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…

I can but exhort you with the Apostle, that you would not walk in strife and envying, therefore put away these among the rest, for he that hath not put off these hath not put on Christ, and if he hath not put on Christ, he is then no Christian. Envy is a sin, and it punisheth it self like gluttony, for it fretteth the heart, shorteneth the life, and eateth the flesh, as a fire consumeth the wood, it is the mother of strife, and a great worker in the Court, this is it which brought labour and sickness, and death into the world, even the envy of the serpent, and the devil, and it will condemn thee in thy conscience if thou be an envious ⟨p. 353⟩man. Nothing resembleth God more than love; for GOD is love: so if thou hast love, thou resemblest God. But if thou hast envy, and art an adversary, thou resemblest the devil: for thou canst not come nearer the devil any way, than to be envious. As the dust cometh with the wind, so the devil cometh with envy; and he that is possessed with envy; is possessed with the devil. Why doth the Apostle say in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians, Above all things put on love? Because love is best of all. Why doth he call love the band of perfection? Because it bindeth all virtues together. If love be the band of perfection, to bind all virtues together: then envy is the band of impiety, to bind all sins together: therefore if we must cast off all but love, we must cast off envy. Thou canst not come to the kingdom of peace, without love. The kingdom of Satan is at peace, and shall not Gods kingdom be at peace? Shall we be at peace with the flesh, the world, and the devil, and be at variance with God, and at strife one with another? Fire is cruel, wrath is raging: but who can stand before envy? Proverbs 27. And if none can stand before envy, how can envy stand before God?

I can but exhort you with the Apostle, that you would not walke in strife and enuying, therefore put away these among the rest, for he that hath not put off these hath not put on Christ, and if he hath not put on Christ, hee is then no Christian. Enuie is a sinne, and it punisheth it self like gluttonie, for it fretteth the heart, shortneth the life, and eateth the flesh, as a fire consumeth the wood, it is the mother of strife, and a great worker in the Court, this is it which brought labour and sicknesse, and death into the worlde, euen the enuie of the serpent, and the diuell, and it will condemne thee in thy conscience if thou bee an enuious