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, Solomon speaks thrice, like a Crier, Vanity of vanities: as the mother which would fain make her son to hear, she doubles and trebles her words: What my son and what the son of my womb, ¹and what the son of my desires? So when GOD would stir us up to hear, he crieth thrice to the earth and saith, Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord: ²so when Solomon would dissuade from the company of the wicked: read Proverbs 4. 1▪ 4: how often he repeats the charge: Enter not into the way of the wicked, walk not in it, avoid it, go not by it, turn from it, and pass by, as though he would never have done, or as though we would never hear. So Christ when he taught Peter what was his duty, rehearsed it thrice:³ Feed: Feed: Feed. Joseph showeth the reason of these repetitions, when he tells Pharaoh why his dream was doubled,⁴ because the matter was important and certain. Therefore when Solomon repeats this saying so often, he calls for audience, as though he had some weighty and great matter to utter. Such a point of wisdom it is for every man to know that All is vanity, if we direct not things to their right end, as when the Holy Ghost would signify that God is all holy, he repeated thrice, holy, ⁵holy, holy: So when he should show ⟨p. 831⟩that man is all vain thrice he repeateth vanity, to show how hardly man believes that he is vain: therefore he brings in three assertions,⁶ as it were three witnesses to prove it. All agree upon the same words, but that the last is more plain, and sayeth that All is vanity: that is, that man is not only changed and become vain: but for the vanity, of man,⁷