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…

Therefore, as it is good for them to hear they are Gods: so it is meet to know they shall die. Wherefore ye shall die, saith he, in the next words, as if he would prevent some conceit that they would take of the words which he cast out before, he cools them quickly before they swell, and defers not ⟨p. 717⟩to another time, but where he calls them Gods, there he calls them worms meat, lest they should crow between the praise and the check, I have said ye are Gods, but ye shall die, &c. but for this die, many would live a merry life, and feast, and sport, and let the world slide: but the remembrance of death is like a damp, which puts out all the lights of pleasure, and makes him rub and frounce and whine which thinks upon it, as if a moat were in his eye. O how heavy tidings is this, to hear thou shalt die from him which hath life and death in his own hands, when the message is sent to them which reign like Gods, as if he should say, Even you which glister like Angels, whom all the world admires, and sues, and bows to, which are called honourable, mighty, and gracious Lords, I will tell you to what your honour shall come: First ye shall wax old like others, then ye shall fall sick like other, then ye shall die like other, then ye shall be buried like other, then ye shall be consumed like other, then ye shall be judged like other, even like the Beggars which cry at your gates; one sickens, the other sickens; one dies, the other dies, one rots, the other rots, look in the grave and show me which was Dives, and which was Lazarus. This is ⟨p. 718⟩some comfort to the poor, that once he shall be like the rich, one day he shall be as wealthy, as mighty, and as glorious as a King, one hour of death will make all alike: they which crowed-over other, and looked down upon them like Oaks, other shall walk upon them like worms, and they shall be gone, as if they had never been. Where is Alexander that conquered all the world, and after sought for an other: because one would not satisfy him? Where is Xerxes which could not number his Army for multitude? Where is Nimrod, which built his nest in the clouds?¹ Where is Sampson which slew an army with the jaw of an Ass?² Where is Constantine, Nero, Caligula, Titus, Vespasian, Domitian, thunderbolts in their times?