A FRVITFUL AND GODLY SERMON; CONTAINING NEcessary and profitable doctrine, for the reformation of our sinful and wicked lives, but especially for the comfort of a troubled Conscience in all distresses.  
By M. Richard Greenham Pastor of DRAYTON.  
EDINBURGH PRINTED BY RObert Walde-graue, Printer to the King's Majesty. An. 1595.  
Cum Privilegio Regio.   

TO THE VIRTUOUS AND GODLY MATRON, SARA SPE●R, Grace, mercy and peace, in Christ jesus, Amen.  
Dear Sister, you know this World is not your home, but a Pilgrimage, and a place wherein God trieth his children: And I doubt not, but you have learned, how to make right use and profit of the Lord his merciful chastisements: For, the Lord useth many ways and means for the trial of his. I know, You have heard of the patience of JOB, (as saith the Apostle JAMES) and you have seen in the end, how that God is merciful, patiented and long suffering: even so say I unto you, that you shall receive accordingly, if so be you be patiented: that is, if you fear God, set his word before your eyes, and serve him thereafter: and if he lay his cross on you, bear it with patience, the which you shall do, when you considder it, not according to the present sense, but according to the end. Heb. 12. And I doubt not, but you are of the number of them, which are daily dying to themselves, and this sinful world: Ye are one of them that looks for a city, whose builder and maker is God: 
Heb. 13. 14  Ye are one of them that knows yourself and your being, 
Genes. 15. 13. 14.  to be in this earth, but as a Pilgrim and stranger: for here ye have no biding place: Ye are one of them which have made a Covenant with God, 
Deut. 29. 14. 15.  to forsake yourself, and this sinful World: Ye are one of them, 
Mal. 3. 16.  who say, Nay, The Lord hath all things written in his memorial book, for such as fear him & remember his Name: Ye are one of them, which have their Loins girded about, 
Luk. 52. 35  and their lights burning in their hands: Like unto servants that wait upon their Lords coming: Yea, and I am certainly persuaded, that you (and your godly Brethren and Sister,) are of the number of them, who have the Lord for their portion, 
Deut. 32. ●  which have their hope in heaven, 
Col. 1. 27.  whose leader is Christ jesus the son of God, and governor of Heaven and Earth, unto him is given all power, 
Mat. 28. 18.  he is God almighty with the Father and the holy Ghost, praise worthy for evermore.  
Now (dear sister) I partly knowing the present estate of your troubled & perplexed mind, in regard of the want of your greatest outward comfort, I thought it good, to present you with this sweet Sermon (made by that godly-learned & zealous Pastor of Christ's Church, M. RICHARD GREENHAM) which by God's providence came unto my hands; containing a comfort for a troubled conscience, he being through the mercy of God, a man greatly exercised therewith, and therefore taught the same through his own experience: hoping, through the working of God's holy spirit, it shall also minister comfort unto your troubled mind. Therefore (my dear sister) to conclude, I beseech you to be instant with our merciful God, by hearty prayer, for the spirit of wisdom, knowledge, humbleness, meekness, sobriety & repentance, which even the best of God's Children have great need of, because our sins continually provokes the Lord our God to be angry with us: but let us bear his fatherly corrections, & acknowledge our faults with bitter tears, and sorrowful sighs: not doubting, but so he will be merciful unto us in Christ: To whom with the Father and the holy spirit, be all glory, honour, praise, and everlasting thanks, for evermore. Amen.  
Your well-willer in the Lord 
 Christ. R. W.   

A SWEET AND COMFORTABLE SERMON FOR A TROVbled Conscience.  PROV. 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 point of an Adamant, and in letters of gold; but also to be written and registered by the finger of God's spirit in the tables of the heart: which sentence, briefly speaketh thus much unto us; that what trouble soever befalleth a man, his mind unapalled, 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 that fountain of comfort, which ministers comfort to him in all other troubles, and if it become comfortless, what shall comfort it? if it be void of help, where shall 〈◊〉 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, we will first declare, how great a punishment of God this wound of Conscience is. Secondly, we will teach, how this trouble of mind may be avoided. Lastly, we will set down, how Gods children falling in some measure into this affliction of spirit, may be recovered out of it.  
