A02178:4287
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.
4 If we will be truly provoked to mercy, first let us look to the Lord himself, whatsoever1 he can do, there is mercy with him. All his ways, saith the Prophet, are mercy: he hath stepped no where, in heaven, in earth, or in the seas, but the Lord hath left some print of his mercy behind him, if we could follow him in those paths he went in. Secondly, the earth doth not only receive this print of Gods mercy, but repays mercy to us again: and surely, if the creatures should not be merciful to us, men were in an evil case. Now because2 all mercy consisteth either in giving or forgiving; and there is no mercy but it is in one of these two, therefore in respect of both these we shall see how the Lord esteems it. First, for the mercy of forgiveness, Matth. 6. our Saviour Christ his advise is, that if we please God in this kind of mercy, even in the immediate worship of his name, he is content to break off all his right to himself, that we might pay this debt of mercy to our brethren, which is more acceptable to the Lord, than any kind of sacrifice whatsoever. And surely all our sacrifices tend to this one sacrifice of mercy, & therefore mercy is better than all other ⟨p. 698⟩sacrifices. So that this pension is so grateful to the Lord, that performance of this shall stay all other. On the other side, when this is not done we see, Matth. 18. the bringing of our selves in debt with the Lord, even to the sum of a thousand talents doth not so much grieve him, as the retaining of this pension from the Lord, where for the servants debt no manner of evil words are given, but all is forgiven, but after when this servant denies the pension of mercy, then the Lord takes the matter hotly, and the other debt did not so much grieve him as this. But to examine these things in the balance of our own reason:3 if two men are to pass by a place, where lies no small danger by reason of the hot pursuit of their enemies, and one of them going over by a bridge escapeth, and when this other is to escape by the same means, he draws up the bridge after him, as not content the other should be delivered with him; we would condemn this fact. The same is our case: we escape sin the common enemy of our souls, only by the bridge of mercy: