A02181:101
Paramythion two treatises of the comforting of an afflicted conscience, writtenParamythion tvvo treatises of the comforting of an afflicted conscience, written
Paramythion two treatises of the comforting of an afflicted conscience, written by M. Richard Greenham, with certain epistles of the same argument. Hereunto are added two sermons, with certain grave and wise counsels and answers of the same author and argument.Paramythion tvvo treatises of the comforting of an afflicted conscience, written by M. Richard Greenham, with certaine epistles of the same argument. Heereunto are added two sermons, with certaine graue and wise counsells and answeres of the same author and argument.
London: printed by Richard Bradocke for Robert Dexter, 1598
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.
Thus in the end we make a challenge of ownership of Gods gifts, and make account to have their company to the grave, whereby we provoke the Lord often to prove to ⟨p. 79⟩our faces, that all that we have is but lent and borrowed. Let us then have such an eye to every blow, that whensoever the Lord shall lay any cross upon us, we be ready to receive it & to yield up our bonds unto him, the condition whereof is, that we be ready to remove whensoever he pleaseth, knowing that Gods providence forceth us always to the best, and as most may make for the hastening of our souls to our everlasting inheritance. Let us learn not to reckon without our host, & that we hold our prosperity of the Lord not in •ee simple, but as tenants at will, that is, from day to day, resigning to God the sovereignty of revoking us when it pleaseth him. Thus it becometh the Lord to change our estate that we be come not snarled in the gifts of prosperity, and become so foolish as not to keep on our way to the heavenly life. Our natural inclination is to forget that we are on earth as pilgrims; to leap up into the clouds; and to promise unto our selves the whole course of our lives to be in prosperity; and so long as God letteth us alone at our ease, we take our selves (as it were) to be petty Gods. But when we see our selves shut up, and know not what will be the end of our misery, finding our selves to be entertained in this life but as journey men, waged for the present day, but ⟨p. 80⟩not knowing what will become of us the day following: we desire to take our •est in the bosom of Gods providence, and so much we strike our sails the lower, when the Lord proclameth war with our secure prosperity: which persuadeth us that we shall live for ever, and driveth us from bethinking us of our miseries and frailties. Wherefore let us cut out our prosperity by the pattern of humility, and in our best estate, put our selves in readiness to suffer adversity, and when we are well, to look for worse, & keep a good watch when God handleth us most gently, that in abounding we may foresee our wants, in health our sickness, and in prosperity our calamity: concerning things of this life the faithful are to stand in a doubt, that that which they hold with one hand, may be taken away with the other.