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…

What then?¹ Turn away my eyes (saith the Prophet David) and my ears, & my heart too from vanity. Try and prove thou no longer, for Solomon hath proved for thee, it is better to believe him than try with him. Therefore now it remaineth that as they brought forth their vain books oftener Pauls preaching,² & cast them into the fire: so ye should cast out all your vanities this day, and sacrifice them to God, for they have been your Idols, therefore bury them as Jacob did the Idols,³ that never man saw them after. And as God gave Job other children, so they will give you other pleasures, fear not that your joys will go way with your vanities, as many think they shall never be merry again, if they should be converted to religion. But as David danced before the Ark as merrily as Herodias danced before the King:⁴ so know undoubtedly that the righteous find more joy in goodness, than ever the wicked found in filthiness. Nay (saith David) more than they can find in riches or honours, ⁵when their wheat and wine abound. ⁶As a horse is a vain thing to save a man: so all these things are too vain to make a man happy. I appeal to your selves, if ye have tried the pleasures of vanity already, (as I know ye have) whether ye may readily say with Saint Paul, ⟨p. 846⟩What profit have we of these things whereof we are ashamed? no profit but shame and grief, and guilt, & a dreadful expectation of judgement:⁷ As Solomon calls folly the inheritance of folly, so vanity is the inheritance of vanity. Ten times Laban changed Jacobs wages, but ten thousand times sin hath changed your wages, and deceived you with other success than you looked for, like Shebna which built his Sepulchre in one Country, and was buried in the other: