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,…

But to leave ancient and former examples, and to turn the edge to our selves, woeful experience, by diligent observation of their own hearts, hath taught many, that after some sweet & plentiful measure of Gods mercy received, they have waxed less careful & jealous over their own affections, & so for a time have bin left of the Lord: whereby though not some fearful destruction, yet some grievous fall hath ensued upon them. It is good therefore for us to keep a careful watch over our selves, and to see whether after we have been refreshed with some special graces of God, in preaching, praying and admonishing, we have not been less careful, and so the nearer to some fall, and unfitter to receive some new benefit, until the Lord by humbling of us hath prepared us with some new desire. And hereupon cometh it to pass•, that when we have been some long time bathed, & as it were embalmed, with some inward feelings and outward fruits of the holy▪ Ghost, we have been corrected for that¹ self love, and buffeted with some privy pride dwelling in the flesh, by some grievous deadness and dullness of the spirit, humbling us under the hands of God, as it did the Apostle Paul. Now as we have by these examples of others, and experience in our selves² proved, that an haughty mind goeth before destruction: so on the contrary we will prove, (using none other order but that before set down) that before honour goeth lowliness. Saul before he was exalted and advanced to the sceptre, hid himself in great humility,³ as one that thought himself unworthy so great a dignity, and so afterward was exalted. Ahab though a most wicked man, humbling himself at Elijah rebuke, was not punished⁴ in his own person, but in his posterity. Rehoboam being humbled with his people, was⁵ exempted from that plague, which otherwise was like to have fallen upon him. But this⁶ we may behold more lively in the godly, whether we respect those revelations and apparitions of Angels, which in former times happened to the fathers being humbled: or whether we consider other graces of God in like estate bestowed upon them, Abraham was humbled, Isaac was humbled, Jacob was humbled; then came the promise, then appeared