For the first, the grief of this malady is seen, either by some due consideration of the people that have felt it, or by some wise comparison, made between this grief of mind, and other outward griefs incident to 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 protested Christianity aright: If we look among the Heathen, 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 unapalled, suffered imprisonment exile, and extreme tortures of body, rather than they would betray their countries: etc. How many of them have devoured many injuries, and born outward troubles with some ease, and with no resistance, whilst their minds were at liberty? and yet look not to the ●●●nest, but to the best and most excellent men among them, even their wise Philosophers, sweet Orators, and exquisite Poets; who in bearing and forbearing, they thought the chiefest point of virtue to consist: and yet 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 their 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 over mastered; but when that divine and supreme essence which they acknowledged, did by his power cross and overturn their witty devises, and headstrong attempts, so as without hope of remedy, they were hampered in pensiveness and sorrow of mind: then being not able to turn themselves under so heavy a burden, they shrink down, and by violent death, would rid themselves of that disquietness and impatiency 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 numbness cast on them; whether because they have branned 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 conscience, and shall set before their faces their sins committed, see what fearful ends they have: so, 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 their intolerable griefs. Now, wherein is the difference, that some die so senselessly, and some dispatch them so violently? Surely, the one feeling no sin, depart like brutish hogs: the other sure charged with sin, depart like barking dogs: But let us come to the children of God, who have in some degrees felt this trouble of mind, and it will appear both in the members, and in the head of all burdens, to be a thing most intolerable to suffer a wounded conscience: and to begin with, let us set in the first rank 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 US, and for his authority might have made afraid a great multitude: whose substance was the greatest of all the men of the East: yet when the Sabeans came violently and took away all his cattle; when the fire of God from heaven burnt up his sheep & 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 impatiency, as to show that he was not unsensible in these evils: yet it is said, that he worshipped & blessed the name of the Lord, saying: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: Howbeit, behold, when at the strong conference of his comfortless friends, his mind began to be agasht, 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 so may commend to all, the image of a wounded spirit that shall come after. David, a man chosen according to the Lords own heart: Ezeckiah, a pure worshipper of God, and a careful restorer of true Religion, 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 of God: yet when they felt this wound piercing them, with grief of heart; they were as Sparrows mourning, as Cranes chattering, 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 & groans to utter their words, their hearts clave to the dust, & their tongues to the roof of their mouth: but above all, if these were not sufficient to persuade us in this doctrine, there remaineth one example, whom we affirm to be the perfit annotomie of an afflicted mind; that is, the Lord and Saviour of us all, Christ jesus, the Image of the Father, the head of the body, the mirror of all graces: the wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption of all Saints; who sustained the cross, even from his youth upward, besides poverty, baseness, and hunger, did willingly undergo that great trouble of contempt and reproach, and that among them, where he should have had a right deserved honour, in respect of the doctrine that he taught them, and in regard of the manifold miracles wrought among them: as the healing of the sick; the giving sight to the blind; and restoring life to the dead: this unkindness nevertheless, did not so much stick into him; but, at what time he was set as a sacrifice for all, when he was to bear our infirmities, and carry our sorrows; at what time he was plagued, smitten of God, humbled and wounded for our transgressions; when he should be broken for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him, than he cried out, My soul is heavy even unto the death, than he prayeth, O Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: but how prayed he? even with sweeting: how sweated he? even drops of blood: how often prayed he? three times: when ended his agony? not till 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, we wicked men have died without complaint, whose patience then might have seemed to exceed his: it was his suffering in his human spirit, which encountered with the wrath of God, his God-heade suppressing it for a while, he suffered many torments in his body, but much more heavily did the wrath of God lie upon his soul: if this consideration of an afflicted spirit in these examples, doth not sufficiently show, what a grievous thing it is to suffer a wounded conscience, let us proceed with the comparing of this with other evils, which falleth into the nature of man: there is no sickness, but physic provideth it a remedy: there is no sore, but chirurgery will afford a salve: friendship helpeth poverty: there is no impresonment, but there is hope of liberty; suit and favour recovereth a man from banishment: authority and time weareth away reproach. But what physic cureth: what chirurgery salveth: what riches ransom: what countenance beareth out: what authority assuageth: what salve delayeth a troubled conscience? All these banded together in league: though they would conspire a confederacy, cannot help this our distress of a troubled or unquiet 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 were the Princes and all 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 our minds, being appalled with the judgement of God, these things would little comfort us. Let experience speak, if a troubled mind impaireth not health & drieth not up the blood, consumeth not the marrow, pineth not away the flesh, and consumeth the bones: if it make not all pleasures painful, and shorteneth not the life: surely no wisdom can conceal it, no counsel can advise it, no advice can assuage it, no assuagement can cure it, no eloquence can persuade it, no power can overcome it, no sceptre will affray it, no Enchanter can charm it; and yet on the contrary. If a man languish in sickness, so his heart be whole, and he 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 & make an agreement with the highest to spare us? Who dare make a covenant with the devil, that he would not lay claim to us? If then a good conscience helpeth all evils, and all other benefits of this life, in themselves cannot help a troubled conscience, nor see it true by proof, which hear it by 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, but this is ever accompanied with the accusation of sin: A man may be sick, reproached, imprisoned, and yet in all these have a clear conscience, his own heart telling him, that there is no spiritual 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 where 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 knoweth not what sin to begin with, it breedeth such hurlieburlies in him; that when it is day, he wisheth it were night, and when it is night, he would have it day: his meat doth not nourish him, his dreams are fearful unto him, his sleep often times forsaketh him; if he speak, he is little eased; if he keep silence, he boileth with disquietness of heart: the light doth not comfort him, the darkness doth grieve him; to prosecute our comparison: where all other evils are the more tolerable, because they be temporal and pursues us but to death; this not being cured, endeth not in death, but becometh eternally: for even the Heathen men thought, that death was the end of all miseries: the persuasion thereof, made them being in some misery, to make an end of themselves, and hasten their own death; as Satan doth make many now adays to do, who are ignorant of the Hells, which is a place of far greater pain, than any they can suffer in this world whatsoever. Howbeit, a tormented conscience, if before it was begun, is now continued; or if it were not before, now beginneth, and never endeth, world without end. For, though true it is, that poverty, imprisonment or banishment, have ended their times in death, yet a wounded heart, which was temporal in this life; that which before death was in hope recoverable, is after death made both uncurable, and unrecoverable. It is good then to considder, 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 but a spark: But to shut up argument, some there have been, that throughout their life time, have been free from other troubles; so as either they felt them not at all, or in very small measure, and by that means never knew their headache: 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 have made a league with death (as it were) and a covenant with hell; who thought they could crucify every cross rather than come under any, 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 and repentance do oft escape it; but the wicked and such as are borne to it, as to their sure inheritance, the more they fly from it, the more it pursueth them. If we transgress 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 conscience telling us, that we have sinned against God: what bribe shall we offer, or whither shall we flee? where shall we go from his spirit, or whither shall we flee from his presence? If we ascend into heaven, is he not there? If we lie down in hell, is he not there? If we fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, is he not there also? there needeth no Paritoure to summon us, there needeth no bailiff to fetch us, there needs no accuser to give in verdict against us: sin will arrest us, and lieth at the door, our own conscience will impanell a queast against us, our own hearts will give in sufficient evidence, and our iniquities will plead guilty to our faces: Thus we see, both by the experience of them that have suffered the wound of the spirit, and the comparing it with other evils: what a weight most grievous, and a burden intolerable it is, to have a tormented Conscience. Now, let us show how we may prevent it, and by what means God's children often fall into some degrees of it: but if it rage in extremity, it is an evil unrecoverable, yet many safely and quietly be delivered from it: and here a just complaint is to be taken up; and it is a wonder to be marked, (if we may wonder at God's works) that we see many so careful and watchful to avoid other troubles, and so few or none take any pain to escape 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; and so to avoid such corrupt humours which in time many breed, though presently they do not bring forth sickness: yet to avoid the diseases of the soul, no man abateth his sleep, none 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, and fearful to fall into poverty, will not stick to rise early, to take sleep lately, to far hardly, to travel and tire their flesh in labour, by Land and by Sea, in fair and fowl weather, by rocks and by sands, from far and from near: but to fall into spiritual decay, to avoid the poverty of Conscience, no man taketh such pains, as though salvation and peace in mind, were a thing not worth the labouring for: some ambitiously hunting after honour, and not easily digesting reproach, behave themselves neither sluggishly nor sleepily, but are active in every attempt, by love and by counsel; by prudence & prowess, by wit and by practice, by labour and learning, by caring & diligence to become famous, and 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 never use means to obtain the one, nor avoid the occasions which may bring the other: others unwilling to come within the danger of the Law, that they may escape imprisonment of the body, or confiscation of goods, will be painful in penal statutes, skilful in every branch of the civil laws; and especially, will labour to keep themselves from treasons, murder, felonies, and such like offences of life and death; yet when the Lord God, threateneth the loss both of soul & body, the attaching of our souls▪ the confiscating of our consciences; the banishing 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 an everlasting divorcement from the Lord: neither the covenant of reconciliation is esteemed of us. And to reach out our complaint one degree farther: behold, the more we seek outward pleasures, and to avoid the inward trouble of mind, the more we hast and run into it: and we speed to plunge ourselves in a wounded spirit, before we be aware: who posteth more to become rich, who hopeth less to become poor, than the Merchant man? who adventureth greater treasures, who hazardeth his goods, who putteth in jeopardy his life, and yet suddenly he rusheth upon the rock of hardness of heart, or else is swallowed up of the gulf of a despairing mind, from which happily, he cannot be redeemed with a shipfull of gold? Woeful proof hath confirmed, how some men wholly set upon pleasure, such as could not away to be sad, and hedged up always of godly sorrow, have had their troubles made snares unto them, and even their excess of pleasure, hath brought excess of sorrow: and whilst they laboured to put the evil day far from them, they have used such follies, as have been the bitter and most speedy hangmen of their sorrowful Consciences. There be some of an other sort, who never dreaming of a troubled mind, have had their hearts set on nothing, but how they might get some great fame & renown, and therefore have slipped into such dangerous attempts & foul flatteries, as they have not only lost the peace of their Consciences, but also fallen most deeply into 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 cannot express, but passeth all understanding: so the wounded spirit is such, as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the tongue uttered it, 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. But let us show what way is to be used, to keep us from this wound of spirit; it is the use of Physic, as to cure us from diseases when we are fallen into them, so to preserve us from sicknesses, before it hath taken hold of us: so 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, till we be deadly sick; but to be acquainted with God's merciful preservatives 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 if we condemn them of folly, who will not as well labour to keep themselves out of debt, as to pay the debt when we 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: these remedies preservative are first the searching of our sins, and then the examining of our faith: the examining of our sin, is either the due acknowledging of our sins, or the sense and feeling of them, the acknowledging of sin, is either of those that be past, whether we have repent of them, or of those that are present, whether we are truly grieved for them: Thirdly, of those secret corruptions to come, whether we are reverently afraid of them: concerning sins past, we must call to mind the sins done of old in our youth, in our middle age, and in our old age, that we judging of ourselves, may not be judged of the Lord; that accusing 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 securely in their sleeves, notwithstanding the sins of their youth; and neglecting to make conscience of their sins done long ago, suddenly have fallen into such horror of mind, that the violent remembrance of all their sins sure charging, they have been overwhelmed: this examination doth then rightly proceed, when it is reached to the errors of this life, and to the sins of our youth; because many, 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 more secret sins done in their youth: David Psalm. 25. 7. prayeth the Lord, not to Remember the sins of his youth: job, 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: but they knew they were subject to youthful wantonness, and untamednes of affections; which though it did not burst out, yet it made them less careful to glorify God; with looseness, the way to lewdness; with weakness, the way to strange vanities; with wantonness, the way to open wickedness, is even in the best of God's Children in the days of their youth: which being afterward 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 no doubt, far from this true Repentance, can largely indeed discourse of the things done in their youth, but with such a bravery, with such a boasting, & pleasing of themselves therein, as beside, that they provoke others to sin in the like, and set a flat back of brass against Repentance, and this Christian examination; they seem to renew the decayed colours of their old sin, with the fresh sent of their second pleasure therein: But alas, what pleasure have they in those things whereof they have no profit? What profit have they of those things, whereof they should be ashamed? neither in this straint can we forget the madness of them, who may seem to step one degree further towards this examination of sin, than did the former, by thinking that the leaving of sin, and the repenting of sin is all one: against these, both daily experience, and the word of God doth sufficiently declare. joseph's brethren, (jacobs' sons,) who devised evil against their brother, put him into the pit, and sold him to strangers, did cease from this cruelty; but yet are not read to have remembered their sin with any remorse; until 13. years after this 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 quit, and well the space of a whole year: After which time, being admonished of 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 upon them with terrible sights, and fearful visions to humble them, and to bring them to a 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 us witness hereof: the fruit of which amazed minds for sins, already is ours, to beware of sins that 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 wearisomeness; but also to repent of it for Conscience sake. This examination of our sins past, must be partly of those which we committed before, and partly of those we have 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 thought, we need not to be so precise in the searching of those sins which were after our knowledge: but seeing of all other, those sins bite the 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 good grace of God, we have fallen into it. I think that examination most especially is 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: first, from 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, and as though he could find no comfort of God's spirit in him: For, as it fareth often in sores, so also it cometh to pass in sins, we are loath to have our wounds often grated on, we cannot so well away to have our sores rifled, seared, lanced, but fed with healing salves: so we are hardly brought to have our Consciences seared, or our sins ransacked, sifted and ripped: but could still have them plastered with sweet promises, and bathed in the mercies of God: whereas it is far safer, before incarnative & healing medicines, to use corrosive and mundifying waters: without which, though our sores may seem to close and skin up apace, yet they prove worse, and being rotten still at the core, they have above a thin skin, and underneath dead flesh: In like manner we would cloak, we would hide and cover our sins as it were with a curtain: but it is more sound Chirurgery, to prick and parch our conscience with the burning iron of the law, and to cleanse the wound of the soul, by sharp threatening; lest that a skin pulled over the conscience for a while, we do lament the rotten corruption, which remaineth uncured underneath: and so we be constrained to cry out, that our sins openeth. As it is a folly then to dissemble our sores whilst they be curable, and after to make them known when they be uncurable. So it is as great folly, to dissemble our sins whilst they may be remedied, and so after be constrained with shame for to blaze them abroad, when they are unremediable. But of this by the way, because we shall more largely touch it in the part to come: It is sufficient to commit sin before knowledge, but after knowledge to sin, breedeth either hardness of heart, or a troubled heart; both which we shall avoid, if in truth we be careful to watch our affections, and beware after our delivery, we fall not into sin again. Several men, subject to several sins, have their several clogs in their consciences: some are overcome with wrath, and yet after the moody sit, they can tell that the wrath of a man doth accomplish the righteousness of God: Some are subject to lust, and afterward they say, it profiteth them nothing: some are given to a continual course of vanity, whom notwithstanding can say, that man's life hath another end: Some sleeping deep into worldliness, and yet they be often wakened with terrible checks of Conscience: well, blessed are they, whose hearts are truly grieved with sin: and let them beware that make a dalliance with sin: for either hardness of heart will overtake them, or a troubled Conscience will confound them: Wherefore, it oftentimes cometh to pass, that many spending of their bodies on lust, do lament that ever they so abused their strength; many given too much unto the pleasures of this life, have great grief and sorrow coming upon them, to remember how they have misspent Gods graces, lavished his good gifts, and misspent their time: or else, if they have not this grief, they fall into voluptuousness, and draw such a thick skin upon their hearts, as will cause the most strongest denouncing of God's just judgements to redound, be they driven on never so hard: And sure it is the sin of this world, when men being controwled in their own hearts and Consciences; and that whilst they are a praying, do feel a secret charge laid against them, to make them to beware of falsehood in buying and selling: for, either they have these checks less and less, and so they grow too profane; or else, afterward they are wonderfully wounded, that they have been so worldly, so greedily pursuing earthly things, and so coldly purchasing 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, 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; rather to desire in such a cause to be humbled, than to suffer ourselves to be flattered: This trying of ourselves must yet stretch itself further, not only to the committing of evil, but 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 to hear the word, surely I shall be in danger to lose this profit: If I thus attend upon this exercise of Religion, I shall be cut short of the use of my pleasures. Wherefore, it shall be good to search our hearts, both in the careless not using the means, saying to ourselves in this manner. I have heard a Sermon, but alas! without any feeling or working of my afflictions: I have been praying, but with no power of the spirit: I have received the Sacraments, 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 in myself, or compassion of the members censured: And here I dare for my own observation, assuredly affirm, that outward sins have not been sometimes so grievous to God's children; as that they have sometimes used the means with little reverence, and with less fruit: and no marvel, for we shall see, that many men are sometime not so much grieved for their sickness itself, as for that they have, either willingly neglected the means, which might have preserved their health; or they have abused the Physic, which 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 forgetting: 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 of the Church with unprofitable corruptions: 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 received and sanctified by affliction, whereby they are taught to put their gifts in ure, and to offer their service unto Christ: and others are feared to hide their gifts; who cannot be without some decay of God's glory, without any offence to the weak, without the loss of many saints, which otherwise might be won to the Gospel; and without the strengthening the hand of the adversary, to slander our dumb and dark 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, & pierce our secret bowels: As we must examine our souls thus for sins past, and sins present; so must we lose this practice in sins to come, and this is very needful, for were it that our life were such, as neither before nor after our callings, men might justly accuse it; yet the hidden corruptions of 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 faith, to the shame of all the former in time to come: But because we forget to speak of them, that in the examining of their lives past, were much grieved for the want of sincerity, and privy vain glory in themselves: Let us before we go to the searching of our heart in sin, to come to speak somewhat of this, men travelling for this privy pride are either touched or not touched. If the vale of sin was so great in them, that it hid Christ from them; it is the good will of God, that by this sight of the most secret sins, they should come to see that righteousness that is in Christ jesus, and so they shall the better be kept from being justiciary pharisees; for 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 terrify and make known unto us, that even from our birth, there was ever secret seed of sin in us, which without the Lord watching over us, would surely have broken forth to his dishonour: As for them that have had some working in them, and yet are often plagued with sore diseases: this trouble cometh to them for two special 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 proceeding; and that they may know all their Religion to be but hypocrisy, all their righteousness to be unrighteousness: or for the abusing of their knowledge, in that they made it but a mask to jugle in, and that they made their affections to fight with their dreamy judgement: 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 that accusation doth justly arise of some fault of 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 and 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 were digressed, to the examining of our hearts in sin to come; Let us observe, that in God's Children, there is such a jealousy, as they tremble at the first motions, & quake at the least occasion of sin: although because vice will sit in residence very near unto virtue; there may be sometime in them too much scrupulousness: this fear causeth the dearest Saints of God to reason in this sort: O Lord, I see how many excellent in gifts and beginnings, whose death 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 to him hereafter: Oh that the serious meditation hereof, would dwell longer upon our Consciences, that with an holy jealousy, we might prevent the sin that is to come: But alas, there be some venturous Knights, which think it no mastery to offer themselves to masking, minstrilsie, and dancing: nor to run into quarrels, brawls, and contentions: as though they had their eyes, their ears, their hands, and their feet in their own power, at commandment to use as they list: howbeit, God's children better fenced with grace, than those bold buzzards are afraid of these occasions; as knowing that their eyes may soon be provoked to lust; their ears may quickly listen to unchaste delights; their hands may suddenly strike a dead blow; their feet may easily be snared in carnal pleasures: Beware O man, be circumspect O woman; that thou prosecute not thyself to so much liberty: for though in coming to such lascivious or contentious places, thou didst purpose none evil; yet for thy venturing without warrant, thou mayst be over the shoes in sin, and plunged in some wicked attempt, over head and ears ere thou be aware, & yet because vice is so confine unto virtue. Beware also of suppression, for still the enemy laboureth, either to make thee too hardy in sin; or else he will cause thee to be too fearful, and superstitious; 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 speeches: 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 men: I am sure he would not have us Gods: Thus the Devil cometh to tempt them; but he appareleth himself in an other suit, when he cometh to accuse; and then of a fly, he maketh an Elephant; of a prick of a pin, a globe of the whole earth; of a mould-hill, a mountain: and presseth silly souls with fears and terrors, that they know not how to wind themselves: If he can bring them to make no conscience, where they should make conscience: he will labour to bring them to make conscience, where they should make no conscience: he careth not whether ye will be remiss or superstitious, so ye will be one of them: If he cannot get you to follow the Epicure sin of the world, as Libertines in diet and apparel, he will make you so precise, as to think it an 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 with 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 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 contrary extremity, are too fearful, when they do but hear of the sickness, and for very fear have been brought to death's door, by imagining themselves to have been infected, when they have been most free, who often having even died without any natural cause, that ever could be known, but only through an immoderate fear, and the judgement of God coming upon them for their infidelity and unbelief. Thus it is with us in our extremity, in that as well the oppressing of ourselves with too much fear to be overcome, as the carnal security in not fearing to be overcome, may bring sin upon us: Gods 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, and what is the vice; what is the mean, and what is the extreme: among many examples let us consider, 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 cannot we come to some perfection? No, if ye understand it for an absolute unspottedness; albeit, to that perfection, which the scriptures take for soundness, truth and sincerity of heart, which is void of careless remission, we may come: neither doth the Lord deal with us after our sins, nor reward us after our iniquities; in whose eyes, the most glorious actions of man, are but as waters flowing purely from the conduit, but defiled by passing through a filthy channel. Wherefore, though 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's sons, I am none of his daughters: for I cannot find that perfection which is to be required: but let us comfort ourselves in the truth of our hearts, and singleness of our desires 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 hear comfort, and know, that if 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 the Law, but will give to them the sweetness of his promises, they are no more under the curse, but under grace: but farther 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, been both assaulted and overthrown: and also how some countries, too much negligent in the wars, thorough an excessive fearfulness, have encouraged their enemies with more greedy violence to pray upon them: with which kind of stratagems, our adversary the Devil being well acquainted with, often practiseth this policy, if he seethe us without all fear, too quietly to rest in ourselves, he thinketh his assault must needs be the stronger, because our assistance 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 moderate fear, and as villainously as suddenly, stab us to the heart, and make a present spoil of us: common practice doth further teach us, that when we can hear the word without all trembling at God's 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 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, uncheerful. Thus if we neither lessen sin, that is indeed; neither make sin of that which is not sin in truth; it is good to proceed to this threefold examination, & to lay the edge of this doctrine more near our afflictions, because many will be found in this ripeness of knowledge, and barrannes' of conscience, to speak and dispute of all these things very skilfully, which flickering, in the circumference of the brain, & not settling at the heart, do seal up a more just sentence of condemnation against them: To help this evil with, we must meditate deeply upon the law and Gospel, together, with the appurtenances of them both; that finding ourselves far from God's blessing, and seeing ourselves near to the curses due unto the breakers of the law, we may raise up some sense of sin in ourselves: yet herein we must not stay, but go forward: for whereas many by the diligent view of the law, have come to the sense of sin in themselves, and saw their own condemnation: yet because they laboured not to see their guiltiness acquitted, by the remission of sin in Christ; they plunged in a bottomless sea of sorrows: others having passed those degrees, & hitherto made these steps to avoid the wound of Conscience, have come short of the mark; who, besides the sense of sins pardoned by the death of Christ, felt not the virtue of his passion crucifying sin in them, but saw, that with remission of sins was not joined mortification of sin; feared that there was no forgiveness for them, but still languishing with sorrow, they thought their souls to stand charged with their former guiltiness; yea, and which more is, for that such men have not truly been instructed, nor surely have been grounded in the doctrine of Christ his death and resurrection: that is, for that they saw not aswell power flowing from his death to slay sin in them, as virtue to pardon sin in them; for that they felt not aswell strength unto sanctification, striving from the rising again of Christ, as they were persuaded of justification & righteousness therein: They have lain still bleeding at the heart, in such sort, that the wound of grief could hardly or never be stopped and staunched: wherefore, let us strengthen our weak souls with this sevenfold chord 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; farther 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 that second thing which we matched in company with the examination of sin, even unto the trial of faith; both which rightly used, shall in some measure fafegarde us from the trouble of afflicted minds. Now let us hasten to the third part of our division, to show how God's children being fallen into this wound of spirit may be helped out of it: which God willing we also will perform; after we have answered a necessary objection, which in this former part might seem to encounter against us: There is no man but will grant, that David, jacob, and others of the saints of God, had a sight of their sins, a sorrow for their sins, a taste of their remission of sin: and yet how 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 those former things, or else they were rather afflicted for the trial of their faith, than for the persecuting of sin in them; and therefore be it always provided, that we think not every conflict of conscience, continually & chief to be for the pursuing of our sins, but sometime & principally for the scoring of sin, as we may see in job, whereupon, let all men be admonished, when as they see good men thus humbled 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 iniquity, the Lord hath discovered their hypocrisy; for good reason there is, that such silence should be used: for that the Lord may aswell make trial of their faith, as take punishment on their sins: for if such afflictions should always & chiefly be sent for sin, than it should follow, that all others, as they exceeded them in sin, should also exceed them in that punishment of sin: but now coming to the salving of this sore, I shall seem very strange in my cure, and so much the more to be wondered at, by how much in manner of proceeding I differ from the most sort of men herein; I am not ignorant, that many visiting of afflicted consciences, cry still, Oh! comfort them, oh! speak joyful things unto them: yea there be some, and that of the learned, who in such cases are full of those and such like speeches: Why are you so heavy my brother, why are you so cast down my sister, be of good cheer, take it not so grievously, what is there that you should fear? God is merciful, Christ is a Saviour; these be speeches of love indeed: but they often do the poor souls as much good herein, as if they should power cold water in their bosoms, when as without farther searching of their sores, they may aswell minister a malady as a medicine: For as all nutriture and carnal medicines are not good for every sick person, especially, when the body needeth a strong purgation, then to minister matter restorative: And as all incarnative medicines may for a time stay the pain of the patiented, but afterwards the grief becometh more grievous: So comfortable applying of God's promises, are not so profitable for every one that is humbled; especially, when their souls are rather to be cast farther down, than as yet to be raised up: so, the sugared consolations, may for a while over heal the Conscience, and abate some present grief: but so as afterward the smart may be the sorer, & the grief may grow the greater. Hereof ensueth this effect, that comfort seemeth to cure for a while: but for the want of wisdom, in the right discovering of the cause, men minister one medicine for another; and so for want of skill, the latter fit grindeth them sorer than the former. Some there are, that without all precepts and practice, will be their own Physicians; and these, so soon as the fit cometh upon them, think it best to chastise & chase away their sorrow, by drinking at Taverns, by minstrilsie, in merry companies, by purgeing melancholies, in taking physic: all which, may seem to wear away the pains for a while; but yet after it biteth more deeply; when the burning fever of their spirits shaketh them with the second recourse: and for that they were not before truly searched, purged, seared and lanced; it comes to pass, that the second relapse is the more dangerous. To come to our purpose, we must know that all griefs are either confused or distinct, and sure it is, that the mind is appalled, either for some cause known to us as certain, or for something unknown to us, and uncertain to them which are troubled with such blind griefs; whereof they can see no reason. As oft it happeneth to God's children in secret election, who either never know God, or else had but a general knowledge of him. I answer, that as I deny not physic to be ministered, if in any part it proceed of a natural cause, so I require the word especially, to show the principal and original cause to begin in the soul: I do the rather, because I would have wisdom both in the considering the state of the body if need so require, and in looking chiefly to the soul, which few think on: 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 neither have the physicians counsel severed▪ nor the Ministers 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 should be brought into some temperature by physic, by purging, by diet, by restoring, by music, and such other like means: provided 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 