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…

She was but an Imp then, but now she is a mother, and who can number her sons and daughters: the child is vain in playing the mother vain in dandling, the father vain in giving, the Courtier vain in spending, the soldier vain in boasting, the suitor vain in striving, the traveller vain in talking, the merchant vain in swearing, the gentleman vain in building, the husbandman vain in carking, the old man vain in coveting, the Servingman vain in soothing, the young man vain in sporting, the Papist vain in superstition, the protestant vain in ⟨p. 840⟩conversation. Every vanity is so pleasant to one or other, that they cannot miss one. So she gads by Sea & by land, and still mo disciples flock unto her of gamesters & swearers and players, and tipplers, and hucksters, and Courtiers, as thick as the flies of Egypt, which buzzed in their ears, and their eyes, and their necks before,¹ and behind, that a man cannot set his foot but upon Vanity. As the waters covered the earth, when but eight persons were saved:² so vanity hath covered it again, a worse deluge than the first, because it hath not suffered eight persons to escape, but every man is tainted with some vanity or other, which God seeing in that place and City which should be best in the world,³ (that all men in the city were vain) calls it the City of vanity: So we may say the world of vanity, because she hath an interest in every person of it, she sits upon the earth like a Serpent, and hatcheth all the sins which you see amongst men. As full as Heaven is of bliss, so the world is fraught with vanity, Court, City & country, whither doth not vanity go, but to Heaven? Seeing then that vanity is so extolled amongest men,⁴ Solomon gives his sentence, that all is vanity. Christ like a Mediator concludes upon it that there is but one thing necessary: therefore let our sentence be like ⟨p. 841⟩theirs: For sure, if we had Solomons repentance, we should see such an image of vanity before us, as would make us cry again and again as often as Solomon: Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What a sweet sentence is this from a King, who may live as they list by authority, to say, that all is vanity? Oh, that we might hear Kings speak so again: