A02180:13
A most sweet and assured comfort for all those that are afflicted in conscience…A most sweete and assured comfort for all those that are afflicted in consciscience…
A most sweet and assured comfort for all those that are afflicted in conscience [sic], or troubled in mind. Written by that godly & zealous preacher, M. Richard Greenham. With two comfortable letters to his especial friends that way grieved.A most sweete and assured comfort for all those that are afflicted in consciscience [sic], or troubled in minde. Written by that godly & zealous preacher, M. Richard Greenham. With two comfortable letters to his especiall friends that way greeued.
London: printed by John Danter for William Jones, 1595London: printed by Iohn Danter for William Iones, 1595
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
TO THE READER.
Many are the calamities that sin imposeth upon the wicked: but above all other plagues, the wound of Conscience is most heavy. Touching which, the holy Scripture affords divers examples, both of the wicked that have mourned without hope, and the righteous that have sorrowed & sought comfort. The sweetest of sins pleasure is not without a sharp sting, that piercing the Conscience, beginneth hell in the harts of the ungodly, and prepareth Gods Children to seek heaven by unfeigned repentance. I can not here number all of either sort the Scripture mentioneth: I vvil only touch some, that it may appear how sorrow and vexation of mind, are sins hourly companions. Pharaohs contempt of ⟨image 4⟩God, brought him to hardness of hart, hardness of hart to headlong destruction: Balaam sinned thorough greedy covetousness, and perished among the uncircumcised: the sons of Heli sinned, & fell before their enemies: Saul sinned and ended his life on his own sword: Antiochus and Herod blasphemed, and were smitten deservedly: Judas betrayed, and died despairingly. All these with many other (wanting comfort for their wounded consciences) perished lamentably: where on the other side, Job, David, Hezekiah, Peter, Zach•us, &c. confessed their faults, sought mercy & were comforted. Their consciences bring […] assured, they were strong confident and unremovable, as app••• in Job, who so ⟨image 4⟩confidently believed, that for all his misery, he crieth, Though the Lord kill me, yet will I trust in him. David also, though his soul were poured out as water, yet he commanded it to praise the lord. The sick saith our Saviour, need the Physician: no mortal man but hath been soul sick, and therefore all men need comfort. It is necessary that he which ministereth to the diseased should know the cause of the sickness, that being removed the medicine may more effectually work: & they that minister the word, ought to have a feeling of their brethren's infirmities, that they may be able to comfort the cast down conscience, stir the secure soul, and weaken the proud thought. That the Author of this treatise was such a one, appeareth