and smoke out our trouble, 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 matters 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 & discretion; and therewithal shall perceive us to come in loving and tender affection: I think an entrance is made, and all prejudice taken away, so as we may more freely work upon that conscience: First, bring them to the sight of sin, as to some cause of their trouble, wherein we must labour to put away all confusion and blindness of sorrow by wisdom; to bring the parties wounded to some certain object and matter of their trouble, and so draw out of them the confession of some special secret and several sins: I say secret and several sins, because I know, how that many through a palpable blindness, or disordered discerning of sin, talk nothing so much as of sin, and yet either they cannot 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, the other of self-love; which maketh us loath, even in our travel of mind to shame ourselves: Now, that confession of particular sins is requisite, it may appear by the 32. Psalm, 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 of the Prophet of God, which taught so wonderfully by the word and by the spirit, and 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 confessing of them, which though the Lord knows far better than we ourselves, yet such kind of sacrifice is more acceptable to him. Now, in this trouble, the persons humbled cannot come to this particular sight of sin in themselves: It is good to use the help of others, to 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 square the whole course of their actions. For as we said before, the grossest hypocrite 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 undone to them, to their own conscience; and we shall see many of these poor souls tossed to and fore; now fleeting 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 yet not committed, but whereunto we are tempted. For the former, it pleased God often to bring old sins to mind, when we have not thoroughly repent of them before, so as it now representing them to us a fresh, we may 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 special sin: for, as it is not sufficient for the avoiding of hypocrisy, to see sin generally: so it is not enough to eschew the damnablenes of the heart, ever to be purring in every particular, and to be forgetful of the great and general sins: and let us learn by the particulars to pass to the generals. When any such one sin doth pursue the rest, not only therein, but say thus rather unto thyself; O Lord, is this our sin so grievous, and doth my God punish this one so sorely? how great 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 particular and general sins, lest in time our grief pass away without any fruit, whilst, that not being displeased with one sin, aswell as with another, we either look to such specially and generally. Concerning those sins whereunto we are tempted, as when a man is noted to think blasphemously of God the Father, or to doubt whether there is 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 adultery, or such like. In all which temptations, he feeleth the spirit, oft checking him for them; so as he knoweth not in this case what to do; that on the one side he dares not listen willingly to such fearful & monstrous temptations: and on the other side, he feareth, lest then by long suit, he might fall into them: or at 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 a more instant and extraordinary zeal of prayer: Surely, these are dangerous temptations, and therefore are not to be kept close with our nature, which easily will incline unto, but particularly are to be confessed of us: for the Devil will come sometimes to thee, to keep thee still in a general acknowledging of sin, and urge thee on this manner: Surely, thou must do this sin, thou seest thou canst have no ease until thou hast consented, thou art ordained to it, the reason why thou art tempted, is because thou dost not thus take thy pleasure, go to 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 of the one hand, and for shame of disclosing temptations on the other hand, many men have pined away, and almost have been overcome by them: If we should disclose this, saith 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 instructions and consolations, let us learn herein, that these kind of temptations, are either corrections for some sins past, or punishment for some sin present, or forwarner of some sins to come: We shall see many tempted to adultery, who no doubt, can not be brought to commit it: and because they repent not of it, it came to them again, that in their youth they have committed it: the like may be observed in these, gluttony, and in other temptations, which are not so much seen to us presently to overcome us; as to put us in mind, that sometimes heretofore, we having been overcome with them, should now repent for them: Sometimes a man shall lie in some sins, whereof, when he will not be admonished, neither by the public and private means, even than some other strange temptation 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 to look to his wordliness; when he hath so strong and so through a liking, whereat, if he will not be awaked, he may suddenly fall into that to; and so by the punishment of God, in punishing one sin with another; both his sins unto his shame shall be 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, 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 may make their first entire into a man's heart, how they gather strength, how they agree with our corrupt nature, in what degrees they come unto 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, & strength 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 were in their bosoms, thou shalt be able by the seed of sorrow in thyself, to beget an unspeakable joy in others: who in time may be tempted, as thou now art. Thus moreover and beside, that such is the efficacy of sin, that they who now are no Papists, Heretics, Adulterers or thieves, may for their secure contemning & foolish passing over of these temptations sent unto them suddenly, shortly after fall into them: because they would not seem to make some use of them, nor confess before the Lord, both their proneness and 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 heart, we shall not only deliver ourselves presently from peril; but be further enabled to assist others hereafter in the like danger: but some will oppose against these things which we have delivered. Do you think it is 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 a thing generally to apply, and another thing particularly to lay the medicine unto the wound: It is good to begin the sore by the vinegar of the Law, and after to supply 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 natural humour need rather restorative than purging medicines: so rather some troubled for some spiritual wants, than for gross 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, doth rather require some strong purgation, than comfortable and cordial medicines. Then the soul brought to death's door with extraordinary sin, is rather to be bored and pierced, with the denounce of God his judgement than otherwise: but because we would deal more plainly, and less confusedly, it is good in our access to an afflicted conscience, to lay these two grounds: First, we must persuade the parties 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 God's mercy and favour: in that it is not either blind or barren, but plentiful in good effects, and fruitful also in godly Issue: This sorrow, 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 plunged as they, none ever had the like temptations: the Lord will surely make an end of them in some strange and unknown temptation, wherein they are not unlike to men fallen into some dangerous disease, who thinking to be without the fathom of physicians skill, and not to be within the compass of things recoverable, do add a second and sorer grief to 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 then the sorrowful souls are not a little by hope refreshed and strengthened, for to look for some ease, when they can see no other temptations to have overtaken them: then 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, is good to build up and repair the decayed joy of the mind; partly by the Law, to make a preparative for those joys: If the mind not truly humbled, is not fit truly to be comforted, & namely 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 you that deny the Law wholly or not at all to be used, when we would breed comfort in one. I demand, whether it being necessary to maintain the righteousness of Christ, it be not also as necessary to maintain the righteousness of the Law: seeing the righteousness of the Law of us not fulfilled, will drive us to the righteousness of Christ, to us imputed; which is never throughlie and 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 convince the world of sin: to make men know, that without jesus Christ, there 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 sin of others. I see not why it should not be very conveniient, first to lay open the righteousness of the Law, that men may see their sin; and then the righteousness of Christ, that men may see their sin discharged in him: beside, where the Lord saith by his Prophet: At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sin, from the bottom of his heart, I will put all his sin out of my remembrance. It may well be gathered, that there must a sound sorrow for sin go before, and then the true joy of sin pardoned, may the more freely, by virtue of this promise, be both hoped for, and looked for afterward. Moreover, seeing the whole promises of God in the Gospel, are commended to 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; so also, that we must first find ourselves blind, deaf, dumb, lame, and dead; before he will meddle with us: because they that are whole, never need the Physician: and he came to call sinners, and 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 shall be the safe way, to use the well tempered speech of the Apostle to the Sorcerer, Repent, that if it be possible, thy sins may be forgiven thee: where he doth not wholly discourage him, because it may be, his sin may be pardoned: neither yet too boldly to encourage him, in that without repentance, he showeth it altogether impossible to be pardoned: and that we be not too preposterous in our consolation, let us be warned by that blasphemous speech of that detestable Arian; who of late years was put to death at Norwiche: this hellish heretic, a little before he should be executed, afforded a few whorish tears: asked whether he might be saved in Christ or no: when one told him, that if he repent he should surely not perish: he breaketh forth most monstrously unto this speech: Nay, is your Christ so easily entreated as you say, than 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 dealt more vehemently upon the conscience of this Caitiff. Now to attain some discretion in curing of this wounded spirit, we learn wisely to judge 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 carefully, the use of the law to a man as being the stronger vessel: and as Satan knew her to be most easy, and framable to be wrought upon at his first temptation, so he is not ignorant, that she is the weaker party to sustain accusation; then let us considder, whether they that are thus humbled have knowledge or no: because, if they have no knowledge, than 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: farther, we are to inquire how strong or weak they are: that if they be surely stricken, we cease to humble them any farther: If they be not sufficiently wounded, then to touch them with some deep sense of sin: also, we must be circumspect to find out, whether by nature they be more fearful & melancholic or no: as also, whether they be usual sinners, or have fallen ever of infirmity; that so upon their disposition and inclination, we may build our speeches the better: To these it is good to add the consideration of the persons age, estate, and ability: as if the party be troubled for wordliness; whether he be not a great householder: If he complain of his estate; whether he be a young man and unmarried: If he be humbled with covetousness; whether he be not old, because diverse countries, callings, ages, conditions, and estates of men, have their diverse & peculiar sins; which we must rightly discern: howbeit of what sects, sorts, man or woman; ●● what complexion soever they are; of what knowledge to discern sin; of what degree in 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 tro●●led for the vexation and disquietness of their mind being distempered, than for the vileness and horribleness of their ●●nne committed: who are wounded more with fear of shame, with 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 may make a less matter of the outward shame, & more conscience of the inward sin; neither must we herein 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; and those speeches which we use then, the fit being past; because the former requireth more consolation & less exhortation than the other; and the 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 procureth their own woe in this breathing time. It is also expedient to exhort them, that for some season, until they shall find greater power in regeneration, they would tie themselves to some holy orders & godly vows: that thereby, they either may 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 deep into the sea of particular temptations; and begin to sound the dangerous passages of natural corruptions 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 admonished, patiently to bear with a wounded spirit, albeit it falleth out so, that they be somewhat pettish, seeing the holy Ghost speaketh so favourably of them: saying, a wounded spirit who can bear it. 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 frivolously to travel; but meekly to suffer, & wisely to put up unadvised speeches of a man, distempered in brain, by reason of some burning ague, or other vehement sickness. We may easily gather even by this rule of reason; not so severely to censure the impatient speeches of him, who by reason of some parching fever of the spirit, is disquiered in mind; and hath all the veins of his heart (as it were) in a spiritual agony vexed: wherefore, both unsavoury of godly wisdom, & uncharitable for want of Christian love, are their murmuring obtractations, which say, What is the godly man? Is this he that is 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, that this his pettishness doth more wound him to the heart, than any injury thou couldst pierce him with: and therefore, seeing he afflicteth his own soul for it, thou must not add any thing to his afflictions, and to exasperate his smart: considder, that it is a blessed thing, mercifully to bethink us of the state of the needy: and that to rub a fresh wound, and to strain a bleeding sore, is nothing else, but that which jobs friends did, to bring a new torment where there is no need of it. If the wise Father, rather doth pity than rebuke his child, when by reason of sickness the appetite is not easily pleased: so if we purpose to do any good with an afflicted mind, we must not be austere in reprehending every infirmity; but patiented in considering of it, as 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 with thee, that thou mayest be feared: I will wait upon thee, as the eye of the servant waiteth upon the eye of his master: I will condemn myself of folly, and say: O my soul, why art thou so heavy, why art thou so cast down within me, still trust in the Lord for he is thy help and thy salvation.  
FINIS.