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,…

19 The feeling of sin with wearisomeness, as it were a sickness in the body, is an earnest of our regeneration. Gods children are often diseased, and sore troubled, In that they cannot make a difference when they are in the skirmish and agony between the motion to any evil, and the consent to the same: For oftentimes evil motions do so possess the mind of Gods children, and do as it were set down so strongly in them, that, though they weep, pray, meditate (which be the best remedies to cure them) yea though they feel them with irksomeness and wearisomeness as we feel sickness in our bodies: yet they lie there continually without diminishing, excepting delight, &c. let us not therefore so vex and martyr our selves with disquietness of mind, because we are so pestered and stung with wicked motions & assaults, but let us quiet our selves, and not suffer our selves to be hindered with sickness of body and mind, by means whereof we are made so much the more unprofitable to our selves & others, and to Gods Church. For the godly shall not be freed from sin so, but that they shall be snared with evil motions, delusions, vain fantasies and imaginations.¹ The body of sin and wicked motions and affections shall never be out of us as long as we live, for they are almost continually boiling and walloping in us, foaming out such filthy froth and stinking savour into our minds, and so full of poison, it is not only most detestable to the mind regenerate, and that part of the mind which is renewed by the spirit of Christ, but also so loathsome that it maketh it as it were ashamed and abashed to see into so filthy a sty and sink, and so greatly discourageth and astonisheth us, as it makes us oftentimes to quail, and if it were possible would corrupt and defile the part regenerate: for mighty is the power, and raging is the strength of sin.

19 The feeling of sinne with wearisomenes, as it were a sicknes in the body, is an earnest of our regeneration. Gods children are often diseased, and sore troubled, In that they cannot make a difference when they are in the skirmish and agony betweene the motion to any euill, and the consent to the same: For oftentimes euill motions doe so possesse the mind of Gods children, and doe as it were set downe so strongly in them, that, though they weepe, pray, meditate (which be the best remedies to cure them) yea though they feele them with irkesomnes and wearisomenes as we feele sicknes in our bodies: yet they lie there continually without diminishing, excepting delight, &c. let vs not therefore so vex and martyr our selues with disquietnes of minde, because we are so pestered and stinged with wicked motions & assaults, but let vs quiet our selues, and not suffer our selues to be hindred with sicknes of bōdie and mind, by meanes whereof we are made so much the more vnprofitable to our selues & others, and to Gods Church. For the godly shall not be freed from sin so, but that they shall be snared with euill motions, delusions, vaine fantasies and imaginations.