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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.
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as one without eyes, we roar like bears, and mourn like doves. So complaineth Hezekiah in the bitterness of his soul;1 Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter, I did mourn as a dove:2 And when David crieth, Create in me O God a ⟨p. 92⟩clean heart, renew in me a right spirit. Restore to me the joy of my salvation, establish me with thy free spirit: doth he not declare that his heart was unclean, his spirit cr•ked, the joy of his salvation lost, and himself subject to •he spirit of bondage? so that wanting the spirit of liberty or adoption, he could neither cry Abba Father, nor have any power against sin. Thus you see how Gods children may be blinded in mind, and hardened in heart for a time, so that they feel in themselves the grace of the holy spirit to be as it were perished and dead. Fa•ther to relieve the infirmity of your judgement in this case, because I know it may much distress you, you must understand that there be two kinds of hardness of heart, the one which is not felt nor perceived; The other which is perceived & felt; and of the former that there be two sorts, the first (which is most fearful) when any do purposely resist the motions of Gods spirit, and wilfully refuse the means of their salvation; of which the Prophet Zechariah speaketh. 7.11. They refused to hearken, and pulled away their shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear: yea, they made their hearts as an Adamant stone, least they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts sent in his spirit by the ministry of the former Prophets. The outrageous ⟨p. 93⟩sin of these men, the Prophet Isaiah expresseth in these their own fearful terms,3 we have made a covenant with death, and with hell, we are at agreement: though a scourge run over and pass through, it shall not come at us: for we have made falsehood our refuge, and under vanity are we hidden. This was a fearful estat indeed; yet for all that no man can say, but some of those having hardened their hearts, might be, and were afterward converted. The other kind of hardness of heart which is not felt not perceived, or if perceived, yt not felt; (which albeit it is less fearful, yet it is dangerous enough) is in such, as although they wilfully resist not God spirit in good means;