrow doth drive us to prayer or to the word of God, it is good. As for the wicked and profane worldlings, though as the wise man saith, Ecclesiact. 11. he spend all his days without any evil, yet his darkness willbe greater than the light, his sorrow greater than his pleasure, his loss greater than his gain, his trouble greater than his vanity, in hell. Let us not then so carnally shake off this godly sorrow, For the word will send us often an unquiet spirit, that we may seek to be quiet in Christ. To examine ourselves herein. Have we heard the word of God? were we pricked by it? then have we profited, have we not been pricked thereby? then as yet are we not a sacrifice for the Lord. For, as was said before, Christ comforteth them that are troubled, he helpeth them that doubt, he easeth them, which are in distress, he setteth their feet in the way of peace and gladness, that have long been in darkness and sorrow. Have ye not been sorrowful, & will ye learn a salve for this sore? be sorrowful, that ye were not sorrowful, be pricked in your hearts, because you were not more pricked. Have we heard the word? Let us examine ourselves? if our knowledge be the better; If our affections be the holier; As having heard the exposition of the law of God; do we fear God? do we know how to love God? do we pray to God? do we worship God in our souls, & in our bodies more carfully & in greater conscience than we have done heretofore? Are we not now as profane & careless still in giving the right worship to the true God, as before we were to superstitious, in serving Angels, Sants & other false Gods; neither sorrowing for our idolatry, nor caring for true religion? have we not blasphemed, & profaned the name of god in unreverent hearing his word, in unprofitable talking of his works & abusing his own majesty with swearing and cursing as much as we ever did before? Have we kept holy the Sabbath? or have we not profaned it, by open neglect of the word, by playing, sporting, drinking, and other vanities do we not still send forth our servants to dispatch our business on that day, as if it were the market day, when they may do such things most lawfully? Are not parents, householders, and governors, as slack in provoking obedience; and children, servants and subjects, as flow in yielding obedience as ever they were? parents' in the mean time, not seeing that children therefore rebel against them, because they rebel against God; nor householders perceive that servants do not their duties to them, because they do not their duty to God? Are we less wrathful, and more merciful? are we less riotous, and filthy defilers of our flesh? and are we more sober, chaste, and holy? are we less given to oppression, to hard dealing one with another, and more just, righteous, and careful to maintain the good estate of our brethren? Are we not backbiters, slanderers, or sowers of discord, causers of contention ●mong our neighbours? being far off from maintaining love united, and the good name of our brethren? The cause, why we cannot see further into these things, is because we flatter ourselves, and because we compare ourselves with ourselves & with others, but not with the rule of God's word. Let us then learn to accuse ourselves and to judge our own consciences. For if God see us condemn ourselves, he will not condemn us, if we accuse ourselves, God will not suffer Satan to accuse us, if we judge ourselves, God will acquit us from the fearful judgement to come, if we be displeased for our sins, God will be pleased in Christ his righteousness. On the contrary, whilst we lie in our sins, we lie in our own blood, if we judge not ourselves, God will both judge us, and be revenged of our sin, he will set our house on fire, he will send enemies, he will send earthquakes, he will send famines to make us to consume our goods, he will make friends foes, he will send sickness and soreness upon our bodies, & a troubled spirit into our souls, he will send us an ill name, thus will he bring plague upon plague until we repent, & come to a feeling of our sins. And why doth God all this? because we will not come to judge ourselves. For this cause, saith the Apostle. 1. Cor. 11.30. that is, because we judge not ourselves many are weak, & sick among you, & many sleep. 31. for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged, 32. but when we are judged, we are chastined of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Likewise the Prophet Psal. 89. & 30.31.32.33. But if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgements, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandements. Then will I visit their transgression with the sword, and their iniquity with strokes, yet my loving kindness will I not take from him, neither will I falsify my truth. For as a father withdraweth from his child sometimes his love, & whippeth him with the rod of correction, so the Lord dealeth often with his children & scourgeth their naked conscience. God doth judge his here, but his enemies will he judge in the world to come, if we be not punished here, the punishment will be as a thunderbolt in the day of judgement. Hast thou been afflicted, & not profited? will not a little cross serve thee? a greater shall come to thee, will not a few troubles turn thee to God, than many shall come upon thee? If a man be not troubled for sin here, it is the way to hell, if he be troubled here, it is the way to heaven. And as they which have not been troubled, having had a little joy shall have eternal pain, so they which here have had a little pain, shall after have everlasting joy. They that are corrected and have profited by it, are afflicted of the Lord in mercy, but they that be vexed and amend not, receive a token of God's further wrath. Wherefore we must not look to feel comfort in the remission of sins, unless we also have sorrow for committing our sins. For never any of gods children were comforted thoroughly, but they were first humbled for their sin lawfully. To the working of which humiliation, we must remember God's judgements showed on others: hath God destroyed the whole world for sin, and can he not, or will he not destroy thee for sin? hath he overthrown whole nations, and will he suffer thee to lie still in thy sins? See how full Hell is already, and yet daily we run headlong thither. Consider also, how great thy sin was, that could not be cleansed but by the blood of jesus Christ; Oh how soul was that sin, that nothing else could wash it, but Christ his heart blood? oh how great was our guiltiness, that were ransomed by such a price? How great was the sore, that needed such a salve? how deep was the wound, that needed such a medicine? O loving kindness, and unspeakable love towards us! Shall Christ be slain for our sins, and we not slay sin in ourselves? Shall Christ die for our sins, and sin as yet is not dead in us? Shall Christ be crucified for us, and will we not crucify sin in ourselves? Shall Christ have his heart pricked with a spear, and shall not we have our hearts pricked with sorrow? This is the true use and meditating of Christ his passion. We are wont to defy the jews for accusing Christ, we spit at judas for betraying Christ, and we condemn Pilate for condemning Christ, but we are much more to be at defiance with our sins, which accused him before the judgement seat of God, we are to accuse ourselves, who have and daily do, betray him; we must condemn ourselves, whose sins have condemned him. But if neither the judgements of God, hell, nor the cross of Christ can move us, then let us examine ourselves how we can rejoice in Christ.  
It followeth to speak of the counsel of Peter, Repent, as if he should say. I know your hearts are pricked, how be it I will show you, how it is the policy of the Devil, to make these good motions quickly to wax dry in you, he will stay you from persevering, you must therefore endeavour to continue in this godly sorrow. The Apostle saw, that this sorrow, which as Paul witnesseth is not to be repent of, was well begun in them, but in continuing his sermon still to that effect, he showeth that our sorrow must be also continual. Many sorrow, as hath been showed, but in a worldly sorrowing, which bringeth eternal death, not in a godly grief which bringeth repentance. Wherefore we are to note that repentance beginneth in us, continueth and endeth with sorrow. Now, if it might be, it were expedient to show what repentance is. In one word, Repentance is not a bare leaving of sin, but an utter condemning and misliking of that sin, which we have left. For though we have left it, yet Satan may make us to sorrow for it many years after, yea even at the point of death. ' David had left his sin, but it caused him to sorrow an whole year after. joseph's brethren had forsaken and almost forgotten their sin, yet it troubled them and grieved them thirteen years after. Our pricking of heart therefore must be continued and daily renewed. This repentance is figured in baptism, both in that we must die to sin, and bury it, and also that we must rise again to newness of life, for a man cannot die to sin but by the virtue of Christ his death, neither can he rise to righteousness without the power of his resurrection. Now we must know that as our sins are forgiven, so we must also receive God's spirit. If God promiseth mercy to our children much more to us, if we believe and receive his promises, if to them, which are a far of, much more to them that are near. And yet though we have been baptized an hundred years, and have not received the holy Ghost: we may die in our sins. Some understand by the gift of the holy Ghost the graces of God bestowed on the Apostles, but in my judgement, their opinion is not sound, because, that was a particular thing given only to them of that time, this promise is general and respects all posterities. We are then to note, that repentance is a continual course of sorrow, and if we have this in truth, then may we boldly seek for comfort out of God's wo●d, and from his ministers, and look what comfort they give us on earth, the same shall be sealed also in heaven. Wherefore as it is requisite continually to till the ground, if we will have fruit, and daily to eat, if we will live: so in spiritual things, we must be humbled with continual sorrow, that we may be refreshed with daily comfort in Christ, in whose name let us pray. Our father, etc.  
