A02178:2393
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.
Last of all, the Minister must not only read and study the word of God, preach the1 same purely, by exhorting, and all other means that may be profitable, using them both2 openly and privately, continually in season, and out of season, praying also for his flock, that his Ministry may be profitable unto them, and setting himself an ensample of all godliness unto them, carefully watching over their souls; but he must also love them so dearly, that his own life must not be dear unto him for their sake. Which tender and loving affection was in that good child of God Saint Paul, as it is manifest in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, where he writeth in this sort. Neither sought we praise of me•, neither of you, nor of others, when we might have been chargeable, as the Apostles of Christ: but we were 3gentle among you, even as a Nurse that cherisheth her children. Thus being affectioned towards you, our good will was to have dealt unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also your own souls, because ye were dear unto us. So singular love had he towards them, that they were dearer unto him then his life; this affection did he not bear to them only, but to all the elect children of God, and suffered all things for the elects sake, that they might also attain4 the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The reason thereof is, because wheresoever the Gospel is sincerely and purely taught, there be always adversaries seeking the overthrow thereof, by persecuting such as profess the same, to the great dismaying of the children of God, who so soon as they take upon them the profession of Jesus Christ in truth with a good conscience, are straightway resisted with great combats of affliction, which were able to make them forsake the faith of Jesus Christ, and the profession of the Gospel, if the Lord should not hold them upright in this distress. The Apostle therefore whom the holy Ghost hath filled with all wisdom, knowing that the cross was the greatest hinderance of the Gospel that could be, and also that where the Gospel was truly professed, there the cross would not be absent, because by it the Lord bringeth his children into glory, of a great desire that he had to the edification of the Church of Jesus Christ: