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,…

Besides this obedience, the duty of the people toward their Minister must extend further, and they must also reverence him, and give him honour, else it is most certain that obedience cannot take place: which we may see by the example of the woman of Samaria,¹ who notwithstanding the great courtesy of our Saviour Christ in telling her what he was, and what he could do for her, yet would she not obey him at the first, but tell to taunting and overthwarting of him too unreverently; but when he had touched her conscience and laid open her wickedness, so that she saw plainly he was another manner of man than she took him for, then she began to reverence him, and said, O sir, I see that thou art a Prophet, and then she obeyed him, and desired to learn of him: so, before she obeyed, she conceived a reverence of him, and accounted of him as a Prophet. It is also manifest in the 2. of the Acts, when as the wonderful miracle could not bring the people to obey the Apostles,² yet afterward when Peter with his sharp sermon had touched their hearts in such sort that they felt the power that God had given them, they began to reverence them, and where as before they were not ashamed to say that they were drunken with new wine, now they cried out, Men and brethren what shall we do? which words do plainly declare what a reverent opinion they have conceived of them, and after that they became obedient unto them. Common experience showeth us the same, for which of you will commit your matter to any Lawyer, except you have a reverent opinion of him, that he can pleasure you, and a sure trust that he will do the best he can for the furtherance of your cause? Likewise in Physic there is no man that will commit his life into the Physicians hand, unless he be first persuaded that he can by the help of God ease his grief, and that he is willing also to do what lieth in him: except (I say) a man be thus persuaded of the Physician he will not commit himself into his hands, nor yet obey those orders that he shall prescribe: so is it in this, the people must be obedient to the Minister, therefore they must reverence him, or else it is not possible that they should obey him. The Apostle S Paul doth notably amplify the honour due to the true and faithful Ministers.

Besides this obedience, the dutie of the people toward their Minister must extend further, and they must also reuerence him, and giue him honor, else it is most certaine that obedience cannot take place: which we may see by the example of the woman of Samaria,