FINIS.   

Certain wise and grave Counsels and Answers, made by the same author, of the former argument.  
Unto one that was much tempted with unbelief, he gave this counsel; When the temptation cometh, either fall down in prayer, & say, Lord thou makest me to possess the sins of my youth, and this temptation is of very equity; howbeit, O Lord, grant I may by wisdom herein, make this temptation an holy instruction, and suffer me to possess my soul in patience: Oh turn this to thy glory and my salvation. I see and confess what hath been in me a long time, by that which now showeth itself in me, and that thy grace hath hitherto kept under this corruption: yet Lord I believe, yet Lord I will believe, help Lord my unbelief. Thy name be praised, for this seal of thy love, and pledge of thy spirit; that in this unbelief I am grieved, as in my belief I am wont to be comforted. And though my old and secret sins, deserve that I should not only be given over to infidelity, but also that it should be in me without grief and remorse, yet Lord forgive my sins new, and old, forgive my vnthank●ulnes. Lord increase my faith, and grant good father, that when thou shalt restore to me the gift of grace again, that I may use it in fear, and show it by fruits.  
Or if this do not prevail, give yourself with all humbleness to read the word of God, especially, his promises, and be still attending upon the means, waiting when the Lord shall enlarge your heart. Or if this do not help, go to some faith full brother, confess your state to him, acknowledge your weakness to him, and be not ashamed to give God the glory by shaming yourself, and opening your corruption to him; that so he may pray for you; whose prayer according to the promise of God, made to his holy ordinance herein, james. 5. undoubtedly shall be heard in the appointed time. Thus having prayed by yourself, and with another, and used the means of reading for your recovery, though you have not present release, yet in meekness of mind & patience of your spirit, go to your calling; knowing that your prayers and the word of God, being as seed, must have some time between the sowing of them, and the reaping of the increase and fruit of them. Above all, reason not with your temptations, dispute not with the Devil, as though you could prevail of yourself. And as I would not you should dispute with your temptation, so I would not you should despise it. For in both are extremities. If you take it too much to heart, or marvel how you should overcome such a temptation, it will make you dull or desperate. If you account of it to little, and marvel how such things should come into your head, which was not wont to be so, it will make you not to strive, and you shall be swallowed up before you be aware. If you account of it too fearfully, Satan will oppress you before you begin to fight; If you account of it too lightly, the devil needs not to wrestle with you, you will overthrow your ●elfe. Therefore fear in respect of yourself: fight boldly in Christ; tremble at your own corruption; but rest and trust in Christ your salvation. If still you are tempted, and no body by you, writ your temptation, and offer it to God by prayer, and promise to him, that you will ask counsel of his word, at the mouth of his minister, when he shall give you just occasion. If all this help not, comfort yourself with this pledge of election, that you are joyed when you feel your belief, and that you are grieved▪ lest you should displease God by your unbelief; and know, that as there is a vicissitude of the means of salvation, which you must use; so there is also a vicissitude of temptations, whereof this is one, against which you must strive.  
2 Unto one that was tempted with worldly shame, 
Worldly shame.  and thought the distemperature of his mind and body proceeded thereof, he said on this sort. Fist know, that Satan hath not an absolute power, but a power by permission to try us, against which, we must arm ourselves by faith, which will assure us, that either the Lord will mitigate our temptation if our power and patience be not great, or else, if he enlarge the trial, he will increase our strength and reach it out, according to the proportion of our temptation. We must also pray, that the Lord give not out that measure of leave to the devil, which we give out to sin, to work rebellion in us against his majesty; but that he would rather make Satan a Surgeon to show us our sins, than a Sregeant to confound us for our sins. It is the policy of the adversary, to persuade many, that the weakness of their body, and feebleness of their brain proceedeth of their temptations, when indeed it cometh of the unstaidnes of their minds, wandering too much after the motions of the devil; in that they not resting on the word, nor depending on Christ, nor contenting themselves to be tried, nor comforting themselves by meditation, attend to much, & comfort to often with the devils illusions and temptations, and so they comeplayne of the effects, and not of the causes of their temptations; being more grieved for their present sufferings, then for their sins past. The root of this worldly shame, is pride and haughtiness of mind, which is a privy evil, and hardly will be beaten into the head of them that are infected therewith. But sure it is, that we would never be so grieved for the loss of a thing, if we did not too much desire it, and too immoderately use it, whilst we had it. john. 12: 42. Which sin of haughtiness, the Lord seeing in his children, that they are more humbled, with the losseof worldly credit, then with the sense of their sins, and the loss of their glory; ●ee striketh them with the want of that thing which is most precious unto them, because they made no conscience of that honour which is most precious unto him. Wherefore this is the best remedy, rather to be grieved that we feel not our sins to be pardoned with God, then that we are known to be sinners amongst men, and that we be ready to shame ourselves that God may have the glory; acknowledging shame, and confusion, and the whole hell of temptations to be due unto us; and glory, praise & compassion, to be only the Lords. For this is a special mark of the child of God, by temptations rightly humbled, when he is ready to shame himself for his sin, that he may glorify God in his mercy.  
3 Unto one that thought himself to have ●inned against the holy Ghost, 
Sin against the holy ghost  he said, Satan's temptations follow our affections. For if we lightly account of sin, he blears our eyes still with God's mercies; if we begin to make a conscience of sin, he loadeth us with the judgements of God; being as ready now to aggravate the sin, more than it is in itself, as before he would extenuate it to make it seem less than it was. Howbeit, said he to the man thus afflicted; I will say unto you as Samuel said to the people after they had confessed themselves to have sinned against God with a great sin: True it is, said Samuel, not flattering them in their iniquities; Ye have sinned greatly: notwithstanding, if ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and hear his voice, and not disobey the word, of the Lord ye shall follow the Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord but disobey the lords mouth, then shall the hand of the Lord be upon you. 1. Sam. 12.14. So I will not lessen your sine, but I say, you have sinned with a great sin before the Lord, in that you made a mock of the word which you knew; yet if you turn to the Lord in fear and serve him, your sin is remissible, howsoever Satan chargeth your conscience, that you have done evil against your own knowledge. For although every sin against the holy Ghost is against a man's conscience & knowledge; yet every sin against our knowledge and conscience is not against the holy Ghost. For then David and Peter had sinned against the holy Ghost, for they sinned after the holy Ghost was come upon them: which is not true, as may appear by their godly repentance ensuing. Some sins are against knowledge, but of human frailty; some are against knowledge of a rebellious obstinacy. These last are the persecutions of the spirit of God, as he is the power of God; Those first are not so precisely against the holy ghost, but against God the Father, the Son, & the holy Ghost, the one which may be repent of is remissible, the other which is without repentance is irremissible, wherefore in that you quake, and are afraid lest this sin be in you, & would rejoice in God, if it were not in you: If you purpose to leave your former sins, & in truth henceforth turn unto the Lord, I dare assure you, that as yet you are free from this sin.  
4 Unto one afflicted in mind, he gave this comfort: First, if you have knowledge, be thankful for it, & desire the lord to give you faith: if you have faith, which undoubtedly you may have though not rightly discerning yourself, you presently perceive it not; you must wait on the Lord for feeling of it. And though it may be you shall tarry the lords leisure long▪ yet surely he will give it you in time. In the mean time, assure yourself, that the greatest faith is when there is least feeling. Because it is easy for every one in glorious feelings, & joys unspeakable to believe: but when a man feeling no sensible comfort in the Lord, can notwithstanding believe in the Lord, & by saith wait on him, this man's faith is very great.  
5 He gave this advise to one, against the deadness of the mind that overtaketh the godly: first search the cause, whether it be for some evil thing done, or for some good thing not done, & so leaving some means of salvation unused; whether for some sin seen, but not repent of; or some sin repent of, but not sound, or for unthankfulness. Secondly, use the remedy, please not yourself in it, but rouse up yourself as from a slumber, which willingly you would shake from you: call to mind the special & greatest mercy of God, use the means. thirdly, in the means offer yourself to God, waiting ●umbly, & patiently for the time of deliverance; neither esteeming to much or to little of your afflictions.  
