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…

Lastly, this shows how God mislikes ⟨p. 277⟩our coldness in hearing, or praying, if we cannot say with the Virgin in Luke, the first Chapter and six and fortieth verse,¹ My hart doth magnify the Lord. All that comes short of this is hypocrisy,² & pleaseth God like the offering of Cain.³ As Joseph charged his brethren that they should not come to him for corn unless they brought Benjamin unto him,⁴ whom they left at home: so God will not have us to speak to him, nor come to him for any thing, unless we bring our heart unto him which we leave behind. The tongue without the heart is a flattering tongue, the eye without the heart is a wicked eye, the ear without the heart is a vain ear, the hand without the heart is a false hand. Doest thou think that God will accept a flattering tong, a wicked eye,⁵ a vain ear, a false hand; which rejecteth a sacrifice if it be but lean, or bruised? No saith Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, the thirteenth Chapter and first verse,⁶ If I give all that I have, and have not love, that is, give not my heart, it avails me nothing: he saith not, that they which give not their heart, give nothing, but that they shall have nothing for such offerings: he which brings but a mite and brings his heart,⁷ brings more than he which offers a talent, and he shall go away more justified than he which said, ⟨p. 278⟩All these have I kept from my youth upward: ⁸for God is not mocked,