A12406:653
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 sermons of Master Henry Smith gathered into one volume. Printed according to his corrected copies in his life time.The sermons of Maister Henrie Smith gathered into one volume. Printed according to his corrected copies in his life time.
London: printed by Richard Field for Thomas Man, 1593
Title page typeset from the transcription.
THE TRUE TRIAL OF THE SPIRITS.THE TRVE TRIAL OF THE SPIRITES.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The second thing which makes Prophets and prophesying despised, is the lewdness and negligence of them that are able to do well in their Ministry, and yet do contrary. It is said of Hophni and Phinehas,1 that by their corrupt sacrificing, they made the people abhor the sacrifices; so, many by their slubbering of the Word, (for want of study and meditation) do make men think, that there is no more wisdom in the word of God, than they show out of it: and therefore they stay at home, & say, they know as much as the preacher can teach them.
The second thing which makes Prophets and prophecying despised, is the lewdnesse and negligence of them that are able to doe well in their Ministerie, and yet do contrary. It is said of Hophni and Phineas,1 that by their corrupt sacrificing, they made the people abhorre the sacrifices; so, many by their slubbering of the Word, (for want of studie and meditation) do make men thinke, that there is no more wisedome in the word of God, than they shew out of it: and therefore they stay at home, & say, they know as much as the preacher can teach them.
There is a kind of Preachers risen up but of late, which shroud and cover every rustical and unsavoury, and childish, and absurd Sermon, under the name of the simple kind of teaching, like the Popish Priests, which make ignorance the mother of devotion: but indeed to preach simply, is not to preach rudely, nor unlearnedly, nor confusedly, but to preach plainly and perspicuously, that the simplest man may understand what is taught ⟨p. 312⟩as if he did hear his name. Therefore if you will know what makes many Preachers preach so barely, and loosely, and simply, it is your own simplicity, which makes them think that if they go on and say some thing, all is one, and no fault will be found because you are not able to judge in or out; and so because they give no attendance to doctrine, as Paul teacheth them,