6 To one that complained of the hardness of his heart, he said. You must wait for comfort & know, that you can now no more judge of yourself, than a man sleeping can judge of things which he did waking: or a man wandering in the dark, can discern of bright colours. For as the one may whilst he was waking do excellent things, and yet now neither himself knoweth of them, nor any other can espy them in him: & the other may be environed with fresh and flourishing colours, & yet for want of light, can have no use of his eyes, nor pleasure in the objects; so you have done great good things, whilst god gave you a waking heart to put them in practice, and the light of his spirit, to discern his graces in you: though now, you have neither the sight nor sense of them. And this is the thing that deceiveth and disquieteth many; they look for that discerning of themselves, when the graces of God are more cold, which they had when gods spirit wrought in the sweetest & fullest measure in them. And because there is some intermission of the work of their new birth, they think there is a ●lat amission in them of the spirit of God. But as it is a token of a mind to presumptuous, & infatuated, in time of a dead security, to persuade ourselves still of that safety, in having those graces which sometimes we had: so it is a sign of a mind abject, & too much despairing; to think, that because we have not in present feelings these joys, glorious & unspeakable which we have had; therefore we never had then heretofore, or that we shall never have them again hereafter.  
8 He said to a godly Christian, much inveighing against our unbelief; I do not now suspect your estate, when you seem to me rather to have faith, than when you seem to yourself to have it; for faith being the gift of God, is then most obtained and increased of God, when you thirsting after the increase of present feelings, are humbled under the mighty and merciful hand of God for it, rather I suspect you, when you say you have faith, because than you can lest fear and suspect you self, and by that means lie open to unbelief again. And surely experience proveth, that then we show we have belief, when we mourn for our unbelief, and then our faith may be least, when we think it to be most. Besides herein you are to comfort yourself, with show of increase of faith; because faith groweth by these two means, either by some great feeling by the word, and the spirit, and humble thanksgiving joined thereunto, or else by humbling ourselves before the mercy seat of GOD, for want of our faith.  
9 When one was troubled in mind he gave this comfortable note: that although it came to pass, that after some travel in newebirth, God's graces were not so sweet, and our sins not so sour and grievous unto to us, as they were in our first entrance into regeneration; but we a●e now weaker in less assaults, having afore been stronger in greater temptations: yet we were not to despair, but to consider, from whence this gracious progress did com●; namely of God, and not of ourselves; who showed himself more favourable in the beginning, both because he would not discourage us, newly coming unto him, and for that we forsaking ourselves, with a godly suspecting of our weakness in the least temptations, did fly unto God's help by prayer; who in wisdom can hide himself under a cloud: partly, for that he will look to see some trial of strength at our hands, coming to some age in the new birth partly, for that we now less forsake or suspect ourselves, even in greater temptations; and for that presumptuously wrestling with our own strength, and staying ourselves with our own staff, we do not call to God for help, and not calling, do not obtain, and not obtaining help, we take the foil in the conflict, that the Lord may make known unto us, that notwithstanding our proceeding in Christianity, we are still but men, and God alone is God.  
10 He said to one troubled in mind, for a secret and small sin: I do not so much fear this sin in you, as the policy of Satan by it, either in that he will not stick to show you the lest sins & hide from you the greater; or else by the quick sight of your secret & small sins, to cast upon you an open & gross sin of vain glory and privy pride.  
11 It is a most certain thing in God's children, that the more their afflictions grow, the more their faith groweth: the more Satan striveth to draw them from God, the more they draw near to ●od; although indeed in feeling, they cannot see so much.  
12 Though we find not the spiritual joy which we should feel, yet let us not be to much cast down; so that our conscience tell us, that we are ready to withdraw somewhat from our outward pleasures, for want of this inward pleasure; and that we have not prevented, or smothered out these spiritual joys, but are grieved that we have them not, & wait for the time to feel them. For of all things, we must beware, that we draw not into their stead carnal joys, & so drive a● it were in to exile the working of gods spirit in us by them.  
