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,…

It is time. That man of God here teacheth Gods children, that when Gods law is destroyed, it is time for the Lord to wake. This every man may confess: but blessed are they that can say in a good conscience, I have lived justly, I have used no ill against mine enemies, I have prayed for them, I have devoured many injuries at their hands, I never revenged.

It is time. That man of God here teacheth Gods children, that when Gods law is destroyed, it is time for the Lord to wake. This euery man may confesse: but blessed are they that can say in a good conscience, I haue liued iustly, I haue vsed no ill against mine enemies, I haue prayed for them, I haue deuoured many iniuries at their hands, I neuer reuenged.

Secondly, we are here to learn, that when the law of God is once brought into contempt,¹ whether it be in a nation, in a country, in a city, or particular person, let that nation, country, city, or particular person know, that the wrath of God is not far off either to their amendment, or to their further and more speedy destruction. If we go through the doctrine of the Prophets, we shall see this to be true As first we may see in the first, second, third, sixth, seventh, and eight of Isaiah, the Prophet of God threateneth the Israelites, that because they came to worship of a custom, but lay still in their sins, because they were rebellious, given to pleasure, and contemners of the word, they should be led captive of the Assyrians, and denounceth many plagues against them, which all came to pass in the days of Ahaz, they were carried away captive, and were no more a people of seventy years after, as may appear Isaiah 6. And although Gods children have their infirmities, and even they which are Gods children by calling, may fall into gross sins: yet because there is in them no general falling from honesty, but they have in them a special care and fear of Gods word, so that they love nothing more, they fear and tremble at nothing more than at it, though it may be in the mean time they fall into sin, yet they will not fall from sin to sin; surely the Lord will in time draw them out of their sins, and spare them from the common destruction, as he did here David, who though not this general contempt of the word, yet some sin he had. This is then in the children of God truly called, that although sometime more carnal than spiritual, and slide into many wants and infirmities, yet they fall not from one sin to another sin; but they tremble being rebuked by the word, they esteem reverently of the prayers of the faithful, they think highly of the Sacraments used in the congregation, & are obedient to all discipline of the Church: in these there is great hope that they shall be reclaimed from sin, and exempted from the punishment of the same. But when we join sin with sin, and draw sin to us as it were with cart-ropes, when we contemn true religion, when we pray in custom, and care not for the Sacraments, when we make no account of the discipline of the Church, then the Lord will surely punish us.