A02178:1762
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.
Again on the other side, if the times are more temperate, and the fruits of the earth1 more abundant, then we securely hide our hearts in the earth, and tying our affections to our enlarged and full fraught barns, we vomit out our surfeiting conceits with the rich man, and say, O my soul take thy rest, thou hast store laid up for many years: and so we bury our souls in the abundance of our increase. But what is it to have a handful of corn, & to gain therewith a vial of the wrath of God? What doth it help, when the Lord either to correct our sins, or make trial of our faith, doth send foul weather, that a man should blot out the print, & rub out the mark of Gods work with such contemptuous disobedience? Ought we not rather in such a scarcity, as the Lord appointeth by Joel, to erect a new Sabbath in prayer and fasting, than to pull down the old Sabbath by toiling and labouring, that the Lord seeing our repentance, might stay the windows of heaven, and surceasing from his punishment might leave some blessing behind him▪ Now therefore to cure our diffidence, to help our impatience, and to correct our covetousness, as also to witness our subjection to the blessed will of God, the Lord often sendeth this trial in the time of harvest. Again, if according to the largeness of Gods liberality we may enlarge our taidour,2 if as the Lord reacheth out his benefits to us, we ought to reach out our obedience unto him: at what time of the year do men more abundantly receive God his mercies than now, when the providence of God cometh to the issue, and groweth to a perfect accomplishment; when the earth is ready to travail and to bring forth of her bowels, whatsoever by the blessing of God it hath before received and conceived? And consequently at what time is required of us a greater measure of thanksgiving, and when doth the Lord more deeply charge us with a care of his worship, than when he doth as it were surcharge us with the weight of his benefits? If then either the commandment of God may bind us, or the promise of God touch us, either the toiling of our bodies may pity us, or the distractions of our minds may move us:
Again on the other side, if the times are more temperate, and the fruits of the earth1