13 Many despair of help, because of their own unworthiness▪ as though there were no hope of God's mercy, unless we bring in our gift & pawn in our hands to him. But this were to discredit the Lords mercy, and to bring in credit our merits; and rather to bind the Lord to us, than us unto him: but if our sins be great, our redemption is greater; though our merits be beggarly. God's mercy is a rich mercy: If our case be not desperate, and we past hope of recovery, our redemption should not be so plentiful, But when all seems to go one way; when Heaven and Earth, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars go against us; then to ransom us, and to make a perfect restitution, is to draw something out of nothing. Even as in sickness, to have either little danger, or in great danger; deliverance by present means, is nothing; but in extreme peril, when Physic can do nothing, and nothing maketh for us but the Grave, then to be rescued from the grave, and to recover our life from the pit, is Redemption.  
14 There are two workings of God's Spirit in us: the one inferior, which bringgeth but certain fruits of the Spirit, without any special fruit of grace: the other superior, and more certain, when the spirit worketh an infallible sanctification. The first, may totally be darkened, and fully quenched; the other hath but particular Eclipse, and in measure may be dimmed, as it was in David psal. 51, but is not finally quenched. As God made man so that he might fall, though afterwards he had mercy upon him: so he regenerateth us so, that we may fall, though afterwards he may raise us up again, and will. And it is fearful enough, that there may be such particular decay of it in us, as to feel less comfort in the word, less fear of sin, less care of well doing, less zeal in praying, less fruits in the means; so that all our actions are turned to be bitter, which were sweeter unto us than any worldly increase to the worldly man, or honey can be to them that love it. These are evident tokens of the sanctifying spirit, to love good, because it is good; and to hate sin: the more we grow in gifts, the more to hunger, the more to complain of our unworthiness, the more to be humbled in ourselves, the more meekly to judge of others: when we are most quiet with all things, then to think ourselves least quiet, and then most to fear ourselves; so to feel the grace of God in us, and yet our sense and feeling of sin is not lessened; and to fear and quake at the first degrees and motions of sin; not lest they fully quench, but lest they cool the heat of the spirit in us.  
15 In afflictions we must search the cause, first by ascending to GOD, then by descending into ourselves. We must ascend to GOD, pleading guilty, craving mercy, and not stand quarreling with the malice of men, or hatred of the devil against us: for as it were no good wisdom for a man condemned to die, to make any long suit to the jailer, or to the Executioner; (for they be but under officers & can do nothing) but he must labour to the judge, who can either reprieve or release him: so it is no good policy to stand about S●than in our temptations, who doth all by constraint and restraint under the Lord; but we must go to the principal, that is God; in whose hands, are both the entrance, and the issues of our sufferings. Secondly, we must search ourselves, how far either reason is unreformed, or affections unrenewed; knowing that the devil himself can never hurt us, until we have hurt ourselves; and in what measure our reason is corrupt, or our affections disordered; in that measure are we weak, either to be over come of men, or of Satan; and in what measure our reason is sound, and our affections sincere, in that measure we remain invincible.  
16 Some afflicted consciences a●ter some deliverances look no more to be delivered: for they think as God is most liberal, so we must not weary or make tedious his bountiful dealing with us. But the Lord hath many deliverances in store, which it is as impossible to waste, as it is, that the Lord himself should be lessened; he will make an end of his own work in us, for his own glory; which as he hath appointed to be endless in our deliverances, so the means thereunto are also endless. Yea when we seem as it were in a whirlpit, and to be carried by a violent stream of troubles we know not whither, & are constrained oft to dive & plunge down, the waters of affliction running over our head; yet the Lord will recover us and set our feet in a steady ●la●e. If we be cast down, so we can but sprawl up again: if we be resisted of Sa●han, so we can but kick against him; if we can but open our lips, and accuse his malice before the Lord, there is found hope of comfort to be found of him.  
FINIS.   

Faults escaped.  
Page 111. lin. 22. read, his assaults, the same is oftentimes assalied and shaken, yet by the grace of God it is such. etc. pag 114 l 111, 20, he, read, as he, p. 115 li, 10. word, ●eade, grace, 28, that, read, the. pag. 117, l. 6, in face, read, in the face. p, 134, l, 10, it, read, hear it, p, 135, l, 3, be, read, by.