The sermons of Master Henry Smith gathered into one volume. Printed according to his…The sermons of Maister Henrie Smith gathered into one volume. Printed according to his…

Take heed how you hear. Luke. 8. 18.

Take heed how you heare. Luke. 8. 18.

This is the warning of Christ to his Disciples, after they had heard the Parable of the seed, how it fell in four grounds, & but one of the four brought forth fruit. Here Christ exhorteth his Disciples to be that ground, and we exhort you. As GOD sent his Prophets and Teachers to Jerusalem that was the chief City of the Jews, where the Temple was built, and where the Priests, and the Levites and the Doctors dwelt, like an University, that from it all the Townes and Villages about might receive instruction & light, like a Beacon which standeth upon a hill, and is seen over all the Country: so GOD hath done to this Jerusalem of yours. The city of Jerusalem had never so many Prophets crying at ⟨p. 626⟩once in her streets, as this city wherein we dwell, though the Ox, which treadeth out the Corn, hath often been attempted to be muzle• even of those which tread not at all. Yet as the Lambs breed in the winter, and Quails came with the wind: so Preachers spring in the time of discouragement more then when nothing hindereth them: & whether it be our ambition (as the kindred of Christ said) they which will be famous go to great places, or whether GOD would make this city a spring and fountain to water the Land, as he did Jerusalem: here is the College of the Prophets, here is the voice of a Crier, here dwells the Seer, though he be hated, and scorned, & contemned for his pains. When I consider how many labourers God hath sent to this Vineyard, and yet how little fruit it yieldeth to the Sower, I cannot impute it to the want of teaching, but to the want of hearing, neither so much to the want of hearing, as to a kind of negligent hearing, like the high way which received the seed but did not cover it. Therefore when this sentence came to my mind, me thought I should go no farther until I had taught you how to hear. I stood in doubt a while whether I should take such a short text: but when I looked into longer than it, me thought this seemed longer then they, and as I judge