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 I have spare time I can go unto them, if I have never so little business I can keep me away from them & be glad of such excuse. Surely this estate betrayeth a proud heart, blessing it self with a fullness and cloyedenes of the means, and either showeth us to lie in some sin presently, or that we are like to fall into some sin hereafter and that shortly. Howbeit being absent, i• having these or like affections we can mourn, beat our own hearts, and judge our selves, enquiring of the things spoken at their hands, that have been at the congregation; if being absent in body¹ with an humble sight of our want; we are as present in spirit; if even in time of exercises we bestow the time in prayer, in reading, or in meditation, the Lord will shield us from ⟨p. 275⟩sin, and the shame of sin. Again, if we shall find our selves subject to peevishness, concupiscence, or covetousness, with less power to prevail against them that we have had; let us fear least some pride hath gone before: If we cannot recover our selves out of these evils by prayer or mourning, let us suspect our own hearts, that some security² in the means hath overtaken us, the Lord for a time hath left us, the devil hath foiled us. It is a blessed thing to get the victory of our faults, before they be joined with the offences³ of the world, with the grief of the godly, with the reproach of our adversaries, with the trouble of our own consciences, with the hazard of Gods glory. And therefore if it be so the good will of God, let us earnestly desire him that our trials and temptations may be inward, that they may be stayed and stanched when they begin, that they break not out abroad to the greater dishonour of the Lord, and our further discomfort: which surely they will do, if by cherishing them, and not checking them, we strive not for some safety against them. Let us humbly therefore long before, fear this reproach to come, and pray with the Prophet, Lord keep me from the reproach which I fear: least otherwise the Lord seeing us make no conscience in these cases, be avenged of us, who⁴