A02178:4265
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.
God (saith the Apostle) is a consuming fire, Hebrews 12. 29. Fire and water are merciless, who shall quench him, when he burneth? there is nothing so cold as lead and nothing so scalding, if it be heated: there is nothing so blunt as iron; if it be sharpened,1 nothing so sharp: there is nothing so calm as the sea, in a boisterous weather nothing so tempestuous: nothing so merciful •s God, and if he be provoked, nothing so terrible to sinners. And if his mercy were seven times more than it is, I know and am sure, that he is provoked. Well, as the Lord will have his power known in creating the world, & his wisdom in governing, and his truth in his word, and his mercy in redeeming mankind, so necessarily must his justice be known in punishing, especially those, who seeing his creatures mark them not, feeling his governance acknowledge it not, having his word regard it not, enjoying his mercies in full measure, wilfully resist them all▪ If we so lie under sin, and fancy to our selves the Gospel and promises, and mercy, we deceive our selves, for as those that have the fruits of the spirit, have no law written against them; so they, that2 have not such fruits, have no Gospel written for them. It is not the unjust man, that shall live by faith (for he lieth under the law) but the just, Gala. 3. Rom. 1. 17. Heb. 10. 38. Might not a man, think you, pen a Psalm of as many verses, wherein the foot might run in this tenor, For his Justice endureth for ever, as David had done of his Mercy, Psalm. 136. The Lord will not part from any drop of his mercy to them which first have not bin3 swallowed up of his judgements, which have not laboured and been heavy laden, which ⟨p. 693⟩have not been locked up in hell for a season, and felt for a time the fire thereof in their bones, which have not been baptized with the baptism of their own tears. He that feels not these things in some measure here, elsewhere shall he feel them. It is the judgement of Abraham. The devils policy in youth, in health, in prosperity is to sing us songs of God his mercy: but in age, in sickness, in tribulation, upon thy death-bed, he will make such reasons for his justice, as we shall never be able to answer. Wherefore the Lord hath (to make it more terrible in our eyes) put upon it the name of his most wrathful indignation, fierce and heavy displeasure.