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…

He doth not put on Christ, but putteth off Christ and putteth on Belial,¹ which fashions himself to God,² and the World too. As Christs coat was without seam, so they must be without stain that wear it. For when a man putteth on fair clothes, he maketh himself fair too, and avoideth every foul thing, lest it should foul his clothes: so must he which putteth on Christ; for the finest Garment is soonest stained. Therefore when thou hast put on this Garment, thou must wash thy self, and pick thy way, and choose thy works, and handle nothing that is foul for marring thy clothes, that is, thou must not think as thou diddest, nor speak as thou diddest, nor live as thou diddest, but remember that thou hast changed thy master,³ & serve him with whom thou art bound. For if God and the devil could not agree ⟨p. 340⟩upon Moses body, for one to have one part, and the other another part, but God would have all: much less will God agree that the devil should have part of the soul, which would not yield him part of the body. Thus have you heard what you must put off: now hear how Christ must be put on. As the Angel taught John to read the Book,⁴ when he bad him eat it: so we must put on Christ, as if we did eat him, not as the Papists do in their Mass, but as the meat is turned into the substance of the body, & goeth through every part of man: so Christ and his Word should go from part of part, from ear to heart, from heart to mouth, from mouth to hand, till we be of one nature with them, that they be the very substance of our thoughts, and speeches, and actions, as the meat is of our body. This is to eat Christ and his Word,⁵ or else we do not eat them, but chew them, & when our taste is satisfied, spue them out again. Thus we must put on Christ: for the Word signifieth so to put him on: as if thou wouldest put him in, that he may be one with thee, and thou with him, as it were in a body together. As he hath put on all our infirmities, so we must put on all his graces, not half on, but all on, and clasp him to us, and gird him about us, and wear him, even as we