A02178:1739
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,…
The works of the reverend and faithful servant of Jesus Christ M. Richard Greenham, minister and preacher of the Word of God collected into one volume: revised, corrected, and published, for the further building of all such as love the truth, and desire to know the power of godliness. By H.H.The workes of the reuerend and faithfull seruant af Iesus Christ M. Richard Greenham, minister and preacher of the Word of God collected into one volume: reuised, corrected, and published, for the further building of all such as loue the truth, and desire to know the power of godlinesse. By H.H.
London: printed by Thomas Snodham and Thomas Creede for William Welby, 1612London: printed by Thomas Snodham and Thomas Creede for VVilliam VVelby, 1612
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.
We see worldly thriving men, if not every day, yet at the least once in the week they search their books, cast their accounts, confer with their gain their expenses, & make even reckonings, whereby they may see whether they have gained, or whether they have lost, whether they are before hand or come short: and shall not we much more, if not once a day, which were expedient, yet once in the week at the least, call our selves to a reckoning, examining what hath gone from us, what hath come towards us, how we have gone forward in godly proceedings, or how we have gone backward, that if we have holy increases,1 we may give thanks and glory to God; if we come short, we must humble our selves, and endeavour the week following, to travail with our selves the more earnestly to recover our former loss. This examination had, we are further to stir up our selves before we come to the public exercises. This consisteth in reading, meditating and praying, whereby we may provoke a spiritual appetite the more hungerly, desirously, and lovingly to resort to the congregation. How necessary this is, the long and woeful experience of non-proficients in the school of Christ, doth lamentably show. For what is2 the cause why in the prayers of the Church we so little profit? What causeth the word ⟨p. 158⟩to be of so small power with us? whereof cometh it that the Sacraments are of such slender account with us? Is it not because we draw near to the Lord with uncatechised hearts, and uncircumcised ears, without prepared affections, and unschooled senses: so that we come unto, and depart from the house of God with no more profit, than we get at stage-plays, where delighting our eyes and ears for a while with the view of the pageants, afterward we vainly depart? If we at any time are to entertain some special friend or stately guests, it is civility to avoid all things noisome, and to procure all things handsome in our houses: and shall we not think it Christianity at such times as the Lord hath made special promise to visit us, and to become our friendly guest, to purge the loathsome affections of the heart, & dispose our souls in some holy order for his entertainment? Are we so diligent to present our selves on the Sabbath in our best attire, because then we shall come before the whole congregation: