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,…

If at any time we come to judge of Gods wrath, we account of it as of an impotent¹ thing: wrath doth work, the wrath of the least doth move, and I would we feared the ⟨p. 198⟩wrath of the Lord as much as we do the wrath of Princes. But we think of Gods wrath as of his mercy, we fear him as one of silly anger and small power, we thank him for his mercies as a niggardly God, and pinching giver. When we deal in duties to Godward, we cut them, we mince with him, we measure and stint him, as though we would be even with him: but when it comes to our wickedness, we are both large and bold: we do as men that thought the Lord was either blind, and could not see our doing, or as though his arms were bound up in a clout that he could not strike us. The weakness of God is stronger than any strong thing in man, 1. Corinth. 1. the very weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men. But how shall we conceive of this weakness? In a man we account that weakness, which his little finger hardly can touch. Now then if we will come (as it were) to Gods little finger, and take but the confession of all the wise men in Egypt, and of their Magicians: and we shall see, that in those rare and notable plagues which came on the land, they said it was the finger of the Lord. Come to the afflictions of Job, wherein he lost goods, cattle, and children, and the devil (I say) makes all that but a touch of his little finger: and yet this spent all. The breath is counted in a man but a weak thing: but come to the very breath of the Lord, & we shall see all that is in a man is as grass, and the best things in him as the flower of grass, when the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Isaiah. 40. 17. and Psal. 18. 8. it is said, Smoke went out of his nostrils, and a consuming fire out of his mouth: so that great is the power of his very nostrils, and mighty is the very weakness and infirmity of his wrath. If this be the weakness of God, what is his strength, his strength (I say) when he is compared to a giant, or to a lion: to a giant of all men the greatest; to a Lyon of all beasts the strongest? If he be so mighty when he toucheth us but with his finger, how terrible is he if he strike us with his arm? Now what shall we say when he comes not only with strength in himself, in his finger, in his nostrils, and in his arm;