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…

The second point is, to Examine our selves; Paul saith,¹ Try all things, much more should we try our selves.² The good sower doth sow his own ground, but the bad sower doth so we another mans ground▪ as the devil did. The Disciples of Christ said, Master, is it I? not,³ Master is it he? The Disciples of John asked,⁴ Master, what shall we do? not Master, what shall they do? We must obey some, and hear others, & admonish others, and love all; but examine our selves. That which we apply unto others, the Apostle applieth unto our selves: for when we speak of an examiner, we intend one which examineth other; when we speak of an accuser, we intend one which accuseth other; when we speak of a Judge, we mean one which judgeth others:⁵ but the scripture crieth, Examine thy self, accuse thy self, judge thy self; ⁶that is, be not curious to search a moat in thy brothers eye, but pull out the beam which is in thine own eye. This doth show that they which sit in Gods chair to judge others, commonly have greater faults themselves, ⟨p. 135⟩then they whom they use to judge: and therefore Christ calleth their fault a beam, and the others a moat. This made David say,⁷ Examine thy heart: thy heart is thy own heart, therefore thou must examine whether thou pray, whether thou watch, whether thou fast; and not whether he pray, whether he watch, whether he fast, as the Pharisee examined the Publican,⁸ least thou have Peters check, when he examined what John should do,