The works of the reverend and faithful servant of Jesus Christ M. Richard Greenham,…The workes of the reuerend and faithfull seruant af Iesus Christ M. Richard Greenham,…

In prosperity many think Gods blessings are their own• right, and bind God (as it were) in this life to entertain them at full charges; and sue him as it were by an obligation, if he seem to withdraw his hand from them: So they provoked him, to prove to their faces by some special cross and affliction, that all they have is but lent and borrowed. But Gods children acknowledge continually that God hath rods in a readiness (though they see no present evils) to beat them from their sins: and bend all their care how they may rather suffer adversity to Gods glory, than to sleep securely in prosperity to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. For they know Gods graces must not be idle in his children, but well exercised by afflictions. Thus far for the second treatise.

In prosperitie many thinke Gods blessings are their own• right, and binde God (as it were) in this life to entertaine them at full charges; and sue him as it were by an obligation, if he seeme to withdraw his hand from them: So they prouokt him, to proue to their faces by some speciall crosse and affliction, that all they haue is but lent and borrowed. But Gods children acknowledge continually that God hath rods in a readines (though they see no present euils) to beate them from their sinnes: and bend all their care how they may rather suffer aduersi•ie to Gods glorie, than to sleepe securely in prosperitie to enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season. For they knowe Gods graces must not bee idle in his children, but well exercised by afflictions. Thus farre for the second treatise.

The third treatise teacheth us what be the special marks of a righteous man. Here first he showeth that true righteousness doth not consist of any inherent quality, be it never so excellent, but is only by imputation: for the obtaining whereof a man must feel and find himself naked, and void of all righteousness, and full of all unrighteousness, by reason of that sin which dwelleth in us. 2. A man must desire to leave his sins, and to escape the punishment due unto them. 3. To commit himself by faith unto Christ, and trusting in him and in his all-sufficient merits for his full reconciliation with God. 4. A man thus justified and reconciled, is also sanctified to walk with an upright heart before the Lord. 5. This uprightness is tried by four special notes. First, we must love all good things as well as one, and hate all sins as well as one: having respect to all Gods commandments: Yet this rule may have some exceptions (saith he) for we do not at the first know all good, nor all evil, much less love the one and hate the other as we ought: yet let every man walk according to that measure of grace and light received. For of this be assured, in that measure we like of sin in that measure is hypocrisy in us. Secondly, we must have a single care to approve our selves unto God himself, and to set forth his glory in well-doing without hope of reward, albeit trouble come upon us for it. And here (saith he) where as Pharisaical Papists which never knew the the true efficient, nor matter, nor form, nor end of a good work, have in elder ages far past many of our cold Gospellers, it is a sign there be but a few righteous men on earth. And if here we shall find in our selves much rebellion and hypocrisy, yet mark ever our chiefest drift in all our actions: for it is one thing to do a thing for hypocrisy, and another thing mixed with hypocrisy. The third