A02178:4294
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.
CHAP. XXXIIII. Teaching us why we are specially to keep watch and ward over our hearts.
CHAP. XXXIIII. Teaching vs why we are specially to keepe watch and ward ouer our hearts.
SO corrupt is the heart, as being the fountain of all sinful actions,1 that although we should never have patterns of impiety, yet our own heart would school us sufficiently to the way of destruction. Reproved then be their Doctrine, who think that a man is not naturally inclined to evil, or that nature is not wholly inclined to sin, but that by example and allurement man is corrupted and infected by others. The occasion of evil may be outward, but the cause of it is inward, not of others but in our selves. And good reasons there be therefore, that we should still have an eye to our hearts. First, our hearts doth carry with it most commonly all our senses, so that nature taught men of the world, that the eye seeth not but the heart, it is not the hand that toucheth, but a certain force proceeding from the heart, and exercised by the hand; and seeing nor sense left in the body. From hence it cometh, that great sounds and strange noises are nothing heard of, our ears attending upon our hearts, and our hearts being throughly occupied about some other object. From hence it is that goodly shows, able to ravish the sight with delight, are not so much as seen of us, our eyes being wholly restrained about other things whereabout the heart is occupied: yea from hence it is, that we stumble sometime on the plain ground, and our feet do fail us in most fair places: our feet attending on our hearts, and our hearts being carried vehemently unto some other matter. Although then we ought to keep with great care our eyes, our ears, & our hands, with all other parts of the body, yet it standeth us in hand to keep diligent watch & ward over our hearts, by which all the other parts are moderated and ruled. Another reason why we should have special regard to our hearts, is because they make or mar all our actions. If the heart be pure, all our affections are pure, though Christ; through some defects be mixed therewith: if our hearts be not sound but corrupt, then the things in their